FORTUNATELY mutinies frequently come to a head prematurely. On the “Rose” a jealousy hatched between rival factions of the plotters, so that before they were any of them in actual readiness, one faction, in order to be ahead of and therefore in command over the other, rushed upon the quarter-deck one night and made a sudden descent on Captain Phipps, who happened for the moment to be there alone.
Phipps became renowned for his presence of mind and courage. On this occasion he promptly knocked down three or four of the ruffians, and then with a loaded revolver and a handy marlin spike, he awed the others into submission before the alarm had even time to spread. The malefactors being summarily placed in irons and thrown into the hold, the insurrection below decks retired into the dark corners, to knit itself anew into shape.
The sailors now recognized the necessity for uniting their forces. Moreover, the faction which had been less precipitate, gained the confidence of those half-coward, half-demon followers, or human jackals, who were willing to urge the lions of the fo’castle on to strike the blows of death, content if they could then sneak upon the scene for a feast of remains. Thus a better plan was laid, while the mutineers dissembled and lulled even the suspicious Phipps into a sense of security that he had not possessed before the overt outbreak, which he had been able to quell single-handed.
The plotters found no opportunity of effecting their designs for several weeks. At length, however, Phipps steered his vessel into a tiny harbor, bitten by the sea into the side of a small, uninhabited island, which was even minus a name. This he did for the purpose of reshipping the stores, in the hold, a recent storm having shifted this cargo until the “Rose” listed to port dangerously, and leaked.
The crew, in silence and obediently enough, constructed a bridge to shore and carried the stores to land, heaping them up in piles, on the beach.
The unlading being accomplished, the crew desired permission to rest in the shade of the near-by woods. This was granted. Once in retirement here, they conceived a plan without delay whereby the ship should fall into their hands that night.
Already they had managed to purloin a complement of arms. They had knives, a few pistols, hatchets and several cutlasses. The stores being ashore, the ship was at their mercy. Their plan was simple enough. They would remain away from the shore until seven o’clock, when they would proceed to the ship in a body, overpower Phipps, Rust, the beef-eaters and the few other faithful souls on board, seize the “Rose” and leave her captain and his friends on the island, to starve. There was but one element lacking—the ship’s carpenter. The “Rose” having sprung a leak, in the storm, was regarded by the sailors as no longer seaworthy, until the carpenter should put her right. He therefore became a necessary adjunct to their numbers.
The carpenter, on being summoned to appear among them by the crew, listened to their plan with horror. However, he was not a coward and he had his wits about him. He nodded as if in approval of the plan, the more readily, perhaps, as he was threatened with death if he dared refuse to become one of the murderous gang. Then he informed them that some of his tools he would much require, to further the plot.
He was sent aboard the ship, with a guard beside him, who had undertaken to see that he permitted no leakage of the crew’s little game into the ears of the Captain. However, this carpenter was a man of resources. He was suddenly overpowered by illness, on which pretense he went below. Then, breaking into a run, he came to the Captain’s cabin, where Adam was singing the song of his loves. Bidding Rust to continue, as if nothing was happening, he swiftly communicated his news to William Phipps.
“Go back at once and pretend to assist in their deviltry,” commanded Phipps. “Make no sign of anything, save compliance with their wishes, and leave the rest to me.”
The carpenter rejoined his guard so soon that they were entirely satisfied. They conveyed him ashore, with his tools, and joining their mates again, waited with what patience they could muster, for the fateful hour of seven to arrive.
Phipps had now two hours in which to prepare to defend the ship. Unfortunately some of the guns had been landed with the stores. Adam volunteered to draw the loads from these, and this he accomplished, with highly satisfactory speed. But it would have been the work of hours to re-transfer the stores to the hold, hence they were left on shore to themselves.
With close on ninety armed, desperate brutes against them, the handful of men on the “Rose” were hardly in an enviable position. The first thing they did was to remove the bridge which had been constructed between the ship and the shore. The remaining guns on board were then dragged and slewed around till they covered the approach from the woods, by which the mutineers would be obliged to come. There was nothing to be done, then, but to wait.
The crew were not disappointing. They appeared duly, their savagery whetted to a fine edge by the burly ruffian who had assumed command of their force. Phipps had prepared his speech. He hailed the men, in his big, gruff voice and commanded them to halt where they were, on pain of instant annihilation.
“Go near the stores,” he cried, “and I will blow you in splatters against those trees!”
The cowed scoundrels edged back toward the woods. All the muttered threats of their leader, of what he would do if they refused to charge, were empty to the wretches who could look into the chasm-like mouths of a dozen guns. There courage oozed out of their veins. They were already defeated.
Phipps, aware that a similar number of dummies would be equally dangerous, now, had his faithful followers run out the bridge again and bring aboard the stores, without which it would have been madness to sail. This work consumed no small amount of time. But it was finally concluded.
“Now then,” said Phipps, when the situation was all in his favor, “I shall pull up anchor and leave you rogues to the fate you had prepared for me. You can stay here and starve and rot!”
This brought the mutineers to tears, and to pleading on their knees. They were willing to come to any nameable terms, if only he would spare them this terrible fate. They threw down their arms, in token of absolute surrender, begging quarter of any description.
Inasmuch as so large a vessel could not have been sailed without a crew, Phipps received them back, the ring-leaders in chains, and doubled the vigor of his mastery.
“But, Adam,” he said, “it’s no use with these scoundrels. They will drive me back to England yet, with none of the treasure.”
Distrustful of the brutes he had between decks, Phipps now sailed for Jamaica, where he quickly discharged nearly every man Jack of his mutinous crew and took on a new lot of sailors. This was not a matter of a few days, it required nearly a fortnight of time, Phipps being exceedingly particular as to the men he selected. In the meantime two things occurred which gave no little anxiety to the treasure-seeking captain. Rust fell ill, with an attack of tropical fever, and a letter arrived from Goodwife Phipps in which she begged to know if her lord and master were still alive, and if so, would he not speedily return to Boston and give no further heed to fortune’s beckoning.
William Phipps had seen men sicken and die in these latitudes. Adam, attended faithfully by the beef-eaters, took the fever lightly, as he seemed to take everything of life. Nevertheless he was weak, when the heat had somewhat abated in his body, and in no fit condition to remain in the tropics.
“Adam,” said the Captain, gravely, having schooled himself for a day and night together for this moment, “I have about concluded that the ‘Rose’ is no longer fit for this service. I shall return to Hispaniola, but unless I shall make out the galleon in a few weeks, I shall sail again to England, for a newer ship.”
“All right,” said Adam. “I shall be ready this afternoon.”
“Well,” said Phipps, hemming and hawing, “the fact is, Adam, you are quite unfit to remain about these islands. Besides, I should be glad of a messenger to send back to Mrs. Phipps in Boston. I would suggest, therefore, that you return thither, on a frigate, sailing to-morrow morning, and if it chance that I go to England and again return to Hispaniola, you could meet me here and help me to find the treasure.”
Rust seemed to hesitate before making his reply. He was sure there was a treasure for him in Boston, but he had begun to have his doubts as to the sunken, or any other sort of available, gold in the Spanish Main. Yet he did not wish to appear eager to abandon the quest, and his heart was above all else loyal to Phipps.
“If I should, by great good fortune, discover the treasure,” continued the Captain, “you shall suffer no loss for your absence, for your services have been ten times over rendered already.”
Much as he was affected by the friendship which prompted Phipps to assure him of this, Adam was not in the least concerned with thoughts of the treasure, nor influenced by this generous plan which his friend had formulated. But being a reasonable being, in some directions, and being perhaps unreasonably inclined in others, as for instance, toward Massachusetts, he saw the wisdom of the Captain’s arrangements, and therefore bade his friend an affectionate farewell, on the following day, and sailed for the north, with the beef-eaters close at his heels.