CHAPTER XXVI. With varying fortune still the fight proceeds, ALTHOUGH Mustapha had been thus severely wounded himself--for he had lost his arm-he remained so perfectly self-possessed as to seize Herbert with his right hand, and break the latter's fall. The corporal immediately had his shipmate lifted up with all care. ""Tis a wile syrocky, Corporal, blows nobody good, as the dervish said: so while I go below, and get my flipper doctored," looking round with the utmost nonchalance at his bleeding limb, "you, my boy, must take charge of the ship; and here, give me your ear a minute." The corporal bent his head, while the other whispered, "Sink us if you like, but let us strike nothing save the bottom;-no surrender." 66 None," said the corporal, in those deep hollow tones of powerfully excited passion, which bespoke him ready to seal the destruction of all on board, rather than be taken. Then, as he turned away, he added, "But if I live, there is much to be done before we come to that." "Right, messmate," said the other, departing; and the deck having been cleared, the corporal turned his attention once more to the ship. The unlucky shot which had just effected so much damage, had, to all appearance, in a few seconds done more for the cause of the Alcibiades than her last half-hour's firing put together. On the destruction of the wheel, there of course simultaneously followed the temporary loss of power over the ship's rudder; and the frigate, which had before been made to hug the wind as closely as possible, no sooner felt herself at liberty, than she immediately fell off four or five points; and then, being a good weatherly ship, held on her course. But though she thus gained in speed what she lost in her windward position, her enemy, guessing that some such accident had happened, made the most of her good fortune. She had, in the incredibly short space intervening, continued to shift her maintopsail-yard, and was at that very moment bending a new sail. When the corporal saw what had happened, he seized a glass, and directing it for a second on the Alcibiades, he beheld her close-reefed maintopsail in the very act of being sheeted home. "By the Lord Harry, Cresswell,” cried he, “there are some gallant hands aboard that ship; she's shifted her maintopsail-yard already. Those are men, now, it's a credit to beat." "Ay, but a confounded sight of labour to manage, my dear fellow," replied Cresswell, as the perspiration rolled from his brow in large drops, despite the fury of the gale blowing over him. 66 Labour, psha!-man was born to it-what's that? Do you run down into the gun-room, and lash the tiller. half a turn a-lee, while I order the carpenters to ship the spare wheel. We must get this set to rights at once. What's this?-what's the matter?-where are these splinters falling from?" "Why, the mizentop-mast is nearly shot in two, just above the cap." "Ay?-that's bad, the enemy's fire's growing worse instead of better. Ahoy there, mizentop-men, up three or four of you into your top, and send a rope down for a couple of capstan bars. Frap that topmast of yours!quick, now, before it's blown over the side." 66 "Ay, ay," responded the mizentop-men, and aloft they flew to execute the order. Cresswell had already gained. the ward-room, and lashing the tiller at such a point to leeward as kept the ship's head pretty close to the wind, in some degree repaired the injury sustained by the loss of her steerage-wheel. "Carpenter's crew! where are the carpenter's crew?" next demanded the corporal. "Here's one," answered one of them. "What's the matter, sir?" demanded the mate, coming up, and touching his hat with as much deference as if the captain's undress, which the corporal had not yet had time to change, was in reality worn by an owner of the rank it represented. Whether this result was brought about by the remembrance that his old superior in the department still swung, too terribly cold and real, at the yardarm, or whether he was anxious for the dead man's shoes, it is needless to speculate. 66 Quick, for your life, mate; take two or three of your crew below, and get the spare steerage wheel ready for shipping on deck, in the room of the one that's been shivered to splinters. "How shall we bring it on deck, sir?" 'Why, take the measure, and if it will pass up the companion hatchway, unship the ladder, and we'll hoist it up; if not, take it forward on the maindeck to windward in the waist; unship the skids and gratings once more, and we'll have it up there in the same way as we hoisted up the long guns. Now, bear a hand with your work, for we can spare anything but time. Ah, Cresswell, have you lashed the tiller already? These shots are falling much too closely from the Alcibiades to be pleasant. I'й show you a movement to puzzle their aim. Forcastle there, send aft to the quarter-deck all the hands you can spare. Afterguard, some of you men down on the maindeck, and when you hear the word, bring up every other fighting lantern from aft to midships; douse all those ahead of that, and tell the crews of the guns to cease firing for the time, for they can do little good." "Ay, ay," replied the captain of the afterguard, hurrying down to execute the order. "Now, forecastlemen," continued the corporal, addressing the latter, "one of you run up to the mainyard with the end of this coil of half-inch rope, and pay it down over the bunt of the main course before the yard on deck; as soon as that is done, another must take it up the weatherforeshrouds, and pass it through the aftermost catharpin shroud, and pay it down on deck again. Some of you then take and overhaul the bight of it, and make fast with a few ropeyarns four or five of the lanterns, which the afterguard are going to bring up from the maindeck. Another hand take the other end of the rope, pass it inside the mainfuttock-shrouds, and so on through the slings of the cross-jack-yard down upon the deck. We shall then have both the ends to pull and haul on: Clap on upon the second bight, 'twixt the main and mizenmast, four more lanterns, and report to me when you are ready. Ah, here come the afterguard with the lights. Set them down carefully 'twixt two of the weather-guns; leave one hand to watch them, and the rest come with me to the gangway to get the new steerage-wheel on deck." By the time that the corporal reached the gangway, he found the carpenters below waiting for him, and the skids and gratings already unshipped. The wheel, after a little difficulty, was hoisted up, and by the aid of a few hands to steady it amid the motion of the ship, it was rolled aft. VOL. 1.-M 1-2 Here it was found that the force with which the former had been dashed from its place had split the supports on which it rested. A few nails and some lashing so far repaired this injury, that the new wheel was shipped, and the tiller ropes having been re-spliced, were instantly bent, the tiller itself cast off from its lashings, and the frigate once more consigned to more manageable means of guidance. By this time the lights were all strung along the temporary gantline formed, by the corporal's direction, amidships of the frigate; and a few hands being clapped on, they were hoisted with the least perceptible motion in rising, until the line itself, being as taut as possible, presented to the view of those on the quarter deck of the Alcibiades, a row of distinct though dim spots of light, which, tossed to and fro by the storm and the pitching motion of the ship, led them very naturally to believe that these were the lights of the mutineers' maindeck. With this erroneous impression, they as naturally elevated their guns to what they could not but suppose was the necessary height. Even before, from their long distance, their shot had been allowed very considerable elevation; now, when these additional points were added, the success of the corporal's stratagem was plainly demonstrated in the whizzing of the Alcibiades' shot at such a distance over the frigate, that, if it boded more damage to the spars, most effectually lessened the number of her casualties in killed and wounded.. CHAPTER XXVI.* Cursed is the hand that sheds a brother's gore, ALTHOUGH, from the temporary falling off of the frigate from the wind, owing to the destruction of her wheel, she had fallen much to leeward, and thus enabled the Alcibiades partly to gain her lost way, she now commenced the task of regaining it, and in this was succeeding rapidly. In proportion as the shot of their enemy whizzed harmlessly over their heads between masts and rigging, so did the mutineers exert themselves to pour their deathblows quick and fatally on their pursuers. The corporal, whose eye on that tremendous night seemed to be everywhere, marked well the advantage he was gaining, and in proportion urged on his people to take the fullest benefit of it. With unwearied limbs, nerves that knew no flinching, and an eye true in its aim to a marvel, he continued to direct the fire of those four guns which his suggestions had just caused to be placed upon the quarter-deck, and his skill was every moment rendering so effective. Spar after spar did he witness falling wounded and crippled by his shot, and still his enemy's passed over his frigate, rapidly decreasing, too, both in their frequency as well as aim. More and more vividly arose to his mind the hope that his proposal of a running action would prove as suc cessful as he had expected, and enable him to get away from his chaser altogether. The wind had continued drawing more and more aft since the commencement of the action, soon after sundown, and now it was near midnight. An hour, nay even a few minutes, of the success he was at present reaping, and the Alcibiades must drift to leeward, a mere wreck, as far as spars were concerned, and he then be at liberty to bear up a few points, and perhaps on the following morning reach the island where Ramsay was set adrift. The very thought that ere now he might have proved food for the creatures of the forest, or perished himself for want of sustenance, or be so overcome by despair as to have taken refuge in the last error |