CHAPTER XVIII
MUTINY AND A RUSE THAT FAILED
"WE wish to know why we are freezing to death in this fearfulclimate, instead of capturing rich prizes, as we were led to believe,and for which we signed on?" said the spokesman, a Greek who spokefour Latin languages fluently.
"And if I refuse to give you the information?" asked Cervillo.
"We'll have the ordering of things in our own hands----"
"And a fine mess you'll make of it," added the captain. He knew thatonce he showed the white feather it would be all up with him. Theonly way to treat a polyglot crowd was to put a bold face on thematter, and let them see that the man whom they served was a worthyleader of such a pack of ruffianly scoundrels. "All those men whospeak or understand Spanish will cross over to the starboard side. IfI don't treat you fairly then on my head be it."
Slowly, almost reluctantly, about forty of the men walked across tothe side indicated, their comrades regarding the act with suspicionuntil they were assured by the Greek that their Iberian comrades were"solid" in their determination to see the matter through.
"Now, lads," continued Cervillo, "you ask an explanation; I will giveit. It can be repeated to the others as soon as I have finished. WhenI brought the ship north I did it with the best intentions, to lielow until the strict watch maintained by those accursed English andAmerican cruisers was relaxed, and we could still further increaseour booty ere disbanding at Caracas or Monte Video. Unfortunately Idid not take into consideration the chances of meeting with ice atthis time of the year. We did so, with consequences extremely awkwardboth to the ship and ourselves. We must get out of the difficultysomehow; and the remedy I suggest is this: That we capture the firstvessel we meet that is large enough to take us all; remove thetreasure, and scuttle the _Independencia_. Then, without excitingsuspicion, we can go south once more, and land quietly on SouthAmerican soil. Your share of the booty will, I regret to say, fallshort of the sum anticipated had all gone well with us; but therewill be quite enough to keep you all in ease for the rest of yourlives. Those are my intentions, mainly for your benefit. If you cansuggest a better plan I am only too willing to lend my ear."
Cervillo paused. To his unbounded satisfaction he observed his boldfront was making a favourable impression upon the handful of men headdressed. There was one exception amongst the Spanish-speakingaudience. That was the Greek spokesman. It was in his mind that themutiny should go its whole course; that Cervillo should be madeprisoner, and that he should be the new captain. But he had given hisfellow mutineers no plan of what he should do to save himself andthem from the hangman's rope, and on that point Cervillo scored.
A few exclamations of approval warmed the captain to his task, and inan easy, confidential manner he continued.
"You are, I know, aware that there is a source of danger already inthe ship. I refer to that English dog and his comrades who havecontrived to seize the after part of the ship. I do not wish to makea secret about it, but the greater portion of the treasure lies intheir hands. Yes, men, it is enough to make you have long faces; butthe worst is not yet told. They refuse to give up the gold. How canwe compel them to do so? If we use force they threaten to sink theship. As you know, we have only three boats left, and they have beenconsiderably damaged. This is the situation. More than that, I seeyou men are standing before me armed, and with every appearance ofbeing mutineers. Is not that so?"
"We mean to have our rights," interrupted the Greek, surlily. "If wedon't look after ourselves, who else will?"
"I'm the person to do that," retorted Juan Cervillo, with afierceness that made the Greek--although he was standing twenty feetfrom the pirate captain--recoil and seek refuge behind his comrades."And, what is more, I mean to get you all out of this business in thebest possible manner. Could you dislodge the Englishman and hiscompanions from the half-deck? I think not. I have a plan; but beforeI divulge it I must have your promise of complete obedience. Now goand explain to your comrades on the port side the state of affairs. Iwill wait here and receive your answer."
Those of the crew who did not understand Spanish were regarding theircaptain with hostile eyes until their fellows on the starboard sideraised their shouts of approbation. They could not understand thesudden change of opinion; but very easily led, they soon agreed toaccept Cervillo's terms as explained by the Spanish-speaking portionof the crew, who were, for the most part, capable of makingthemselves understood by every member of the polyglot assembly. Onlythe Greek held out, striving to influence his compatriots against thecaptain's authority; but, failing miserably, he subsided, and triedto retire into oblivion by diving into the crowd of reconciledmutineers.
"Now," exclaimed Cervillo, after a while, "are you willing to submitto my authority once again? For my part I will overlook this affairknowing that you have erred in thinking that I had no desire to studythe interest of my crew."
"We are with you, se?or capitan!" shouted the men.
"Excellent! Now this is my plan: Se?or Da Silva will muster forty menarmed with rifles upon the quarter-deck. The rest of you will gofor'ard, and on the signal being given, commence to shout 'All handson deck!' and 'Everyone for himself--the ship's sinking!' Make asmuch noise as you can. The prisoners will at once bolt from below,and as soon as the last man is up through the hatchway Se?or Da Silvawill give the word for them to be shot down. No one must be allowedto escape below. We can then recover the gold, and on the firstavailable opportunity we will tranship the booty and ourselves toanother vessel. Have I made myself clear?"
The mutineers expressed themselves satisfied, and at once wentfor'ard to carry out the proposed stratagem.
Meanwhile Fielding and his companions kept well on the alert,maintaining regular watches, and leaving nothing to chance. Throughthe ports they had witnessed the cruiser's mishaps in the submergedbed of ice, and her perilous passage betwixt the horns of the berg.They knew that the _Independencia_ was heading southwards, but forwhat purpose they were in ignorance. Certain it was that for the timebeing Cervillo's idea of sheltering on the east coast of Greenlandhad been knocked on the head.
"They're pretty well at the end of their tether," remarked the sub."Something's gone wrong with the engines, I fancy; and I shouldn't bea bit surprised if she's leaking badly. They've been pumpingcontinuously for the last few hours."
"There's one blessing, they won't be able to do any more damage toshipping," added Cardyke. "But I can't say that I appreciate beingcooped up here. Couldn't we make a rush for it and drive them below?"
"Too early," objected his superior. "They must be lulled into a senseof security first. No, Cardyke, we must sit tight and await ouropportunity. It's bound to come. You see, if we attempted to capturethe ship, and failed--we cannot rely upon success--our position mightbe infinitely worse. We cannot come to much harm here. The gold actsas an invisible breastplate to shield us all."
Just then there was a heavy crash somewhere amidships, followed by ababel of yells that roused the sleeping watch from their berths.
"What's happening now?" asked Fielding. "Can you make out what theyare shouting about, Mr. Rutter?"
The American, who was a fairly good Spanish linguist, understood thenature of the yells. For a few seconds he stood chewing the end of ahuge cigar.
"I guess they're celebrating someone's nameday," he remarked, calmly."Let 'em yell. Maybe they'll want their wasted breath before long."Then, taking Fielding aside, he said, in an undertone, "They'retrying to lure us out, I reckon. Say the ship's sinking. Guess she'sbeen going down some these twenty-four hours past, and she hasn'tgone yet; so sit tight."
Thus, by the coolness of Hiram B. Rutter, the knavish plot of DaSilva fizzled out like a damp squib. Finger on trigger the platoonwaited to mow down the hostages as they issued pell-mell through thehatchway; but they waited in vain.
"Ten thousand fiends take them!" exclaimed the pirate captain in hiswrath when he saw that treachery failed to accomplish his ends."There must be a traitor amongst the crew."
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Disgusted and foiled, Cervillo retired to his quarters, and spent therest of the day in sulky isolation. Meanwhile Da Silva, to whom thecare of the vessel had been entrusted, kept the cruiser pointing duesouth at a modest ten knots. He, too, began to realise that, with herdiminished speed and rapidly burning oil supply, it was only aquestion of hours before the _Independencia_ floated idly at themercy of wind and wave. With the exhaustion of the oil fuel theauxiliary engines would be useless, and the centrifugal pumps wouldbe powerless to check the inrush of water. The pumps worked by manuallabour might keep the vessel afloat for twenty-four hours, but DaSilva, who had been mate of a Levant trader, knew only too well howquickly men will tire at the arduous task of manning the pumps.
Another day had almost passed. The sun was on the point of dippingfor a few short hours beneath the horizon when the look-outannounced, "Sail on the port quarter."
Cervillo and most of the officers made their way up to the bridge.Glasses were brought to bear upon the distant vessel, whose topmastsonly were as yet visible from where the pirate captain stood. Was ita British cruiser that by some unfortunate freak of circumstance hadpenetrated the almost deserted northern ocean?
"What do you make of her?" shouted Cervillo to the man in thefire-control platform, which, useless for its primary purpose, hadbeen used as a spacious and well-sheltered "crow's-nest."
"There are two vessels, se?or capitan. One is in tow of the other."
"Are they cruisers?"
"I think not, se?or capitan. One of them is square-rigged."
Unable to conceal his anxiety, Cervillo entered the narrow door inthe base of one of the tripods, and climbed inside the hollow masttill he stood beside the look-out in the fire-control platform.
For quite a minute Cervillo kept the two vessels under observation,then with a gesture of relief he returned the telescope to theseaman. Regaining the bridge he gave orders for the helm to bestarboarded, so as to bring the _Independencia_ on a convergingcourse to that of the strange vessel and her tow.
This done he called Da Silva to his side.
"Now is our chance," he said, in an undertone. "Yonder ships are adisabled whaler and a steam yacht. We must capture both, place thecrew of the yacht on board the whaler, and cut them adrift. Sincethese obstinate dogs will not let us have the gold we must be contentwith what is stored amidships."
"But we shall be very poorly off," objected the lieutenant.
"If we had to share with the whole of our crew," replied JuanCervillo. "Listen, Da Silva; we must find a means of getting thebooty that is still in our possession on board the yacht with all theofficers and some of the men who are Spaniards by birth. The restmust shift for themselves."
Even Da Silva, hardened villain that he was, looked astounded at thecalculated heartlessness of his superior.
"But how?" he whispered.
Cervillo placed his finger on his lips.
"Leave that to me," he replied. "Only see that my orders are properlycarried out, and all will be plain sailing."
"Gaspar!" he shouted, addressing the man who had superseded theEnglish renegade as bo'sun. "Send up signals of distress!"