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Devon Boys: A Tale of the North Shore, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 42. A Fight At Sea |
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_ CHAPTER FORTY TWO. A FIGHT AT SEA We descended slowly and painfully, to get down in time to receive a severe scolding from the doctor, while my father confirmed the news, as Bigley was half-lifted off for Bob to mount the pony and go off for help. The British ships had had news brought them of the attack, and had started at daybreak in full chase, and an hour afterwards all who could climbed to where we could catch sight of the sea, to find out the meaning of the firing that was going on. It was plain enough. A large three-masted lugger was in full flight with the frigate after her, and sending shot after shot without effect, till one of them went home, cutting the lugger's principal mast in two, and her largest sail fell down like a broken wing, leaving the lugger helpless on the surface. Then a boat was lowered, and we saw her going at full speed, pulled as she was by a dashing man-o'-war crew, and we watched anxiously to see if there was going to be a fresh fight. But no; the man-o'-war long-boat pulled alongside and the men leaped aboard to send up the English colours directly, while the frigate went on in full chase of the French sloop, and we soon after saw that the lugger was being steered towards the mouth of the Gap. But meantime the doctor had been busy with poor Bigley, who had been laid upon a soft bed of heather to form his couch while his wound was examined. "Why, you cowardly young scoundrel!" he cried cheerfully, "the bullet is embedded in the muscles of the calf of your leg, and it came in behind. You dog: you were running away." "So would you have run away, doctor," I said warmly, "if half a dozen Frenchmen were after you and firing." "Never, sir!" cried the doctor fiercely, as he probed the wound; "an Englishman never runs. There, I can feel it--that's the fellow." "Oh, doctor!" groaned poor Bigley. "Hurt?" said Doctor Chowne. "Ah, well! I suppose it does. And so you, an Englishman, ran away--eh?" "English boy," said Bigley grinding his teeth with pain, while I felt the big drops gathering on my forehead, and was wroth with the doctor for being so cool and brutal. "English boy!--eh?" he said. "Well, but boys are the stuff of which you make young men. Ha, ha, ha! What do you think of that?" "You're half-killing me, doctor!" groaned poor Bigley. "Not I, my lad. I've got the rascal; come out, sir! There you are--see there! What do you think of that for a nasty piece of French lead to be sticking in your leg? If I hadn't fished it out it would have been there making your leg swell and fester, and we should have had no end of a game." As he spoke he held out the bullet he had extracted at the end of a long narrow pair of forceps; and, as Bigley looked at it with failing eyes, he turned away with a shudder and whispered to me, as I supported his head upon my arm: "I'm glad Bob Chowne isn't here to see what a miserable coward I am, Sep. Don't tell him--there's a good chap!" I was about to answer, but his eyes closed and he fainted dead away. "Poor lad!" said the doctor kindly. "Why, he was as brave as a lion. I talked nonsense to keep up his spirits and make him indignant while I hurt him in that cruel way. Poor lad! Poor lad!" "Doctor Chowne," I cried with the tears in my eyes, "I felt just now as if I hated you!" "Just you say that again!" he cried, laughing grimly. "You forget, you young dog, that I have you by the hip. You are my patient, and I have as tight a hold of you as an old baron in the good old times had of his prisoners. There! He is coming to, and I sha'n't have to hurt him any more to-day." "Will he have to lose his leg, doctor?" I whispered. "What! Because of that hole? Pshaw, boy! The bullet is out, and nature has begun already to pour out her healing stuff to make it grow together. I'll make him as sound as a roach before I have done. Now we must see to getting our wounded under cover. I didn't think the Gap would ever be turned into such a hospital as this. Why, Sep, it's quite a treat to get such a morning's practice in surgery. There! I'll go and wash my hands, and I must have some breakfast or I shall starve." Breakfast! Starve! At such a time as this! I looked at him in horror, and he read my thoughts and laughed. "Why, you young goose!" he exclaimed, "do you think I can afford to be miserable and have the horrors because other people suffer? Not a bit of it. I'm obliged to be well and hearty and--unfeeling--eh? Ah, well, Sep! I'm not such an unfeeling brute as I seem; and I'd give fifty pounds now to be able to find those poor fellows breakfast and shelter at once." The doctor was able to supply his patients with refreshments without the expenditure of fifty pounds, for Mother Bonnet had just come up to announce that she had been back to the cottage to find it untouched, after going away in alarm when the Frenchmen landed, and she said that she had the fire lit and coffee and tea on the way for every one who wanted it. "Mother Bonnet, you're a queen!" cried the doctor; and then turning to me: "Rather strange that they should have spared the cottage and old Jonas's goods, eh, Sep? There's something behind all this." We were not long in finding out what was behind all this. I had my own suspicions without the doctor's, and they were soon confirmed by the coming of the big three-masted lugger, which was brought close in by the man-o'-war's men, who landed with a lieutenant at their head, and came up the Gap to see our condition. He was a bright, manly fellow, and my father and he became friends at once, while he was quite humorous in his indignation. "The cowardly scoundrels!" he cried. "Oh, if we had only been here! How delighted my Jacks would have been to have a go at them!" "Do you think so?" said my father smiling. "Think so, sir? Why, my boys have been half mad with disappointment. Poor fellows! Just about a dozen of you. Well, there's no mistake about your having made a brave defence, Captain Duncan. Not a man unhurt. Sir, I'm proud to know you." "My men behaved better than I did, sir," said my father modestly. "Oh, of course, sir," cried the lieutenant laughing; "but avast talking. What can we do for you? I'm here ashore with the lugger and prisoners till my ship comes back, so what shall we do? You don't want doctoring, I see?" "We want covering in first of all, sir," said the doctor, pointing to the unroofed shed. "Of course you do," cried the lieutenant; "and all your men wounded. Here, heave ahead, my lads, and half of you run back to the lugger and bring up all the spare sails and spars you can get hold of. If there are no spars bring the sweeps." "Ay, ay, sir," cried the sailors; and half of them went off at the double back along the valley, while the others, under the command of their officer, set to work and shovelled and brushed out all the burnt charcoal and smouldering wood from the long shed, and then from the counting-house, and after that they were busy at work cutting ling and heath with their cutlasses, when the men despatched to the lugger came back loaded with sails and spars. At it they went, and in a very short time had rigged up a roof over the shed for our poor fellows, carried in a quantity of ling, and spread over that more sail-cloth, making quite a comfortable bed with room for a dozen men, and ample space for the doctor to go between. Then, with the tenderness of women, the great bronzed fellows lifted the wounded men who could not walk, slipped under them a hammock, and one at each corner carried them in and laid them down. "There you are, messmates," said the biggest of the men; "now, then, a quid apiece for you to keep down the pain. Make ready: pockets, 'bacco boxes," he shouted, and his comrades laughingly obeyed. "Thank you, my lads, thank you," cried the doctor, going round and shaking hands with all in turn; "why, it would be a pleasure to have to do with such men as you. But there, you're safe and sound." "At present, sir," said the big sailor; "but hark! They're at it yonder." We listened and sure enough there was the distant sound of heavy firing coming from the west. "And we not in it, mates," said the big sailor dolefully. The wounded being cared for and the miners' wives beginning to come back, we left them in the doctor's charge, and, in response to the lieutenant's invitation, went back with him to the lugger. "I'll send your fellows up all I can," he said, "but you two come to the lugger cabin, and I think I can scrape you up a bit of a meal." We were ready enough to go for many reasons, one of them being curiosity; and having shaken hands with Bigley, and asked my father to do the same, for the poor fellow was very miserable and despondent, away we went. "The rascals!" said the lieutenant, "they've got all your silver then? How much was it worth?" "Nearly two thousand five hundred pounds' worth," said my father. "What a haul!" exclaimed the lieutenant, "and so compact and handy. Never mind, captain, hark at our guns talking to them. They'll have to disgorge. But, I say, some one must have told them where to come." "I'm afraid so," said my father. "Who was likely to know?--this smuggling rascal that we have got in the French lugger?" "Who is he? An Englishman?" "No, sir, a Frenchman who speaks English pretty well. The officer on the revenue cutter knows him. A Captain Gualtiere, I believe." "Oh!" I exclaimed. "You know him then?" said the officer sharply. "Yes," said my father; "he picked up my son and two companions one day after their boat had been blown out to sea." "He seems to have picked up something else beside, sir," cried the officer--"knowledge of where you kept your silver. And you may depend upon it his lugger has been playing leader to the French sloop, and showed the captain where to land. Two thousand five hundred pounds in bars of silver! We must have that back." "I'm afraid you are not quite right, sir," said my father sadly. "I think we shall find that the betrayal of my place was due to a smuggler who used to live in yonder cottage, information respecting whose cargo landing I was compelled, as a king's officer, to give to the commander of the cutter. It has been an old sore, and it has doubtless rankled." "Oh, father!" I said sadly, "do you think this really is so?" "Yes, Sep," he replied, "and so do you; but don't be alarmed, I shall not visit it upon his son. The poor lad thinks the same, I am sure, and he is half broken-hearted about it." We reached the beach soon after, where a couple of Jacks were in charge of the boat, and soon after we were pulled alongside of the lugger, to find that the men left on board, in charge of a midshipman of about my own age, had been busy repairing damages, _fishing_, as they called it, the broken spar, while the lugger's crew sat forward smoking and looking on, in company with their skipper, who rose smiling, and saluted. "Aha! Le Capitaine Dooncaine," he cried; "and m'sieu hees sone. I salute you both." "Salute me?" cried my father angrily. "After this night's work?" "This night's work, mon capitaine?" he said lightly. "Vy node. I am prisonaire; so is my sheep, and my brave boys. But it ees ze fortune of var." "Yes; the fortune of war," said my father bitterly. "I do node gomplaine myself. You Angleesh are a grand nation; ve are a grand nation. Ve are fighting now. If ze sloop sail vin she vill come for me. If she lose ze capitaine vill be prisonaire, and behold encore ze fortune of war." "Sir," said my father, "it is the act of pirates to descend upon a set of peaceful people as your countrymen did last night, thanks to your playing spy." "Spy? Espion? Monsieur insults a French gentleman. I am no spy." "Was it not the work of a spy to bring that French sloop here to ravage my place and steal the ore that had been smelted down?" "True, saire, it vas bad; but ze espion was your own countrymen, saire. Ze Capitaine Gualtiere does no do such not you calls dirty vorks as zat." "Jonas Uggleston! It was he, then?" cried my father. "I felt sure of it; but I believed you to have had a hand in it, Captain Gualtiere." "A hand in him, sair. Ze Capitaine Ugglee-stone ask me to join him, it there is months ago, sair; but I am a smugglaire, and a shentilhomme, node a pirate." "Captain Gualtiere," said my father, "you once saved my boy's life, and I have insulted you--a prisoner. Sir, I beg your pardon." My father took off his hat, and before he realised what was about to take place, the Frenchman had thrown his lithe arms about him and kissed his cheek. "Sair," he exclaimed with emotion, "I am a prisonaire, but I look upon ze Capitaine Dooncaine as a friend." They then shook hands, and my father coloured up as he saw the officer of the frigate look on as if amused. "Monsieur," said Captain Gualtiere; "I am no longer the maitre here; but you vill entaire my cabine, and I pray you to take dejeuner--ze breakezefast vis me." The result was that we had a surprisingly good meal, and very refreshing it proved, though I was in terrible pain all the time, and kept on wondering whether I ought to eat and drink. The lieutenant from the frigate kept getting up and going on deck to listen to the firing, which was very heavy in the distance, though nothing could be seen, and he exclaimed once against the great headland, the Ram's Nose, which shut off the view. "It's so hard," he said; "here have I been longing for an engagement, and the first one that turns up I am away from my ship, and cannot even see the fun." I saw my father, who was wincing with pain, smile at the lieutenant's idea of fun. "Why, you are safer here," he said. "Safer!" exclaimed the lieutenant contemptuously. "Now, Captain Duncan, would you have liked it when you were on active service?" "That I certainly should not, sir." "Ah, well," said the lieutenant, "I suppose I must be contented with our little prize here. This Gualtiere has long been wanted. A most successful smuggler, sir." The conversation was ceasing to interest me, so I went on deck, when the middy came up to me directly from where he was standing listening to the firing. I looked at him with the eyes of admiration, for his uniform, dirk, and pistols gave him a warlike aspect, and besides he was in temporary command of the sturdy Jacks who were overawing the smuggler's men. "Won't you sit down?" he said, turning up a little keg. I sank upon the seat with a sigh, for I felt weak. "Ah! You are a lucky fellow," he said. "Why?" I asked. "Why? To be in a fight last night and get wounded." "Oh!" I exclaimed laughing. "Ah, you may laugh!" he said. "I call it first rate. You're only a landsman, and get all that luck. It's of no use to you. Why, if it had been me, of course I am too young for promotion, but it would have been remembered by and by. I say, tell us all about it." I told him, and to my surprise I found before long that all the sailors were listening intently. "Ah!" exclaimed the middy as I finished; "don't I wish we had all been there." "And don't I wish you had all been there!" I said dolefully; "our place is regularly wrecked." "Never mind," cried the middy, shaking my hand. "They ar'n't getting much by it. Hark! How our old girl is pounding away at 'em. I'll be bound to say that the spars and planks are flying, and--oh, don't I wish I were there!" _ |
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