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Chapter Four.
The night was very dark: Jack and Murray and their companions, in perfect silence, climbed up the rugged precipice which formed the outworks of the island fortress. They knocked their knees and cut their shins against the sharp points of the rocks, and scratched their hands and faces with the thorny plants which grew out of the crevices; but, undeterred by these obstacles, they boldly scrambled on till they saw some figures moving above them, and a shower of stones came rattling down on their heads.
“Powder is scarce among the pirates, I suppose, that they treat us in this way,” remarked Jack, as he was nearly knocked over by a stone striking his shoulder.
“Yes; these Greek heroes are defending their stronghold as the Tyrolese defended their Alpine homes,” answered Murray; “but come along, we shall soon have them at close quarters.”
“Hurra! the enemy have found us out. Fire the rocket down there below!” shouted the lieutenant in command. The order was quickly conveyed to the boat, and up flew a rocket with a loud hiss through the darkness, its bright stream of light forming a beautiful curve over the fortress. All necessity for silence was now over, the men shouted and cheered and cut many a joke at each other’s mishaps as they clambered on up the height, some of them slipping half the way down again, as, indifferent to danger, they too carelessly attempted to scale unscalable rocks. Still the whole body, by no small exertion, foot by foot, worked their upward way till they reached the summit. What was next going to happen? The enemy, it was evident, had a due respect for British courage, for they had fled from the ramparts and undoubtedly had taken up a stronger position in the interior of the fortress. Perhaps they had formed a mine ready to spring, and the idea that such might be the case created a few very uncomfortable sensations in the breasts of some of the assailants. The shouts and cheers of the seamen, it appeared, had struck terror into the hearts of the pirates, for they did not come forth from their places of concealment. The storming party passed by some low huts, but no one was within, and then they came to an open space. Just then, through the gloom, they caught sight of a band emerging from behind some buildings opposite, and advancing boldly to defend the place. They themselves, apparently being hidden by the dark shade of the huts, were not seen. So waiting a little, out they rushed, clearing the open space at full speed to meet the pirates. Pistols were flashing, cutlasses were clashing in an instant of time, and all parties were engaged to their hearts’ content in a desperate struggle. Jack descried a young pirate, as his size showed him to be, on the right of the party, and they at once, as if by mutual consent, singled each other out, and were instantly hot at work like the rest, slashing away with their cutlasses most desperately.
“Yield, you young pirate, yield!” sung out Jack, finding that he could gain no advantage over his opponent.
“Pirate! I’m no more pirate than you are,” was the reply, in a voice which Jack instantly recognised as that of Paddy Adair, whose skull he had been endeavouring so hard to split.
“Oh! Paddy, is that you?” cried Jack. “Well, I’m so glad that I didn’t hurt you. But I say, old fellow, if you are not a pirate, where are the rascals? Let’s go and find them out.”
“Hillo! what’s all this about?” sung out Mr Thorn. “Why, Hemming, is that you? I thought you were pirates.”
“I paid you the same compliment, sir,” answered the old mate, with a slight touch of irony in his tone, for Mr Thorn had just shot off the rim of his cap. “You very nearly spoilt my beauty by the mistake.”
“I am very sorry for that, Hemming,” answered the lieutenant coolly; “but I wonder where the fellows have got to. We must rout them out.”
Fortunately, the most serious injury inflicted was to Hemming’s cap, and, as Paddy afterwards declared, (not very correctly, as they had found no one to conquer), the victorious party hurried off in search of fresh enemies. They soon came to the door of a large building; it was bolted and barred. “The pirates are inside here, my lads, there can be no doubt of it,” shouted Mr Thorn. They soon found a spar, a brig’s topmast. The heel made a capital battering ram, and with a cheery, “Yeo, ho, ho!” the seamen gave many a heavy blow against the oaken door. It cracked and cracked and groaned, and at length, with a loud bang, burst open. “Stand by, my lads, to cut down the fellows as they rush out,” cried lieutenant Thorn; but as the pirates did not come out, the sailors, following their officers cutlass in hand, rushed in. They found themselves in a large hall; they looked about for the ferocious pirates armed to the teeth, and resolved with the last drop of their blood to defend their hearths and homes. Loud shrieks and cries, however, assailed the ears of the seamen, and by the glare of a brazier of burning coals in the middle of the apartment they beheld three old women. Their appearance was not attractive; they were very thin and parchment-like, and dark; but they might have been very good old bodies for all that. They had, distaff in hand, been sitting, spinning, and talking over affairs in general, if not those of their neighbours, when they had been roused by the unwelcome sounds of the battering ram. While the door resisted its efforts they had prudently kept quiet, but when it gave way, they expressed their very natural fears, by the sounds which had reached the seamen’s ears. As the storming party advanced, they shrieked louder and louder, but did not run away, because apparently there was nowhere to run to.
“Don’t be frightened, missis,” exclaimed Hemming, taking one of them by the arm. “Tell us where the men are, whose heads we have come to break. We won’t hurt you.”
The old ladies, however, made no reply to this assurance; but only screamed on, probably because they did not understand English. As no one of the party spoke a word of Greek, there was little chance of any information being obtained from the ancient dames. Perhaps they had an object in screaming, to cover the retreat of their friends; so thought Lieutenant Thorn, because if the pirates were not in the fort, who else could have pitched down the stones on their heads as they scrambled up! Certainly not the three old women; that would have been a disgrace. They would not have had time even to have hobbled away and retreated to the place where they were found. Many of the men declared vehemently that they had seen the heads of the pirates, long-bearded fellows, looking over the ramparts, and that they could not be, even then, very far off. Accordingly, leaving Murray with a couple of sailors to look after the three old women, the two parties of seamen, under their respective officers, once more divided to go in search of the outlaws.
“I say, Jack, don’t you take me for a pirate again, if you please,” said Terence, as they separated. They wandered about in all directions, putting their noses into huts, and their cutlasses into heaps of straw and litter of all sorts; but the whole place seemed deserted. They found nothing. Perhaps this was because they had no torches, and the night was very dark. Already a few faint streaks of daylight were appearing in the sky, when, as Terence was standing near Hemming, a trampling of feet was heard, and loud shouts in the distance.
“Hurra! here come the Greeks, they have been routed out at last,” cried Paddy. They could just make out a body of men stooping down, they thought, and hurrying towards them, not seeing that their enemies were ready to intercept them.
“Cut them down, if they don’t yield themselves prisoners,” sung out Hemming, leading on his men. Paddy sprang on boldly, in his eagerness to meet the foe, and instantly afterwards was knocked head over heels by one of his opponents. He felt as if he had been run through by a bayonet or a pike, or something of that sort, though he could not make out exactly where he had been wounded. There was a terrific shouting in the rear of the enemy, and he had no difficulty in recognising the voices of his shipmates, especially those of Jack and Murray. The shouts came nearer and nearer. He picked himself up to see what had become of the enemy, but they were nowhere to be found. Instead of them, a flock of goats, chased by Mr Thorn’s party, and frightened by their shouts, were butting away with heroic valour at anybody and everybody who came in their way, while daylight revealed the laughing countenances of his friends, who had seen his overthrow and the enemy which caused it. Paddy did not much mind, however. He rubbed himself over, and finding that he had no bones broken, or any puncture in his body, burst into a loud laugh.
“I shouldn’t be surprised but that those are the very fellows with the long beards we saw standing at the top of the ramparts, and whom everybody took for pirates,” he exclaimed. “As they turned round to scamper away, they kicked the stones down over us. We are all in one box, that’s a comfort. No one can laugh at the other.” Thus Adair very adroitly turned the laugh from himself. Everyone acknowledged the probable correctness of his surmises, but still Mr Thorn thought it right to continue his search for the outlaws. No information could be obtained from their fair captives, as Paddy called them. There could be little doubt that there must have been very lately a number of men in the fort, for it could not be supposed that three old women would be left as the regular garrison of a pretty strong fortification. They were still continuing their search, when daylight revealed to them a couple of boats under all sail, standing away to the northward, and by the course they were steering looking as if they must but a short time before have left the island. Mr Thorn, ordering Hemming to take charge of the place, leaving him Rogers and a few more men, hurried down the height, to go in pursuit of the flying enemy.
“Remember the captain’s orders were, that we were to attack and make prisoners of the men alone, but that goods of every description and all private property is to be strictly respected.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” answered Hemming, meaning that he understood the orders received.
Hunting about they discovered a very steep winding path down to the harbour. By it Mr Thorn and his followers descended to their boats, and away they went in hot pursuit of the pirates. The wind was light, but as they could both pull as well as sail, they made tolerable way after the chase. Meantime the party in charge of the fort became very hungry, and as they had left their provisions in the boats, it was necessary to send for them. Adair accordingly, with a couple of men, was dispatched on this duty. He had no great difficulty in finding his way, as he could see from one end of the island to the other, and he soon reached the top of the cliff, below which the boats had been left; he looked over the edge of the cliff, but he could discover no boats. He hallooed to the boat-keepers, but there was no answer.
“They must be asleep, Mr Adair,” observed one of the men.
“So I might think, if I saw any boats,” answered Terence. “But the boats are not there, I am sure.”
To ascertain the fact, however, more certainly, they descended to the beach. No boats were to be seen. They looked behind the points of rock on either side, but no boats were visible. They shouted at the top of their voices, but the only sound in reply was the shriek of some sea-fowl, startled from their resting-places in the cliffs.
“Have we got to the right spot, do you think?” suggested Terence, hope springing up in his breast that they had made a mistake.
“No doubt about it, sir,” was the answer; “I remember climbing up, through this very gap; there are the marks of our feet plain enough.”
“And the marks of a good many other feet too,” observed Terence, examining the ground. “I am very much afraid that the boats have been run away with by the pirates; but what can have become of our poor shipmates, I cannot think.”
His men agreed with him in the opinion that the pirates must have made off with the boats; and, after searching about in every direction for the poor fellows who had been left in charge of them, they returned to the fort with the unsatisfactory news. All hands had in the meantime grown ravenously hungry. The old women could not, or would not, give them any food. At all events, they turned a deaf ear to all their hints and signs that it would be acceptable. Some very black dry bread was discovered, and also some fowls, but no eggs were to be seen; and fowls, Mr Hemming was afraid, would be looked upon as private property. What was to be done? The provisions from the boats would soon arrive, and then they might lawfully satisfy their appetite. I forgot to say that Mr Dobbin, the mate of the merchantman which had been plundered, had come to try and identify the stolen property. While storming the fort, he had been as active as anyone, and showed that had there been work to be done he was the fellow to do it. To employ the time till they could get some breakfast, Hemming determined to commence a systematic search for the stolen property. They hunted and hunted about with great zeal, examining every hut and every heap of rubbish.
“I wonder, after all, if this is the place the pirates are accustomed to hide in,” observed Jack. “It would be a sell if we had made a mistake altogether.”
“What could have put that into your head, Rogers?” exclaimed Hemming, feeling rather queer. “Oh, no! there’s no doubt about it.”
Still, as he got more and more hungry, and searched still farther in vain, his spirits began to sink to zero, and he could not help believing that Jack might be right. Just then there was a shout from some of the party. They were standing before a dilapidated hut, the door of which they had broken open. Presently the mate of the merchantman appeared dragging out a bale of goods.
“Hurra! we have not searched for nothing!” he exclaimed. “There seems to be a good bit of the ship’s cargo in here.”
A number of valuable bales of cotton and cloth and some silk were hauled forth, all of which the mate identified as having formed part of the cargo of his ship. Still there was a very large part of the missing property not forthcoming. Nothing else was found for some time, till one of the men of an inquisitive turn of mind happened to poke his head into one of the pig sties, where, in the farthest corner, his eye fell on several bales piled up one above the other to the roof. The clue to the sort of place in which the well-known ingenuity of the Greeks had taught them to conceal their booty once being discovered, a considerable amount more was brought to light. Still much was missing. Just then Adair and his men were seen returning.
“Hurra! now we’ll have breakfast,” cried Jack, who declared that he could eat a porcupine or a crocodile, outside and all, he was so hungry. What was his dismay, and that of all the party, when they found that no food was forthcoming, and that the boats were not to be found. Just then their hunger was most pressing, and they left the subject of what had become of the boats for after consideration. The brown bread by itself was very uninviting. Jack looked at a fat pig in the sty with the eye of an ogre.
