nodding his head toward the helmsman, "and the rest of the hands, the fact that you are both seamen, and they are as pleased as I was to hear it. It has made matters much easier for us all round, and very much less dangerous for you; indeed, Manuel thinks that if you will only consent to act as part of the crew whilst we are in harbour there, and rig accordingly, neither Giuseppe nor any of his people will suspect anything, and you will thus be able to freely look about you and make such observations as will enable you to subsequently carry out your part of the scheme with success. If it can only be carried through it will make all our fortunes, for they must have doubloons stored away by the caskful by this time. Why, I am taking across two hundred doubloons this time to trade with, and I have never taken less in any one of my trips."

"And how many trips do you consider you have made altogether?" asked Courtenay.

"Oh, well, let me see--not less than sixty, I should suppose," was the answer.

"Sixty times two hundred gives twelve thousand. Twelve thousand doubloons--that is a goodly sum indeed," murmured I.

"Yes," answered Carera; "and to that you must add what the other traders have taken across, which will perhaps amount to at least as much more.

And there is also the specie which he has captured, and which of course he has had no need to barter away."

"Whew!" I involuntarily whistled, a great light suddenly bursting in upon my hitherto darkened understanding. Courtenay frowned a warning to me, and I hastened on to say: "That will be a big haul, certainly. Why, Carera, you will be able to retire from the sea altogether, and live like a gentleman for the rest of your days."

"Yes," he responded somewhat gloomily, "if the secret is well kept. If not--if it ever gets abroad that any of us on board here have been the means of--of--well, of betraying Giuseppe and his gang, our lives will not be worth a maravedi; for were all hands over there,"--nodding ahead--"to be taken, there would still be the traders to reckon with.

We shall completely spoil their game, you know, senors, and where there is so much money to be made out of it they would never forgive us."

"Pooh!" exclaimed Courtenay rea.s.suringly, "have no fear about that; they will never get to know how the thing has happened. If you can only depend upon your own people keeping close you may rely upon _our_ so managing affairs that no suspicion shall rest upon you."

"I hope so--I fervently hope so!" murmured Carera anxiously. "Riches would be of little value if one had to go about in constant dread of the a.s.sa.s.sin's knife."

We gave a cordial affirmation to this sentiment, and then noticing that our worthy and most estimable skipper seemed somewhat indisposed for further conversation just then, Courtenay and I retired to the cabin to talk matters over, having at length extracted sufficient information to show us pretty nearly how the land lay.

On getting below Master Courtenay's first act was to carefully select another cigar from the box on the table, cut off the point with mathematical regularity, light the weed, and then push the box over to me with the cheerful invitation:

"Help yourself, old fellow. Really superb weeds these--wonder what was the name of the ship these were taken out of, eh?"

Then he seated himself upon the lockers, planted his elbows squarely on the table, rested his chin in the palms of his hands, and, in this by no means elegant att.i.tude, puffed a long thin cloud of smoke at me. He intently watched the tiny wreath for a moment or two, and then broke ground by saying:

"Well, Lascelles, old boy, do you happen to know whereabouts we are?"

"Certainly," I answered, in perfectly good faith; "we are now just about one hundred and twenty miles to the northward and westward of La Guayra."

"Precisely. And we are--also--in--the--centre--of--a--hobble!" retorted the lively youth, nodding his head impressively at every word to give it additional emphasis. "In the centre of a hobble--that's where you and I happen to be at the present moment," he continued more soberly. "Let us look at the facts of the case. To start with, we are manifestly on board the wrong ship. The crew of that ship, or _this_ ship--it is all the same in the present case--take us to be, not two unfortunate fugitive British midshipmen yearning to return to their duty, but two officers of the Spanish navy told off by that no doubt most respectable old gentleman--whose acquaintance I regret I have not yet had the honour of making--the captain-general, to execute a certain duty which we may perhaps make a rough guess at, but as to the precise nature of which we are at present without any definite information. Do you agree with me so far?"

"Yes," said I. "But why can't you discuss the matter seriously? It may prove serious enough for us both at any moment, Heaven knows!"

"True for you, O lovelorn youth with the solemn visage. But wherefore this emotion? _Becoje tu heno mientras que el sol luciere_ is as sound a bit of wisdom as any that I have happened to pick up during our exceedingly pleasant sojourn at La Guayra. 'Make hay whilst the sun shines!'--make the most of your opportunities--have all the fun you can during your enforced absence from the jurisdiction of the first luff--is a proverb which ought to command the most profound respect of every British midshipman; and I am surprised at you, Lascelles, and disappointed in you, that you so little endeavour to live up to it,"

remarked Courtenay. "However," he resumed, "there is a certain glimmering of truth in what you say; this hobble--I like the word 'hobble,' don't you, so expressive, eh?--this hobble, then, in the centre of which we find ourselves, may prove a serious enough matter for us both at any moment, so let us go carefully over the ground and ascertain exactly how we stand. To start once more. I suppose you are prepared to accede to my proposition before stated, that we have by some unaccountable mistake blundered on board the wrong craft; and that on board her we have, in the same unaccountable way, established in our two respectable selves a most interesting case of mistaken ident.i.ty, eh?"

"Yes," said I, "I agree with you there. Go on," seeing that it was quite hopeless to think of diverting him from his ridiculous mood.

"That is all right," resumed Courtenay. "Now, judging from the fragmentary information we have been able to acquire thus far in our interesting conversations with that amiable old traitor, Carera, on deck there, I imagine our position to be this. We are two youthful but intelligent Spanish naval officers commissioned by the captain-general at La Guayra to accompany Carera on a little trading voyage he is making to certain lagoons lying somewhere inside the Barcos Channel. Now where _is_ the Barcos Channel? Do you know?"

"Haven't the slightest idea, beyond the exceedingly hazy one I have been able to form from what Carera said," answered I.

"Neither have I," acknowledged Courtenay. "But I think we know enough to identify its position very nearly. If I understood our friend aright we are now heading for Cape Irois, the most westerly point of Saint Domingo. From thence he intends to shape a course for Cape Maysi, which we both know to be the easternmost point of Cuba. Then, having weathered that point, he informed us that we might expect to have the wind well on our starboard quarter, which--knowing as we do that the prevailing wind in that lat.i.tude is from about east-north-east--means that we shall be steering a westerly course, or say from west to north- west. That would take us up along the northern coast of Cuba. Now, how long did you understand Carera to say it would take us to complete the run to the Barcos Channel?"

"Something like forty-eight hours," I replied.

"Exactly," acquiesced Courtenay. "That was what I understood. Now I should say that, with the wind on her quarter, this little hooker may be expected to run about ten knots per hour, which, for forty-eight hours, gives a run of four hundred and eighty miles, at which distance, there or thereabouts, from Cape Maysi, I imagine the Barcos Channel to be.

That, then, seems to indicate approximately the locality of the spot to which we are bound. Do you agree with me?"

"I do," said I. "That is precisely how I have reasoned it out in my own mind."

"That is well," resumed Courtenay. "Now, why are we going there?

Manifestly to a.s.sist in the betrayal of one Giuseppe something--I don't happen to know his other name. From a hint dropped by Carera I have formed the opinion that this Giuseppe must be an industrious, hard- working, and, withal, somewhat canny gentleman of the piratical profession; a man who seems to have made the business pay pretty well, too, for does not our friend on deck estimate that he has acc.u.mulated the tidy little sum of close upon twenty-five thousand doubloons? Now, however, that fickle G.o.ddess, Fortuna, appears to have withdrawn her smiles from him. Those pestilent British cruisers are interfering with him, and we know that when _they_ meddle with a business of that kind it means simple ruination for the honest people who are trying to make a livelihood out of it; consequently, our amigo Carera is no longer able to depend upon finding a rich cargo, at a low figure for cash, awaiting him at Giuseppe's snug little stronghold. Carera, the honest and faithful, therefore proposes to become virtuous. He has, doubtless, of late experienced certain qualms of conscience respecting the trade he is at present engaged in, and he has made up his mind to abandon it. He has also resolved to reform his friend Giuseppe; and, in order that the reformation of that estimable person may be made thoroughly effectual, he has undertaken--for a consideration, most probably a share of the plunder--to point out to us, the captain-general's deputies, the various rocks, shoals, and other impediments which obstruct the fairway to the pirates' anchorage, and to indicate the several sea-marks which will enable us to safely and successfully pilot an expedition into such a position as will enable it to knock Giuseppe's stronghold into a c.o.c.ked hat. How does that accord with your view of the situation?"

"Yes," said I, "I think you are about right. That is pretty much the idea I have formed of it."

"Good, again!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Courtenay. "Let us go a little further. We now come to the 'hobble,' or dilemma, if you prefer the latter word, in which we find ourselves. The unfortunate hitch in this business, as I look at it, is this. It so happens that we are _not_ the captain- general's deputies, but two British midshipmen, and we want to go, not to the Barcos Channel, but to Port Royal. How are we to get to the latter place?"

"That is a question which will demand our most serious consideration; but we need not worry about it for a few days," I replied. "And, as to our not wanting to go to the Barcos Channel, why should we not want to go there?"

"Why, because we want to go to Port Royal instead, I suppose. What d'ye mean, Lascelles?--hang it, man, I--what are you driving at?" stammered Courtenay, thoroughly taken aback.

"Ah!" said I, with a certain air of triumph, I am afraid, "I see that my plan has not yet dawned upon your benighted understanding. What is to prevent our going to this Barcos Channel, seeing everything that is to be seen there, and then making our way to Port Royal--the difficulty as to that will be no greater then than it is now--and reporting the whole affair to the admiral, who will doubtless send an expedition on his own account, and send us with it as a reward for our--"

"That will do," interrupted Courtenay enthusiastically. "By George, Lascelles, you are a trump! a genius! a--a--in fact I don't know what you are not, in the line of 'superior attainments,' as my schoolmaster used to say. And I--what a _consummate_ idiot I must have been not to think of it too! I say, old fellow, would you be so kind and obliging as to kick me _hard_ once or twice. No? Well, never mind; I daresay somebody else will, sooner or later, so I will excuse you. But, I say, Lascelles," he continued, as serious now as myself, "it is an awful risky thing to do; do you think we have nerve and--and--_impudence_ enough to carry it through without being found out? We are only two against ten, you know, on board here; and if we are detected it will be a sure case of,"--and he drew his hand suggestively across his throat--"eh?"

"No doubt of that, I think," said I. "But why should we be found out?

I feel as though my nerve would prove quite equal to the task; and as for impudence, you have enough and to spare for both of us."

"All right, then," said he, "we'll chance it; and there's my hand upon it, Lascelles. You make whatever plans you may consider necessary, and I'll back you up through thick and thin. A man can but die once; and if we fail in this we shall at least have the consolation of feeling that we fell whilst doing our duty--for there can be no mistake about its being our duty to bring about the destruction of that gang of pirates who, I now feel convinced, are lurking among those lagoons inside the Barcos Channel."

"Yes," said I, "I think there can be no doubt about that. And now, having arrived at a clear understanding as to what we are about to do, I think it is all plain sailing up to the time of our arrival in those lagoons. We must carefully note every particular which Carera may point out to us, and make a sort of chart, if possible, wherewith to refresh our memories; after which it only remains for us to find our way to Port Royal; and _that_, it seems to me, is the only item in our programme which is likely to give us any very serious difficulty."

This closed the discussion for the time being, and we went on deck, where Carera once more obsequiously joined us, much to our disgust; for it seemed probable that, if this sort of thing was to continue, we should find the fellow far too attentive to suit our ulterior plans.

We, however, made the best of the matter, and, finding that his thoughts were wholly occupied with the trip and its object, we simply let him talk about it to his heart's content, merely interjecting a remark here and there with the object of directing his conversation into such channels as would afford us the information in which we still happened to be deficient. In this way we gradually--and with some little skill, we flattered ourselves--acquired full particulars of the plot in the carrying out of which we were supposed to be important agents, and which turned out to be very much the sort of thing we had already pictured to ourselves. The man Giuseppe was, we found, an Italian, who had made his appearance in West Indian waters some five or six years previously, first in the character of a slaver, and afterwards as an avowed pirate.

He was, according to Carera's account, a man of exceptional daring, as wily as a fox, and a thorough seaman; and these excellent qualities had not only raised him to the position of head or chief of the powerful gang with whose fortunes he had identified himself, but had also enabled him to carry on his nefarious business so successfully that he had gradually acquired an almost fabulous amount of booty, and had at the same time gained for himself--at all events among the Spaniards--the somewhat sensational t.i.tle of "The Terror of the Caribbean Sea." He had established a sort of head-quarters for himself in a snug spot at the head of the Conconil lagoons, where he had erected buildings for the accommodation of his entire gang--part of which always remained on sh.o.r.e to look after the place--and where he had gradually surrounded himself with every convenience for repairing and refitting his craft. It was to this secluded, and indeed almost unknown spot, that he was in the habit of running for shelter when hard pressed by the cruisers who were always on the lookout for him; and, from Carera's description of the difficulties of the navigation, it would seem almost impossible to devise or hit upon a place better suited for such a purpose. It was here, also, that he first stored his plunder, and afterwards bartered it for gold or such necessaries as he might happen to require, with the three or four favoured individuals who, with the most extreme precaution, he had invited to trade with him. And it was the key to the navigation of these lagoons and their approaches which Carera had undertaken to sell to the Spanish authorities in consideration of his receiving, as the price of his treachery, one-half the amount of the captured spoil.

For the remainder of that day our minds were chiefly occupied with the question of how, after our visit to the Conconil lagoons, we were to make our way to Port Royal; and the more carefully we considered the question the more numerous and insurmountable appeared to be the difficulties in our way. It was not as though we were going to touch at a civilised port; in that case, if it came to the worst, we might have run away from our craft and taken our chance of getting another to suit us. But this, under the circ.u.mstances, was out of the question.

Moreover, directly we began to consider the matter, it seemed imperative that the _Pinta_ and her entire crew should be detained at least until our expedition should have sailed, otherwise Carera, finding himself duped, might endeavour to make the best of a bad matter by hurrying off to warn Giuseppe of the possibility of our beating up his quarters. The situation eventually resolved itself into this: that whereas, on the completion of our ostensible trading errand, the _Pinta_ would, in the ordinary course of events, return to La Guayra, taking us with her--when on her arrival the whole fiasco would come to light and the least misfortune we might expect would be a return to our loathsome prison quarters--it was necessary for the success of our plan that the craft and her crew should, by some means or other, find their way to Royal Port. How was the affair to be managed? The outlines of a scheme at length arranged themselves in my mind; and, although it was of so desperate a character that we agreed it was almost impossible that we should be able to carry it through, we nevertheless took immediate steps to further its accomplishment. It was not much that we could do just then; all that was possible for us was to a.s.sume extreme pleasure at being allowed to steer the little craft; and we so managed affairs that in the course of a few days it came to be an understood thing among the hands that whenever either of them happened to be too lazy to take his "trick" at the tiller he could always get relief by appealing to one or the other of us--if we happened to be on deck at the time.

The breeze continued to hold from the eastward; but as we drew over toward the coast of Saint Domingo it softened down a trifle; so that, on our arrival off Cape Irois, we found ourselves just about twelve hours behind the time reckoned on by Carera. That, however, was a matter of no very great moment, being rather an advantage than otherwise, since it enabled us to slip across the Windward Channel with less risk of being sighted and overhauled by a British cruiser, an incident which--now that Courtenay and I had quite made up our minds to go through with the adventure--we were folly as anxious as any of the _Pinta's_ regular crew to avoid. We were fortunate enough to make the pa.s.sage without molestation, though not wholly without an alarm, for a large ship was made out, about the end of the middle watch, coming down before the wind and heading right for us, with a whole cloud of flying kites aloft and studding-sails set on both sides. She proved, however, to be a merchantman, apparently British; and, from the course she was steering, we judged her to be bound to Kingston. She swept magnificently across our stern at a distance of about a couple of miles; and in little more than an hour from the time of our first sighting her she was hull-down again upon our larboard quarter.

With sunrise we found ourselves hauling in under the high land about Cape Maysi; and here we ran into the calm belt dividing the land and sea-breezes, and lay for an hour rolling gunwale under, our great sail flapping noisily and sending the dew pattering down on deck in regular showers with every roll of the little vessel, whilst the huge yard swayed and creaked aloft, tugging at the stumpy mast and tautening out the standing rigging alternately to port and starboard with such violence that I momentarily expected to see the whole affair go toppling over the side. "Hold on, good rope-yarns!" was now the cry; and they _did_ hold on, fortunately, though, during that hour of calm, there was more noise aloft than I had ever before heard on board a vessel. At length the sea-breeze came creeping down to us; a cat's-paw filled the lofty tapering sail, and pa.s.sed, causing the canvas to flap heavily ere it filled to the next. Another flap; then the sail swelled out gently and "went to sleep," the nimble little hooker turned her saucy nose into the wind's eye; a few bubbles drifted past her side as she gathered way, a long smooth ripple trailed out on each side of her sharp bows, then she heeled gracefully over to larboard as the languid breeze freshened upon us, and presently down it came, half a gale of wind, burying us half bulwark deep and making everything crack again as the boat gathered way and darted off like a startled dolphin. And here Carera was within an ace of making a mess of the whole business; for whilst we had been tumbling about becalmed a current had got hold of us and had set us so close in with the land that whilst rounding the point we actually pa.s.sed _through_ the breakers beating on the reef; and I am convinced that had we been a couple of fathoms further to leeward the hooker would have laid her bones there. However, the danger was come and gone in less than a minute; it was the extreme point of the reef we had grazed so very closely, and, once past it, we had a clear sea ahead and were out of the reach of all further danger. It was Courtenay, however, who actually saved the felucca; for at the supreme moment when the little craft plunged into the breakers, and when, if ever, there was the utmost need for coolness and self-possession, what must all hands do but plump down upon their knees, calling upon Saint Antonio and Heaven knows how many other saints to come and help them, Carera himself being one of the foremost to do so, abandoning the tiller meanwhile, and leaving the vessel to take care of herself, at the very moment of all others when she most needed looking after. She of course shot into the wind's eye in an instant, and in another minute the craft would have been on the rocks, stern-foremost, and beating her bottom in, had not Courtenay--who happened to be standing close by--sprung to the tiller and jammed it hard a-weather, thus causing her to pay off and forge ahead before losing steerage-way altogether.

Once fairly clear of the point, Carera put his helm up, and away we went, with a flowing sheet, upon a north-west by west course; arriving off Mangle Point about noon. From thence we began to haul somewhat off from the land, the wind drawing further aft and freshening somewhat as we did so; so that by sunset the lively little craft had brought Lucrecia Point fairly on her larboard beam. As the sun went down the wind manifested a disposition to drop; and for a couple of hours we crept along at a speed of scarcely five knots; but it breezed up again just after the first watch came on deck; and by two bells we were smoking through it faster than I had ever before seen the craft travel.

In accordance with the plan which Courtenay and I had arranged, we took the tiller between us during the whole of the first watch, the two hands whose places we had taken coolly going below and turning in. When the watch was called at midnight we felt that we had done enough for our purpose, so we retired below and spent the remainder of the night in our bunks.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

A NARROW ESCAPE.

At daybreak next morning we were awakened by a terrific hubbub overhead, and going on deck to ascertain what was the matter we found that the felucca, having been allowed to draw in too close with the land during the night, was becalmed off Guajaba Island, whilst a sail, some nine miles distant in the offing--evidently a British man-of-war from the cut of her canvas, and apparently a frigate from her size--was heading straight for us, close-hauled on the larboard tack, with a rattling breeze, as we could see by the way she was laying over to it and the rapidity with which her sails rose above the horizon. There could be no doubt that they had seen us with the first approach of daylight and were determined to give us an overhaul, hence the confusion which had aroused us from our peaceful slumbers. It was laughable to witness the agonised dismay with which the Spaniards viewed the approach of this craft, and to listen to the prayers, vows, and maledictions which issued indiscriminately from their lips as she swept relentlessly down toward us. They antic.i.p.ated nothing less than the capture and destruction of the felucca, and the detention of themselves as prisoners, which catastrophe, bad enough in itself as it must have appeared to them, was doubtless rendered infinitely more disagreeable by the reflection that to this mishap must be added the total collapse of their pretty little plan for the betrayal of their friends the pirates, and the subsequent division of the spoil. And even to us the prospect was by no means inviting. It was true that here was a chance for us to rejoin our own countrymen, and so escape from the dilemma in which we foresaw that we should be placed after leaving the Conconil lagoons; but we were not altogether without hopes that we might in any case be able to escape from that dilemma; and having resolved to go through with the adventure we were now by no means disposed to have it nipped in the bud. We were consequently quite as averse to a visit from the frigate as was Carera himself, and we at once set our wits to work to see if it might not be possible to devise some means of escape. The breeze was blowing fresh to within a mile of where we lay, and I felt convinced that the frigate, with the way she had on her, would shoot far enough ahead, even after she had entered the calm belt, to reach us with her guns; it was therefore evident that whatever was to be done would have to be done quickly, if it was to be of any use at all. I looked around and saw, by the colour of the water, that there was a shoal at no great distance insh.o.r.e of us. I called Carera aft and said to him:

"Look here, Carera, do you happen to know this coast pretty well?"