Читать книгу A First Fleet Family - Becke Louis - Страница 7

Table of Contents

The Evil That Befell Me In Following Bad Advice

So, a couple of nights later, according to a pot-valiant promise I had made him, I met Will Bryant about a mile from Solcombe, on a lonely spot near the water’s edge. It was a very dark night, and though there was no wind, the breakers were showing white in the darkness as they dashed against the high cliffs on either side of the bay on the sandy beach of which we stood looking out to sea. We had come to look out for a lugger, and give her the signal that the coast was clear, and Will Bryant had for this purpose a horn lantern concealed under his oilskin coat.

In all conscience, I was very frightened, for I dreaded that, silent and dark as it was, some of the Preventive men might be about, and that I should be caught in this my first attempt to cheat His Majesty the King.

Presently my companion said, “It must be nearly twelve o’clock, William. Stay you here while I go up on the cliff with the lantern. I can see the boat from there when she comes near. Now, if you hear the slightest sound or see a figure moving about, just walk away quietly up the path and tell me. If anyone should speak to you, answer loudly, so that I can hear, and then I should know that I must warn the lads off. I shall be just above your head on the cliff, lying down, and can hear anything.”

I answered in a whisper that I would do as he told me, and then away he went up the path which led to the top of the cliff, and left me standing, half-frightened out of my wits and peering out into the darkness.

I must have stood like this but two or three minutes, which seemed many hours, when I heard what sounded like muffled footsteps as they trod upon the soft sand, and the sound seemed to come from the path by which Will Bryant had just ascended. I turned and moved away a few paces, thinking that he had come back to give me some more directions.

In an instant, and before I had time to realise what had befallen me, I was seized by the arms, a cloak was thrown over my head and my legs were knocked from under me.

“Ram some of that oakum into his mouth and run him through if he attempts to move,” said someone in a whisper.

“Ay, ay, sir. He’s quiet enough,” answered another voice.

I knew what had happened, and I take pleasure to remember that, frightened as I was, my first thought was of Bryant and what he would think of me. Would he think I had betrayed him into the hands of the Preventive Service, for they were the Preventive Service, I knew?

But I had no cause to fear that. “Drag him into the cave, and you, Ned Bolt, stand over him with your cutlass,” said the officer. “You, Southgate, go up on the cliff and tell the others to bring the other bird down. Keep both of them gagged, and don’t make a noise.”

And then, with cruel roughness, I was dragged into one of several small caves higher up the beach, and soon there came more footsteps and the sound of men struggling with an awkward burden, and Will Bryant was half-dragged, half-carried down the path, and then thrown into the cave beside me.

“Mr. Belton, you go up on the cliff with that lantern, and as soon as you see the boat show the light three times in quick succession. When they run her up on the beach, if they hail, just answer ‘All well,’ and then come down and lend us a hand; we shall want every man.”

Then I heard Mr. Belton walk off, and thought fearfully of what was next likely to happen to me.

The officer gave some more orders to his men, and then lit another lantern with his tinder box, and told them to take the cloaks off the prisoners and the gag from my mouth, so that he might have a look at us.

In the dim light I could see about a dozen Preventive Service men standing near with their hangers drawn and pistols ready, and poor Will Bryant lay on his back with a lump of oakum crammed into his mouth for a gag, and his arms and legs lashed to keep him from struggling.

As the light fell upon his pale and bleeding features, he turned his eyes toward me with such a deadly look of hatred in them that struck fear into my heart; but it lasted for but a moment when he saw that I too lay bound and gagged, and then his glance softened, and I knew he felt sorry he had led me into such a sore predicament.

“Hullo!” said the officer, holding the lantern over our faces, “I know the pair of you, but I never expected to catch you at this game, young Dew. I thought you were a regular psalm-singing, young clodhopper.”

“It’s the first time, lieutenant, I swear it’s the first time,” I said tremblingly, for I knew the officer, who was a great, stout man, and quite friendly with my father.

“Oh, of course. But don’t pipe your eye about it; you won’t be thought any the more of for whining. As for the other fellow, I know you, Will Bryant, and by the Lord Harry you’ll catch it this time! I’ve wanted you for a long while, my lad; you’re a regular out-and-outer at the game.”

“You’ll choke the man, sir,” I said beginning to weep. “Take the gag out of his mouth.”

“No fear of that, my pious young friend; he’ll be choked in another way. If I took the gag out, he’d sing out to the boat, which can’t be far off now. I know him too well for that;” and with that he turned on his heel and went out of the cave.

Presently, he came back hurriedly and spoke hastily in an undertone to his men, and all save one followed him to the beach. The light in the cave had been put out before this and my eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness, and so I could see the bundle in the further end of the cave which I knew to be Will Bryant, as well as the face of the man who stood between him and myself with his drawn cutlass.

“Look here, youngster,” said he, “take my advice and keep quiet or I’ll run you through the first time you as much as wink your eye, and I’d be sorry to have to do it, for you’re a young fellow, and I daresay you’ve got a mother.”

I began a reply, when he stopped me with a quick movement of his cutlass, as a hoarse voice from the cliff cried “All well.”

Then I heard the grating of the boat’s bottom as she was run up on the sandy beach, and the gruff whispers of the crew. The next moment the voice of the lieutenant rang sharply out on the still air,— “Surrender, you are my prisoners! ”

A yell of rage was the reply. Then came the clash of steel and several pistol shots, curses, and oaths, and the sounds of a deadly struggle, and I lay and trembled and wondered how many were killed, and thought of what my father would say when he heard of it all on the morrow, and knew that his son was mixed up in such a terrible affair.

The fight did not last more than a few seconds, but to me, lying bound and helpless, it seemed hours. Then came footsteps and lights again, and a procession of the officers and their prisoners entered the cave.

There were only eight of them all together, and they were far outnumbered by the Preventive Service men, who had wounded three or four of them slightly, while more than one of their captors was rubbing his head or tying up an arm or a leg, for the smugglers were not the men to be taken without giving hard knocks.

But the affray was nothing serious, and no one was hurt very much, although, to my unaccustomed eyes and ears, a most desperate and bloody battle had been fought.

The smugglers came into the cave cursing and swearing that they had been betrayed, and declaring that Will Bryant was the betrayer; but when they caught sight of him lying on the ground, bound hand and foot, they understood the wrong they did him.

Presently the officer ordered us to be ironed, and the gag was removed from poor Bryant’s mouth. The first words he uttered were in my defence, and greatly endeared him to my mind at the time.

“You have caught us this time sure enough, Mr. Lieutenant,” he said, “but that boy has had nothing to do with it. I brought him with me for the first time, and he did not know what was going on.”

Then another of the smugglers broke in — a man who, when they had first been brought in, had had his face covered with his neck-cloth to staunch the blood flowing from a wound he had received in the fight. His name was Peter Collis, a near neighbour of ours at Solcombe, and a good-for-nothing fellow.

“What was Dew doing on the beach?” he said. “He must have played the spy.” And several of the others cried out, “Yes, yes, he’s the informer.”

I was about to angrily protest my innocence of such base conduct when I caught Bryant’s eye, and I saw it would advantage me to say nothing.

The lieutenant now ordered us to stow our jaw tackles and keep what we had to say for the magistrates, and then we were ordered to march. The guard fell in on either side of us with drawn cutlasses in their hands, and we were escorted to a guard-house near Newport, where we were lodged for the remainder of the night, and of all my companions, I think I suffered the greatest misery.