Part 19 (1/2)
This cry came from aloft soon after dawn. The brig moved toward the nearest of these exposed shoals while her officers consulted a chart spread upon the cabin roof. They were wary of running the s.h.i.+p aground with Blackbeard no more than a few miles distant. So bare were these yellow patches of sand that showed against the green water that a group of men on any one of them would have been easily discernible. The _Royal James_ coasted along outside of them under shortened sail but discovered nothing to indicate a party of marooned seamen.
”But they must be out here somewhere,” cried Jack c.o.c.krell, in great distress.
”They ought to be, for no trading vessel would take 'em off,” replied the puzzled Captain Bonnet. ”And if they were towed out in boats as ye say, Jack, these islands must ha' been where they were beached.”
”But you won't give up the search, sir, without another tack past those outermost shoals?”
”Oh, we shall rake them all, but Blackbeard may have changed that crotchety mind of his and taken the men back to his s.h.i.+p.”
”I fear I have seen the last of my dear Joe Hawkridge,” exclaimed Jack.
”From what you tell me, the young scamp is not so easily disposed of,”
smiled Captain Bonnet. ”I must haul out to sea ere long. 'Tis poor business to let Blackbeard glimpse my spars and so take warning.”
This was sad news and Jack walked away to hide his quivering lip. To examine the islands again was a forlorn hope because already it seemed certain that nothing alive moved on any of them. The brig pa.s.sed them closer than before as she made a long reach before turning out to sea.
It was the intention to sail in to engage Blackbeard very early the next morning and meanwhile he would be vigilantly blockaded.
Even Jack c.o.c.krell, hopeful to the last, was compelled to agree with the crew of the brig that not a solitary man could be seen on these sea-girt cays and it seemed useless to send off a boat to explore them one by one. There would have been some stir or signal, even if men were too weak to stand. The air was clear and from the brig's masts it was possible to sweep every foot of sandy surface. Here was another mystery of the sea. It occurred to Stede Bonnet to ask:
”You took it for granted they were marooned, Jack, when the boats pa.s.sed from your sight and you were hidden in the tree in the swamp. What if a quicker death were dealt 'em?”
”That may be, sir.”
The brig was leaving the coast astern. Jack moped by himself until his curiosity was drawn to a group of seamen upon the forecastle head who were talking loudly and pointing at something in the water, well ahead of the s.h.i.+p. One vowed it was a big sea-turtle asleep, another was willing to wager his silver-mounted pistols that it was a rum barrel, while a third announced that he'd stake his head on its being a mermaid or her husband. The after-deck brought a spy-gla.s.s to bear and perceived that the thing was splas.h.i.+ng about. The tiller was s.h.i.+fted to bring it close aboard and soon Captain Bonnet exclaimed that it was, indeed, a merman a-cruising with a cask!
Jack c.o.c.krell scampered to the heel of the bowsprit to investigate this ocean prodigy. And as the cask drifted nearer he saw that Joe Hawkridge was clinging to it. There was no mistaking that dauntless grin and the mop of carroty hair. A handy seaman tossed a bight of line over his shoulders as he bobbed past the forefoot of the brig and he was yanked bodily over the bulwark like a strange species of fish. Flopping on deck he waved a skinny arm in greeting and then Jack c.o.c.krell rushed at him, lifted him bodily, and dragged him to the cabin.
”What ho, comrade!” said the dripping merman. ”Blast my eyes, but I was sick with worry for you. I left you in that swamp----”
”And I thought you dead, Joe. For the love o' heaven, tell me how you fared and what----”
Captain Bonnet interfered to say:
”I treated you more courteously than this, Jack. Let us make him comfortable.”
Accepting the rebuke, Jack bustled his amazing friend into a change of clothes and saw that he was well fed. Little the worse for his watery pilgrimage, Joe Hawkridge explained at his leisure:
”Ned Rackham took the others away in the snow, as I tell ye, Cap'n Bonnet, and there was I in the doleful dumps. Prayers get answered and miracles do happen, for next day there come a-floatin' to the beach a cask full of grub and water. Good Peter Tobey, the carpenter's mate, had a hand in launchin' it, no doubt, but the Lord hisself steered the blessed cask. Well, while I set a-giving thanks and thinkin' one thing an' another, I figgered that when I'd ate all the grub and swigged the water, I was no further along.”
”And so you thought you would trust the Lord again,” suggested Captain Bonnet.
”Aye, sir, that was it. By watchin' the tides I reckoned I might drift to another island and so work to the coast, taking my provisions with me. There was some small line in the cask that Peter Tobey had wrapped the stores in, and I knotted a harness about the cask that I could slip an arm in, and off I goes when the tide sets right. But some kind of a dratted cross-current ketched me and I'm sailin' out to sea, I finds, without compa.s.s or cross-staff. Bound to get to London River, eh, Jack, same as we started out on the silly little raft.”
”Whew, this adventure was bad enough,” cried Jack, ”but when you saw Ned Rackham's pirates in the boat, and you couldn't run away,--I wonder, honest, Joe, you didn't die of fright.”
”What for? This is no trade for a nervous wight. And now for a b.l.o.o.d.y frolic with Blackbeard's bullies.”
”There is a share of his treasure for you, Joe, as soon as we can go find it,” gleefully announced Master c.o.c.krell. ”I have the chart drawn all true with mine own hand. Let me get it.”