We mustered quite a strong party at the dinner-table, what with the regular party, the four visiting captains (who were also pressed to stay), and our two selves, and a very merry one withal. _We_ contributed to the dessert from our stock on the main-boom; and they only who have enjoyed it can say what a luxury is fresh fruit on the line, especially when one has been a long time on board a ship.

The skipper produced unlimited champagne (of which, for a wonder, he still had a very fair stock) in honour of the occasion, and "a prosperous voyage, and success to the _Water Lily_" was drunk over and over again that evening. We kept it up until nearly midnight, the p.o.o.p being converted into a ball-room by merely hanging a few lamps in the mizzen-rigging; the orchestra consisting of one of the seamen, who played the concertina better than I ever heard it played before or since.

The weather being as I have described it, without any signs of a change, such a departure from the ordinary routine of the ship was permissible, and I have no doubt everybody on board was glad enough of an occurrence which gave such an excuse for breaking in upon the monotony of the voyage.

Tedious enough they must have found it, for it appeared that they had already been becalmed five days, and had not altered their position as many miles; and there seemed every prospect of their being becalmed five days more, for the gla.s.s was as steady as if the mercury had been solid.

At last we visitors made signs of moving. The captains of the other vessels ordered their crews into their boats, and I was just about going over the side on my way to our small cabin to write a hasty line to Ada (our kind host having promised to post my letter for me immediately on his arrival), when a seaman stepped up to me, and with the usual nautical sc.r.a.pe of the foot and a respectful "Beg pardon, sir,"

intimated a desire to speak to me.

"There's a strange yarn going the rounds of this here craft's fo'c'sle,"

said he, "about your bein' on a sort of v'yage of discovery a'ter your father, sir."

I said, "Certainly; it was perfectly true."

"Well, sir," said he, "maybe I might be able to help you in your search.

It needs no prophet to tell that you are Captain Collingwood's son, when a man gets a fair squint at your figure-head, axing your pardon, sir, for my boldness; and if you'll just give me your word that nothing I may say shall tell agin me, I'll tell you all I knows about it, and gladly too; for I sailed with your father, sir, and a kinder skipper or a better seaman never trod a deck than he was, as I've had good reason to know."

"_Was_?" exclaimed I, with a sudden sinking of heart.

"And is still, for aught I know, sir; at least I hope so; there's no reason why he mayn't be still alive," replied the man, fully understanding all the meaning of my exclamation.

"Thank G.o.d for that," replied I fervently. "But why is this strange pledge required? Surely, fellow, you will not have the temerity to tell _me_--his son--that he has been the victim of any foul play? If so--"

"Not on my part, sir, I'll take my Bible oath," said he, "What I did I was _forced_ to do to save my own life. Gladly would I have helped the skipper if I could; but what can one man do agin a whole ship's crew."

"_Much_, if he have the will," replied I. "I will give no pledge whatever, beyond this. Tell me your story, and if I find you were powerless to prevent the evil which I begin to suspect has befallen my poor father, you have nothing to fear; but if I find that you have in any way aided--"

"Never, sir. If I could have had my will the skipper would not be where, I suppose, he is now; but you shall hear all I have to say, and then judge for yourself whether I could prevent anything that happened or no."

CHAPTER SIX.

THE FATE OF THE "AMAZON."

The man who, in this unexpected manner, brought me intelligence of my father, belonged to the crew of one of the visiting captains' boats, and a word or two of explanation was sufficient to procure the delay in the boat's departure necessary to permit the fellow to tell his story.

In order to be a little more alone, Bob (who was, in a few words, made acquainted with the facts of the case), the seaman, and I went down over the side to the _Water Lily's_ deck, when, as soon as we had comfortably bestowed ourselves, the man thus began:

"You must know, gentlemen, to commence with, that I was shipped, among others, on board the _Amazon_ at Canton. Dysentery was awful bad among the crews just at that time, and no less than seven was ash.o.r.e from our old barkie bad, when she left. Two chaps run as soon as she got in, and couldn't be found agin; so there was nine berths in the fo'c'sle to be filled when she was ready to sail. As I was savin', I was one of the new hands shipped. Englishmen was scarce somehow just then, and the skipper had to take what he could get. Consequence was, he shipped three Portuguese, a Spaniard, a Greek, two Frenchmen, and a Yankee, besides myself. The third mate was ash.o.r.e bad, and the second mate had died, so the Yankee (who seemed a smartish sort of chap) was made second mate, and one of the old fo'c'sle men was put into the third mate's berth. When we got aboard, we found the hatches on, and all ready for a start, and that same a'ternoon we unmoored, and away we went.

"We was the first ship as went away with any of the new teas, and the skipper was awful anxious for a quick run home. We carried on night and day; but the weather was light with us, and we didn't get along half as such a smart ship ought to ha' done, for she was a reg'lar flyer, as perhaps you gentlemen both knows.

"Well, we hadn't been out above a week when, whether 'twas worryin' at the light winds, or what 'twas I can't say, but the poor skipper was laid on his beam-ends with fever, and it took the chief-mate all his time to prevent his jumping overboard. However, it didn't seem to matter so much, so far as the ship was consarned, for the Yankee second mate turned out to be a first-rate navigator, and he in a way took charge of the craft.

"Well, gentlemen, how it all came about, I can't say, for I never noticed anything wrong. True, some of the chaps talked a bit queer to me at times; but I thought 'twas all a bit of a flam; but, howsomever, one fine night my Yankee gentleman and the new hands takes the ship. At eight bells in the first watch, the watch below was called; and as soon as they came on deck three on 'em goes straight over and jines the mutineers without a word; so it was clear as 'twas all planned afore among 'em. That left only three whites out of the plot--the Lascars had all been bribed or frightened into jining in with t'others--and, out of us three, two was lying on deck, lashed hands and heels together when I come up through the fore-scuttle.

"The minute my foot touched the deck, I was tripped up and secured before I was fairly awake, and stowed alongside of the two other chaps.

Then my n.o.ble Yankee, he steps up and stands in front of us three, and he says, says he, 'Now, you chaps, you see how it is; we've got the ship and we means to keep her; and we've made up our minds to do a little bit of pirating; make our fortunes; and then cut the sea and live like gentlemen for the rest of our days ash.o.r.e. If you've a mind to jine us, well and good; if not, there's a plank sticking over the bows, and I'll be obliged to trouble you to take a short walk on it for the benefit of your const.i.tooshuns. You've got five minutes allowed to make up your minds.'

"When the time was up, one of the chaps was unlashed, and the Yankee asks him what he intends to do.

"'I'll walk that--plank, if I must,' says he; 'but I hope I'm too honest to turn my hand to your--pirating,' says he.

"'Ah right,' says the Yankee; 'just as you please; there's no compulsion; only if you're so confounded honest,' says he, 'you'll have to leave this here ship,' says he, 'for we can't afford the room to stow away sich a bulky article as honesty. That's your road, and a pleasant pa.s.sage to ye,' says he, pointin' to the plank.

"Poor Bill--I can see him now, it seems to me--he stood for about half a minute looking far away into the moonlit sky, thinking of his friends, maybe, if he had any; and then, without a word, he steps to the rail, puts his hands upon it, jumps up on to the top of the bulwarks, and next minute there was a splash alongside, and he was gone.

"T'other chap was then cast adrift, and _he_ was asked the same question.

"'I've sailed with Bill,' says he, 'for nigh on six years, and never knew a truer-hearted shipmate, or a better seaman,' says he; 'and since it _must_ be, here goes,' says he, 'to take our last cruise in company.'

"And he too jumps upon the rail just as Bill did, and, without waitin' a second, launches himself overboard a'ter him.

"It was now my turn. I'd been thinking matters over in my mind whilst all this was going on; and I'll confess I found it hard to make up my mind to die. 'Whilst there's life there's hope,' thinks I; 'and it can but come to a launch over the side at last, if the worst comes to the worst;' so when they asked me what I intended to do, says I. 'Tell me, first of all, what's become of the skipper?' says I.

"'He's below in his bunk,' says the Yankee, 'and the mate with him, and there they're welcome to stay so long as they don't interfere with us,'

says he, 'and I'll take good care they don't,' says he. 'But what's that to do with you?'

"'Well,' says I, 'I likes the skipper; he's been a good friend to me, and I couldn't be content to see harm come to him. If you'll promise to shove him ash.o.r.e all safe,' says I, 'I don't mind taking a hand in your little game.'

"'Very sensible indeed,' says the Yankee; 'you've a darned sight better notions in your head than they two stupid cusses as has just gone over the side with nothin' to ballast 'em but their--honesty,' says he; 'and as for the skipper--make your mind easy. We've no grudge agin him; all we wants is the ship; and now we've got her, we means to put the skipper and the mate both ash.o.r.e somewheres where they can be snug and comfortable like together, but where there'll be no chance of our hearin' anything more from 'em for the rest of their lives.'

"And that's the way it was all settled," continued the man. "I made up my mind I'd never do no pirating if I could help it; and I thought maybe if I stuck to the craft, I might be able to help the skipper a bit somehow, and if ever I got a chance, why, I'd make a clean run for it, and I reckoned I should find a way to do that the first port we touched at.

"Well, as soon as matters was arranged, the Yankee takes the command, and makes the Greek chief-mate; the watches was divided, the course altered, and away we goes to the east'ard, on the starboard tack, with a taut bowline and everything set as would draw, from the skysails down.

One hand is told off from each watch to keep a look-out in the cabin; and the steward has his orders to do everything he could for the poor skipper. He had a hard time of it, poor man, for when he was getting better, and the truth couldn't any longer be kept from him, the mate told him what had happened, and the news took him so completely aback that he got as bad as ever again, and the wonder is that he didn't slip his cables altogether. However, he managed to hold on to 'em, and at last the fever left him; but he was that weak he hadn't strength to turn over in his berth without help.

"All this time we were going to the east'ard, or about east-south-east, with everything set that the spars would bear. At last, about a month or maybe five weeks after the mutiny--I didn't keep much account of the time--we fetches up, all standing, one dark night, upon a coral reef, before we knowed where we was. There warn't much sea on, and we happened to touch where there was nearly water enough to float us; so we b.u.mped and thumped gradually right over the reef into deep water--at least about ten fathoms--on t'other side. The well was sounded, and we found five feet of water in the hold; so, as there was land of some sort close aboard of us, the Yankee rams her straight on to it to save her from sinking under us.

"When daylight broke, we found ourselves on the sandy beach of a small island, with reefs all round us; but a s.p.a.ce of about a quarter to half a mile of clear water everywhere between the reefs and the island.

"The cargo was roused out, and the ship examined, as well as it could be done, to learn the extent of the damage, for the Yankee talked about careening her to repair her bottom; but we soon found that the job was too much for us. So we stayed on the island about a week, fitting out the launch and the pinnace; and when all was ready, and everything stowed in the boats that it was thought we should want, we made sail to the nor'ard and east'ard; not, however, until the rest of the boats had been destroyed, and the skipper and mate made all snug and comfortable like in a tent ash.o.r.e."

"Then you were inhuman enough," exclaimed I, "to leave my poor father, sick as he was, on a desert island?"

"He was better off there than he would ha' been with us," replied the man. "The island was a first-rate spot, with cocoa-nuts and bananas, and lots of other fruits, no end; plenty of fresh water, and the bulk of the ship's stores to draw from. It was a _lovely_ spot; lots of shade, pure air, and pretty nigh everything a man could want, what with the stores, and the fruit, and so on. He _must_ have died, had we taken him away in the boats, for the sun beat down upon us _awful_, and the heat was reflected back from the surface of the water to that extent we was nearly roasted.

"Well, we'd been to sea nigh on to three weeks, and was getting pretty short of water, though we touched at a couple of islands and filled up again, on our way, when one evening--there wasn't a breath of air blowing--we sighted a sail to the nor'ard of us. She was becalmed, like ourselves.

"The Yankee takes a good long look at her, or at least at her to'gallants'ls, which was all we could see, and then tells us he'd made up his mind to have a slap at the chap during the night. We carefully took her bearings, dowsed our canvas, and pulled leisurely towards her.

At last, when we thought we were beginning to near her, we m.u.f.fled our oars, and then paddled on again, both boats within oar's length of each other.

"We pulled for about an hour, and then waited for some sign of her whereabouts--for we reckoned we must be close aboard of her--but it was that dark you couldn't see the length of your nose. After waiting a goodish spell--none of us speaking a word for fear of giving an alarm-- we hears eight bells struck, somewhere away upon our port quarter.

"We had pa.s.sed her, so we pulled very quietly round and just paddled in the direction we thought she was lying. In about five minutes the Yankee says, 'I see her,' says he; and we stopped paddling. The pinnace was hanging on astern of us, so's we shouldn't lose one another in the dark; and she was hauled up, the men in her told what to do, and the ship pointed out to them; and then we pulled away very quietly again.

"By this time we could just make out a dim something towering up in the darkness, which we knew to be her sails. In another minute our boat was alongside on her starboard quarter, and the pinnace on her larboard quarter; we shinned up her low sides, and before the watch on deck could rub their eyelids open, we had her.