There we cast the heavy stone which served us as an anchor overboard, and proceeded to set our lines. The sun sinking slowly behind a fog-bank had slashed the whole western sky with scarlet streaks, against which the wooded slopes of the Isle of Wight stood out vaporous and purple. A fresh breeze was blowing from the south-east, flecking the long green waves with crests of foam, and filling our eyes and lips with the smack of the salt spray. Over near St. Helen's Point a King's ship was making her way down the channel, while a single large brig was tacking about a quarter of a mile or less from where we lay. So near were we that we could catch a glimpse of the figures upon her deck as she heeled over to the breeze, and could bear the creaking of her yards and the flapping of her weather-stained canvas as she prepared to go about.
'Look ye, Micah,' said my companion, looking up from his fishing-line. 'That is a most weak-minded ship--a ship which will make no way in the world. See how she hangs in the wind, neither keeping on her course nor tacking. She is a trimmer of the seas--the Lord Halifax of the ocean.'
'Why, there is something amiss with her,' I replied, staring across with hand-shaded eyes. 'She yaws about as though there were no one at the helm. Her main-yard goes aback! Now it is forward again! The folk on her deck seem to me to be either fighting or dancing. Up with the anchor, Reuben, and let us pull to her.'
'Up with the anchor and let us get out of her way,' he answered, still gazing at the stranger. 'Why will you ever run that meddlesome head of yours into danger's way? She flies Dutch colours, but who can say whence she really comes? A pretty thing if we were snapped up by a buccaneer and sold in the Plantations!'
'A buccaneer in the Solent!' cried I derisively. 'We shall be seeing the black flag in Emsworth Creek next. But hark! What is that?'
The crack of a musket sounded from aboard the brig. Then came a moment's silence and another musket shot rang out, followed by a chorus of shouts and cries. Simultaneously the yards swung round into position, the sails caught the breeze once more, and the vessel darted away on a course which would take her past Bembridge Point out to the English Channel. As she flew along her helm was put hard down, a puff of smoke shot out from her quarter, and a cannon ball came hopping and splashing over the waves, passing within a hundred yards of where we lay. With this farewell greeting she came up into the wind again and continued her course to the southward.
'Heart o' grace!' ejaculated Reuben in loose lipped astonishment. 'The murdering villains!'
'I would to the Lord that King's ship would snap them up!' cried I savagely, for the attack was so unprovoked that it stirred my bile. 'What could the rogues have meant? They are surely drunk or mad!'
'Pull at the anchor, man, pull at the anchor!' my companion shouted, springing up from the seat. 'I understand it! Pull at the anchor!'
'What then?' I asked, helping him to haul the great stone up, hand over hand, until it came dripping over the side.
'They were not firing at us, lad. They were aiming at some one in the water between us and them. Pull, Micah! Put your back into it! Some poor fellow may he drowning.'
'Why, I declare!' said I, looking over my shoulder as I rowed, 'there is his head upon the crest of a wave. Easy, or we shall he over him! Two more strokes and be ready to seize him! Keep up, friend! There's help at hand!'
'Take help to those who need help' said a voice out of the sea. 'Zounds, man, keep a guard on your oar! I fear a pat from it very much more than I do the water.'
These words were delivered in so calm and self-possessed a tone that all concern for the swimmer was set at rest. Drawing in our oars we faced round to have a look at him. The drift of the boat had brought us so close that he could have grasped the gunwale had he been so minded.
'Sapperment!' he cried in a peevish voice; 'to think of my brother Nonus serving me such a trick! What would our blessed mother have said could she have seen it? My whole kit gone, to say nothing of my venture in the voyage! And now I have kicked off a pair of new jack boots that cost sixteen rix-dollars at Vanseddar's at Amsterdam.