"Steady, there!" I cried. "Where's the vessel?"
"Right ahead, sir, and standing down this ways, if I see straight."
I stood up on the stern locker and looked ahead. Sure enough, a white speck showed on the northern horizon, but I couldn't see enough of the craft's sails to tell which way she headed.
The men all wanted to stand at once, and it took some sharp talk to get them under control; but the young girl at my side showed no signs of excitement. I looked at her, and her gentle eyes looked straight into mine.
"I knew she would come," she said. "I've prayed all the morning."
In twenty minutes, spent anxiously watching her, the ship raised her topsails slowly above the line of blue, and then we saw she really was jammed on the wind and reaching along toward us rapidly.
"'Tis the Pirit, an' no mistake!" cried the carpenter. "Look at them r'yals! No one but th' bit av a mate, Trunnell, iver mastheaded a yard like that."
"The Pirate!" yelled Johnson, from forward.
And so, indeed, it really was.
I looked at her and then at the sweet face at my side. All the hard lines of suffering and fright had left it. The eyes now had the same gentle, trusting look of innocence I had seen the first morning we had taken off the _Sovereign's_ crew. The reaction was too much for me. I was little more than a boy in years, so I reached for the girl's hand and kissed it.
When I looked up I caught the clew of Jenks' eye, but the rest were looking at the rapidly approaching ship.
XVIII
When the Pirate neared us, we could make out a man coming down the ratlines from the foretop, showing that she had evidently sighted us even before we had her. As she drew nearer still, we could see Trunnell standing on the weather side of the poop, holding to a backstay and gazing aloft at his canvas, evidently giving orders for the watch to bear a hand and lay aft to the braces. He would lay his mainyards aback and heave her to. Along the high topgallant rail could be seen faces, and on the quarter-deck Mrs. Sackett stood with our friend Thompson, better known in the Antipodes as Jackwell, the burglar. As I watched him standing there pointing to us, I thought of poor Jim.
"Wheel down," I heard Trunnell bawl as the ship came within fifty fathom. "Slack away that lee brace; steady your wheel."
Before the ship's headway had slackened we had out the oars and were rowing for her. In a moment a sailor had flung us a line, and we were towing along at the mizzen channels, with the men climbing aboard as fast as they could.
Miss Sackett was passed over the rail, and her mother took her below. I was the last one except Johnson to climb up. He stood at the bow ready to hitch on the tackles. But other men took his place, and as I went over the rail Thompson came and shook my hand warmly.
"Sink me, Mr. Rolling, but you've had a time of it, hey?" he said. "How are the men on the _Sovereign_? We've been standing along north and south for six days, expecting to pick you up, and here you are. It's all that Trunnell's doings. I was for going ahead the day we missed you, but that big-headed little rascal insisted on hunting for you after seeing you leave the wreck. Where's Jim and Phillippi, and the rest?"
The sincerity of his welcome had taken me off my guard, and I found myself standing there shaking his hand. Then I recovered myself.
"It's a pity Captain Thompson missed this ship the day she sailed," I said quietly. "We were informed the night before that he'd be with us. It might have saved the lives of some good men."
He let go my hand and smiled strangely at me, his hooked nose working, and his eyes taking that hard glint I knew so well.
"So you were really waiting for a man you'd never seen, hey? Was that the lay of it? And when I came aboard and said I was Thompson, you gulped down the bait, hey, you bleeding fool. Who the dickens do you think I am, anyhow?"
"I happen to know that you pass by the name of Jackwell," I said. "Here, Chips," I called, but the carpenter was already at my side. "What name did Jim give the captain, and what was his business?"
"'Tis no use av makin' any more av it, cap'n. We know all about ye. Th' best thing ye can do is to step down from the quarter-deck."
"Trunnell," said Thompson, with his drawl, "what d'ye think of these men coming back clean daft?"
The mate was close beside us, giving orders for the disposal of the small boat, and he turned and clasped my hand for the first time.
"Mighty glad t' see ye both back. I suppose the rest are aboard the _Sovereign_" said he, looking us over.
"And they come aboard with a tale that I'm some other man than Captain Thompson; that I knew that he was coming, and got aboard before him and went out in his place," said Jackwell. "Sink me, Trunnell, but I'm afeard you'll have to put them in irons."
"That's quare enough," said the mate, with a smile. "Come below, Rolling, and let's have yer yarn. You, too, Chips, ye'll need a nip of good stuff as well. I'm sorry ye've turned up with a screw loose. All right, cap'n. Square away when ye're ready. The boat's all right." And the little bushy-headed fellow turned and led the way down over the poop, entering the forward cabin, where the steward was waiting to tell us how glad he was we had turned up, and also serve out good grog with a meal of potatoes and canned fruit.
I was so tired and hungry from the exertions of the past twenty-four hours that I went below without further protest, Chips following sullenly.
"I'se sho nuff glad to see yo' folks agin, Marse Rolling," said the steward. "Take a little o' de stuff what warms an' inwigerates."
We fell to and ate heartily, and while we did so we told our story. Trunnell sat, and every now and again scratched his bushy head with excitement and interest while we told of the way Andrews had done. When we told how Jim had come to be aboard the Pirate, he walked fore and aft on the cabin deck, shaking his head from side to side, and muttering.
"Was Jim the only one who knew about the business?" he asked.
We told him he was, and that no one but Chips and myself had heard what the detective had said.
Trunnell sat with his hands in his hair for the remainder of the time we were filling ourselves. He said nothing further until Chips made some remark about his taking the ship in. Then he arose and stood before us.
"It may be as ye say, Rolling. I'd hate to doubt your word, and don't, in a way, so to speak. But discipline is discipline. You men know that. Our captain comes aboard with a letter sayin' as he's the Thompson what'll take the ship out. We has orders to that effect from the owners. It ain't possible another man could have known o' the thing so quick, and come aboard to take his place. Leastways, we hain't got no evidence but the word of a sailor who's dead, to the contrary. It may be as ye say, but we'll have to stick to this fellow until we take soundings. When we gets in, then ye may tell yer tale an' find men to back it. Don't say no more about it while we're out, for it won't do no good, an' may get ye both in irons. 'Twas a devil ye had for a shipmate when Andrews went with ye,--a terrible man, sure enough. I've insisted on standing backwards an' forrads along the track for nearly a week in hopes we'd pick ye up, an' I've nearly had trouble with the old man for waiting so long. He's heard o' the fracas, an' will stand along to pick up his third mate. I don't know as he'll care for Andrews, but he'll take the girl-mate sure if he's afloat."
"There's no use av makin' any bones av the matther, Mr. Trunnell," said Chips. "That third mate an' the murderin' devil ain't comin' aboard this here ship. Ef they do, I'll kill them meself whin they comes over th' side." And he arose, lugging out the revolver he had taken from the ruffian at the close of the fight.