Held Fast For England: A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) by G. A. Henty (types of ebook readers .TXT) 📕

it is, sir," Bob said, triumphantly. "Two hundred tons of lead."

"Splendid!" the captain exclaimed. "That is a prize worth having. Of course, that is stowed away at the bottom; and then she is filled up with hides, and they are worth a lot of money--but the lead, alone, is worth six thousand pounds, at twenty pounds per ton.

"Is there anything else, Bob?"

"Yes, sir. There are fifty boxes. It doesn't say what is in them."

"You don't say so, Bob! Perhaps it is silver. Let us ask the officers."

The Spanish first mate was called down.

"Where are these boxes?" Bob asked, "and what do they contain?"

"They are full of silver," the man said, sullenly. "They are stowed in the lazaretto, under this cabin."

"We will have one of them up, and look into it," the captain said.

"Joe, call a couple of hands down."

The trapdoor of the lazaretto was lifted. Joe and the two sailors descended the ladder and, with some difficulty, one of the boxes was hoisted up.

"That weighs over two hundredweight, I'm sure," Joe said.

The box was broken open, and it was found to be filled with small bars of silver.

"Are they all the same size, Joe?" the captain asked.

"Yes, as far as I can see."

The captain took out his pocketbook, and made a rapid calculation.

"Then they are worth between thirty-two and thirty-three thousand pounds, Joe.

"Why, lad, she is worth forty thousand pounds, without the hides or the hull. That is something like a capture," and the two men shook hands, warmly.

"The best thing to do, Joe, will be to divide these boxes between the three ships; then, even if one of them gets picked up by the Spaniards or French, we shall still be in clover."

"I think that would be a good plan," Joe agreed.

"We will do it at once. There is nothing like making matters safe. Just get into the boat alongside, and row to the brig; and tell them to lower the jolly boat and send it alongside. We will get some of the boxes up, by the time you are back."

In an hour the silver was divided between the three ships; and the delight of the sailors was great, when they heard how valuable had been the capture.

"How do you divide?" Bob asked Captain Lockett, as they were watching the boxes lowered into the boat.

"The ship takes half," he said. "Of the other half I take twelve shares, Joe eight, the second mate six, the boatswain three, and the fifty hands one share each. So you may say there are eighty shares and, if the half of the prize is worth twenty thousand pounds, each man's share will be two hundred and fifty.

"It will be worth having, Bob; though it is a great shame you should not rate as an officer."

"I don't want the money," Bob laughed. "I should have no use for it, if I had it. My uncle has taken me in hand, and I am provided for."

"Yes, I understand that," the captain said. "If it were not so, I should have proposed to the crew that they should agree to your sharing the same as the second officer. I am sure they would have agreed, willingly; seeing that it is due to you that we were not captured, ourselves, in the first place; and entirely to your suggestion, that we should keep the Spanish flag flying and run into Cartagena, that we owe the capture of the prizes."

"Oh, I would much rather not, captain. I only came for a cruise, and it has been a splendid one; and it seems to be quite absurd that I should be getting anything at all. Still, it will be jolly, because I shall be able to make Carrie and Gerald nice presents, with my own money; and to send some home to Mr. Medlin and his family, and something to uncle, too, if I can think of anything he would like."

"Yes, it is all very well, Bob, for you; but I feel that it is not fair. However, as you really don't want the money, and are well satisfied, we will say nothing more about it, now."

The ships lay becalmed all night, but a brisk breeze from the east sprang up in the morning and, at noon, the Rock was visible in the distance. They held on for four hours; and then lay to, till after midnight. After that sail was again made and, soon after daybreak, they passed Europa Point, without having been seen by any of the Spanish cruisers. They were greeted by a hearty cheer from the vessels anchored near the new Mole, as they brought up amongst them with the British flags flying, above the Spanish, on board the prizes.

As soon as the morning gun was fired, and the gates opened, Bob landed and hurried up to his sister's. She and her husband were just partaking of their early coffee.

"Hallo, Bob!" Captain O'Halloran exclaimed. "What, back again? Why, I didn't expect you for another fortnight. You must have managed very badly, to have brought your cruise to an end, so soon."

"Well, I am very glad you are back, Bob," his sister said. "I have been fidgetting about you, ever since you were away."

"I am as glad to see you as your sister can be," Gerald put in. "If she has fidgetted, when you had only gone a week; you can imagine what I should have to bear, before the end of a month. I should have had to move into barracks. Life would have been insupportable, here."

"I am sure I have said very little about it, Gerald," his wife said, indignantly.

"No, Carrie, you have not said much, but your aspect has been generally tragic. You have taken but slight interest in your fowls, and there has been a marked deterioration in the meals. My remarks have been frequently unanswered; and you have got into a Sister Anne sort of way of going upon the roof, and staring out to sea.

"Your sister is a most estimable woman, Bob--I am the last person who would deny it--but I must admit that she has been a little trying, during the last week."

Carrie laughed.

"Well, it is only paying you back a little, in your own coin, Gerald.

"But what has brought you back so soon, Bob? We heard of you, three days ago; for Gerald went on board a brig that was brought in, as he heard that it was a prize of the Antelope's; and the officer told him about your cruise, up to when he had left you."

"Well, there wasn't much to tell, up till then," Bob said, "except that I was well, and my appetite was good. But there has been a good lot, since. We have come in with two more good prizes, this morning, and the brig is going to convoy them back to England."

"Oh, that is all right," Carrie said in a tone of pleasure.

So far, she had been afraid that Bob's return was only a temporary one; and that he might be setting out again, in a day or two.

"Well, let us hear all about it, Bob," her husband said. "I could see Carrie was on thorns, lest you were going off again. Now that she is satisfied, she may be able to listen to you, comfortably."

"Well, we really had some adventures, Gerald. We had a narrow escape from being captured by a Spanish ship of war, ever so much stronger than we were. She was got up as a merchantman, and regularly took us in. We anchored close to her, intending to board her in the dark. I thought I would swim off and reconnoitre a bit, before we attacked her; and, of course, I saw at once what she was, and we cut our cable, and were towed out in the dark. She fired away at us, but didn't do us any damage.

"The next day, late in the afternoon, we came upon the Brilliant chasing some Spanish craft into Cartagena and, as we had Spanish colours up, she took us for one of them, and blazed away at us."

"But why didn't you pull down the Spanish colours, at once, Bob? I never heard of anything so silly," Carrie said, indignantly.

"Well, you see, Carrie, they were some distance off, and weren't likely to damage us much; and we ran straight in, and anchored with the rest under the guns of the battery, outside Cartagena. Seeing us fired at, of course, they never suspected we were English. Then, at night, we captured the two vessels lying next to us, and put out to sea. The batteries blazed away at us, and it was not very pleasant till we got outside their range. They did not do us very much damage. Two gunboats came out after us, but the brig beat them back, and we helped."

"Who were we?" Captain O'Halloran asked.

"We were the prizes, of course. I was in command of one."

"Hooray, Bob!" Gerald exclaimed, with a great laugh, while Carrie uttered an exclamation of horror.

"Well, you see, the second mate had been sent off in the first prize, and there was only Joe Lockett and me; so he took the biggest of the two ships we cut out, and the captain put me in command of the men that took the other. I had the boatswain with me and, of course, he was the man who really commanded, in getting up the sails and all that sort of thing. He was killed by a shot from the battery, and was the only man hit on our vessel; but there were five killed, on board the brig, in the fight with the gunboats.

"We fell in with the Brilliant, on the way back, and I went on board; and you should have seen how Jim Sankey opened his eyes, when I said that I was in command of the prize. They are awfully good prizes, too, I can tell you. The one I got is laden with wine; and the big one was a barque from Lima, with hides, and two hundred tons of lead, and fifty boxes of silver--about thirty-three thousand pounds' worth.

"Just think of that! The captain said she was worth, altogether, at least forty thousand pounds. That is something like a prize, isn't it?"

"Yes, that is.

"What do you think, Carrie? I propose that I sell my commission, raise as much as I can on the old place in Ireland, and fit out a privateer. Bob will, of course, be captain; you shall be first mate; and I will be content with second mate's berth; and we will sail the salt ocean, and pick up our forty-thousand-pound prizes."

"Oh, what nonsense you do talk, to be sure, Gerald! Just when Bob's news is so interesting, too."

"I have told all my news, Carrie. Now I want to hear yours. The Spaniards haven't began to batter down the Rock, yet?"

"We have been very quiet, Bob. On the 11th a great convoy, of about sixty sail--protected by five xebecs, of from twenty to thirty guns each--came along. They must have come out from Malaga, the very night you passed there. They were taking supplies, for the use of the Spanish fleet; and the privateers captured three or four small craft; and the Panther, the Enterprise, and the Childers were kept at their anchor, all day. Why, no one but the admiral could say. We were all very much disappointed, for everyone expected to see pretty nearly all the Spanish vessels brought in."

"Yes," Captain O'Halloran said, "it has caused a deal of talk, I can tell you. The navy were furious. There they were, sixty vessels, all laden with the very things we wanted; pretty well becalmed, not more than a mile off Europa Point, with our batteries banging away at them; and nothing in the world to hinder the Panther, and the frigates, from fetching them all in. Half the town were out on the hill, and every soul who could get off duty at the Point; and there was the admiral, wasting the whole mortal day in trying to make up his mind. If you had heard the bad language that was used in relation to that old gentleman, it would have made your hair stand on end.

"Of course, just as it got dark the ships of war started; and equally, of course, the convoy all got away in the dark, except six bits of prizes, which were brought in in the morning. We have heard, since, that it was on purpose to protect this valuable fleet that the Spanish squadron arrived, before you went away; but as it didn't turn up, the squadron went off again, and we had nothing to do but just to pick it up."

After breakfast, Captain O'Halloran went off with Bob to the Antelope. He found all hands busy, bending on sails