Across the Spanish Main - Harry Collingwood (best novels for beginners TXT) 📗

It ought to be mentioned that when Cavendish gave Roger the command of the company to be employed in building the stockade, he also endowed him with full power to use his own discretion as to how the work should be carried out, only occasionally giving the lad a few hints. Invested thus with such great responsibility, and with such important duties to execute, Roger naturally needed a lieutenant, and he selected Harry for the post, dividing his men into two parties, one of which he placed under the command of his friend.

This arranged, he sent Harry away into the woods with his men, armed with axes and bush knives, to cut timber for the stockade, while he himself, with his own party, remained on the beach, digging holes in which to deposit the uprights when they were cut, and also digging a ditch round where the palisade was to be, in order to drain off any water that might accumulate, and thus prevent the interior of their small fort from being flooded.

Harry and his gang soon returned with a load of stout stakes, plenty of suitable trees for the purpose being found close at hand. Depositing these on the beach, he then returned into the woods for more material, Roger and his men meanwhile proceeding to plant the main posts in a ring round the guns.

It was not long ere they had driven a row of posts deep and firm into the sand, starting from the margin of the beach nearest the water’s edge.

This brought them, in the direction in which they were going, fairly close up to where the woods ceased at their junction with the beach.

Roger was watching the men drive in the next post with heavy wooden mallets, procured from the ship, when he observed that, although they were hammering hard at the stump, it did not seem to be going down as quickly as it should; indeed, upon closer inspection, it did not appear to be moving downwards at all. And, further, the mallets, instead of giving out a dull sound, as they had done whilst driving through sand, now gave out a sharper and quite different sound as the top of the post was struck.

One of the men engaged stepped up to Roger and touched his hat. “It seems to me, sir,” said he, “as though something was stopping of this here post from going down any furder. I expects as how there is a stone or summat in the sand under the point. Do you think that ere stump is down fur enough as it is, or shall us pull un up and put un in somewheres else?”

Roger stepped up and shook the post, and, finding it quite loose, decided that it would have to be driven deeper in order to be secure. Nevertheless it was necessary to space the posts at equal intervals one from another, if his ideas were to be carried out; he therefore ordered the stump to be pulled up, the obstruction removed, and the post driven down again in the same position.

The seamen thereupon laid hold of the post, and, all hauling together, it soon came out; and with shovels and crowbars they began to break down the sand and enlarge the hole, so as to get at whatever was in the way and remove it.

It was not long ere the shovel of one of the men struck upon something hard, and the man, dropping upon his knees, went to work to scrape the sand away with his hands, presently laying bare to view what was apparently part of a spar of some kind, not old or worm-eaten, but seemingly almost new. Having located this, they started to clear the sand away from the whole length of the piece of timber, and, while doing so, found that there were two other poles or spars laid alongside it. After an hour’s hard work the three spars were unearthed, and proved to be the three poles of a set of sheer-legs, which had evidently only quite recently been hidden.

Roger then instructed the men to start probing in the sand, to see whether there might be anything else buried, and he himself took a boat and pulled away over the bay to the Elizabeth to inform Cavendish of his discovery.

He found the captain lying in his bunk nursing his recent wound, and informed him of the circumstance, asking also what he should do in the matter.

“You have dug out of the sand what you think is a set of sheer-legs, eh, boy?” said the captain, raising himself in his berth on one elbow. “And have you found anything beside?”

“No, sir,” said Roger in reply, “there was nothing else dug up when I left; but I told the men to probe the sand, whilst I came off to you, to see if there was anything else there.”

“Well,” responded the captain, “I must look into this. I will get up and come ashore with you; but just go and call the surgeon first; I wish him to bind this wound of mine up again before I leave the ship.”

Roger did so; and, the surgeon having dressed and bound up Cavendish’s hurt again, the two descended the ship’s side and, getting into the boat, were rowed ashore.

When they reached the beach they saw that the men had already lifted out the three sheer-leg poles and laid them on the sand, and now a gang of men were hauling upon a rope attached to something still in the sand.

When Cavendish and Roger came up to the spot they saw that the top of an iron chest had been uncovered, and the men had fastened a rope to a ring in the lid, and were now hauling on the rope to drag the chest clear.

Cavendish watched the seamen a moment, and then went to examine the poles. After a few minutes’ observation, he said to Roger: “It is pretty evident to me, boy, that this inlet has been used before for some such purpose as that for which we are using it, namely, for careening vessels for repairs and refit. These poles have been employed for lifting guns or other heavy material taken out of a ship or from off a raft. Now I wonder who it may be that has used these things? The Spaniards would not need to use this inlet for any such purpose, for they have their own ports on the island, where this kind of work could be done far better than here. Nor can they have been Englishmen, I should think, for if this place were known to any of our own people it would be marked on the chart, and we should have heard of it, most certainly. Also, the fact that these things have been buried points to the certainty that the people who have hidden them intend to return and use them again. If they had not meant to come back, they would have taken them with them when they left. No, it is evident to me that the people who left these articles will return periodically to this place to refit; and as this spot is almost unknown, as well as being lonely and secluded, it would seem to my poor understanding that the men who use this place are not Spaniards or English seamen proper, but pirates. It also occurs to me that there may be something in this box that they are just getting out which will tell us what we want to know.”

As the captain finished speaking, the box came up suddenly, and the seamen, who were hauling manfully on the rope, fell upon their backs, only to scramble quickly to their feet again with much laughter at the mishap.

“Now, men,” said Cavendish, who had a habit of taking his crew into his confidence, “before we go any further, let me tell you that I believe this inlet to be a pirate’s resort, which they visit periodically for the purpose of effecting repairs. If so, we must capture them if we can. We must, therefore, be careful to leave no traces of our own visit here or they may become alarmed and desert the place. Therefore all this gear must be replaced exactly as we found it, before we sail, and this box must not be broken open, but the lock must be picked instead. And if we replace everything exactly as we found it, the pirates—if such they be—will not suspect that anyone else has been here; they will still continue to use the inlet, and some day they will walk right into the little trap that I intend to set for them. Now, lads, up with that chest, and be careful with it. Pass the word for the carpenter and armourer to come here and bring their tools.”

These two men were soon on the spot, and between them they had the chest open in a few minutes. An eager examination of its contents showed that there was nothing of any intrinsic value contained therein; but there were documents and papers written in Spanish which abundantly verified the captain’s conjecture. For from these Cavendish, who could read and understand Spanish perfectly, learned that the bay where they were now lying was indeed the resort of a pirate crew; while the name of the chief miscreant, as ascertained from the papers, was José Leirya. The documents gave, among other particulars, a detailed account of the scoundrel’s doings ever since he had started his nefarious trade on the Spanish Main; and the mere recital of his atrocities proved enough to make every man of them there present swear a great oath to hunt the villain down wherever he might be, and hang him, with all his rascally crew, from the yard-arms of his own ship.

Nothing else of any importance having been found, the chest was carefully locked up again, after the papers had been put back, everything replaced in its former position and buried in the sand once more, the utmost care being taken to destroy all evidence of the things having been disturbed.

After this little episode the work on the ships went steadily forward. The Tiger and the Stag Royal were soon finished, and the Elizabeth and the Good Adventure took their places.

These last-named vessels received the same attention as their consorts, and were in a fortnight pronounced quite sound and once more ready for sea. They were hauled off the beach, and Cavendish had the great satisfaction of seeing his little squadron of four ships once more all ataunto and ready to sail.

The next morning Cavendish called a meeting of his officers in his cabin, and their long and earnest consultation resulted in the decision that they should cruise, as originally intended, up the Mexican coast and in the Caribbean, with an addendum to the effect that special efforts should be made to capture the pirate José Leirya, whose atrocious deeds, as recorded by his own hand, had made every man in the fleet his enemy, determined to hunt him ruthlessly to his death.

This having been arranged, preparations were forthwith made for leaving. The Spaniards were brought on deck in squads, and armed with weapons sufficient to enable them to obtain food, or successfully defend themselves against the attacks of savages. They were then sent ashore in boat-loads, the ships all having their broadsides trained on the beach where they landed, to prevent treachery on their part.

In the last boat-load went Alvarez and de Soto, both of whom Roger had seen on the Gloria del Mundo at the time of the engagement with the Spanish fleet.

De Soto gracefully thanked his captors for their courtesy and kindness as he went over the side, but Alvarez scowled heavily round him, and looked attentively at every face near him before he went, as though he meant to fix their features on his memory, that he might