Chapter 19

The two boys might have been asleep for hours only, or insensible for days, they never knew for certain which, and nobody else could inform them; but that shout ringing in their ears awoke them, with a thrill of agony that it might be merely a dream of their disordered imagination.

One look, however, satisfied them to the contrary, when they painfully raised themselves into a sitting posture in the bottom of the boat-- which they could hardly do by reason of their weakness--holding on to the gunwales on either side as they dragged up their attenuated bodies, and directing their sunken eyes, which rolled with incipient delirium, to the point from whence the hail came.

They could have screamed for joy, but their voices failed them, and their emotion found relief in tears and stifling sobs.

A large ship lay to about a hundred yards off; and a boat, which had evidently just been lowered from its side, was being pulled rapidly towards them.

As soon as the boat came alongside, the men in her, who appeared to be foreigners, looked at the boys with the deepest pity, and spoke to each other rapidly in some guttural language, which Jonathan had a hazy idea was German, as if expressing sympathy with their emaciated condition.

One of them whom they took to be an officer, from the gold band on his cap and the tone of authority in his voice, stepped into their boat, and appeared to have the intention of lifting them out of it into the other; but all at once he seemed to notice the name of the _Eric Strauss_, and stopped short, with an expression of surprised astonishment on his face.

"Wunderbar!" he exclaimed, pointing out the name to his companions, who also looked eagerly at it; and then, while he remained with the boys in the cutter, the painter of the latter was attached to the other boat, which towed it alongside the ship; and, after that David and Jonathan remembered no more, as they both fainted as they were being tenderly hoisted on board.

Jonathan was the first to come to himself.

He was in a hammock in the 'tween decks of a ship, which he could feel was in motion. At the slight movement he made in raising his head and peering over the side of the hammock, a man with a grave face came to him, saying something he could not understand.

"Where's David?" inquired Jonathan, a little bit still puzzled in his head.

The man evidently knew that he was asking after his friend, as he pointed to another hammock, suspended a short distance from his own, in which David was calmly sleeping; after which he gave him some soup to drink, and Jonathan dropped off to sleep too.

When he awoke again he felt much better, and motioning to the attendant that he would like to get out of the hammock, the man assisted him on to his feet. He was a little shaky at first, feeling sore all over; but after walking up and down a few steps with the assistance of the attendant's arm, he regained his strength, and proceeded to the side of David's hammock to pay him a visit.

At the sound of Jonathan's voice, the other--who appeared to have been wide awake although he had made no movement--at once jumped up, and without any assistance got out and stood on the deck by Jonathan's side.

"Well, old fellow!" said he.

"Well, Dave!" ejaculated the other; and they clasped each other's hands with a tight grip, as they had never expected to do again on earth. They fully appreciated their rescue, and thanked God for it.

"And how do you feel, Dave?" inquired Jonathan, after they had had a long look at each other.

"First-rate," said he. "And you?"

"Oh, I'm all right. But your leg, Dave, is it better?"

"To tell you the truth," answered he with a hearty laugh, "I forgot all about it. It's quite well now--look! and that black and blue appearance it had has disappeared. I don't feel the slightest pain, so it must be all right."

The attendant, seeing both the lads better and able to move about, here brought them each a mess of something nice to eat, which they polished off in so hearty a manner as to make him smile, and exclaim, "Sehr gut!" with much satisfaction to himself; and he then handed the boys their clothes, which had been carefully dried and smoothed, and assisted them to dress.

"I wish," said David, as he completed his toilet by pulling on a pair of Hessian boots, that the man brought him in place of the solitary one which he remembered having on in the boat, "I wish we had been picked up by an English ship, although these chaps have been very kind, of course, and beggars mustn't be choosers. They are Germans, I suppose, eh? Do you know the lingo, Jonathan?"

"Yes, it's a German ship, _Die Ahnfrau_," replied his friend, likewise donning another pair of "loaned" boots, and accepting a cap, which the attendant produced with a bow. "How polite this chap is, Dave! I'm sorry I only know one or two words of the language, or I would thank him, and get out all the information I could about the vessel, and how they picked us up."

"Oh we'll find that out somehow," said David carelessly, "all in good time, old fellow." And the man at that moment tapping him on the arm, and making a motion that he should follow him, he and Jonathan went after him up the companion-stairs, from the cabin in which they were, on to the upper deck.

They were in a large barque, as they could see, under full sail, with royals, staysails, stunsails, and everything that could draw, set; but they had not much time given them for observation.

"Wie heissen Sie?" said a short, stout man in spectacles, speaking in a sharp imperative voice. He had a very broad gold band on his cap, and the boys took him for the captain of the vessel, as indeed he was. He specially seemed to address Jonathan, as the attendant who had escorted them on deck took them up to him, where he was standing by the binnacle with two or three others.

"John Liston," answered that worthy, speaking almost involuntarily, as the phrase the captain used, asking his name, was one of the few German ones with which he was acquainted.

"Ah, ah!" exclaimed the captain, in a very meaning tone, addressing an officer that stood by his side, and whom David fixed as the first mate. "Sie sprechen Deutsch! Ah, ha!"

"Nein,--no," said Jonathan, "I do not. I cannot speak German, I assure you."

"Very vell," said the little captain, in pretty good English, although with a strong foreign accent. "We will suppose you cannot! Tell me, how did you come in that boat in which we picked you up?"

Thereupon Jonathan told him of their being lost from the _Sea Rover_, David adding, as Jonathan left out that part of the story, how his friend had bravely plunged overboard to his rescue. The German captain, however, much to David's disgust, did not believe him. He wasn't accustomed to heroism in his sphere evidently!

"Oh, it's all very well," he said sneeringly, "but will you tell me how it was that you two boys, belonging to the _Sea Rover_, as you say, came to be in a boat belonging to the _Eric Strauss_, which boat was taken away from that vessel by some of the crew--amongst whom, we were informed at the Cape by the authorities there, were two lads like yourselves--after a mutiny in which they nearly murdered the master?"

Of course they explained; but the captain only turned a deaf ear to all they said. He insisted that they were the survivors of the mutineers of the _Eric Strauss_, and told them he intended putting them in irons, and taking them home for trial at Bremerhaven--where _Die Ahnfrau_ was bound from Batavia, having only stopped at the Cape of Good Hope for fresh provisions and water, and having there heard of the mutiny on board the _Eric Strauss_, in which vessel the captain of the former was deeply interested, being the brother of the master, whom the crew had set upon, as well as partner of the ship.

All remonstrances on the boys' part were useless; and, after being so miraculously preserved from the perils of the deep, they wound up the history of their adventures when "lost at sea," as David pathetically remarked, by being "carried off prisoners to Germany by a lot of cabbage-soup-eating, sourkrout Teutons, who were almost bigger fools than they looked!" It was all Jonathan's little knowledge of the German language that did it, however.

Naturally, the mistake of _Die Ahnfrau's_ commander was soon discovered on the arrival of the ship at Bremerhaven, when the boys were able to communicate with their friends and the owners of the _Sea Rover_ in London, and they were released immediately. But the insult rankled in their bosoms for some time after, and did not completely disappear, from David's mind especially, until the _Sea Rover_--which, they heard from the owners at the same time that they produced proof of the boys' identity, had already left Melbourne on her return voyage--had got back safely to the port of London, and Johnny Liston's father and Captain Markham had greeted their young heroes as if they had been restored from the dead.

Jonathan received the medal of the Royal Humane Society for his bravery in plunging overboard to David's assistance; and the two boys are still the closest and dearest friends in the world, David being third mate, and Jonathan, who took to the sea for the other's sake, fourth officer of the _Sea Rover_, at the present moment, "which, when found," as Captain Cuttle says, "why, make a note on!"

STORY FOUR, CHAPTER ONE.

"BLACK HARRY."

"The cap'en p'r'aps was in fault in the first instance; but then, you know, it's no place for a man to argue for the right or wrong of a thing aboard ship. When he signs articles, he's bound to obey orders; and as everybody must be aware, especially those in the seafaring line, the captain is king on board his ship when once at sea--king, prime minister, parliament, judge and jury, and all the rest of it."

"But," said I, "he's under orders and under the law, too, as well as any other man, isn't he?"

"Yes, when he's ashore," said the mate with the shade over his eye. "_Then_ he's got to answer for anything he might have done wrong on the voyage, if the crew likes to haul him up afore the magistrates; but at sea his word is law, and he can do as he pleases with no hindrance, save what providence and the elements may interpose."

"And providence _does_ interpose sometimes?" said I.

"Yes, in the most wonderful and mysterious ways," said the mate with the shade over his eye, speaking in a solemn and awe-struck manner. "Look at what happened in our case! But stop, as I don't suppose you've heard the rights of it, I'll tell you all about it."

"Do," said I.

He was the mate of a vessel which had been picked up at sea, disabled and almost derelict under most peculiar circumstances, with only one other survivor besides himself on board, and brought into Falmouth by the passing steamer which had rescued her. He was a most extraordinary man to look at. Short, with a dreamy face and lanky, whitish-brown hair, and a patch or shade over one eye, which gave him a very peculiar appearance, as the other eye squinted or turned askew, looking, as sailors say, all the week for Sunday.

"Do," said I. "There's nothing that I should like better!"

Clearing his throat with a faint sort of apologetic cough, and staring apparently round the corner with his sound, or rather unshaded eye, he began without any further hesitation.

"The cap'en p'raps was in the wrong at first, as I said afore, sir. You see, some men are born to authority, and some isn't, and Captain Jarvis was one of those that aren't. I don't wish to speak ill of a man, when he's dead and gone to his account, and not here to answer for himself; but I must say, if I speak the truth, that it was all through Cap'en Jarvis' fault the _Gulnare_ came to grief and all on board murdered each other; and what weren't murdered were swept off the ship and drowned in the storm that came on afterwards, when everybody was seeking each other's blood, and so met their doom in that way--all, that is, barrin' little Peter and me, who only lived through the scrimmage and the gale to tell the story of the others' fate. The cap'en had a bad temper and didn't know how to keep it under; that was at the bottom of it all; and yet, a nicer man, when the devil hadn't got the upper hand of him, and a handsomer chap--he was better looking than me, sir," said the mate in an earnest way, as if his statement was so incredible that he hardly expected it to be believed--"yes, a nicer and a handsomer chap you never clapped eyes on in a day's run than Cap'en Jarvis! He stood a trifle taller than me, and had a jolly bearded face with merry blue eyes; but with all that and his good-humoured manner when everything was up to the nines and all plain sailing, he had old Nick's temper and could show it when he liked! We left Mobile short-handed; and when you leave port to cross the Atlantic short-handed at this time of the year, I guess, mister, you've got your work cut out for you, you have! There was only the cap'en; myself, first mate; the second officer, boatswain, and ten hands all told, includin' idlers, to navigate a ship of over eight hundred tons from Mobile to Liverpool in the very worst time of the year! A bad lookout when you come to consider it fairly as I have; and when you have a cap'en as is continually working the men to death and a-swearin' and a-drivin' at them, and they undermanned too, why it stands to reason that harm will come: you're bound to have a muss, you bet, before the voyage is through!

"We'd hardly cleared the Gulf of Florida when the weather got bad, with a foul wind and a heavy sea; and we were driven past Cape Hatteras before we could make a bit of easting in our longitude. You never saw such a rough time of it as we had. The watch below had no sooner turned in than they had to be called up again to reef topsails or make sail, for there were too few hands to be of much use without both watches worked together, and so the men had to do double tides, as it were, with neither time to eat nor sleep comfortably. To add to their hardships, they were constantly in wet clothes, as it poured with rain the whole time; besides which, the ship was so heavily laden that we were continually taking in seas over the bows as she laboured, the water washing aft of course, and drenching them who might have escaped the rain to the skin, so that not a soul aboard had a dry rag on. You can imagine, sir, how the men stomached this, particularly when there was the skipper swearing at 'em all the time, and saying that they were lazy lubbers and not worth their salt, when they were trying hard to do their best, as I must give them the credit of! I spoke to the cap'en, but it was of no use--not a bit; you might just as well have expected a capstan bar to hear reason!

"`Mr Marling,' says he, in the still way he always spoke when he was real angry. `Mr Marling, I'm captain of my own ship, and always intend to be so as long as I can draw my breath: I'll thank you to mind your own business!'

"What could I say after that? Nothing; and so I said nothing more, although I could almost foresee what was coming, step by step!

"This dirty weather had been going on for about a fortnight, or thereabouts; the wind heading us every now and then and veering back again to the southward and westwards, accompanied by squalls of hail and rain following each other with lightning rapidly; so that no sooner had one cleared off than another was on to us, and we had to clear up everything and let the ship drive before the gale as she pleased, for it was of no use trying to make a fair wind out of a foul one any longer. As well as we could make out our reckoning, with the aid of some lunar observations Captain Jarvis booked the night before, for we were unable to see the sun long enough for our purpose, we were about some three or four hundred miles to the west of Bermuda, when, just as the clouds were breaking up blue-black against the sky, and the barometer told us in its plain language that it was coming on to blow harder, and that we would have worse weather than we had yet had, all the hands, as if with one accord, struck work--with the exception of the man at the wheel, who stuck to his post! There was no mistake about it: the watch on deck refused point-blank to go aloft when the skipper ordered them, for about the fourth time in the hour, I should think it was, to take in sail; while the watch below, in spite of the boatswain's hammering away at the fore-hatch and the capen's swearing, declared that they wouldn't rouse up, not even if the ship was sinking, and if they were shouted at any more they would sarve him out. It was a mutiny, there's no denying; a regular crisis, if ever there was one; and just what I expected, seeing as how things were going ever since we left Mobile, not three weeks before."

"Captain Jarvis," he resumed after a brief pause, "no sooner heard the men refuse to come on deck than he went below. Not to where they were in the fore-hatch--he knew a thing or two better than that--but to his cabin, and in a minute he comes up again with a revolver in each of his fists.

"`Now,' says he in a firm, hard, but quiet voice, not loud--he always spoke particularly quiet when he was angry, as I've told you; and he was angry now, if ever a man was! `Now, you skulkers,' he says, addressing first the hands on deck--`Aloft every man-jack of you! I'll shoot the last man that's up the shrouds!' They were up in the rigging pretty smart, you bet, at that, when he had a revolver levelled dead at their heads. `See that you stow that main-topsail in a brace of shakes! And you lubbers below, wake up there!' he exclaimed over the fore-hatch, firing a shot down below as he spoke. `Wake up there and on deck; or, I'll riddle every mother's son of you before I count ten. You, Black Harry, I know you've set this pretty little scheme going! Up with you, or by the Lord Harry, your namesake, I'll put a bullet through your carcass!'

"With that the watch below, knowing with whom they had to deal, thought it best to give in; and up they came, Black Harry at their head, as sullen as a lot of schoolboys going up to be flogged, who had just thought they had barred out the master.

"`It's no use your grumbling,' says Cap'en Jarvis, with a queer grin on his face that was more angry-like than a pain, `It's no use your grumbling with me! Aloft with you, and make that fore topsail all snug, and set storm staysails, for we've got something rougher coming. I'll settle with you, Master Harry, by-and-by!'"

"You haven't told me yet about this man, though I've read his name in the papers. Who was Black Harry?" asked I.

"Haven't I told you about him yet? No; then, I'll tell you all about him now, for he had more to do with the row aboard the _Gulnare_ than anybody else! He was a regular dare-devil of a pocket-a-win, as they are called at Liverpool--a tall, lean, down-east Yankee from Boston, with jet-black hair, and a swarthy face, which made you think he had nigger blood in him and got him his name of `Black Harry.' A powerful man and a good foremast hand; but an all-fired lazy devil about work, and as sulky as a bear when he didn't get his grub regular. He was no coward though; and no skulker in danger, as some white-livered chaps are who ought to be ashamed to ship as sailors, for he'd venture aloft sometimes when no one else would dare, and was the first man at the weather-earing when it was `Reef topsails!' But he had a temper as skittish as the cap'en's, and couldn't stand being swore at. I've heard him many a time mutter after the captain had been going on at him. I know I'd not have liked to have said half to him that Captain Jarvis did, for Black Harry looked like a man who would never forget nor forgive a grudge.

"Well, by-and-by the hands came down from aloft; and amongst them Black Harry, who lagged behind the rest, although he had been the first in the foretop going up.

"`Come here, you lubber!' said the cap'en to him, singing out aloud as he touched the deck--`you, I mean, Black Harry. I've got a little matter to settle, I think, with you. Who incited the hands to mutiny just now? I don't forget, Master Harry--I don't forget!'

"`Neither do I!' grumbled Harry below his voice.

"`What is that, you mutinous dog?' exclaimed the cap'en, flying into a violent passion again, although he had somewhat calmed down from his former rage--`Answer me to my teeth, you scoundrel? Take that!' and he hit a drive full fair in the centre of the forehead, with the butt-end of his revolver, holding it by the barrel, felling Harry to the deck senseless, like a bullock under the poleaxe!

"Some of the crew murmured `Shame!' But the cap'en kept up his authority. `Silence there!' he cried out. `Down with you, watch below, if you want to see your bunks to-night, and take that hulking carcass with you, or I'll throw it overboard!' And then the men went below, and took poor Black Harry, with them; the vessel was made snug under her jib, storm staysails, and close-reefed mainsail; and Captain Jarvis, who hadn't been off the deck, except to fetch his revolver that time, once in the twenty-four hours, returned to his cabin to have a bit of sleep, leaving me on the watch; the second officer and boatswain, who acted also as third mate, having also turned in for a caulk and gone down into the steerage.

"The sun, which we couldn't see, had set long since, before indeed that little misunderstanding had occurred about going aloft; and the moon shone feebly now and then through an occasional opening in the clouds, which had piled up atop of each other so heavy to windward that they were like a pall in the sky.

"There was only myself and the steersman aft, the rest of the watch, which were only five in number altogether, being stowed somewhere under the bulwarks amidships, trying to get an odd wink if the seas that were shipping in as the ship's bows fell would let them. Not a sound was to be heard save the whistle and screech of the wind through the cordage, and the creak of a block occasionally aloft; and I was looking out at the weather, wondering how soon the next squall would tackle us, when my arms were seized by somebody behind me, who held them down close to my sides, and a gag of a reef-knot or some piece of rope shoved into my mouth, so that I couldn't cry out.

"`Mr Marling!' says a voice, which I recognised at once as Black Harry's, whispering in my ear, `you need not fear nothing, only keep quiet, and no harm will be done to you; but if you tries to make a noise, why, we'll have to quiet you in a way you won't like!'

"With that, you may be sure, I was as tranquil as a mouse, while they tied me down to a ring-bolt close by the cabin skylight, so that I couldn't move; but from my position I could see and hear everything that went on afterwards, although I couldn't get the gag out of my mouth so as to be able to speak.

"`Now, men,' I heard Black Harry then say aloud; `now, we'll pay out that devil below! I wonder how he'll like his mutinous dogs at close quarters?' and he laughed a horrible bitter laugh.

"Then I heard them begin to descend the companion ladder into the captain's cabin.