We have not any nautical experience, but we all have powers of observation, and so far as I am able to judge, I believe I can do most of the things I have seen done on this vessel by your common seamen, if that is what you call them!"

Mrs. Cliff looked at Captain Burke, and he looked at her. "If it was a sailin'-vessel," he exclaimed, "I'd say she couldn't be worked by parsons, but a steamer's different! By George! madam, let's take them, and get away while we can!"

CHAPTER XXIV

CHANGES ON THE "SUMMER SHELTER"

When Captain Burke communicated to Mr. Portman and Mr. Burdette the news that nine of their pa.s.sengers had offered to ship as a crew, the sailing-master and the first mate shook their heads. They did not believe that the vessel could be worked by parsons.

"But there isn't anybody else!" exclaimed Burke. "We've got to get away, and they're all able-bodied, and they have more sense than most landsmen we can ship. And besides, here are five experienced seamen on board, and I say, let's try the parsons."

"All right," said Mr. Burdette. "If you're willing to risk it, I am."

Mr. Portman also said he was willing, and the engineer and his a.s.sistant, who were getting very nervous, agreed to the plan as soon as they heard of it.

Captain Burke shook himself, pulled his cap to the front of his head, arranged his coat properly and b.u.t.toned it up, and began to give orders.

"Now, then," said he, "all pa.s.sengers going ash.o.r.e, please step lively!"

And while this lively stepping was going on, and during the leave-taking and rapid writing of notes to be sent to the homes of the clerical crew, he ordered Mr. Burdette to secure a pilot, attend to the clearance business, and make everything ready to cast off and get out of the harbor as soon as possible.

When the five reverend gentlemen who had decided not to accompany the _Summer Shelter_ in her further voyaging had departed for the hotel, portmanteaus in hand, and amply furnished by Mrs. Cliff with funds for their return to their homes, the volunteer crew, most of them without coats or waistcoats, and all in a high picnic spirit, set to work with enthusiasm, doing more things than they knew how to do, and embarra.s.sing Mr. Burdette a good deal by their over-willingness to make themselves useful. But this untrained alacrity was soon toned down, and early in the afternoon, the hawsers of the _Summer Shelter_ were cast off, and she steamed out of the eastern pa.s.sage of the harbor.

There were remarks made in the town after the departure of the yacht; but when the pa.s.sengers who had been left behind, all clergymen of high repute, had related the facts of the case, and had made it understood that the yacht, whose filibustering purpose had been suspected by its former crew, was now manned by nine members of the Synod recently convened in Brooklyn, and under the personal direction of Mrs. Cliff, an elderly and charitable resident of Plainton, Maine, all distrust was dropped, and was succeeded in some instances by the hope that the yacht might not be wrecked before it reached Jamaica.

The pilot left the _Summer Shelter_; three of the clergymen shovelled coal; four of them served as deck hands; and two others ran around as a.s.sistant cooks and stewards; Mr. Portman and Mr. Burdette lent their hands to things which were not at all in their line of duty; Mrs. Cliff and w.i.l.l.y pared the vegetables, and cooked without ever thinking of stopping to fan themselves; while Captain Burke flew around like half-a-dozen men, with a good word for everybody, and a hand to help wherever needed. It was truly a jolly voyage from Na.s.sau to Kingston.

The new crew was divided into messes, and Mrs. Cliff insisted that they should come to the table in the saloon, no matter how they looked or what they had been doing: on her vessel a coal-heaver off duty was as good as a Captain,--while the clergymen good-humoredly endeavored to preserve the relative lowliness of their positions, each actuated by a zealous desire to show what a good deck hand or steward he could make when circ.u.mstances demanded it.

Working hard, laughing much, eating most heartily, and sleeping well, the busy and hilarious little party on board the _Summer Shelter_ steamed into the harbor of Kingston, after a much shorter voyage than is generally made from Na.s.sau to that port.

"If I could get a crew of jolly parsons," cried Captain Burke, "and could give them a month's training on board this yacht, I'd rather have them than any crew that could be got together from Cape Horn to the North Pole!"

"And by the time you had made able seamen of them," said Mr. Burdette, who was of a conventional turn of mind, "they'd all go back to their pulpits and preach!"

"And preach better!" said Mr. Litchfield, who was standing by. "Yes, sir, I believe they would all preach better!"

When the anchor was dropped, not quite so promptly as it would have been done if the clerical crew had had any previous practice in this operation, Mr. Burke was about to give orders to lower a boat,--for he was anxious to get on sh.o.r.e as soon as possible,--when he perceived a large boat rowed by six men and with a man in the stern, rapidly approaching the yacht. If they were port officials, he thought, they were extremely prompt, but he soon saw that the man in the stern, who stood up and waved a handkerchief, was his old friend Shirley.

"He must have been watching for us," said Captain Burke to Mrs. Cliff, "and he put out from one of the wharves as soon as we hove in sight.

Shirley is a good fellow! You can trust to him to look out for his friends!"

In a very short time the six powerful negro oarsmen had Shirley's boat alongside, and in a few seconds after that, he stood upon the deck of the _Summer Shelter_. Burke was about to spring forward to greet his old comrade, but he stepped back to give way to Mrs. Cliff, who seized the hand of Shirley and bade him a most hearty welcome, although, had she met him by herself elsewhere, she would not have recognized him in the neat travelling suit which he now wore.

Shirley was delighted to meet Burke and Mrs. Cliff, he expressed pleasure in making the acquaintance of Miss Croup, who, standing by Mrs.

Cliff's side, was quickly introduced, and he looked with astonishment at the body of queer-looking men who were gathered on the deck, and who appeared to be the crew of the yacht. But he wasted no time in friendly greetings nor in asking questions, but quickly informed Burke that they were all too late, and that the _Dunkery Beacon_ had sailed two days before.

"And weren't you here to board her?" cried Burke.

"No," said Shirley; "our steamer didn't arrive until last night!"

Burke and Mrs. Cliff looked at each other in dismay. Tears began to come into w.i.l.l.y Croup's eyes, as they nearly always did when anything unusual suddenly happened, and all the members of the Synod, together with Mr.

Portman and Mr. Burdette, and even the two engineers, who had come up from below, pressed close around Shirley, eager to hear what next should be said.

Everybody on board had been informed during the trip from Na.s.sau of the errand of the yacht, for Mrs. Cliff thought she would be treating those generous and kind-hearted clergymen very badly if she did not let them know the nature of the good work in which they were engaged. And so it had happened that everybody who had sailed from Na.s.sau on the yacht had hoped,--more than that, had even expected,--for the _Dunkery Beacon_ was known to be a very slow steamer,--to find her in the harbor of Kingston taking on goods or perhaps coaling, and now all knew that even Shirley had been too late.

"This is dreadful!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff, who was almost on the point of imitating w.i.l.l.y in the matter of tears. "And they haven't any idea, of course, of the dangers which await them."

"I don't see how they could know," said Shirley, "for of course if they had known, they wouldn't have sailed!"

"Did you hear anything about her?" asked Burke. "Was she all right when she arrived?"

"I have no doubt of that!" was the answer. "I made inquiries last night about the people who would most likely be consignees here, and this morning I went to a house on Harbor Street,--Beaver & Hughes. This house, in a way, is the Jamaica agent of the owners. I got there before the office was open, but I didn't find out much. She delivered some cargo to them and had sailed on time!"

"By George!" cried Burke, "Captain Horn was right! They could hardly get a chance to safely interfere with her until she had sailed from Kingston, and now I bet they are waiting for her outside the Caribbees!"

"That's just what I thought," said Shirley; "but of course I didn't say anything to these people, and I soon found out they didn't know much except so far as their own business was concerned. It's pretty certain from what I have heard that she didn't find any letters here that would make her change her course or do anything out of the way,--but I did find something! While I was talking with one of the heads of the house, the mail from New York, which had come over in my steamer too late to be delivered the night before, was brought in, and one of the letters was a cable message from London to New York to be forwarded by mail to Jamaica, and it was directed to 'Captain Hagar, of the _Dunkery Beacon_, care of Beaver & Hughes.' As I had been asking about the steamer, Beaver or Hughes, whichever it was, mentioned the message. I told him on the spot that I thought it was his duty to open it, for I was very sure it was on important business. He considered for a while, saying that perhaps the proper thing was to send it on after Captain Hagar by mail; but when he had thought about it a little he said perhaps he had better open it, and he did. The words were just these:--

"'On no account leave Kingston Harbor until further orders.--Blackburn.'

Blackburn is the head owner."

"What did you say then," asked Mrs. Cliff, very earnestly, "and what did he say?"

"I didn't say anything about her being a treasure ship," replied Shirley. "If it was not known in Jamaica that she was carrying that gold, I wasn't going to tell it; for there are as many black-hearted scoundrels here as in any other part of the world! But I told the Beaver & Hughes people that I also had a message for Captain Hagar, and that a friend of mine was coming to Kingston in a yacht, and that if he arrived soon I hadn't a doubt that we could overhaul the _Dunkery Beacon_, and give the Captain my message and the one from London besides, and that we'd try to do it, for it was very important. But they didn't know me, and they said they would wait until my friend's yacht should arrive, and then they would see about sending the message to Captain Hagar. Now, I've done enough talking, and we must do something!"

"What do you think we ought to do?" asked Burke.

"Well, I say," answered Shirley, "if you have any pa.s.sengers to put ash.o.r.e here, put them ash.o.r.e, and then let's go after the _Dunkery Beacon_ and deliver the message. A stern chase is a long chase, but if I'm to judge by the way this yacht caught up to the _Antonina_ and pa.s.sed her, I believe there's a good chance of overhauling the _Dunkery Beacon_ before the pirates get hold of her. Then all she's got to do is to steam back to Kingston."

"But suppose the pirates come before she gets back," said Mrs. Cliff.

"Well, they won't fool with her if she is in company," replied Shirley.

"Now, and what do you say?" he asked, addressing Burke, but glancing around at the others. "I don't know how this ship's company is made up, or how long a stop you are thinking of making here, or anything about it! But you're the owner, Mrs. Cliff, and if you lend Burke and me your yacht, I reckon he'll be ready enough to steam after the _Dunkery Beacon_ and deliver the messages. It's a thing which Captain Horn has set his heart upon, and it's a thing which ought to be done if it can be done, and this yacht, I believe, is the vessel that can do it!"

During this speech Mr. Burke, generally so eager to speak and to act, had stood silent and troubled. He agreed with Shirley that the thing to do was to go after the _Dunkery Beacon_ at the best speed the yacht could make. He did not believe that Mrs. Cliff would object to his sailing away with her yacht on this most important errand,--but he remembered that he had no crew. These parsons must be put off at Kingston, and although he had had no doubt whatever that he could get a crew in this port, he had expected to have a week, and perhaps more, in which to do it. To collect in an hour or two a crew which he could trust with the knowledge which would most likely come to them in some way or other that the steamer they were chasing carried untold wealth, was hardly to be thought of.

"As far as I am concerned," cried Mrs. Cliff, "my yacht may go after that steamer just as soon as she can be started away!"

"And what do you say, Burke?" exclaimed Shirley.

Burke did not answer. He was trying to decide whether or not he and Shirley, with Burdette and Portman, and the two engineers could work the yacht. But before he had even a chance to speak, Mr. Hodgson stepped forward and exclaimed:--

"I'll stick to the yacht until she has accomplished her business! I'd just as soon make my vacation a week longer as not. I can cut it off somewhere else. If you are thinking about your crew, Captain, I want to say that so far as I am concerned, I am one volunteer!"

"And I am another!" said Mr. Litchfield. "Now that I know how absolutely essential it is that the _Dunkery Beacon_ should be overtaken, I would not for a moment even consider the surrender of my position upon this vessel, which I a.s.sure you, madam, I consider as an honor!"

Mr. Shirley stared in amazement at the speaker. What sort of a seaman was this? His face and hands were dirty, but he had been shovelling coal; but such speech Shirley had never heard from mariners' lips. The rest of the crew seemed very odd, and now he noticed for the first time that although many of them were in their shirt sleeves, nearly all wore black trousers. He could not understand it.