Charley Laurel: A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  THE PIRATE SHIP.

  Dick and the little boy were lifted off the raft, with the basket andcask, and placed in the stern of the boat. The crew were swarthyfellows with red caps, and Dick at once saw that the uniform worn by theofficers in command was neither English nor French. They appeared to betalking gibberish, but such indeed were all foreign languages to him.He asked Charley if it was the French lingo.

  "Not know what they say," answered Charley.

  "I suppose, however, that they will give us something to eat and drink,"observed Dick. "And so, whoever they may be, we shall be better offthan on the raft."

  On getting alongside, Dick was hoisted on board, and one of the mencarried Charley up in his arms.

  Numerous questions were at once put to Dick, every one seeming anxiousto know how he and the boy came to be on the raft. He replied bypointing to his lips, and showing by other signs that he was hungry andthirsty. When it was discovered that he was either too weak to speak,or that he did not understand their language, he was carried below andplaced in a hammock, while the officers took charge of little Charley,who was soon at home among them. A rough-looking fellow brought Dick amess of some sort in basin, and a horn cup filled with stiff grog. Asailor seldom refuses a glass of grog, and although water was what hethen wanted, he drank the spirit off, and ate some of the food. Theeffect of the grog was to send him into a sound sleep, from which he didnot awake till the next day. He felt by that time pretty strong, and,turning out, went on deck. He found that he was on board a flush-deckedship-rigged vessel, heavily armed, with a numerous crew of dark-skinnedsavage-looking fellows, most of them wearing long knives or daggers intheir belts. He thought that perhaps they might be Spaniards orPortuguese, then the idea occurred to him that they were Algerines orSalee rovers, of whom he had heard. However, seeing some of them withleaden crucifixes round their necks, he came to the conclusion that theywere Spaniards. Not one of them could speak a word of English, and Dickwas ignorant of every language except his own.

  The ship lying becalmed, the crew seemed to take it very easily, somesitting down between the guns, amusing themselves with cards or dice,while others were asleep on the deck. Going aft, and looking down theskylight, which was open, Dick saw that the officers were employed muchas their men, only they were gambling with large gold pieces as stakes.

  "These may be honest gentlemen, or may be not," he thought to himself."However, if they are kind to Charley, I don't mind what they are, and Isuppose for his sake they won't make me walk the plank. I wonder wherethe little chap can be," and he looked down the companion-hatch, thoughhe did not venture to descend.

  The officer of the watch seemed to understand what he wanted, and goingto the head of the companion-ladder, shouted out, "Pedro!" and someother words, and presently a black man appeared with Charley in hisarms, and handed him over to Dick.

  "Much obliged to you, friend," said Dick; "he is a fine little chap,isn't he?"

  The black grinned and seemed to understand him, and patted the child onthe head.

  "Well, Charley, my boy, have they treated you well?" asked Dick, as hetook up the child and kissed him affectionately.

  Charley said that the gentlemen had been kind, and had given him allsorts of things to eat, and some strong stuff to drink, which made himsleep most of the time.

  Dick carried Charley to the only shady spot he could find unoccupied,and sat down with him on his knees. Charley prattled away merrily, buthe soon stopped and complained of a headache, and of the strong stuffthe officers had given him to drink. This made Dick suspect that theyhad been amusing themselves by trying to make the child tipsy.

  "It was a shame in them," exclaimed Dick, indignantly. "You must stayby me, Charley. I can't trust you out of my sight."

  Dick after this kept Charley by his side, and at night made him sleep inhis hammock.

  Several days passed by, and the ship lay without movement on the smoothocean. A breeze at length springing up, the crew were all life andactivity, with a look-out at each mast-head. Towards noon a sail wasespied, and all sail was made in chase. She was a brig under Englishcolours. On the stranger being come up with, a gun was fired across herbows; and as she did not heave-to, a shot was sent crashing into herhull. She then hauled down her colours. The boats were manned andshoved off to her. They quickly returned, laden almost to the water'sedge. The ship stood on again nearer to her, when the boats towed heralongside. Her cargo, consisting of bales of merchandise, wastransferred to the ship.

  "I thought so," said Dick, when he saw the proceedings. "She is nobetter than she should be, and if it had not been for this little chap,I would rather have remained on the raft than have come aboard her. Iwonder what they will do with the crew."

  That matter was soon, to Dick's horror, settled. One after the other hesaw the poor fellows compelled to walk to the end of a long plank, whenthe inner end was lifted up and they were sent overboard. The brig wasset on fire, and the pirate, letting down the sheets, proceeded on hercourse.

  Some days after this, when Dick came on deck, he saw at a short distancea small island with a few cocoa-nut trees growing on it. Several of theofficers who were on deck were consulting together, every now and thencasting a look at him and Charley. At last one of them called him upand made him understand that they were well-disposed towards him, andthat as they understood he had been the means of saving the life of thelittle child, they wished to treat him kindly--that otherwise he wouldhave shared the fate of the brig's crew, if they had not left him on theraft to perish. To show their regard, they intended to land him on theisland, where he would find water and sufficient food to support life;though, if he wished it, they would take care of the child, to followtheir noble profession.

  "Thank you for nothing," answered Dick. "I would sooner heave thelittle chap overboard, to be munched up by a shark, than leave him withyou; and as to quitting the ship without him, I will not do it; but ifit please you to put him and me on shore, I'll go willingly enough, andtrust to One better able to take care of us than you are."

  Though the pirates did not understand what Dick said, they comprehendedthat he was perfectly willing to be left on the island. A boat wasaccordingly lowered, and numerous articles which the pirates had takenout of the brig, and were likely to prove useful to him, were put intoher. Charley ran up and shook hands with the officers, but hastenedback immediately to Dick, for he was afraid of being left behind. Poorlittle fellow, he felt grateful to them for their kindness, having nonotion of the villains they were.

  Dick, taking him in one arm, descended the ship's side into the boat,which pulled away towards the land. Numerous shoals and rockssurrounded the island, among which the boat threaded her way, and atlength landed him and the boy, with the articles they had brought, onthe sandy beach of a sheltered bay.

  Dick had no inclination to shake hands with the crew who had so latelymurdered his countrymen, and probably very many people besides, nor didhe feel at his ease till he saw the boat again pulling out towards theship. As soon as she had gone, Dick, who had held Charley in his arms,placed him on a rock, and examined the articles which had been sent withhim.

  "I am much obliged to the villains, at all events," he said; "but canonly wish them a better calling and a happier end than most of them arelikely to meet with. To be sure, they can afford to be generous, seeingthat they stole the things and had more than they could use. Here aresome carpenter's tools, a saw and axe, a hammer and nails, and a pieceof canvas that will do for a tent; a bale of cloth, and calico, andneedles, and thread; here are fish-hooks and lines, and shoes; threecasks of flour and rice, and some pots, and pans, and knives; and adecent-looking fowling-piece and powder and shot. Well, if I hadn'tseen what I did see, I should have taken them to be kind-hearted decentchaps, who, for some reason or other, didn't wish to keep me among them,and so had put me ashore, and wished to do their best to make mecomfortable. Ah, I have a notion how it i
s--the skipper, or one orother of them has got a little chap like this at home, and they havedone it for his sake; and savage as their hearts may be, they didn'tquite like keeping him on board their wicked-doing craft. Yes, that'sit; so if I have saved Charley's life, he has saved mine, though hedoesn't know it, bless him!"

  Dick having finished his soliloquy, cut a pole from a tree growing near,and quickly rigged up a tent, beneath which he placed Charley out of theheat of the sun. He then collected wood, of which there was anabundance on the beach, and soon had a fire burning, and next proceededto cook some of the provisions for Charley and himself. Not far off wasa spring of water, which would afford him an abundant supply of thatnecessary of life.

  "We sha'n't be so badly off, Charley, after all," he said; "only I hopethese fellows won't come back again, in case they may take it into theirheads to carry you away."

  "I will not leave you, Dick," answered the boy, taking his hand andbeginning to cry at the thought.

  "You sha'n't, Charley, you sha'n't," said Dick. "We will move away toanother part of the island, where they cannot find us; may be there iswater elsewhere, that's what we shall want most. There are plenty ofcocoa-nuts, and I dare say other vegetables, and with the gun I shall beable to shoot birds, and with the hooks catch as many fish as we shallwant. We are better off than on the raft, anyhow."

  Dick having made up a bed with the cloth for Charley to sleep on, cutsome grass for himself, and then prepared to pass the night.

  "You say your prayers, Charley," said Dick; "and mind you thank God forbringing us ashore in safety."

  Dick had a feeling that the little innocent boy could offer up hisprayers more effectually than he himself could; but yet Dick did hisbest to pray in his own fashion, though he could seldom say more than,"I am a desperately wicked fellow; God be merciful to me, and, if Hethinks fit, take care of me and make me better."

  He, however, taught Charley a much longer prayer than this, suitable, ashe considered, to his condition.

  The rough sailor and the child having finished their devotions, lay downon their beds, and, fearless of evil, fell asleep.

  Next day after breakfast Dick, leading Charley by one hand and takinghis gun in the other, set out to explore the island. On reaching thetop of the nearest height, which was of no great elevation, being a massof barren rock thrown up by some convulsion of nature, he looked aroundhim. The island was of small size, a couple of miles perhaps in lengthand about a quarter as broad, with deep indentations, bays, or smallgulfs. The larger portion was barren, but here and there were spotsovergrown with the richest vegetation of the tropics. The shores wererocky, but in no part high, while around in every direction were seenextensive reefs, some rising above the water, others only to bedistinguished by the line of foam which danced above them.

  "From the look of the place, ships are likely to give this a wideberth," observed Dick. "However, we can manage to live here prettycomfortably, and may be some day or other we shall get off again, buthow, is more than I can tell."

  On descending from the hill they reached a cocoa-nut grove. Dick lookedup at the nuts, now almost ripe, with a well-satisfied eye.

  "We will have some of those before long, and the milk will be good foodfor you, Charley," he observed. "Ah, and we shall have some cabbages,too." He pointed to some smaller palm-trees, the crown of which yieldsthe cabbage, so prized in the tropics as one of the most deliciousvegetables.

  Sometimes Dick carried Charley on his shoulders, sometimes he let himrun alongside him, and he thus made his progress to the farther end ofthe island. One part appeared very barren, low, and sandy, with wildrocks rising up on either side.

  "After all, this place may be our best hunting-ground," observed Dick,on discovering that it was the habitation of wild fowl, who came thereto lay their eggs and rear their young.

  At length he reached the extreme end of the island. Near it was a groveof cocoa-nut and other palms, a beautiful sandy bay, and what Dick wasin search of, a spring of clear water which bubbled out of the rock.

  "We shall be better off here, and out of the way of those gentry if theyreturn to the island, and I don't think they will come so far to lookfor us," said Dick. "We will move up the stores, and after that I willbuild a hut; it will be more comfortable than the tent, especially inthe hurricane season, and we can't tell how long we may have to stop."

  Dick having discovered that, by keeping partly inland and partly nearthe shore, a tolerably easy road existed from one end of the island tothe other, he built a little hand-dray, in which, he conveyed the storesto the new location. It occupied several days, but, as he said, timebeing their own, he had no need to be in a hurry. He next put up a hut,for which the trees growing around and the planking from someunfortunate vessel dashed to pieces on the reefs afforded abundance ofmaterial, while the palm-leaves served for a thatch. He could not alsobe long content without a boat. Though not an expert ship-builder, hemanaged to knock together a contrivance in which he could venture outwithin the reefs in calm weather to fish with Charley.

  "We live like princes, my boy," he said, "but I wish somehow I was ableto look after your education; though if we had books I could not makeuse of them, seeing I never learned to read."

  Charley replied that he was very happy without books, and he supposedwhen he grew up to be a big boy he should find the means of learning.

  "I don't know when that may be, though," observed Dick. "We have beenhere now some months, and I have never yet caught sight of a sail.However, though I cannot give you learning, I can teach you religion,and I will try and recollect all I ever knew. I can remember the tencommandments, or most of them, which I learned at school, and they willdo to begin with, and as we go on, may be I shall brush up more."

  Dick was as good as his word, and at night frequently lay awake tryingto recollect what he had known as a boy. The task was often a hard one,but his desire to benefit his charge induced him to persevere, whenprobably he might otherwise have abandoned the attempt.

  Month after month passed away, and Dick and Charley continued to livetheir Robinson Crusoe style of life without interruption, and in happyignorance of all that was going on in the world.