The Story of Paul Jones: An Historical RomanceLewis, Alfred Henry
General
The Story of Paul Jones: An Historical Romance
Lewis, Alfred Henry
Jones, John Paul, 1747-1792 -- Fiction
Captain Jack Paul comes up from his cabin. In his hand he carries a
prayer-book. Also those two pistols are still in his belt.
“Turn out the watch below!” is the word.
The crew makes a silent half-circle about the dead Mungo. That
mutinous sullenness, recently the defiant expression of their faces, is
supplanted by a deprecatory look, composite of apology and fear. It
is as though they would convince Captain Jack Paul of their tame and
sheep-like frame of thought. The fate of Mungo has instructed them; for
one and all they are of that criminal, coward brood, best convinced by a
club and with whom death is the only conclusive argument. As they stand
uncovered about the rigid one in the clouted hammock, they realize in
full the villainy of mutiny, and abandon that ship-rebellion which has
been forecastle talk and plan since ever the Plymouth lights went out
astern.
Captain Jack Paul reads a prayer, and the dead Mungo is surrendered to
the deep. As the body goes splashing into the sea, Captain Jack Paul
turns on the subdued ones.
“Let me tell you this, my men!” says he. His tones have a cold,
threatening ring, like the clink of iron on arctic ice. “The first of
you who so much as lifts an eyebrow in refusal of an order shall go the
same voyage as the black. And so I tell you!”
Captain Jack Paul brings the _Grantully Castle_ into Tobago, crew as it
might be a crew of lambs. Once his anchors are down, he signals for the
port admiral. Within half an hour the gig of that dignitary is
alongside.
The Honorable Simpson, Judge Surrogate of the Vice-Admiralty Court of
Tobago, with the Honorable Young, Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, to
give him countenance, opens court in the after cabins of the _Grantully
Castle_. The crew are examined, man after man. They say little, lest
they themselves be caught in some law net, and landed high and dry
in the Tobago jail. First Officer Sands shows his wound and tells his
story.
Throughout the inquiry Captain Jack Paul sits in silence, listening
and looking on. He puts no questions to either mate or crew. When First
Officer Sands is finished, the Honorable Simpson asks:
“Captain, in the killing of the black, Mungo, are you in conscience
convinced that you used no more force than was necessary to preserve
discipline in your ship?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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