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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29047-8.txt b/29047-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c363b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/29047-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12432 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Captain Brand of the "Centipede", by H. A. +(Henry Augustus) Wise + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Captain Brand of the "Centipede" + A Pirate of Eminence in the West Indies: His Love and Exploits, Together with Some Account of the Singular Manner by Which He Departed This Life + + +Author: H. A. (Henry Augustus) Wise + + + +Release Date: June 5, 2009 [eBook #29047] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN BRAND OF THE "CENTIPEDE"*** + + +E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Katherine Ward, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from +digital material generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/toronto) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 29047-h.htm or 29047-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29047/29047-h/29047-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29047/29047-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/captainbrandofce00wiseuoft + + +Transcriber's note: + + A Table of Contents and List of Illustrations have been added. + + Text in italics is enclosed by _underscores_. + + Text in bold face is enclosed by =equal signs=. + + Specific changes to the text are listed at the end of the book. + + + + + +CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE "CENTIPEDE." + +A Pirate of Eminence in the West Indies: +His Loves and Exploits, + +Together with Some Account of the Singular Manner +by Which He Departed This Life. + +by + +HARRY GRINGO, +(H. A. WISE, U.S.N.), + +Author of "Los Gringos," "Tales for the Marines," and +"Scampavias." + + "Our God and sailors we alike adore, + In time of danger--not before; + The danger passed, both are alike requited: + God is forgotten, and the sailor slighted." + +With Illustrations. + + + + + + + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN BRAND.] + + + +New York: +Harper & Brothers, Publishers, +Franklin Square. +1864. + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, by +Harper & Brothers, +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District +of New York. + + + + +CONTENTS + CHAPTER PAGE + + Part I + I. Spreading the Strands 5 + II. Calm 7 + III. High Noon 15 + IV. Sunset 21 + V. Darkness 24 + VI. Danger 33 + VII. The Meeting and Mourning 42 + VIII. Captain Brand at Home 44 + IX. Captain and Mate 53 + X. An Old Spaniard with One Eye 61 + XI. Conversation in Pockets and Sleeves 69 + XII. Doctor and Priest 73 + XIII. A Manly Fandango 79 + XIV. A Pirates' Dinner 85 + XV. Drowning a Mother to Murder a Daughter 92 + XVI. Nuptials of the Girl with Dark Eyes 103 + XVII. Doom of Doña Lucia 112 + XVIII. End of the Banquet 119 + XIX. Fandango on One Leg 122 + XX. Business 133 + XXI. Treasure 138 + XXII. Pleasure 144 + XXIII. Work 150 + XXIV. Caught in a Net 154 + XXV. The Mouse that Gnawed the Net 160 + XXVI. The Hurricane 166 + XXVII. The Virgin Mary 168 + XXVIII. The Ark that Jack Built 173 + + Part II + XXIX. Laying Up the Strands 179 + XXX. Old Friends 186 + XXXI. The Commander of the "Rosalie" 193 + XXXII. A Splice Parted 198 + XXXIII. The Blue Pennant in the Cabin 201 + XXXIV. The Devil to Pay 203 + XXXV. And the Pitch Hot 208 + XXXVI. The Chase 214 + XXXVII. The Wreck of the "Centipede" 220 + XXXVIII. Vultures and Sharks 226 + XXXIX. Escondido 231 + XL. Paul Darcantel 236 + XLI. Instinct and Wonder 243 + XLII. Truth and Terror 247 + XLIII. Peace and Love 252 + XLIV. Snuff out of a Diamond Box 256 + XLV. Lilies and Sea-weed 262 + XLVI. Parting 266 + XLVII. Devotion 270 + XLVIII. All Alive Again 273 + XLIX. The Rope Laid Up 278 + L. On a Bed of Thorns 288 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + PAGE + Captain Brand Frontispiece + "When the Wind Comes from Good San Antonio" 12 + The Pirates Boarding the Brig 26 + The Night Chase 38 + The Pirate Den 47 + The "Panchita" 50 + "He Touched the Bell Overhead as He Spoke" 65 + A Pirates' Dinner 85 + The Pirate's Prey 94 + "A Supernatural Warning!" 116 + Shriving a Sinner 124 + "He Crept Forward on Hands and Knees" 141 + "A Dull, Heavy, Booming Roar" 156 + "See If You Can Not Slip That Pretty Silk Rope Over my + Head" 162 + Building the Boat 174 + The United States Frigate "Monongahela" 183 + "Queer Old Stick, That!" Said the Commodore 188 + And the Pitch Hot 208 + The Stern Chase 217 + "His Right Arm Poised with Clenched Hand Aloft," Etc. 256 + The Old Water-Logged Launch 280 + "Now Captain Brand Knew What Was Coming" 294 + + + + +PART I. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SPREADING THE STRANDS. + + "Shout three times three, like Ocean's surges, + Join, brothers, join, the toast with me; + Here's to the wind of life, which urges + The ship with swelling waves o'er sea!" + + "Masters, I can not spin a yarn + Twice laid with words of silken stuff. + A fact's a fact; and ye may larn + The rights o' this, though wild and rough + My words may loom. 'Tis your consarn, + Not mine, to understand. Enough--" + + +It was in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and five, and in the +River Garonne, where a large, wholesome merchant brig lay placidly on +the broad and shining water. The fair city of Bordeaux, with its great +mass of yellow-tinted buildings, towers, and churches, rose from the +river's banks, and the din and bustle of the great mart came faintly to +the ear. The sails of the brig were loosed, the crew were hauling home +the sheets and hoisting the top-sails with the clear, hearty songs of +English sailors, while the anchor was under foot and the cable rubbing +with a taut strain against the vessel's bluff bows. At the gangway stood +a large, handsome seaman, bronzed by the sun and winds of about half a +century, dressed in a square-cut blue jacket and loose trowsers, talking +to the pilot--a brown little Frenchman, in coarse serge raiment and +large, clumsy sabots. The conversation between them was carried on +partly by signs, for, in answer to the pilot, the other threw his +stalwart arm aloft toward the folds of the spreading canvas, and nodded +his head. + +"_Fort bien! vite donc! mon Capitaine_," said the pilot; "the tide is on +the ebb; let us go. Up anchor!" + +"Ay, pilot!" replied the captain, pulling out his watch; "in ten +minutes. The ladies, you know, must have time to say 'good-by.' Isn't it +so, my pilot?" + +The gallant little Frenchman smiled in acquiescence, and, taking off his +glazed hat with the air of a courtier, said, "_Pardieu!_ certainly; why +not? Jean Marie would lose his pilotage rather than hurry a lady." + +Going aft to the raised cabin on the quarter-deck, the captain softly +opened the starboard door, and looking in, said, in a kindly tone, + +"It is time to part, my friends; the pilot says we are losing the +strength of the tide, so we must kiss and be off." + +Two lovely women were sitting, hand clasped in hand, on the sofa of the +transom. You saw they were sisters of nearly the same age, and a little +boy and girl tumbling about their knees showed they were mothers--young +mothers too, for the soft, full, rounded forms of womanhood, with the +flush of health and matronly pride tinged their cheeks, while masses of +dark hair banded over their smooth brows and tearful eyes told the story +at a glance. They rose together as the captain spoke. + +"_Adieu, chère Rosalie!_ we shall soon meet again, let us hope, never +more to part." + +"Adieu, Nathalie! adieu, dearest sister! adieu! adieu!" + +The loving arms were twined around each other in the last embrace; the +tears fell like gentle rain, but with smiles of hope and trustfulness +they parted. + +"Ay," said the sturdy skipper, as he stood with eyes brimful of moisture +regarding the sisters, "ay, trust me for bringing you together again. +Well do I remember when you were little wee things, when I brought you +to France after the earthquake in Jamaica; just like these little rogues +here"--and he laid his brawny hands on the heads of the children, who +clung to each other within the folds of their mothers' dresses; "but +never fear, my darlings," he went on, "you will meet happily again. Ay, +that you shall, if old Jacob Blunt be above land or water." + +A boat which was lying alongside the brig shoved off; the little boy, +who had been left on board, was held high above the rail in the arms +of a sturdy negro, while the mother stood beside him, waving her +handkerchief to the boat as it pulled rapidly away toward the shore. + +"Man the windlass, lads!" cried the captain. "Mister Binks, brace round +the head-yards, and up with the jib as soon as the anchor's a-weigh." + +The windlass clinked as the iron palls caught the strain of the cable, +the anchor was wrenched from its oozy bed, the vessel's head fell off, +and, gathering way, she moved quietly down the River Garonne. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CALM. + + "It ceased: yet still the sails made on + A pleasant noise till noon-- + A noise like that of a hidden brook + In the leafy month of June. + Till noon we quietly sailed on, + Yet never a breeze did breathe; + Slowly and smoothly went the ship, + Moved onward from beneath." + + +The great lumbering brig, with yards square, main-sail hauled up, and +the jib and trysail in the brails, lay listlessly rolling on the easy +swell of the water, giving a gentle send forward every minute or so, +when the sluggish sails would come with a thundering slap against the +masts, and the loose cordage would rattle like a drum-major's ratan on a +spree. The sea was one glassy mirror of undulations, shimmering out into +full blaze as the rising sun just threw its rays along the crest of the +ocean swell; and then, dipping down into the rolling mass, the hue would +change to a dark green, and, coming up again under the brig's black +counter, would swish out into a little shower of bubbles, and sparkle +again joyously. + +Away off in the distance lay the island of Jamaica--the early haze about +the mountain tops rising like a white lace veil from the deep valleys +below, with here and there a white dot of a cluster of buildings +gleaming out from the sombre land like the flicker of a heliotrope, and +at intervals the base of the coast bursting forth in a long, heavy +fringe of foam, as the lazy breakers chafed idly about the rocks of some +projecting headland. Nearer, too, were the dark succession of waving +blue lines in parallel bars and patches of the young land wind, tipping +the backs of the rollers in a fluttering ripple of cats'-paws, and then +wandering sportively away out to sea. + +On board the brig, forward, were three or four barefooted sailors, in +loose frocks and trowsers, moving lazily about the decks, drawing +buckets of water over the side and dashing it against the bulwarks, +while others were scrubbing and clearing up the vessel for the day. The +caboose, too, began to show signs of life, and a thin column of smoke +rose gracefully up in the calm morning air until it came within the +eddying influence of the sails and top-hamper, when a bit of roll would +puff it away in blue curls beyond. + +Abaft stood a low, squat-built sailor at the wheel, his striped Guernsey +cap hanging on one of the spokes, and his body leaning, half asleep, +over the barrel, which gave him a sharp twitch every now and then when +the sea caught the rudder on the wrong side. Near at hand, with an arm +around an after top-mast backstay, and head resting over the rail, was +the mate, Mr. Binks, with a spy-glass to his eye, through which he was +peering at the distant hills of Jamaica. Presently, as he was about to +withdraw the brass tube, and as the old brig yawed with her head +inshore, something appeared to arrest his attention; for, changing his +position, and climbing up to the break of the deck cabin, he steadied +himself by the shrouds, and rubbing his eye with the sleeve of his +shirt, he gave a long look through the glass, muttering to himself the +while. At last, having apparently made up his mind, he sang out to the +man at the wheel in this strain: + +"Ben, my lad, look alive; catch a turn with them halliards over the lee +wheel; and just take this 'ere glass and trip up to the fore-yard, and +see what ye make of that fellow, here away under the eastermost +headland." + +Ben, without more ado, secured the spokes of the wheel, clapped his cap +on his head, hitched up his trowsers, and, taking the glass from the +mate, rolled away up the fore-rigging. Meanwhile Mr. Binks walked +forward, stopping a moment at the caboose to take a tin pot of coffee +from the cook, and then, going on to the topsail-sheet bitts, he +carefully seated himself, and leisurely began to stir up the sugar in +his beverage with an iron spoon, making a little cymbal music with it on +the outside while he gulped it down. He had not been many minutes +occupied in this way when Ben hailed the deck from the fore-yard. + +"On deck there!" + +"Hallo!" ejaculated Mr. Binks. + +"I see that craft," cried Ben; "she's a fore and after, sails down, and +sweeping along the land. She hasn't got a breath of wind, sir." + +"Very well," said Mr. Binks, speaking into the tin pot with a sound like +a sheet-iron organ; "come down." + +As Ben wriggled himself off the fore-yard and caught hold of the futtock +shrouds to swing into the standing rigging, he suddenly paused, and +putting the glass again to his eye, he sang out: + +"I say, sir! here is a big chap away off on the other quarter, under +top-sails. There! Perhaps ye can see him from the deck, about a +handspike clear of the sun"--pointing with the spy-glass as he spoke in +the proper direction. + +"All right!" said the mate, as he began again the cymbal pot and spoon +music; "becalmed, ain't he?" + +"Yes, sir; not enough air to raise a hair on my old grandmother's wig!" +muttered Ben, as he slowly trotted down the rigging. + +The sun came up glowing like a ball of fire. The land wind died away +long before it fluttered far off from the island, and, saving the uneasy +clatter at times of the loose sails and running gear, all remained as +before. It was getting on toward eight o'clock, and while the cook was +dishing the breakfast mess for the crew beneath an awning forward of the +quarter-deck, the captain came up from his cabin below. The stalwart old +seaman stepped to the bulwarks, and, shading his eyes with his hand from +the glare, he took a broad glance over the water to seaward, nodded to +the mate, and said, in a cheerful voice, + +"Dull times, matey! No signs of a breeze yet, eh?" + +"No, captain," said Mr. Binks; "dead as ditch water; not been enough air +to lift a feather since you went below at four o'clock. But we have +sagged inshore by the current a few leagues during the night, and here's +old Jamaica plain in sight broad off the bow." + +"Well, it's not so bad after all, a forty-four days' passage--so I'll +tell my Lady Bird passenger." + +Going to the latticed door of the deck cabin, the jolly skipper threw it +wide open, clapped his hands together thrice, and then, placing them to +his mouth like a speaking-trumpet, he bellowed out, in a deep, low +roar, + +"Heave out there, all hands! Heave out, Lady Bird and baby! Land ho!" + +There came a joyous note from a soft womanly voice within a screen drawn +across the after cabin, mingled with a little cooing grunt from a child, +and presently an inner door swung back, and the sweetest little tot of a +boy came tumbling out into the open space, and sprang at once into the +captain's arms. The little fellow buried his brown curly head into the +old skipper's whiskers, and then, kicking up his fat naked legs, he +laughed and chattered like a magpie. + +"Aha! you young scamp, this small nose smells the oranges and cinnamon, +eh? And dear lazy mamma shuts her pretty eyes, and won't look for papa, +and so near home, too!" + +Here Madame Rosalie's low sweet voice trilled out merrily in a slightly +foreign accent, while the contralto tones vibrated on the ear like the +note of a harp. + +"Ah! _bon capitaine_, how could you deceive me? Still, I forgive you for +telling me last night that we were so far from Kingston. When you know, +too," she went on in her Creole accent, "how I love and want to see my +dear husband these last four years, since you carried him away in your +good big ship. But never mind, my good friend, I shall pay you off one +of these days; and now send, please, for Banou to dress his little +boy." + +Scarcely had the worthy skipper reached a bell-rope near at hand, and +given it one jerk, than the cabin door opened, and in stepped a brawny +black, whose bare woolly head and white teeth and eyes glittered with +delight. There was that about his face which indicated intelligence, +courage, devotion, and humanity--those indescribable marks of expression +which Nature sometimes stamps in unmistakable lines on the skin, whether +it be white or black. He was below the middle height, but the large head +was set with a great swelling throat on the shoulders of a Titan. His +loose white and red striped shirt was thrown well back over his black +and broad chest; and putting out a pair of muscular arms that seemed as +massive and heavy as lignum vitæ, the boy jumped from the captain to +meet them; and then sticking his little soft legs down the slack of +Banou's shirt, he ran his rosy fingers in his wool, and shouted with +glee. + +"Oho!" said the black, as he passed his huge arms around the little +fellow, and smoothed down his scanty night-dress as if it were the +plumage of a bird, "oho! little Master Henri loves his Banou, eh? Good, +he take bath." + +Bearing his charge out upon the quarter-deck beneath the awning, he +pulled a large tub from under a boat turned upside down over the deck +cabin; and then, while the young monkey had scrambled round to his back, +and was beating a tattoo with his tiny fists on his shoulders, Banou +caught up a bucket and proceeded to draw water from over the side, which +he dashed into the tub. When he had nearly filled the tub he felt around +with his black paws as delicately as if he was about to seize a +musquito, and, clutching the kicking legs with one hand, he spun the +little fellow a somersault over his head, and skinning off at the same +time his diminutive frock, plunged him into the sparkling brine, singing +the while in a laughing chant: + + "Dis is the way strong Banou catch him, + First he strip and den he 'plash him; + Henri he jump and 'cream for his moder, + But Banou lub him more dan his broder!" + +Here the brawny nurse would souse him head over heels in the sparkling +water, lift him up at every dip, rub his black nose all over him, making +mock bites at the little legs and stomach; and, finally, holding him +aloft, dripping, laughing, and struggling, go on with his refrain: + + "What will papa say when he sees him, + Picaninny boy dat is sure to please him? + Big Banou he rub and dress him, + But little Henri he kick and pinch him!" + +All this time the men seated forward on the deck, pegging away deep into +their mess-kids, would pause occasionally, shake their great tarry +fingers at the imp, and chuckle pleasantly with their mouths full of +lobscouse, as if the urchin belonged to them as individual property. + +"What a tidy little chap he'll make some of these days," said Ben, +"a-furlin' the light sails in a squall! My eye! wouldn't I like to live +and see him!" + +"No, no, messmates," replied that worthy, as he crunched a biscuit and +took a sip of coffee out of the pot, "that 'ere child will, some of +these times, when he's growed a bit, be a-wearing gold swabs on his +shoulders, and a-givin' his orders like a hadmiral of a fleet!" + +"Quite right, my hearty! It'll never do for sich a knowin' little chub +to spend his days along shore a-bilin' sugar-cane on a plantation, and +a-footin' up accounts; for, ye mind, he was like the chip as was + + "'Born at sea, and his cradle a frigate, + The boatswain he nursed him true blue; + He'll soon learn to fight, drink, and jig it, + And quiz every soul of the crew!'" + +While these old salts were thus carving out a destiny for the youngster, +the black gave him a final souse in the tub, and then holding him up to +drain, as it were, for the last time, exclaimed, while his face lighted +up with pleasure, + +"Oho, my little massa! what will papa say to-morrow when he sees his +brave Henri?" + +"Ah! how happy he will be, Banou!" said the lovely mother, who had just +come on deck, as she kissed the mouth of the young scamp, while the +black wrapped and dried his little naked body in a large towel. + +"Ah! yes, my mistress, we all will be happy once more to get home to +master on the plantation." + +"Tell me! tell me, good _capitaine_," said she, turning in a pretty +coquettish way to the skipper, "when shall we get in port?" + +It was a sight to see her, in the loose white morning-gown folded in +plaits about the swelling bosom, her slender waist clasped by a flowing +blue sash, the dark brown satin bands of her hair confined by a large +gold filigree pin, and half concealed by a jaunty little French cap, +with the ribbons floating about her pear-shaped ears; and while her +soft, dark hazel eyes were bent eagerly toward the solid old skipper, +her round, rosy, dimpled fingers clasped a miniature locket fastened by +a massive linked gold chain around her neck. Ah! she was a sight to see +and love! + +"Tell me, _mon cher Capitaine_ Blunt, how many hours or minutes will it +be before I shall behold my husband?" + +The good-natured skipper laughed pleasantly at the eagerness of his +beautiful passenger, and opening his hands wide, he gave vent to a long, +low whistle, and replied, + +"When the wind comes from good San Antonio, my Lady Bird--when the +sea-breeze makes--then the old brig will reel off the knots! But see! +just now not a breath to keep a tropic bird's wings out. There, look at +that fellow!" + +High up in the heavens, two or three men-of-war birds, with wide-spread +pointed wings, and their swallow tails cut as sharp as knife-blades, +were heading seaward, and every little while falling in a rapid sidelong +plunge, as if in a vacuum, and then again giving an almost imperceptible +dash with their pinions as they recovered the lost space and continued +on in their silent flight. + +"That's a sure sign, Madame Rosalie," continued the skipper, "that the +trade wind has blown itself out, and the chances are that this hot sun +will drink up the flying clouds, and leave us in a dead calm till the +moon quarters to-night. What say you, Mr. Binks? am I right?" + +"Never know'd you to be wrong, sir," said the mate, with an honest +intonation of voice, as he tried to stare the sun out of countenance in +following the captain's glance. + +"_Hélas!_" said the young mother, with a little sigh of sadness, as she +stood peering over the lee rail to the green hills and slopes of the +island, standing boldly out now with the lofty blue mountains cutting +the sky ten thousand feet in mid-heaven; "so near, too; and he is +thinking and waiting for us!" + +"Come," exclaimed the skipper, heartily, "the youngster wants his +breakfast!" + +[Illustration: "WHEN THE WIND COMES FROM GOOD SAN ANTONIO, MY LADY +BIRD--"] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +HIGH NOON. + + "No life is in the air, but in the waters + Are creatures huge, and terrible, and strong; + The swordfish and the shark pursue their slaughters; + War universal reigns these depths along. + The lovely purple of the noon's bestowing + Has vanished from the waters, where it flung + A royal color, such as gems are throwing + Tyrian or regal garniture among." + + +High noon! Still the stanch old brig bowed and dipped her bluff bows +into the long, easy swell of the tropics; the round, flat counter sent +the briny bubbles sparkling away in the glare of the noontide sun; the +sails flapped and chafed against the spars and rigging, while the crew +sheltered themselves beneath the awnings, and dozed on peacefully. + +Off to seaward a few dead trade-clouds showed their white bulging cheeks +along the horizon, and occasionally a fluttering blue patch of a breeze +would skim furtively over the backs of the rollers; but long before they +reached the brig they had expended their force, and expired in the +boundless calm. + +Not so, however, with the large sail that had been seen from the brig in +the early morning. For, with a lofty spread of kites and a studding-sail +or two, she at times caught a flirting puff of air, and when the sun had +passed the zenith she had approached within half a mile or less of the +brig. There was no mistaking the stranger's character. Her taunt, trim +masts, square yards, and clear, delicate black tracery of rigging, +shadowed by a wide spread of snow-white canvas over the low, dark +hull--which at every roll in the gentle undulations exposed a row of +ports with a glance of white inner bulwarks--while the brass stars of +her battery reflected sparks of fire from the blazing rays of the sun, +showed she was a man-of-war. + +"She's one of our cruisers, I think, sir," said the mate, as he handed +the spy-glass to the captain; "but Ben here believes contrariwise, and +says she is a French corvette." + +"Have to try again, Mr. Binks; for, to my mind, she's an out-and-out +Yankee sloop-of-war. Ay! there goes his colors up to the gaff! so up +with our ensign, or else he'll be burning some powder for us." + +Even while they were speaking a flag went rapidly up in a roll to the +corvette's peak, when, shaking itself clear, it lay white and red, with +a galaxy of white stars in a blue union, on the lee side of the spanker; +while at the same instant a long, thin, coach-whip of a pennant unspun +itself from the main truck, and hung motionless in the calm down the +mast. Her decks were full of men, standing in groups under the shade of +the sails to leeward; and on the poop were three or four officers in +uniform and straw hats. One of these last stood for some time gazing at +the brig--one hand resting on the ratlines of the mizzen shrouds, and +the other slowly swinging a trumpet backward and forward. Presently an +officer with a pair of gleaming epaulets on his shoulders mounted the +poop ladder, touched his hat, and waved his hand toward the brig. A +moment after-- + +"Brig ahoy!" came in a sharp, clear, manly tone through the trumpet. + +"Sir?" + +"What brig is that?" + +"The 'Martha Blunt!' named after my dear old wife, God bless her! and +myself, Jacob Blunt, God bless me!" added the jolly skipper, in a sotto +voce chuckle to the fair passenger who stood beside him. + +"Where are you from, and where bound?" came again through the trumpet. + +"Bordeaux, and bound to Kingston. We have a free passport from Sir +Robert Calder and Admiral Villeneuve." + +There was a wave of the trumpet as the speaker finished hailing, and +then touching his hat to the officer with the gold swabs, and pausing +only a moment, he moved to the other side of the corvette's poop. + +"It would be no more nor polite in him to tell us what his name is, +arter all the questions he's axed." + +"Don't ye know, Mr. Binks," broke in the captain, "that the dignity of a +man-of-war is sich that it wouldn't be discreet to tell no more than +that she has a cargo of cannon balls, and going on a cruise any wheres? +which ye may believe is as much valuable information as we might get out +of our own calabashes without asking a question." + +"You are allers right, Captain Blunt, but I did not tax my mind to think +when I spoke them remarks," said Binks, deferentially. + +The cruiser, however, seemed more communicative than the mate gave her +credit for, and a moment after the officer with the trumpet sang out, + +"This is the United States ship 'Scourge,' from Port Royal, bound on a +cruise! Please report us." + +And again, after a few words apparently with the officer with the +epaulets, the trumpet was raised to his lips, and he asked, "Have you +seen any vessels lately?" + +The skipper was on the point of answering the hail, when his mate said, +"Beg pardon, Captain Blunt, but Ben and me made out a fore-and-aft +schooner airly this morning, with sweeps out, pulling in under the +outermost headland there," pointing with his horny finger as he spoke. + +"Nothing, sir, but a small schooner at daylight sweeping to windward." + +"What?" came back in a clear, quick note from the corvette. + +"Small fore-and-after, sir, with sails down and sweeps out, close under +the land." + +In a moment two or three officers on the cruiser's deck put their heads +together, several glasses were directed toward the now dim mirage-like +shadow of the island, and the next instant the sharp ring of a +boatswain's whistle was heard, followed by a gruff call of, "Away there! +Ariels, away!" + +Immediately a cluster of sailors, in white frocks and trowsers and straw +hats, sprang over the ship's quarter to the davits; and then with a +chirruping, surging pipe, a boat fell rapidly to the water. The falls +were cast off, the cutter hauled up to the gangway, and soon an officer +stepped over the side and tripped down to the boat. The white blades of +the oars stood up on end in a double line, the boat pushed off, the oars +fell with a single splash, and she steered for the brig. Descending down +into the gentle valley of the long swell, she would disappear for an +instant, till nothing but the white hats and feather blades of the oars +were visible; and again rising on the crest, the water flashed off in +foam from her bows as she came dancing on. + +In a few minutes the coxswain cried, "Way enough," and throwing up his +hand with the word "Toss," the cutter shot swiftly alongside; the +boat-hooks of the bowmen brought her up with a sudden jar, and the next +moment an officer with an epaulet on his right shoulder and a sword by +his side stepped over the gangway. The skipper was there to receive him, +to whom he touched his cap with his fore finger; but as his eye glanced +aft he saw a lady, and he gracefully removed his cap and bowed like a +gentleman to her. He was a man of about eight-and-twenty, with a fine, +manly, sailor-like figure and air, and with a pair of bright, determined +gray eyes in his head that a rascal would not care to look into twice. + +"I am the first lieutenant of the 'Scourge,' sir," he said, turning to +the skipper, "and if you will step this way, I'll have a few words with +you." + +This was said in a careless tone of command, but withal with frankness +and civility. The captain led him aft toward the taffrail, but in +crossing the deck the little tot of a boy followed closely in his wake, +and getting hold of the officer's sword, which trailed along by its +belt-straps on the deck, he got astride of it, and seized on to the +coat-skirts of the wearer. The little tug he gave caused the officer to +turn round, and with a cheerful smile and manner he snatched the urchin +up in his arms, kissed him on both cheeks, and as he put him down again +and detached his sword for him to play with, he exclaimed, + +"What a glorious little reefer you'll make one of these days! Won't +you?" + +"_Oui! oui! mon papa!_" said the little scamp, as he looked knowingly up +in the officer's face. + +"Excuse my little boy, sir," said his mother, who was in chase of him; +and then turning to the child with a blush spreading over her lovely +face, "It is not your papa, Henri! papa is in Kingston." + +"Ah! madame, I love children. I had once a dear little fellow like this, +but both he and his sweet mother are in heaven now. God bless them!" + +A flush of sadness tinged his cheeks, and he passed his hand rapidly +across his eyes, as if the dream was too sad to dwell upon; but changing +his tone, and while with one hand he patted the little fellow's head, he +went on: "Madame lives in Jamaica?" + +"Oh yes; I was born there, but my parents were destroyed by an +earthquake when I was quite a little child, and this good captain here +carried my sister and myself to France soon after, where Monsieur--" +here she hesitated and blushed with pleasure--"where I married my +husband, who is a planter on the island. Perhaps you may know Monsieur +Jules Piron?" + +"Piron!" said the navy man, with warmth. "Ay, madame, for as fine a +fellow as ever planted sugar! Know him? Why, madame, it is only a week +ago that a lot of us dined with him at his estate of Escondido; you know +it, madame? in the grand piazza which looks down the gorge. But he +behaved very shabbily," said the officer, as his face lighted up gayly, +"for he kept a spy-glass to his eye oftener than the wine-glass to his +lips, in looking out seaward, and in talking of his wife and the little +boy he had never seen." + +"Oh, monsieur! you make me so happy," said the lovely woman, as with +sparkling eyes and heaving bosom she cried, "Banou! Banou! this +gentleman has just seen your good master." + +The black, who had been standing near and guarding every movement of his +little charge, who was trailing the sword about the deck, immediately +approached the officer, and, falling on his knees, seized his hand and +drew it toward his face. + +"Ah! madame, I see that kindness meets with a return as well from a dark +as a fair skin," said the officer, in a low tone, as he gently withdrew +his hand from Banou's grasp. + +"But," he continued, turning toward the skipper, as the clear sound of +the cruiser's bell struck his ear, "I must not forget what I came for." + +"You say, captain, that you saw a schooner at daylight, eh? This way, if +you please"--as he raised his cap to Madame Piron and walked over to the +other side of the deck. "What was she like?" + +"She was reported to me by the mate," replied Jacob Blunt. + +"Please send for him." + +"Oh! Mr.--a'--" + +"Binks, sir," said that individual, touching his hat and making an +awkward scrape at a bow. + +"Well, Mr. Binks, did you clearly make out the vessel you saw this +morning under the land?" + +"Can't say exactly, sir, as I did; but Ben Brown there was on the +fore-yard, and he got a good squint at her." + +"Ah! can I see the man?" + +The mate straightway went forward, and, after a few pokes about the lee +waist, Ben was roused out from under the jolly-boat and came rolling +aft. + +"_You_ saw the schooner, eh?" said the lieutenant, as if he was in the +habit of asking sharp questions and getting quick answers. + +"Yes, sir," said the squat seaman, as he hitched up his knife-belt, and +wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and took off his cap. + +"Where?" + +"Here away, sir," with a wave of his paw, "just clear of that bluff +foreland where the gap opens with the Blue Mountain." + +"How was she rigged?" + +"Bare sticks, sir, not much of a bowsprit, and no sail spread. I see her +first by the flash of her sweeps in the rising sun, as she was heading +about sou'-sou'-east into the land." + +"Two masts, you say?" + +"Ay, sir; but I thought as 'ow there was a jigger-like yard a-sticking +out over her starn, though I wasn't sartin." + +"So!" said the lieutenant, in a musing tone, and with rather a grave +face and compressed lip; "that will do; thank you, my man." Then placing +his hand on the skipper's shoulder, he drew him to one side, out of +ear-shot, and said, + +"Captain Blunt, are you much acquainted in these latitudes?" + +"Oh yes, sir, me and my old brig are regular traders here, from Bordeaux +to Jamaica, and so home to England." + +"No treasure, I presume?" went on the officer, with a smile. + +"Why, lieutenant, none to speak of, p'raps; just a handful of dollars +and a guinea or two in the bag for a few sacks of sugar or coffee, or a +pipe of rum, or sich like, on my own account." + +"Well, my friend, there is probably nothing to fear, but if the breeze +springs up, keep as close to the corvette as you can, and I shall ask +the captain to keep a look-out for you during the night." + +"By the way"--the officer continued in a low tone as he moved toward the +gangway--"in case any thing should happen, you had better hoist a +lantern at your peak or in the main-rigging--we have sharp eyes for ugly +customers, and one or two of them have been particularly troublesome of +late hereabouts." + +Turning for a moment to bid adieu to the fair lady passenger on the +quarter-deck, and recovering his sword after a playful struggle with the +youngster, he buckled it around his waist, and, stepping lightly over +the side and into the boat, the oars fell with a single splash, and the +cutter shot rapidly away toward the corvette. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SUNSET. + + "Light is amid the gloomy canvas spreading, + The moon is whitening the dusky sails, + From the thick bank of clouds she masters, shedding + The softest influence that o'er night prevails. + Pale is she, like a young queen pale with splendor, + Haunted with passionate thoughts too fond, too deep; + The very glory that she wears is tender, + The very eyes that watch her beauty fain would weep." + + +Not a breath from the lungs of Æolus. The sun went down like a globe of +fire; but just as it touched the horizon it flattened out into an oval +disk, and, sinking behind a dead, slate-colored cloud, shot up half a +dozen broad rose and purple bands, expanding as they mounted heavenward, +and then fading away in pearly-tinted hues in the softening twilight +until it mingled in the light of the half moon nearly at the zenith. +There lay the island, too, now all clear again, with the blue tops of +the mountains marked in pure distinct outline, and falling away from +peak to peak on either hand, till the sea flashed up in sluggish creamy +foam at the base. The man-of-war birds came floating in from seaward, +high up, like black musquitoes, with their pointed wings wide spread and +heading toward the land, but now with never a quiver to their silent +pinions. A school of porpoises, too, broke water from the opposite +direction, and, crossing and recrossing each other's track, came leaping +and puffing over the gentle swells until they struck the brig's wake, +when they wheeled around her bows, dashed off on a swift visit to the +corvette, and then, closing up in watery phalanx, went gamboling, +leaping, and breaking water again to windward. Presently, along the +eastern horizon, the banks of clouds, which had been lying dead and +motionless all the sultry day, seemed to be imbued with life, and, +separating in their fleecy masses, mounted up above the sea, and soon +spread out, like a lady's fan, in all directions. + +"Ho! ho!" shouted Captain Blunt, clapping his hands, "what said I, +Madame Rosalie, when we saw the sun setting up his lee backstays a while +ago? A breeze, eh? Come, Mr. Binks, be wide awake! We shall be bowling +off the knots before the watch is out." + +The mate caught the enthusiasm of the skipper, and, jumping up on the +break of the deck cabin, he sang out, + +"D'ye hear there, lads? give us a good pull of the top-sail halliards, +and round in them starboard braces a bit! That's your sort! Well, the +head-yards! That'll do with the main! Up with the flying jib, and trim +aft them starboard jib and staysail sheets! There! Belay all." + +Meanwhile the corvette, with her lofty dimity kissing the sky, caught +the first light airs before the slightest ripple darkened the surface of +the water; and with her helm a-starboard, and her after-yards braced +sharp up, she silently swung round on her heel, while the spanker came +flat aft, like a sheet of white paper, and with the head-sails trimmed, +she slowly moved athwart the stern of the brig. The sharp whistles of +the boatswain and his mates, piping like goldfinches, were the only +sounds that were heard; and as the cruiser moved on in her course, the +declining moon cast a mellow light over the folds of her canvas, and, +like a girl in bridal attire, she threw a graceful shadow over the +smooth and swelling waters away off to windward. + +The sails of the brig, which had begun to swell out in easy drooping +lines, fell back again flat to the masts as the ship crossed her wake. +But as the corvette passed, the officer of the watch on the poop raised +his cap to the lovely woman who was standing out in graceful relief on +the upper cabin deck, with her little boy held up beside her in the +sturdy arms of the black, and placing the trumpet to his lips, said, in +a distinct voice, as if addressing the skipper, + +"We shall go about at midnight. Remember the directions I gave you this +morning. _Bon voyage, madame!_" He shook his trumpet playfully at the +boy, who put out his chubby arms with delight to the speaker, and then +hammered away with great glee on the crown of his bearer's head. + +"Thank you, sir," said Captain Blunt, who was leaning over the rail; and +then turning to his mate, he added, + +"Them Yankees, Mr. Binks, always treats a merchantman like gentlemen on +the high seas, and I never knew one on 'em to turn their backs on +friends or foes. What a pity they ever cut adrift from the Old Country! +Howsoever, matey, it can't be helped, and you had better up with the +port studding-sails, hang out all the rags, and make the old drogher +walk." + +Now came the rippling breeze all at once over the sea, fluttering +furtively for a minute or two, so as to make the top-sails of the brig +swell out and then fall back in a tremulous shiver; but again bulging +forward in a full-breasted curve, the vessel felt the tug, and began to +dash the spray from her bluff bows till it fell away beyond the lee +cathead in flying masses of foam. The studding-sail booms rolled out, +the sailors busied themselves aloft in making the additional sail, and +by-and-by the old brig floundered along, the bubbles gurgling out ahead +in the ruffled water, tipping over astern as the crests broke on her +quarter; at times plunging her bows into the rolling swell, but coming +up sturdily again, and so on as before. + +Meanwhile the corvette had edged away in a parallel course with the +brig, running past her at first as if she were at anchor, when she let +her topgallant-sails slide down to the caps, and, with the weather clew +of her main-sail triced up, she held way with the brig a mile or more to +windward. + +The moon was sinking well down in the west, and the clear, well-defined +crescent was occasionally obscured by the light fleecy clouds moving +under the influence of the trade wind, when, toward eight bells, the +moon gave one pure white glimmer, threw a rippling flood of light over +the waves, and sunk below the horizon. Still the stars twinkled and the +planets flamed out like young moons--masked at intervals by the +darkening clouds as they swept overhead in heavy masses--and tinging the +sea with shade, which would again break out in phosphorescent flashes as +the waves caught the reflection. + +"Now, Madame Rosalie," said the kind old skipper, "it is nearly +midnight; take your last snooze in the old barky, and wake up bright and +happy for Port Royal and--you know who, in the morning." + +The charming woman had been watching, with soul-rapt gaze, the lofty +hills of Jamaica from the last blaze of the setting sun, and until the +moon too had vanished and left only a dim blue haze over the island. She +started as the captain spoke, gave a deep sigh, kissed her hand to the +good old skipper, said "_Bon soir, mon ami_," and with a smile she +entered her cabin. + +The black was seated within the partition of the apartment, near a small +swinging cot, urging it gently to and fro, and watching over his little +charge. + +"Good-night, Banou," she said, in patois French; "you may go to bed, and +I will take care of my little boy." + +The black grinned so as to show his double range of white teeth beneath +the rays of the cabin lamp, and without a word he moved silently away. +The lady stood for a few moments gazing lovingly at the sleeping child, +and then drawing the miniature from her bosom, she detached it with the +chain from her neck, and after pressing it to her lips, she leaned +softly over the cot and fastened it around the little sleeper. As light +and zephyr-like as was the effort, it caused the little fellow to stir, +and reaching out his tiny arms, while a baby smile played around the +dimples of his cheeks, he clasped his mother's neck. + +Ah! fond and devoted mother! That was the last sweet infantile caress +your child was ever destined to give you! Treasure it up in joy and +sorrow, in sunshine and gloom, for long, long years will pass before you +press him to your heart again! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +DARKNESS. + + "The busy deck is hushed, no sounds are waking + But the watch pacing silently and slow; + The waves against the sides incessant breaking, + And rope and canvas swaying to and fro. + The topmost sail, it seems like some dim pinnacle + Cresting a shadowy tower amid the air; + While red and fitful gleams come from the binnacle, + The only light on board to guide us--where?" + + +On went the "Martha Blunt" with no fears of danger near. The bell struck +eight, the watch had been called, and the captain, taking a satisfactory +look all around the horizon, glanced at the compass, and, with a slight +yawn, said, + +"Well, Mr. Binks, I believe I'll turn in for a few hours; keep the brig +on her course, and at daylight call me. It will be time enough then to +bend the cables, for I don't think we shall want the anchors much afore +noon to-morrow. Where's the corvette?" + +"There she is, sir, away off on the port beam. She made more sail a few +minutes ago, and now she appears to be edging off the wind, and steering +across our forefoot. I s'pose she's enjoying of herself, sir, and +exercisin' the crowds of chaps they has on board them craft." + +"Well, good-night, matey"--pausing a moment, however, as the honest old +skipper stepped down the companion-way, and half communing with himself, +and then, with his head just above the slide, he added, "I say, Mr. +Binks, there's no need, p'r'aps, but you may as well have a lantern +alight and bent on to the ensign halliards there under the taffrail, in +case you want to signalize the corvette. Ah, Banou! that you, old +nigger? Good-night!" + +So Captain Blunt went slowly down below, and at the same time the black +went aft, coiled himself down on the deck, and made a pillow of the +brig's ensign. + +Mr. Binks wriggled himself upon the weather rail, where, with a short +pipe in his mouth, he kicked his heels against the bulwarks, and while +the old brig plunged doggedly on, he indulged himself with a song, the +air, however, being more like the growl of a bull-dog than a specimen of +music: + + "If lubberly landsmen, to gratitude strangers, + Still curse their unfortunate stars; + Why, what would they say did they try but the dangers + Encounter'd by true-hearted tars? + If life's vessel they put 'fore the wind, or they tack her, + Or whether bound here or there, + Give 'em sea-room, good-fellowship, grog, and tobaker, + Well, then, damme if Jack cares where!" + +"What d'ye think of that, Ben?" said Mr. Binks, as he finished his +ditty, and sucked away on his pipe. + +"Why, Mr. Mate," replied Ben, as he gave the wheel a spoke or two to +windward and glanced at the binnacle, "the words is first-rate, but it +seems to me your singing gear is a bit out o' condition, and I thought +you wos a prayin'; but the fact is," concluded Ben, apologetically, +"that whenever I hears grog and tobaker jined together, I likes to see +them in my fist." + +"Oh! you would, eh? Well, shipmate, turn and turn about is fair play; so +here, just take a pull at the pipe, and I'll step to the cuddy for the +bottle, and we'll have a little sniffler all around!" + +Saying this, Mr. Binks swung off the rail, handed Ben the pipe, and +after an absence of a few moments, he returned with a square case-bottle +and a pewter mug. + +"Now, Ben," said he, "this 'ere is not a practice, as you know, I often +is guilty of; but you bein' a keerful hand and a stiddy helmsman, and +port here close aboard, I've no objections to take a toss with ye." Then +pouring out a moderate quantity of the fluid, the mate handed it to Ben, +who, taking the pipe out of his mouth, and with one hand on the +king-spoke of the wheel and one eye at the compass-card, threw his head +back and pitched the dram down his throat. + +"My sarvice to ye, sir!" said Ben, as he smacked his lips and then shut +them tight together, fearful lest a breath of the precious liquid might +escape; "a little of that stuff goes a great ways." + +Mr. Binks hereupon measured himself off an allowance, and touching Ben +on the shoulder, raised the pewter to his lips. Before, however, +draining the cup, he tuned his pipes once more, and croaked forth in +this strain: + + "While up the shrouds the sailor goes, + Or ventures on the yard, + The landsman, who no better knows, + Believes his lot is hard. + But Jack with smiles each danger meets; + Casts anchor, heaves the log, + Trims all the sails, belays the sheets, + And drink his can of grog!" + +"Here comes the corvette, sir!" broke in Ben, as he stood on tiptoe, +holding on to the spokes of the wheel, and taking his eyes off the +binnacle a moment to get a clear view over the rail. "Here she comes, +with her starboard tacks aboard, athwart our bow, and moving like an +albatross!" + +The man-of-war had for an hour or more crept well to windward, and then, +wearing round, she came down close upon the wind under royals, and her +three jibs and spanker as flat as boards. As she whirled on across the +brig's bow, a few cables' length ahead, the sharp ring of the whistles +was again heard, and the moment after the head-sails fluttered and shook +in the wind, the sheets and blocks rattled, and with a clear order of +"Main-sail haul!" the after-yards swung round like magic, the sails +filled, and without losing headway the head-yards were swung, and she +gathered way on the other tack. On she came, with the spray flying up +into the weather leech of her fore-sail, the dark mazes of her rigging +marked out in clear lines against her white canvas, and the watch +noiselessly coiling up the ropes on her decks. As she pushed her sharp +snout through the water, and grazed along the brig's lee quarter, an +officer on the poop gave a rapid and searching glance around, peered +sharply along the brig's deck, waved his trumpet to the mate, and +resumed his rapid tramp to windward. In ten minutes after she had passed +the brig's wake nothing was seen of her save a dark, dim outline; a +light halo reflected on the water from her white streak, and an +occasional luminous flash of foam as it bounded away from her lean +bows. + +Half an hour went by. The mate was sitting on the weather rail droning +out an old sea-song to himself, and the four or five men of the watch +were dozing away along the bulwarks. Presently, however, Ben, the +helmsman, happened to let his eyes wander away from the compass-card for +a moment, as he steadied the wheel by his legs and bit a quid from his +plug of niggerhead to last him to suck for the remainder of the watch, +when, glancing beneath the bulging folds of the lee clew of the +main-sail, he clapped both hands again on the steering spokes, and +shouted, + +"Mr. Mate, here's a sail close under our lee beam!" + +"Where?" said Binks. But, before he had fairly time to run over to the +other side of the vessel and take a look for himself, a quick rattle of +oars was heard as a boat grated against the brig's side, and, before you +could think, a swarm of fellows started up like so many shadows above +the rail. In five seconds they had jumped on the deck, Ben fell like a +bullock from a blow from the butt-end of a pistol, the helm was jammed +hard down, the lee braces let fly, and, as the old brig gave a lurching +yaw in bringing her nose to windward, the weather leeches shivered +violently in the wind, and, taking flat aback, the studding-sail booms +snapped short off at the irons, and, with the sails, fell slamming and +thumping below. + +[Illustration: THE PIRATES BOARDING THE BRIG.] + +Meanwhile the mate had barely time to spring to the companion-way and +sing out, "We're boarded by pirates, Captain Blunt!" when he, too, +received an ugly overhand lick from a cutlass on his skull, and went +senseless and bleeding down the hatchway like a scuttle of coals. + +At the first noise, however, the black Banou sprang to his feet, and, as +he caught a glimpse of the fellows swarming over the side, he snatched +hold of the ensign halliards where the signal lantern had been bent on, +and in an instant it was dancing away up to the gaff, shrouded from view +to leeward of the vessel by the spread of the spanker. In another moment +the black leaped to the deck cabin and darted through the door. But in +less time than it has taken to tell it, the "Martha Blunt" had changed +hands. + +There, on the quarter-deck, stood in groups some sixteen barefooted +villains, in coarse striped gingham shirts, loose trowsers, and +skull-caps, and all with glittering, naked knives or cutlasses, and +pistols in their belts and hands. In the midst of this cluster of +swarthy wretches, near the companion-way, stood a burly, square-built +ruffian, with a pistol in his right hand, and his dexter paw pushing up +a brown straw hat as he ran his fingers across his dripping forehead and +a tangled mass of carroty, unshorn locks. There was a wisp of a red silk +kerchief tied in a single knot around his bare bull neck; the shirt was +thrown back, and exposed a tawny, hairy chest, as a ray of light flashed +up from the binnacle. He looked--as indeed he was--the lowest type of a +sailor scoundrel. His companions were of lighter build, and their dress, +complexion, and manner--to say nothing of their black hair and rings in +their ears--indicated a birth and breeding in other and hotter climes. + +"Well, my lads," said the big fellow, who seemed to be in command, "the +barkey is ours, and we've cheated that infarnal cruiser handsomely. Go +forward, Pedro, and gag them lubbers, and then tell the boys to trim aft +them jib sheets; and round in them after-braces, some of you, so we can +keep way with the schooner and take things easy." + +Here he laughed in a husky, spirituous, low chuckle, and then went on: +"This will make up for lost time, _amigos_! _Christo!_ there may be some +ounces on board. But who's left in the boat, Gomez?" This was addressed +to a bow-legged, beetle-browed individual, with a hare-lip, which kept +his face in a perpetual and skeleton-like grin, who hissed out from +between his decayed front tusks, + +"_El Doctor Señor, con tres de nosotros._" "_Bueno!_ all right; three of +the chaps will do to look out for her; but tell the doctor to drop the +boat astern, and veer him a rope from the gangway. There! that's well +with the braces! Keep her off a point; so--that'll do." + +As the orders were promptly obeyed, and the crew of the brig gagged, +and the vessel surged slowly on her course, the same speaker turned to +his men and said, + +"Now, my hearties! let's have an overhaul of the skipper. Hand him up +here, will ye? or, never mind," he added, "I'll just step down and have +a growl with him myself." + +As the mate pitched head foremost down the companion ladder, two of the +pirates jumped after him, and, dealing him another cruel stab with a +knife deep into the back, they passed on into the lower cabin. There was +a brief struggle, the sound of voices mingled with curses and threats, +and then all quiet again. + +In pursuance of his expressed purpose, the stout ruffian slewed himself +round, took a sweep about the horizon, then sticking his pistol in its +belt, he slowly descended the ladder, gave the wounded and dying mate a +kick, and with a hoarse laugh entered the cabin. + +There, on a small sofa abaft, between the two stern air-ports, sat +Captain Blunt. Blood was trickling down in heavy drops from a lacerated +bruise on his forehead; but, notwithstanding the swelling and pain of +the wound, his features were calm, stern, and honest. On either side of +him sat as villainous a brace of mongrel Portuguese or Spaniards as ever +infested the high seas; and his arms were pinioned by a stout cord to +the bolt above the transom. + +"My sarvice to you, sir!" said the leader of the gang, with a devilish +smile of derision, as he stuck his arms akimbo and squirted some +tobacco-juice from his filthy mouth across the cabin table at the +pinioned prisoner. + +"I s'pose you know by this time that you're a lawful prise, captured by +an hindependent constable of the West Indies, notwithstandin' ye had +sich safe escort and convoy all the arternoon?" + +Here he chuckled, squirted more juice over the table, then dropped down +on a sea-chest cleated to the deck, took off his hat, and scratched his +yellowish red hair. The poor captain said not a word, but shook a great +clot of blood from his brow. + +"Well, now, my old hearty, the first thing for you to do is to poke out +your manifest, and any other little matters of vallew ye may have stowed +away; and be quick, mind ye, for you haven't much time to sail in this +'ere craft. Howsoever, I s'pose ye can swim?" + +"You'll find the manifest and the ship's papers there, inside that +instrument-box; and all the money in the vessel is in that locker; and I +trust in Heaven it may burn your hands to cinders, you devils!" + +"Ho! smash my brains! keep a stopper on your jaw, or I'll squeeze your +dead carcass through that 'ere starn port." + +The fellow rose as he spoke, and, stepping up to the narrow state-cabin +near by, he jerked open the upper drawer of a small bureau affair, and +pulling out a canvas bag, sealed at the mouth, tossed it on to the +cabin table. The coin fell with the heavy dead sound peculiar to gold, +and the ruffian, after taking it up again and weighing it tenderly, +growled out, "This chink will do for a yapper, at any rate! So now let's +have a peep at what the cargo consists on." + +Then stepping a second time to the berth, he gave a kick to the +instrument-box, the lid flew off, and diving in his fist he drew out a +bundle of papers. Once more seating himself at the table beneath the +swinging lamp, he clumsily undid the papers and spread them before him. + +"What a blessed thing is edication," muttered he to himself, "and what a +power o' knowledge reading 'riting does for a man!" Putting his fat +stumpy finger on each line of the manuscript as he slowly began to spell +out the contents, he began, "Man-i-fest of Brig 'Martha Blunt'--Ja-cob +Blunt, master:" here he paused, and, squirting more tobacco-juice over +at the skipper, as if to attract his attention, he suddenly ejaculated, +"Hark ye! Master Blunt, what was the name of that man-o'-war vessel as +was lyin' by you this morning?" + +"The 'Scourge,'" replied the skipper, faintly, as he shook another great +drop of blood from his brow. + +"The what? The 'Scourge!' That Yankee snake! Smash my brains! D'ye know +that that ship has been a hangin' about the north side of Cuba for ever +so long, interruptin' our trade? And you an Englishman, to go and ax him +to purtect ye! take that!" + +Here he snatched a pistol from his sash, and, taking aim full at the +skipper's breast, he pulled the trigger. Fortunately, the weapon snapped +and did not explode. The ruffian held it a moment in his hand, and then +letting it rest upon the table, he said, with a horrible imprecation, + +"Ye see you wos not born to be shot; but we'll try what salt water will +do for ye by-and-by." + +Taking out his knife at the conclusion of this speech, he picked the +flint of his pistol, opened the pan, shook the priming, and then shoved +the weapon back in his belt. The mention of the "Scourge," however, had +evidently caused him some trepidation, for when he resumed the perusal +of the manifest it was in a hurried, agitated sort of way, and not at +all at his ease. + +Smoothing the papers again before him, he went on, making running +commentaries as he read: "Eighty-six cases of silks--light, and +easily stowed away; twenty-nine tons bar iron; sixty-four sugar-kettles! +it will help to sink the brig; forty pipes of Bordeaux; two hundred +baskets Champagne; three hundred and fifty boxes of claret--sour +stuff, I warrant you; two casks Cognac brandy--but I say, you Blunt," +said the fellow, looking up, "where's your own private bottle? It's +thirsty work spellin' out all this 'ritin', and my mouth's as dry as a +land-crab's claws. Howsoever," he continued, as he caught the +glance of satisfaction which came over the swarthy faces of his +companions beside the captain, "wait a bit, and we'll punch a hole in a +fresh barrel presently." + +Having run through the manifest, he opened another paper and exclaimed, +"Hallo! what have we here? List of passengers--Madame Rosalie Piron +and--ho! that's a French piece, I knows by the name. Where is she? +Hasn't died on the v'yage, has she? D'ye hear there, ye infarnal +Blunt?" + +The captain's face was troubled, and his head dropped down on his breast +without replying; but one of the scoundrels at his side struck him a +brutal blow with the back of his knife-hilt on the mouth, and jerking +up, he said, with an effort, + +"Yes, we have a female passenger on board, with a helpless child; but I +pray you, in God's name, to leave the innocent woman in peace. You've +robbed and ruined me and my poor old wife--turn me adrift if you like, +drown or hang me, but don't harm the poor lady." + +The tears blinded him as he spoke, and mingled with the bloody stream +which trickled down his cheeks. The ruffian's ugly face and bloodshot +eyes lighted up with a devilish and sinister satisfaction as the skipper +began his appeal, but before he had well finished speaking he broke in, + +"Avast your jaw! will ye? You'll have enough to look out for your own +gullet, my lad, without mindin' any body else's; so turn to and say your +prayers afore eight bells is struck, because there's sharks off +Jamaiky." + +Then addressing his own scoundrelly myrmidons, he exclaimed, "Look out +sharp for that old chap, my lads, while I goes to sarch for the woman +passenger!" As he turned, however, to leave the cabin, one of his +subordinates began to rummage about in a locker, when the burly brute +said, "Tonio, don't get to drinkin' too airly, boy, for ye know it's +agin the law till the prize is snug in harbor, or sunk, as the case may +be." + +"_Si, señor_," replied the man, with a nod and a grin, and he resumed +his seat again; but no sooner had their leader left the cabin than a +bottle and glasses were placed upon the table, and they fell to with a +will, complimenting the bound and wounded prisoner by pitching the last +drops from their tumblers into his face. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +DANGER. + + "What tale do the roaring ocean + And the night wind, bleak and wild, + As they beat at the crazy casement, + Tell to that little child? + And why do the roaring ocean + And the night wind, wild and bleak, + As they beat at the heart of the mother, + Drive the color from her cheek?" + + +In all this time so little noise had been made that even the watch +below, in the brig's forecastle, were snoozing away without a dream of +danger; though, had one of them shown his nose above the fore-peak, he +would have either been knocked down and murdered like the mate, or, with +a gag in his jaws, been hurled overboard. When the leader of the pirates +stepped again on deck, he said to his companions, who were still +clustered around the companion-way, + +"Well, my boys, we have 'arned a good prize--a fine cargo of the real +stuff--silks, wines, and what not, besides a few of the shiners!" Here +he jingled the bag of gold and dollars in his paws, and then threw it, +with an easy, indifferent toss, on to the slide of the companion-way. + +"But what think ye, lads?" he continued, in a hoarse whisper, "there's a +petticoat aboard! and, as sure as my name's Bill Gibbs, here goes for a +look; for there's nothing like lamplight for the lovely creeturs!" + +As he slewed round on his bare feet to approach the entrance to the deck +cabin, a move was made in the same direction by two or three of the +wretches of his band; but, shoving them roughly back with his heavy +fist, and clapping a hand to his belt, he said, in a threatening tone, + +"None o' that, my souls! I takes the first look myself; and if I think +her beauty'll suit the chief, why--I shall be able to judge, ye know, +whether she'll go furder on the cruise or swim ashore with the rest of +the lubbers at daylight to Jamaiky. Keep your eye on the schooner, +Pedro, and don't make no more sail! D'ye hear?" + +"Ay, ay, _si señor_!" quoth that worthy, as he and his followers fell +sulkily back. It took but three strides for Mr. Bill Gibbs to reach the +cabin door, when, finding it hard to open, after several trials at the +knob, he placed his burly shoulder against the edge of the panelwork, +and, throwing his powerful weight upon it, the door yielded with a snap +of the lock, and he pitched forward full length upon the cabin floor. +The noise startled the lady within, and speaking as if half asleep, she +called, + +"Banou! Banou! what is the matter?" + +"_Mon dieu, madame!_ we are prisoners in the hands of pirates!" + +Before more words were uttered, Mr. Bill Gibbs, who by this time had +regained his feet while giving vent to a volley of blasphemous curses, +roared out as he beheld the black, "Ho! nigger passengers, hay? A +mounseer of color, as I'm a Christian! I say, cucumber shins, is that +'ere woman as is talkin' as black as you be?" + +He was not left long in doubt concerning the color of the person he +alluded to, for at the instant the stateroom door flew open, and the +lovely woman, in her loose night-dress and hair streaming in brown, +heavy silken tresses over her fair neck and shoulders, with a pale and +terror-stricken face, stood before him. Speechless with agony, she gazed +at the coarse ruffian, who had, at the moment, reached the swinging cot +which held the little boy, and while he was in the act of looking at the +sleeping child, the mother uttered a fearful cry and the boy awoke. + +"Sarvice, madam! don't be scared! come and take the little chap! I ain't +goin' to hurt him--that is, if it be a him." + +The frightened mother, spell-bound at first, needed no second bidding, +and, forgetful of her disheveled dress, sprang forward, and with +outstretched arms, bare to the shoulder, was about to snatch her child. +The pirate, however, with his red eyes gleaming with unholy fire, threw +his great arm around the lovely woman's waist, and with a hoarse, +fiendish chuckle of triumph, attempted to draw her toward him. But, +quick as lightning, two black, sinewy paws clutched him with such a +steel-like grip about the throat that his sacrilegious arm dropped by +his side, and he was hurled violently back against the cabin bulkhead. +Then standing before him, the negro glared like an angry lion roused +from his lair as he looked round inquiringly at his mistress. + +"Ho!" sputtered the ruffian, as he pulled a pistol from his belt, "ho! +you mean fight, do ye?" + +"_Banou! mon pauvre Banou!_" screamed the terrified woman. "Yield! Oh, +sir, spare him! Don't harm us, and we will give you all we possess!" + +The burly scoundrel hesitated a moment, and balanced the cocked pistol +in his hand, as if undecided whether to blow the black's brains out on +the spot where he stood; and then shoving the weapon back in his sash, +and keeping a wary eye on his assailant, he exclaimed in an angry tone, + +"Well, come here, then, my deary, and give us a kiss for this nigger's +bad manners." + +Moving forward as he spoke, he caught up the little boy from the cot, +tore the gold chain and locket from his neck, which he thrust into his +pocket, and shook him roughly at arm's length, in hopes, perhaps, of +enticing the tender mother within his merciless grasp. But again the +black interposed his heavy frame before his mistress. + +"What! at it again, are ye? Well, then"--fumbling with his left hand for +his pistol--"say your prayers, ye imp of darkness." + +The black seemed, however, in no mood for praying; and putting forth his +slabs of arms like the paws of an alligator, he tried to grapple his foe +by the throat. The cries of the mother now mingled with those of the +child as he put out his little arms to shield his black protector. The +ruffian, foiled in his purpose, with baffled rage evaded the negro by +stepping to one side; and as he did so, he hurled the helpless child +with great force from him. The large cabin windows at the stern were +open to let in the breeze; and as the brig sank slowly down with her +counter to the following waves, and gurgled up as the sea eddied and +surged around the rudder, the faint, plaintive cry of the little boy +arose above the seething waters--a light splash followed--and the mother +had lost her child! + +"Oh, monster!" cried the heart-broken woman. "Oh, my boy! my boy! May +Heaven curse you forever!" as she sank down senseless on the deck. + +The awful howl of vengeance which burst from the deep lungs of Banou +came simultaneously with the report of the pirate's pistol, the bullet +from which struck the black hard in the left shoulder; but putting out +for the third time his sinewy arms, and this time with an iron grip that +only left the ruffian time to yell with a stifled curse for help, he was +hurled headlong, smashing through the latticed cabin door, and fell +stunned upon the outer deck. In an instant half a dozen pistol balls +whistled around the negro's head, and the knives of the pirates flashed +from their sashes as they rushed forward to bury the blades in his body; +but leaping to one side, and while two more bullets were driven into +him, he seized an iron-shod pump brake from the bulwarks, and, with a +mighty bound, whirled it once with the rapidity of thought high above +his head, and brought it down on the leg of his prostrate foe. Such was +the force of the blow that it smashed both bones, and drove the white +splinters through the brute's trowsers, where they gleamed out red and +bloody by the light of the binnacle lamp. Even then, wounded, and the +blood flowing from several places, and though almost encircled in the +grasp of the scoundrels, Banou made good his retreat to the cabin, and +planted his powerful body firmly against the door. + +With a volley of polyglot curses and yells in all languages, two or +three of the pirates stopped to raise their fallen leader, while the +others, leaving the wheel and vessel to herself, rushed in pursuit of +the black. Scarcely, however, had they made a step, when their ears were +saluted by a stunning crash from a heavy cannon, and the peculiar +humming sound of a round shot as it flew just above their heads between +the brig's masts. + +There, within half a cable's length to windward, loomed up the dark hull +of a large ship. The crew were evidently at quarters, with the battle +lanterns lit and gleaming in the ports, while the rays shot up the black +rigging and top-hamper, and spread out over the sails in fitful flashes +as she slowly forged abreast the brig, with her main top-sail to the +mast. For a minute not a sound was heard, though the decks were full of +men, some with their heads poked out of the open ports beside the guns, +or swarming along over the lee hammock-nettings and about the quarter +boats; but the next instant there came in a voice of thunder through the +trumpet, + +"What's the matter on board that brig?" + +There was no answer for a few seconds, until a choking voice, as if with +a pump-bolt athwart the speaker's mouth, mumbled out, + +"We're captured by pi--" + +A dull, heavy blow cut short these words; and though the reply to the +hail could hardly have been heard on board the ship, yet, as if divining +the true state of the case, loud, clear orders were given-- + +"Away, there, third and fourth cutters! away! Spring, men!" + +Then came the surging noise of the whistles as the falls dropped the +boats from the davits; then the men, leaping down into cutters--silently +and quick--no sound save the clash of a cutlass or the rattle of an +oar-blade as they took their places and shoved off. Again an order +through the trumpet-- + +"Clear away the starboard battery! Load with grape! Sail trimmers! +stations for wearing ship! Hard up the helm! Fill away the main-yard!" + +The "Scourge" had by this time forged ahead of the brig, her sails aback +or shivering, as she came up and fell off from the wind, and the boats +dancing with full crews toward her. No sooner, however, had the presence +of the unwelcome stranger been made known on board the brig than the +pirates seemed seized with a panic, and, without a second thought, they +scudded to leeward, where their boat had been hauled alongside, and +forgetful or indifferent for the fate of their companions below, though +dragging the while their maimed comrade to the rail, they lowered him +into the boat, jumped in themselves, and pulled away with all their +strength toward the schooner near. They were not, however, a moment too +soon; for as the last of the band disappeared, their places were +supplied by a crowd of nimble sailors to windward, headed by an officer +with his sword between his teeth as he swung over the bulwarks. The +first sound which greeted the new-comers was from below, and from the +throat of the honest skipper. Down the open companion-way leaped the +officer, with half a dozen stout, eager sailors at his heels, and dashed +right into the lower cabin. There was the brave old skipper, with but +one arm free, shielding himself and struggling--faint and well-nigh +exhausted--from the knives of the drunken brace of rascals who had been +left to guard him. A pistol in the hands of one of this pair was pointed +with an unsteady aim at the officer as he entered, but the ball struck +the empty rum-bottle on the table and flew wide of its mark; and before +the smoke of the powder had cleared away, a sword and cutlass had passed +through and through both their bodies, and they fell dead upon the cabin +floor. + +While Captain Blunt found breath to give a rapid explanation of the +trouble, and while the brig was once more got under control and the +wounded cared for, we will take a look at the man-of-war and the part +she bore in the business. + +At the first sound of the warning gun from the cruiser the schooner +began to show life; and drawing her head sheets, she wore short round on +her heel, with every thing ready to run up her fore and aft sails, and a +stay-tackle likewise rove and hanging over the low gunwale to hook on to +the boat and hoist it in the moment it came alongside. Meanwhile the +"Scourge" had shot ahead of the brig, and wearing round her forefoot, +with her starboard tacks on board, she emerged out beyond, like a hound +just slipped from the leash. As she cleared the brig, the schooner lay +with bare masts about three cables' length to windward, and the rattle +of oars told that her boat had just scraped alongside. At that moment a +clear, determined voice shouted through the trumpet, + +"Level your guns! Take good aim! Fire!" + +A brilliant series of sheets of flame burst forth from the corvette's +battery, lighting up the water and jet black wales, and away aloft to +the great towering maze of rigging and sails to the trucks, with the +topmen clustering to windward, and their very eyes and teeth lit up in +the glare; then, too, the crews of the guns, in their trim frocks and +trowsers; the marines on the top-gallant forecastle, with their +firelocks and white cross-belts; and abaft a knot of officers on the +poop, with night-glasses to their eyes, all standing out as clear as day +in the sudden flashes from the cannon. Then followed the concussive +roar, and the next instant you could hear the hurtling rush of the iron +hail as it flew singly or in bunches through the air, or skipped in its +deadly flight from wave to wave, until it went crashing into the +pirate's boat, slapping with heavy thumps against the schooner's side, +or furrowing along her decks; while a shower of white splinters flew +high over her low rail, and told how well the iron had done its +bidding. Then, with many a groan and imprecation, the shattered and +sinking boat was cut adrift, and, a moment after, the sails of the +vessel were spread, the sheets hauled flat aft, and, taking the breeze, +she heeled over till her lee rail was all awash, and away she walked, +right up to windward. + +But again came the clear, commanding tones on board the cruiser, mingled +with the jumping of the crew and ramming home the charges in the guns: + +"Load! round shot! Run out! One point abaft the beam! Fire as you bring +the schooner to bear!" + +Out belched the red flames; the heavy globes of iron, like so many black +peas in daylight, sung their deadly note as they darted on their way, +and the corvette gave a little heel to leeward as the shock of the +explosion was felt. One shot dropped within fifty yards of the low hull +of the schooner, bounded just clear of her after-deck, knocked off the +head and shoulder of a man at the tiller, and then went skipping away +over the water like a black foot-ball. Another messenger cut off the +schooner's delicate fore-top-mast as clean as a bit of glass, bringing +down the gaff-top-sail, and, what was equally pleasant, the fellow who +was setting it--pitching him over and over like a wheel, until he fell, +a bruised and lifeless lump of jelly, on the oak bitts at the fore-mast. +Before, however, they were treated to another of these metallic doses, +the pirates had got their craft in splendid trim; and with every stitch +of her canvas spread, and tugging and straining, she rushed on with the +heels of a race-horse, within three points of the wind. The "Scourge," +too, was now close hauled, her yards braced as fine as needles, and +crowded with every inch of sail that would draw; while every ten minutes +or so she would let slip two or more guns from a division at the chase. +But the uncertain gloom of starlight, and the darkening effect of the +passing trade-clouds, made the little vessel a very difficult object to +see; and though one of the last balls struck her on the narrow deck, +passed through that and the waterways, and out to windward, spoiling two +of her timbers, and no end of planking, yet this was the last damage she +received. Her crew, also, had got as well as could be out of harm's +way--both the sound and wounded--and were lying quietly as possible deep +down in the vessel's run. When daylight broke the breeze began to +slacken, but she was by this time hull down from the corvette, a long +way beyond the reach of her long eighteens in the bow ports, and eating +her way to windward, with no chance of being taken. + +[Illustration: THE NIGHT CHASE.] + +"It's no use," said the captain of the corvette to his first lieutenant, +as they stood watching the receding chase. "We may as well give it up; +she has the heels of us in this light wind, and will soon be out of +sight. I think, however," continued the captain, with a smile, "that +he'll remember the 'Scourge' when he meets her again. This is the second +time we have chased that fellow; and this heat, by the way the splinters +flew, we must have peppered the skin off his back." + +Shutting up the joints of the spy-glass which he held in his hand, he +took hold of the man-ropes of the poop ladder, and as he put his feet on +the steps, he said, + +"You can go about, Mr. Cleveland, and run down to the brig." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE MEETING AND MOURNING. + + "Moan! moan, ye dying gales! + The saddest of your tales + Is not so sad as life! + Nor have you e'er began + A theme so wild as man, + Or with such sorrow rife. + + "Then, when the gale is sighing, + And when the leaves are dying, + And when the song is o'er, + Oh! let us think of those + Whose lives are lost in woes-- + Whose cup of grief runs o'er!" + + +The afternoon following the night when the foregoing events transpired, +the "Martha Blunt" sailed slowly along the sandy tongue of land which +separates Port Royal from Kingston, and dropped anchor in the harbor. As +the cable rumbled out with a grating sound through the hawse-hole, and +the crew aloft were furling the sails, a large, gayly-painted barge, +pulled by a dozen blacks shaded by a striped awning, shot swiftly +alongside. Jabbering were those darkies, and clapping their hands, and +shouting joyously. A rope was immediately thrown from the gangway of the +brig, and a tall, handsome man, with a broad Panama hat, loose white +jacket and trowsers, sprang with a bound up the side, and leaped on +deck. + +Captain Blunt stood there to receive him. A broad white bandage was +passed around his head, and the tears trickled slowly down his bronzed +and honest cheeks. Just beyond him, under the shade of the awning, lay +Banou, stretched out at full length on a mattress; while Ben, the +helmsman, was kneeling beside him, fanning his hot and fevered face with +his tarpaulin. A yard or two beyond, on a broad plank resting on +trestles, lay the mate, Mr. Binks, cold and rigid in the grasp of death, +with the union jack folded modestly over his corpse. The black breathed +heavily and in pain; but when he caught sight of the gentleman as he +stepped on deck, a deathly blue pallor came over his countenance, and, +closing his eyes, the hot salt tears started in great drops from the +lids. + +"My God! captain," said the gentleman, with a bewildering stare, "what's +all this? What has happened?" + +The old skipper merely made a motion with his hand toward the cabin, +and, leaning painfully against the rail, wept like a child. The +gentleman's blood forsook his cheeks, and, with his knees knocking +together, he staggered like a drunken man toward the cabin door. A few +minutes later he emerged, bearing in his arms the sobbing, drooping form +of his wife. Starting from his close embrace for a moment as he bore her +to the gangway, she gave one shuddering, terrified, searching gaze over +the blue water to seaward, and then, with a wailing cry of agony, that +would have shaken the hardest heart, she fell sobbing again into her +husband's arms. + +The voices and joyous shrieks of the negroes in the barge alongside +subsided into low moaning groans; four or five came up, and carefully +lowered Banou down; then all got into the boat, and she moved mournfully +away toward the shore. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CAPTAIN BRAND AT HOME. + + "From his brimstone bed at break of day, + A-walking the Devil is gone, + To visit his snug little farm the Earth, + And see how his stock goes on." + + +Upon a broad, flat, rocky ledge, near a small, landlocked narrow inlet +of one of the clustering Twelve League Keys on the south side of Cuba, +stood a red-tiled stone building, with a spacious veranda in front, +covered by plaited matting and canvas curtains triced up all around. The +back and one side of the building rested against a craggy eminence which +overlooked the sea on both sides of the island, and commanded a wide +sweep of reef and blue water beyond. A few clumps of cocoa-nut-trees and +dwarf palms, with bare gaunt stems and tufted tops, stood out here and +there along the rocky slopes, while lesser vegetation of cactus and +mangrove bushes were scattered thickly over the island, cropping out +with jagged edges of rock down to the sandy beaches of the sea-shore. A +deep narrow inlet of blue water lay pure and still near the base of the +rocky height, where, too, was a shelving curve of white sand, sprinkled +about by a few mat sheds, while on the other side the rocks arose to an +elevation of a hundred and fifty feet, forming a precipitous wall to the +water. The inlet here took a sharp turn, scooped out in a secluded +basin, and then narrowing to less than forty yards in width, it wound +and twisted for a good mile in a thin blue channel to the open sea. Half +that distance farther out was a roaring ledge of white breakers, where +the long swell came hammering on it, bursting up in the air in brightish +green masses, and then tumbling over the reef and bubbling smoothly on +toward the shore. On a level with the water no channel could be +discerned through the ledge; but, looking down from the heights around +the inlet, a narrow blue gateway was marked out, skirted on the surface +by frothy crests of dead foam, and near where flocks of cormorants and +gulls were riding placidly on the inner side of the ledge. The island +itself was about two miles broad and seven long; and about midway of its +width the inlet formed a forked strait, one branch finding its way to +the north, between a low succession of sandy hummocks, where the water +was too shallow to float a duck, and the other finding an outlet, +scarcely a biscuit-toss wide, between two bluff rocks. With the trade +wind this passage was safe and accessible; but on the change of the +moon, with a breeze and swell from the south, the sea came bowling in, +in boiling eddies and whirlpools, and it required a nerve of iron to +attempt an entrance. Just within this narrow mouth, on a flat beveled +ledge of rock but a few feet above the water, was a small battery of two +long eighteen-pounders, and two twenty-four pounder carronades mounted +on slides and trucks, with platforms laid on a bed of sand. Near by, +beneath a low shed of tiles and loose stones, were a pile of round shot, +nicely blacked, and some stands of grape and canister in canvas bags and +cases, together with a large copper magazine of cartridges. Seated a +little way off on a low stool was a dingy Spaniard with a telescope laid +across his knees, which every little while he would raise to his eye and +take a steady glance around the horizon to seaward. At other times he +would roll and light a paper cigar, murmuring some low ditty to himself +as he sent the smoke in volumes through his nose. A small brass bell +hung beside the shed near the battery, together with a telegraphic card, +which was connected by a wire strung on low posts, or hooked from rock +to rock to the stone building away up at the basin. To return, however, +to the building: the veranda rested on square rough masonry full twenty +feet from the ground, which was loopholed for musketry, and with but one +narrow slip of a doorway that fell like a portcullis, banded and +strapped with bars and studs of wrought iron. Within this stone +inclosure was a large and roomy vault, half filled with cases, barrels, +and packages, and at the upper angle was a narrow subterranean vaulted +passage, barred also by an iron-bound door, which led to a succession of +whitewashed chambers--dark, damp, and gloomy--and then on, in a +fissure-like pathway, to another equally strongly secured outlet on the +other side of the crag. Leading to the veranda was a tautly-stretched +rope ladder lashed to eye-bolts let into the natural rock below, and +hooked on to the edge of the floor above. This was the only approach to +the main floor of the building from the outside, though within were +heavy trap-doors like the hatches of a ship, which communicated to the +chambers beneath. The whole structure was of stone and tiles, roughly +built, but yet strong and durable, and capable of resisting any assault, +unaided by cannon, that could be brought against it. The floor was +divided into four rooms, the smallest used for a kitchen, the next for a +magazine of small arms, and the third a spacious bedchamber, which +opened into a large square apartment facing the veranda, and which +deserves more notice. + +[Illustration: THE PIRATE DEN.] + +The lofty ceiling came down with the slant, showing the bare red tiles +and heavy square beams which supported the roof. In one of the stoutest +of these beams was an eye-bolt and copper-strapped block, through which +was rove a long green silk rope, with one end secured by a cleat on the +wall, and the other dangling loose, and squirming, whenever a current of +air struck it, like a long, slim snake. Around the sides of the room, +which were paneled with cedar, stood four or five quaint ebony armoires, +and as many cabinets, clocks, and bookcases, with here and there a +woman's work-stand, some of them curiously inlaid with pearl and silver. +The walls were hung with a great number of pictures of all kinds of +vessels--generally, however, of the merchant description--under full +sail, with vivid light-houses in the distance, and combing breakers +under the lee; and all portraying gallant crews and buoyant freights, +which probably had never reached their destinations. Among this gallery +of marine display was a broad framing of the "Flags of All Nations;" and +codes of signals, too, in bright colors, hung beside them. Farther on, +in a pretty panel by itself, surrounded by an edging of mother-o'-pearl, +was a triple row of female miniatures, a number of them of great beauty, +and many executed in excellent taste and art. In one corner was a large +chart-stand, covered with rolls of maps and nautical instruments, while +above were suspended, by white rope grummets, a pyramidal line of +spy-glasses and telescopes of all sizes and make. Near the centre of the +apartment stood a large round dining-table, on which was laid things for +a breakfast, a box of cigars, and a small silver pan of live coals. +There were but two windows to this room, both hung with striped muslin +curtains, the casements going to the floor, and looking out upon the +veranda; and but two doors, one leading to the kitchen, and the other to +the sleeping-chamber on the opposite side. + +Presently this last door opened, and, pushing aside a blue gauze curtain +which hung before it, an individual of about eight-and-twenty years of +age stepped languidly into the room. He was a tallish man, over six feet +in stature, rather spare in build, but with great breadth of shoulders, +and though pale, apparently from long illness, yet he was evidently very +active and muscular when his nerves were called into action. Had it not +been for a downward choleric curve to his large nose, and a little +parting at the corners of his wide mouth and compressed lips, the face +might have been thought handsome. The eyes were light blue, set close +together, but hard and stony, with no ray of mercy or humanity in them. +He wore no beard, and his light brown hair was thin and dry, and +carefully parted at the side. He was dressed in a snow-white pair of +loose drilling trowsers, cut sailor fashion, straw slippers, and silk +stockings; and above he wore a brown linen jacket with large pearl +buttons, and pockets. As he entered the room he held a delicate cambric +handkerchief, with a fine lace border, in his hands, which he seemed to +regard with curious interest as he lounged toward the windows of the +veranda. + +"I wish I could remember," he muttered musingly to himself, "which of +those sisters this bit of cambric belonged to, marked with an E.--Ellen +or Eliza--hum! They _would_ die--silly things!--tried to stab me! Ho! +what fun! Never left me even a miniature, either, for my collection. +'_Bueno!_' There's more fish in the sea--and under it too!" he +concluded, with an unpleasant elevation of his eyebrows. + +By this time he had approached the open window, and, shoving the +delicate fabric daintily in his pocket, he gave a slight yawn and looked +out. Before him lay the deep blue basin of the inlet, with a couple of +boats hauled up on the shore; a few idle sailors moving about, or +squatted beneath the sheds playing cards or sewing. Without letting his +eye rest more than a moment on this scene, he turned and gave a long, +earnest gaze between an opening of the rocks to seaward. Then, with an +angry frown, he approached the table, poured out a cup of black coffee, +threw rather than dropped in a lump of sugar, and sat himself down for +his morning's meal. He had scarcely, however, gulped down his cup of +coffee and choked after it a slice of toast, than he pushed away the +breakfast things, snapped his teeth together like a steel clasp, biting +a tooth-pick in twain by the effort; and then, tossing the pieces away, +he dashed his hand into the cigar-box, extracted one, touched it to the +pan of coals, and began to smoke savagely. At first the grateful smoke +appeared to soothe his chafed spirit, for he threw himself lazily into a +large cane-bottomed settee, and, stretching out his legs, seemed to +enjoy the tranquil scene around him with uninterrupted pleasure. But +soon a scowl darkened his face; he dropped his cigar on the floor, and +springing to his feet as if touched by a galvanic battery, he snatched +down a telescope from the wall, steadied it at the window-sash, and +peered again long and anxiously to windward. He saw nothing, however, +save the long, glassy, unbroken undulations of a calm tropical sea, +rolling away off beyond the ledge under a burning sun; no sign of a +breeze--not even a cat's-paw; and only now and then the leap of a +deep-sea fish sparkling for a moment in the air, and some sluggish gulls +and pelicans sailing and diving about the reef for their prey. Shutting +up the glass with a crash that made the joints ring, he strode to the +settee, where hung several knotted bell-ropes, and, seizing one, gave it +a sharp jerk. Then putting his ear to an aperture in the wall, where was +a hollow cane tube like the mouth of a speaking-trumpet, he listened +attentively till a hoarse whisper uttered the word, + +"_Señor._" + +Putting his mouth to the tube, he said, + +"Can you make out the 'Centipede' from the crag station?" + +"Not sure, sir, this morning; but last evening, at sunset, I saw a sail +which I took to be her. The sea-breeze is just beginning to make, and if +she's to windward of Punta Arenas she'll soon heave in sight." + +This colloquy was held in Spanish; and when the signal-man had ceased +speaking, the interlocutor lit another cigar mechanically, kicked a +foot-stool out of his way like a foot-ball, and thus communed with +himself as he rapidly paced between the table and the veranda: + +"Fourteen weeks ago yesterday since the schooner was off Matanzas; not a +word of news to cheer me through all that cursed fever; the spring trade +done, and the track deserted by this time!" + +Then pausing in his walk, he stopped at the chart-stand, and unrolling a +map, he went on: + +"Where, in the devil's name, could she possibly have gone to? She might +have been to Cape Horn and back before this. Miserable fool that I was +to trust the craft with that thirsty, thick-headed Gibbs! _Diavolo!_ he +may have been captured, and if he has, I hope his neck has been +stretched like a shred of jerked beef." + +Even while he was talking a bell struck near the settee, and, putting +his ear again to the tube, the hoarse voice said, + +"I can make her out now, _señor_. She's just caught the strong young +breeze, and is, hull up, coming along with the bonnet off her fore-sail +and a reef in her main-sail! There's a felucca to windward of her, which +I take to be the 'Panchita!'" + +"Ah ha!" laughed the individual in the room. "The 'Centipede' is safe, +then; and I am to have the pleasure, too, of a visit from the Tuerto, +the mercenary old owl, with his account of sales and his greed. But let +me once catch him foul, and, my one-eyed friend, I'll treat you to such +a dance that you won't need shoes!" + +Here he glanced with a meaning look at the silk rope swaying from the +beam above his head, and the laugh of satisfaction which followed was +not one a timid man would care to hear in a dark night; nor did it come +from his heart, as any one might have discovered from the ferocious +gleam of inward passion which shot out in the cold sparkle of his eyes +and flitted away over his grating teeth. + +Controlling his feelings, however, and stepping out on the veranda, he +drew aside the curtains and sung out to the men in the huts, "One of you +fellows, tell the boatswain I want him." + +The men started up, and a moment after a man in a blue jacket stood out +from one of the sheds and threw up his hand to his straw hat. + +[Illustration: THE "PANCHITA"] + +"Get together the people! Let run the cable at the Alligator's mouth, +and have three or four warps ready for the schooner when she passes the +point! The 'Panchita' is coming too, so look out, and have enough lines +to tow both vessels in case the breeze fails. Tell Mr. Gibbs to moor +close under the other shore in the old berth, and to come to me when +he's anchored! D'ye hear?" + +All this was said in a sharp tone of command, and by the alacrity with +which the orders were executed the men seemed to be accustomed to a +master who knew how to rule them. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CAPTAIN AND MATE. + + "So I hauled him off to the gallows' foot, + And blinded him in his bags; + 'Twas a weary job to heave him up, + For a doomed man always lags; + But by ten of the clock he was off his legs + In the wind, and airing his rags!" + + +A couple of hours had passed since the occupant of the stone building +had last spoken to his subordinates down at the inlet, but the +interval he devoted to a minute inspection of weapons in the armory +adjoining his bedroom. They were all in excellent order, of the best +make, and very neatly arranged in stands and cases around the room. +When he emerged again, after locking the door, he held an exquisite +pair of small pistols inlaid with gold in his hand, which he gently +polished with his cambric handkerchief, and then slipped them into +his trowsers pockets. Then he held short dialogues with the voice at +the signal-station, and, without looking out of the window, he +informed himself of what was doing outside, and what progress the +vessels made toward their haven. When, however, the schooner poked her +slim, low black bows, with her sails down, around the point, he gave one +stealthy peep, or glare rather, at her. He took all in at that glance, +from the patches of sheet-lead nailed over the shot-holes in her side, +to the sawed-off stump of the fore-top-mast; and then he remarked the +absence of the boat which was carried amidships, and the few men moving +about her deck. Ay! he took it all in with that one comprehensive +glance, and when he had done, he raised his fore finger quivering +with anger, and slowly and unconsciously passed it with an ominous +gesture across his throat. + +Soon was heard a sullen plunge as an anchor was let go, and the +splashing of the warps upon the water as the stern of the "Centipede" +was being moored to the rocks, to make room for her companion the +felucca, now shortly expected. + +"Mr. Gibbs is coming on shore, _señor_, and he seems to have a wooden +leg," came through the tube. "The doctor is coming with him, and there +is a little boy in the boat." + +"Ho!" muttered the man in the saloon, "where was that brat picked up?" + +Nothing more was said. The tall man lit a cigar, threw himself into an +easy attitude on the settee, opened a richly-bound volume, and waited. +Ten minutes may have gone by when the trampling of feet was heard on the +smooth rocks outside the building, and the voice of Mr. Gibbs +exclaimed, + +"Easy, will ye? Doctor! Don't ye see it tears the narves out of me to +hobble with this broomstick-handle of a leg! There! Stop a bit! How in +thunder am I to climb this ladder? Oh!" Here a low howl of pain. +"Another shove. Easy, old Sawbones! So--give us another push, will ye? +All right! There, that'll do." + +The next minute Mr. Bill Gibbs stood on the broad piazza, and, with the +assistance of a crutch, he hobbled to the entrance of the apartment, and +only pausing to recover his wind and compose his features, he pulled off +his straw hat and entered. + +"So ho! Mr. Gibbs," said the man on the settee, as the burly, lame +ruffian darkened the entrance, laying the book down as he spoke, and +waving his delicate handkerchief before him. + +"So ho! Mr. Gibbs, you've come back at last! Delighted to see you. I am, +'pon my soul. Ah! one of those stout pins gone? Why, how's this? Some +little accident? Santa Cruz rum and a tumble down the hatchway, perhaps, +eh? D'ye smoke? Take a cheroot. Put that bag on the table." + +All this was said in a gay, gibing tone, with an indifference and _sang +froid_ that a tight-rope dancer might have been proud of; and as he +ended, he threw a handful of cigars across the table, and pushed the pan +of coals toward his visitor. Before, however, Gibbs had time to utter a +word in reply, his companion, while lolling over the settee, caught up +an opera-glass from the table, and, placing it to his eyes, went on: + +"Ha! ho! the fore-top-mast of my pretty long-legged schooner is gone. +Pretty stick it was! I suppose, Master Gibbs, that _you_"--he nodded +fiercely without removing the glass--"cut it up for that lovely new leg +you've mounted. Ay, my beauty!" again apostrophizing the vessel, which +lay like a wounded bird in the calm inlet before him; "but where's my +handsome barge, that used to cover the long gun? Ho! stormy weather +you've seen of late." + +During all this one-sided conversation Gibbs had managed to wriggle his +mutilated body on to a wicker chair, where he steadied himself with his +crutch, evincing manifest signs of choler the while by running his fat +fingers through the reddish door-mat of hair, hitching up his trowsers, +and rapping nervously his timber stump of a leg on the floor, until at +last, unable, apparently, longer to control himself, he burst out, with +his bad face suffused with passion, + +"I say, Captain Brand, it's time to end them 'ere gibes. What's took +place is unfortinate; but, howsoever, I has a bag of shiners and a +wooden leg to show for it, and d----n the odds." + +"Stop, stop, my bull-dog! Don't be profane in my presence, if you +please. We are both Christians, you know, and friends too, I hope." + +This was said in a very precise, emphatic, and clear enunciation, and +without apparent heat; and Captain Brand smiled too--but such a smile, +as his wide mouth came down with a twitch at the corners, and left a +sort of hole, where the cigar was habitually stuck, to see his teeth +through. + +"And now, my friend, suppose you give me some little account of your +cruise, and fill up, if you can, any chinks that I haven't seen through +already," he concluded, throwing his legs again over the back of the +settee, and elevating his eyebrows as the cigar smoke curled in spiral +wreaths around his face. + +Mr. Gibbs hereupon settled himself more at ease in his chair, laid his +crutch across his knees, and began: + +"I s'pose, sir, you got the news I sent in a letter from Matanzas, after +we'd been chased out of the Nicholas Channel by that Yankee corvette?" + +Captain Brand nodded at the eye-bolt which held the green silk rope from +the ceiling, as if calculating mentally the strain it would bear, merely +as a matter of philosophical speculation, perhaps. + +"Well, arter that--and a very tight race it was--we ran down to the +Behamey Banks. There we picked up a Yankee schooner loaded with shingles +and lumber; and as the skipper was sarsy, I just made him and his crew +walk one of his own planks, and then bored a couple of holes through his +vessel, arter taking out some water which we stood in need of. You +hasn't a drop of summut to drink, has you, Captain Brand? becase it +makes my jaw-tackle dry to talk much." + +The captain merely motioned with a wave of his cambric handkerchief +to an open liquor-case which stood on a cabinet near, and to which +Mr. Gibbs hobbled; when, seizing a square flask of crystal incased in +a network of frosted silver, he returned with it to the table. Had +Mr. Gibbs chosen he might have brought with the flask a small, +thimble-shaped liqueur glass; but he did not, and contented himself +with a china coffee-cup which stood on the tray before him. He seemed a +little near-sighted too; and as he inverted the flask, gave no heed to +the quantity of fluid he poured into the cup. But he took care, however, +that it did not run over; and then, raising it with a trembling hand +to his lips, he said, "My sarvice to you, Captain Brand," and tossed it +down his capacious throat. The captain gave no response to this +compliment, but as Mr. Gibbs put down the coffee-cup he said blandly, + +"Thank you; but suppose you put that flask back in the case. I am +rather choice with that brandy; it was a--given to me by a--person who +was a--unfortunately hanged, and a--I rarely offer it a--the second +time." + +Puffing his cigar as he spoke in an easy manner, he then turned round to +listen to Mr. Gibbs's narrative. Becoming more genial as the brandy +loosened his tongue, Mr. Gibbs continued: + +"Well, sir, from the Behameys we ran to leeward, nearly to the Spanish +Main, in hopes, perhaps, of finding some stray fellow as was bound to +Europe; but we see nothing for days and days, and weeks and weeks, till +finally the water fell short again, and we beats up and runs into Santa +Cruz. There, as luck would have it, Eboe Pete and French Tom got into a +bit of a scrimmage up on a gentleman's plantation arter sunset, and was +werry roughly handled by a patrol of sogers as happened to be near. I +believe as how Eboe Pete died that night; and I heerd, too, that French +Tom had his skull cracked; and what does he go for to do but make a +confession to the authorities that the 'Centipede' was a pirate! + +"Well, captain, the moment that information reached me, and seein' +a sogers' boat gettin' ready, and the sogers running about the +water-battery of the fort, than I just slips the cable, and runs +out to sea like a bird; and, Lord love ye, sir! the way they pitched +round shot arter us was--was--" Here Master Gibbs paused for a +simile, and the captain observed with a hacking, cough-like laugh, + +"You saved the water-casks, though?" + +"Why no, sir; and we was forced to go upon a 'lowance of a pint a water +a man!" + +"Ho!" rejoined the listener. "Capital! Didn't suffer, I hope? Go on." + +"Howsomever, I says to myself, the captain wants a good valy'ble cargo, +and so we beats up again and stretches away back along the coast of +Jamaiky, on the look-out for any think that might be comin' that 'ere +way. Well, sir, d'ye see, airly one morning, as we was a lying as close +as wax under the land, we spies a big brig becalmed off to seaward; but +we diskivered at the same time that same Yankee cruiser as was in chase +of us off Matanzas. I know'd as how you would be displeased at any risks +being run, so we keeps clean and snug inshore, under a pint o' land, +till set of sun, and until arter the moon went down. Then the breeze +sprung up fresh from the old trade quarter, and says I, now we'll make a +dash at that 'ere drogher, and squeeze him as dry as bone-dust; more +pertikerly, ye see, captain, since the corvette, arter dodgin' about him +all day, had yawed off, and, with his port-tacks aboard, was beatin' to +wind'ard." + +Here Mr. Gibbs's auditor took the cigar from his mouth and rolled his +light blue eyes at him, puffed a thick volume of smoke through the +corner of his mouth, but said never a syllable. + +The narrator gave a wistful look at the brandy-flask, drained the last +few drops from the coffee-cup, pushed out his timber leg, and resumed: + +"So you see, sir, as I was a sayin', I says to myself, I'll get the boat +in the water with the lads, and, to make sure of all being conducted +shipshape, I'll go myself." + +"Oh!" said the captain, as his eyebrows went up and the corners of his +mouth came down, with the faintest breath of a sardonic smile, while he +lit a fresh cigar, "oh! you did!" + +"Ay, sir! So we let the old drogher go bouncing on past us, at about the +rate of five mile in four hours, when we crossed his wake under the jib, +and then we ups with the fore and main-sail, got a pull of the sheets, +and--" + +Captain Brand shook the point of his curved nose at the speaker, who +checked himself, and, giving an emphatic rap with his crutch on the +floor, went on with-- + +"Beg parding, sir; but, Lord love ye! we just walked up under his lee, +and afore he know'd where he wos, we boarded him, knocked over two or +three chaps, and had the skipper lashed down in his cabin as quick as +winkin' and as quiet as could be. Ay, sir, we had it all our own way; +but during the scrimmage wot should I see (here he inclined his head out +like a loggerhead turtle) but the lovelyest young 'oman as ever I +clapped eyes on!" Here his timber stump grated nervously on the floor. +"Says I, that's just the craft, with such a clean run and full bows, as +would please Captain Brand"--at which that individual rolled round on +his elbow and brought his eye to the opera-glass in the direction of the +schooner. + +"She isn't there, captain!" parenthesized the narrator, following the +motion with his head. "So I just fisted hold of her to hand her tenderly +into the boat, with a bag of shiners as wos found on board, when, so +help me---- --beg parding, sir--if a dwarfed giant of a nigger didn't +take an overhand lick at me with an iron pump-break, and nearly cut this +'ere larboard pin in two pieces; and, smash my brains!" he continued, +shaking his broad paw aloft with rage, "but what does I do, with all the +pain from the clip that da--(beg parding, sir) give me, I slams away +with a pistol bullet through the nigger's head--" + +"Didn't I see a little boy on board the 'Centipede?' Perhaps I was +mistaken, the sun blazes so fiercely, eh?" broke in Captain Brand, +though the sun didn't blaze with a fiercer light than shot out of his +deadly cold blue eyes. + +"Ho, ay, sir! that young imp was a bitin' at my t'other leg like a bull +terrier pup, while the nigger was attackin' me, and then he goes and +crawls out of the cabin winders, and was fished out of the water by the +chaps as wos towin' astarn in the boat." + +"Oh, really! how very fortunate!" muttered the captain; "go on; don't +stop, I pray you, Master Gibbs." + +"Well, sir, I knows very little what happened arter this, for the young +'oman was a screamin' and our chaps a cursin' about the decks, when all +of a sudden I fell off into a faint like, and the same time a heavy gun +came slamming into our very ears; and there was that infarnal corvette +agen bowlin' down within five cables' length of the brig, her battery +all alight and the whistles a callin' away the boats, in as violent a +haste as any think I can remember," said Gibbs, as he paused to catch +his breath. + +"You must have kept a sharp look-out, though?" But, without heeding this +remark, the burly scoundrel went on-- + +"Well, Captain Brand, the boys tumbled me over the side--" + +"Not forgetting the little bag of shiners!" sneered his auditor. + +"Tumbled me into the boat, sir, and then pulled like mad for the +schooner. I know'd, d'ye mind, captain, or leastways I felt sartain we +could show any think afloat our heels, and so away we scrambles aboard, +and off we splits. But ye must see by this time, sir, the corvette had +come down and rounded to on the weather beam of the drogher, acting like +a screen for the schooner close under his lee. It wos only a minnit, +though, while he was holding some jaw with those lubbers aboard the +brig, before he filled away again, and wearing sharp round her bows, he +diskivered us sartain. I don't think, as matters stood by this time, +that our boat was a boat-hook's length from the schooner when I jist see +a burst of red flashes from the man-o'-war's starboard ports, and heerd +an officer roar out, 'Give him the whole three divisions of grape!' when +I'm da--your parding agin, sir; I'm blest if ever I heerd sich a rain of +cold iron in all my sea-goin' experience. Ay, sir, by G--gracious, sir, +if about two bushels of them grape didn't riddle the barge like the +nozzle to a watering-pot, and same time tore seven of our noble fellows +all to rags--" + +"You saved the boat, of course?" suggested his companion, in a kind +voice, but with a frightful sneer. + +"Why, captain, we unfortinately lost her; for ye see, arter tumbling me +aboard the schooner, and arter bailing nigh as much blood as water--" + +"Capital! excellent! best joke I ever heard," broke in Captain Brand, +with a hollow laugh of much enjoyment. + +"Arter bailin' as much blood as water, and finding the man-o'-war was +heaving in stays to slam another broadside into us, we cut the boat +adrift, and then got the sheets flat aft, the gaff-top-sails up, and +away we drove with a crackin' breeze right up to wind'ard, like a +swordfish. Lord love ye, sir! we walked away from the cruiser, a eatin' +the wind out of him like a knife, and notwithstandin' he hove more nor +forty round shot at us, he only knocked away the fore-top-mast and some +other triflin' little damage about the hull, and"--he hesitated--"Lascar +Joe's head." + +"That counts off about half your crew, eh?" said Captain Brand, smiling +in his peculiar manner. "Well, what next?" + +"Why, sir, the next mornin' Belize Paul--as is part doctor, you +know--said as how my leg was to come off below the knee, and arter +givin' me a sip or two o' rum--" + +"Bottle," interjected the captain, twisting the beak of his nose in a +puff of smoke. + +"--Rum, why, smash my brains, sir, if he didn't hack it off with a +wood-saw!" + +"Well, what next?" + +"Then, sir, ye see, we run the schooner down Cape Cruz, where we kept +werry snug and quiet till sich times as the old one-eyed Diego judged +the coast clear to return to head-quarters." + +"Well, what then?" + +"That's all, Captain Brand!" concluded the narrator his garbled yarn, as +he again had recourse to scratching the door-mat on his head, and cast a +thirsty look at the brandy-flask. + +"That's all, is it?" hissed the man with the iron jaws, in a tone of +concentrated passion, as he sprang with a single bound from the settee, +and clutched Master Gibbs with both hands around his hairy throat until +his face turned livid purple and his eyes started from the sockets. +"That's all, is it, you drunken beast? That's all you have to tell after +idling away the summer, losing anchors and boats, and more than half my +crew, and bringing a hornet's nest down about our ears! That's all, is +it? And what would you say, now, if I should order the doctor to cut off +your other leg close behind your ears, you beast?" + +In the last stages of suffocation, the man was hurled on his back to the +floor, and there lay, bleeding a torrent from his mouth and nose. His +superior stood over him for a moment and put his hand in his trowsers +pocket for a pistol, and then he glanced rapidly at the green rope +squirming from the beams above; but, changing his purpose apparently, he +strode back to the settee and shouted "Babette!" + +Presently the door opened from the passage leading to the kitchen, and +there appeared a large, powerfully-made negro-woman, with her arms +akimbo, and a pair of bloodshot eyes gleaming from beneath a striped +Madras turban wound round her head. + +"Babette!" repeated the captain, resuming his seat and his habitual +polite air and voice, "serve out a barrel of Bordeaux and a beaker of +old Antigua rum to the 'Centipede's' crew to drink my health; and I say, +my beauty! have a pig or two killed; tell the boatswain to haul the +seine, and have a good supper for all hands to-night. And, Baba"--he +went on as if he had just thought of something--"there's my friend Gibbs +lying there--I believe he has fallen down in a fit--be very careful of +him--a bed in the vault--a little biscuit and water--he may be feverish +when he wakes up, you know. And, Babette, old girl, if you are in want +of kindling wood, you may as well use that timber leg of our friend +Gibbs! I don't think he'll want it again. There! _doucement_, Baba!" + +The negress gave a deep grunt of assent, and, seizing the senseless body +lying on the floor, she dragged it out of the room. Returning a few +moments after, she wiped up the blood with a cloth dipped in hot water, +and finally disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AN OLD SPANIARD WITH ONE EYE. + + "I fear thee, Ancient Mariner! + I fear thy skinny hand! + For thou art long, and lank, and brown, + As is the ribbed sea-sand." + + +"The 'Panchita' has passed Mangrove Point," came in the hoarse whisper +from the signal-man. "You can see her now from below, sir." + +Captain Brand put on a fine Panama hat, and stepped out on the veranda, +where, with a cigar in his mouth, he leaned over the balustrade, and +kept sharp watch on every thing that was going on below him. In a few +minutes a long pointed brown bowsprit protruded itself beyond the wall +of rocks, followed by a great triangular lateen sail, bent to a yard a +mile long, and tapering away like a fly-fishing-rod, where, at the end, +was a short bit of yellow and red pennant. As her bows came into view +they showed above a curved prow falling inboard, with a huge bunch of +sheepskin for a chafing-mat on the knob, and a thin red streak along the +wales, on a lead-colored ground, above her bottom, which was painted +green. As more of her proportions came into the picture, you saw a stout +stump of a mast, raking forward, with short black ropes of purchases for +hoisting the single yard, and heavy square blocks close down to the foot +of the mast. When this great sail had come out from the screen of rocks, +another light stick of a mast stood up over the taffrail, with another +lateen sail and whip-stalk of a yard, to which was bent the Spanish +Colonial Guarda Costa flag. In fact, she was a Spanish felucca all over, +from stem to stern, and truck to water-line. A few dingy hammocks were +stowed about halfway along her rail, and there were a good many men +moving about her decks in getting the cable clear, and a lot more +clinging like so many lizards along the bending yard, and all in some +attempt at uniform dress, in readiness to roll up the sail when the +anchor was down. There was a long brass gun, too, burnished like gold, +on a pivot slide, with all its equipment, trained muzzle forward in +front of the main-mast. No sooner had she sagged into the open basin, +with her immense sail hanging flat and heavy in the light air, than a +boat from the schooner boarded her, and presently she let go an anchor. +There were a few coarse compliments and greetings exchanged between the +crews of the two vessels, and some rough jokes made, as the last comer +veered out the cable, rolled up his sails, and set taut his running gear +in quite a tidy and man-of-war style. + +"Go on board the felucca, José, and give my compliments to Don Ignaçio, +and say I shall be happy to see him," cried Captain Brand from the +piazza to a man at the cove; "and tell him," continued he, "that I +should have called in person, but I can't bear the hot sun since I +caught the fever. Take my gig." + +This was said in Spanish, and when he had finished speaking he shaded +his face behind the curtain and scowled. + +"You're a bird of ill omen, my one-eyed friend; but one of these days +I'll wipe out old scores, and new ones too, perhaps," Captain Brand +muttered to himself; and, from his murderous expression of face, he +seemed just the man to carry out his threat. Meanwhile, a light +whale-boat of a gig, manned by four men and a coxswain, pushed off from +the shore, and in three strokes of the oars she was alongside the +felucca. The coxswain stepped over the low rail, and, walking aft, +turned down a cuddy of a cabin, took off his hat, and delivered his +message. A minute later he again got into the boat, and pulled to the +cove, where he said to the captain, + +"Don Ignaçio says he'll come in his own boat when he's ready." + +"_Bueno!_" was responded aloud; and then to himself: "Don't ask or +receive favors, eh? What an old file the brute is!" + +He said no more, but watched. Presently a small man came up out of the +cabin of the "Panchita," but so very slow, and with such a quiet motion +did he emerge, that one might suppose it was a wary animal rather than a +human being. He was scrupulously neat in attire--a brown pair of linen +trowsers, a Marseilles vest with silver filigree buttons, an embroidered +shirt-bosom with gold studs, and a dark navy-blue broadcloth coat, with +standing collar and anchor gilt buttons. His head-gear was simply a +white chip hat, with a very narrow brim and a fluttering red ribbon; but +beneath it his coal-black hair behind was chopped as close as could be, +leaving a single long and well-oiled ringlet on each side, which curled +like snakes around a pair of large gold rings pendent from his ears. His +complexion was dark, bilious, and swarthy, with a thin, sharp nose, and +a million of minute wrinkles, all meeting above, at the corners, and +under a small line of a mouth; quite like rays, in fact, and only +relaxed when the lips parted to show a few ragged, rotten pegs of sharp +teeth. But perhaps the most noticeable feature in his face was his +eye--for he had but one--and the spot where the other is seen in the +species was merely a red, closed patch of tightly-drawn skin, with a few +hairs sticking out like iron tacks. His single eye, however, was a jet +black, round, piercing organ, which seemed to do duty for half a dozen +ordinary glims, and danced with a sharp, malevolent scrutiny, as if the +owner was always in search of something and never found it, and every +body and every thing appeared to slink out of its light wherever it +glanced around. His age might have been any where from forty to sixty. +As he stepped on deck, clear of the cuddy cabin hatch, his sinister +optic played about in its socket--now scanning the long brass gun, the +half-furled sails, the crew, the ropes, or taking a steady, unwinking +glance at the midday sun, and then shining off to the shore, and +sweeping in the "Centipede," the little pool of blue water, and the +mouth of the inlet. Feeling apparently satisfied with the present aspect +of affairs, he slowly pulled out a machero from his waistcoat pocket, +plucked a cigarette from the case, and then proceeded deliberately to +strike a light. Even while performing this simple operation, his uneasy +orb, like unto a black bull's-eye, traversed about in its habitual way; +and when he raised the spark of fire with his brown, thin hand, and the +claws of fingers loaded with rings, he seemed to be looking into his own +mouth. Nodding to a fellow who stood near, with a crimson sash around +his waist, he inclined his eye toward the shore, blew out a thin wreath +of smoke from his lungs--all the while his vigilant organ shining like a +burning spark of lambent jet through the smoke--and merely said, + +"The boat!" + +In a moment a small cockle-shell of a punt was lowered from the stern of +the felucca, when, stepping carefully in, he seized a scull, and with a +few vigorous twists pushed her to the landing at the cove. + +During all these movements of the commander of the felucca Captain Brand +was by no means an inattentive observer; and, indeed, he was so +extremely critical that he stuck the tube of a powerful telescope +through an aperture of the curtains around him, and not only looked at +his cautious visitor, but he actually watched the expression of his +uneasy eye, and almost counted every wrinkle--finely engraved as they +were--on his swarthy visage; but, if Captain Brand's own visage +reflected an index of his mind, he did not seem over and above pleased +with what he saw. + +"Has a bundle of papers under his arm! I can see the hilt of that +delicate blade, too, sticking out from his wristband. Ah! I've seen him +throw that short blade from his coat-sleeve and strike a dollar at +twenty yards! Wonderful skill with knives you have, Don Ignaçio; but you +never yet tried your knack with _me_! Oh no, my Tuerto--bird of ill omen +that you are! We can't do without one another just yet, so let us wait +and see what's in the wind!" + +Soliloquizing these remarks, Captain Brand withdrew his telescope as the +commander of the felucca approached, and, with a cheerful smile, waited +to receive him. A few moments later the one-eyed individual mounted the +rope-ladder stairway, carefully feeling the strands, however, and +looking suspiciously around him as he stepped lightly on the piazza. + +"_Ah! compadre mio!_" exclaimed Captain Brand, in Spanish, as he seized +his visitor by the flipper, and squeezed his fingers till the pressure +on his valuable rings made him wince, as he was led into the large and +spacious saloon, while at the same time the captain gave him a hearty +slap between his narrow shoulders. + +"_Ah! compadre!_ How goes the friend of my soul?" + +The small man gave no symptoms of joy at this warm greeting; but, +screwing his wiry frame out of the captain's caresses, his eye flashed +like a spark of fire quickly up and down and all around the apartment, +as if making a mental inventory of the furniture, and not omitting his +tall companion, from the crown of his head to the toes of his straw +slippers, when he quietly remarked through his closed teeth, + +"_Como estamos?_"--"How are we?" + +"Ah, Don Ignaçio, _poco bueno, poco malo_! Half and half. Just getting +well over that maldito attack of Yellow Jack." + +"Hum! more bad than good. No? I've brought you some letters from the +agent at Havana." + +"Thanks--thanks, my friend. Ho! Babette! Babette! Some anisette for Don +Ignaçio. _Presto!_ my good Baba. There--that will do!" he said, merrily, +as the liqueur and glasses were placed on the table. "And don't omit the +turtle-soup for dinner, and tell Lascar Joe to make it. Ah! I +forget--the best cook I had--the devil's making soup of him now. +However, do the best you can, my Baba, and let us have dinner about +sunset." + +Then turning to his visitor, with a graceful bow and a laugh, he added, +"And we'll have the doctor to join us, and tell how he cut off our poor +friend Gibbs's leg with a hand-saw. _Dios! amigo!_ Capital joke, 'pon my +honor!" + +Captain Brand's honor! Lord have mercy upon us! And he had very few +jokes, and never told one himself. + +"Hum!" replied the Tuerto, in the pause of the conversation. "There's +better jokes than that to hear. _Mira!_ look!" + +With this brief rejoinder he threw a bundle of newspapers on the table, +and, pulling out a packet of letters from a breast pocket, pitched it +toward his host. Then helping himself to a thimbleful of anisette, he +took off his narrow-brimmed chip hat for the first time, polished up his +eye a bit with the knuckle of his fore finger, and looked at his +companion fixedly. + +"Letters, I see, from our old friend Moreno, at Havana," said Captain +Brand, as he sat down on the settee, and with a pretty tortoise-shell +knife cut round the seals. "Ah! what says he? 'Happy to inform you,' is +he? 'Packages of French silks seized by custom-house on account of +informal invoice and clearance.' Why didn't the fool forge others, then? +Well, what next? 'Schooner "Reel," from Barbadoes, with cargo of rum and +jerked beef, wrecked going into Principe, and crew thrown into prison on +suspicion of being engaged in--' Oh! ah! served them right, when I +ordered them to St. Jago--delighted they must be! 'Bills for advances +and stores now due, please remit, per hands of Don Ignaçio Sanchez--'" + +Here Captain Brand caught a ray from the one eye of his companion, which +he returned with interest; and then laying the letters down on the table +with the softest motion in life, he exclaimed, with a sigh, + +"Not the best news in the world, as you say, _compadre_; all those rich +goods, and those bags of coffee, and pipes of rum gone to the devil. But +these are little accidents in our profession." + +"_Como?_" said Señor Ignaçio, "_our_ profession?" shaking his fore +finger before his paper cigar in a deprecating manner. "Speak for +yourself, _amigo_." + +"Ah! true," the other went on--"my profession. The freedom of the seas, +the toll of the tropics, the right of search, and all that sort of +buccaneering pastime, is liable, you know, to the usual risks." + +Here he inclined his head to one side and gave a slight clack to his +lips, as if to illustrate in a humorous way a man choking to death with +a knotted rope under his ear. "However, we must be more cautious in +future and retrieve the past disasters, for there are still on the sea +as good barks as ever floated." + +Captain Brand said this as if he were a merchant of large means and +strict integrity, and was about to enter into some shrewd commercial +speculation. + +"Hum!" murmured Señor Ignaçio, while pouring out another little glass of +anisette. "_Amigo mio!_ you had better read the papers from Havana +before you talk of another cruise." + +"Oh! delighted to read the news--quite refreshing to get a peep at the +world after being cooped up here for months! Another French revolution! +Bonaparte alive yet! A Patriot war! Nelson and Villeneuve! All +interesting." + +Thus glancing rapidly over the prints, pausing at times at a paragraph +that arrested his attention, then tossing a paper away and taking up +another, till suddenly Captain Brand's hand shook with passion as he +read aloud, + +[Illustration: "HE TOUCHED THE BELL OVERHEAD AS HE SPOKE, AND, PUTTING +HIS MOUTH TO THE TUBE, ASKED, 'ANY THING IN SIGHT?'"] + +"His Britannic majesty's squadron has been augmented on the West India +station. The brig 'Firefly,' corvettes 'Croaker' and 'Joker,' touched at +Nassau, New Providence, on the 2d instant, bound to leeward. We also +learn that the United States have fitted out a squadron of small +vessels, called the Musquito Fleet, to search for the noted pirate +Brand, who has so long committed atrocities among the islands. He was +last chased by the American corvette 'Scourge,' off Morant Bay, on the +east coast of Jamaica, but escaped during the night. The following day a +shattered boat was picked up, which had been cut adrift from the +piratical schooner, containing several dead and dying bodies of the +pirates. One of the latter gave such information to the captain of the +'Scourge' as leads to the hope that Brand's retreat may soon be +discovered and his nest of pirates be destroyed. Recent advices from +Principe state that a vessel loaded with valuable merchandise struck on +the Cavallo Reef and went down. The crew, however, five in number, were +rescued, but on landing were identified by the mate of the English bark +'Trident' as a portion of the men who robbed that vessel and murdered +the master and several of the passengers. Our readers may remember that +among the latter were two sisters, who leaped overboard and were +drowned, to save themselves the horror of a more cruel fate. The men +alluded to, who were wrecked in the brig off Principe, were sent in +chains to Havana, and were yesterday publicly garroted in the Plaza of +Moro Castle." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CONVERSATION IN POCKETS AND SLEEVES. + + "He holds him with his skinny hand: + 'There was a ship,' quoth he. + 'Hold off! unhand me, graybeard loon!' + Eftsoons his hand dropp'd he." + + +Captain Brand laid down the paper without a sign of outward emotion, and +nodded his head several times at the one-eyed man facing him. He then +extracted his perfumed handkerchief, examined the cipher in the corner, +and waved it before his face. Don Ignaçio pulled out a red silk bandana, +and polished his eye as if it were the lens of a spy-glass. At length +the former spoke: + +"_Amigo mio!_ The nets are spreading, but the fish are not in them +yet!" + +"No, _amigo_!" + +"Ah! _compadre, viento y ventura poca dura!_ the fair breezes have +chopped round in our teeth. Success, my friend, creates jealousy, envy, +hatred, and malice. Now here were we swimming along as quietly as sharks +under water, only coming up for a bite occasionally, when on come those +villainous swordfishes, and wish to drive us away." + +Captain Brand gave expression to this pious homily in a tone of virtuous +reproach against the world at large, and as if he were a very much +maligned and ill-used gentleman. He touched the bell overhead as he +spoke, and, putting his mouth to the tube, asked, + +"Any thing in sight?" + +"Nothing, _señor_." + +"Telegraph the man at the Tiger-trap station to keep a bright look-out, +and direct the gunner to keep the battery manned day and night! Tell the +boatswain to set taut the chain on the other side at the Alligator's +mouth!" + +Don Ignaçio gave a rather suspicious glimmer at his vessel as this last +order was given, and smiled; that is, if a one-sided twitch to the +wrinkles about the line of his mouth could be tortured into a smile. His +companion seemed to divine what was passing in the Don's mind, for he +added politely, + +"The cable won't interfere with the 'Panchita!'" + +"No, _amigo_; the felucca is anchored just _out_side of it." The Tuerto +was not a man to leave any thing to chance, and he had taken the +precaution to be on the safe side of the pirates, either as friends or +enemies. He had indeed been as near an approach to a pirate himself as +could be, and had only abandoned the business for a profession quite as +bad, where there was less risk and more profit. In other words, he was +now a colonial officer in command of a Guarda Costa, winking--but +without shutting his eye--at piracy whenever he was well paid for it; +and he invariably was well paid for it, or else he made mischief. +Withal, he was as crafty and determined an old villain as ever sailed +the West Indies. He had amassed a large fortune, and owned several +tobacco estates--pretty much all his wealth acquired by the easy trouble +of holding his tongue. Yet his greed was insatiable, and he probably +would have sold the fingers from his hands, and his legs and arms with +them--all, save his single black ball of an optic, which was invaluable +to him--for doubloons. In fact, this feverish thirst after gold which +always raged in his hot veins had induced him to pay Captain Brand a +visit, and we shall see with what result. The truth is, however, that +Captain Brand was the only man of his numerous villainous acquaintance +afloat for whom he felt the least dread. He knew him to be bold, +skillful, and wary, and so the Don had a tolerably positive conviction +that, should he play him false, his own neck might get a wrench in the +garrote while he was throwing the noose for his coadjutor. + +To return, however, to the pair of worthies sitting in conclave in the +pirate's saloon: the captain, resuming the conversation, observed in a +careless tone, quite as if the subject under discussion was a mere +ordinary matter, + +"When will this swarm of hornets be down upon us?" + +The Spaniard blew a thick puff of smoke from his cigarette, and still +holding it between his teeth, while his eye glittered through the murky +cloud, he replied, + +"Perhaps a fortnight, a little more or less. I left St. Jago five days +ago, with orders from the Administrador to run down this side of the +island, and procure information for the English consul." + +"Any cruisers down that way?" + +"Ay! the corvette 'Scourge,' and the 'Snapper' schooner; they arrived +the night before I sailed." + +"Did you happen to see their officers, _amigo_?" + +"_Oh si!_ I had a long talk with the captain of the corvette at the +custom-house." + +"Holloa! and you told him--" + +"Yes; I showed him a chart of the Isle of Pines, and pointed out how to +get into the old hole." + +Here the pair laughed short laughs, when Brand continued his questions +with, + +"And how did he take the bait?" + +"Hooked him; for I heard him order his first lieutenant to be ready for +weighing at daylight, and say that my description tallied with that of +the dying man they picked up in the 'Centipede's' boat," replied the +Tuerto, with a chuckle. + +"_Bueno!_" exclaimed the pirate, as his face assumed an unwonted +sternness, while he rested his cheek on his left hand with the elbow on +the table, and slipped his right into the pocket of his trowsers. + +"_Bueno! amigo mio!_ But how do I know but you may have made a little +mistake, and described another haunt besides the Island of Pines, off in +this direction?" + +There was the faintest click of a noise in the captain's pocket as he +spoke, but not so faint but that it vibrated on the ear of the Spaniard, +and, pushing back his chair a foot or two from the table, he raised his +right hand, the fore fingers and thumb slightly bent inward, but +grasping a jewel-hilted knife, whose dim blue blade glimmered up the +loose sleeve. There was nothing threatening apparently in the movement, +though the two villains looked at each other with a cold, murderous, +unflinching glare. + +The Don was the first to break the silence; and he said, in a low, +hissing tone, + +"_Maldito!_ Because I had a little account of plata to settle with you +before the men-o'-war should roast you out. But beware, _Capitano mio_! +I left a little paper at St. Jago with directions where to find me in +case I did not return in a certain time." + +"Ho, _compadre_, how very cautious with your friends! Why, what has put +such thoughts into your head? _Diavolo!_ we have stood by one another +too long to separate now. There, my hand upon it." + +Saying this, Captain Brand's whole manner changed, and, drawing his hand +from his pocket, he reached over toward his companion. The Don, however, +watched him narrowly, and his eye shot out a wary sparkle as he withdrew +his hand, when, cautiously putting forth his own left, he touched his +cold, thin brown fingers to those of the man before him. This operation +ended, he quietly sipped a few drops of anisette, and rolled and lighted +another paper cigar. + +"Well, _amigo_, let us now proceed to business," said Brand, gayly, "for +dinner will soon be ready, and we have no time to lose. How stands the +account?" + +"The papers are on board the felucca, and it will be more convenient, +when the settlement is made, to come on board with the money. How would +to-morrow morning do? There's no hurry." + +"Just as you choose, friend of my soul! The doubloons, or the silk, or +broadcloth are ready for you at any moment. Pay you in any thing except +the delicious wines of France. _Bueno!_" he added, pulling out a +splendid gold repeater, with a marquis's coronet on the chased back. +"And now, _amigo_, accept this little token into the bargain." + +Don Ignaçio's fiery eye twinkled with greed, but it was only for a +moment, when, giving a quick glance at the coronet and coat of arms, he +waved his fore finger gently to and fro, and shook his head. + +"What! No? Why, you know it once belonged to the Captain General of +Cuba, old Tol de rol de riddle rol--what was his name? He gave it me, +you know, together with some other trinkets, for saving his life--a--you +remember? Very generous old gentleman--nobleman indeed--he was. May he +live a thousand years, or more, if he can!" + +Ay, Don Ignaçio did remember the circumstance attending that generous +transaction, and he remembered to have heard, also, that the Captain +General made a present of all his money and jewels with the point of a +broad blade quivering at his throat. He said nothing, however, in +allusion to this interesting episode, but he smiled meaningly, and went +on with his cigar. + +"Not take it, eh? Well, _amigo_, I must look you up something else; +but now for dinner. Babette, clear away for dinner. Here are the keys +of the wine-cellar. The best, my beauty, and plenty of it." Then +turning to his companion: "Suppose we take a stroll to the Tiger's Trap; +the sun is sinking, and a walk will give us an appetite for the +turtle-soup--_vamanos!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +DOCTOR AND PRIEST. + + "But soon I heard the dash of oars, + I heard the pilots' cheer; + My head was turned perforce away, + And I saw a boat appear. + + "The pilot and the pilot's boy, + I heard them coming fast; + Dear Lord in heaven! it was a joy + The dead men could not blast." + + +While Captain Brand and Don Ignaçio Sanchez walked pleasantly along the +pebbly shore of the clear blue inlet to the Tiger's Trap, let us, too, +saunter amid the habitations which sheltered the pirate's haunt. + +Apart from the mat sheds of the shelly cove of the basin, where the +"Centipede" and "Panchita" were anchored, there was a nest of red-tiled +buildings which served the crew of the former vessel for a dwelling when +in port. It was pleasantly situated on a little sandy plateau, within a +stone's-throw of the water, and shaded by a cluster of palm-trees; while +in the rear was a dense jungle of canes and bushes, through which led +numerous paths to a small lagoon beyond. The buildings were of one +story, constructed of loose stones, the holes plastered with yellow +clay, with broad, projecting eaves extending over roughly-built piazzas. +They stood in a double row, leaving a stone pavement yard between, where +one or two cocoa-nut-trees lifted their slim trunks like sentinels on +guard. Two of the largest of these huts were mere shells inside, and +used for mess-rooms, exposing the unhewn girders and roof above, but all +whitewashed and tolerably clean. The floors were of rough mahogany +boards, or heavy dark planks, and no doubt part of the cargo of some +Honduras trader who had fallen into the pirates' hands. Around the sides +of these mess-rooms were arranged small tables and canvas camp-stools, +with eating utensils of every variety of pattern and value, from stray +sets of French porcelain to common delf crockery. A large open chimney +stood a little way off, where was a kitchen, in which the cookery was +carried on, under the superintendence of a couple of old negroes. Beyond +the mess-rooms were the sheds used for sleeping apartments, with lots of +hammocks of canvas and straw braid hanging by their clews from the +beams, quite like the berth-deck of a ship of war. Bags and sea-chests +stood out from the walls, with bits of mirrors here and there, some with +the glasses cracked, and others in square or round gilt frames. All, +however, was arranged with a certain degree of order, and the floor was +clean and well scrubbed. Another detached building, much smaller than +the rest, was divided by a board partition into two rooms. The first was +used for a storeroom, and was filled with bread in barrels, bags of +coffee and sugar, hams, dried fruits, beans, salt meats, and what not, +but every thing in abundance, and apparently the very best the market of +the high seas could produce. A strong door protected this repository, +with a wrought iron bar and padlock. The other portion of the building +was more habitable. There were chairs and tables; a couple of upright +bookcases with glass doors, one filled with books, odd numbers of +magazines, and old newspapers, and the other containing a multitude of +vials, pots, and bottles of medicine--a small apothecary's shop, in +fact, together with two or three cases of surgical instruments. Two +elegant bureaus, with rosewood doors and mouldings, like those furnished +passenger ships to the East Indies, stood against the wall at either +side; and near to each, in opposite corners, were low iron bedsteads, +without mattresses or bedding, and merely stretched with dressed and +embossed leather. For pillows were Chinese heel stools, and as for +covering, the climate dispensed with it altogether. Hanging against the +wall were a couple of brace of pistols and two or three muskets, and on +the table stood a square case-bottle of gin, some glasses, and a +richly-bound breviary clasped with a heavy gold strap; but in no other +part of these huts were fire-arms ever allowed, and very rarely was +liquor served out in more than the usual daily half-gill allowance. + +Seated at the table in the last room we have described were two men. +One, the shorter of the two, was dressed in a long, loose bombazine +cassock, girded about his waist by a white rope, which fell in knotted +ends over his knees. Around his open neck was hung a string of black +ebony beads, hooked on to a heavy gold cross, which rested on his +capacious breast, and which the wearer was continually feeling, and +occasionally pressing to his lips. His face was dark and sensual--thick, +unctuous lips, a flat nose, and large black eyes--while a glossy fringe +of raven hair went like a thick curtain all around his head, only +leaving a bluish-white round patch on the shaved crown. This individual +was the Padre Ricardo, who, for some good reasons best known to himself, +had left his clerical duties in his native city of Vera Cruz and taken +service with Captain Brand. One of the reasons for leaving--and rather +abruptly, too--was for thrusting a cuchillo into the heart of his own +father, who had reported him to his superior for his monstrous +licentiousness. The padre, however, always declared that he was +actuated entirely by filial duty in killing his old parent, to save him +the pain and disgrace which would have followed the exposure of his son! +He still clung, though excommunicated, to the priestly calling, and +prided himself upon his fasts and vigils, never omitting the smallest +forms or penances, and saying mass from Ave Maria in the early morning +to Angelus at vesper time in the evening. For Captain Brand he was ready +to shrive a dying pirate--and pretty busy he was, too, at times--or hear +the confession of one with a troubled conscience in sound health; which, +if important to the safety or well-being of the fraternity, he took a +quiet opportunity of imparting to his superior in command. In these +pursuits he not only made himself useful to Captain Brand, but he became +more or less his confidant and adviser, and seemed to maintain his +influence by ghostly advice over the superstitious feelings of the men. +The padre, however, utterly detested the sea, and never touched his soft +feet in the water if he could by any possibility avoid it; but since he +had plenty to eat and drink on the island, and no end of prayers for his +amusement when in charge of the haunt--as he was--to look out for the +people who were left when the "Centipede" sailed on a cruise, he thus +passed the time in a delightfully agreeable manner. + +The companion who sat opposite to the padre was a tall, gaunt, +cadaverous person, evidently of French extraction, with something kind +and humane about his face, but yet the physiognomy expressed the utmost +determination of character--such a heart and eye as could perform a +delicate surgical operation without a flutter of nerve or eyelid, and +who would stand before a leveled pistol looking calmly down the barrel +as the hammer fell. His face was intellectual, and he never smiled. His +whole appearance portrayed a thorough seaman. Where he came from no one +knew; nor did he ever open his lips, even to the captain, with a reason +for taking service among his band. All known about him was that he +landed from a slaver at St. Jago, and was engaged by Don Ignaçio to +serve professionally with Brand in assisting the patriots on the Spanish +Main. When, however, he reached the rendezvous of the pirates, and +discovered that they were altogether a different sort of patriots than +he had bargained for, he nevertheless made no objections to remain, and +took the oath of allegiance, only stipulating that he should not be +called upon to take an active part in their proceedings. Here, then, he +remained for nearly three years, attending to the sick or wounded, +taking no interest in the accounts of the exploits of the freebooters +around him--rarely, indeed, holding speech with any one save his +room-mate, the padre, or occasionally a dinner or a walk with Captain +Brand. On the last expedition, however, of the "Centipede," he had been +induced to go on board, so that he might become a check and guard over +the brutal ruffian who had been placed temporarily in command; but, as +we have already seen, his influence had been of little avail. + +There was yet another occupant of the room inhabited by the doctor and +Padre Ricardo; and a low moaning cry caused the former to rise quietly +from his chair and approach the low iron bedstead on his side of the +lodging. There, beneath a light gauze musquito net, lay our poor little +Henri--his once round, rosy, innocent face now pale and thin, with a red +spot on each cheek, and a dark, soft line beneath the closed eyes. +Uneasily he moved in his fitful slumber; and putting his little hands +together as if in prayer, he murmured, "Oh mamma, mamma!" + +Beside the bed stood an unglazed jar of lemonade, together with a vial +and a spoon. The doctor drew nigh, and, gently pushing aside the +curtain, stood looking at the child for some minutes. Presently the +little sick boy feebly stretched out his delicate, thin limbs, and +unclosed his eyes. Oh! how dim, and sad, and touching was that look, as +he gave a timid, half-wild stare, and then, closing the lids tight +together, the hot drops bubbled out and coursed slowly down his tender +cheeks. + +The doctor, with the gentleness of a woman, bent over him, and taking up +his poor, limp little hand, he remained feeling the fluttering pulse and +catching the hot breath on his dark cheeks. As if communing with +himself, while a glow of compassion lighted up his careworn visage, he +muttered, + +"By the great and good God, who hears me, if I save this child I will +restore him to his heart-broken mother!" + +He sank down on his knees by the bedside as he made his vow, and letting +the little hand rest on the bed, he buried his face in his large bony +hands. What thoughts passed through that man's mind none but the +Almighty knows; but when he arose his stern features had resumed their +wonted expression, and, pouring a little lemonade in a glass, he held it +to the sleeper's lips. Then moving noiselessly back to the table, he +said, in a low tone, + +"Padre, the boy will live. His fever is leaving him, and he will get +well." + +"_Ave Maria! Santissima!_" ejaculated the padre, crossing himself and +kissing his cross; "I pray for him. You must give him to me, doctor. I +will make him a little priest, and he shall swing the censer and chant +the Misericordia when I get the new chapel built." + +"Time enough to think of that, _mi padre_, when he gets strong again. +But just now all the prayers _you_ can say for him will do him no good, +and so I hope you won't put yourself to the trouble." + +"_Cierto, amigo_, doctor; but don't sneer at the prayers of the Church. +They do good; they ease the soul and soothe the pangs of Purgatory." + +"Ah! and how long do you expect to stop in Purgatory?" + +"_Ave purissima!_ What a question to ask your pious and devout Padre +Ricardo!" + +"Question the devil when you want fire," retorted the doctor, as he +opened a book lying on the table before him, and put an end to the +dialogue. His companion quietly helped himself to a measure of pure gin, +and unclasped the covers of his richly-bound missal. + +Scarcely, however, had their conversation ceased, when a hoarse hum of +many voices was heard in the direction of the sheds without, mingled +with shouts in all tongues and uproarious laughter. + +"_Peste!_" said the doctor, looking out of an open window; "the people +have knocked off work and are coming home to their supper. They seem to +have brought some of the crew of the felucca with them too. We shall +have a loud night of it, for the captain has sent them a pipe of wine +and a barrel of rum to carouse with." + +"_Pobre çitos!_ they have had a hard time of it during the summer--short +of rum, and water too, I hear, and they need refreshment and repose. So +many of my poor flock killed, too, by that savage American corvette, and +I not near to administer the last consolations and holy rite!" sighed +the padre, as he kissed the crucifix and bowed his head. "There is +Lascar Joe, too, among the missing! He refused the sacrament, infidel as +he was, the day before he sailed; but what turtle-soup he made!" The +padre hereupon sighed deeply again, but whether for the loss of the +Lascar or the soup, no one knows. + +The noise without increased--the rattle of crockery, the clinking of +glasses, the moving of feet, and all the sounds of hungry, boisterous +sailors at table. Soon, too, a shout or cheer would be heard, then a +verse of a song, roars of laughter, and now and then the tinkle of a +guitar struck by vigorous fingers in waltz or fandango. + +"_Merçi!_" muttered the doctor, as he looked compassionately at the sick +child on the bed; "those noisy wretches will, I fear, disturb the little +boy, and it's as hot here too, padre, as the place we all are going +to." + +"It _is_ warm, my son!" he replied, as his thick unctuous lips parted +with a smile at his companion's allusion to another and a hotter place; +"but I think our good _capitano_ would have a cot slung for my little +priest in the saloon of the big building there. It is always cool on the +crag, you know." + +"Ah! perhaps he will," said the doctor, reflectively; "I'll see about +it." + +Stepping again to the bedside of the little sufferer, he laid a hand +gently on his forehead, where the soft curls lay in confusion about his +temples, and then quickly touching his pulse, he regarded him +attentively for a few moments, while at the same time a light glow of +perspiration came faintly over the innocent face and spread itself down +the neck. + +"His fever is breaking! _Grace à Dieu!_" whispered the doctor to the +padre; "his breath is regular and cool, and he is sleeping sweetly. Now, +if you like, we will go to see the captain, and, if he consents, I will +carry the child when he wakes to the dwelling." + +The doctor carefully closed the door of the room as he and his companion +stepped out into the open court-yard, and moved toward the spacious +sheds beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A MANLY FANDANGO. + + "While feet and tongues like lightning go + With--What cheer, Luke? and how do, Joe? + Dick Laniard chooses Meg so spruce, + And buxom Nell takes Kit Caboose." + + "Now around they go, and around and around, + With hop, skip, and jump, and frolicsome bound, + Such sailing and gliding, + Such sinking and sliding, + Such lofty curvetting + And grand pirouetting, + Mix'd with the tones of a dying man's groans, + Mix'd with the rattling of dead men's bones." + + +Twilight had taken the place of the red sun, the stars came timidly out +one by one, and then in sparkling clusters the brilliant constellations +illumined the blue heavens as the rosy twilight faded again away. Then +the ripple of the inlet came with a tranquil musical sound upon the +white pebbly beach, the lizards in the holes and crevices of the rocks +began their plaintive wheetlings, the frogs and alligators joined in the +chorus from the low lagoon in the distance, and the early night of the +tropic had begun. + +But louder far than the hum of the insects and reptiles, and brighter +than the lamps of heaven, arose the wild shouts and songs of the pirates +carousing, where the torches and wax-lights lit up the scene of their +orgies with the glare of day. The great mess-room was a blaze of light +from candles and lamps, stuck in brackets or gilt sconces about the +walls, or hanging awry in broken chandeliers from the lofty beams. The +remains of their feast had been cleared away, and the tables were +covered with bottles, cups, and glasses, with boxes of cigars and pans +of lighted coals. At one end of the room was a large table, on which was +laid a black cloth with a broad silver border--sometimes used by the +padre on great occasions--and covered with cards and piles of Mexican or +Spanish dollars. At the other end was a raised platform, where four or +five swarthy fellows with guitars in their hands were strumming away in +the clear rattling harmony of Spanish boleros and dances, shrieking out +at intervals snatches of songs in time to the music, or twirling the +instruments around their heads in a frenzy of excitement. At the +tables, too, were more of the excited band, vociferating with almost +superhuman fluency in various languages their exploits, pausing +occasionally amid the hubbub to clink their glasses together, and then +chattering and yelling on as before. In the centre of the apartment were +some half dozen of the same sort, either spinning around the floor in +the waltz, or moving with a certain air of careless, manly grace one +toward another in the gavotte or bolero. There were at the least some +sixty or seventy of these fellows in the room together, most of them +above the middle height, with finely-developed muscles, broad shoulders, +bushy whiskers, and flowing hair. They came apparently from all climes, +from Africa to the Mexican Gulf, and their features and complexions +partook of every imaginable type, from the light skin and florid +complexion of the Swede, to the low brow, oval olive cheek of the +Mediterranean, and the coal-black hue and flat nose of the Bight of +Benin. Their dress was uniform--frock collars cut square and thrown well +back over their ample chests; their nether limbs incased in clean duck +or brown linen trowsers, with silk sashes around their waists, and large +gold rings in their ears. Mingled here and there in the moving throng, +or leaning over the large table with the black cloth cover, were a few +fellows in the uniform rig of the Guarda Costa, in navy jackets and +black silk belchers around their throats; but all were without weapons +of any description, and were enjoying themselves each after his fancy. +Sentinels stood at the doors of the mess-room with drawn cutlasses over +their shoulders, so that in case of a violent quarrel or row, in dance, +drinking, or gaming, the culprits might be cared for. + +While the uproar was at its height, and the lofty tiled roof was ringing +with the gay and ribald songs and shouts of the excited crowds, two +persons appeared in the doorway at the middle of the room, and entered. +In a moment, as the busy revelers beheld them, the dance ceased, the +music of the guitars died away in a tinkling cadença, the glasses +stopped clinking, the dollars no longer chinked, and the songs and +shouts were hushed. You might have heard a _real_ drop for a minute, +until one of the individuals who had entered slowly walked forward a few +paces and threw his right hand aloft in salutation. Then burst forth a +hoarse, simultaneous shout of + +"_Viva nuestro amigo! Viva el capitano!_" + +Captain Brand did not pause until he had reached the centre of the great +hall, where he stood calmly looking around upon the swarthy groups, who +crowded about in circles at a respectful distance from him; and then +amid the silence he spoke up, in a frank, off-hand manner, + +"Well, my men, I am glad to see you all once more around me. You have +not been so successful as I hoped, but we must take the good and ill +luck as it comes, and I have no fault to find with you. The times, +however, are bad enough; for I have certain news that our retreat here, +where we have so long been hid, may be discovered"--the villains around +held their breath and let their cigars lie dead in their mouths--"but," +went on their commander, "I shall do all that is prudent in the +circumstances for the benefit of all of us; and when we leave here you +will still have me for your leader, with my head, heart, and blade ever +ready to advise or protect you." As he stopped speaking another cheer +arose: + +"_Viva, nuestro amigo! viva! viva! El 'Centipede' y el capitano! Hasta +muerto!_ Long live the captain! We stand by you until death!" + +"Thank you, my friends; I have but one more word to say. The men who +have the relief at the signal-stations and the water-battery must keep +sober. Now go on again with the music." + +The captain, however, did not immediately quit the hall, but, while the +revel began once more with all its enthusiasm, he moved amid the crowd +of its adherents and said a cheerful word to many. + +"Ah! Pepe, your arm in a sling, eh! a graze of a grape-shot, eh? Why, +Hans, you here! nothing can hurt _you_! Well, Monsieur Antoine, how well +thou art looking; and that pretty sweetheart of thine at St. Lucie! Bah! +never look sad, man; thou shalt see her again. What, my jolly Jack Tar! +an ugly scratch, that, across your jaw--a splinter, eh? Never mind; a +little plaster and half allowance of grog will put you all right again. +So good-night, my friends. _Adios!_" + +Saying these words, all addressed to the individuals in their different +languages, he gave a graceful wave of his hand and passed out of the +building. As he rejoined his friend, the commander of the "Panchita," +who had waited at the threshold, while his wary glim of an eye searched +the faces and read the thoughts of all the villains who clustered about +the room--they both stepped out into the court-yard and sauntered +pleasantly on toward the crag. They had not, however, proceeded many +paces before they encountered the padre and the doctor. + +"Ah!" exclaimed the captain, who was in advance, "how goes it with my +doctor?" shaking his hand as he spoke. "Oh, _mi padre_, how art thou?" +turning to Ricardo. + +"_Salve!_ my son; not been so well this morning, with the old rheumatism +in my head." + +"Drunk!" said sententiously the doctor. + +Then again with a gay laugh to the other, "Well, my doctor, your first +cruise has not been so pleasant in the 'Centipede' as I hoped it might +be, but the next may be more agreeable." + +"Perhaps so, Captain Brand; but I shall have a word or two with you on +that subject to-morrow; and, in the mean while, _señor_, I brought a +little boy back with me who is ill from fever, and my quarters are so +stifling hot, and the air from the lagoon is so bad, that I would like +to stow him for a day or so, with your permission, in your quarters, +where it is cooler." + +"Certainly, doctor; why not? my house and all in it are at your service. +By the way, I was about to ask you and the padre to dine with me and Don +Ignaçio there. Will you join us? Yes? Then let us move on, for dinner +must be ready by this time, and it would be a sin to keep Babette +waiting." + +Excusing himself for a few minutes, the doctor went for his sick charge, +and returned with him in his arms to the pirate's dwelling. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A PIRATES' DINNER. + + "But the best of the joke was, the moment he spoke + Those words which the party seemed almost to choke, + As by mentioning Noah some spell had been broke, + And, hearing the din from barrel and bin, + Drew at once the conclusion that thieves had got in." + + +When the guests had assembled in the pirate's saloon it was some minutes +before their host appeared. When, however, he did step into the room +from his private apartment adjoining, he was altogether a different man +in outward appearance than in the early morning. In place of the loose +sailor summer rig which he then wore, he was now attired as a gentleman +of elegant fashion of the time in which we write. His lower limbs were +clothed with flesh-colored silk stockings, and fitted into a pair of +pointed toed pumps with buckles of brilliants that a duchess might have +envied. A pair of white cassimere breeches, which set off to advantage +his well-shaped leg, were tied in a dainty bow of rose-colored satin +ribbon below the knee, and fitted him like a second skin. His waistcoat +was of rose-colored watered silk, embroidered with silver, and which, +with its flaps and ample proportions, was halfway hidden by a dress coat +of green velvet. This last garment had a sort of navy cut, with standing +collar richly laced with silver, gold buttons in a double row of the +size of doubloons, with loose sleeves and cuffs heavily laced with +silver also. His linen was of the most gossamer fineness, the collar +thrown slightly back and confined by a single clasp of rubies the size +of beans, while below was a frill of cambric ruffles sparkling with opal +studs framed in diamonds. The ruffles, too, at his wrist were of the +most beautiful point lace, secured by royal brilliants, and he was +altogether a dandy of such princely magnificence that the courtiers of +the days of the old French monarchy might have taken him for a study. +His manner, likewise, was every way in keeping with his splendid attire; +and the ease and grace with which he excused himself to his guests for +keeping them waiting certainly denoted a knowledge of a higher order of +breeding and society than that in which his lot had been cast. + +[Illustration] + +From the very moment of his entrance, however, Don Ignaçio had measured +him at a glance. His single glittering eye of jet had taken him in from +the laced collar of his coat to the buckles of his shoes. Not a jewel in +his dress, from the flaming opals in his bosom to the brilliant stones +at his wrists, and down to the sparkling clusters at his feet, did not +his one uneasy optic drink in the flash and estimate the value. Nay, he +calculated by instinct the weight of the gold buttons on his coat and +the price of the exquisite lace which fell in snowy folds about his +hands. Oh, a rare mathematician was Don Ignaçio! What greedy thoughts, +too, passed through that little Spaniard's brain! "Ah!" thought he, +"shall I take my debt in those priceless gems, each one the ransom of a +princess, which the old Captain General may one of these days reclaim? +Hola! no! Or shall I receive more negotiable commodities in gold, +cochineal, or silks? Well! _Veremos!_ we shall see!" + +The effect produced upon the good Padre Ricardo was altogether +different. As the captain entered with all his glorious raiment upon +him, he started back, and, bowing before him as if he were Saint Paul +himself, he seized his superior's white hand, and kissed it with fervent +devotion. Not satisfied with this mark of respect, he raised his dingy +paws, holding his crucifix before him, and murmured, in a sort of +ecstasy, + +"_Mi hico! mi capitano! que brillante!_"--"My son! my captain! what a +brilliant being you are!" + +Singularly in contrast, however, was the effect produced upon the +doctor, who merely raised his dark eyes in an abstracted gaze, gave +a careless and rather contemptuous nod of recognition, and then turned +to examine one of the richly-inlaid cabinets which adorned the +saloon. All these various phases of sympathy, attraction, or contempt +flickered like a sunbeam into Captain Brand's reflecting brain, as, with +a delicately-perfumed handkerchief in one hand, and a gold-enameled +and diamond-incrusted snuff-box in the other, he bowed gracefully to +his visitors, and seated himself at table. + +The table was now rolled out into the centre of the saloon, laid with a +snowy-white damask cloth, and covered with the equipage for a banquet. +At either corner were noble branches of solid silver candelabra, which +would have graced an altar, as perhaps they had, and holding clusters of +wax-lights, which shed their rays over the display below. In the centre +arose a huge épergne of silver, fashioned into the shape of a drooping +palm-tree, whose leaves were of frosted silver, and about the trunk +played a wilderness of monkeys. Beneath, around the board, were +cut-glass decanters, flat bulbous flasks of colored Bohemian glass, +crystal goblets, delicate and almost shadowy wine-cups from Venice, +silver wine-coolers, all mingled in with a heterogeneous collection of +rare china and silver dishes. Such wines, too, as filled those vessels! +not a prince or magnate in all the lands where the vine is planted could +boast of so rare and exquisite a collection. Pure, thin, rain-water +Madeira, full threescore years in bottle! Pale, limpid Port, whose color +had long since gone with age, and left only the musk-like odor; flasks +of Johannisberg of pearly light; bottles of Tokay for lips of cardinals; +tall, slim stems of the taper flasks of the Rhine; while the ruby hues +of wine from the Rhone stood clustering about amid pyramids of +pine-apples, oranges, and bananas, and all loading the air of the saloon +with their delicious fragrance. + +When the party had become fairly seated around the board, and while the +host was bailing out the soup from an enormous silver tureen with a +tea-cup--for it did not appear that he had ever been presented in the +usual way with a ladle--fishing out the floating morsels of rich +callipee, with the delicate frills of his sleeves turned back, he began +the conversation in the Castilian language: + +"Well, _amigos_, we are taking our last feast together, I fear, on this +little cluster of rocks, for a long time to come." + +"How!" exclaimed the padre, as he stuffed a wedge of turtle fat in his +oily mouth, and opened his round black eyes to their fullest extent in +manifest surprise. + +"_Como, mi hico!_" he repeated, as he passed a dirty paw over his smooth +chin, and looked inquiringly. + +"Yes, holy father, our good friend Don Ignaçio here has brought us +somewhat startling intelligence. Capital soup, this. I shall give +Babette a dollar. Yes, the eagles and vultures are after us; all the +West India fleet; the Lord only knows how many ships, and brigs, and +gun-boats. Glass of Madeira with you, doctor?" wiping his thin lips with +a corner of the damask table-cloth as he spoke; "and they have tampered, +too, with my old friends the custom-house people. Take away the tureen, +Babette--and, in point of fact, I shouldn't be the least surprised to +see a swarm of those navy gentlemen off the reef here at any moment. A +sharp knife, Babette, for these teal--a duck should be cut, not torn. +Try that Moselle, Don Ignaçio; I know your fancy for light wines. This +was given me by a Captain--'pon my soul, I forget his name; he had such +a pretty wife, Madame Matilde," glancing at the frame of miniatures on +the wall; "sweet creature she was; took quite a fancy for me, I believe, +and might have been sitting here at this moment, but a--really I forget +her other name. However, it makes no difference: the wine is called +Moselle." + +Now be it here observed that Don Ignaçio drank very little wine or +stimulants of any sort, and never by any chance a drop from any vessel +which, with his single bright eye, he did not see his host first indulge +in. This self-imposed sacrifice may have been owing to his diffidence, +or modesty, or deference to Captain Brand, or, perhaps, other and +private reasons of his own; but yet he never broke through that rule of +politeness and abstemiousness. Sometimes, indeed, he carried his +principles so far as to refuse a meat or the fruits which his host had +not partaken of, and always with a slow shake of his brown fore finger, +as if he did not like even to smell the dish presented to him. + +"What! not even a sip of that nectar, _compadre mio_?" + +The compadre shook his digit, and observed that drinking nectar +sometimes made people sick. + +The captain laughed gayly, and said, "Bah! learning to drink does the +harm, and not the art, when properly acquired." + +During all the foregoing interlude the doctor remained in his grave, +calm humor, and only when the captain alluded to the lady whose +husband's name escaped him did he show signs of interest. Then his eye +followed the look toward the miniature, and his jaws came together with +a slight grating spasm. + +Padre Ricardo, however, was in excellent sympathetic spirits, eating and +drinking like a glutton of all within his reach, and turning his full +eyes at times, as if to a deity, upon his friend the captain. Once he +spoke-- + +"But, my son, you were talking of leaving this quiet retreat, where we +have passed so many happy hours." + +"Yes, friend of my soul! Those fellows with commissions, and pennants at +their mast-heads, and guns, and what not, seem determined to do us a +mischief." The devout padre crossed himself, and pressed the crucifix to +his greasy lips. "Ay! they would no doubt arraign us before some one of +their legal tribunals. Put us in prison, perhaps; or maybe give us a +slight squeeze in a rope or iron collar!" + +The padre groaned audibly, and dropped the wing of a teal he was +gnawing, forgetting, strange as it may seem, to cross himself. + +"_Hola, mi padre!_ cheer up! We are worth a million of dead men yet. The +world is wide, the sea open, and with a stout plank under our feet and +one of these fellows"--here he balanced a long carving-knife, dripping +with blood-red gravy, in his hand--"in our belts, who can stop us?" + +There was the cold, ferocious-eyed gleam of a dying shark in the +speaker's eyes as he went on with his carving; but the priest gave a +jerk of trepidation with his chin, and appeared anxious to hear more. + +"Don Ignaçio, try a bit of this roast _guana_; it's quite white and +tender. No? Babette, give me some of that rabbit stew!" The one-eyed +individual was likewise helped to some of that savory ragoût, and +proceeded to pick the bones with much care and deliberation. + +"Still _triste_, my _padre_! Come, come, this will never do. Join me in +a bumper of this generous old Port. _Bueno!_ may we attain the same age! +By the way, where did this rich stuff come from?" holding up the +decanter between the light and his face as he spoke. + +Don Ignaçio's glittering optic pierced clear through the light ruby +medium of the wine, cut-glass decanter and all, as he furtively watched +his host, and was prepared to dodge in case the heavy vessel should slip +out of the captain's hand. Such things had happened, and might again; +besides, a hard flint substance with a multitude of sharp projections, +two or three inches thick and five or six pounds in weight, falling from +a height on a man's head, might kill him. The Don thought of all this, +and twitched something up his sleeve with his hand under the table. But +Captain Brand, it seemed, had no intention of smashing his elegant +dinner set of glass, and putting down the decanter and raising a finger +to his forehead, he said, "How did that wine come into my possession?" + +"Somebody gave it to you, perhaps. _Quien sabe?_ (Who knows?)" suggested +Don Ignaçio. + +Without heeding the interruption, the captain's eye rested on the +brilliant snuff-box on the table beside him, where the letter L was set +in diamonds and blue enamel on the back, and catching it with a rap, his +face lighted up, and as he took a pinch and passed the box to the padre, +he exclaimed, + +"Ah! now I remember, my old friend--the Portuguese countess from Oporto. +_Dios! de mi alma!_ (God of my soul!) what a stately beauty was her +daughter!" + +Here Captain Brand sneezed, and, drawing a delicately-perfumed lace +handkerchief from his waistcoat pocket, blew his nose. Meanwhile the box +went round the table; Padre Ricardo took a huge pinch with his dirty +fingers, and feasted his eyes upon the precious lid. The doctor scarcely +gave the elegant bawble a glance as he helped himself. The Don, however, +examined it with the eye of a connoisseur, and not only that, but he +threw a spark at the captain's flashy waistcoat, and thought he detected +some other article in the capacious pockets vice the handkerchief. +Perhaps he may have been mistaken and perhaps not, though he was so very +suspicious an old villain that he sometimes did his friends injustice. +Nor did he put his thin brown fingers, with the few grains of snuff he +had dipped from the box, to his sheepskin nostrils till he had watched +the effect it had produced on those around him. + +"Ah! my friends, I remember distinctly now all about it," continued the +captain, as he returned the kerchief and shook a few specks of the +titillating dust from his point-lace sleeve; "it is about three years +ago, just before you came to live with me, padre, that we fell in with a +large ship bound to Porto Rico. She had been disabled in an awful +hurricane, which had taken two of her masts clean off at the decks, and +was leaking badly. We, too, had been a little hurt in the same gale, and +having made a pretty good season, I was anxious to get back here and +give the crews a rest. Well, we made out the ship about an hour before +sunset, and it was quite dark before we came up with her. There she lay, +rolling like a log, though there was not much sea on, and we could hear +her chain-pumps clanking, and saw the water spouting out from her +scuppers as pure almost as it went into her hold. As we came up +alongside they hailed me for assistance, and said the ship was sinking, +and could not live till morning. + +"Of course I could give them no actual assistance, situated as I +was"--here the narrator smiled as he glanced round upon his guests--"it +would have been simply absurd, you know, the idea of my putting men on +board to keep her afloat for the nearest gibbet. Bah! I did not dream of +such ridiculous nonsense. However, I determined to make her a visit, +and, if there should be any thing to save from the wreck in an undamaged +condition, why, I should look around. + +"Not too much of that Port, _mi padre_; think of your rheumatism in the +morning! Doctor, you don't drink! + +"Well, going on board, I found two lady passengers--the wife and +daughter of an old judge of the island of Porto Rico, with half a dozen +servants, who were all screaming, and praying, and beseeching me to save +them--all but one, a tall, graceful girl, with a large India shawl +wrapped around her shoulders, her white arms glancing through the folds, +and a pair of dark, liquid, almond-shaped eyes, such as I had never +before seen. The fact is, my friends, I had always before fancied blue. +But there stood this girl, with eyes like a wounded stag, leaning up +against the weather bulwarks near the open cabin door. + +"Babette, take away all but the wine and fruit, and bring fire. Pass +that box this way, if you please, _compadre_! Thank you." + +Don Ignaçio seemed to have an affection for the trifle, and had counted +the brilliants over and over again, and made a mental calculation of +their weight and value; and when he did move it as he was desired, his +greedy eye followed it with fascination. + +"Yes, it's very pretty, and I set a great store by it," parenthesized +the host, as he resumed his tale: + +"The girl never screamed or even spoke, and, amid all the hubbub of a +drunken skipper and a disorderly crew, she remained quiet and unmoved. +To assure the people, I told them that I would stay by the ship and do +what I could for them. At this the old lady clasped me around the neck, +and kissed me, and blubbered over me more than ever she did, I imagined, +to the old Spanish judge, her husband--imploring me too, by all the +saints she could think of, to take herself and daughter out of the +sinking vessel at once. You may believe that I would much rather have +been treated in that way by the lovely girl with the wonderful eyes +instead of the fat, rancid old woman beside her; but there was no help +for it just then, and so I consented, with all the professions of +sympathy I could make, to do as she desired." + +Here the captain lit a pure Havana, and, after a few puffs and a sip of +Port, continued: + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER. + + "At last she startled up, + And gazed on the vacant air + With a look of awe, as if she saw + Some dreadful phantom there." + + +"No sooner had I assured the old lady that I would transfer them to my +vessel than her daughter made a step forward, and, letting her shawl +fall upon the deck, she seized my hand with both of hers, and said, in a +low contralto voice, + +"'Heaven bless you, _señor_!' + +"By the cestus of Venus, _caballeros_, the pressure of that girl's hand, +and the deep, speaking look of gratitude she gave me out of her liquid +eyes, quite did my business!" + +"And the señorita's too, I think," chimed in the one-eyed commander, as +he wagged his uneasy head at the narrator. + +"_Quien sabe?_" (who knows?) went on Captain Brand: "at all events, I +raised her soft patrician hand to my lips and kissed it respectfully. +Ha! I noticed, too, as I released her round, slender fingers, that she +wore a sapphire of great brilliancy--ay, here it is now. I keep it in +remembrance of the girl." + +Saying this, the host shook back the lace ruffles of his sleeve, and, +crooking his little finger, exhibited the jewel to his guests. + +"Go on, my son," said the padre, as his sensual face expressed his +satisfaction at the recital--"_Vamonos!_" + +"My holy father," responded the narrator, "beware of that wine-flask! +You have grand mass to-morrow! it is the feast of our patron saint, you +know." + +"_Si! si! hijo mio!_ your padre is always ready," crossing himself in a +half tipsy way as he spoke--"_Vamonos!_" The doctor looked as cold as +marble, and said not a word. + +"Well, gentlemen," went on Captain Brand, "I soon got that ship in a +tolerably wholesome state of command. I made my trusty old boatswain, +Pedillo, lock the fuddled skipper up sound and tight in his own +stateroom, and the rest of my men took a few ropes' ends, and belted the +lubbers of a crew until they went to work at the pumps with renewed +vigor. I also insisted upon the scared male servants of the passengers +lending a hand at that innocent recreation, for you see I had no +intention of letting the ship go down--" + +"With the Capitano Brand in her," interrupted Señor Sanchez. + +"No, by no manner of means; for the ship, I felt, was settling fast, and +I could hear the loose cargo, which had broken adrift below in the main +hold, playing the devil's own game; smashing and crushing from side to +side as the vessel rolled, and coming in contact with the stanchions and +beams, with a surging swash of water, too, which told the tale without +the trouble of breaking open the hatches. I took, however, the +precaution to run my eye over the manifest to see if, perchance, there +was any treasure in the after run or any where else, as, in case there +had been, I should have made some little effort to get at it. However, +there was nothing on board but wine, dried fruits, and heavy bale goods, +not worth the time or trouble, in the aspect of affairs at that time, to +save as much as a single cask or a drum of prunes. I glanced, too, at +the clearance list, and saw that the names of the passengers were La +Señora Luisa Lavarona, and the Señorita Lucia, lady and daughter, with +half a dozen orders and titles, of the judge in _Puerto Rico_. _Bueno!_ +roll me an orange, if you please, doctor! Ah! _gracias_, thanks." + +The doctor rolled the orange, and, had it been a grape-shot or any other +iron missile, its aim would have gone straight through the captain's +body, just above his left waistcoat pocket. + +"In the mean while the old lady rushed around in a tremendous hurry, in +and out of the cabin, losing her balance occasionally in the lurches, +ordering her maids to pull out trunks and boxes on to the deck; then +giving me a hug to relieve her feelings, and praying and crying between +whiles in the most whimsical manner. Not contented either with getting +out a pile of luggage and chests that would have swamped a jolly-boat, +she insisted upon waiting until a locker was broken open in the cabin +pantry for the purpose of rescuing six cases of old Port wine, which had +been, she told me, sent as a present from the Archbishop of Lisbon to +his friend the judge. At this juncture I persuaded her to send her +daughter and a few light articles first on board my vessel, when the +boat would then return for herself and the remainder of their property. +Accordingly, I carefully wrapped the lovely girl in shawls and cloaks, +and got her over the side and down into my boat, pitched a few light +caskets and cases in after the young beauty, and then, with a quiet word +or two into Pedillo's sharp ear, the boat shoved off. I suppose it may +have been half an hour before my boat returned, and then I learned from +the coxswain that he had shown his charge down into my private cabin, +and she appeared as comfortable and resigned as possible. Well, we made +quick work of it now, tumbled a good many things into the boat, when I +myself got in to receive the old lady and her retinue. By the way, among +the articles were the boxes of wine--this is some of it"--tapping the +decanter, now nearly empty from the attacks of the priest--"and in my +opinion it does great credit to the taste and judgment of that venerable +archbishop." + +"_Ave, purissima!_" said the padre, with a hiccough; "I shall be a +bishop myself one of these days. _Ora pro nobis!_" + +"You'll be a cardinal," gibed in the doctor, "if swilling wine will do +it." + +Captain Brand went on with his narrative: + +"Where was I? Oh! ah! We were waiting alongside the ship, with her lower +chain-plates not a foot above water, for the donna to be hoisted over +the rail, since she would not permit any of her attendants to precede +her--though Heaven knows they were anxious enough to do so. By this +time, too, after my men had left the deck of the ship, the crew had +somehow got hold of a barrel of wine, and, letting the pumps work +themselves, were guzzling away in grand style. I began to lose patience +at last, and shouted to the old lady to come at once, or I should be +compelled to leave her. She merely leaned over the rail, however, and +chattered forth that all she had in the world was at my service--of +course, figuratively she meant--but she must stay another minute to find +a jar of preserved ginger, which was her only cure for the cholic." + +"You didn't take the offer of the old lady as a figure of speech, I +presume?" asked the doctor. + +"No!" muttered the one-eyed old wretch, with a sneer. "And that jar of +ginger spared her any more attacks of cholic!" + +"_Caballeros_, you are both right. I did accept the gift of her worldly +goods in the frank spirit in which it was offered, without any +reservation; and, to my almost certain knowledge, the Señora Lavarona +was never more troubled with illness of any kind. + +"The fact was, that, finding the ship fast sinking, and her crew +becoming boisterous and rebellious as the imminent danger burst upon +them, they proposed, since their own boats were stove, to take +possession of mine! That _was_ a joke, to be sure! A dozen drunken +swabs, with naked hands, to capture ten of the old 'Centipede's' picked +men, with a pistol and knife each under their shirts; and"--here the +speaker laughed heartily--"and Captain Brand beside them! _Diavolo!_ +what silly people there are in this world!" + +The good padre joined his superior in this ebullition of feeling, and +seemed to enjoy the joke immensely, rolling his goggle eyes and head +from side to side, kissing his crucifix, and exclaiming, with devotion, + +"_Que hombre es eso!_"--"What a man he is!" + +[Illustration: THE PIRATE'S PREY.] + +"Well, _señores_, the next minute we let go the painter and floated +astern past the ship's counter, and a few strokes of the oar-blades sent +us dancing away to leeward, where the schooner was lying with her +main-sail up, and the jib-sheet hauled well to windward. We made no +unnecessary noise in getting alongside, and it took no great time to get +the boat clear, a tackle hooked on, and to swing her on board over the +long gun. Then we drew aft the sheets, set the fore-sail, and the +'Centipede' was once more reeling off the knots on her course." + +"But the ship, my son?" + +"Why, my padre, I was so busy attending to the schooner, and afterward +going below to break the sad news to my lovely dark-eyed passenger of +the loss of her mother, that I had no time to devote to the ship. +Pedillo, however, told me that he heard a good deal of frantic +shrieking, and prayers, and cursing, with, for a little while, the +renewed clank of the chain-pumps, but after that we had got too far to +windward to hear more. About midnight, though, Pedillo and some of the +watch thought they saw a white shower of foam like a breaking wave, and +a great commotion in the water, but that was all. So, you see, what +really became of that old craft we do not positively know; though for a +long time afterward I read the marine lists very attentively, yet I +never saw any accounts of her arrival at her destination. + +"Perhaps," added Captain Brand, with a peculiar smile, as he lit a fresh +cigar, "her arrival may have escaped my notice, as I hope it may, though +I think not." + +Don Ignaçio intimated, by waving his fore finger to and fro, that such a +hope had no possible foundation in fact; and he stated, too, that he +knew the underwriters had paid the full insurance on the missing ship. + +"Ah! well, that seems to settle the matter, truly," murmured the +captain, as if he had long entertained painful doubts on the subject, +and now his mind was finally relieved. + +"But, _hico mio_! Son of mine! _La Señorita_--hiccough--with the +almond-shaped eyes--_Santissima!_--hic--how did she bear the--death of +her--hic--mother?" + +"_Por Dios, padre!_ there was a scene which would have drawn tears from +a--" + +"Pirate," suggested the doctor. + +The padre blubbered outright, and his round, tipsy eyes nearly popped +out of his head. + +"Ay, _monsieur_, even from mine! But to go back a little. When I had got +all snug on board the schooner, I went below, and moved softly on tiptoe +along the passage to the door of my beautiful cabin. + +"You remember, _amigo_," said the narrator, turning toward Don Ignaçio, +"how that cabin was fitted, and how much it cost to do it. I think you +paid the bill for me? No?" + +Oh yes, Captain Brand was quite right. Don Ignaçio remembered it well, +and the bill was a thousand gold ounces, sixteen thousand hard silver +dollars; and by no means dear at that, for the Don never allowed any +body to cheat _him_. + +"Cheats himself, though, sometimes. Don't charge more than the usual +commission." + +The one-eyed usurer looked wicked at this remark, but he said nothing, +being occupied at the moment rolling up a paper cigar with one hand, and +wetting the brown fore finger of the other. + +"Well, _caballeros_, I peeped through the lattice-work of the cabin +door, and there reclined my pretty prize--I recall her as if it were +yesterday--on one of the large blue satin damask lounges of the after +transoms. Her head rested on one of her round ivory arms, half hidden in +the luxurious pillows; her shawl, too, was thrown back; and with a +somewhat disordered dress, and a mass of glossy hair clustering in +ringlets about her neck and white shoulders, I thought then, as I do +now, that she was a paragon of loveliness. I saw her, as she thus +reclined, by the light of a large shaded crystal lamp, which hung by +silver chains from the cabin beams, and shed a rose-tinted effulgence +over the whole apartment. When I first approached the door the girl was +looking out of her own large liquid lamps, so superbly framed in a heavy +fringe of dark lashes, in evident curiosity around the elegant cabin. +Her looks wandered from the Turkey carpet on the floor to the beautiful +silk hangings, that exquisite set of inlaid pearl ebony furniture, the +display of knickknacks, and Dresden porcelain panels of the sides, and, +in fact, nothing seemed to escape her; and the good taste of the +fittings evidently met her approbation. At times, too, she would turn +her gaze out of the narrow little window of the stern, and peer +anxiously over the vessel's wake, which by this time was skimming along +like a wild duck, and leaving countless bubbles behind her. At the first +sound I made, however, in opening the door, she started up and stepped +forward to meet me. + +"'Oh, _Señor Capitano_, _mi madre_! (My mother!) What detains her? We +seem to be going very fast through the water!' + +"I gently took the girl's outstretched hands and led her back to the +cushioned transom. Then I told her, as kindly as I could, that I did +all in my power to save her good mother, but that the crew had +mutinied--they had taken possession of the unfortunate ship--great +confusion existed--and as I feared, you know, that my own boat would be +swamped by remaining longer alongside, I was compelled to leave her to +her fate. + +"'But my mother, _señor_!' exclaimed the girl, with anguish; 'she was +saved?' + +"'No, _señorita_,' I said, 'she went down with the ship; but the last +words she uttered--that is to me--were to invoke a blessing on my head, +and to consign all she possessed to my care.' The poor thing swooned +away as I uttered these words, and it was a long time before she came to +again. When she did, however, regain consciousness, tears came to her +relief, and I did all I could to soothe her distress by telling her +that, if the wind came fair, she would in the course of a few days be +restored to her father." + +"But the wind didn't come fair, eh?" broke in Don Ignaçio, "and she +didn't see--" + +"No, _amigo_, the wind held steady from the opposite quarter, and I +thought it better not to beat up with a fished fore-mast, and all +that--and a--she did _not_ see her father." + +Captain Brand here wet his thin lips with a few sips of wine, said, +"Babette, bring coffee!" and resumed his story. + +"When the girl became a little more calm I induced her to retire to my +stateroom, where I left her to sob herself to sleep. Don't spill that +coffee, Babette, and put the liqueurs on the table. There, that will do, +old lady. + +"Well, _señores_, the next morning my pretty prize was too ill to leave +her room; but, as I handed her a cup of chocolate through the door +curtains, she thanked me with much gratitude for what I had done, and +knew that her dear father, the judge, would bless me." + +"So he will," snarled the one-eyed old rascal, "if he ever catches you, +when he draws the black cap over your head." + +"Possibly he may, though perhaps it will be some considerable time +before he has that pleasure." + +"Ah! _cuidado hico mio!_ Take care of yourself, my son," hiccoughed the +priest as he crossed himself. The captain gave a light laugh, sipped his +coffee, and went on as if a dungeon, scaffold, and noose were the last +things he ever thought of. + +"I amused myself during the day in looking over the trunks, caskets, and +what not we had saved from the sinking trader--presented to me, as you +know, by the old lady who was on board. There were, of course, a great +quantity of ladies' dresses, and a good many jewels and trinkets; among +the latter this fine snuff-box here, which our friend Don Ignaçio so +much admires, and which I set aside as an especial testimonial of the +old lady's regard. Try another pinch, _amigo_? No? _Bueno!_ I caused +what I believed to be the daughter's elegant raiment to be placed in the +after cabin. For three days I never even saw my pretty passenger, though +I heard her low, sweet voice occasionally when I laid out something for +her to eat in the adjoining cabin. She sang, too, some little sad songs +with a voice which vibrated upon my ear like the notes of an Æolian harp +sighing in the night wind. _Dios!_ how I regretted then and afterward +that I did not have a cabinet piano!" + +"Presented to you," suggested the doctor. + +"Yes, presented to me, so that she might have touched the keys with +those ivory and rose-tipped fingers. + +"So the time passed, the schooner flying on under whole sails, the wind +about two points free, and the weather as fine as silk. It was the +fourth evening, I think, after parting with the Oporto trader that I +induced my fair passenger to come on deck and take a little breath of +sea-air. You will observe, _caballeros_, that I did not make this +suggestion in the daytime, because the 'Centipede's' crew, you know, +were rather numerous, and some of them not so handsome in point of +personal looks as ladies at all times care to behold. Besides, there +were certain things about the decks--racks of cutlasses, lockers of +musketry along the rail, and a long brass twelve-pounder, which is not +altogether hidden by the boat, you know, and might have given rise to a +little curiosity, or maybe suspicion, even in the mind of a girl, as to +our character, pursuits, and so forth, which I should have been puzzled +to answer. Therefore I chose a clear starlight night to pay my homage, +and accordingly I went below about four bells of the first watch to +escort the little lady to the deck. She was dressed, and waiting for me +in the cabin; and if I was so struck with her beauty when I first saw +her, my heart thumped now against my ribs like a volley of musket-balls +against an oak plank. She wore a black silk robe, such as Spanish women +wear at early mass, and around the back part of her head--where the hair +was gathered in a glossy knot, and secured by a gold bodkin--fell the +heavy folds of a black lace mantilla, the lower end fastened sash +fashion around her lithe waist. She stepped, too, like a queen on a pair +of slim, long, delicate feet, with arched ball and instep, as if she +were in command of the schooner. + +"By my right arm!" exclaimed Captain Brand, shaking that member aloft in +a glorious fit of enthusiasm, "I am quite sure she had conquered me, and +that was more than half the battle! + +"Well, I led her to the quarter-deck, where some cushions and flags had +been placed for her near the weather taffrail, and where she sat down. +The schooner was at the time under the two gaff-top-sails, the main boom +and sheets eased off a little, those long masts, with the sticks above +them running clear away up the sky, almost out of sight, bending like +whalebone, and reeling over the long swell when the breeze freshened; +and not a sound to be heard save now and then a light creak from the +main boom as the broad white sail strained flat and taut over to +leeward, or the rush of the water as it came hissing along from her +sharp, clean bows, with a noise like a breeze through the leaves of a +forest, away off over the counter into luminous sparkles as it swished +out into our wake. The 'Centipede' was indeed doing her best, and you +all know what that is, when we have been chased many and many a time by +some of the fastest cruisers going. + +"You remember, Don Ignaçio, how the 'Juno' frigate nearly ran us under, +and yet never gained a fathom on us in nine hours?" + +"Ay, _amigo_; but, had she not carried away her fore-top-mast, in +another hour there would have been nothing left of you afloat but +a--hencoop perhaps." + +"_Quien sabe, compadre?_ If hads had been shads you would have had fish +for your breakfast," rejoined the narrator; and then throwing back +the lappels of his green velvet coat with an air of gentlemanly +satisfaction, he hooked his thumbs in the arm-holes of his fine +waistcoat, and went on. + +"Well, _señores_, the graceful girl beside me never spoke scarcely for +half an hour. I divined, however, what her thoughts might have been in +dwelling on the painful scenes she had recently witnessed, and I held my +peace also; for, you see, I have had considerable experience with women, +and I have ever found that a man loses more by talking than by remaining +watchful and attentive." + +Captain Brand looked, as he gave utterance to this philosophical +sentiment, as if he were a thirsty, cold-eyed tiger, lying in wait to +spring upon an unwary passer-by. + +"Yes, I waited, until at last she spoke. + +"'_Capitano_,' she said, 'what a beautiful vessel you command, and how +fast she sails!' + +"What I replied, my friends, is neither here nor there; but I sank down +on the cushions beside the lovely girl, and poured out a torrent of +passionate words--which I really felt, too, at the time--as I don't +think I ever uttered before or since. She was a little startled and +nervous at first, but after a while I saw her stately head droop to one +side till it rested on my shoulder; I stole my arm around her yielding +waist and clasped her to my breast." + +Here Captain Brand looked as if the tiger had already sprung upon the +passer-by, and was sucking the blood, with his claws buried deep into +the carcass. + +"'_Señor_,' she murmured, in the low, sweet, plaintive note of a +nightingale, 'I am a young and inexperienced girl, of an old and noble +family; you have saved my life; my mother is gone, and I have no one to +advise with, and, if my dear father smiles upon my choice, I will marry +you; but do not, I implore you, deceive me!'" + +"And you did not deceive her, I hope?" broke in the doctor, with a +shiver of light from his determined eyes that was almost painful to see, +so earnest and terrible it was, as he leaned forward with both of his +clenched hands quivering nervously on the table. + +Captain Brand looked at the doctor with rather a suspicious stare, and +letting his thumbs drop from his armpits till they rested on the flaps +of his waistcoat pockets, he replied, in a careless tone, + +"Oh no, _monsieur_, I never deceived--a--that is to say, intentionally +deceived a woman in all my life!" + +"Let us hear more, my son," said the priest, thickly, who had now woke +up from a short nap. + +"_Bueno, caballeros!_" continued the narrator, as he tossed off a +thimbleful of maraschino from a wicker-bound square bottle after his +coffee. "Well, gentlemen, the young Portuguese damsel, Señorita +Lucia, and I sat there under the weather rail till the first faint +streaks of early dawn in the tropics began to announce the coming of +the gray morning. Then she arose, and, leaning with a soft pressure on +my arm, I took her to her cabin, kissed her sweet hands, and bade her +good-night." + +At this stage of the narrative Captain Brand threw himself triumphantly +back in his large Manilla chair, and ran his white muscular hands +through his dry light hair. Ay! the tiger had clutched his prey. An +unprotected, young, and lovely girl had been won and lost, and her +palpitating heart was soon to be torn from her tender body. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +NUPTIALS OF THE GIRL WITH DARK EYES. + + "With a pint and a quarter of holy water + He made the sacred sign, + And he dashed the whole on the only daughter + Of old Plantagenet's line!" + + "But the count he felt the nervous work + No more than any polygamous Turk, + Or bold piratical skipper, + Who, during his buccaneering search, + Would as soon engage a 'hand' at church + As a hand on board his clipper." + + +The captain got up from his chair, stepped to the settee, and, pulling +the signal-cord on the wall, held a short dialogue with the man at the +station; then, saying in a low, sharp whisper through the tube, "A +bright look-out, Pedro!" he resumed his place at the table. The doctor +had, in the mean while, got up and gone to the veranda, where, swinging +in a Yucatan grass hammock, shielded from the night wind, lay his little +patient sleeping soundly. Carefully closing the curtains again around +him, he returned to his place. The padre was now all awake again, with +his thick lips open, waiting for the captain to go on with his story. As +for Don Ignaçio, he never stirred body or limb, but his eye traveled +about perpetually, and he observed the movements of his companions all +at the same time. Still the hoarse roar of the pirates in their carouse +arose from the covered sheds in the calm night, and the two solitary +lights from each mast-head of the felucca and schooner twinkled above +the basin of the inlet. + +"And now, _amigos_," began again Captain Brand, after he had assured +himself that all was going on as he could wish without, "I shall inform +you of the sequel of my adventure with the Señorita Lucia. The evening +after the night on which I had declared my passion, we were seated at +dinner in the after cabin. Such a choice little dinner, too, as only our +late friend, Lascar Joe, could prepare! Poor fellow, he'll never make +another of those famous curries, though, no doubt, he'll find fire and +pepper enough where he is, if the devil chooses to employ him. What a +neat hand he was, too, with that spiral-bladed Malay creese of his! Ah! +well--we were sitting over the dessert, and I was relating to my pretty +passenger some account of my early days, and of my lady mother and my +old squire of a father, omitting, perhaps, some few uninteresting +details--" + +Here the old commander of the felucca cackled, and his black, beady eye +glittered as the thought flashed through his head as to what details his +villainous compeer had omitted. How he forged his old father's name, +which brought down his gray hairs in sorrow and disgrace to the grave; +and how his poor mother, too, died of grief, together with other bitter +memories, all of which Captain Brand, the pirate, omitted to mention. + +"Yes, I related likewise some of my early privateering adventures, when +all the broad Atlantic was alive with the fleets of France, England, and +Spain; how I was captured by a Spanish brigantine"--omitting again to +state that he got up a mutiny with the crew of that brigantine, +poniarded the captain and mate in their sleep, and, assuming command of +the vessel, changed her colors for a black flag, and began his career as +a pirate in the Caribbean Sea--"and how I escaped. To all this she +listened with great interest, her large eyes dilating, and her bosom +swelling with sympathy as I proceeded, when suddenly the cabin door +opened, and my ugly friend Pedillo put his head in, and gave me a +warning nod. + +"'What is it?' I said, rather sharply, to Pedillo; 'and how dare you +intrude inside my cabin?' I fear, too, that I came very near doing a +mischief to my boatswain; for I am rather impulsive at times, and by the +merest accident I happened to have a small pistol in my pocket." + +Don Ignaçio twitched his sleeve, and looked as if he believed such +accidents as pistols being found in the narrator's pockets happened +quite often. + +"'_Señor_,' said Pedillo, 'there are two sail standing out from the lee +of Culebra Island, and one of them appears to be a large--' + +"I stopped any farther particulars from the lips of my subordinate by a +motion of my finger, and then, kissing the hands of the girl, who was +somewhat surprised at what had transpired, I left the cabin and jumped +on deck. + +"The schooner was now running down through the Virgin's Passage between +St. Thomas and Porto Rico, with a fine breeze on the quarter, and the +sun was just sinking behind the last-named island. I snatched a +spy-glass from the rail, and looked ahead. There, sure enough, was a +sixteen-gun brig on the starboard tack heading across our track, and a +large frigate under single-reefed top-sails stretching away over to the +opposite shores of Culebra, while they were telegraphing bunting one +with another as fast as the bright-colored flags could talk. And, as +luck would have it, as I swept the glass round, what should I see but a +long rakish corvette in company with a huge whale of a line-of-battle +ship, with her double tier of ports glimmering away in the slanting rays +of the sun, both on the wind, and coming out from under the lee of +Culebra Point, just a mile or two astern of us. By the blood of +Barabbas, _caballeros_, we were in a trap for wolves, and the hounds +were in full cry! I immediately, however, luffed the schooner up, and +steered boldly for the frigate; and, as a puff of smoke spouted out from +the lee bow of the admiral to windward, and before the boom of the gun's +report reached us, I hoisted American colors. Seeing this, the brig hove +in stays, and, perhaps being ordered to board me, came staggering along +on the other tack across our forefoot, while the frigate went round too, +and held her wind toward her consorts to windward. Now this was just the +disposition which I wanted of the vessels, and it could not have been +done better for my plans had I been the admiral of the squadron. In less +than a quarter of an hour, the brig--and no great things she was, with a +contemptible battery, as I could see, of short carronades--hove aback a +little on the bow of the schooner, and gave us a warning of a +twenty-four pound shot across our forefoot, to heave to also, at the +same time hoisting the English ensign. + +"So ho!" ejaculated Captain Brand, as he twisted the point of his nose, +accompanied by a malevolent scowl, "_señores_, I at once hauled flat aft +the fore-sail, dropped the main peak, and put the helm up, as if to +round to under the brig's stern; whereupon my man-of-war friend dropped +a cutter into the water, and she had just shoved off in readiness to +board me, when, before you could light a paper cigar, I ran up the main +peak, got a pull of the sheets, and the 'Centipede' was off again like a +shark with his fin above water, heading for the narrow passage between +Culebra and Crab Islands. It was at least five minutes before that +stupid brig could believe his eyes, and ten more before he got hold of +the boat again, when she filled away and began to pop gun after gun at +me as fast as he could bring his battery to bear! There was only one +shot that skipped on board us, and that only smashed both legs of a +negro, and then hopped off through the fore-sail to windward. + +"Had I not had a good dinner that day and pleasant society on +board"--how peculiarly the speaker smiled--"I should perhaps have taught +that brig such a lesson that he would not have cared to report it to his +admiral. But as I knew I had the heels of him, and as the rest of the +squadron were now crowding all sail and keeping off in chase of me, I +ordered Pedillo, just by way of touching my hat and saying '_Adios_,' to +clear away the long gun and return the brig's salute. The shot struck +him just forward the night-heads by the bowsprit, and by the way the +splinters flew and his jib and head-sails came down, I knew I had +crippled him for an hour at least. At the same time, to prevent any +mistakes as to our quality, and to satisfy the admiral's curiosity, we +hauled down the Yankee colors and set our swallow-tailed flag!" + +"Rather dark bunting! no?" edged in Don Ignaçio. + +"Ay, _amigo_! as black as that eye of thine, though not half so +murderous," retorted the pirate as he continued his narrative. + +"_Bueno_, there came the whole of the squadron down after us, spitting +out from their bridle ports mouthfuls of cold iron, which all went to +the bottom of the Virgin's Passage, for not one came within a mile of +the schooner; and then I led them such a dance through that intricate +cluster of reefs and islets, that soon after dark they gave up the game, +and I said '_Buenos noches_' to them all!" + +Here Captain Brand paused, made a careful selection of a beautifully +turned trabuco cigar from the box, shouted to Babette to produce some +old Santa Cruz rum, sugar, lemons, and hot water--screeching hot, he +said--at which the padre crossed himself; and then throwing his fine +legs, incased in the lustrous silk stockings, on a chair beside him, and +while his eyes gazed fondly on the brilliants sparkling in the buckles +of his shoes, he resumed his tale. + +"When I went below again, after every thing had become quiet on deck, I +found my stag-eyed sweetheart waiting to receive me! How superbly she +looked as she made a movement from the cushions where she had been +reclining, and exclaimed, + +"'Oh, _señor_, what has happened, and what was the cause of all that +noise of guns, and those cries of agony I heard above?' + +"'_Querida Lucia_, dearest,' I replied, 'we have been where there +are--a--pirates, but fortunately have escaped, and the cries you heard +were from one of my poor crew who got slightly wounded by a shot!' + +"'Ah, _malditos piratos_! cursed pirates!' exclaimed the charming +beauty, as she put both her hands in mine, 'and how thankful am I that +you are not hurt! But, _querido mio_! dear one!' she went on, 'when +shall we get to Porto Rico and _our_ dear father? We must be near, for I +heard one of your sailors shout to you the name of the island!' + +"In reply, I told her that we had been near Porto Rico, but +that--a--circumstances were such, on account of the dangerous pirates +who infested those seas, that I felt obliged, for her safety--you +understand--to run along by way of Hispaniola--she not having a very +clear idea of the position and geography of those parts--and that our +cruise might probably be prolonged for a few days more." + +"And into h----, perhaps," said the doctor, with a hollow voice and a +calm cold eye. + +"Oh no, my friends, certainly nothing so bad as that. Possibly to +heaven! but, _quien sabe_? no one can tell! + +"However," pursued the captain, "I soon succeeded in allaying her +apprehensions, and then I threw myself at her feet, and implored her to +risk her father's displeasure and to marry me at once; that she knew her +father was cold, stern, and obdurate, and should he frown upon my suit I +should die of despair!" + +"_Cierto!_" murmured Ignaçio, with the grin of a skeleton. + +"I used these passionate appeals and many more, until at last the fond +girl yielded her consent to my entreaties. + +"'But the priest, _querido mio_!' she exclaimed, as she rose and +disengaged herself from my arms. I told her that I chanced to have one +on board as a passenger, who would perform the ceremony. + +"And so I had," added Captain Brand, "or at least a very near approach +to one, for my ugly boatswain, Pedillo, had been bred up--as an +acolyte--you comprehend--in the house of a rich old prelate of San Paulo +Cathedral in Trinidad, to whom Pedillo, one fine morning, gave about +eight inches of his cuchillo!" + +"_Jesus Maria!_" exclaimed Padre Ricardo, starting back with horror, and +telling his beads. + +"Ay, _mi padre_! Pedillo assassinated the holy father, and plundered his +cash-box besides; and so you see Pedillo was just the man I wanted." + +Don Ignaçio nodded his wicked old head through a cloud of cigar smoke as +a sign of approval. + +"Accordingly, _señores_, the next day I made the trusty Pedillo cut off +all the bushy beard about his ugly face, and had the crown of his head +shaved besides--quite like that round, oily spot there on the top of +good Ricardo's poll--and then he rigged himself out in a clerical gown, +to which the trunks of my bride's old mother contributed, and, take my +word for it, he was as proper and rascally a looking priest as could be +found on the island of Cuba. He performed the ceremony, too, by way of +practice, on Lascar Joe and the second cook beforehand, with as much +decorum and solemnity, and gave as pious a benediction, as his old +Trinidad uncle, the prelate, ever did. Well, that evening we were +married." + +"How many times has the _capitano_ been married?" grunted out Don +Ignaçio. + +"Why, let me reflect," as he threw his cold, icy look at the frame of +miniatures on the opposite wall. "You mean, _compadre_, how often the +ceremony has been performed. Ah! I think on eleven occasions. No, it was +only ten. Madame Mathilde had two husbands living when I made love to +her, and declined to take a third. But then, you know, I have an +affectionate disposition, and I can not set my heart against the +fascinations of the sex." + +He gave vent to these moral sentiments as if he really meant them to be +believed and generally adopted by his audience. + +"Well, that same evening I was married to the beautiful Señorita Lucia +Lavarona, though I am sorry to say that Pedillo did not perform his part +of the business as well as I had expected of him, from his practice in +the morning. He stammered a good deal, and when he raised the crucifix +to the lips of the young girl, her innocent looks and maidenly majesty +of deportment so struck my coadjutor with confusion that he let the +crucifix fall to the deck at her dainty feet. This little incident +caused me some displeasure; but, reflecting that the poet tells us + + 'A tiger, 'tis said, will turn and flee + From a maid in the pride of her purity,' + +I said nothing to the abashed Pedillo as I gave him back the emblem; but +I favored him with a look, with my right hand in my pocket--this +fashion." + +Here the cold-blooded scoundrel dipped his thumb and fore finger into +the flap of his waistcoat, while the commander of the "Guarda Costa" +waved his brown digit before him, as if he knew what was there all the +time. + +"Ah! that restored my new-made priest to his senses, and he then got +through the ceremony entirely to my satisfaction. + +"However," said Captain Brand, turning with lazy indifference toward +Padre Ricardo, "ever after this I resolved not to take the risk of such +another chance of failure, and this is the reason why I first sought +your services." + +"_Gracias à Dios!_ Thanks be to heaven, my son, that you found me!" said +the sacrilegious wretch, as he bowed to his superior and sipped a glass +of rum punch. "_Vamonos!_ let us hear more." + +"At the conclusion of our nuptials, while I held my sweet Lucia to my +heart, and kissed her pale brow, and while tears of crystal drops, half +in rapture and half in sorrow, dimmed her large, sparkling black eyes, +she withdrew this royal sapphire from her slender finger, and gently +placing the gem on mine--where you see it, _amigos_--she said, + +"'My dear and only love, this is the talisman of my race. It has been +for ages in my family, and it has been the guardian of our hope and +honor. Receive it, friend of my heart, and be the protector of the young +girl who yielded up to you her very soul!'" + +The doctor started as if he had been stung by a scorpion; but Captain +Brand, heedless or inattentive to the movement, went on: + +"Yes, _caballeros_, those were her very words; murmured, too, in her low +contralto tones with a pure, lisping Castilian accent, as she laid her +stately head on my shoulder. + +"Ay, those were rapturous moments; and it was in some degree--yes, I may +say in truth--entirely her own fault that they did not last. + +"Well, for some days--eight or ten, perhaps--with light baffling winds, +we crept stealthily along the south side of St. Domingo; but the weather +was delightful, and the time passed on the wings of a zephyr. In the +warm, soft evenings, with the moon or stars shedding their pearly gleams +over the sea, she sat beside me on the deck of the schooner, watching +with girlish interest the white sails above her head, or singing to me +the sweet little sequidillas of her native land. And again, starting up +from my arms, she would peep over the counter, trace the foam as it +flashed and bubbled in our wake, or point to the track of a dolphin as +he leaped above the luminous waves and went like a bullet to windward. + +"I flatter myself, _caballeros_, that there have been periods in my +career on the high seas, or on land, and may be again, for aught I +know," continued the elegant pirate, as he crossed his legs and threw +back the lappels of his velvet coat, so as to expose the magnificence of +his waistcoat, and the frills on his broad, muscular chest, "when men of +high birth and breeding, and lovely women too of noble lineage, have not +thought it beneath them to dine with or to receive the homage +of--a--Captain Brand. + +"And, _por Dios_!"--the narrator did not consider it unbecoming his +cloth and profession to swear in a foreign language--"_por Dios!_ +_señores_, I have known the time, too, when I have played whist with a +French prince of the blood and two knights of the Golden Fleece." + +"And you fleeced them? No?" muttered Don Ignaçio, with an envious +glimmer from his greedy eye, as if no one had a right to rob the +community but himself. + +"And not only that," continued the captain, rapidly, "but the daughter +of an English peer of the realm once proposed to run away with me. Ho! +ho! yes, she actually proposed to elope with me; but as she was verging +on fifty years, and only weighed fifty pounds, with never a pound in her +pocket, I sighed my regrets. Ay, great compliment it was, but I declined +the honor. You yourself, _compadre_, must remember how I was received by +the people on the Buena Vista villa at Principe; how the obispo blessed +me, the old general embraced me, and the beautiful marquesa, with the +hour-glass waist, smiled on me." + +"_Cierto!_" That astute old Spaniard never forgot any thing, particularly +a debt due to him; and he remembered, moreover, to have heard that when +the noble _Mi Lord Inglez_ left the villa one dark night, a good deal of +plate, jewels, doubloons, and other valuable property disappeared with +him. Ay, the sly old fellow had a faint recollection as well of seeing +a heavily-armed schooner running the gauntlet through the forts before +daylight, and that she left a certain bag of gold ounces for him--Don +Ignaçio Sanchez--somewhere in a secret hole beneath a well-known rock +inside the harbor. Oh, a wonderful memory for matters of this nature +had our rapacious one-eyed acquaintance! + +"Yes," went on his partner in many a scene of pillage and crime, "I have +every reason to know that I won the hearts, and purses too, sometimes, +of some of the fine people I met in refined society. But yet there have +been occasions when the game has gone against me--" + +Don Ignaçio's tenacious memory came again into play, and he looked back +to the time when he himself had cleaned his profuse friend out of all +his gains at the card-table, even to the buttons off his coat; but he +gave no sign of remembrance of those days, and only blew a dense cloud +of smoke from his thin yellow nostrils as the captain spoke. + +"--Though those occasions have not been of frequent recurrence." + +The good Padre Ricardo at this juncture hoped that, by Saint Barnabas, +luck might, in all time to come, befriend his son and patron; croaking, +too, with a goblet of punch to his unctuous lips, "_Vamonos!_ Tell us +more of the adorable Doña Lucia!" + +Captain Brand rapped his snuff-box, opened the diamond-crusted lid, took +a dainty pinch, laid his cambric handkerchief over his kerseymere +breeches, and resumed his narrative. + +"So passed the days, _caballeros_; and when, one morning, the high +mountains back of Port Guantamano were reported to me, I felt a +presentiment that my dream of bliss was drawing to a close. Indeed, I +might probably have remained at sea a week or two longer, but the men +were getting a little impatient, and I thought it better to sacrifice my +own pleasure to theirs. That day we caught a cracking breeze out of the +Windward Passage, and toward midnight we came up with this little sandy +island here. + +"The preparations for going into port excited the curiosity of my bride; +for, poor thing! she believed we were bound into Porto Rico, and I had +some trouble in inducing her to go below before we crossed the reef. +_Bueno!_ the coast was clear, the signals were all right, and an hour +later the schooner had her anchor down and sails furled pretty much in +the spot where she now lies moored. + +"While, however, we were sweeping up the inlet, I sent a boat ahead, +with directions for my tidy old housekeeper, Babette, to have every +thing prepared to receive her new mistress. Just then one of those +terrible thunder-storms came up; heavy masses of clouds obscured the +sky, followed by such double-barrel shocks and intensely vivid lightning +as is only beheld in the tropics preceding the equinox. The rain, too, +came along in horizontal sheets, driven by a squall which burst in fury +over the island, and it seemed to me that all the devils from hell were +howling and shrieking in the air. + +"Shielded from the storm by a large boat-cloak, I carried my beautiful +bride, with her face nestling on my breast, to the cove, and then I bore +her into this fine saloon. + +"I shall never forget the sweet words she whispered, and the loving +caresses she gave me on that little journey, even while the tempest +almost dashed me to the ground, and the sharp flashes of lightning +nearly blinded me. They were the last she ever lavished upon me." + +No sigh escaped the lips of this cold-blooded monster as he uttered +these words; no sign of feeling for the ruin of a gentle girl whom he +had betrayed to his piratical den of infamy and crime--whose dream of +life was destroyed like a crushed rose-leaf, and all her hope gone from +that moment. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +DOOM OF DOÑA LUCIA. + + "I went into the storm, + And mocked the billows of the tossing sea; + I said to Fate, What wilt thou do to me? + I have not harmed a worm! + + "Thy dim eyes tell a tale-- + A piteous tale of vigils; and the trace + Of bitter tears is on thy beauteous face; + Beauteous, and yet so pale!" + + +"Thus it ever is, _caballeros_, and ever will be," went on Captain +Brand, in rather a reflecting strain. "There is a point to begin +and stop, and an end to joy as well as grief. We should, however, +take the world as it comes and as it goes. I do, and so do you, +_compadre_!"--pitching a cigar spear fashion at Don Ignaçio to +attract his attention--"and, therefore, we should never look too +far ahead, and live only for the present. + +"Indulging then in this train of thought, as I set down my lovely burden +here, and the cloak fell from her shoulders, I was prepared for any +thing which might happen. I wore a slightly different costume at the +time than that she had been accustomed to see me in, as I always do when +I think there might be a chance of a surprise or trap laid for us in +entering the inlet. So, instead of fine linen and velvet, I had on a red +flannel shirt, canvas trowsers, with a cutlass slung to my side, and a +pair of pistols in my belt. I don't think I appear handsome in that rig, +but the fellows at my back somehow think it is becoming to me, +especially when we are engaged in a hand-to-hand fight! What say you, +_compadre_?" + +The Don said nothing, and merely waved his fore finger, as if dress was +not a matter to which he devoted much attention. He thought, however, +that sleeves should be cut loose for knives when the pockets were not +too small for pistols; but he uttered no word. + +"_Bueno!_ There I stood"--pointing to the corner of the room as he +spoke--"drenched with rain, and there stood my tall and lovely wife! + +"The saloon was brilliantly lighted; a profusion of plants and flowers +were clustered here, there, and every where, on cabinets and tables, in +striking contrast to the display exhibited yonder in that armory, where +pikes, muskets, and knives were gleaming through the open door. + +"Quick as the lightning which was piercing deep into the inmost crevices +of the rocks and lighting up the crag without, Lucia's dark eyes flashed +around the apartment from floor to ceiling, from flower to blade, +resting an instant on the frame of miniatures there--hers was not among +the collection _then_; it is the one in the middle, doctor--" + +There were no knives on the table, or else, from the deadly look the +doctor gave, he might have perhaps sprinkled the narrator's heart's +blood on the floor. + +"--Until at last her gaze of terror rested on _me_! No one, I fancy, can +tell the power of Spanish girls, who has never seen them when the whole +passion of their souls, either in love or hate, comes pouring in a black +blaze of jet from their gleaming eyes. + +"Advancing a step toward me, with her white hands clasped together, she +said, in a hurried, beseeching voice--and low as was the sound, I heard +it distinctly during the crashing thunder which shook the rocks of the +crag to their foundations-- + +"'_Señor!_ where am I? My father! Who--who--in the name of the Blessed +Virgin, art _thou_?' + +"Again giving a look of the utmost horror around the room, she pressed +her hands to her eyes, and said, in the same low, distinct tone, + +"'Speak, _señor_! For the love of our holy Savior, speak!' + +"I felt that the girl had saved me, by her own instinctive perception, a +world of painful explanations, and I replied, + +"'Lucia! I divine that all farther concealments are useless; you are in +the haunt of the most noted pirate of these seas, and that man stands +before you.' + +"_Caballeros!_" continued Captain Brand, "had my pretty prize swooned +away, or fallen down in a fit, or gone into hysterics and torn her +hair out by the roots, I should not have been greatly surprised; but +she did none of those things. On the contrary, she became as calm as +marble--frightfully so, in fact--and pushing back the bands of her +magnificent tresses from her pale forehead, she raised her round +white arm aloft, with her slender fore finger quivering like the tongue +of a viper in mid air, and then poured forth such a torrent of +awfully impressive words that I quailed before her. + +"Yes, _señores_, I am no coward, take me when you will; but on this +occasion I must honestly admit that I stood powerless before the gaze +and gesture of that slight, delicately-formed woman. + +"'Pirate--wretch--monster! may the curses of hell be heaped upon thee! +Murderer--betrayer! may thy heart be burned, and thy soul blasted +forever!' + +"I need not pain you, _señores_, by reciting the cruel words that came +hissing through her closed teeth, nor yet farther describe the terrible +concentrated gaze of hate and fury which streamed from those gleaming +eyes. Suffice it to say, that though often afterward I was treated in +the same manner, yet, on the occasion alluded to, I cut short the +interview by summoning Babette to see her mistress to her chamber, and +then, glad to escape, I went out of the house and attended to the duties +which required my presence." + +The padre, with his flat lips half open, eagerly drinking in--with his +Santa Cruz punch--the words of his patron; the doctor, calm, unmoved +now, and thoughtful; the one-eyed old rascal, still puffing his +cigarettes and allowing no rest to his uneasy, suspicious optic, all sat +listening, with each an interest peculiarly his own, to the fate of Doña +Lucia. The narrator leisurely arose and held his hourly confab with the +man at the signal-station, and then returning to his place, proceeded +with his discourse: + +"I shall pass rapidly over, my friends, many little incidents of a +rather unpleasant nature which occurred here, in this my rocky retreat, +for some months after the interview which I have described. I tried +every argument and persuasion I was master of to bring my proud bride to +reason, but to all my entreaties she turned a cold and chilling stare of +obdurate hate. Day by day the intensity of her detestation grew stronger +and stronger, and seemed to have become a part of her nature. Yes; the +gentle, yielding girl I had won on board the 'Centipede' had now become +as stern and unbending as a rock, and my controlling power over her mind +and love was gone. I left her entirely to herself for some weeks, until +one day I thought her passion might have subsided, and once more, +attired in a rich and splendid suit, I came in here, as she sat like a +marble statue at table. She never looked up at my entrance, but her eyes +shone like stars as she mechanically went through the forms of the +dinner laid before her. + +"'Lucia!' I said, gayly. No answer by word or look. 'Lucia! _querida +mia!_' I repeated, and, sinking on one knee beside her, attempted to +take her hand. + +"By all the saints, _señores_, that came near--very near--being the last +time that I ever should kneel to a woman; for with a movement so sudden +that I had barely time to leap aside, she snatched a long pointed +carving-knife from the table and lunged full at my throat! The blade +just grazed my jugular artery, inflicting a slight wound. But she never +turned round to see the extent of her effort, and again sat calm and +rigid at the table. + +"This was my last visit save one. I had long before abandoned these +comfortable quarters entirely, and occupied the rooms you do, _mi +padre_, out there among the men. In fact, my stern young bride was in +entire command of the island; and even my good Babette here stood in +such awe of her that she always crossed herself when called to approach +her mistress. + +"Month by month matters went on in this way, until the rainy season had +gone, and I was preparing for another cruise in the schooner; but hour +by hour the consuming passion which flamed in the veins of Lucia was +doing its work. I sometimes beheld her standing out on the veranda, tall +and stately as ever; and when the moon was at the full, it threw its +light upon her wan and sunken cheeks, and thin, wasted frame. Ay, there +she stood, like an almost transparent statue of alabaster, with her dark +eyes shining with an unearthly light, turned in one long tearless gaze +upon the ledge and combing breakers to seaward. It was singular, too, +the effect she produced even upon the horde of these brave fellows of +mine, for no persuasion could induce a man of them to come within +pistol-shot of that part of the house while she was thus keeping her +nightly vigils. And as for Pedillo, he acquired such a superstitious +dread of the girl he had married, and lived in such a state of abject +terror, that I had serious thoughts of shooting him through the head to +avoid the contaminating influence he exercised over his comrades. + +"Well, _caballeros_, late one Saturday night, while the men were +carousing and drinking success to the coming cruise--we were to sail on +the following Monday--and while I was returning from my usual stroll to +the Tiger's Trap to see the battery in order and the look-outs wide +awake, I met Babette toddling along, nearly out of breath. + +"'What is it, old lady?' You know, _amigos_, that Babette never spoke a +word in her life, but she made signs to let me know that I was wanted at +the crag, and that there was no time to be lost. I quickened my pace, +and, preceded by Babette, I once more darkened my own threshold. The +curtains and hangings were all closely drawn in the saloon here, and it +was dark as a tomb; but there was a light burning yonder in the passage +leading to the chamber, and I made my way to the door. + +"I shall never forget what I saw, though I should like to, as it comes +to me sometimes in the night, or when I am left much alone by myself." + +The pirate passed his hands over his eyes as if he saw something while +he spoke, and then, letting his voice drop to an almost sepulchral +pitch, he went on hurriedly: + +"I stood at the door, _caballeros_, and looked in. On the bed, which was +drawn to the middle of the chamber to get the air through the narrow +loopholed windows, with the gauze curtains falling square on all sides, +lay Lucia. Her attenuated frame scarcely presented an uneven surface +beneath the snowy sheet which covered it. Her superb hair was spread in +great black masses on the pillow, and her pale marble face reposed +there like an ivory picture in an ebony setting. Her eyes were wide +open, large and luminous, and her thin delicate hands were clasped +around a silver and pearl crucifix, which rested on her hollow breast. A +single taper in a silver lamp threw a lurid, flickering ray about the +room, and beside it was Babette on her knees quivering with terror, +while from one of the loopholed windows a broad white band of moonlight +streamed directly across the pillow and face of the dying girl." + +Captain Brand's face assumed a deathly pallor, and, with his icy blue +eyes fixed on vacancy, and his voice sunk to a hoarse whisper, he went +on: + +"As I appeared in the portals of the door, Lucia slowly raised her fore +finger, and beckoned me to approach. I could no more have resisted the +summons than if a chain cable to a frigate's anchor had caught me in its +iron coils, and was dragging me to the bottom of the sea. I moved to the +foot of the bed. + +"'_Pirato!_' came from her slightly-parted lips, in her old low and +distinct tones. '_Pirato_, behold your cruel work! Destroyer of mother +and child--of soul and body--may the curses of a dying woman and her +unborn child haunt you by day and by night!' I was dumb, and my pulse +stopped beating. + +"'_Ave Maria purissima!_' were the last words that came in a sweet, pure +whisper from her parted lips; she clasped the crucifix tighter, and the +spirit departed. I tore aside the gauze net to lay my hand on her heart, +when, on my soul! her right hand slowly relaxed its death-grasp on the +crucifix, and, rising to a vertical line, with the fore finger pointing +upward, quivered in the light of the waning moon, like, as it was, a +supernatural warning! Yes, that finger--" + +[Illustration: "A SUPERNATURAL WARNING! YES, THAT FINGER--"] + +"Mamma! mamma!" came in a weak, plaintive voice from the piazza, while +the villain, with his hands before him as if to shut out a frightful +vision, and eyeballs starting from their sockets, was hoarsely +whispering to his horror-stricken audience the last warning of the dead +Lucia. + +As the low moaning cry in the stillness which reigned around the saloon +struck his ear, he sprang with a bound to his feet, and, quick as +thought, with a pistol in each hand, he shouted, "Who's there?" + +"It is the little sick boy, _señor_. Do him no harm at your peril!" and +the doctor stood towering before the pirate's leveled weapons. + +"_Maldito_ on the brat! Pshaw!" said Captain Brand, quieting down, and +returning the pistols to his pockets. "How nervous I am! Excuse me, +_caballeros_. I was thinking of something else." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +END OF THE BANQUET. + + "There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks, + As he stalked away with his iron box. + Oh, ho! oh, ho! The cock doth crow, + It is time for the fisher to rise and go. + Fair luck to the abbot, fair luck to the shrine! + He hath gnawed in twain my choicest line; + Let him swim to the north, let him swim to the south, + The _pirate_ will carry my hook in his mouth." + + +In the pause which followed the dreadful episode just recounted by +Captain Brand, the padre was occupied in pattering a prayer, counting +his beads, and elevating his crucifix as if he was mumbling high mass at +the altar. Don Ignaçio slowly waved his brown fore finger, and his +single spark of glowing eye glared fiercely and fixedly at his host. A +clammy sweat burst out on the pallid brow of the doctor, and his hands +were clutched before him on the table like the jaws of a steel vice. And +still the drunken shrieks and cheers of the piratical crew at the sheds +arose wild and shrill in the calm night, making a gloomy echo for the +banquet. The doctor was the first to break the awkward silence which +pervaded the saloon. + +"_Capitano!_" said he, in his habitual calm, deep voice, "with respect +to what you said in the early part of the evening, of breaking up this +establishment, what, may I ask, are your plans for the future?" + +"_Gracias!_ _amigo_ doctor! Thank you, my friend, for changing the +conversation. My plans! eh! ah! Well, they are these--" + +Here Captain Brand's face assumed its usual expression; and entirely +himself again, he went on to state, in a precise, business-like way, the +views he had resolved upon for future action. + +"--To-morrow, gentlemen, is Sunday. Those boisterous fellows out there, +after mass, will need rest all the day. On Monday, however, I shall +begin to change the rig of the schooner, fill up with provisions for a +long cruise, take on board all the loose odds and ends we have stowed +here, of course," he added, as he remarked an inquiring and a rather +alarmed mercenary look from the Tuerto's glim--"of course, after having +squared up all claims of our _compadre_ there!" + +"Hum!" croaked that sharp rascal, with a nod of satisfaction quite like +an old raven. + +"Then, _señores_, I shall burn or destroy the old sheds, and bury the +cannon and heavy articles we can not find room for in the 'Centipede;' +when, if nothing happens, we shall trip anchor and spread our sails for +sea! + +"Babette! Babette! Really I believe that dear old negress has fallen +asleep. Babette! ah! there you are, my beauty! See if you can't give us +a bowl of okra gumbo before we break up here!" + +Babette had not been asleep. Oh no! She had her ear to the door of the +saloon, and was listening to the sad history of Doña Lucia, and when her +master came to the final scene the old woman fell on her knees and +shivered all over, where she remained until the sound of the captain's +voice again called her to her duties. + +"And when we have left these quiet waters, my son!" broke in the padre, +"what then?" + +The fact was, that the carnivorous and vinous Father Ricardo knew that +his stomach was not suited for high winds and rough oceans, and was +hoping that some scheme might be devised to allow him to remain +tranquilly on the island. + +"Why, holy padre, I propose to steer clear of the West Indies by some +unfrequented track, and, striking the broad Atlantic, stretch down the +coast of Brazil. Perhaps we may double Cape Horn, and see what those +miserable patriots are fighting for in Chili and Peru; then maybe across +the Pacific, to the lovely islands and maidens of Polynesia; so on to +the China Seas, where we may fall in with an outward-bound Canton +trader, or a galleon with a ton or two of silver on board--who +knows?--there is plenty of blue water and fine ships every where; so we +must be content." + +Padre Ricardo made the sign of the cross, kissed his thumb and fore +finger, and, reaching his dirty paw over to the captain, shook hands +with him. + +"Ay, _amigos_!" continued the leader, without minding the friendly +interruption; "yes, my friends, we shall, I trust, give the hounds in +search of us the slip; and even should they scent out this retired +little spot, they will have their trouble for their chase, and find +nothing but a few stones and heaps of rubbish above ground." + +"They may find some little matters below, though," chimed in the +commander of the felucca. + +"If they do," retorted the pirate, with a meaning scowl, "I'll put the +spy who betrays it to such a torture as that he'll wish himself below +ground when I come back here." + +"_Cierto, amigo!_ no fear of that!" muttered the Tuerto, with some +little trepidation of manner. "_My_ papers are white." + +"Captain Brand," said the doctor, "my contract with you is nearly up, +and since I only agreed--as you know--to enlist my professional services +here on shore, I presume you will have no objections to permit me to +depart with Don Ignaçio in the felucca." + +It would be difficult to say what caused the flush of passion which +overspread the leader's face as he listened to this simple request, but +it was full a minute before he replied, and then, having weighed the +matter carefully in his mind, he said, in a precise and determined tone, +in French, + +"_Monsieur le Docteur!_ the compacts that I have made with all those +that have taken service with me have never been broken except by death. +I can not, therefore, consider your request, and I shall expect you to +sail with me in the schooner." + +Then he added, quickly, as he noticed a certain haughty expression in +his subordinate's face, "Pardon me, _monsieur_; we had better not +discuss this question now. Suppose you see me on the morrow." + +"Willingly, _señor_, and you will find my resolution unchangeable." +Rising as he spoke, he bowed to his companions at table, and saying +"_Buenas noches!_ (good-night!)" he passed from the saloon to the +piazza. There he paused a moment, as if communing with himself, and then +approaching the grass hammock where the sick boy was sleeping, he gently +took the little fellow up in his arms. The child murmured "Mamma, +mamma!" and was borne away. + +Captain Brand followed the doctor with his searching, sharklike eyes +until he had left the apartment, and there was something that denoted +danger in the look; but he uttered no sound, and, placing a finger on +his lip, he nodded meaningly to the padre. + +A moment after Babette brought in the steaming gumbo soup, and the +pirate's feast was nearly ended. Don Ignaçio waited until his companions +had swallowed a goodly portion of the grateful mess, when he too +refreshed himself. Then making his salutations in his usual observant +manner, he departed. He declined, however, the offer of his host's +society to his boat, saying he had, he knew, half a dozen of the +felucca's crew outside the building to guard his footsteps, and he would +not put the _capitano_ to the trouble. + +When the padre rose to give his benediction to his patron, the captain +took him impressively by the rope which girded his cassock about the +loins, and giving it a sharp jerk or two, he said, + +"My holy father, I think we shall have a sad duty to perform to-morrow. +Our old friend Gibbs has behaved badly, and I shall punish him. He is +now in the Capella dungeon. After early mass go and console him." + +The padre returned a meaning smile, crossed himself, and slowly left the +pirate alone in his saloon. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +FANDANGO ON ONE LEG. + + "God! 'tis a fearsome thing to see + That pale wan man's mute agony-- + Those pinioned arms, those hands that ne'er + Shall be lifted again--not even in prayer! + That heaving chest! Enough; 'tis done! + The bolt has fallen! the spirit is gone." + + +Day dawned in the east. The early spikes of morning shot up in rosy +bands from behind the lofty hills of Cuba and announced the coming of +the sun. The inlet and basin, framed in by their rocky walls, were still +clothed in the gloom of night, and dimly reflecting the fading stars on +the calm unruffled surface where the schooner and felucca were moored. +Away off in the distance a dense white misty vapor hung flat and low +over the lagoon and thickets of mangroves, with not a breath of air to +disturb the noxious fog or quiver a leaf in the silent groves. The +revels, too, of the drunken sailors had long since ceased; the +sentinels, with their cutlasses in the sheaths, paced slowly to and fro +before the doors of the sheds, and the look-outs at the signal-stations +and battery peered through the early dawn to seaward; else not a sound +or moving thing, save a teal or two fluttering with a sharp cry up and +down the lagoon; the music of the tiny ripples lapping on the shelly +beach; and the low roar, in a deep bass, breaking and moaning over the +ledge beyond the island. Such was the appearance of things where our +scene is laid in the Twelve League Group of Keys, on a Sunday morning, +in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and five. + +Half a mile, perhaps, inland from the sheds where the sailors lived, and +beneath the steep face of the ridge-like crag which split the island in +two parts, stood a low chapel, built of loose stones nicely fitted +together and roofed with tiles. A rough iron cross was fastened over the +doorless entrance, and at the other end was a stone balustrade, with a +rude painting of the Virgin over the altar, on which stood four or five +tall brass candlesticks and a lighted taper. Outside the building was a +narrow and secluded inclosure, surrounded by a low wall of coral rocks, +with a few head-stones marked with black crosses--the graves of the +pirates whose bones reposed beneath. At one end of this burial-place was +still another subdivision, where stood ten upright flat white stones, +on whose faces were rudely carved initial letters, with the years in +which the eternal sleepers had been laid beneath the sand. Far and near +sprang up close and almost impenetrable thickets of cactus, whose sharp +and pointed needle-shoots defied the passage of any thing more bulky +than land-crabs and lizards. One or two narrow pathways had been cut out +here and there, but they were overgrown again by the stubborn, hardy +vegetation; and only with the risk of losing one's trowsers, and having +one's legs cut in gashes, could a human being struggle through it. + +Within the chapel kneeled a dozen or more of the "Centipede's" crew, the +coarse and sodden faces and uncombed locks, from their night's debauch, +in striking contrast to the place and the apparent devoutness of manner +in which they crossed themselves while the rites of the Church were +going on. Before the altar stood Padre Ricardo, with his breviary on the +chancel beneath the taper, and chanting forth from his deep lungs the +services of the mass. In a few minutes the unholy hands and lips which +performed the solemn ceremony ceased word and gesture, and with a +sonorous benediction at the elevation of the Host, and a tinkle of a +bell, the sailors arose from their knees and again staggered back to the +sheds, to slumber through the day. When all had gone, the padre clasped +his missal, tucked it into his bosom, and making the sign of the cross +with a genuflexion before the Virgin, the sacrilegious wretch turned and +left the chapel. + +Pursuing the winding path which led to his own habitation for a certain +distance, he then turned to the left, and carefully picking his way +through the sharp cactus and Spanish bayonets along the face of the +crag, he stopped at a yawning fissure which gaped open in the rock. +Here, too, the same wiry vegetation had crept, and it was with great +difficulty, and many an "_Ave!_" and "_Santa Maria!_" that the padre +succeeded in passing into the dark, rugged mouth of the cavern. + +"By the ashes of San Lorenzo!" he muttered, "there are serpents and +venomous insects in this pit of purgatory. Oh, _misericordia_! what has +pierced my leg? Why should my son drag me through this hole? Ah! blessed +Saint Barnabas! a slimy reptile has crossed my instep!" + +Feeling with his outspread hands in his fright, as he gradually made his +way into the dripping cavern, getting narrower and lower as he +proceeded, he at last, after stumbling prayerfully along for about a +hundred and fifty yards, came to a loose pile of stones. Here opened +another low narrow fissure on the left, and, in some doubt, he was about +to enter; but the noise he made by stepping on a stone was answered by +the hissing warning of a serpent, and the scared padre fell back at his +full length in a pool of stagnant slimy water. + +"_O Madre di Dios!_ I am stung by a cobra! Holy Virgin! my new cassock +ruined too! _Ave Maria!_ light me out of this abode of the devil!" + +Slowly recovering, however, from his fright, he once more regained his +feet, and, after a few steps, which he was obliged to accomplish by +scraping his crown against the jagged rocks above, his outstretched +hands touched an iron-bound door. + +"_Gracias à Dios!_ Thanks be to all the saints, I am here at last; but, +alas! curses on me, I shall be obliged to return by the same path unless +my son allows me to escape by the casa." + +Cautiously searching with his fingers as he muttered these words, he +touched a bolt, and, grasping it with both hands, drew it partly out +like the knob of a bell. Then, placing his ear to the door, he presently +heard a rattling, creaking noise, as if a beam of timber, with pulley +and chain, was being raised from behind the entrance. When the sound +ceased the door yielded to the padre's sturdy shoulder, and there was +just room to admit his portly body. Here the passage was wider, the rock +evidently chiseled away by the hands of man, and on one side was an +artificial chamber, blasted out of the solid rock, with a narrow door +with heavy iron bolts on the outside. At this opening the padre paused +and listened. No sound caught his ear at first, but as he clutched the +bolt and it grated back in its bands, he was saluted by such a volley of +frightful curses as to make him start back and cross his ample breast. +It was the voice of Master Gibbs, lying there on a low iron settle in +the noisome dungeon, with not a ray of light to cheer him, and only a +jug of water and some weevily biscuit to save him from starvation. All +through the day and during the long, long hours of the awful night, in +pain and suffering from his lopped-off limb and bruises, had he lain on +his hard bed with clenched hands, blaspheming and impotently raging in +his agony and despair. No prayer, however, dawned in his ruthless heart, +or was breathed from his brutal lips; but curses upon curses came thick +and fast, till his tongue refused to give them utterance, and he fell +back in utter exhaustion. As the noise, however, of the bolt struck his +ear, he clutched the stone water-jug from the floor, and hurled it, with +a yell of execrations, toward the door, where the fragments fell with a +clattering crash on the stone pavement. + +Grinding his teeth in his frightful passion, he howled, + +"Let me but once put these hands on your bloodstained carcass, and if +the mother that bore ye will know her spawn again, my name's not Bill +Gibbs! Ha! you miserable swab, with your soft words and white hands! +when I get out of this hole I'll blow you and your infarnal hounds +to ----! Give me fair play, and, even on one of my legs, I'll cut the +cowardly heart out of you, Captain Brand! Come in, will ye? ye son of +the devil, and I'll bite the tongue out of your mouth by the roots!" + +[Illustration: SHRIVING A SINNER.] + + Here the hoarse and panting wretch again ceased his roarings, and +the padre timidly opened the door. + +"Ha! who's that? Babette?" + +"No, my son, it is your good Padre Ricardo, come to console you." + +What the maimed villain replied to the priest, and what means the holy +father took to allay the passion and assuage the sorrows of the man +lying helpless in the dungeon, or whether successful in his mission, is +not important to state in detail. An hour later, however, the priest +seemed relieved in body and spirit as he retired from the loathsome +hole, and shooting the bolt as he closed the door, cautiously felt his +way along the dark and narrow passage. Presently, as he turned an angle, +a ray of light from the loopholes of the great stone vault beneath the +pirate's dwelling lighted his pathway; and a moment after, with a hearty +sigh of satisfaction, he seized a cord above his head and gave it a +jerk. A bell sounded above, and then a large, square-hinged trap-hatch +fell down, swinging gently to and fro from the beams above. At the same +time the padre put his arms about a square wooden stanchion which +supported the floor of the saloon, and then painfully sticking his toes +in some deep-cut notches at the sides, he slowly began to mount upward. +When, however, his oily shaved crown appeared nearly at the level of the +floor, a vigorous grasp was laid on his shoulders, and he was pulled up +like a flapping lobster and rolled into the apartment. It was Captain +Brand who kindly assisted the holy father, and it was the captain's +hollow laugh which saluted him in his torn and soiled raiment, as, with +difficulty, he regained his perpendicular. + +"Laugh not, _hijo mio_, at my sorrowful plight," said the bruised +Ricardo, with some asperity; "I have met with dangers of venomous +serpents, and been stabbed cruelly by those villainous cactus." + +"But I raised the beam, my padre, the moment you made the signal." + +"You did, my son; but what I suffered in the cavern was as nothing to +what I endured when I entered the dungeon of the English Gibbs. _Jesus +Maria_, what an infidel he is!" + +"You did not find his spirit subdued, then, by bread and water?" + +"Far from it, my friend. He rages like a wild beast. He consigns your +body and soul to everlasting torments! But, what is more impious still," +went on the padre, as he crossed himself, "he damned your holy father, +and hoped I would roast in hell!" + +"But he confessed, Ricardo, and you gave him absolution?" + +"If calling me thief and assassin, and hurling his stone water-jug at my +head, be confession and forgiveness of sins, the ceremony has been +performed. Ah! my son, he needs no more mercy in this world!" + +"Of course not, my padre; and we will give him a short shrift and a long +rope." + +"Babette!" continued Captain Brand. "Ah! my Baba, you have not forgotten +to feed our jolly Gibbs there below? No? I thought not. Well, then, it +is Sunday, you know; give him a pint of pure rum for his morning's +draught. And, Baba, my beauty, slip a pair of iron ruffles over his +wrists, and then pass a cloth over those bloodshot eyes of his, and lug +him here beneath this hatch. Go down by your own ladder, and be quick, +my Baba, as I wish my breakfast presently!" + +All this was said in a cool and rather an affectionate tone, as Captain +Brand sipped a spoonful or two of chocolate from a cup of Dresden china. +Then turning to the padre, he said, + +"You would perhaps like a cordial, my father, to take the chill off your +stomach? Yes. You will find some capital Curaçoa in that stand of +bottles there." + +The padre, forgetful of the dignity of his calling, shuffled with +indecent haste to the spot indicated, and, without going through the +form of filling one of the diminutive thimble-shaped glasses in the +stand, he boldly raised the silver-netted flask to his lips, and sucked +away until it was nearly empty. Then seating himself on the settee, he +lugged out his illuminated missal and pored over its contents. Captain +Brand occupied himself with opening the loop of the silk rope which fell +from the ceiling, and securing the end firmly on the stout cleat at the +wall. + +So passed the time until a noise beneath the room of a voice in anger, +and a body bumped and dragged along, once more attracted the attention +of those in the saloon. + +"Oh ho! is that you, Master Gibbs?" exclaimed Captain Brand, in a +cheerful voice. "You have risen early; but stop that profane language, +my friend, or you will never see daylight again!" + +The maimed ruffian only muttered, "Your friend, eh? blindfolded and +manacled!" And then, apparently abashed by the cool, commanding tone of +his superior, he held his peace. + +"Well, you are quiet, my lad. Now we'll see if we can't hoist you up +here in the saloon." + +"Thank ye, sir!" said Gibbs, aloud; and then he muttered to himself, +"Let me jest get one grip of ye, and I'll show ye how quiet I'll be." + +"Do you think we shall need assistance, my son?" whispered the padre +into the ear of his patron. + +"_Diavolo!_ No. I never wanted help in these little affairs, except in +the case of that violent Yankee whaler, who gave us much trouble, you +know, and we were obliged to call Pedillo," replied the captain, in the +same low tone. Then, raising his voice, he said, + +"Hark ye, Master Gibbs! Babette will lift you off the stones, and the +padre and I will raise you up to the room here. You don't weigh so much +as you did before you had your leg hacked off with a hand-saw--ho! and I +dare say you are as light now as a dried stockfish! Up with him, Baba! +There--steady! all right--here you are!" + +Saying this, Captain Brand, with the assistance of the stout negress and +the padre, raised the once burly ruffian, with a vigorous hoist that +made him groan, to the floor of the saloon, where they laid him out at +full length on his back. + +"Wait a moment, my hearty, till the hatch is raised, and then we will +raise you. Unpleasant position, no doubt," continued Captain Brand, as +the trap came up and was secured by a spring; "but then, you know, you +_would_ have that pin of yours cut off, and somehow you have been so +careless as to dispose of the nice leg you had the other day, made out +of the spruce fore-top-mast of the 'Centipede'--a very tough bit of a +spar it was." + +Here Master Gibbs grated his teeth and grinned hideously. + +The captain smiled like a demon, and, approaching the prostrate cripple, +said cheerfully--ay, in a frank and hearty tone-- + +"Now, my padre, place a comfortable chair for Master Gibbs, and we will +help him to a seat." + +The considerate Ricardo placed a large, roomy Manilla chair on the fatal +trap, and then aided his chief in lifting their victim to the position +assigned him. As they performed this operation, the captain, with the +gentleness of a tiger before he strikes his prey, and with a wink to the +padre, lightly passed the noose of the silk rope over the ruffian's +hairy throat, where it lay like a snake with its slack coil squirming at +the back of the chair. + +"Now, Master Gibbs, I am about to remove this bandage from your +beautiful red eyes," said Captain Brand, in his cold, chilling, +deliberate manner, "and if you so much as move when daylight shines +before you, I'll blow your brains out." + +Here the pirate leisurely cocked a pistol close to his subordinate's +ear, removed the bandage, and laid the weapon on the table within +reach. + +"No noise either, Master Gibbs!" continued Captain Brand, as he stirred +up the remains of his chocolate and gulped it down; "for it is Sunday +morning, and we must respect the feelings of our padre. You were unkind +to him, he tells me, just now, and even said some disrespectful things +of me. What have _I_ done to vex you?" + +The manacled wretch tried to raise his horny hands to his face when the +cloth was removed from his eyes, and rub those organs, while he glared +suspiciously around; but the captain pointed with his white finger in a +threatening way to the cocked pistol, and Master Gibbs let his hands +fall again. + +"Well, Captain Brand, I s'pose now you're going to treat me as a +faithful man who has sarved under you ought to be treated; and I'm +willin' to forgive what has passed." + +There was no look of forgiveness, however, in those brutal bloodshot +eyes, nor much signs of repentance in those grinding teeth and +compressed lips. + +"Why, no, my Gibbs, _I_ am _not_ going to treat you as a faithful man, +but I tell you what I will do"--here the captain moved his chair nearer +till his straw slipper touched the spring of the trap--"I will drink a +glass of grog with you in forgetfulness of the past and forgiveness for +the future." + +"Thank ye, Captain Brand; I do feel dry. That stuff Babette gave me a +while ago didn't touch the right spot, and I'll be glad to jine you." + +"Ah! _bueno_, my old friend; you _shall_ drink something that _will_ +touch the right spot! What shall it be? you have only to name it." + +"I'll take a toss of that old brandy you gave me the other day, if it's +the same to you, sir." + +"Oh, Master Gibbs, it's all the same to me. Delighted I am to oblige +you! _Padre mio!_ a glass of old Cognac for our friend--a tumblerful; a +wine-glass will do for me." + +The padre poured out the brandy as he was desired, handed the lesser +glass to the captain, and the tumbler he placed in the locked hands of +the victim. Slowly and painfully the subdued ruffian raised the glass to +his mouth, careful not to spill a drop; then, before draining it, he +cleared his throat, while at the same time the captain rose to his feet, +his right foot resting a little on the heel, and held the wine-glass +before him. + +"Now, then, Master Gibbs, for a toss that will touch the right spot." + +"Ay, ay, captain!" said Gibbs; "and here's forgiveness for the future." + +Scarcely had the words been uttered, and the liquor began to gurgle down +the hairy throat of the manacled wretch, than the pirate before him +pressed his foot with a quick, nervous action on the spring. + +Like a flash the trap fell, carrying chair and man with it. The hinges +of the hatch creaked, the wicker-work chair fell with a bound on the +stone floor below, the heavy beam overhead gave a jarring quiver as the +strong silk rope brought up with a shuddering surge on the cleat where +it was belayed at the wall, and with a gasping, choking cry of pain +mingled with the ring of the shattered tumbler on the pavement, the +ruffian of a hundred crimes fell full three feet, and hung struggling in +the death agony. With almost superhuman force he raised his clenched +hands and struck his forehead till the manacles were twisted like wire +by the effort, spinning around too by the lopsided weight of his body, +while the beam above yielded slightly to the strain, and the deadly +cord, no longer squirming, but taut as a bar of iron, held the wretch in +its knotted embrace, clasped tight around the throat. In a minute or two +the hands ceased beating the inflamed face and head, and fell with a +clank before the body; the legs gave a few convulsive twitches, a last +and violent spasm shook the frame, and there Master Gibbs hung, a warm +dead lump of clay. + +While this murderous business was going on, and the poor crippled wretch +was struggling in the jaws of death, the padre was chanting with his +profane tongue from his open breviary the _Salve Domine_, and his patron +coolly took down a telescope and swept it over the blue water to +seaward. When, however, after a quarter of an hour had elapsed, and the +body of their victim gave no more signs of life, the captain laid down +the telescope as the padre closed his missal, and remarked quietly, +while glancing critically down at the suspended body, + +"He did not go off so easy as I had anticipated; his bull-neck is not +broken, though the knot was perfectly well placed. However, he is stone +dead, and we will lower him down. You, my padre, will bury him!" + +"_Hijo mio!_ son of mine! spare me that troublesome duty. Would you have +me drag such a carcass through the cavern and consign him to consecrated +earth, when he refused the last holy offers of salvation?" + +"_Bueno_, my padre, I respect your feelings! You need not put him under +the sand; take him merely to his late dungeon, and lay him decently on +his bed." + +"Thank you, my son; your orders shall be obeyed!" + +Glad, apparently, to be relieved from farther exertion, though with +manifest symptoms of disgust, the priest, more infamous even than the +scoundrel he had assisted in hanging, clumsily descended the hatchway by +the way he came up, and awaited the movements of his chief. The captain +stepped to the wall, and, casting off the turns from the cleat, he +slowly lowered the body down till it rested on the pavement. + +"Unbend the rope from his neck, my padre, and hitch it on to that +Manilla chair. There--all right! you may return this way and breakfast +with me." + +Saying this, Captain Brand rounded up the chair, detached the silk rope, +hung the loop in its accustomed place, and then waited the reappearance +of his confederate. Not many minutes elapsed before the padre, having +performed the last rites, again ascended the stanchion, and was assisted +above the floor by his chief. Then both together got hold of a +ring-bolt in the trap, drew it up and secured the spring, placing square +bits of mahogany over the countersunk apertures, so as to prevent +accidental falls or hangings of themselves. Even while performing these +mechanical operations, the priest puffed out an account of his +proceedings below: how he had dragged the body to the dungeon; how, when +there, he had inadvertently stumbled and fallen on the top of it; and +that his lips--_maldito!_--came in contact with the open mouth of the +late Master Gibbs; but when he had recovered from the horror of this +frightful caress, he had said a short prayer and bolted the door. + +"You have done well, my padre; and now let us break our fast. Babette, a +couple of broiled snappers and a cold duck! Be lively, old lady, for I +have business to attend to after breakfast. _Hola, mi padre_, will you +wash your hands in water before sitting down? No! _bueno!_ I will myself +take a dip all over." + +No, the oily Ricardo never washed his hands, save wetting the tips of +his fingers in holy water in the chapel; and, indeed, he rarely touched +water in any quantity either outside or in; and it was with a look of +surprise, not unmingled with contempt, that he beheld his patron retire +for a bath. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +BUSINESS. + + "He had rolled in money like pigs in mud, + Till it seemed to have entered into his blood + By some occult projection; + And his cheeks, instead of a healthy hue, + As yellow as any guinea grew, + Making the common phrase seem true + About a rich complexion." + +The business which Captain Brand alluded to when he was about to partake +of breakfast with his friend the padre was, in the first instance, to +arrange some matters in the way of payment of debts to his compadre, Don +Ignaçio Sanchez, commander of the Colonial Guarda Costa felucca +"Panchita." + +Accordingly, when he rose from table, and after a whispered dialogue and +reports as to the state of affairs in and around the den and island from +the men at the signal-stations, he summoned Pedillo. When that worthy +appeared below the veranda--for be it remembered that Captain Brand +never permitted the inferior officials of his band to pollute his +apartments, unless, perhaps, as in the case of his deceased subordinate, +Master Gibbs, it was on urgent business--Captain Brand ordered his gig +manned. + +Pedillo threw up his hand in token of assent, and walked down to the +brink of the basin to execute the command. Then, after a few minutes, +Captain Brand lit a cigar, dismissed the padre, put on his fine white +Panama straw hat, unlocked a strong cabinet with a secret drawer, +glanced over a paper before him, and, making a rapid calculation, he +caught up a heavy bag of doubloons, and left the house in charge of +Babette. The captain always told his guests that his fellows had +such love and respect for him that he rarely locked up his property, +and never placed a guard at his door. The truth was, that his +fellows--scoundrels, miscreants, and villains as they were--stood in +such fear and dread of their leader, that they were glad to keep out of +his way. Moreover, he never boasted or made any display before them, +living on shipboard, as on shore, by himself, but always ready and +terrible when the moment came for action; treating his crew, too, with +the most rigid impartiality, adhering strictly to his promises and +compacts with them, and never overlooking an offense. + +So Captain Brand left his dwelling in charge of his dumb housekeeper +Babette, and tripping down the rope ladder from the piazza in a clean +suit of brown linen and straw slippers, his beardless face shaded by his +broad-brimmed hat from the sun, and the bag of gold on his arm, he +jauntily walked toward the cove. + +"Ah! good morning, my doctor! Glad to meet you! How are the sick? Doing +well, I hope!" + +"Quite well, sir; but I was about to call upon you in relation to the +conversation we had last evening, and--" + +"Pardon me, _Monsieur le Docteur_, but I have been very busy this morning, +and am now going to see Don Ignaçio on matters of importance"--here the +elegant pirate took the cigar from his thin lips and held it daintily +between his thumb and fore finger in the air--"and really, monsieur, I am +very sorry to miss your visit. But," he added, with one of his usual +smiles, "I shall be at leisure this afternoon, and in the cool of the +evening we can take a stroll. What say you?" + +The doctor nodded. + +"Apropos, _docteur_, suppose we have a little game of _monté_ afterward +at your quarters. I never permit gaming in mine, you know. The padre +will not object; and I am confident our _compadre_, the Tuerto, will be +delighted." + +"As you please, captain," replied the medico, with a cold, indifferent +air and averted face. "I will join you in the promenade, and I shall be +ready to receive you in the evening." + +"_Hasta huego, amigo!_" said Captain Brand, as he again stuck his cigar +between his teeth, waved his hand in adieu, and walked to his boat. + +"You don't love me, doctor," thought the pirate. "I don't fear you, +captain," thought the doctor. + +It was a touch of high art the way this notorious pirate pitched the bag +of gold toward his coxswain, crying, "Catch that, Pedillo!" and then the +almost girlish manner in which he pattered about the beach and held up +his trowsers, so that he might not even get his slippers damp. Had that +salt water been red blood, he would not have cared if his feet had been +soaked in it. And then, too, the little exclamation of joy when he +finally stepped into the stern-sheets, and sat down beneath the awning, +while he stretched his smooth brown linen legs out on the cushions. Oh, +it was certainly a touch of high piratical art! + +"The old 'Centipede' is looking a little rusty after her late cruise, +Pedillo!" throwing his head back to evade a curl of smoke, and casting +his cold eyes like a rattle of icy hail at the coxswain. "But I am glad +Pedro took your place"--puff, puff--"that knife-stab prevented you, of +course"--puff--"and we shall have her all tight and trig again in a day +or two." + +"_Si, señor!_" said Pedillo, respectfully; "and how goes Señor Gibbs, +_capitano_?" + +The _capitano_ rolled his icy eyes again at the coxswain, and replied, +carelessly, "Why, Pedillo, our friend Gibbs came to see me when the +'Centipede' anchored, but almost before"--puff--"he had given me an +account of his unfortunate cruise he fell down in a fit. The fact is, +however"--puff, puff--"that, what with hard drinking and inflammation +which set in on the stump of his lost leg, he has been in a very bad +way"--puff--"quite in a dangerous condition indeed, requiring all my old +Babette's care and attention"--puff--"but this morning the good padre +went to see him, and he told me a while ago that he left him without +fever, and altogether tranquil." + +Pedillo's wiry mustaches twirled of themselves. + +Meanwhile the boat skimmed lightly over the basin, and as the captain +ceased speaking she ran alongside of the felucca. Don Ignaçio, with his +bright single eye in full burning power, and a cigarette between his +wrinkled lips, was on the deck of the vessel to receive his visitor; and +as he saw the coxswain follow his superior with a weighty bag under his +arm, his glimmering orb became brighter, if possible--as if it was +piercing through the thick canvas of the bag, and counting, ounce by +ounce, the contents--and putting out his fore finger, it was grasped +cordially by the white hand of Captain Brand. + +"_Como se va?_ How goes it with my _compadre_? Stomach and head all +clear after our long dinner of yesterday?" + +The _compadre_ said that his head was particularly clear that morning, +and as for his stomach he had not yet inquired; but if the _capitano_ +had any doubts as to the former proposition, he had better step below +and decide for himself. + +In accordance with this ambiguous invitation, the visitor and commander +disappeared down the small cuddy in the afterpart of the felucca, where +was a low, stifling hole of a cabin, dank with stale tobacco-smoke, and +smelling awfully of rats and roaches. There was a little round table in +the middle, and on one side was a single berth, with some dirty bedding, +which had not been cleaned, apparently, since the vessel was built. +Light was shed from a skylight above. + +Captain Brand gave a sniff of disgust as he entered this floating +sanctum of Don Ignaçio, but, without remark, seated himself on a canvas +stool, and waved a perfumed cambric kerchief before his nose. + +Commander Sanchez, catching the inspiration, merely observed that it was +a little close certainly, and not so spacious as the superb cabin of the +schooner, and that sometimes, when lying in a calm off the lee side of +Cuba, it was hot enough to melt the tail off a brass monkey; but yet it +was his duty, and he did not particularly mind it. + +Hereupon Captain Brand requested Don Ignaçio to produce his papers, and +they were presently laid upon the table. For a few minutes the pirate +was absorbed in running his cold eyes over the accounts--making +pencil-notes on the margins, and comparing them with a memorandum he +took from his pocket; but at last he threw himself back and exclaimed, + +"_Compadre_, the account of old Moreno, at the Havana, is correct to a +real--three hundred and twelve doubloons and eight hard dollars. Yours, +however, has some few inaccuracies--double commissions charged here and +there; all losses and sales charged to me, and all profits credited to +you." + +Don Ignaçio spread out the palms of both his hands toward his +companion, as if to exorcise such unjust charges from the brain of his +confederate. + +"_O si, si, compadre!_ it is as I state, and you know it is true; but, +nevertheless, a few dozens of ounces more or less makes no difference; +and, to make short work, I am ready to pay. But," said Captain Brand, +laying a hand on the heavy bag of money beside him, "though I am quite +ready to cancel my debts in hard cash here on the spot, yet, as I am +bound on a long cruise--Heaven only knows where--I would prefer to keep +the gold and pay you in something else." + +Don Ignaçio threw his head back and fixed his eye like a parrot on the +captain, waiting to hear farther. + +"What have I on hand besides gold? Well, there are a few bales of +Mexican cochineal, and English broadcloths, and some cases of French +silks, which you can have at a fair market value; then there is all that +collection of silver table-service, which you can take by weight; and, +besides, lots of rare furniture, which you may set your own price +upon--altogether much more than enough to pay Moreno and you both. What +say you, _compadre_? is it a bargain? or shall I carry the stuff with +me, and run the chance of disposing of it on the Spanish Main?" + +It was a long time before the crafty old Spaniard could make up his mind +whether to receive his pay in a simple portable currency, or take more +bulky matter, with the hope of making double the money by the operation. +Finally, however, his greed overcame his prudence, and he accepted the +last proposition, with the understanding that the articles should be +transferred to the felucca the next night. + +"Ah!" said Captain Brand, with another sniff of disgust, as he spat on +the dirty floor of the cabin, "I am glad the affair is settled, for I +wouldn't remain another hour in this filthy hole for all the money you +have cheated me out of, you old rascal." + +He said the last portion of this sentence to himself as he emerged from +the cuddy. + +"But listen, _amigo_!" he continued, as they both reached the deck. "You +will give me duplicate receipts on the part of Señor Moreno, so that I +can forward one to him from the next port I visit. And, by the way, +suppose you come on shore this afternoon for a stroll, and in the +evening we will have a little game of _monté_--eh?" + +"_Cierto!_ (certainly!)" returned the commander of the felucca; when +Captain Brand, with his bag of gold intact under his arm, got into his +boat and was pulled to the shore. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +TREASURE. + + "Gold! gold! gold! gold! + Bright and yellow, hard and cold, + Molten, graven, hammered, and rolled; + Heavy to get, and light to hold; + Hoarded, bartered, bought, and sold; + Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled; + Price of many a crime untold-- + Gold! gold! gold! gold!" + + +It was long past noon when the pirate returned to his island home, and +the day was hot, for the sea-breeze had not made, and the tropical sun +was pouring down its burning rays until the sand was roasting as in a +furnace; the very rocks throwing off a trembling mirage of heated air, +and the lagoon almost boiling under the fiery influence. The sailors, +with aching heads and parched mouths, were swinging in their grass +hammocks beneath the sheds; and, save the watchful vigilance of the men +at the look-outs and battery, the little island was wrapped in repose. + +Captain Brand, however, was as cool as a cucumber; and regardless of +the heat, and indifferent about _siesta_, he drew the curtains of the +saloon, and took some active exercise. First, however, he desired +his faithful Babette to get out some camphor trunks and pack the +contents of his splendid wardrobe. This operation was performed under +the critical eye of Captain Brand himself, to which he personally +lent his aid by stowing away, here and there, his caskets, trinkets, +and treasures--those which had been presented to him by the unfortunate +people who had the ill luck to make his acquaintance on the high seas, +or in midnight forays on shore. Then the captain opened and rummaged +cabinets, bureaus, and bookcases, making liberal presents to his +trusty housekeeper; and, turning from that occupation, he had all his +table furniture spread before him, when he made careful estimates of +the value of the silver, china, and glass. This concluded, Captain +Brand ordered Babette to furnish him a slight repast; and while it was +preparing--the captain taking the precaution to bolt his handmaiden in +her kitchen--he went quietly into his bedroom, and when he came out he +bore heavy burdens in his muscular arms, all of which he laid +conveniently near the trap in the floor. Then letting the hatch swing +softly down, he lowered the heavy articles by the silk rope, as he +had Master Gibbs, though not so suddenly, going down himself as +nimbly as a rat after them. In the vault beneath, Captain Brand struck +a light and set fire to a torch, which blazed out luridly, and illumined +the dark excavation and passages like day. Going slowly on, with his +burden in his arms, by the path by which we traced the padre, he +came to the outer door, which opened into the fissure in the crag; and, +after a vigorous effort, the beam was raised, and he passed out. Once +outside, he felt his way cautiously, stepping clear of the stagnant +pools beneath, and guarding his head from the jagged rocks above; and +then, lighting his way over the stones which had upset the equilibrium +of Don Ricardo, he crept slowly into an aperture on the right. + +[Illustration: "HE CREPT FORWARD ON HANDS AND KNEES, THE BLAZING TORCH +LIGHTING UP THE DAMP AND DRIPPING ROCKS."] + +No serpents or venomous reptiles disturbed the pirate's progress; for, +though there were plenty of them coiled or crawling near, yet their +instinct probably taught them that he was a monster with a more deadly +poison than themselves, and whose fangs were sharper, though his tongue +did not hiss a note of warning. Captain Brand put down his burden and +crept forward on hands and knees, the blazing torch lighting up the damp +and dripping rocks, all green and slimy from the tracks of the snake and +lizard. Where the narrow fissure seemed to end by a wall of natural +rock, the pirate rolled aside a large stone at the base, and scratching +away the sand, a large copper lock was displayed, in which, after +pushing aside the hasp, Captain Brand touched a spring, and it opened. +Then, exerting all the force of his powerful frame, a rough slab of +unhewn rock yielded to the effort, and rose like a vertical door slung +by a massive hinge at the top. Placing the large stone at the opening, +so as to prevent the slab falling to its place, the captain stood the +torch within the opening, and went back for his burden; then he +returned, and squeezed himself with it into a small excavated, uneven +chamber, where he sat down. + +"Nasty work," communed the pirate with himself, "but a safe place to lay +up a penny for a rainy day! Let me see. These two bags of doubloons, and +the small one my Gibbs brought me, with those three, there, of guineas, +and those sacks of dollars, will make about ten thousand pounds. That +will make me a nest-egg when I retire from the profession and return to +Scotland. They will have forgotten all my boyish follies by that time." + +Captain Brand alluded to forging his father's name, and other little +peccadilloes of a similar nature. + +"And I may be elected to Parliament--who knows? It is something of a +risk, perhaps, to leave all this pretty coin here, but then it's a +greater risk to carry it in the schooner"--he argued both ways--"and +then, again, damp does not decay pure metal. But," thought Captain +Brand, "suppose somebody should discover this little casket in the +rock. Ah! that's not probable, for no soul besides myself knows of it, +and even the very man who made the door did not know for what it was +intended; besides, he died long ago." + +Captain Brand had forgotten, in this connection, that the man who cut +out the stone chamber and door, and fashioned the hinge and lock, took +too much sugar in his coffee the morning the job was finished, and died +in horrible convulsions before night. Oh yes, that incident had entirely +escaped his memory! + +Captain Brand, having now thoroughly reasoned the matter out, gave each +of the bags lying on the sand a gentle kick to get a responsive echo +from the coin; and then creeping out of the treasure-chamber, he +withdrew the torch, removed the stone, and the heavy slab fell again +into its place. Then clasping the lock, covering it over with sand, and +rolling back the stone, he seized the torch and quickly returned to the +vault beneath his saloon. There, putting out the torch by rubbing it +against the stone pavement until not a spark was left, by the sunlight, +streaming through the loopholes around, he passed to one side and began +removing the cases of cochineal, silks, and what not, near to the +strongly-barred portcullis door, which opened toward the basin fronting +his dwelling. It was hard work, but Captain Brand seemed to enjoy it; +and even after he had arranged the packages intended for shipment in his +_compadre's_ felucca, he began again. Going to the farther corner of the +vault, he stopped before a strong mahogany door, and taking a key from +his pocket, unlocked and threw it wide open. It was as black as night +inside, floored and lined with wood, and emitting a choking atmosphere +of charcoal and sulphur. Piled around the walls were some fifty or a +hundred small barrels with copper hoops, and branded on the heads with +the word "powder." Unmindful of the odor and the rather combustible +material around him, Captain Brand again resumed his work, and rolled a +large number of the little barrels toward the doorway, near the +merchandise already there, saying to himself the while, + +"I think that will about fill the 'Centipede's' magazine, and we must +make a proper disposition of the remainder." + +Hereupon Captain Brand, actively bent upon the work of disposing of his +treasures, rolled out a dozen or two more of the little barrels. Strange +to say, among the very few articles that were never presented to him, +but actually bought of Señor Moreno, was this highly useful and +indispensable material of powder, and he therefore set much store by it. +And it was with a sigh of regret that the pirate stood the little +barrels on their ends in a line across the great vault of the building, +beneath kitchen, bedrooms, and saloon, and especially beside the square +upright stanchions on which the interior of the building rested. Not +content with this, he took a copper hammer and knocked in all the heads +of the little barrels, and then, with a scoop of the same metal, he +dipped out large quantities of the black material, and poured thick +trains of it from barrel to barrel, sometimes capsizing one, but always +particularly cautious not to rasp a grain of it beneath his grass +slippers and the pavement. Then he took a piece of match-rope, and +sticking one end deep into a barrel, he just poked the other end out of +a loophole, to be in readiness whenever Captain Brand should deem proper +to touch his lighted cigar to it. + +"There," said Captain Brand, "that piece of tow will burn about thirty +or forty minutes, and then--stand from under!" + +Ascending the hatchway again with the agility of a cat, he drew up and +secured the trap, and in ten minutes afterward he was freshly attired in +a nice pair of India panjammers, a grass cloth jacket and vest--with, of +course, the usual knickknacks in his pockets--and seated at table, where +his busy housekeeper had placed a broiled chicken and a bottle of old +Bordeaux before him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +PLEASURE. + + "But ever, from that hour, 'tis said, + He stammered and he stuttered, + As if an axe went through his head + With every word he uttered. + He stuttered o'er blessing, he stuttered o'er ban, + He stuttered, drunk or dry; + And none but he and the fisherman + Could tell the reason why." + + +"Babette," said Captain Brand, as he tapped a spoon against his +coffee-cup and puffed his cigar, while the stout dumb negress was +removing the remains of the light dinner, "Babette, old girl, you know +that we are going to leave here in a few days, and I should like to know +whether you care to go with us or remain here on the island." + +The negress made a guttural grunt of assent, and nodded her head till +the ends of her Madras turban fluttered. + +"Ho! you do, eh? Well, my Baba, I shall be sorry to leave you, for you +will be very lonely here, and it may be a long, very long time before I +come back." + +Babette jerked her chin up this time, and did not grunt. + +"It's all the same, eh? old lady! Well, I shall leave enough to eat to +last you a lifetime; but you will have to change your quarters, my Baba, +and live in the padre's shed, for I--a--don't think this house will be +inhabitable long after I am gone." + +The negress gave another grunt and nod of assent. + +"Yes. Well, old lady, the matter is decided, then; but, in case you +should have any visitors here after we have gone, you won't take any +trouble to describe what you have seen here? No! That shake of your head +convinces me--not if they roast you alive?" + +The hideous sign of understanding that the woman expressed in her dumb +way would have convinced any body without the trouble of uttering a +word. + +"_Bueno!_" said Captain Brand; "that will do for to-day." + +Rising as he spoke, he stepped to a cabinet, slipped a large handful of +doubloons in his trowsers pocket, put on his hat, and walked out. + +The sea-breeze swept over the island with its full strength, making the +lofty cocoa-nuts bow their tufted tops, the palm-trees rustle their +broad flat leaves and clash the stems together. The mangroves bent, too, +before the wind, and the sand eddied up in tiny whirls amid the great +expanse of cactus, while the vessels swung with taut cables to their +anchors. Even Captain Brand's hat nearly was blown off his dry light +hair as he joined his _compadre_, Don Ignaçio, at the landing; and the +sandy dust blinded--though only for a moment--that one-eyed individual's +optic, and put out his cigarette as they struggled against the influence +of the breeze. But yet they walked on in the direction of the sheds, and +as they passed through the court-yard, where the men were lounging about +in yawning groups or sitting under the piazza, playing cards--getting up +and touching their hats as their chief passed--Señor Pedillo accosted +him thus: + +"_Capitano_, the people are thirsty, and desire a barrel of wine." + +"Not a drop, Señor Pedillo--not so much as would wet the bill of a +musquito! To-morrow at daylight let all hands be called, for we have +work to do, and we must be quick to do it." + +Pedillo slunk away, abashed by the positive tone of his commander; and +Captain Brand, with his companion, passed on to the domicile of the +padre and doctor. Pausing at the open door of the shed, they looked in. +The padre was lying flat on his back on his narrow bed, with his mouth +wide open, and snoring like a key-bugle with leaky stops; while his +beads and crucifix--misplaced emblems in contact with drunkenness and +debauchery--were reposing on his ample chest. The doctor was sitting +beside his own couch, whispering words of childish comfort to the little +boy, whose pale cheeks and brown curls reposed on the pillow of the bed. +The poor child's thin, limp fingers rested like the petals of a drooping +lily in the dark, bony hand of his friend, and his dim hazel eyes were +turned sadly toward him. + +"Holloa, _amigos_!" shouted Captain Brand, in a hearty voice. "We are +losing the glorious sea-breeze. _Vamanos!_ let us take a stroll to the +Tiger's Trap." + +Hereupon Captain Brand entered the room, and gave the padre a violent +tweak of the nose, at the same time puffing a volume of cigar-smoke +into his beastly mouth, which combined effort brought the holy father +to life in a trice, choking and sputtering, as he arose, a jargon of +paternosters, which an indifferent hearer might have mistaken for a +volley of execrations, so savagely were they uttered. + +"Take a sip of Geneva, my padre. There it is on the table. Ah! do you +call half a bottle a sip? Well! Come, doctor, let us be moving." + +Down by the narrow gorge of the inlet, and over the smooth rocks and +shelly shore, the party took their way, Don Ignaçio leading with the +amiable priest, on whom he glared with his malevolent eye as if--he not +being a person from whom money or its equivalent could be squeezed--the +greedy old Spaniard would like to transfix him with a glance. In the +rear came Captain Brand and the doctor, the former as gay as a bird--of +the vulture species--and his companion grave, severe, and preoccupied. +Stopping as they reached the Tiger Trap Battery, where, after Captain +Brand had made a close inspection of the guns, and held sharp confabs +with the men who rose to receive him, he moved away a few steps, and, +resting his body against the lee side of a projecting rock, removed the +cigar from his frozen lips, and said, + +"The arguments you have urged, monsieur, and the views you entertain, +have a certain amount of reason in them. It is true you were deceived in +coming here, but yet you swore to remain and not betray us when you did +come. Well--ah! don't interrupt me; I divine what you are going to +say--you did not know what our real character was. Perhaps not. +Nevertheless, I can not consent to your going away with that old rascal, +Don Ignaçio, there--that is, if he would take you, which I think he +would not, as your presence on board might compromise him with the Cuban +authorities; and," went on Captain Brand, as he crossed his legs, and +held his fine Panama hat on his head as a ruffle of the sea-breeze shot +around the rock, "with respect to your remaining here on the island, you +will only have that dumb old beast of a Babette for company; and it is +highly probable that the English or American cruisers will be down upon +you before a change of the moon, and they might--a--hang you, perhaps, +for a pirate. Ho! ho!" + +"If Don Ignaçio declines to take me, Captain Brand, of course I can not +go in the felucca; but, let come what will, I am resolved not to sail in +the 'Centipede.'" + +The pirate regarded the doctor for a moment with a cold, freezing look, +not wanting, however, in a partial glimmer of respect and admiration, as +he thus resolutely stated his determination; and then, putting his +finger lightly on the doctor's arm, as he saw Don Ignaçio and the padre +draw near, he said impressively, in a low tone, + +"_Monsieur le Docteur_, do not make hasty resolutions. _I_ command here, +and my will is law. I will turn the matter over, however, in my mind, +and give you a final decision before we part to-night. Now let us +return. The sun is down, and the rocks are slippery." + +"Well, _caballeros_, let us have a little social amusement," said +Captain Brand, as he sat down at the table in the padre's and doctor's +quarters, and wound up his splendid watch, the present from the Captain +General of Cuba. "But bear in mind that we must break up at midnight, +for our _compadre_ here has a multitude of articles to get on board his +felucca to-night, and I must be astir at daylight." + +Did Captain Brand think, while he turned the key of that gold repeater, +of the bloodstained wretch he had put to death in the morning, who was +lying stark and still in his narrow, damp resting-place, or of the poor +little sufferer who had been torn from his heart-broken mother sleeping +near him? Oh no, certainly not. Captain Brand was thinking of a little +game of monté. + +The padre lugged out a small store of dollars, and a gold ounce or two, +and other stray bits of gold, down to quartitos or eighths of +doubloons--all of it donations made him for remission of sins and +absolutions, presented at one time and another from the pirates of his +flock, such donations falling in pretty rapidly after a successful +cruise, but dwindling away to most contemptible gifts long before his +flock took to sea again. + +Captain Brand was very liberal to his crew, dividing a great deal of +money with them, but, since he rarely visited any foreign ports, they +had little chance of squandering it; and in the end it served merely as +a gaming currency to play with, and eventually coming back to him as +contributions for stores, ammunition, rigging, and so forth. The +captain, therefore, was a large gainer by the operation, as most of the +articles in eating and drinking, and the vessel's outfit, were--as we +know--generally presented to him, so that he was enabled to stow away +the cash for future gratification. + +Don Ignaçio Sanchez was likewise a moneyed man, and came provided with a +long pouch of solid gold, which he made into little piles before him of +the exact size of those of the captain. The doctor, however, declined to +play, and sat an indifferent spectator of the game. + +"Let us begin, _señores_!" exclaimed the Don, as he rapidly shuffled the +cards, and his keen, black spark of fire lit up with animation at the +rich prospect before him. "We are losing precious time. I'll be +_banquero_! _Vamanos!_" + +So they began. The cards were dealt, and the betting went on. The padre +forgot breviary and beads in his excitement, and as his little pointings +were swept away, he forgot, too, the sacred ejaculations he was wont to +lard his discourse with, and he became positively profane. The captain +won largely in the beginning, and jeered his _compadre_ with great zest +and enjoyment; but that one-eyed, rapacious old Spanish rascal was not +in the least disturbed, and bided his time. At first the conversation +was light and jovial, Captain Brand insisting upon the doctor describing +minutely how he had hacked his friend Gibbs's leg off with a hand-saw, +laughing hugely thereat, and wiping the icy tears from his cold blue +eyes with his delicate cambric handkerchief. Then the fascinating game +began to fluctuate, and the luck set back with a steady run into the +piles of the banker. Captain Brand liked as little to lose his money as +any other gambler in cards, stocks, or dice, and he was somewhat chafed +in spirit; but what especially irritated him was losing it to that +wrinkle-faced, one-eyed, greedy old scoundrel, with no possible hope of +ever seeing a dollar of it again. As for the padre, he was dead broke; +and since his friends would not lend him a real, and the banker did not +play upon credit, he sat moodily by, and gloated over the winnings of +the Tuerto, cursing his own luck and that of his companions likewise. + +"Ho!" growled Captain Brand, "_maldito a la sota!_ I have lost my last +stake!" + +Even while he spoke the poor little boy murmured in a sobbing voice, +"Mamma, _chère_ mamma!" and turned uneasily in his little nest from his +fitful slumber. + +"That crying imp again!" said the now angry pirate, as he hurled the +padre's half empty gin jug in the direction of the couch, which crashed +against the wall, and fell in a shower of glass splinters over the +little sleeper. + +The child gave one terrified shriek, and, starting from the bed in his +little night-dress, now soiled and torn, he ran and threw himself on his +knees before the doctor. Another bottle was raised aloft by the long +muscular arm of the pirate; but, before you could wink, that arm was +arrested, and the missile twisted from his grasp. + +"For shame, you coward! Don't harm the boy. He will die soon enough in +this awful den without having his brains dashed out." + +"Ho, _Monsieur le Docteur_!" muttered the villain, looking as if he +would like to taste the heart's-blood of the resolute man who stood +before him, as he pushed a hand into his waistcoat pocket, "do you +presume to call names and oppose _my_ will?" + +But, controlling his passion with a violent contortion of face that +would have made one's blood run cold to see it, he changed his tone and +said, + +"Nonsense, doctor; you seem to take rather a strong interest in the +brat--possibly an injudicious one; but, since he is my prize, you know, +by law, come--what will you give for him? Ah! happy thought, we will +play for him! There, deal away, _compadre_. _Sota_ and _cavallo_! I take +the knave again, and you ten doubloons against the boy on the horse." + +The doctor said not a word, but nodded assent, and seemed absorbed in +the game. + +"_Presto!_ Turn the cards, you old sinner! Quick! _Por dios!_ horse has +kicked me, and the knave loses! _Monsieur_, the brat is yours!" + +Then starting up, Captain Brand hastily pulled out his watch, and said, +"_Hola, caballeros_, the time is up! I must say good-night." + +Don Ignaçio's brown thin fingers, like a dentist's steel nippers, laid +down the cards, and carefully picked up his winnings, even to the +smallest bit of the precious metal, and dropped it piece by piece into +his long pouch, following them each with his glittering eye, like a +magpie peering into a narrow-necked bottle, and smiling with his +wrinkled old lips as the dull chink of the coin fell upon his ear. When +he had performed this operation, he tied up the mouth of the bag as if +he was choking somebody to death; and then, twitching something which +was partly hidden in his sleeve, he arose in readiness to go out. + +As, however, Captain Brand turned to follow his _compadre_, he looked +carelessly toward the doctor, and said, + +"By the way, monsieur, I have made up my mind with respect to our +conversation to-day, and you _shall_ remain on the island. No thanks. +Adieu. Now, Don Ignaçio, if your men and boats are at the cove, we will +make sharp work with your business. _Vamanos!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +WORK. + + "Skeleton hounds that will never be fatter, + All the domestic tribes of hell, + Shrieking for flesh to tear and tatter, + Bones to shatter, + And limbs to scatter, + And who it is that must furnish the latter, + Those blue-looking men know well!" + + +When the pirate stood in his saloon on the morning subsequent to the +pleasurable events of the Sunday previous, he, as well as his saloon, +presented altogether a different aspect. The apartment had been stripped +of all its rare and costly furniture, cabinets, candelabra, plate, +china, and glass, and nothing of value was left save the camphor trunks +on the floor, the cane-bottomed settee, a few chairs, and a table. All +the beautiful things, ornamental as well as useful, had disappeared, +even to the rich packages of merchandise in the great vault beneath. The +late possessor, however, of all that worldly wealth did not appear to be +at all discomposed, or to cherish the faintest pang of regret at his +loss. In truth, he seemed to be relieved from an uncomfortable load of +responsibility; and feeling assured, perhaps, that in roaming about the +world he could collect a still more valuable collection--only give him +time--and he would exercise his critical taste with every pleasing +variety. It was thus he consoled himself as he stood there in his now +denuded room, attired in a pair of coarse canvas trowsers, a red flannel +shirt, with a short sharp hanger on his hip, and a double-barreled +pistol in his belt--quite the costume in which he so singularly shocked +Doña Lucia, whose lovely miniature once hung there on the wall in +company with the other miserable victims of his lust. + +Captain Brand had just entered his dwelling, having been up and actively +occupied ever since we last parted with him. Now he had come for a cup +of tea and dry toast; and, while Babette was bringing that simple +breakfast, the pirate stood, tall, erect, and powerful, with one +muscular arm resting high above his head on the side of the doorway, and +the other lying lightly on the shark's-skin hilt of his cutlass, looking +out to seaward--a very model, as he was, of a cool, prudent, desperate +villain. + +"Ah! there you go, you crafty old miser, in your guarda costa! Take +care, my compadre, of that reef. If that felucca's keel touches one of +those coral ledges there won't be a tooth-pick left of her in ten +minutes. San Antonio! but that was a close shave! How the sharks would +rasp your bones, for there's no flesh on them! Grazed clear, eh? +_Bueno!_ now you're in blue water, you rapacious scoundrelly old wretch, +and make the most of it." + +Captain Brand waved his hand in adieu to the felucca, which, with the +wind off shore, had crept through the coral gateway, and, with her great +lateen sail and green glancing bottom, was rising and falling on the +long swell as she slipped away to the eastward. He then gulped down his +tea, made one or two savage bites at his toast, and again walked out to +the veranda, descended the ladder, and took his course toward the +basin. + +There, too, the scene had changed; and instead of the tranquil, shelly +shore, only agitated by the musical rippling from the pure little inlet, +the faint cry of a sea-gull, or the chirps of the lizards in the +crevices of the rocks across the basin, those sounds had given place to +the nimble feet and voices of busy sailors. The "Centipede," also, had +been towed from her moorings to a jetty which projected into the water +from the shore, and there she lay, careened down, her keel half out of +the water, with a dozen of her crew scrubbing her lean sides till the +green-coated copper came flashing out in the sunlight like burnished +gold. With her slanting masts lashed to the jetty, carpenters were +engaged reducing the length of the fore-mast, and trimming out a spar +for a new bowsprit. The long gun, with its carriage, lay near, and +artisans were at work at a temporary forge, hammering out bolts and +straps to replace those which were weakened by long service. On the +shore, too, were a score or more of the piratical gang--Spaniards, +negroes, Indians, Italians, and who not--ferocious-looking scoundrels, +busy as bees, splicing and knotting ropes, stretching new rigging, +cutting running gear from the coils of hemp or Manilla-grass rope, or +making spun-yarn and chafing-mats; while beneath the low mat sheds hard +by, sail-makers were stitching away with their shining needles, making a +set of square sails for the changed rig of the "Centipede," or repairing +old sails. But this was not all; for in a shed beyond was the armorer, +with a few hands, grinding pikes and cutlasses, and cleaning small arms; +while farther still was the gunner and his mate, filling powder-cases +for the long gun and swivels, and making up musket and pistol +ball-cartridges. + +In the midst of all these busy throngs moved Captain Brand, hither and +thither, from vessel to forge, from sails to rigging, giving clear, +sharp directions in various languages--commendation here, reproof +there--inspecting with his own cold eyes every thing; judging of all; +quick, active, ready; never at a loss for an expedient, and urging on +the work like a thorough-bred seaman as he was, who knew his own duty +and how to make others do theirs. So went on the refitting of the +"Centipede," all through the burning hot tropical day; and while the +half-exhausted crew took a respite in the scorching noon for dinner, +still their leader toiled on. Or, if he took a rest, it was in closely +scrutinizing the progress made by his men, in puffing a cigar like to a +small high-pressure engine, or in clambering up the steep face of the +crag to the signal-station, where he would peer away in all directions +around the island--never missing the glance of a pelican's pinion or the +leap of a fish out of water. Then he would return to the cove and begin +anew the work. It was no longer the elegant Captain Brand, in +knee-breeches, point-lace sleeves, and velvet doublet, seated at his +luxurious table, groaning under splendid plate, fine wines, and +brilliant wax-lights, and dispensing a profuse hospitality, but Captain +Brand the pirate, in tarry rig, amid sailors, sails, and cordage, +munching a bit of hard biscuit at times, or a cube of salt-junk out of a +mess kid, but ever ready, never weary, and always up to the professional +mark. + +At the first gray blush of dawn on the following day Captain Brand was +astir again, and before the sun went down behind the waves the schooner +"Centipede" had been transformed into a brigantine, her fore-mast +reduced, new standing rigging fitted for it, with a new bowsprit and +head-booms, her rail raised four or five feet by shifting bulwarks, and +a temporary house built on deck over the long gun. She was also painted +afresh, with a white streak; and, with false head-boards on her bows to +hide her snakelike snout of a cutwater, no one, unless in the secret, +could have known that the clumsy box of a merchantman lying there was +once the low, swift, piratical schooner which had made so notorious a +name in the West Indies. Still the work was driven on with scarcely any +intermission--a few hours' repose for the crew at night, and an hour for +dinner in the day; but as for Captain Brand, he never slept at all--a +doze for an hour or two, perhaps, on his settee in the saloon, and a cup +of tea in the morning, with cigar-smoke, satisfied his frugal +requirements. The next day, by noon, the water and stores were got on +board the brigantine, her magazine stowed, the dunnage of the crew +transferred from the sheds, the captain's camphor trunks on board and +cabin in order, the sails bent, anchors on the bows, and, swinging to a +hawser made fast to the rocks, the vessel was ready to put to sea at any +moment. + +"Pedillo," said Captain Brand, as his vigilant gaze took in all around +him and then rested on the "Centipede"--"Pedillo, you may warp the +vessel down to the mouth of the Tiger's Trap so soon as you've strewed +some fagots ready for lighting in the sheds. When you get to the Trap, +tell the gunner to take a gang of hands and give that battery a good +coat of coal tar, plug the vents of the guns, and bury carriages and +all in the sand beside the magazine. Tell him to destroy the powder, and +pitch overboard all he can't conceal; and let him bear a hand about it, +for we shall sail with the last of the sea-breeze toward sunset. + +"And, Pedillo"--here the pirate's voice dropped to a whisper--"come back +after the vessel is secured, and bring that Maltese fellow without a +nose with you. It will be as well, perhaps, for you to provide yourself +with a few fathoms of raw-hide strips, as we may have occasion to use +it. _Quien sabe?_" + +Señor Pedillo's black wiry beard fairly bristled as he grinned +understandingly at his superior; and, getting into a bit of a canoe at +the jetty, he paddled off to the brigantine to execute his orders. + +Meanwhile Captain Brand slowly bent his steps toward the house under the +crag, and entered his spacious saloon for the last time. On the bare +table, too, was his last dinner, served on a few odd dishes and cracked +plates. + +"Babette, old girl!" said he, as he sat down to this repast, "you have a +bottle of good Madeira, and a flask of Hock left? No?" + +The negress shook her head violently, made the sign of the cross, and by +other telegraphic motions gave her master to understand that Padre +Ricardo had dropped in, drained both bottles, and then had reeled off on +board the brigantine. + +"The drunken selfish beast!" muttered Captain Brand; "it will be the +last taste of wine he will swallow for a long time." + +The pirate was quite correct in his schemes for the padre's reform, for +the next copious draught the holy father imbibed was the briny salt +water from the Caribbean Sea. + +"Well, my Baba, a drop of water, then! Thank you, old lady. Here's to +your health while I am gone. There--you need not blubber so over my +hand--good-by!" And so passed away from Captain Brand's sight the only +creature in the wide world who loved him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +CAUGHT IN A NET. + + "I closed my lids and kept them close, + And the balls like pulses beat; + For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky, + Lay like a load on my weary eye, + And the dead were at my feet." + + +Captain Brand did not linger long over his frugal dinner, and when he +had finished, as if he had not had enough exercise for the last three +days, he began to walk with long nervous strides across the saloon. + +"He called me coward, did he? and dared to lay his hands on me! By my +right arm, my Creole doctor, I'll teach you not to call hard names +again, and I'll paralyze your hands for all time to come." + +The pirate's jaws grated like a rusty bolt as he hissed out these +murderous threats; but as his eye caught the squirming green silk rope +as he swung round on his heel in his walk, he paused and muttered, + +"That bit of stuff may be of use. I'll take it by way of precaution." + +Hereupon he rapidly unrove the cord and coiled it away in the bosom of +his shirt. Then looking at his watch, he said, "Ho! the time approaches, +and here comes Pedillo." + +Lighting a cigar, he left his dwelling for the last time; and, after +pausing to hear a report from Pedillo that his orders had been executed +and the vessel all ready for sea, and whispering a few precise +directions in return, Captain Brand mounted up the steep face of the +crag again, and accosted the signal-man at the station. + +"Any thing in sight?" + +"Nothing to the eastward, _capitano_; but it has been a little hazy here +away to the southward since meridian, and I can hardly see through it." + +"_Bueno_, my man! give me the glass. You can go on board the brigantine. +I'll take a last look myself." + +While the signal-man scrambled down the crag, Captain Brand rested the +spy-glass on the trunk of the single cocoa-nut-tree, whose skeleton-like +fingers of leaves rattled above his head like a gibbeted pirate in +chains, and then he searched steadily along the hazy horizon. As he was +about, however, to withdraw his eye from the tube, something--a mere dim +speck--arrested his attention. Quickly dropping the glass, and as +rapidly rubbing the large lens and carefully adjusting the joints, he +raised it again, as a backwoodsman does his rifle with an Indian for a +mark. For full five minutes the pirate stood as motionless as the crag +beneath him, intently glaring through the tube at the speck in the +distance. At last he let the glass fall at his side, and pulling out his +watch with a jerk, he muttered to himself, + +"It is a large and lofty ship; but, should she be a cruiser after me, +she will find the bird flown and the nest empty. Ho, now for action!" + +Springing down the precipitous declivity as he spoke, he paused a moment +at a loophole of the vault beneath his dwelling, and puffing his cigar +into a bright coal, he carefully twitched the match-rope which led to +the train, opened the loose strands, and placed the fire to it. Waiting +an instant till he saw the nitre sparkle as it ignited, he moved away +with long, swinging strides toward the sheds. There, glancing through +the now deserted halls the crew had occupied, where quantities of +fagots, and kindling-wood, and barrels of pitch were standing, he +continued on till he came to the quarters of the doctor. The doctor was +standing at the open door on the thatched piazza, looking quietly at the +brigantine, whose sails were loosed, and the vessel hanging by a +sternfast, with her head just abreast the Tiger's Trap. + +"Ah! _Monsieur le Docteur_, I have merely called to bid you a final +adieu before I go on board; and as I have a few moments left, and a few +words to say, suppose you walk with me toward the chapel. _Allons!_ +there is a suspicious sail off there," waving his glass in the +direction, "and I wish to take a good look at her." + +"Doctor," continued Captain Brand, as they reached the little esplanade +facing the graves and church, "you will have no one left here on our +island save our dumb Babette, and the chances are rather remote for your +getting away, without, perhaps, some of the West India fleet should +happen to drop in here, which I do not think probable. I rely, however, +upon your keeping your oath, even if they do come, and not betraying the +secrets you are acquainted with." + +The pirate said this in an off-hand, friendly way, as he had his glass +leveled toward the sail he saw in the offing. + +"Captain Brand," replied the doctor, "I was deceived in coming here, as +you well know; but I shall religiously keep my oath for the twenty +years, as I swore to do. After that, if we both live so long, my tongue +and arm shall speak and strike." + +The pirate stepped back a little as he shut up the joints of the +spy-glass with a crash, and, with a scowl of hate and vengeance +combined, he said, in a loud voice, while his cold eyes gleamed like a +ray of sunlight on an iceberg, + +"And I, too, keep my oaths; and, without waiting twenty years, I strike +now!" + +Even while the treacherous villain spoke, two swarthy, sinewy scoundrels +crept stealthily from within the chapel, and, with the soft, slimy +movements of serpents, as their leader uttered the last word, they +sprang at the back of the doctor, and wound their coils around him, +twining strong strands of raw-hide rope about his arms, legs, and body. +Bound as in a frame of elastic steel, their victim was thrown, face +downward, upon the sand. + +"Be quick, Pedillo! the time is flying! Gomez, bring the corpse trestle +from the chapel." + +In a moment a wooden frame with legs, and stretched across with a bed +of light wire, which had been used to carry the mortal remains of +the pirates--and the poor women, too, beside them--to their last +resting-places, was brought out from the little church. Then the +bound victim was laid on it, face upward; again the hide thongs were +passed in numerous plaits until the body was lashed firmly to the +trestle. + +"Place it on the edge of that rock there, with his head toward the +cocoa-nut-tree. Take this silk rope, Gomez, and clove-hitch it well up +the trunk. There, that will do. I myself will perform the last act of +politeness." + +Saying this, the pirate widened the noose of the cord, and, slipping it +over the doctor's head, he placed the knot carefully under his left ear. +The victim gave no groan or sigh, and his dark, luminous eyes were fixed +on the blue sky above him in heaven. + +"_Monsieur le Docteur_," said Captain Brand, as he hurriedly looked at +his watch and raised his hat, "I have but one word of caution to give +you: if you struggle you will have your neck broken before you are stung +to death! Talk as much as you like; but, as Babette is a long way off, +and hard of hearing, I doubt if she comes to your assistance! Adieu!" + +[Illustration: "A DULL, HEAVY, BOOMING ROAR, THAT SHOOK THE CRAG TO ITS +BASE, ANNOUNCED THE RUIN OF THE PIRATES' DEN."] + +The retreating figures went leaping toward the inlet, and, as they +rushed through the sheds, applied a torch to the combustible material +deposited there, and then sprang on toward the Tiger's Trap. A few +minutes afterward the doctor turned his eyes in that direction, and saw +the sails of the brigantine sheeted home and run up like magic; and, +taking the last breath of the sea-breeze on her quarter, the sternfast +was cast off, and she slipped easily out of the gorge-like channel. +Still, as those dark stern eyes watched the receding hull of the +"Centipede," a sudden jar shook the island, a heavy column of white +smoke rose from below the crag like a water-spout, and, spreading out +like a palm-tree, came down in a deluge of timber, stones, and dust, +while sheets of vivid flame leaped out from the gloom, and an awful +peal, followed by a heavy, booming roar, that shook the crag to its +base, announced the ruin of the pirate's den. At the same time the red +fires gleamed in fitful flashes from the sheds, and, rapidly making +headway, all at once burst forth in wild conflagration, till the whole +nest was wrapped in flames. The shock of the explosion and the fires +killed the wind, and a lurid pall of smoke and cinders hung like a +gloomy canopy over the island. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE MOUSE THAT GNAWED THE NET. + + "There passed a weary time. Each throat + Was parched, and glazed each eye. + A weary time! a weary time! + How glazed each weary eye! + When, looking westward, I beheld + A something in the sky." + + +As the powder vomited forth its dreadful thunder, and as the stones and +timbers from the blasted den were hurled high in air, and scattered by +the explosive whirlwind far and near, some of the splinters and +fragments came down in dropping hail upon the red-tiled sheds and the +doctor's dwelling. At the first shock the lonely child started up in his +little bed, and while the earth rocked and the stones came pelting and +crashing on the roof, he screamed, "Mamma! mamma!" No loving echo came +back to those innocent lips, and naught was heard save the crackling of +the flame beyond, licking its tongue along the dry timber and roaring +joyously as it was fed. "Mamma! _chère_ mamma!" + +Yet no answer, and still the savage flames came careering wildly on till +the very stones of the court-yard cracked like slates, while the burning +flakes and cinders loaded the air, and the eddying volumes of smoke +reeled in dense clouds, and poured their suffocating breath into the +room where the forsaken child was crying. + +One more panting, helpless cry, and the little fellow instinctively flew +through the open doorway, where, blinded and choking with the +devastating element around him, he staggered feebly beyond its +influence. Yet again a flurry of thick smoke lighted up the forked and +vivid flames, and chased the child before it. + +Oh, fond mother! in your poignant grief for the loss of your poor +drowned boy, you were spared the agony of seeing him, even in +imagination, struggling faintly before that tempest of fire and smoke, +calling plaintively for her on whose tender bosom his head had rested, +while his naked feet were cut and bruised by the sharp coral shingle +beneath them. But onward and onward the boy wandered, and fortunately +his footsteps took the path into a purer atmosphere which led toward the +chapel. Here he looked timidly around at the lurid glare behind him, and +then entered the church and sank down exhausted, his feverish, smarting +eyes closing in slumber on the hard pavement beneath the image of the +Virgin Mary. + +Then came the close and sultry night--no murmur of a land-wind to drive +the smoky canopy away--the black cinders falling in burning rain on +basin, thicket, and lagoon, till even the very lizards and scorpions hid +themselves deep within the holes and crevices of the rocks. Midnight +came. The dim and silent stars were obscured by a veil of heavy clouds, +and with a low, muttering sound of thunder, the vapory masses unclosed +their portals, and the rain fell in torrents. The flames, now nearly +satisfied with their work, leaped out occasionally from the fallen +ruins, but were quenched by the tropical deluge, and smouldered away +amid the charred and saturated timbers. Then the thunder ceased, the +lizards and scorpions came from their retreats, the teal fluttered over +the lagoon, and the noise of the waves bursting over the reef came again +to the ear. Still there was no breath of air; the atmosphere was thick +and damp; and out from the mangrove thickets and wide expanse of cactus, +swarms of insects, musquitoes, and sand-flies in myriads went buzzing +and singing in the sultry, murky night. + +So dragged on the weary hours until day broke again, and the sea-birds +floated off seaward for their morning's meal, and the flying-fish +skipped with their silvery wings from wave to wave, as the dolphins +glittered in gold and purple after them below the blue water. No bright +and blazing sun came over the hills of Cuba to light up this picture, +but all was blight and gloom, with murky masses of dead, still clouds +hanging low down over the island. + +The little suffering boy, lying there on the coral pavement, with his +head resting on the thin, delicate arm, with pale, sweet face turned +half upward toward the Virgin, gave a feeble cry and opened his eyes. He +rose to a sitting posture, with his little hands resting on his lap and +little ragged shirt. Then, with his dim hazel eyes fixed upon the +painting, while the tears coursed slowly down his pallid cheeks, he put +forth his hands in a childish movement of supplication, and murmured +again his tearful prayer, "Mamma! mamma!" + +Presently rising, he turned his feeble footsteps toward the doorway, and +as his eye caught the stone bowl of holy water standing on its coral +pedestal near the portal, he bent down his feverish head and slaked his +parched lips. Revived by this, he timidly looked out from the chapel, +and shuddering as he beheld the gloomy wilderness around, he once more +screamed in a thin piercing cry, "Mamma! oh, _ma chère_ mamma!" + +That was the last sad wail for help for many and many a long year that +those infant lips were destined to utter; and when he again called upon +that dear name, his manly arms would clasp a joyful mother to his +swelling heart. + +"Henri!" came back like an echo in a clear shout to the shriek of the +boy. "Henri! Henri!" was reiterated again and again, each time in a +voice that seemed to split asunder the canopy of clouds above. + +The boy started and listened. + +"Henri! Henri! this way to your good friend the doctor! Quick, my little +boy!" + +Now with the step of a fawn the child ran out upon the sharp sandy +esplanade, and following the voice as he tripped lightly through the +narrow pathway between the needle-pointed cactus, in a moment he +stopped, with a look of horror, beside the trestle on which the bound +and nearly naked man was stretched. + +Ay, it was a sight to make a strong and stalwart man turn pale with +sickness and horror, much less a baby-boy of three or four years old. +There lay the man, all through the dreadful night, with swarms on swarms +and myriads upon myriads of stinging insects, biting and sipping, and +sucking his life-blood with distracting agony away. Ah! think of the +hellish torture often practiced by those bloody pirates upon their +victims in the West Indies! The bound man's eyes were closed, the lips +and cheeks puffed and swollen out of all human proportions, and the +inflamed body was one glowing red and angry surface. No needle could +have been stuck where the venomous stings of a thousand sand-flies or +musquitoes had not already sucked blood. Ay, well might the child start +back with horror! + +"It is your friend the doctor, Henri," he said in French, still in a +strong but kindly voice. "I can not see you, but get me a knife. No, my +child, never mind--you can not find one; don't leave me." + +Here the child timidly put his little hands out and brushed away the +poisonous insects, and then touched the doctor's face. + +"Ah! Henri, see if you can not slip that pretty silk rope over my head; +yes, that is the way--_doucement_--easily, my child! Well, now, my +Henri, you are weak and sick, my poor little boy; but listen to me--yes, +I feel your little hands on my eyes. Well, bite upon that cord that goes +across my throat. Bite till it snaps asunder! I am nearly choking, +little one; but don't cry." + +True, the strips of raw-hide, which had partially slackened in the rain +that had washed the body of the victim, now began to tauten again in the +sultry heat of the morning, and lay half hidden in the swollen throat, +stomach, and limbs of the tortured sufferer. + +Henri's sharp little teeth fastened upon the strand, biting and gnawing, +until finally it was severed, and the doctor gave a great sigh of +relief. + +[Illustration: "AH! HENRI, SEE IF YOU CAN NOT SLIP THAT PRETTY SILK ROPE +OVER MY HEAD."] + +"Blessings on you, my poor boy!" he murmured, painfully. "Now bite away +on the strands which bind the arm. There! Don't! don't hurry! Rest a +little, my child! Ah! it is well!" + + Again those sharp little teeth of a mouse had gnawed through the net +which bound the lion-hearted man; the ends of the raw-hide drew back and +twisted into spiral curls, and the right arm, though numbed and four +times its original size, was free. + +"Thanks be to God for all His mercies!" exclaimed the doctor, as with +difficulty he raised his released arm to his face and pushed back the +swollen lids from his closed eyes--"and to you, my little friend, for +saving this wretched life!" + +Waiting a few moments to recover his strength, the doctor made a mighty +effort, and some of the coils whose strands had been cut by those little +teeth yielded and gradually unrove, so as to leave the upper part of his +body free. Then, while the child was once more cutting the lashings of +his feet, he himself unfastened the knots of his left arm, and by a +vigorous effort he tore the net from off him and sat upright. Clasping +his numbed and swollen hands together, he turned his face and almost +sightless eyes to heaven. + +"May this awful trial serve as a partial forgiveness of my sins, and +make me a better man!" + +He paused, and laid his heavy arms around the child, while warm and +grateful tears trickled down his cheeks. Slowly, and like a drunken man, +his feet sought the sand, and then, weak, trembling, and faint, he +staggered along the path, the boy tripping lightly before him, till he +fell exhausted on the floor of the chapel. + +"Water, my Henri! water!" + +The child scooped it out from the stone bowl with his tiny hands and +sprinkled it on his friend's face. + +"There, that will suffice, my brave boy! Lay your cheek to mine!" + +What a sight it was--that dark, swollen, yet powerful frame lying on the +coral pavement, and the innocent child, like a dewdrop on the leaf of a +red tropical flower, nestling close beside it! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE HURRICANE. + + "'Twas off the Wash--the sun went down--the sea looked black and + grim, + For stormy clouds with murky fleece were mustering at the brim; + Titanic shades! enormous gloom! as if the solid night + Of Erebus rose suddenly to seize upon the light! + It was a time for mariners to bear a wary eye, + With such a dark conspiracy between the sea and sky!" + + +Past a September noon. The great canopy of dark, murky clouds fell lower +and lower, until they nearly touched the earth, wrapping as in a blanket +the single cocoa-nut-tree on the crag, and shutting out the light and +air of heaven as they settled over the noxious lagoon, the mangrove +thickets, and pure inlet. The sea-birds came screaming in from seaward, +fluttering their wide-spread wings in the sultry atmosphere, and +alighting on the smooth rocks, where they furled their pinions and put +their heads together. The flying-fish no longer skimmed over the waves, +and the dolphin and shark sank deep down in the blue water, or lay still +and quiet beside the coral groves. The rolling, swelling ocean of the +tropic, with its glassy, greasy surface unruffled by the faintest air, +rolled heavily on until it struck the coral ledge, when, with a dull, +heavy roar, it broke over in creamy foam, and came sluggishly in to the +sandy beach. There the tiny waves lashed the shelly strand, and all was +still again. No sun; no breeze; and even the birds, and serpents, and +insects gasped for breath. The fish below the sea, the animated nature +above, and the very leaves and vines of the forests and thickets knew +what was brewing in the great vacuum around. + +Slowly and painfully the man in the chapel regained his feet, and with +the child by the hand, moved on to the farthest corner by the rude +altar, where he sank down again, and, clasping the boy to his heart, +waited in breathless awe. As if the powder and flames had not done their +destructive work, the wrath of heaven was to be poured out over the +devoted den of the pirates. + +Then came a bellowing roar as a current of wind swept over the sea, +cutting a pathway in the blue water, and scooping it up in an impalpable +mist, hurrying on to the low beach of the island, and tearing the sand +and shells up in heaps--and then a lull. Now, as if all the demons of +winds had let loose their cavernous lungs from the four quarters of the +earth, and like the shocks of artillery, volley upon volley, came the +hurricane. The sea became one boiling, seething, hissing surface of +foam, pressed and flattened by the weight of the tempest, which laid the +black rocks bare on the ledge, and drove the water into both mouths of +the inlet, until, with a crashing shock, it met in the basin, and broke +over and over the cove, and high up the wall of rocks on the other side. +Two or three streams of whirlwind meeting, too, over the island, drove +the lagoon hither and thither, catching up the white pond-lilies by +their long stems, twisting off the dense thickets of mangroves by the +roots, burrowing holes in the sandy beds of the cactus, and shearing off +their flat, thorny leaves and needle points by the acre together; then a +rushing whirl around the cocoa-nuts, bowing their tufted tops at first +till they nearly touched the earth, when, the stout trunks snapping like +glass, they would go pitching and tossing from base to crown, careering +and dancing aloft, borne away with sand and mangrove, cactus, flowers, +and sticks, into the flying clouds before the hurricane. Then another +lull; and from the opposite direction again thundered the terrible +breath of the demons, sweeping thousands of sea-birds, with broken +pinions, screaming amid the gale, hurling them against the crag, +stripping the feathers from their crushed carcasses, and in a moment +burying them a foot deep in clouds of sand. No more pauses or lulls now +in the hurtling tempest; but with a steady, tremendous roar, which made +the earth tremble, the rocks quake, and laid every vestige of vegetation +flat to the ground, it came on mightier and mightier, and fiercer and +fiercer, with black masses of never-ending clouds sweeping close down +like dark midnight, as if heaven and earth had come together. All +through the gloomy day and through the night this elemental war, with +its legions of careering demons, continued to lash the sea and smite the +land; until, as if satiated with vengeance, the clouds belched forth in +red lightning, vomiting out peal upon peal of awful thunder as a parting +salute, and then, moderating down to a hard gale from another quarter, +broke away. The blue sky appeared, and the glorious sun once more came +up in his majesty over the distant hills of Cuba. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE VIRGIN MARY. + + "A weary weed, tossed to and fro, + Drearily drenched in the ocean brine, + Soaring high and sinking low, + Lashed along without will of mine; + Sport of the spoom of the surging sea; + Flung on the foam, afar and near, + Mark my manifold mystery-- + Growth and grace in their place appear." + + +With the boy clasped to his heart, the doctor sat beside the altar of +the chapel during all the direful strife without, shielding his little +charge from the clouds of fine sand and rubbish that every few minutes +came swirling within the temple, dashing the padre's candlesticks into +battered lumps of brass on the pavement, and tearing to atoms the votive +offerings hung around the walls by the pirates. But, as if in mercy to +the trustful souls lying there, the Virgin Mary still looked down in +sweet pity upon them, and the little chapel stood unharmed. + +When at last, however, the hurricane's back was broken, and Æolus had +reined up his maddened chargers and curbed their flying wings, and when +all the demons of the wind had gone moaningly back to their caverns in +the clouds, the doctor arose, and with the boy beside him, knelt +devoutly before the altar while he uttered a fervent prayer of +thanksgiving. + +"Come, my Henri, now we may go out and see if we can find something to +eat and drink. You are weak and hungry, my poor little boy; but you +shall not suffer much longer." + +That strong man, with the heart of a gentle woman, had no thought of how +ill, and famished, and thirsty he himself was from the terrible torture +he had endured. No, he only thought of the child who had saved him. + +In front of the chapel the sand and bushes were piled up in ridgy heaps, +the coral wall around the cemetery had been thrown down, while the flat +head-stones over the pirates' graves had disappeared entirely. Not so, +however, with the white slabs near by where those poor doomed women were +lying; for the hurricane had spared their tombs, and a pall of pure +white sand was sprinkled evenly over their remains. Bending over them +was the trunk of the cocoa-nut, with its top stripped and its leafless +branches quivering in the wind; while from below them streamed out the +long, thin green silk rope which had so often served Captain Brand, the +pirate, for his private executions. Near at hand lay the trestle on +which the doctor had been stretched--caught by the base of the cocoa-nut +column, and half buried in sand--while the cruel strips of raw-hide +which had lashed the victim down were tied and twisted into a maze of +complicated knots by the nimble fingers of the winds. + +The doctor started, and his half-closed eyes shot out gleams of anger as +he beheld the unconscious implements designed for his torturing murder; +and leaving the child at the doorway to the chapel, he sallied out, +detached the rope, loosened the trestle from its sandy bed, and placed +them in a corner of the chapel. + +Then carefully picking his way, with the boy in his great arms, over +the trees and débris which obstructed the pathway, he speedily +reached the site on which had stood the sheds of the "Centipede's" +crew. Fire, water, and wind had done their work effectually, though +the fire had partially spared the detached storehouse and shed which +he had shared with the infamous padre. All else was a ruin of loose +blocks of stone, broken tiles, nearly buried in banks of sand. From a +well in the once busy court-yard, and which had also escaped the +devouring elements, the doctor drew a bucket or two of water, in which +he slaked the boy's thirst and then his own, and afterward poured water +over their bodies. Then, from a still smouldering beam which puffed out +at intervals a thin curl of smoke from beneath one of the sheds, he +lit a fire in the court-yard, while from the wreck of the storeroom he +succeeded in rescuing some hard biscuit and a ham. This last he tore +in shreds, and placing them on sticks before the fire, they were +thus enabled to make a hearty meal, first providing for the wants of +the child, however--soaking the biscuit for him, as if it were his first +duty on earth. Again raising the boy in his arms, he passed from the +ruined sheds and bent his steps toward Captain Brand's former dwelling. +The road was heaped with shells and sand, strewed with shoals of dead +fish and wounded or dying birds, while the wreck of a boat, mingled with +the timbers and planks of the jetty to the basin, were lying pell-mell +on the beach of the little cove. Casting his eyes around in search +of the once spacious dwelling, with its vaults, veranda, and saloon, he +could hardly at first trace a vestige of the structure. The powder, +more destructive even than the hurricane, had tossed walls and +building into a confused heap of rubbish; then came the wind and sand +on top of the rocks which had tumbled down by the concussion of the +first explosion, and then the water, packing all together as if no +habitation had ever existed there. The doctor walked slowly around +until he came to the angle where the kitchen once was, and there, three +fourths hidden beneath a mass of blackened stones and charred timber, +peered forth the white skeleton of a human being. The flesh had been +seared and burned from the face and skull by the instantaneous flash +of the powder, and there lay the remains of Babette, whitely bleached, +as if she had been thrown a lifeless corpse on the sea-beach. A few +yards below this frightful spectacle lay a number of shattered boxes +and trunks, then a confused bundle of clothes, and a sandy saturated +collection of kitchen utensils and crockery. Yes, the poor dumb woman, +the creature and witness of many a cruel scene, ignorant or uncertain +of the warning given her by the master she loved, had fallen another +tribute to his long list of victims. + +The doctor only waited long enough to select a few necessary articles +from the heterogeneous heap before him, and then, with the child still +clinging contentedly to his shoulder, he returned to the chapel. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE ARK THAT JACK BUILT. + + "Good heaven, befriend that little boat, + And guide her on her way! + A boat, they say, has canvas wings, + But can not fly away; + Though, like a merry singing-bird, + She sits upon the spray." + + +The land wind sighed and murmured; the sea-breeze wafted its rustling +influence over the waves; the long swells broke over the ledge; the +inlet flowed pure and limpid; and the gulls and sea-mews floated +gracefully over the reef, as if a hurricane had never poured its baneful +wrath upon it or the lonely island. + +Day by day and week by week, the man and boy, getting each hour stronger +and better, worked and worked. He with his great arms hewing and sawing, +and the child attending upon him like a shadow. By great toil and +exertion the doctor had succeeded in placing some of the timbers of the +jetty together as launching-ways, and on the cradle he had laid the +wreck of the old boat. Then, with an old saw and some tools he found +near the site of the mat sheds by the cove, he began to build the frail +ark which was to carry him and the child from the hated island. From the +storehouse, too, he obtained plenty of provisions to supply their wants, +and old sails and rope he found in abundance. Babette's collection of +worldly wealth provided them with linen and clothing, together with +utensils for eating and drinking; and he had made their dwelling in the +little chapel clean and habitable. Here they slept by night on an old +sail, and soundly too, the sleep of repentance and innocence. With the +early morning the man and the boy arose, and took their way to the cove. +The little fellow was clean and tidy now, dressed in a little loose +calico frock, and a queer contrivance of an old bonnet fashioned out of +Babette's gear, and on his feet were a pair of little canvas slippers, +stitched for him by his protector. After a bath in the basin of the +inlet the fire was kindled, and the simple breakfast prepared. Then, +while the strong man hewed, and sawed, and hammered beneath a temporary +awning which covered the open workshop, the boy would pick up shells +along the cove, or with a little rod and line, seated on a flat rock +near by, jerk out fish from the basin to serve for dinner. Sometimes he +would wander about in search of nails and spikes for the boat, or gather +sticks for the fire, but never out of hail, and never beyond the +watchful eyes of his friend. Yes, those watchful, kind eyes followed his +slightest movements; and while the hammer was going in vigorous blows on +the planks, or the axe chipping away a timber, his pleasant voice sang +Creole songs to the child, or encouraged his innocent prattle. A loaded +musket, which, with some ammunition, he had dug out from the wreck of +his old quarters, stood leaning against an upright post under the shade, +and woe to the man or beast that might have dared to approach the boy! +In the burning heat of the tropical day the labor ceased, and the child +either lay on his back on the soft sand beneath the awning, kicking up +his little legs, watching the small gulls as they skimmed across the +basin, or, with his brown curly head resting on the doctor's knees, +slept sweetly. Happy and contented he was, too, with the return of +health and strength; and if his budding memory looked back to her he had +lost, and the recollection of his faithful Banou, it was only for a +moment, and, like a childish dream, it passed away. + +[Illustration: BUILDING THE BOAT.] + +Every evening at sunset, when the work was done for the day, the doctor, +with Henri in his arms and the musket on his shoulder, would climb the +crag, and peer all around the island; but never a sail did he see from +the hour the "Centipede" spread her canvas, while he lay helplessly +bound on the trestle with the green noose around his neck. As the +twilight faded, the sole human occupants of the island returned to the +chapel, and when they had said a simple prayer, kneeling before the +Virgin, they laid themselves down on their canvas bed to rest till the +dawn. Many a silent hour in the watches of the tedious night did the +doctor lie awake, while the cool sweet breath of the child fanned his +cheek as he lay nestling beside him, pondering and wondering on the fate +of his charge. He knew absolutely nothing about his history save that he +had been pitched overboard from the brig the pirates were robbing; but +what was the name or nation of the vessel, where from, or whither bound, +he was in utter ignorance. He had questioned the leader Gibbs on that +occasion after the chase by the corvette, when he had lopped off the +brute's leg; but, what with suffering and drink, the ruffian had either +forgotten the brig's name, or feigned to, and all he could impart was +the belief that she was an English trader. Even from the boy, too, the +doctor could elicit nothing of importance, though day by day he tried +every means of leading the child's mind back to the past, but always +with the same result. + +"_Oui, ma chère mama! Bon Banou!_" and "_Ma petite cousine, Rosalie!_" +These were the only words the little fellow had to link his fate with +the future, and even they became fainter and fainter on his mind and +tongue as the time passed on. With this delicate web around the destiny +of the child, and that he spoke French, and had evidently been tenderly +nurtured, the doctor was forced to be content. + +Well, so the days and nights went by, and so the work went on, and the +little ark began to assume a wholesome look, and to be capable of +plowing the distant main. Then, when she was planked up, with a gunwale +on, and half-decked over forward, she was calked, and the seams payed +with pitch. When all ready for launching, early one morning the doctor +and the boy went gayly down to the cove. There, as the first golden rays +of the rising sun shot athwart the inlet, Henri stood up in the bows, +and with a large pearl-shell of pure spring water, he waved his tattered +bonnet round his curly locks, and with childish delight, as the vessel +began to move, he emptied the shell of its sparkling treasure, shouting, +as she slid off the ways into the basin, "_Ma petite cousine Rosalie!_" +The builder, too, took off his hat and shouted, in his deep bass, till +the rocks gave back the echo of "_Rosalie! Rosalie!_" + +Thus was the ark launched and christened by her captain and crew, +and there she rode on the basin, a little pinnace of about ten tons, +which had been once used to carry anchors, chains, and stores about the +harbor. A week or two more, and she was fitted with a single mast, +stepped well in the bows, for a jib and one square lug-sail. Then +ballast in bags of sand was laid along her keelson, and a couple of +breakers of fresh water got on board, together with a quantity of +cooked salt meat and hard biscuit stowed away under the half-deck +forward--where, too, was a cozy little nest of spare canvas, with an +oakum pillow, for the boy! Yes, there lay the good ship "Rosalie," +outward bound, with sails bent and gear rove, cargo on board, and +waiting for a wind. + +Meanwhile the doctor had tried her under sail, and satisfied himself +that every thing worked well, and that she was in proper trim. Then he +moored her within a fathom from the shore, and waited for a moon to +light him on his voyage. Whither? + +Carefully, too--like one who had passed a lifetime on the ocean, from +the China Seas to the broad Atlantic, under the suns of the tropics as +well as in the dim gloom of high latitudes--the doctor studied the +clouds and watched their course, noting the flight of the birds in the +air and the track of fish in the sea. At last the trade breezes began to +blow regularly and steadily; the land winds, too, in the gray of the +morning, fluttered timidly away out to sea, and the round pearly moon +shone bright and mellow over rock and water. + +"To-morrow, my brave boy, we shall sail away from the island. Ah! you +clap your hands, eh? Yes, we shall go to find mamma!" This was said as +man and child stood for the last time on the lofty crag, while the +former ranged his dark eyes scrutinizingly around the horizon. Nothing +in sight! + +Once more to their chapel of refuge, where, for the first time in all +their association, putting the child to sleep by himself, the doctor sat +down on the trestle by the entrance, and, lighted by the brilliant moon, +he caught up the tangled mazes of the hide net which had bound him, and +sedulously applied himself to a task before him. + +Any one who has seen the effect produced by a violent gale upon the +tattered shreds of a shivered main-top-sail, bound up into the most +tortuous knots that it is possible to conceive of, and so hard and solid +that you might saw the canvas balls in slices like boards, may form some +idea of the task the doctor had imposed upon himself to loosen the hide +strands tied together by the furious fingers of the hurricane. Patiently +and quietly, with no sign of temper, he applied himself to the work, and +with nothing but a sharp-pointed spike to aid his hands, he began to +unravel, bit by bit, the laced knots and bunches of raw-hide, without +ever cutting a strand, until, as the moon sank glimmering down, the +tangled mass lay in clear coils beside him--though in several pieces, +where it had been severed by the teeth of that little mouse purring +behind the altar--and the task was done. Then raising the trestle, he +bore it within the altar, and with the now unraveled coil of hide, and +the softer silk rope for a pillow, he again stretched himself upon what +once had been his bed of torture. + +For what possible object all this labor had been undertaken, or for what +future purpose--vague they must have been--no one but the persevering +man who did it can tell; and there he lay, no sound coming from his +compressed lips till the day dawned. Then he arose, and, kneeling over +the sleeping child, he again solemnly repeated the oath he had before +taken in his hut-- + +"Sleeping or waking, on land or sea, I devote the remainder of my +wretched life to returning this lost child to his mother. So help me +God!" + +The little boy stirred, as if the angels and the sweet Virgin were +whispering their protecting power over him, and, with a smile dawning +upon his rosy, dimpled cheeks, he raised the lids from his bright hazel +eyes, and put his fat round arms around the doctor's neck. If two great +drops fell upon that upturned innocent little face from the dark full +eyes bending over him, they were not tears of sorrow! Oh, no! It was the +dew of hope and trustfulness falling from the soul of a repentant sinner +relying upon an all-wise Providence. + +"Come, my Henri, say your little prayer of the morning, and we will go." +The man had taught the child that little prayer which he himself had +learned at his mother's knee. + +Up again to the crag, and down to the shelly margin of the shore; and a +long look the man gave at the ruin of shed and den, as he gently placed +the child on a sand-bag in the stern-sheets of the ark. Then he cast +off the rope which held the vessel to the hated strand, hoisted the +sail, and, as she bubbled along the inlet with the first sigh of the +land wind, he stood at the helm with his bare head lighted up by the +beams of the rising sun, and his lips moved in prayer. + +On, noiselessly through the Tiger's Trap sailed the little pinnace till +she bowed her rugged cutwater in the yielding waves, and with her square +lug-sail swelling gently to the freshening breeze, she held her course +to sea. I question much if the stanch brigantine, named the "Centipede," +which had preceded her through this tiger's gorge, with all the +ruffianly crew that manned her, and their villainous captain on her +quarter-deck, stood half the chance of a prosperous voyage as the tiny +ark, called the "Rosalie," which followed, with her noble, brave +commander, and his weak and boyish mate. Who can tell? + +END OF PART I. + + + + +PART II. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +LAYING UP THE STRANDS. + + "Ever drifting, drifting, drifting + On the shifting + Currents of the restless main, + Till in sheltered coves and reaches + Of sandy beaches, + All have found repose again." + + +It was in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twenty-two, and in +the broad and commodious harbor of Kingston, a great mercantile haven, +crowded with shipping from all parts of the commercial globe; landlocked +by reef and ridge, with the rocks and heights crowned by frowning +batteries of heavy cannon; while beyond were spread the lower and upper +town, in masses of low two-story buildings, with piazzas, bright green +jalousies, stately palm, tamarind, and cocoa-nut-trees waving above +them. At the mouth of the harbor strait, where stands Fort Augusta, lay +a magnificent double-banked American frigate, with a broad blue +swallow-tailed pennant at her main, standing out stiff, like a dog-vane, +from the lofty mast, as the ship rode to the strong sea-breeze. + +The stays and rigging came down from trucks, cross-trees, and tops in +straight black lines, from the great length of lower masts and +enormously square yards fore and aft; and from side to side, till they +met the long majestic hull and taper head-booms; while below were two +rows of ports, with the guns run out and the brass tompions gleaming in +their muzzles. The awnings were spread in one flat extended sheet of +white cotton canvas from bowsprit to taffrail, and from the wide-spread +lower booms at the fore-chains boats were riding by their painters. +Within a cable's length of the frigate's black quarter lay a low rakish +schooner, like a minnow alongside a whale, with a thin little coach-whip +streaming from her main-mast head, a long brass gun amidships, and +looking as trig and tidy as a French maid beside her portly mistress. + +The bell struck in twin notes _eight_ on board the frigate, echoed back +from the pigmy schooner in a faint, double succession of tinkles; the +whistles resounded from deck to deck in ear-splitting notes, surging and +chirruping all together, and then suddenly ceasing with a rattling beat +of a drum and a short bellow of "Grog, ho!" + +Between the guns of the main deck, and about the spar-deck battery +forward of the main-mast, sat five hundred lusty sailors on the white +decks around their mess-cloths, bolting hot pea soup after their grog, +and chatting and laughing in a devil-may-care sort of a strain, as if +the grub was good and the timbers sound, as they were, of the stanch +frigate beneath them. No noise, no confusion, but just as polite and +courteous, in their honest, seamanlike way, as half a legion of French +dancing-masters, they whacked off the salt pork before them with their +sheath-knives, munching the flinty biscuit, and all as happy and +careless of the past and future as clams at high water. Ay, there they +clustered, those five hundred sailors, in their snowy duck trowsers and +white, coarse linen frocks, with the blue collars laid square back over +their broad shoulders, exposing their bronzed and hairy throats, wagging +their jaws, and ready at any moment, at the tap of the drum, day or +night, to spring to the guns, and make the battery dance a jig as the +solid iron food went amid sheets of flame toward a foe. Yes, and ready, +too, in the gentle breeze or the howling tempest, to leap at the shrill +pipe of the whistle from the busy deck or their snug hammocks, and, like +so many monkeys, jump up the shrouds, lie out on the enormous yards +while the frigate was plunging bows under in the tumultuous seas, grasp +the writhing canvas in their sinewy paws, and wrap it up close and tight +in the hempen gaskets. Man-of-war sailors, for battle, or gale, or +spree, every one of them. + +On board that little consort near were about forty more of the same +sort, only older, more bronzed, and more deliberate and methodical in +manner, sipping their pea pottage after blowing away the steam, cutting +their pork after much reflection, and cracking their biscuit tranquilly. +Their conversation, too, was slow and dignified, each word well +considered before it came out, and never interrupting one another in a +yarn, as did the younger harum-scarum chaps in the big ship near. But +yet those weather-beaten old sons of Neptune, who had each one of them +seen sights that would make your hair stand on end to think of, could +handle that schooner when her low deck was buried waist-deep to the +combings of the main hatch in angry water, and make that Long Tom +amidships there spin round on its pivot, and never threw away idly one +of its solid globular messengers. Ay, trust them for that. + +Then honor to them all, those gallant tars who have fought the battles +of our country by sea and lake, and upheld those Stars and Stripes +until they are respected to the uttermost ends of the earth! Glory to +them, ye wise legislators, who sit in council upon the nation's wealth +and grandeur! Think of the fearless arms that have shielded your +otherwise unprotected shores when circled in a ring of dreadful fire +from the guns of a haughty foe. + +[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES FRIGATE "MONONGAHELA."] + +And you, too, ye rich traders! whose valuable cargoes roll hither and +thither over the trackless deep, cared for by those toiling tars who +fight and bleed for the flag that waves o'er your treasure--in stinging +gale, with frozen fingers, or under burning suns, with panting +breasts--think of them when your noble ships come gallantly into your +superb ports, and unlade their floating mines of wealth into your +spacious warehouses, while you in your lordly mansions sip your wine! +Think of those arms grasping the shivering sail in the mighty tempest, +in the black night, and the coarse fare they eat, the sometimes putrid +water they drink, and the hard beds they lie upon, while you are +reposing on downy pillows with your wives and little ones beside you! +Ah! take pity on the sailor, and scatter your shining gold over him in +his distress. + +When the time comes, as come it may, when the cannon of a hostile fleet +are thundering at your ports; when your lumbering craft are flying +before the rapacious grasp of quick-heeled cruisers, and fiery bombs are +hissing through the pure air, bursting in your marble palaces and +blasting your stores of wealth to dust, _then_ you will turn with +blanched faces to the sea, and wonder why you have so long forgotten the +noble hearts and stalwart arms that once were thrown around you. But not +before. + +On the flush quarter-deck of the frigate, by the raised signal lockers +abaft, stood a bronzed old quarter-master, a spy-glass resting on his +arm, through which every minute he peered around the harbor, giving an +eye, too, occasionally to the half-hour glass, whose sands dribbled +steadily into the lower bulb on the locker beside him. + +What cared he--no wife or child to cheer him! No cares save but to see +that the ensign did not roll foul of the halyards, that the broad +pennant blew out straight, that the half-hour glass did not need +turning, and that no boat approached the frigate without his reporting +it to the officer of the watch. Naught else save, perhaps, whether the +other old quarter-master, Charley Holmes, down below there on the +gun-deck, had wiped from his lips the moisture of the midday grog, and +would be up in time to take the relief while the pea soup was warm. +Nothing else. + +The lieutenant of the watch briskly paced the solid deck, scrubbed white +as milk with lime-juice and molasses, the even seams between the planks +glistening like the strands of a girl's raven tresses as his profane and +rapid feet pressed upon them. What thought he in his careless walk, with +the gleaming bunch of bullion on his right shoulder, sword by his side, +white trowsers, and gilt eagle buttons on his navy-blue coat? + +He was thinking how his pittance of pay would support, in a scrimpy way, +his poor mother and sister, who looked unto him as their only hope and +refuge. And he thought, too, as he tramped that noble deck, made +glorious by many a battle and victory in which he had borne a humble +part, that his rich and powerful country would eventually reward him +with increased pay and promotion. Were the single dollar which lay alone +in his trowsers pocket, and the light mist which arose off there beyond +the Apostles' Battery, opposite Port Royal Harbor, an evidence of one or +a sign of the last aspiration? We hope not; but we shall see.[*] + +Three or four midshipmen, too, pranced over that frigate's white +quarter-deck, on the port side, in their blue jackets and duck trowsers. +Little gay madcaps they were, scarcely well into their teens, with +little glittering toasting-forks of dirks dangling at their sides, and +ready for any lark or mischief. + +And what thought those boyish imps of reefers? Did they trace the flight +of that tropic man-of-war bird, sailing high up in the heavens, heading +seaward, away into the distant future, through clouds and sunshine, rain +and storm? And did they think, as they fluttered along the deck, that +their own career might lead them in that direction, toward the star of +promotion which shone so brightly near at hand, and was never reached; +or else, by a chance shot, to come tumbling down with a crippled pinion, +and hobble out their lives on shore? No. Those gay young blades, whose +mothers were dreaming and sighing for them, had no reflections of that +kind. They were chattering about the little frolic they had on their +last liberty day, when the captain ordered them off to the frigate at +sunset, and planning another for the week to come. Happy little scamps, +let them dance their careless thoughts away! + +"Two bells, sir," said the quarter-master to the officer of the watch. + +"Very good! Young gentlemen, tell the boatswain to turn the hands to, +and have the barge manned. Let the first lieutenant and the marine +officer know that the commodore is going to leave the ship. There, no +larking on the quarter-deck, Mr. Mouse!" + +This last command was addressed to a tiny youngster who was hardly big +enough to go without pantalettes, much less to wear a jacket and order +half a hundred huge sailors about, any one of whom was old enough to be +his great-grandfather. But yet that small lad did it, and could steer a +boat, too, or fly about like a ribbon in a high wind up there in the +mizzen-top, while the men on the yard were taking the last reef in the +top-sail. + +"Go down to the cabin, sir, and let the commodore and his friend know +the boat is ready." + +Down the ladder skipped Mr. Mouse, and while he was gone, the guard, in +their white summer uniform and cross-belts, stood at ease, resting on +their muskets on the quarter-deck, eight side-boys and the boatswain at +the starboard gangway, with the first lieutenant and the officer of the +watch standing near. + +Presently there came up from the after cabin hatchway a fine, handsome +man, in the very prime of life, in cocked hat, full-dress coat, a pair +of gleaming epaulets, sword by his hip, and his nether limbs cased in +white knee-breeches, silk stockings, and pumps. The one who followed him +was apparently a much older man, with grizzled locks, a dark, stern +face, and without epaulets. The first raised his hat as he stepped on +the quarter-deck--not a thread of silver was seen in his dark hair--and +then both bowed to the officers, who saluted them as they moved toward +the gangway. The boatswain piped, the marines presented arms, the drum +gave three quick rolls, and the commodore went over the gangway, +preceded by his companion. + +----- + + [*] This was written before the "Pay Bill" was passed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +OLD FRIENDS. + + "What though when storms our bark assail, + The needle trembling veers, + When night adds horror to the gale, + And not a star appears? + True to the pole as I to thee, + It faithful still will prove-- + An emblem dear of constancy, + And of a sailor's love." + + +The barge left the side of the frigate, a broad blue pennant with white +stars on a staff at her bow, with fourteen handsome sailors to man her, +all in clean white frocks and trowsers, with straw hats and flowing +black ribbons around them, on which was stamped in gold letters, +"Monongahela." + +The double bank of white ash oars flashed in the rippling waves of the +harbor as the barge was urged over the water, the current seething and +buzzing under her bows, and bubbling into her wake as she flew on toward +the town. In a mahogany box at the stern sat a bushy-whiskered coxswain, +whose body swayed to the stroke of the oars, while his hand grasped the +brass tiller as he steered amid the shipping. The commodore had settled +himself down under the boat's awning on the snow-white covered cushions +in the stern-sheets, and, with one foot resting on the elegant ash +grating beneath, he began to talk to the grave gentleman who sat +opposite to him. + +"It is many a long year since I last visited this superb harbor, but I +remember it as if it were yesterday. You never were here before, I +think? No? Well, if any of the old set I once knew, when I was first +lieutenant of the old 'Scourge,' are yet alive, we shall have a pleasant +time!" + +"One fine fellow," went on the commodore, "I know is. His name is Piron. +I had a note from him as soon as the frigate anchored yesterday, and I +shall ask him to dine sociably with me on board this evening. I hope you +will join us." + +The grave gentleman said that he had business which would detain him on +shore all night. + +The barge swept up to the mole, the oars were thrown up at a wave of the +coxswain's hand, and came into the boat on either side like shutting up +a pair of fans, while the boat-hooks checked her way, and she remained +stationary at the steps of the landing. The awning was canted, the +commodore and his friend got out and mounted the stairway, while the +boat's crew stood up with their hats off. On the mole were four or five +people in light West India rig of brown and white, and broad Guayaquil +sombreros. + +"Cleveland!" exclaimed a tall, handsome man, as he seized the +commodore by both hands, "how glad we are to see you! Here is Tom +Stewart, and Paddy Burns, and little Don Stingo, attorneys, factors, and +sugar-boilers, all of us delighted to welcome you back once more to +Jamaica!" + +Crowding about the commodore, shaking hands and slapping one another on +the back, standing off a step or two to see the effect of time on each +other's appearance, laughing heartily with many a happy allusion to days +gone by, those old friends and former companions, unmindful of the hot +sun, stood there with their faces lighted up and talking all together. + +"And you are a commodore, eh! Cleveland, with a broad pennant and a +squadron? Ah! we have kept the run of you, though. Read all about that +action you were in with the 'President,' and that bloody battle in the +'Essex' and 'Phebe' at Valparaiso, with Porter. And here you are again, +safe and sound, and hearty!" + +"And you too, Piron! The same as ever! Not tired of cane-planting yet? +But how is madame?" + +"Lovely a girl as ever, Cleveland, but never entirely got over that sad +loss of the little boy, you know. However, she will be overjoyed to see +you. She's been talking of you ever since we saw your appointment to the +station fifteen months ago. Apropos, we have her widowed sister with us, +whose husband was killed at Waterloo, and our little niece who came from +France--all out there at the old place of Escondido, where you must come +and pass a week with us. Nay, man, no excuse! The thing is arranged, and +it would be the death of Stingo, Tom Stewart, and Paddy Burns if you +disappoint us." + +"Well, Piron, I am your man, but not for a day or two, until I have made +some official calls here on the authorities. Meanwhile, gentlemen, you +all dine with me this evening on board the frigate, every mother's soul +of you! Coxswain, go on board and tell my steward to have dinner for +six. Stop at the schooner as you go off, and say to Mr. Darcantel that I +shall expect him to join us. Now, my friends, that matter is arranged, +and we will all go off in the barge at sunset." + +"Dry talking, isn't it, Stingo?" said Piron; "so, commodore, come, and +we'll have a sip of sangaree and a deviled biscuit to keep our mouths in +order. But, halloo! where is your friend, Cleveland? that tall man in +black? Parson or chaplain, eh?" + +"No," replied the officer; "an old friend of mine, my brother-in-law, +who takes a cruise with me occasionally; but he never goes in society, +and has taken himself off, as he always does when we get in port. He is +a glorious fellow, though, and I hope to present him to you yet. Never +mind him now." + +Arm in arm went the blue coat and bullion, locked in white grass +sleeves, along the busy quays, crowded with mule-carts and drays for +stores or shipping. Spanish dons, dapper Frenchmen, burly John Bulls, +standing at warehouse and posadas, all with cigars in their teeth, which +they puffed so lazily that the smoke scarcely found its way beyond the +brims of their wide sombreros. Negroes, too, with scanty leg gear, and +still scantier gingham shirts, having bales, or boxes, or baskets of +fruit on their heads, never any thing in their hands, chattering and +laughing one with another as they danced and jostled along the busy +mart; then through the hot, sandy ruts of streets, pausing now and then +to shake hands with some old acquaintance beneath the overhanging +piazzas; sedan-chairs moving about, with a negro in a glazed hat and red +cockade at either end of the poles, in a long easy trot, as they bore +their burdens of Spanish matron, or English damsel, or maybe a portly +old judge, or gouty admiral, on a shopping or business excursion to the +port; so on to the upper town, where the dwellings stand in detachments +by themselves--single or in pairs--with spacious balconies and bright +green Venetian blinds, all surrounded by gardens and vines; with noble +tamarind-trees, and cocoa-nuts swaying their lofty trunks, and rattling +their branches and leaves over the negro huts and offices below. Here +the party stopped, and, entering a house, were ushered into a cool, +lofty room, where there were a lot of mahogany desks, and a single old +clerk, who resembled a last year's dried lemon, with some few drops of +acid juice for blood, perched up on a hard stem of a high stool, with +four or five quill pens, like so many thorns, sticking out above his +yellow leafy ears. + +"All by myself here, Cleveland, as I told you. All my people are living +out there at Escondido. Very little business doing just now, and Paddy +Burns and Tom Stewart haven't had a suit or a fight for the last six +months. Inkstands dry, and my old clerk, Clinker, there, has forgotten +how to write English. + +"However," went on Piron, as the party threw themselves back on the +wicker arm-chairs, and enjoyed the breeze which fluttered merrily +through the blinds, "the cellar isn't quite dry yet; and I say, Clinker, +suppose you tell Nimble Jack, or Ring Finger Bill, to spread a little +luncheon here, with a bottle or two of Bordeaux, or something of that +sort!" The dried, fruity old gentleman dropped off his branch at the +desk like a withered nut, and then, with a husky kind of shuffle, betook +himself off. + +[Illustration: "QUEER OLD STICK, THAT!" SAID THE COMMODORE.] + + "Queer old stick, that!" said the commodore, as he unbuckled his +sword and laid it on the table. + +"Ah! he grew here, and will blow away one of these days. My father used +to tell me that he looked just the same when he first sprouted as he +does now. But he is a dear faithful old stump; and you must remember +hearing, Cleveland, of that frightful earthquake here in seventeen +hundred and eighty-three, which killed so many people? Yes? Well, it was +old Clinker who saved my sweet wife that is now--and her sister; though +he was nearly squeezed--drier, if any thing, than he is now--in doing +it. He lay, you know, Stingo, supporting the whole second story of the +house for seven hours, pressed as flat as a tamarind-leaf, while they +were getting those twin babies out of their cradle. Yes, God bless him!" +Starting up, while a flush of feeling darkened his face--"but, what is +more, he threw himself precisely where he did, as he saw the walls +giving way, so that not a hair of those children should be injured when +the beams came down. My father has told me since, that when they got a +lever under the timber and wedged old Clinker out, he gave a kind of +cackle; but, in my opinion, he has not drawn a breath from that day to +this. And, generally, he is a very taciturn old root, and rarely opens +his rind; but latterly he talks a good deal about the earthquake; says +he's sure there'll be another awful one before an interval of forty +years has passed, and wants us to go away. No objection, however, to +coming back when the thing is over, and then waiting forty years for +another. Don't laugh, you Paddy Burns, for if ever the '_Tremblor_' +gives you one little shake, you'll jump higher than you did when that +ugly Frenchman ran you through your waistcoat pocket, and you thought it +was your midriff. Now, Tom Stewart and Don Stingo, what are you grinning +about? Your teeth will chatter so fast at the next quake that you won't, +either of you, be able to deliver a charge to the jury over a false +invoice, or suck another drop of old Antigua rum." + +"But really, Piron," broke in the commodore upon this voluble harangue, +"do you give heed to these barkings of that old clerk?" + +"Why, yes, Cleveland," replied Piron, with rather a grave manner, "I do; +and, moreover, my sweet wife Rosalie out yonder, who has never got over +her grief for the loss of our boy, regards every word old Clinker says +as so much prophecy; and the upshot of the business is, I have made up +my mind to leave the island." + +"For where, my friend--back to France?" + +"No. Since the war and the peace, with Bonaparte at St. Helena, France +is no place for an Englishman, even with a French father, and I am going +to try America." + +"Truly, Piron, I am charmed to hear it. But what part of America?" + +"Why, I've bought a fine sugar estate at a bargain in Louisiana, and +there we shall pass the remainder of our days." + +"He! he!" sniggled Tom Stewart, while Don Stingo and Paddy Burns +cackled incredulously; but, at the same moment, Ring Finger Bill and +Nimble Jack, two jet-black persons, in loose striped gingham shirts +and bare feet, with an attempt at a grave expression of thick-lipped +coffee-coolers, the whites of their eyes turned up with becoming +decorum, and preceded by the old twig of a clerk, who seemed to +crackle in the sea-breeze as he again hung himself, stern on, to his +stool of a trunk, entered the cool counting-house, bearing trays, +fruits, and bottles, which they methodically arranged on the large +table. + +"Massa! him want small, red, plump snapper, make mizzible brile?" said +Nimble Jack. "S'pose Massa Ossifa him pick shell of land-crab, wid crisp +pepper for salad?" + +"No, no! Put those cool water-monkeys on the table and be gone! Come, +Clinker, take a bite with us!" + +Leaving this pleasant party to sip their claret and water, and nibble +their midday food, while they rambled back to the past or schemed into +the future, we will return to the frigate. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE COMMANDER OF THE "ROSALIE." + + "The handsomest fellow, Heaven bless him! + Setting the girls all wild to possess him, + With his dark mustache and his hazel eyes, + And cigars in those pretty lips--" + + "That girl who fain would choose a mate, + Should ne'er in fondness fail her, + May thank her lucky stars if Fate + Should splice her to a sailor." + + +"The 'Rosalie's' gig coming alongside, sir," reported the quarter-master +to the officer of the watch. + +"Very well. A boatswain's mate and two side-boys. Mr. Rat, have the +barge manned, and send her on shore for the commodore. Mr. Martin, tell +the boatswain to call all hands to furl awnings." + +While these orders were being executed, the whistles ringing through the +ship, the sailors lining the white hammocks, stowed in a double line, +fore and aft, around the nettings of the frigate, in readiness to cast +off the stops and lacings and let fall the awnings, the officer on deck +stood near the gangway. At the same time there tripped up the +accommodation-ladder, lightly touching the snowy man-ropes, a young +fellow of about one-and-twenty, dressed in undress frock-coat, one +epaulet, smooth white trowsers, and shoes. Catching up his sword in his +left hand as he reached the upper grating of the ladder, he took off his +blue, gold-banded cap, and half bounded, with a springy step, on to the +frigate's deck. + +Observe him well, young ladies, as he stands there; for of all the +scarlet or blue jackets on whose arm you have leaned and looked up at +with your soft violet, blue, or dark eyes, you never saw a young fellow +that you would sooner give those eyes, or those warm hearts too, +throbbing under your bodices, or who would drive you wilder to possess +him, than that gallant young sailor standing on the "Monongahela's" +deck. Ay, observe him well, that tall, graceful youth, with a waist you +might span with one of your short plump arms; those slim patrician feet, +that might wear your own little satin slippers; then that swelling chest +and those elegantly turned shoulders, which will take both of your arms, +one of these days, to entwine and clasp around them! Ah! but the round +throat and chin, the smiling mouth, half hiding a double row of even +teeth, with the merest moonshine of a mustache darkening the short upper +lip, and then those large, fearless hazel eyes, sparkling with health +and fun, shaded by a mass of chestnut curls, which cluster about his +clear open forehead! Ay, there he stands, "a king and a kingdom" for the +girl who wins him! + +"Well, Harry, give us your fist, my boy! How do you get on aboard your +prize? Not so roomy as the old frigate, eh? And a little more work than +when you were playing flag-lieutenant, eh? Well, glad to see you, but +can't stop to talk. So jump down below there in the wardroom; the mess +are just through dinner, and yours won't be ready for an hour yet. Come, +bear a hand, or I'll let these awnings fall on your new gold epaulet." + +The new-comer tripped as lightly down the ladder to the gun-deck +as Mr. Mouse, and making another dive down to the berth-deck, +exchanging a rapid volley of pleasantry with the midshipmen in +the steerage, he opened the wardroom door and entered. There, in +a large open space, transversely dividing the stern of the ship, +with rows of latticed-doored staterooms on either side, lighted by +open skylights from above, with a barrel of a wind-sail coming +down between the sashes, and every thing, from beams to bulkheads, +painted a glistening white, and the deck so clean that you might +have rubbed your handkerchief on it without leaving a stain on +the cambric, around a large extension mahogany table stretching +from side to side, the cloth removed, decanters and wine-glasses +here and there, and water-monkeys in flannel jackets hanging like +criminals from a gallows from the beams above, sat the wardroom +mess of the frigate. + +"By all that's handsome, here's Darcantel! Why, Harry, we are delighted +to see you!" exclaimed half a dozen voices; "come, sit down here and +take a glass of wine with us!" + +As the handsome young fellow entered the wardroom, all faces lighted up +as they saw him. The old sailing-master, who seldom indulged in more +than a scowl since he lost his right ear by the stroke of a cutlass in +capturing the tender to the "Plantagenet" seventy-four off the Hills of +Navesink; the rigid old major of marines, who pipe-clayed his very +knuckles, and wore a stiff sheet-iron padding to his stock to encourage +discipline in the guard; the dear, kind old surgeon, who swallowed +calomel pills by the pint, out of pure principle, and who lopped off +limbs and felt yellow fever pulses all through the still watches of the +hot nights with never a sign or look of encouragement; and the staid old +chaplain, who had often assisted the surgeon and helped to fill +cartridges, contributing his own cotton hose for the purpose when those +government stores gave out in battle, and who never smiled, even when +committing a marine to the briny deep; the purser, too, prim and +business-like, looking as if he were a complicated key with an iron +lock of his own strong chest, calculating perpetually the amount of +dollars deposited in his charge, the total of pay to be deducted +therefrom, and never making a mistake save when he overcharged the dead +men for chewing tobacco; and the gay, young, roistering lieutenants, who +never did any thing else but laugh, unmindful of navigation, pipe-clay, +pills, parsons, or pursers, though standing somewhat in awe of the +sharpish, exacting executive officer at the head of the table--all +welcomed, each in his peculiar way, the bright, graceful young blade who +dawned upon them. And not only the mess were cheered by his presence, +but also a troop of clean-dressed sable attendants, whose wide jaws +stretched wider, while the whites of their eyes seemed painfully like +splashes of whitewash on the outside of the galley coppers, as they +nudged one another and yaw-yaw'd quietly away aft there in the region of +the pantry. + +"Here, my salt-water pet, come and sit down by me, where all those old +fellows can see you! Steward, a wine-glass for Mr. Darcantel! What? you +won't take a sip of Tinta, and you can only stop a minute because you +are to dine with your uncle the commodore, eh? Well, I'll drink your +uncle's health even if you don't!" said the first lieutenant, as he +familiarly laid his hand on the young fellow's shoulder and drained his +glass. + +"Why, Harry, what the deuce did you come down here for?" squeaked out +the purser, as he unscrewed his lips into a pleasant smile. "You've put +an end to that interesting account the master was giving us of how he +lay inside Sandy Hook for six months with a glass to his--" + +"Mouth," broke in the surgeon. + + "It was Sam Jones the fisherman, + Who was bound to Sandy Hook; + But first upon the Almanac + A solemn oath he took-- + That he would catch a load of clams!" + +"Silence there, you roarer!" said the surgeon, as he popped a filbert +into the wide mouth of the rollicking fourth lieutenant, which cut his +song short off. "Yes, Harry, that's what you have done in coming here +for a minute. But stay a week with us, and the master will tell it you +again. We've heard it once or twice before." + +The old grizzled sea veteran scratched the remains of his ear, and +growled jocosely while nodding to young Darcantel. + +"Ah! my dear boy, and I'll tell you how the surgeon and nipcheese there +were entertained by a one-eyed old Spaniard at St. Jago." + +"Let's hear it!" roared every body except the medico and purser. "Out +with it, master!" + +"Well, messmates, when we were in the old 'Scourge,' a long time ago, +one day we anchored in St. Jago de Cuba." + +Here the surgeon and purser smiled horribly, and implored the grizzled +old navigator not to go on; every body had heard that old story; he +might fall ill with the _vomito pietro_, and would require pills; or +else there might be found a mistake in his pay account, and he would +like, perhaps, to draw for the imaginary balance not due to him, and to +drink his grog and scratch the remains of his old ear, or turn his +attention to the load of clams waiting for him at Sandy Hook! But, for +mercy's sake, don't repeat that silly, long-forgotten yarn! + +"Well, messmates, in less than an hour after we had anchored in St. Jago +they went on shore, and made the acquaintance of a little thin, sharp +old villain, with one eye, who invited them to make him a visit, and +pass the evening on a fine estate he owned near the base of the Copper +Hills, some distance--about four leagues, I believe--from the town. He +was a most respectable person, very rich, and commanded a Cuban guarda +costa to boot. The _capitano_, Don Ignaçio Sanchez--wasn't that his +name, doctor? Oh! you forget--all right! Off they started with a guide, +on hired mules; but when they pulled up at their destination they found +the Don wasn't there, though they were handsomely entertained by the +señora--a comely, fat, and waspish body, with very few clothes on--who +cursed her Don for sending people to see her, and the visitors too for +coming. However, as her guests had not dined, she fed them bountifully +on a supper of the nastiest jerked beef and garlic they had ever +smelled. You told me so, purser." + +Both Pills and Purser had forgotten all about it, and thought it would +be better to talk of something else; that there was plenty of good wine +to drink in place of drying his lips on such dusty old rubbish. + +"Well, messmates, after the supper the old lady demanded a little game +of monté, and she insisted, too, on making herself banker, though she +had no money on the table to pay with in case she lost--which she had no +intention of doing. So she won every ounce, dollar, real, and centavo +they had in their pockets! The doctor and purser told me they saw her +cheat boldly; but yet she not only bagged all the money, but she won +their mules into the bargain!" + +Here those individuals confessed roundly--standing on the defensive--that +the fat old señora had a false pack of cards always ready in her ample +bosom, and had cheated them in the barest manner conceivable; but yet +they had no appeal, and were inclined, out of gallantry for the sex, to +behave like gentlemen, though she did drink aguardiente. + +"Well, messmates, toward midnight that hospitable wife of the Don began +to abuse our friends for not bringing more cash with them when they +visited ladies, and then fairly kicked them out of the house! Yes, you +both told me so when I lent you the money to pay the boatmen, after +being obliged to tramp all the way back to the port on foot, nearly +missing their billets in the old 'Scourge.'" + +"Go on, master! Tell us all about it; don't stop!" + +"Well, messmates, I was on deck while beating out of the channel, and +just abreast the Star Castle I saw a boat with two gentlemen in the +stern, stripped to a girt-line, and howling at rather than hailing the +ship. Bear in mind, doctor, the men refused to take either of you unless +you gave them your coats and trowsers before shoving off. And don't you +remember, Hardy, how they yelled at us, and we thought they were +deserters from that English gun-boat in St. Jago? And how the captain +arrested the pair of them when they got on board for going out of signal +distance? This is the first time _I_ ever told this yarn," concluded the +old navigator, tugging away at the lobe of his lost ear. + +The young lieutenants shouted, and the old major of marines, forgetful +of his iron-stuffed stock, laughed till he nearly sawed his chin off, +rubbing his chalky knuckles into his eyes the while. + + "But first upon the Almanac + A solemn oath he took-- + That he would catch a load of clams--" + +"The barge is coming off, Mr. Hardy, with the pennant flying, sir!" +reported a reefer, in the midst of the conversation, to the first +lieutenant, as he shoved his bright face through the wardroom door. + +"Very good, Mr. Beaver; but hark ye, sir! the next time you go ashore in +the market-boat, look sharp that the men don't suck the monkey. Three of +them came off drunk this morning. And inform Mr. Rat and Mr. Mouse that +if I see their heels on the cutter's cushions again, I'll take a better +look at them from the main-top-mast cross-trees. You understand, sir? +Steward, a glass of wine for Mr. Beaver!" Saying this, the executive +officer, with Harry Darcantel, arose and went on deck to receive the +commodore. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +A SPLICE PARTED. + + "Oh! for thy voice, that happy voice, + To breathe its loving welcome now! + Fame, wealth, and all that bids rejoice, + To me are vain! For where art thou?" + + "What is glory--what is fame? + That a shadow--this a name, + Restless mortal to deceive. + Are they renown'd--can they be great, + Who hurl their fellow-creature's fate, + That mothers, children, wives may grieve?" + + +The drum rolled, the marines presented arms, the boatswain piped, the +side-boys and officers took off their caps; and as the colors dropped +with the last ray of sunset from the peak, and the broad blue +day-pennant came fluttering down from the lofty main truck, Commodore +Cleveland and his friends stood on the splendid deck of the flag-ship +"Monongahela." + +It must have been with conscious pride that the brave and loyal +commander gazed around him on the noble frigate and her gallant crew. +The white decks, the tiers of cannon polished like varnished leather, +with the breechings and tackles laid fair and even over and around them; +the bright belaying-pins, holding their never-ending coils of running +gear--the burnished brass capstan--the great boom--board to the boats +amidships with a gleaming star of cutlasses, reflecting a glitter on the +ring of long pikes stuck around the main-mast near, all inclosed by the +high and solid bulwarks; while towering above, like mighty leafless +columns of forest pines, stood the lofty masts, running up almost out of +sight to the trucks in the fading light, supported by stays and shrouds, +singly and in pairs, and braided mazes--black, and straight, and +taut--never a thread loose on rigging or ratlin--and spreading out as +they came down in a heavy hempen net, till they disappeared over the +rail, and were clenched and spliced, or seized and clamped to the bolts +and dead-eyes of the chain-plates outside. Holding up too, in +mid-heaven, on those giant trunks--like a child its toys--the great +square yards of timber branches, laying without a quiver, in their black +lifts and trusses, with their white leaves of sails crumpled and packed +in smooth bunts in the middle, and running away to nothing on either +hand at the tapering yard-arms. + +Grand and imposing is the sight. And well may you wonder, ye land +lubbers, why all that mass of timber, sails, and cordage, with its +enormous weight, does not crush with the giant heels of the masts +through the bottom of the ship like unto an egg-shell, and tear the +stanch live-oak frame to splinters! + +The commander of the frigate saw all this, and he beheld at the same +time the clusters of happy sailors, sauntering with light step and +pleasant faces up and down the waist and gangways; and he heard, too, +the scraping of a fiddle on the forecastle, the shuffling, dancing feet, +and the least notion of a jovial sea-song coming up from the gun-deck. +Yes, it must have been a glorious pride with which that gallant officer +gazed around him from the quarter-deck of the magnificent frigate. + +Did he say to himself, "I am monarch of this floating kingdom; my will +is law; I say but the word, and those sails are spread and the ship +moves to wherever I command. My subjects, too, who watch my slightest +look and whisper, with that flag above, will pour broadside upon +broadside--ay, they have!--from those terrible guns upon whoever dares +to cross my track. Yes. They will fight for me so long as there is a +plank left in this huge ship to stand upon, and while there is a +rope-yarn left to hold the ensign--ay! even until my pennant, nailed to +the truck, sinks beneath the bloodstained waves?" Did the commander +think of all this? Perhaps he did. + +And yet, in all the pride of rank and power, bravely won and maintained +in many a scene of strife and deadly conflict, with visions of honest +patriotism and ambition for the future, did his thoughts go back long +years ago into the shadowy past, and was his spirit in the silent +church-yard, where the magnolia was drooping over a grass-green grave? +The sweet mother and her baby boy--the girl who had so fondly loved him, +and the child who played about his knees--oh that they could have lived +to share the wreaths of victory which were hung around his brow; that +they could have lived to see the sword his country gave him, to twine +but for one little moment their loving arms around his neck! No, the +magnolia waves its white flowers over mother and boy, and they sleep on +in their heavenly and eternal rest. + +Did Commodore Cleveland, as a saddened flash of thought swept over his +handsome face, while he stood on his quarter-deck, dwell on those +scenes? Yes, we know he did. By day and night, in war and peace, in gale +or calm, on deck or at banquet, in dream and action, the girl and mother +he so dearly loved was close clasped to his heart, and the child still +playing at his knee. + +"Gentlemen, let me make you acquainted with the first lieutenant, Mr. +Hardy; and permit me also to present my nephew, Mr. Darcantel, captain, +if you please, my friends, of the one-gun schooner 'Rosalie,' formerly +the slaver 'Perdita,' cut out of a river on the Gold Coast by the young +gentleman who stands before you." + +"Rosalie! why that's the name of my niece," exclaimed Piron; "and she is +prettier and whiter than your trim little craft, sir. But you must come +with the commodore to Escondido, and judge for yourself. But, bless my +soul! _you_ resemble our Rosalie, even if your schooner don't. Why, look +at him, Paddy Burns!" + +Don Stingo, and Tom Stewart, and the Paddy did look at him, and all +shook hands with him, laughing the while at Piron, and asking when old +Clinker looked for another earthquake. + +"Come, Piron, come, gentlemen, don't let us keep the soup waiting! By +the way, Mr. Hardy, will you do me the favor to take a glass of wine +with us after gun-fire?" + +"Thank you." + +"Suppose you bring little Mouse with you; I like children; and perhaps +you will excuse the younker from keeping his watch to-night? A little +extra sleep in hammock won't hurt him, you know." + +And so Commodore Cleveland raised his hat, followed by the eyes of +respect and devotion from officer and sailor, as he passed down the +ladder and entered his spacious cabin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +THE BLUE PENNANT IN THE CABIN. + + "To Bachelors' hall we good fellows invite + To partake of the chase that makes up our delight." + + "Ask smiling honor to proclaim + What is glory, what is fame? + Hark! the glad mandate strikes the list'ning ear! + 'The truest glory to the bosom dear, + Is when the soul starts soft compassion's tear.'" + + +"Now, gentlemen, let me get off this heavy coat and epaulets. There! all +right, Domino! put the sword in its case, and give me a white jacket. +Choose your own places, my friends. Piron, sit here on my right; Henri, +take the foot of the table." + +These last words were said in French; whereupon Piron started and +whispered to the commodore, "By George, Cleveland, is that youth's name +Henry, and does he speak French?" + +"Hush, Piron, he may hear you. His mother was French, and he speaks the +language like a native. She died when he was a baby, and he doesn't like +to allude to it. Come, steward, we are all ready. Serve the gumbo!" + +The cabin of the frigate was divided by a light lattice-work bulkhead in +two parts, running from quarter to quarter of the vessel. The after part +had a large sleeping stateroom on either side, resting on the quarter +galleries, and opening on to another gallery which hung over the stern +of the frigate. Inside, in the open space, was a round table, cushioned +lounges, a few chairs, with a bronze lamp pendent from a beam above, +while taking the curve of the stern over the after windows was a range +of bookcases, half hidden by the gilt cornice and curtains of the +windows. The entire fittings and furniture of cabin and staterooms, +including the neat Brussels carpet on the deck, were elegant and useful, +though by no means luxurious. The forward cabin, where no carpet graced +the floor, was much more spacious. It took in the two after ports of the +gun-deck; and the carriages and cannon within the sills of the ports +were painted a marble white, as were the ropes, in covered canvas, that +held them. In a recess forward was a large mahogany sideboard, or +buffet, the top fitted with a framework for glasses and decanters, which +were reflected from a large mirror let into the bulkhead. In the middle +of this space was the dining-table, lighted by a pair of globe lamps +hanging from above, while neat racks for bottles and water-jugs, moving +on sliding brass rods, were also suspended from the paneled beams and +carlines of the upper deck ceiling. On the right--the starboard +side--was a door leading into a roomy pantry, where the steward and +Domino, and the servants of the commodore, bestirred themselves at +dinner-time. + +"So, my friends," exclaimed the commodore, "you wish to hear what became +of me after I last parted with you?" + +"By all means, Cleveland! we are all dying to hear, and--" Here Piron's +appeal was interrupted by the heavy report of a bow gun, which gave a +slight, though almost imperceptible jar to the frigate. + +"Smithereens! Stingo! what noise is that?" exclaimed Burns. + +"Only the nine o'clock gun, sir," replied Darcantel. + +"Hech, mon!" said Stewart, "ye needna upset ma glass of auld Madeira in +yer mickle fright, for I've seen the time when ye ha' laughed at the +music in the report of a peestol and the ping of a bullet! But your +nervous seestem seems to be unstrung ever since the sma' French dancing +count untied the string o' your waistcoat with his rapeer." + +"You don't think, Paddy, the commodore here is going to bang a forty-two +pound shot into our stomachs after all the good prog he's filled them +with?" added Stingo, _sotto voce_, while the rotund Milesian threw his +head back and twinkled careless defiance at them all. + +Just then the orderly swung the port-cabin door open, and standing up as +rigid as a pump-bolt, with a finger to the visor of his stovepipe hat, +in cross-belts and bayonet, he announced "Lieutenant Hardy and +Midshipman Mouse!" + +"Ah! Hardy, glad to see you!" rising as he spoke; "squeeze in there +between Stewart and Burns, or Darcantel! Here, gentlemen, let me exhibit +to you Mr. Tiny Mouse! Don't move, Piron; I'll make a place for him near +me." + +Saying this, the commodore took the lad affectionately by the hand, and +as he sat him down on a chair at his elbow, and while the conversation +went on with his guests, he said, in a kindly tone, + +"Tiny, my dear, the first lieutenant tells me you are a good boy and +attend to your duty. I hope you pay attention to your studies also, and +write often to your dear mother. Ah! you do? That is right; for you know +you are her only hope since your brave father was killed. There, sir, +you may swig a little claret, but don't touch those cigars." + +"Come, Cleveland! Cleveland! you are forgetting your adventures, my +boy!" + +"Well, my friends, you shall hear them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE DEVIL TO PAY. + + "And how then was the devil dressed? + Oh! he was dressed in his Sunday's best; + His jacket was red and his breeches were blue, + And there was a hole where the tail came through." + + "Hairy-faced Dick understands his trade, + He stands by the breech of a short carronade, + The linstock glows in his bony hand, + Waiting that grim old skipper's command!" + + +"The last dinner I had in Jamaica, and a very jolly one it was, as you +all know, was out at Escondido, where we kept it up so late that I only +got on board the 'Scourge' at daylight, in time to get her under way +with the land wind. Well, we were bound to windward, and for a week +afterward we rolled about in a calm off Morant Bay, maybe twenty leagues +off the island, and one morning we discovered a sail. She was a large +merchant brig, heading any way, and bobbing about, as we were, in the +calm. Toward noon, however, a light air sprang up, and we got within +hail, and I went on board to say a word or two to the skipper, for we +had news before leaving Kingston that that infamous pirate Brand, in his +long-legged schooner 'Centipede,' had been seen off Guadaloupe; and, in +fact, we had actually chased him off Matanzas three months before; so I +was ordered to give the brig a warning, particularly as she had reported +a suspicious craft in sight that same morning at sunrise. When I got on +board of her I saw--" + +Here Piron placed both hands to his face as he leaned his elbows on the +table, and the commodore, checking himself, hurried on: + +"Ah! well, we kept the brig in sight all day, and ran round her once or +twice in the evening, but toward midnight the trade wind freshened, and, +as the coast seemed clear, and we were anxious to make up for lost time +in the calm, we gradually came up to our course, and went bowling away +to windward. + +"I remember going below at the time, and just as I was about to turn in, +I heard a quarter-master sing out to Hardy there, who was junior +lieutenant of the ship, and who had the middle watch, that he saw a +light going up to the brig's gaff. In five seconds I was on the poop, +where I met the captain. + +"This is his only son, gentlemen, and a braver or more skillful seaman +never trod a ship's deck," said the commodore, as he passed his hand +affectionately over the boy's head, who was sitting beside him. + +But he forgot, perhaps, to say that he, Cleveland, had stood by the +father when he was struck dead by a cannon-shot, and that afterward he +had the boy appointed a reefer, and, out of his own means, helped the +widow to eke out her pittance of a pension. Yes, Cleveland forgot all +that as he smoothed the youngster's soft hair, while, with the men +around him, he drained his glass in silence to the memory of his +departed friend and chief. Then resuming, he went on: + +"In less than no time after the light was seen--for you must know, +gentlemen, that it was an understood signal between us--the 'Scourge' +was flying off with a stiff breeze abaft the beam, the crew at quarters, +and the boats ready to be lowered from the davits. When we ranged up +alongside the brig, and even before, we felt certain that our misgivings +would prove true, and so they did; and merely slamming a shot over her, +and dropping a couple of armed boats into the water, we luffed round her +bows, and there we saw that cursed schooner--venomous snake as she +was--just hoisting her sails, and creeping away to windward. + +"We let her have two or three divisions of grape, and followed the dose +up with round shot. I am sure we hit her, and that pretty hard, for we +knocked away her fore-top-mast, and we saw the splinters fly in showers +from her hull. However, she was well handled, and lying nearer the wind +than the 'Scourge,' when day dawned she was clear out of range, and +leaving us every minute. So we up helm and ran down again to the brig, +to see what mischief had been done and to pick up our boats. + +"Ah! yes, you all know what had taken place, so I won't go over the +details; but the same afternoon, after seeing the brig pointed straight +for Port Royal, and while we were once more on our course, we fell in +with a water-logged boat, in which were half a dozen dead and dying men. +One, a mongrel Indian from Yucatan, who was frightfully torn by two or +three grape-shot, before he died on board--as did all the others--gave +us, in his confused dialect, some account of the pirate he had served +under, and the haunt he frequented. As near as we could learn, the haunt +was situated somewhere on the south side of Cuba, on a rocky island +having a safe and secure inlet; but as he did not know the latitude or +longitude, we were left somewhat in the dark. The last words, however, +the mangled wretch uttered, as the gasping breath was leaving his body, +were, that the spot could be distinguished by a tall cocoa-nut-tree +which grew from a craggy eminence in the middle of the island. We buried +them all, pirates as they were, decently, and then we clapped on all +sail on our course. + +"Steward, another bottle of the old Southside that Mr. March sent me +from Madeira! Here, Domino, take Mr. Mouse up gently, and lay him down +on my cot in the after cabin. Dear little fellow, he is sound asleep; +and mind you draw the curtains around him, lest he take cold from the +draught of the stern windows!" + +Rather a striking contrast this to the way Captain Brand, the pirate, +treated the little Henri in the den there in the Doçe Léguas. + +"Well, gentlemen, for some weeks after these occurrences we sailed about +the islands, touching here and there, until at last we arrived at the +Havana, took in stores and water, and then continued the cruise. The +orders were to beat up the south side of Cuba, where we expected to fall +in with the Musquito fleet and some English vessels, especially detailed +to destroy two or three nests of pirates who had for some years swarmed +in those seas and infested that coast. In the course of time we beat all +around the south side of Cuba, and at last dropped anchor in St. Jago, +where we learned from the English consular agent that five or six +fellows, who had been wrecked on the Carvalo reef, were identified as +having been part of a piratical crew who had plundered an English vessel +with a free passport bound to Havana, and had been sent there in irons +for trial. + +"The truth was, that the Spanish colonial authorities had so long +connived, winked at, or been indifferent to what was going on during the +wars of the Continent, that they allowed these piratical hordes to exist +and thrive at their very doors. The matter had already been brought to +the notice of the administrador of the port, and all other ports as far +along the coast as Cienfuegos, and in such a threatening manner, too, +that the governor at St. Jago, fearful of having his town blown down, +exerted himself in the arrest of the rascals I have alluded to, and +likewise in procuring information by dispatching guarda costas along the +south side of the island. + +"Accordingly, the very morning we anchored I went ashore with the +captain of the custom-house, where we met the deputy administrador and a +little withered, one-eyed old rascal, who was in the colonial service, +and who professed to know the haunt, or at least he said he thought he +did, of that notorious villain Brand. + +"I remember distinctly spreading a chart before him, and while he traced +with the end of his cigarette a course for the captain to steer by, I +stood near, watching him narrowly. But the fact was, that he had the +very sharpest spark of an eye set, or rather standing out, beside his +nose that any body ever saw in a human being's head; and instead of me +watching him, he seemed to be looking straight through me, and divining +my thoughts and suspicions. However, the spot he pointed out, and the +way he described it, with a cocoa-nut-tree on top of a rock, and the +passage through the reef, so nearly corresponded with the confused +account the Yucatanese gave us before he died, that the captain was +entirely convinced we were on the scent, though I myself was not more +than half satisfied. The place indicated was near the Isle of Pines, +three hundred miles off; but, to make the thing more plausible, that +one-eyed old scoundrel was detailed to run along the Doçe Léguas Cays, +see what information he could pick up there, and then follow down after +us. + +"That night, or early the next morning, we were off again, and ran down +the coast, with a good offing to keep the wind, until we got to the +ground, and passed in by Cape St. Francis, and doubled round into the +Bight of Pines. There we fell in with a whole fleet of English and +American cruisers and schooner craft, who informed us that they had +searched every accessible spot where a man could walk dry-shod upon, +from Guayabos to the Isle of Mangles; that they had destroyed several +old and deserted piratical nests, and hung two or three ostensible +fishermen by way of wholesome warning to their allies the pirates; but +that was all; and from what they had learned, there did not seem to have +been an established retreat in that maze of cays and reefs for four or +five years. + +"So you see we had our cruise for nothing, and then the captain agreed +with me that we had both been most egregiously deceived by the Spanish +commander of the guarda costa. Well, we hauled our wind once more, +standing well out to sea, and after a tedious beat of some days we again +edged in toward the coast, somewhere near the Boca Grande of the Twelve +League Cays on the westernmost side. It was in the morning when we made +the land, and, steering close in, we got a good slant off the shore, and +kept the glasses going from the topmost cross-trees down all through the +day. For my part, as Hardy may perhaps remember, I scarcely took the +glass from my eye for eight hours, and from the mizzen-top I feel quite +sure that there were not many objects, from the size of a blade of grass +to a mangrove bush, that I did not examine, from the coral reefs up to +the rocky heights, let alone the cocoa-nut-tree that we were in search +of. + +"Toward afternoon, however, the weather came up hazy, the wind began to +fall off, and the barometer began to exhibit very queer spasms indeed, +rising with a sort of jerk at first, and then dropping down the tenth of +an inch at a clip, with the atmosphere becoming close and sultry, and +the men gasping about the decks as if we were about to choke at the next +breath. It was during the hurricane months, and the indications +certainly should have led us as far as our legs could carry us to open +water, instead of being caught embayed perhaps with half a thousand +reefs around us on what might prove a lee-shore; but, nevertheless, the +captain decided to hold on till sunset, and then make an offing. The +breeze still held in the upper sails, and so we slipped on in smooth +water till about five o'clock, when I heard a fellow sing out from the +main royal yard, + +"'On deck there! I can see a tall cocoa-nut-tree on an island here on +the port bow!' + +"Before the words were well out of his mouth I too caught the object, +and I knew at the first glance that it was the spot we were looking for. +At the same time the haze lighted up a bit, and we saw the ridge of +rocks and every thing as the haunt of that pirate Brand had been +described to us. So, my friends, we were all alive once more on board +the 'Scourge,' and the captain resolved to dash in upon the scoundrel's +nest before he could have time to leave it. + +"The engine was rigged and water spirted over the sails from the trucks +down, to make the canvas hold the wind, and in an hour after we were +within two leagues of the island, and just as the sun fell below the +horizon we caught sight of the mast-heads of a large vessel sticking up +over some bluff rocks near the bold shore. Not five minutes later the +hull of the craft came slowly out from the gap, under all sail, and we +discovered her to be a long and rather lumbering-looking brigantine, +painted lead-color, and bearing no resemblance to the schooner we had +twice chased before. Simultaneously, however, with her coming out into +full view, as she rounded in her head-yards and got a pull of the +main-sheet, with the breeze abeam and heading to the eastward, we beheld +a great volume of white smoke spout up over the rock near the +cocoa-nut-tree, with a vivid sheet of flame at the base, and before the +vast column turned, like the crown of a palm-tree, in its descent, we +were greeted by a dull, heavy roar, the concussion of which fairly made +the 'Scourge' tremble. Then, as the white smoke partially broke away, an +avalanche of rocks and timbers was scattered far and near, and nothing +visible but a veil of dust and masses of heavy smoke. Nearly at the same +moment of this explosion wreaths of heavy black smoke arose from another +spot nearer to the gap, lit up in the fading, hazy twilight with forked +red fires, and soon after a great conflagration burst forth, swirling +flakes of burning cinders all over the island, and casting a lurid glare +upon the water around us." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +AND THE PITCH HOT. + + "He is born for all weathers; + Let the winds blow high or blow low, + His duty keeps him to his tethers, + And where the gale drives he must go. + + "The wind blew hard, the sea ran high, + The dingy scud drove 'cross the sky, + All was safe lashed, the bowl was slung, + When careless thus Ned Halyard sung." + + +Said the commodore, with a knowing shake of his head, "Ah! gentlemen, if +the fellow, whoever he was, who was creeping away so nimbly in that +lazy-looking brigantine, with English colors at the peak, had written +down in detail what he had been doing on that secluded nook of an +island, and sent the information off to us in a letter, we could have +read it without breaking the seal. We could have told him that that +little scoundrel with one eye had purposely misled us, and had given him +warning to quit his strong-hold; and that he had hastily got his plunder +and people on board his vessel, blown up and set fire to his nest, and +that the brigantine he was now on board of was once upon a time the +notorious schooner 'Centipede!' Yes, we knew all that by instinct." + +Piron sat with his eyes fixed upon the speaker, taking in every word as +it fell from his lips, the teeth set close together and the hand +clenched which supported his head on the table. Paddy Burns and Tom +Stewart, too, looked eagerly that way, as did Harry Darcantel, while +Hardy sipped his wine and puffed his cigar leisurely, as if he knew the +tale by heart. + +"It had fallen nearly calm. A light air perhaps in the royals, though +nothing down below. But as we hauled down our colors at sunset, which +had been hoisted to let the fellow know who we were, down came his also. +Then there we both lay looking at each other. He knew by instinctive +experience that we were the American corvette 'Scourge,' mounting +eighteen twenty-four-pounder carronades and two long eighteens in the +bow ports; for the brigantine had once or twice determined their exact +calibres, and that we were the fastest cruiser, with the wind a point or +two free, that had been seen in the West Indies for twenty years. + +[Illustration] + + "Yes, he knew all about us, but he was still a little in doubt +whether we knew all about _him_. He lay--unfortunately, perhaps, for +him--a little beyond the range of our long guns, or else he might have +been spared a good deal of time and uneasiness, and we a long chase and +considerable risk. Ah! as the night came, the very fires he had kindled +in his den on shore prevented his escape; for while the calm lasted the +bright flames shone upon him with the glare of hell! There we lay all +that night without moving a muscle or a mile until day dawned--and such +a day as did dawn! + +"Meanwhile the barometer had fallen an inch and a half, until the master +began to believe the bulb leaked, and the mercury was dropping into the +case. Then, through the murky gloom of daylight, with the sea one flat +greasy surface, with never the splash of a fish to disturb it, while the +lowest whisper of the topmen aloft could be distinctly heard on deck, as +if we were hung in the vacuum of an exhausted receiver where a feather +would drop like a bullet, suddenly there came a sound from the direction +of the cays. Suppose, Burns, you saw a forty-two pound shot coming +toward you, and without you dodged quick, your head would be flying off +with it in the same direction?" + +"Whist, mon!" said Stewart, with a groan, "dinna be calling up sic +peectures of the brain, Cleveland. Paddy, there, ne'er thinks of ony +meesals bigger than a peestol bullet." + +"Well, my friends, we ran precisely a similar risk, though the +cloudy embrasures over the island had not quite enough thunder to +reach us. However, the brigantine knew what would follow as well as we +did--better, perhaps--and before you could swallow that glass of wine +she was stripped as bare as a bone, and down came her yards too, but +keeping the sticks up, and spreading a patch of a storm staysail +forward that you might apparently have put in your pocket. Her decks +and rigging were crowded with men while she was doing all this, but +the moment it was done, and well done too, they ran into their holes +below like so many rats, and we could only see a man or two left on +deck near the helm. + +"All hands had been called on board the 'Scourge' at four o'clock, and, +with the exception of securing the battery, every thing was ready to +make a skeleton of the ship the moment we saw the brigantine begin; for +she was a wary fish, and we had no idea of letting her give us the slip +the third time. I had the trumpet, however, and with the captain at my +elbow, the instant he saw that the brigantine was once more rigged +nearly in her old way, he gave me the word, 'Now, Cleveland, work +sharp!' + +"With a hundred and twenty men aloft, jumping about like cats, the light +sails, studding-sail booms, royal and top-gallant yards came down, the +top-gallant masts after them, and the flying jib-boom rigged in. Then +the top-sails close reefed and furled with extra gaskets, and so with +the courses; preventer braces clapped on, rolling tackles hooked, and +the spare purchases set up by the lower pennants. Meanwhile the +divisions on deck had got hawsers over the launch amidships, the chains +unbent, the anchors lashed down on the forecastle, and the quarter boats +triced well inboard and secured with the davits. At the same time the +light stuff from aloft was got below, the hammocks piped down, and the +carpenters slapped the gratings on the hatches, and stood ready with the +tarpaulins to batten them down. I never beheld a smarter piece of work +done afloat--not even, Hardy, in the 'Monongahela.' + +"As I turned round an instant a hoarse, howling bellow struck my ear +from the island, and I just caught a glimpse of the tall cocoa-nut-tree +flying round and round in the air like an inverted umbrella with a +broken stick; while at the same time the men from aloft had reached the +deck, and, jumping to the battery, the guns were run in and housed, +spare breechings and extra lashings passed, and life-lines rove fore and +aft. After that, gentlemen, there was no farther need of a trumpet. + +"You all know pretty well what sort of a thing a hurricane is, and the +one I speak of must, I think, have given you a touch of its quality here +in Jamaica." + +"Ay, by the holy Moses! we remember it well, bad luck to it; and so does +Tom Stewart and Piron there, for it didn't lave a stick of sugar-cane +standing from Montego Bay to Cape Antonio." + +"Yes," said Stewart; "and to show ye what a piff of wind can do, the +whirl of it caught up an eighteen-foot Honduras plank, and laid it +crosswise, like an axe, full seven inches into an old tamarind trunk +standing in my garden, and then twisted off the ends like a heather +broom! Hech, mon, ye may see it there now any day!" + +Piron was thinking of the barks that were driving before that hurricane, +with no thought of the damage done to his own plantations. + +"Well, then, I shall spare you all prolix description of it; and you +need only fancy a ship blown every where and every how except out of +water--now with the lower yard-arms cutting deep into the sea like +rakes, the lee hammock-nettings under water, the stern boat torn away +into splinters, the main-top-sail picked, bolt by bolt, from the yard +until there was not a thread left, and the lee anchor twisted bodily out +of its lashings and swept overboard! + +"Then a lull, while the sea got up and the ship dashed down on the other +side on her bow; then staggering back and making a stern-board till the +water was plunged up in a deluge over the poop. Recovering herself +again, and almost quivering on her beam-ends, the guns groaning and +creaking as the terrible strain came upon the breechings, with the shot +from the racks bounding about the decks, dinting holes in the solid oak +waterways big enough to wash your face in, and then hopping out of the +smashed half-ports to leeward. The spar-deck up to your armpits in +water, and every man of us holding on to the life-lines or standing +rigging like grim death, while all the time the roaring, thundering yell +of the hurricane taught us how powerless we were, by hand or voice, to +cope with the winds when they were let loose in all their might and +fury! + +"Nor need I relate to you the scene presented below--mess-chests, bags, +tables, crockery, flying from deck and beam to stanchion, smashing about +in the most dangerous way, pell-mell, while the worst of the tempest +lasted. But, gentlemen, the 'Scourge' had a frame of live-oak, to say +nothing of two or three acres of tough yellow-pine timber in her, a good +deal of fibrous hemp to hold the masts up; and, moreover, she was well +manned, and, though I say it myself, she had a skillful captain and +thorough-bred officers, in whose sagacity the crew could rely, to manage +that old 'Scourge.'" + +"That she had," exclaimed Hardy; "and the most skillful and the coolest +of them all was the first lieutenant!" The "Monongahela's" executive +officer here bounced off his chair as if he was prepared to fight any +man breathing who did not subscribe to that opinion. + +"Well, my friends, that awful hurricane continued for about twenty +hours, from late one morning till the beginning of the next. As for day, +there was none; for the sea and black clouds made one long night of it. +Fortunately, too, we had been driven off shore, and when the murky gloom +broke away, and we were able to look around, our first anxiety was to +see what had become of the brigantine. + +"Yes, and I truly believe, in all that turmoil of the elements, while we +were on the brink of foundering and going down to old Davy's locker, +that there was not an officer or man, from the captain to the cook, who +was not thinking of that pirate, and hoping that he might go down first. +I myself, however, felt a sort of confidence, as I was held lashed on +the poop to the mizzen rigging, that the brigantine might be caught and +whirled about--so long as she was above water--by the same blows of the +hurricane that beat upon the 'Scourge;' and when the tornado broke, and +some one sang out 'Sail ho!' I knew by instinct it must be the +'Centipede.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE CHASE. + + "With sloping masts and dipping prow, + As who pursued with yell and blow + Still treads the shadow of his foe, + And forward bends his head, + The ship drove past, loud roared the blast, + And southward aye we fled." + + "Clap on more sail, pursue, give fire-- + She is my prize, or ocean whelms them all." + + "So many slain--so many drowned! + I like not of that fight to tell. + Come, let the cheerful grog go round! + Messmates, I've done. A spell, ho, spell!" + + +"It was all hands again, gentlemen. The hurricane had settled +down into a moderate gale from northeast, though it was some time +before the awfully confused sea got to roll regularly. Then we +judged ourselves--for reckoning and observation had been out of +the question--to be a long way south of Jamaica, and even to the +southward of the great Pedro Bank. We did not wait this time for +the pirate to lead us in getting ready for a race, but we got up +a bran-new suit of top-sails and courses out of the sail-room, +and, so soon as the men could go aloft with safety, they were +ordered not to unbend the few tattered rags still clinging to the +yards, but to cut away at once. Up went the top-sails and courses, +and they were soon brought to the yards and set close-reefed, with +a storm-jib to steady the ship forward. Presently we gave her the +whole fore-sail and main-sail, and I think that even then, for +some hours, but one half the corvette's upper works could have been +visible as she plunged through the angry heaving seas. + +"It left us dry enough, however, to pay some heed to the brigantine +ahead of us. She was about four miles off, a little on our weather bow, +and as she rode up--splendid sea-boat that she was--like a gull on the +back of a mighty roller, we could see that her bulwarks--mere boards and +canvas, probably--had been washed away, the house between her masts gone +too, and, no doubt, her long gun, or whatever else had been lying hid +under it. And now she was once more the schooner 'Centipede,' long +and sharp, and without any rail to speak of, so that we could see her +deck from the stem to her taffrail at every lurch she made. The only +difference in her appearance was a short fore-mast with cross-trees, and +a top-mast for square sails. Almost as soon as our top-sail sheets were +hauled home, her own yards went up and the sail was spread, while with +the bonnet off her fore-sail, the whole jib and a close-reefed +main-sail, she went flying to the southward with the gale a point abaft +the beam. + +[Illustration: THE STERN CHASE.] + +"Thus we went on, the sea getting more regular every hour, so that we +could send up the top-gallant masts, get the yards across, shake a reef +or two out, and put the 'Scourge' in order. The schooner needed no +encouragement from us, but cracked on more sail until her long main-mast +reeled and bent over, as she came up on the breaking ridge of a wave, +like a whip-stalk. By noon the clouds had gone, and left us a clear sky, +with the gale going down into a full top-gallant breeze, sending the +corvette along good eleven knots. We got an observation for latitude, +and five hours later we determined the longitude and our position to be +a few leagues to leeward of the Sarrana Keys, with that bird of a +schooner before us heading for the Musquito coast. + +"If _we_ had caught a cataract of water as it rolled over our bows in +the morning, the schooner was taking _her_ bath in the afternoon, for +occasionally, for five minutes at a time, there was nothing seen of her +deck, and only the masts and broad white canvas above, like jury-sticks +out of a raft. But when she did slide up with her low, long hull +shooting clean out of water, till nearly half her keel, with the copper +sheathing flashing in the sun, was visible, she looked like a dolphin +making a spring after a shoal of flying-fish. And then on her narrow +deck we could see a few fellows lashed about the fore-mast, and a couple +more abaft steering her like a thread through a needle. + +"We began to gain upon her now, and whenever she kept a little away +before the wind the gap between us closed more rapidly; for the ship +could evidently outcarry the schooner, and, had the breeze freshened and +the sea kept up, we could have run her under if her masts didn't go out +of her, as we hoped and expected every minute they would. Gradually, +however, she watched her chance and hauled up till she brought the wind +barely abeam, and steered true for the Musketeers--a bad cluster of low +keys nearly surrounded by as terrible ledges and reefs as any to be +found in the Caribbean Sea. + +"Her captain was evidently bent upon playing a desperate game, but, if +he thought he would not find another ready to lay down the same stake, +he was greatly mistaken! It was about sunset when we made the keys, and +there we went--the schooner leading us about a mile--at a rate which +would have made both vessels leap clear over the first ledge they +struck, and perhaps have thrown summersaults of us into the bargain. I +asked the captain, who had never left my side on the poop, if we should +keep on. + +"'Yes, sir,' he replied, 'so long as we have a gun and a plank to float +it!' + +"And, by Saint Paul! we kept on. And there was not a soul on board the +'Scourge,' from the drummer-boy up, who did not agree with the captain. +How those villains on board the pirate relished this decision we could +only surmise; but, at all risks, he held his course with a nerve that +might have made the devil himself shudder. + +"By this time the sun was well down, and a brilliant moon was riding +high in the heavens; but, as bright as it was, the fellow who commanded +that schooner required an eye as keen as an albatross and a hand as +steady as an iron bar to guide his craft in the direction he was +going--too late for either of us to think of hauling off. + +"He must, too, have had a thorough knowledge of the reefs and keys, and +trusted, perhaps, if he got clear himself, that the corvette, drawing +eighteen feet water and ignorant of the channel, might touch something +which would throw the game in his hands. Our men had the ropes stretched +along the decks and the battery clear on both sides, so as to be ready +to wear, or tack, or fire, as our pilot ahead might require. + +"The reefs were to leeward of the string of low keys, which made the +water comparatively smooth, though the wind still swept strongly over us +and sang through the rigging; and it was here the 'Centipede' entered, +going like wild pigeons the pair of us. The outer reef had a fair, deep +passage, and so had the next; but the inner one presented but one narrow +gateway, scarcely wide enough for a ship to scrape through, with the +whole reef one uninterrupted fringe of black pointed rocks and roaring +white breakers, which toppled over, and boiled and eddied like a +thousand whirlpools into the smoother water inshore. + +"As the 'Centipede's' stern gave a sharp pitching jerk when she entered +this boiling gorge, we saw, in the moonlight, her head-yards laid +square, the fore and aft sails flowing in the sheets as she fell off +with wide wings and the wind on her quarter, and flew down inside the +reef. + +"Five minutes after we too entered this maelstrom chasm, and, though the +helm was hove hard up, and the after-sails shivered, yet, before the +'Scourge's' bows, going at the rate she was, could turn the sharp angle +of that water-gate, her port bilge grated against a coral ledge, and +grooved and broomed the planks and copper away like so much sea-weed! +But yet that slight graze never stopped us a hair's weight, and, with +additional sail, we rushed after our pilot, mile after mile, through +reef, ledge, breakers, inlets, and keys, now braced sharp up, and again +going free, until at last the fellow, having run us a dance of full ten +miles, once more emerged into the open water, close jammed on the wind, +steering nearly due east. + +"There, Hardy!" exclaimed the commodore, "I am tired of talking; suppose +you take up the thread of the yarn. Domino, another bottle of tinta!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THE WRECK OF THE "CENTIPEDE." + + "Gun bellows forth to gun, and pain + Rings out her wild, delirious scream; + Redoubling thunders shake the main, + Loud crashing falls the shot-rent beam. + The timbers with the broadsides strain; + The slippery decks send up a steam + From hot and living blood; and high + And shrill is heard the death-pang cry!" + + "She struck where the white and fleecy waves + Looked soft as carded wool; + But the cruel rocks they gored her side + Like the horns of an angry bull." + + +Piron turned his gaze toward the first lieutenant, moved away the full +glasses of wine, which he had never raised to his lips since the +commodore began, and, resting his bloodless cheek on his other hand, +listened. + +"It's vera interesting indeed." "Tear an' ages, boy! Fire away!" quoth +the Scotchman and his Milesian crony in a breath. + +Hardy threw his arm over the shoulder of Harry Darcantel as if it was a +pleasant Corinthian column to lean upon, and breaking off the ashes of +his cigar on the rim of a wine-glass which he had specially devoted to +that purpose, he forthwith began: + +"I am quite confident, gentlemen, that I can not describe what afterward +took place so well as Commodore Cleveland, but, at all events, I'll do +my best. Nor do I remember very distinctly the events of the night after +we got out of the Musketeers Keys; for I was pretty well fagged out +myself, and all of us who had the watch below turned in to take the +first wink of sleep we could catch for forty hours. + +"The next morning, however, when I took the deck, I found the corvette +under royals and flying-jib, with a fresh trade wind blowing from about +east-northeast, and a smooth sea; though close hauled as we were, and +going ten knots, the spray was flying well up the weather leech of the +fore-sail. The 'Centipede' was about a mile and a half ahead, jammed on +the wind, and trying all she could to eat the wind out of us; but, as +the commodore there said at the time, he had thrown that trick away when +he cut off eight or ten feet of his fore-mast, and made a brigantine of +the craft, so that he could not brace his head-yards sharper, or lie +nearer the wind than we did. + +"I remember, also, that two or three of the officers and half a hundred +of the sailors were very anxious to pitch shot at the chase from the +long eighteen in the weather bridle port; but the captain refused, and +said we might lose a cable's length or two in yawing off to fire, and it +would be better to save the powder until we could slam a broadside into +him. But all the while that 'Centipede' was handled and steered in such +a thorough seamanlike manner, and proved herself such a beautiful +sea-boat, that I doubt if there was a man on board the 'Scourge' who +would not have given a year's pay to have taken her whole, and only +expended a spare top-mast studding-sail halliards for the necks of her +crew. + +"From the top-gallant forecastle we could see every thing that took +place on the schooner's deck: sometimes a lot of fellows forward reeving +some fresh gear, peering about the low bowsprit, or putting on a seizing +to a traveler on the jib-stay; with a chap or two aloft stitching a +chafing-mat on the lee backstays; and then aft a man shinning up the +main shrouds with a tin pot hung around his neck, greasing the jaws of +the main gaff, and twitching a wrinkle out of the gaff-top-sail, so that +it would lie as flat as this dining-room table set on end. + +"But always, from the very first moment we descried her--before the +hurricane and afterward--there were two fellows abaft by the taffrail. +One a large fat man, in a long dark dress, who appeared at times to be +leaning over the rail as if he were sea-sick; and the other a spare, +tall-built fellow, who sat there with a quadrant in his hands and +smoking cigars, measuring the distance between the two vessels as if he +were a government surveyor, and especially appointed to make a +hydrographical chart of the Caribbean Sea. Occasionally, too, we could +see him approach the binnacle, spread a chart on the deck at his feet, +examine it closely with a pair of dividers in his hands, and then he +would return to his seat on the taffrail, cigar in his mouth and +quadrant to his eye as before. + +"Nor were we idle on board the 'Scourge;' for when the breeze lulled we +slacked up the lower rigging and stays, got down all extra weight and +hamper from the tops, sent the watch below to the berth-deck with a +round shot apiece in their hammocks, moved a couple of carronades about +the spar-deck till we got the ship in the best sailing trim, and then we +went skipping and springing through the water with the elasticity of an +India-rubber ball. + +"At noon the sailing-master reported the position of the ship to be two +hundred and eighty miles from the nearest land, which was the Darien +Coast. So all that day and all that night, with a moon to make a lover +weep to see, we went bowling after our waspish consort in hopes before +long of taking the sting out of her. No kite ever pursued its quarry +with a keener eye than we did. No hound ever leaped after a wolf with +the froth streaming from his jaws and blood-red thirsty eyes, than did +the 'Scourge' chase that infamous pirate. The delay only made our eyes +sparkle and our teeth sharper in expectation; for we knew we would have +our prey sooner or later, and it was only a bite and a pleasure +deferred. + +"The next morning and all the day there was no change to speak of in our +respective positions. The 'Centipede' went skimming on over the water +with every thread of canvas she could spread, reeling over on her side +at times when the breeze freshened, while the spray flashed up joyously +and sparkled in the sun, leaving a bubbling current of foam in her wake, +which, before it had been entirely lost in the regular waves of the sea, +the corvette's sharp bows would plunge into, and again make it flash +high up to her fore-yard, and then go seething, and hissing, and kissing +her black sides until it rippled around her rudder and was lost again in +the wake astern. + +"And all the time that man sat with a cigar in his mouth on the pirate's +taffrail, while Commodore Cleveland there stood with a spy-glass to his +eye on the poop of the 'Scourge.' + +"You may imagine, gentlemen," continued Hardy, as he again knocked the +ashes off his cigar, "that going to sea is attended with some few +discomforts, such as battening down the hatches in a sirocco in the +Mediterranean off Tripoli; a simoom in the China Seas; a bitter +northwest gale off Barnegat, with the rigging and sails frozen as hard +as an iceberg; but if a man can catch forty winks of sleep once in a +while, whether in a hammock, or on an oak carronade slide with the +breech of a gun for a pillow, he may manage to weather through it. But +from the moment we first saw that pirate till we saw the last of him, +neither the first lieutenant of the 'Scourge' nor the commander of the +'Centipede' once closed their eyes, unless--well, I won't anticipate." + +Piron reached over his hand and shook that of his friend Cleveland +convulsively. + +"Vera weel, mon! vera weel!" "He's the very man to do it!" said Stewart +and Burns to Stingo, nodding backward at the commodore. + +Another striking contrast to the hand-shaking, virtuous compact between +Captain Brand and his friend, the pious padre Ricardo! I wonder if they +are shaking hands now! Probably not. + +"Gentlemen," resumed Hardy, as he shook the ashes level in his +wine-glass, as if he wished to preserve them to clean his teeth with +after smoking, "I will not detain you much longer. Both vessels were +making great speed, and long before sunset we had been keeping a bright +look-out for the land. At last it was reported, trending all around +both bows, low and with a trembling mirage of pines and mangroves +looming up, and a multitude of rocky keys dead ahead. We were steering +directly for Las Mulatas Islands, a cluster then little known to any +navigators save, perhaps, the buccaneers of the Gulf of Columbus, and +perhaps, too, with the intention of running us just such another dance +as our pilot had a night or two before. However, we were again all +prepared to explore the unknown reefs; and, moreover, we got the +starboard anchor off the bow, and bent the cables to that and the spare +anchors amidships, so as to be all ready to moor ship in case our pilot +required us to do so. And likewise the cutters were hanging clear from +the davits--the same boats which had once before paid a complimentary +visit to some of his friends--supposing he would like to entertain us in +person. + +"The sun went down again in a fiery blaze, and with its last ray there +slowly rose to the main truck of the pirate a swallow-tailed black flag, +with a white skull and cross-bones in the dark field. It fluttered for a +moment out straight and clear, and then twisted itself around the thin +mast, never more to be released by hands or halliards! That was the last +glimpse those pirates ever caught of the murderous symbol they had so +often fought and sailed under; and it was the last sun that a good many +aching eyes ever looked upon who were sailing there in that half league +of blue water. The moon, however, was riding bright and beaming, as +clear as a bell, overhead, and that was all the light we cared for. The +'Centipede,' no doubt, would have preferred no moon at all, with a +cloudy sky and a bit of a rain squall, to pursue the intricate +navigation before her; but Heaven arranged the atmospheric scenery +otherwise. + +"'By the deep eight!' sang out the leadsman in the port chains. 'The +mark five!' came from the opposite side. 'Another cast, lads--quick!' +'And a half four!' 'Six fathoms, sir!' + +"'We must have stirred up the sand, Cleveland,' said the captain; but +even as he spoke the man in the starboard chains cried, 'Three fathoms, +sir!' and while each instant we expected the ship to bring up all +standing, and the masts to go by the board, the other leadsman sung out, +joyfully, 'No bottom with the line, sir!' + +"Well, we were safely through that bed of coral, doing, no doubt, some +trifling damage to the tender shoots and branches, as we flew through a +narrow channel, with the waves breaking and moaning on the sandy shores +over the keys, out into deep water again. + +"Four or five miles beyond stood out a bluff rock, looking in the +moonlight like a dozing lion with his paws crossed before him, ready to +bound upon any who should approach his lair in the dense jungle of pines +and tangled thickets which stood up like a bristling mane on the ridge +behind. + +"The 'Centipede' was now but a short half-mile ahead of us, her deck +alive with men, and manifestly ready for some desperate devilment. On +her after rail, too, stood that man, tall and erect, his feet steadied +by the cavil of the main boom, a spy-glass to his eye, and looking at +the rocky lion now close aboard him, still with a cigar in his mouth; +and we thought we could even see the thin puffs of smoke curling around +his face. Suddenly, too, we saw the spy-glass whirled around his head, +and at the instant the vessel fell dead off before the wind, the great +main-sail flew over with a stunning crash and clatter of blocks and +sheets as the wind caught it on the other quarter, making the long +switch of a mast to spring like a bow, while the weather-shrouds slacked +up for a moment in bights, and then came back taut with a twang you +might have heard a mile! We could now see, as the space opened behind +the rock, another frightful jagged ledge, on which the rollers were +heaving in liquid masses high up a precipitous rock, and where the +channel was not a cable's length wide, leading into a foaming gloomy +inlet, where not even the beams of the moon could penetrate! I heard the +captain say, in his old decided way, + +"'Now for it, Cleveland! You take the battery, and I'll look out for the +ship!' + +"Then, gentlemen," said Hardy, with unusual animation, as he waved his +right arm aloft with an imaginary cutlass swinging over his head, "came +the word 'Fire!' + +"Yes, the entire starboard broadside, round shot, grape, and canister, +all pointed toward a centre, were delivered with one simultaneous +shock--the hurricane a mere cat's-paw in comparison--which shook the +corvette as if she had struck a rock, while the smoke and sheets of +flame spouted out from the cannon, half hiding the black torrent which +gushed forth from so many hoarse throats; and as the roar of the +concussion was taken up in terrible echoes from the lion on the rock, a +peppering volley of musket-balls from the marines on the poop and +forecastle made a barking tenor to the music. + +"Meanwhile the helm of the 'Scourge' was hove hard down, and as she just +swirled, by a miracle, clear of the ledge under our lee, and came up to +the wind with the sails slamming and banging hard enough to send the +canvas out of the bolt-ropes, the courses were clewed up, every thing +aloft came down by the run; anchor after anchor went plunging to the +bottom, and before the cables had fairly begun to fly out of the +hawse-holes with their infernal jar and rattle, high above the sounds of +flapping sails, snapping blocks, running chains, and what not, came +another clear order, 'Fire!' + +"Then pealed out the port broadside at a helpless, dismasted hulk within +two hundred yards of our beam, rolling like a worm-eaten log on the top +of a ruffled broad roller, going to break, in ten seconds, on the ledge, +whose pointed rocks stood up like black toothed fangs to grind its prey +to atoms! But before the fangs closed upon it our own teeth gave it a +shake; and as the breath of our bull-dogs was swept aft by the fresh +breeze, we could see the sluggish mass almost rise bodily out of water +as it was torn and split by the round iron wedges, the fragments flying +up in dark, ragged strips and splinters with squirming ropes around +them, looking, in the moonlight, like skeletons of gibbeted pirates +tossed, gallows and chains, into the air, and then coming down in dips +and splashes into the unforgiving water. + +"A minute later, all that was left of the shattered hull fell broadside +into the open fangs of the ledge, which ground it with its merciless +jaws into toothpicks. But in all the lively music and destruction going +on around us--which takes longer to tell than to act--we heard no human +voice save one, and that came in a loud, terrified yell amid the +crunching roar of the ledge, + +"'_O Madre! Madre dolorosa!_' + +"This, gentlemen, was the last sound that came from the piratical +schooner 'Centipede.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +VULTURES AND SHARKS. + + "Oh ho! oh ho! Above! below! + Lightly and brightly they glide and go; + The hungry and keen on the top are leaping, + The lazy and fat in the depths are sleeping!" + + "Ah! well-a-day! What evil looks + Had I from old and young; + Instead of the cross, the albatross + About my neck was hung." + + +When Hardy had concluded his part of the tale, he stuck the stump of his +cigar into the wine-glass of ashes, as if he had no farther use for +either, moistened his throat with a bumper of tinta, and almost +unconsciously passed his left arm around Harry Darcantel's neck. + +Stingo drank two bumpers, as if he had a particularly parched throat; +but Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart, strange to relate, never wet their +lips, and passed their hands in a careless way across their eyes, as if +there were moisture enough there--as, indeed, there was; feeling, as +they did, in the founts of their own generous natures, for their dear +friend who sat opposite. + +Piron's head rested, face downward, on his outspread hands, and a few +drops trickled through his close-pressed fingers, but they were not +wine. And as he raised his head and looked around the board, where +glowing, sympathizing eyes met his, he said, in a low, subdued voice, + +"I trust I may thank Heaven for avenging the murder of our child!" + +Even as he uttered these words, his gaze rested on the face of +Darcantel; and striking the table with a blow that made the glasses +jingle, he started back, as he had done on the frigate's quarter-deck, +and exclaimed, + +"Great God! can it be possible that that boy was saved from the clutches +of the drowned pirate!" + +Not so fast, good Monsieur Piron--not so fast. Your boy was saved, and +Captain Brand was not drowned. So keep quiet for a time, and you shall +not only see that bloody pirate, but hear how he departed this life; +only keep quiet! + +Paddy Burns said, with a violent attempt at indignation, "Wirra, ye +spalpeen! is it thinking of old Clinker and his 'arthquake ye are?" +While Tom Stewart ejaculated, "Heeh, mon! are you for breaking the +commodoor's decanters and wine-glasses, in the belief that ye are the +eerthquak yersel?" Stingo, who was more calm, and a less excitable +Creole, merely murmured, "Commodore, we want to hear more of what took +place, and then what became of you for the past sixteen or seventeen +years." + +"You shall hear more if you are not tired, gentlemen, though I have very +little to add to what Hardy has already related of the 'Centipede.' +Steward, let the servants turn in; and brew us, yourself, a light jorum +of Antigua punch! Now, then," said Commodore Cleveland, "I'm your man! + +"After we had scaled the guns on both sides of the 'Scourge,' as Hardy +has told you, the captain thought it an unnecessary trouble to lower the +boats to pick up the chips floating about the mouth of the channel; and, +besides, it would have been a bit dangerous, since the sea was coming in +savagely, boiling about the ship, with a very uncertain depth of water +around and under us; and, moreover, we had our hands full the best part +of the night in reeving new running-gear, bending a new sail or two that +had flapped to pieces when every thing was let go by the run in coming +to anchor. However, before morning, we were in cruising trim once more, +and ready to cut and run in case it was expedient to lose our +ground-tackle, and get out of what we afterward learned was the Garotte +Gorge. But by sunrise the wind fell away into a flat calm, and with the +exception of the long, triple row of rollers heaving in occasionally +from seaward, we lay as snug and quiet as could be. + +"After breakfast the quarter boats were lowered, and Hardy took one, and +I got in the other, and we pulled in toward the jaws of the channel, +between the Lion Rock and the ledge on the opposite side. + +"There were still a good many fragments of the wreck, which had +escaped the reacting current out to sea, floating about on the +water; some of the timbers, too, of the hull were jammed in the black +gums of the ledge, shrouded in sea-weed and kelp, as if all had +grown there together. Farther on was part of the fore-mast and top-mast, +swimming nearly in mid-channel, anchored as it were by one of the +shrouds--twisted, perhaps, around a sharp rock below. The top-sail +was still fast to the yards, hoisted and sheeted home, and laid in +the water transversely to the masts, just as it fell under the raking +fire of our first broadside, jerking over the main-top-mast with it. + +"A myriad of sea-birds, from Mother Carey's chickens to gulls and +cormorants, and even vultures and eagles from the shore, were clustered +on the wreck as thick as bees--screaming, croaking, and snapping at each +other with their hard beaks and bills, while thousands more were +hurrying in from seaward, and either swooped down over the ledge, or +tried to find a place on the floating spars. + +"The gorge, too, was alive with barracoutas and sharks, leaping out of +water, or with their stiff triangular fins cutting just above the +surface, and sometimes even grazing the blades of the cutter's oars. I +pulled slowly toward the wreck of the fore-mast, and hooked on to the +reef-cringle of the fore-top-sail. The birds did not move at our +approach, and one old red-eyed vulture snapped on the polished bill of +the boat-hook, leaving the marks of his beak in the smooth iron. Down in +the clear green depths, too, the water was alive with ravenous fish, and +we could see at times hundreds of them with their heads fastened on to +some dark object, rolling it, and biting it, and pulling every way, with +now and then the glance of a clean-picked bone shining white in the +limpid water as the mass was jerked out of our sight. + +"The bowmen, however, attracted my attention, and one of them sang out, +as he pointed with his finger, 'I say, Mr. Cleveland, here's the captain +and his priest lying in the belly of the top-sail!' + +"I walked forward, while the men fired a few pistols to scare away the +birds, and looked in. There, about a foot below the water, lay one +drowned man and half the body of another, who had evidently been cut in +twain by a twenty-four pound shot at the stomach, leaving only a few +revolting shreds of entrails dangling beneath the carcass. The other +corpse was a large, burly, fat man, wrapped in a black cassock, with a +knotted rope to confine it at the midriff, and around his thick bare +neck was a string of black beads, holding a gold and ebony crucifix, +pendent in the water. The eyes of the one with half a body had been +picked out by the gulls, but he still possessed a fang-like tusk, +sticking through a hare-lip under a fringe of wiry mustache, which gave +me a tolerable correct idea of his temper even without seeing his eyes. +The truck and shivered stump of the main-top-mast, too, with the +piratical flag still twisted around it, lay across his chest; but, as we +approached, an eagle seized it in his beak, and, tearing it in tattered +shreds, flew aloft, with the remains of the parted halliards streaming +below his talons. + +"The large lump rolling slowly over beside him had the crown of the head +shaved, and the mouth and eyes were wide staring open, as if it was +chanting forth a misericordia for his own soul. As I stood gazing at +these revolting objects, and while the men were firing pistols and +slashing the oars and boat-hooks around to drive away the greedy birds, +a huge pelican, unmindful of powder or ash, made one dashing swoop into +the sail, and as he came up and spread his broad pinions--nearly as +broad as the sail itself--he held in his pouch the crucifix from the +padre's neck, and as he slowly flapped his great wings and sailed away, +with the beads dropping pit-a-pat-pat on the glassy surface of the +water, a cloud of cormorants, gulls, and vultures took after him to +steal his plunder. + +"At the same time the sharks--many of them resting their cold, sharp +noses on the very leech of the top-sail--waiting like hungry dogs for a +bone, with a thousand more diving and cutting in the water beneath, at +last cut through the canvas belly of the sail, and, before you could +think, the floating corpses were within their serrated jaws. In another +moment the bodies rose again to the surface outside the sail and wreck; +then another dash from the monsters, and a greedy dive and peck from the +birds; a few bubbles and shreds of black threads, and that was the last +of those wretches until the sea shall give up its dead. + +"As for Hardy, he pulled higher up the gorge, and examined the rocks and +pools on both sides, but saw nothing living or dead, and we both +returned to the ship." + +Had Dick Hardy landed at the flat rock where the eddy swept in under the +Lion's paws, he might have seen the footprint of a man, with a straw +slipper in it; and following the track a few yards farther, he would +have passed his sword through a villain lying bleeding in a mangrove +thicket; and found, too, in his belt, snugly stowed away, a lot of +gleaming jewels, with a sapphire gem of priceless value on the finger of +his bloody hand. But never mind, Hardy! You will hear more of that man +one of these days, and you will have no cause for regrets--though he +will, perhaps; and, meanwhile, let him wander in quest of fresh +villainies over Spanish South America. + +"Well, gentlemen," resumed Commodore Cleveland, "although I have doubts +whether the mangled carcass we saw in the sail was the captain of that +notorious 'Centipede,' yet I felt confident at the time, and do now, +that it was scarcely possible for him or a man of his crew to have +escaped our fire and the water and rocks combined. So that evening, when +the land-wind made, we tripped anchor and sailed away from the coast of +Darien." + +"Come, my friends," said Piron, in a low, tremulous voice, rising as he +spoke, "we must not push Cleveland too far to-night, for it is getting +late, you know, and they keep early hours on board men-of-war." + +"No hurry, Piron! I'll talk to you all night, if you have the patience +to listen to me. No? Then I'll have the boat manned." He touched a +bell-rope which hung over his head, and the cabin door opened. "Orderly, +my compliments to the officer of the watch, and desire him to call away +the barge." + +While some of the gentlemen in the forward cabin left the table, and +stood about in groups chatting till the boat was reported, Piron put his +arm around the commodore's belt, and they moved aft into the starboard +stateroom. Little Mouse was lying sound asleep on the elegant cot, with +all his clothes on, but with a smile on his lips, and dreaming, maybe, +of the dear widowed mother he would one of those days make proud of +him. + +"Cleveland, my old friend, tell me more of that young Darcantel!" + +"Hist! Piron, don't wake little Tiny! There's nothing to tell more than +he is my adopted nephew, and the son of the gentleman who occupies that +stateroom opposite. But when we go out to Escondido I'll tell you about +his father, who has led a very adventurous life." + +"Well, good-night! You will bring young Darcantel with you, and this +little rogue, too, here in the cot. My wife and her sister will be +delighted to see you all. Good-night!" + +As the "Monongahela's" bell struck eight for midnight, the commodore's +guests got in the barge and pulled toward the shore. + +At the same time, a light gig, with handsome Harry Darcantel, went +alongside the "Rosalie," and Commodore Cleveland turned into his +friend's cot opposite, leaving small Mr. Mouse to sleep his dream out +till morning; while, as the barge ran up to the landing at Kingston +Harbor, and a gold ounce was slipped into the old coxswain's honest paw, +what did they all think about? Good-night! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +ESCONDIDO. + + "They bore her far to a mountain green, + To see what mortal never had seen; + And they seated her high on a purple sward, + And bade her heed what she saw and heard; + And note the changes the spirits wrought, + For now she lived in the land of thought." + + "'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, + And force him to restore his purchase back, + Or drag by the curls to a foul death, + Cursed as his life." + + +Hidden in a cleft of the hills of Jamaica, fifteen hundred feet above +that blue tropical sea below, on the brow of a cool valley, where that +bounding stream of white water rushes from the tall peak in the sky in +tiny cataracts, till it forms a pool there, held in by the smooth rim of +rocks, where the cane-mill is lazily turning its overshot wheel, with +the spray flying off in streaming mist, and the happy blacks stacking +the sugar-cane in even fagots as they unlade the huge carts with solid +wheels cut out of a single drum of a cotton-tree; the six or eight yoke +of oxen ahead ruminating under the shade of the tropical foliage, with +never a switch to their tails; while the lively young sea-breeze comes +flurrying up the valley, whistling among the coffee bushes below, +bending the standing cane on the slopes, rattling the tamarinds, +cocoa-nuts, and plantains, and then climbing with noisy wings up the +mountain, is lost with a whirl in the heavy cloud which obscures the +lofty peak. + +Below the mill, where the mule-path crosses the foaming torrent by the +shaky bridge, which stands on cocoa-nut stilts, and never yet has been +thrown down by an earthquake, nestling under a precipitous crag, stood +the mountain seat of Escondido. Vines and parasitical plants, mingled +with scarlet creeping geraniums, made a living wall of dewy green and +red on the face of the hoary rock, falling over here and there at some +projecting acclivity in leafy torrents, and then forming a glowing green +cornice along the topmost edges of the height. + +The buildings stood on a flat esplanade below, looking down the gorge as +from the apex of a triangle, and taking in the overseer's houses on the +plantations, with their cone-shaped roofs, the fields of cane and coffee +groves, the cataract between, down to the white snowy beach at the +sea-shore, and the blue water crested by waves as far as the sight could +reach. + +The main house was square--standing on stilts, too, like the shaky +bridge--the lower part fenced in by straight bamboos, of one story, with +a broad roomy veranda going all round, where half a dozen grass hammocks +were slung between the windows which opened into the dwelling. A great +airy saloon and dining-room faced the valley, while six or eight cool +bedchambers looked out from the rear up at the green wall of the +precipice, and down on the sparkling stream of the mill. + +But there were no loopholes for musketry, nor vaults and dungeons. + +The sun had long passed the tall peaks of the blue mountains above, and +the shadows had fallen down the valley until even the patch of white +pebbly cove at the shore had become dim; and no sounds were heard save +the rustling of the sea-breeze, the splash of the torrent as it fell off +from the rickety old wheel of the cane-mill, mingled with the shrill +cries and songs of the negroes as they unloaded the carts. + +Yes; but there _were_ other sounds--the low, sweet tones of women's +voices--inside the villa of Escondido. Two lovely matrons were sitting +within that lofty saloon, hand clasped in hand, and gazing with glowing +pride upon a lovely girl, who waved lithe as a lily on its stem before +them. + +It is about seventeen years since we last saw this charming trio. And +now look at them, old bachelors, and tell me if, while old Time has been +scraping the hair off your own selfish heads, and pinching the noses, +too, of the ancient maids beside you, has not the scything old wretch +spared these lovely matrons? Look at their rounded forms, those soft +dimpled cheeks, and those bands of brown tresses, kissing the +pear-shaped ears before they are looped up in one magnificent knot of +satin at the back of the head. Look at them, you miserable old +procrastinators, and then kneel down before the ancient damsels you have +sneered at, even if they have the pelican gout and a crow's-foot at the +corners of their eyes! They are better than you are, any day; so bear a +hand, send for the parson--and now stand back. + +But come here, my young gallants, and take a peep at that Bordelaise +demoiselle standing before those fair matrons. Strange to say, she is +nearly a blonde, with large blue eyes, so very blue that--fringed with +lashes that cast a shade over the cheek--they seem almost black. Then, +too, that low, pure forehead, with great plaits of hair going round and +round her elegant head like a golden turban, and thin hoops of rings +quivering in the pearl-tipped ears. Tall and waving in figure, as +maidens are; with slim, arched feet, dimpled at the ankle; and round, +tapering fingers too, with a wrist so plump and soft that no manacles of +bracelets could press it without slipping off the ivory hand. Dressed +she was in a light mousseline, coyly cowering in loose folds around her +budding bosom to the slender waist, where, clasped by a simple buckle of +mother-o'-pearl, it fell flowing in gauzy, floating waves to her feet. +Look at her, my gallants, for she is Rosalie! + +"They are coming to-day, my aunt; and Uncle Jules says that our dear old +Captain Blunt has just arrived at Kingston, and is coming with them." + +"What else, my daughter?" + +The girl held a letter before her face, maybe to hide a little blush +which suffused her cheeks. + +"Why, mamma, he writes that the spring-cart, with Banou, was to start +overnight with the 'traps'--that means trunks, I suppose--and that--" + +"What, Rosalie?" + +"That there is a handsome young officer, the nephew of Commodore +Cleveland--_merci_, mamma! some of Uncle Jules's nonsense!" + +No such great nonsense, after all, mademoiselle, when your uncle Piron +tells you to keep that fluttering little heart safe within your bodice, +for there are thieves in blue jackets in the island of Jamaica. Strange, +too, as she spoke--with her animated face, large blue eyes, and +graceful, wavy figure--how much she resembled both those lovely women, +with their darker coloring, who sat smiling sweetly upon her. + +"Oh! here comes Uncle Banou. Well, my good Banou, what news of your +master?" said Madame Piron, as she put out her hand to the black, who +raised it respectfully to his lips. + +"He will be here with his friends at sunset, eh! And Mademoiselle +Rosalie must place the gentlemen's things in their rooms, and see that +the billiard-house has some cots made ready in it." + +"Nothing more?" + +"No, madame." + +"_Allons!_ Rosalie, we have no time to lose." + +Winding through the mazes of the tropical forest, over the broken stony +road, leading through a brilliant labyrinth of wild fig and acacia, +plume-like palms, white shafts of silk and cotton, and lance-wood, +mahogany, and ebony, parasitical plants in green and red, with endless +varieties of gay flowers strung and laced in superb festoons on trunk +and branch; singing birds and paroquets making the forest alive; while, +mingled with the delicious fragrance of orange-blossoms, cinnamon, and +pimento, the fresh breeze wheeled through clump and leaf, changing the +hues of plant and flower from white to crimson, green, purple, and gold, +as Nature painted them in gorgeous dyes. + +Through this brilliant vegetation, along the uneven road, came the sound +of horses' feet, with hearty shouts and laughter; and presently appeared +a cavalcade, mounted on mules and horses, all making the forest ring +with merriment. + +Ahead came Tom Stewart, on a small, sure-footed pony; and beside him Mr. +Tiny Mouse, reefer, on a high mule, with a scrubbing-brush mane, looking +like a fly pennant at the mast-head of the frigate, kicking his little +heels into the old mule, as if that mule minded it even so much as to +shake his long ears! Then straggling in the centre were Darcantel, +Stingo, and Paddy Burns; and behind them came a tall, muscular man, on a +mettled barb, which he controlled by a touch of his little finger. And +at his side, on the most diminutive of the donkey breed, with feet +touching the ground, clung stout Jacob Blunt, the sailor, in a more +dreadful trepidation than he had ever known on board his old teak-built +brig, lying there in the Roads of Kingston; while the rear was brought +up by Piron and Commodore Cleveland. + +"Now, you little madcap, look sharp when we turn the curve of the +mountain, and you'll catch a peep at Escondido; and don't you pinch that +old mule again on her back, or she'll pitch you up into that silk +cotton-tree." + +"If it pleases Providence to restore me safely to my dear old 'Martha +Blunt,' I'll take my davy never to sit astride of any d---- brute on +four legs again!" This mild vow came from the lips of Jacob Blunt, and +he honestly meant every word he said. + +"Give us another jolly song, Stingo; it will keep your throat clear for +the claret." + +"For the sake of my old timbers, sir, and as you vally my wife's +blessing, don't sing! There, you infarnal beast, you've yawed sharp up +into this ere bush, and put my starboard glim out forever! I say, Don +Spanisher, don't sing--_I'm_ going fast enough!" shouted the poor +skipper, as he passed his paws around the little brute's neck, with his +hat over his eyes. + +"Colonel," said Burns, as he reined up, and gave the perverse little +donkey a cut with his whip, which elicited another hoarse roar from the +old sailor as the animal half doubled himself up, and then ambled away +like a yawl in a short sea, until he came up to the people ahead, when +he stood stock-still and brayed maliciously, "have you another cigar, +colonel? Thankee! Fine scenery this about here--never visited Jamaica +before? Ye have been off the island, eh? It's a nate little spot Piron +has there, that it is; and the whole of us will be mighty sorry to lose +him. Is he going to lave? Yes, he is; and, what is worse, he is going to +take his swate wife and her sister. Is the sister handsome? Begorra! +handsome? Why, man, she's a beauty! And didn't I crack the elbow-joint +of that ugly, abusive divil, Peter Growler, for saying he had seen a +gray hair in her head, when I knew it was only a loose thread from her +lace cap--and me in love with her all the time. Bad luck to him! he's +never fired a pistol since." + +Here Paddy Burns's small eyes twinkled as he slowly raised the stock of +his riding-whip at a slender lance-wood-tree about twelve yards off, and +gave the lash a sharp crack. + +The person on the spirited barb almost unconsciously put his right hand +in his pocket. + +Take care, Paddy Burns; the colonel has a cool hand and a colder eye, +and has made a study of pistols--cannon and swivels too, perhaps. Knows +the cutlass exercise as well, and has had considerable experience in +bullets, knives, and ropes. Has murdered women--lots of them. Wouldn't +stick at killing a child with a junk bottle. And as for men--pshaw! Keep +a bright look-out, Paddy. Why, he'd drown your mother if you had a +sister to love. For didn't he drag his own old father and mother down to +a dishonored grave? and do you think, you brave, honest little Irishman, +that he would sleep a wink the less sound for putting you to death? Bah! +man. Shoot all the game you spring, but don't waste powder on a tiger or +a shark. You would like to take a mutual shot with him, though? Of +course you would--who doubts it? But then, gentlemen fight gentlemen; +and this colonel at your elbow is a scoundrel, miscreant, villain, +assassin, and--pirate! So you can't take a crack at him, Paddy Burns. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +PAUL DARCANTEL. + + "From the strong will, and the endeavor, + That forever + Wrestles with the tide of fate; + From the wrecks of hope far scattered, + Tempest shattered, + Floating waste and desolate." + + +"Well, Piron, as I have told you, after the peace was made in 1815, I +had command of a brig, and took a cruise on the coast of Brazil. After +that I was appointed to a thirty-six gun frigate--the old 'Blazer'--and +went, for three years, to the East Indies, and round home by the +Pacific. When we were paid off I made a tour in Europe with that boy's +father, Dr. Darcantel, and--" + +"But you promised to tell me, Cleveland, something about him." + +"Nothing easier; and, if we have half an hour before we get to +Escondido, I will give you all I know, in a general way, of his history. +Yes? Well, then, Darcantel is descended from one of the oldest and best +Creole families in our State of Louisiana, and the plantations of my +family and his father were contiguous to each other on the Mississippi, +some leagues up the coast above New Orleans. We had the same tutor when +we were children, and we grew up from infancy to boyhood together. He +was passionate and ungovernable even as a child; but as he was the heir +to a large estate, and his father dead, his weak mother humored and +allowed no one to curb him. I myself, one of a numerous family, was put +in the navy, and I went away on cruise after cruise, and did not get +home again to the old plantation for full seven years. I was a man then, +had seen some active service, and I held a commission as a lieutenant in +the navy. + +"In the mean while, Paul Darcantel, who had taken, at the time I left, a +strong fancy for medicine and surgery, had been sent to France to begin +his studies. How he applied himself we do not know; but with a large +letter of credit he spent a great deal of money; and we heard that, with +great talents and wonderful skill in his profession, he was yet unfitted +for close application, and plunged madly into the vortex of dissipation +around him. I heard, too--or at least my brothers told me--that his +extravagances had seriously impaired his fortune, and that his duels +had been so numerous and desperate as to make his name dreaded even in +Paris. On one occasion, at a café, he had cut a bullying hussar's head +clean off with his own sabre for knocking a woman down; and in another +duel, where he had detected a French count cheating him at cards, he +shot his nose off for a bet. With this unenviable reputation, and at the +urgent solicitations of his agent, after years of absence he returned to +his ancestral home. We met as of old--it was Paul and Henry--and though +still the same restive, hot-headed spirit as he had ever been, he yet +always listened patiently to what I said, and I could, in a manner, +control him. He paid very little attention to his property, however, and +when he did go to the city to consult with his factor or trustee, he got +into some wild frolic, duel, and scrape, and came back worn out with +fatigue and dissipation. He was a fine, stern-looking youth in those +days, with great muscular power, which, even with the endurance put upon +it by gaming and drinking, seemed not to be lessened. + +"After one of these visits to New Orleans, where his long-forbearing +agents had at last awakened him to a bitter sense of his delinquencies, +and when mortgage upon mortgage were laid with all their shocking truth +before him, he returned and came to me. With all his vices and faults, +he was truthful and generous. He told me all, and how he would try to do +better, and soothe the declining years of his too indulgent mother. + +"I always had great faith in the companion almost of my cradle, and I +loved him, I think, better than my own brothers. Well, he spread all his +affairs before me, and in my little den of an outhouse on the plantation +we both went systematically over the papers. We were two days and nights +at the business; and when, at last, I showed him that he would still, +with a little prudent economy, have a fair income, and eventually, +perhaps, redeem his hereditary property, he burst out in a wild yell of +delight, and hugged me in his arms. When he had put away the papers, I +said, + +"'Paul, you know I am engaged to be married, and I have not seen my +sweetheart for two whole days; she has a sister, too, prettier than my +Fifine, whom you have never seen since we were boys together. Come, will +you go with me? We can pull ourselves across the river.' + +"He hesitated; and it would have been, perhaps, better had he refused to +accompany me, for dreadful misery came of it." + +The commodore gave a deep sigh, and touched his horse with the spur. + +"I don't know, though, Piron; there is a fate marked out for us all, and +we should not exclaim against the decrees of Providence. Paul went with +me across the river. There, on the bank, was a little bower of an old +French-built stone house, where dwelt the last of a line of French +nobility who dated back to the days of Charlemagne. It was an +impoverished family, consisting of a reckless brother and two sisters, +who, with a few acres of sugar-cane and some old faithful servants, +managed to make both ends meet, and to support the establishment in a +certain air of elegance and comfort to which they had been accustomed. +They were of a proud and haughty race--the brother a disdainful and +imperious gentleman, smarting and brooding over the reverses of his +family, and rarely visiting his neighbors. His sisters--and they were +twins--were trustful, happy girls, and Josephine had been my childish +love." + +Here Cleveland bent over his saddle-bow, and if the quiet old horse he +bestrode believed the large drops which fell upon his sleek neck came +from the clouds, or the drooping foliage of the forest, that animal was +never more deceived in his quadruped life. We know that fact, for it +stands upon the angelic record. + +"Well, my dear Piron, as we entered the little saloon where Fifine was +seated at the piano, playing the sweet airs she had sung to me when a +little bit of a girl, and her beautiful sister bending over a table +near, absorbed in a book, while the candles under the glass shades +lighted up her dark passionate eyes and brunette complexion, Paul +approached her. It was not love at first sight, because they had played +together when children; but it was such a love as only begins and dies +with man or woman. The brother came in soon afterward, but there was no +love exchanged between him and Paul, and they met in a manner which +seemed to revive the early dislike they had entertained one toward the +other in boyhood. + +"So the time passed, and in the course of a few months Josephine and I +were married, and our home was made on my own old place. Still, night by +night, in storm, calm, or freshet, Paul pulled himself in a skiff across +that mighty river, and we could see the lights shining to a late hour in +the little bower. He had changed a great deal, for he loved with the +whole force of his fiery and impetuous nature. Pauline loved too, though +still she feared him. The brother, however, bitterly opposed their +union, and stormy scenes arose. Josephine and I did all we could to put +matters on a happy footing, but Jacques, the brother, grew more +determined as his sister refused to cast off her lover, till at last his +feeling against him broke out into open scornful insult; and though Paul +still persisted in seeing Pauline, yet we feared that the impetuous +spirits of the two men would, at any moment, burst out into open +violence. + +"Darcantel, however, controlled himself, avoided as much as possible any +altercations with Jacques, applied himself to the duties of his +plantation, and always promised me that he would wait and see if time +would not induce the brother to give his consent to the marriage. +Meanwhile Paul's mother died. A year passed. Fifine gave me a little +boy, who was called after me, and then I went again to sea. Nearly three +years later I returned, and the very night before I reached the +plantation a dreadful tragedy had occurred. I might, perhaps, have +prevented it had I been there, but it was ordered otherwise. + +"It seems that two days previously Jacques wrote to Paul--I saw the +letter--and it was something painful to read; for he not only +recapitulated his vices and follies, but he taxed him with being a +ruined gambler, who had brought his mother in sorrow to the grave, and +ended by swearing, in the most solemn manner, that if he dared again to +speak to his sister or darken their doors, he would shoot him like a +dog! + +"That evening, as usual, the skiff pursued its way across the river, and +late at night when it returned there was a fluttering white dress in the +stern. Scarcely, however, had the skiff left the bank than a boat shoved +out from the other side manned by four negroes, and came swiftly over in +pursuit. What afterward transpired I heard from an old married couple of +servants who had passed their lives with the family. It appears that +Paul, with Pauline in his arms, had barely reached the hall of the great +house, and was giving orders to close the doors, when Jacques rushed in +with a naked rapier in one hand and a pistol in the other. Paul adjured +him, by all he held sacred, not to attack him, as his blood was up, and, +unarmed as he was, he would do him a mischief. Pauline, too, implored +him by a sister's love to desist; but seeing him still advance, as she +partially shielded Paul, she told him that the man she loved was her +husband. + +"Blinded with haughty rage, this last admission rendered him ungovernable, +and he lunged with all his force at Darcantel. Paul parried his rapid +passes, though receiving some sharp thrusts in his arm and shoulder, and +still supporting his drooping, terrified wife on his left arm till, by a +quick spring, he got within Jacques's guard, and, seizing him by the +wrist, wrenched the weapon from his grasp. This was enough to make the +brother totally insane by passion from baffled revenge, when he leveled +his pistol and fired. There was a faint cry with the report, and a groan +from Jacques as the sword went through his body and heart, till the hilt +struck hard against his ribs as he fell, a dead man, on the marble +pavement. But the bullet from his pistol had pierced the fair forehead +of his sister, and she lay a bridal corpse in her husband's arms. It was +horrible. + +"I spare you all the afflicting details, Piron, and will only add that +Paul left the plantation that night, and when I got home I found an +envelope post-marked 'New Orleans,' inclosing a paper, which constituted +me his sole executor, and leaving our little boy his heir. I had but a +short leave of a month, and duty called me again away. It was on the +anniversary of the day the tragedy occurred, after another long +interval of four years in the 'Scourge,' that I again returned, and then +there was wailing and moaning in my own dwelling. My poor Josephine had +never recovered from the shock; she drooped away like a lily, her little +boy by her side, and both died during my absence." + +What makes the strong man's eyelids quiver and voice tremble--those eyes +that have looked calmly on death and carnage in every shape, with his +deep, calm voice cheering on the men to battle at his side? Ah! + +"It was midnight, and I walked out to the little grave-yard where my +fathers had been buried, and bending my steps to a cluster of magnolias +on a little mound by itself, I--I--a--kneeled down beside the sod where +reposed all I had loved on earth! I do not know how long I remained +there, but presently I heard a groan near by, and a tall man rose up +from where he had been stretched, face downward, on the ground, and I +beheld Paul Darcantel! I could hardly recognize him at first, for he +seemed fifty years older than when we had last parted. + +"'Cleveland,' he said, in a hollow, choking voice, 'forgive me! I am a +changed, and, I trust, a better man. I have been drawn to this holy spot +by the same errand which brought you hither, and though I did not expect +to meet you, yet I am glad of it now. Speak, and say you forgive me, and +you will shed a ray of hope and salvation into the heart of one who will +suffer unto the end! Speak!' + +"Old memories crowded around me, and I saw before me the child in the +cradle, and with our arms round each other's necks as we played +together. I forgot, for the moment, the sisters lying there--bride, +mother, and baby-boy. The magnolias bowed their white flowers in the +light of the waning moon, and we fell again into each other's arms. + +"After a time he said, 'My only friend, I have brought home with me a +little helpless boy; he is named Henry, after you, and will take the +place of the lost little one lying here. Whoever of us survives shall +inherit that estate. Come with me and look at him!' + +"He led me to the other mound, and there, beside the tree, a beautiful +child lay calmly sleeping, wrapped in a sailor's jacket, with his curls +escaping from a straw hat, and the head resting on one arm on the grave +beneath him. + +"'Be good to him,' Paul went on, 'for the sake of those we have lost +ourselves! His mother's name was Rosalie.' + +"He stooped down as he said this, and, raising the boy in his arms, he +kissed him passionately, and then put him gently in mine. 'Let him kneel +sometimes at this grave, my friend, and pray for me.' + +"In another moment Paul Darcantel had gone. The little fellow partly +woke, and put his arms affectionately around my neck, and whispered +'Mamma! mamma!' That dashing, brave young fellow ahead there was once +that boy. + +"Well, I took the child to the house, where my good mother and sisters +went wild over him, and there he passed a happy boyhood. Years went by, +and he grew apace, the pride and delight of us all; and as he evinced +the greatest fondness for me and the accounts I gave him of my life at +sea, I had him appointed a reefer in the navy. Since that he has seen a +great deal of service; been distinguished in action; and, on shipboard +as well as on shore, liked and respected by all who know him. + +"In the mean while his father went away, nobody knew whither, for years +and years. He wrote to me, however, and to his son, from all parts of +the world; and when I made the tour in Europe I spoke about, Darcantel +was my companion. But while there he passed a retired life, never went +into society, but visited every hospital in every sea-port from the +Mediterranean to Aberdeen in Scotland; for he is not only a surgeon, as +I have reason to know, of wonderful skill, but a thorough-bred seaman +too; and when he has been with me on board ship there is no one whose +opinion of the weather, or other nautical matters, do I place greater +reliance on. I could tell you of half a dozen times when his advice to +me has saved serious damage. And during all these years Darcantel's +estates, under the careful supervision of my eldest brother, have been +redeemed from their load of debt, and now he enjoys a noble income--or, +rather, he spends nothing on himself, but devotes it to widows and +orphans, and sick or worn-out sailors. + +"In the seventeen years which have gone by since he brought his child to +me he has made several visits of a month or two's duration to the +plantations, but only when Henry was on leave from duty. Then it was a +pleasant sight to see them both together, and the touching air of +affection which bound the youth to his father. Henry, from a child, +often went and prayed beside the grave under the magnolias, and to this +day he believes that his own mother lies buried there. Perhaps it is as +well that he should cherish this early belief; for I may tell you in +confidence, Piron, that we believe there at home that he is the +illegitimate offspring of some erring passion of Darcantel, though none +of us have ever learned it positively from his father's lips. He is not +a person to be questioned by any one, not even by me; and as he seems +anxious to throw a thick veil over the past, we never venture to draw it +aside. + +"When, however, I was appointed to my present command, Darcantel +desired to sail with me, and see the West India Islands, which he had +not visited for an age. I was only too happy to have him, especially as +Harry there--whom I love like a father--was named to the little +schooner he had cut out in Africa on his last cruise, and ordered to +join my squadron. But whenever we get into port his father goes +quietly on shore; passes his time, I think, among the sailors of the +foreign shipping, spending money freely among the deserving, and +again coming back in his calm, stern way. He told me, however, Piron, +yesterday, that perhaps he might accept your kind invitation to come +up here, though not for some days. By George!" said the commodore, +"that must be Escondido!" + +Piron sighed as if a pleasant dream had vanished. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +INSTINCT AND WONDER. + + "'Ho! sailor of the sea! + How's my boy--my boy?' + 'What's your boy's name, good wife, + And in what good ship sailed he?'" + + "Through the night, through the night, + In the saddest unrest, + Wrapped in white, all in white, + With her babe on her breast, + Walks the mother so pale, + Staring out on the gale, + Through the night!" + + +As the cavalcade trotted round the curve of the peak, and then walked +the cattle down the steep zigzag road of the beautiful valley, the +commodore said, "But, Piron, tell me who that large man is with the +black hair and blue eyes." + +"Why, Cleveland, all I know of him is that he landed at Kingston in a +vessel from the Isthmus of Panama, and is going to Cuba on his way to +England. He came to me, hearing that I was the consignee of old Blunt's +older brig, bound to New Orleans, and so home, to know if he could be +dropped at St. Jago, where he has some property or debts to collect; and +since the old skipper has no objection, he has taken passage in the brig +when she goes with me and my family. I have since met him--he calls +himself Colonel Lawton--at dinners of our set, and he seems to be an +Englishman or Scotchman. Tom Stewart thinks the latter from his accent, +and for his liking for snuff; but Paddy Burns differs, and believes he +don't like snuff, but only takes it to show his splendid box. Any way, +he speaks all languages, Spanish, French, Italian, and English, and can +talk slang in them all like a native. He has served, too, from his own +account, with Bolivar there on the Spanish Main; and he was with +Cochrane in that desperate affair of cutting out the 'Esmeralda' in +Callao Bay. A very amusing, entertaining vagabond he is, and I asked him +to join us to make the acquaintance of my people on our last frolic to +the valley; but, somehow, I am rather sorry that I gave him a passage +with us in the brig, for I don't altogether like his looks." + +"Neither do I, Piron; his hair is too black for his light blue eyes. +However, we must make the most of him." + +Over the shaky bridge of the torrent, where Jacob Blunt prayed earnestly +for Martha Blunt, and d----d his donkey as if he had never rocked on +water before; Mr. Mouse, with a last tiny kick on the saddle-flaps of his +lofty mule, tumbled off; Colonel Lawton swinging himself from the saddle +of his barb as if he had been part of him; Tom Stewart, Paddy Burns, and +Don Stingo sliding off any way; Harry Darcantel trying to descend in +fine style, and failing miserably; Piron and the commodore doing the +thing leisurely; Jacob Blunt pulled off bodily; while the laughing +blacks took the beasts and led them away. + +There were three pair of eyes that watched all this grace and clumsiness +from the windows of the saloon. Two pair of dark ones smiled, and the +pair of blue opened until they seemed like azure globes, and then they +closed until the fringe of chestnut lashes nearly hid them from sight. + +"Colonel Lawton, do me the favor to follow my old friend Banou--you too, +Captain Jacob, and Lieutenant Darcantel and Mr. Mouse; Paddy Burns and +Stingo, here, will show you your quarters in the old billiard-room. +Come, commodore, the rest of us will find quarters in the casa." + +An hour later the saloon and sala were all alight, and the sashes of the +jalousies closed, for it was cool at times up there at Escondido. There, +too, stood the party of gentlemen, Mr. Mouse being a prominent figure in +the background. Then came a rustling of robes, and as the great folding +doors swung open, the three ladies lit up the saloon in a halo of +loveliness with brighter rays than were shed from the wax-lights in the +chandelier. Two fair hands were placed in those of Cleveland, and the +look which accompanied went back to the happy morning on the old brig's +deck, away off there to sea. + +"Oh, monsieur, I can not say how glad I am to see you once more! Let me +present you to my sister, Madame Nathalie Delonde, and _our_ daughter. +Ah! my dear Captain Blunt, both your children before you again, and you +have come to take us away." + +"Colonel Lawton, _ma chère_," said Piron. + +"And, mesdames," said the commodore, "let me also present my nephew, +Lieutenant Darcantel, and Mr. Mouse." + +What caused that woman to start as the girl took the tiny reefer by the +hand, and impulsively clasped those white hands together, while her +heart beat in yearning throbs, and her bosom rose and fell like billows +by the shore? Why did she then raise one hand to her fair neck, and, as +if in a dream, feel for the golden links of the chain, with the other +hand pressed to her panting heart for the locket which once reposed +there? How was it that, bewildered by a mother's instinct, she gazed at +the youth before her, and then turned her eyes hopelessly around in +search of her husband in the crowd? + +"Yes, madame. This is my nephew, Henry Darcantel." + +"Ah! Henri! Excuse me, _monsieur_. I am charmed to see you!" + +Why, now, did the touch of his hand make her heart beat faster, and send +a thrill of joy through her frame? Only be a little calm, madame, for a +while longer, and don't be sad and ponder all night, like your good +Jules Piron does habitually. Wait; Jules will tell you all _he_ knows +when you are alone to-night. + +The doors of the sala were thrown open. The broad pennant leading with +Madame Rosalie; the military chieftain marching beside Madame Nathalie, +much to the animosity of Paddy Burns. Then Mr. Mouse convoying +mademoiselle, to the infinite disgust of the commander of the "Rosalie," +one-gun schooner, formerly the "Perdita." But what made that old negro +in spotless white, standing at the door, jerk his head back and open his +great eyes till there was no black left in them? And why did he blunder +about the table afterward, and pour wine over the colonel's richly-laced +coat, while staring like an ogre at the young blue-jacket opposite? That +old Banou, perhaps, did not like to see his young mistress too much +attended to by every gay scamp who came near her. Oh no; of course not. +But then, if that brawny negro in white had only known over whose arm +and mutilated hand he was pouring light wine in his abstraction, he +would have crammed that heavy cut decanter in powdered glass splinters +down the chieftain's throat. There would have been claret of a different +color spilled then--quantities of it. You needn't feel in your pockets, +colonel, or look round the sala to see if perchance there is a green +silk rope squirming from the ceiling. We don't keep any of those pretty +things out at Escondido. So go on with your dinner, you cold-eyed +scoundrel, and tell all the lies you can to that lovely woman at your +elbow; how you wanted to save Bolivar's life, and it was saved without +you. Don't forget, either, to tell her how that patriot had you drummed +out of his army, suspecting you of having assassinated the officer near +you in the confusion of battle, and robbing him of his watch to replace +the one presented to you by the captain general. Paddy Burns is watching +you, Colonel Lawton, and that whole-souled little Irishman is not the +man to be trifled with. Now remove the covers. But take care, Banou--you +nearly twitched off the military gentleman's hair. Tom Stewart saw it, +and he noticed, too, a broad red seam, like the track of a musket +bullet--honorable wound, no doubt--under your black glossy wig. + +Mr. Mouse had fallen desperately in love with the perfumed damsel beside +him, and he knew she was up to her rose-tipped ears in love with him, +oh! fifty fathoms deep; but his mother liked girls, and he would leave +her half-pay! Still he didn't forget his adoration for the roast duck; +and he slyly swigged some Madeira too, with a wary eye on the broad +pennant through the flowers of the épergne. Talked, too, did that +reefer--ay, chattered--and said that the quiet young officer on her left +was very well liked in the steerage, and commanded a pretty little craft +named the "Rosalie." She knew that before, did she? Well, his father was +a cold, stern man, but he was kind and generous, and had been very good +to his poor mother, God bless him! + +Commodore Cleveland talked in a low tone, all through the dinner, to the +lady who did not eat at the head of the table, but who occasionally +rested her white hand, with a trustful reliance, on the great +tanned-leather paw of Jacob Blunt, that honest mariner not wishing to +talk to any body, man or woman. That ancient mariner was mentally +cursing donkeys; speculating how he should get back to the "Martha +Blunt" brig, in Kingston harbor; and praying for Martha Blunt, wife, +riding at single anchor near Plymouth beach. Piron took wine with every +body, said a word or two all around the table, and talked to Tom Stewart +about certain business matters connected with the plantation when he had +gone. + +Then came the last course, and the dessert of delicious fruits, which +quite stopped Mr. Mouse's mouth, and even his palpitating heart ceased +beating; while Mademoiselle Rosalie nibbled some lady-finger biscuit, +and bent her graceful head to listen to the music of the earnest lips +beside her. + +We told you, miss, how it would be; and, in spite of the warning, there +you are--the color coming and going over your girlish cheeks, and never +saying a word! "What a couple that would make!" thought Madame Nathalie. +And what a resemblance in expression there is between them--he with his +dark hair and eyes, and she fair and blue. Be careful, my sweet Rosalie! +And so thought her sister and her sister's husband; Stingo, too, old +Banou, and every one save Tiny Mouse, who had no rivals but Rat, Beaver, +and Martin, and he could take the wind out of their sails any day. + +The party of ladies rose from the table, and leaving the men--all +except the captain of the "Rosalie" and Mr. Mouse, who would have +remained had he not seen a shake of the broad pennant's finger--went +into the saloon. Then there was a brilliant prelude on the piano, a +touch of a guitar by stronger fingers, an air from an opera, a song or +two, much conversation--while Reefer Mouse slept on the sofa--and +coffee. Then it was late; every one was fatigued, _bon soirs_ were said, +and the party--coffee and all--separated. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +TRUTH AND TERROR. + + "In slumbers of midnight the sailor-boy lay, + His hammock swung loose at the sport of the wind; + But watch-worn and weary, his cares flew away, + And visions of happiness danced o'er his mind." + + "And how the sprites of injured men + Shriek upward from the sod; + Ay! how the ghostly hand will point + To show the burial clod; + And unknown facts of guilty acts + Are seen in dreams from God!" + + +In a great square room, standing, as usual, on cocoa-nut stilts, which +had once been used for a billiard-room, were half a dozen iron-framed +cots, ranged along the walls, in which some of the Escondido's guests +were to bivouac. Every thing, however, was tidy and comfortable; +snow-white bedclothes and gauze musquito nets, lots of napkins and +ewers, and things for bathing behind a screen of dimity curtains; and +not forgetting a large table--vice the billiard-table--in the centre, on +which stood plenty of sugar and limes, cinnamon and nutmeg, bottles and +flasks, red and white, and--very little water, in jugs. + +The occupants of this bivouac had turned in, and the lights had been +doused. Conversation, however, was kept up, especially by the thin +little voice of Mr. Mouse, who, having enjoyed a nap in the early +evening, and having been danced and tumbled about on the trip to the +lodge by Harry Darcantel, who was in tiptop condition, the reefer was as +wide awake as a blackfish. Don Stingo chanted a few convivial airs and +snored; so did Jacob Blunt, with a spluttering groan intermixed; and +Paddy Burns fell off into a doze, saying blasphemous words addressed to +the world at large, with a mutter against the military, hoping he might +look at a Bolivian patriot edgewise with a friend and companion of his, +Mr. Joe Manton, at his side; he would put an end to any more lies about +charges of cavalry, and cutting out frigates in Callao Bay. That Paddy +Burns would, though he didn't wear a wig and a large sapphire on the +only finger he had left on his left hand, and with a diamond snuff-box, +too! Presented to you by a connection of your family, was it? Take a +pinch out of it? D---- him, no! Begorra, the snuff is not Lundy Foot's, +and the box is brass, sir, brass! + +"I say, Mouse, keep quiet, will you, and let me go to sleep!" Harry +Darcantel did not think of going to sleep; that was a fib he told the +reefer; he wanted merely to shut his eyes and dream of--you know who--a +tall, graceful girl with blue eyes and light hair, who looked at him +once or twice such looks that there was no sleep for him for ever so +long. What did she say? Why, she never opened her pouting lips to show +those even pearly teeth. She only looked out of those soft blue eyes. +That was all! + +"Mr. Darcantel, I think of getting married." + +"The d---- you do! And who to, pray?" + +"Why," said Mr. Mouse, as he rolled over and kicked the sheet off his +slate-pencil built legs, "I haven't made up my mind; but do you know +that that pretty girl up there at the big house has taken quite a fancy +to me, and when you were presented to her mother she gave me _such_ a +squeeze of the hand! Oh my!" + +Here Mr. Mouse's narrative was cut short by a pillow hitting him plump +on the mouth, clean through his musquito net. + +"Very charming young lady, Mr. Mouse," said a quiet voice, in a cool +tone, on the other side of him; "she did seem to take a violent fancy to +you." + +Mr. Mouse rolled over, and then, sitting up in his cot, replied, "Yes, +sir! and that was her mother sitting by you when the big nigger in white +capsized the wine over your sleeve, and nearly pulled your a--hair +off." + +Look out, Mr. Mouse! If that man there beside you once gives a twitch at +your curls, he'll pull something more than hair--perhaps a little scalp +with it! + +"Oh!" was the sound that came back. + +"Yes, sir; and the other beautiful lady next the commodore is her +sister. She had a son just mademoiselle's age, who was murdered by +pirates off Jamaica ever so many years ago, and Commodore Cleveland +chased them in a ship he was first lieutenant of--my father commanded +the ship--she was the old 'Scourge.'" + +"Hold your tongue!" came from the cot where the spare pillow was thrown +from. + +"Ho!" said the military chieftain; but if the room had not been so dark, +the way his eyes opened and emitted an icy glare of surprise would have +made Tiny Mouse shiver with cold. + +"Oh dear, yes, colonel, I heard the commodore tell all about it the +other night on board the frigate. He thought I was asleep, but I kept +awake through the best part of it." + +"The best part of it?" + +"Why, sir, how an old one-eyed Spaniard deceived my father, and sent +him on a fool's errand from St. Jago down to the Isle of Pines, and +afterward how the 'Scourge' chased the piratical schooner in a hurricane +for ever so long, clear away to the coast of Darien, where they blew her +out of water, and killed every scoundrel on board!" + +Not every one, Mr. Mouse. There is the very greatest of those scoundrels +grinding his teeth and glaring your way at your elbow. + +"What was the name of that cape, Darcantel, where the schooner was +destroyed? No, I won't be quiet; the colonel wants to hear all about it. +There's a good fellow, tell me!" + +"Garotte Cape." + +The listener slowly raised the mutilated hand, and put the finger with +the sapphire ring to his throat, evidently not liking the name of that +cape, for it caused a choking sensation to utter it--"Ho! Cape +Garotte!" + +"Yes, sir; and Darcantel's father here once chartered a vessel, and went +all the way down there to explore the place, and was gone fifteen +months! Wasn't he, Darky?" said the boy, familiarly. + +"Mouse, I tell you what it is, if you don't shut up that little flytrap +of yours, I'll make Rat lick you when you go on board!" + +"Rat lick me?" said Tiny, as he jumped straight up in the cot; "I gave +him and Martin a black eye apiece only on our last boat-duty day for +saying your father, the doctor, had killed his brother-in-law in a +duel!" + +"Hush, my dear little fellow! you did a very foolish thing. There, say +no more on that subject; it gives me pain, my Tiny. So talk on as much +as you like." + +"My dear friend," exclaimed the lad, in a broken voice; as he plunged +through his net and put his arms around Darcantel, "I wouldn't grieve +you for the world; but do you suppose, little as I am, that I wouldn't +fight for the doctor, who is so kind to me, and has done so much for my +poor dear sweet mother?" + +Here there was a sob as he wound his arms closer round his friend's +neck, and cried like a child, as he was. + +"Well, never mind, Tiny; go to sleep, now! I am not angry. There, turn +in!" + +"I won't speak another word to-night, Harry, for any soul +breathing--little fool that I am!" + +"I beg your pardon, monsieur," said the colonel, in French, with a +slight quiver on his tongue, "but did your father really go all the way +down to Darien out of mere curiosity?" + +"Yes, sir, he did go there to see if by any chance one of the pirates +had escaped; and he traveled, too, a good deal about among the Indians, +making inquiries." + +"Ho! and did he pick up any information there?" + +"Why, sir, I am not positive, but I believe that he got a hint that a +European had wandered over that country who had been wounded in the head +and hand, and was almost naked; but the natives could give him but very +meagre accounts. He continued on, however, down the Isthmus, on the +Pacific side, by sea, as far as Chili, when he went into the interior to +Peru, crossed the Andes, and followed down the Orinoco to Para, when he +sailed again for England." + +"Oh! no other motive than curiosity?" + +"Perhaps he had; for he once told me he had some old scores to settle +with the man who commanded the pirate, and if he was alive he felt quite +sure he would, one of those days, put him to death. My father, sir, is a +very determined person, and never forgets an oath." + +"Truly, monsieur, you interest me. But what sort of a man in appearance +is your father--a doctor, I think you said?" + +"He is a tall gentleman of about fifty, sir, though he looks much older; +for he has suffered deeply in early life, when my mother--a--died; but I +shall have the pleasure of introducing him to you, colonel. He is now on +board our frigate at Kingston, and told me he would be up here to-morrow +or the next day." + +"Ah! thank you extremely, Monsieur Darcantel. I shall have--a--much +curiosity to see him." + +No more words that night; but much thinking and moving of thin lips, and +eyes staring in the dark, wide open. There was low grating of teeth, +too! And a man lay in that large room on a narrow cot, surrounded by a +gauze net; and, so far as mental torture went, it was not unlike a +trestle net we once saw without gauze, where a gaunt frame was +stretched, with myriads of sand-flies, musquitoes, and stinging +insects sucking his heart's blood. Sometimes the eyelids closed, as if +they were a film of ice forming over the blue cold orbs within; and +again the fabric cracked, and they were wide open once more. They +could read, too, those frozen orbs; and like heavy flakes of snow +falling on bloodstained decks, till it covered with a weight of lead the +stark, stiff corpse beneath, they yet tried to pierce into the dark +region beyond. And the heart beat with a slow and measured tramp, like +a moose crunching through the sharp, treacherous crust of snow, and +then stood stock-still! Had a letter, traced with the fingers of an +icicle, been congealed a hundred feet deep in the heart of a toppling +iceberg on the coast of Labrador, those eyes could have read it as +clear as day! + +"You infamous pirate, Captain Brand!" it began--"the son of the man who +destroyed the 'Centipede' and her crew, and the boy whom your brutal +mate tore from the mother you saw at dinner to-day, are near you! That +calm, stern, determined doctor, too, whom you laced down on the trestle +for poisonous insects to kill, has been on your track for the past +seventeen years, and will soon hold you in his iron gripe! There will be +no mercy then!" + +The eyes closed, the heart stopped beating, and the thin lips and +tongue, as dry as cartridge-paper, now took up the strain, while the +mutilated hand clutched convulsively, as if there were fifty fingers +fingering knives and pistols. + +"Shall I assassinate my old doctor, and run the risk of being arrested +and hung? No! He thinks me dead, and I will go back to the island, +redeem my treasure, and pass the remainder of my life tranquilly in the +highlands of Scotland!" + +Don't be too sanguine, Colonel Lawton; for, though your ten thousand +pounds in gold is still in the vault, yet there is Don Ignaçio Sanchez, +whose estates have been confiscated, and who has just got out of ten +years' imprisonment in the Moro of Havana, glad to save his neck from +the iron collar, and, without the little jewel-hilted blade up his +sleeve, is now turning about to see how he may redeem his lost fortunes. +Don't be an hour too late, I pray you, Captain Brand, for that sharp eye +of Don Ignaçio has already, perhaps, looked at the shiny cleft in the +crag, and thinks he knows what lies hidden there! Oh, _si_! nothing but +mouldy beans and paper cigars to live upon for ten years, and fond of +more substantial food, even though it were yellow greenish gold, +mildewed by damp, but yet solid and refreshing. _Cierto_--certainly! +_Quien sabe_--who knows? + +But be careful, Don Ignaçio! Don't take your old wife with you on that +projected expedition, for you have treated that old woman--who resembles +a rotten banana--badly! You have won back in monté all she ever won by +cheating, besides the half ounces you used to give her for the +Church--cheated her by drawing two cards at a time when you saw the +numerals with that spark of an eye, and when you knew that she would win +if you drew fairly! Yes, you have, you old sinner, for more than two +score of years! And she hates you now--though you don't think it--worse +than you did Captain Brand! Have an eye to that old banana! + +So passed that short night--long enough, however, for somebody--and +before the fresh land-wind had woke up to creep down the valley, there +was a mettled barb, with open nostrils, galloping up the broken road as +if he had the devil on his back--as perhaps he had, or Colonel Lawton, +or Captain Brand, possibly all three, but it makes very little odds to +us. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +PEACE AND LOVE. + + "And many a dim o'erarching grove, + And many a flat and sunny cove; + And terraced lawns, whose bright cascades + The honeysuckle sweetly shades; + And rocks whose very crags seem bowers, + So gay they are with grass and flowers." + + +It was a delightful breakfast with the merry party at Escondido as they +sat under the wide, cool piazza in the shade, with the sun throwing his +slanting rays through the vines and clusters of purple grapes, and +through the orange-trees, where the yellow fruit was fast losing its +fragrant dew--all the men once more in summer rig, and the ladies in +flowing muslin and tidy caps. + +"My dear," said Piron to his wife, "we have lost one of our guests, +Colonel Lawton; he went away at daylight this morning, and left a +message to me, and compliments to you all, that business of importance, +which he had forgotten, demanded his immediate return to Kingston." + +There was no sorrow expressed by the lady or her fair sister, and even +the men treated it with indifference, except Mr. Burns, who remarked, as +he snapped a tooth-pick in twain, that, for his part, he was glad the +fellow had gone; he didn't like his looks at all, though he did make +himself so fascinating to the beautiful widow who sat next him. + +"Ah! Monsieur Burns, think you I would prefer a scarlet coat when--" + +"You might get a blue!" broke in Paddy, with a comical twinkle of his +eye, as he winked in the direction of Commodore Cleveland, who sat +opposite. + +"No, no," exclaimed the pretty widow, hastily, as she shook her finger +at her despairing admirer, "that is not what I was going to say--when +those red coats there from England killed my poor husband at Quatre +Bras." + +"Ah! yes, my dear--bad luck to them! But an Irishman would never have +been so cruel, you know, though, 'pon me sowl," went on Paddy, as he +stuck a fork in an orange and began to divest it of its peel, West +India fashion, to present it to the matron beside him, "I fear I should +like to kill any man who loved ye, Madame Nathalie, myself." + +"What a droll man you are, Monsieur Burns," replied the widow, laughing +outright, "when you know you would prefer a jug of Antigua punch, any +day, to me. Stop, now! didn't you say, at your grand dinner in Kingston, +that you would never allow a woman to darken your doors?" + +"I--a meant--a black woman, my dear; as true as me name's Paddy Burns, I +did!" + +"What are you two laughing at, my sister?" + +"Why, here is Mr. Burns making love to me at breakfast, and before night +he will be abusing me for not pouring enough rum in his punch!" + +"That's his caractur, Madame Nathalie; for I, Tom Stewart, am the only +person he ever loved, and he sometimes offers to shoot me for giving him +unco' good advice." + +"Howld yer tongue, ye divil ye! and you too, Stingo, or the pair of ye +shall niver taste another sip of the old claret. Ye've ruined me cause +entirely! But I'll lave ye me property, madame, when I'm gone." + +"He's been talking of going, Nathalie," said Piron, "for the last twenty +years, and has left his estate to at least thirty women, to my certain +knowledge; but he hasn't got off yet, and--" + +"Tom Stewart, ye miserable limb of the law! make out me will this very +night." + +Jacob Blunt unclosed his salt-junk mouth, and roared out in a peal of +laughter that would have shivered his old brig's spanker, and caused, +perhaps, Martha Blunt, sposa, to have spanked him, Jacob, had she heard +and seen that mariner wagging his old bronzed face at the lovely woman +facing him. + +Mr. Tiny Mouse, who could not touch bottom on his high chair, with his +little heels dangling about, forgetful of discipline, fairly kicked the +broad pennant on the shins of his white ducks, screaming joyously; the +three women made the piazza vibrate with their musical trills; Stingo +and Stewart choked; Cleveland and Darcantel were amused; and old black +Banou looked at his master, and grinned till his double range of teeth +seemed like a white wave breaking at the cove. And then Paddy Burns took +up the chorus, and after one or two Galway yells his friends took him +up, thumped him smartly on the back, and stood him up against one of the +posts of the piazza to have his laugh out. When he did, however, recover +the power of speech, he wiped his eyes and looked around till they +rested on Madame Nathalie, when, with his white napkin held up like a +shield beside his rubicund visage, he spluttered, + +"By me sowl, Tom Stewart, I mane what I say; and Paddy Burns's word is +his bond!" + +Ay, and so it was, you generous, whole-souled Milesian! And you did this +time make a will. Tom Stewart and Stingo witnessed it, with handsome +legacies therein set forth; and when one night you tumbled down--Well, +we won't mention the particulars; but Paddy kept his word. + +As the party rose from the breakfast table to get ready for a stroll +down to the mill and around the plantation, one fair woman's hand was +placed with a confiding, friendly clasp in that of Monsieur Burns; and +then, as a graceful girl reached up to pull down her great flat straw +hat from the post, Paddy Burns kissed her on the forehead, and she +returned it too, as if she knew how to perform that ceremony even before +people. Mr. Reefer Mouse had some thoughts of getting jealous, and +calling Mr. Burns out, at ten paces, ships' pistols, and all that sort +of thing; but the round, red-faced gentleman kissed him too, declaring +the while, as he held him aloft, that he was first-rate kissing--that he +was; nearly as good as mademoiselle, which quite disarmed Tiny's wrath, +and then he hooked on to the damsel's delicate flipper, and tripped away +with her down the valley. + +Harry Darcantel exchanged a nod--not of defiance--with Paddy Burns, as +much as to hint that those were not dangerous kisses--oh, not at all; +and passing his hand over his brown mustache, he followed after the +couple before him. Yes, Harry, Tiny's legs will get tired soon, and he +will be hungry, and come back to old Banou for luncheon, while you will +be putting aside the coffee bushes, and imploring mademoiselle to keep +her straw hat about her lovely face, and not to get tanned by the sun. +And when she turns her humid eyes toward you, you begin to believe the +sky is never so blue as those eyes! + +Tom Stewart, Stingo, and Burns never walked; they preferred lounging +about the veranda, smoking cigars, and talking over the price of sugar +and coffee, together with minor matters connected with factors' profits +and suits at law. Jacob Blunt leaned over the bridge, thinking of the +"Martha Blunts," brig and wife--not unfrequently confounding the two +together--thinking this was to be his last voyage by land or sea, and +that young Binks, his mate, should take command, and steer that old +teak-built vessel carefully--oh, ever so keerful--or else the old hulk +might come to grief. + +Piron and his wife going mournfully down the valley--she with her +mother's eyes gazing far out to sea, and he with his strong arm around +her, whispering words of consolation; both looking, night and morning, +out over the blue water, from chamber and piazza, and seeing nothing but +a breaking wave and a baby-boy drowning beneath it--nothing more! + +Madame Nathalie and Cleveland went on gallantly ahead--he with his blue +pennant flying, and she with a black silk widow's ribbon around the +frill of her cap, and a broader band about that muslin waist--talking of +those they had both lost years ago, and trusting they were in heaven, as +they believed they were; hope to meet again themselves in Louisiana, and +see a great deal of one another in time to come--not a doubt of it! Yes, +the cruise was more than half over, and he was quite tired of the sea. +She, however, thought the sea beautiful, and never tired of looking at +it. True, not rolling on top of it all the time--liked to sleep without +rocking. + +When the sea-breeze came fluttering up the gorge again, through the +canes and the coffee-trees, and shaking up the superb foliage of the +tropical forest, with the brilliant feathered tribes nestling close +together on the lofty branches, and before the first salt breath had +been exhaled in the clouds about the topmost peaks of the Blue +Mountains, thousands of feet in the air, the party at Escondido had +again returned to the broad piazzas, where, with blinds open, and +swinging in cool grass hammocks, the men took siesta, while the ladies +sought the pretty bowers within. + +So passed one happy day, like the one gone before; and before the close +of the week Dr. Darcantel joined the party, to take the place of Colonel +Lawton; and a few days after old Clinker crackled up, very dry and +thorny, with parchment in his pockets to take inventories, and do musty +business generally. + +Then the fair women, escorted by the navy men, and the Droger and +Stingo, took their departure for the town house and ships in Kingston, +leaving Paddy Burns, and Tom Stewart, and Clinker with Piron to close up +matters, prior to his leaving the island. Paul Darcantel said he would +remain with them likewise, since he had got through his business in +Spanish Town and Port Royal, and wanted quiet. Madame Rosalie was the +last to leave; and before her husband lifted her into the saddle, they +stood together on the piazza, she looking with that still yearning gaze +over the sea, and seeing nothing but breaking waves. That was the last +look from Escondido! + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +SNUFF OUT OF A DIAMOND BOX. + + "Hark! a sound, + Far and slight, + Breathes around + On the night; + High and higher, + Nigh and nigher, + Like a fire + Roaring bright." + + "Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace-- + Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place; + I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, + Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right; + Rebuckled the check-strap, chained slacker the bit, + Nor galloped less steadily, Roland, a whit." + + +Another week rolled on. Old Clinker had pounded the parchment down as +flat as last year's palm-leaves, rustling himself like the leaves of an +old book, and began to squeeze out a few dry remarks about earthquakes. +He at last got Paddy Burns, who was a round, fat man, with much blood in +him, in such a state of excitement, by talking about cracks, and yawning +chasms, and splits in the earth, clouds of dust, sulphureous smells, and +beams falling down and pressing people to powder over their wine, that +Paddy declared he thought he was swallowing sawdust and eating dried +codfish at every sip of Antigua punch and suck of orange he took. + +Tom Stewart, likewise, said he couldn't sleep a wink for quaking, and +had cut a slice clean out of his chin while shaving, because his glass +shook by a slamming door, and he thought his time had come. + +Darcantel said nothing, but he took a quiet fancy to old Clinker, and +talked for hours with him of the effect earthquakes had upon ships, and +especially of general matters connected with the shipping interest, +being withal very particular with regard to the appearance of the +crews. + +Piron looked grave, and heard the old clerk out, as if dried fruit were +better than fresh, and limes sweeter than oranges. + +Well, they were all sitting over their dessert at their last dinner at +Escondido, for they were all going to leave old Clinker in the morning. + +[Illustration: "HIS RIGHT ARM POISED WITH CLENCHED HAND ALOFT," ETC.] + + "Well, Clinker," said Piron, kindly, "don't let us talk any more +about the earthquake. You told me yesterday that you had a note from +Colonel Lawton, saying he would not take passage in the brig with us to +New Orleans, as his business obliged him to leave before we could +sail?" + +Clinker choked out something like "Yes," as if it were the last sound a +body could sigh with three or four hundred tons on his back. + +"I'm dooced glad to hear it, Piron; for your military friend didn't +enlist my fancy at all, and I don't believe any more of his patriot +sarvice than I do in Clinker's earthquake. That colonel is a baste; and +if my words prove true, I'll lave a thousand pounds to old Clinker +there." + +Paddy Burns's words did prove true; and old Clinker was with him when he +gave a quake the earth had nothing to do with, it being entirely of an +apoplectic nature; but he got the thousand pounds nevertheless. + +"For once in your life, Burns, I agree with ye; and if that military mon +went to shoot grouse with me in the Hielands, I'd tramp behind him, and +keep both barrels of me gun cocked. The devil take his black wig and his +green eyes! and he passing himsel' aff for a Scot, too! Tut, mon!" + +"By the way, Clinker," said Piron, during a pause in the conversation, +"if the colonel is not going with us, I must take him back his +magnificent snuff-box he forgot when he left us so suddenly the other +morning. Here it is, with the letters of his name on it in brilliants. I +thought it too valuable to send by one of the blacks, and I kept it to +carry myself." + +How singular it was that the colonel should have forgotten his royal +treasure! Keep your wits about you, Captain Brand, or one of these days +you'll be forgetting your pistols. + +"Given to him by a connection of his family, was it, Paddy? Weel, mon, +let's take a peench for the honor of Sackveel Street, and then push it +along to Meester Darcantel." + +The doctor was sitting in his calm, grave way, listening to the +disjointed words--like dry nuts dropping on the ground--from the +shriveled lips of Clinker; but as he abstractedly put his fingers in the +box, and turned his eyes languidly as he pushed down the lid, he gave a +bound from his chair--with the box clutched in his left hand--giving a +jar to the room and table that even made Clinker believe the forty-year +earthquake had come before its time. + +Standing there, with his tall, majestic figure, like a statue of bronze, +his right arm poised with clenched hand aloft in a threatening attitude, +his dark, grizzled locks bristling above his head, the black eyes +flaming with an inhuman light, as if prepared to crush, with the power +of a god, the pigmies around him, he said, in a deep low voice, which +made the glasses ring and shudder, + +"Who owns this bawble?" + +"It belongs to a Colonel Lawton who has been staying here!" exclaimed +Piron, quickly and hurriedly. + +"What sort of man?" came again from those terrible lungs, without +relaxing a muscle of his frame. + +"A square-built, tallish fellow, of about feefty, with greenish-blue +eyes, a black wig, and a glorious sapphire ring on the only finger of +his left hand!" roared Burns and Stewart together. + +Again came the jar of the earthquake to make the building, table, +glasses, and all shake, as Paul Darcantel strode with his heels of +adamant out of the sala and to the veranda; then a bound, which was +heard in the room; and after five minutes' stupid silence Banou +appeared. + +The buckra gentleman had torn rather than led his master's barb from the +stable, and scarcely waiting for a saddle, had thrown himself like an +Indian across his back. There! his master might hear the clattering of +the hoofs up the steep. + +"The mon's daft--clean daft, mon!" "Be me sowl, it's the only pair of +eyes I iver wouldn't like to look at over me saw-handled friend, Joe +Manton!" "He's taken the box with him," crackled Clinker. + +But that was the last that Paddy Burns, or Stewart, or Clinker ever saw +of man or box. Piron rose and listened to the sound of the receding +hoofs from the veranda; and when he resumed his place his lips were +sealed for the night. _He_ saw, however, and the rest of them heard a +good deal about the man and the box in time to come. + +Did that blooded horse, as he dashed round the curve of the peak, with +his thin nostrils blazing red in the dark night, know who his rider was, +and on what errand he was bound? It was not snuff that distended those +wide nostrils as he plunged down the broken road, through the close, +deep forest, over rocks and water-courses, without missing a step with +his sure, ringing hoofs; and mounting the sharp gorge beyond with the +leap of a stag, his mane and tail streaming in the calm, thick night; +the eyes lanterns of pursuing light, flashing out before his precipitous +tread in jets of fire, as his feet struck the flinty stones, with a +regular, enduring throb from his heaving chest, as an encouraging hand +patted his shoulder and urged him onward. + +Down the mountain again, with never a shy or a snort--the horse +knowing the rider, and the man the noble beast; the lizards wheetling +merrily, and the paroquets on the tree-tops waking up to chatter with +satisfaction. Then into the beaten track along by the sea-shore, the +horse increasing his stride at every minute, the spume flying in +flakes from his flaming nostrils, and the man bending to his hot +neck, smoothing away the white foam, until, with a panting stagger, +horse and rider stood still in the town of Kingston. + +"Here, my boys, rub this your master's horse down well, and walk him +about the court-yard for an hour. There! Take this between you!" + +One last pat of the steed's arched neck, a grateful neigh as the dark +face pressed against his broad head, and Paul Darcantel strode away in +the gray light of the morning. + +"Gorra mighty! Nimble Jack, look at dis! Bress my modder in hebben, it +am one gold ounce apiece, sure as dis gemman's name Ring Finger Bill! De +Lord be good to dat tall massa! Him must hab plenty ob shiner to hove +him away on poor niggers!" + +Even while the tall man strode on toward the port, and as the happy +blacks were chattering over their yapper, and walking the gallant steed +up and down the paved court-yard, a dull, heavy-sailing Spanish +brigantine was slowly sagging past Gallows Point and the Apostles' +Battery, when, creeping on by the frowning forts of Port Royal, she held +her course to sea. + +Very different sort of craft from the counterfeit brigantine, with +clean, lean bows, slipping out from the Tiger's Trap one sultry evening +before a hurricane, which went careering, with a sea-hound after her, +down to the Garotte Gorge. Different kind of a crew too; and Captain +Brand must have remarked the contrast, with his keen, critical, nautical +eye--that is, if he chanced to sail in both brigantines, as there is +much reason for believing he did--with great disgust, on board the +dirty, dumpy old ballahoo now just clear of Drunkenman's Cay, and +heading alongshore for Helshire Point, bound for St. Jago de Cuba. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +LILIES AND SEA-WEED. + + "Oh leave the lily on its stem! + Oh leave the rose upon the spray! + Oh leave the elder bloom, fair maids, + And listen to my lay!" + + "When descends on the Atlantic + The gigantic + Storm-wind of the equinox, + Landward in his wrath he scourges + The toiling surges, + Laden with sea-weed from the rocks." + + +By day and night, under sun or moon, and in breeze or calm--by the +resounding shore--on the rippling water--in saloon and grove, picnicking +and boating--under vine or awning--all around in the whirling waltz, the +measured contra-danza--amid the tinkle of guitar or trill of piano, the +rattle and crash of the full band on board the frigate--gently rocking +on the narrow deck of the "Rosalie," or down in the brig of teak, there +was ever a white arm linked in the arm of blue--now timidly, then with a +confiding pressure--now a furtive look of blue eyes into dark, then a +fixed, steady gaze from the brown to the light--here a palpitating +pause, and then the blue arms wound around the waving stem--two white +arms clasping, with a passionate caress, the neck of the weed--and, yes! +the lily floating on the white cheek of the pond had been caught by the +strong weed, and with the reacting tide was going out to sea! Ay! the +sailor had won the maiden! + +But while the lily rocked hither and thither on the pond, with its blond +leaves and petals of blue, and its pliant stem in danger at every tide, +did the fond mothers watch it from the bank? That they did, thinking of +the time when they were lilies of the pond themselves, with no fears of +danger near. But at last it came, and, like blooming flowers, they swung +to and fro in the rain, dropping a tear or two from their own rosy +leaves--more in dewy sorrow than in fear--and waiting for sunshine; +bending their beautiful heads of roses the while one toward another, +peeping out with their dark violet eyes, and listening, as the wind +shook them, with a tremble of apprehension, and clinging hopefully to +the straight support on which they reclined. + +By day and night, in burning sun with not a drop to drink, and in the +sultry night with no morsel of food to eat--through the searing sand in +the streets and lanes, down by the quays--to every vessel in the crowded +harbor--in every hotel and lodging-house in Kingston--up and down +Spanish Town--away off to Port Royal--occasionally going on board the +frigate for gold, then on shore again--in ribald wassail and drunken +dance, gaming hells especially, and low crimping houses, maroon and +negro huts, and wretched haunts of vice--scattering gold like cards, +dice, rum, and water--no end to it--in large yellow drops too--and still +striding on, questioning, gleaming with those revengeful eyes--never +resting brain or body, without drink or meat--went Paul Darcantel. + +Oh, Paul, that cowardly villain saw you from the very moment you took +that pinch of snuff out of his blue enameled box--ay, even before, when +you walked your mule slowly up the broken road, while a goaded barb was +curbed back in the gloomy forest till you had passed, with his rider's +finger in his waistcoat pocket. And in all your ceaseless wanderings, by +day and night, that now timid, terror-stricken villain has been +following you; dodging behind corners--under the well-worn cloths of +monté banks--in the back rooms of pulperias--hiding in nests of +infamy--every where and in all places steering clear of you. + +Oh, Paul! what a deceived man you are! + +And while you are doing all this, just turn your eyes out to the calm +spot off Montego Bay, where that leaky old brigantine is bobbing about. +The dirty, surly _capitano_ kicking and beating the hands from taffrail +to bowsprit, particularly one great tall fellow, without a hat, and but +a few dry thin hairs to shield his skull from the scorching sun; cursing +him, as he puffs a cigarette, for being the most idle scoundrel of a +skulk on board! But he--the scoundrel!--laughing with a hollow laugh up +the sleeve of his filthy shirt, with never a dollar in his belt or an +extra pair of trowsers in the forecastle, with bare feet, and still, +cold eyes, now turned to green--eating nasty jerked beef and drinking +putrid water--never sleeping for vermin--kicked and cuffed about the +decks. + +But yet he smiled with a devilish satisfaction, Paul, for he has escaped +_you_, and was bound to St. Jago de Cuba! From there he would +charter--steal, perhaps--a small boat, and run over to the Doçe Léguas +Cays, where there were ten thousand pounds in mildewed gold!--if nobody +had discovered it, which was not probable--and he--the scoundrel!--would +gather it up in bags, and slink away to some other part of the world. + +You must be very quick, Captain Brand, for the leaky brigantine does not +sail so fast as the "Centipede," and your ancient compadre, Don Ignaçio, +is just out of prison. His old, fat, banana wife is very sorry for it, +but that's none of your business. + +And you, Doctor Paul! don't you pity that flying, dirty wretch, with his +mutilated hand, and soul-beseeching gaze out of those greenish frozen +eyes, where a ray of mercy never entered, but whose icy lids fairly +crack as your shadow stamps across them? + +No, not a ray of pity or mercy for the infamous villain; not even a +twitch of the little finger of his bloody, mutilated white hand! No, not +the faintest hope of pity! He shall die in such torments as even a +pirate never devoted a victim. + +But you are worn out, Darcantel; your prey has escaped you. The people +think you mad, as you are, for revenge; and though your stride is the +same, and your frame still as nervous as a galvanized corpse, yet flesh +and blood can not stand it. Go on board the "Monongahela," and talk to +that true friend whose counsels you have ever listened to since you were +rocking in your cradle; or take that noble, gallant youth in your arms +and console him--for he needs consolation--and think of the mouse who +gnawed the net years and years ago. + +Well, you will, Paul Darcantel; but before you do, you will step into +that jeweler's shop and buy a trifle for old Clinker there, out at +Escondido. You want a ring, the finest gem that can be found on the +island of Jamaica. There it is--its equal not to be bought in the whole +West India Islands, or the East Indies either. + +"I gave a military man an ounce for the setting alone, but the +sapphire-looking stone may be glass. He was going to sail the next +morning in a Spanish brigantine for St. Jago de Cuba, and wanted the +money to pay his bill at the lodging-house adjoining. The señor might +take it for any price he chose to put upon it." + +What made that old dealer in precious stones and trinkets turn paler +than his old topaz face as he yelled frantically for his older Creole +wife? The señor had seized the ring as he broke his elbows through the +glass cases which contained the time-honored jewelry, and dashed a +yellow shower of heavy gold ounces over the floor of the little shop, +smashing the glass door of that too in his exit! And when the little +toddling fat woman appeared in the most indecent dress possible to +conceive of, with scarcely time to light her paper cigar, she +exclaimed, + +"_Es lunatico, hombre! ay, demonio con oro!_ A crazy man--a demon with +gold!" And forthwith she picked up the pieces and looked at them +critically to be sure of their value. "_Son buenos, campeche!_ All +right, old deary; we'll have such a podrida to-day! Baked duck, with +garlic too! So shut the door. There's the ounce you gave the officer man +for the ring, and I'll guard the rest." + +That old woman did, too; and that very night she won--in the most +skillful way--from her shaky old topaz, in his tin spectacle setting, +his last ounce, and locked all up in her own little brass-nailed trunk +for a rainy season for them both, together with their daughter's +pickaninnies. + +Paul Darcantel whirled and spun round the corners and along the sandy +streets till he reached the landing, moving like a water-spout, and +clearing every thing from his track. There he sprang into the first boat +he saw, seized the sculls, despite the shrieks and gesticulations of the +old nigger whose property it was, and who jumped overboard with a howl +as if a lobster had caught him by the toe, and paddled into a +neighboring boat, where, with the assistance of another ancient crony, +they both let off volley upon volley of shrieks, which alarmed the +harbor, while the boat went shooting like a javelin toward the +men-of-war. + +However, those old stump-tailed African baboons found a gold ounce in +their boat after it had been set adrift from the American frigate. What +a jolly snapping of teeth over a tough old goose stuffed with onions +that night, with two respectable colored ladies and a case-bottle of rum +beside them! You can almost sniff the fragrant odor as it arises, even +at this distance. I do, and shall, mayhap, many a time again, in lands +where stuffed goose and comely colored ladies abound. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +PARTING. + + "The very stars are strangers, as I catch them + Athwart the shadowy sails that swell above; + I can not hope that other eyes will watch them + At the same moment with a mutual love. + They shine not there as here they now are shining; + The very hours are changed. Ah! do ye sleep? + O'er each home pillow midnight is declining-- + May one kind dream at least my image keep!" + + +There had been a small party on board the "Monongahela" the night before +to bid the commodore good-by--all old friends of both parties--the +Pirons, Burns, Stewart, Stingo, and Jacob Blunt. Clinker was not there, +for he never went where it was damp, and if he got musty it must be from +mildew on shore. The "Martha Blunt," under the careful management of +young Binks, the mate, with Banou and all the baggage on board, was +being towed by two of the frigate's boats down the harbor, with her +yards mast-headed, all ready to sheet home the sails when the black +pilot should say the land-wind would make and the passengers to come on +board. + +The lights were twinkling from lattice and veranda in the upper and +lower town, the lanterns of the French and English admirals were shining +from the tops of their flag-ships, and the revolving gleams from the +beacon on the Pallissadoes Point flickered and dazzled over the gemmed +starlit surface of the water. The awning was still spread on the +after-deck of the "Monongahela;" and there, while the officer of the +watch paced the forward part of the deck with the midshipmen to leeward, +the sentries on the high platform outside and on the forecastle, the +party of ladies and gentlemen stood silently watching and thinking. + +There is no need explaining their looks or their thoughts; we know all +about them. How Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart, with little Stingo, were +going over the time, thirty years or more back, when with Piron there, +boys together, they all swam on the beach of that fine harbor. The old +school-house, too, with the tipsy old master, who whacked them soundly, +drunk or sober; their frolics at the fandangoes in Spanish Town; their +transient separations in after life on visits to France or the Old +Country; the hearty joy to meet again and drink Jamaica forever. And now +their companion in tropical heat and mountain shade was going to part +with them, and sail away over that restless ocean, never, perhaps, to +meet again! + +Even old Clinker, as he sat on his stem by the old worm-eaten desk, with +his dried old lemon of a face lying in his leaves of hands--with no +light in the dark, deserted old counting-house--looked out between his +fibres of fingers and saw the cradle, with the sleeping twins within it, +while the rafters pressed him as flat as the old portfolio before him. +And now, as a drop or two of bitter juice exuded from his shriveled +rind, he saw those lovely twins floating away, never more to be saved +from an earthquake by old Clinker. + +Mr. Mouse, likewise, was wide awake, and hopping about with a kangaroo +step, a little in doubt why Miss Rosalie was so pale, why those blue +eyes were so dim, and why she said to him "Go away, little one," with a +quivering, tremulous voice and hand. Mouse told Rat, and Rat told Martin +and Beaver, that the poor girl was in love with him, Tiny, and that he +would make it all right one of these days, when he got an epaulet on his +little shoulder. + +Softly, like the cool breath of a slumbering child, came a faint air +from the land. The bell of the frigate, clanging in its brassy throat, +struck for midnight. The sentinels on their posts cried "All's well!" +The old brig was letting fall her top-sails, and the sound of the oars +in the cutter's row-locks ceased. + +"Cleveland," said Piron, quietly, "while the ladies and our friends are +getting into the barge, come down with me in your cabin. I wish to have +a parting word with you." + +So they go down. + +"Now, my dear friend, you have seen as well as I how wildly those young +people are in love with each other; so has my wife and her sister; and, +indeed, _my_ sweet Rosalie seems more in love with him than our niece. I +have not had the heart to put a thorn in the path of their happiness, +and God grant it may all come right. But, Cleveland, you know that we +come from an old and noble stock, where the bar sinister has never +crossed our escutcheon, and I can not yet make up my mind to an +immediate engagement. This our niece has consented to--Stop, Cleveland, +hear me out. I do not, however, carry my prejudices to any absurd +extent, nor have I spoken on this subject to the girl, and only to her +mother and my wife; but I wish you to explain the way we feel, in your +own kind manner, to your friend's son. Say to him what a trial it has +been to us--how we all love him"--he pressed his handkerchief to his +eyes--"and after he has learned all, if he still persists in urging his +suit when the cruise is over, he shall have our consent and blessing. +Time may work changes in them both; and meanwhile I shall not mention +the matter to our little Rosalie, as we fear for the consequences." + +"Spoken like a true father and a noble gentleman, my dear Piron! I have +thought as you and your excellent wife do on this matter; but, like you, +I have not had the courage to give even a hint of warning to Henry. I +shall, however, break the matter gently to him, and send my coxswain for +his father also, whom I have not seen for a week, and who, they tell me, +has been raging about Kingston ever since he ran away from you at +Escondido. His son loves him devotedly, and a word from him will do more +than I could say in a lifetime." + +"The ladies are in the barge, commodore," squeaked Midshipman Mouse, as +he popped his tiny head into the cabin. + +"Very well, sir. And tell Lieutenant Darcantel that I wish to see him +to-morrow morning, before church service. Come, Piron!" + +On the lower grating of the accommodation-ladder stood the commodore, +with his first lieutenant, as the barge shoved off. + +"I am heartily obliged to you, Commodore Cleveland," said Jacob Blunt, +"for your kindness to me; and if Mr. Hardy will permit, I'll give the +boats' crews a glass of grog for their trouble in towing the old brig." + +Certainly! Jacob knew what was proper under the circumstances, and liked +a moderate toss himself after a hard night's work as well as the lusty +sailors in the boats, and the youngsters, Rat and Martin, who steered +them. + +So the barge shoved off, with no other words spoken, though there were +white handkerchiefs wet with women's tears, and red bandanas, too, +somewhat moist; while following in the barge's wake went a light +whale-boat gig, pulled by four old tars, who could make her leap, when +they had a mind, half out of water, for it was in those brawny old arms +to do it. But now they merely dipped the long oar-blades in the water, +and could not keep up with the barge. + +They knew--those corrugated old salts--that their gallant, considerate +young captain there in the stern-sheets, with the tiller-ropes in his +hands, who steered so wildly about the harbor, had something more +yielding than white-laced rope in his flippers; and that the sweet +little craft under white dimity, with her head throwing off the +sparkling spray as she lay under his bows, was in no hurry to go to +sea--not caring much, either, to what port she was bound, so long as she +found good holding-ground when she got in harbor with both bowers down, +and cargo ready for another voyage--not she! + +Finally, old Jacob Blunt, master, again in full command of brig +"Martha," with Mr. Binnacle Binks catting the anchor forward, all sail +made, sheets home, and every thing shipshape, with a fresh, steady +land-wind, and a light gig towing astern, went steering out to sea, +bound to New Orleans by way of the Windward Passage. + +At the first ray of sunrise the gig's line was cast off; and with the +waves breaking over her, those four old sons of Daddy Neptune bared +their tattooed arms--illustrative of ships, anchors, and maidens--and +bent their bodies with a will toward the harbor. + +"Take keer, sir, if it's the same to you, or we'll be on that ledge off +the ''Postles' Battery.' It looks jist like that 'ere reef in the +Vargin's Passage as I was wunce nearly 'racked on, in the 'Smasher,' +sixteen-gun brig." + +"No fear, Harry Greenfield." + +"Beg your parding, Mr. Darcantel, but that 'ere wessel you is heading +for is that old clump of a Spanish gun-boat; our craft is off here, +under the quarter of the 'Monongaheelee.'" + +"Oh yes, Charley; I see the 'Rosalie.'" + +What made these old salts slew gravely round one to the other, as their +sixteen-feet oars rattled with a regular jar in the brass row-locks, and +shut one eye tight, as if they enjoyed something themselves? Probably +they were thinking of a strapping lass, in blue ribbons, who lived +somewhere in a sea-port town long years ago. But yet they loved that +young slip of sea-weed, whose head was bent down to the buttons of his +blue jacket, his epaulet lopsided on his shoulder, his sword hilt +downward, and his brown eyes tracing the lines of the ash grating where +pretty feet had once rested, while he jerked the tiller-ropes from side +to side, and his gig went wild by reef and point toward the "Rosalie." + +When the gig's oars at last, in spite of her meandering navigation by +her abstracted helmsman, trailed alongside the schooner, and while her +crew were cracking a few biscuits and jokes on deck, with the sun high +up the little craft's masts, her captain hurried down to his small +cabin, and changed his rig for service on board the frigate. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +DEVOTION. + + "To walk together to the kirk, + And all together pray, + While each to his Great Father bends-- + Old men and babes, and loving friends, + And youths and maidens gay!" + + "Farewell! farewell! but this I tell + To thee, thou wedding-guest, + He prayeth well who loveth well + Both man, and bird, and beast!" + + +Sunday morning in Kingston harbor. The deep-toned bells from cathedral +and church were wafted off from the town; the troops at Park Camp +marching with easy tread to their chapel; matrons and maidens, with bare +heads, fans, and mantillas, going along demurely; portly judges, +factors, and planters trudging beside palanquins of their Saxon spouses; +negroes in white; Creoles in brown, cigarettes put out for a time; while +swinging censers and rolling sound of organs and chants, or prayers and +sermons from kirk and pulpits, told how the people were worshiping God +according to their several beliefs. + +On the calm harbor, too, and in Port Royal, lay the men-of-war, the +church pennants taking the place of the ensigns at the peaks, the bells +tolling, and the sailors--quiet, clean, and orderly--were attending +divine service. + +On board the "Monongahela" the great spar-deck was comparatively +deserted--all save that officer with his spy-glassing old quarter-master, +and the sentries on gangway and forecastle. The ropes, however, were +flemished down in concentric coils, the guns without a speck of dust +on their shining coats, the capstan polished like an old brass +candlestick, and every thing below and aloft in a faultless condition. + +As Harry Darcantel came rather languidly over the gangway, and went down +to the main deck, where the five hundred sailors in snowy-white +mustering clothes were assembled, Commodore Cleveland beckoned to him +with his finger as he stood talking at the cabin door to his first +lieutenant. + +"Hardy, I do not feel well this morning; make my excuses to the +chaplain, and go on with the service. Come in, Harry. Orderly, allow no +one, not even the servants, to enter the cabin--except Dr. Darcantel, in +case he should come on board." + +The stiff soldier laid his white-gloved finger on the visor of his hat. +Then the chaplain, standing on his flag-draped pulpit at the main-mast, +with those five hundred quiet, attentive sailors seated on capstan-bars +and match-tubs between the silent cannon, and no sound save his mild, +persuasive voice, as he read the sublime service from the good lessons +before him. Then, after a short but impressive sermon, adapted to the +comprehension of the honest tars around him, with a kindly word, too, +for the sagacious officers who commanded them, he closed the holy book +and delivered the parting benediction. + +As he began, a shore boat, in spite of the warning of the sentry at the +gangway, came bows on to the frigate's solid side, and as she went +dancing and bobbing back from the recoil of the concussion, a tall, +powerful man leaped out of her, and, by a mighty spring, caught the +man-ropes of the port gangway, and swung himself through the open port +of the gun-deck. Bowing his lofty head with reverential awe as the last +solemn words of the benediction were uttered by the chaplain, he joined, +in a deep, guttural voice, the word "Amen," and strode on and entered +the cabin. + +The curtains were closely drawn of the after cabin, even to shut out the +first whisper of the young sea-breeze which was fluttering in from Port +Royal; and there stood that noble officer, with his strong arm thrown +around the gallant youth--the picture of abject woe--talking in his +kind, feeling accents, trying to console him, painting the sky bright in +the distance, and begging him, by all the love and affection he bore him +through so many years, to be a man, and trust to his good conscience and +his right arm to cleave his way through the clouds and gloom which +surrounded him. + +"There, Henry, you are calmer now. Sit down here in my stateroom, and +while you think of that fond girl, give a thought to that poor bereaved +mother, Madame Rosalie, who loves you for the resemblance she thinks you +bear to her little boy, who was murdered by pirates just seventeen years +ago off this very island." + +"What do you say, Cleveland?" said a voice behind him, with such deep, +concentrated energy that the commodore fairly started. "What did you say +about a lost child and a Madame Rosalie?" + +Paul Darcantel stood there in the softened crimson light, with his +sinewy, bony hands upraised, his gaunt breast heaving, with unshorn +beard and tangled, grizzly locks, the iron jaw half open, and his dark, +terrible eyes gleaming with unearthly fire. + +"Speak, Harry Cleveland! For the wife you have lost, speak!" + +"My dear, dearest friend, do be calm! Why have you been so long away +from me? I wanted you here, but you did not come. Our poor boy has had +_his_ first lesson in this world's grief, and I have felt obliged to +tell him all--yes, every thing! That the grave he has so often wept +over, under the magnolia, does not contain his mother; and that--" + +"Merciful God!" said Paul Darcantel, sinking down on his knees, with his +hands clasped together, while the first tears for more than twenty years +streamed from his agonized eyes. "There is a Providence in it all! That +boy is not my son! I saved him from the pirate's grasp, and that woman +must be his mother!" + +Lower and lower the lofty head bent till it touched the deck, the bony +hands clasped tight together, and those eyes--ah! those parched eyes--no +longer dry! + +"Paul, Paul, what is this I hear? For the love of heaven and those +angels who are waiting for us, speak again!" + +"My father--my more than father, I am not illegitimate, then! No such +shame may cause your boy to blush for his mother?" + +While strong and loving arms raised the exhausted man from the deck, and +while he becomes once more the same determined Paul Darcantel, and with +hand grasped in hand is rapidly recounting unknown years of his +existence, let us leave the cabin. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +ALL ALIVE AGAIN. + + "Among ourselves, in peace, 'tis true, + We quarrel, make a rout; + And having nothing else to do, + We fairly scold it out; + But once the enemy in view, + Shake hands, we soon are friends; + On the deck, + Till a wreck, + Each common cause defends." + + +Down in the steerage, where a bare cherry table stood, and upright +lockers ranged around, with a lot of half-starved reefers devouring +their dinner--not near so good or well served as the sailors' around +their mess-cloths on the upper decks--with a few urchins utterly +regardless of steerage grub, and a dollar or two in their little fists, +all nicely dressed in blue jackets and white trowsers, waiting for the +hands to be turned to and the boats manned, to go on shore for a lark. + +Abaft in the wardroom, two or three of the swabs, the surgeon's mates, +and the jaunty young marine lieutenant were getting into their bullion +coats and fine toggery, and buckling on their armor to do sad havoc +among the planters' families in the evening, away there in Upper +Kingston. As for the first lieutenant, the purser, the fleet surgeon, +the sailing-master, and the old major of marines, they had been ashore +before, and didn't care to go again; growling jocosely among themselves +on board the frigate, and glad to get rid of the juvenile gabble. + +Presently, and before the hands were turned to from dinner, the cabin +bell rang so violently that the orderly's brass scale-plate fixtures on +his leather hat fairly rang too as he opened the sacred door. + +"Tell the first lieutenant I want him." + +The dismayed soldier forgot to lay his white worsted finger on his visor +as he slammed to the door and marched out on the gun-deck. + +"Mr. Hardy, unmoor ship! Hoist a jack at the fore and fire a gun for a +pilot! Get the frigate under weigh, sir, and be quick about it!" + +"Ay, ay, sir!" + +As Hardy rapidly passed his old cronies, who were tramping along the +deck as he mounted the after-ladder, he said, with a nod, + +"By the Lord! I haven't seen the commodore in such a breeze since he +blew that pirate out of water at Darien." + +In a minute the "Monongahela's" bell struck two, and the boatswain and +his mates, piping as if their hairy throats would split, roared out, +"All hands!" and a moment later, "All hands unmoor ship!" + +"What does that mean?" said a cook of a mess to Jim Dreen, the old +quarter-master, who had just come down from his watch. + +"Mean? why, you lazy, blind duff b'iler, it means that I've lost my +blessed dinner." + +"Hallo!" says Rat to Beaver, "what's that? Unmoor ship on my liberty +day! I swear I'll resign!" + +No you won't, reefers, but you'll trip aloft as fast as your little legs +will carry you--Mouse in company--up to the fore, main, and mizzen tops, +and squeak there as much as you like; but jump about and look sharp that +nothing goes wrong, or Mr. Hardy will be down upon you like a main +tack. + +Bang from the bow port and the union jack at the fore! + +"God bless my soul, fellows, this is the most infernal tyranny I ever +heard of!" came from the wardroom; "all of us engaged to dine and dance +in Kingston this evening, and--" + +"It's 'All hands up anchor, gentlemen!'" and away they all went. + +Down went the mess-kids, and down came the awnings, and up came the +boats to their davits; in went the bars to both capstans, the nippers +clapped on, and the muddy cables coming in to the tunes of fifes; while +above the running gear was rove, the Sunday bunts to the sails cast off, +and the five hundred sailors dancing about on the decks, spars, and +rigging of that American double-banked frigate, as if they could always +work her sails and battery to the admiration of their good commodore +there, who was looking at them from the quarter-deck. + +"Massa captan," said the shining ebony pilot, in his snowy suit, as he +took off his fine white Panama hat, "dis is de ole pilot, sa, Peter +Crabreef--name after dat black rock way dere outside. Suppose you tink +ob beating dis big frigate troo de channel? Unpossible, wid dis +breeze!" + +"Peter Crabreef," said the old sailing-master, to whom these observations +were addressed, "you had better not give such a hint to that gentleman +there in the epaulets; for if you do, you'll never see Mrs. Crabreef +again! You had better keep your wits about you, too, and plenty of +water under the keel, for the commodore is fond of water!" + +"Sartainly, massa ossifa! I is old Peter, and never yet touch a nail of +man-of-war copper battam on de reefs!" + +On board the pigmy black schooner near, half a dozen old salt veterans +were squinting at the flag-ship and holding much deliberate speculation +as to what all the row meant. Old Harry Greenfield, however, with Ben +Brown, who were the gunner and boatswain of the little vessel, observed +that, "In the ewent of our bein' wanted, ye see, Harry, it will be as +well to have the deck tackle stretched along for heavin' in, and get the +prop from under the main boom." + +Even as they spoke, a few bits of square bunting went up in balls to the +mizzen of the frigate, and, blowing out clear, said, as plain as flags +could speak, "Prepare to weigh anchor!" + +At the same moment the "Rosalie's" gig came bounding like a bubble over +the water with the tall gentleman beside the young commander in the +stern-sheets. There was a great, nervous, bony hand now holding his, but +with as an affectionate pressure as the soft dimpled fingers he himself +had held the night before. Gig not steered at all wild now, but going as +straight as a bullet to the schooner. + +The stirring sounds of the fifes as the sailors danced round with the +bars in the capstans, with a beating step to keep time to the lively +music, were still heard on board the frigate, and then came from the +forecastle, + +"The anchor's under foot, sir!" + +"Pawl the capstan! Aloft, sail-loosers! Trice up! Lay out! Loose away!" +Almost at the instant came down the squeaks from aloft of, "All ready +with the fore! the main! the mizzen!" "Let fall--sheet home! hoist away +the top-sails!" + +Again were heard the quick notes of the fifes on both decks, and in less +than five minutes more the anchors were catted, and the "Monongahela," +under a cloud of canvas, began to move. + +But where was the "Rosalie," late "Perdita," all this time? Why, there +she goes, with never a tack, through the narrow strait, lying over under +the press of her white dimity like a witch on a black broomstick, as she +shoots out to sea. + +And who is that tall man, on that narrow deck, clapping on to sheet and +tackle, though there was no need of assistance, or skill, or seamanship +to be displayed on board that craft, except by way of love of the thing? +And why does he, during a pause when there was nothing more that could +possibly be done, stand by the weather rail, shaking a great huge old +seaman by both hands till he almost jarred the schooner to her +keel?--Ben Brown, the helmsman, whom you have heard of on board the +"Martha Blunt," who, by some accidental word he dropped near to the tall +gentleman, caused that hand-grasping collision. + +It was not another five minutes before the other thirty-nine old +sea-dogs knew all about every body, and where they were bound, and so +on. They did not care a brass button for the thousand silver dollars +they were to have from the tall gentleman--not they! They wanted merely +to lay their eyes along that Long Tom amidships, and to have a cutlass +flashing over their shoulders--so fashion! Pistols and pikes! Fudge! + +But where was the "Martha Blunt?" Oh, that old teak brig was bouncing +along past Morant Point, with a good slant from the southward, pretty +much where she was some seventeen years before, with a few more +passengers in her deck cabin, reading their Bibles, and praying for +those who go down to the sea in ships on that Sabbath day--one looking +with her sad eyes out of the stern windows, and another doing the same, +and both thinking of the same boy who had been dashed out of one of +those windows; and though both of them knew the other's thoughts, yet +they did not dream they were thinking of the same person at the time. + +And where was the Spanish brigantine, with the exacting _capitano_--who +was a slaver in dull times--and his pleasant mate, who would think no +more of sticking a knife into you than he did of kicking that skulking, +icy-eyed sailor on board--detesting as he did the entire Saxon race ever +since Cadiz was bombarded--and feeding him on rotten jerked beef? There +were no prayers, only curses, on board that brigantine as she dropped +anchor in St. Jago that fine Sunday morning. + +And where was our ancient one-eyed mariner, formerly in command of the +colonial guarda costa felucca, the "Panchita," named after his fat +banana of a sposa? Oh, the Don--simply Ignaçio now--had had a quiet +confab with the deputy administrador all about some treasure which he +knew was concealed, and where--for he had seen with his bright eye the +light of a torch in a cleft of a crag--and he would go shares with that +official if he would give him a little assistance. + +"_Oh, cierto!_" Why not? And there was an old launch, with a torn lateen +sail, which Columbus might have been proud to command; and, in this fine +weather, he might sail back to Port Palos in her. + +Oh yes! But, to keep all secret, he would merely take old Pancha, his +wife, for crew. And so, with a few bundles of paper cigars, and some +dried fish and water--the only property they possessed, save his eye +and a pack of cards, and those valuables rescued with difficulty--they +sailed the night before the blessed Sunday. _He_ never came back, +though. No blame attributable to the eye--that was as bright and +wary an old burning spark of suspicious fire as ever; but then old +Pancha held the cards, and this time she won. Very singular it was, +_cierto_. If Ignaçio had not gone back again for another bag which +was not there, why, the _sota_ of a knave being the next card--Ah! we +won't anticipate. + +But we are all alive yet, except those murdered women, whose white coral +head-stones still stand up there in the cactus, and poor Binks, and +those slashing blades of the poisonous, many-legged "Centipede," who +were eaten by the sharks--all alive the rest of us, and wide awake! + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +THE ROPE LAID UP. + + "The captain is walking his quarter-deck + With a troubled brow and a bended neck; + One eye is down the hatchway cast, + The other turns up to the truck on the mast." + + "The breeze is blowing--huzza, huzza! + The breeze is blowing--away, away! + The breeze is blowing--a race, a race! + The breeze is blowing--we near the chase." + + +Well, the positions of all hands were simply these. The icy-eyed man, +without snuff-box, or ring on that mutilated flipper, with two under +pockets in his shirt, and something in them, a pair of filthy old canvas +trowsers, and no hanger by his side, where there had been so much +hanging in the good old times, slipped overboard like a conger eel, and +swam on shore at St. Jago de Cuba. Without a _real_ of wages--for he was +to work his passage--and because he didn't feel inclined to work, the +_capitano_ in command assisted his agile subordinate to kick him all the +voyage. + +Had, however, the mate presented that cold eel his knife for a moment +before he jumped overboard and squirmed to the shore, that cuchillo +would have found a redder sheath than the crimson sash which usually +held it. Fortunately perhaps for the mate, he was not of a generous +disposition, save with kicks and ropes'-ends, or else he might have +regretted his philanthropy. + +So soon as the icy-blue man had congealed, as it were, in the sun until +he was quite dry and frozen again, he slunk away to the ditch of the old +fort, where he thawed till nightfall, and then entered the town; hanging +round the pulperias, smacking and cracking his parched lips for a +measure of aguardiente, only two centavos a cup, and not caring for that +fine, generous, pale, amber-colored old Port sent to him by the good +Archbishop of Oporto! But, not having the copper centavos--though his +own coppers stood so much in need of moisture--he continued to skulk +on. + +Presently, coming to the wide streets and to the outskirts of the town, +he spied a large mule, ready caparisoned for the road, hitched to the +door of a house, waiting for his owner to mount him. The icy green-eyed +individual, disgusted for the time with blue salt water, and being, as +we know, a capital cavalry-man--in dashing charges among the patriots, +and caprioling also up the Blue Mountains to Escondido--thought he would +take another gallop on the dry ground, just to keep his hand and little +finger in; so he quietly cast off the mule's painter, and flung his +canvas legs over the beast as if he belonged to him. And so he did; for +he told the man at whose place he passed an hour or two that night, and +who thought he knew the master to whom the mule had once belonged, that +it had been presented to him by an old friend, whose name--as had the +mule's--escaped him. + +All this time the one-eyed man, with his banana woman, Pancha, were +creeping along the water part of the land--with the Peak of Tarquina in +sight--toward Cape Cruz, bound round that peninsula, and so on to the +Doçe Léguas Cays; while the man on the mule navigated by the Sierras del +Cobre of St. Jago, steering by bridle for Manzanillo, and then to take +water again for the same secret destination. + +The cargo that both expected to take in there was about ten thousand +pounds sterling in mildewed coin of various realms and denominations; +but it was there, and would pass current any where. + +So they sailed and navigated. It was tedious work, though; and it took a +week for the old launch with the torn sail to get into the Tiger's +Trap--fine weather, and no sea--and there make fast to the rocks. At the +same evening hour the mule with his passenger planted his fore feet, +like a pair of kedges over his bows, in the fishing village near +Manzanillo, and foundered bodily, going down with his freight slap-dash +in the mud. The passenger, however, escaped, and skulled along by the +shore, where he fell in with a poor fisherman who was about to shove off +in his trim, wholesome bark for professional recreation on the Esperanza +bank. + +Glad was old Miguel Tortuga to have a strong man to assist him for the +privilege of joining in a sip of aguardiente and catching a red snapper +or two; so they jumped on board and spread the sail. + +Had old Miguel, however, seen the sharklike eyes of his assistant in the +sunlight, or dreamed what a snapper was about to catch _him_, he would +not have gone fishing that night, and it would have saved him much +tribulation at daylight the next morning, when he was picked off a small +rock by a fisher acquaintance of his from Manzanillo. + +But we have nothing to do with old Miguel; and need only say, to console +him, that his stanch boat went safely through the blue gateway of the +roaring ledge of white breakers, and late Sunday night lay calmly in the +inlet abreast Captain Brand's former dwelling. + +To go back again for a week, the "Monongahela"--double-banked leviathan +as she was--came plunging out to sea from Kingston, every man and boy, +from Jack Smith on her forecastle to Bill Pump in the spirit-room, and +from Richard Hardy to Tiny Mouse, knowing from the first plunge the +frigate made what they all sailed for. + +With her proud head toward the east, she went dashing on past the White +Horse Rocks, and woe to the small angry waves which did not get out of +her way, for she smashed them contemptuously in foaming masses from her +majestic bows, sending them back in sparkling spray and bubbles to hiss +their angry way to leeward in her wake. On she went, far off to sea, +where the trade wind was strongest, disdaining gentle zephyrs near the +land, with her great square yards swinging round at every watch while +beating to windward--the tacks close down, yards as fine as they would +lay, and the heavy sheets flat aft. + +Every evening the surgeon, the purser, the chaplain, the major, and the +old sailing-master were in the cabin, going over the chase of a certain +pirate in a schooner "Centipede" away down on the Darien Coast, with +Cape Garotte there under their lee, and the vultures and the sharks +grinding the bones and tearing the flesh of the half of a man with the +tusk gleaming out of his wiry mustache; and the padre, with his eyes +staring wide open, and the crucifix, borne away by the carnivorous birds +of prey. + +All of those dreadful particulars, together with matters that had gone +before--of a lost boy, a heart-broken mother, and a murdered mate, Mr. +Binks, on board the brig "Martha Blunt"--the party at Escondido, the +snuff-box, and Paul Darcantel--all about him, too, from the tragedy on +the plantation, his despair, and reckless life afterward, when he served +in slavers, where he did something to allay the sufferings of the poor +wretches; and afterward how he was trepanned to the "Doçe Léguas," went +a cruise with Mr. Bill Gibbs, whose leg he hacked off with a hand-saw, +not knowing at the time about the locket; the little child he had saved; +how that child had saved him from his torture on the trestle with his +mouselike teeth; how he had wandered the wide world over searching and +searching for the mother of that boy! + +And there the boy was--the manly, brave young fellow now--whom officers +and sailors had always loved, flying away with the dark doctor--no +longer Darcantel, but Harry Piron--with his fond father and mother in +the distance, and the sweet girl he adored with her blonde head resting +in her mother's lap. + +[Illustration: THE OLD WATER-LOGGED LAUNCH.] + +Ay, every soul in the ship knew all about it, and talked of it, and +drank to the happiness of the young couple--all save Dick Hardy, who +moved energetically about the frigate's decks, with his eyes every +where, below and aloft, prompt, sharp, and quick, quite like Cleveland, +there, beside him, when they were together in the old "Scourge" +during the hurricane, and chased, to her destruction, the "Centipede." + +"Sail ho!" sang out the man on the fore-top-sail yard. + +"Where away?" + +"Right ahead, sir. A brig on the starboard tack!" + +Ay, the old "Martha Blunt" bouncing along under all sail, squaring off +at the short-armed seas, and striking them doggedly, as she beat up for +the Windward Passage between Hayti and Cuba. + +But there was an old sea-bruiser of a different build, who wore the belt +in the West Indies, and was after that sturdy old brig with teak ribs +for a hearty set-to; and when she came up alongside, in the friendly +sparring-match which ensued while both squared their main yards, and lay +for an hour side by side, there was considerable conversation; so much +talk, in fact--boats going to and fro, mingled with roars and shrieks, +and clasping of hands on board the brig--never a sound on board the +ship--that the blue pennant fluttered in such a way it was hard to tell +whether it was Jacob, or Piron, or the sweet wife, or mademoiselle, or +her lovely mother, who threw their arms around that pennant's truck. + +Then yard-arm and yard-arm, the frigate with her canvas canopy of upper +sails furled, and the brig in her best bib and tucker, they both filled +away and moved side by side. + +For a day or two they went on, talking and laughing to one another in +these friendly shakes of the hand over blue water, until one day, the +brig being to windward, she came upon an old water-logged launch, with a +broken mast and a torn sail hanging over her side. + +It fell calm, and Jacob Blunt ordered young Binks to get into the yawl +and tow the boat alongside, and to be smart about it; for the breeze +might make so soon as the fog rose, and the commodore was not the man to +be kept waiting in a big frigate. Mr. Binks was smart about it, and +presently he returned--though there was no hurry, for the calm lasted a +long time--with his water-logged prize. + +There was no human being in this prize; but when she came alongside, and +a yard tackle was hooked on to let the water drain out of her, Jacob +Blunt and the people on board gave a pleasant yell of astonishment. + +It was not the soiled pack of Spanish cards, or the few bundles of +saturated paper cigars floating about, which caused this excitement. No, +it was several canvas bags lying there in the stern-sheets, strapped +with strands of a woman's red petticoat to the empty water-cask beneath +the thwarts; and not one of those canvas bags, or what was in them, +injured in the least by salt water. Very carefully were those bags--and +they were weighty--lifted on board the brig, over the rail where the +pirates swarmed some long years ago, on to the quarter-deck; and then +there was another joyous shout from Jacob Blunt, as when he had hailed +the trade wind in that long past time. + +"By all that's wonderful, here is my old bag of guineas, and some few +Spanish milled dollars! Look at the mark, my darlings!" + +Another weighty bag was set aside for Mrs. Timothy Binks, and the rest +were devoted, with some large doubloon reservations for crew, to Martha +Blunt and Jacob Blunt in their declining years. + +Then, the weather being still calm and foggy, Jacob and his passengers +went on board the double-banked frigate for church service, where they +all prayed with much hope and thanksgiving for what had passed and what +was to come; and then they went into the commodore's cabin, where they +remained ever so long a time. + +Let us go back this same week again--a very long seven days it has been +for every body, particularly so for the icy-eyed man, who was extremely +anxious, as he kicked and lashed his mule, and kept looking round the +south side of Jamaica, from Portland Point to Pedro Bluff and San +Negril, throwing a ray of cold frost there day and night, expecting that +tall doctor to come striding along in that deep water, heading due +north. + +And at last the dark figure hove in sight, in the schooner "Rosalie"--the +sweet little craft skimming exultingly over the seas, kissing them +occasionally with both her dainty, glistening cheeks, reeling joyously +over on her side, with her tidy dimity laced and spread in one flat sheet +of white, while the slender arms bent like whalebone to the freshening +breeze, and she left the dancing bubbles sparkling and flashing lovingly +in her wake. + +Two hundred miles to go, and the breeze fell from fresh to light, until +at last, shrouded in a thick fog, one Sunday morning, when there was no +air at all, only a flat calm, the sea as smooth as a glass mirror with +the quicksilver clouded. + +Then out sweeps, my lads! Ten of a side, and two of those bronzed old +lads at each sweep! All except the two after ones, where Ben Brown and +the tall doctor handled one apiece. + +Thus, with sails down and bare arms, the light little "Rosalie" +continued gliding rapidly over the mirrored surface--a little ashamed of +herself, perhaps, at being seen in such a scanty rig--while her +commander guided her graceful course, and Harry Greenfield peered about +forward to see that no harm should arrest her dainty footsteps. + +Presently was heard the toll of a bell. The sweeps paused, the hide +gromets resting on the thole-pins, and the water raining from their +broad blades. + +"That must be a man-of-war off here on the quarter," exclaimed the young +officer at the tiller, "ringing for church." + +The old seamen at the sweeps unconsciously took off their hats, wiped +the sweat from their brows, and listened. + +"It can hardly be the 'Monongahela,'" said Ben, "though p'raps she took +more of a breeze to wind'ard, off the island." + +Still the schooner glided on noiselessly over the sea, until, a minute +later, Harry Greenfield sang out, + +"Port, sir! or we'll be plump into a vessel here ahead." + +The helm was put down, and the "Rosalie" sheered off to starboard within +a biscuit-toss of a large brig. + +"By my grandmother's wig!" said Ben, "that's the old 'Martha Blunt!'" + +"Henri," said Paul Darcantel, in French, in his deep voice, "the last +request I shall ever make is to keep on. There is not a moment to +lose!" + +"Give way, men!" shouted the officer, in a decided tone, as the words +came with a stifled gasp from his heaving breast, while the sigh that +followed was drowned in the splash of the sweeps in the water as they +again chafed in their gromets, and the foam flashed away from the blades +astern. + +But there was another splash. A white object sprang with a bound over +the brig's quarter, dipping below the surface of the calm sea, and when +it came up, two great flippers, with a large black head between them, +struck out like the paws of an alligator, breasting the water with a +speed that soon brought him within a few fathoms of the schooner's low +counter. Then, seizing hold of the slack of the main sheet, which was +thrown to him, he came up, hand over hand, as if he could tear the stern +frame out of the schooner. A vigorous grasp caught him by one paw, and, +with the other laid on the taffrail, he leaped on deck as if his feet +had pressed a springboard instead of the yielding water. + +Again, as in the olden time, he held his little Henri aloft in his giant +arms; but this time it was Banou who was dripping from a souse, and not +his little master. + +"Give way, my souls! Another thousand dollars if we get up to the Key +before dark!" said the deep, low tones of the tall doctor. + +"Good Lord!" roared a voice from on board the brig, now shut up again +all alone in the fog--"if that old nigger has not gone and jumped +overboard, my name's not Binks!" + +"All right, Mr. Binks; Banou is safe! Send a boat on board the +'Monongahela,' and report that the schooner 'Rosalie' has passed ahead," +went back in a clear note. + +It was some considerable time before Binks could believe that he had not +been hailed by David Jones himself, for he had seen nothing, being at +the time in the lower cabin reading his Bible, and writing his name, +"Binnacle Binks, Master of brig 'Martha Blunt,'" on the fly-leaf; and he +was only disturbed in this praiseworthy occupation by a heavy body +plunging overboard, and by one of the drowsy crew, who had, with his +comrades, been sleeping near, reporting that circumstance with his eyes +half shut. + +Then young Binks took considerable more time to get a boat lowered, and +send her, with the cabin-boy, to the large frigate close on his beam, +whose bell had just struck seven. + +The boat, too, with four sleepy hands to pull her, took considerable +time to find the ship, and then the whistles were piping to dinner, and +all the good people from the brig, with the flag-officers, had retired +to the commodore's cabin for luncheon. + +When Jacob Blunt heard the news, regardless of sherry and cold tongue, +he himself got in his boat, leaving his passengers in an excited frame +of mind, but rather comfortable on the whole, and returned to the teak +bosom of his "Martha." + +There he took young Binks firmly by the shoulder, and walked him aft to +the rail where his father--long since dead and murdered--had been used +to sit and sing sailor ditties. + +Then he impressively told him that "this 'ere sort of thing wouldn't do! +even if he was a readin' the Bible, which was all very good on occasion, +sich as clear weather out on the broad Atlantic; but in fog times, when +schooners was creepin' about in among the Antilles, and partick'larly +off Jamaiky or the south side of Cuby, mates and men should be wide +awake and lookin' every wheres. And harkee, Binnacle! when you commands +this 'ere old brig, or maybe a bran-new 'Martha Blunt,' and me and my +old woman lying below together in narrow cabins, you must bear in mind +these my words! Well, my boy, don't rub that 'ere sleeve over your eyes +no more, and it will be all right." + +Young Binks promised "that from that 'ere minnit he would never sit on +no rails, or sip no grog, or even read his old mother's Bible when he +wos on watch, but always be as keerful as if there wos no lady +passengers or children on board, or bags of shiners in the lower cabin +stateroom--that he would! And his blessed old second father might take +his davy he, young Binks, would never be caught foul again." + +Meanwhile the girlish schooner tripped away far out of sight, and when +the fog lifted and the breeze came to blow it to leeward she was once +more tidily dressed in snowy white, and splashing the water from her +black eyes, as the last rays of the setting sun showed her the Tiger's +Trap in the distance. + +"Henri, my boy, put your arms around me again as you did when I lay in +torture on the trestle on that island. Have no fears for me; we shall +meet again. There! now listen to me. Here is a packet which I wish you +to carry to Porto Rico with this letter. The old judge is alive, I +think, to whom this letter is addressed, and it may perhaps soothe his +declining years. I wish to take your little gig, with Banou and Ben +Brown--no more force--and if, as I believe, that villain has returned to +his former haunt, I will fulfill my oath to its very letter. Meanwhile, +so soon as we have shoved off, while the breeze still holds, run down to +the frigate--she is not three leagues off--and you will be in your +yearning parent's arms, and those of the girl you love, before they +sleep. There! I know you will think of me. Farewell!" + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +ON A BED OF THORNS. + + "An orphan's curse would drag to hell + A spirit from on high; + But oh! more horrible than that + Is the curse in a dead man's eye!" + + "O Heaven! to think of their white souls, + And mine so black and grim!" + + +"Ho, ho!" said Captain Brand, as he stretched out his straight legs in +their canvas casings on the sand of the little cove, "safe and sound, +and not a soul to share this nice supper of that good old man Miguel! + +"Ho, ho!" continued he; "here at last! No Babette to cook for me--no +'Centipede'--nothing but that stanch little boat presented me by that +generous fisherman, who, I fear, is drowned by this time. Well, let us +enjoy ourselves! Excellent real snapper this! Sausage rather too much +garlic perhaps; but the brown bread and the aguardiente unexceptionable. +Blaze away, my little fire; your sticks cost me much labor to dig out of +my once comfortable house, but you are better than gunpowder any day. + +"Just to think of the years that have passed! That great bank of sand +there over the sheds, nearly as high as the crag, where my brave fellows +once caroused; the young cocoa-nut springing up on the crag itself--not +a vestige of my old habitation left, or the bright blades or pleasant +guests to dine with me!" + +Here there was something of the old cold murderous scowl on the +captain's face as he twisted the point of his nose. + +"Ah! yes, there may be my wary-eyed Sanchez left, though the last +I heard of him he was in the Capilla dungeon of the Moro. And +that"--grating his teeth, and glaring with his icy eyes at the +fire, as if those two blocks of ice would put it out--"cursed +doctor who pursues me! + +"Well, well, neither of those old friends are here yet, and before +another sun sets I shall bequeath the old den to them both! Ho, ho! with +those solid bags of clinking metal, I shall leave them as much sand and +rocks as they choose to walk over. What a sly devil I was to stow that +treasure away for a rainy day! Never told a living being! Poisoned the +fellow, too, who made the lock! Capital joke, 'pon my soul!" + +This was the very last of the very few jokes that Captain Brand ever +enjoyed. + +"And, now I think of it, I wonder if my thirsty old mate's bones are yet +lying there in the vault. What _was_ his name? such a bad memory I have! +Oh! Gibbs--Bill Gibbs--with one leg! Ho, ho!" + +Here Captain Brand drained some more aguardiente out of a cracked +earthen pot, and slapped his fine legs with rapture. + +"And those dear girls who married me! Lucia, too!" + +The dirty wretch started as the wing of a sea-bird swooped down over the +pure inlet; and he thought he saw a white fore finger beckoning him on +to his doom. + +"Pshaw!" said he, smoothing down his filthy tattered shirt with the +finger of his mutilated left hand, "how nervous I am! But what a bungle +Pedillo made of that marriage! And my good Ricardo, too! What a feast +the sharks must have had on his oily, well-fed carcass! Misericordia! +Ho, ho! I believe I'll bid my friends good-night." + +Captain Brand stretched himself out at full length on the shelly strand, +his boat secured by a clove-hitch round his right leg, which rode calmly +in the little inlet; his bald head, with the few dry gray hairs on his +temples, resting on Miguel's sennit hat, and the thin scum of frosty +eyelids drawn over his frozen eyes--cracking their covering at +times--until at last the pirate, aided by fiery aguardiente, slept. + +A few late cormorants and sea-birds sailed over him in his fitful +slumber, and uttered a cold cry, as if their pecking-time had not come +yet, but would shortly, as they sought their silent retreats on the wall +of rocks opposite. + +And Captain Brand dreamed, too--of the old laird, his father, in prison; +his mother weeping over forged notes; the sleeping, unsuspecting people +he had treacherously murdered; the pillages he had committed; the men he +had slain in open conflict; those he had executed with his own private +cord; the poor woman who had died in worse torments, when, indeed, even +knife or pistol, rope or poison, would have been a mercy; the agony and +sufferings of those who survived them; with all the concomitant horrors +which make the blood run cold to think of, and which made the pirate's +almost freeze in his veins--living years in minutes--did Captain Brand, +as he lay there on the chill sand in his troubled nightmare of a sleep. + +"Ah! _Dios! Dios!_" chattered the Señora Banana Pancha, at the other +outlet to the inlet, rolling over on the ledge of the rocks at the +Tiger's Trap. + +"What has become of my Ig--Ig--naçio--the one-eyed old villain who has +persecuted me for forty years? Why did I cut the old launch adrift +before I got in myself? And here I am alone and desolate on this cursed +island, and my Ig--Ig--naçio--bless his spark of an eye--not come back +to me! Ah! _Dios! Dios!_ what has become of the little man? He will kill +me, _cierto_, when he comes back and finds the boat gone with all the +money, which nearly broke his thin back to bring here; but, _Dios! +Dios!_ I am dying of thirst, and not a shred of dried fish or jerked +beef has gone into my old mouth--" + +Yes there has, Doña Pancha, for just then a piece of hawser-laid +rope--rather dry, perhaps, for mastication--was placed across your +crying mouth that you might bite upon, if you would only stop your old +tongue. + +For while you were screaming on the rocks, and yelling for your +Ig--Ig--naçio, who went back for the last bag of gold that wasn't there, +a light gig glided in like a blackfish, and a bigger blackfish jumped up +and stopped your old mouth, Pancha, with that bit of hide rope. But if +you will keep quiet, Pancha, and not exorcise Banou for the Evil One, +that old nigger will give you a cup of liquid not known in the devil's +dominions, and treat you also to some white biscuit to nibble upon. + +Ah! you will, eh? and tell all about that thin curl of smoke, which you +believe to have been made by that coal-eyed Ig--Ig--naçio, away up there +by the inlet? Now keep quiet again, old Lady Banana; and while your +screaming mouth is gagged, don't cut this small gig away, or else she +may navigate herself out to sea, as did your Ig's launch, and you be +left desolate again. + +The tropical night was still; the lizards wheetled, the breakers roared +on the outer ledge, the ripples washed musically on the shelly shores, +the alligators flapped about on the surface of the lagoon, the insects +buzzed around the mangrove thickets; and as the gray dawn of morning +appeared, and the rain began to fall, a steaming hot mist arose, through +which the sea-birds flapped their wings and sailed away in search of +their morning's meal. The sharks and the deep-sea fish, however, lay +still and motionless low down by the base of the reefs, and watched with +their cold, round eyes. Captain Brand, too, arose, and, opening _his_ +green-bluish eyes, smoothing his moulting feathers, and splashing his +fins in the wet sand, took an observation. + +This was the rainy day for which Captain Brand had laid by all that +money to spend it in! + +It was a Monday morning--Black Monday for Captain Brand--when, after +divesting his leg of the clove-hitch, he secured old Miguel's boat to a +large stone, and then, according to his own ancient practice, he +clambered with difficulty up to the venerable crag. Captain Brand had no +spy-glass, and there was a good deal of rain falling, but yet he thought +he saw a large ship, a brig, and a small schooner in the offing. + +So Captain Brand scrambled down again, a good deal disconcerted, knowing +it would be hours and hours before those vessels got up to the island, +even were they so inclined; but, nevertheless, he bestirred himself. +Fortifying his inner man with the last half pint of aguardiente for +breakfast, which quite refreshed him, he went to work. + +First, he took Miguel's copper coffee-pot, into which he emptied that +disciple of the net's shark-oil jug, which Miguel himself used for a +torch to attract the fish. Then, with a strip of old canvas--part of one +leg to Captain Brand's trowsers; to such straits was he reduced--seized +like a ball on the end of a stick, and a match-box, he was all ready for +Black Monday's work. + +Captain Brand, however, made one serious omission; he snugly stowed away +his beautiful pistols in a locker of the boat to keep them dry, never +having been wet but twice before in all his marine excursions--the first +time at Cape Garotte, and the next when he jumped overboard from the +brigantine at St. Jago. He set great store by these valuable implements, +for they had done him good service in time of need. Miguel came into +possession of them afterward, and sold them almost for their weight in +gold. + +But, for the first time, Captain Brand forgot his personal friends and +bosom companions. It was a great oversight; and he was extremely sorry +when it was too late to go back for them. However, with the copper +oil-pot dangling from his little finger, where the sapphire once shone, +and the torch-stick in the other hand, he marched boldly over the sandy +ridges toward the crag. + +But, Captain Brand, there had been three pairs of open eyes watching you +through every mouthful of snapper you snapped, and every drop of fiery +white rum you swallowed. Ay! and while you tossed about on the shelly +beach, with the red glow of the embers of the fire lighting up your +cold-blooded, wrinkled face--while, twisting your nose, you muttered ho! +ho's! of murderous satisfaction--there was not a bird that swooped over +you, or a lizard on the rocks with jet beads of eyes, that watched you +so sharply as did those attentive beholders from the crag. + +And when you made your observations from the young cocoa-nut clump, +those watchers retired down the opposite side, and two of them clambered +through a hole in the roof of the decaying little chapel, while the +other moved to the little cemetery of coral gravestones, and there +scooped a place in the sand and cactus behind the one cut with the +letter L. + +Captain Brand meanwhile came on, picking his way through the dense +cactus, which lacerated his legs, and sadly tore the remains of his +loose canvas. The rain came down in torrents, the thunder growled and +crashed as the tropical storm burst over the island; and just as a vivid +sheet of forked lightning seemed to stride the crag, and the awful peal +that followed shook it to its base, Captain Brand crept for shelter +within the cleft of the rock, and sat down to prepare for a more +extended research. + +He may have been gone twenty minutes; but when he again emerged the rain +had ceased, the clouds were breaking away, and the gentle sea-breeze +blowing, while Captain Brand looked a thousand years older. He seemed to +have borrowed all the million of wrinkles from his compadre, in addition +to those he already possessed. The thin lids of his frozen green--now +quite solid--eyes had apparently exhaled by intense cold, and left +nothing but a stony look of horror. + +What caused our brave captain to reel and stagger as he plunged with a +bound out into the matted cactus, without his tattered hat, like a wolf +flying from the hounds? Had he trodden on a snake, or seen his compadre, +or had that white finger waved him away? Yes, all three. But the +interview with his one-eyed compadre had shocked him most. + +On he came, driving the hot, wet sand before him, toward the Padre +Ricardo's chapel. There he paused for breath, though it was only by a +spasmodic effort that he could unclose his sheet-white lips, where his +sharp teeth had met upon them, and held his mouth together as if he had +the lockjaw, while he snorted through his nostrils. + +"Ho!" he gasped, "the spying old traitor has sacked the cavern, and the +gold must have gone in that launch I saw the night I came over the reef. +Ho! the traitor has found the torture I promised him; but I would like +to have killed him a little slower." + +Here Captain Brand, having regained some few faculties and energy, moved +on beyond the church, till he came to the white coral headstone, where +he stood still. + +It was his last walk on deck or sand! Shading his still horror-stricken +eyes by both hands, he glared to seaward. + +"Ho, ho! there you are, my Yankee commodore, with that old brig under +convoy, and that pretty schooner! Reminds me of my old 'Centipede.' +_Bueno!_ there are other 'Centipedes,' and I must begin the world anew. +I am not old; here is my strong right arm yet; and who can stop me?" + +Captain Brand made these remarks in a loud tone, as if he wanted the +whole world to hear him; and as if he had failed in early life, and come +to a strong resolution to retrieve his past errors. + +As he waved his strong right arm aloft, while, in imagination, blood +rained from the blade of his cutlass after cleaving the skull by a blow +dealt behind the back of an unsuspecting skipper or mate, suddenly he +paused, and the arm fell powerless at his side, where it hung dangling +loose like a pirate from a gibbet on a windy night. + +He caught sight of the old broken cocoa-nut trunk to which he had +hitched the green silk rope, with its noose around his victim's neck, +and he endeavored to prevent himself falling to the sand. + +"Ho!" he choked out, his jaws rattling like dry bones, "I see it all +now. The column was snapped just where the rope was hitched, and the +trestle must have been torn to pieces by the hurricane. Ho, ho! That's +the way my man escaped, to dog me all over the world. Ho! I have no time +to lose; he may be here at any moment." + +This was the last connected speech that Captain Brand ever made in this +world, or in the world to come, perhaps, for at the last word Paul +Darcantel rose in all his revengeful majesty before him. With folded +arms he bent his dark, stern eyes upon the pirate, wherein the revenge +of twenty years was gleaming with a concentrated power. + +"You palsied villain! the oath I took to you, and for which I have been +accursed, expired yesterday! I took another myself, when we stood here +last together, and I am come to fulfill that oath, and--strike!" + +His terrible voice and words came back in an echo from the crag, and +they seemed with their intense energy to pierce and shrivel the man +before him into sleet. And the pirate would have fallen had not two +huge, black, lignum-vitæ paws grappled him about the body, pinioning his +arms to his sides as if they had been bolted through and through, while +at the same moment another pair of tough, sea-weed flippers wound a +lashing round his straight legs, and they laid him gently down on the +sandy esplanade. + +"The trestle, Banou. And you, Ben, bring the hide strands, the faded old +cord, and that black altar-cloth!" + +The pirate lay on his back, his eyes wide open--for he could not shut +them, since the lids had gone in frost--but the solid balls, light green +now in the light, rolled from side to side. He recognized the old +apparatus too, though it was in different hands than those of Pedillo +and his confederate; and he saw, also, that, though the pale green rope +was rotten, yet his knowledge of nautical matters taught him that it yet +might bear a taut strain, and that those coils of hide thongs never gave +way by any amount of tugging, and he saw as well that they had been +recently dipped in grease. + +But what was to be done with that rotten, moth-eaten old cloth, which +the men used to play monté on on Saturday nights in the sheds, and on +which the good padre played _his_ cards likewise in the chapel? It was +not to keep the cold air away from him, or shield his half-naked body +from the poisonous insects. Then what could it be for? + +"Lift him up, men, and when you lash him down, leave only that little +finger free!" + +Ben Brown squatted himself on a stone beside the bier, and with his +cutlass unbuckled and laid on the sand, and sleeves rolled up, began +his work as if he had a chafing-mat to make for the dead-eyes of the +frigate's lower shrouds, and, though in a hurry, still intended to make +a neat job of it. He had a small and rather sharp-pointed marline-spike, +too, which he wore habitually, like a talisman, round his neck, and +which stood him in hand in the intricate parts of his task. + +Taking in at a glance the exact amount of hide stuff he required, he +middled the coils, and passing each strand fair and square, his old +bronzed arms went backward and forward, under and over--sometimes +pricking a little hole by accident in the pirate's own thin hide as he +passed the strips by the aid of his marline-spike, but always +apologizing in his bluff, rough way, though without squirting +tobacco-juice into his victim's face, as did Mr. Gibbs to Jacob Blunt. + +"Beg pardon, ye infarnal pirate! but that stick will do ye no harm. +It'll heal much sooner than the iron spike one of yer crew drove through +both cheeks of my watch-mate when you gagged him on board the brig. + +"I say, old nigger, hand us a little more of that slush, will ye? this +'ere strand won't lie flat. Thankee, old darkey! Kitch hold on that +lower end, will ye? and draw it square up between his pins, and +straighten out that 'ere knee-joint a bit--so fashion. + +"I wouldn't hurt ye, you ugly villain, for a chaw of tobaccy. + +"Warm work, shipmate! suppose you just toddle down to the boat for that +'ere grafted bottle lyin' in the starn sheets, and bring a tin pot of +fresh water with you; the gentleman might be thirsty, you know. _I +am_--Benjamin Brown, of Sandy Pint, seaman." + +So Benjamin plaited Captain Brand, late of the "Centipede," down on his +bier; not a thong too little, or one in the wrong place. A strand +between each of his toes, and the big ones turned up in quite an +ornamental way, and worked around with a Turk's-head knot. + +"Breathin' works all reg'lar, too, no bit of hide bearin' an onequal +strain over his bread-basket. Throat and jaw-tackle in fair talkin' +order, little finger free; and there, Capting Brand, jist let old Ben +reward ye, good for evil, ye child-murdering scoundrel, for the lick +your mate gave him with the pistol on the head, by placing this soft +pillow of green silk rope under your bare skull. There! a little this +side, so as ye can look at your finger, while I pass this broad piece of +stuff over your ear. Don't ye look at me, ye infarnal scoundrel, or I'll +let this 'ere copper spike slip into one of yer junk-bottle glims! + +"Now," continued Ben, "I'll take a spell till the doctor and the old +nigger come back." + +Ay, the job was done, and the mat over the dead-eyes of the shrouds! + +[Illustration: "NOW CAPTAIN BRAND KNEW WHAT WAS COMING."] + +During this neat and seamanlike operation Paul Darcantel wandered away +on the tracks of the flying wolf till he came to the cleft in the +rock. There he picked up and lighted the torch and stalked on. Presently +he came to the stones before the low cavern, and pushed his way in with +the blazing torch before him. Had Paul Darcantel had nerves, they would +have shaken at what he saw; but having none to shake, he calmly fixed +his eyes upon the sight. + +There lay the head of the ancient Ignaçio, caught, as he tried to creep +out of the treasure-chamber, by the falling of the stone slab. It must +have been sudden, for the stump of a paper cigar was still seized in his +wrinkled lips, while the snakelike curls twined about his ears, and his +wary eye looked out with its usual suspicious intensity, and seemed to +throw out a spark of fire in the reflection of the torch. Rising from a +coil in a slimy bed of sand before the head was a venomous serpent, with +his graceful neck curved into the broad flat head, all like an ebony +cane, straight, motionless, and elegant to the curved top--fascinated by +that single living orb of the dead man. + +The human intruder left this well-matched pair to their own venomous +devices, and winding his way on, he soon came to the open door to the +vaults. A powerful kick smashed in the door of the dungeon, and while +the rusty bolts were still ringing on the stone pavement, Paul Darcantel +entered the loathsome chamber. + +He saw nothing at first save a few fragments of broken crockery and a +rusty metal pot--not even a rat. But flaring the torch down upon the +mouldy floor something sparkled in the light. This he snatched, and it +was the long-lost locket and chain which had last rested around the +baby-boy's neck. + +When the doctor strode back to the esplanade of the chapel he found +Benjamin Brown and Banou taking a friendly sip out of the tin pot. + +"Well, sir," said Ben, as he got on his pins and strapped on his +cutlass, "there he is, sir! and as neat a piece of cross-lashing as ever +I did. He looks as if he growed there, jist like a hawk-bill turtle +a-bilin' in the ship's coppers, only he can't paddle about. + +"I did it marciful, too, sir, and tried to convarse with him, in case he +had any presents to make to his friends. + +"Why, sir, and would you believe it? I offered to pour a drop of +grog--mixed or raw--down his tight mouth, but he never had the +perliteness to thank me or ax me a question, but only looked wicked at +me. Consarn him! if he had only winked, I wouldn't mind it!" said Ben, +with much indignation; "but, howsever, I don't b'lieve he's any think to +leave or any friends left!" + +But Captain Brand, though speechless without being tongue-tied, and +unable to wink, still thought. And what did the doctor propose to do +with him in case he was not to be stung to death by insects, sand-flies, +musquitoes, and what not? + +"Lift the trestle for the last time, men, and stand it here over this +thick bed of cactus, so as the little finger may touch the letter on +this white tomb-stone." + +Now Captain Brand's doubts were relieved, and he knew what was coming. +Oh ho! ho! + +"There! that is right! Now collect stones and rocks, and wall this +trestle up solid to the edge of the frame, so that a hurricane can't +loosen it." + +Big Banou went to work now, and presently his job was done--coral rocks, +and loose head-stones of pirates, well packed down with sand, made the +sides of the living tomb. Then the black pall was drawn over the body, +and they left the pirate to his inevitable doom. + +Soon the three executioners reached the Tiger's Trap. + +"Banou, take this locket and chain--ah! you know it well--to your young +master. Brown, the two thousand dollars will be placed in your and +Greenfield's hands for distribution among the schooner's crew; make a +good use of it! Tell the commodore that I shall take an old woman we +have found here away with me in a stolen fisherman's boat to Manzanillo, +and within the year I shall be at home! There! shove off, my lads!" + +As the gig skimmed through the Tiger's Trap, Paul Darcantel, with the +widow of Ignaçio, sailed out by the Alligator's Mouth, and as they +crossed that roaring ledge, the sun sank in its unclouded glory in the +west, and the young moon, with its thin pearly crescent, looked timidly +down upon the island. + +And the night passed, and the next and the next, with scorching days and +blazing suns between them; while the mangrove, the palm, the cocoa-nut, +and the cactus--ah! that luxuriant plant throve apace--shooting up its +steel-pointed bayonets two inches of a night in thorny needles as thick +as pins in a paper, growing clean through the hide of ox or man like +blood, till their hard-edged leaves met resistance, when, turning flat +side up, they put forth a score for one of the needle bayonets! No +escape from them. From shoulder to heel one long, hopeless agony. The +fierce sun flaming down, absorbed by the black pall of death! The moon +glimmering in pale white rays of splendor through the moth-eaten holes +upon the finger and the white tomb-stone! All the day and all the +night! + +Was it a dream, Captain Brand? No, a frightful reality! Don't you feel a +fresh thorn at every slow pulse of the heart they are aiming at? And +don't you hear those dread croakings of gulls and cormorants flapping in +the air, who have left their prey on the reef to join the vultures in +their feast on the shore? You may almost catch the grating sounds of the +rasping jaws of the sharks as they crowd into the inlet, and rest their +cold noses on the shelly cove where you slept! + +Flesh and blood, and pinions and beaks can endure it no longer. A cloud +of carnivorous birds swoop down at last, snap the black pall in their +talons and bills, and fly fighting and screaming away with it. Another +cloud, darker than the rest, light upon the body, and while the +needle-points pierce the palpitating heart, and the breath flutters on +the still clenched lips and nostrils, the eyes are picked out, and the +flesh is torn piecemeal, hide strands and all, till nothing is left but +a hideous white skeleton, with the long bony finger pointing to the +letter L. + +The lizards wheetled on the rocks, the alligators lashed the lagoon amid +the steaming mist of the mangrove roots; the sharks and birds returned +to the reefs, the cocoa-nuts waved their tufted tops, the palms crackled +in the shower and gale, and the pure inlet murmured musically on the +shelly shore for years and years over and around the deserted key, until +the whitened bones crumbled into dust, and were borne away by the four +winds of heaven. + + * * * * * + +The hemp has been tarred and spread, the strands twisted, and the rope +laid up. The knots have been turned in between good sailors and +bad--between pirates and men-of-war's-men--and here Harry Gringo hauls +down his pennant until his reading crew care again to take a cruise with +him in blue water. + + + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + + Standard Works + OF + =Discovery and Adventure in Africa=. + + PUBLISHED BY + HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, N. Y. + + _Sent by Mail, postage pre-paid, on receipt of price._ + + _The amount of travel literature which HARPER & BROTHERS have + published relating to Africa makes a curious list, and + illustrates the bent of geographical and political examination + for some time past. The octavos of Burton, Barth, Livingstone, + Du Chaillu, Davis, and a number of other celebrated travellers, + form a small library, all the result of the last few years' + devotion to African exploration_--N. Y. JOURNAL OF COMMERCE. + +=Speke's Africa.= Journal of the Discovery of the Sources of the Nile. +By JOHN HANNING SPEKE, Captain H.M. Indian Army, Fellow and Gold +Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society, Hon. Corr. Member and Gold +Medalist of the French Geographical Society, &c. With Map and Portraits, +and numerous Illustrations, chiefly from Drawings by Captain GRANT. 8vo, +Cloth, $3 50. + +=Reade's Savage Africa.= Western Africa: being the Narrative of a Tour +of Equatorial, Southwestern, and Northwestern Africa; with Notes on the +Habits of the Gorilla; on the Existence of Unicorns and Tailed Men; on +the Slave Trade; on the Origin, Character, and Capabilities of the +Negro, and of the future Civilization of Western Africa. By W. WINWOOD +READE, Fellow of the Geog. and Anthropological Soc. of Lond., and Corr. +Member of the Geog. Soc. of Paris. With Illustrations and a Map. 8vo, +Cloth, $3 50. + +=Du Chaillu's Equatorial Africa.= Explorations and Adventures in +Equatorial Africa; with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the +People, and of the Chase of the Gorilla, the Crocodile, Leopard, +Elephant, Hippopotamus, and other Animals. By PAUL B. DU CHAILLU, Corr. +Member of the Amer. Ethnological Soc.; of the Geog. and Statistical Soc. +of New York, and of the Bost. Soc. of Nat. Hist. Maps and numerous +Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 75. + +=Baldwin's African Hunting.= African Hunting from Natal to the Zambesi, +including Lake Ngami, the Kalahari Desert, &c., from 1852 to 1860. By +WILLIAM CHARLES BALDWIN, F.R.G.S. With Map, Fifty Illustrations by Wolf +and Zwecker, and a Portrait of the Great Sportsman. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +=Andersson's Okavango River.= The Okavango River: A Narrative of Travel, +Exploration, and Adventure. By CHARLES JOHN ANDERSSON, Author of "Lake +Ngami." With Steel Portrait of the Author, numerous Wood-cuts, and a Map +showing the Regions explored by Andersson, Cumming, Livingstone, Burton, +and Du Chaillu. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. + +=Andersson's Lake Ngami.= Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and Discoveries +during Four Years' Wanderings in the Wilds of Southwestern Africa. By +CHARLES JOHN ANDERSSON. With numerous Illustrations, representing +Sporting Adventures, Subjects for Natural History, Devices for +destroying Wild Animals, &c. New Edition. 12mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +=Livingstone's South Africa.= Missionary Travels and Researches in South +Africa; including a Sketch of a Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior +of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loando on the +West Coast; thence across the Continent, down the River Zambesi, to the +Eastern Ocean. By DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D., D.C.L. With Portrait, Maps, +and numerous Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. + +=Davis's Carthage.= Carthage and her Remains: Being an Account of the +Excavations and Researches on the Site of the Phoenician Metropolis in +Africa and other adjacent Places, under the Auspices of Her Majesty's +Government. By Dr. N. DAVIS, F.R.G.S. Profusely illustrated with Maps, +Wood-cuts, Chromo-Lithographs, &c., &c. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. + +=Burton's Central Africa.= The Lake Regions of Central Africa. A Picture +of Exploration. By RICHARD F. BURTON, Capt. H.M.I. Army; Fellow and Gold +Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society. With Maps and Engravings on +Wood. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. + +=Barth's North and Central Africa.= Travels and Discoveries in North and +Central Africa. Being a Journal of an Expedition undertaken under the +Auspices of H.B.M.'s Government in the Years 1849-1855. By HENRY BARTH, +Ph.D., D.C.L. Profusely and elegantly illustrated. Complete in 3 vols. +8vo, Cloth, $9. + +=Cumming's South Africa.= Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Interior +of South Africa. With Notices of the Native Tribes, and Anecdotes of the +Chase of the Lion, Elephant, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, Rhinoceros, &c. By +GORDON CUMMING. With Illustrations. 2 vols. 12mo, Cloth, $2 50. + +=Wilson's Western Africa.= Western Africa: Its History, Condition, and +Prospects. By REV. J. LEIGHTON WILSON, Eighteen Years a Missionary in +Africa. With numerous Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. + + Mr. Wilson, an American missionary, has written the best book I + have seen on the West Coast.--Dr. LIVINGSTONE, _Rivershire, W. + Africa_, Feb. 20, 1863. + +=Discovery and Adventures in Africa.= Condensed Abstracts of the +Narratives of African Travellers. By Professor JAMESON, JAMES WILSON, +and HUGH MURRAY. 18mo, Cloth, 50 cents. + +=The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African Traveller.= By Major Sir +FRANCIS B. HEAD. 18mo, Cloth, 50 cents. + +=Lander's Niger Expedition.= Journal of an Expedition to explore the +Course and Termination of the Niger. With a Narrative of a Voyage down +that River to its Termination. By R. and J. LANDER. Engravings. 2 vols. +18mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +=Urquhart's Pillars of Hercules.= The Pillars of Hercules; or, A +Narrative of Travels in Spain and Morocco in 1848. By DAVID URQUHART, +M.P. 2 vols. 12mo, Cloth, $2 50. + +=Owen's Voyages.= Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and +Madagascar: performed under the Direction of Captain W. F. W. OWEN, R.N. +2 vols. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +=Mungo Park's Central Africa.= Travels of Mungo Park, with the Account +of his Death, from the Journal of Isaaco, and later Discoveries relative +to his lamented Fate, and the Termination of the Niger. 18mo, Cloth, 50 +cents. + + +=MADAGASCAR.= + +=The Last Travels of Ida Pfeiffer=: inclusive of a Visit to Madagascar. +With an Autobiographical Memoir of the Author. Translated by H. W. +DULCKEN. Steel Portrait. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. (Uniform with Ida +Pfeiffer's "Second Journey round the World"). + +=Three Visits to Madagascar=, during the Years 1853-1854-1856. Including +a Journey to the Capital, with Notices of the Natural History of the +Country and of the Present Civilization of the People. By the Rev. +WILLIAM ELLIS, F.H.S. With a Map and Wood-cuts from Photographs, &c. +8vo, Cloth, $3 00. + + * * * * * + + + + +=HARPER'S WEEKLY FOR 1864.= + +HARPER'S WEEKLY is devoted to Art, Literature, General Information, and +Politics. It will contain a carefully condensed and impartial record of +the events of the day, pictorially illustrated wherever the pencil of +the Artist can aid the pen of the Writer. In Politics it will advocate +the National Cause, wholly irrespective of mere party grounds. Its +Essays, Poems, and Tales will be furnished by the ablest writers of both +Continents. A new Novel, by Mr. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA, entitled "QUITE +ALONE," will, by special arrangement with the Author, appear in the +WEEKLY simultaneously with its publication in Mr. DICKENS'S "_All the +Year Round_." The Publishers will see to it that the current Volume +shall justify the favorable opinions expressed by the loyal Press upon +the Volume which has just closed. + + +=Extracts from Notices by the Press.= + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY is the best publication of its class in America, and so +far ahead of all other weekly journals as not to permit of any +comparison between it and any of their number. Its columns contain the +finest collections of reading matter that are printed. Thus, if you look +into the Volume for 1863, you will find that its stories, and +miscellaneous articles, and poetry are from the minds of some of the +leading writers of the time. Its matter is of a very various character +from elaborate tales and well-considered editorial articles to the +airiest and briefest jests, good-humored hits at the expense of human +follies, which proceed from the liveliest of minds. It is a vigorous +supporter of the war--discussing all questions that concern the contest +in which we are engaged with an amplitude of perception and a breadth of +patriotism that place it very high indeed on the roll of loyal and +liberal publications. Its illustrations are numerous and beautiful, +being furnished by the chief artists of the country. Most of the +illustrations are devoted to the war, including battle-pieces, scenes +made renowned by great events there occurring, and portraits of eminent +military and civil leaders. Even a person who could not read a line of +its letter-press could intelligently follow the history of the war +through 1863 by going over the pictured pages of this volume,"--_Evening +Traveller_ (Boston.) + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY, besides being a literary paper of the first class--the +only one among American or European Pictorials with a definite purpose +consistently and constantly carried out--is at once a leading political +and historical annalist of the nation."--_The Press_ (Philadelphia). + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY.--In turning over its pages, we were struck anew with +the fidelity with which it delineates passing events: a true picture of +the times. The scenes of the war, portrayed by the graphic pencils of +artists on the battle-field and in the camp, are re-produced in excellent +wood-cuts with marvelous promptness and accuracy. The letter-press +furnishes an appropriate accompaniment to the illustrations; presenting +a pleasing variety, sprightly and entertaining. We can not wonder at the +popularity of the _Weekly_ when we observe the spirit and enterprise +with which it is conducted."--_Journal_ (Boston). + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY FOR 1863.--From a careful examination of this work, as +it came out in it weekly form, we can honestly advise our readers to +purchase the stately and pictured volume. We dare not say how many +duodecimo volumes of matter, and of good and interesting matter, it +contains. As a record of the events and opinions of the past year, and +as literally a picture of the time, it has a permanent value, while its +wealth of excellent stories and essays makes it an endless source of +entertainment. The original editorial articles are of a very high order +of merit, and relate to subjects which attract the attention of all +intelligent and patriotic minds. Soundness of thought, liberality of +sentiment, and thorough-going loyalty find expression in the most +exquisite English. Altogether, we should say that _Harper's Weekly_ is a +necessity in every household."--_The Transcript_ (Boston). + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY and MAGAZINE, with their immense circulation, are +grandly loyal and influential. The _Weekly_ especially has been true to +the cause; and while it gives in admirable correspondence and accurate +pictures a complete illustrated history of the war, with all its +battles, incidents, and portraits of generals, it has splendidly +enforced by argument and example its principles. Closer reasoning is not +to be found than that to which its editors might fairly challenge +answer."--_City Item_ (Philadelphia). + +_Notices of Harper's Weekly._ + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY, of which the Seventh Volume is now issued in neat, +substantial binding, shows the industry and zeal with which the cause of +the Union has been maintained in its columns during the year 1863. It +has continued to increase the fervor of patriotic sentiment as well by +its appropriate pictorial illustrations as by its able editorial leaders +commenting on the events of the day. In its present shape, the journal +furnishes copious materials for the history of the war, and can not fail +to find a place in public and private libraries as an important volume +for permanent reference."--_Tribune_ (New York). + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY _for_ 1863--a journal of the year, kept in the most +interesting way; and as we turn over the pages we revive many now +almost forgotten sensations, and see, bit by bit, how history has +grown. The volume closed and bound up becomes history; but it would +not be just to this publication to omit a remark on the influence +which it has exerted during the year, and which it continues to exert. +An illustrated journal like _Harper's Weekly_, which circulates, as +we have heard, over one hundred and twenty thousand copies per week, +chiefly among families, and which has probably a million of readers, has +necessarily a great influence in the country. The _Weekly_ has +consistently and very ably supported the Union, the Government, and +the great principles to develop which the Union was founded. Unlike most +illustrated journals, _Harper's Weekly_ has displayed political and +literary ability of a high order as well as artistic merit. Its +political discussions are sound, clear, and convincing, and have done +their share to educate the American people to a right understanding of +their dangers and duties. In its speciality--illustrations of passing +events--it is unsurpassed; and many of the pictures of the year do +honor to the genius of the artists and engravers of this country. +Thus complete in all the departments of an American Family Journal, +_Harper's Weekly_ has earned for itself a right to the title which it +assumed seven years ago, 'A JOURNAL OF CIVILIZATION.'"--_Evening Post_ +(New York). + +HARPER'S WEEKLY.--This periodical merits special notice at the present +time. There is probably no weekly publication of the country that equals +its influence. More than one hundred thousand copies fly over the land +weekly: they are read in our cars, steamboats, and families. Our youth +especially read them; and as _the_ family newspaper of the nation, its +power over the forming opinions of the next generation of the American +people is an important item. + +It is abundant, if not superabundant, in pictorial illustrations--a +means of strong impression, especially on the minds of the young. Both +by its illustrations and its incessant discussion of the occurrences and +questions of the war it is a "current history" and "running commentary" +on the great event, and there is probably no literary agency of the day +more effective in its influence respecting the war in the families of +the common people. Most happy are we then to be able to say that this +responsible power is exerted altogether on the side of loyalty. No paper +in the land is more outspoken, more uncompromising for the Union, for +the war, for even the policy of the President's "great Proclamation." +When the rebellion broke out we did the publishers the injustice of some +anxious fears about their probable course on the subject. + +Steadily have they kept up with the Providential development of its +events and questions; not only abreast of them, but, in important +respects, ahead of them. No periodical press in the nation deserves +better of the country for its faithfulness and "pluck" in all matters +relating to the great struggle. And we should do it injustice were we +not to add that, with its outright loyalty and bravery, it combines +commanding ability. The editorial leaders which it continuously +flings out against all political traitors and flunkies strike +directly at their mark. They are evidently from pens both strong and +polished. On even the astuter subjects of policy, finance, &c., it +is eminently able. And it makes no mistake in supposing its readers +capable of an interest and of intelligence in these respects. +American families look keenly into such questions, and with such a +really educational force as this paper wields, it is especially right +and commendable that it seeks to elevate the common mind to the higher +questions of the times. The American people will not fail to notice +and to remember the courageous and patriotic course of _Harper's Weekly_ +in these dark times of hideous treason, and of more hideous, because +more contemptible, semi-treason.--_The Methodist, N. Y._ + + + TERMS. + + One Copy for Four Months $1 00 + One Copy for One Year 3 00 + Two Copies for One Year 5 50 + "Harper's Weekly" and "Harper's Magazine" one year 5 50 + + +_An Extra Copy of either the Weekly or Magazine will be supplied gratis +for every Club of TEN SUBSCRIBERS, at $2 75 each; or, Eleven Copies for +$27 50._ + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's note: + +The author's archaic spelling is preserved, including creative +Spanish spelling such as "Guantamano" and "Hasta huego". + +The author's punctuation style is preserved. + +Hyphenation has been made consistent. + +In addition to making hyphenation consistent, the following +changes were made to the original text: + + Page 18: =Escondide= standardized to =Escondido= (Why, + madame, it is only a week ago that a lot of us dined with + him at his estate of =Escondido=) + + Page 19: Added quote (he continued, turning toward the + skipper, as the clear sound of the cruiser's bell struck his + ear, ="I must= not forget what I came for.") + + Page 29: Added tilde ("_El Doctor =Señor=, con tres de + nosotros._") + + Page 34: Removed extra end quote from "ho!" (sputtered the + ruffian, as he pulled a pistol from his belt, ="ho!= you + mean fight, do ye?") + + Page 49: Removed accent from "e" ('_=Bueno=!_' There's more + fish in the sea--and under it too!) + + Page 85: Changed from single quote (="But= the best of the + joke was, the moment he spoke) + + Page 86: Added accent (In the centre arose a huge =épergne= + of silver, fashioned into the shape of a drooping + palm-tree) + + Page 92: Added tilde ("And the =señorita's= too, I + think,") + + Page 136: Removed dash from =money--you= (I wouldn't remain + another hour in this filthy hole for all the =money you= + have cheated me out of, you old rascal.) + + Page 166: =hirtling= changed to =hurtling= (No more pauses + or lulls now in the =hurtling= tempest) + + Page 185: =epaulettes= standardized to =epaulets= (in + cocked hat, full-dress coat, a pair of gleaming =epaulets=, + sword by his hip, and his nether limbs cased in white + knee-breeches) + + Page 205: Added quote (="Well=, gentlemen, for some weeks + after these occurrences we sailed about the islands) + + Page 205: =Mosquito= standardized to =Musquito= (The orders + were to beat up the south side of Cuba, where we expected to + fall in with the =Musquito= fleet and some English vessels) + + Page 225: =is= changed to =its= (A minute later, all that + was left of the shattered hull fell broadside into the open + fangs of the ledge, which ground it with =its= merciless + jaws into toothpicks.) + + Page 252: Removed repeated "at all" (he didn't like his + looks =at all=, though he did make himself so fascinating to + the beautiful widow who sat next him) + + Page 261: =believeing= changed to =believing= (as there is + much reason for =believing= he did--with great disgust, on + board the dirty, dumpy old ballahoo) + + Page 284: =tholl-pins= changed to =thole-pins= (The sweeps + paused, the hide gromets resting on the =thole-pins=, and + the water raining from their broad blades.) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN BRAND OF THE "CENTIPEDE"*** + + +******* This file should be named 29047-8.txt or 29047-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/0/4/29047 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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A. (Henry Augustus) Wise</title> +<style type="text/css"> + p {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + body {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + @media screen { + hr.pb {margin:30px 0; width:100%; border:none;border-top:thin dashed silver;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; position: absolute; right: 2%; padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; background-color: inherit; border:1px solid #eee;} + .pncolor {color: silver;} + } + @media print { + hr.pb {border:none;page-break-after: always;} + .pagenum { display:none; } + } + hr.fn {width:3em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; margin-left:0; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em;} + .trnote {background-color: #EEE; color: inherit; margin: 2em 5% 1em 5%; font-size: 80%; padding: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 4.25em; text-indent: -3.75em; border: dotted 1px gray;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; left:-3em; top:0; text-align: left;} + hr.short {width: 20%;} + body {margin-left: 3.25em; margin-right: 3.25em;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; width:80%; margin-bottom:0.75em; font-size: 0.9em; position:relative;} + .nowrap {white-space: nowrap;} + h1,h2,h3,h4 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + img {border: none;} + .figcenter {margin: 2em auto 2em auto; text-align: center;} + .figtag {height: 1px;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: 0.25em; text-decoration: none; background-color: #DDD; font-size: .9em;} + blockquote {display: block; margin: .75em 10% .75em 5%;} + .larger {font-size: large;} + hr.invis {margin: 1em auto; visibility: hidden;} + .caption {font-size:0.9em; font-weight: bold;} + div + table, h3 + table {padding-bottom: 1em;} + hr.tb {border:none; margin-top: 2em;} + .muchlarger {font-size: x-large;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + .pagenum {right: .2em;} + hr.major {width: 80%; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; clear:both; margin: 1em auto;} + .center, .center p {text-align: center;} + .smaller {font-size: small;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + hr {text-align: center; margin: 2em auto; clear: both; width: 65%;} + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Captain Brand of the "Centipede", by H. A. +(Henry Augustus) Wise</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Captain Brand of the "Centipede"</p> +<p> A Pirate of Eminence in the West Indies: His Love and Exploits, Together with Some Account of the Singular Manner by Which He Departed This Life</p> +<p>Author: H. A. (Henry Augustus) Wise</p> +<p>Release Date: June 5, 2009 [eBook #29047]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN BRAND OF THE "CENTIPEDE"***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Katherine Ward,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from digital material generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries<br /> + (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/toronto">http://www.archive.org/details/toronto</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See + <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/captainbrandofce00wiseuoft"> + http://www.archive.org/details/captainbrandofce00wiseuoft</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_1' id='linki_1'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-frontise.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 520px; height: 600px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 520px;'> +CAPTAIN BRAND.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<div class="center"> +<h1>CAPTAIN BRAND,<br /> +<span class="smaller">OF THE</span><br /> +“CENTIPEDE.”</h1> +<p>A PIRATE OF EMINENCE IN THE WEST INDIES:</p> +<p>His Loves and Exploits,</p> +<p><span class='smcap'>together with some account of the singular manner<br /> +by which he departed this life.</span></p> +<hr class='invis' /> +<p><span class='smcap'>by</span><br /> +<span class="larger">HARRY GRINGO,</span><br /> +(H. A. WISE, U.S.N.),</p> +<p><span class='smcap'>author of “los gringos,” “tales for the marines,” and +“scampavias.”</span></p> +<hr class='invis' /> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Our God and sailors we alike adore,<br /> +In time of danger––not before;<br /> +The danger passed, both are alike requited:<br /> +God is forgotten, and the sailor slighted.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.</p> +<hr class='invis' /> +<p>NEW YORK:<br /> +HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,<br /> +<span class='smcap'>franklin square.</span><br /> +1864.</p> +<hr class='invis' /> +<p>Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, by</p> +<p><span class='smcap'>harper & brothers,</span></p> +<p>In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Southern District +of New York.</p> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'> +<tr> + <td valign='top' colspan='3'><p class="smcap larger center">Part I</p></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'><p class="smaller">CHAPTER</p></td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'> </td> + <td valign='top' align='right'><p class="smaller" style='text-align:right;'>PAGE</p></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>I.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Spreading the Strands</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_I__SPREADING_THE_STRANDS'>5</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>II.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Calm</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_II__CALM'>7</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>III.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>High Noon</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_III__HIGH_NOON'>15</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Sunset</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_IV__SUNSET'>21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>V.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Darkness</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_V__DARKNESS'>24</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Danger</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_VI__DANGER'>33</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Meeting and Mourning</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_VII__THE_MEETING_AND_MOURNING'>42</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Captain Brand at Home</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_VIII__CAPTAIN_BRAND_AT_HOME'>44</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Captain and Mate</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_IX__CAPTAIN_AND_MATE'>53</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>X.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>An Old Spaniard with One Eye</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_X__AN_OLD_SPANIARD_WITH_ONE_EYE'>61</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Conversation in Pockets and Sleeves</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XI__CONVERSATION_IN_POCKETS_AND_SLEEVES'>69</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Doctor and Priest</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XII__DOCTOR_AND_PRIEST'>73</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>A Manly Fandango</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIII__A_MANLY_FANDANGO'>79</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>A Pirates’ Dinner</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIV__A_PIRATES_DINNER'>85</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Drowning a Mother to Murder a Daughter</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XV__DROWNING_A_MOTHER_TO_MURDER_A_DAUGHTER'>92</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Nuptials of the Girl with Dark Eyes</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XVI__NUPTIALS_OF_THE_GIRL_WITH_DARK_EYES'>103</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Doom of Doña Lucia</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XVII__DOOM_OF_DOA_LUCIA'>112</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>End of the Banquet</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XVIII__END_OF_THE_BANQUET'>119</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Fandango on One Leg</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIX__FANDANGO_ON_ONE_LEG'>122</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Business</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XX__BUSINESS'>133</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Treasure</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXI__TREASURE'>138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Pleasure</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXII__PLEASURE'>144</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Work</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIII__WORK'>150</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Caught in a Net</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIV__CAUGHT_IN_A_NET'>154</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Mouse that Gnawed the Net</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXV__THE_MOUSE_THAT_GNAWED_THE_NET'>160</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Hurricane</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVI__THE_HURRICANE'>166</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Virgin Mary</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVII__THE_VIRGIN_MARY'>168</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXVIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Ark that Jack Built</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVIII__THE_ARK_THAT_JACK_BUILT'>173</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' colspan='3'> </td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' colspan='3'><p class="smcap larger center">Part II</p></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Laying Up the Strands</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIX__LAYING_UP_THE_STRANDS'>179</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Old Friends</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXX__OLD_FRIENDS'>186</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Commander of the “Rosalie”</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXI__THE_COMMANDER_OF_THE_ROSALIE'>193</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>A Splice Parted</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXII__A_SPLICE_PARTED'>198</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Blue Pennant in the Cabin</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXIII__THE_BLUE_PENNANT_IN_THE_CABIN'>201</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXIV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Devil to Pay</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXIV__THE_DEVIL_TO_PAY'>203</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>And the Pitch Hot</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXV__AND_THE_PITCH_HOT'>208</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXVI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Chase</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXVI__THE_CHASE'>214</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXVII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Wreck of the “Centipede”</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXVII__THE_WRECK_OF_THE_CENTIPEDE'>220</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXVIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Vultures and Sharks</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXVIII__VULTURES_AND_SHARKS'>226</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXXIX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Escondido</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXIX__ESCONDIDO'>231</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XL.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Paul Darcantel</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XL__PAUL_DARCANTEL'>236</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XLI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Instinct and Wonder</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLI__INSTINCT_AND_WONDER'>243</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XLII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Truth and Terror</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLII__TRUTH_AND_TERROR'>247</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XLIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Peace and Love</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLIII__PEACE_AND_LOVE'>252</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XLIV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Snuff out of a Diamond Box</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLIV__SNUFF_OUT_OF_A_DIAMOND_BOX'>256</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XLV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Lilies and Sea-weed</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLV__LILIES_AND_SEAWEED'>262</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XLVI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Parting</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLVI__PARTING'>266</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XLVII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>Devotion</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLVII__DEVOTION'>270</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XLVIII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>All Alive Again</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLVIII__ALL_ALIVE_AGAIN'>273</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XLIX.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>The Rope Laid Up</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLIX__THE_ROPE_LAID_UP'>278</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>L.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span class='smcap'>On a Bed of Thorns</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#CHAPTER_L__ON_A_BED_OF_THORNS'>288</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Illustrations' style='margin:1em auto;'> +<col style='width:75%;' /> +<col style='width:25%;' /> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'></td> + <td valign='top' align='right'><p class="smaller" style='text-align:right;'>PAGE</p></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>Captain Brand</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_1'>Frontispiece</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>“When the Wind Comes from Good San Antonio”</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_2'>12</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>The Pirates Boarding the Brig</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_3'>26</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>The Night Chase</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_4'>38</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>The Pirate Den</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_5'>47</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>The “Panchita”</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_6'>50</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>“He Touched the Bell Overhead as He Spoke”</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_7'>65</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>A Pirates’ Dinner</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_8'>85</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>The Pirate’s Prey</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_9'>94</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>“A Supernatural Warning!”</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_10'>116</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>Shriving a Sinner</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_11'>124</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>“He Crept Forward on Hands and Knees”</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_12'>141</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>“A Dull, Heavy, Booming Roar”</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_13'>156</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>“See If You Can Not Slip That Pretty Silk Rope Over my Head”</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_14'>162</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>Building the Boat</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_15'>174</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>The United States Frigate “Monongahela”</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_16'>183</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>“Queer Old Stick, That!” Said the Commodore</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_17'>188</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>And the Pitch Hot</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_18'>208</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>The Stern Chase</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_19'>217</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>“His Right Arm Poised with Clenched Hand Aloft,” Etc.</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_20'>256</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>The Old Water-Logged Launch</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_21'>280</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span class='smcap'>“Now Captain Brand Knew What Was Coming”</span></td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#linki_22'>294</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2>PART I.</h2> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='CHAPTER_I__SPREADING_THE_STRANDS' id='CHAPTER_I__SPREADING_THE_STRANDS'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER I.<br /><br />SPREADING THE STRANDS.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Shout three times three, like Ocean’s surges,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Join, brothers, join, the toast with me;</span><br /> +Here’s to the wind of life, which urges<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The ship with swelling waves o’er sea!”</span><br /> + <br /> +“Masters, I can not spin a yarn<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Twice laid with words of silken stuff.</span><br /> +A fact’s a fact; and ye may larn<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The rights o’ this, though wild and rough</span><br /> +My words may loom. ’Tis your consarn,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Not mine, to understand. Enough––”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>It was</span> in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and five, and in +the River Garonne, where a large, wholesome merchant brig lay +placidly on the broad and shining water. The fair city of Bordeaux, +with its great mass of yellow-tinted buildings, towers, and churches, +rose from the river’s banks, and the din and bustle of the great mart +came faintly to the ear. The sails of the brig were loosed, the crew +were hauling home the sheets and hoisting the top-sails with the clear, +hearty songs of English sailors, while the anchor was under foot and +the cable rubbing with a taut strain against the vessel’s bluff bows. +At the gangway stood a large, handsome seaman, bronzed by the sun +and winds of about half a century, dressed in a square-cut blue jacket +and loose trowsers, talking to the pilot––a brown little Frenchman, +in coarse serge raiment and large, clumsy sabots. The conversation +between them was carried on partly by signs, for, in answer to the +pilot, the other threw his stalwart arm aloft toward the folds of the +spreading canvas, and nodded his head.</p> +<p>“<i>Fort bien! vite donc! mon Capitaine</i>,” said the pilot; “the tide +is on the ebb; let us go. Up anchor!”</p> +<p>“Ay, pilot!” replied the captain, pulling out his watch; “in ten +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span> +minutes. The ladies, you know, must have time to say ‘good-by.’ +Isn’t it so, my pilot?”</p> +<p>The gallant little Frenchman smiled in acquiescence, and, taking +off his glazed hat with the air of a courtier, said, “<i>Pardieu!</i> certainly; +why not? Jean Marie would lose his pilotage rather than hurry +a lady.”</p> +<p>Going aft to the raised cabin on the quarter-deck, the captain softly +opened the starboard door, and looking in, said, in a kindly tone,</p> +<p>“It is time to part, my friends; the pilot says we are losing the +strength of the tide, so we must kiss and be off.”</p> +<p>Two lovely women were sitting, hand clasped in hand, on the sofa +of the transom. You saw they were sisters of nearly the same age, +and a little boy and girl tumbling about their knees showed they +were mothers––young mothers too, for the soft, full, rounded forms +of womanhood, with the flush of health and matronly pride tinged +their cheeks, while masses of dark hair banded over their smooth +brows and tearful eyes told the story at a glance. They rose together +as the captain spoke.</p> +<p>“<i>Adieu, chère Rosalie!</i> we shall soon meet again, let us hope, +never more to part.”</p> +<p>“Adieu, Nathalie! adieu, dearest sister! adieu! adieu!”</p> +<p>The loving arms were twined around each other in the last embrace; +the tears fell like gentle rain, but with smiles of hope and +trustfulness they parted.</p> +<p>“Ay,” said the sturdy skipper, as he stood with eyes brimful of +moisture regarding the sisters, “ay, trust me for bringing you together +again. Well do I remember when you were little wee things, +when I brought you to France after the earthquake in Jamaica; just +like these little rogues here”––and he laid his brawny hands on the +heads of the children, who clung to each other within the folds of +their mothers’ dresses; “but never fear, my darlings,” he went on, +“you will meet happily again. Ay, that you shall, if old Jacob Blunt +be above land or water.”</p> +<p>A boat which was lying alongside the brig shoved off; the little +boy, who had been left on board, was held high above the rail in the +arms of a sturdy negro, while the mother stood beside him, waving +her handkerchief to the boat as it pulled rapidly away toward the +shore.</p> +<p>“Man the windlass, lads!” cried the captain. “Mister Binks, +brace round the head-yards, and up with the jib as soon as the +anchor’s a-weigh.”</p> +<p>The windlass clinked as the iron palls caught the strain of the +cable, the anchor was wrenched from its oozy bed, the vessel’s head +fell off, and, gathering way, she moved quietly down the River Garonne.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_II__CALM' id='CHAPTER_II__CALM'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER II.<br /><br />CALM.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“It ceased: yet still the sails made on<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>A pleasant noise till noon––</span><br /> +A noise like that of a hidden brook<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>In the leafy month of June.</span><br /> +Till noon we quietly sailed on,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Yet never a breeze did breathe;</span><br /> +Slowly and smoothly went the ship,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Moved onward from beneath.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> great lumbering brig, with yards square, main-sail hauled up, +and the jib and trysail in the brails, lay listlessly rolling on the easy +swell of the water, giving a gentle send forward every minute or so, +when the sluggish sails would come with a thundering slap against +the masts, and the loose cordage would rattle like a drum-major’s +ratan on a spree. The sea was one glassy mirror of undulations, +shimmering out into full blaze as the rising sun just threw its rays +along the crest of the ocean swell; and then, dipping down into the +rolling mass, the hue would change to a dark green, and, coming up +again under the brig’s black counter, would swish out into a little +shower of bubbles, and sparkle again joyously.</p> +<p>Away off in the distance lay the island of Jamaica––the early haze +about the mountain tops rising like a white lace veil from the deep +valleys below, with here and there a white dot of a cluster of buildings +gleaming out from the sombre land like the flicker of a heliotrope, +and at intervals the base of the coast bursting forth in a long, +heavy fringe of foam, as the lazy breakers chafed idly about the rocks +of some projecting headland. Nearer, too, were the dark succession +of waving blue lines in parallel bars and patches of the young land +wind, tipping the backs of the rollers in a fluttering ripple of cats’-paws, +and then wandering sportively away out to sea.</p> +<p>On board the brig, forward, were three or four barefooted sailors, +in loose frocks and trowsers, moving lazily about the decks, drawing +buckets of water over the side and dashing it against the bulwarks, +while others were scrubbing and clearing up the vessel for the day. +The caboose, too, began to show signs of life, and a thin column of +smoke rose gracefully up in the calm morning air until it came within +the eddying influence of the sails and top-hamper, when a bit of +roll would puff it away in blue curls beyond.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span></div> +<p>Abaft stood a low, squat-built sailor at the wheel, his striped +Guernsey cap hanging on one of the spokes, and his body leaning, +half asleep, over the barrel, which gave him a sharp twitch every +now and then when the sea caught the rudder on the wrong side. +Near at hand, with an arm around an after top-mast backstay, and +head resting over the rail, was the mate, Mr. Binks, with a spy-glass +to his eye, through which he was peering at the distant hills of Jamaica. +Presently, as he was about to withdraw the brass tube, and +as the old brig yawed with her head inshore, something appeared to +arrest his attention; for, changing his position, and climbing up to +the break of the deck cabin, he steadied himself by the shrouds, and +rubbing his eye with the sleeve of his shirt, he gave a long look +through the glass, muttering to himself the while. At last, having +apparently made up his mind, he sang out to the man at the wheel +in this strain:</p> +<p>“Ben, my lad, look alive; catch a turn with them halliards over +the lee wheel; and just take this ’ere glass and trip up to the fore-yard, +and see what ye make of that fellow, here away under the eastermost +headland.”</p> +<p>Ben, without more ado, secured the spokes of the wheel, clapped +his cap on his head, hitched up his trowsers, and, taking the glass +from the mate, rolled away up the fore-rigging. Meanwhile Mr. +Binks walked forward, stopping a moment at the caboose to take a +tin pot of coffee from the cook, and then, going on to the topsail-sheet +bitts, he carefully seated himself, and leisurely began to stir +up the sugar in his beverage with an iron spoon, making a little +cymbal music with it on the outside while he gulped it down. He +had not been many minutes occupied in this way when Ben hailed +the deck from the fore-yard.</p> +<p>“On deck there!”</p> +<p>“Hallo!” ejaculated Mr. Binks.</p> +<p>“I see that craft,” cried Ben; “she’s a fore and after, sails down, +and sweeping along the land. She hasn’t got a breath of wind, +sir.”</p> +<p>“Very well,” said Mr. Binks, speaking into the tin pot with a +sound like a sheet-iron organ; “come down.”</p> +<p>As Ben wriggled himself off the fore-yard and caught hold of the +futtock shrouds to swing into the standing rigging, he suddenly +paused, and putting the glass again to his eye, he sang out:</p> +<p>“I say, sir! here is a big chap away off on the other quarter, under +top-sails. There! Perhaps ye can see him from the deck, about a +handspike clear of the sun”––pointing with the spy-glass as he spoke +in the proper direction.</p> +<p>“All right!” said the mate, as he began again the cymbal pot and +spoon music; “becalmed, ain’t he?”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span></div> +<p>“Yes, sir; not enough air to raise a hair on my old grandmother’s +wig!” muttered Ben, as he slowly trotted down the rigging.</p> +<p>The sun came up glowing like a ball of fire. The land wind died +away long before it fluttered far off from the island, and, saving the +uneasy clatter at times of the loose sails and running gear, all remained +as before. It was getting on toward eight o’clock, and while +the cook was dishing the breakfast mess for the crew beneath an +awning forward of the quarter-deck, the captain came up from his +cabin below. The stalwart old seaman stepped to the bulwarks, and, +shading his eyes with his hand from the glare, he took a broad glance +over the water to seaward, nodded to the mate, and said, in a cheerful +voice,</p> +<p>“Dull times, matey! No signs of a breeze yet, eh?”</p> +<p>“No, captain,” said Mr. Binks; “dead as ditch water; not been +enough air to lift a feather since you went below at four o’clock. +But we have sagged inshore by the current a few leagues during the +night, and here’s old Jamaica plain in sight broad off the bow.”</p> +<p>“Well, it’s not so bad after all, a forty-four days’ passage––so I’ll +tell my Lady Bird passenger.”</p> +<p>Going to the latticed door of the deck cabin, the jolly skipper +threw it wide open, clapped his hands together thrice, and then, +placing them to his mouth like a speaking-trumpet, he bellowed out, +in a deep, low roar,</p> +<p>“Heave out there, all hands! Heave out, Lady Bird and baby! +Land ho!”</p> +<p>There came a joyous note from a soft womanly voice within a +screen drawn across the after cabin, mingled with a little cooing +grunt from a child, and presently an inner door swung back, and the +sweetest little tot of a boy came tumbling out into the open space, +and sprang at once into the captain’s arms. The little fellow buried +his brown curly head into the old skipper’s whiskers, and then, kicking +up his fat naked legs, he laughed and chattered like a magpie.</p> +<p>“Aha! you young scamp, this small nose smells the oranges and +cinnamon, eh? And dear lazy mamma shuts her pretty eyes, and +won’t look for papa, and so near home, too!”</p> +<p>Here Madame Rosalie’s low sweet voice trilled out merrily in a +slightly foreign accent, while the contralto tones vibrated on the ear +like the note of a harp.</p> +<p>“Ah! <i>bon capitaine</i>, how could you deceive me? Still, I forgive +you for telling me last night that we were so far from Kingston. +When you know, too,” she went on in her Creole accent, “how I +love and want to see my dear husband these last four years, since +you carried him away in your good big ship. But never mind, my +good friend, I shall pay you off one of these days; and now send, +please, for Banou to dress his little boy.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span></div> +<p>Scarcely had the worthy skipper reached a bell-rope near at hand, +and given it one jerk, than the cabin door opened, and in stepped a +brawny black, whose bare woolly head and white teeth and eyes +glittered with delight. There was that about his face which indicated +intelligence, courage, devotion, and humanity––those indescribable +marks of expression which Nature sometimes stamps in +unmistakable lines on the skin, whether it be white or black. He +was below the middle height, but the large head was set with a +great swelling throat on the shoulders of a Titan. His loose white +and red striped shirt was thrown well back over his black and broad +chest; and putting out a pair of muscular arms that seemed as massive +and heavy as lignum vitæ, the boy jumped from the captain to +meet them; and then sticking his little soft legs down the slack of +Banou’s shirt, he ran his rosy fingers in his wool, and shouted with +glee.</p> +<p>“Oho!” said the black, as he passed his huge arms around the little +fellow, and smoothed down his scanty night-dress as if it were the +plumage of a bird, “oho! little Master Henri loves his Banou, eh? +Good, he take bath.”</p> +<p>Bearing his charge out upon the quarter-deck beneath the awning, +he pulled a large tub from under a boat turned upside down over +the deck cabin; and then, while the young monkey had scrambled +round to his back, and was beating a tattoo with his tiny fists on his +shoulders, Banou caught up a bucket and proceeded to draw water +from over the side, which he dashed into the tub. When he had +nearly filled the tub he felt around with his black paws as delicately +as if he was about to seize a musquito, and, clutching the kicking +legs with one hand, he spun the little fellow a somersault over his +head, and skinning off at the same time his diminutive frock, plunged +him into the sparkling brine, singing the while in a laughing chant:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Dis is the way strong Banou catch him,<br /> +First he strip and den he ’plash him;<br /> +Henri he jump and ’cream for his moder,<br /> +But Banou lub him more dan his broder!”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p>Here the brawny nurse would souse him head over heels in the +sparkling water, lift him up at every dip, rub his black nose all over +him, making mock bites at the little legs and stomach; and, finally, +holding him aloft, dripping, laughing, and struggling, go on with his +refrain:</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“What will papa say when he sees him,<br /> +Picaninny boy dat is sure to please him?<br /> +Big Banou he rub and dress him,<br /> +But little Henri he kick and pinch him!”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p>All this time the men seated forward on the deck, pegging away +deep into their mess-kids, would pause occasionally, shake their great +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span> +tarry fingers at the imp, and chuckle pleasantly with their mouths +full of lobscouse, as if the urchin belonged to them as individual +property.</p> +<p>“What a tidy little chap he’ll make some of these days,” said Ben, +“a-furlin’ the light sails in a squall! My eye! wouldn’t I like to live +and see him!”</p> +<p>“No, no, messmates,” replied that worthy, as he crunched a biscuit +and took a sip of coffee out of the pot, “that ’ere child will, some +of these times, when he’s growed a bit, be a-wearing gold swabs on +his shoulders, and a-givin’ his orders like a hadmiral of a fleet!”</p> +<p>“Quite right, my hearty! It’ll never do for sich a knowin’ little +chub to spend his days along shore a-bilin’ sugar-cane on a plantation, +and a-footin’ up accounts; for, ye mind, he was like the chip as was</p> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“‘Born at sea, and his cradle a frigate,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The boatswain he nursed him true blue;</span><br /> +He’ll soon learn to fight, drink, and jig it,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And quiz every soul of the crew!’”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p>While these old salts were thus carving out a destiny for the +youngster, the black gave him a final souse in the tub, and then +holding him up to drain, as it were, for the last time, exclaimed, +while his face lighted up with pleasure,</p> +<p>“Oho, my little massa! what will papa say to-morrow when he +sees his brave Henri?”</p> +<p>“Ah! how happy he will be, Banou!” said the lovely mother, who +had just come on deck, as she kissed the mouth of the young scamp, +while the black wrapped and dried his little naked body in a large +towel.</p> +<p>“Ah! yes, my mistress, we all will be happy once more to get +home to master on the plantation.”</p> +<p>“Tell me! tell me, good <i>capitaine</i>,” said she, turning in a pretty +coquettish way to the skipper, “when shall we get in port?”</p> +<p>It was a sight to see her, in the loose white morning-gown folded +in plaits about the swelling bosom, her slender waist clasped by a +flowing blue sash, the dark brown satin bands of her hair confined +by a large gold filigree pin, and half concealed by a jaunty little +French cap, with the ribbons floating about her pear-shaped ears; +and while her soft, dark hazel eyes were bent eagerly toward the +solid old skipper, her round, rosy, dimpled fingers clasped a miniature +locket fastened by a massive linked gold chain around her neck. +Ah! she was a sight to see and love!</p> +<p>“Tell me, <i>mon cher Capitaine</i> Blunt, how many hours or minutes +will it be before I shall behold my husband?”</p> +<p>The good-natured skipper laughed pleasantly at the eagerness of +his beautiful passenger, and opening his hands wide, he gave vent to +a long, low whistle, and replied,</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span></div> +<p>“When the wind comes from good San Antonio, my Lady Bird––when +the sea-breeze makes––then the old brig will reel off the knots! +But see! just now not a breath to keep a tropic bird’s wings out. +There, look at that fellow!”</p> +<p>High up in the heavens, two or three men-of-war birds, with wide-spread +pointed wings, and their swallow tails cut as sharp as knife-blades, +were heading seaward, and every little while falling in a rapid +sidelong plunge, as if in a vacuum, and then again giving an almost +imperceptible dash with their pinions as they recovered the lost space +and continued on in their silent flight.</p> +<p>“That’s a sure sign, Madame Rosalie,” continued the skipper, +“that the trade wind has blown itself out, and the chances are that +this hot sun will drink up the flying clouds, and leave us in a dead +calm till the moon quarters to-night. What say you, Mr. Binks? am +I right?”</p> +<p>“Never know’d you to be wrong, sir,” said the mate, with an honest +intonation of voice, as he tried to stare the sun out of countenance +in following the captain’s glance.</p> +<p>“<i>Hélas!</i>” said the young mother, with a little sigh of sadness, as +she stood peering over the lee rail to the green hills and slopes of the +island, standing boldly out now with the lofty blue mountains cutting +the sky ten thousand feet in mid-heaven; “so near, too; and he +is thinking and waiting for us!”</p> +<p>“Come,” exclaimed the skipper, heartily, “the youngster wants +his breakfast!”</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_2' id='linki_2'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-013.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 421px; height: 600px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 421px;'> +“WHEN THE WIND COMES FROM GOOD SAN ANTONIO, MY LADY BIRD––”<br /> +</p> +</div> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_III__HIGH_NOON' id='CHAPTER_III__HIGH_NOON'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER III.<br /><br />HIGH NOON.</h3> +</div> +<table summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“No life is in the air, but in the waters<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Are creatures huge, and terrible, and strong;</span><br /> +The swordfish and the shark pursue their slaughters;<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>War universal reigns these depths along.</span><br /> +The lovely purple of the noon’s bestowing<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Has vanished from the waters, where it flung</span><br /> +A royal color, such as gems are throwing<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Tyrian or regal garniture among.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>High</span> noon! Still the stanch old brig bowed and dipped her bluff +bows into the long, easy swell of the tropics; the round, flat counter +sent the briny bubbles sparkling away in the glare of the noontide +sun; the sails flapped and chafed against the spars and rigging, while +the crew sheltered themselves beneath the awnings, and dozed on +peacefully.</p> +<p>Off to seaward a few dead trade-clouds showed their white bulging +cheeks along the horizon, and occasionally a fluttering blue patch of +a breeze would skim furtively over the backs of the rollers; but +long before they reached the brig they had expended their force, and +expired in the boundless calm.</p> +<p>Not so, however, with the large sail that had been seen from the +brig in the early morning. For, with a lofty spread of kites and a +studding-sail or two, she at times caught a flirting puff of air, and +when the sun had passed the zenith she had approached within half +a mile or less of the brig. There was no mistaking the stranger’s +character. Her taunt, trim masts, square yards, and clear, delicate +black tracery of rigging, shadowed by a wide spread of snow-white +canvas over the low, dark hull––which at every roll in the gentle +undulations exposed a row of ports with a glance of white inner +bulwarks––while the brass stars of her battery reflected sparks of +fire from the blazing rays of the sun, showed she was a man-of-war.</p> +<p>“She’s one of our cruisers, I think, sir,” said the mate, as he +handed the spy-glass to the captain; “but Ben here believes contrariwise, +and says she is a French corvette.”</p> +<p>“Have to try again, Mr. Binks; for, to my mind, she’s an out-and-out +Yankee sloop-of-war. Ay! there goes his colors up to the +gaff! so up with our ensign, or else he’ll be burning some powder +for us.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span></div> +<p>Even while they were speaking a flag went rapidly up in a roll to +the corvette’s peak, when, shaking itself clear, it lay white and red, +with a galaxy of white stars in a blue union, on the lee side of the +spanker; while at the same instant a long, thin, coach-whip of a pennant +unspun itself from the main truck, and hung motionless in the +calm down the mast. Her decks were full of men, standing in groups +under the shade of the sails to leeward; and on the poop were three +or four officers in uniform and straw hats. One of these last stood +for some time gazing at the brig––one hand resting on the ratlines +of the mizzen shrouds, and the other slowly swinging a trumpet backward +and forward. Presently an officer with a pair of gleaming epaulets +on his shoulders mounted the poop ladder, touched his hat, and +waved his hand toward the brig. A moment <span class="nowrap">after––</span></p> +<p>“Brig ahoy!” came in a sharp, clear, manly tone through the +trumpet.</p> +<p>“Sir?”</p> +<p>“What brig is that?”</p> +<p>“The ‘Martha Blunt!’ named after my dear old wife, God bless her! +and myself, Jacob Blunt, God bless me!” added the jolly skipper, in +a sotto voce chuckle to the fair passenger who stood beside him.</p> +<p>“Where are you from, and where bound?” came again through +the trumpet.</p> +<p>“Bordeaux, and bound to Kingston. We have a free passport +from Sir Robert Calder and Admiral Villeneuve.”</p> +<p>There was a wave of the trumpet as the speaker finished hailing, +and then touching his hat to the officer with the gold swabs, and +pausing only a moment, he moved to the other side of the corvette’s +poop.</p> +<p>“It would be no more nor polite in him to tell us what his name +is, arter all the questions he’s axed.”</p> +<p>“Don’t ye know, Mr. Binks,” broke in the captain, “that the dignity +of a man-of-war is sich that it wouldn’t be discreet to tell no +more than that she has a cargo of cannon balls, and going on a cruise +any wheres? which ye may believe is as much valuable information as +we might get out of our own calabashes without asking a question.”</p> +<p>“You are allers right, Captain Blunt, but I did not tax my mind +to think when I spoke them remarks,” said Binks, deferentially.</p> +<p>The cruiser, however, seemed more communicative than the mate +gave her credit for, and a moment after the officer with the trumpet +sang out,</p> +<p>“This is the United States ship ‘Scourge,’ from Port Royal, bound +on a cruise! Please report us.”</p> +<p>And again, after a few words apparently with the officer with the +epaulets, the trumpet was raised to his lips, and he asked, “Have +you seen any vessels lately?”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span></div> +<p>The skipper was on the point of answering the hail, when his +mate said, “Beg pardon, Captain Blunt, but Ben and me made out +a fore-and-aft schooner airly this morning, with sweeps out, pulling +in under the outermost headland there,” pointing with his horny +finger as he spoke.</p> +<p>“Nothing, sir, but a small schooner at daylight sweeping to windward.”</p> +<p>“What?” came back in a clear, quick note from the corvette.</p> +<p>“Small fore-and-after, sir, with sails down and sweeps out, close +under the land.”</p> +<p>In a moment two or three officers on the cruiser’s deck put their +heads together, several glasses were directed toward the now dim +mirage-like shadow of the island, and the next instant the sharp +ring of a boatswain’s whistle was heard, followed by a gruff call of, +“Away there! Ariels, away!”</p> +<p>Immediately a cluster of sailors, in white frocks and trowsers and +straw hats, sprang over the ship’s quarter to the davits; and then +with a chirruping, surging pipe, a boat fell rapidly to the water. +The falls were cast off, the cutter hauled up to the gangway, and +soon an officer stepped over the side and tripped down to the boat. +The white blades of the oars stood up on end in a double line, the +boat pushed off, the oars fell with a single splash, and she steered +for the brig. Descending down into the gentle valley of the long +swell, she would disappear for an instant, till nothing but the white +hats and feather blades of the oars were visible; and again rising on +the crest, the water flashed off in foam from her bows as she came +dancing on.</p> +<p>In a few minutes the coxswain cried, “Way enough,” and throwing +up his hand with the word “Toss,” the cutter shot swiftly alongside; +the boat-hooks of the bowmen brought her up with a sudden +jar, and the next moment an officer with an epaulet on his right +shoulder and a sword by his side stepped over the gangway. The +skipper was there to receive him, to whom he touched his cap with +his fore finger; but as his eye glanced aft he saw a lady, and he +gracefully removed his cap and bowed like a gentleman to her. He +was a man of about eight-and-twenty, with a fine, manly, sailor-like +figure and air, and with a pair of bright, determined gray eyes in his +head that a rascal would not care to look into twice.</p> +<p>“I am the first lieutenant of the ‘Scourge,’ sir,” he said, turning +to the skipper, “and if you will step this way, I’ll have a few words +with you.”</p> +<p>This was said in a careless tone of command, but withal with +frankness and civility. The captain led him aft toward the taffrail, +but in crossing the deck the little tot of a boy followed closely in his +wake, and getting hold of the officer’s sword, which trailed along by +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span> +its belt-straps on the deck, he got astride of it, and seized on to the +coat-skirts of the wearer. The little tug he gave caused the officer +to turn round, and with a cheerful smile and manner he snatched the +urchin up in his arms, kissed him on both cheeks, and as he put him +down again and detached his sword for him to play with, he exclaimed,</p> +<p>“What a glorious little reefer you’ll make one of these days! +Won’t you?”</p> +<p>“<i>Oui! oui! mon papa!</i>” said the little scamp, as he looked knowingly +up in the officer’s face.</p> +<p>“Excuse my little boy, sir,” said his mother, who was in chase +of him; and then turning to the child with a blush spreading over +her lovely face, “It is not your papa, Henri! papa is in Kingston.”</p> +<p>“Ah! madame, I love children. I had once a dear little fellow +like this, but both he and his sweet mother are in heaven now. God +bless them!”</p> +<p>A flush of sadness tinged his cheeks, and he passed his hand rapidly +across his eyes, as if the dream was too sad to dwell upon; but +changing his tone, and while with one hand he patted the little fellow’s +head, he went on: “Madame lives in Jamaica?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes; I was born there, but my parents were destroyed by an +earthquake when I was quite a little child, and this good captain here +carried my sister and myself to France soon after, where <span class="nowrap">Monsieur––”</span> +here she hesitated and blushed with pleasure––“where I married my +husband, who is a planter on the island. Perhaps you may know +Monsieur Jules Piron?”</p> +<p>“Piron!” said the navy man, with warmth. “Ay, madame, for as +fine a fellow as ever planted sugar! Know him? Why, madame, it +is only a week ago that a lot of us dined with him at his estate of +<a name="P1"></a>Escondido; you know it, madame? in the grand piazza which looks +down the gorge. But he behaved very shabbily,” said the officer, as +his face lighted up gayly, “for he kept a spy-glass to his eye oftener +than the wine-glass to his lips, in looking out seaward, and in talking +of his wife and the little boy he had never seen.”</p> +<p>“Oh, monsieur! you make me so happy,” said the lovely woman, +as with sparkling eyes and heaving bosom she cried, “Banou! Banou! +this gentleman has just seen your good master.”</p> +<p>The black, who had been standing near and guarding every movement +of his little charge, who was trailing the sword about the deck, +immediately approached the officer, and, falling on his knees, seized +his hand and drew it toward his face.</p> +<p>“Ah! madame, I see that kindness meets with a return as well +from a dark as a fair skin,” said the officer, in a low tone, as he gently +withdrew his hand from Banou’s grasp.</p> +<p>“But,” he continued, turning toward the skipper, as the clear +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span> +sound of the cruiser’s bell struck his ear, <a name="P2"></a>“I must not forget what I +came for.”</p> +<p>“You say, captain, that you saw a schooner at daylight, eh? +This way, if you please”––as he raised his cap to Madame Piron +and walked over to the other side of the deck. “What was she +like?”</p> +<p>“She was reported to me by the mate,” replied Jacob Blunt.</p> +<p>“Please send for him.”</p> +<p>“Oh! Mr.––a’––”</p> +<p>“Binks, sir,” said that individual, touching his hat and making an +awkward scrape at a bow.</p> +<p>“Well, Mr. Binks, did you clearly make out the vessel you saw +this morning under the land?”</p> +<p>“Can’t say exactly, sir, as I did; but Ben Brown there was on the +fore-yard, and he got a good squint at her.”</p> +<p>“Ah! can I see the man?”</p> +<p>The mate straightway went forward, and, after a few pokes about +the lee waist, Ben was roused out from under the jolly-boat and came +rolling aft.</p> +<p>“<i>You</i> saw the schooner, eh?” said the lieutenant, as if he was in +the habit of asking sharp questions and getting quick answers.</p> +<p>“Yes, sir,” said the squat seaman, as he hitched up his knife-belt, +and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and took off his cap.</p> +<p>“Where?”</p> +<p>“Here away, sir,” with a wave of his paw, “just clear of that +bluff foreland where the gap opens with the Blue Mountain.”</p> +<p>“How was she rigged?”</p> +<p>“Bare sticks, sir, not much of a bowsprit, and no sail spread. I +see her first by the flash of her sweeps in the rising sun, as she was +heading about sou’-sou’-east into the land.”</p> +<p>“Two masts, you say?”</p> +<p>“Ay, sir; but I thought as ’ow there was a jigger-like yard a-sticking +out over her starn, though I wasn’t sartin.”</p> +<p>“So!” said the lieutenant, in a musing tone, and with rather a +grave face and compressed lip; “that will do; thank you, my man.” +Then placing his hand on the skipper’s shoulder, he drew him to one +side, out of ear-shot, and said,</p> +<p>“Captain Blunt, are you much acquainted in these latitudes?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, sir, me and my old brig are regular traders here, from +Bordeaux to Jamaica, and so home to England.”</p> +<p>“No treasure, I presume?” went on the officer, with a smile.</p> +<p>“Why, lieutenant, none to speak of, p’raps; just a handful of dollars +and a guinea or two in the bag for a few sacks of sugar or coffee, +or a pipe of rum, or sich like, on my own account.”</p> +<p>“Well, my friend, there is probably nothing to fear, but if the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span> +breeze springs up, keep as close to the corvette as you can, and I +shall ask the captain to keep a look-out for you during the night.”</p> +<p>“By the way”––the officer continued in a low tone as he moved +toward the gangway––“in case any thing should happen, you had +better hoist a lantern at your peak or in the main-rigging––we have +sharp eyes for ugly customers, and one or two of them have been +particularly troublesome of late hereabouts.”</p> +<p>Turning for a moment to bid adieu to the fair lady passenger on +the quarter-deck, and recovering his sword after a playful struggle +with the youngster, he buckled it around his waist, and, stepping +lightly over the side and into the boat, the oars fell with a single +splash, and the cutter shot rapidly away toward the corvette.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_IV__SUNSET' id='CHAPTER_IV__SUNSET'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER IV.<br /><br />SUNSET.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Light is amid the gloomy canvas spreading,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The moon is whitening the dusky sails,</span><br /> +From the thick bank of clouds she masters, shedding<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The softest influence that o’er night prevails.</span><br /> +Pale is she, like a young queen pale with splendor,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Haunted with passionate thoughts too fond, too deep;</span><br /> +The very glory that she wears is tender,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The very eyes that watch her beauty fain would weep.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Not</span> a breath from the lungs of Æolus. The sun went down like +a globe of fire; but just as it touched the horizon it flattened out into +an oval disk, and, sinking behind a dead, slate-colored cloud, shot up +half a dozen broad rose and purple bands, expanding as they mounted +heavenward, and then fading away in pearly-tinted hues in the +softening twilight until it mingled in the light of the half moon nearly +at the zenith. There lay the island, too, now all clear again, with +the blue tops of the mountains marked in pure distinct outline, and +falling away from peak to peak on either hand, till the sea flashed up +in sluggish creamy foam at the base. The man-of-war birds came +floating in from seaward, high up, like black musquitoes, with their +pointed wings wide spread and heading toward the land, but now +with never a quiver to their silent pinions. A school of porpoises, +too, broke water from the opposite direction, and, crossing and recrossing +each other’s track, came leaping and puffing over the gentle +swells until they struck the brig’s wake, when they wheeled around +her bows, dashed off on a swift visit to the corvette, and then, closing +up in watery phalanx, went gamboling, leaping, and breaking +water again to windward. Presently, along the eastern horizon, the +banks of clouds, which had been lying dead and motionless all the +sultry day, seemed to be imbued with life, and, separating in their +fleecy masses, mounted up above the sea, and soon spread out, like a +lady’s fan, in all directions.</p> +<p>“Ho! ho!” shouted Captain Blunt, clapping his hands, “what said +I, Madame Rosalie, when we saw the sun setting up his lee backstays +a while ago? A breeze, eh? Come, Mr. Binks, be wide awake! We +shall be bowling off the knots before the watch is out.”</p> +<p>The mate caught the enthusiasm of the skipper, and, jumping up +on the break of the deck cabin, he sang out,</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span></div> +<p>“D’ye hear there, lads? give us a good pull of the top-sail halliards, +and round in them starboard braces a bit! That’s your sort! Well, +the head-yards! That’ll do with the main! Up with the flying jib, +and trim aft them starboard jib and staysail sheets! There! Belay +all.”</p> +<p>Meanwhile the corvette, with her lofty dimity kissing the sky, +caught the first light airs before the slightest ripple darkened the +surface of the water; and with her helm a-starboard, and her after-yards +braced sharp up, she silently swung round on her heel, while +the spanker came flat aft, like a sheet of white paper, and with the +head-sails trimmed, she slowly moved athwart the stern of the brig. +The sharp whistles of the boatswain and his mates, piping like goldfinches, +were the only sounds that were heard; and as the cruiser +moved on in her course, the declining moon cast a mellow light over +the folds of her canvas, and, like a girl in bridal attire, she threw a +graceful shadow over the smooth and swelling waters away off to +windward.</p> +<p>The sails of the brig, which had begun to swell out in easy drooping +lines, fell back again flat to the masts as the ship crossed her +wake. But as the corvette passed, the officer of the watch on the +poop raised his cap to the lovely woman who was standing out in +graceful relief on the upper cabin deck, with her little boy held up +beside her in the sturdy arms of the black, and placing the trumpet +to his lips, said, in a distinct voice, as if addressing the skipper,</p> +<p>“We shall go about at midnight. Remember the directions I gave +you this morning. <i>Bon voyage, madame!</i>” He shook his trumpet +playfully at the boy, who put out his chubby arms with delight to the +speaker, and then hammered away with great glee on the crown of +his bearer’s head.</p> +<p>“Thank you, sir,” said Captain Blunt, who was leaning over the +rail; and then turning to his mate, he added,</p> +<p>“Them Yankees, Mr. Binks, always treats a merchantman like +gentlemen on the high seas, and I never knew one on ’em to turn +their backs on friends or foes. What a pity they ever cut adrift +from the Old Country! Howsoever, matey, it can’t be helped, and +you had better up with the port studding-sails, hang out all the rags, +and make the old drogher walk.”</p> +<p>Now came the rippling breeze all at once over the sea, fluttering +furtively for a minute or two, so as to make the top-sails of the brig +swell out and then fall back in a tremulous shiver; but again bulging +forward in a full-breasted curve, the vessel felt the tug, and began to +dash the spray from her bluff bows till it fell away beyond the lee +cathead in flying masses of foam. The studding-sail booms rolled +out, the sailors busied themselves aloft in making the additional sail, +and by-and-by the old brig floundered along, the bubbles gurgling +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span> +out ahead in the ruffled water, tipping over astern as the crests broke +on her quarter; at times plunging her bows into the rolling swell, +but coming up sturdily again, and so on as before.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the corvette had edged away in a parallel course with +the brig, running past her at first as if she were at anchor, when she +let her topgallant-sails slide down to the caps, and, with the weather +clew of her main-sail triced up, she held way with the brig a mile or +more to windward.</p> +<p>The moon was sinking well down in the west, and the clear, well-defined +crescent was occasionally obscured by the light fleecy clouds +moving under the influence of the trade wind, when, toward eight +bells, the moon gave one pure white glimmer, threw a rippling flood +of light over the waves, and sunk below the horizon. Still the stars +twinkled and the planets flamed out like young moons––masked at +intervals by the darkening clouds as they swept overhead in heavy +masses––and tinging the sea with shade, which would again break +out in phosphorescent flashes as the waves caught the reflection.</p> +<p>“Now, Madame Rosalie,” said the kind old skipper, “it is nearly +midnight; take your last snooze in the old barky, and wake up bright +and happy for Port Royal and––you know who, in the morning.”</p> +<p>The charming woman had been watching, with soul-rapt gaze, +the lofty hills of Jamaica from the last blaze of the setting sun, and +until the moon too had vanished and left only a dim blue haze over +the island. She started as the captain spoke, gave a deep sigh, kissed +her hand to the good old skipper, said “<i>Bon soir, mon ami</i>,” and +with a smile she entered her cabin.</p> +<p>The black was seated within the partition of the apartment, near +a small swinging cot, urging it gently to and fro, and watching over +his little charge.</p> +<p>“Good-night, Banou,” she said, in patois French; “you may go to +bed, and I will take care of my little boy.”</p> +<p>The black grinned so as to show his double range of white teeth +beneath the rays of the cabin lamp, and without a word he moved +silently away. The lady stood for a few moments gazing lovingly at +the sleeping child, and then drawing the miniature from her bosom, +she detached it with the chain from her neck, and after pressing it to +her lips, she leaned softly over the cot and fastened it around the little +sleeper. As light and zephyr-like as was the effort, it caused the +little fellow to stir, and reaching out his tiny arms, while a baby smile +played around the dimples of his cheeks, he clasped his mother’s neck.</p> +<p>Ah! fond and devoted mother! That was the last sweet infantile +caress your child was ever destined to give you! Treasure it up in +joy and sorrow, in sunshine and gloom, for long, long years will pass +before you press him to your heart again!</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_V__DARKNESS' id='CHAPTER_V__DARKNESS'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER V.<br /><br />DARKNESS.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“The busy deck is hushed, no sounds are waking<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>But the watch pacing silently and slow;</span><br /> +The waves against the sides incessant breaking,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And rope and canvas swaying to and fro.</span><br /> +The topmost sail, it seems like some dim pinnacle<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Cresting a shadowy tower amid the air;</span><br /> +While red and fitful gleams come from the binnacle,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The only light on board to guide us––where?”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>On went</span> the “Martha Blunt” with no fears of danger near. The +bell struck eight, the watch had been called, and the captain, taking +a satisfactory look all around the horizon, glanced at the compass, +and, with a slight yawn, said,</p> +<p>“Well, Mr. Binks, I believe I’ll turn in for a few hours; keep the +brig on her course, and at daylight call me. It will be time enough +then to bend the cables, for I don’t think we shall want the anchors +much afore noon to-morrow. Where’s the corvette?”</p> +<p>“There she is, sir, away off on the port beam. She made more +sail a few minutes ago, and now she appears to be edging off the +wind, and steering across our forefoot. I s’pose she’s enjoying of +herself, sir, and exercisin’ the crowds of chaps they has on board +them craft.”</p> +<p>“Well, good-night, matey”––pausing a moment, however, as the +honest old skipper stepped down the companion-way, and half communing +with himself, and then, with his head just above the slide, he +added, “I say, Mr. Binks, there’s no need, p’r’aps, but you may as +well have a lantern alight and bent on to the ensign halliards there +under the taffrail, in case you want to signalize the corvette. Ah, +Banou! that you, old nigger? Good-night!”</p> +<p>So Captain Blunt went slowly down below, and at the same time +the black went aft, coiled himself down on the deck, and made a +pillow of the brig’s ensign.</p> +<p>Mr. Binks wriggled himself upon the weather rail, where, with a +short pipe in his mouth, he kicked his heels against the bulwarks, +and while the old brig plunged doggedly on, he indulged himself +with a song, the air, however, being more like the growl of a bull-dog +than a specimen of music:</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span></div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“If lubberly landsmen, to gratitude strangers,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Still curse their unfortunate stars;</span><br /> +Why, what would they say did they try but the dangers<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Encounter’d by true-hearted tars?</span><br /> +If life’s vessel they put ’fore the wind, or they tack her,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Or whether bound here or there,</span><br /> +Give ’em sea-room, good-fellowship, grog, and tobaker,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Well, then, damme if Jack cares where!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p>“What d’ye think of that, Ben?” said Mr. Binks, as he finished +his ditty, and sucked away on his pipe.</p> +<p>“Why, Mr. Mate,” replied Ben, as he gave the wheel a spoke or +two to windward and glanced at the binnacle, “the words is first-rate, +but it seems to me your singing gear is a bit out o’ condition, +and I thought you wos a prayin’; but the fact is,” concluded Ben, +apologetically, “that whenever I hears grog and tobaker jined together, +I likes to see them in my fist.”</p> +<p>“Oh! you would, eh? Well, shipmate, turn and turn about is +fair play; so here, just take a pull at the pipe, and I’ll step to the +cuddy for the bottle, and we’ll have a little sniffler all around!”</p> +<p>Saying this, Mr. Binks swung off the rail, handed Ben the pipe, and +after an absence of a few moments, he returned with a square case-bottle +and a pewter mug.</p> +<p>“Now, Ben,” said he, “this ’ere is not a practice, as you know, I +often is guilty of; but you bein’ a keerful hand and a stiddy helmsman, +and port here close aboard, I’ve no objections to take a toss with +ye.” Then pouring out a moderate quantity of the fluid, the mate +handed it to Ben, who, taking the pipe out of his mouth, and with +one hand on the king-spoke of the wheel and one eye at the compass-card, +threw his head back and pitched the dram down his throat.</p> +<p>“My sarvice to ye, sir!” said Ben, as he smacked his lips and then +shut them tight together, fearful lest a breath of the precious liquid +might escape; “a little of that stuff goes a great ways.”</p> +<p>Mr. Binks hereupon measured himself off an allowance, and touching +Ben on the shoulder, raised the pewter to his lips. Before, however, +draining the cup, he tuned his pipes once more, and croaked +forth in this strain:</p> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“While up the shrouds the sailor goes,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Or ventures on the yard,</span><br /> +The landsman, who no better knows,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Believes his lot is hard.</span><br /> +But Jack with smiles each danger meets;<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Casts anchor, heaves the log,</span><br /> +Trims all the sails, belays the sheets,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And drink his can of grog!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p>“Here comes the corvette, sir!” broke in Ben, as he stood on tiptoe, +holding on to the spokes of the wheel, and taking his eyes off +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span> +the binnacle a moment to get a clear view over the rail. “Here she +comes, with her starboard tacks aboard, athwart our bow, and moving +like an albatross!”</p> +<p>The man-of-war had for an hour or more crept well to windward, +and then, wearing round, she came down close upon the wind under +royals, and her three jibs and spanker as flat as boards. As she +whirled on across the brig’s bow, a few cables’ length ahead, the +sharp ring of the whistles was again heard, and the moment after +the head-sails fluttered and shook in the wind, the sheets and blocks +rattled, and with a clear order of “Main-sail haul!” the after-yards +swung round like magic, the sails filled, and without losing headway +the head-yards were swung, and she gathered way on the other tack. +On she came, with the spray flying up into the weather leech of her +fore-sail, the dark mazes of her rigging marked out in clear lines +against her white canvas, and the watch noiselessly coiling up the +ropes on her decks. As she pushed her sharp snout through the +water, and grazed along the brig’s lee quarter, an officer on the poop +gave a rapid and searching glance around, peered sharply along the +brig’s deck, waved his trumpet to the mate, and resumed his rapid +tramp to windward. In ten minutes after she had passed the brig’s +wake nothing was seen of her save a dark, dim outline; a light halo +reflected on the water from her white streak, and an occasional luminous +flash of foam as it bounded away from her lean bows.</p> +<p>Half an hour went by. The mate was sitting on the weather rail +droning out an old sea-song to himself, and the four or five men of +the watch were dozing away along the bulwarks. Presently, however, +Ben, the helmsman, happened to let his eyes wander away from +the compass-card for a moment, as he steadied the wheel by his legs +and bit a quid from his plug of niggerhead to last him to suck for the +remainder of the watch, when, glancing beneath the bulging folds of +the lee clew of the main-sail, he clapped both hands again on the steering +spokes, and shouted,</p> +<p>“Mr. Mate, here’s a sail close under our lee beam!”</p> +<p>“Where?” said Binks. But, before he had fairly time to run over +to the other side of the vessel and take a look for himself, a quick +rattle of oars was heard as a boat grated against the brig’s side, and, +before you could think, a swarm of fellows started up like so many +shadows above the rail. In five seconds they had jumped on the +deck, Ben fell like a bullock from a blow from the butt-end of a pistol, +the helm was jammed hard down, the lee braces let fly, and, as +the old brig gave a lurching yaw in bringing her nose to windward, +the weather leeches shivered violently in the wind, and, taking flat +aback, the studding-sail booms snapped short off at the irons, and, +with the sails, fell slamming and thumping below.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_3' id='linki_3'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-028.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 600px; height: 421px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 600px;'> +THE PIRATES BOARDING THE BRIG.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>Meanwhile the mate had barely time to spring to the companion-way +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span> +and sing out, “We’re boarded by pirates, Captain Blunt!” when +he, too, received an ugly overhand lick from a cutlass on his skull, +and went senseless and bleeding down the hatchway like a scuttle of +coals.</p> +<p>At the first noise, however, the black Banou sprang to his feet, +and, as he caught a glimpse of the fellows swarming over the side, +he snatched hold of the ensign halliards where the signal lantern had +been bent on, and in an instant it was dancing away up to the gaff, +shrouded from view to leeward of the vessel by the spread of the +spanker. In another moment the black leaped to the deck cabin and +darted through the door. But in less time than it has taken to tell +it, the “Martha Blunt” had changed hands.</p> +<p>There, on the quarter-deck, stood in groups some sixteen barefooted +villains, in coarse striped gingham shirts, loose trowsers, and skull-caps, +and all with glittering, naked knives or cutlasses, and pistols +in their belts and hands. In the midst of this cluster of swarthy +wretches, near the companion-way, stood a burly, square-built ruffian, +with a pistol in his right hand, and his dexter paw pushing up a +brown straw hat as he ran his fingers across his dripping forehead +and a tangled mass of carroty, unshorn locks. There was a wisp of +a red silk kerchief tied in a single knot around his bare bull neck; +the shirt was thrown back, and exposed a tawny, hairy chest, as a +ray of light flashed up from the binnacle. He looked––as indeed he +was––the lowest type of a sailor scoundrel. His companions were +of lighter build, and their dress, complexion, and manner––to say +nothing of their black hair and rings in their ears––indicated a birth +and breeding in other and hotter climes.</p> +<p>“Well, my lads,” said the big fellow, who seemed to be in command, +“the barkey is ours, and we’ve cheated that infarnal cruiser +handsomely. Go forward, Pedro, and gag them lubbers, and then +tell the boys to trim aft them jib sheets; and round in them after-braces, +some of you, so we can keep way with the schooner and take +things easy.”</p> +<p>Here he laughed in a husky, spirituous, low chuckle, and then went +on: “This will make up for lost time, <i>amigos</i>! <i>Christo!</i> there may +be some ounces on board. But who’s left in the boat, Gomez?” +This was addressed to a bow-legged, beetle-browed individual, with +a hare-lip, which kept his face in a perpetual and skeleton-like grin, +who hissed out from between his decayed front tusks,</p> +<p>“<i>El Doctor <a name="P3"></a>Señor, con tres de nosotros.</i>” “<i>Bueno!</i> all right; +three of the chaps will do to look out for her; but tell the doctor +to drop the boat astern, and veer him a rope from the gangway. +There! that’s well with the braces! Keep her off a point; so––that’ll +do.”</p> +<p>As the orders were promptly obeyed, and the crew of the brig +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span> +gagged, and the vessel surged slowly on her course, the same speaker +turned to his men and said,</p> +<p>“Now, my hearties! let’s have an overhaul of the skipper. Hand +him up here, will ye? or, never mind,” he added, “I’ll just step down +and have a growl with him myself.”</p> +<p>As the mate pitched head foremost down the companion ladder, +two of the pirates jumped after him, and, dealing him another cruel +stab with a knife deep into the back, they passed on into the lower +cabin. There was a brief struggle, the sound of voices mingled with +curses and threats, and then all quiet again.</p> +<p>In pursuance of his expressed purpose, the stout ruffian slewed +himself round, took a sweep about the horizon, then sticking his +pistol in its belt, he slowly descended the ladder, gave the wounded +and dying mate a kick, and with a hoarse laugh entered the cabin.</p> +<p>There, on a small sofa abaft, between the two stern air-ports, sat +Captain Blunt. Blood was trickling down in heavy drops from a +lacerated bruise on his forehead; but, notwithstanding the swelling +and pain of the wound, his features were calm, stern, and honest. +On either side of him sat as villainous a brace of mongrel Portuguese +or Spaniards as ever infested the high seas; and his arms were pinioned +by a stout cord to the bolt above the transom.</p> +<p>“My sarvice to you, sir!” said the leader of the gang, with a devilish +smile of derision, as he stuck his arms akimbo and squirted some +tobacco-juice from his filthy mouth across the cabin table at the pinioned +prisoner.</p> +<p>“I s’pose you know by this time that you’re a lawful prise, captured +by an hindependent constable of the West Indies, notwithstandin’ +ye had sich safe escort and convoy all the arternoon?”</p> +<p>Here he chuckled, squirted more juice over the table, then dropped +down on a sea-chest cleated to the deck, took off his hat, and scratched +his yellowish red hair. The poor captain said not a word, but shook +a great clot of blood from his brow.</p> +<p>“Well, now, my old hearty, the first thing for you to do is to poke +out your manifest, and any other little matters of vallew ye may have +stowed away; and be quick, mind ye, for you haven’t much time to +sail in this ’ere craft. Howsoever, I s’pose ye can swim?”</p> +<p>“You’ll find the manifest and the ship’s papers there, inside that +instrument-box; and all the money in the vessel is in that locker; +and I trust in Heaven it may burn your hands to cinders, you +devils!”</p> +<p>“Ho! smash my brains! keep a stopper on your jaw, or I’ll +squeeze your dead carcass through that ’ere starn port.”</p> +<p>The fellow rose as he spoke, and, stepping up to the narrow state-cabin +near by, he jerked open the upper drawer of a small bureau +affair, and pulling out a canvas bag, sealed at the mouth, tossed it +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span> +on to the cabin table. The coin fell with the heavy dead sound peculiar +to gold, and the ruffian, after taking it up again and weighing +it tenderly, growled out, “This chink will do for a yapper, at any +rate! So now let’s have a peep at what the cargo consists on.”</p> +<p>Then stepping a second time to the berth, he gave a kick to the +instrument-box, the lid flew off, and diving in his fist he drew out a +bundle of papers. Once more seating himself at the table beneath +the swinging lamp, he clumsily undid the papers and spread them +before him.</p> +<p>“What a blessed thing is edication,” muttered he to himself, “and +what a power o’ knowledge reading ’riting does for a man!” Putting +his fat stumpy finger on each line of the manuscript as he slowly +began to spell out the contents, he began, “Man-i-fest of Brig +‘Martha Blunt’––Ja-cob Blunt, master:” here he paused, and, squirting +more tobacco-juice over at the skipper, as if to attract his attention, +he suddenly ejaculated, “Hark ye! Master Blunt, what was the +name of that man-o’-war vessel as was lyin’ by you this morning?”</p> +<p>“The ‘Scourge,’” replied the skipper, faintly, as he shook another +great drop of blood from his brow.</p> +<p>“The what? The ‘Scourge!’ That Yankee snake! Smash my +brains! D’ye know that that ship has been a hangin’ about the +north side of Cuba for ever so long, interruptin’ our trade? And +you an Englishman, to go and ax him to purtect ye! take that!”</p> +<p>Here he snatched a pistol from his sash, and, taking aim full at +the skipper’s breast, he pulled the trigger. Fortunately, the weapon +snapped and did not explode. The ruffian held it a moment in his +hand, and then letting it rest upon the table, he said, with a horrible +imprecation,</p> +<p>“Ye see you wos not born to be shot; but we’ll try what salt +water will do for ye by-and-by.”</p> +<p>Taking out his knife at the conclusion of this speech, he picked +the flint of his pistol, opened the pan, shook the priming, and then +shoved the weapon back in his belt. The mention of the “Scourge,” +however, had evidently caused him some trepidation, for when he +resumed the perusal of the manifest it was in a hurried, agitated sort +of way, and not at all at his ease.</p> +<p>Smoothing the papers again before him, he went on, making running +commentaries as he read: “Eighty-six cases of silks––light, and +easily stowed away; twenty-nine tons bar iron; sixty-four sugar-kettles! +it will help to sink the brig; forty pipes of Bordeaux; two hundred +baskets Champagne; three hundred and fifty boxes of claret––sour +stuff, I warrant you; two casks Cognac brandy––but I say, you +Blunt,” said the fellow, looking up, “where’s your own private bottle? +It’s thirsty work spellin’ out all this ’ritin’, and my mouth’s as +dry as a land-crab’s claws. Howsoever,” he continued, as he caught +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span> +the glance of satisfaction which came over the swarthy faces of his +companions beside the captain, “wait a bit, and we’ll punch a hole in +a fresh barrel presently.”</p> +<p>Having run through the manifest, he opened another paper and +exclaimed, “Hallo! what have we here? List of passengers––Madame +Rosalie Piron and––ho! that’s a French piece, I knows by the +name. Where is she? Hasn’t died on the v’yage, has she? D’ye +hear there, ye infarnal Blunt?”</p> +<p>The captain’s face was troubled, and his head dropped down on his +breast without replying; but one of the scoundrels at his side struck +him a brutal blow with the back of his knife-hilt on the mouth, and +jerking up, he said, with an effort,</p> +<p>“Yes, we have a female passenger on board, with a helpless child; +but I pray you, in God’s name, to leave the innocent woman in peace. +You’ve robbed and ruined me and my poor old wife––turn me adrift +if you like, drown or hang me, but don’t harm the poor lady.”</p> +<p>The tears blinded him as he spoke, and mingled with the bloody +stream which trickled down his cheeks. The ruffian’s ugly face and +bloodshot eyes lighted up with a devilish and sinister satisfaction as +the skipper began his appeal, but before he had well finished speaking +he broke in,</p> +<p>“Avast your jaw! will ye? You’ll have enough to look out for +your own gullet, my lad, without mindin’ any body else’s; so turn to +and say your prayers afore eight bells is struck, because there’s sharks +off Jamaiky.”</p> +<p>Then addressing his own scoundrelly myrmidons, he exclaimed, +“Look out sharp for that old chap, my lads, while I goes to sarch +for the woman passenger!” As he turned, however, to leave the +cabin, one of his subordinates began to rummage about in a locker, +when the burly brute said, “Tonio, don’t get to drinkin’ too airly, +boy, for ye know it’s agin the law till the prize is snug in harbor, or +sunk, as the case may be.”</p> +<p>“<i>Si, señor</i>,” replied the man, with a nod and a grin, and he resumed +his seat again; but no sooner had their leader left the cabin +than a bottle and glasses were placed upon the table, and they fell +to with a will, complimenting the bound and wounded prisoner by +pitching the last drops from their tumblers into his face.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_VI__DANGER' id='CHAPTER_VI__DANGER'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VI.<br /><br />DANGER.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“What tale do the roaring ocean<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And the night wind, bleak and wild,</span><br /> +As they beat at the crazy casement,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Tell to that little child?</span><br /> +And why do the roaring ocean<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And the night wind, wild and bleak,</span><br /> +As they beat at the heart of the mother,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Drive the color from her cheek?”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>In all</span> this time so little noise had been made that even the watch +below, in the brig’s forecastle, were snoozing away without a dream +of danger; though, had one of them shown his nose above the fore-peak, +he would have either been knocked down and murdered like the +mate, or, with a gag in his jaws, been hurled overboard. When the +leader of the pirates stepped again on deck, he said to his companions, +who were still clustered around the companion-way,</p> +<p>“Well, my boys, we have ’arned a good prize––a fine cargo of the +real stuff––silks, wines, and what not, besides a few of the shiners!” +Here he jingled the bag of gold and dollars in his paws, and then +threw it, with an easy, indifferent toss, on to the slide of the companion-way.</p> +<p>“But what think ye, lads?” he continued, in a hoarse whisper, +“there’s a petticoat aboard! and, as sure as my name’s Bill Gibbs, +here goes for a look; for there’s nothing like lamplight for the lovely +creeturs!”</p> +<p>As he slewed round on his bare feet to approach the entrance to +the deck cabin, a move was made in the same direction by two or +three of the wretches of his band; but, shoving them roughly back +with his heavy fist, and clapping a hand to his belt, he said, in a +threatening tone,</p> +<p>“None o’ that, my souls! I takes the first look myself; and if I +think her beauty’ll suit the chief, why––I shall be able to judge, ye +know, whether she’ll go furder on the cruise or swim ashore with the +rest of the lubbers at daylight to Jamaiky. Keep your eye on the +schooner, Pedro, and don’t make no more sail! D’ye hear?”</p> +<p>“Ay, ay, <i>si señor</i>!” quoth that worthy, as he and his followers fell +sulkily back. It took but three strides for Mr. Bill Gibbs to reach +the cabin door, when, finding it hard to open, after several trials at +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span> +the knob, he placed his burly shoulder against the edge of the panelwork, +and, throwing his powerful weight upon it, the door yielded +with a snap of the lock, and he pitched forward full length upon the +cabin floor. The noise startled the lady within, and speaking as if +half asleep, she called,</p> +<p>“Banou! Banou! what is the matter?”</p> +<p>“<i>Mon dieu, madame!</i> we are prisoners in the hands of pirates!”</p> +<p>Before more words were uttered, Mr. Bill Gibbs, who by this time +had regained his feet while giving vent to a volley of blasphemous +curses, roared out as he beheld the black, “Ho! nigger passengers, +hay? A mounseer of color, as I’m a Christian! I say, cucumber +shins, is that ’ere woman as is talkin’ as black as you be?”</p> +<p>He was not left long in doubt concerning the color of the person +he alluded to, for at the instant the stateroom door flew open, and +the lovely woman, in her loose night-dress and hair streaming in +brown, heavy silken tresses over her fair neck and shoulders, with +a pale and terror-stricken face, stood before him. Speechless with +agony, she gazed at the coarse ruffian, who had, at the moment, +reached the swinging cot which held the little boy, and while he +was in the act of looking at the sleeping child, the mother uttered a +fearful cry and the boy awoke.</p> +<p>“Sarvice, madam! don’t be scared! come and take the little chap! +I ain’t goin’ to hurt him––that is, if it be a him.”</p> +<p>The frightened mother, spell-bound at first, needed no second bidding, +and, forgetful of her disheveled dress, sprang forward, and with +outstretched arms, bare to the shoulder, was about to snatch her child. +The pirate, however, with his red eyes gleaming with unholy fire, +threw his great arm around the lovely woman’s waist, and with a +hoarse, fiendish chuckle of triumph, attempted to draw her toward +him. But, quick as lightning, two black, sinewy paws clutched him +with such a steel-like grip about the throat that his sacrilegious arm +dropped by his side, and he was hurled violently back against the +cabin bulkhead. Then standing before him, the negro glared like an +angry lion roused from his lair as he looked round inquiringly at his +mistress.</p> +<p>“Ho!” sputtered the ruffian, as he pulled a pistol from his belt, +<a name="P4"></a>“ho! you mean fight, do ye?”</p> +<p>“<i>Banou! mon pauvre Banou!</i>” screamed the terrified woman. +“Yield! Oh, sir, spare him! Don’t harm us, and we will give you +all we possess!”</p> +<p>The burly scoundrel hesitated a moment, and balanced the cocked +pistol in his hand, as if undecided whether to blow the black’s brains +out on the spot where he stood; and then shoving the weapon back +in his sash, and keeping a wary eye on his assailant, he exclaimed in +an angry tone,</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span></div> +<p>“Well, come here, then, my deary, and give us a kiss for this nigger’s +bad manners.”</p> +<p>Moving forward as he spoke, he caught up the little boy from the +cot, tore the gold chain and locket from his neck, which he thrust +into his pocket, and shook him roughly at arm’s length, in hopes, perhaps, +of enticing the tender mother within his merciless grasp. But +again the black interposed his heavy frame before his mistress.</p> +<p>“What! at it again, are ye? Well, then”––fumbling with his left +hand for his pistol––“say your prayers, ye imp of darkness.”</p> +<p>The black seemed, however, in no mood for praying; and putting +forth his slabs of arms like the paws of an alligator, he tried to grapple +his foe by the throat. The cries of the mother now mingled with +those of the child as he put out his little arms to shield his black protector. +The ruffian, foiled in his purpose, with baffled rage evaded +the negro by stepping to one side; and as he did so, he hurled the +helpless child with great force from him. The large cabin windows +at the stern were open to let in the breeze; and as the brig sank +slowly down with her counter to the following waves, and gurgled +up as the sea eddied and surged around the rudder, the faint, plaintive +cry of the little boy arose above the seething waters––a light +splash followed––and the mother had lost her child!</p> +<p>“Oh, monster!” cried the heart-broken woman. “Oh, my boy! +my boy! May Heaven curse you forever!” as she sank down senseless +on the deck.</p> +<p>The awful howl of vengeance which burst from the deep lungs of +Banou came simultaneously with the report of the pirate’s pistol, the +bullet from which struck the black hard in the left shoulder; but +putting out for the third time his sinewy arms, and this time with +an iron grip that only left the ruffian time to yell with a stifled +curse for help, he was hurled headlong, smashing through the latticed +cabin door, and fell stunned upon the outer deck. In an instant +half a dozen pistol balls whistled around the negro’s head, and +the knives of the pirates flashed from their sashes as they rushed forward +to bury the blades in his body; but leaping to one side, and +while two more bullets were driven into him, he seized an iron-shod +pump brake from the bulwarks, and, with a mighty bound, whirled +it once with the rapidity of thought high above his head, and brought +it down on the leg of his prostrate foe. Such was the force of the +blow that it smashed both bones, and drove the white splinters +through the brute’s trowsers, where they gleamed out red and bloody +by the light of the binnacle lamp. Even then, wounded, and the blood +flowing from several places, and though almost encircled in the grasp +of the scoundrels, Banou made good his retreat to the cabin, and +planted his powerful body firmly against the door.</p> +<p>With a volley of polyglot curses and yells in all languages, two or +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span> +three of the pirates stopped to raise their fallen leader, while the others, +leaving the wheel and vessel to herself, rushed in pursuit of the +black. Scarcely, however, had they made a step, when their ears +were saluted by a stunning crash from a heavy cannon, and the peculiar +humming sound of a round shot as it flew just above their +heads between the brig’s masts.</p> +<p>There, within half a cable’s length to windward, loomed up the +dark hull of a large ship. The crew were evidently at quarters, +with the battle lanterns lit and gleaming in the ports, while the +rays shot up the black rigging and top-hamper, and spread out over +the sails in fitful flashes as she slowly forged abreast the brig, with +her main top-sail to the mast. For a minute not a sound was heard, +though the decks were full of men, some with their heads poked out +of the open ports beside the guns, or swarming along over the lee +hammock-nettings and about the quarter boats; but the next instant +there came in a voice of thunder through the trumpet,</p> +<p>“What’s the matter on board that brig?”</p> +<p>There was no answer for a few seconds, until a choking voice, as +if with a pump-bolt athwart the speaker’s mouth, mumbled out,</p> +<p>“We’re captured by pi––”</p> +<p>A dull, heavy blow cut short these words; and though the reply to +the hail could hardly have been heard on board the ship, yet, as if +divining the true state of the case, loud, clear orders were <span class="nowrap">given––</span></p> +<p>“Away, there, third and fourth cutters! away! Spring, men!”</p> +<p>Then came the surging noise of the whistles as the falls dropped +the boats from the davits; then the men, leaping down into cutters––silently +and quick––no sound save the clash of a cutlass or the rattle +of an oar-blade as they took their places and shoved off. Again an +order through the <span class="nowrap">trumpet––</span></p> +<p>“Clear away the starboard battery! Load with grape! Sail trimmers! +stations for wearing ship! Hard up the helm! Fill away the +main-yard!”</p> +<p>The “Scourge” had by this time forged ahead of the brig, her sails +aback or shivering, as she came up and fell off from the wind, and the +boats dancing with full crews toward her. No sooner, however, had +the presence of the unwelcome stranger been made known on board +the brig than the pirates seemed seized with a panic, and, without a +second thought, they scudded to leeward, where their boat had been +hauled alongside, and forgetful or indifferent for the fate of their companions +below, though dragging the while their maimed comrade to +the rail, they lowered him into the boat, jumped in themselves, and +pulled away with all their strength toward the schooner near. They +were not, however, a moment too soon; for as the last of the band +disappeared, their places were supplied by a crowd of nimble sailors +to windward, headed by an officer with his sword between his teeth +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span> +as he swung over the bulwarks. The first sound which greeted the +new-comers was from below, and from the throat of the honest skipper. +Down the open companion-way leaped the officer, with half a +dozen stout, eager sailors at his heels, and dashed right into the lower +cabin. There was the brave old skipper, with but one arm free, +shielding himself and struggling––faint and well-nigh exhausted––from +the knives of the drunken brace of rascals who had been left to +guard him. A pistol in the hands of one of this pair was pointed with +an unsteady aim at the officer as he entered, but the ball struck the +empty rum-bottle on the table and flew wide of its mark; and before +the smoke of the powder had cleared away, a sword and cutlass had +passed through and through both their bodies, and they fell dead +upon the cabin floor.</p> +<p>While Captain Blunt found breath to give a rapid explanation of +the trouble, and while the brig was once more got under control and +the wounded cared for, we will take a look at the man-of-war and the +part she bore in the business.</p> +<p>At the first sound of the warning gun from the cruiser the schooner +began to show life; and drawing her head sheets, she wore short +round on her heel, with every thing ready to run up her fore and aft +sails, and a stay-tackle likewise rove and hanging over the low gunwale +to hook on to the boat and hoist it in the moment it came alongside. +Meanwhile the “Scourge” had shot ahead of the brig, and +wearing round her forefoot, with her starboard tacks on board, she +emerged out beyond, like a hound just slipped from the leash. As +she cleared the brig, the schooner lay with bare masts about three +cables’ length to windward, and the rattle of oars told that her boat +had just scraped alongside. At that moment a clear, determined +voice shouted through the trumpet,</p> +<p>“Level your guns! Take good aim! Fire!”</p> +<p>A brilliant series of sheets of flame burst forth from the corvette’s +battery, lighting up the water and jet black wales, and away aloft to +the great towering maze of rigging and sails to the trucks, with the +topmen clustering to windward, and their very eyes and teeth lit up +in the glare; then, too, the crews of the guns, in their trim frocks and +trowsers; the marines on the top-gallant forecastle, with their firelocks +and white cross-belts; and abaft a knot of officers on the poop, +with night-glasses to their eyes, all standing out as clear as day in the +sudden flashes from the cannon. Then followed the concussive roar, +and the next instant you could hear the hurtling rush of the iron hail +as it flew singly or in bunches through the air, or skipped in its deadly +flight from wave to wave, until it went crashing into the pirate’s +boat, slapping with heavy thumps against the schooner’s side, or furrowing +along her decks; while a shower of white splinters flew high +over her low rail, and told how well the iron had done its bidding. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span> +Then, with many a groan and imprecation, the shattered and sinking +boat was cut adrift, and, a moment after, the sails of the vessel were +spread, the sheets hauled flat aft, and, taking the breeze, she heeled +over till her lee rail was all awash, and away she walked, right up to +windward.</p> +<p>But again came the clear, commanding tones on board the cruiser, +mingled with the jumping of the crew and ramming home the charges +in the guns:</p> +<p>“Load! round shot! Run out! One point abaft the beam! Fire +as you bring the schooner to bear!”</p> +<p>Out belched the red flames; the heavy globes of iron, like so many +black peas in daylight, sung their deadly note as they darted on their +way, and the corvette gave a little heel to leeward as the shock of the +explosion was felt. One shot dropped within fifty yards of the low +hull of the schooner, bounded just clear of her after-deck, knocked +off the head and shoulder of a man at the tiller, and then went skipping +away over the water like a black foot-ball. Another messenger +cut off the schooner’s delicate fore-top-mast as clean as a bit of glass, +bringing down the gaff-top-sail, and, what was equally pleasant, the +fellow who was setting it––pitching him over and over like a wheel, +until he fell, a bruised and lifeless lump of jelly, on the oak bitts at +the fore-mast. Before, however, they were treated to another of +these metallic doses, the pirates had got their craft in splendid trim; +and with every stitch of her canvas spread, and tugging and straining, +she rushed on with the heels of a race-horse, within three points +of the wind. The “Scourge,” too, was now close hauled, her yards +braced as fine as needles, and crowded with every inch of sail that +would draw; while every ten minutes or so she would let slip two +or more guns from a division at the chase. But the uncertain gloom +of starlight, and the darkening effect of the passing trade-clouds, +made the little vessel a very difficult object to see; and though one +of the last balls struck her on the narrow deck, passed through that +and the waterways, and out to windward, spoiling two of her timbers, +and no end of planking, yet this was the last damage she received. +Her crew, also, had got as well as could be out of harm’s +way––both the sound and wounded––and were lying quietly as +possible deep down in the vessel’s run. When daylight broke the +breeze began to slacken, but she was by this time hull down from +the corvette, a long way beyond the reach of her long eighteens in +the bow ports, and eating her way to windward, with no chance of +being taken.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_4' id='linki_4'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-039.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 600px; height: 425px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 600px;'> +THE NIGHT CHASE.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>“It’s no use,” said the captain of the corvette to his first lieutenant, +as they stood watching the receding chase. “We may as +well give it up; she has the heels of us in this light wind, and will +soon be out of sight. I think, however,” continued the captain, with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span> +a smile, “that he’ll remember the ‘Scourge’ when he meets her +again. This is the second time we have chased that fellow; and +this heat, by the way the splinters flew, we must have peppered the +skin off his back.”</p> +<p>Shutting up the joints of the spy-glass which he held in his hand, +he took hold of the man-ropes of the poop ladder, and as he put his +feet on the steps, he said,</p> +<p>“You can go about, Mr. Cleveland, and run down to the brig.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_VII__THE_MEETING_AND_MOURNING' id='CHAPTER_VII__THE_MEETING_AND_MOURNING'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VII.<br /><br />THE MEETING AND MOURNING.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Moan! moan, ye dying gales!<br /> +The saddest of your tales<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Is not so sad as life!</span><br /> +Nor have you e’er began<br /> +A theme so wild as man,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Or with such sorrow rife.</span><br /> + <br /> +“Then, when the gale is sighing,<br /> +And when the leaves are dying,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And when the song is o’er,</span><br /> +Oh! let us think of those<br /> +Whose lives are lost in woes––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Whose cup of grief runs o’er!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> afternoon following the night when the foregoing events +transpired, the “Martha Blunt” sailed slowly along the sandy tongue +of land which separates Port Royal from Kingston, and dropped +anchor in the harbor. As the cable rumbled out with a grating +sound through the hawse-hole, and the crew aloft were furling the +sails, a large, gayly-painted barge, pulled by a dozen blacks shaded +by a striped awning, shot swiftly alongside. Jabbering were those +darkies, and clapping their hands, and shouting joyously. A rope +was immediately thrown from the gangway of the brig, and a tall, +handsome man, with a broad Panama hat, loose white jacket and +trowsers, sprang with a bound up the side, and leaped on deck.</p> +<p>Captain Blunt stood there to receive him. A broad white bandage +was passed around his head, and the tears trickled slowly down his +bronzed and honest cheeks. Just beyond him, under the shade of the +awning, lay Banou, stretched out at full length on a mattress; while +Ben, the helmsman, was kneeling beside him, fanning his hot and +fevered face with his tarpaulin. A yard or two beyond, on a broad +plank resting on trestles, lay the mate, Mr. Binks, cold and rigid in +the grasp of death, with the union jack folded modestly over his +corpse. The black breathed heavily and in pain; but when he caught +sight of the gentleman as he stepped on deck, a deathly blue pallor +came over his countenance, and, closing his eyes, the hot salt tears +started in great drops from the lids.</p> +<p>“My God! captain,” said the gentleman, with a bewildering stare, +“what’s all this? What has happened?”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span></div> +<p>The old skipper merely made a motion with his hand toward the +cabin, and, leaning painfully against the rail, wept like a child. The +gentleman’s blood forsook his cheeks, and, with his knees knocking +together, he staggered like a drunken man toward the cabin door. +A few minutes later he emerged, bearing in his arms the sobbing, +drooping form of his wife. Starting from his close embrace for a +moment as he bore her to the gangway, she gave one shuddering, +terrified, searching gaze over the blue water to seaward, and then, +with a wailing cry of agony, that would have shaken the hardest +heart, she fell sobbing again into her husband’s arms.</p> +<p>The voices and joyous shrieks of the negroes in the barge alongside +subsided into low moaning groans; four or five came up, and +carefully lowered Banou down; then all got into the boat, and she +moved mournfully away toward the shore.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_VIII__CAPTAIN_BRAND_AT_HOME' id='CHAPTER_VIII__CAPTAIN_BRAND_AT_HOME'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII.<br /><br />CAPTAIN BRAND AT HOME.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“From his brimstone bed at break of day,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>A-walking the Devil is gone,</span><br /> +To visit his snug little farm the Earth,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And see how his stock goes on.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Upon</span> a broad, flat, rocky ledge, near a small, landlocked narrow +inlet of one of the clustering Twelve League Keys on the south side +of Cuba, stood a red-tiled stone building, with a spacious veranda in +front, covered by plaited matting and canvas curtains triced up all +around. The back and one side of the building rested against a +craggy eminence which overlooked the sea on both sides of the +island, and commanded a wide sweep of reef and blue water beyond. +A few clumps of cocoa-nut-trees and dwarf palms, with bare gaunt +stems and tufted tops, stood out here and there along the rocky +slopes, while lesser vegetation of cactus and mangrove bushes were +scattered thickly over the island, cropping out with jagged edges of +rock down to the sandy beaches of the sea-shore. A deep narrow +inlet of blue water lay pure and still near the base of the rocky +height, where, too, was a shelving curve of white sand, sprinkled +about by a few mat sheds, while on the other side the rocks arose to +an elevation of a hundred and fifty feet, forming a precipitous wall +to the water. The inlet here took a sharp turn, scooped out in a secluded +basin, and then narrowing to less than forty yards in width, +it wound and twisted for a good mile in a thin blue channel to the +open sea. Half that distance farther out was a roaring ledge of white +breakers, where the long swell came hammering on it, bursting up in +the air in brightish green masses, and then tumbling over the reef +and bubbling smoothly on toward the shore. On a level with the +water no channel could be discerned through the ledge; but, looking +down from the heights around the inlet, a narrow blue gateway +was marked out, skirted on the surface by frothy crests of dead foam, +and near where flocks of cormorants and gulls were riding placidly +on the inner side of the ledge. The island itself was about two +miles broad and seven long; and about midway of its width the inlet +formed a forked strait, one branch finding its way to the north, +between a low succession of sandy hummocks, where the water was +too shallow to float a duck, and the other finding an outlet, scarcely +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span> +a biscuit-toss wide, between two bluff rocks. With the trade wind +this passage was safe and accessible; but on the change of the moon, +with a breeze and swell from the south, the sea came bowling in, in +boiling eddies and whirlpools, and it required a nerve of iron to attempt +an entrance. Just within this narrow mouth, on a flat beveled +ledge of rock but a few feet above the water, was a small battery of +two long eighteen-pounders, and two twenty-four pounder carronades +mounted on slides and trucks, with platforms laid on a bed of +sand. Near by, beneath a low shed of tiles and loose stones, were a +pile of round shot, nicely blacked, and some stands of grape and canister +in canvas bags and cases, together with a large copper magazine +of cartridges. Seated a little way off on a low stool was a dingy +Spaniard with a telescope laid across his knees, which every little +while he would raise to his eye and take a steady glance around the +horizon to seaward. At other times he would roll and light a paper +cigar, murmuring some low ditty to himself as he sent the smoke in +volumes through his nose. A small brass bell hung beside the shed +near the battery, together with a telegraphic card, which was connected +by a wire strung on low posts, or hooked from rock to rock +to the stone building away up at the basin. To return, however, to +the building: the veranda rested on square rough masonry full twenty +feet from the ground, which was loopholed for musketry, and with +but one narrow slip of a doorway that fell like a portcullis, banded +and strapped with bars and studs of wrought iron. Within this +stone inclosure was a large and roomy vault, half filled with cases, +barrels, and packages, and at the upper angle was a narrow subterranean +vaulted passage, barred also by an iron-bound door, which led +to a succession of whitewashed chambers––dark, damp, and gloomy––and +then on, in a fissure-like pathway, to another equally strongly secured +outlet on the other side of the crag. Leading to the veranda +was a tautly-stretched rope ladder lashed to eye-bolts let into the natural +rock below, and hooked on to the edge of the floor above. This +was the only approach to the main floor of the building from the outside, +though within were heavy trap-doors like the hatches of a ship, +which communicated to the chambers beneath. The whole structure +was of stone and tiles, roughly built, but yet strong and durable, and +capable of resisting any assault, unaided by cannon, that could be +brought against it. The floor was divided into four rooms, the smallest +used for a kitchen, the next for a magazine of small arms, and the +third a spacious bedchamber, which opened into a large square apartment +facing the veranda, and which deserves more notice.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_5' id='linki_5'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-045.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 600px; height: 430px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 600px;'> +THE PIRATE DEN.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>The lofty ceiling came down with the slant, showing the bare red +tiles and heavy square beams which supported the roof. In one of +the stoutest of these beams was an eye-bolt and copper-strapped +block, through which was rove a long green silk rope, with one end +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span> +secured by a cleat on the wall, and the other dangling loose, and +squirming, whenever a current of air struck it, like a long, slim snake. +Around the sides of the room, which were paneled with cedar, stood +four or five quaint ebony armoires, and as many cabinets, clocks, and +bookcases, with here and there a woman’s work-stand, some of them +curiously inlaid with pearl and silver. The walls were hung with a +great number of pictures of all kinds of vessels––generally, however, +of the merchant description––under full sail, with vivid light-houses +in the distance, and combing breakers under the lee; and all portraying +gallant crews and buoyant freights, which probably had never +reached their destinations. Among this gallery of marine display was +a broad framing of the “Flags of All Nations;” and codes of signals, +too, in bright colors, hung beside them. Farther on, in a pretty panel +by itself, surrounded by an edging of mother-o’-pearl, was a triple row +of female miniatures, a number of them of great beauty, and many executed +in excellent taste and art. In one corner was a large chart-stand, +covered with rolls of maps and nautical instruments, while +above were suspended, by white rope grummets, a pyramidal line of +spy-glasses and telescopes of all sizes and make. Near the centre of +the apartment stood a large round dining-table, on which was laid +things for a breakfast, a box of cigars, and a small silver pan of live +coals. There were but two windows to this room, both hung with +striped muslin curtains, the casements going to the floor, and looking +out upon the veranda; and but two doors, one leading to the kitchen, +and the other to the sleeping-chamber on the opposite side.</p> +<p>Presently this last door opened, and, pushing aside a blue gauze +curtain which hung before it, an individual of about eight-and-twenty +years of age stepped languidly into the room. He was a tallish +man, over six feet in stature, rather spare in build, but with great +breadth of shoulders, and though pale, apparently from long illness, +yet he was evidently very active and muscular when his nerves were +called into action. Had it not been for a downward choleric curve to +his large nose, and a little parting at the corners of his wide mouth +and compressed lips, the face might have been thought handsome. +The eyes were light blue, set close together, but hard and stony, with +no ray of mercy or humanity in them. He wore no beard, and his +light brown hair was thin and dry, and carefully parted at the side. +He was dressed in a snow-white pair of loose drilling trowsers, cut +sailor fashion, straw slippers, and silk stockings; and above he wore +a brown linen jacket with large pearl buttons, and pockets. As he +entered the room he held a delicate cambric handkerchief, with a fine +lace border, in his hands, which he seemed to regard with curious interest +as he lounged toward the windows of the veranda.</p> +<p>“I wish I could remember,” he muttered musingly to himself, +“which of those sisters this bit of cambric belonged to, marked +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span> +with an E.––Ellen or Eliza––hum! They <i>would</i> die––silly things!––tried +to stab me! Ho! what fun! Never left me even a miniature, +either, for my collection. ‘<i><a name="P5"></a>Bueno!</i>’ There’s more fish in the sea––and +under it too!” he concluded, with an unpleasant elevation of his +eyebrows.</p> +<p>By this time he had approached the open window, and, shoving +the delicate fabric daintily in his pocket, he gave a slight yawn and +looked out. Before him lay the deep blue basin of the inlet, with a +couple of boats hauled up on the shore; a few idle sailors moving +about, or squatted beneath the sheds playing cards or sewing. Without +letting his eye rest more than a moment on this scene, he turned +and gave a long, earnest gaze between an opening of the rocks to seaward. +Then, with an angry frown, he approached the table, poured +out a cup of black coffee, threw rather than dropped in a lump of +sugar, and sat himself down for his morning’s meal. He had scarcely, +however, gulped down his cup of coffee and choked after it a slice +of toast, than he pushed away the breakfast things, snapped his teeth +together like a steel clasp, biting a tooth-pick in twain by the effort; +and then, tossing the pieces away, he dashed his hand into the cigar-box, +extracted one, touched it to the pan of coals, and began to smoke +savagely. At first the grateful smoke appeared to soothe his chafed +spirit, for he threw himself lazily into a large cane-bottomed settee, +and, stretching out his legs, seemed to enjoy the tranquil scene around +him with uninterrupted pleasure. But soon a scowl darkened his +face; he dropped his cigar on the floor, and springing to his feet as +if touched by a galvanic battery, he snatched down a telescope from +the wall, steadied it at the window-sash, and peered again long and +anxiously to windward. He saw nothing, however, save the long, +glassy, unbroken undulations of a calm tropical sea, rolling away off +beyond the ledge under a burning sun; no sign of a breeze––not +even a cat’s-paw; and only now and then the leap of a deep-sea fish +sparkling for a moment in the air, and some sluggish gulls and pelicans +sailing and diving about the reef for their prey. Shutting up +the glass with a crash that made the joints ring, he strode to the settee, +where hung several knotted bell-ropes, and, seizing one, gave it +a sharp jerk. Then putting his ear to an aperture in the wall, where +was a hollow cane tube like the mouth of a speaking-trumpet, he listened +attentively till a hoarse whisper uttered the word,</p> +<p>“<i>Señor.</i>”</p> +<p>Putting his mouth to the tube, he said,</p> +<p>“Can you make out the ‘Centipede’ from the crag station?”</p> +<p>“Not sure, sir, this morning; but last evening, at sunset, I saw +a sail which I took to be her. The sea-breeze is just beginning to +make, and if she’s to windward of Punta Arenas she’ll soon heave in +sight.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span></div> +<p>This colloquy was held in Spanish; and when the signal-man had +ceased speaking, the interlocutor lit another cigar mechanically, kicked +a foot-stool out of his way like a foot-ball, and thus communed +with himself as he rapidly paced between the table and the veranda:</p> +<p>“Fourteen weeks ago yesterday since the schooner was off Matanzas; +not a word of news to cheer me through all that cursed fever; +the spring trade done, and the track deserted by this time!”</p> +<p>Then pausing in his walk, he stopped at the chart-stand, and unrolling +a map, he went on:</p> +<p>“Where, in the devil’s name, could she possibly have gone to? +She might have been to Cape Horn and back before this. Miserable +fool that I was to trust the craft with that thirsty, thick-headed +Gibbs! <i>Diavolo!</i> he may have been captured, and if he has, I hope +his neck has been stretched like a shred of jerked beef.”</p> +<p>Even while he was talking a bell struck near the settee, and, putting +his ear again to the tube, the hoarse voice said,</p> +<p>“I can make her out now, <i>señor</i>. She’s just caught the strong +young breeze, and is, hull up, coming along with the bonnet off her +fore-sail and a reef in her main-sail! There’s a felucca to windward +of her, which I take to be the ‘Panchita!’”</p> +<p>“Ah ha!” laughed the individual in the room. “The ‘Centipede’ +is safe, then; and I am to have the pleasure, too, of a visit from the +Tuerto, the mercenary old owl, with his account of sales and his +greed. But let me once catch him foul, and, my one-eyed friend, I’ll +treat you to such a dance that you won’t need shoes!”</p> +<p>Here he glanced with a meaning look at the silk rope swaying +from the beam above his head, and the laugh of satisfaction which +followed was not one a timid man would care to hear in a dark +night; nor did it come from his heart, as any one might have discovered +from the ferocious gleam of inward passion which shot out in +the cold sparkle of his eyes and flitted away over his grating teeth.</p> +<p>Controlling his feelings, however, and stepping out on the veranda, +he drew aside the curtains and sung out to the men in the huts, +“One of you fellows, tell the boatswain I want him.”</p> +<p>The men started up, and a moment after a man in a blue jacket stood +out from one of the sheds and threw up his hand to his straw hat.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_6' id='linki_6'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-051.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 600px; height: 426px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 600px;'> +THE “PANCHITA”<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>“Get together the people! Let run the cable at the Alligator’s +mouth, and have three or four warps ready for the schooner when +she passes the point! The ‘Panchita’ is coming too, so look out, +and have enough lines to tow both vessels in case the breeze fails. +Tell Mr. Gibbs to moor close under the other shore in the old berth, +and to come to me when he’s anchored! D’ye hear?”</p> +<p>All this was said in a sharp tone of command, and by the alacrity +with which the orders were executed the men seemed to be accustomed +to a master who knew how to rule them.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_IX__CAPTAIN_AND_MATE' id='CHAPTER_IX__CAPTAIN_AND_MATE'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER IX.<br /><br />CAPTAIN AND MATE.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“So I hauled him off to the gallows’ foot,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And blinded him in his bags;</span><br /> +’Twas a weary job to heave him up,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>For a doomed man always lags;</span><br /> +But by ten of the clock he was off his legs<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>In the wind, and airing his rags!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>A couple</span> of hours had passed since the occupant of the stone +building had last spoken to his subordinates down at the inlet, but +the interval he devoted to a minute inspection of weapons in the +armory adjoining his bedroom. They were all in excellent order, of +the best make, and very neatly arranged in stands and cases around +the room. When he emerged again, after locking the door, he held +an exquisite pair of small pistols inlaid with gold in his hand, which +he gently polished with his cambric handkerchief, and then slipped +them into his trowsers pockets. Then he held short dialogues with +the voice at the signal-station, and, without looking out of the window, +he informed himself of what was doing outside, and what progress +the vessels made toward their haven. When, however, the +schooner poked her slim, low black bows, with her sails down, +around the point, he gave one stealthy peep, or glare rather, at her. +He took all in at that glance, from the patches of sheet-lead nailed +over the shot-holes in her side, to the sawed-off stump of the fore-top-mast; +and then he remarked the absence of the boat which was +carried amidships, and the few men moving about her deck. Ay! he +took it all in with that one comprehensive glance, and when he had +done, he raised his fore finger quivering with anger, and slowly and +unconsciously passed it with an ominous gesture across his throat.</p> +<p>Soon was heard a sullen plunge as an anchor was let go, and the +splashing of the warps upon the water as the stern of the “Centipede” +was being moored to the rocks, to make room for her companion +the felucca, now shortly expected.</p> +<p>“Mr. Gibbs is coming on shore, <i>señor</i>, and he seems to have a +wooden leg,” came through the tube. “The doctor is coming with +him, and there is a little boy in the boat.”</p> +<p>“Ho!” muttered the man in the saloon, “where was that brat +picked up?”</p> +<p>Nothing more was said. The tall man lit a cigar, threw himself +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span> +into an easy attitude on the settee, opened a richly-bound volume, +and waited. Ten minutes may have gone by when the trampling +of feet was heard on the smooth rocks outside the building, and the +voice of Mr. Gibbs exclaimed,</p> +<p>“Easy, will ye? Doctor! Don’t ye see it tears the narves out +of me to hobble with this broomstick-handle of a leg! There! Stop +a bit! How in thunder am I to climb this ladder? Oh!” Here a +low howl of pain. “Another shove. Easy, old Sawbones! So––give +us another push, will ye? All right! There, that’ll do.”</p> +<p>The next minute Mr. Bill Gibbs stood on the broad piazza, and, +with the assistance of a crutch, he hobbled to the entrance of the +apartment, and only pausing to recover his wind and compose his +features, he pulled off his straw hat and entered.</p> +<p>“So ho! Mr. Gibbs,” said the man on the settee, as the burly, lame +ruffian darkened the entrance, laying the book down as he spoke, and +waving his delicate handkerchief before him.</p> +<p>“So ho! Mr. Gibbs, you’ve come back at last! Delighted to see +you. I am, ’pon my soul. Ah! one of those stout pins gone? Why, +how’s this? Some little accident? Santa Cruz rum and a tumble +down the hatchway, perhaps, eh? D’ye smoke? Take a cheroot. +Put that bag on the table.”</p> +<p>All this was said in a gay, gibing tone, with an indifference and +<i>sang froid</i> that a tight-rope dancer might have been proud of; and +as he ended, he threw a handful of cigars across the table, and pushed +the pan of coals toward his visitor. Before, however, Gibbs had time +to utter a word in reply, his companion, while lolling over the settee, +caught up an opera-glass from the table, and, placing it to his eyes, +went on:</p> +<p>“Ha! ho! the fore-top-mast of my pretty long-legged schooner is +gone. Pretty stick it was! I suppose, Master Gibbs, that <i>you</i>”––he +nodded fiercely without removing the glass––“cut it up for that +lovely new leg you’ve mounted. Ay, my beauty!” again apostrophizing +the vessel, which lay like a wounded bird in the calm inlet +before him; “but where’s my handsome barge, that used to cover +the long gun? Ho! stormy weather you’ve seen of late.”</p> +<p>During all this one-sided conversation Gibbs had managed to wriggle +his mutilated body on to a wicker chair, where he steadied himself +with his crutch, evincing manifest signs of choler the while by +running his fat fingers through the reddish door-mat of hair, hitching +up his trowsers, and rapping nervously his timber stump of a leg on +the floor, until at last, unable, apparently, longer to control himself, +he burst out, with his bad face suffused with passion,</p> +<p>“I say, Captain Brand, it’s time to end them ’ere gibes. What’s +took place is unfortinate; but, howsoever, I has a bag of shiners and +a wooden leg to show for it, and d––n the odds.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span></div> +<p>“Stop, stop, my bull-dog! Don’t be profane in my presence, if +you please. We are both Christians, you know, and friends too, I +hope.”</p> +<p>This was said in a very precise, emphatic, and clear enunciation, +and without apparent heat; and Captain Brand smiled too––but such +a smile, as his wide mouth came down with a twitch at the corners, +and left a sort of hole, where the cigar was habitually stuck, to see +his teeth through.</p> +<p>“And now, my friend, suppose you give me some little account of +your cruise, and fill up, if you can, any chinks that I haven’t seen +through already,” he concluded, throwing his legs again over the +back of the settee, and elevating his eyebrows as the cigar smoke +curled in spiral wreaths around his face.</p> +<p>Mr. Gibbs hereupon settled himself more at ease in his chair, laid +his crutch across his knees, and began:</p> +<p>“I s’pose, sir, you got the news I sent in a letter from Matanzas, +after we’d been chased out of the Nicholas Channel by that Yankee +corvette?”</p> +<p>Captain Brand nodded at the eye-bolt which held the green +silk rope from the ceiling, as if calculating mentally the strain it +would bear, merely as a matter of philosophical speculation, perhaps.</p> +<p>“Well, arter that––and a very tight race it was––we ran down to +the Behamey Banks. There we picked up a Yankee schooner loaded +with shingles and lumber; and as the skipper was sarsy, I just +made him and his crew walk one of his own planks, and then bored +a couple of holes through his vessel, arter taking out some water +which we stood in need of. You hasn’t a drop of summut to drink, +has you, Captain Brand? becase it makes my jaw-tackle dry to talk +much.”</p> +<p>The captain merely motioned with a wave of his cambric handkerchief +to an open liquor-case which stood on a cabinet near, and to +which Mr. Gibbs hobbled; when, seizing a square flask of crystal incased +in a network of frosted silver, he returned with it to the table. +Had Mr. Gibbs chosen he might have brought with the flask a small, +thimble-shaped liqueur glass; but he did not, and contented himself +with a china coffee-cup which stood on the tray before him. He +seemed a little near-sighted too; and as he inverted the flask, gave +no heed to the quantity of fluid he poured into the cup. But he took +care, however, that it did not run over; and then, raising it with a +trembling hand to his lips, he said, “My sarvice to you, Captain +Brand,” and tossed it down his capacious throat. The captain gave +no response to this compliment, but as Mr. Gibbs put down the coffee-cup +he said blandly,</p> +<p>“Thank you; but suppose you put that flask back in the case. I +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span> +am rather choice with that brandy; it was a––given to me by a––person +who was a––unfortunately hanged, and a––I rarely offer it a––the +second time.”</p> +<p>Puffing his cigar as he spoke in an easy manner, he then turned +round to listen to Mr. Gibbs’s narrative. Becoming more genial as +the brandy loosened his tongue, Mr. Gibbs continued:</p> +<p>“Well, sir, from the Behameys we ran to leeward, nearly to the +Spanish Main, in hopes, perhaps, of finding some stray fellow as was +bound to Europe; but we see nothing for days and days, and weeks +and weeks, till finally the water fell short again, and we beats up and +runs into Santa Cruz. There, as luck would have it, Eboe Pete and +French Tom got into a bit of a scrimmage up on a gentleman’s plantation +arter sunset, and was werry roughly handled by a patrol of sogers +as happened to be near. I believe as how Eboe Pete died that +night; and I heerd, too, that French Tom had his skull cracked; +and what does he go for to do but make a confession to the authorities +that the ‘Centipede’ was a pirate!</p> +<p>“Well, captain, the moment that information reached me, and seein’ +a sogers’ boat gettin’ ready, and the sogers running about the +water-battery of the fort, than I just slips the cable, and runs out to +sea like a bird; and, Lord love ye, sir! the way they pitched round +shot arter us was––was––” Here Master Gibbs paused for a simile, +and the captain observed with a hacking, cough-like laugh,</p> +<p>“You saved the water-casks, though?”</p> +<p>“Why no, sir; and we was forced to go upon a ’lowance of a pint +a water a man!”</p> +<p>“Ho!” rejoined the listener. “Capital! Didn’t suffer, I hope? +Go on.”</p> +<p>“Howsomever, I says to myself, the captain wants a good valy’ble +cargo, and so we beats up again and stretches away back along the +coast of Jamaiky, on the look-out for any think that might be comin’ +that ’ere way. Well, sir, d’ye see, airly one morning, as we was a +lying as close as wax under the land, we spies a big brig becalmed +off to seaward; but we diskivered at the same time that same Yankee +cruiser as was in chase of us off Matanzas. I know’d as how you +would be displeased at any risks being run, so we keeps clean and +snug inshore, under a pint o’ land, till set of sun, and until arter the +moon went down. Then the breeze sprung up fresh from the old +trade quarter, and says I, now we’ll make a dash at that ’ere drogher, +and squeeze him as dry as bone-dust; more pertikerly, ye see, captain, +since the corvette, arter dodgin’ about him all day, had yawed off, +and, with his port-tacks aboard, was beatin’ to wind’ard.”</p> +<p>Here Mr. Gibbs’s auditor took the cigar from his mouth and rolled +his light blue eyes at him, puffed a thick volume of smoke through +the corner of his mouth, but said never a syllable.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span></div> +<p>The narrator gave a wistful look at the brandy-flask, drained the +last few drops from the coffee-cup, pushed out his timber leg, and +resumed:</p> +<p>“So you see, sir, as I was a sayin’, I says to myself, I’ll get the +boat in the water with the lads, and, to make sure of all being conducted +shipshape, I’ll go myself.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” said the captain, as his eyebrows went up and the corners +of his mouth came down, with the faintest breath of a sardonic smile, +while he lit a fresh cigar, “oh! you did!”</p> +<p>“Ay, sir! So we let the old drogher go bouncing on past us, at +about the rate of five mile in four hours, when we crossed his wake +under the jib, and then we ups with the fore and main-sail, got a pull +of the sheets, <span class="nowrap">and––”</span></p> +<p>Captain Brand shook the point of his curved nose at the speaker, +who checked himself, and, giving an emphatic rap with his crutch on +the floor, went on <span class="nowrap">with––</span></p> +<p>“Beg parding, sir; but, Lord love ye! we just walked up under +his lee, and afore he know’d where he wos, we boarded him, knocked +over two or three chaps, and had the skipper lashed down in his cabin +as quick as winkin’ and as quiet as could be. Ay, sir, we had it all +our own way; but during the scrimmage wot should I see (here he +inclined his head out like a loggerhead turtle) but the lovelyest young +’oman as ever I clapped eyes on!” Here his timber stump grated +nervously on the floor. “Says I, that’s just the craft, with such a +clean run and full bows, as would please Captain Brand”––at which +that individual rolled round on his elbow and brought his eye to the +opera-glass in the direction of the schooner.</p> +<p>“She isn’t there, captain!” parenthesized the narrator, following +the motion with his head. “So I just fisted hold of her to hand her +tenderly into the boat, with a bag of shiners as wos found on board, +when, so help me––– ––beg parding, sir––if a dwarfed giant of a +nigger didn’t take an overhand lick at me with an iron pump-break, +and nearly cut this ’ere larboard pin in two pieces; and, smash my +brains!” he continued, shaking his broad paw aloft with rage, “but +what does I do, with all the pain from the clip that da––(beg parding, +sir) give me, I slams away with a pistol bullet through the nigger’s +<span class="nowrap">head––”</span></p> +<p>“Didn’t I see a little boy on board the ‘Centipede?’ Perhaps I +was mistaken, the sun blazes so fiercely, eh?” broke in Captain Brand, +though the sun didn’t blaze with a fiercer light than shot out of his +deadly cold blue eyes.</p> +<p>“Ho, ay, sir! that young imp was a bitin’ at my t’other leg like a +bull terrier pup, while the nigger was attackin’ me, and then he goes +and crawls out of the cabin winders, and was fished out of the water +by the chaps as wos towin’ astarn in the boat.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span></div> +<p>“Oh, really! how very fortunate!” muttered the captain; “go on; +don’t stop, I pray you, Master Gibbs.”</p> +<p>“Well, sir, I knows very little what happened arter this, for the +young ’oman was a screamin’ and our chaps a cursin’ about the +decks, when all of a sudden I fell off into a faint like, and the same +time a heavy gun came slamming into our very ears; and there was +that infarnal corvette agen bowlin’ down within five cables’ length +of the brig, her battery all alight and the whistles a callin’ away the +boats, in as violent a haste as any think I can remember,” said Gibbs, +as he paused to catch his breath.</p> +<p>“You must have kept a sharp look-out, though?” But, without +heeding this remark, the burly scoundrel went <span class="nowrap">on––</span></p> +<p>“Well, Captain Brand, the boys tumbled me over the <span class="nowrap">side––”</span></p> +<p>“Not forgetting the little bag of shiners!” sneered his auditor.</p> +<p>“Tumbled me into the boat, sir, and then pulled like mad for the +schooner. I know’d, d’ye mind, captain, or leastways I felt sartain +we could show any think afloat our heels, and so away we scrambles +aboard, and off we splits. But ye must see by this time, sir, the corvette +had come down and rounded to on the weather beam of the +drogher, acting like a screen for the schooner close under his lee. It +wos only a minnit, though, while he was holding some jaw with those +lubbers aboard the brig, before he filled away again, and wearing +sharp round her bows, he diskivered us sartain. I don’t think, as +matters stood by this time, that our boat was a boat-hook’s length +from the schooner when I jist see a burst of red flashes from the +man-o’-war’s starboard ports, and heerd an officer roar out, ‘Give +him the whole three divisions of grape!’ when I’m da––your parding +agin, sir; I’m blest if ever I heerd sich a rain of cold iron in +all my sea-goin’ experience. Ay, sir, by G––gracious, sir, if about +two bushels of them grape didn’t riddle the barge like the nozzle to +a watering-pot, and same time tore seven of our noble fellows all to +<span class="nowrap">rags––”</span></p> +<p>“You saved the boat, of course?” suggested his companion, in a +kind voice, but with a frightful sneer.</p> +<p>“Why, captain, we unfortinately lost her; for ye see, arter tumbling +me aboard the schooner, and arter bailing nigh as much blood +as <span class="nowrap">water––”</span></p> +<p>“Capital! excellent! best joke I ever heard,” broke in Captain +Brand, with a hollow laugh of much enjoyment.</p> +<p>“Arter bailin’ as much blood as water, and finding the man-o’-war +was heaving in stays to slam another broadside into us, we cut the +boat adrift, and then got the sheets flat aft, the gaff-top-sails up, and +away we drove with a crackin’ breeze right up to wind’ard, like a +swordfish. Lord love ye, sir! we walked away from the cruiser, a +eatin’ the wind out of him like a knife, and notwithstandin’ he hove +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span> +more nor forty round shot at us, he only knocked away the fore-top-mast +and some other triflin’ little damage about the hull, and”––he +hesitated––“Lascar Joe’s head.”</p> +<p>“That counts off about half your crew, eh?” said Captain Brand, +smiling in his peculiar manner. “Well, what next?”</p> +<p>“Why, sir, the next mornin’ Belize Paul––as is part doctor, you +know––said as how my leg was to come off below the knee, and arter +givin’ me a sip or two o’ <span class="nowrap">rum––”</span></p> +<p>“Bottle,” interjected the captain, twisting the beak of his nose in +a puff of smoke.</p> +<p>“––Rum, why, smash my brains, sir, if he didn’t hack it off with a +wood-saw!”</p> +<p>“Well, what next?”</p> +<p>“Then, sir, ye see, we run the schooner down Cape Cruz, where +we kept werry snug and quiet till sich times as the old one-eyed +Diego judged the coast clear to return to head-quarters.”</p> +<p>“Well, what then?”</p> +<p>“That’s all, Captain Brand!” concluded the narrator his garbled +yarn, as he again had recourse to scratching the door-mat on his +head, and cast a thirsty look at the brandy-flask.</p> +<p>“That’s all, is it?” hissed the man with the iron jaws, in a tone +of concentrated passion, as he sprang with a single bound from the +settee, and clutched Master Gibbs with both hands around his hairy +throat until his face turned livid purple and his eyes started from the +sockets. “That’s all, is it, you drunken beast? That’s all you have +to tell after idling away the summer, losing anchors and boats, and +more than half my crew, and bringing a hornet’s nest down about +our ears! That’s all, is it? And what would you say, now, if I +should order the doctor to cut off your other leg close behind your +ears, you beast?”</p> +<p>In the last stages of suffocation, the man was hurled on his back to +the floor, and there lay, bleeding a torrent from his mouth and nose. +His superior stood over him for a moment and put his hand in his +trowsers pocket for a pistol, and then he glanced rapidly at the green +rope squirming from the beams above; but, changing his purpose apparently, +he strode back to the settee and shouted “Babette!”</p> +<p>Presently the door opened from the passage leading to the kitchen, +and there appeared a large, powerfully-made negro-woman, with her +arms akimbo, and a pair of bloodshot eyes gleaming from beneath a +striped Madras turban wound round her head.</p> +<p>“Babette!” repeated the captain, resuming his seat and his habitual +polite air and voice, “serve out a barrel of Bordeaux and a beaker +of old Antigua rum to the ‘Centipede’s’ crew to drink my health; +and I say, my beauty! have a pig or two killed; tell the boatswain +to haul the seine, and have a good supper for all hands to-night. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span> +And, Baba”––he went on as if he had just thought of something––“there’s +my friend Gibbs lying there––I believe he has fallen down +in a fit––be very careful of him––a bed in the vault––a little biscuit +and water––he may be feverish when he wakes up, you know. And, +Babette, old girl, if you are in want of kindling wood, you may as +well use that timber leg of our friend Gibbs! I don’t think he’ll +want it again. There! <i>doucement</i>, Baba!”</p> +<p>The negress gave a deep grunt of assent, and, seizing the senseless +body lying on the floor, she dragged it out of the room. Returning +a few moments after, she wiped up the blood with a cloth dipped in +hot water, and finally disappeared.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_X__AN_OLD_SPANIARD_WITH_ONE_EYE' id='CHAPTER_X__AN_OLD_SPANIARD_WITH_ONE_EYE'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER X.<br /><br />AN OLD SPANIARD WITH ONE EYE.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“I fear thee, Ancient Mariner!<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>I fear thy skinny hand!</span><br /> +For thou art long, and lank, and brown,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>As is the ribbed sea-sand.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“The</span> ‘Panchita’ has passed Mangrove Point,” came in the hoarse +whisper from the signal-man. “You can see her now from below, +sir.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand put on a fine Panama hat, and stepped out on the +veranda, where, with a cigar in his mouth, he leaned over the balustrade, +and kept sharp watch on every thing that was going on below +him. In a few minutes a long pointed brown bowsprit protruded +itself beyond the wall of rocks, followed by a great triangular lateen +sail, bent to a yard a mile long, and tapering away like a fly-fishing-rod, +where, at the end, was a short bit of yellow and red pennant. +As her bows came into view they showed above a curved prow falling +inboard, with a huge bunch of sheepskin for a chafing-mat on the +knob, and a thin red streak along the wales, on a lead-colored ground, +above her bottom, which was painted green. As more of her proportions +came into the picture, you saw a stout stump of a mast, raking +forward, with short black ropes of purchases for hoisting the single +yard, and heavy square blocks close down to the foot of the mast. +When this great sail had come out from the screen of rocks, another +light stick of a mast stood up over the taffrail, with another lateen +sail and whip-stalk of a yard, to which was bent the Spanish Colonial +Guarda Costa flag. In fact, she was a Spanish felucca all over, from +stem to stern, and truck to water-line. A few dingy hammocks were +stowed about halfway along her rail, and there were a good many +men moving about her decks in getting the cable clear, and a lot +more clinging like so many lizards along the bending yard, and all in +some attempt at uniform dress, in readiness to roll up the sail when +the anchor was down. There was a long brass gun, too, burnished +like gold, on a pivot slide, with all its equipment, trained muzzle forward +in front of the main-mast. No sooner had she sagged into the +open basin, with her immense sail hanging flat and heavy in the light +air, than a boat from the schooner boarded her, and presently she let +go an anchor. There were a few coarse compliments and greetings +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span> +exchanged between the crews of the two vessels, and some rough +jokes made, as the last comer veered out the cable, rolled up his +sails, and set taut his running gear in quite a tidy and man-of-war +style.</p> +<p>“Go on board the felucca, José, and give my compliments to Don +Ignaçio, and say I shall be happy to see him,” cried Captain Brand +from the piazza to a man at the cove; “and tell him,” continued he, +“that I should have called in person, but I can’t bear the hot sun +since I caught the fever. Take my gig.”</p> +<p>This was said in Spanish, and when he had finished speaking he +shaded his face behind the curtain and scowled.</p> +<p>“You’re a bird of ill omen, my one-eyed friend; but one of these +days I’ll wipe out old scores, and new ones too, perhaps,” Captain +Brand muttered to himself; and, from his murderous expression of +face, he seemed just the man to carry out his threat. Meanwhile, +a light whale-boat of a gig, manned by four men and a coxswain, +pushed off from the shore, and in three strokes of the oars she was +alongside the felucca. The coxswain stepped over the low rail, and, +walking aft, turned down a cuddy of a cabin, took off his hat, and +delivered his message. A minute later he again got into the boat, +and pulled to the cove, where he said to the captain,</p> +<p>“Don Ignaçio says he’ll come in his own boat when he’s ready.”</p> +<p>“<i>Bueno!</i>” was responded aloud; and then to himself: “Don’t ask +or receive favors, eh? What an old file the brute is!”</p> +<p>He said no more, but watched. Presently a small man came up +out of the cabin of the “Panchita,” but so very slow, and with such +a quiet motion did he emerge, that one might suppose it was a wary +animal rather than a human being. He was scrupulously neat in attire––a +brown pair of linen trowsers, a Marseilles vest with silver filigree +buttons, an embroidered shirt-bosom with gold studs, and a dark +navy-blue broadcloth coat, with standing collar and anchor gilt buttons. +His head-gear was simply a white chip hat, with a very narrow +brim and a fluttering red ribbon; but beneath it his coal-black +hair behind was chopped as close as could be, leaving a single long +and well-oiled ringlet on each side, which curled like snakes around +a pair of large gold rings pendent from his ears. His complexion +was dark, bilious, and swarthy, with a thin, sharp nose, and a million +of minute wrinkles, all meeting above, at the corners, and under a +small line of a mouth; quite like rays, in fact, and only relaxed when +the lips parted to show a few ragged, rotten pegs of sharp teeth. +But perhaps the most noticeable feature in his face was his eye––for +he had but one––and the spot where the other is seen in the species +was merely a red, closed patch of tightly-drawn skin, with a few hairs +sticking out like iron tacks. His single eye, however, was a jet black, +round, piercing organ, which seemed to do duty for half a dozen ordinary +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span> +glims, and danced with a sharp, malevolent scrutiny, as if the +owner was always in search of something and never found it, and +every body and every thing appeared to slink out of its light wherever +it glanced around. His age might have been any where from +forty to sixty. As he stepped on deck, clear of the cuddy cabin hatch, +his sinister optic played about in its socket––now scanning the long +brass gun, the half-furled sails, the crew, the ropes, or taking a steady, +unwinking glance at the midday sun, and then shining off to the shore, +and sweeping in the “Centipede,” the little pool of blue water, and +the mouth of the inlet. Feeling apparently satisfied with the present +aspect of affairs, he slowly pulled out a machero from his waistcoat +pocket, plucked a cigarette from the case, and then proceeded deliberately +to strike a light. Even while performing this simple operation, +his uneasy orb, like unto a black bull’s-eye, traversed about in +its habitual way; and when he raised the spark of fire with his brown, +thin hand, and the claws of fingers loaded with rings, he seemed to +be looking into his own mouth. Nodding to a fellow who stood near, +with a crimson sash around his waist, he inclined his eye toward the +shore, blew out a thin wreath of smoke from his lungs––all the while +his vigilant organ shining like a burning spark of lambent jet through +the smoke––and merely said,</p> +<p>“The boat!”</p> +<p>In a moment a small cockle-shell of a punt was lowered from the +stern of the felucca, when, stepping carefully in, he seized a scull, and +with a few vigorous twists pushed her to the landing at the cove.</p> +<p>During all these movements of the commander of the felucca Captain +Brand was by no means an inattentive observer; and, indeed, he +was so extremely critical that he stuck the tube of a powerful telescope +through an aperture of the curtains around him, and not only +looked at his cautious visitor, but he actually watched the expression +of his uneasy eye, and almost counted every wrinkle––finely engraved +as they were––on his swarthy visage; but, if Captain Brand’s own +visage reflected an index of his mind, he did not seem over and above +pleased with what he saw.</p> +<p>“Has a bundle of papers under his arm! I can see the hilt of that +delicate blade, too, sticking out from his wristband. Ah! I’ve seen +him throw that short blade from his coat-sleeve and strike a dollar +at twenty yards! Wonderful skill with knives you have, Don Ignaçio; +but you never yet tried your knack with <i>me</i>! Oh no, my Tuerto––bird +of ill omen that you are! We can’t do without one another +just yet, so let us wait and see what’s in the wind!”</p> +<p>Soliloquizing these remarks, Captain Brand withdrew his telescope +as the commander of the felucca approached, and, with a cheerful +smile, waited to receive him. A few moments later the one-eyed +individual mounted the rope-ladder stairway, carefully feeling the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span> +strands, however, and looking suspiciously around him as he stepped +lightly on the piazza.</p> +<p>“<i>Ah! compadre mio!</i>” exclaimed Captain Brand, in Spanish, as +he seized his visitor by the flipper, and squeezed his fingers till the +pressure on his valuable rings made him wince, as he was led into +the large and spacious saloon, while at the same time the captain +gave him a hearty slap between his narrow shoulders.</p> +<p>“<i>Ah! compadre!</i> How goes the friend of my soul?”</p> +<p>The small man gave no symptoms of joy at this warm greeting; +but, screwing his wiry frame out of the captain’s caresses, his eye +flashed like a spark of fire quickly up and down and all around the +apartment, as if making a mental inventory of the furniture, and not +omitting his tall companion, from the crown of his head to the toes +of his straw slippers, when he quietly remarked through his closed +teeth,</p> +<p>“<i>Como estamos?</i>”––“How are we?”</p> +<p>“Ah, Don Ignaçio, <i>poco bueno, poco malo</i>! Half and half. Just +getting well over that maldito attack of Yellow Jack.”</p> +<p>“Hum! more bad than good. No? I’ve brought you some letters +from the agent at Havana.”</p> +<p>“Thanks––thanks, my friend. Ho! Babette! Babette! Some +anisette for Don Ignaçio. <i>Presto!</i> my good Baba. There––that +will do!” he said, merrily, as the liqueur and glasses were placed on +the table. “And don’t omit the turtle-soup for dinner, and tell Lascar +Joe to make it. Ah! I forget––the best cook I had––the devil’s +making soup of him now. However, do the best you can, my Baba, +and let us have dinner about sunset.”</p> +<p>Then turning to his visitor, with a graceful bow and a laugh, he +added, “And we’ll have the doctor to join us, and tell how he cut +off our poor friend Gibbs’s leg with a hand-saw. <i>Dios! amigo!</i> +Capital joke, ’pon my honor!”</p> +<p>Captain Brand’s honor! Lord have mercy upon us! And he had +very few jokes, and never told one himself.</p> +<p>“Hum!” replied the Tuerto, in the pause of the conversation. +“There’s better jokes than that to hear. <i>Mira!</i> look!”</p> +<p>With this brief rejoinder he threw a bundle of newspapers on the +table, and, pulling out a packet of letters from a breast pocket, pitched +it toward his host. Then helping himself to a thimbleful of anisette, +he took off his narrow-brimmed chip hat for the first time, polished +up his eye a bit with the knuckle of his fore finger, and looked at his +companion fixedly.</p> +<p>“Letters, I see, from our old friend Moreno, at Havana,” said Captain +Brand, as he sat down on the settee, and with a pretty tortoise-shell +knife cut round the seals. “Ah! what says he? ‘Happy to +inform you,’ is he? ‘Packages of French silks seized by custom-house +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span> +on account of informal invoice and clearance.’ Why didn’t the +fool forge others, then? Well, what next? ‘Schooner “Reel,” from +Barbadoes, with cargo of rum and jerked beef, wrecked going into +Principe, and crew thrown into prison on suspicion of being engaged +in––’ Oh! ah! served them right, when I ordered them to St. Jago––delighted +they must be! ‘Bills for advances and stores now due, +please remit, per hands of Don Ignaçio Sanchez––’”</p> +<p>Here Captain Brand caught a ray from the one eye of his companion, +which he returned with interest; and then laying the letters +down on the table with the softest motion in life, he exclaimed, with +a sigh,</p> +<p>“Not the best news in the world, as you say, <i>compadre</i>; all those +rich goods, and those bags of coffee, and pipes of rum gone to the +devil. But these are little accidents in our profession.”</p> +<p>“<i>Como?</i>” said Señor Ignaçio, “<i>our</i> profession?” shaking his fore +finger before his paper cigar in a deprecating manner. “Speak for +yourself, <i>amigo</i>.”</p> +<p>“Ah! true,” the other went on––“my profession. The freedom of +the seas, the toll of the tropics, the right of search, and all that sort +of buccaneering pastime, is liable, you know, to the usual risks.”</p> +<p>Here he inclined his head to one side and gave a slight clack to his +lips, as if to illustrate in a humorous way a man choking to death +with a knotted rope under his ear. “However, we must be more +cautious in future and retrieve the past disasters, for there are still +on the sea as good barks as ever floated.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand said this as if he were a merchant of large means +and strict integrity, and was about to enter into some shrewd commercial +speculation.</p> +<p>“Hum!” murmured Señor Ignaçio, while pouring out another little +glass of anisette. “<i>Amigo mio!</i> you had better read the papers +from Havana before you talk of another cruise.”</p> +<p>“Oh! delighted to read the news––quite refreshing to get a peep +at the world after being cooped up here for months! Another +French revolution! Bonaparte alive yet! A Patriot war! Nelson +and Villeneuve! All interesting.”</p> +<p>Thus glancing rapidly over the prints, pausing at times at a paragraph +that arrested his attention, then tossing a paper away and taking +up another, till suddenly Captain Brand’s hand shook with passion +as he read aloud,</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_7' id='linki_7'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-068.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 474px; height: 600px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 474px;'> +“HE TOUCHED THE BELL OVERHEAD AS HE SPOKE, AND, PUTTING HIS MOUTH TO THE TUBE, ASKED, ‘ANY THING IN SIGHT?’”<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>“His Britannic majesty’s squadron has been augmented on the +West India station. The brig ‘Firefly,’ corvettes ‘Croaker’ and +‘Joker,’ touched at Nassau, New Providence, on the 2d instant, +bound to leeward. We also learn that the United States have fitted +out a squadron of small vessels, called the Musquito Fleet, to search +for the noted pirate Brand, who has so long committed atrocities +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span> +among the islands. He was last chased by the American corvette +‘Scourge,’ off Morant Bay, on the east coast of Jamaica, but escaped +during the night. The following day a shattered boat was picked +up, which had been cut adrift from the piratical schooner, containing +several dead and dying bodies of the pirates. One of the latter gave +such information to the captain of the ‘Scourge’ as leads to the hope +that Brand’s retreat may soon be discovered and his nest of pirates +be destroyed. Recent advices from Principe state that a vessel loaded +with valuable merchandise struck on the Cavallo Reef and went +down. The crew, however, five in number, were rescued, but on +landing were identified by the mate of the English bark ‘Trident’ as +a portion of the men who robbed that vessel and murdered the master +and several of the passengers. Our readers may remember that +among the latter were two sisters, who leaped overboard and were +drowned, to save themselves the horror of a more cruel fate. The +men alluded to, who were wrecked in the brig off Principe, were sent +in chains to Havana, and were yesterday publicly garroted in the +Plaza of Moro Castle.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XI__CONVERSATION_IN_POCKETS_AND_SLEEVES' id='CHAPTER_XI__CONVERSATION_IN_POCKETS_AND_SLEEVES'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XI.<br /><br />CONVERSATION IN POCKETS AND SLEEVES.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“He holds him with his skinny hand:<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>‘There was a ship,’ quoth he.</span><br /> +‘Hold off! unhand me, graybeard loon!’<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Eftsoons his hand dropp’d he.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Captain Brand</span> laid down the paper without a sign of outward +emotion, and nodded his head several times at the one-eyed man +facing him. He then extracted his perfumed handkerchief, examined +the cipher in the corner, and waved it before his face. Don Ignaçio +pulled out a red silk bandana, and polished his eye as if it were the +lens of a spy-glass. At length the former spoke:</p> +<p>“<i>Amigo mio!</i> The nets are spreading, but the fish are not in them +yet!”</p> +<p>“No, <i>amigo</i>!”</p> +<p>“Ah! <i>compadre, viento y ventura poca dura!</i> the fair breezes have +chopped round in our teeth. Success, my friend, creates jealousy, +envy, hatred, and malice. Now here were we swimming along as +quietly as sharks under water, only coming up for a bite occasionally, +when on come those villainous swordfishes, and wish to drive us +away.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand gave expression to this pious homily in a tone of +virtuous reproach against the world at large, and as if he were a very +much maligned and ill-used gentleman. He touched the bell overhead +as he spoke, and, putting his mouth to the tube, asked,</p> +<p>“Any thing in sight?”</p> +<p>“Nothing, <i>señor</i>.”</p> +<p>“Telegraph the man at the Tiger-trap station to keep a bright +look-out, and direct the gunner to keep the battery manned day and +night! Tell the boatswain to set taut the chain on the other side at +the Alligator’s mouth!”</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio gave a rather suspicious glimmer at his vessel as this +last order was given, and smiled; that is, if a one-sided twitch to the +wrinkles about the line of his mouth could be tortured into a smile. +His companion seemed to divine what was passing in the Don’s mind, +for he added politely,</p> +<p>“The cable won’t interfere with the ‘Panchita!’”</p> +<p>“No, <i>amigo</i>; the felucca is anchored just <i>out</i>side of it.” The +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span> +Tuerto was not a man to leave any thing to chance, and he had taken +the precaution to be on the safe side of the pirates, either as friends +or enemies. He had indeed been as near an approach to a pirate himself +as could be, and had only abandoned the business for a profession +quite as bad, where there was less risk and more profit. In other +words, he was now a colonial officer in command of a Guarda Costa, +winking––but without shutting his eye––at piracy whenever he was +well paid for it; and he invariably was well paid for it, or else he +made mischief. Withal, he was as crafty and determined an old villain +as ever sailed the West Indies. He had amassed a large fortune, +and owned several tobacco estates––pretty much all his wealth acquired +by the easy trouble of holding his tongue. Yet his greed +was insatiable, and he probably would have sold the fingers from his +hands, and his legs and arms with them––all, save his single black +ball of an optic, which was invaluable to him––for doubloons. In +fact, this feverish thirst after gold which always raged in his hot +veins had induced him to pay Captain Brand a visit, and we shall see +with what result. The truth is, however, that Captain Brand was the +only man of his numerous villainous acquaintance afloat for whom he +felt the least dread. He knew him to be bold, skillful, and wary, and +so the Don had a tolerably positive conviction that, should he play +him false, his own neck might get a wrench in the garrote while he +was throwing the noose for his coadjutor.</p> +<p>To return, however, to the pair of worthies sitting in conclave in +the pirate’s saloon: the captain, resuming the conversation, observed +in a careless tone, quite as if the subject under discussion was a mere +ordinary matter,</p> +<p>“When will this swarm of hornets be down upon us?”</p> +<p>The Spaniard blew a thick puff of smoke from his cigarette, and +still holding it between his teeth, while his eye glittered through the +murky cloud, he replied,</p> +<p>“Perhaps a fortnight, a little more or less. I left St. Jago five days +ago, with orders from the Administrador to run down this side of +the island, and procure information for the English consul.”</p> +<p>“Any cruisers down that way?”</p> +<p>“Ay! the corvette ‘Scourge,’ and the ‘Snapper’ schooner; they +arrived the night before I sailed.”</p> +<p>“Did you happen to see their officers, <i>amigo</i>?”</p> +<p>“<i>Oh si!</i> I had a long talk with the captain of the corvette at the +custom-house.”</p> +<p>“Holloa! and you told <span class="nowrap">him––”</span></p> +<p>“Yes; I showed him a chart of the Isle of Pines, and pointed out +how to get into the old hole.”</p> +<p>Here the pair laughed short laughs, when Brand continued his +questions with,</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span></div> +<p>“And how did he take the bait?”</p> +<p>“Hooked him; for I heard him order his first lieutenant to be +ready for weighing at daylight, and say that my description tallied +with that of the dying man they picked up in the ‘Centipede’s’ boat,” +replied the Tuerto, with a chuckle.</p> +<p>“<i>Bueno!</i>” exclaimed the pirate, as his face assumed an unwonted +sternness, while he rested his cheek on his left hand with the elbow +on the table, and slipped his right into the pocket of his trowsers.</p> +<p>“<i>Bueno! amigo mio!</i> But how do I know but you may have +made a little mistake, and described another haunt besides the Island +of Pines, off in this direction?”</p> +<p>There was the faintest click of a noise in the captain’s pocket as +he spoke, but not so faint but that it vibrated on the ear of the Spaniard, +and, pushing back his chair a foot or two from the table, he +raised his right hand, the fore fingers and thumb slightly bent inward, +but grasping a jewel-hilted knife, whose dim blue blade glimmered +up the loose sleeve. There was nothing threatening apparently +in the movement, though the two villains looked at each other with +a cold, murderous, unflinching glare.</p> +<p>The Don was the first to break the silence; and he said, in a low, +hissing tone,</p> +<p>“<i>Maldito!</i> Because I had a little account of plata to settle with +you before the men-o’-war should roast you out. But beware, <i>Capitano +mio</i>! I left a little paper at St. Jago with directions where to +find me in case I did not return in a certain time.”</p> +<p>“Ho, <i>compadre</i>, how very cautious with your friends! Why, +what has put such thoughts into your head? <i>Diavolo!</i> we have +stood by one another too long to separate now. There, my hand +upon it.”</p> +<p>Saying this, Captain Brand’s whole manner changed, and, drawing +his hand from his pocket, he reached over toward his companion. +The Don, however, watched him narrowly, and his eye shot out a +wary sparkle as he withdrew his hand, when, cautiously putting forth +his own left, he touched his cold, thin brown fingers to those of the +man before him. This operation ended, he quietly sipped a few drops +of anisette, and rolled and lighted another paper cigar.</p> +<p>“Well, <i>amigo</i>, let us now proceed to business,” said Brand, gayly, +“for dinner will soon be ready, and we have no time to lose. How +stands the account?”</p> +<p>“The papers are on board the felucca, and it will be more convenient, +when the settlement is made, to come on board with the money. +How would to-morrow morning do? There’s no hurry.”</p> +<p>“Just as you choose, friend of my soul! The doubloons, or the +silk, or broadcloth are ready for you at any moment. Pay you in +any thing except the delicious wines of France. <i>Bueno!</i>” he added, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span> +pulling out a splendid gold repeater, with a marquis’s coronet on the +chased back. “And now, <i>amigo</i>, accept this little token into the +bargain.”</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio’s fiery eye twinkled with greed, but it was only for a +moment, when, giving a quick glance at the coronet and coat of arms, +he waved his fore finger gently to and fro, and shook his head.</p> +<p>“What! No? Why, you know it once belonged to the Captain +General of Cuba, old Tol de rol de riddle rol––what was his name? +He gave it me, you know, together with some other trinkets, for saving +his life––a––you remember? Very generous old gentleman––nobleman +indeed––he was. May he live a thousand years, or more, +if he can!”</p> +<p>Ay, Don Ignaçio did remember the circumstance attending that +generous transaction, and he remembered to have heard, also, that +the Captain General made a present of all his money and jewels with +the point of a broad blade quivering at his throat. He said nothing, +however, in allusion to this interesting episode, but he smiled meaningly, +and went on with his cigar.</p> +<p>“Not take it, eh? Well, <i>amigo</i>, I must look you up something +else; but now for dinner. Babette, clear away for dinner. Here are +the keys of the wine-cellar. The best, my beauty, and plenty of it.” +Then turning to his companion: “Suppose we take a stroll to the +Tiger’s Trap; the sun is sinking, and a walk will give us an appetite +for the turtle-soup––<i>vamanos!</i>”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XII__DOCTOR_AND_PRIEST' id='CHAPTER_XII__DOCTOR_AND_PRIEST'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XII.<br /><br />DOCTOR AND PRIEST.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“But soon I heard the dash of oars,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>I heard the pilots’ cheer;</span><br /> +My head was turned perforce away,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And I saw a boat appear.</span><br /> + <br /> +“The pilot and the pilot’s boy,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>I heard them coming fast;</span><br /> +Dear Lord in heaven! it was a joy<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The dead men could not blast.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>While</span> Captain Brand and Don Ignaçio Sanchez walked pleasantly +along the pebbly shore of the clear blue inlet to the Tiger’s Trap, +let us, too, saunter amid the habitations which sheltered the pirate’s +haunt.</p> +<p>Apart from the mat sheds of the shelly cove of the basin, where +the “Centipede” and “Panchita” were anchored, there was a nest of +red-tiled buildings which served the crew of the former vessel for a +dwelling when in port. It was pleasantly situated on a little sandy +plateau, within a stone’s-throw of the water, and shaded by a cluster +of palm-trees; while in the rear was a dense jungle of canes and +bushes, through which led numerous paths to a small lagoon beyond. +The buildings were of one story, constructed of loose stones, the holes +plastered with yellow clay, with broad, projecting eaves extending +over roughly-built piazzas. They stood in a double row, leaving a +stone pavement yard between, where one or two cocoa-nut-trees lifted +their slim trunks like sentinels on guard. Two of the largest of +these huts were mere shells inside, and used for mess-rooms, exposing +the unhewn girders and roof above, but all whitewashed and tolerably +clean. The floors were of rough mahogany boards, or heavy +dark planks, and no doubt part of the cargo of some Honduras trader +who had fallen into the pirates’ hands. Around the sides of these +mess-rooms were arranged small tables and canvas camp-stools, with +eating utensils of every variety of pattern and value, from stray sets +of French porcelain to common delf crockery. A large open chimney +stood a little way off, where was a kitchen, in which the cookery +was carried on, under the superintendence of a couple of old negroes. +Beyond the mess-rooms were the sheds used for sleeping apartments, +with lots of hammocks of canvas and straw braid hanging by their +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span> +clews from the beams, quite like the berth-deck of a ship of war. +Bags and sea-chests stood out from the walls, with bits of mirrors +here and there, some with the glasses cracked, and others in square +or round gilt frames. All, however, was arranged with a certain degree +of order, and the floor was clean and well scrubbed. Another +detached building, much smaller than the rest, was divided by a board +partition into two rooms. The first was used for a storeroom, and +was filled with bread in barrels, bags of coffee and sugar, hams, dried +fruits, beans, salt meats, and what not, but every thing in abundance, +and apparently the very best the market of the high seas could produce. +A strong door protected this repository, with a wrought iron +bar and padlock. The other portion of the building was more habitable. +There were chairs and tables; a couple of upright bookcases +with glass doors, one filled with books, odd numbers of magazines, +and old newspapers, and the other containing a multitude of vials, +pots, and bottles of medicine––a small apothecary’s shop, in fact, together +with two or three cases of surgical instruments. Two elegant +bureaus, with rosewood doors and mouldings, like those furnished +passenger ships to the East Indies, stood against the wall at either +side; and near to each, in opposite corners, were low iron bedsteads, +without mattresses or bedding, and merely stretched with dressed +and embossed leather. For pillows were Chinese heel stools, and +as for covering, the climate dispensed with it altogether. Hanging +against the wall were a couple of brace of pistols and two or three +muskets, and on the table stood a square case-bottle of gin, some +glasses, and a richly-bound breviary clasped with a heavy gold strap; +but in no other part of these huts were fire-arms ever allowed, and +very rarely was liquor served out in more than the usual daily half-gill +allowance.</p> +<p>Seated at the table in the last room we have described were two +men. One, the shorter of the two, was dressed in a long, loose bombazine +cassock, girded about his waist by a white rope, which fell in +knotted ends over his knees. Around his open neck was hung a +string of black ebony beads, hooked on to a heavy gold cross, which +rested on his capacious breast, and which the wearer was continually +feeling, and occasionally pressing to his lips. His face was dark +and sensual––thick, unctuous lips, a flat nose, and large black eyes––while +a glossy fringe of raven hair went like a thick curtain all around +his head, only leaving a bluish-white round patch on the shaved crown. +This individual was the Padre Ricardo, who, for some good reasons +best known to himself, had left his clerical duties in his native city of +Vera Cruz and taken service with Captain Brand. One of the reasons +for leaving––and rather abruptly, too––was for thrusting a cuchillo +into the heart of his own father, who had reported him to his +superior for his monstrous licentiousness. The padre, however, always +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span> +declared that he was actuated entirely by filial duty in killing +his old parent, to save him the pain and disgrace which would have +followed the exposure of his son! He still clung, though excommunicated, +to the priestly calling, and prided himself upon his fasts and +vigils, never omitting the smallest forms or penances, and saying +mass from Ave Maria in the early morning to Angelus at vesper time +in the evening. For Captain Brand he was ready to shrive a dying +pirate––and pretty busy he was, too, at times––or hear the confession +of one with a troubled conscience in sound health; which, if important +to the safety or well-being of the fraternity, he took a quiet opportunity +of imparting to his superior in command. In these pursuits +he not only made himself useful to Captain Brand, but he became +more or less his confidant and adviser, and seemed to maintain his influence +by ghostly advice over the superstitious feelings of the men. +The padre, however, utterly detested the sea, and never touched his +soft feet in the water if he could by any possibility avoid it; but +since he had plenty to eat and drink on the island, and no end of +prayers for his amusement when in charge of the haunt––as he was––to +look out for the people who were left when the “Centipede” +sailed on a cruise, he thus passed the time in a delightfully agreeable +manner.</p> +<p>The companion who sat opposite to the padre was a tall, gaunt, +cadaverous person, evidently of French extraction, with something +kind and humane about his face, but yet the physiognomy expressed +the utmost determination of character––such a heart and eye as could +perform a delicate surgical operation without a flutter of nerve or +eyelid, and who would stand before a leveled pistol looking calmly +down the barrel as the hammer fell. His face was intellectual, and +he never smiled. His whole appearance portrayed a thorough seaman. +Where he came from no one knew; nor did he ever open his +lips, even to the captain, with a reason for taking service among his +band. All known about him was that he landed from a slaver at St. +Jago, and was engaged by Don Ignaçio to serve professionally with +Brand in assisting the patriots on the Spanish Main. When, however, +he reached the rendezvous of the pirates, and discovered that +they were altogether a different sort of patriots than he had bargained +for, he nevertheless made no objections to remain, and took the oath +of allegiance, only stipulating that he should not be called upon to +take an active part in their proceedings. Here, then, he remained +for nearly three years, attending to the sick or wounded, taking no +interest in the accounts of the exploits of the freebooters around him––rarely, +indeed, holding speech with any one save his room-mate, +the padre, or occasionally a dinner or a walk with Captain Brand. +On the last expedition, however, of the “Centipede,” he had been +induced to go on board, so that he might become a check and guard +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span> +over the brutal ruffian who had been placed temporarily in command; +but, as we have already seen, his influence had been of little +avail.</p> +<p>There was yet another occupant of the room inhabited by the doctor +and Padre Ricardo; and a low moaning cry caused the former to +rise quietly from his chair and approach the low iron bedstead on his +side of the lodging. There, beneath a light gauze musquito net, lay +our poor little Henri––his once round, rosy, innocent face now pale +and thin, with a red spot on each cheek, and a dark, soft line beneath +the closed eyes. Uneasily he moved in his fitful slumber; and putting +his little hands together as if in prayer, he murmured, “Oh mamma, +mamma!”</p> +<p>Beside the bed stood an unglazed jar of lemonade, together with a +vial and a spoon. The doctor drew nigh, and, gently pushing aside +the curtain, stood looking at the child for some minutes. Presently +the little sick boy feebly stretched out his delicate, thin limbs, and +unclosed his eyes. Oh! how dim, and sad, and touching was that +look, as he gave a timid, half-wild stare, and then, closing the lids +tight together, the hot drops bubbled out and coursed slowly down +his tender cheeks.</p> +<p>The doctor, with the gentleness of a woman, bent over him, and +taking up his poor, limp little hand, he remained feeling the fluttering +pulse and catching the hot breath on his dark cheeks. As if +communing with himself, while a glow of compassion lighted up his +careworn visage, he muttered,</p> +<p>“By the great and good God, who hears me, if I save this child I +will restore him to his heart-broken mother!”</p> +<p>He sank down on his knees by the bedside as he made his vow, +and letting the little hand rest on the bed, he buried his face in his +large bony hands. What thoughts passed through that man’s mind +none but the Almighty knows; but when he arose his stern features +had resumed their wonted expression, and, pouring a little lemonade +in a glass, he held it to the sleeper’s lips. Then moving noiselessly +back to the table, he said, in a low tone,</p> +<p>“Padre, the boy will live. His fever is leaving him, and he will +get well.”</p> +<p>“<i>Ave Maria! Santissima!</i>” ejaculated the padre, crossing himself +and kissing his cross; “I pray for him. You must give him +to me, doctor. I will make him a little priest, and he shall swing +the censer and chant the Misericordia when I get the new chapel +built.”</p> +<p>“Time enough to think of that, <i>mi padre</i>, when he gets strong +again. But just now all the prayers <i>you</i> can say for him will do him +no good, and so I hope you won’t put yourself to the trouble.”</p> +<p>“<i>Cierto, amigo</i>, doctor; but don’t sneer at the prayers of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span> +Church. They do good; they ease the soul and soothe the pangs +of Purgatory.”</p> +<p>“Ah! and how long do you expect to stop in Purgatory?”</p> +<p>“<i>Ave purissima!</i> What a question to ask your pious and devout +Padre Ricardo!”</p> +<p>“Question the devil when you want fire,” retorted the doctor, as +he opened a book lying on the table before him, and put an end to +the dialogue. His companion quietly helped himself to a measure of +pure gin, and unclasped the covers of his richly-bound missal.</p> +<p>Scarcely, however, had their conversation ceased, when a hoarse +hum of many voices was heard in the direction of the sheds without, +mingled with shouts in all tongues and uproarious laughter.</p> +<p>“<i>Peste!</i>” said the doctor, looking out of an open window; “the +people have knocked off work and are coming home to their supper. +They seem to have brought some of the crew of the felucca with +them too. We shall have a loud night of it, for the captain has sent +them a pipe of wine and a barrel of rum to carouse with.”</p> +<p>“<i>Pobre çitos!</i> they have had a hard time of it during the summer––short +of rum, and water too, I hear, and they need refreshment and +repose. So many of my poor flock killed, too, by that savage American +corvette, and I not near to administer the last consolations and +holy rite!” sighed the padre, as he kissed the crucifix and bowed his +head. “There is Lascar Joe, too, among the missing! He refused +the sacrament, infidel as he was, the day before he sailed; but what +turtle-soup he made!” The padre hereupon sighed deeply again, but +whether for the loss of the Lascar or the soup, no one knows.</p> +<p>The noise without increased––the rattle of crockery, the clinking +of glasses, the moving of feet, and all the sounds of hungry, boisterous +sailors at table. Soon, too, a shout or cheer would be heard, then +a verse of a song, roars of laughter, and now and then the tinkle of +a guitar struck by vigorous fingers in waltz or fandango.</p> +<p>“<i>Merçi!</i>” muttered the doctor, as he looked compassionately at +the sick child on the bed; “those noisy wretches will, I fear, disturb +the little boy, and it’s as hot here too, padre, as the place we all are +going to.”</p> +<p>“It <i>is</i> warm, my son!” he replied, as his thick unctuous lips parted +with a smile at his companion’s allusion to another and a hotter place; +“but I think our good <i>capitano</i> would have a cot slung for my little +priest in the saloon of the big building there. It is always cool on +the crag, you know.”</p> +<p>“Ah! perhaps he will,” said the doctor, reflectively; “I’ll see +about it.”</p> +<p>Stepping again to the bedside of the little sufferer, he laid a hand +gently on his forehead, where the soft curls lay in confusion about +his temples, and then quickly touching his pulse, he regarded him +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span> +attentively for a few moments, while at the same time a light glow +of perspiration came faintly over the innocent face and spread itself +down the neck.</p> +<p>“His fever is breaking! <i>Grace à Dieu!</i>” whispered the doctor to +the padre; “his breath is regular and cool, and he is sleeping sweetly. +Now, if you like, we will go to see the captain, and, if he consents, +I will carry the child when he wakes to the dwelling.”</p> +<p>The doctor carefully closed the door of the room as he and his +companion stepped out into the open court-yard, and moved toward +the spacious sheds beyond.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XIII__A_MANLY_FANDANGO' id='CHAPTER_XIII__A_MANLY_FANDANGO'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XIII.<br /><br />A MANLY FANDANGO.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“While feet and tongues like lightning go<br /> +With––What cheer, Luke? and how do, Joe?<br /> +Dick Laniard chooses Meg so spruce,<br /> +And buxom Nell takes Kit Caboose.”<br /> + <br /> +“Now around they go, and around and around,<br /> +With hop, skip, and jump, and frolicsome bound,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.734375em;'>Such sailing and gliding,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.734375em;'>Such sinking and sliding,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.734375em;'>Such lofty curvetting</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.734375em;'>And grand pirouetting,</span><br /> +Mix’d with the tones of a dying man’s groans,<br /> +Mix’d with the rattling of dead men’s bones.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Twilight</span> had taken the place of the red sun, the stars came timidly +out one by one, and then in sparkling clusters the brilliant constellations +illumined the blue heavens as the rosy twilight faded again +away. Then the ripple of the inlet came with a tranquil musical sound +upon the white pebbly beach, the lizards in the holes and crevices of +the rocks began their plaintive wheetlings, the frogs and alligators +joined in the chorus from the low lagoon in the distance, and the +early night of the tropic had begun.</p> +<p>But louder far than the hum of the insects and reptiles, and brighter +than the lamps of heaven, arose the wild shouts and songs of the +pirates carousing, where the torches and wax-lights lit up the scene +of their orgies with the glare of day. The great mess-room was a +blaze of light from candles and lamps, stuck in brackets or gilt +sconces about the walls, or hanging awry in broken chandeliers from +the lofty beams. The remains of their feast had been cleared away, +and the tables were covered with bottles, cups, and glasses, with +boxes of cigars and pans of lighted coals. At one end of the room +was a large table, on which was laid a black cloth with a broad silver +border––sometimes used by the padre on great occasions––and +covered with cards and piles of Mexican or Spanish dollars. At the +other end was a raised platform, where four or five swarthy fellows +with guitars in their hands were strumming away in the clear rattling +harmony of Spanish boleros and dances, shrieking out at intervals +snatches of songs in time to the music, or twirling the instruments +around their heads in a frenzy of excitement. At the tables, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span> +too, were more of the excited band, vociferating with almost superhuman +fluency in various languages their exploits, pausing occasionally +amid the hubbub to clink their glasses together, and then chattering +and yelling on as before. In the centre of the apartment were +some half dozen of the same sort, either spinning around the floor in +the waltz, or moving with a certain air of careless, manly grace one +toward another in the gavotte or bolero. There were at the least +some sixty or seventy of these fellows in the room together, most +of them above the middle height, with finely-developed muscles, +broad shoulders, bushy whiskers, and flowing hair. They came apparently +from all climes, from Africa to the Mexican Gulf, and their +features and complexions partook of every imaginable type, from the +light skin and florid complexion of the Swede, to the low brow, oval +olive cheek of the Mediterranean, and the coal-black hue and flat nose +of the Bight of Benin. Their dress was uniform––frock collars cut +square and thrown well back over their ample chests; their nether +limbs incased in clean duck or brown linen trowsers, with silk sashes +around their waists, and large gold rings in their ears. Mingled here +and there in the moving throng, or leaning over the large table with +the black cloth cover, were a few fellows in the uniform rig of the +Guarda Costa, in navy jackets and black silk belchers around their +throats; but all were without weapons of any description, and were +enjoying themselves each after his fancy. Sentinels stood at the +doors of the mess-room with drawn cutlasses over their shoulders, +so that in case of a violent quarrel or row, in dance, drinking, or +gaming, the culprits might be cared for.</p> +<p>While the uproar was at its height, and the lofty tiled roof was +ringing with the gay and ribald songs and shouts of the excited +crowds, two persons appeared in the doorway at the middle of the +room, and entered. In a moment, as the busy revelers beheld them, +the dance ceased, the music of the guitars died away in a tinkling +cadença, the glasses stopped clinking, the dollars no longer chinked, +and the songs and shouts were hushed. You might have heard a +<i>real</i> drop for a minute, until one of the individuals who had entered +slowly walked forward a few paces and threw his right hand aloft in +salutation. Then burst forth a hoarse, simultaneous shout of</p> +<p>“<i>Viva nuestro amigo! Viva el capitano!</i>”</p> +<p>Captain Brand did not pause until he had reached the centre of +the great hall, where he stood calmly looking around upon the +swarthy groups, who crowded about in circles at a respectful distance +from him; and then amid the silence he spoke up, in a frank, +off-hand manner,</p> +<p>“Well, my men, I am glad to see you all once more around me. +You have not been so successful as I hoped, but we must take the +good and ill luck as it comes, and I have no fault to find with you. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span> +The times, however, are bad enough; for I have certain news that +our retreat here, where we have so long been hid, may be discovered”––the +villains around held their breath and let their cigars lie +dead in their mouths––“but,” went on their commander, “I shall do +all that is prudent in the circumstances for the benefit of all of us; +and when we leave here you will still have me for your leader, with +my head, heart, and blade ever ready to advise or protect you.” As +he stopped speaking another cheer arose:</p> +<p>“<i>Viva, nuestro amigo! viva! viva! El ‘Centipede’ y el capitano! +Hasta muerto!</i> Long live the captain! We stand by you +until death!”</p> +<p>“Thank you, my friends; I have but one more word to say. The +men who have the relief at the signal-stations and the water-battery +must keep sober. Now go on again with the music.”</p> +<p>The captain, however, did not immediately quit the hall, but, while +the revel began once more with all its enthusiasm, he moved amid +the crowd of its adherents and said a cheerful word to many.</p> +<p>“Ah! Pepe, your arm in a sling, eh! a graze of a grape-shot, eh? +Why, Hans, you here! nothing can hurt <i>you</i>! Well, Monsieur Antoine, +how well thou art looking; and that pretty sweetheart of thine +at St. Lucie! Bah! never look sad, man; thou shalt see her again. +What, my jolly Jack Tar! an ugly scratch, that, across your jaw––a +splinter, eh? Never mind; a little plaster and half allowance of grog +will put you all right again. So good-night, my friends. <i>Adios!</i>”</p> +<p>Saying these words, all addressed to the individuals in their different +languages, he gave a graceful wave of his hand and passed out +of the building. As he rejoined his friend, the commander of the +“Panchita,” who had waited at the threshold, while his wary glim +of an eye searched the faces and read the thoughts of all the villains +who clustered about the room––they both stepped out into the court-yard +and sauntered pleasantly on toward the crag. They had not, +however, proceeded many paces before they encountered the padre +and the doctor.</p> +<p>“Ah!” exclaimed the captain, who was in advance, “how goes it +with my doctor?” shaking his hand as he spoke. “Oh, <i>mi padre</i>, +how art thou?” turning to Ricardo.</p> +<p>“<i>Salve!</i> my son; not been so well this morning, with the old rheumatism +in my head.”</p> +<p>“Drunk!” said sententiously the doctor.</p> +<p>Then again with a gay laugh to the other, “Well, my doctor, your +first cruise has not been so pleasant in the ‘Centipede’ as I hoped it +might be, but the next may be more agreeable.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps so, Captain Brand; but I shall have a word or two with +you on that subject to-morrow; and, in the mean while, <i>señor</i>, I +brought a little boy back with me who is ill from fever, and my +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span> +quarters are so stifling hot, and the air from the lagoon is so bad, +that I would like to stow him for a day or so, with your permission, +in your quarters, where it is cooler.”</p> +<p>“Certainly, doctor; why not? my house and all in it are at your +service. By the way, I was about to ask you and the padre to dine +with me and Don Ignaçio there. Will you join us? Yes? Then +let us move on, for dinner must be ready by this time, and it would +be a sin to keep Babette waiting.”</p> +<p>Excusing himself for a few minutes, the doctor went for his sick +charge, and returned with him in his arms to the pirate’s dwelling.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XIV__A_PIRATES_DINNER' id='CHAPTER_XIV__A_PIRATES_DINNER'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XIV.<br /><br />A PIRATES’ DINNER.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +<a name="P6"></a>“But the best of the joke was, the moment he spoke<br /> +Those words which the party seemed almost to choke,<br /> +As by mentioning Noah some spell had been broke,<br /> +And, hearing the din from barrel and bin,<br /> +Drew at once the conclusion that thieves had got in.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>When</span> the guests had assembled in the pirate’s saloon it was some +minutes before their host appeared. When, however, he did step +into the room from his private apartment adjoining, he was altogether +a different man in outward appearance than in the early morning. +In place of the loose sailor summer rig which he then wore, he +was now attired as a gentleman of elegant fashion of the time in +which we write. His lower limbs were clothed with flesh-colored +silk stockings, and fitted into a pair of pointed toed pumps with +buckles of brilliants that a duchess might have envied. A pair of +white cassimere breeches, which set off to advantage his well-shaped +leg, were tied in a dainty bow of rose-colored satin ribbon below the +knee, and fitted him like a second skin. His waistcoat was of rose-colored +watered silk, embroidered with silver, and which, with its +flaps and ample proportions, was halfway hidden by a dress coat of +green velvet. This last garment had a sort of navy cut, with standing +collar richly laced with silver, gold buttons in a double row of +the size of doubloons, with loose sleeves and cuffs heavily laced with +silver also. His linen was of the most gossamer fineness, the collar +thrown slightly back and confined by a single clasp of rubies the size +of beans, while below was a frill of cambric ruffles sparkling with +opal studs framed in diamonds. The ruffles, too, at his wrist were +of the most beautiful point lace, secured by royal brilliants, and he +was altogether a dandy of such princely magnificence that the courtiers +of the days of the old French monarchy might have taken him +for a study. His manner, likewise, was every way in keeping with his +splendid attire; and the ease and grace with which he excused himself +to his guests for keeping them waiting certainly denoted a knowledge +of a higher order of breeding and society than that in which his +lot had been cast.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_8' id='linki_8'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-084.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 600px; height: 431px;' /><br /> +</div> +<p>From the very moment of his entrance, however, Don Ignaçio had +measured him at a glance. His single glittering eye of jet had taken +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span> +him in from the laced collar of his coat to the buckles of his shoes. +Not a jewel in his dress, from the flaming opals in his bosom to the +brilliant stones at his wrists, and down to the sparkling clusters at +his feet, did not his one uneasy optic drink in the flash and estimate +the value. Nay, he calculated by instinct the weight of the gold buttons +on his coat and the price of the exquisite lace which fell in snowy +folds about his hands. Oh, a rare mathematician was Don Ignaçio! +What greedy thoughts, too, passed through that little Spaniard’s +brain! “Ah!” thought he, “shall I take my debt in those priceless +gems, each one the ransom of a princess, which the old Captain General +may one of these days reclaim? Hola! no! Or shall I receive +more negotiable commodities in gold, cochineal, or silks? Well! +<i>Veremos!</i> we shall see!”</p> +<p>The effect produced upon the good Padre Ricardo was altogether +different. As the captain entered with all his glorious raiment upon +him, he started back, and, bowing before him as if he were Saint +Paul himself, he seized his superior’s white hand, and kissed it with +fervent devotion. Not satisfied with this mark of respect, he raised +his dingy paws, holding his crucifix before him, and murmured, in a +sort of ecstasy,</p> +<p>“<i>Mi hico! mi capitano! que brillante!</i>”––“My son! my captain! +what a brilliant being you are!”</p> +<p>Singularly in contrast, however, was the effect produced upon the +doctor, who merely raised his dark eyes in an abstracted gaze, gave +a careless and rather contemptuous nod of recognition, and then +turned to examine one of the richly-inlaid cabinets which adorned +the saloon. All these various phases of sympathy, attraction, or contempt +flickered like a sunbeam into Captain Brand’s reflecting brain, +as, with a delicately-perfumed handkerchief in one hand, and a gold-enameled +and diamond-incrusted snuff-box in the other, he bowed +gracefully to his visitors, and seated himself at table.</p> +<p>The table was now rolled out into the centre of the saloon, laid +with a snowy-white damask cloth, and covered with the equipage +for a banquet. At either corner were noble branches of solid silver +candelabra, which would have graced an altar, as perhaps they had, +and holding clusters of wax-lights, which shed their rays over the +display below. In the centre arose a huge <a name="P17"></a>épergne of silver, fashioned +into the shape of a drooping palm-tree, whose leaves were of +frosted silver, and about the trunk played a wilderness of monkeys. +Beneath, around the board, were cut-glass decanters, flat bulbous +flasks of colored Bohemian glass, crystal goblets, delicate and almost +shadowy wine-cups from Venice, silver wine-coolers, all mingled in +with a heterogeneous collection of rare china and silver dishes. Such +wines, too, as filled those vessels! not a prince or magnate in all the +lands where the vine is planted could boast of so rare and exquisite +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span> +a collection. Pure, thin, rain-water Madeira, full threescore years in +bottle! Pale, limpid Port, whose color had long since gone with +age, and left only the musk-like odor; flasks of Johannisberg of +pearly light; bottles of Tokay for lips of cardinals; tall, slim stems +of the taper flasks of the Rhine; while the ruby hues of wine from +the Rhone stood clustering about amid pyramids of pine-apples, oranges, +and bananas, and all loading the air of the saloon with their +delicious fragrance.</p> +<p>When the party had become fairly seated around the board, and +while the host was bailing out the soup from an enormous silver tureen +with a tea-cup––for it did not appear that he had ever been presented +in the usual way with a ladle––fishing out the floating morsels +of rich callipee, with the delicate frills of his sleeves turned back, he +began the conversation in the Castilian language:</p> +<p>“Well, <i>amigos</i>, we are taking our last feast together, I fear, on +this little cluster of rocks, for a long time to come.”</p> +<p>“How!” exclaimed the padre, as he stuffed a wedge of turtle fat +in his oily mouth, and opened his round black eyes to their fullest extent +in manifest surprise.</p> +<p>“<i>Como, mi hico!</i>” he repeated, as he passed a dirty paw over his +smooth chin, and looked inquiringly.</p> +<p>“Yes, holy father, our good friend Don Ignaçio here has brought +us somewhat startling intelligence. Capital soup, this. I shall give +Babette a dollar. Yes, the eagles and vultures are after us; all the +West India fleet; the Lord only knows how many ships, and brigs, +and gun-boats. Glass of Madeira with you, doctor?” wiping his thin +lips with a corner of the damask table-cloth as he spoke; “and they +have tampered, too, with my old friends the custom-house people. +Take away the tureen, Babette––and, in point of fact, I shouldn’t be +the least surprised to see a swarm of those navy gentlemen off the +reef here at any moment. A sharp knife, Babette, for these teal––a +duck should be cut, not torn. Try that Moselle, Don Ignaçio; I +know your fancy for light wines. This was given me by a Captain––’pon +my soul, I forget his name; he had such a pretty wife, Madame +Matilde,” glancing at the frame of miniatures on the wall; “sweet +creature she was; took quite a fancy for me, I believe, and might +have been sitting here at this moment, but a––really I forget her +other name. However, it makes no difference: the wine is called +Moselle.”</p> +<p>Now be it here observed that Don Ignaçio drank very little wine +or stimulants of any sort, and never by any chance a drop from any +vessel which, with his single bright eye, he did not see his host first +indulge in. This self-imposed sacrifice may have been owing to his +diffidence, or modesty, or deference to Captain Brand, or, perhaps, +other and private reasons of his own; but yet he never broke through +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span> +that rule of politeness and abstemiousness. Sometimes, indeed, he +carried his principles so far as to refuse a meat or the fruits which his +host had not partaken of, and always with a slow shake of his brown +fore finger, as if he did not like even to smell the dish presented to +him.</p> +<p>“What! not even a sip of that nectar, <i>compadre mio</i>?”</p> +<p>The compadre shook his digit, and observed that drinking nectar +sometimes made people sick.</p> +<p>The captain laughed gayly, and said, “Bah! learning to drink does +the harm, and not the art, when properly acquired.”</p> +<p>During all the foregoing interlude the doctor remained in his +grave, calm humor, and only when the captain alluded to the lady +whose husband’s name escaped him did he show signs of interest. +Then his eye followed the look toward the miniature, and his jaws +came together with a slight grating spasm.</p> +<p>Padre Ricardo, however, was in excellent sympathetic spirits, eating +and drinking like a glutton of all within his reach, and turning +his full eyes at times, as if to a deity, upon his friend the captain. +Once he <span class="nowrap">spoke––</span></p> +<p>“But, my son, you were talking of leaving this quiet retreat, where +we have passed so many happy hours.”</p> +<p>“Yes, friend of my soul! Those fellows with commissions, and +pennants at their mast-heads, and guns, and what not, seem determined +to do us a mischief.” The devout padre crossed himself, and +pressed the crucifix to his greasy lips. “Ay! they would no doubt +arraign us before some one of their legal tribunals. Put us in prison, +perhaps; or maybe give us a slight squeeze in a rope or iron +collar!”</p> +<p>The padre groaned audibly, and dropped the wing of a teal he was +gnawing, forgetting, strange as it may seem, to cross himself.</p> +<p>“<i>Hola, mi padre!</i> cheer up! We are worth a million of dead men +yet. The world is wide, the sea open, and with a stout plank under +our feet and one of these fellows”––here he balanced a long carving-knife, +dripping with blood-red gravy, in his hand––“in our belts, who +can stop us?”</p> +<p>There was the cold, ferocious-eyed gleam of a dying shark in the +speaker’s eyes as he went on with his carving; but the priest gave +a jerk of trepidation with his chin, and appeared anxious to hear +more.</p> +<p>“Don Ignaçio, try a bit of this roast <i>guana</i>; it’s quite white and +tender. No? Babette, give me some of that rabbit stew!” The +one-eyed individual was likewise helped to some of that savory ragoût, +and proceeded to pick the bones with much care and deliberation.</p> +<p>“Still <i>triste</i>, my <i>padre</i>! Come, come, this will never do. Join +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span> +me in a bumper of this generous old Port. <i>Bueno!</i> may we attain +the same age! By the way, where did this rich stuff come from?” +holding up the decanter between the light and his face as he spoke.</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio’s glittering optic pierced clear through the light ruby +medium of the wine, cut-glass decanter and all, as he furtively watched +his host, and was prepared to dodge in case the heavy vessel should +slip out of the captain’s hand. Such things had happened, and might +again; besides, a hard flint substance with a multitude of sharp projections, +two or three inches thick and five or six pounds in weight, +falling from a height on a man’s head, might kill him. The Don +thought of all this, and twitched something up his sleeve with his +hand under the table. But Captain Brand, it seemed, had no intention +of smashing his elegant dinner set of glass, and putting down the +decanter and raising a finger to his forehead, he said, “How did that +wine come into my possession?”</p> +<p>“Somebody gave it to you, perhaps. <i>Quien sabe?</i> (Who knows?)” +suggested Don Ignaçio.</p> +<p>Without heeding the interruption, the captain’s eye rested on the +brilliant snuff-box on the table beside him, where the letter L was +set in diamonds and blue enamel on the back, and catching it with a +rap, his face lighted up, and as he took a pinch and passed the box +to the padre, he exclaimed,</p> +<p>“Ah! now I remember, my old friend––the Portuguese countess +from Oporto. <i>Dios! de mi alma!</i> (God of my soul!) what a stately +beauty was her daughter!”</p> +<p>Here Captain Brand sneezed, and, drawing a delicately-perfumed +lace handkerchief from his waistcoat pocket, blew his nose. Meanwhile +the box went round the table; Padre Ricardo took a huge +pinch with his dirty fingers, and feasted his eyes upon the precious +lid. The doctor scarcely gave the elegant bawble a glance as he +helped himself. The Don, however, examined it with the eye of a +connoisseur, and not only that, but he threw a spark at the captain’s +flashy waistcoat, and thought he detected some other article in the +capacious pockets vice the handkerchief. Perhaps he may have been +mistaken and perhaps not, though he was so very suspicious an old +villain that he sometimes did his friends injustice. Nor did he put +his thin brown fingers, with the few grains of snuff he had dipped +from the box, to his sheepskin nostrils till he had watched the effect +it had produced on those around him.</p> +<p>“Ah! my friends, I remember distinctly now all about it,” continued +the captain, as he returned the kerchief and shook a few specks +of the titillating dust from his point-lace sleeve; “it is about three +years ago, just before you came to live with me, padre, that we fell +in with a large ship bound to Porto Rico. She had been disabled +in an awful hurricane, which had taken two of her masts clean off +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span> +at the decks, and was leaking badly. We, too, had been a little +hurt in the same gale, and having made a pretty good season, I was +anxious to get back here and give the crews a rest. Well, we made +out the ship about an hour before sunset, and it was quite dark before +we came up with her. There she lay, rolling like a log, though +there was not much sea on, and we could hear her chain-pumps +clanking, and saw the water spouting out from her scuppers as pure +almost as it went into her hold. As we came up alongside they +hailed me for assistance, and said the ship was sinking, and could +not live till morning.</p> +<p>“Of course I could give them no actual assistance, situated as I +was”––here the narrator smiled as he glanced round upon his guests––“it +would have been simply absurd, you know, the idea of my +putting men on board to keep her afloat for the nearest gibbet. +Bah! I did not dream of such ridiculous nonsense. However, I determined +to make her a visit, and, if there should be any thing to +save from the wreck in an undamaged condition, why, I should look +around.</p> +<p>“Not too much of that Port, <i>mi padre</i>; think of your rheumatism +in the morning! Doctor, you don’t drink!</p> +<p>“Well, going on board, I found two lady passengers––the wife +and daughter of an old judge of the island of Porto Rico, with half +a dozen servants, who were all screaming, and praying, and beseeching +me to save them––all but one, a tall, graceful girl, with a large +India shawl wrapped around her shoulders, her white arms glancing +through the folds, and a pair of dark, liquid, almond-shaped eyes, +such as I had never before seen. The fact is, my friends, I had always +before fancied blue. But there stood this girl, with eyes like +a wounded stag, leaning up against the weather bulwarks near the +open cabin door.</p> +<p>“Babette, take away all but the wine and fruit, and bring fire. +Pass that box this way, if you please, <i>compadre</i>! Thank you.”</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio seemed to have an affection for the trifle, and had +counted the brilliants over and over again, and made a mental calculation +of their weight and value; and when he did move it as he +was desired, his greedy eye followed it with fascination.</p> +<p>“Yes, it’s very pretty, and I set a great store by it,” parenthesized +the host, as he resumed his tale:</p> +<p>“The girl never screamed or even spoke, and, amid all the hubbub +of a drunken skipper and a disorderly crew, she remained quiet +and unmoved. To assure the people, I told them that I would stay +by the ship and do what I could for them. At this the old lady +clasped me around the neck, and kissed me, and blubbered over me +more than ever she did, I imagined, to the old Spanish judge, her +husband––imploring me too, by all the saints she could think of, to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span> +take herself and daughter out of the sinking vessel at once. You +may believe that I would much rather have been treated in that way +by the lovely girl with the wonderful eyes instead of the fat, rancid +old woman beside her; but there was no help for it just then, and so +I consented, with all the professions of sympathy I could make, to do +as she desired.”</p> +<p>Here the captain lit a pure Havana, and, after a few puffs and a +sip of Port, continued:</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XV__DROWNING_A_MOTHER_TO_MURDER_A_DAUGHTER' id='CHAPTER_XV__DROWNING_A_MOTHER_TO_MURDER_A_DAUGHTER'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XV.<br /><br />DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“At last she startled up,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And gazed on the vacant air</span><br /> +With a look of awe, as if she saw<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Some dreadful phantom there.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“No</span> sooner had I assured the old lady that I would transfer them +to my vessel than her daughter made a step forward, and, letting her +shawl fall upon the deck, she seized my hand with both of hers, and +said, in a low contralto voice,</p> +<p>“‘Heaven bless you, <i>señor</i>!’</p> +<p>“By the cestus of Venus, <i>caballeros</i>, the pressure of that girl’s +hand, and the deep, speaking look of gratitude she gave me out of +her liquid eyes, quite did my business!”</p> +<p>“And the <a name="P7"></a>señorita’s too, I think,” chimed in the one-eyed commander, +as he wagged his uneasy head at the narrator.</p> +<p>“<i>Quien sabe?</i>” (who knows?) went on Captain Brand: “at all +events, I raised her soft patrician hand to my lips and kissed it respectfully. +Ha! I noticed, too, as I released her round, slender fingers, +that she wore a sapphire of great brilliancy––ay, here it is now. +I keep it in remembrance of the girl.”</p> +<p>Saying this, the host shook back the lace ruffles of his sleeve, and, +crooking his little finger, exhibited the jewel to his guests.</p> +<p>“Go on, my son,” said the padre, as his sensual face expressed his +satisfaction at the recital––“<i>Vamonos!</i>”</p> +<p>“My holy father,” responded the narrator, “beware of that wine-flask! +You have grand mass to-morrow! it is the feast of our patron +saint, you know.”</p> +<p>“<i>Si! si! hijo mio!</i> your padre is always ready,” crossing himself +in a half tipsy way as he spoke––“<i>Vamonos!</i>” The doctor looked as +cold as marble, and said not a word.</p> +<p>“Well, gentlemen,” went on Captain Brand, “I soon got that ship +in a tolerably wholesome state of command. I made my trusty old +boatswain, Pedillo, lock the fuddled skipper up sound and tight in +his own stateroom, and the rest of my men took a few ropes’ ends, +and belted the lubbers of a crew until they went to work at the +pumps with renewed vigor. I also insisted upon the scared male +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span> +servants of the passengers lending a hand at that innocent recreation, +for you see I had no intention of letting the ship go <span class="nowrap">down––”</span></p> +<p>“With the Capitano Brand in her,” interrupted Señor Sanchez.</p> +<p>“No, by no manner of means; for the ship, I felt, was settling fast, +and I could hear the loose cargo, which had broken adrift below in +the main hold, playing the devil’s own game; smashing and crushing +from side to side as the vessel rolled, and coming in contact with the +stanchions and beams, with a surging swash of water, too, which told +the tale without the trouble of breaking open the hatches. I took, +however, the precaution to run my eye over the manifest to see if, +perchance, there was any treasure in the after run or any where else, +as, in case there had been, I should have made some little effort to +get at it. However, there was nothing on board but wine, dried +fruits, and heavy bale goods, not worth the time or trouble, in the +aspect of affairs at that time, to save as much as a single cask or a +drum of prunes. I glanced, too, at the clearance list, and saw that +the names of the passengers were La Señora Luisa Lavarona, and the +Señorita Lucia, lady and daughter, with half a dozen orders and titles, +of the judge in <i>Puerto Rico</i>. <i>Bueno!</i> roll me an orange, if you please, +doctor! Ah! <i>gracias</i>, thanks.”</p> +<p>The doctor rolled the orange, and, had it been a grape-shot or any +other iron missile, its aim would have gone straight through the captain’s +body, just above his left waistcoat pocket.</p> +<p>“In the mean while the old lady rushed around in a tremendous +hurry, in and out of the cabin, losing her balance occasionally in the +lurches, ordering her maids to pull out trunks and boxes on to the +deck; then giving me a hug to relieve her feelings, and praying and +crying between whiles in the most whimsical manner. Not contented +either with getting out a pile of luggage and chests that would have +swamped a jolly-boat, she insisted upon waiting until a locker was +broken open in the cabin pantry for the purpose of rescuing six cases +of old Port wine, which had been, she told me, sent as a present from +the Archbishop of Lisbon to his friend the judge. At this juncture +I persuaded her to send her daughter and a few light articles first on +board my vessel, when the boat would then return for herself and the +remainder of their property. Accordingly, I carefully wrapped the +lovely girl in shawls and cloaks, and got her over the side and down +into my boat, pitched a few light caskets and cases in after the young +beauty, and then, with a quiet word or two into Pedillo’s sharp ear, +the boat shoved off. I suppose it may have been half an hour before +my boat returned, and then I learned from the coxswain that he had +shown his charge down into my private cabin, and she appeared as +comfortable and resigned as possible. Well, we made quick work of +it now, tumbled a good many things into the boat, when I myself got +in to receive the old lady and her retinue. By the way, among the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span> +articles were the boxes of wine––this is some of it”––tapping the decanter, +now nearly empty from the attacks of the priest––“and in my +opinion it does great credit to the taste and judgment of that venerable +archbishop.”</p> +<p>“<i>Ave, purissima!</i>” said the padre, with a hiccough; “I shall be a +bishop myself one of these days. <i>Ora pro nobis!</i>”</p> +<p>“You’ll be a cardinal,” gibed in the doctor, “if swilling wine will +do it.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand went on with his narrative:</p> +<p>“Where was I? Oh! ah! We were waiting alongside the ship, +with her lower chain-plates not a foot above water, for the donna to +be hoisted over the rail, since she would not permit any of her attendants +to precede her––though Heaven knows they were anxious enough +to do so. By this time, too, after my men had left the deck of the +ship, the crew had somehow got hold of a barrel of wine, and, letting +the pumps work themselves, were guzzling away in grand style. I +began to lose patience at last, and shouted to the old lady to come at +once, or I should be compelled to leave her. She merely leaned over +the rail, however, and chattered forth that all she had in the world +was at my service––of course, figuratively she meant––but she must +stay another minute to find a jar of preserved ginger, which was her +only cure for the cholic.”</p> +<p>“You didn’t take the offer of the old lady as a figure of speech, I +presume?” asked the doctor.</p> +<p>“No!” muttered the one-eyed old wretch, with a sneer. “And that +jar of ginger spared her any more attacks of cholic!”</p> +<p>“<i>Caballeros</i>, you are both right. I did accept the gift of her worldly +goods in the frank spirit in which it was offered, without any reservation; +and, to my almost certain knowledge, the Señora Lavarona +was never more troubled with illness of any kind.</p> +<p>“The fact was, that, finding the ship fast sinking, and her crew becoming +boisterous and rebellious as the imminent danger burst upon +them, they proposed, since their own boats were stove, to take possession +of mine! That <i>was</i> a joke, to be sure! A dozen drunken +swabs, with naked hands, to capture ten of the old ‘Centipede’s’ +picked men, with a pistol and knife each under their shirts; and”––here +the speaker laughed heartily––“and Captain Brand beside them! +<i>Diavolo!</i> what silly people there are in this world!”</p> +<p>The good padre joined his superior in this ebullition of feeling, and +seemed to enjoy the joke immensely, rolling his goggle eyes and head +from side to side, kissing his crucifix, and exclaiming, with devotion,</p> +<p>“<i>Que hombre es eso!</i>”––“What a man he is!”</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_9' id='linki_9'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-096.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 578px; height: 600px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 578px;'> +THE PIRATE’S PREY.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>“Well, <i>señores</i>, the next minute we let go the painter and floated +astern past the ship’s counter, and a few strokes of the oar-blades +sent us dancing away to leeward, where the schooner was lying with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span> +her main-sail up, and the jib-sheet hauled well to windward. We +made no unnecessary noise in getting alongside, and it took no great +time to get the boat clear, a tackle hooked on, and to swing her on +board over the long gun. Then we drew aft the sheets, set the fore-sail, +and the ‘Centipede’ was once more reeling off the knots on her +course.”</p> +<p>“But the ship, my son?”</p> +<p>“Why, my padre, I was so busy attending to the schooner, and +afterward going below to break the sad news to my lovely dark-eyed +passenger of the loss of her mother, that I had no time to devote to +the ship. Pedillo, however, told me that he heard a good deal of +frantic shrieking, and prayers, and cursing, with, for a little while, +the renewed clank of the chain-pumps, but after that we had got too +far to windward to hear more. About midnight, though, Pedillo and +some of the watch thought they saw a white shower of foam like a +breaking wave, and a great commotion in the water, but that was all. +So, you see, what really became of that old craft we do not positively +know; though for a long time afterward I read the marine lists +very attentively, yet I never saw any accounts of her arrival at her +destination.</p> +<p>“Perhaps,” added Captain Brand, with a peculiar smile, as he lit +a fresh cigar, “her arrival may have escaped my notice, as I hope it +may, though I think not.”</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio intimated, by waving his fore finger to and fro, that +such a hope had no possible foundation in fact; and he stated, too, +that he knew the underwriters had paid the full insurance on the +missing ship.</p> +<p>“Ah! well, that seems to settle the matter, truly,” murmured the +captain, as if he had long entertained painful doubts on the subject, +and now his mind was finally relieved.</p> +<p>“But, <i>hico mio</i>! Son of mine! <i>La Señorita</i>––hiccough––with the +almond-shaped eyes––<i>Santissima!</i>––hic––how did she bear the––death +of her––hic––mother?”</p> +<p>“<i>Por Dios, padre!</i> there was a scene which would have drawn +tears from <span class="nowrap">a––”</span></p> +<p>“Pirate,” suggested the doctor.</p> +<p>The padre blubbered outright, and his round, tipsy eyes nearly +popped out of his head.</p> +<p>“Ay, <i>monsieur</i>, even from mine! But to go back a little. When +I had got all snug on board the schooner, I went below, and moved +softly on tiptoe along the passage to the door of my beautiful cabin.</p> +<p>“You remember, <i>amigo</i>,” said the narrator, turning toward Don +Ignaçio, “how that cabin was fitted, and how much it cost to do it. +I think you paid the bill for me? No?”</p> +<p>Oh yes, Captain Brand was quite right. Don Ignaçio remembered +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span> +it well, and the bill was a thousand gold ounces, sixteen thousand +hard silver dollars; and by no means dear at that, for the Don never +allowed any body to cheat <i>him</i>.</p> +<p>“Cheats himself, though, sometimes. Don’t charge more than the +usual commission.”</p> +<p>The one-eyed usurer looked wicked at this remark, but he said +nothing, being occupied at the moment rolling up a paper cigar with +one hand, and wetting the brown fore finger of the other.</p> +<p>“Well, <i>caballeros</i>, I peeped through the lattice-work of the cabin +door, and there reclined my pretty prize––I recall her as if it were +yesterday––on one of the large blue satin damask lounges of the after +transoms. Her head rested on one of her round ivory arms, half hidden +in the luxurious pillows; her shawl, too, was thrown back; and +with a somewhat disordered dress, and a mass of glossy hair clustering +in ringlets about her neck and white shoulders, I thought then, +as I do now, that she was a paragon of loveliness. I saw her, as she +thus reclined, by the light of a large shaded crystal lamp, which hung +by silver chains from the cabin beams, and shed a rose-tinted effulgence +over the whole apartment. When I first approached the door +the girl was looking out of her own large liquid lamps, so superbly +framed in a heavy fringe of dark lashes, in evident curiosity around +the elegant cabin. Her looks wandered from the Turkey carpet on +the floor to the beautiful silk hangings, that exquisite set of inlaid +pearl ebony furniture, the display of knickknacks, and Dresden porcelain +panels of the sides, and, in fact, nothing seemed to escape her; +and the good taste of the fittings evidently met her approbation. At +times, too, she would turn her gaze out of the narrow little window +of the stern, and peer anxiously over the vessel’s wake, which by this +time was skimming along like a wild duck, and leaving countless bubbles +behind her. At the first sound I made, however, in opening the +door, she started up and stepped forward to meet me.</p> +<p>“‘Oh, <i>Señor Capitano</i>, <i>mi madre</i>! (My mother!) What detains +her? We seem to be going very fast through the water!’</p> +<p>“I gently took the girl’s outstretched hands and led her back to +the cushioned transom. Then I told her, as kindly as I could, that I +did all in my power to save her good mother, but that the crew had +mutinied––they had taken possession of the unfortunate ship––great +confusion existed––and as I feared, you know, that my own boat +would be swamped by remaining longer alongside, I was compelled +to leave her to her fate.</p> +<p>“‘But my mother, <i>señor</i>!’ exclaimed the girl, with anguish; ‘she +was saved?’</p> +<p>“‘No, <i>señorita</i>,’ I said, ‘she went down with the ship; but the last +words she uttered––that is to me––were to invoke a blessing on my +head, and to consign all she possessed to my care.’ The poor thing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span> +swooned away as I uttered these words, and it was a long time before +she came to again. When she did, however, regain consciousness, +tears came to her relief, and I did all I could to soothe her distress +by telling her that, if the wind came fair, she would in the course +of a few days be restored to her father.”</p> +<p>“But the wind didn’t come fair, eh?” broke in Don Ignaçio, “and +she didn’t <span class="nowrap">see––”</span></p> +<p>“No, <i>amigo</i>, the wind held steady from the opposite quarter, and +I thought it better not to beat up with a fished fore-mast, and all that––and +a––she did <i>not</i> see her father.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand here wet his thin lips with a few sips of wine, said, +“Babette, bring coffee!” and resumed his story.</p> +<p>“When the girl became a little more calm I induced her to retire +to my stateroom, where I left her to sob herself to sleep. Don’t spill +that coffee, Babette, and put the liqueurs on the table. There, that +will do, old lady.</p> +<p>“Well, <i>señores</i>, the next morning my pretty prize was too ill to +leave her room; but, as I handed her a cup of chocolate through +the door curtains, she thanked me with much gratitude for what +I had done, and knew that her dear father, the judge, would bless +me.”</p> +<p>“So he will,” snarled the one-eyed old rascal, “if he ever catches +you, when he draws the black cap over your head.”</p> +<p>“Possibly he may, though perhaps it will be some considerable +time before he has that pleasure.”</p> +<p>“Ah! <i>cuidado hico mio!</i> Take care of yourself, my son,” hiccoughed +the priest as he crossed himself. The captain gave a light +laugh, sipped his coffee, and went on as if a dungeon, scaffold, and +noose were the last things he ever thought of.</p> +<p>“I amused myself during the day in looking over the trunks, caskets, +and what not we had saved from the sinking trader––presented +to me, as you know, by the old lady who was on board. There were, +of course, a great quantity of ladies’ dresses, and a good many jewels +and trinkets; among the latter this fine snuff-box here, which our +friend Don Ignaçio so much admires, and which I set aside as an especial +testimonial of the old lady’s regard. Try another pinch, <i>amigo</i>? +No? <i>Bueno!</i> I caused what I believed to be the daughter’s +elegant raiment to be placed in the after cabin. For three days I +never even saw my pretty passenger, though I heard her low, sweet +voice occasionally when I laid out something for her to eat in the +adjoining cabin. She sang, too, some little sad songs with a voice +which vibrated upon my ear like the notes of an Æolian harp sighing +in the night wind. <i>Dios!</i> how I regretted then and afterward that +I did not have a cabinet piano!”</p> +<p>“Presented to you,” suggested the doctor.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span></div> +<p>“Yes, presented to me, so that she might have touched the keys +with those ivory and rose-tipped fingers.</p> +<p>“So the time passed, the schooner flying on under whole sails, the +wind about two points free, and the weather as fine as silk. It was +the fourth evening, I think, after parting with the Oporto trader that +I induced my fair passenger to come on deck and take a little breath +of sea-air. You will observe, <i>caballeros</i>, that I did not make this suggestion +in the daytime, because the ‘Centipede’s’ crew, you know, +were rather numerous, and some of them not so handsome in point +of personal looks as ladies at all times care to behold. Besides, there +were certain things about the decks––racks of cutlasses, lockers of +musketry along the rail, and a long brass twelve-pounder, which is +not altogether hidden by the boat, you know, and might have given +rise to a little curiosity, or maybe suspicion, even in the mind of a +girl, as to our character, pursuits, and so forth, which I should have +been puzzled to answer. Therefore I chose a clear starlight night to +pay my homage, and accordingly I went below about four bells of +the first watch to escort the little lady to the deck. She was dressed, +and waiting for me in the cabin; and if I was so struck with her +beauty when I first saw her, my heart thumped now against my ribs +like a volley of musket-balls against an oak plank. She wore a black +silk robe, such as Spanish women wear at early mass, and around the +back part of her head––where the hair was gathered in a glossy knot, +and secured by a gold bodkin––fell the heavy folds of a black lace +mantilla, the lower end fastened sash fashion around her lithe waist. +She stepped, too, like a queen on a pair of slim, long, delicate feet, with +arched ball and instep, as if she were in command of the schooner.</p> +<p>“By my right arm!” exclaimed Captain Brand, shaking that member +aloft in a glorious fit of enthusiasm, “I am quite sure she had +conquered me, and that was more than half the battle!</p> +<p>“Well, I led her to the quarter-deck, where some cushions and +flags had been placed for her near the weather taffrail, and where +she sat down. The schooner was at the time under the two gaff-top-sails, +the main boom and sheets eased off a little, those long masts, +with the sticks above them running clear away up the sky, almost +out of sight, bending like whalebone, and reeling over the long +swell when the breeze freshened; and not a sound to be heard save +now and then a light creak from the main boom as the broad white +sail strained flat and taut over to leeward, or the rush of the water +as it came hissing along from her sharp, clean bows, with a noise like +a breeze through the leaves of a forest, away off over the counter into +luminous sparkles as it swished out into our wake. The ‘Centipede’ +was indeed doing her best, and you all know what that is, when we +have been chased many and many a time by some of the fastest cruisers +going.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span></div> +<p>“You remember, Don Ignaçio, how the ‘Juno’ frigate nearly ran +us under, and yet never gained a fathom on us in nine hours?”</p> +<p>“Ay, <i>amigo</i>; but, had she not carried away her fore-top-mast, in +another hour there would have been nothing left of you afloat but a––hencoop +perhaps.”</p> +<p>“<i>Quien sabe, compadre?</i> If hads had been shads you would have +had fish for your breakfast,” rejoined the narrator; and then throwing +back the lappels of his green velvet coat with an air of gentlemanly +satisfaction, he hooked his thumbs in the arm-holes of his fine +waistcoat, and went on.</p> +<p>“Well, <i>señores</i>, the graceful girl beside me never spoke scarcely +for half an hour. I divined, however, what her thoughts might have +been in dwelling on the painful scenes she had recently witnessed, +and I held my peace also; for, you see, I have had considerable experience +with women, and I have ever found that a man loses more +by talking than by remaining watchful and attentive.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand looked, as he gave utterance to this philosophical +sentiment, as if he were a thirsty, cold-eyed tiger, lying in wait to +spring upon an unwary passer-by.</p> +<p>“Yes, I waited, until at last she spoke.</p> +<p>“‘<i>Capitano</i>,’ she said, ‘what a beautiful vessel you command, and +how fast she sails!’</p> +<p>“What I replied, my friends, is neither here nor there; but I sank +down on the cushions beside the lovely girl, and poured out a torrent +of passionate words––which I really felt, too, at the time––as I don’t +think I ever uttered before or since. She was a little startled and +nervous at first, but after a while I saw her stately head droop to one +side till it rested on my shoulder; I stole my arm around her yielding +waist and clasped her to my breast.”</p> +<p>Here Captain Brand looked as if the tiger had already sprung upon +the passer-by, and was sucking the blood, with his claws buried deep +into the carcass.</p> +<p>“‘<i>Señor</i>,’ she murmured, in the low, sweet, plaintive note of a +nightingale, ‘I am a young and inexperienced girl, of an old and noble +family; you have saved my life; my mother is gone, and I have +no one to advise with, and, if my dear father smiles upon my choice, +I will marry you; but do not, I implore you, deceive me!’”</p> +<p>“And you did not deceive her, I hope?” broke in the doctor, with +a shiver of light from his determined eyes that was almost painful to +see, so earnest and terrible it was, as he leaned forward with both of +his clenched hands quivering nervously on the table.</p> +<p>Captain Brand looked at the doctor with rather a suspicious +stare, and letting his thumbs drop from his armpits till they rested +on the flaps of his waistcoat pockets, he replied, in a careless +tone,</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span></div> +<p>“Oh no, <i>monsieur</i>, I never deceived––a––that is to say, intentionally +deceived a woman in all my life!”</p> +<p>“Let us hear more, my son,” said the priest, thickly, who had now +woke up from a short nap.</p> +<p>“<i>Bueno, caballeros!</i>” continued the narrator, as he tossed off a +thimbleful of maraschino from a wicker-bound square bottle after his +coffee. “Well, gentlemen, the young Portuguese damsel, Señorita +Lucia, and I sat there under the weather rail till the first faint streaks +of early dawn in the tropics began to announce the coming of the +gray morning. Then she arose, and, leaning with a soft pressure on +my arm, I took her to her cabin, kissed her sweet hands, and bade +her good-night.”</p> +<p>At this stage of the narrative Captain Brand threw himself triumphantly +back in his large Manilla chair, and ran his white muscular +hands through his dry light hair. Ay! the tiger had clutched his +prey. An unprotected, young, and lovely girl had been won and lost, +and her palpitating heart was soon to be torn from her tender body.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XVI__NUPTIALS_OF_THE_GIRL_WITH_DARK_EYES' id='CHAPTER_XVI__NUPTIALS_OF_THE_GIRL_WITH_DARK_EYES'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XVI.<br /><br />NUPTIALS OF THE GIRL WITH DARK EYES.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“With a pint and a quarter of holy water<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>He made the sacred sign,</span><br /> +And he dashed the whole on the only daughter<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Of old Plantagenet’s line!”</span><br /> + <br /> +“But the count he felt the nervous work<br /> +No more than any polygamous Turk,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'>Or bold piratical skipper,</span><br /> +Who, during his buccaneering search,<br /> +Would as soon engage a ’hand’ at church<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'>As a hand on board his clipper.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> captain got up from his chair, stepped to the settee, and, pulling +the signal-cord on the wall, held a short dialogue with the man +at the station; then, saying in a low, sharp whisper through the tube, +“A bright look-out, Pedro!” he resumed his place at the table. The +doctor had, in the mean while, got up and gone to the veranda, where, +swinging in a Yucatan grass hammock, shielded from the night wind, +lay his little patient sleeping soundly. Carefully closing the curtains +again around him, he returned to his place. The padre was now all +awake again, with his thick lips open, waiting for the captain to go +on with his story. As for Don Ignaçio, he never stirred body or limb, +but his eye traveled about perpetually, and he observed the movements +of his companions all at the same time. Still the hoarse roar +of the pirates in their carouse arose from the covered sheds in the +calm night, and the two solitary lights from each mast-head of the +felucca and schooner twinkled above the basin of the inlet.</p> +<p>“And now, <i>amigos</i>,” began again Captain Brand, after he had assured +himself that all was going on as he could wish without, “I shall +inform you of the sequel of my adventure with the Señorita Lucia. +The evening after the night on which I had declared my passion, we +were seated at dinner in the after cabin. Such a choice little dinner, +too, as only our late friend, Lascar Joe, could prepare! Poor fellow, +he’ll never make another of those famous curries, though, no doubt, +he’ll find fire and pepper enough where he is, if the devil chooses to +employ him. What a neat hand he was, too, with that spiral-bladed +Malay creese of his! Ah! well––we were sitting over the dessert, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span> +and I was relating to my pretty passenger some account of my early +days, and of my lady mother and my old squire of a father, omitting, +perhaps, some few uninteresting <span class="nowrap">details––”</span></p> +<p>Here the old commander of the felucca cackled, and his black, +beady eye glittered as the thought flashed through his head as to +what details his villainous compeer had omitted. How he forged his +old father’s name, which brought down his gray hairs in sorrow and +disgrace to the grave; and how his poor mother, too, died of grief, +together with other bitter memories, all of which Captain Brand, the +pirate, omitted to mention.</p> +<p>“Yes, I related likewise some of my early privateering adventures, +when all the broad Atlantic was alive with the fleets of France, England, +and Spain; how I was captured by a Spanish brigantine”––omitting +again to state that he got up a mutiny with the crew of that +brigantine, poniarded the captain and mate in their sleep, and, assuming +command of the vessel, changed her colors for a black flag, and +began his career as a pirate in the Caribbean Sea––“and how I escaped. +To all this she listened with great interest, her large eyes dilating, +and her bosom swelling with sympathy as I proceeded, when +suddenly the cabin door opened, and my ugly friend Pedillo put his +head in, and gave me a warning nod.</p> +<p>“‘What is it?’ I said, rather sharply, to Pedillo; ‘and how dare +you intrude inside my cabin?’ I fear, too, that I came very near doing +a mischief to my boatswain; for I am rather impulsive at times, +and by the merest accident I happened to have a small pistol in my +pocket.”</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio twitched his sleeve, and looked as if he believed such +accidents as pistols being found in the narrator’s pockets happened +quite often.</p> +<p>“‘<i>Señor</i>,’ said Pedillo, ‘there are two sail standing out from the +lee of Culebra Island, and one of them appears to be a <span class="nowrap">large––’</span></p> +<p>“I stopped any farther particulars from the lips of my subordinate +by a motion of my finger, and then, kissing the hands of the girl, +who was somewhat surprised at what had transpired, I left the cabin +and jumped on deck.</p> +<p>“The schooner was now running down through the Virgin’s Passage +between St. Thomas and Porto Rico, with a fine breeze on the +quarter, and the sun was just sinking behind the last-named island. +I snatched a spy-glass from the rail, and looked ahead. There, sure +enough, was a sixteen-gun brig on the starboard tack heading across +our track, and a large frigate under single-reefed top-sails stretching +away over to the opposite shores of Culebra, while they were telegraphing +bunting one with another as fast as the bright-colored flags +could talk. And, as luck would have it, as I swept the glass round, +what should I see but a long rakish corvette in company with a huge +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span> +whale of a line-of-battle ship, with her double tier of ports glimmering +away in the slanting rays of the sun, both on the wind, and coming +out from under the lee of Culebra Point, just a mile or two astern +of us. By the blood of Barabbas, <i>caballeros</i>, we were in a trap for +wolves, and the hounds were in full cry! I immediately, however, +luffed the schooner up, and steered boldly for the frigate; and, as a +puff of smoke spouted out from the lee bow of the admiral to windward, +and before the boom of the gun’s report reached us, I hoisted +American colors. Seeing this, the brig hove in stays, and, perhaps +being ordered to board me, came staggering along on the other tack +across our forefoot, while the frigate went round too, and held her +wind toward her consorts to windward. Now this was just the disposition +which I wanted of the vessels, and it could not have been +done better for my plans had I been the admiral of the squadron. In +less than a quarter of an hour, the brig––and no great things she was, +with a contemptible battery, as I could see, of short carronades––hove +aback a little on the bow of the schooner, and gave us a warning of +a twenty-four pound shot across our forefoot, to heave to also, at the +same time hoisting the English ensign.</p> +<p>“So ho!” ejaculated Captain Brand, as he twisted the point of his +nose, accompanied by a malevolent scowl, “<i>señores</i>, I at once hauled +flat aft the fore-sail, dropped the main peak, and put the helm up, as +if to round to under the brig’s stern; whereupon my man-of-war +friend dropped a cutter into the water, and she had just shoved off +in readiness to board me, when, before you could light a paper cigar, +I ran up the main peak, got a pull of the sheets, and the ‘Centipede’ +was off again like a shark with his fin above water, heading for the +narrow passage between Culebra and Crab Islands. It was at least +five minutes before that stupid brig could believe his eyes, and ten +more before he got hold of the boat again, when she filled away and +began to pop gun after gun at me as fast as he could bring his battery +to bear! There was only one shot that skipped on board us, and +that only smashed both legs of a negro, and then hopped off through +the fore-sail to windward.</p> +<p>“Had I not had a good dinner that day and pleasant society on +board”––how peculiarly the speaker smiled––“I should perhaps have +taught that brig such a lesson that he would not have cared to report +it to his admiral. But as I knew I had the heels of him, and as the +rest of the squadron were now crowding all sail and keeping off in +chase of me, I ordered Pedillo, just by way of touching my hat and +saying ‘<i>Adios</i>,’ to clear away the long gun and return the brig’s salute. +The shot struck him just forward the night-heads by the bowsprit, +and by the way the splinters flew and his jib and head-sails +came down, I knew I had crippled him for an hour at least. At the +same time, to prevent any mistakes as to our quality, and to satisfy +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span> +the admiral’s curiosity, we hauled down the Yankee colors and set +our swallow-tailed flag!”</p> +<p>“Rather dark bunting! no?” edged in Don Ignaçio.</p> +<p>“Ay, <i>amigo</i>! as black as that eye of thine, though not half so +murderous,” retorted the pirate as he continued his narrative.</p> +<p>“<i>Bueno</i>, there came the whole of the squadron down after us, +spitting out from their bridle ports mouthfuls of cold iron, which all +went to the bottom of the Virgin’s Passage, for not one came within +a mile of the schooner; and then I led them such a dance through +that intricate cluster of reefs and islets, that soon after dark they gave +up the game, and I said ‘<i>Buenos noches</i>’ to them all!”</p> +<p>Here Captain Brand paused, made a careful selection of a beautifully +turned trabuco cigar from the box, shouted to Babette to produce +some old Santa Cruz rum, sugar, lemons, and hot water––screeching +hot, he said––at which the padre crossed himself; and +then throwing his fine legs, incased in the lustrous silk stockings, on +a chair beside him, and while his eyes gazed fondly on the brilliants +sparkling in the buckles of his shoes, he resumed his tale.</p> +<p>“When I went below again, after every thing had become quiet +on deck, I found my stag-eyed sweetheart waiting to receive me! +How superbly she looked as she made a movement from the cushions +where she had been reclining, and exclaimed,</p> +<p>“‘Oh, <i>señor</i>, what has happened, and what was the cause of all +that noise of guns, and those cries of agony I heard above?’</p> +<p>“‘<i>Querida Lucia</i>, dearest,’ I replied, ‘we have been where there +are––a––pirates, but fortunately have escaped, and the cries you +heard were from one of my poor crew who got slightly wounded by +a shot!’</p> +<p>“‘Ah, <i>malditos piratos</i>! cursed pirates!’ exclaimed the charming +beauty, as she put both her hands in mine, ‘and how thankful am I +that you are not hurt! But, <i>querido mio</i>! dear one!’ she went on, +‘when shall we get to Porto Rico and <i>our</i> dear father? We must +be near, for I heard one of your sailors shout to you the name of the +island!’</p> +<p>“In reply, I told her that we had been near Porto Rico, but that––a––circumstances +were such, on account of the dangerous pirates +who infested those seas, that I felt obliged, for her safety––you understand––to +run along by way of Hispaniola––she not having a very +clear idea of the position and geography of those parts––and that our +cruise might probably be prolonged for a few days more.”</p> +<p>“And into h––, perhaps,” said the doctor, with a hollow voice and +a calm cold eye.</p> +<p>“Oh no, my friends, certainly nothing so bad as that. Possibly to +heaven! but, <i>quien sabe</i>? no one can tell!</p> +<p>“However,” pursued the captain, “I soon succeeded in allaying +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span> +her apprehensions, and then I threw myself at her feet, and implored +her to risk her father’s displeasure and to marry me at once; that she +knew her father was cold, stern, and obdurate, and should he frown +upon my suit I should die of despair!”</p> +<p>“<i>Cierto!</i>” murmured Ignaçio, with the grin of a skeleton.</p> +<p>“I used these passionate appeals and many more, until at last the +fond girl yielded her consent to my entreaties.</p> +<p>“‘But the priest, <i>querido mio</i>!’ she exclaimed, as she rose and disengaged +herself from my arms. I told her that I chanced to have one +on board as a passenger, who would perform the ceremony.</p> +<p>“And so I had,” added Captain Brand, “or at least a very near approach +to one, for my ugly boatswain, Pedillo, had been bred up––as +an acolyte––you comprehend––in the house of a rich old prelate of +San Paulo Cathedral in Trinidad, to whom Pedillo, one fine morning, +gave about eight inches of his cuchillo!”</p> +<p>“<i>Jesus Maria!</i>” exclaimed Padre Ricardo, starting back with horror, +and telling his beads.</p> +<p>“Ay, <i>mi padre</i>! Pedillo assassinated the holy father, and plundered +his cash-box besides; and so you see Pedillo was just the man +I wanted.”</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio nodded his wicked old head through a cloud of cigar +smoke as a sign of approval.</p> +<p>“Accordingly, <i>señores</i>, the next day I made the trusty Pedillo cut +off all the bushy beard about his ugly face, and had the crown of his +head shaved besides––quite like that round, oily spot there on the top +of good Ricardo’s poll––and then he rigged himself out in a clerical +gown, to which the trunks of my bride’s old mother contributed, and, +take my word for it, he was as proper and rascally a looking priest +as could be found on the island of Cuba. He performed the ceremony, +too, by way of practice, on Lascar Joe and the second cook beforehand, +with as much decorum and solemnity, and gave as pious a +benediction, as his old Trinidad uncle, the prelate, ever did. Well, +that evening we were married.”</p> +<p>“How many times has the <i>capitano</i> been married?” grunted out +Don Ignaçio.</p> +<p>“Why, let me reflect,” as he threw his cold, icy look at the frame +of miniatures on the opposite wall. “You mean, <i>compadre</i>, how often +the ceremony has been performed. Ah! I think on eleven occasions. +No, it was only ten. Madame Mathilde had two husbands living +when I made love to her, and declined to take a third. But then, +you know, I have an affectionate disposition, and I can not set my +heart against the fascinations of the sex.”</p> +<p>He gave vent to these moral sentiments as if he really meant them +to be believed and generally adopted by his audience.</p> +<p>“Well, that same evening I was married to the beautiful Señorita +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span> +Lucia Lavarona, though I am sorry to say that Pedillo did not perform +his part of the business as well as I had expected of him, from +his practice in the morning. He stammered a good deal, and when +he raised the crucifix to the lips of the young girl, her innocent looks +and maidenly majesty of deportment so struck my coadjutor with +confusion that he let the crucifix fall to the deck at her dainty feet. +This little incident caused me some displeasure; but, reflecting that +the poet tells us</p> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +‘A tiger, ’tis said, will turn and flee<br /> +From a maid in the pride of her purity,’</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p>I said nothing to the abashed Pedillo as I gave him back the emblem; +but I favored him with a look, with my right hand in my pocket––this +fashion.”</p> +<p>Here the cold-blooded scoundrel dipped his thumb and fore finger +into the flap of his waistcoat, while the commander of the “Guarda +Costa” waved his brown digit before him, as if he knew what was +there all the time.</p> +<p>“Ah! that restored my new-made priest to his senses, and he then +got through the ceremony entirely to my satisfaction.</p> +<p>“However,” said Captain Brand, turning with lazy indifference toward +Padre Ricardo, “ever after this I resolved not to take the risk +of such another chance of failure, and this is the reason why I first +sought your services.”</p> +<p>“<i>Gracias à Dios!</i> Thanks be to heaven, my son, that you found +me!” said the sacrilegious wretch, as he bowed to his superior and +sipped a glass of rum punch. “<i>Vamonos!</i> let us hear more.”</p> +<p>“At the conclusion of our nuptials, while I held my sweet Lucia +to my heart, and kissed her pale brow, and while tears of crystal +drops, half in rapture and half in sorrow, dimmed her large, sparkling +black eyes, she withdrew this royal sapphire from her slender +finger, and gently placing the gem on mine––where you see it, <i>amigos</i>––she +said,</p> +<p>“‘My dear and only love, this is the talisman of my race. It has +been for ages in my family, and it has been the guardian of our hope +and honor. Receive it, friend of my heart, and be the protector of +the young girl who yielded up to you her very soul!’”</p> +<p>The doctor started as if he had been stung by a scorpion; but Captain +Brand, heedless or inattentive to the movement, went on:</p> +<p>“Yes, <i>caballeros</i>, those were her very words; murmured, too, in +her low contralto tones with a pure, lisping Castilian accent, as she +laid her stately head on my shoulder.</p> +<p>“Ay, those were rapturous moments; and it was in some degree––yes, +I may say in truth––entirely her own fault that they did not +last.</p> +<p>“Well, for some days––eight or ten, perhaps––with light baffling +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span> +winds, we crept stealthily along the south side of St. Domingo; but +the weather was delightful, and the time passed on the wings of a +zephyr. In the warm, soft evenings, with the moon or stars shedding +their pearly gleams over the sea, she sat beside me on the deck of +the schooner, watching with girlish interest the white sails above her +head, or singing to me the sweet little sequidillas of her native land. +And again, starting up from my arms, she would peep over the counter, +trace the foam as it flashed and bubbled in our wake, or point to +the track of a dolphin as he leaped above the luminous waves and +went like a bullet to windward.</p> +<p>“I flatter myself, <i>caballeros</i>, that there have been periods in my +career on the high seas, or on land, and may be again, for aught I +know,” continued the elegant pirate, as he crossed his legs and threw +back the lappels of his velvet coat, so as to expose the magnificence +of his waistcoat, and the frills on his broad, muscular chest, “when +men of high birth and breeding, and lovely women too of noble lineage, +have not thought it beneath them to dine with or to receive the +homage of––a––Captain Brand.</p> +<p>“And, <i>por Dios</i>!”––the narrator did not consider it unbecoming +his cloth and profession to swear in a foreign language––“<i>por Dios!</i> +<i>señores</i>, I have known the time, too, when I have played whist +with a French prince of the blood and two knights of the Golden +Fleece.”</p> +<p>“And you fleeced them? No?” muttered Don Ignaçio, with an +envious glimmer from his greedy eye, as if no one had a right to rob +the community but himself.</p> +<p>“And not only that,” continued the captain, rapidly, “but the +daughter of an English peer of the realm once proposed to run away +with me. Ho! ho! yes, she actually proposed to elope with me; +but as she was verging on fifty years, and only weighed fifty pounds, +with never a pound in her pocket, I sighed my regrets. Ay, great +compliment it was, but I declined the honor. You yourself, <i>compadre</i>, +must remember how I was received by the people on the +Buena Vista villa at Principe; how the obispo blessed me, the old +general embraced me, and the beautiful marquesa, with the hour-glass +waist, smiled on me.”</p> +<p>“<i>Cierto!</i>” That astute old Spaniard never forgot any thing, particularly +a debt due to him; and he remembered, moreover, to have +heard that when the noble <i>Mi Lord Inglez</i> left the villa one dark +night, a good deal of plate, jewels, doubloons, and other valuable +property disappeared with him. Ay, the sly old fellow had a faint +recollection as well of seeing a heavily-armed schooner running the +gauntlet through the forts before daylight, and that she left a certain +bag of gold ounces for him––Don Ignaçio Sanchez––somewhere in a +secret hole beneath a well-known rock inside the harbor. Oh, a wonderful +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span> +memory for matters of this nature had our rapacious one-eyed +acquaintance!</p> +<p>“Yes,” went on his partner in many a scene of pillage and crime, +“I have every reason to know that I won the hearts, and purses too, +sometimes, of some of the fine people I met in refined society. But +yet there have been occasions when the game has gone against +<span class="nowrap">me––”</span></p> +<p>Don Ignaçio’s tenacious memory came again into play, and he +looked back to the time when he himself had cleaned his profuse +friend out of all his gains at the card-table, even to the buttons off +his coat; but he gave no sign of remembrance of those days, and only +blew a dense cloud of smoke from his thin yellow nostrils as the captain +spoke.</p> +<p>“––Though those occasions have not been of frequent recurrence.”</p> +<p>The good Padre Ricardo at this juncture hoped that, by Saint Barnabas, +luck might, in all time to come, befriend his son and patron; +croaking, too, with a goblet of punch to his unctuous lips, “<i>Vamonos!</i> +Tell us more of the adorable Doña Lucia!”</p> +<p>Captain Brand rapped his snuff-box, opened the diamond-crusted +lid, took a dainty pinch, laid his cambric handkerchief over his kerseymere +breeches, and resumed his narrative.</p> +<p>“So passed the days, <i>caballeros</i>; and when, one morning, the high +mountains back of Port Guantamano were reported to me, I felt a +presentiment that my dream of bliss was drawing to a close. Indeed, +I might probably have remained at sea a week or two longer, but the +men were getting a little impatient, and I thought it better to sacrifice +my own pleasure to theirs. That day we caught a cracking breeze +out of the Windward Passage, and toward midnight we came up +with this little sandy island here.</p> +<p>“The preparations for going into port excited the curiosity of my +bride; for, poor thing! she believed we were bound into Porto Rico, +and I had some trouble in inducing her to go below before we crossed +the reef. <i>Bueno!</i> the coast was clear, the signals were all right, and +an hour later the schooner had her anchor down and sails furled pretty +much in the spot where she now lies moored.</p> +<p>“While, however, we were sweeping up the inlet, I sent a boat +ahead, with directions for my tidy old housekeeper, Babette, to have +every thing prepared to receive her new mistress. Just then one of +those terrible thunder-storms came up; heavy masses of clouds obscured +the sky, followed by such double-barrel shocks and intensely +vivid lightning as is only beheld in the tropics preceding the equinox. +The rain, too, came along in horizontal sheets, driven by a squall +which burst in fury over the island, and it seemed to me that all the +devils from hell were howling and shrieking in the air.</p> +<p>“Shielded from the storm by a large boat-cloak, I carried my beautiful +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span> +bride, with her face nestling on my breast, to the cove, and then +I bore her into this fine saloon.</p> +<p>“I shall never forget the sweet words she whispered, and the loving +caresses she gave me on that little journey, even while the tempest +almost dashed me to the ground, and the sharp flashes of lightning +nearly blinded me. They were the last she ever lavished upon +me.”</p> +<p>No sigh escaped the lips of this cold-blooded monster as he uttered +these words; no sign of feeling for the ruin of a gentle girl whom he +had betrayed to his piratical den of infamy and crime––whose dream +of life was destroyed like a crushed rose-leaf, and all her hope gone +from that moment.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XVII__DOOM_OF_DOA_LUCIA' id='CHAPTER_XVII__DOOM_OF_DOA_LUCIA'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XVII.<br /><br />DOOM OF DOÑA LUCIA.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>“I went into the storm,</span><br /> +And mocked the billows of the tossing sea;<br /> +I said to Fate, What wilt thou do to me?<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>I have not harmed a worm!</span><br /> + <br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>“Thy dim eyes tell a tale––</span><br /> +A piteous tale of vigils; and the trace<br /> +Of bitter tears is on thy beauteous face;<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Beauteous, and yet so pale!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“Thus</span> it ever is, <i>caballeros</i>, and ever will be,” went on Captain +Brand, in rather a reflecting strain. “There is a point to begin and +stop, and an end to joy as well as grief. We should, however, take +the world as it comes and as it goes. I do, and so do you, <i>compadre</i>!”––pitching +a cigar spear fashion at Don Ignaçio to attract his +attention––“and, therefore, we should never look too far ahead, and +live only for the present.</p> +<p>“Indulging then in this train of thought, as I set down my lovely +burden here, and the cloak fell from her shoulders, I was prepared for +any thing which might happen. I wore a slightly different costume +at the time than that she had been accustomed to see me in, as I always +do when I think there might be a chance of a surprise or trap +laid for us in entering the inlet. So, instead of fine linen and velvet, +I had on a red flannel shirt, canvas trowsers, with a cutlass slung to +my side, and a pair of pistols in my belt. I don’t think I appear handsome +in that rig, but the fellows at my back somehow think it is becoming +to me, especially when we are engaged in a hand-to-hand +fight! What say you, <i>compadre</i>?”</p> +<p>The Don said nothing, and merely waved his fore finger, as if dress +was not a matter to which he devoted much attention. He thought, +however, that sleeves should be cut loose for knives when the pockets +were not too small for pistols; but he uttered no word.</p> +<p>“<i>Bueno!</i> There I stood”––pointing to the corner of the room as +he spoke––“drenched with rain, and there stood my tall and lovely +wife!</p> +<p>“The saloon was brilliantly lighted; a profusion of plants and +flowers were clustered here, there, and every where, on cabinets and +tables, in striking contrast to the display exhibited yonder in that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span> +armory, where pikes, muskets, and knives were gleaming through +the open door.</p> +<p>“Quick as the lightning which was piercing deep into the inmost +crevices of the rocks and lighting up the crag without, Lucia’s dark +eyes flashed around the apartment from floor to ceiling, from flower +to blade, resting an instant on the frame of miniatures there––hers +was not among the collection <i>then</i>; it is the one in the middle, +<span class="nowrap">doctor––”</span></p> +<p>There were no knives on the table, or else, from the deadly look +the doctor gave, he might have perhaps sprinkled the narrator’s +heart’s blood on the floor.</p> +<p>“––Until at last her gaze of terror rested on <i>me</i>! No one, I fancy, +can tell the power of Spanish girls, who has never seen them when +the whole passion of their souls, either in love or hate, comes pouring +in a black blaze of jet from their gleaming eyes.</p> +<p>“Advancing a step toward me, with her white hands clasped together, +she said, in a hurried, beseeching voice––and low as was the +sound, I heard it distinctly during the crashing thunder which shook +the rocks of the crag to their <span class="nowrap">foundations––</span></p> +<p>“‘<i>Señor!</i> where am I? My father! Who––who––in the name +of the Blessed Virgin, art <i>thou</i>?’</p> +<p>“Again giving a look of the utmost horror around the room, she +pressed her hands to her eyes, and said, in the same low, distinct tone,</p> +<p>“‘Speak, <i>señor</i>! For the love of our holy Savior, speak!’</p> +<p>“I felt that the girl had saved me, by her own instinctive perception, +a world of painful explanations, and I replied,</p> +<p>“‘Lucia! I divine that all farther concealments are useless; you +are in the haunt of the most noted pirate of these seas, and that man +stands before you.’</p> +<p>“<i>Caballeros!</i>” continued Captain Brand, “had my pretty prize +swooned away, or fallen down in a fit, or gone into hysterics and +torn her hair out by the roots, I should not have been greatly surprised; +but she did none of those things. On the contrary, she became +as calm as marble––frightfully so, in fact––and pushing back +the bands of her magnificent tresses from her pale forehead, she raised +her round white arm aloft, with her slender fore finger quivering like +the tongue of a viper in mid air, and then poured forth such a torrent +of awfully impressive words that I quailed before her.</p> +<p>“Yes, <i>señores</i>, I am no coward, take me when you will; but on this +occasion I must honestly admit that I stood powerless before the gaze +and gesture of that slight, delicately-formed woman.</p> +<p>“‘Pirate––wretch––monster! may the curses of hell be heaped upon +thee! Murderer––betrayer! may thy heart be burned, and thy soul +blasted forever!’</p> +<p>“I need not pain you, <i>señores</i>, by reciting the cruel words that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span> +came hissing through her closed teeth, nor yet farther describe the +terrible concentrated gaze of hate and fury which streamed from +those gleaming eyes. Suffice it to say, that though often afterward +I was treated in the same manner, yet, on the occasion alluded to, I +cut short the interview by summoning Babette to see her mistress to +her chamber, and then, glad to escape, I went out of the house and +attended to the duties which required my presence.”</p> +<p>The padre, with his flat lips half open, eagerly drinking in––with +his Santa Cruz punch––the words of his patron; the doctor, calm, +unmoved now, and thoughtful; the one-eyed old rascal, still puffing +his cigarettes and allowing no rest to his uneasy, suspicious optic, all +sat listening, with each an interest peculiarly his own, to the fate of +Doña Lucia. The narrator leisurely arose and held his hourly confab +with the man at the signal-station, and then returning to his place, +proceeded with his discourse:</p> +<p>“I shall pass rapidly over, my friends, many little incidents of a +rather unpleasant nature which occurred here, in this my rocky retreat, +for some months after the interview which I have described. I +tried every argument and persuasion I was master of to bring my +proud bride to reason, but to all my entreaties she turned a cold and +chilling stare of obdurate hate. Day by day the intensity of her detestation +grew stronger and stronger, and seemed to have become a +part of her nature. Yes; the gentle, yielding girl I had won on board +the ‘Centipede’ had now become as stern and unbending as a rock, +and my controlling power over her mind and love was gone. I left +her entirely to herself for some weeks, until one day I thought her +passion might have subsided, and once more, attired in a rich and +splendid suit, I came in here, as she sat like a marble statue at table. +She never looked up at my entrance, but her eyes shone like stars as +she mechanically went through the forms of the dinner laid before +her.</p> +<p>“‘Lucia!’ I said, gayly. No answer by word or look. ‘Lucia! +<i>querida mia!</i>’ I repeated, and, sinking on one knee beside her, attempted +to take her hand.</p> +<p>“By all the saints, <i>señores</i>, that came near––very near––being the +last time that I ever should kneel to a woman; for with a movement +so sudden that I had barely time to leap aside, she snatched a long +pointed carving-knife from the table and lunged full at my throat! +The blade just grazed my jugular artery, inflicting a slight wound. +But she never turned round to see the extent of her effort, and again +sat calm and rigid at the table.</p> +<p>“This was my last visit save one. I had long before abandoned +these comfortable quarters entirely, and occupied the rooms you do, +<i>mi padre</i>, out there among the men. In fact, my stern young bride +was in entire command of the island; and even my good Babette +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span> +here stood in such awe of her that she always crossed herself when +called to approach her mistress.</p> +<p>“Month by month matters went on in this way, until the rainy +season had gone, and I was preparing for another cruise in the +schooner; but hour by hour the consuming passion which flamed in +the veins of Lucia was doing its work. I sometimes beheld her +standing out on the veranda, tall and stately as ever; and when the +moon was at the full, it threw its light upon her wan and sunken +cheeks, and thin, wasted frame. Ay, there she stood, like an almost +transparent statue of alabaster, with her dark eyes shining with an +unearthly light, turned in one long tearless gaze upon the ledge and +combing breakers to seaward. It was singular, too, the effect she +produced even upon the horde of these brave fellows of mine, for no +persuasion could induce a man of them to come within pistol-shot of +that part of the house while she was thus keeping her nightly vigils. +And as for Pedillo, he acquired such a superstitious dread of the girl +he had married, and lived in such a state of abject terror, that I had +serious thoughts of shooting him through the head to avoid the contaminating +influence he exercised over his comrades.</p> +<p>“Well, <i>caballeros</i>, late one Saturday night, while the men were +carousing and drinking success to the coming cruise––we were to +sail on the following Monday––and while I was returning from my +usual stroll to the Tiger’s Trap to see the battery in order and the +look-outs wide awake, I met Babette toddling along, nearly out of +breath.</p> +<p>“‘What is it, old lady?’ You know, <i>amigos</i>, that Babette never +spoke a word in her life, but she made signs to let me know that I +was wanted at the crag, and that there was no time to be lost. I +quickened my pace, and, preceded by Babette, I once more darkened +my own threshold. The curtains and hangings were all closely drawn +in the saloon here, and it was dark as a tomb; but there was a light +burning yonder in the passage leading to the chamber, and I made +my way to the door.</p> +<p>“I shall never forget what I saw, though I should like to, as it +comes to me sometimes in the night, or when I am left much alone +by myself.”</p> +<p>The pirate passed his hands over his eyes as if he saw something +while he spoke, and then, letting his voice drop to an almost sepulchral +pitch, he went on hurriedly:</p> +<p>“I stood at the door, <i>caballeros</i>, and looked in. On the bed, which +was drawn to the middle of the chamber to get the air through the +narrow loopholed windows, with the gauze curtains falling square +on all sides, lay Lucia. Her attenuated frame scarcely presented an +uneven surface beneath the snowy sheet which covered it. Her superb +hair was spread in great black masses on the pillow, and her +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span> +pale marble face reposed there like an ivory picture in an ebony setting. +Her eyes were wide open, large and luminous, and her thin +delicate hands were clasped around a silver and pearl crucifix, which +rested on her hollow breast. A single taper in a silver lamp threw +a lurid, flickering ray about the room, and beside it was Babette on +her knees quivering with terror, while from one of the loopholed windows +a broad white band of moonlight streamed directly across the +pillow and face of the dying girl.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand’s face assumed a deathly pallor, and, with his icy +blue eyes fixed on vacancy, and his voice sunk to a hoarse whisper, +he went on:</p> +<p>“As I appeared in the portals of the door, Lucia slowly raised her +fore finger, and beckoned me to approach. I could no more have +resisted the summons than if a chain cable to a frigate’s anchor had +caught me in its iron coils, and was dragging me to the bottom of +the sea. I moved to the foot of the bed.</p> +<p>“‘<i>Pirato!</i>’ came from her slightly-parted lips, in her old low and +distinct tones. ‘<i>Pirato</i>, behold your cruel work! Destroyer of mother +and child––of soul and body––may the curses of a dying woman +and her unborn child haunt you by day and by night!’ I was dumb, +and my pulse stopped beating.</p> +<p>“‘<i>Ave Maria purissima!</i>’ were the last words that came in a +sweet, pure whisper from her parted lips; she clasped the crucifix +tighter, and the spirit departed. I tore aside the gauze net to lay +my hand on her heart, when, on my soul! her right hand slowly relaxed +its death-grasp on the crucifix, and, rising to a vertical line, +with the fore finger pointing upward, quivered in the light of the +waning moon, like, as it was, a supernatural warning! Yes, that +<span class="nowrap">finger––”</span></p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_10' id='linki_10'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-117.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 600px; height: 430px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 600px;'> +“A SUPERNATURAL WARNING! YES, THAT FINGER––”<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>“Mamma! mamma!” came in a weak, plaintive voice from the piazza, +while the villain, with his hands before him as if to shut out a +frightful vision, and eyeballs starting from their sockets, was hoarsely +whispering to his horror-stricken audience the last warning of the +dead Lucia.</p> +<p>As the low moaning cry in the stillness which reigned around the +saloon struck his ear, he sprang with a bound to his feet, and, quick +as thought, with a pistol in each hand, he shouted, “Who’s there?”</p> +<p>“It is the little sick boy, <i>señor</i>. Do him no harm at your peril!” +and the doctor stood towering before the pirate’s leveled weapons.</p> +<p>“<i>Maldito</i> on the brat! Pshaw!” said Captain Brand, quieting +down, and returning the pistols to his pockets. “How nervous I +am! Excuse me, <i>caballeros</i>. I was thinking of something else.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XVIII__END_OF_THE_BANQUET' id='CHAPTER_XVIII__END_OF_THE_BANQUET'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII.<br /><br />END OF THE BANQUET.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks,<br /> +As he stalked away with his iron box.<br /> +Oh, ho! oh, ho! The cock doth crow,<br /> +It is time for the fisher to rise and go.<br /> +Fair luck to the abbot, fair luck to the shrine!<br /> +He hath gnawed in twain my choicest line;<br /> +Let him swim to the north, let him swim to the south,<br /> +The <i>pirate</i> will carry my hook in his mouth.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>In</span> the pause which followed the dreadful episode just recounted +by Captain Brand, the padre was occupied in pattering a prayer, +counting his beads, and elevating his crucifix as if he was mumbling +high mass at the altar. Don Ignaçio slowly waved his brown fore +finger, and his single spark of glowing eye glared fiercely and fixedly +at his host. A clammy sweat burst out on the pallid brow of the +doctor, and his hands were clutched before him on the table like the +jaws of a steel vice. And still the drunken shrieks and cheers of the +piratical crew at the sheds arose wild and shrill in the calm night, +making a gloomy echo for the banquet. The doctor was the first to +break the awkward silence which pervaded the saloon.</p> +<p>“<i>Capitano!</i>” said he, in his habitual calm, deep voice, “with respect +to what you said in the early part of the evening, of breaking +up this establishment, what, may I ask, are your plans for the future?”</p> +<p>“<i>Gracias!</i> <i>amigo</i> doctor! Thank you, my friend, for changing the +conversation. My plans! eh! ah! Well, they are <span class="nowrap">these––”</span></p> +<p>Here Captain Brand’s face assumed its usual expression; and entirely +himself again, he went on to state, in a precise, business-like +way, the views he had resolved upon for future action.</p> +<p>“––To-morrow, gentlemen, is Sunday. Those boisterous fellows +out there, after mass, will need rest all the day. On Monday, however, +I shall begin to change the rig of the schooner, fill up with provisions +for a long cruise, take on board all the loose odds and ends +we have stowed here, of course,” he added, as he remarked an inquiring +and a rather alarmed mercenary look from the Tuerto’s glim––“of +course, after having squared up all claims of our <i>compadre</i> there!”</p> +<p>“Hum!” croaked that sharp rascal, with a nod of satisfaction quite +like an old raven.</p> +<p>“Then, <i>señores</i>, I shall burn or destroy the old sheds, and bury the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span> +cannon and heavy articles we can not find room for in the ‘Centipede;’ +when, if nothing happens, we shall trip anchor and spread our +sails for sea!</p> +<p>“Babette! Babette! Really I believe that dear old negress has +fallen asleep. Babette! ah! there you are, my beauty! See if you +can’t give us a bowl of okra gumbo before we break up here!”</p> +<p>Babette had not been asleep. Oh no! She had her ear to the door +of the saloon, and was listening to the sad history of Doña Lucia, and +when her master came to the final scene the old woman fell on her +knees and shivered all over, where she remained until the sound of +the captain’s voice again called her to her duties.</p> +<p>“And when we have left these quiet waters, my son!” broke in +the padre, “what then?”</p> +<p>The fact was, that the carnivorous and vinous Father Ricardo knew +that his stomach was not suited for high winds and rough oceans, and +was hoping that some scheme might be devised to allow him to remain +tranquilly on the island.</p> +<p>“Why, holy padre, I propose to steer clear of the West Indies by +some unfrequented track, and, striking the broad Atlantic, stretch +down the coast of Brazil. Perhaps we may double Cape Horn, and +see what those miserable patriots are fighting for in Chili and Peru; +then maybe across the Pacific, to the lovely islands and maidens of +Polynesia; so on to the China Seas, where we may fall in with an +outward-bound Canton trader, or a galleon with a ton or two of silver +on board––who knows?––there is plenty of blue water and fine +ships every where; so we must be content.”</p> +<p>Padre Ricardo made the sign of the cross, kissed his thumb and +fore finger, and, reaching his dirty paw over to the captain, shook +hands with him.</p> +<p>“Ay, <i>amigos</i>!” continued the leader, without minding the friendly +interruption; “yes, my friends, we shall, I trust, give the hounds +in search of us the slip; and even should they scent out this retired +little spot, they will have their trouble for their chase, and find nothing +but a few stones and heaps of rubbish above ground.”</p> +<p>“They may find some little matters below, though,” chimed in the +commander of the felucca.</p> +<p>“If they do,” retorted the pirate, with a meaning scowl, “I’ll put +the spy who betrays it to such a torture as that he’ll wish himself +below ground when I come back here.”</p> +<p>“<i>Cierto, amigo!</i> no fear of that!” muttered the Tuerto, with some +little trepidation of manner. “<i>My</i> papers are white.”</p> +<p>“Captain Brand,” said the doctor, “my contract with you is nearly +up, and since I only agreed––as you know––to enlist my professional +services here on shore, I presume you will have no objections +to permit me to depart with Don Ignaçio in the felucca.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span></div> +<p>It would be difficult to say what caused the flush of passion which +overspread the leader’s face as he listened to this simple request, but +it was full a minute before he replied, and then, having weighed the +matter carefully in his mind, he said, in a precise and determined tone, +in French,</p> +<p>“<i>Monsieur le Docteur!</i> the compacts that I have made with all +those that have taken service with me have never been broken except +by death. I can not, therefore, consider your request, and I +shall expect you to sail with me in the schooner.”</p> +<p>Then he added, quickly, as he noticed a certain haughty expression +in his subordinate’s face, “Pardon me, <i>monsieur</i>; we had better not +discuss this question now. Suppose you see me on the morrow.”</p> +<p>“Willingly, <i>señor</i>, and you will find my resolution unchangeable.” +Rising as he spoke, he bowed to his companions at table, and saying +“<i>Buenas noches!</i> (good-night!)” he passed from the saloon to the +piazza. There he paused a moment, as if communing with himself, +and then approaching the grass hammock where the sick boy was +sleeping, he gently took the little fellow up in his arms. The child +murmured “Mamma, mamma!” and was borne away.</p> +<p>Captain Brand followed the doctor with his searching, sharklike +eyes until he had left the apartment, and there was something that +denoted danger in the look; but he uttered no sound, and, placing +a finger on his lip, he nodded meaningly to the padre.</p> +<p>A moment after Babette brought in the steaming gumbo soup, and +the pirate’s feast was nearly ended. Don Ignaçio waited until his +companions had swallowed a goodly portion of the grateful mess, +when he too refreshed himself. Then making his salutations in his +usual observant manner, he departed. He declined, however, the offer +of his host’s society to his boat, saying he had, he knew, half a +dozen of the felucca’s crew outside the building to guard his footsteps, +and he would not put the <i>capitano</i> to the trouble.</p> +<p>When the padre rose to give his benediction to his patron, the +captain took him impressively by the rope which girded his cassock +about the loins, and giving it a sharp jerk or two, he said,</p> +<p>“My holy father, I think we shall have a sad duty to perform to-morrow. +Our old friend Gibbs has behaved badly, and I shall punish +him. He is now in the Capella dungeon. After early mass go +and console him.”</p> +<p>The padre returned a meaning smile, crossed himself, and slowly +left the pirate alone in his saloon.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XIX__FANDANGO_ON_ONE_LEG' id='CHAPTER_XIX__FANDANGO_ON_ONE_LEG'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XIX.<br /><br />FANDANGO ON ONE LEG.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“God! ’tis a fearsome thing to see<br /> +That pale wan man’s mute agony––<br /> +Those pinioned arms, those hands that ne’er<br /> +Shall be lifted again––not even in prayer!<br /> +That heaving chest! Enough; ’tis done!<br /> +The bolt has fallen! the spirit is gone.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Day</span> dawned in the east. The early spikes of morning shot up in +rosy bands from behind the lofty hills of Cuba and announced the +coming of the sun. The inlet and basin, framed in by their rocky +walls, were still clothed in the gloom of night, and dimly reflecting +the fading stars on the calm unruffled surface where the schooner +and felucca were moored. Away off in the distance a dense white +misty vapor hung flat and low over the lagoon and thickets of mangroves, +with not a breath of air to disturb the noxious fog or quiver +a leaf in the silent groves. The revels, too, of the drunken sailors had +long since ceased; the sentinels, with their cutlasses in the sheaths, +paced slowly to and fro before the doors of the sheds, and the look-outs +at the signal-stations and battery peered through the early dawn +to seaward; else not a sound or moving thing, save a teal or two fluttering +with a sharp cry up and down the lagoon; the music of the +tiny ripples lapping on the shelly beach; and the low roar, in a deep +bass, breaking and moaning over the ledge beyond the island. Such +was the appearance of things where our scene is laid in the Twelve +League Group of Keys, on a Sunday morning, in the year of our Lord +eighteen hundred and five.</p> +<p>Half a mile, perhaps, inland from the sheds where the sailors lived, +and beneath the steep face of the ridge-like crag which split the island +in two parts, stood a low chapel, built of loose stones nicely fitted together +and roofed with tiles. A rough iron cross was fastened over +the doorless entrance, and at the other end was a stone balustrade, +with a rude painting of the Virgin over the altar, on which stood four +or five tall brass candlesticks and a lighted taper. Outside the building +was a narrow and secluded inclosure, surrounded by a low wall +of coral rocks, with a few head-stones marked with black crosses––the +graves of the pirates whose bones reposed beneath. At one end +of this burial-place was still another subdivision, where stood ten upright +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span> +flat white stones, on whose faces were rudely carved initial letters, +with the years in which the eternal sleepers had been laid beneath +the sand. Far and near sprang up close and almost impenetrable +thickets of cactus, whose sharp and pointed needle-shoots defied +the passage of any thing more bulky than land-crabs and lizards. One +or two narrow pathways had been cut out here and there, but they +were overgrown again by the stubborn, hardy vegetation; and only +with the risk of losing one’s trowsers, and having one’s legs cut in +gashes, could a human being struggle through it.</p> +<p>Within the chapel kneeled a dozen or more of the “Centipede’s” +crew, the coarse and sodden faces and uncombed locks, from their +night’s debauch, in striking contrast to the place and the apparent +devoutness of manner in which they crossed themselves while the +rites of the Church were going on. Before the altar stood Padre +Ricardo, with his breviary on the chancel beneath the taper, and +chanting forth from his deep lungs the services of the mass. In a +few minutes the unholy hands and lips which performed the solemn +ceremony ceased word and gesture, and with a sonorous benediction +at the elevation of the Host, and a tinkle of a bell, the sailors arose +from their knees and again staggered back to the sheds, to slumber +through the day. When all had gone, the padre clasped his missal, +tucked it into his bosom, and making the sign of the cross with a +genuflexion before the Virgin, the sacrilegious wretch turned and +left the chapel.</p> +<p>Pursuing the winding path which led to his own habitation for a +certain distance, he then turned to the left, and carefully picking his +way through the sharp cactus and Spanish bayonets along the face +of the crag, he stopped at a yawning fissure which gaped open in the +rock. Here, too, the same wiry vegetation had crept, and it was +with great difficulty, and many an “<i>Ave!</i>” and “<i>Santa Maria!</i>” that +the padre succeeded in passing into the dark, rugged mouth of the +cavern.</p> +<p>“By the ashes of San Lorenzo!” he muttered, “there are serpents +and venomous insects in this pit of purgatory. Oh, <i>misericordia</i>! +what has pierced my leg? Why should my son drag me through +this hole? Ah! blessed Saint Barnabas! a slimy reptile has crossed +my instep!”</p> +<p>Feeling with his outspread hands in his fright, as he gradually +made his way into the dripping cavern, getting narrower and lower +as he proceeded, he at last, after stumbling prayerfully along for +about a hundred and fifty yards, came to a loose pile of stones. Here +opened another low narrow fissure on the left, and, in some doubt, he +was about to enter; but the noise he made by stepping on a stone +was answered by the hissing warning of a serpent, and the scared +padre fell back at his full length in a pool of stagnant slimy water.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span></div> +<p>“<i>O Madre di Dios!</i> I am stung by a cobra! Holy Virgin! my +new cassock ruined too! <i>Ave Maria!</i> light me out of this abode of +the devil!”</p> +<p>Slowly recovering, however, from his fright, he once more regained +his feet, and, after a few steps, which he was obliged to accomplish +by scraping his crown against the jagged rocks above, his outstretched +hands touched an iron-bound door.</p> +<p>“<i>Gracias à Dios!</i> Thanks be to all the saints, I am here at last; +but, alas! curses on me, I shall be obliged to return by the same path +unless my son allows me to escape by the casa.”</p> +<p>Cautiously searching with his fingers as he muttered these words, +he touched a bolt, and, grasping it with both hands, drew it partly +out like the knob of a bell. Then, placing his ear to the door, he +presently heard a rattling, creaking noise, as if a beam of timber, with +pulley and chain, was being raised from behind the entrance. When +the sound ceased the door yielded to the padre’s sturdy shoulder, and +there was just room to admit his portly body. Here the passage was +wider, the rock evidently chiseled away by the hands of man, and on +one side was an artificial chamber, blasted out of the solid rock, with +a narrow door with heavy iron bolts on the outside. At this opening +the padre paused and listened. No sound caught his ear at first, but +as he clutched the bolt and it grated back in its bands, he was saluted +by such a volley of frightful curses as to make him start back and +cross his ample breast. It was the voice of Master Gibbs, lying there +on a low iron settle in the noisome dungeon, with not a ray of light +to cheer him, and only a jug of water and some weevily biscuit to +save him from starvation. All through the day and during the long, +long hours of the awful night, in pain and suffering from his lopped-off +limb and bruises, had he lain on his hard bed with clenched hands, +blaspheming and impotently raging in his agony and despair. No +prayer, however, dawned in his ruthless heart, or was breathed from +his brutal lips; but curses upon curses came thick and fast, till his +tongue refused to give them utterance, and he fell back in utter exhaustion. +As the noise, however, of the bolt struck his ear, he clutched +the stone water-jug from the floor, and hurled it, with a yell of +execrations, toward the door, where the fragments fell with a clattering +crash on the stone pavement.</p> +<p>Grinding his teeth in his frightful passion, he howled,</p> +<p>“Let me but once put these hands on your bloodstained carcass, +and if the mother that bore ye will know her spawn again, my name’s +not Bill Gibbs! Ha! you miserable swab, with your soft words and +white hands! when I get out of this hole I’ll blow you and your infarnal +hounds <span class="nowrap">to –––!</span> Give me fair play, and, even on one of my +legs, I’ll cut the cowardly heart out of you, Captain Brand! Come in, +will ye? ye son of the devil, and I’ll bite the tongue out of your mouth +by the roots!”</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_11' id='linki_11'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-126.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 586px; height: 600px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 586px;'> +SHRIVING A SINNER.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span></div> +<p>Here the hoarse and panting wretch again ceased his roarings, and +the padre timidly opened the door.</p> +<p>“Ha! who’s that? Babette?”</p> +<p>“No, my son, it is your good Padre Ricardo, come to console +you.”</p> +<p>What the maimed villain replied to the priest, and what means the +holy father took to allay the passion and assuage the sorrows of the +man lying helpless in the dungeon, or whether successful in his mission, +is not important to state in detail. An hour later, however, the +priest seemed relieved in body and spirit as he retired from the loathsome +hole, and shooting the bolt as he closed the door, cautiously felt +his way along the dark and narrow passage. Presently, as he turned +an angle, a ray of light from the loopholes of the great stone vault +beneath the pirate’s dwelling lighted his pathway; and a moment +after, with a hearty sigh of satisfaction, he seized a cord above his +head and gave it a jerk. A bell sounded above, and then a large, +square-hinged trap-hatch fell down, swinging gently to and fro from +the beams above. At the same time the padre put his arms about a +square wooden stanchion which supported the floor of the saloon, and +then painfully sticking his toes in some deep-cut notches at the sides, +he slowly began to mount upward. When, however, his oily shaved +crown appeared nearly at the level of the floor, a vigorous grasp was +laid on his shoulders, and he was pulled up like a flapping lobster +and rolled into the apartment. It was Captain Brand who kindly +assisted the holy father, and it was the captain’s hollow laugh which +saluted him in his torn and soiled raiment, as, with difficulty, he regained +his perpendicular.</p> +<p>“Laugh not, <i>hijo mio</i>, at my sorrowful plight,” said the bruised +Ricardo, with some asperity; “I have met with dangers of venomous +serpents, and been stabbed cruelly by those villainous cactus.”</p> +<p>“But I raised the beam, my padre, the moment you made the +signal.”</p> +<p>“You did, my son; but what I suffered in the cavern was as nothing +to what I endured when I entered the dungeon of the English +Gibbs. <i>Jesus Maria</i>, what an infidel he is!”</p> +<p>“You did not find his spirit subdued, then, by bread and water?”</p> +<p>“Far from it, my friend. He rages like a wild beast. He consigns +your body and soul to everlasting torments! But, what is more impious +still,” went on the padre, as he crossed himself, “he damned +your holy father, and hoped I would roast in hell!”</p> +<p>“But he confessed, Ricardo, and you gave him absolution?”</p> +<p>“If calling me thief and assassin, and hurling his stone water-jug +at my head, be confession and forgiveness of sins, the ceremony +has been performed. Ah! my son, he needs no more mercy in this +world!”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span></div> +<p>“Of course not, my padre; and we will give him a short shrift and +a long rope.”</p> +<p>“Babette!” continued Captain Brand. “Ah! my Baba, you have +not forgotten to feed our jolly Gibbs there below? No? I thought +not. Well, then, it is Sunday, you know; give him a pint of pure +rum for his morning’s draught. And, Baba, my beauty, slip a pair +of iron ruffles over his wrists, and then pass a cloth over those bloodshot +eyes of his, and lug him here beneath this hatch. Go down by +your own ladder, and be quick, my Baba, as I wish my breakfast +presently!”</p> +<p>All this was said in a cool and rather an affectionate tone, as Captain +Brand sipped a spoonful or two of chocolate from a cup of Dresden +china. Then turning to the padre, he said,</p> +<p>“You would perhaps like a cordial, my father, to take the chill off +your stomach? Yes. You will find some capital Curaçoa in that +stand of bottles there.”</p> +<p>The padre, forgetful of the dignity of his calling, shuffled with indecent +haste to the spot indicated, and, without going through the +form of filling one of the diminutive thimble-shaped glasses in the +stand, he boldly raised the silver-netted flask to his lips, and sucked +away until it was nearly empty. Then seating himself on the settee, +he lugged out his illuminated missal and pored over its contents. +Captain Brand occupied himself with opening the loop of the silk +rope which fell from the ceiling, and securing the end firmly on the +stout cleat at the wall.</p> +<p>So passed the time until a noise beneath the room of a voice in +anger, and a body bumped and dragged along, once more attracted +the attention of those in the saloon.</p> +<p>“Oh ho! is that you, Master Gibbs?” exclaimed Captain Brand, +in a cheerful voice. “You have risen early; but stop that profane +language, my friend, or you will never see daylight again!”</p> +<p>The maimed ruffian only muttered, “Your friend, eh? blindfolded +and manacled!” And then, apparently abashed by the cool, commanding +tone of his superior, he held his peace.</p> +<p>“Well, you are quiet, my lad. Now we’ll see if we can’t hoist you +up here in the saloon.”</p> +<p>“Thank ye, sir!” said Gibbs, aloud; and then he muttered to himself, +“Let me jest get one grip of ye, and I’ll show ye how quiet I’ll +be.”</p> +<p>“Do you think we shall need assistance, my son?” whispered the +padre into the ear of his patron.</p> +<p>“<i>Diavolo!</i> No. I never wanted help in these little affairs, except +in the case of that violent Yankee whaler, who gave us much trouble, +you know, and we were obliged to call Pedillo,” replied the captain, +in the same low tone. Then, raising his voice, he said,</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span></div> +<p>“Hark ye, Master Gibbs! Babette will lift you off the stones, and +the padre and I will raise you up to the room here. You don’t weigh +so much as you did before you had your leg hacked off with a hand-saw––ho! +and I dare say you are as light now as a dried stockfish! +Up with him, Baba! There––steady! all right––here you are!”</p> +<p>Saying this, Captain Brand, with the assistance of the stout negress +and the padre, raised the once burly ruffian, with a vigorous hoist +that made him groan, to the floor of the saloon, where they laid him +out at full length on his back.</p> +<p>“Wait a moment, my hearty, till the hatch is raised, and then we +will raise you. Unpleasant position, no doubt,” continued Captain +Brand, as the trap came up and was secured by a spring; “but then, +you know, you <i>would</i> have that pin of yours cut off, and somehow +you have been so careless as to dispose of the nice leg you had the +other day, made out of the spruce fore-top-mast of the ‘Centipede’––a +very tough bit of a spar it was.”</p> +<p>Here Master Gibbs grated his teeth and grinned hideously.</p> +<p>The captain smiled like a demon, and, approaching the prostrate +cripple, said cheerfully––ay, in a frank and hearty <span class="nowrap">tone––</span></p> +<p>“Now, my padre, place a comfortable chair for Master Gibbs, and +we will help him to a seat.”</p> +<p>The considerate Ricardo placed a large, roomy Manilla chair on +the fatal trap, and then aided his chief in lifting their victim to the +position assigned him. As they performed this operation, the captain, +with the gentleness of a tiger before he strikes his prey, and +with a wink to the padre, lightly passed the noose of the silk rope +over the ruffian’s hairy throat, where it lay like a snake with its slack +coil squirming at the back of the chair.</p> +<p>“Now, Master Gibbs, I am about to remove this bandage from +your beautiful red eyes,” said Captain Brand, in his cold, chilling, +deliberate manner, “and if you so much as move when daylight +shines before you, I’ll blow your brains out.”</p> +<p>Here the pirate leisurely cocked a pistol close to his subordinate’s +ear, removed the bandage, and laid the weapon on the table within +reach.</p> +<p>“No noise either, Master Gibbs!” continued Captain Brand, as he +stirred up the remains of his chocolate and gulped it down; “for it +is Sunday morning, and we must respect the feelings of our padre. +You were unkind to him, he tells me, just now, and even said some +disrespectful things of me. What have <i>I</i> done to vex you?”</p> +<p>The manacled wretch tried to raise his horny hands to his face +when the cloth was removed from his eyes, and rub those organs, +while he glared suspiciously around; but the captain pointed with +his white finger in a threatening way to the cocked pistol, and Master +Gibbs let his hands fall again.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span></div> +<p>“Well, Captain Brand, I s’pose now you’re going to treat me as a +faithful man who has sarved under you ought to be treated; and I’m +willin’ to forgive what has passed.”</p> +<p>There was no look of forgiveness, however, in those brutal bloodshot +eyes, nor much signs of repentance in those grinding teeth and +compressed lips.</p> +<p>“Why, no, my Gibbs, <i>I</i> am <i>not</i> going to treat you as a faithful +man, but I tell you what I will do”––here the captain moved his chair +nearer till his straw slipper touched the spring of the trap––“I will +drink a glass of grog with you in forgetfulness of the past and forgiveness +for the future.”</p> +<p>“Thank ye, Captain Brand; I do feel dry. That stuff Babette +gave me a while ago didn’t touch the right spot, and I’ll be glad to +jine you.”</p> +<p>“Ah! <i>bueno</i>, my old friend; you <i>shall</i> drink something that <i>will</i> +touch the right spot! What shall it be? you have only to name it.”</p> +<p>“I’ll take a toss of that old brandy you gave me the other day, if +it’s the same to you, sir.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Master Gibbs, it’s all the same to me. Delighted I am to +oblige you! <i>Padre mio!</i> a glass of old Cognac for our friend––a +tumblerful; a wine-glass will do for me.”</p> +<p>The padre poured out the brandy as he was desired, handed the +lesser glass to the captain, and the tumbler he placed in the locked +hands of the victim. Slowly and painfully the subdued ruffian raised +the glass to his mouth, careful not to spill a drop; then, before draining +it, he cleared his throat, while at the same time the captain rose +to his feet, his right foot resting a little on the heel, and held the +wine-glass before him.</p> +<p>“Now, then, Master Gibbs, for a toss that will touch the right +spot.”</p> +<p>“Ay, ay, captain!” said Gibbs; “and here’s forgiveness for the +future.”</p> +<p>Scarcely had the words been uttered, and the liquor began to gurgle +down the hairy throat of the manacled wretch, than the pirate +before him pressed his foot with a quick, nervous action on the +spring.</p> +<p>Like a flash the trap fell, carrying chair and man with it. The +hinges of the hatch creaked, the wicker-work chair fell with a bound +on the stone floor below, the heavy beam overhead gave a jarring +quiver as the strong silk rope brought up with a shuddering surge +on the cleat where it was belayed at the wall, and with a gasping, +choking cry of pain mingled with the ring of the shattered tumbler +on the pavement, the ruffian of a hundred crimes fell full three feet, +and hung struggling in the death agony. With almost superhuman +force he raised his clenched hands and struck his forehead till the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span> +manacles were twisted like wire by the effort, spinning around too +by the lopsided weight of his body, while the beam above yielded +slightly to the strain, and the deadly cord, no longer squirming, but +taut as a bar of iron, held the wretch in its knotted embrace, clasped +tight around the throat. In a minute or two the hands ceased beating +the inflamed face and head, and fell with a clank before the body; +the legs gave a few convulsive twitches, a last and violent spasm +shook the frame, and there Master Gibbs hung, a warm dead lump +of clay.</p> +<p>While this murderous business was going on, and the poor crippled +wretch was struggling in the jaws of death, the padre was chanting +with his profane tongue from his open breviary the <i>Salve Domine</i>, +and his patron coolly took down a telescope and swept it over the +blue water to seaward. When, however, after a quarter of an hour +had elapsed, and the body of their victim gave no more signs of life, +the captain laid down the telescope as the padre closed his missal, +and remarked quietly, while glancing critically down at the suspended +body,</p> +<p>“He did not go off so easy as I had anticipated; his bull-neck is +not broken, though the knot was perfectly well placed. However, +he is stone dead, and we will lower him down. You, my padre, will +bury him!”</p> +<p>“<i>Hijo mio!</i> son of mine! spare me that troublesome duty. Would +you have me drag such a carcass through the cavern and consign +him to consecrated earth, when he refused the last holy offers of +salvation?”</p> +<p>“<i>Bueno</i>, my padre, I respect your feelings! You need not put him +under the sand; take him merely to his late dungeon, and lay him decently +on his bed.”</p> +<p>“Thank you, my son; your orders shall be obeyed!”</p> +<p>Glad, apparently, to be relieved from farther exertion, though with +manifest symptoms of disgust, the priest, more infamous even than +the scoundrel he had assisted in hanging, clumsily descended the +hatchway by the way he came up, and awaited the movements of +his chief. The captain stepped to the wall, and, casting off the turns +from the cleat, he slowly lowered the body down till it rested on the +pavement.</p> +<p>“Unbend the rope from his neck, my padre, and hitch it on to that +Manilla chair. There––all right! you may return this way and breakfast +with me.”</p> +<p>Saying this, Captain Brand rounded up the chair, detached the +silk rope, hung the loop in its accustomed place, and then waited the +reappearance of his confederate. Not many minutes elapsed before +the padre, having performed the last rites, again ascended the stanchion, +and was assisted above the floor by his chief. Then both together +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span> +got hold of a ring-bolt in the trap, drew it up and secured the +spring, placing square bits of mahogany over the countersunk apertures, +so as to prevent accidental falls or hangings of themselves. +Even while performing these mechanical operations, the priest puffed +out an account of his proceedings below: how he had dragged the +body to the dungeon; how, when there, he had inadvertently stumbled +and fallen on the top of it; and that his lips––<i>maldito!</i>––came +in contact with the open mouth of the late Master Gibbs; but when +he had recovered from the horror of this frightful caress, he had said +a short prayer and bolted the door.</p> +<p>“You have done well, my padre; and now let us break our fast. +Babette, a couple of broiled snappers and a cold duck! Be lively, +old lady, for I have business to attend to after breakfast. <i>Hola, mi +padre</i>, will you wash your hands in water before sitting down? +No! <i>bueno!</i> I will myself take a dip all over.”</p> +<p>No, the oily Ricardo never washed his hands, save wetting the +tips of his fingers in holy water in the chapel; and, indeed, he rarely +touched water in any quantity either outside or in; and it was with +a look of surprise, not unmingled with contempt, that he beheld his +patron retire for a bath.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XX__BUSINESS' id='CHAPTER_XX__BUSINESS'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XX.<br /><br />BUSINESS.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“He had rolled in money like pigs in mud,<br /> +Till it seemed to have entered into his blood<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.34375em;'>By some occult projection;</span><br /> +And his cheeks, instead of a healthy hue,<br /> +As yellow as any guinea grew,<br /> +Making the common phrase seem true<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.34375em;'>About a rich complexion.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> business which Captain Brand alluded to when he was about +to partake of breakfast with his friend the padre was, in the first instance, +to arrange some matters in the way of payment of debts to +his compadre, Don Ignaçio Sanchez, commander of the Colonial +Guarda Costa felucca “Panchita.”</p> +<p>Accordingly, when he rose from table, and after a whispered dialogue +and reports as to the state of affairs in and around the den +and island from the men at the signal-stations, he summoned Pedillo. +When that worthy appeared below the veranda––for be it remembered +that Captain Brand never permitted the inferior officials of his +band to pollute his apartments, unless, perhaps, as in the case of +his deceased subordinate, Master Gibbs, it was on urgent business––Captain +Brand ordered his gig manned.</p> +<p>Pedillo threw up his hand in token of assent, and walked down to +the brink of the basin to execute the command. Then, after a few +minutes, Captain Brand lit a cigar, dismissed the padre, put on his +fine white Panama straw hat, unlocked a strong cabinet with a secret +drawer, glanced over a paper before him, and, making a rapid calculation, +he caught up a heavy bag of doubloons, and left the house in +charge of Babette. The captain always told his guests that his fellows +had such love and respect for him that he rarely locked up his +property, and never placed a guard at his door. The truth was, that +his fellows––scoundrels, miscreants, and villains as they were––stood +in such fear and dread of their leader, that they were glad to keep +out of his way. Moreover, he never boasted or made any display +before them, living on shipboard, as on shore, by himself, but always +ready and terrible when the moment came for action; treating his +crew, too, with the most rigid impartiality, adhering strictly to his +promises and compacts with them, and never overlooking an offense.</p> +<p>So Captain Brand left his dwelling in charge of his dumb housekeeper +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span> +Babette, and tripping down the rope ladder from the piazza +in a clean suit of brown linen and straw slippers, his beardless face +shaded by his broad-brimmed hat from the sun, and the bag of gold +on his arm, he jauntily walked toward the cove.</p> +<p>“Ah! good morning, my doctor! Glad to meet you! How are +the sick? Doing well, I hope!”</p> +<p>“Quite well, sir; but I was about to call upon you in relation to +the conversation we had last evening, <span class="nowrap">and––”</span></p> +<p>“Pardon me, <i>Monsieur le Docteur</i>, but I have been very busy this +morning, and am now going to see Don Ignaçio on matters of importance”––here +the elegant pirate took the cigar from his thin lips +and held it daintily between his thumb and fore finger in the air––“and +really, monsieur, I am very sorry to miss your visit. But,” he +added, with one of his usual smiles, “I shall be at leisure this afternoon, +and in the cool of the evening we can take a stroll. What say +you?”</p> +<p>The doctor nodded.</p> +<p>“Apropos, <i>docteur</i>, suppose we have a little game of <i>monté</i> afterward +at your quarters. I never permit gaming in mine, you know. +The padre will not object; and I am confident our <i>compadre</i>, the +Tuerto, will be delighted.”</p> +<p>“As you please, captain,” replied the medico, with a cold, indifferent +air and averted face. “I will join you in the promenade, and +I shall be ready to receive you in the evening.”</p> +<p>“<i>Hasta huego, amigo!</i>” said Captain Brand, as he again stuck +his cigar between his teeth, waved his hand in adieu, and walked to +his boat.</p> +<p>“You don’t love me, doctor,” thought the pirate. “I don’t fear +you, captain,” thought the doctor.</p> +<p>It was a touch of high art the way this notorious pirate pitched +the bag of gold toward his coxswain, crying, “Catch that, Pedillo!” +and then the almost girlish manner in which he pattered about the +beach and held up his trowsers, so that he might not even get his +slippers damp. Had that salt water been red blood, he would not +have cared if his feet had been soaked in it. And then, too, the little +exclamation of joy when he finally stepped into the stern-sheets, +and sat down beneath the awning, while he stretched his smooth +brown linen legs out on the cushions. Oh, it was certainly a touch +of high piratical art!</p> +<p>“The old ‘Centipede’ is looking a little rusty after her late cruise, +Pedillo!” throwing his head back to evade a curl of smoke, and casting +his cold eyes like a rattle of icy hail at the coxswain. “But I +am glad Pedro took your place”––puff, puff––“that knife-stab prevented +you, of course”––puff––“and we shall have her all tight and +trig again in a day or two.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span></div> +<p>“<i>Si, señor!</i>” said Pedillo, respectfully; “and how goes Señor +Gibbs, <i>capitano</i>?”</p> +<p>The <i>capitano</i> rolled his icy eyes again at the coxswain, and replied, +carelessly, “Why, Pedillo, our friend Gibbs came to see me +when the ‘Centipede’ anchored, but almost before”––puff––“he had +given me an account of his unfortunate cruise he fell down in a fit. +The fact is, however”––puff, puff––“that, what with hard drinking +and inflammation which set in on the stump of his lost leg, he has +been in a very bad way”––puff––“quite in a dangerous condition indeed, +requiring all my old Babette’s care and attention”––puff––“but +this morning the good padre went to see him, and he told me a while +ago that he left him without fever, and altogether tranquil.”</p> +<p>Pedillo’s wiry mustaches twirled of themselves.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the boat skimmed lightly over the basin, and as the +captain ceased speaking she ran alongside of the felucca. Don Ignaçio, +with his bright single eye in full burning power, and a cigarette +between his wrinkled lips, was on the deck of the vessel to receive +his visitor; and as he saw the coxswain follow his superior with a +weighty bag under his arm, his glimmering orb became brighter, if +possible––as if it was piercing through the thick canvas of the bag, +and counting, ounce by ounce, the contents––and putting out his +fore finger, it was grasped cordially by the white hand of Captain +Brand.</p> +<p>“<i>Como se va?</i> How goes it with my <i>compadre</i>? Stomach and +head all clear after our long dinner of yesterday?”</p> +<p>The <i>compadre</i> said that his head was particularly clear that morning, +and as for his stomach he had not yet inquired; but if the <i>capitano</i> +had any doubts as to the former proposition, he had better step +below and decide for himself.</p> +<p>In accordance with this ambiguous invitation, the visitor and commander +disappeared down the small cuddy in the afterpart of the +felucca, where was a low, stifling hole of a cabin, dank with stale tobacco-smoke, +and smelling awfully of rats and roaches. There was +a little round table in the middle, and on one side was a single berth, +with some dirty bedding, which had not been cleaned, apparently, +since the vessel was built. Light was shed from a skylight above.</p> +<p>Captain Brand gave a sniff of disgust as he entered this floating +sanctum of Don Ignaçio, but, without remark, seated himself on a +canvas stool, and waved a perfumed cambric kerchief before his nose.</p> +<p>Commander Sanchez, catching the inspiration, merely observed +that it was a little close certainly, and not so spacious as the superb +cabin of the schooner, and that sometimes, when lying in a calm off +the lee side of Cuba, it was hot enough to melt the tail off a brass +monkey; but yet it was his duty, and he did not particularly mind +it.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span></div> +<p>Hereupon Captain Brand requested Don Ignaçio to produce his +papers, and they were presently laid upon the table. For a few +minutes the pirate was absorbed in running his cold eyes over the +accounts––making pencil-notes on the margins, and comparing them +with a memorandum he took from his pocket; but at last he threw +himself back and exclaimed,</p> +<p>“<i>Compadre</i>, the account of old Moreno, at the Havana, is correct +to a real––three hundred and twelve doubloons and eight hard dollars. +Yours, however, has some few inaccuracies––double commissions +charged here and there; all losses and sales charged to me, and +all profits credited to you.”</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio spread out the palms of both his hands toward his +companion, as if to exorcise such unjust charges from the brain of +his confederate.</p> +<p>“<i>O si, si, compadre!</i> it is as I state, and you know it is true; but, +nevertheless, a few dozens of ounces more or less makes no difference; +and, to make short work, I am ready to pay. But,” said Captain +Brand, laying a hand on the heavy bag of money beside him, +“though I am quite ready to cancel my debts in hard cash here on +the spot, yet, as I am bound on a long cruise––Heaven only knows +where––I would prefer to keep the gold and pay you in something +else.”</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio threw his head back and fixed his eye like a parrot +on the captain, waiting to hear farther.</p> +<p>“What have I on hand besides gold? Well, there are a few bales +of Mexican cochineal, and English broadcloths, and some cases of +French silks, which you can have at a fair market value; then there +is all that collection of silver table-service, which you can take by +weight; and, besides, lots of rare furniture, which you may set your +own price upon––altogether much more than enough to pay Moreno +and you both. What say you, <i>compadre</i>? is it a bargain? or shall +I carry the stuff with me, and run the chance of disposing of it on +the Spanish Main?”</p> +<p>It was a long time before the crafty old Spaniard could make up +his mind whether to receive his pay in a simple portable currency, +or take more bulky matter, with the hope of making double the money +by the operation. Finally, however, his greed overcame his prudence, +and he accepted the last proposition, with the understanding +that the articles should be transferred to the felucca the next night.</p> +<p>“Ah!” said Captain Brand, with another sniff of disgust, as he +spat on the dirty floor of the cabin, “I am glad the affair is settled, +for I wouldn’t remain another hour in this filthy hole for all the +<a name="P8"></a>money you have cheated me out of, you old rascal.”</p> +<p>He said the last portion of this sentence to himself as he emerged +from the cuddy.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span></div> +<p>“But listen, <i>amigo</i>!” he continued, as they both reached the deck. +“You will give me duplicate receipts on the part of Señor Moreno, +so that I can forward one to him from the next port I visit. And, +by the way, suppose you come on shore this afternoon for a stroll, +and in the evening we will have a little game of <i>monté</i>––eh?”</p> +<p>“<i>Cierto!</i> (certainly!)” returned the commander of the felucca; +when Captain Brand, with his bag of gold intact under his arm, got +into his boat and was pulled to the shore.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXI__TREASURE' id='CHAPTER_XXI__TREASURE'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXI.<br /><br />TREASURE.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Gold! gold! gold! gold!<br /> +Bright and yellow, hard and cold,<br /> +Molten, graven, hammered, and rolled;<br /> +Heavy to get, and light to hold;<br /> +Hoarded, bartered, bought, and sold;<br /> +Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled;<br /> +Price of many a crime untold––<br /> +Gold! gold! gold! gold!”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>It was</span> long past noon when the pirate returned to his island home, +and the day was hot, for the sea-breeze had not made, and the tropical +sun was pouring down its burning rays until the sand was roasting +as in a furnace; the very rocks throwing off a trembling mirage +of heated air, and the lagoon almost boiling under the fiery influence. +The sailors, with aching heads and parched mouths, were swinging +in their grass hammocks beneath the sheds; and, save the watchful +vigilance of the men at the look-outs and battery, the little island +was wrapped in repose.</p> +<p>Captain Brand, however, was as cool as a cucumber; and regardless +of the heat, and indifferent about <i>siesta</i>, he drew the curtains of +the saloon, and took some active exercise. First, however, he desired +his faithful Babette to get out some camphor trunks and pack +the contents of his splendid wardrobe. This operation was performed +under the critical eye of Captain Brand himself, to which he personally +lent his aid by stowing away, here and there, his caskets, trinkets, +and treasures––those which had been presented to him by the +unfortunate people who had the ill luck to make his acquaintance on +the high seas, or in midnight forays on shore. Then the captain +opened and rummaged cabinets, bureaus, and bookcases, making liberal +presents to his trusty housekeeper; and, turning from that occupation, +he had all his table furniture spread before him, when he made +careful estimates of the value of the silver, china, and glass. This +concluded, Captain Brand ordered Babette to furnish him a slight +repast; and while it was preparing––the captain taking the precaution +to bolt his handmaiden in her kitchen––he went quietly into his +bedroom, and when he came out he bore heavy burdens in his muscular +arms, all of which he laid conveniently near the trap in the floor. +Then letting the hatch swing softly down, he lowered the heavy articles +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span> +by the silk rope, as he had Master Gibbs, though not so suddenly, +going down himself as nimbly as a rat after them. In the vault +beneath, Captain Brand struck a light and set fire to a torch, which +blazed out luridly, and illumined the dark excavation and passages +like day. Going slowly on, with his burden in his arms, by the path +by which we traced the padre, he came to the outer door, which +opened into the fissure in the crag; and, after a vigorous effort, the +beam was raised, and he passed out. Once outside, he felt his way +cautiously, stepping clear of the stagnant pools beneath, and guarding +his head from the jagged rocks above; and then, lighting his way +over the stones which had upset the equilibrium of Don Ricardo, he +crept slowly into an aperture on the right.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_12' id='linki_12'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-140.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 486px; height: 500px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 486px;'> +“HE CREPT FORWARD ON HANDS AND KNEES, THE BLAZING TORCH LIGHTING UP THE DAMP AND DRIPPING ROCKS.”<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>No serpents or venomous reptiles disturbed the pirate’s progress; +for, though there were plenty of them coiled or crawling near, yet +their instinct probably taught them that he was a monster with a +more deadly poison than themselves, and whose fangs were sharper, +though his tongue did not hiss a note of warning. Captain Brand put +down his burden and crept forward on hands and knees, the blazing +torch lighting up the damp and dripping rocks, all green and slimy +from the tracks of the snake and lizard. Where the narrow fissure +seemed to end by a wall of natural rock, the pirate rolled aside a +large stone at the base, and scratching away the sand, a large copper +lock was displayed, in which, after pushing aside the hasp, Captain +Brand touched a spring, and it opened. Then, exerting all the force +of his powerful frame, a rough slab of unhewn rock yielded to the +effort, and rose like a vertical door slung by a massive hinge at the +top. Placing the large stone at the opening, so as to prevent the slab +falling to its place, the captain stood the torch within the opening, +and went back for his burden; then he returned, and squeezed himself +with it into a small excavated, uneven chamber, where he sat +down.</p> +<p>“Nasty work,” communed the pirate with himself, “but a safe +place to lay up a penny for a rainy day! Let me see. These two +bags of doubloons, and the small one my Gibbs brought me, with +those three, there, of guineas, and those sacks of dollars, will make +about ten thousand pounds. That will make me a nest-egg when I +retire from the profession and return to Scotland. They will have +forgotten all my boyish follies by that time.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand alluded to forging his father’s name, and other little +peccadilloes of a similar nature.</p> +<p>“And I may be elected to Parliament––who knows? It is something +of a risk, perhaps, to leave all this pretty coin here, but then +it’s a greater risk to carry it in the schooner”––he argued both ways––“and +then, again, damp does not decay pure metal. But,” thought +Captain Brand, “suppose somebody should discover this little casket +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span> +in the rock. Ah! that’s not probable, for no soul besides myself +knows of it, and even the very man who made the door did not know +for what it was intended; besides, he died long ago.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand had forgotten, in this connection, that the man who +cut out the stone chamber and door, and fashioned the hinge and lock, +took too much sugar in his coffee the morning the job was finished, +and died in horrible convulsions before night. Oh yes, that incident +had entirely escaped his memory!</p> +<p>Captain Brand, having now thoroughly reasoned the matter out, +gave each of the bags lying on the sand a gentle kick to get a responsive +echo from the coin; and then creeping out of the treasure-chamber, +he withdrew the torch, removed the stone, and the heavy +slab fell again into its place. Then clasping the lock, covering it +over with sand, and rolling back the stone, he seized the torch and +quickly returned to the vault beneath his saloon. There, putting out +the torch by rubbing it against the stone pavement until not a spark +was left, by the sunlight, streaming through the loopholes around, he +passed to one side and began removing the cases of cochineal, silks, +and what not, near to the strongly-barred portcullis door, which opened +toward the basin fronting his dwelling. It was hard work, but +Captain Brand seemed to enjoy it; and even after he had arranged +the packages intended for shipment in his <i>compadre’s</i> felucca, he began +again. Going to the farther corner of the vault, he stopped before +a strong mahogany door, and taking a key from his pocket, unlocked +and threw it wide open. It was as black as night inside, +floored and lined with wood, and emitting a choking atmosphere of +charcoal and sulphur. Piled around the walls were some fifty or a +hundred small barrels with copper hoops, and branded on the heads +with the word “powder.” Unmindful of the odor and the rather +combustible material around him, Captain Brand again resumed his +work, and rolled a large number of the little barrels toward the doorway, +near the merchandise already there, saying to himself the while,</p> +<p>“I think that will about fill the ‘Centipede’s’ magazine, and we +must make a proper disposition of the remainder.”</p> +<p>Hereupon Captain Brand, actively bent upon the work of disposing +of his treasures, rolled out a dozen or two more of the little barrels. +Strange to say, among the very few articles that were never +presented to him, but actually bought of Señor Moreno, was this +highly useful and indispensable material of powder, and he therefore +set much store by it. And it was with a sigh of regret that the pirate +stood the little barrels on their ends in a line across the great +vault of the building, beneath kitchen, bedrooms, and saloon, and especially +beside the square upright stanchions on which the interior +of the building rested. Not content with this, he took a copper hammer +and knocked in all the heads of the little barrels, and then, with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span> +a scoop of the same metal, he dipped out large quantities of the black +material, and poured thick trains of it from barrel to barrel, sometimes +capsizing one, but always particularly cautious not to rasp a +grain of it beneath his grass slippers and the pavement. Then he +took a piece of match-rope, and sticking one end deep into a barrel, +he just poked the other end out of a loophole, to be in readiness +whenever Captain Brand should deem proper to touch his lighted +cigar to it.</p> +<p>“There,” said Captain Brand, “that piece of tow will burn about +thirty or forty minutes, and then––stand from under!”</p> +<p>Ascending the hatchway again with the agility of a cat, he drew +up and secured the trap, and in ten minutes afterward he was freshly +attired in a nice pair of India panjammers, a grass cloth jacket and +vest––with, of course, the usual knickknacks in his pockets––and +seated at table, where his busy housekeeper had placed a broiled +chicken and a bottle of old Bordeaux before him.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXII__PLEASURE' id='CHAPTER_XXII__PLEASURE'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXII.<br /><br />PLEASURE.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“But ever, from that hour, ’tis said,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>He stammered and he stuttered,</span><br /> +As if an axe went through his head<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>With every word he uttered.</span><br /> +He stuttered o’er blessing, he stuttered o’er ban,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>He stuttered, drunk or dry;</span><br /> +And none but he and the fisherman<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Could tell the reason why.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“Babette</span>,” said Captain Brand, as he tapped a spoon against his +coffee-cup and puffed his cigar, while the stout dumb negress was +removing the remains of the light dinner, “Babette, old girl, you +know that we are going to leave here in a few days, and I should +like to know whether you care to go with us or remain here on the +island.”</p> +<p>The negress made a guttural grunt of assent, and nodded her head +till the ends of her Madras turban fluttered.</p> +<p>“Ho! you do, eh? Well, my Baba, I shall be sorry to leave you, +for you will be very lonely here, and it may be a long, very long +time before I come back.”</p> +<p>Babette jerked her chin up this time, and did not grunt.</p> +<p>“It’s all the same, eh? old lady! Well, I shall leave enough to +eat to last you a lifetime; but you will have to change your quarters, +my Baba, and live in the padre’s shed, for I––a––don’t think +this house will be inhabitable long after I am gone.”</p> +<p>The negress gave another grunt and nod of assent.</p> +<p>“Yes. Well, old lady, the matter is decided, then; but, in case +you should have any visitors here after we have gone, you won’t +take any trouble to describe what you have seen here? No! That +shake of your head convinces me––not if they roast you alive?”</p> +<p>The hideous sign of understanding that the woman expressed in +her dumb way would have convinced any body without the trouble +of uttering a word.</p> +<p>“<i>Bueno!</i>” said Captain Brand; “that will do for to-day.”</p> +<p>Rising as he spoke, he stepped to a cabinet, slipped a large handful +of doubloons in his trowsers pocket, put on his hat, and walked +out.</p> +<p>The sea-breeze swept over the island with its full strength, making +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span> +the lofty cocoa-nuts bow their tufted tops, the palm-trees rustle their +broad flat leaves and clash the stems together. The mangroves bent, +too, before the wind, and the sand eddied up in tiny whirls amid the +great expanse of cactus, while the vessels swung with taut cables to +their anchors. Even Captain Brand’s hat nearly was blown off his +dry light hair as he joined his <i>compadre</i>, Don Ignaçio, at the landing; +and the sandy dust blinded––though only for a moment––that +one-eyed individual’s optic, and put out his cigarette as they struggled +against the influence of the breeze. But yet they walked on in +the direction of the sheds, and as they passed through the court-yard, +where the men were lounging about in yawning groups or +sitting under the piazza, playing cards––getting up and touching +their hats as their chief passed––Señor Pedillo accosted him thus:</p> +<p>“<i>Capitano</i>, the people are thirsty, and desire a barrel of wine.”</p> +<p>“Not a drop, Señor Pedillo––not so much as would wet the bill +of a musquito! To-morrow at daylight let all hands be called, for +we have work to do, and we must be quick to do it.”</p> +<p>Pedillo slunk away, abashed by the positive tone of his commander; +and Captain Brand, with his companion, passed on to the domicile +of the padre and doctor. Pausing at the open door of the shed, +they looked in. The padre was lying flat on his back on his narrow +bed, with his mouth wide open, and snoring like a key-bugle with +leaky stops; while his beads and crucifix––misplaced emblems in +contact with drunkenness and debauchery––were reposing on his +ample chest. The doctor was sitting beside his own couch, whispering +words of childish comfort to the little boy, whose pale cheeks +and brown curls reposed on the pillow of the bed. The poor child’s +thin, limp fingers rested like the petals of a drooping lily in the dark, +bony hand of his friend, and his dim hazel eyes were turned sadly +toward him.</p> +<p>“Holloa, <i>amigos</i>!” shouted Captain Brand, in a hearty voice. +“We are losing the glorious sea-breeze. <i>Vamanos!</i> let us take a +stroll to the Tiger’s Trap.”</p> +<p>Hereupon Captain Brand entered the room, and gave the padre a +violent tweak of the nose, at the same time puffing a volume of +cigar-smoke into his beastly mouth, which combined effort brought +the holy father to life in a trice, choking and sputtering, as he arose, +a jargon of paternosters, which an indifferent hearer might have mistaken +for a volley of execrations, so savagely were they uttered.</p> +<p>“Take a sip of Geneva, my padre. There it is on the table. +Ah! do you call half a bottle a sip? Well! Come, doctor, let us +be moving.”</p> +<p>Down by the narrow gorge of the inlet, and over the smooth +rocks and shelly shore, the party took their way, Don Ignaçio leading +with the amiable priest, on whom he glared with his malevolent +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span> +eye as if––he not being a person from whom money or its equivalent +could be squeezed––the greedy old Spaniard would like to transfix +him with a glance. In the rear came Captain Brand and the doctor, +the former as gay as a bird––of the vulture species––and his companion +grave, severe, and preoccupied. Stopping as they reached +the Tiger Trap Battery, where, after Captain Brand had made a +close inspection of the guns, and held sharp confabs with the men +who rose to receive him, he moved away a few steps, and, resting +his body against the lee side of a projecting rock, removed the cigar +from his frozen lips, and said,</p> +<p>“The arguments you have urged, monsieur, and the views you +entertain, have a certain amount of reason in them. It is true you +were deceived in coming here, but yet you swore to remain and not +betray us when you did come. Well––ah! don’t interrupt me; I +divine what you are going to say––you did not know what our real +character was. Perhaps not. Nevertheless, I can not consent to +your going away with that old rascal, Don Ignaçio, there––that is, +if he would take you, which I think he would not, as your presence +on board might compromise him with the Cuban authorities; and,” +went on Captain Brand, as he crossed his legs, and held his fine +Panama hat on his head as a ruffle of the sea-breeze shot around the +rock, “with respect to your remaining here on the island, you will +only have that dumb old beast of a Babette for company; and it is +highly probable that the English or American cruisers will be down +upon you before a change of the moon, and they might––a––hang +you, perhaps, for a pirate. Ho! ho!”</p> +<p>“If Don Ignaçio declines to take me, Captain Brand, of course I +can not go in the felucca; but, let come what will, I am resolved not +to sail in the ‘Centipede.’”</p> +<p>The pirate regarded the doctor for a moment with a cold, freezing +look, not wanting, however, in a partial glimmer of respect and admiration, +as he thus resolutely stated his determination; and then, +putting his finger lightly on the doctor’s arm, as he saw Don Ignaçio +and the padre draw near, he said impressively, in a low tone,</p> +<p>“<i>Monsieur le Docteur</i>, do not make hasty resolutions. <i>I</i> command +here, and my will is law. I will turn the matter over, however, in +my mind, and give you a final decision before we part to-night. +Now let us return. The sun is down, and the rocks are slippery.”</p> +<p>“Well, <i>caballeros</i>, let us have a little social amusement,” said +Captain Brand, as he sat down at the table in the padre’s and doctor’s +quarters, and wound up his splendid watch, the present from +the Captain General of Cuba. “But bear in mind that we must +break up at midnight, for our <i>compadre</i> here has a multitude of articles +to get on board his felucca to-night, and I must be astir at daylight.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span></div> +<p>Did Captain Brand think, while he turned the key of that gold +repeater, of the bloodstained wretch he had put to death in the morning, +who was lying stark and still in his narrow, damp resting-place, +or of the poor little sufferer who had been torn from his heart-broken +mother sleeping near him? Oh no, certainly not. Captain Brand +was thinking of a little game of monté.</p> +<p>The padre lugged out a small store of dollars, and a gold ounce +or two, and other stray bits of gold, down to quartitos or eighths of +doubloons––all of it donations made him for remission of sins and +absolutions, presented at one time and another from the pirates of +his flock, such donations falling in pretty rapidly after a successful +cruise, but dwindling away to most contemptible gifts long before +his flock took to sea again.</p> +<p>Captain Brand was very liberal to his crew, dividing a great deal +of money with them, but, since he rarely visited any foreign ports, +they had little chance of squandering it; and in the end it served +merely as a gaming currency to play with, and eventually coming +back to him as contributions for stores, ammunition, rigging, and so +forth. The captain, therefore, was a large gainer by the operation, +as most of the articles in eating and drinking, and the vessel’s outfit, +were––as we know––generally presented to him, so that he was +enabled to stow away the cash for future gratification.</p> +<p>Don Ignaçio Sanchez was likewise a moneyed man, and came provided +with a long pouch of solid gold, which he made into little piles +before him of the exact size of those of the captain. The doctor, +however, declined to play, and sat an indifferent spectator of the +game.</p> +<p>“Let us begin, <i>señores</i>!” exclaimed the Don, as he rapidly shuffled +the cards, and his keen, black spark of fire lit up with animation +at the rich prospect before him. “We are losing precious time. I’ll +be <i>banquero</i>! <i>Vamanos!</i>”</p> +<p>So they began. The cards were dealt, and the betting went on. +The padre forgot breviary and beads in his excitement, and as his +little pointings were swept away, he forgot, too, the sacred ejaculations +he was wont to lard his discourse with, and he became positively +profane. The captain won largely in the beginning, and jeered +his <i>compadre</i> with great zest and enjoyment; but that one-eyed, rapacious +old Spanish rascal was not in the least disturbed, and bided +his time. At first the conversation was light and jovial, Captain +Brand insisting upon the doctor describing minutely how he had +hacked his friend Gibbs’s leg off with a hand-saw, laughing hugely +thereat, and wiping the icy tears from his cold blue eyes with his +delicate cambric handkerchief. Then the fascinating game began to +fluctuate, and the luck set back with a steady run into the piles of +the banker. Captain Brand liked as little to lose his money as any +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span> +other gambler in cards, stocks, or dice, and he was somewhat chafed +in spirit; but what especially irritated him was losing it to that +wrinkle-faced, one-eyed, greedy old scoundrel, with no possible hope +of ever seeing a dollar of it again. As for the padre, he was dead +broke; and since his friends would not lend him a real, and the +banker did not play upon credit, he sat moodily by, and gloated over +the winnings of the Tuerto, cursing his own luck and that of his +companions likewise.</p> +<p>“Ho!” growled Captain Brand, “<i>maldito a la sota!</i> I have lost +my last stake!”</p> +<p>Even while he spoke the poor little boy murmured in a sobbing +voice, “Mamma, <i>chère</i> mamma!” and turned uneasily in his little +nest from his fitful slumber.</p> +<p>“That crying imp again!” said the now angry pirate, as he hurled +the padre’s half empty gin jug in the direction of the couch, which +crashed against the wall, and fell in a shower of glass splinters over +the little sleeper.</p> +<p>The child gave one terrified shriek, and, starting from the bed in +his little night-dress, now soiled and torn, he ran and threw himself +on his knees before the doctor. Another bottle was raised aloft by +the long muscular arm of the pirate; but, before you could wink, +that arm was arrested, and the missile twisted from his grasp.</p> +<p>“For shame, you coward! Don’t harm the boy. He will die +soon enough in this awful den without having his brains dashed +out.”</p> +<p>“Ho, <i>Monsieur le Docteur</i>!” muttered the villain, looking as if he +would like to taste the heart’s-blood of the resolute man who stood +before him, as he pushed a hand into his waistcoat pocket, “do you +presume to call names and oppose <i>my</i> will?”</p> +<p>But, controlling his passion with a violent contortion of face that +would have made one’s blood run cold to see it, he changed his tone +and said,</p> +<p>“Nonsense, doctor; you seem to take rather a strong interest in +the brat––possibly an injudicious one; but, since he is my prize, you +know, by law, come––what will you give for him? Ah! happy +thought, we will play for him! There, deal away, <i>compadre</i>. <i>Sota</i> +and <i>cavallo</i>! I take the knave again, and you ten doubloons against +the boy on the horse.”</p> +<p>The doctor said not a word, but nodded assent, and seemed absorbed +in the game.</p> +<p>“<i>Presto!</i> Turn the cards, you old sinner! Quick! <i>Por dios!</i> +horse has kicked me, and the knave loses! <i>Monsieur</i>, the brat is +yours!”</p> +<p>Then starting up, Captain Brand hastily pulled out his watch, and +said, “<i>Hola, caballeros</i>, the time is up! I must say good-night.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span></div> +<p>Don Ignaçio’s brown thin fingers, like a dentist’s steel nippers, +laid down the cards, and carefully picked up his winnings, even to +the smallest bit of the precious metal, and dropped it piece by piece +into his long pouch, following them each with his glittering eye, like +a magpie peering into a narrow-necked bottle, and smiling with his +wrinkled old lips as the dull chink of the coin fell upon his ear. +When he had performed this operation, he tied up the mouth of the +bag as if he was choking somebody to death; and then, twitching +something which was partly hidden in his sleeve, he arose in readiness +to go out.</p> +<p>As, however, Captain Brand turned to follow his <i>compadre</i>, he +looked carelessly toward the doctor, and said,</p> +<p>“By the way, monsieur, I have made up my mind with respect +to our conversation to-day, and you <i>shall</i> remain on the island. No +thanks. Adieu. Now, Don Ignaçio, if your men and boats are at +the cove, we will make sharp work with your business. <i>Vamanos!</i>”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXIII__WORK' id='CHAPTER_XXIII__WORK'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXIII.<br /><br />WORK.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Skeleton hounds that will never be fatter,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>All the domestic tribes of hell,</span><br /> +Shrieking for flesh to tear and tatter,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>Bones to shatter,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>And limbs to scatter,</span><br /> +And who it is that must furnish the latter,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Those blue-looking men know well!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>When</span> the pirate stood in his saloon on the morning subsequent +to the pleasurable events of the Sunday previous, he, as well as his +saloon, presented altogether a different aspect. The apartment had +been stripped of all its rare and costly furniture, cabinets, candelabra, +plate, china, and glass, and nothing of value was left save the camphor +trunks on the floor, the cane-bottomed settee, a few chairs, and +a table. All the beautiful things, ornamental as well as useful, had +disappeared, even to the rich packages of merchandise in the great +vault beneath. The late possessor, however, of all that worldly +wealth did not appear to be at all discomposed, or to cherish the +faintest pang of regret at his loss. In truth, he seemed to be relieved +from an uncomfortable load of responsibility; and feeling assured, +perhaps, that in roaming about the world he could collect a still more +valuable collection––only give him time––and he would exercise his +critical taste with every pleasing variety. It was thus he consoled +himself as he stood there in his now denuded room, attired in a pair +of coarse canvas trowsers, a red flannel shirt, with a short sharp +hanger on his hip, and a double-barreled pistol in his belt––quite the +costume in which he so singularly shocked Doña Lucia, whose lovely +miniature once hung there on the wall in company with the other +miserable victims of his lust.</p> +<p>Captain Brand had just entered his dwelling, having been up and +actively occupied ever since we last parted with him. Now he had +come for a cup of tea and dry toast; and, while Babette was bringing +that simple breakfast, the pirate stood, tall, erect, and powerful, +with one muscular arm resting high above his head on the side of the +doorway, and the other lying lightly on the shark’s-skin hilt of his +cutlass, looking out to seaward––a very model, as he was, of a cool, +prudent, desperate villain.</p> +<p>“Ah! there you go, you crafty old miser, in your guarda costa! +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span> +Take care, my compadre, of that reef. If that felucca’s keel touches +one of those coral ledges there won’t be a tooth-pick left of her in +ten minutes. San Antonio! but that was a close shave! How the +sharks would rasp your bones, for there’s no flesh on them! Grazed +clear, eh? <i>Bueno!</i> now you’re in blue water, you rapacious scoundrelly +old wretch, and make the most of it.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand waved his hand in adieu to the felucca, which, with +the wind off shore, had crept through the coral gateway, and, with +her great lateen sail and green glancing bottom, was rising and falling +on the long swell as she slipped away to the eastward. He then +gulped down his tea, made one or two savage bites at his toast, and +again walked out to the veranda, descended the ladder, and took his +course toward the basin.</p> +<p>There, too, the scene had changed; and instead of the tranquil, +shelly shore, only agitated by the musical rippling from the pure little +inlet, the faint cry of a sea-gull, or the chirps of the lizards in the +crevices of the rocks across the basin, those sounds had given place +to the nimble feet and voices of busy sailors. The “Centipede,” also, +had been towed from her moorings to a jetty which projected into +the water from the shore, and there she lay, careened down, her keel +half out of the water, with a dozen of her crew scrubbing her lean +sides till the green-coated copper came flashing out in the sunlight +like burnished gold. With her slanting masts lashed to the jetty, +carpenters were engaged reducing the length of the fore-mast, and +trimming out a spar for a new bowsprit. The long gun, with its carriage, +lay near, and artisans were at work at a temporary forge, hammering +out bolts and straps to replace those which were weakened +by long service. On the shore, too, were a score or more of the piratical +gang––Spaniards, negroes, Indians, Italians, and who not––ferocious-looking +scoundrels, busy as bees, splicing and knotting ropes, +stretching new rigging, cutting running gear from the coils of hemp +or Manilla-grass rope, or making spun-yarn and chafing-mats; while +beneath the low mat sheds hard by, sail-makers were stitching away +with their shining needles, making a set of square sails for the changed +rig of the “Centipede,” or repairing old sails. But this was not all; +for in a shed beyond was the armorer, with a few hands, grinding +pikes and cutlasses, and cleaning small arms; while farther still was +the gunner and his mate, filling powder-cases for the long gun and +swivels, and making up musket and pistol ball-cartridges.</p> +<p>In the midst of all these busy throngs moved Captain Brand, hither +and thither, from vessel to forge, from sails to rigging, giving clear, +sharp directions in various languages––commendation here, reproof +there––inspecting with his own cold eyes every thing; judging of +all; quick, active, ready; never at a loss for an expedient, and urging +on the work like a thorough-bred seaman as he was, who knew his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span> +own duty and how to make others do theirs. So went on the refitting +of the “Centipede,” all through the burning hot tropical day; +and while the half-exhausted crew took a respite in the scorching +noon for dinner, still their leader toiled on. Or, if he took a rest, it +was in closely scrutinizing the progress made by his men, in puffing +a cigar like to a small high-pressure engine, or in clambering up the +steep face of the crag to the signal-station, where he would peer away +in all directions around the island––never missing the glance of a pelican’s +pinion or the leap of a fish out of water. Then he would return +to the cove and begin anew the work. It was no longer the elegant +Captain Brand, in knee-breeches, point-lace sleeves, and velvet doublet, +seated at his luxurious table, groaning under splendid plate, fine +wines, and brilliant wax-lights, and dispensing a profuse hospitality, +but Captain Brand the pirate, in tarry rig, amid sailors, sails, and +cordage, munching a bit of hard biscuit at times, or a cube of salt-junk +out of a mess kid, but ever ready, never weary, and always up +to the professional mark.</p> +<p>At the first gray blush of dawn on the following day Captain Brand +was astir again, and before the sun went down behind the waves the +schooner “Centipede” had been transformed into a brigantine, her +fore-mast reduced, new standing rigging fitted for it, with a new +bowsprit and head-booms, her rail raised four or five feet by shifting +bulwarks, and a temporary house built on deck over the long gun. +She was also painted afresh, with a white streak; and, with false +head-boards on her bows to hide her snakelike snout of a cutwater, +no one, unless in the secret, could have known that the clumsy box +of a merchantman lying there was once the low, swift, piratical +schooner which had made so notorious a name in the West Indies. +Still the work was driven on with scarcely any intermission––a few +hours’ repose for the crew at night, and an hour for dinner in the +day; but as for Captain Brand, he never slept at all––a doze for an +hour or two, perhaps, on his settee in the saloon, and a cup of tea +in the morning, with cigar-smoke, satisfied his frugal requirements. +The next day, by noon, the water and stores were got on board the +brigantine, her magazine stowed, the dunnage of the crew transferred +from the sheds, the captain’s camphor trunks on board and cabin in +order, the sails bent, anchors on the bows, and, swinging to a hawser +made fast to the rocks, the vessel was ready to put to sea at any +moment.</p> +<p>“Pedillo,” said Captain Brand, as his vigilant gaze took in all +around him and then rested on the “Centipede”––“Pedillo, you may +warp the vessel down to the mouth of the Tiger’s Trap so soon as +you’ve strewed some fagots ready for lighting in the sheds. When +you get to the Trap, tell the gunner to take a gang of hands and give +that battery a good coat of coal tar, plug the vents of the guns, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span> +bury carriages and all in the sand beside the magazine. Tell him to +destroy the powder, and pitch overboard all he can’t conceal; and +let him bear a hand about it, for we shall sail with the last of the sea-breeze +toward sunset.</p> +<p>“And, Pedillo”––here the pirate’s voice dropped to a whisper––“come +back after the vessel is secured, and bring that Maltese fellow +without a nose with you. It will be as well, perhaps, for you to +provide yourself with a few fathoms of raw-hide strips, as we may +have occasion to use it. <i>Quien sabe?</i>”</p> +<p>Señor Pedillo’s black wiry beard fairly bristled as he grinned understandingly +at his superior; and, getting into a bit of a canoe at +the jetty, he paddled off to the brigantine to execute his orders.</p> +<p>Meanwhile Captain Brand slowly bent his steps toward the house +under the crag, and entered his spacious saloon for the last time. On +the bare table, too, was his last dinner, served on a few odd dishes +and cracked plates.</p> +<p>“Babette, old girl!” said he, as he sat down to this repast, “you +have a bottle of good Madeira, and a flask of Hock left? No?”</p> +<p>The negress shook her head violently, made the sign of the cross, +and by other telegraphic motions gave her master to understand that +Padre Ricardo had dropped in, drained both bottles, and then had +reeled off on board the brigantine.</p> +<p>“The drunken selfish beast!” muttered Captain Brand; “it will +be the last taste of wine he will swallow for a long time.”</p> +<p>The pirate was quite correct in his schemes for the padre’s reform, +for the next copious draught the holy father imbibed was the briny +salt water from the Caribbean Sea.</p> +<p>“Well, my Baba, a drop of water, then! Thank you, old lady. +Here’s to your health while I am gone. There––you need not blubber +so over my hand––good-by!” And so passed away from Captain +Brand’s sight the only creature in the wide world who loved him.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXIV__CAUGHT_IN_A_NET' id='CHAPTER_XXIV__CAUGHT_IN_A_NET'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXIV.<br /><br />CAUGHT IN A NET.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“I closed my lids and kept them close,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And the balls like pulses beat;</span><br /> +For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky,<br /> +Lay like a load on my weary eye,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And the dead were at my feet.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Captain Brand</span> did not linger long over his frugal dinner, and +when he had finished, as if he had not had enough exercise for the +last three days, he began to walk with long nervous strides across +the saloon.</p> +<p>“He called me coward, did he? and dared to lay his hands on me! +By my right arm, my Creole doctor, I’ll teach you not to call hard +names again, and I’ll paralyze your hands for all time to come.”</p> +<p>The pirate’s jaws grated like a rusty bolt as he hissed out these +murderous threats; but as his eye caught the squirming green silk +rope as he swung round on his heel in his walk, he paused and +muttered,</p> +<p>“That bit of stuff may be of use. I’ll take it by way of precaution.”</p> +<p>Hereupon he rapidly unrove the cord and coiled it away in the +bosom of his shirt. Then looking at his watch, he said, “Ho! the +time approaches, and here comes Pedillo.”</p> +<p>Lighting a cigar, he left his dwelling for the last time; and, after +pausing to hear a report from Pedillo that his orders had been executed +and the vessel all ready for sea, and whispering a few precise +directions in return, Captain Brand mounted up the steep face of the +crag again, and accosted the signal-man at the station.</p> +<p>“Any thing in sight?”</p> +<p>“Nothing to the eastward, <i>capitano</i>; but it has been a little hazy +here away to the southward since meridian, and I can hardly see +through it.”</p> +<p>“<i>Bueno</i>, my man! give me the glass. You can go on board the +brigantine. I’ll take a last look myself.”</p> +<p>While the signal-man scrambled down the crag, Captain Brand +rested the spy-glass on the trunk of the single cocoa-nut-tree, whose +skeleton-like fingers of leaves rattled above his head like a gibbeted +pirate in chains, and then he searched steadily along the hazy horizon. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span> +As he was about, however, to withdraw his eye from the +tube, something––a mere dim speck––arrested his attention. Quickly +dropping the glass, and as rapidly rubbing the large lens and carefully +adjusting the joints, he raised it again, as a backwoodsman does +his rifle with an Indian for a mark. For full five minutes the pirate +stood as motionless as the crag beneath him, intently glaring through +the tube at the speck in the distance. At last he let the glass fall at +his side, and pulling out his watch with a jerk, he muttered to himself,</p> +<p>“It is a large and lofty ship; but, should she be a cruiser after +me, she will find the bird flown and the nest empty. Ho, now for +action!”</p> +<p>Springing down the precipitous declivity as he spoke, he paused a +moment at a loophole of the vault beneath his dwelling, and puffing +his cigar into a bright coal, he carefully twitched the match-rope +which led to the train, opened the loose strands, and placed the fire +to it. Waiting an instant till he saw the nitre sparkle as it ignited, +he moved away with long, swinging strides toward the sheds. There, +glancing through the now deserted halls the crew had occupied, where +quantities of fagots, and kindling-wood, and barrels of pitch were +standing, he continued on till he came to the quarters of the doctor. +The doctor was standing at the open door on the thatched piazza, +looking quietly at the brigantine, whose sails were loosed, and the +vessel hanging by a sternfast, with her head just abreast the Tiger’s +Trap.</p> +<p>“Ah! <i>Monsieur le Docteur</i>, I have merely called to bid you a final +adieu before I go on board; and as I have a few moments left, and +a few words to say, suppose you walk with me toward the chapel. +<i>Allons!</i> there is a suspicious sail off there,” waving his glass in the +direction, “and I wish to take a good look at her.”</p> +<p>“Doctor,” continued Captain Brand, as they reached the little esplanade +facing the graves and church, “you will have no one left here +on our island save our dumb Babette, and the chances are rather remote +for your getting away, without, perhaps, some of the West India +fleet should happen to drop in here, which I do not think probable. +I rely, however, upon your keeping your oath, even if they do +come, and not betraying the secrets you are acquainted with.”</p> +<p>The pirate said this in an off-hand, friendly way, as he had his +glass leveled toward the sail he saw in the offing.</p> +<p>“Captain Brand,” replied the doctor, “I was deceived in coming +here, as you well know; but I shall religiously keep my oath for the +twenty years, as I swore to do. After that, if we both live so long, +my tongue and arm shall speak and strike.”</p> +<p>The pirate stepped back a little as he shut up the joints of the spy-glass +with a crash, and, with a scowl of hate and vengeance combined, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span> +he said, in a loud voice, while his cold eyes gleamed like a ray of sunlight +on an iceberg,</p> +<p>“And I, too, keep my oaths; and, without waiting twenty years, +I strike now!”</p> +<p>Even while the treacherous villain spoke, two swarthy, sinewy +scoundrels crept stealthily from within the chapel, and, with the +soft, slimy movements of serpents, as their leader uttered the last +word, they sprang at the back of the doctor, and wound their coils +around him, twining strong strands of raw-hide rope about his arms, +legs, and body. Bound as in a frame of elastic steel, their victim +was thrown, face downward, upon the sand.</p> +<p>“Be quick, Pedillo! the time is flying! Gomez, bring the corpse +trestle from the chapel.”</p> +<p>In a moment a wooden frame with legs, and stretched across with +a bed of light wire, which had been used to carry the mortal remains +of the pirates––and the poor women, too, beside them––to their last +resting-places, was brought out from the little church. Then the +bound victim was laid on it, face upward; again the hide thongs +were passed in numerous plaits until the body was lashed firmly to +the trestle.</p> +<p>“Place it on the edge of that rock there, with his head toward +the cocoa-nut-tree. Take this silk rope, Gomez, and clove-hitch it +well up the trunk. There, that will do. I myself will perform the +last act of politeness.”</p> +<p>Saying this, the pirate widened the noose of the cord, and, slipping +it over the doctor’s head, he placed the knot carefully under his left +ear. The victim gave no groan or sigh, and his dark, luminous eyes +were fixed on the blue sky above him in heaven.</p> +<p>“<i>Monsieur le Docteur</i>,” said Captain Brand, as he hurriedly looked +at his watch and raised his hat, “I have but one word of caution to +give you: if you struggle you will have your neck broken before you +are stung to death! Talk as much as you like; but, as Babette is a +long way off, and hard of hearing, I doubt if she comes to your assistance! +Adieu!”</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_13' id='linki_13'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-158.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 500px; height: 495px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 500px;'> +“A DULL, HEAVY, BOOMING ROAR, THAT SHOOK THE CRAG TO ITS BASE, ANNOUNCED THE RUIN OF THE PIRATES’ DEN.”<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>The retreating figures went leaping toward the inlet, and, as they +rushed through the sheds, applied a torch to the combustible material +deposited there, and then sprang on toward the Tiger’s Trap. A +few minutes afterward the doctor turned his eyes in that direction, +and saw the sails of the brigantine sheeted home and run up like +magic; and, taking the last breath of the sea-breeze on her quarter, +the sternfast was cast off, and she slipped easily out of the gorge-like +channel. Still, as those dark stern eyes watched the receding hull of +the “Centipede,” a sudden jar shook the island, a heavy column of +white smoke rose from below the crag like a water-spout, and, spreading +out like a palm-tree, came down in a deluge of timber, stones, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span> +dust, while sheets of vivid flame leaped out from the gloom, and an +awful peal, followed by a heavy, booming roar, that shook the crag +to its base, announced the ruin of the pirate’s den. At the same +time the red fires gleamed in fitful flashes from the sheds, and, rapidly +making headway, all at once burst forth in wild conflagration, till +the whole nest was wrapped in flames. The shock of the explosion +and the fires killed the wind, and a lurid pall of smoke and cinders +hung like a gloomy canopy over the island.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXV__THE_MOUSE_THAT_GNAWED_THE_NET' id='CHAPTER_XXV__THE_MOUSE_THAT_GNAWED_THE_NET'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXV.<br /><br />THE MOUSE THAT GNAWED THE NET.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“There passed a weary time. Each throat<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Was parched, and glazed each eye.</span><br /> +A weary time! a weary time!<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>How glazed each weary eye!</span><br /> +When, looking westward, I beheld<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>A something in the sky.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>As</span> the powder vomited forth its dreadful thunder, and as the +stones and timbers from the blasted den were hurled high in air, and +scattered by the explosive whirlwind far and near, some of the splinters +and fragments came down in dropping hail upon the red-tiled +sheds and the doctor’s dwelling. At the first shock the lonely child +started up in his little bed, and while the earth rocked and the stones +came pelting and crashing on the roof, he screamed, “Mamma! mamma!” +No loving echo came back to those innocent lips, and naught +was heard save the crackling of the flame beyond, licking its tongue +along the dry timber and roaring joyously as it was fed. “Mamma! +<i>chère</i> mamma!”</p> +<p>Yet no answer, and still the savage flames came careering wildly +on till the very stones of the court-yard cracked like slates, while the +burning flakes and cinders loaded the air, and the eddying volumes +of smoke reeled in dense clouds, and poured their suffocating breath +into the room where the forsaken child was crying.</p> +<p>One more panting, helpless cry, and the little fellow instinctively +flew through the open doorway, where, blinded and choking with the +devastating element around him, he staggered feebly beyond its influence. +Yet again a flurry of thick smoke lighted up the forked and +vivid flames, and chased the child before it.</p> +<p>Oh, fond mother! in your poignant grief for the loss of your poor +drowned boy, you were spared the agony of seeing him, even in imagination, +struggling faintly before that tempest of fire and smoke, +calling plaintively for her on whose tender bosom his head had rested, +while his naked feet were cut and bruised by the sharp coral +shingle beneath them. But onward and onward the boy wandered, +and fortunately his footsteps took the path into a purer atmosphere +which led toward the chapel. Here he looked timidly around at the +lurid glare behind him, and then entered the church and sank down +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span> +exhausted, his feverish, smarting eyes closing in slumber on the hard +pavement beneath the image of the Virgin Mary.</p> +<p>Then came the close and sultry night––no murmur of a land-wind +to drive the smoky canopy away––the black cinders falling in burning +rain on basin, thicket, and lagoon, till even the very lizards and +scorpions hid themselves deep within the holes and crevices of the +rocks. Midnight came. The dim and silent stars were obscured by +a veil of heavy clouds, and with a low, muttering sound of thunder, +the vapory masses unclosed their portals, and the rain fell in torrents. +The flames, now nearly satisfied with their work, leaped out occasionally +from the fallen ruins, but were quenched by the tropical deluge, +and smouldered away amid the charred and saturated timbers. Then +the thunder ceased, the lizards and scorpions came from their retreats, +the teal fluttered over the lagoon, and the noise of the waves bursting +over the reef came again to the ear. Still there was no breath of +air; the atmosphere was thick and damp; and out from the mangrove +thickets and wide expanse of cactus, swarms of insects, musquitoes, +and sand-flies in myriads went buzzing and singing in the +sultry, murky night.</p> +<p>So dragged on the weary hours until day broke again, and the sea-birds +floated off seaward for their morning’s meal, and the flying-fish +skipped with their silvery wings from wave to wave, as the dolphins +glittered in gold and purple after them below the blue water. No +bright and blazing sun came over the hills of Cuba to light up this +picture, but all was blight and gloom, with murky masses of dead, +still clouds hanging low down over the island.</p> +<p>The little suffering boy, lying there on the coral pavement, with his +head resting on the thin, delicate arm, with pale, sweet face turned +half upward toward the Virgin, gave a feeble cry and opened his +eyes. He rose to a sitting posture, with his little hands resting on +his lap and little ragged shirt. Then, with his dim hazel eyes fixed +upon the painting, while the tears coursed slowly down his pallid +cheeks, he put forth his hands in a childish movement of supplication, +and murmured again his tearful prayer, “Mamma! mamma!”</p> +<p>Presently rising, he turned his feeble footsteps toward the doorway, +and as his eye caught the stone bowl of holy water standing on +its coral pedestal near the portal, he bent down his feverish head and +slaked his parched lips. Revived by this, he timidly looked out from +the chapel, and shuddering as he beheld the gloomy wilderness around, +he once more screamed in a thin piercing cry, “Mamma! oh, <i>ma chère</i> +mamma!”</p> +<p>That was the last sad wail for help for many and many a long year +that those infant lips were destined to utter; and when he again called +upon that dear name, his manly arms would clasp a joyful mother +to his swelling heart.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span></div> +<p>“Henri!” came back like an echo in a clear shout to the shriek of +the boy. “Henri! Henri!” was reiterated again and again, each +time in a voice that seemed to split asunder the canopy of clouds +above.</p> +<p>The boy started and listened.</p> +<p>“Henri! Henri! this way to your good friend the doctor! Quick, +my little boy!”</p> +<p>Now with the step of a fawn the child ran out upon the sharp +sandy esplanade, and following the voice as he tripped lightly through +the narrow pathway between the needle-pointed cactus, in a moment +he stopped, with a look of horror, beside the trestle on which the +bound and nearly naked man was stretched.</p> +<p>Ay, it was a sight to make a strong and stalwart man turn pale +with sickness and horror, much less a baby-boy of three or four years +old. There lay the man, all through the dreadful night, with swarms +on swarms and myriads upon myriads of stinging insects, biting and +sipping, and sucking his life-blood with distracting agony away. Ah! +think of the hellish torture often practiced by those bloody pirates +upon their victims in the West Indies! The bound man’s eyes were +closed, the lips and cheeks puffed and swollen out of all human proportions, +and the inflamed body was one glowing red and angry surface. +No needle could have been stuck where the venomous stings +of a thousand sand-flies or musquitoes had not already sucked blood. +Ay, well might the child start back with horror!</p> +<p>“It is your friend the doctor, Henri,” he said in French, still in a +strong but kindly voice. “I can not see you, but get me a knife. +No, my child, never mind––you can not find one; don’t leave me.”</p> +<p>Here the child timidly put his little hands out and brushed away +the poisonous insects, and then touched the doctor’s face.</p> +<p>“Ah! Henri, see if you can not slip that pretty silk rope over my +head; yes, that is the way––<i>doucement</i>––easily, my child! Well, now, +my Henri, you are weak and sick, my poor little boy; but listen to +me––yes, I feel your little hands on my eyes. Well, bite upon that +cord that goes across my throat. Bite till it snaps asunder! I am +nearly choking, little one; but don’t cry.”</p> +<p>True, the strips of raw-hide, which had partially slackened in the +rain that had washed the body of the victim, now began to tauten +again in the sultry heat of the morning, and lay half hidden in the +swollen throat, stomach, and limbs of the tortured sufferer.</p> +<p>Henri’s sharp little teeth fastened upon the strand, biting and +gnawing, until finally it was severed, and the doctor gave a great +sigh of relief.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_14' id='linki_14'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-163.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 598px; height: 600px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 598px;'> +“AH! HENRI, SEE IF YOU CAN NOT SLIP THAT PRETTY SILK ROPE OVER MY HEAD.”<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>“Blessings on you, my poor boy!” he murmured, painfully. “Now +bite away on the strands which bind the arm. There! Don’t! don’t +hurry! Rest a little, my child! Ah! it is well!”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span></div> +<p>Again those sharp little teeth of a mouse had gnawed through the +net which bound the lion-hearted man; the ends of the raw-hide drew +back and twisted into spiral curls, and the right arm, though numbed +and four times its original size, was free.</p> +<p>“Thanks be to God for all His mercies!” exclaimed the doctor, as +with difficulty he raised his released arm to his face and pushed back +the swollen lids from his closed eyes––“and to you, my little friend, +for saving this wretched life!”</p> +<p>Waiting a few moments to recover his strength, the doctor made +a mighty effort, and some of the coils whose strands had been cut +by those little teeth yielded and gradually unrove, so as to leave the +upper part of his body free. Then, while the child was once more +cutting the lashings of his feet, he himself unfastened the knots of his +left arm, and by a vigorous effort he tore the net from off him and +sat upright. Clasping his numbed and swollen hands together, he +turned his face and almost sightless eyes to heaven.</p> +<p>“May this awful trial serve as a partial forgiveness of my sins, and +make me a better man!”</p> +<p>He paused, and laid his heavy arms around the child, while warm +and grateful tears trickled down his cheeks. Slowly, and like a +drunken man, his feet sought the sand, and then, weak, trembling, +and faint, he staggered along the path, the boy tripping lightly before +him, till he fell exhausted on the floor of the chapel.</p> +<p>“Water, my Henri! water!”</p> +<p>The child scooped it out from the stone bowl with his tiny hands +and sprinkled it on his friend’s face.</p> +<p>“There, that will suffice, my brave boy! Lay your cheek to +mine!”</p> +<p>What a sight it was––that dark, swollen, yet powerful frame lying +on the coral pavement, and the innocent child, like a dewdrop on the +leaf of a red tropical flower, nestling close beside it!</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXVI__THE_HURRICANE' id='CHAPTER_XXVI__THE_HURRICANE'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXVI.<br /><br />THE HURRICANE.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“’Twas off the Wash––the sun went down––the sea looked black and grim,<br /> +For stormy clouds with murky fleece were mustering at the brim;<br /> +Titanic shades! enormous gloom! as if the solid night<br /> +Of Erebus rose suddenly to seize upon the light!<br /> +It was a time for mariners to bear a wary eye,<br /> +With such a dark conspiracy between the sea and sky!”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Past</span> a September noon. The great canopy of dark, murky clouds +fell lower and lower, until they nearly touched the earth, wrapping +as in a blanket the single cocoa-nut-tree on the crag, and shutting +out the light and air of heaven as they settled over the noxious +lagoon, the mangrove thickets, and pure inlet. The sea-birds came +screaming in from seaward, fluttering their wide-spread wings in the +sultry atmosphere, and alighting on the smooth rocks, where they +furled their pinions and put their heads together. The flying-fish no +longer skimmed over the waves, and the dolphin and shark sank deep +down in the blue water, or lay still and quiet beside the coral groves. +The rolling, swelling ocean of the tropic, with its glassy, greasy surface +unruffled by the faintest air, rolled heavily on until it struck the +coral ledge, when, with a dull, heavy roar, it broke over in creamy +foam, and came sluggishly in to the sandy beach. There the tiny +waves lashed the shelly strand, and all was still again. No sun; +no breeze; and even the birds, and serpents, and insects gasped for +breath. The fish below the sea, the animated nature above, and the +very leaves and vines of the forests and thickets knew what was +brewing in the great vacuum around.</p> +<p>Slowly and painfully the man in the chapel regained his feet, and +with the child by the hand, moved on to the farthest corner by the +rude altar, where he sank down again, and, clasping the boy to his +heart, waited in breathless awe. As if the powder and flames had +not done their destructive work, the wrath of heaven was to be +poured out over the devoted den of the pirates.</p> +<p>Then came a bellowing roar as a current of wind swept over the +sea, cutting a pathway in the blue water, and scooping it up in an +impalpable mist, hurrying on to the low beach of the island, and tearing +the sand and shells up in heaps––and then a lull. Now, as if all +the demons of winds had let loose their cavernous lungs from the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span> +four quarters of the earth, and like the shocks of artillery, volley +upon volley, came the hurricane. The sea became one boiling, seething, +hissing surface of foam, pressed and flattened by the weight of +the tempest, which laid the black rocks bare on the ledge, and drove +the water into both mouths of the inlet, until, with a crashing shock, +it met in the basin, and broke over and over the cove, and high up +the wall of rocks on the other side. Two or three streams of whirlwind +meeting, too, over the island, drove the lagoon hither and +thither, catching up the white pond-lilies by their long stems, twisting +off the dense thickets of mangroves by the roots, burrowing holes +in the sandy beds of the cactus, and shearing off their flat, thorny +leaves and needle points by the acre together; then a rushing whirl +around the cocoa-nuts, bowing their tufted tops at first till they nearly +touched the earth, when, the stout trunks snapping like glass, they +would go pitching and tossing from base to crown, careering and +dancing aloft, borne away with sand and mangrove, cactus, flowers, +and sticks, into the flying clouds before the hurricane. Then another +lull; and from the opposite direction again thundered the terrible +breath of the demons, sweeping thousands of sea-birds, with broken +pinions, screaming amid the gale, hurling them against the crag, stripping +the feathers from their crushed carcasses, and in a moment burying +them a foot deep in clouds of sand. No more pauses or lulls +now in the <a name="P9"></a>hurtling tempest; but with a steady, tremendous roar, +which made the earth tremble, the rocks quake, and laid every vestige +of vegetation flat to the ground, it came on mightier and mightier, +and fiercer and fiercer, with black masses of never-ending clouds +sweeping close down like dark midnight, as if heaven and earth had +come together. All through the gloomy day and through the night +this elemental war, with its legions of careering demons, continued +to lash the sea and smite the land; until, as if satiated with vengeance, +the clouds belched forth in red lightning, vomiting out peal +upon peal of awful thunder as a parting salute, and then, moderating +down to a hard gale from another quarter, broke away. The blue +sky appeared, and the glorious sun once more came up in his majesty +over the distant hills of Cuba.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXVII__THE_VIRGIN_MARY' id='CHAPTER_XXVII__THE_VIRGIN_MARY'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXVII.<br /><br />THE VIRGIN MARY.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“A weary weed, tossed to and fro,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Drearily drenched in the ocean brine,</span><br /> +Soaring high and sinking low,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Lashed along without will of mine;</span><br /> +Sport of the spoom of the surging sea;<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Flung on the foam, afar and near,</span><br /> +Mark my manifold mystery––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Growth and grace in their place appear.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>With</span> the boy clasped to his heart, the doctor sat beside the altar +of the chapel during all the direful strife without, shielding his little +charge from the clouds of fine sand and rubbish that every few minutes +came swirling within the temple, dashing the padre’s candlesticks +into battered lumps of brass on the pavement, and tearing to +atoms the votive offerings hung around the walls by the pirates. +But, as if in mercy to the trustful souls lying there, the Virgin Mary +still looked down in sweet pity upon them, and the little chapel stood +unharmed.</p> +<p>When at last, however, the hurricane’s back was broken, and +Æolus had reined up his maddened chargers and curbed their flying +wings, and when all the demons of the wind had gone moaningly +back to their caverns in the clouds, the doctor arose, and with the +boy beside him, knelt devoutly before the altar while he uttered a +fervent prayer of thanksgiving.</p> +<p>“Come, my Henri, now we may go out and see if we can find +something to eat and drink. You are weak and hungry, my poor +little boy; but you shall not suffer much longer.”</p> +<p>That strong man, with the heart of a gentle woman, had no thought +of how ill, and famished, and thirsty he himself was from the terrible +torture he had endured. No, he only thought of the child who had +saved him.</p> +<p>In front of the chapel the sand and bushes were piled up in ridgy +heaps, the coral wall around the cemetery had been thrown down, +while the flat head-stones over the pirates’ graves had disappeared +entirely. Not so, however, with the white slabs near by where those +poor doomed women were lying; for the hurricane had spared their +tombs, and a pall of pure white sand was sprinkled evenly over their +remains. Bending over them was the trunk of the cocoa-nut, with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span> +its top stripped and its leafless branches quivering in the wind; while +from below them streamed out the long, thin green silk rope which +had so often served Captain Brand, the pirate, for his private executions. +Near at hand lay the trestle on which the doctor had been +stretched––caught by the base of the cocoa-nut column, and half +buried in sand––while the cruel strips of raw-hide which had lashed +the victim down were tied and twisted into a maze of complicated +knots by the nimble fingers of the winds.</p> +<p>The doctor started, and his half-closed eyes shot out gleams of anger +as he beheld the unconscious implements designed for his torturing +murder; and leaving the child at the doorway to the chapel, he +sallied out, detached the rope, loosened the trestle from its sandy bed, +and placed them in a corner of the chapel.</p> +<p>Then carefully picking his way, with the boy in his great arms, +over the trees and débris which obstructed the pathway, he speedily +reached the site on which had stood the sheds of the “Centipede’s” +crew. Fire, water, and wind had done their work effectually, though +the fire had partially spared the detached storehouse and shed which +he had shared with the infamous padre. All else was a ruin of loose +blocks of stone, broken tiles, nearly buried in banks of sand. From +a well in the once busy court-yard, and which had also escaped the +devouring elements, the doctor drew a bucket or two of water, in +which he slaked the boy’s thirst and then his own, and afterward +poured water over their bodies. Then, from a still smouldering beam +which puffed out at intervals a thin curl of smoke from beneath one +of the sheds, he lit a fire in the court-yard, while from the wreck of +the storeroom he succeeded in rescuing some hard biscuit and a ham. +This last he tore in shreds, and placing them on sticks before the fire, +they were thus enabled to make a hearty meal, first providing for the +wants of the child, however––soaking the biscuit for him, as if it were +his first duty on earth. Again raising the boy in his arms, he passed +from the ruined sheds and bent his steps toward Captain Brand’s former +dwelling. The road was heaped with shells and sand, strewed +with shoals of dead fish and wounded or dying birds, while the wreck +of a boat, mingled with the timbers and planks of the jetty to the +basin, were lying pell-mell on the beach of the little cove. Casting +his eyes around in search of the once spacious dwelling, with its +vaults, veranda, and saloon, he could hardly at first trace a vestige +of the structure. The powder, more destructive even than the hurricane, +had tossed walls and building into a confused heap of rubbish; +then came the wind and sand on top of the rocks which had tumbled +down by the concussion of the first explosion, and then the water, +packing all together as if no habitation had ever existed there. The +doctor walked slowly around until he came to the angle where the +kitchen once was, and there, three fourths hidden beneath a mass of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span> +blackened stones and charred timber, peered forth the white skeleton +of a human being. The flesh had been seared and burned from the +face and skull by the instantaneous flash of the powder, and there lay +the remains of Babette, whitely bleached, as if she had been thrown +a lifeless corpse on the sea-beach. A few yards below this frightful +spectacle lay a number of shattered boxes and trunks, then a confused +bundle of clothes, and a sandy saturated collection of kitchen +utensils and crockery. Yes, the poor dumb woman, the creature and +witness of many a cruel scene, ignorant or uncertain of the warning +given her by the master she loved, had fallen another tribute to his +long list of victims.</p> +<p>The doctor only waited long enough to select a few necessary articles +from the heterogeneous heap before him, and then, with the child +still clinging contentedly to his shoulder, he returned to the chapel.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXVIII__THE_ARK_THAT_JACK_BUILT' id='CHAPTER_XXVIII__THE_ARK_THAT_JACK_BUILT'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXVIII.<br /><br />THE ARK THAT JACK BUILT.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Good heaven, befriend that little boat,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And guide her on her way!</span><br /> +A boat, they say, has canvas wings,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>But can not fly away;</span><br /> +Though, like a merry singing-bird,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>She sits upon the spray.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> land wind sighed and murmured; the sea-breeze wafted its +rustling influence over the waves; the long swells broke over the +ledge; the inlet flowed pure and limpid; and the gulls and sea-mews +floated gracefully over the reef, as if a hurricane had never poured +its baneful wrath upon it or the lonely island.</p> +<p>Day by day and week by week, the man and boy, getting each +hour stronger and better, worked and worked. He with his great +arms hewing and sawing, and the child attending upon him like a +shadow. By great toil and exertion the doctor had succeeded in +placing some of the timbers of the jetty together as launching-ways, +and on the cradle he had laid the wreck of the old boat. Then, with +an old saw and some tools he found near the site of the mat sheds by +the cove, he began to build the frail ark which was to carry him and +the child from the hated island. From the storehouse, too, he obtained +plenty of provisions to supply their wants, and old sails and +rope he found in abundance. Babette’s collection of worldly wealth +provided them with linen and clothing, together with utensils for +eating and drinking; and he had made their dwelling in the little +chapel clean and habitable. Here they slept by night on an old sail, +and soundly too, the sleep of repentance and innocence. With the +early morning the man and the boy arose, and took their way to the +cove. The little fellow was clean and tidy now, dressed in a little +loose calico frock, and a queer contrivance of an old bonnet fashioned +out of Babette’s gear, and on his feet were a pair of little canvas +slippers, stitched for him by his protector. After a bath in the basin +of the inlet the fire was kindled, and the simple breakfast prepared. +Then, while the strong man hewed, and sawed, and hammered beneath +a temporary awning which covered the open workshop, the +boy would pick up shells along the cove, or with a little rod and +line, seated on a flat rock near by, jerk out fish from the basin to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span> +serve for dinner. Sometimes he would wander about in search of +nails and spikes for the boat, or gather sticks for the fire, but never +out of hail, and never beyond the watchful eyes of his friend. Yes, +those watchful, kind eyes followed his slightest movements; and +while the hammer was going in vigorous blows on the planks, or +the axe chipping away a timber, his pleasant voice sang Creole songs +to the child, or encouraged his innocent prattle. A loaded musket, +which, with some ammunition, he had dug out from the wreck of his +old quarters, stood leaning against an upright post under the shade, +and woe to the man or beast that might have dared to approach the +boy! In the burning heat of the tropical day the labor ceased, and +the child either lay on his back on the soft sand beneath the awning, +kicking up his little legs, watching the small gulls as they skimmed +across the basin, or, with his brown curly head resting on the doctor’s +knees, slept sweetly. Happy and contented he was, too, with +the return of health and strength; and if his budding memory looked +back to her he had lost, and the recollection of his faithful Banou, +it was only for a moment, and, like a childish dream, it passed away.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_15' id='linki_15'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-172.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 600px; height: 594px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 600px;'> +BUILDING THE BOAT.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>Every evening at sunset, when the work was done for the day, the +doctor, with Henri in his arms and the musket on his shoulder, would +climb the crag, and peer all around the island; but never a sail did +he see from the hour the “Centipede” spread her canvas, while he +lay helplessly bound on the trestle with the green noose around his +neck. As the twilight faded, the sole human occupants of the island +returned to the chapel, and when they had said a simple prayer, +kneeling before the Virgin, they laid themselves down on their canvas +bed to rest till the dawn. Many a silent hour in the watches +of the tedious night did the doctor lie awake, while the cool sweet +breath of the child fanned his cheek as he lay nestling beside him, +pondering and wondering on the fate of his charge. He knew absolutely +nothing about his history save that he had been pitched overboard +from the brig the pirates were robbing; but what was the +name or nation of the vessel, where from, or whither bound, he was +in utter ignorance. He had questioned the leader Gibbs on that occasion +after the chase by the corvette, when he had lopped off the +brute’s leg; but, what with suffering and drink, the ruffian had either +forgotten the brig’s name, or feigned to, and all he could impart was +the belief that she was an English trader. Even from the boy, too, +the doctor could elicit nothing of importance, though day by day he +tried every means of leading the child’s mind back to the past, but +always with the same result.</p> +<p>“<i>Oui, ma chère mama! Bon Banou!</i>” and “<i>Ma petite cousine, +Rosalie!</i>” These were the only words the little fellow had to link +his fate with the future, and even they became fainter and fainter on +his mind and tongue as the time passed on. With this delicate web +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span> +around the destiny of the child, and that he spoke French, and had +evidently been tenderly nurtured, the doctor was forced to be content.</p> +<p>Well, so the days and nights went by, and so the work went on, +and the little ark began to assume a wholesome look, and to be capable +of plowing the distant main. Then, when she was planked +up, with a gunwale on, and half-decked over forward, she was calked, +and the seams payed with pitch. When all ready for launching, early +one morning the doctor and the boy went gayly down to the cove. +There, as the first golden rays of the rising sun shot athwart the inlet, +Henri stood up in the bows, and with a large pearl-shell of pure +spring water, he waved his tattered bonnet round his curly locks, and +with childish delight, as the vessel began to move, he emptied the +shell of its sparkling treasure, shouting, as she slid off the ways into +the basin, “<i>Ma petite cousine Rosalie!</i>” The builder, too, took off +his hat and shouted, in his deep bass, till the rocks gave back the +echo of “<i>Rosalie! Rosalie!</i>”</p> +<p>Thus was the ark launched and christened by her captain and +crew, and there she rode on the basin, a little pinnace of about ten +tons, which had been once used to carry anchors, chains, and stores +about the harbor. A week or two more, and she was fitted with a +single mast, stepped well in the bows, for a jib and one square lug-sail. +Then ballast in bags of sand was laid along her keelson, and a +couple of breakers of fresh water got on board, together with a quantity +of cooked salt meat and hard biscuit stowed away under the half-deck +forward––where, too, was a cozy little nest of spare canvas, +with an oakum pillow, for the boy! Yes, there lay the good ship +“Rosalie,” outward bound, with sails bent and gear rove, cargo on +board, and waiting for a wind.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the doctor had tried her under sail, and satisfied himself +that every thing worked well, and that she was in proper trim. +Then he moored her within a fathom from the shore, and waited for +a moon to light him on his voyage. Whither?</p> +<p>Carefully, too––like one who had passed a lifetime on the ocean, +from the China Seas to the broad Atlantic, under the suns of the +tropics as well as in the dim gloom of high latitudes––the doctor +studied the clouds and watched their course, noting the flight of the +birds in the air and the track of fish in the sea. At last the trade +breezes began to blow regularly and steadily; the land winds, too, +in the gray of the morning, fluttered timidly away out to sea, and the +round pearly moon shone bright and mellow over rock and water.</p> +<p>“To-morrow, my brave boy, we shall sail away from the island. +Ah! you clap your hands, eh? Yes, we shall go to find mamma!” +This was said as man and child stood for the last time on the lofty +crag, while the former ranged his dark eyes scrutinizingly around the +horizon. Nothing in sight!</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span></div> +<p>Once more to their chapel of refuge, where, for the first time in all +their association, putting the child to sleep by himself, the doctor sat +down on the trestle by the entrance, and, lighted by the brilliant +moon, he caught up the tangled mazes of the hide net which had +bound him, and sedulously applied himself to a task before him.</p> +<p>Any one who has seen the effect produced by a violent gale upon +the tattered shreds of a shivered main-top-sail, bound up into the +most tortuous knots that it is possible to conceive of, and so hard and +solid that you might saw the canvas balls in slices like boards, may +form some idea of the task the doctor had imposed upon himself to +loosen the hide strands tied together by the furious fingers of the +hurricane. Patiently and quietly, with no sign of temper, he applied +himself to the work, and with nothing but a sharp-pointed spike to +aid his hands, he began to unravel, bit by bit, the laced knots and +bunches of raw-hide, without ever cutting a strand, until, as the moon +sank glimmering down, the tangled mass lay in clear coils beside +him––though in several pieces, where it had been severed by the +teeth of that little mouse purring behind the altar––and the task was +done. Then raising the trestle, he bore it within the altar, and with +the now unraveled coil of hide, and the softer silk rope for a pillow, +he again stretched himself upon what once had been his bed of +torture.</p> +<p>For what possible object all this labor had been undertaken, or for +what future purpose––vague they must have been––no one but the +persevering man who did it can tell; and there he lay, no sound +coming from his compressed lips till the day dawned. Then he +arose, and, kneeling over the sleeping child, he again solemnly repeated +the oath he had before taken in his <span class="nowrap">hut––</span></p> +<p>“Sleeping or waking, on land or sea, I devote the remainder of my +wretched life to returning this lost child to his mother. So help me +God!”</p> +<p>The little boy stirred, as if the angels and the sweet Virgin were +whispering their protecting power over him, and, with a smile dawning +upon his rosy, dimpled cheeks, he raised the lids from his bright +hazel eyes, and put his fat round arms around the doctor’s neck. If +two great drops fell upon that upturned innocent little face from the +dark full eyes bending over him, they were not tears of sorrow! Oh, +no! It was the dew of hope and trustfulness falling from the soul +of a repentant sinner relying upon an all-wise Providence.</p> +<p>“Come, my Henri, say your little prayer of the morning, and we +will go.” The man had taught the child that little prayer which he +himself had learned at his mother’s knee.</p> +<p>Up again to the crag, and down to the shelly margin of the shore; +and a long look the man gave at the ruin of shed and den, as he +gently placed the child on a sand-bag in the stern-sheets of the ark. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span> +Then he cast off the rope which held the vessel to the hated strand, +hoisted the sail, and, as she bubbled along the inlet with the first +sigh of the land wind, he stood at the helm with his bare head lighted +up by the beams of the rising sun, and his lips moved in prayer.</p> +<p>On, noiselessly through the Tiger’s Trap sailed the little pinnace +till she bowed her rugged cutwater in the yielding waves, and with +her square lug-sail swelling gently to the freshening breeze, she held +her course to sea. I question much if the stanch brigantine, named +the “Centipede,” which had preceded her through this tiger’s gorge, +with all the ruffianly crew that manned her, and their villainous captain +on her quarter-deck, stood half the chance of a prosperous voyage +as the tiny ark, called the “Rosalie,” which followed, with her noble, +brave commander, and his weak and boyish mate. Who can tell?</p> +<p class="center" >END OF PART I.</p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2>PART II.</h2> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 0; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXIX__LAYING_UP_THE_STRANDS' id='CHAPTER_XXIX__LAYING_UP_THE_STRANDS'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXIX.<br /><br />LAYING UP THE STRANDS.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Ever drifting, drifting, drifting<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>On the shifting</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Currents of the restless main,</span><br /> +Till in sheltered coves and reaches<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>Of sandy beaches,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>All have found repose again.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>It</span> was in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twenty-two, +and in the broad and commodious harbor of Kingston, a great mercantile +haven, crowded with shipping from all parts of the commercial +globe; landlocked by reef and ridge, with the rocks and heights +crowned by frowning batteries of heavy cannon; while beyond were +spread the lower and upper town, in masses of low two-story buildings, +with piazzas, bright green jalousies, stately palm, tamarind, and +cocoa-nut-trees waving above them. At the mouth of the harbor +strait, where stands Fort Augusta, lay a magnificent double-banked +American frigate, with a broad blue swallow-tailed pennant at her +main, standing out stiff, like a dog-vane, from the lofty mast, as the +ship rode to the strong sea-breeze.</p> +<p>The stays and rigging came down from trucks, cross-trees, and +tops in straight black lines, from the great length of lower masts and +enormously square yards fore and aft; and from side to side, till they +met the long majestic hull and taper head-booms; while below were +two rows of ports, with the guns run out and the brass tompions +gleaming in their muzzles. The awnings were spread in one flat extended +sheet of white cotton canvas from bowsprit to taffrail, and +from the wide-spread lower booms at the fore-chains boats were riding +by their painters. Within a cable’s length of the frigate’s black +quarter lay a low rakish schooner, like a minnow alongside a whale, +with a thin little coach-whip streaming from her main-mast head, a +long brass gun amidships, and looking as trig and tidy as a French +maid beside her portly mistress.</p> +<p>The bell struck in twin notes <i>eight</i> on board the frigate, echoed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span> +back from the pigmy schooner in a faint, double succession of +tinkles; the whistles resounded from deck to deck in ear-splitting +notes, surging and chirruping all together, and then suddenly ceasing +with a rattling beat of a drum and a short bellow of “Grog, +ho!”</p> +<p>Between the guns of the main deck, and about the spar-deck battery +forward of the main-mast, sat five hundred lusty sailors on the +white decks around their mess-cloths, bolting hot pea soup after their +grog, and chatting and laughing in a devil-may-care sort of a strain, +as if the grub was good and the timbers sound, as they were, of the +stanch frigate beneath them. No noise, no confusion, but just as +polite and courteous, in their honest, seamanlike way, as half a legion +of French dancing-masters, they whacked off the salt pork before +them with their sheath-knives, munching the flinty biscuit, and all as +happy and careless of the past and future as clams at high water. +Ay, there they clustered, those five hundred sailors, in their snowy +duck trowsers and white, coarse linen frocks, with the blue collars +laid square back over their broad shoulders, exposing their bronzed +and hairy throats, wagging their jaws, and ready at any moment, at +the tap of the drum, day or night, to spring to the guns, and make +the battery dance a jig as the solid iron food went amid sheets of +flame toward a foe. Yes, and ready, too, in the gentle breeze or the +howling tempest, to leap at the shrill pipe of the whistle from the +busy deck or their snug hammocks, and, like so many monkeys, jump +up the shrouds, lie out on the enormous yards while the frigate was +plunging bows under in the tumultuous seas, grasp the writhing canvas +in their sinewy paws, and wrap it up close and tight in the hempen +gaskets. Man-of-war sailors, for battle, or gale, or spree, every +one of them.</p> +<p>On board that little consort near were about forty more of the same +sort, only older, more bronzed, and more deliberate and methodical +in manner, sipping their pea pottage after blowing away the steam, +cutting their pork after much reflection, and cracking their biscuit +tranquilly. Their conversation, too, was slow and dignified, each +word well considered before it came out, and never interrupting one +another in a yarn, as did the younger harum-scarum chaps in the big +ship near. But yet those weather-beaten old sons of Neptune, who +had each one of them seen sights that would make your hair stand +on end to think of, could handle that schooner when her low deck +was buried waist-deep to the combings of the main hatch in angry +water, and make that Long Tom amidships there spin round on its +pivot, and never threw away idly one of its solid globular messengers. +Ay, trust them for that.</p> +<p>Then honor to them all, those gallant tars who have fought the +battles of our country by sea and lake, and upheld those Stars and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span> +Stripes until they are respected to the uttermost ends of the earth! +Glory to them, ye wise legislators, who sit in council upon the nation’s +wealth and grandeur! Think of the fearless arms that have shielded +your otherwise unprotected shores when circled in a ring of dreadful +fire from the guns of a haughty foe.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_16' id='linki_16'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-181.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 600px; height: 577px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 600px;'> +THE UNITED STATES FRIGATE “MONONGAHELA.”<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>And you, too, ye rich traders! whose valuable cargoes roll hither +and thither over the trackless deep, cared for by those toiling tars +who fight and bleed for the flag that waves o’er your treasure––in +stinging gale, with frozen fingers, or under burning suns, with panting +breasts––think of them when your noble ships come gallantly into +your superb ports, and unlade their floating mines of wealth into +your spacious warehouses, while you in your lordly mansions sip your +wine! Think of those arms grasping the shivering sail in the mighty +tempest, in the black night, and the coarse fare they eat, the sometimes +putrid water they drink, and the hard beds they lie upon, while +you are reposing on downy pillows with your wives and little ones +beside you! Ah! take pity on the sailor, and scatter your shining +gold over him in his distress.</p> +<p>When the time comes, as come it may, when the cannon of a hostile +fleet are thundering at your ports; when your lumbering craft +are flying before the rapacious grasp of quick-heeled cruisers, and +fiery bombs are hissing through the pure air, bursting in your marble +palaces and blasting your stores of wealth to dust, <i>then</i> you will turn +with blanched faces to the sea, and wonder why you have so long +forgotten the noble hearts and stalwart arms that once were thrown +around you. But not before.</p> +<p>On the flush quarter-deck of the frigate, by the raised signal lockers +abaft, stood a bronzed old quarter-master, a spy-glass resting on +his arm, through which every minute he peered around the harbor, +giving an eye, too, occasionally to the half-hour glass, whose sands +dribbled steadily into the lower bulb on the locker beside him.</p> +<p>What cared he––no wife or child to cheer him! No cares save +but to see that the ensign did not roll foul of the halyards, that the +broad pennant blew out straight, that the half-hour glass did not +need turning, and that no boat approached the frigate without his +reporting it to the officer of the watch. Naught else save, perhaps, +whether the other old quarter-master, Charley Holmes, down below +there on the gun-deck, had wiped from his lips the moisture of the +midday grog, and would be up in time to take the relief while the +pea soup was warm. Nothing else.</p> +<p>The lieutenant of the watch briskly paced the solid deck, scrubbed +white as milk with lime-juice and molasses, the even seams between +the planks glistening like the strands of a girl’s raven tresses as +his profane and rapid feet pressed upon them. What thought he in +his careless walk, with the gleaming bunch of bullion on his right +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span> +shoulder, sword by his side, white trowsers, and gilt eagle buttons +on his navy-blue coat?</p> +<p>He was thinking how his pittance of pay would support, in a +scrimpy way, his poor mother and sister, who looked unto him as +their only hope and refuge. And he thought, too, as he tramped +that noble deck, made glorious by many a battle and victory in +which he had borne a humble part, that his rich and powerful country +would eventually reward him with increased pay and promotion. +Were the single dollar which lay alone in his trowsers pocket, and +the light mist which arose off there beyond the Apostles’ Battery, +opposite Port Royal Harbor, an evidence of one or a sign of the last +aspiration? We hope not; but we shall see.<a name='FNanchor_0001' id='FNanchor_0001'></a><a href='#Footnote_0001' class='fnanchor'>[*]</a></p> +<p>Three or four midshipmen, too, pranced over that frigate’s white +quarter-deck, on the port side, in their blue jackets and duck trowsers. +Little gay madcaps they were, scarcely well into their teens, +with little glittering toasting-forks of dirks dangling at their sides, +and ready for any lark or mischief.</p> +<p>And what thought those boyish imps of reefers? Did they trace +the flight of that tropic man-of-war bird, sailing high up in the heavens, +heading seaward, away into the distant future, through clouds +and sunshine, rain and storm? And did they think, as they fluttered +along the deck, that their own career might lead them in that direction, +toward the star of promotion which shone so brightly near at +hand, and was never reached; or else, by a chance shot, to come tumbling +down with a crippled pinion, and hobble out their lives on +shore? No. Those gay young blades, whose mothers were dreaming +and sighing for them, had no reflections of that kind. They were +chattering about the little frolic they had on their last liberty day, +when the captain ordered them off to the frigate at sunset, and planning +another for the week to come. Happy little scamps, let them +dance their careless thoughts away!</p> +<p>“Two bells, sir,” said the quarter-master to the officer of the +watch.</p> +<p>“Very good! Young gentlemen, tell the boatswain to turn the +hands to, and have the barge manned. Let the first lieutenant and +the marine officer know that the commodore is going to leave the +ship. There, no larking on the quarter-deck, Mr. Mouse!”</p> +<p>This last command was addressed to a tiny youngster who was +hardly big enough to go without pantalettes, much less to wear a +jacket and order half a hundred huge sailors about, any one of whom +was old enough to be his great-grandfather. But yet that small lad +did it, and could steer a boat, too, or fly about like a ribbon in a +high wind up there in the mizzen-top, while the men on the yard +were taking the last reef in the top-sail.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span></div> +<p>“Go down to the cabin, sir, and let the commodore and his friend +know the boat is ready.”</p> +<p>Down the ladder skipped Mr. Mouse, and while he was gone, the +guard, in their white summer uniform and cross-belts, stood at ease, +resting on their muskets on the quarter-deck, eight side-boys and the +boatswain at the starboard gangway, with the first lieutenant and +the officer of the watch standing near.</p> +<p>Presently there came up from the after cabin hatchway a fine, +handsome man, in the very prime of life, in cocked hat, full-dress +coat, a pair of gleaming <a name="P10"></a>epaulets, sword by his hip, and his nether +limbs cased in white knee-breeches, silk stockings, and pumps. The +one who followed him was apparently a much older man, with grizzled +locks, a dark, stern face, and without epaulets. The first raised +his hat as he stepped on the quarter-deck––not a thread of silver was +seen in his dark hair––and then both bowed to the officers, who saluted +them as they moved toward the gangway. The boatswain +piped, the marines presented arms, the drum gave three quick rolls, +and the commodore went over the gangway, preceded by his companion.</p> +<hr class='fn' /> +<div class='footnote'><a name='Footnote_0001' id='Footnote_0001'></a><a href='#FNanchor_0001'><span class='label'>[*]</span></a> +<p> +This was written before the “Pay Bill” was passed. +</p></div> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXX__OLD_FRIENDS' id='CHAPTER_XXX__OLD_FRIENDS'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXX.<br /><br />OLD FRIENDS.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“What though when storms our bark assail,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The needle trembling veers,</span><br /> +When night adds horror to the gale,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And not a star appears?</span><br /> +True to the pole as I to thee,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>It faithful still will prove––</span><br /> +An emblem dear of constancy,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And of a sailor’s love.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> barge left the side of the frigate, a broad blue pennant with +white stars on a staff at her bow, with fourteen handsome sailors to +man her, all in clean white frocks and trowsers, with straw hats and +flowing black ribbons around them, on which was stamped in gold +letters, “Monongahela.”</p> +<p>The double bank of white ash oars flashed in the rippling waves +of the harbor as the barge was urged over the water, the current +seething and buzzing under her bows, and bubbling into her wake +as she flew on toward the town. In a mahogany box at the stern +sat a bushy-whiskered coxswain, whose body swayed to the stroke +of the oars, while his hand grasped the brass tiller as he steered +amid the shipping. The commodore had settled himself down under +the boat’s awning on the snow-white covered cushions in the stern-sheets, +and, with one foot resting on the elegant ash grating beneath, +he began to talk to the grave gentleman who sat opposite to him.</p> +<p>“It is many a long year since I last visited this superb harbor, but +I remember it as if it were yesterday. You never were here before, +I think? No? Well, if any of the old set I once knew, when I was +first lieutenant of the old ‘Scourge,’ are yet alive, we shall have a +pleasant time!”</p> +<p>“One fine fellow,” went on the commodore, “I know is. His +name is Piron. I had a note from him as soon as the frigate anchored +yesterday, and I shall ask him to dine sociably with me on +board this evening. I hope you will join us.”</p> +<p>The grave gentleman said that he had business which would detain +him on shore all night.</p> +<p>The barge swept up to the mole, the oars were thrown up at a +wave of the coxswain’s hand, and came into the boat on either side +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span> +like shutting up a pair of fans, while the boat-hooks checked her +way, and she remained stationary at the steps of the landing. The +awning was canted, the commodore and his friend got out and +mounted the stairway, while the boat’s crew stood up with their +hats off. On the mole were four or five people in light West India +rig of brown and white, and broad Guayaquil sombreros.</p> +<p>“Cleveland!” exclaimed a tall, handsome man, as he seized the +commodore by both hands, “how glad we are to see you! Here is +Tom Stewart, and Paddy Burns, and little Don Stingo, attorneys, +factors, and sugar-boilers, all of us delighted to welcome you back +once more to Jamaica!”</p> +<p>Crowding about the commodore, shaking hands and slapping one +another on the back, standing off a step or two to see the effect of +time on each other’s appearance, laughing heartily with many a happy +allusion to days gone by, those old friends and former companions, +unmindful of the hot sun, stood there with their faces lighted +up and talking all together.</p> +<p>“And you are a commodore, eh! Cleveland, with a broad pennant +and a squadron? Ah! we have kept the run of you, though. Read +all about that action you were in with the ‘President,’ and that +bloody battle in the ‘Essex’ and ‘Phebe’ at Valparaiso, with Porter. +And here you are again, safe and sound, and hearty!”</p> +<p>“And you too, Piron! The same as ever! Not tired of cane-planting +yet? But how is madame?”</p> +<p>“Lovely a girl as ever, Cleveland, but never entirely got over that +sad loss of the little boy, you know. However, she will be overjoyed +to see you. She’s been talking of you ever since we saw your appointment +to the station fifteen months ago. Apropos, we have her +widowed sister with us, whose husband was killed at Waterloo, and +our little niece who came from France––all out there at the old +place of Escondido, where you must come and pass a week with us. +Nay, man, no excuse! The thing is arranged, and it would be the +death of Stingo, Tom Stewart, and Paddy Burns if you disappoint us.”</p> +<p>“Well, Piron, I am your man, but not for a day or two, until I +have made some official calls here on the authorities. Meanwhile, +gentlemen, you all dine with me this evening on board the frigate, +every mother’s soul of you! Coxswain, go on board and tell my +steward to have dinner for six. Stop at the schooner as you go off, +and say to Mr. Darcantel that I shall expect him to join us. Now, +my friends, that matter is arranged, and we will all go off in the +barge at sunset.”</p> +<p>“Dry talking, isn’t it, Stingo?” said Piron; “so, commodore, +come, and we’ll have a sip of sangaree and a deviled biscuit to keep +our mouths in order. But, halloo! where is your friend, Cleveland? +that tall man in black? Parson or chaplain, eh?”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span></div> +<p>“No,” replied the officer; “an old friend of mine, my brother-in-law, +who takes a cruise with me occasionally; but he never goes in +society, and has taken himself off, as he always does when we get in +port. He is a glorious fellow, though, and I hope to present him to +you yet. Never mind him now.”</p> +<p>Arm in arm went the blue coat and bullion, locked in white grass +sleeves, along the busy quays, crowded with mule-carts and drays +for stores or shipping. Spanish dons, dapper Frenchmen, burly John +Bulls, standing at warehouse and posadas, all with cigars in their +teeth, which they puffed so lazily that the smoke scarcely found its +way beyond the brims of their wide sombreros. Negroes, too, with +scanty leg gear, and still scantier gingham shirts, having bales, or +boxes, or baskets of fruit on their heads, never any thing in their +hands, chattering and laughing one with another as they danced and +jostled along the busy mart; then through the hot, sandy ruts of +streets, pausing now and then to shake hands with some old acquaintance +beneath the overhanging piazzas; sedan-chairs moving about, +with a negro in a glazed hat and red cockade at either end of the +poles, in a long easy trot, as they bore their burdens of Spanish matron, +or English damsel, or maybe a portly old judge, or gouty admiral, +on a shopping or business excursion to the port; so on to the +upper town, where the dwellings stand in detachments by themselves––single +or in pairs––with spacious balconies and bright green Venetian +blinds, all surrounded by gardens and vines; with noble tamarind-trees, +and cocoa-nuts swaying their lofty trunks, and rattling +their branches and leaves over the negro huts and offices below. +Here the party stopped, and, entering a house, were ushered into a +cool, lofty room, where there were a lot of mahogany desks, and a +single old clerk, who resembled a last year’s dried lemon, with some +few drops of acid juice for blood, perched up on a hard stem of a +high stool, with four or five quill pens, like so many thorns, sticking +out above his yellow leafy ears.</p> +<p>“All by myself here, Cleveland, as I told you. All my people are +living out there at Escondido. Very little business doing just now, +and Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart haven’t had a suit or a fight for +the last six months. Inkstands dry, and my old clerk, Clinker, there, +has forgotten how to write English.</p> +<p>“However,” went on Piron, as the party threw themselves back +on the wicker arm-chairs, and enjoyed the breeze which fluttered +merrily through the blinds, “the cellar isn’t quite dry yet; and I +say, Clinker, suppose you tell Nimble Jack, or Ring Finger Bill, to +spread a little luncheon here, with a bottle or two of Bordeaux, or +something of that sort!” The dried, fruity old gentleman dropped +off his branch at the desk like a withered nut, and then, with a husky +kind of shuffle, betook himself off.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_17' id='linki_17'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-190.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 598px; height: 600px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 598px;'> +“QUEER OLD STICK, THAT!” SAID THE COMMODORE.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span></div> +<p>“Queer old stick, that!” said the commodore, as he unbuckled his +sword and laid it on the table.</p> +<p>“Ah! he grew here, and will blow away one of these days. My +father used to tell me that he looked just the same when he first +sprouted as he does now. But he is a dear faithful old stump; and +you must remember hearing, Cleveland, of that frightful earthquake +here in seventeen hundred and eighty-three, which killed so many +people? Yes? Well, it was old Clinker who saved my sweet wife +that is now––and her sister; though he was nearly squeezed––drier, +if any thing, than he is now––in doing it. He lay, you know, Stingo, +supporting the whole second story of the house for seven hours, +pressed as flat as a tamarind-leaf, while they were getting those +twin babies out of their cradle. Yes, God bless him!” Starting up, +while a flush of feeling darkened his face––“but, what is more, he +threw himself precisely where he did, as he saw the walls giving +way, so that not a hair of those children should be injured when the +beams came down. My father has told me since, that when they +got a lever under the timber and wedged old Clinker out, he gave a +kind of cackle; but, in my opinion, he has not drawn a breath from +that day to this. And, generally, he is a very taciturn old root, and +rarely opens his rind; but latterly he talks a good deal about the +earthquake; says he’s sure there’ll be another awful one before an +interval of forty years has passed, and wants us to go away. No +objection, however, to coming back when the thing is over, and then +waiting forty years for another. Don’t laugh, you Paddy Burns, for +if ever the ‘<i>Tremblor</i>’ gives you one little shake, you’ll jump higher +than you did when that ugly Frenchman ran you through your waistcoat +pocket, and you thought it was your midriff. Now, Tom Stewart +and Don Stingo, what are you grinning about? Your teeth will +chatter so fast at the next quake that you won’t, either of you, be +able to deliver a charge to the jury over a false invoice, or suck another +drop of old Antigua rum.”</p> +<p>“But really, Piron,” broke in the commodore upon this voluble +harangue, “do you give heed to these barkings of that old clerk?”</p> +<p>“Why, yes, Cleveland,” replied Piron, with rather a grave manner, +“I do; and, moreover, my sweet wife Rosalie out yonder, who +has never got over her grief for the loss of our boy, regards every +word old Clinker says as so much prophecy; and the upshot of the +business is, I have made up my mind to leave the island.”</p> +<p>“For where, my friend––back to France?”</p> +<p>“No. Since the war and the peace, with Bonaparte at St. Helena, +France is no place for an Englishman, even with a French father, and +I am going to try America.”</p> +<p>“Truly, Piron, I am charmed to hear it. But what part of +America?”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span></div> +<p>“Why, I’ve bought a fine sugar estate at a bargain in Louisiana, +and there we shall pass the remainder of our days.”</p> +<p>“He! he!” sniggled Tom Stewart, while Don Stingo and Paddy +Burns cackled incredulously; but, at the same moment, Ring Finger +Bill and Nimble Jack, two jet-black persons, in loose striped gingham +shirts and bare feet, with an attempt at a grave expression of +thick-lipped coffee-coolers, the whites of their eyes turned up with +becoming decorum, and preceded by the old twig of a clerk, who +seemed to crackle in the sea-breeze as he again hung himself, stern +on, to his stool of a trunk, entered the cool counting-house, bearing +trays, fruits, and bottles, which they methodically arranged on the +large table.</p> +<p>“Massa! him want small, red, plump snapper, make mizzible +brile?” said Nimble Jack. “S’pose Massa Ossifa him pick shell of +land-crab, wid crisp pepper for salad?”</p> +<p>“No, no! Put those cool water-monkeys on the table and be +gone! Come, Clinker, take a bite with us!”</p> +<p>Leaving this pleasant party to sip their claret and water, and +nibble their midday food, while they rambled back to the past or +schemed into the future, we will return to the frigate.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXI__THE_COMMANDER_OF_THE_ROSALIE' id='CHAPTER_XXXI__THE_COMMANDER_OF_THE_ROSALIE'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXI.<br /><br />THE COMMANDER OF THE “ROSALIE.”</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“The handsomest fellow, Heaven bless him!<br /> +Setting the girls all wild to possess him,<br /> +With his dark mustache and his hazel eyes,<br /> +And cigars in those pretty lips––”<br /> + <br /> +“That girl who fain would choose a mate,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Should ne’er in fondness fail her,</span><br /> +May thank her lucky stars if Fate<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Should splice her to a sailor.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“The</span> ‘Rosalie’s’ gig coming alongside, sir,” reported the quarter-master +to the officer of the watch.</p> +<p>“Very well. A boatswain’s mate and two side-boys. Mr. Rat, +have the barge manned, and send her on shore for the commodore. +Mr. Martin, tell the boatswain to call all hands to furl awnings.”</p> +<p>While these orders were being executed, the whistles ringing +through the ship, the sailors lining the white hammocks, stowed in +a double line, fore and aft, around the nettings of the frigate, in +readiness to cast off the stops and lacings and let fall the awnings, +the officer on deck stood near the gangway. At the same time there +tripped up the accommodation-ladder, lightly touching the snowy +man-ropes, a young fellow of about one-and-twenty, dressed in undress +frock-coat, one epaulet, smooth white trowsers, and shoes. +Catching up his sword in his left hand as he reached the upper +grating of the ladder, he took off his blue, gold-banded cap, and +half bounded, with a springy step, on to the frigate’s deck.</p> +<p>Observe him well, young ladies, as he stands there; for of all the +scarlet or blue jackets on whose arm you have leaned and looked up +at with your soft violet, blue, or dark eyes, you never saw a young +fellow that you would sooner give those eyes, or those warm hearts +too, throbbing under your bodices, or who would drive you wilder +to possess him, than that gallant young sailor standing on the “Monongahela’s” +deck. Ay, observe him well, that tall, graceful youth, +with a waist you might span with one of your short plump arms; +those slim patrician feet, that might wear your own little satin slippers; +then that swelling chest and those elegantly turned shoulders, +which will take both of your arms, one of these days, to entwine and +clasp around them! Ah! but the round throat and chin, the smiling +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span> +mouth, half hiding a double row of even teeth, with the merest moonshine +of a mustache darkening the short upper lip, and then those +large, fearless hazel eyes, sparkling with health and fun, shaded by a +mass of chestnut curls, which cluster about his clear open forehead! +Ay, there he stands, “a king and a kingdom” for the girl who wins +him!</p> +<p>“Well, Harry, give us your fist, my boy! How do you get on +aboard your prize? Not so roomy as the old frigate, eh? And a +little more work than when you were playing flag-lieutenant, eh? +Well, glad to see you, but can’t stop to talk. So jump down below +there in the wardroom; the mess are just through dinner, and yours +won’t be ready for an hour yet. Come, bear a hand, or I’ll let these +awnings fall on your new gold epaulet.”</p> +<p>The new-comer tripped as lightly down the ladder to the gun-deck +as Mr. Mouse, and making another dive down to the berth-deck, exchanging +a rapid volley of pleasantry with the midshipmen in the +steerage, he opened the wardroom door and entered. There, in a +large open space, transversely dividing the stern of the ship, with +rows of latticed-doored staterooms on either side, lighted by open +skylights from above, with a barrel of a wind-sail coming down between +the sashes, and every thing, from beams to bulkheads, painted +a glistening white, and the deck so clean that you might have rubbed +your handkerchief on it without leaving a stain on the cambric, +around a large extension mahogany table stretching from side to +side, the cloth removed, decanters and wine-glasses here and there, +and water-monkeys in flannel jackets hanging like criminals from a +gallows from the beams above, sat the wardroom mess of the frigate.</p> +<p>“By all that’s handsome, here’s Darcantel! Why, Harry, we are +delighted to see you!” exclaimed half a dozen voices; “come, sit +down here and take a glass of wine with us!”</p> +<p>As the handsome young fellow entered the wardroom, all faces +lighted up as they saw him. The old sailing-master, who seldom indulged +in more than a scowl since he lost his right ear by the stroke +of a cutlass in capturing the tender to the “Plantagenet” seventy-four +off the Hills of Navesink; the rigid old major of marines, who +pipe-clayed his very knuckles, and wore a stiff sheet-iron padding to +his stock to encourage discipline in the guard; the dear, kind old +surgeon, who swallowed calomel pills by the pint, out of pure principle, +and who lopped off limbs and felt yellow fever pulses all through +the still watches of the hot nights with never a sign or look of encouragement; +and the staid old chaplain, who had often assisted the +surgeon and helped to fill cartridges, contributing his own cotton +hose for the purpose when those government stores gave out in battle, +and who never smiled, even when committing a marine to the +briny deep; the purser, too, prim and business-like, looking as if he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span> +were a complicated key with an iron lock of his own strong chest, +calculating perpetually the amount of dollars deposited in his charge, +the total of pay to be deducted therefrom, and never making a mistake +save when he overcharged the dead men for chewing tobacco; +and the gay, young, roistering lieutenants, who never did any thing +else but laugh, unmindful of navigation, pipe-clay, pills, parsons, or +pursers, though standing somewhat in awe of the sharpish, exacting +executive officer at the head of the table––all welcomed, each in his +peculiar way, the bright, graceful young blade who dawned upon +them. And not only the mess were cheered by his presence, but also +a troop of clean-dressed sable attendants, whose wide jaws stretched +wider, while the whites of their eyes seemed painfully like splashes +of whitewash on the outside of the galley coppers, as they nudged +one another and yaw-yaw’d quietly away aft there in the region of +the pantry.</p> +<p>“Here, my salt-water pet, come and sit down by me, where all +those old fellows can see you! Steward, a wine-glass for Mr. Darcantel! +What? you won’t take a sip of Tinta, and you can only +stop a minute because you are to dine with your uncle the commodore, +eh? Well, I’ll drink your uncle’s health even if you don’t!” +said the first lieutenant, as he familiarly laid his hand on the young +fellow’s shoulder and drained his glass.</p> +<p>“Why, Harry, what the deuce did you come down here for?” +squeaked out the purser, as he unscrewed his lips into a pleasant +smile. “You’ve put an end to that interesting account the master +was giving us of how he lay inside Sandy Hook for six months with +a glass to <span class="nowrap">his––”</span></p> +<p>“Mouth,” broke in the surgeon.</p> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“It was Sam Jones the fisherman,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Who was bound to Sandy Hook;</span><br /> +But first upon the Almanac<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>A solemn oath he took––</span><br /> +That he would catch a load of clams!”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p>“Silence there, you roarer!” said the surgeon, as he popped a filbert +into the wide mouth of the rollicking fourth lieutenant, which +cut his song short off. “Yes, Harry, that’s what you have done in +coming here for a minute. But stay a week with us, and the master +will tell it you again. We’ve heard it once or twice before.”</p> +<p>The old grizzled sea veteran scratched the remains of his ear, and +growled jocosely while nodding to young Darcantel.</p> +<p>“Ah! my dear boy, and I’ll tell you how the surgeon and nipcheese +there were entertained by a one-eyed old Spaniard at St. +Jago.”</p> +<p>“Let’s hear it!” roared every body except the medico and purser. +“Out with it, master!”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span></div> +<p>“Well, messmates, when we were in the old ‘Scourge,’ a long +time ago, one day we anchored in St. Jago de Cuba.”</p> +<p>Here the surgeon and purser smiled horribly, and implored the +grizzled old navigator not to go on; every body had heard that old +story; he might fall ill with the <i>vomito pietro</i>, and would require +pills; or else there might be found a mistake in his pay account, and +he would like, perhaps, to draw for the imaginary balance not due to +him, and to drink his grog and scratch the remains of his old ear, or +turn his attention to the load of clams waiting for him at Sandy +Hook! But, for mercy’s sake, don’t repeat that silly, long-forgotten +yarn!</p> +<p>“Well, messmates, in less than an hour after we had anchored in +St. Jago they went on shore, and made the acquaintance of a little +thin, sharp old villain, with one eye, who invited them to make him +a visit, and pass the evening on a fine estate he owned near the base +of the Copper Hills, some distance––about four leagues, I believe––from +the town. He was a most respectable person, very rich, and +commanded a Cuban guarda costa to boot. The <i>capitano</i>, Don Ignaçio +Sanchez––wasn’t that his name, doctor? Oh! you forget––all +right! Off they started with a guide, on hired mules; but when they +pulled up at their destination they found the Don wasn’t there, though +they were handsomely entertained by the señora––a comely, fat, and +waspish body, with very few clothes on––who cursed her Don for +sending people to see her, and the visitors too for coming. However, +as her guests had not dined, she fed them bountifully on a supper +of the nastiest jerked beef and garlic they had ever smelled. You +told me so, purser.”</p> +<p>Both Pills and Purser had forgotten all about it, and thought it +would be better to talk of something else; that there was plenty of +good wine to drink in place of drying his lips on such dusty old +rubbish.</p> +<p>“Well, messmates, after the supper the old lady demanded a little +game of monté, and she insisted, too, on making herself banker, +though she had no money on the table to pay with in case she lost––which +she had no intention of doing. So she won every ounce, dollar, +real, and centavo they had in their pockets! The doctor and +purser told me they saw her cheat boldly; but yet she not only +bagged all the money, but she won their mules into the bargain!”</p> +<p>Here those individuals confessed roundly––standing on the defensive––that +the fat old señora had a false pack of cards always ready +in her ample bosom, and had cheated them in the barest manner +conceivable; but yet they had no appeal, and were inclined, out of +gallantry for the sex, to behave like gentlemen, though she did drink +aguardiente.</p> +<p>“Well, messmates, toward midnight that hospitable wife of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span> +Don began to abuse our friends for not bringing more cash with +them when they visited ladies, and then fairly kicked them out of +the house! Yes, you both told me so when I lent you the money to +pay the boatmen, after being obliged to tramp all the way back to +the port on foot, nearly missing their billets in the old ‘Scourge.’”</p> +<p>“Go on, master! Tell us all about it; don’t stop!”</p> +<p>“Well, messmates, I was on deck while beating out of the channel, +and just abreast the Star Castle I saw a boat with two gentlemen +in the stern, stripped to a girt-line, and howling at rather than +hailing the ship. Bear in mind, doctor, the men refused to take +either of you unless you gave them your coats and trowsers before +shoving off. And don’t you remember, Hardy, how they yelled at +us, and we thought they were deserters from that English gun-boat +in St. Jago? And how the captain arrested the pair of them when +they got on board for going out of signal distance? This is the first +time <i>I</i> ever told this yarn,” concluded the old navigator, tugging +away at the lobe of his lost ear.</p> +<p>The young lieutenants shouted, and the old major of marines, forgetful +of his iron-stuffed stock, laughed till he nearly sawed his chin +off, rubbing his chalky knuckles into his eyes the while.</p> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“But first upon the Almanac<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>A solemn oath he took––</span><br /> +That he would catch a load of clams––”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p>“The barge is coming off, Mr. Hardy, with the pennant flying, +sir!” reported a reefer, in the midst of the conversation, to the first +lieutenant, as he shoved his bright face through the wardroom door.</p> +<p>“Very good, Mr. Beaver; but hark ye, sir! the next time you go +ashore in the market-boat, look sharp that the men don’t suck the +monkey. Three of them came off drunk this morning. And inform +Mr. Rat and Mr. Mouse that if I see their heels on the cutter’s cushions +again, I’ll take a better look at them from the main-top-mast +cross-trees. You understand, sir? Steward, a glass of wine for Mr. +Beaver!” Saying this, the executive officer, with Harry Darcantel, +arose and went on deck to receive the commodore.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXII__A_SPLICE_PARTED' id='CHAPTER_XXXII__A_SPLICE_PARTED'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXII.<br /><br />A SPLICE PARTED.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Oh! for thy voice, that happy voice,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>To breathe its loving welcome now!</span><br /> +Fame, wealth, and all that bids rejoice,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>To me are vain! For where art thou?”</span><br /> + <br /> +“What is glory––what is fame?<br /> +That a shadow––this a name,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Restless mortal to deceive.</span><br /> +Are they renown’d––can they be great,<br /> +Who hurl their fellow-creature’s fate,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>That mothers, children, wives may grieve?”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> drum rolled, the marines presented arms, the boatswain piped, +the side-boys and officers took off their caps; and as the colors +dropped with the last ray of sunset from the peak, and the broad +blue day-pennant came fluttering down from the lofty main truck, +Commodore Cleveland and his friends stood on the splendid deck of +the flag-ship “Monongahela.”</p> +<p>It must have been with conscious pride that the brave and loyal +commander gazed around him on the noble frigate and her gallant +crew. The white decks, the tiers of cannon polished like varnished +leather, with the breechings and tackles laid fair and even over and +around them; the bright belaying-pins, holding their never-ending +coils of running gear––the burnished brass capstan––the great boom––board +to the boats amidships with a gleaming star of cutlasses, reflecting +a glitter on the ring of long pikes stuck around the main-mast +near, all inclosed by the high and solid bulwarks; while towering +above, like mighty leafless columns of forest pines, stood the +lofty masts, running up almost out of sight to the trucks in the +fading light, supported by stays and shrouds, singly and in pairs, +and braided mazes––black, and straight, and taut––never a thread +loose on rigging or ratlin––and spreading out as they came down in +a heavy hempen net, till they disappeared over the rail, and were +clenched and spliced, or seized and clamped to the bolts and dead-eyes +of the chain-plates outside. Holding up too, in mid-heaven, +on those giant trunks––like a child its toys––the great square yards +of timber branches, laying without a quiver, in their black lifts and +trusses, with their white leaves of sails crumpled and packed in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span> +smooth bunts in the middle, and running away to nothing on either +hand at the tapering yard-arms.</p> +<p>Grand and imposing is the sight. And well may you wonder, ye +land lubbers, why all that mass of timber, sails, and cordage, with its +enormous weight, does not crush with the giant heels of the masts +through the bottom of the ship like unto an egg-shell, and tear the +stanch live-oak frame to splinters!</p> +<p>The commander of the frigate saw all this, and he beheld at the +same time the clusters of happy sailors, sauntering with light step +and pleasant faces up and down the waist and gangways; and he +heard, too, the scraping of a fiddle on the forecastle, the shuffling, +dancing feet, and the least notion of a jovial sea-song coming up +from the gun-deck. Yes, it must have been a glorious pride with +which that gallant officer gazed around him from the quarter-deck +of the magnificent frigate.</p> +<p>Did he say to himself, “I am monarch of this floating kingdom; +my will is law; I say but the word, and those sails are spread and +the ship moves to wherever I command. My subjects, too, who +watch my slightest look and whisper, with that flag above, will pour +broadside upon broadside––ay, they have!––from those terrible guns +upon whoever dares to cross my track. Yes. They will fight for +me so long as there is a plank left in this huge ship to stand upon, +and while there is a rope-yarn left to hold the ensign––ay! even until +my pennant, nailed to the truck, sinks beneath the bloodstained +waves?” Did the commander think of all this? Perhaps he did.</p> +<p>And yet, in all the pride of rank and power, bravely won and +maintained in many a scene of strife and deadly conflict, with visions +of honest patriotism and ambition for the future, did his thoughts +go back long years ago into the shadowy past, and was his spirit in +the silent church-yard, where the magnolia was drooping over a grass-green +grave? The sweet mother and her baby boy––the girl who +had so fondly loved him, and the child who played about his knees––oh +that they could have lived to share the wreaths of victory which +were hung around his brow; that they could have lived to see the +sword his country gave him, to twine but for one little moment their +loving arms around his neck! No, the magnolia waves its white +flowers over mother and boy, and they sleep on in their heavenly +and eternal rest.</p> +<p>Did Commodore Cleveland, as a saddened flash of thought swept +over his handsome face, while he stood on his quarter-deck, dwell on +those scenes? Yes, we know he did. By day and night, in war and +peace, in gale or calm, on deck or at banquet, in dream and action, +the girl and mother he so dearly loved was close clasped to his heart, +and the child still playing at his knee.</p> +<p>“Gentlemen, let me make you acquainted with the first lieutenant, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span> +Mr. Hardy; and permit me also to present my nephew, Mr. Darcantel, +captain, if you please, my friends, of the one-gun schooner ‘Rosalie,’ +formerly the slaver ‘Perdita,’ cut out of a river on the Gold Coast +by the young gentleman who stands before you.”</p> +<p>“Rosalie! why that’s the name of my niece,” exclaimed Piron; +“and she is prettier and whiter than your trim little craft, sir. But +you must come with the commodore to Escondido, and judge for +yourself. But, bless my soul! <i>you</i> resemble our Rosalie, even if +your schooner don’t. Why, look at him, Paddy Burns!”</p> +<p>Don Stingo, and Tom Stewart, and the Paddy did look at him, and +all shook hands with him, laughing the while at Piron, and asking +when old Clinker looked for another earthquake.</p> +<p>“Come, Piron, come, gentlemen, don’t let us keep the soup waiting! +By the way, Mr. Hardy, will you do me the favor to take a +glass of wine with us after gun-fire?”</p> +<p>“Thank you.”</p> +<p>“Suppose you bring little Mouse with you; I like children; and +perhaps you will excuse the younker from keeping his watch to-night? +A little extra sleep in hammock won’t hurt him, you know.”</p> +<p>And so Commodore Cleveland raised his hat, followed by the eyes +of respect and devotion from officer and sailor, as he passed down +the ladder and entered his spacious cabin.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXIII__THE_BLUE_PENNANT_IN_THE_CABIN' id='CHAPTER_XXXIII__THE_BLUE_PENNANT_IN_THE_CABIN'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXIII.<br /><br />THE BLUE PENNANT IN THE CABIN.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“To Bachelors’ hall we good fellows invite<br /> +To partake of the chase that makes up our delight.”<br /> + <br /> +“Ask smiling honor to proclaim<br /> +What is glory, what is fame?<br /> +Hark! the glad mandate strikes the list’ning ear!<br /> +‘The truest glory to the bosom dear,<br /> +Is when the soul starts soft compassion’s tear.’”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“Now</span>, gentlemen, let me get off this heavy coat and epaulets. +There! all right, Domino! put the sword in its case, and give me a +white jacket. Choose your own places, my friends. Piron, sit here +on my right; Henri, take the foot of the table.”</p> +<p>These last words were said in French; whereupon Piron started +and whispered to the commodore, “By George, Cleveland, is that +youth’s name Henry, and does he speak French?”</p> +<p>“Hush, Piron, he may hear you. His mother was French, and +he speaks the language like a native. She died when he was a baby, +and he doesn’t like to allude to it. Come, steward, we are all ready. +Serve the gumbo!”</p> +<p>The cabin of the frigate was divided by a light lattice-work bulkhead +in two parts, running from quarter to quarter of the vessel. +The after part had a large sleeping stateroom on either side, resting +on the quarter galleries, and opening on to another gallery which +hung over the stern of the frigate. Inside, in the open space, was +a round table, cushioned lounges, a few chairs, with a bronze lamp +pendent from a beam above, while taking the curve of the stern +over the after windows was a range of bookcases, half hidden by +the gilt cornice and curtains of the windows. The entire fittings and +furniture of cabin and staterooms, including the neat Brussels carpet +on the deck, were elegant and useful, though by no means luxurious. +The forward cabin, where no carpet graced the floor, was much more +spacious. It took in the two after ports of the gun-deck; and the +carriages and cannon within the sills of the ports were painted a marble +white, as were the ropes, in covered canvas, that held them. In +a recess forward was a large mahogany sideboard, or buffet, the top +fitted with a framework for glasses and decanters, which were reflected +from a large mirror let into the bulkhead. In the middle of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span> +this space was the dining-table, lighted by a pair of globe lamps hanging +from above, while neat racks for bottles and water-jugs, moving +on sliding brass rods, were also suspended from the paneled beams +and carlines of the upper deck ceiling. On the right––the starboard +side––was a door leading into a roomy pantry, where the steward +and Domino, and the servants of the commodore, bestirred themselves +at dinner-time.</p> +<p>“So, my friends,” exclaimed the commodore, “you wish to hear +what became of me after I last parted with you?”</p> +<p>“By all means, Cleveland! we are all dying to hear, and––” Here +Piron’s appeal was interrupted by the heavy report of a bow gun, +which gave a slight, though almost imperceptible jar to the frigate.</p> +<p>“Smithereens! Stingo! what noise is that?” exclaimed Burns.</p> +<p>“Only the nine o’clock gun, sir,” replied Darcantel.</p> +<p>“Hech, mon!” said Stewart, “ye needna upset ma glass of auld +Madeira in yer mickle fright, for I’ve seen the time when ye ha’ +laughed at the music in the report of a peestol and the ping of a +bullet! But your nervous seestem seems to be unstrung ever since +the sma’ French dancing count untied the string o’ your waistcoat +with his rapeer.”</p> +<p>“You don’t think, Paddy, the commodore here is going to bang +a forty-two pound shot into our stomachs after all the good prog he’s +filled them with?” added Stingo, <i>sotto voce</i>, while the rotund Milesian +threw his head back and twinkled careless defiance at them all.</p> +<p>Just then the orderly swung the port-cabin door open, and standing +up as rigid as a pump-bolt, with a finger to the visor of his stovepipe +hat, in cross-belts and bayonet, he announced “Lieutenant Hardy +and Midshipman Mouse!”</p> +<p>“Ah! Hardy, glad to see you!” rising as he spoke; “squeeze in +there between Stewart and Burns, or Darcantel! Here, gentlemen, +let me exhibit to you Mr. Tiny Mouse! Don’t move, Piron; I’ll +make a place for him near me.”</p> +<p>Saying this, the commodore took the lad affectionately by the hand, +and as he sat him down on a chair at his elbow, and while the conversation +went on with his guests, he said, in a kindly tone,</p> +<p>“Tiny, my dear, the first lieutenant tells me you are a good boy +and attend to your duty. I hope you pay attention to your studies +also, and write often to your dear mother. Ah! you do? That is +right; for you know you are her only hope since your brave father +was killed. There, sir, you may swig a little claret, but don’t touch +those cigars.”</p> +<p>“Come, Cleveland! Cleveland! you are forgetting your adventures, +my boy!”</p> +<p>“Well, my friends, you shall hear them.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXIV__THE_DEVIL_TO_PAY' id='CHAPTER_XXXIV__THE_DEVIL_TO_PAY'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXIV.<br /><br />THE DEVIL TO PAY.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“And how then was the devil dressed?<br /> +Oh! he was dressed in his Sunday’s best;<br /> +His jacket was red and his breeches were blue,<br /> +And there was a hole where the tail came through.”<br /> + <br /> +“Hairy-faced Dick understands his trade,<br /> +He stands by the breech of a short carronade,<br /> +The linstock glows in his bony hand,<br /> +Waiting that grim old skipper’s command!”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“The</span> last dinner I had in Jamaica, and a very jolly one it was, as +you all know, was out at Escondido, where we kept it up so late that +I only got on board the ‘Scourge’ at daylight, in time to get her under +way with the land wind. Well, we were bound to windward, +and for a week afterward we rolled about in a calm off Morant Bay, +maybe twenty leagues off the island, and one morning we discovered +a sail. She was a large merchant brig, heading any way, and bobbing +about, as we were, in the calm. Toward noon, however, a light +air sprang up, and we got within hail, and I went on board to say a +word or two to the skipper, for we had news before leaving Kingston +that that infamous pirate Brand, in his long-legged schooner ‘Centipede,’ +had been seen off Guadaloupe; and, in fact, we had actually +chased him off Matanzas three months before; so I was ordered to +give the brig a warning, particularly as she had reported a suspicious +craft in sight that same morning at sunrise. When I got on board +of her I <span class="nowrap">saw––”</span></p> +<p>Here Piron placed both hands to his face as he leaned his elbows +on the table, and the commodore, checking himself, hurried on:</p> +<p>“Ah! well, we kept the brig in sight all day, and ran round her +once or twice in the evening, but toward midnight the trade wind +freshened, and, as the coast seemed clear, and we were anxious to +make up for lost time in the calm, we gradually came up to our +course, and went bowling away to windward.</p> +<p>“I remember going below at the time, and just as I was about to +turn in, I heard a quarter-master sing out to Hardy there, who was +junior lieutenant of the ship, and who had the middle watch, that he +saw a light going up to the brig’s gaff. In five seconds I was on the +poop, where I met the captain.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span></div> +<p>“This is his only son, gentlemen, and a braver or more skillful seaman +never trod a ship’s deck,” said the commodore, as he passed his +hand affectionately over the boy’s head, who was sitting beside him.</p> +<p>But he forgot, perhaps, to say that he, Cleveland, had stood by the +father when he was struck dead by a cannon-shot, and that afterward +he had the boy appointed a reefer, and, out of his own means, +helped the widow to eke out her pittance of a pension. Yes, Cleveland +forgot all that as he smoothed the youngster’s soft hair, while, +with the men around him, he drained his glass in silence to the +memory of his departed friend and chief. Then resuming, he went on:</p> +<p>“In less than no time after the light was seen––for you must +know, gentlemen, that it was an understood signal between us––the +‘Scourge’ was flying off with a stiff breeze abaft the beam, the crew +at quarters, and the boats ready to be lowered from the davits. +When we ranged up alongside the brig, and even before, we felt +certain that our misgivings would prove true, and so they did; and +merely slamming a shot over her, and dropping a couple of armed +boats into the water, we luffed round her bows, and there we saw +that cursed schooner––venomous snake as she was––just hoisting her +sails, and creeping away to windward.</p> +<p>“We let her have two or three divisions of grape, and followed +the dose up with round shot. I am sure we hit her, and that pretty +hard, for we knocked away her fore-top-mast, and we saw the splinters +fly in showers from her hull. However, she was well handled, +and lying nearer the wind than the ‘Scourge,’ when day dawned she +was clear out of range, and leaving us every minute. So we up helm +and ran down again to the brig, to see what mischief had been done +and to pick up our boats.</p> +<p>“Ah! yes, you all know what had taken place, so I won’t go over +the details; but the same afternoon, after seeing the brig pointed +straight for Port Royal, and while we were once more on our course, +we fell in with a water-logged boat, in which were half a dozen dead +and dying men. One, a mongrel Indian from Yucatan, who was +frightfully torn by two or three grape-shot, before he died on board––as +did all the others––gave us, in his confused dialect, some account +of the pirate he had served under, and the haunt he frequented. As +near as we could learn, the haunt was situated somewhere on the +south side of Cuba, on a rocky island having a safe and secure inlet; +but as he did not know the latitude or longitude, we were left somewhat +in the dark. The last words, however, the mangled wretch uttered, +as the gasping breath was leaving his body, were, that the spot +could be distinguished by a tall cocoa-nut-tree which grew from a +craggy eminence in the middle of the island. We buried them all, +pirates as they were, decently, and then we clapped on all sail on +our course.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span></div> +<p>“Steward, another bottle of the old Southside that Mr. March sent +me from Madeira! Here, Domino, take Mr. Mouse up gently, and +lay him down on my cot in the after cabin. Dear little fellow, he is +sound asleep; and mind you draw the curtains around him, lest he +take cold from the draught of the stern windows!”</p> +<p>Rather a striking contrast this to the way Captain Brand, the pirate, +treated the little Henri in the den there in the Doçe Léguas.</p> +<p><a name="P11"></a>“Well, gentlemen, for some weeks after these occurrences we sailed +about the islands, touching here and there, until at last we arrived at +the Havana, took in stores and water, and then continued the cruise. +The orders were to beat up the south side of Cuba, where we expected +to fall in with the <a name="P12"></a>Musquito fleet and some English vessels, +especially detailed to destroy two or three nests of pirates who had +for some years swarmed in those seas and infested that coast. In +the course of time we beat all around the south side of Cuba, and at +last dropped anchor in St. Jago, where we learned from the English +consular agent that five or six fellows, who had been wrecked on the +Carvalo reef, were identified as having been part of a piratical crew +who had plundered an English vessel with a free passport bound to +Havana, and had been sent there in irons for trial.</p> +<p>“The truth was, that the Spanish colonial authorities had so long +connived, winked at, or been indifferent to what was going on during +the wars of the Continent, that they allowed these piratical hordes +to exist and thrive at their very doors. The matter had already +been brought to the notice of the administrador of the port, and all +other ports as far along the coast as Cienfuegos, and in such a threatening +manner, too, that the governor at St. Jago, fearful of having +his town blown down, exerted himself in the arrest of the rascals I +have alluded to, and likewise in procuring information by dispatching +guarda costas along the south side of the island.</p> +<p>“Accordingly, the very morning we anchored I went ashore with +the captain of the custom-house, where we met the deputy administrador +and a little withered, one-eyed old rascal, who was in the colonial +service, and who professed to know the haunt, or at least he +said he thought he did, of that notorious villain Brand.</p> +<p>“I remember distinctly spreading a chart before him, and while he +traced with the end of his cigarette a course for the captain to steer +by, I stood near, watching him narrowly. But the fact was, that he +had the very sharpest spark of an eye set, or rather standing out, beside +his nose that any body ever saw in a human being’s head; and +instead of me watching him, he seemed to be looking straight through +me, and divining my thoughts and suspicions. However, the spot he +pointed out, and the way he described it, with a cocoa-nut-tree on top +of a rock, and the passage through the reef, so nearly corresponded +with the confused account the Yucatanese gave us before he died, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span> +that the captain was entirely convinced we were on the scent, though +I myself was not more than half satisfied. The place indicated was +near the Isle of Pines, three hundred miles off; but, to make the thing +more plausible, that one-eyed old scoundrel was detailed to run along +the Doçe Léguas Cays, see what information he could pick up there, +and then follow down after us.</p> +<p>“That night, or early the next morning, we were off again, and ran +down the coast, with a good offing to keep the wind, until we got to +the ground, and passed in by Cape St. Francis, and doubled round +into the Bight of Pines. There we fell in with a whole fleet of English +and American cruisers and schooner craft, who informed us that +they had searched every accessible spot where a man could walk dry-shod +upon, from Guayabos to the Isle of Mangles; that they had destroyed +several old and deserted piratical nests, and hung two or +three ostensible fishermen by way of wholesome warning to their +allies the pirates; but that was all; and from what they had learned, +there did not seem to have been an established retreat in that maze +of cays and reefs for four or five years.</p> +<p>“So you see we had our cruise for nothing, and then the captain +agreed with me that we had both been most egregiously deceived by +the Spanish commander of the guarda costa. Well, we hauled our +wind once more, standing well out to sea, and after a tedious beat +of some days we again edged in toward the coast, somewhere near +the Boca Grande of the Twelve League Cays on the westernmost +side. It was in the morning when we made the land, and, steering +close in, we got a good slant off the shore, and kept the glasses going +from the topmost cross-trees down all through the day. For my +part, as Hardy may perhaps remember, I scarcely took the glass from +my eye for eight hours, and from the mizzen-top I feel quite sure that +there were not many objects, from the size of a blade of grass to a +mangrove bush, that I did not examine, from the coral reefs up to the +rocky heights, let alone the cocoa-nut-tree that we were in search of.</p> +<p>“Toward afternoon, however, the weather came up hazy, the wind +began to fall off, and the barometer began to exhibit very queer +spasms indeed, rising with a sort of jerk at first, and then dropping +down the tenth of an inch at a clip, with the atmosphere becoming +close and sultry, and the men gasping about the decks as if we were +about to choke at the next breath. It was during the hurricane +months, and the indications certainly should have led us as far as +our legs could carry us to open water, instead of being caught embayed +perhaps with half a thousand reefs around us on what might +prove a lee-shore; but, nevertheless, the captain decided to hold on +till sunset, and then make an offing. The breeze still held in the upper +sails, and so we slipped on in smooth water till about five o’clock, +when I heard a fellow sing out from the main royal yard,</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span></div> +<p>“‘On deck there! I can see a tall cocoa-nut-tree on an island +here on the port bow!’</p> +<p>“Before the words were well out of his mouth I too caught the +object, and I knew at the first glance that it was the spot we were +looking for. At the same time the haze lighted up a bit, and we +saw the ridge of rocks and every thing as the haunt of that pirate +Brand had been described to us. So, my friends, we were all alive +once more on board the ‘Scourge,’ and the captain resolved to dash +in upon the scoundrel’s nest before he could have time to leave it.</p> +<p>“The engine was rigged and water spirted over the sails from the +trucks down, to make the canvas hold the wind, and in an hour after +we were within two leagues of the island, and just as the sun fell below +the horizon we caught sight of the mast-heads of a large vessel +sticking up over some bluff rocks near the bold shore. Not five minutes +later the hull of the craft came slowly out from the gap, under +all sail, and we discovered her to be a long and rather lumbering-looking +brigantine, painted lead-color, and bearing no resemblance +to the schooner we had twice chased before. Simultaneously, however, +with her coming out into full view, as she rounded in her head-yards +and got a pull of the main-sheet, with the breeze abeam and +heading to the eastward, we beheld a great volume of white smoke +spout up over the rock near the cocoa-nut-tree, with a vivid sheet of +flame at the base, and before the vast column turned, like the crown +of a palm-tree, in its descent, we were greeted by a dull, heavy roar, +the concussion of which fairly made the ‘Scourge’ tremble. Then, +as the white smoke partially broke away, an avalanche of rocks and +timbers was scattered far and near, and nothing visible but a veil of +dust and masses of heavy smoke. Nearly at the same moment of this +explosion wreaths of heavy black smoke arose from another spot +nearer to the gap, lit up in the fading, hazy twilight with forked red +fires, and soon after a great conflagration burst forth, swirling flakes +of burning cinders all over the island, and casting a lurid glare upon +the water around us.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXV__AND_THE_PITCH_HOT' id='CHAPTER_XXXV__AND_THE_PITCH_HOT'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXV.<br /><br />AND THE PITCH HOT.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +<span style='margin-left: 2.34375em;'>“He is born for all weathers;</span><br /> +Let the winds blow high or blow low,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>His duty keeps him to his tethers,</span><br /> +And where the gale drives he must go.<br /> + <br /> +“The wind blew hard, the sea ran high,<br /> +The dingy scud drove ’cross the sky,<br /> +All was safe lashed, the bowl was slung,<br /> +When careless thus Ned Halyard sung.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Said</span> the commodore, with a knowing shake of his head, “Ah! +gentlemen, if the fellow, whoever he was, who was creeping away +so nimbly in that lazy-looking brigantine, with English colors at the +peak, had written down in detail what he had been doing on that secluded +nook of an island, and sent the information off to us in a letter, +we could have read it without breaking the seal. We could have +told him that that little scoundrel with one eye had purposely misled +us, and had given him warning to quit his strong-hold; and that he +had hastily got his plunder and people on board his vessel, blown up +and set fire to his nest, and that the brigantine he was now on board +of was once upon a time the notorious schooner ‘Centipede!’ Yes, +we knew all that by instinct.”</p> +<p>Piron sat with his eyes fixed upon the speaker, taking in every +word as it fell from his lips, the teeth set close together and the hand +clenched which supported his head on the table. Paddy Burns and +Tom Stewart, too, looked eagerly that way, as did Harry Darcantel, +while Hardy sipped his wine and puffed his cigar leisurely, as if he +knew the tale by heart.</p> +<p>“It had fallen nearly calm. A light air perhaps in the royals, +though nothing down below. But as we hauled down our colors at +sunset, which had been hoisted to let the fellow know who we were, +down came his also. Then there we both lay looking at each other. +He knew by instinctive experience that we were the American corvette +‘Scourge,’ mounting eighteen twenty-four-pounder carronades +and two long eighteens in the bow ports; for the brigantine had once +or twice determined their exact calibres, and that we were the fastest +cruiser, with the wind a point or two free, that had been seen in the +West Indies for twenty years.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_18' id='linki_18'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-209.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 591px; height: 600px;' /><br /> +</div> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211' name='page_211'></a>211</span></div> +<p>“Yes, he knew all about us, but he was still a little in doubt +whether we knew all about <i>him</i>. He lay––unfortunately, perhaps, +for him––a little beyond the range of our long guns, or else he might +have been spared a good deal of time and uneasiness, and we a long +chase and considerable risk. Ah! as the night came, the very fires +he had kindled in his den on shore prevented his escape; for while +the calm lasted the bright flames shone upon him with the glare of +hell! There we lay all that night without moving a muscle or a +mile until day dawned––and such a day as did dawn!</p> +<p>“Meanwhile the barometer had fallen an inch and a half, until the +master began to believe the bulb leaked, and the mercury was dropping +into the case. Then, through the murky gloom of daylight, +with the sea one flat greasy surface, with never the splash of a fish +to disturb it, while the lowest whisper of the topmen aloft could be +distinctly heard on deck, as if we were hung in the vacuum of an exhausted +receiver where a feather would drop like a bullet, suddenly +there came a sound from the direction of the cays. Suppose, Burns, +you saw a forty-two pound shot coming toward you, and without +you dodged quick, your head would be flying off with it in the same +direction?”</p> +<p>“Whist, mon!” said Stewart, with a groan, “dinna be calling up +sic peectures of the brain, Cleveland. Paddy, there, ne’er thinks of +ony meesals bigger than a peestol bullet.”</p> +<p>“Well, my friends, we ran precisely a similar risk, though the +cloudy embrasures over the island had not quite enough thunder to +reach us. However, the brigantine knew what would follow as well +as we did––better, perhaps––and before you could swallow that glass +of wine she was stripped as bare as a bone, and down came her yards +too, but keeping the sticks up, and spreading a patch of a storm staysail +forward that you might apparently have put in your pocket. +Her decks and rigging were crowded with men while she was doing +all this, but the moment it was done, and well done too, they ran into +their holes below like so many rats, and we could only see a man or +two left on deck near the helm.</p> +<p>“All hands had been called on board the ‘Scourge’ at four o’clock, +and, with the exception of securing the battery, every thing was +ready to make a skeleton of the ship the moment we saw the brigantine +begin; for she was a wary fish, and we had no idea of letting +her give us the slip the third time. I had the trumpet, however, and +with the captain at my elbow, the instant he saw that the brigantine +was once more rigged nearly in her old way, he gave me the word, +‘Now, Cleveland, work sharp!’</p> +<p>“With a hundred and twenty men aloft, jumping about like cats, +the light sails, studding-sail booms, royal and top-gallant yards came +down, the top-gallant masts after them, and the flying jib-boom rigged +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212' name='page_212'></a>212</span> +in. Then the top-sails close reefed and furled with extra gaskets, and +so with the courses; preventer braces clapped on, rolling tackles +hooked, and the spare purchases set up by the lower pennants. +Meanwhile the divisions on deck had got hawsers over the launch +amidships, the chains unbent, the anchors lashed down on the forecastle, +and the quarter boats triced well inboard and secured with +the davits. At the same time the light stuff from aloft was got below, +the hammocks piped down, and the carpenters slapped the gratings +on the hatches, and stood ready with the tarpaulins to batten +them down. I never beheld a smarter piece of work done afloat––not +even, Hardy, in the ‘Monongahela.’</p> +<p>“As I turned round an instant a hoarse, howling bellow struck +my ear from the island, and I just caught a glimpse of the tall cocoa-nut-tree +flying round and round in the air like an inverted umbrella +with a broken stick; while at the same time the men from aloft had +reached the deck, and, jumping to the battery, the guns were run in +and housed, spare breechings and extra lashings passed, and life-lines +rove fore and aft. After that, gentlemen, there was no farther need +of a trumpet.</p> +<p>“You all know pretty well what sort of a thing a hurricane is, and +the one I speak of must, I think, have given you a touch of its quality +here in Jamaica.”</p> +<p>“Ay, by the holy Moses! we remember it well, bad luck to it; and +so does Tom Stewart and Piron there, for it didn’t lave a stick of +sugar-cane standing from Montego Bay to Cape Antonio.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Stewart; “and to show ye what a piff of wind can +do, the whirl of it caught up an eighteen-foot Honduras plank, and +laid it crosswise, like an axe, full seven inches into an old tamarind +trunk standing in my garden, and then twisted off the ends like a +heather broom! Hech, mon, ye may see it there now any day!”</p> +<p>Piron was thinking of the barks that were driving before that hurricane, +with no thought of the damage done to his own plantations.</p> +<p>“Well, then, I shall spare you all prolix description of it; and you +need only fancy a ship blown every where and every how except out +of water––now with the lower yard-arms cutting deep into the sea +like rakes, the lee hammock-nettings under water, the stern boat torn +away into splinters, the main-top-sail picked, bolt by bolt, from the +yard until there was not a thread left, and the lee anchor twisted +bodily out of its lashings and swept overboard!</p> +<p>“Then a lull, while the sea got up and the ship dashed down on +the other side on her bow; then staggering back and making a stern-board +till the water was plunged up in a deluge over the poop. Recovering +herself again, and almost quivering on her beam-ends, the +guns groaning and creaking as the terrible strain came upon the +breechings, with the shot from the racks bounding about the decks, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213' name='page_213'></a>213</span> +dinting holes in the solid oak waterways big enough to wash your +face in, and then hopping out of the smashed half-ports to leeward. +The spar-deck up to your armpits in water, and every man of us +holding on to the life-lines or standing rigging like grim death, while +all the time the roaring, thundering yell of the hurricane taught us +how powerless we were, by hand or voice, to cope with the winds +when they were let loose in all their might and fury!</p> +<p>“Nor need I relate to you the scene presented below––mess-chests, +bags, tables, crockery, flying from deck and beam to stanchion, smashing +about in the most dangerous way, pell-mell, while the worst of +the tempest lasted. But, gentlemen, the ‘Scourge’ had a frame of +live-oak, to say nothing of two or three acres of tough yellow-pine +timber in her, a good deal of fibrous hemp to hold the masts up; and, +moreover, she was well manned, and, though I say it myself, she had +a skillful captain and thorough-bred officers, in whose sagacity the +crew could rely, to manage that old ‘Scourge.’”</p> +<p>“That she had,” exclaimed Hardy; “and the most skillful and the +coolest of them all was the first lieutenant!” The “Monongahela’s” +executive officer here bounced off his chair as if he was prepared to +fight any man breathing who did not subscribe to that opinion.</p> +<p>“Well, my friends, that awful hurricane continued for about twenty +hours, from late one morning till the beginning of the next. As +for day, there was none; for the sea and black clouds made one long +night of it. Fortunately, too, we had been driven off shore, and when +the murky gloom broke away, and we were able to look around, our +first anxiety was to see what had become of the brigantine.</p> +<p>“Yes, and I truly believe, in all that turmoil of the elements, while +we were on the brink of foundering and going down to old Davy’s +locker, that there was not an officer or man, from the captain to the +cook, who was not thinking of that pirate, and hoping that he might +go down first. I myself, however, felt a sort of confidence, as I was +held lashed on the poop to the mizzen rigging, that the brigantine +might be caught and whirled about––so long as she was above water––by +the same blows of the hurricane that beat upon the ‘Scourge;’ +and when the tornado broke, and some one sang out ‘Sail ho!’ I +knew by instinct it must be the ‘Centipede.’”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214' name='page_214'></a>214</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXVI__THE_CHASE' id='CHAPTER_XXXVI__THE_CHASE'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXVI.<br /><br />THE CHASE.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“With sloping masts and dipping prow,<br /> +As who pursued with yell and blow<br /> +Still treads the shadow of his foe,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And forward bends his head,</span><br /> +The ship drove past, loud roared the blast,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And southward aye we fled.”</span><br /> + <br /> +“Clap on more sail, pursue, give fire––<br /> +She is my prize, or ocean whelms them all.”<br /> + <br /> +“So many slain––so many drowned!<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>I like not of that fight to tell.</span><br /> +Come, let the cheerful grog go round!<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Messmates, I’ve done. A spell, ho, spell!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“It</span> was all hands again, gentlemen. The hurricane had settled +down into a moderate gale from northeast, though it was some time +before the awfully confused sea got to roll regularly. Then we judged +ourselves––for reckoning and observation had been out of the question––to +be a long way south of Jamaica, and even to the southward of +the great Pedro Bank. We did not wait this time for the pirate to +lead us in getting ready for a race, but we got up a bran-new suit of +top-sails and courses out of the sail-room, and, so soon as the men +could go aloft with safety, they were ordered not to unbend the few +tattered rags still clinging to the yards, but to cut away at once. Up +went the top-sails and courses, and they were soon brought to the +yards and set close-reefed, with a storm-jib to steady the ship forward. +Presently we gave her the whole fore-sail and main-sail, and +I think that even then, for some hours, but one half the corvette’s upper +works could have been visible as she plunged through the angry +heaving seas.</p> +<p>“It left us dry enough, however, to pay some heed to the brigantine +ahead of us. She was about four miles off, a little on our weather +bow, and as she rode up––splendid sea-boat that she was––like a gull +on the back of a mighty roller, we could see that her bulwarks––mere +boards and canvas, probably––had been washed away, the house between +her masts gone too, and, no doubt, her long gun, or whatever +else had been lying hid under it. And now she was once more the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217' name='page_217'></a>217</span> +schooner ‘Centipede,’ long and sharp, and without any rail to speak +of, so that we could see her deck from the stem to her taffrail at every +lurch she made. The only difference in her appearance was a +short fore-mast with cross-trees, and a top-mast for square sails. Almost +as soon as our top-sail sheets were hauled home, her own yards +went up and the sail was spread, while with the bonnet off her fore-sail, +the whole jib and a close-reefed main-sail, she went flying to the +southward with the gale a point abaft the beam.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_19' id='linki_19'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-216.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 400px; height: 600px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 400px;'> +THE STERN CHASE.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>“Thus we went on, the sea getting more regular every hour, so +that we could send up the top-gallant masts, get the yards across, +shake a reef or two out, and put the ‘Scourge’ in order. The schooner +needed no encouragement from us, but cracked on more sail until +her long main-mast reeled and bent over, as she came up on the breaking +ridge of a wave, like a whip-stalk. By noon the clouds had gone, +and left us a clear sky, with the gale going down into a full top-gallant +breeze, sending the corvette along good eleven knots. We got +an observation for latitude, and five hours later we determined the +longitude and our position to be a few leagues to leeward of the Sarrana +Keys, with that bird of a schooner before us heading for the +Musquito coast.</p> +<p>“If <i>we</i> had caught a cataract of water as it rolled over our bows +in the morning, the schooner was taking <i>her</i> bath in the afternoon, +for occasionally, for five minutes at a time, there was nothing seen +of her deck, and only the masts and broad white canvas above, like +jury-sticks out of a raft. But when she did slide up with her low, +long hull shooting clean out of water, till nearly half her keel, with +the copper sheathing flashing in the sun, was visible, she looked like +a dolphin making a spring after a shoal of flying-fish. And then on +her narrow deck we could see a few fellows lashed about the fore-mast, +and a couple more abaft steering her like a thread through a +needle.</p> +<p>“We began to gain upon her now, and whenever she kept a little +away before the wind the gap between us closed more rapidly; for +the ship could evidently outcarry the schooner, and, had the breeze +freshened and the sea kept up, we could have run her under if her +masts didn’t go out of her, as we hoped and expected every minute +they would. Gradually, however, she watched her chance and hauled +up till she brought the wind barely abeam, and steered true for the +Musketeers––a bad cluster of low keys nearly surrounded by as terrible +ledges and reefs as any to be found in the Caribbean Sea.</p> +<p>“Her captain was evidently bent upon playing a desperate game, +but, if he thought he would not find another ready to lay down the +same stake, he was greatly mistaken! It was about sunset when we +made the keys, and there we went––the schooner leading us about a +mile––at a rate which would have made both vessels leap clear over +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218' name='page_218'></a>218</span> +the first ledge they struck, and perhaps have thrown summersaults +of us into the bargain. I asked the captain, who had never left my +side on the poop, if we should keep on.</p> +<p>“‘Yes, sir,’ he replied, ‘so long as we have a gun and a plank to +float it!’</p> +<p>“And, by Saint Paul! we kept on. And there was not a soul +on board the ‘Scourge,’ from the drummer-boy up, who did not +agree with the captain. How those villains on board the pirate +relished this decision we could only surmise; but, at all risks, he +held his course with a nerve that might have made the devil himself +shudder.</p> +<p>“By this time the sun was well down, and a brilliant moon was +riding high in the heavens; but, as bright as it was, the fellow who +commanded that schooner required an eye as keen as an albatross +and a hand as steady as an iron bar to guide his craft in the direction +he was going––too late for either of us to think of hauling off.</p> +<p>“He must, too, have had a thorough knowledge of the reefs and +keys, and trusted, perhaps, if he got clear himself, that the corvette, +drawing eighteen feet water and ignorant of the channel, might +touch something which would throw the game in his hands. Our +men had the ropes stretched along the decks and the battery clear +on both sides, so as to be ready to wear, or tack, or fire, as our pilot +ahead might require.</p> +<p>“The reefs were to leeward of the string of low keys, which made +the water comparatively smooth, though the wind still swept strongly +over us and sang through the rigging; and it was here the ‘Centipede’ +entered, going like wild pigeons the pair of us. The outer +reef had a fair, deep passage, and so had the next; but the inner +one presented but one narrow gateway, scarcely wide enough for a +ship to scrape through, with the whole reef one uninterrupted fringe +of black pointed rocks and roaring white breakers, which toppled +over, and boiled and eddied like a thousand whirlpools into the +smoother water inshore.</p> +<p>“As the ‘Centipede’s’ stern gave a sharp pitching jerk when she +entered this boiling gorge, we saw, in the moonlight, her head-yards +laid square, the fore and aft sails flowing in the sheets as she fell off +with wide wings and the wind on her quarter, and flew down inside +the reef.</p> +<p>“Five minutes after we too entered this maelstrom chasm, and, +though the helm was hove hard up, and the after-sails shivered, yet, +before the ‘Scourge’s’ bows, going at the rate she was, could turn +the sharp angle of that water-gate, her port bilge grated against a +coral ledge, and grooved and broomed the planks and copper away +like so much sea-weed! But yet that slight graze never stopped us +a hair’s weight, and, with additional sail, we rushed after our pilot, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219' name='page_219'></a>219</span> +mile after mile, through reef, ledge, breakers, inlets, and keys, now +braced sharp up, and again going free, until at last the fellow, having +run us a dance of full ten miles, once more emerged into the open +water, close jammed on the wind, steering nearly due east.</p> +<p>“There, Hardy!” exclaimed the commodore, “I am tired of talking; +suppose you take up the thread of the yarn. Domino, another +bottle of tinta!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220' name='page_220'></a>220</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXVII__THE_WRECK_OF_THE_CENTIPEDE' id='CHAPTER_XXXVII__THE_WRECK_OF_THE_CENTIPEDE'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXVII.<br /><br />THE WRECK OF THE “CENTIPEDE.”</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Gun bellows forth to gun, and pain<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Rings out her wild, delirious scream;</span><br /> +Redoubling thunders shake the main,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Loud crashing falls the shot-rent beam.</span><br /> +The timbers with the broadsides strain;<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The slippery decks send up a steam</span><br /> +From hot and living blood; and high<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And shrill is heard the death-pang cry!”</span><br /> + <br /> +“She struck where the white and fleecy waves<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Looked soft as carded wool;</span><br /> +But the cruel rocks they gored her side<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Like the horns of an angry bull.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Piron</span> turned his gaze toward the first lieutenant, moved away +the full glasses of wine, which he had never raised to his lips since +the commodore began, and, resting his bloodless cheek on his other +hand, listened.</p> +<p>“It’s vera interesting indeed.” “Tear an’ ages, boy! Fire away!” +quoth the Scotchman and his Milesian crony in a breath.</p> +<p>Hardy threw his arm over the shoulder of Harry Darcantel as if +it was a pleasant Corinthian column to lean upon, and breaking off +the ashes of his cigar on the rim of a wine-glass which he had specially +devoted to that purpose, he forthwith began:</p> +<p>“I am quite confident, gentlemen, that I can not describe what +afterward took place so well as Commodore Cleveland, but, at all +events, I’ll do my best. Nor do I remember very distinctly the +events of the night after we got out of the Musketeers Keys; for I +was pretty well fagged out myself, and all of us who had the watch +below turned in to take the first wink of sleep we could catch for +forty hours.</p> +<p>“The next morning, however, when I took the deck, I found the +corvette under royals and flying-jib, with a fresh trade wind blowing +from about east-northeast, and a smooth sea; though close hauled as +we were, and going ten knots, the spray was flying well up the weather +leech of the fore-sail. The ‘Centipede’ was about a mile and a half +ahead, jammed on the wind, and trying all she could to eat the wind +out of us; but, as the commodore there said at the time, he had +thrown that trick away when he cut off eight or ten feet of his fore-mast, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221' name='page_221'></a>221</span> +and made a brigantine of the craft, so that he could not brace +his head-yards sharper, or lie nearer the wind than we did.</p> +<p>“I remember, also, that two or three of the officers and half a +hundred of the sailors were very anxious to pitch shot at the chase +from the long eighteen in the weather bridle port; but the captain +refused, and said we might lose a cable’s length or two in yawing +off to fire, and it would be better to save the powder until we could +slam a broadside into him. But all the while that ‘Centipede’ was +handled and steered in such a thorough seamanlike manner, and +proved herself such a beautiful sea-boat, that I doubt if there was a +man on board the ‘Scourge’ who would not have given a year’s pay +to have taken her whole, and only expended a spare top-mast studding-sail +halliards for the necks of her crew.</p> +<p>“From the top-gallant forecastle we could see every thing that +took place on the schooner’s deck: sometimes a lot of fellows forward +reeving some fresh gear, peering about the low bowsprit, or +putting on a seizing to a traveler on the jib-stay; with a chap or two +aloft stitching a chafing-mat on the lee backstays; and then aft a man +shinning up the main shrouds with a tin pot hung around his neck, +greasing the jaws of the main gaff, and twitching a wrinkle out of +the gaff-top-sail, so that it would lie as flat as this dining-room table +set on end.</p> +<p>“But always, from the very first moment we descried her––before +the hurricane and afterward––there were two fellows abaft by the +taffrail. One a large fat man, in a long dark dress, who appeared at +times to be leaning over the rail as if he were sea-sick; and the other +a spare, tall-built fellow, who sat there with a quadrant in his hands +and smoking cigars, measuring the distance between the two vessels +as if he were a government surveyor, and especially appointed to +make a hydrographical chart of the Caribbean Sea. Occasionally, +too, we could see him approach the binnacle, spread a chart on the +deck at his feet, examine it closely with a pair of dividers in his +hands, and then he would return to his seat on the taffrail, cigar in +his mouth and quadrant to his eye as before.</p> +<p>“Nor were we idle on board the ‘Scourge;’ for when the breeze +lulled we slacked up the lower rigging and stays, got down all extra +weight and hamper from the tops, sent the watch below to the berth-deck +with a round shot apiece in their hammocks, moved a couple +of carronades about the spar-deck till we got the ship in the best +sailing trim, and then we went skipping and springing through the +water with the elasticity of an India-rubber ball.</p> +<p>“At noon the sailing-master reported the position of the ship to +be two hundred and eighty miles from the nearest land, which was +the Darien Coast. So all that day and all that night, with a moon +to make a lover weep to see, we went bowling after our waspish +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222' name='page_222'></a>222</span> +consort in hopes before long of taking the sting out of her. No kite +ever pursued its quarry with a keener eye than we did. No hound +ever leaped after a wolf with the froth streaming from his jaws and +blood-red thirsty eyes, than did the ‘Scourge’ chase that infamous +pirate. The delay only made our eyes sparkle and our teeth sharper +in expectation; for we knew we would have our prey sooner or later, +and it was only a bite and a pleasure deferred.</p> +<p>“The next morning and all the day there was no change to speak +of in our respective positions. The ‘Centipede’ went skimming on +over the water with every thread of canvas she could spread, reeling +over on her side at times when the breeze freshened, while the spray +flashed up joyously and sparkled in the sun, leaving a bubbling current +of foam in her wake, which, before it had been entirely lost in +the regular waves of the sea, the corvette’s sharp bows would plunge +into, and again make it flash high up to her fore-yard, and then go +seething, and hissing, and kissing her black sides until it rippled +around her rudder and was lost again in the wake astern.</p> +<p>“And all the time that man sat with a cigar in his mouth on the +pirate’s taffrail, while Commodore Cleveland there stood with a spy-glass +to his eye on the poop of the ‘Scourge.’</p> +<p>“You may imagine, gentlemen,” continued Hardy, as he again +knocked the ashes off his cigar, “that going to sea is attended with +some few discomforts, such as battening down the hatches in a sirocco +in the Mediterranean off Tripoli; a simoom in the China Seas; a +bitter northwest gale off Barnegat, with the rigging and sails frozen +as hard as an iceberg; but if a man can catch forty winks of sleep +once in a while, whether in a hammock, or on an oak carronade slide +with the breech of a gun for a pillow, he may manage to weather +through it. But from the moment we first saw that pirate till we +saw the last of him, neither the first lieutenant of the ‘Scourge’ nor +the commander of the ‘Centipede’ once closed their eyes, unless––well, +I won’t anticipate.”</p> +<p>Piron reached over his hand and shook that of his friend Cleveland +convulsively.</p> +<p>“Vera weel, mon! vera weel!” “He’s the very man to do it!” +said Stewart and Burns to Stingo, nodding backward at the commodore.</p> +<p>Another striking contrast to the hand-shaking, virtuous compact +between Captain Brand and his friend, the pious padre Ricardo! I +wonder if they are shaking hands now! Probably not.</p> +<p>“Gentlemen,” resumed Hardy, as he shook the ashes level in his +wine-glass, as if he wished to preserve them to clean his teeth with +after smoking, “I will not detain you much longer. Both vessels +were making great speed, and long before sunset we had been keeping +a bright look-out for the land. At last it was reported, trending +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223' name='page_223'></a>223</span> +all around both bows, low and with a trembling mirage of pines and +mangroves looming up, and a multitude of rocky keys dead ahead. +We were steering directly for Las Mulatas Islands, a cluster then +little known to any navigators save, perhaps, the buccaneers of the +Gulf of Columbus, and perhaps, too, with the intention of running +us just such another dance as our pilot had a night or two before. +However, we were again all prepared to explore the unknown reefs; +and, moreover, we got the starboard anchor off the bow, and bent +the cables to that and the spare anchors amidships, so as to be all +ready to moor ship in case our pilot required us to do so. And likewise +the cutters were hanging clear from the davits––the same boats +which had once before paid a complimentary visit to some of his +friends––supposing he would like to entertain us in person.</p> +<p>“The sun went down again in a fiery blaze, and with its last ray +there slowly rose to the main truck of the pirate a swallow-tailed +black flag, with a white skull and cross-bones in the dark field. It +fluttered for a moment out straight and clear, and then twisted itself +around the thin mast, never more to be released by hands or halliards! +That was the last glimpse those pirates ever caught of the +murderous symbol they had so often fought and sailed under; and it +was the last sun that a good many aching eyes ever looked upon who +were sailing there in that half league of blue water. The moon, however, +was riding bright and beaming, as clear as a bell, overhead, and +that was all the light we cared for. The ‘Centipede,’ no doubt, +would have preferred no moon at all, with a cloudy sky and a bit of +a rain squall, to pursue the intricate navigation before her; but Heaven +arranged the atmospheric scenery otherwise.</p> +<p>“‘By the deep eight!’ sang out the leadsman in the port chains. +‘The mark five!’ came from the opposite side. ‘Another cast, lads––quick!’ +‘And a half four!’ ‘Six fathoms, sir!’</p> +<p>“‘We must have stirred up the sand, Cleveland,’ said the captain; +but even as he spoke the man in the starboard chains cried, ‘Three +fathoms, sir!’ and while each instant we expected the ship to bring +up all standing, and the masts to go by the board, the other leadsman +sung out, joyfully, ‘No bottom with the line, sir!’</p> +<p>“Well, we were safely through that bed of coral, doing, no doubt, +some trifling damage to the tender shoots and branches, as we flew +through a narrow channel, with the waves breaking and moaning on +the sandy shores over the keys, out into deep water again.</p> +<p>“Four or five miles beyond stood out a bluff rock, looking in the +moonlight like a dozing lion with his paws crossed before him, ready +to bound upon any who should approach his lair in the dense jungle +of pines and tangled thickets which stood up like a bristling mane on +the ridge behind.</p> +<p>“The ‘Centipede’ was now but a short half-mile ahead of us, her +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224' name='page_224'></a>224</span> +deck alive with men, and manifestly ready for some desperate devilment. +On her after rail, too, stood that man, tall and erect, his feet +steadied by the cavil of the main boom, a spy-glass to his eye, and +looking at the rocky lion now close aboard him, still with a cigar in +his mouth; and we thought we could even see the thin puffs of smoke +curling around his face. Suddenly, too, we saw the spy-glass whirled +around his head, and at the instant the vessel fell dead off before the +wind, the great main-sail flew over with a stunning crash and clatter +of blocks and sheets as the wind caught it on the other quarter, making +the long switch of a mast to spring like a bow, while the weather-shrouds +slacked up for a moment in bights, and then came back +taut with a twang you might have heard a mile! We could now +see, as the space opened behind the rock, another frightful jagged +ledge, on which the rollers were heaving in liquid masses high up a +precipitous rock, and where the channel was not a cable’s length +wide, leading into a foaming gloomy inlet, where not even the beams +of the moon could penetrate! I heard the captain say, in his old decided +way,</p> +<p>“‘Now for it, Cleveland! You take the battery, and I’ll look out +for the ship!’</p> +<p>“Then, gentlemen,” said Hardy, with unusual animation, as he +waved his right arm aloft with an imaginary cutlass swinging over +his head, “came the word ‘Fire!’</p> +<p>“Yes, the entire starboard broadside, round shot, grape, and canister, +all pointed toward a centre, were delivered with one simultaneous +shock––the hurricane a mere cat’s-paw in comparison––which +shook the corvette as if she had struck a rock, while the smoke and +sheets of flame spouted out from the cannon, half hiding the black +torrent which gushed forth from so many hoarse throats; and as the +roar of the concussion was taken up in terrible echoes from the lion +on the rock, a peppering volley of musket-balls from the marines on +the poop and forecastle made a barking tenor to the music.</p> +<p>“Meanwhile the helm of the ‘Scourge’ was hove hard down, and +as she just swirled, by a miracle, clear of the ledge under our lee, +and came up to the wind with the sails slamming and banging hard +enough to send the canvas out of the bolt-ropes, the courses were +clewed up, every thing aloft came down by the run; anchor after +anchor went plunging to the bottom, and before the cables had fairly +begun to fly out of the hawse-holes with their infernal jar and rattle, +high above the sounds of flapping sails, snapping blocks, running +chains, and what not, came another clear order, ‘Fire!’</p> +<p>“Then pealed out the port broadside at a helpless, dismasted hulk +within two hundred yards of our beam, rolling like a worm-eaten log +on the top of a ruffled broad roller, going to break, in ten seconds, +on the ledge, whose pointed rocks stood up like black toothed fangs +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225' name='page_225'></a>225</span> +to grind its prey to atoms! But before the fangs closed upon it our +own teeth gave it a shake; and as the breath of our bull-dogs was +swept aft by the fresh breeze, we could see the sluggish mass almost +rise bodily out of water as it was torn and split by the round iron +wedges, the fragments flying up in dark, ragged strips and splinters +with squirming ropes around them, looking, in the moonlight, like +skeletons of gibbeted pirates tossed, gallows and chains, into the air, +and then coming down in dips and splashes into the unforgiving +water.</p> +<p>“A minute later, all that was left of the shattered hull fell broadside +into the open fangs of the ledge, which ground it with <a name="P13"></a>its merciless +jaws into toothpicks. But in all the lively music and destruction +going on around us––which takes longer to tell than to act––we heard +no human voice save one, and that came in a loud, terrified yell amid +the crunching roar of the ledge,</p> +<p>“‘<i>O Madre! Madre dolorosa!</i>’</p> +<p>“This, gentlemen, was the last sound that came from the piratical +schooner ‘Centipede.’”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226' name='page_226'></a>226</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXVIII__VULTURES_AND_SHARKS' id='CHAPTER_XXXVIII__VULTURES_AND_SHARKS'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXVIII.<br /><br />VULTURES AND SHARKS.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>“Oh ho! oh ho! Above! below!</span><br /> +Lightly and brightly they glide and go;<br /> +The hungry and keen on the top are leaping,<br /> +The lazy and fat in the depths are sleeping!”<br /> + <br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'>“Ah! well-a-day! What evil looks</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.34375em;'>Had I from old and young;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1.5625em;'>Instead of the cross, the albatross</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.34375em;'>About my neck was hung.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>When</span> Hardy had concluded his part of the tale, he stuck the stump +of his cigar into the wine-glass of ashes, as if he had no farther use +for either, moistened his throat with a bumper of tinta, and almost +unconsciously passed his left arm around Harry Darcantel’s neck.</p> +<p>Stingo drank two bumpers, as if he had a particularly parched +throat; but Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart, strange to relate, never +wet their lips, and passed their hands in a careless way across their +eyes, as if there were moisture enough there––as, indeed, there was; +feeling, as they did, in the founts of their own generous natures, for +their dear friend who sat opposite.</p> +<p>Piron’s head rested, face downward, on his outspread hands, and +a few drops trickled through his close-pressed fingers, but they were +not wine. And as he raised his head and looked around the board, +where glowing, sympathizing eyes met his, he said, in a low, subdued +voice,</p> +<p>“I trust I may thank Heaven for avenging the murder of our +child!”</p> +<p>Even as he uttered these words, his gaze rested on the face of +Darcantel; and striking the table with a blow that made the glasses +jingle, he started back, as he had done on the frigate’s quarter-deck, +and exclaimed,</p> +<p>“Great God! can it be possible that that boy was saved from the +clutches of the drowned pirate!”</p> +<p>Not so fast, good Monsieur Piron––not so fast. Your boy was +saved, and Captain Brand was not drowned. So keep quiet for a +time, and you shall not only see that bloody pirate, but hear how he +departed this life; only keep quiet!</p> +<p>Paddy Burns said, with a violent attempt at indignation, “Wirra, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227' name='page_227'></a>227</span> +ye spalpeen! is it thinking of old Clinker and his ’arthquake ye are?” +While Tom Stewart ejaculated, “Heeh, mon! are you for breaking +the commodoor’s decanters and wine-glasses, in the belief that ye are +the eerthquak yersel?” Stingo, who was more calm, and a less excitable +Creole, merely murmured, “Commodore, we want to hear +more of what took place, and then what became of you for the past +sixteen or seventeen years.”</p> +<p>“You shall hear more if you are not tired, gentlemen, though I +have very little to add to what Hardy has already related of the +‘Centipede.’ Steward, let the servants turn in; and brew us, yourself, +a light jorum of Antigua punch! Now, then,” said Commodore +Cleveland, “I’m your man!</p> +<p>“After we had scaled the guns on both sides of the ‘Scourge,’ as +Hardy has told you, the captain thought it an unnecessary trouble to +lower the boats to pick up the chips floating about the mouth of the +channel; and, besides, it would have been a bit dangerous, since the +sea was coming in savagely, boiling about the ship, with a very uncertain +depth of water around and under us; and, moreover, we had +our hands full the best part of the night in reeving new running-gear, +bending a new sail or two that had flapped to pieces when every +thing was let go by the run in coming to anchor. However, before +morning, we were in cruising trim once more, and ready to cut and +run in case it was expedient to lose our ground-tackle, and get out +of what we afterward learned was the Garotte Gorge. But by sunrise +the wind fell away into a flat calm, and with the exception of +the long, triple row of rollers heaving in occasionally from seaward, +we lay as snug and quiet as could be.</p> +<p>“After breakfast the quarter boats were lowered, and Hardy took +one, and I got in the other, and we pulled in toward the jaws of the +channel, between the Lion Rock and the ledge on the opposite +side.</p> +<p>“There were still a good many fragments of the wreck, which had +escaped the reacting current out to sea, floating about on the water; +some of the timbers, too, of the hull were jammed in the black gums +of the ledge, shrouded in sea-weed and kelp, as if all had grown there +together. Farther on was part of the fore-mast and top-mast, swimming +nearly in mid-channel, anchored as it were by one of the shrouds––twisted, +perhaps, around a sharp rock below. The top-sail was still +fast to the yards, hoisted and sheeted home, and laid in the water +transversely to the masts, just as it fell under the raking fire of our +first broadside, jerking over the main-top-mast with it.</p> +<p>“A myriad of sea-birds, from Mother Carey’s chickens to gulls and +cormorants, and even vultures and eagles from the shore, were clustered +on the wreck as thick as bees––screaming, croaking, and snapping +at each other with their hard beaks and bills, while thousands +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228' name='page_228'></a>228</span> +more were hurrying in from seaward, and either swooped down over +the ledge, or tried to find a place on the floating spars.</p> +<p>“The gorge, too, was alive with barracoutas and sharks, leaping +out of water, or with their stiff triangular fins cutting just above the +surface, and sometimes even grazing the blades of the cutter’s oars. +I pulled slowly toward the wreck of the fore-mast, and hooked on to +the reef-cringle of the fore-top-sail. The birds did not move at our +approach, and one old red-eyed vulture snapped on the polished bill +of the boat-hook, leaving the marks of his beak in the smooth iron. +Down in the clear green depths, too, the water was alive with ravenous +fish, and we could see at times hundreds of them with their +heads fastened on to some dark object, rolling it, and biting it, and +pulling every way, with now and then the glance of a clean-picked +bone shining white in the limpid water as the mass was jerked out +of our sight.</p> +<p>“The bowmen, however, attracted my attention, and one of them +sang out, as he pointed with his finger, ‘I say, Mr. Cleveland, here’s +the captain and his priest lying in the belly of the top-sail!’</p> +<p>“I walked forward, while the men fired a few pistols to scare away +the birds, and looked in. There, about a foot below the water, lay +one drowned man and half the body of another, who had evidently +been cut in twain by a twenty-four pound shot at the stomach, leaving +only a few revolting shreds of entrails dangling beneath the carcass. +The other corpse was a large, burly, fat man, wrapped in a +black cassock, with a knotted rope to confine it at the midriff, and +around his thick bare neck was a string of black beads, holding a gold +and ebony crucifix, pendent in the water. The eyes of the one with +half a body had been picked out by the gulls, but he still possessed a +fang-like tusk, sticking through a hare-lip under a fringe of wiry mustache, +which gave me a tolerable correct idea of his temper even without +seeing his eyes. The truck and shivered stump of the main-top-mast, +too, with the piratical flag still twisted around it, lay across his +chest; but, as we approached, an eagle seized it in his beak, and, +tearing it in tattered shreds, flew aloft, with the remains of the parted +halliards streaming below his talons.</p> +<p>“The large lump rolling slowly over beside him had the crown of +the head shaved, and the mouth and eyes were wide staring open, as +if it was chanting forth a misericordia for his own soul. As I stood +gazing at these revolting objects, and while the men were firing pistols +and slashing the oars and boat-hooks around to drive away the +greedy birds, a huge pelican, unmindful of powder or ash, made one +dashing swoop into the sail, and as he came up and spread his broad +pinions––nearly as broad as the sail itself––he held in his pouch the +crucifix from the padre’s neck, and as he slowly flapped his great +wings and sailed away, with the beads dropping pit-a-pat-pat on the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229' name='page_229'></a>229</span> +glassy surface of the water, a cloud of cormorants, gulls, and vultures +took after him to steal his plunder.</p> +<p>“At the same time the sharks––many of them resting their cold, +sharp noses on the very leech of the top-sail––waiting like hungry +dogs for a bone, with a thousand more diving and cutting in the +water beneath, at last cut through the canvas belly of the sail, and, +before you could think, the floating corpses were within their serrated +jaws. In another moment the bodies rose again to the surface +outside the sail and wreck; then another dash from the monsters, +and a greedy dive and peck from the birds; a few bubbles and shreds +of black threads, and that was the last of those wretches until the +sea shall give up its dead.</p> +<p>“As for Hardy, he pulled higher up the gorge, and examined the +rocks and pools on both sides, but saw nothing living or dead, and +we both returned to the ship.”</p> +<p>Had Dick Hardy landed at the flat rock where the eddy swept in +under the Lion’s paws, he might have seen the footprint of a man, +with a straw slipper in it; and following the track a few yards farther, +he would have passed his sword through a villain lying bleeding +in a mangrove thicket; and found, too, in his belt, snugly stowed +away, a lot of gleaming jewels, with a sapphire gem of priceless value +on the finger of his bloody hand. But never mind, Hardy! You +will hear more of that man one of these days, and you will have no +cause for regrets––though he will, perhaps; and, meanwhile, let him +wander in quest of fresh villainies over Spanish South America.</p> +<p>“Well, gentlemen,” resumed Commodore Cleveland, “although I +have doubts whether the mangled carcass we saw in the sail was the +captain of that notorious ‘Centipede,’ yet I felt confident at the time, +and do now, that it was scarcely possible for him or a man of his crew +to have escaped our fire and the water and rocks combined. So that +evening, when the land-wind made, we tripped anchor and sailed +away from the coast of Darien.”</p> +<p>“Come, my friends,” said Piron, in a low, tremulous voice, rising +as he spoke, “we must not push Cleveland too far to-night, for it is +getting late, you know, and they keep early hours on board men-of-war.”</p> +<p>“No hurry, Piron! I’ll talk to you all night, if you have the patience +to listen to me. No? Then I’ll have the boat manned.” He +touched a bell-rope which hung over his head, and the cabin door +opened. “Orderly, my compliments to the officer of the watch, and +desire him to call away the barge.”</p> +<p>While some of the gentlemen in the forward cabin left the table, +and stood about in groups chatting till the boat was reported, Piron +put his arm around the commodore’s belt, and they moved aft into +the starboard stateroom. Little Mouse was lying sound asleep on +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230' name='page_230'></a>230</span> +the elegant cot, with all his clothes on, but with a smile on his lips, +and dreaming, maybe, of the dear widowed mother he would one of +those days make proud of him.</p> +<p>“Cleveland, my old friend, tell me more of that young Darcantel!”</p> +<p>“Hist! Piron, don’t wake little Tiny! There’s nothing to tell +more than he is my adopted nephew, and the son of the gentleman +who occupies that stateroom opposite. But when we go out to +Escondido I’ll tell you about his father, who has led a very adventurous +life.”</p> +<p>“Well, good-night! You will bring young Darcantel with you, +and this little rogue, too, here in the cot. My wife and her sister +will be delighted to see you all. Good-night!”</p> +<p>As the “Monongahela’s” bell struck eight for midnight, the commodore’s +guests got in the barge and pulled toward the shore.</p> +<p>At the same time, a light gig, with handsome Harry Darcantel, +went alongside the “Rosalie,” and Commodore Cleveland turned +into his friend’s cot opposite, leaving small Mr. Mouse to sleep his +dream out till morning; while, as the barge ran up to the landing +at Kingston Harbor, and a gold ounce was slipped into the old coxswain’s +honest paw, what did they all think about? Good-night!</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231' name='page_231'></a>231</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XXXIX__ESCONDIDO' id='CHAPTER_XXXIX__ESCONDIDO'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XXXIX.<br /><br />ESCONDIDO.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“They bore her far to a mountain green,<br /> +To see what mortal never had seen;<br /> +And they seated her high on a purple sward,<br /> +And bade her heed what she saw and heard;<br /> +And note the changes the spirits wrought,<br /> +For now she lived in the land of thought.”<br /> + <br /> +“’Twixt Africa and Ind, I’ll find him out,<br /> +And force him to restore his purchase back,<br /> +Or drag by the curls to a foul death,<br /> +Cursed as his life.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Hidden</span> in a cleft of the hills of Jamaica, fifteen hundred feet above +that blue tropical sea below, on the brow of a cool valley, where that +bounding stream of white water rushes from the tall peak in the sky +in tiny cataracts, till it forms a pool there, held in by the smooth rim +of rocks, where the cane-mill is lazily turning its overshot wheel, with +the spray flying off in streaming mist, and the happy blacks stacking +the sugar-cane in even fagots as they unlade the huge carts with solid +wheels cut out of a single drum of a cotton-tree; the six or eight +yoke of oxen ahead ruminating under the shade of the tropical foliage, +with never a switch to their tails; while the lively young sea-breeze +comes flurrying up the valley, whistling among the coffee +bushes below, bending the standing cane on the slopes, rattling the +tamarinds, cocoa-nuts, and plantains, and then climbing with noisy +wings up the mountain, is lost with a whirl in the heavy cloud which +obscures the lofty peak.</p> +<p>Below the mill, where the mule-path crosses the foaming torrent +by the shaky bridge, which stands on cocoa-nut stilts, and never yet +has been thrown down by an earthquake, nestling under a precipitous +crag, stood the mountain seat of Escondido. Vines and parasitical +plants, mingled with scarlet creeping geraniums, made a living +wall of dewy green and red on the face of the hoary rock, falling over +here and there at some projecting acclivity in leafy torrents, and then +forming a glowing green cornice along the topmost edges of the +height.</p> +<p>The buildings stood on a flat esplanade below, looking down the +gorge as from the apex of a triangle, and taking in the overseer’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232' name='page_232'></a>232</span> +houses on the plantations, with their cone-shaped roofs, the fields of +cane and coffee groves, the cataract between, down to the white +snowy beach at the sea-shore, and the blue water crested by waves +as far as the sight could reach.</p> +<p>The main house was square––standing on stilts, too, like the shaky +bridge––the lower part fenced in by straight bamboos, of one story, +with a broad roomy veranda going all round, where half a dozen +grass hammocks were slung between the windows which opened +into the dwelling. A great airy saloon and dining-room faced the +valley, while six or eight cool bedchambers looked out from the rear +up at the green wall of the precipice, and down on the sparkling +stream of the mill.</p> +<p>But there were no loopholes for musketry, nor vaults and dungeons.</p> +<p>The sun had long passed the tall peaks of the blue mountains +above, and the shadows had fallen down the valley until even the +patch of white pebbly cove at the shore had become dim; and no +sounds were heard save the rustling of the sea-breeze, the splash of +the torrent as it fell off from the rickety old wheel of the cane-mill, +mingled with the shrill cries and songs of the negroes as they unloaded +the carts.</p> +<p>Yes; but there <i>were</i> other sounds––the low, sweet tones of women’s +voices––inside the villa of Escondido. Two lovely matrons were +sitting within that lofty saloon, hand clasped in hand, and gazing +with glowing pride upon a lovely girl, who waved lithe as a lily on +its stem before them.</p> +<p>It is about seventeen years since we last saw this charming trio. +And now look at them, old bachelors, and tell me if, while old Time +has been scraping the hair off your own selfish heads, and pinching +the noses, too, of the ancient maids beside you, has not the scything +old wretch spared these lovely matrons? Look at their rounded +forms, those soft dimpled cheeks, and those bands of brown tresses, +kissing the pear-shaped ears before they are looped up in one magnificent +knot of satin at the back of the head. Look at them, you +miserable old procrastinators, and then kneel down before the ancient +damsels you have sneered at, even if they have the pelican gout and +a crow’s-foot at the corners of their eyes! They are better than you +are, any day; so bear a hand, send for the parson––and now stand +back.</p> +<p>But come here, my young gallants, and take a peep at that Bordelaise +demoiselle standing before those fair matrons. Strange to say, +she is nearly a blonde, with large blue eyes, so very blue that––fringed +with lashes that cast a shade over the cheek––they seem almost +black. Then, too, that low, pure forehead, with great plaits of +hair going round and round her elegant head like a golden turban, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233' name='page_233'></a>233</span> +and thin hoops of rings quivering in the pearl-tipped ears. Tall and +waving in figure, as maidens are; with slim, arched feet, dimpled at +the ankle; and round, tapering fingers too, with a wrist so plump +and soft that no manacles of bracelets could press it without slipping +off the ivory hand. Dressed she was in a light mousseline, coyly +cowering in loose folds around her budding bosom to the slender +waist, where, clasped by a simple buckle of mother-o’-pearl, it fell +flowing in gauzy, floating waves to her feet. Look at her, my gallants, +for she is Rosalie!</p> +<p>“They are coming to-day, my aunt; and Uncle Jules says that +our dear old Captain Blunt has just arrived at Kingston, and is coming +with them.”</p> +<p>“What else, my daughter?”</p> +<p>The girl held a letter before her face, maybe to hide a little blush +which suffused her cheeks.</p> +<p>“Why, mamma, he writes that the spring-cart, with Banou, was +to start overnight with the ‘traps’––that means trunks, I suppose––and +<span class="nowrap">that––”</span></p> +<p>“What, Rosalie?”</p> +<p>“That there is a handsome young officer, the nephew of Commodore +Cleveland––<i>merci</i>, mamma! some of Uncle Jules’s nonsense!”</p> +<p>No such great nonsense, after all, mademoiselle, when your uncle +Piron tells you to keep that fluttering little heart safe within your +bodice, for there are thieves in blue jackets in the island of Jamaica. +Strange, too, as she spoke––with her animated face, large blue eyes, +and graceful, wavy figure––how much she resembled both those lovely +women, with their darker coloring, who sat smiling sweetly upon +her.</p> +<p>“Oh! here comes Uncle Banou. Well, my good Banou, what +news of your master?” said Madame Piron, as she put out her hand +to the black, who raised it respectfully to his lips.</p> +<p>“He will be here with his friends at sunset, eh! And Mademoiselle +Rosalie must place the gentlemen’s things in their rooms, and +see that the billiard-house has some cots made ready in it.”</p> +<p>“Nothing more?”</p> +<p>“No, madame.”</p> +<p>“<i>Allons!</i> Rosalie, we have no time to lose.”</p> +<p>Winding through the mazes of the tropical forest, over the broken +stony road, leading through a brilliant labyrinth of wild fig and acacia, +plume-like palms, white shafts of silk and cotton, and lance-wood, +mahogany, and ebony, parasitical plants in green and red, with endless +varieties of gay flowers strung and laced in superb festoons on +trunk and branch; singing birds and paroquets making the forest +alive; while, mingled with the delicious fragrance of orange-blossoms, +cinnamon, and pimento, the fresh breeze wheeled through clump and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234' name='page_234'></a>234</span> +leaf, changing the hues of plant and flower from white to crimson, +green, purple, and gold, as Nature painted them in gorgeous dyes.</p> +<p>Through this brilliant vegetation, along the uneven road, came the +sound of horses’ feet, with hearty shouts and laughter; and presently +appeared a cavalcade, mounted on mules and horses, all making +the forest ring with merriment.</p> +<p>Ahead came Tom Stewart, on a small, sure-footed pony; and beside +him Mr. Tiny Mouse, reefer, on a high mule, with a scrubbing-brush +mane, looking like a fly pennant at the mast-head of the frigate, +kicking his little heels into the old mule, as if that mule minded +it even so much as to shake his long ears! Then straggling in the +centre were Darcantel, Stingo, and Paddy Burns; and behind them +came a tall, muscular man, on a mettled barb, which he controlled by +a touch of his little finger. And at his side, on the most diminutive +of the donkey breed, with feet touching the ground, clung stout Jacob +Blunt, the sailor, in a more dreadful trepidation than he had ever +known on board his old teak-built brig, lying there in the Roads of +Kingston; while the rear was brought up by Piron and Commodore +Cleveland.</p> +<p>“Now, you little madcap, look sharp when we turn the curve of +the mountain, and you’ll catch a peep at Escondido; and don’t you +pinch that old mule again on her back, or she’ll pitch you up into +that silk cotton-tree.”</p> +<p>“If it pleases Providence to restore me safely to my dear old +‘Martha Blunt,’ I’ll take my davy never to sit astride of any d–– +brute on four legs again!” This mild vow came from the lips of +Jacob Blunt, and he honestly meant every word he said.</p> +<p>“Give us another jolly song, Stingo; it will keep your throat clear +for the claret.”</p> +<p>“For the sake of my old timbers, sir, and as you vally my wife’s +blessing, don’t sing! There, you infarnal beast, you’ve yawed sharp +up into this ere bush, and put my starboard glim out forever! I say, +Don Spanisher, don’t sing––<i>I’m</i> going fast enough!” shouted the +poor skipper, as he passed his paws around the little brute’s neck, +with his hat over his eyes.</p> +<p>“Colonel,” said Burns, as he reined up, and gave the perverse little +donkey a cut with his whip, which elicited another hoarse roar +from the old sailor as the animal half doubled himself up, and then +ambled away like a yawl in a short sea, until he came up to the people +ahead, when he stood stock-still and brayed maliciously, “have +you another cigar, colonel? Thankee! Fine scenery this about here––never +visited Jamaica before? Ye have been off the island, eh? +It’s a nate little spot Piron has there, that it is; and the whole of us +will be mighty sorry to lose him. Is he going to lave? Yes, he is; +and, what is worse, he is going to take his swate wife and her sister. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235' name='page_235'></a>235</span> +Is the sister handsome? Begorra! handsome? Why, man, she’s a +beauty! And didn’t I crack the elbow-joint of that ugly, abusive +divil, Peter Growler, for saying he had seen a gray hair in her head, +when I knew it was only a loose thread from her lace cap––and me +in love with her all the time. Bad luck to him! he’s never fired a pistol +since.”</p> +<p>Here Paddy Burns’s small eyes twinkled as he slowly raised the +stock of his riding-whip at a slender lance-wood-tree about twelve +yards off, and gave the lash a sharp crack.</p> +<p>The person on the spirited barb almost unconsciously put his right +hand in his pocket.</p> +<p>Take care, Paddy Burns; the colonel has a cool hand and a colder +eye, and has made a study of pistols––cannon and swivels too, perhaps. +Knows the cutlass exercise as well, and has had considerable +experience in bullets, knives, and ropes. Has murdered women––lots +of them. Wouldn’t stick at killing a child with a junk bottle. +And as for men––pshaw! Keep a bright look-out, Paddy. Why, +he’d drown your mother if you had a sister to love. For didn’t he +drag his own old father and mother down to a dishonored grave? +and do you think, you brave, honest little Irishman, that he would +sleep a wink the less sound for putting you to death? Bah! man. +Shoot all the game you spring, but don’t waste powder on a tiger or +a shark. You would like to take a mutual shot with him, though? +Of course you would––who doubts it? But then, gentlemen fight +gentlemen; and this colonel at your elbow is a scoundrel, miscreant, +villain, assassin, and––pirate! So you can’t take a crack at him, +Paddy Burns.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236' name='page_236'></a>236</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XL__PAUL_DARCANTEL' id='CHAPTER_XL__PAUL_DARCANTEL'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XL.<br /><br />PAUL DARCANTEL.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“From the strong will, and the endeavor,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>That forever</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Wrestles with the tide of fate;</span><br /> +From the wrecks of hope far scattered,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>Tempest shattered,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Floating waste and desolate.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“Well</span>, Piron, as I have told you, after the peace was made in +1815, I had command of a brig, and took a cruise on the coast of +Brazil. After that I was appointed to a thirty-six gun frigate––the +old ‘Blazer’––and went, for three years, to the East Indies, and +round home by the Pacific. When we were paid off I made a tour +in Europe with that boy’s father, Dr. Darcantel, <span class="nowrap">and––”</span></p> +<p>“But you promised to tell me, Cleveland, something about him.”</p> +<p>“Nothing easier; and, if we have half an hour before we get to +Escondido, I will give you all I know, in a general way, of his history. +Yes? Well, then, Darcantel is descended from one of the oldest +and best Creole families in our State of Louisiana, and the plantations +of my family and his father were contiguous to each other on +the Mississippi, some leagues up the coast above New Orleans. We +had the same tutor when we were children, and we grew up from +infancy to boyhood together. He was passionate and ungovernable +even as a child; but as he was the heir to a large estate, and his +father dead, his weak mother humored and allowed no one to curb +him. I myself, one of a numerous family, was put in the navy, and +I went away on cruise after cruise, and did not get home again to +the old plantation for full seven years. I was a man then, had seen +some active service, and I held a commission as a lieutenant in the +navy.</p> +<p>“In the mean while, Paul Darcantel, who had taken, at the time I +left, a strong fancy for medicine and surgery, had been sent to France +to begin his studies. How he applied himself we do not know; but +with a large letter of credit he spent a great deal of money; and we +heard that, with great talents and wonderful skill in his profession, +he was yet unfitted for close application, and plunged madly into +the vortex of dissipation around him. I heard, too––or at least my +brothers told me––that his extravagances had seriously impaired his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237' name='page_237'></a>237</span> +fortune, and that his duels had been so numerous and desperate as +to make his name dreaded even in Paris. On one occasion, at a café, +he had cut a bullying hussar’s head clean off with his own sabre for +knocking a woman down; and in another duel, where he had detected +a French count cheating him at cards, he shot his nose off for +a bet. With this unenviable reputation, and at the urgent solicitations +of his agent, after years of absence he returned to his ancestral +home. We met as of old––it was Paul and Henry––and though still +the same restive, hot-headed spirit as he had ever been, he yet always +listened patiently to what I said, and I could, in a manner, control +him. He paid very little attention to his property, however, and +when he did go to the city to consult with his factor or trustee, he +got into some wild frolic, duel, and scrape, and came back worn out +with fatigue and dissipation. He was a fine, stern-looking youth in +those days, with great muscular power, which, even with the endurance +put upon it by gaming and drinking, seemed not to be lessened.</p> +<p>“After one of these visits to New Orleans, where his long-forbearing +agents had at last awakened him to a bitter sense of his delinquencies, +and when mortgage upon mortgage were laid with all their +shocking truth before him, he returned and came to me. With all +his vices and faults, he was truthful and generous. He told me all, +and how he would try to do better, and soothe the declining years +of his too indulgent mother.</p> +<p>“I always had great faith in the companion almost of my cradle, +and I loved him, I think, better than my own brothers. Well, he +spread all his affairs before me, and in my little den of an outhouse +on the plantation we both went systematically over the papers. +We were two days and nights at the business; and when, at last, I +showed him that he would still, with a little prudent economy, have +a fair income, and eventually, perhaps, redeem his hereditary property, +he burst out in a wild yell of delight, and hugged me in his arms. +When he had put away the papers, I said,</p> +<p>“‘Paul, you know I am engaged to be married, and I have not +seen my sweetheart for two whole days; she has a sister, too, prettier +than my Fifine, whom you have never seen since we were boys +together. Come, will you go with me? We can pull ourselves +across the river.’</p> +<p>“He hesitated; and it would have been, perhaps, better had he +refused to accompany me, for dreadful misery came of it.”</p> +<p>The commodore gave a deep sigh, and touched his horse with the +spur.</p> +<p>“I don’t know, though, Piron; there is a fate marked out for us +all, and we should not exclaim against the decrees of Providence. +Paul went with me across the river. There, on the bank, was a +little bower of an old French-built stone house, where dwelt the last +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238' name='page_238'></a>238</span> +of a line of French nobility who dated back to the days of Charlemagne. +It was an impoverished family, consisting of a reckless +brother and two sisters, who, with a few acres of sugar-cane and +some old faithful servants, managed to make both ends meet, and +to support the establishment in a certain air of elegance and comfort +to which they had been accustomed. They were of a proud and +haughty race––the brother a disdainful and imperious gentleman, +smarting and brooding over the reverses of his family, and rarely +visiting his neighbors. His sisters––and they were twins––were +trustful, happy girls, and Josephine had been my childish love.”</p> +<p>Here Cleveland bent over his saddle-bow, and if the quiet old horse +he bestrode believed the large drops which fell upon his sleek neck +came from the clouds, or the drooping foliage of the forest, that animal +was never more deceived in his quadruped life. We know that +fact, for it stands upon the angelic record.</p> +<p>“Well, my dear Piron, as we entered the little saloon where Fifine +was seated at the piano, playing the sweet airs she had sung to me +when a little bit of a girl, and her beautiful sister bending over a table +near, absorbed in a book, while the candles under the glass shades +lighted up her dark passionate eyes and brunette complexion, Paul +approached her. It was not love at first sight, because they had +played together when children; but it was such a love as only begins +and dies with man or woman. The brother came in soon afterward, +but there was no love exchanged between him and Paul, and +they met in a manner which seemed to revive the early dislike they +had entertained one toward the other in boyhood.</p> +<p>“So the time passed, and in the course of a few months Josephine +and I were married, and our home was made on my own old place. +Still, night by night, in storm, calm, or freshet, Paul pulled himself +in a skiff across that mighty river, and we could see the lights shining +to a late hour in the little bower. He had changed a great deal, +for he loved with the whole force of his fiery and impetuous nature. +Pauline loved too, though still she feared him. The brother, however, +bitterly opposed their union, and stormy scenes arose. Josephine +and I did all we could to put matters on a happy footing, but +Jacques, the brother, grew more determined as his sister refused to +cast off her lover, till at last his feeling against him broke out into +open scornful insult; and though Paul still persisted in seeing Pauline, +yet we feared that the impetuous spirits of the two men would, at +any moment, burst out into open violence.</p> +<p>“Darcantel, however, controlled himself, avoided as much as possible +any altercations with Jacques, applied himself to the duties of +his plantation, and always promised me that he would wait and see +if time would not induce the brother to give his consent to the marriage. +Meanwhile Paul’s mother died. A year passed. Fifine gave +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239' name='page_239'></a>239</span> +me a little boy, who was called after me, and then I went again to +sea. Nearly three years later I returned, and the very night before +I reached the plantation a dreadful tragedy had occurred. I might, +perhaps, have prevented it had I been there, but it was ordered otherwise.</p> +<p>“It seems that two days previously Jacques wrote to Paul––I saw +the letter––and it was something painful to read; for he not only recapitulated +his vices and follies, but he taxed him with being a ruined +gambler, who had brought his mother in sorrow to the grave, and +ended by swearing, in the most solemn manner, that if he dared again +to speak to his sister or darken their doors, he would shoot him like +a dog!</p> +<p>“That evening, as usual, the skiff pursued its way across the river, +and late at night when it returned there was a fluttering white dress +in the stern. Scarcely, however, had the skiff left the bank than a +boat shoved out from the other side manned by four negroes, and +came swiftly over in pursuit. What afterward transpired I heard +from an old married couple of servants who had passed their lives +with the family. It appears that Paul, with Pauline in his arms, had +barely reached the hall of the great house, and was giving orders to +close the doors, when Jacques rushed in with a naked rapier in one +hand and a pistol in the other. Paul adjured him, by all he held sacred, +not to attack him, as his blood was up, and, unarmed as he was, +he would do him a mischief. Pauline, too, implored him by a sister’s +love to desist; but seeing him still advance, as she partially shielded +Paul, she told him that the man she loved was her husband.</p> +<p>“Blinded with haughty rage, this last admission rendered him ungovernable, +and he lunged with all his force at Darcantel. Paul parried +his rapid passes, though receiving some sharp thrusts in his arm +and shoulder, and still supporting his drooping, terrified wife on his +left arm till, by a quick spring, he got within Jacques’s guard, and, +seizing him by the wrist, wrenched the weapon from his grasp. This +was enough to make the brother totally insane by passion from baffled +revenge, when he leveled his pistol and fired. There was a faint +cry with the report, and a groan from Jacques as the sword went +through his body and heart, till the hilt struck hard against his ribs +as he fell, a dead man, on the marble pavement. But the bullet from +his pistol had pierced the fair forehead of his sister, and she lay a +bridal corpse in her husband’s arms. It was horrible.</p> +<p>“I spare you all the afflicting details, Piron, and will only add that +Paul left the plantation that night, and when I got home I found an +envelope post-marked ‘New Orleans,’ inclosing a paper, which constituted +me his sole executor, and leaving our little boy his heir. I +had but a short leave of a month, and duty called me again away. +It was on the anniversary of the day the tragedy occurred, after another +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240' name='page_240'></a>240</span> +long interval of four years in the ‘Scourge,’ that I again returned, +and then there was wailing and moaning in my own dwelling. +My poor Josephine had never recovered from the shock; she +drooped away like a lily, her little boy by her side, and both died +during my absence.”</p> +<p>What makes the strong man’s eyelids quiver and voice tremble––those +eyes that have looked calmly on death and carnage in every +shape, with his deep, calm voice cheering on the men to battle at his +side? Ah!</p> +<p>“It was midnight, and I walked out to the little grave-yard where +my fathers had been buried, and bending my steps to a cluster of +magnolias on a little mound by itself, I––I––a––kneeled down beside +the sod where reposed all I had loved on earth! I do not know how +long I remained there, but presently I heard a groan near by, and a +tall man rose up from where he had been stretched, face downward, +on the ground, and I beheld Paul Darcantel! I could hardly recognize +him at first, for he seemed fifty years older than when we had +last parted.</p> +<p>“‘Cleveland,’ he said, in a hollow, choking voice, ‘forgive me! I +am a changed, and, I trust, a better man. I have been drawn to this +holy spot by the same errand which brought you hither, and though +I did not expect to meet you, yet I am glad of it now. Speak, and +say you forgive me, and you will shed a ray of hope and salvation +into the heart of one who will suffer unto the end! Speak!’</p> +<p>“Old memories crowded around me, and I saw before me the child +in the cradle, and with our arms round each other’s necks as we +played together. I forgot, for the moment, the sisters lying there––bride, +mother, and baby-boy. The magnolias bowed their white +flowers in the light of the waning moon, and we fell again into each +other’s arms.</p> +<p>“After a time he said, ‘My only friend, I have brought home with +me a little helpless boy; he is named Henry, after you, and will take +the place of the lost little one lying here. Whoever of us survives +shall inherit that estate. Come with me and look at him!’</p> +<p>“He led me to the other mound, and there, beside the tree, a beautiful +child lay calmly sleeping, wrapped in a sailor’s jacket, with his +curls escaping from a straw hat, and the head resting on one arm on +the grave beneath him.</p> +<p>“‘Be good to him,’ Paul went on, ‘for the sake of those we have +lost ourselves! His mother’s name was Rosalie.’</p> +<p>“He stooped down as he said this, and, raising the boy in his +arms, he kissed him passionately, and then put him gently in mine. +‘Let him kneel sometimes at this grave, my friend, and pray for me.’</p> +<p>“In another moment Paul Darcantel had gone. The little fellow +partly woke, and put his arms affectionately around my neck, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241' name='page_241'></a>241</span> +whispered ‘Mamma! mamma!’ That dashing, brave young fellow +ahead there was once that boy.</p> +<p>“Well, I took the child to the house, where my good mother and +sisters went wild over him, and there he passed a happy boyhood. +Years went by, and he grew apace, the pride and delight of us all; +and as he evinced the greatest fondness for me and the accounts I +gave him of my life at sea, I had him appointed a reefer in the navy. +Since that he has seen a great deal of service; been distinguished in +action; and, on shipboard as well as on shore, liked and respected by +all who know him.</p> +<p>“In the mean while his father went away, nobody knew whither, +for years and years. He wrote to me, however, and to his son, from +all parts of the world; and when I made the tour in Europe I spoke +about, Darcantel was my companion. But while there he passed a +retired life, never went into society, but visited every hospital in every +sea-port from the Mediterranean to Aberdeen in Scotland; for he +is not only a surgeon, as I have reason to know, of wonderful skill, +but a thorough-bred seaman too; and when he has been with me on +board ship there is no one whose opinion of the weather, or other +nautical matters, do I place greater reliance on. I could tell you of +half a dozen times when his advice to me has saved serious damage. +And during all these years Darcantel’s estates, under the careful supervision +of my eldest brother, have been redeemed from their load +of debt, and now he enjoys a noble income––or, rather, he spends +nothing on himself, but devotes it to widows and orphans, and sick +or worn-out sailors.</p> +<p>“In the seventeen years which have gone by since he brought his +child to me he has made several visits of a month or two’s duration +to the plantations, but only when Henry was on leave from duty. +Then it was a pleasant sight to see them both together, and the +touching air of affection which bound the youth to his father. Henry, +from a child, often went and prayed beside the grave under the +magnolias, and to this day he believes that his own mother lies buried +there. Perhaps it is as well that he should cherish this early belief; +for I may tell you in confidence, Piron, that we believe there at +home that he is the illegitimate offspring of some erring passion of +Darcantel, though none of us have ever learned it positively from his +father’s lips. He is not a person to be questioned by any one, not +even by me; and as he seems anxious to throw a thick veil over the +past, we never venture to draw it aside.</p> +<p>“When, however, I was appointed to my present command, Darcantel +desired to sail with me, and see the West India Islands, which +he had not visited for an age. I was only too happy to have him, +especially as Harry there––whom I love like a father––was named to +the little schooner he had cut out in Africa on his last cruise, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242' name='page_242'></a>242</span> +ordered to join my squadron. But whenever we get into port his +father goes quietly on shore; passes his time, I think, among the +sailors of the foreign shipping, spending money freely among the +deserving, and again coming back in his calm, stern way. He told +me, however, Piron, yesterday, that perhaps he might accept your +kind invitation to come up here, though not for some days. By +George!” said the commodore, “that must be Escondido!”</p> +<p>Piron sighed as if a pleasant dream had vanished.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243' name='page_243'></a>243</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XLI__INSTINCT_AND_WONDER' id='CHAPTER_XLI__INSTINCT_AND_WONDER'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XLI.<br /><br />INSTINCT AND WONDER.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“‘Ho! sailor of the sea!<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>How’s my boy––my boy?’</span><br /> +‘What’s your boy’s name, good wife,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And in what good ship sailed he?’”</span><br /> + <br /> +“Through the night, through the night,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>In the saddest unrest,</span><br /> +Wrapped in white, all in white,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>With her babe on her breast,</span><br /> +Walks the mother so pale,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Staring out on the gale,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 4.6875em;'>Through the night!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>As</span> the cavalcade trotted round the curve of the peak, and then +walked the cattle down the steep zigzag road of the beautiful valley, +the commodore said, “But, Piron, tell me who that large man is with +the black hair and blue eyes.”</p> +<p>“Why, Cleveland, all I know of him is that he landed at Kingston +in a vessel from the Isthmus of Panama, and is going to Cuba on his +way to England. He came to me, hearing that I was the consignee +of old Blunt’s older brig, bound to New Orleans, and so home, to +know if he could be dropped at St. Jago, where he has some property +or debts to collect; and since the old skipper has no objection, +he has taken passage in the brig when she goes with me and my +family. I have since met him––he calls himself Colonel Lawton––at +dinners of our set, and he seems to be an Englishman or Scotchman. +Tom Stewart thinks the latter from his accent, and for his liking for +snuff; but Paddy Burns differs, and believes he don’t like snuff, but +only takes it to show his splendid box. Any way, he speaks all languages, +Spanish, French, Italian, and English, and can talk slang in +them all like a native. He has served, too, from his own account, +with Bolivar there on the Spanish Main; and he was with Cochrane +in that desperate affair of cutting out the ‘Esmeralda’ in Callao Bay. +A very amusing, entertaining vagabond he is, and I asked him to +join us to make the acquaintance of my people on our last frolic to +the valley; but, somehow, I am rather sorry that I gave him a passage +with us in the brig, for I don’t altogether like his looks.”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244' name='page_244'></a>244</span></div> +<p>“Neither do I, Piron; his hair is too black for his light blue eyes. +However, we must make the most of him.”</p> +<p>Over the shaky bridge of the torrent, where Jacob Blunt prayed +earnestly for Martha Blunt, and d––d his donkey as if he had never +rocked on water before; Mr. Mouse, with a last tiny kick on the +saddle-flaps of his lofty mule, tumbled off; Colonel Lawton swinging +himself from the saddle of his barb as if he had been part of him; Tom +Stewart, Paddy Burns, and Don Stingo sliding off any way; Harry +Darcantel trying to descend in fine style, and failing miserably; Piron +and the commodore doing the thing leisurely; Jacob Blunt pulled +off bodily; while the laughing blacks took the beasts and led them +away.</p> +<p>There were three pair of eyes that watched all this grace and +clumsiness from the windows of the saloon. Two pair of dark ones +smiled, and the pair of blue opened until they seemed like azure +globes, and then they closed until the fringe of chestnut lashes nearly +hid them from sight.</p> +<p>“Colonel Lawton, do me the favor to follow my old friend Banou––you +too, Captain Jacob, and Lieutenant Darcantel and Mr. Mouse; +Paddy Burns and Stingo, here, will show you your quarters in the +old billiard-room. Come, commodore, the rest of us will find quarters +in the casa.”</p> +<p>An hour later the saloon and sala were all alight, and the sashes +of the jalousies closed, for it was cool at times up there at Escondido. +There, too, stood the party of gentlemen, Mr. Mouse being a prominent +figure in the background. Then came a rustling of robes, and +as the great folding doors swung open, the three ladies lit up the saloon +in a halo of loveliness with brighter rays than were shed from +the wax-lights in the chandelier. Two fair hands were placed in +those of Cleveland, and the look which accompanied went back to +the happy morning on the old brig’s deck, away off there to sea.</p> +<p>“Oh, monsieur, I can not say how glad I am to see you once more! +Let me present you to my sister, Madame Nathalie Delonde, and <i>our</i> +daughter. Ah! my dear Captain Blunt, both your children before +you again, and you have come to take us away.”</p> +<p>“Colonel Lawton, <i>ma chère</i>,” said Piron.</p> +<p>“And, mesdames,” said the commodore, “let me also present my +nephew, Lieutenant Darcantel, and Mr. Mouse.”</p> +<p>What caused that woman to start as the girl took the tiny reefer +by the hand, and impulsively clasped those white hands together, +while her heart beat in yearning throbs, and her bosom rose and fell +like billows by the shore? Why did she then raise one hand to her +fair neck, and, as if in a dream, feel for the golden links of the chain, +with the other hand pressed to her panting heart for the locket which +once reposed there? How was it that, bewildered by a mother’s instinct, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245' name='page_245'></a>245</span> +she gazed at the youth before her, and then turned her eyes +hopelessly around in search of her husband in the crowd?</p> +<p>“Yes, madame. This is my nephew, Henry Darcantel.”</p> +<p>“Ah! Henri! Excuse me, <i>monsieur</i>. I am charmed to see you!”</p> +<p>Why, now, did the touch of his hand make her heart beat faster, +and send a thrill of joy through her frame? Only be a little calm, +madame, for a while longer, and don’t be sad and ponder all night, +like your good Jules Piron does habitually. Wait; Jules will tell +you all <i>he</i> knows when you are alone to-night.</p> +<p>The doors of the sala were thrown open. The broad pennant leading +with Madame Rosalie; the military chieftain marching beside +Madame Nathalie, much to the animosity of Paddy Burns. Then +Mr. Mouse convoying mademoiselle, to the infinite disgust of the +commander of the “Rosalie,” one-gun schooner, formerly the “Perdita.” +But what made that old negro in spotless white, standing at +the door, jerk his head back and open his great eyes till there was +no black left in them? And why did he blunder about the table +afterward, and pour wine over the colonel’s richly-laced coat, while +staring like an ogre at the young blue-jacket opposite? That old +Banou, perhaps, did not like to see his young mistress too much attended +to by every gay scamp who came near her. Oh no; of course +not. But then, if that brawny negro in white had only known over +whose arm and mutilated hand he was pouring light wine in his abstraction, +he would have crammed that heavy cut decanter in powdered +glass splinters down the chieftain’s throat. There would have +been claret of a different color spilled then––quantities of it. You +needn’t feel in your pockets, colonel, or look round the sala to see if +perchance there is a green silk rope squirming from the ceiling. We +don’t keep any of those pretty things out at Escondido. So go on +with your dinner, you cold-eyed scoundrel, and tell all the lies you +can to that lovely woman at your elbow; how you wanted to save +Bolivar’s life, and it was saved without you. Don’t forget, either, to +tell her how that patriot had you drummed out of his army, suspecting +you of having assassinated the officer near you in the confusion +of battle, and robbing him of his watch to replace the one presented +to you by the captain general. Paddy Burns is watching you, Colonel +Lawton, and that whole-souled little Irishman is not the man to +be trifled with. Now remove the covers. But take care, Banou––you +nearly twitched off the military gentleman’s hair. Tom Stewart +saw it, and he noticed, too, a broad red seam, like the track of a musket +bullet––honorable wound, no doubt––under your black glossy +wig.</p> +<p>Mr. Mouse had fallen desperately in love with the perfumed damsel +beside him, and he knew she was up to her rose-tipped ears in +love with him, oh! fifty fathoms deep; but his mother liked girls, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246' name='page_246'></a>246</span> +and he would leave her half-pay! Still he didn’t forget his adoration +for the roast duck; and he slyly swigged some Madeira too, with a +wary eye on the broad pennant through the flowers of the épergne. +Talked, too, did that reefer––ay, chattered––and said that the quiet +young officer on her left was very well liked in the steerage, and +commanded a pretty little craft named the “Rosalie.” She knew +that before, did she? Well, his father was a cold, stern man, but he +was kind and generous, and had been very good to his poor mother, +God bless him!</p> +<p>Commodore Cleveland talked in a low tone, all through the dinner, +to the lady who did not eat at the head of the table, but who occasionally +rested her white hand, with a trustful reliance, on the great +tanned-leather paw of Jacob Blunt, that honest mariner not wishing +to talk to any body, man or woman. That ancient mariner was mentally +cursing donkeys; speculating how he should get back to the +“Martha Blunt” brig, in Kingston harbor; and praying for Martha +Blunt, wife, riding at single anchor near Plymouth beach. Piron +took wine with every body, said a word or two all around the table, +and talked to Tom Stewart about certain business matters connected +with the plantation when he had gone.</p> +<p>Then came the last course, and the dessert of delicious fruits, +which quite stopped Mr. Mouse’s mouth, and even his palpitating +heart ceased beating; while Mademoiselle Rosalie nibbled some lady-finger +biscuit, and bent her graceful head to listen to the music of +the earnest lips beside her.</p> +<p>We told you, miss, how it would be; and, in spite of the warning, +there you are––the color coming and going over your girlish cheeks, +and never saying a word! “What a couple that would make!” +thought Madame Nathalie. And what a resemblance in expression +there is between them––he with his dark hair and eyes, and she fair +and blue. Be careful, my sweet Rosalie! And so thought her sister +and her sister’s husband; Stingo, too, old Banou, and every one save +Tiny Mouse, who had no rivals but Rat, Beaver, and Martin, and he +could take the wind out of their sails any day.</p> +<p>The party of ladies rose from the table, and leaving the men––all +except the captain of the “Rosalie” and Mr. Mouse, who would have +remained had he not seen a shake of the broad pennant’s finger––went +into the saloon. Then there was a brilliant prelude on the +piano, a touch of a guitar by stronger fingers, an air from an opera, +a song or two, much conversation––while Reefer Mouse slept on the +sofa––and coffee. Then it was late; every one was fatigued, <i>bon soirs</i> +were said, and the party––coffee and all––separated.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247' name='page_247'></a>247</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XLII__TRUTH_AND_TERROR' id='CHAPTER_XLII__TRUTH_AND_TERROR'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XLII.<br /><br />TRUTH AND TERROR.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“In slumbers of midnight the sailor-boy lay,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>His hammock swung loose at the sport of the wind;</span><br /> +But watch-worn and weary, his cares flew away,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And visions of happiness danced o’er his mind.”</span><br /> + <br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>“And how the sprites of injured men</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.90625em;'>Shriek upward from the sod;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>Ay! how the ghostly hand will point</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.90625em;'>To show the burial clod;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>And unknown facts of guilty acts</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.90625em;'>Are seen in dreams from God!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>In</span> a great square room, standing, as usual, on cocoa-nut stilts, +which had once been used for a billiard-room, were half a dozen iron-framed +cots, ranged along the walls, in which some of the Escondido’s +guests were to bivouac. Every thing, however, was tidy and +comfortable; snow-white bedclothes and gauze musquito nets, lots +of napkins and ewers, and things for bathing behind a screen of dimity +curtains; and not forgetting a large table––vice the billiard-table––in +the centre, on which stood plenty of sugar and limes, cinnamon +and nutmeg, bottles and flasks, red and white, and––very little water, +in jugs.</p> +<p>The occupants of this bivouac had turned in, and the lights had +been doused. Conversation, however, was kept up, especially by the +thin little voice of Mr. Mouse, who, having enjoyed a nap in the early +evening, and having been danced and tumbled about on the trip to +the lodge by Harry Darcantel, who was in tiptop condition, the reefer +was as wide awake as a blackfish. Don Stingo chanted a few convivial +airs and snored; so did Jacob Blunt, with a spluttering groan +intermixed; and Paddy Burns fell off into a doze, saying blasphemous +words addressed to the world at large, with a mutter against +the military, hoping he might look at a Bolivian patriot edgewise +with a friend and companion of his, Mr. Joe Manton, at his side; he +would put an end to any more lies about charges of cavalry, and cutting +out frigates in Callao Bay. That Paddy Burns would, though +he didn’t wear a wig and a large sapphire on the only finger he had +left on his left hand, and with a diamond snuff-box, too! Presented +to you by a connection of your family, was it? Take a pinch out of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248' name='page_248'></a>248</span> +it? D–– him, no! Begorra, the snuff is not Lundy Foot’s, and the +box is brass, sir, brass!</p> +<p>“I say, Mouse, keep quiet, will you, and let me go to sleep!” +Harry Darcantel did not think of going to sleep; that was a fib he +told the reefer; he wanted merely to shut his eyes and dream of––you +know who––a tall, graceful girl with blue eyes and light hair, +who looked at him once or twice such looks that there was no sleep +for him for ever so long. What did she say? Why, she never opened +her pouting lips to show those even pearly teeth. She only looked +out of those soft blue eyes. That was all!</p> +<p>“Mr. Darcantel, I think of getting married.”</p> +<p>“The d–– you do! And who to, pray?”</p> +<p>“Why,” said Mr. Mouse, as he rolled over and kicked the sheet +off his slate-pencil built legs, “I haven’t made up my mind; but do +you know that that pretty girl up there at the big house has taken +quite a fancy to me, and when you were presented to her mother she +gave me <i>such</i> a squeeze of the hand! Oh my!”</p> +<p>Here Mr. Mouse’s narrative was cut short by a pillow hitting him +plump on the mouth, clean through his musquito net.</p> +<p>“Very charming young lady, Mr. Mouse,” said a quiet voice, in a +cool tone, on the other side of him; “she did seem to take a violent +fancy to you.”</p> +<p>Mr. Mouse rolled over, and then, sitting up in his cot, replied, +“Yes, sir! and that was her mother sitting by you when the big +nigger in white capsized the wine over your sleeve, and nearly pulled +your a––hair off.”</p> +<p>Look out, Mr. Mouse! If that man there beside you once gives a +twitch at your curls, he’ll pull something more than hair––perhaps a +little scalp with it!</p> +<p>“Oh!” was the sound that came back.</p> +<p>“Yes, sir; and the other beautiful lady next the commodore is her +sister. She had a son just mademoiselle’s age, who was murdered +by pirates off Jamaica ever so many years ago, and Commodore +Cleveland chased them in a ship he was first lieutenant of––my father +commanded the ship––she was the old ‘Scourge.’”</p> +<p>“Hold your tongue!” came from the cot where the spare pillow +was thrown from.</p> +<p>“Ho!” said the military chieftain; but if the room had not been +so dark, the way his eyes opened and emitted an icy glare of surprise +would have made Tiny Mouse shiver with cold.</p> +<p>“Oh dear, yes, colonel, I heard the commodore tell all about it the +other night on board the frigate. He thought I was asleep, but I +kept awake through the best part of it.”</p> +<p>“The best part of it?”</p> +<p>“Why, sir, how an old one-eyed Spaniard deceived my father, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249' name='page_249'></a>249</span> +sent him on a fool’s errand from St. Jago down to the Isle of Pines, +and afterward how the ‘Scourge’ chased the piratical schooner in a +hurricane for ever so long, clear away to the coast of Darien, where +they blew her out of water, and killed every scoundrel on board!”</p> +<p>Not every one, Mr. Mouse. There is the very greatest of those +scoundrels grinding his teeth and glaring your way at your elbow.</p> +<p>“What was the name of that cape, Darcantel, where the schooner +was destroyed? No, I won’t be quiet; the colonel wants to hear +all about it. There’s a good fellow, tell me!”</p> +<p>“Garotte Cape.”</p> +<p>The listener slowly raised the mutilated hand, and put the finger +with the sapphire ring to his throat, evidently not liking the name +of that cape, for it caused a choking sensation to utter it––“Ho! +Cape Garotte!”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir; and Darcantel’s father here once chartered a vessel, and +went all the way down there to explore the place, and was gone fifteen +months! Wasn’t he, Darky?” said the boy, familiarly.</p> +<p>“Mouse, I tell you what it is, if you don’t shut up that little flytrap +of yours, I’ll make Rat lick you when you go on board!”</p> +<p>“Rat lick me?” said Tiny, as he jumped straight up in the cot; +“I gave him and Martin a black eye apiece only on our last boat-duty +day for saying your father, the doctor, had killed his brother-in-law +in a duel!”</p> +<p>“Hush, my dear little fellow! you did a very foolish thing. There, +say no more on that subject; it gives me pain, my Tiny. So talk on +as much as you like.”</p> +<p>“My dear friend,” exclaimed the lad, in a broken voice; as he +plunged through his net and put his arms around Darcantel, “I +wouldn’t grieve you for the world; but do you suppose, little as I +am, that I wouldn’t fight for the doctor, who is so kind to me, and +has done so much for my poor dear sweet mother?”</p> +<p>Here there was a sob as he wound his arms closer round his friend’s +neck, and cried like a child, as he was.</p> +<p>“Well, never mind, Tiny; go to sleep, now! I am not angry. +There, turn in!”</p> +<p>“I won’t speak another word to-night, Harry, for any soul breathing––little +fool that I am!”</p> +<p>“I beg your pardon, monsieur,” said the colonel, in French, with +a slight quiver on his tongue, “but did your father really go all the +way down to Darien out of mere curiosity?”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir, he did go there to see if by any chance one of the pirates +had escaped; and he traveled, too, a good deal about among the Indians, +making inquiries.”</p> +<p>“Ho! and did he pick up any information there?”</p> +<p>“Why, sir, I am not positive, but I believe that he got a hint that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250' name='page_250'></a>250</span> +a European had wandered over that country who had been wounded +in the head and hand, and was almost naked; but the natives could +give him but very meagre accounts. He continued on, however, down +the Isthmus, on the Pacific side, by sea, as far as Chili, when he went +into the interior to Peru, crossed the Andes, and followed down the +Orinoco to Para, when he sailed again for England.”</p> +<p>“Oh! no other motive than curiosity?”</p> +<p>“Perhaps he had; for he once told me he had some old scores to +settle with the man who commanded the pirate, and if he was alive +he felt quite sure he would, one of those days, put him to death. My +father, sir, is a very determined person, and never forgets an oath.”</p> +<p>“Truly, monsieur, you interest me. But what sort of a man in +appearance is your father––a doctor, I think you said?”</p> +<p>“He is a tall gentleman of about fifty, sir, though he looks much +older; for he has suffered deeply in early life, when my mother––a––died; +but I shall have the pleasure of introducing him to you, +colonel. He is now on board our frigate at Kingston, and told me +he would be up here to-morrow or the next day.”</p> +<p>“Ah! thank you extremely, Monsieur Darcantel. I shall have––a––much +curiosity to see him.”</p> +<p>No more words that night; but much thinking and moving of +thin lips, and eyes staring in the dark, wide open. There was low +grating of teeth, too! And a man lay in that large room on a narrow +cot, surrounded by a gauze net; and, so far as mental torture +went, it was not unlike a trestle net we once saw without gauze, +where a gaunt frame was stretched, with myriads of sand-flies, musquitoes, +and stinging insects sucking his heart’s blood. Sometimes +the eyelids closed, as if they were a film of ice forming over the blue +cold orbs within; and again the fabric cracked, and they were wide +open once more. They could read, too, those frozen orbs; and like +heavy flakes of snow falling on bloodstained decks, till it covered +with a weight of lead the stark, stiff corpse beneath, they yet tried +to pierce into the dark region beyond. And the heart beat with a +slow and measured tramp, like a moose crunching through the sharp, +treacherous crust of snow, and then stood stock-still! Had a letter, +traced with the fingers of an icicle, been congealed a hundred feet +deep in the heart of a toppling iceberg on the coast of Labrador, +those eyes could have read it as clear as day!</p> +<p>“You infamous pirate, Captain Brand!” it began––“the son of the +man who destroyed the ‘Centipede’ and her crew, and the boy whom +your brutal mate tore from the mother you saw at dinner to-day, are +near you! That calm, stern, determined doctor, too, whom you laced +down on the trestle for poisonous insects to kill, has been on your +track for the past seventeen years, and will soon hold you in his iron +gripe! There will be no mercy then!”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251' name='page_251'></a>251</span></div> +<p>The eyes closed, the heart stopped beating, and the thin lips and +tongue, as dry as cartridge-paper, now took up the strain, while the +mutilated hand clutched convulsively, as if there were fifty fingers +fingering knives and pistols.</p> +<p>“Shall I assassinate my old doctor, and run the risk of being arrested +and hung? No! He thinks me dead, and I will go back to +the island, redeem my treasure, and pass the remainder of my life +tranquilly in the highlands of Scotland!”</p> +<p>Don’t be too sanguine, Colonel Lawton; for, though your ten +thousand pounds in gold is still in the vault, yet there is Don Ignaçio +Sanchez, whose estates have been confiscated, and who has just +got out of ten years’ imprisonment in the Moro of Havana, glad to +save his neck from the iron collar, and, without the little jewel-hilted +blade up his sleeve, is now turning about to see how he may redeem +his lost fortunes. Don’t be an hour too late, I pray you, Captain +Brand, for that sharp eye of Don Ignaçio has already, perhaps, looked +at the shiny cleft in the crag, and thinks he knows what lies hidden +there! Oh, <i>si</i>! nothing but mouldy beans and paper cigars to live +upon for ten years, and fond of more substantial food, even though it +were yellow greenish gold, mildewed by damp, but yet solid and refreshing. +<i>Cierto</i>––certainly! <i>Quien sabe</i>––who knows?</p> +<p>But be careful, Don Ignaçio! Don’t take your old wife with you +on that projected expedition, for you have treated that old woman––who +resembles a rotten banana––badly! You have won back in +monté all she ever won by cheating, besides the half ounces you used +to give her for the Church––cheated her by drawing two cards at a +time when you saw the numerals with that spark of an eye, and when +you knew that she would win if you drew fairly! Yes, you have, you +old sinner, for more than two score of years! And she hates you +now––though you don’t think it––worse than you did Captain Brand! +Have an eye to that old banana!</p> +<p>So passed that short night––long enough, however, for somebody––and +before the fresh land-wind had woke up to creep down the +valley, there was a mettled barb, with open nostrils, galloping up the +broken road as if he had the devil on his back––as perhaps he had, +or Colonel Lawton, or Captain Brand, possibly all three, but it makes +very little odds to us.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252' name='page_252'></a>252</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XLIII__PEACE_AND_LOVE' id='CHAPTER_XLIII__PEACE_AND_LOVE'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XLIII.<br /><br />PEACE AND LOVE.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“And many a dim o’erarching grove,<br /> +And many a flat and sunny cove;<br /> +And terraced lawns, whose bright cascades<br /> +The honeysuckle sweetly shades;<br /> +And rocks whose very crags seem bowers,<br /> +So gay they are with grass and flowers.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>It</span> was a delightful breakfast with the merry party at Escondido +as they sat under the wide, cool piazza in the shade, with the sun +throwing his slanting rays through the vines and clusters of purple +grapes, and through the orange-trees, where the yellow fruit was fast +losing its fragrant dew––all the men once more in summer rig, and +the ladies in flowing muslin and tidy caps.</p> +<p>“My dear,” said Piron to his wife, “we have lost one of our guests, +Colonel Lawton; he went away at daylight this morning, and left a +message to me, and compliments to you all, that business of importance, +which he had forgotten, demanded his immediate return to +Kingston.”</p> +<p>There was no sorrow expressed by the lady or her fair sister, and +even the men treated it with indifference, except Mr. Burns, who remarked, +as he snapped a tooth-pick in twain, that, for his part, he +was glad the fellow had gone; he didn’t like his looks <a name="P14"></a>at all, +though he did make himself so fascinating to the beautiful widow +who sat next him.</p> +<p>“Ah! Monsieur Burns, think you I would prefer a scarlet coat +<span class="nowrap">when––”</span></p> +<p>“You might get a blue!” broke in Paddy, with a comical twinkle +of his eye, as he winked in the direction of Commodore Cleveland, +who sat opposite.</p> +<p>“No, no,” exclaimed the pretty widow, hastily, as she shook her +finger at her despairing admirer, “that is not what I was going to +say––when those red coats there from England killed my poor husband +at Quatre Bras.”</p> +<p>“Ah! yes, my dear––bad luck to them! But an Irishman would +never have been so cruel, you know, though, ’pon me sowl,” went on +Paddy, as he stuck a fork in an orange and began to divest it of its +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253' name='page_253'></a>253</span> +peel, West India fashion, to present it to the matron beside him, “I +fear I should like to kill any man who loved ye, Madame Nathalie, +myself.”</p> +<p>“What a droll man you are, Monsieur Burns,” replied the widow, +laughing outright, “when you know you would prefer a jug of Antigua +punch, any day, to me. Stop, now! didn’t you say, at your +grand dinner in Kingston, that you would never allow a woman to +darken your doors?”</p> +<p>“I––a meant––a black woman, my dear; as true as me name’s +Paddy Burns, I did!”</p> +<p>“What are you two laughing at, my sister?”</p> +<p>“Why, here is Mr. Burns making love to me at breakfast, and before +night he will be abusing me for not pouring enough rum in his +punch!”</p> +<p>“That’s his caractur, Madame Nathalie; for I, Tom Stewart, am +the only person he ever loved, and he sometimes offers to shoot me +for giving him unco’ good advice.”</p> +<p>“Howld yer tongue, ye divil ye! and you too, Stingo, or the pair +of ye shall niver taste another sip of the old claret. Ye’ve ruined +me cause entirely! But I’ll lave ye me property, madame, when I’m +gone.”</p> +<p>“He’s been talking of going, Nathalie,” said Piron, “for the last +twenty years, and has left his estate to at least thirty women, to my +certain knowledge; but he hasn’t got off yet, <span class="nowrap">and––”</span></p> +<p>“Tom Stewart, ye miserable limb of the law! make out me will +this very night.”</p> +<p>Jacob Blunt unclosed his salt-junk mouth, and roared out in a peal +of laughter that would have shivered his old brig’s spanker, and +caused, perhaps, Martha Blunt, sposa, to have spanked him, Jacob, +had she heard and seen that mariner wagging his old bronzed face at +the lovely woman facing him.</p> +<p>Mr. Tiny Mouse, who could not touch bottom on his high chair, +with his little heels dangling about, forgetful of discipline, fairly +kicked the broad pennant on the shins of his white ducks, screaming +joyously; the three women made the piazza vibrate with their musical +trills; Stingo and Stewart choked; Cleveland and Darcantel +were amused; and old black Banou looked at his master, and grinned +till his double range of teeth seemed like a white wave breaking at +the cove. And then Paddy Burns took up the chorus, and after one +or two Galway yells his friends took him up, thumped him smartly +on the back, and stood him up against one of the posts of the piazza +to have his laugh out. When he did, however, recover the power of +speech, he wiped his eyes and looked around till they rested on Madame +Nathalie, when, with his white napkin held up like a shield beside +his rubicund visage, he spluttered,</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254' name='page_254'></a>254</span></div> +<p>“By me sowl, Tom Stewart, I mane what I say; and Paddy +Burns’s word is his bond!”</p> +<p>Ay, and so it was, you generous, whole-souled Milesian! And you +did this time make a will. Tom Stewart and Stingo witnessed it, +with handsome legacies therein set forth; and when one night you +tumbled down––Well, we won’t mention the particulars; but Paddy +kept his word.</p> +<p>As the party rose from the breakfast table to get ready for a stroll +down to the mill and around the plantation, one fair woman’s hand +was placed with a confiding, friendly clasp in that of Monsieur Burns; +and then, as a graceful girl reached up to pull down her great flat +straw hat from the post, Paddy Burns kissed her on the forehead, +and she returned it too, as if she knew how to perform that ceremony +even before people. Mr. Reefer Mouse had some thoughts of getting +jealous, and calling Mr. Burns out, at ten paces, ships’ pistols, +and all that sort of thing; but the round, red-faced gentleman kissed +him too, declaring the while, as he held him aloft, that he was first-rate +kissing––that he was; nearly as good as mademoiselle, which +quite disarmed Tiny’s wrath, and then he hooked on to the damsel’s +delicate flipper, and tripped away with her down the valley.</p> +<p>Harry Darcantel exchanged a nod––not of defiance––with Paddy +Burns, as much as to hint that those were not dangerous kisses––oh, +not at all; and passing his hand over his brown mustache, he followed +after the couple before him. Yes, Harry, Tiny’s legs will get tired +soon, and he will be hungry, and come back to old Banou for luncheon, +while you will be putting aside the coffee bushes, and imploring +mademoiselle to keep her straw hat about her lovely face, and not to +get tanned by the sun. And when she turns her humid eyes toward +you, you begin to believe the sky is never so blue as those eyes!</p> +<p>Tom Stewart, Stingo, and Burns never walked; they preferred +lounging about the veranda, smoking cigars, and talking over the +price of sugar and coffee, together with minor matters connected +with factors’ profits and suits at law. Jacob Blunt leaned over the +bridge, thinking of the “Martha Blunts,” brig and wife––not unfrequently +confounding the two together––thinking this was to be his +last voyage by land or sea, and that young Binks, his mate, should +take command, and steer that old teak-built vessel carefully––oh, +ever so keerful––or else the old hulk might come to grief.</p> +<p>Piron and his wife going mournfully down the valley––she with +her mother’s eyes gazing far out to sea, and he with his strong arm +around her, whispering words of consolation; both looking, night +and morning, out over the blue water, from chamber and piazza, and +seeing nothing but a breaking wave and a baby-boy drowning beneath +it––nothing more!</p> +<p>Madame Nathalie and Cleveland went on gallantly ahead––he with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255' name='page_255'></a>255</span> +his blue pennant flying, and she with a black silk widow’s ribbon +around the frill of her cap, and a broader band about that muslin +waist––talking of those they had both lost years ago, and trusting +they were in heaven, as they believed they were; hope to meet again +themselves in Louisiana, and see a great deal of one another in time +to come––not a doubt of it! Yes, the cruise was more than half +over, and he was quite tired of the sea. She, however, thought the +sea beautiful, and never tired of looking at it. True, not rolling on +top of it all the time––liked to sleep without rocking.</p> +<p>When the sea-breeze came fluttering up the gorge again, through +the canes and the coffee-trees, and shaking up the superb foliage of +the tropical forest, with the brilliant feathered tribes nestling close +together on the lofty branches, and before the first salt breath had +been exhaled in the clouds about the topmost peaks of the Blue +Mountains, thousands of feet in the air, the party at Escondido had +again returned to the broad piazzas, where, with blinds open, and +swinging in cool grass hammocks, the men took siesta, while the +ladies sought the pretty bowers within.</p> +<p>So passed one happy day, like the one gone before; and before the +close of the week Dr. Darcantel joined the party, to take the place of +Colonel Lawton; and a few days after old Clinker crackled up, very +dry and thorny, with parchment in his pockets to take inventories, +and do musty business generally.</p> +<p>Then the fair women, escorted by the navy men, and the Droger +and Stingo, took their departure for the town house and ships in +Kingston, leaving Paddy Burns, and Tom Stewart, and Clinker with +Piron to close up matters, prior to his leaving the island. Paul Darcantel +said he would remain with them likewise, since he had got +through his business in Spanish Town and Port Royal, and wanted +quiet. Madame Rosalie was the last to leave; and before her husband +lifted her into the saddle, they stood together on the piazza, +she looking with that still yearning gaze over the sea, and seeing +nothing but breaking waves. That was the last look from Escondido!</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256' name='page_256'></a>256</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XLIV__SNUFF_OUT_OF_A_DIAMOND_BOX' id='CHAPTER_XLIV__SNUFF_OUT_OF_A_DIAMOND_BOX'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XLIV.<br /><br />SNUFF OUT OF A DIAMOND BOX.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +<span style='margin-left: 5.46875em;'>“Hark! a sound,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 6.25em;'>Far and slight,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 5.46875em;'>Breathes around</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 6.25em;'>On the night;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 5.46875em;'>High and higher,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 5.46875em;'>Nigh and nigher,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 5.46875em;'>Like a fire</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 6.25em;'>Roaring bright.”</span><br /> + <br /> +“Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace––<br /> +Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;<br /> +I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight,<br /> +Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right;<br /> +Rebuckled the check-strap, chained slacker the bit,<br /> +Nor galloped less steadily, Roland, a whit.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Another</span> week rolled on. Old Clinker had pounded the parchment +down as flat as last year’s palm-leaves, rustling himself like the +leaves of an old book, and began to squeeze out a few dry remarks +about earthquakes. He at last got Paddy Burns, who was a round, +fat man, with much blood in him, in such a state of excitement, by +talking about cracks, and yawning chasms, and splits in the earth, +clouds of dust, sulphureous smells, and beams falling down and pressing +people to powder over their wine, that Paddy declared he thought +he was swallowing sawdust and eating dried codfish at every sip of +Antigua punch and suck of orange he took.</p> +<p>Tom Stewart, likewise, said he couldn’t sleep a wink for quaking, +and had cut a slice clean out of his chin while shaving, because his +glass shook by a slamming door, and he thought his time had come.</p> +<p>Darcantel said nothing, but he took a quiet fancy to old Clinker, +and talked for hours with him of the effect earthquakes had upon +ships, and especially of general matters connected with the shipping +interest, being withal very particular with regard to the appearance +of the crews.</p> +<p>Piron looked grave, and heard the old clerk out, as if dried fruit +were better than fresh, and limes sweeter than oranges.</p> +<p>Well, they were all sitting over their dessert at their last dinner +at Escondido, for they were all going to leave old Clinker in the +morning.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_20' id='linki_20'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-258.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 494px; height: 500px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 494px;'> +“HIS RIGHT ARM POISED WITH CLENCHED HAND ALOFT,” ETC.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259' name='page_259'></a>259</span></div> +<p>“Well, Clinker,” said Piron, kindly, “don’t let us talk any more +about the earthquake. You told me yesterday that you had a note +from Colonel Lawton, saying he would not take passage in the brig +with us to New Orleans, as his business obliged him to leave before +we could sail?”</p> +<p>Clinker choked out something like “Yes,” as if it were the last +sound a body could sigh with three or four hundred tons on his +back.</p> +<p>“I’m dooced glad to hear it, Piron; for your military friend didn’t +enlist my fancy at all, and I don’t believe any more of his patriot +sarvice than I do in Clinker’s earthquake. That colonel is a baste; +and if my words prove true, I’ll lave a thousand pounds to old Clinker +there.”</p> +<p>Paddy Burns’s words did prove true; and old Clinker was with +him when he gave a quake the earth had nothing to do with, it being +entirely of an apoplectic nature; but he got the thousand pounds +nevertheless.</p> +<p>“For once in your life, Burns, I agree with ye; and if that military +mon went to shoot grouse with me in the Hielands, I’d tramp behind +him, and keep both barrels of me gun cocked. The devil take his +black wig and his green eyes! and he passing himsel’ aff for a Scot, +too! Tut, mon!”</p> +<p>“By the way, Clinker,” said Piron, during a pause in the conversation, +“if the colonel is not going with us, I must take him back +his magnificent snuff-box he forgot when he left us so suddenly the +other morning. Here it is, with the letters of his name on it in brilliants. +I thought it too valuable to send by one of the blacks, and I +kept it to carry myself.”</p> +<p>How singular it was that the colonel should have forgotten his +royal treasure! Keep your wits about you, Captain Brand, or one +of these days you’ll be forgetting your pistols.</p> +<p>“Given to him by a connection of his family, was it, Paddy? +Weel, mon, let’s take a peench for the honor of Sackveel Street, and +then push it along to Meester Darcantel.”</p> +<p>The doctor was sitting in his calm, grave way, listening to the disjointed +words––like dry nuts dropping on the ground––from the +shriveled lips of Clinker; but as he abstractedly put his fingers in +the box, and turned his eyes languidly as he pushed down the lid, he +gave a bound from his chair––with the box clutched in his left hand––giving +a jar to the room and table that even made Clinker believe +the forty-year earthquake had come before its time.</p> +<p>Standing there, with his tall, majestic figure, like a statue of bronze, +his right arm poised with clenched hand aloft in a threatening attitude, +his dark, grizzled locks bristling above his head, the black eyes +flaming with an inhuman light, as if prepared to crush, with the power +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260' name='page_260'></a>260</span> +of a god, the pigmies around him, he said, in a deep low voice, +which made the glasses ring and shudder,</p> +<p>“Who owns this bawble?”</p> +<p>“It belongs to a Colonel Lawton who has been staying here!” exclaimed +Piron, quickly and hurriedly.</p> +<p>“What sort of man?” came again from those terrible lungs, without +relaxing a muscle of his frame.</p> +<p>“A square-built, tallish fellow, of about feefty, with greenish-blue +eyes, a black wig, and a glorious sapphire ring on the only finger of +his left hand!” roared Burns and Stewart together.</p> +<p>Again came the jar of the earthquake to make the building, table, +glasses, and all shake, as Paul Darcantel strode with his heels of adamant +out of the sala and to the veranda; then a bound, which was +heard in the room; and after five minutes’ stupid silence Banou appeared.</p> +<p>The buckra gentleman had torn rather than led his master’s barb +from the stable, and scarcely waiting for a saddle, had thrown himself +like an Indian across his back. There! his master might hear +the clattering of the hoofs up the steep.</p> +<p>“The mon’s daft––clean daft, mon!” “Be me sowl, it’s the only +pair of eyes I iver wouldn’t like to look at over me saw-handled friend, +Joe Manton!” “He’s taken the box with him,” crackled Clinker.</p> +<p>But that was the last that Paddy Burns, or Stewart, or Clinker +ever saw of man or box. Piron rose and listened to the sound of +the receding hoofs from the veranda; and when he resumed his place +his lips were sealed for the night. <i>He</i> saw, however, and the rest +of them heard a good deal about the man and the box in time to +come.</p> +<p>Did that blooded horse, as he dashed round the curve of the peak, +with his thin nostrils blazing red in the dark night, know who his +rider was, and on what errand he was bound? It was not snuff that +distended those wide nostrils as he plunged down the broken road, +through the close, deep forest, over rocks and water-courses, without +missing a step with his sure, ringing hoofs; and mounting the sharp +gorge beyond with the leap of a stag, his mane and tail streaming in +the calm, thick night; the eyes lanterns of pursuing light, flashing +out before his precipitous tread in jets of fire, as his feet struck the +flinty stones, with a regular, enduring throb from his heaving chest, +as an encouraging hand patted his shoulder and urged him onward.</p> +<p>Down the mountain again, with never a shy or a snort––the horse +knowing the rider, and the man the noble beast; the lizards wheetling +merrily, and the paroquets on the tree-tops waking up to chatter +with satisfaction. Then into the beaten track along by the sea-shore, +the horse increasing his stride at every minute, the spume flying +in flakes from his flaming nostrils, and the man bending to his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261' name='page_261'></a>261</span> +hot neck, smoothing away the white foam, until, with a panting stagger, +horse and rider stood still in the town of Kingston.</p> +<p>“Here, my boys, rub this your master’s horse down well, and walk +him about the court-yard for an hour. There! Take this between +you!”</p> +<p>One last pat of the steed’s arched neck, a grateful neigh as the dark +face pressed against his broad head, and Paul Darcantel strode away +in the gray light of the morning.</p> +<p>“Gorra mighty! Nimble Jack, look at dis! Bress my modder in +hebben, it am one gold ounce apiece, sure as dis gemman’s name +Ring Finger Bill! De Lord be good to dat tall massa! Him must +hab plenty ob shiner to hove him away on poor niggers!”</p> +<p>Even while the tall man strode on toward the port, and as the happy +blacks were chattering over their yapper, and walking the gallant +steed up and down the paved court-yard, a dull, heavy-sailing Spanish +brigantine was slowly sagging past Gallows Point and the Apostles’ +Battery, when, creeping on by the frowning forts of Port Royal, +she held her course to sea.</p> +<p>Very different sort of craft from the counterfeit brigantine, with +clean, lean bows, slipping out from the Tiger’s Trap one sultry evening +before a hurricane, which went careering, with a sea-hound after +her, down to the Garotte Gorge. Different kind of a crew too; and +Captain Brand must have remarked the contrast, with his keen, critical, +nautical eye––that is, if he chanced to sail in both brigantines, +as there is much reason for <a name="P15"></a>believing he did––with great disgust, on +board the dirty, dumpy old ballahoo now just clear of Drunkenman’s +Cay, and heading alongshore for Helshire Point, bound for St. Jago +de Cuba.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262' name='page_262'></a>262</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XLV__LILIES_AND_SEAWEED' id='CHAPTER_XLV__LILIES_AND_SEAWEED'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XLV.<br /><br />LILIES AND SEA-WEED.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Oh leave the lily on its stem!<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Oh leave the rose upon the spray!</span><br /> +Oh leave the elder bloom, fair maids,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And listen to my lay!”</span><br /> + <br /> +“When descends on the Atlantic<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>The gigantic</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Storm-wind of the equinox,</span><br /> +Landward in his wrath he scourges<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>The toiling surges,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Laden with sea-weed from the rocks.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>By</span> day and night, under sun or moon, and in breeze or calm––by +the resounding shore––on the rippling water––in saloon and grove, +picnicking and boating––under vine or awning––all around in the +whirling waltz, the measured contra-danza––amid the tinkle of guitar +or trill of piano, the rattle and crash of the full band on board the +frigate––gently rocking on the narrow deck of the “Rosalie,” or +down in the brig of teak, there was ever a white arm linked in the +arm of blue––now timidly, then with a confiding pressure––now a +furtive look of blue eyes into dark, then a fixed, steady gaze from +the brown to the light––here a palpitating pause, and then the blue +arms wound around the waving stem––two white arms clasping, with +a passionate caress, the neck of the weed––and, yes! the lily floating +on the white cheek of the pond had been caught by the strong weed, +and with the reacting tide was going out to sea! Ay! the sailor +had won the maiden!</p> +<p>But while the lily rocked hither and thither on the pond, with its +blond leaves and petals of blue, and its pliant stem in danger at every +tide, did the fond mothers watch it from the bank? That they +did, thinking of the time when they were lilies of the pond themselves, +with no fears of danger near. But at last it came, and, like +blooming flowers, they swung to and fro in the rain, dropping a tear +or two from their own rosy leaves––more in dewy sorrow than in fear––and +waiting for sunshine; bending their beautiful heads of roses +the while one toward another, peeping out with their dark violet +eyes, and listening, as the wind shook them, with a tremble of apprehension, +and clinging hopefully to the straight support on which they +reclined.</p> +<p>By day and night, in burning sun with not a drop to drink, and in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263' name='page_263'></a>263</span> +the sultry night with no morsel of food to eat––through the searing +sand in the streets and lanes, down by the quays––to every vessel in +the crowded harbor––in every hotel and lodging-house in Kingston––up +and down Spanish Town––away off to Port Royal––occasionally +going on board the frigate for gold, then on shore again––in ribald +wassail and drunken dance, gaming hells especially, and low crimping +houses, maroon and negro huts, and wretched haunts of vice––scattering +gold like cards, dice, rum, and water––no end to it––in +large yellow drops too––and still striding on, questioning, gleaming +with those revengeful eyes––never resting brain or body, without +drink or meat––went Paul Darcantel.</p> +<p>Oh, Paul, that cowardly villain saw you from the very moment +you took that pinch of snuff out of his blue enameled box––ay, even +before, when you walked your mule slowly up the broken road, while +a goaded barb was curbed back in the gloomy forest till you had +passed, with his rider’s finger in his waistcoat pocket. And in all +your ceaseless wanderings, by day and night, that now timid, terror-stricken +villain has been following you; dodging behind corners––under +the well-worn cloths of monté banks––in the back rooms of +pulperias––hiding in nests of infamy––every where and in all places +steering clear of you.</p> +<p>Oh, Paul! what a deceived man you are!</p> +<p>And while you are doing all this, just turn your eyes out to the +calm spot off Montego Bay, where that leaky old brigantine is bobbing +about. The dirty, surly <i>capitano</i> kicking and beating the hands +from taffrail to bowsprit, particularly one great tall fellow, without a +hat, and but a few dry thin hairs to shield his skull from the scorching +sun; cursing him, as he puffs a cigarette, for being the most idle +scoundrel of a skulk on board! But he––the scoundrel!––laughing +with a hollow laugh up the sleeve of his filthy shirt, with never a +dollar in his belt or an extra pair of trowsers in the forecastle, with +bare feet, and still, cold eyes, now turned to green––eating nasty +jerked beef and drinking putrid water––never sleeping for vermin––kicked +and cuffed about the decks.</p> +<p>But yet he smiled with a devilish satisfaction, Paul, for he has escaped +<i>you</i>, and was bound to St. Jago de Cuba! From there he +would charter––steal, perhaps––a small boat, and run over to the +Doçe Léguas Cays, where there were ten thousand pounds in mildewed +gold!––if nobody had discovered it, which was not probable––and +he––the scoundrel!––would gather it up in bags, and slink +away to some other part of the world.</p> +<p>You must be very quick, Captain Brand, for the leaky brigantine +does not sail so fast as the “Centipede,” and your ancient compadre, +Don Ignaçio, is just out of prison. His old, fat, banana wife is very +sorry for it, but that’s none of your business.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264' name='page_264'></a>264</span></div> +<p>And you, Doctor Paul! don’t you pity that flying, dirty wretch, +with his mutilated hand, and soul-beseeching gaze out of those greenish +frozen eyes, where a ray of mercy never entered, but whose icy +lids fairly crack as your shadow stamps across them?</p> +<p>No, not a ray of pity or mercy for the infamous villain; not even +a twitch of the little finger of his bloody, mutilated white hand! No, +not the faintest hope of pity! He shall die in such torments as even +a pirate never devoted a victim.</p> +<p>But you are worn out, Darcantel; your prey has escaped you. +The people think you mad, as you are, for revenge; and though +your stride is the same, and your frame still as nervous as a galvanized +corpse, yet flesh and blood can not stand it. Go on board the +“Monongahela,” and talk to that true friend whose counsels you have +ever listened to since you were rocking in your cradle; or take that +noble, gallant youth in your arms and console him––for he needs +consolation––and think of the mouse who gnawed the net years and +years ago.</p> +<p>Well, you will, Paul Darcantel; but before you do, you will step +into that jeweler’s shop and buy a trifle for old Clinker there, out at +Escondido. You want a ring, the finest gem that can be found on +the island of Jamaica. There it is––its equal not to be bought in the +whole West India Islands, or the East Indies either.</p> +<p>“I gave a military man an ounce for the setting alone, but the +sapphire-looking stone may be glass. He was going to sail the next +morning in a Spanish brigantine for St. Jago de Cuba, and wanted +the money to pay his bill at the lodging-house adjoining. The señor +might take it for any price he chose to put upon it.”</p> +<p>What made that old dealer in precious stones and trinkets turn +paler than his old topaz face as he yelled frantically for his older +Creole wife? The señor had seized the ring as he broke his elbows +through the glass cases which contained the time-honored jewelry, +and dashed a yellow shower of heavy gold ounces over the floor of +the little shop, smashing the glass door of that too in his exit! And +when the little toddling fat woman appeared in the most indecent +dress possible to conceive of, with scarcely time to light her paper +cigar, she exclaimed,</p> +<p>“<i>Es lunatico, hombre! ay, demonio con oro!</i> A crazy man––a +demon with gold!” And forthwith she picked up the pieces and +looked at them critically to be sure of their value. “<i>Son buenos, +campeche!</i> All right, old deary; we’ll have such a podrida to-day! +Baked duck, with garlic too! So shut the door. There’s the ounce +you gave the officer man for the ring, and I’ll guard the rest.”</p> +<p>That old woman did, too; and that very night she won––in the +most skillful way––from her shaky old topaz, in his tin spectacle setting, +his last ounce, and locked all up in her own little brass-nailed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265' name='page_265'></a>265</span> +trunk for a rainy season for them both, together with their daughter’s +pickaninnies.</p> +<p>Paul Darcantel whirled and spun round the corners and along the +sandy streets till he reached the landing, moving like a water-spout, +and clearing every thing from his track. There he sprang into the +first boat he saw, seized the sculls, despite the shrieks and gesticulations +of the old nigger whose property it was, and who jumped overboard +with a howl as if a lobster had caught him by the toe, and +paddled into a neighboring boat, where, with the assistance of another +ancient crony, they both let off volley upon volley of shrieks, +which alarmed the harbor, while the boat went shooting like a javelin +toward the men-of-war.</p> +<p>However, those old stump-tailed African baboons found a gold +ounce in their boat after it had been set adrift from the American +frigate. What a jolly snapping of teeth over a tough old goose +stuffed with onions that night, with two respectable colored ladies +and a case-bottle of rum beside them! You can almost sniff the fragrant +odor as it arises, even at this distance. I do, and shall, mayhap, +many a time again, in lands where stuffed goose and comely +colored ladies abound.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266' name='page_266'></a>266</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XLVI__PARTING' id='CHAPTER_XLVI__PARTING'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XLVI.<br /><br />PARTING.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“The very stars are strangers, as I catch them<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Athwart the shadowy sails that swell above;</span><br /> +I can not hope that other eyes will watch them<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>At the same moment with a mutual love.</span><br /> +They shine not there as here they now are shining;<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>The very hours are changed. Ah! do ye sleep?</span><br /> +O’er each home pillow midnight is declining––<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>May one kind dream at least my image keep!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>There</span> had been a small party on board the “Monongahela” the +night before to bid the commodore good-by––all old friends of both +parties––the Pirons, Burns, Stewart, Stingo, and Jacob Blunt. Clinker +was not there, for he never went where it was damp, and if he got +musty it must be from mildew on shore. The “Martha Blunt,” under +the careful management of young Binks, the mate, with Banou and +all the baggage on board, was being towed by two of the frigate’s +boats down the harbor, with her yards mast-headed, all ready to +sheet home the sails when the black pilot should say the land-wind +would make and the passengers to come on board.</p> +<p>The lights were twinkling from lattice and veranda in the upper +and lower town, the lanterns of the French and English admirals +were shining from the tops of their flag-ships, and the revolving +gleams from the beacon on the Pallissadoes Point flickered and dazzled +over the gemmed starlit surface of the water. The awning was +still spread on the after-deck of the “Monongahela;” and there, +while the officer of the watch paced the forward part of the deck +with the midshipmen to leeward, the sentries on the high platform +outside and on the forecastle, the party of ladies and gentlemen stood +silently watching and thinking.</p> +<p>There is no need explaining their looks or their thoughts; we +know all about them. How Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart, with +little Stingo, were going over the time, thirty years or more back, +when with Piron there, boys together, they all swam on the beach +of that fine harbor. The old school-house, too, with the tipsy old +master, who whacked them soundly, drunk or sober; their frolics at +the fandangoes in Spanish Town; their transient separations in after +life on visits to France or the Old Country; the hearty joy to meet +again and drink Jamaica forever. And now their companion in tropical +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267' name='page_267'></a>267</span> +heat and mountain shade was going to part with them, and sail +away over that restless ocean, never, perhaps, to meet again!</p> +<p>Even old Clinker, as he sat on his stem by the old worm-eaten +desk, with his dried old lemon of a face lying in his leaves of hands––with +no light in the dark, deserted old counting-house––looked out +between his fibres of fingers and saw the cradle, with the sleeping +twins within it, while the rafters pressed him as flat as the old portfolio +before him. And now, as a drop or two of bitter juice exuded +from his shriveled rind, he saw those lovely twins floating away, +never more to be saved from an earthquake by old Clinker.</p> +<p>Mr. Mouse, likewise, was wide awake, and hopping about with a +kangaroo step, a little in doubt why Miss Rosalie was so pale, why +those blue eyes were so dim, and why she said to him “Go away, +little one,” with a quivering, tremulous voice and hand. Mouse told +Rat, and Rat told Martin and Beaver, that the poor girl was in love +with him, Tiny, and that he would make it all right one of these +days, when he got an epaulet on his little shoulder.</p> +<p>Softly, like the cool breath of a slumbering child, came a faint air +from the land. The bell of the frigate, clanging in its brassy throat, +struck for midnight. The sentinels on their posts cried “All’s well!” +The old brig was letting fall her top-sails, and the sound of the oars +in the cutter’s row-locks ceased.</p> +<p>“Cleveland,” said Piron, quietly, “while the ladies and our friends +are getting into the barge, come down with me in your cabin. I +wish to have a parting word with you.”</p> +<p>So they go down.</p> +<p>“Now, my dear friend, you have seen as well as I how wildly those +young people are in love with each other; so has my wife and her +sister; and, indeed, <i>my</i> sweet Rosalie seems more in love with him +than our niece. I have not had the heart to put a thorn in the path +of their happiness, and God grant it may all come right. But, Cleveland, +you know that we come from an old and noble stock, where the +bar sinister has never crossed our escutcheon, and I can not yet make +up my mind to an immediate engagement. This our niece has consented +to––Stop, Cleveland, hear me out. I do not, however, carry +my prejudices to any absurd extent, nor have I spoken on this subject +to the girl, and only to her mother and my wife; but I wish you +to explain the way we feel, in your own kind manner, to your friend’s +son. Say to him what a trial it has been to us––how we all love him”––he +pressed his handkerchief to his eyes––“and after he has learned +all, if he still persists in urging his suit when the cruise is over, he +shall have our consent and blessing. Time may work changes in +them both; and meanwhile I shall not mention the matter to our little +Rosalie, as we fear for the consequences.”</p> +<p>“Spoken like a true father and a noble gentleman, my dear Piron! +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268' name='page_268'></a>268</span> +I have thought as you and your excellent wife do on this matter; but, +like you, I have not had the courage to give even a hint of warning +to Henry. I shall, however, break the matter gently to him, and send +my coxswain for his father also, whom I have not seen for a week, +and who, they tell me, has been raging about Kingston ever since +he ran away from you at Escondido. His son loves him devotedly, +and a word from him will do more than I could say in a lifetime.”</p> +<p>“The ladies are in the barge, commodore,” squeaked Midshipman +Mouse, as he popped his tiny head into the cabin.</p> +<p>“Very well, sir. And tell Lieutenant Darcantel that I wish to see +him to-morrow morning, before church service. Come, Piron!”</p> +<p>On the lower grating of the accommodation-ladder stood the commodore, +with his first lieutenant, as the barge shoved off.</p> +<p>“I am heartily obliged to you, Commodore Cleveland,” said Jacob +Blunt, “for your kindness to me; and if Mr. Hardy will permit, I’ll +give the boats’ crews a glass of grog for their trouble in towing the +old brig.”</p> +<p>Certainly! Jacob knew what was proper under the circumstances, +and liked a moderate toss himself after a hard night’s work as well +as the lusty sailors in the boats, and the youngsters, Rat and Martin, +who steered them.</p> +<p>So the barge shoved off, with no other words spoken, though there +were white handkerchiefs wet with women’s tears, and red bandanas, +too, somewhat moist; while following in the barge’s wake went a +light whale-boat gig, pulled by four old tars, who could make her +leap, when they had a mind, half out of water, for it was in those +brawny old arms to do it. But now they merely dipped the long +oar-blades in the water, and could not keep up with the barge.</p> +<p>They knew––those corrugated old salts––that their gallant, considerate +young captain there in the stern-sheets, with the tiller-ropes in +his hands, who steered so wildly about the harbor, had something +more yielding than white-laced rope in his flippers; and that the +sweet little craft under white dimity, with her head throwing off the +sparkling spray as she lay under his bows, was in no hurry to go to +sea––not caring much, either, to what port she was bound, so long as +she found good holding-ground when she got in harbor with both +bowers down, and cargo ready for another voyage––not she!</p> +<p>Finally, old Jacob Blunt, master, again in full command of brig +“Martha,” with Mr. Binnacle Binks catting the anchor forward, all +sail made, sheets home, and every thing shipshape, with a fresh, +steady land-wind, and a light gig towing astern, went steering out +to sea, bound to New Orleans by way of the Windward Passage.</p> +<p>At the first ray of sunrise the gig’s line was cast off; and with the +waves breaking over her, those four old sons of Daddy Neptune bared +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269' name='page_269'></a>269</span> +their tattooed arms––illustrative of ships, anchors, and maidens––and +bent their bodies with a will toward the harbor.</p> +<p>“Take keer, sir, if it’s the same to you, or we’ll be on that ledge +off the ‘’Postles’ Battery.’ It looks jist like that ’ere reef in the Vargin’s +Passage as I was wunce nearly ’racked on, in the ‘Smasher,’ +sixteen-gun brig.”</p> +<p>“No fear, Harry Greenfield.”</p> +<p>“Beg your parding, Mr. Darcantel, but that ’ere wessel you is +heading for is that old clump of a Spanish gun-boat; our craft is off +here, under the quarter of the ‘Monongaheelee.’”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, Charley; I see the ‘Rosalie.’”</p> +<p>What made these old salts slew gravely round one to the other, as +their sixteen-feet oars rattled with a regular jar in the brass row-locks, +and shut one eye tight, as if they enjoyed something themselves? +Probably they were thinking of a strapping lass, in blue +ribbons, who lived somewhere in a sea-port town long years ago. +But yet they loved that young slip of sea-weed, whose head was bent +down to the buttons of his blue jacket, his epaulet lopsided on his +shoulder, his sword hilt downward, and his brown eyes tracing the +lines of the ash grating where pretty feet had once rested, while he +jerked the tiller-ropes from side to side, and his gig went wild by +reef and point toward the “Rosalie.”</p> +<p>When the gig’s oars at last, in spite of her meandering navigation +by her abstracted helmsman, trailed alongside the schooner, and while +her crew were cracking a few biscuits and jokes on deck, with the +sun high up the little craft’s masts, her captain hurried down to his +small cabin, and changed his rig for service on board the frigate.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270' name='page_270'></a>270</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XLVII__DEVOTION' id='CHAPTER_XLVII__DEVOTION'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XLVII.<br /><br />DEVOTION.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“To walk together to the kirk,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And all together pray,</span><br /> +While each to his Great Father bends––<br /> +Old men and babes, and loving friends,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And youths and maidens gay!”</span><br /> + <br /> +“Farewell! farewell! but this I tell<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>To thee, thou wedding-guest,</span><br /> +He prayeth well who loveth well<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Both man, and bird, and beast!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Sunday</span> morning in Kingston harbor. The deep-toned bells from +cathedral and church were wafted off from the town; the troops at +Park Camp marching with easy tread to their chapel; matrons and +maidens, with bare heads, fans, and mantillas, going along demurely; +portly judges, factors, and planters trudging beside palanquins of +their Saxon spouses; negroes in white; Creoles in brown, cigarettes +put out for a time; while swinging censers and rolling sound of organs +and chants, or prayers and sermons from kirk and pulpits, told +how the people were worshiping God according to their several beliefs.</p> +<p>On the calm harbor, too, and in Port Royal, lay the men-of-war, +the church pennants taking the place of the ensigns at the peaks, the +bells tolling, and the sailors––quiet, clean, and orderly––were attending +divine service.</p> +<p>On board the “Monongahela” the great spar-deck was comparatively +deserted––all save that officer with his spy-glassing old quarter-master, +and the sentries on gangway and forecastle. The ropes, +however, were flemished down in concentric coils, the guns without +a speck of dust on their shining coats, the capstan polished like an +old brass candlestick, and every thing below and aloft in a faultless +condition.</p> +<p>As Harry Darcantel came rather languidly over the gangway, and +went down to the main deck, where the five hundred sailors in +snowy-white mustering clothes were assembled, Commodore Cleveland +beckoned to him with his finger as he stood talking at the cabin +door to his first lieutenant.</p> +<p>“Hardy, I do not feel well this morning; make my excuses to the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271' name='page_271'></a>271</span> +chaplain, and go on with the service. Come in, Harry. Orderly, +allow no one, not even the servants, to enter the cabin––except Dr. +Darcantel, in case he should come on board.”</p> +<p>The stiff soldier laid his white-gloved finger on the visor of his +hat. Then the chaplain, standing on his flag-draped pulpit at the +main-mast, with those five hundred quiet, attentive sailors seated on +capstan-bars and match-tubs between the silent cannon, and no sound +save his mild, persuasive voice, as he read the sublime service from +the good lessons before him. Then, after a short but impressive sermon, +adapted to the comprehension of the honest tars around him, +with a kindly word, too, for the sagacious officers who commanded +them, he closed the holy book and delivered the parting benediction.</p> +<p>As he began, a shore boat, in spite of the warning of the sentry at +the gangway, came bows on to the frigate’s solid side, and as she +went dancing and bobbing back from the recoil of the concussion, a +tall, powerful man leaped out of her, and, by a mighty spring, caught +the man-ropes of the port gangway, and swung himself through the +open port of the gun-deck. Bowing his lofty head with reverential +awe as the last solemn words of the benediction were uttered by the +chaplain, he joined, in a deep, guttural voice, the word “Amen,” and +strode on and entered the cabin.</p> +<p>The curtains were closely drawn of the after cabin, even to shut +out the first whisper of the young sea-breeze which was fluttering in +from Port Royal; and there stood that noble officer, with his strong +arm thrown around the gallant youth––the picture of abject woe––talking +in his kind, feeling accents, trying to console him, painting +the sky bright in the distance, and begging him, by all the love and +affection he bore him through so many years, to be a man, and trust +to his good conscience and his right arm to cleave his way through +the clouds and gloom which surrounded him.</p> +<p>“There, Henry, you are calmer now. Sit down here in my stateroom, +and while you think of that fond girl, give a thought to that +poor bereaved mother, Madame Rosalie, who loves you for the resemblance +she thinks you bear to her little boy, who was murdered +by pirates just seventeen years ago off this very island.”</p> +<p>“What do you say, Cleveland?” said a voice behind him, with +such deep, concentrated energy that the commodore fairly started. +“What did you say about a lost child and a Madame Rosalie?”</p> +<p>Paul Darcantel stood there in the softened crimson light, with his +sinewy, bony hands upraised, his gaunt breast heaving, with unshorn +beard and tangled, grizzly locks, the iron jaw half open, and his dark, +terrible eyes gleaming with unearthly fire.</p> +<p>“Speak, Harry Cleveland! For the wife you have lost, speak!”</p> +<p>“My dear, dearest friend, do be calm! Why have you been so +long away from me? I wanted you here, but you did not come. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272' name='page_272'></a>272</span> +Our poor boy has had <i>his</i> first lesson in this world’s grief, and I have +felt obliged to tell him all––yes, every thing! That the grave he has +so often wept over, under the magnolia, does not contain his mother; +and <span class="nowrap">that––”</span></p> +<p>“Merciful God!” said Paul Darcantel, sinking down on his knees, +with his hands clasped together, while the first tears for more than +twenty years streamed from his agonized eyes. “There is a Providence +in it all! That boy is not my son! I saved him from the pirate’s +grasp, and that woman must be his mother!”</p> +<p>Lower and lower the lofty head bent till it touched the deck, the +bony hands clasped tight together, and those eyes––ah! those parched +eyes––no longer dry!</p> +<p>“Paul, Paul, what is this I hear? For the love of heaven and +those angels who are waiting for us, speak again!”</p> +<p>“My father––my more than father, I am not illegitimate, then! +No such shame may cause your boy to blush for his mother?”</p> +<p>While strong and loving arms raised the exhausted man from the +deck, and while he becomes once more the same determined Paul +Darcantel, and with hand grasped in hand is rapidly recounting unknown +years of his existence, let us leave the cabin.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273' name='page_273'></a>273</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XLVIII__ALL_ALIVE_AGAIN' id='CHAPTER_XLVIII__ALL_ALIVE_AGAIN'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XLVIII.<br /><br />ALL ALIVE AGAIN.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“Among ourselves, in peace, ’tis true,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>We quarrel, make a rout;</span><br /> +And having nothing else to do,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>We fairly scold it out;</span><br /> +But once the enemy in view,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Shake hands, we soon are friends;</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>On the deck,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 3.125em;'>Till a wreck,</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Each common cause defends.”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Down</span> in the steerage, where a bare cherry table stood, and upright +lockers ranged around, with a lot of half-starved reefers devouring +their dinner––not near so good or well served as the sailors’ +around their mess-cloths on the upper decks––with a few urchins utterly +regardless of steerage grub, and a dollar or two in their little +fists, all nicely dressed in blue jackets and white trowsers, waiting +for the hands to be turned to and the boats manned, to go on shore +for a lark.</p> +<p>Abaft in the wardroom, two or three of the swabs, the surgeon’s +mates, and the jaunty young marine lieutenant were getting into their +bullion coats and fine toggery, and buckling on their armor to do sad +havoc among the planters’ families in the evening, away there in Upper +Kingston. As for the first lieutenant, the purser, the fleet surgeon, +the sailing-master, and the old major of marines, they had been +ashore before, and didn’t care to go again; growling jocosely among +themselves on board the frigate, and glad to get rid of the juvenile +gabble.</p> +<p>Presently, and before the hands were turned to from dinner, the +cabin bell rang so violently that the orderly’s brass scale-plate fixtures +on his leather hat fairly rang too as he opened the sacred door.</p> +<p>“Tell the first lieutenant I want him.”</p> +<p>The dismayed soldier forgot to lay his white worsted finger on +his visor as he slammed to the door and marched out on the gun-deck.</p> +<p>“Mr. Hardy, unmoor ship! Hoist a jack at the fore and fire a +gun for a pilot! Get the frigate under weigh, sir, and be quick +about it!”</p> +<p>“Ay, ay, sir!”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274' name='page_274'></a>274</span></div> +<p>As Hardy rapidly passed his old cronies, who were tramping along +the deck as he mounted the after-ladder, he said, with a nod,</p> +<p>“By the Lord! I haven’t seen the commodore in such a breeze +since he blew that pirate out of water at Darien.”</p> +<p>In a minute the “Monongahela’s” bell struck two, and the boatswain +and his mates, piping as if their hairy throats would split, roared +out, “All hands!” and a moment later, “All hands unmoor ship!”</p> +<p>“What does that mean?” said a cook of a mess to Jim Dreen, the +old quarter-master, who had just come down from his watch.</p> +<p>“Mean? why, you lazy, blind duff b’iler, it means that I’ve lost +my blessed dinner.”</p> +<p>“Hallo!” says Rat to Beaver, “what’s that? Unmoor ship on my +liberty day! I swear I’ll resign!”</p> +<p>No you won’t, reefers, but you’ll trip aloft as fast as your little legs +will carry you––Mouse in company––up to the fore, main, and mizzen +tops, and squeak there as much as you like; but jump about and look +sharp that nothing goes wrong, or Mr. Hardy will be down upon you +like a main tack.</p> +<p>Bang from the bow port and the union jack at the fore!</p> +<p>“God bless my soul, fellows, this is the most infernal tyranny I +ever heard of!” came from the wardroom; “all of us engaged to +dine and dance in Kingston this evening, <span class="nowrap">and––”</span></p> +<p>“It’s ‘All hands up anchor, gentlemen!’” and away they all went.</p> +<p>Down went the mess-kids, and down came the awnings, and up +came the boats to their davits; in went the bars to both capstans, +the nippers clapped on, and the muddy cables coming in to the tunes +of fifes; while above the running gear was rove, the Sunday bunts +to the sails cast off, and the five hundred sailors dancing about on the +decks, spars, and rigging of that American double-banked frigate, as +if they could always work her sails and battery to the admiration of +their good commodore there, who was looking at them from the +quarter-deck.</p> +<p>“Massa captan,” said the shining ebony pilot, in his snowy suit, +as he took off his fine white Panama hat, “dis is de ole pilot, sa, +Peter Crabreef––name after dat black rock way dere outside. Suppose +you tink ob beating dis big frigate troo de channel? Unpossible, +wid dis breeze!”</p> +<p>“Peter Crabreef,” said the old sailing-master, to whom these observations +were addressed, “you had better not give such a hint to +that gentleman there in the epaulets; for if you do, you’ll never see +Mrs. Crabreef again! You had better keep your wits about you, +too, and plenty of water under the keel, for the commodore is fond +of water!”</p> +<p>“Sartainly, massa ossifa! I is old Peter, and never yet touch a +nail of man-of-war copper battam on de reefs!”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_275' name='page_275'></a>275</span></div> +<p>On board the pigmy black schooner near, half a dozen old salt veterans +were squinting at the flag-ship and holding much deliberate +speculation as to what all the row meant. Old Harry Greenfield, +however, with Ben Brown, who were the gunner and boatswain of +the little vessel, observed that, “In the ewent of our bein’ wanted, +ye see, Harry, it will be as well to have the deck tackle stretched +along for heavin’ in, and get the prop from under the main boom.”</p> +<p>Even as they spoke, a few bits of square bunting went up in balls +to the mizzen of the frigate, and, blowing out clear, said, as plain as +flags could speak, “Prepare to weigh anchor!”</p> +<p>At the same moment the “Rosalie’s” gig came bounding like a +bubble over the water with the tall gentleman beside the young +commander in the stern-sheets. There was a great, nervous, bony +hand now holding his, but with as an affectionate pressure as the +soft dimpled fingers he himself had held the night before. Gig +not steered at all wild now, but going as straight as a bullet to the +schooner.</p> +<p>The stirring sounds of the fifes as the sailors danced round with +the bars in the capstans, with a beating step to keep time to the +lively music, were still heard on board the frigate, and then came +from the forecastle,</p> +<p>“The anchor’s under foot, sir!”</p> +<p>“Pawl the capstan! Aloft, sail-loosers! Trice up! Lay out! +Loose away!” Almost at the instant came down the squeaks from +aloft of, “All ready with the fore! the main! the mizzen!” “Let +fall––sheet home! hoist away the top-sails!”</p> +<p>Again were heard the quick notes of the fifes on both decks, and +in less than five minutes more the anchors were catted, and the +“Monongahela,” under a cloud of canvas, began to move.</p> +<p>But where was the “Rosalie,” late “Perdita,” all this time? Why, +there she goes, with never a tack, through the narrow strait, lying +over under the press of her white dimity like a witch on a black +broomstick, as she shoots out to sea.</p> +<p>And who is that tall man, on that narrow deck, clapping on to +sheet and tackle, though there was no need of assistance, or skill, or +seamanship to be displayed on board that craft, except by way of +love of the thing? And why does he, during a pause when there +was nothing more that could possibly be done, stand by the weather +rail, shaking a great huge old seaman by both hands till he almost +jarred the schooner to her keel?––Ben Brown, the helmsman, whom +you have heard of on board the “Martha Blunt,” who, by some accidental +word he dropped near to the tall gentleman, caused that hand-grasping +collision.</p> +<p>It was not another five minutes before the other thirty-nine old +sea-dogs knew all about every body, and where they were bound, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276' name='page_276'></a>276</span> +and so on. They did not care a brass button for the thousand silver +dollars they were to have from the tall gentleman––not they! They +wanted merely to lay their eyes along that Long Tom amidships, +and to have a cutlass flashing over their shoulders––so fashion! Pistols +and pikes! Fudge!</p> +<p>But where was the “Martha Blunt?” Oh, that old teak brig was +bouncing along past Morant Point, with a good slant from the southward, +pretty much where she was some seventeen years before, with +a few more passengers in her deck cabin, reading their Bibles, and +praying for those who go down to the sea in ships on that Sabbath +day––one looking with her sad eyes out of the stern windows, and +another doing the same, and both thinking of the same boy who had +been dashed out of one of those windows; and though both of them +knew the other’s thoughts, yet they did not dream they were thinking +of the same person at the time.</p> +<p>And where was the Spanish brigantine, with the exacting <i>capitano</i>––who +was a slaver in dull times––and his pleasant mate, who +would think no more of sticking a knife into you than he did of kicking +that skulking, icy-eyed sailor on board––detesting as he did the +entire Saxon race ever since Cadiz was bombarded––and feeding him +on rotten jerked beef? There were no prayers, only curses, on board +that brigantine as she dropped anchor in St. Jago that fine Sunday +morning.</p> +<p>And where was our ancient one-eyed mariner, formerly in command +of the colonial guarda costa felucca, the “Panchita,” named +after his fat banana of a sposa? Oh, the Don––simply Ignaçio now––had +had a quiet confab with the deputy administrador all about +some treasure which he knew was concealed, and where––for he had +seen with his bright eye the light of a torch in a cleft of a crag––and +he would go shares with that official if he would give him a little +assistance.</p> +<p>“<i>Oh, cierto!</i>” Why not? And there was an old launch, with a +torn lateen sail, which Columbus might have been proud to command; +and, in this fine weather, he might sail back to Port Palos in her.</p> +<p>Oh yes! But, to keep all secret, he would merely take old Pancha, +his wife, for crew. And so, with a few bundles of paper cigars, +and some dried fish and water––the only property they possessed, +save his eye and a pack of cards, and those valuables rescued with +difficulty––they sailed the night before the blessed Sunday. <i>He</i> never +came back, though. No blame attributable to the eye––that was +as bright and wary an old burning spark of suspicious fire as ever; +but then old Pancha held the cards, and this time she won. Very +singular it was, <i>cierto</i>. If Ignaçio had not gone back again for another +bag which was not there, why, the <i>sota</i> of a knave being the +next card––Ah! we won’t anticipate.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_277' name='page_277'></a>277</span></div> +<p>But we are all alive yet, except those murdered women, whose +white coral head-stones still stand up there in the cactus, and poor +Binks, and those slashing blades of the poisonous, many-legged “Centipede,” +who were eaten by the sharks––all alive the rest of us, and +wide awake!</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278' name='page_278'></a>278</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_XLIX__THE_ROPE_LAID_UP' id='CHAPTER_XLIX__THE_ROPE_LAID_UP'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER XLIX.<br /><br />THE ROPE LAID UP.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“The captain is walking his quarter-deck<br /> +With a troubled brow and a bended neck;<br /> +One eye is down the hatchway cast,<br /> +The other turns up to the truck on the mast.”<br /> + <br /> +“The breeze is blowing––huzza, huzza!<br /> +The breeze is blowing––away, away!<br /> +The breeze is blowing––a race, a race!<br /> +The breeze is blowing––we near the chase.”</p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>Well</span>, the positions of all hands were simply these. The icy-eyed +man, without snuff-box, or ring on that mutilated flipper, with two +under pockets in his shirt, and something in them, a pair of filthy old +canvas trowsers, and no hanger by his side, where there had been so +much hanging in the good old times, slipped overboard like a conger +eel, and swam on shore at St. Jago de Cuba. Without a <i>real</i> of +wages––for he was to work his passage––and because he didn’t feel +inclined to work, the <i>capitano</i> in command assisted his agile subordinate +to kick him all the voyage.</p> +<p>Had, however, the mate presented that cold eel his knife for a moment +before he jumped overboard and squirmed to the shore, that +cuchillo would have found a redder sheath than the crimson sash +which usually held it. Fortunately perhaps for the mate, he was not +of a generous disposition, save with kicks and ropes’-ends, or else he +might have regretted his philanthropy.</p> +<p>So soon as the icy-blue man had congealed, as it were, in the sun +until he was quite dry and frozen again, he slunk away to the ditch +of the old fort, where he thawed till nightfall, and then entered the +town; hanging round the pulperias, smacking and cracking his +parched lips for a measure of aguardiente, only two centavos a cup, +and not caring for that fine, generous, pale, amber-colored old Port +sent to him by the good Archbishop of Oporto! But, not having +the copper centavos––though his own coppers stood so much in need +of moisture––he continued to skulk on.</p> +<p>Presently, coming to the wide streets and to the outskirts of the +town, he spied a large mule, ready caparisoned for the road, hitched +to the door of a house, waiting for his owner to mount him. The +icy green-eyed individual, disgusted for the time with blue salt water, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279' name='page_279'></a>279</span> +and being, as we know, a capital cavalry-man––in dashing charges +among the patriots, and caprioling also up the Blue Mountains to Escondido––thought +he would take another gallop on the dry ground, +just to keep his hand and little finger in; so he quietly cast off the +mule’s painter, and flung his canvas legs over the beast as if he belonged +to him. And so he did; for he told the man at whose place +he passed an hour or two that night, and who thought he knew the +master to whom the mule had once belonged, that it had been presented +to him by an old friend, whose name––as had the mule’s––escaped +him.</p> +<p>All this time the one-eyed man, with his banana woman, Pancha, +were creeping along the water part of the land––with the Peak of +Tarquina in sight––toward Cape Cruz, bound round that peninsula, +and so on to the Doçe Léguas Cays; while the man on the mule +navigated by the Sierras del Cobre of St. Jago, steering by bridle +for Manzanillo, and then to take water again for the same secret +destination.</p> +<p>The cargo that both expected to take in there was about ten thousand +pounds sterling in mildewed coin of various realms and denominations; +but it was there, and would pass current any where.</p> +<p>So they sailed and navigated. It was tedious work, though; and +it took a week for the old launch with the torn sail to get into the +Tiger’s Trap––fine weather, and no sea––and there make fast to the +rocks. At the same evening hour the mule with his passenger planted +his fore feet, like a pair of kedges over his bows, in the fishing +village near Manzanillo, and foundered bodily, going down with his +freight slap-dash in the mud. The passenger, however, escaped, and +skulled along by the shore, where he fell in with a poor fisherman +who was about to shove off in his trim, wholesome bark for professional +recreation on the Esperanza bank.</p> +<p>Glad was old Miguel Tortuga to have a strong man to assist him +for the privilege of joining in a sip of aguardiente and catching a red +snapper or two; so they jumped on board and spread the sail.</p> +<p>Had old Miguel, however, seen the sharklike eyes of his assistant +in the sunlight, or dreamed what a snapper was about to catch <i>him</i>, +he would not have gone fishing that night, and it would have saved +him much tribulation at daylight the next morning, when he was +picked off a small rock by a fisher acquaintance of his from Manzanillo.</p> +<p>But we have nothing to do with old Miguel; and need only say, to +console him, that his stanch boat went safely through the blue gateway +of the roaring ledge of white breakers, and late Sunday night +lay calmly in the inlet abreast Captain Brand’s former dwelling.</p> +<p>To go back again for a week, the “Monongahela”––double-banked +leviathan as she was––came plunging out to sea from Kingston, every +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280' name='page_280'></a>280</span> +man and boy, from Jack Smith on her forecastle to Bill Pump +in the spirit-room, and from Richard Hardy to Tiny Mouse, knowing +from the first plunge the frigate made what they all sailed +for.</p> +<p>With her proud head toward the east, she went dashing on past +the White Horse Rocks, and woe to the small angry waves which +did not get out of her way, for she smashed them contemptuously in +foaming masses from her majestic bows, sending them back in sparkling +spray and bubbles to hiss their angry way to leeward in her +wake. On she went, far off to sea, where the trade wind was strongest, +disdaining gentle zephyrs near the land, with her great square +yards swinging round at every watch while beating to windward––the +tacks close down, yards as fine as they would lay, and the heavy +sheets flat aft.</p> +<p>Every evening the surgeon, the purser, the chaplain, the major, and +the old sailing-master were in the cabin, going over the chase of a +certain pirate in a schooner “Centipede” away down on the Darien +Coast, with Cape Garotte there under their lee, and the vultures and +the sharks grinding the bones and tearing the flesh of the half of a +man with the tusk gleaming out of his wiry mustache; and the padre, +with his eyes staring wide open, and the crucifix, borne away +by the carnivorous birds of prey.</p> +<p>All of those dreadful particulars, together with matters that had +gone before––of a lost boy, a heart-broken mother, and a murdered +mate, Mr. Binks, on board the brig “Martha Blunt”––the party at +Escondido, the snuff-box, and Paul Darcantel––all about him, too, +from the tragedy on the plantation, his despair, and reckless life afterward, +when he served in slavers, where he did something to allay +the sufferings of the poor wretches; and afterward how he was trepanned +to the “Doçe Léguas,” went a cruise with Mr. Bill Gibbs, +whose leg he hacked off with a hand-saw, not knowing at the time +about the locket; the little child he had saved; how that child had +saved him from his torture on the trestle with his mouselike teeth; +how he had wandered the wide world over searching and searching +for the mother of that boy!</p> +<p>And there the boy was––the manly, brave young fellow now––whom +officers and sailors had always loved, flying away with the +dark doctor––no longer Darcantel, but Harry Piron––with his fond +father and mother in the distance, and the sweet girl he adored with +her blonde head resting in her mother’s lap.</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_21' id='linki_21'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-282.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 500px; height: 390px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 500px;'> +THE OLD WATER-LOGGED LAUNCH.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>Ay, every soul in the ship knew all about it, and talked of it, and +drank to the happiness of the young couple––all save Dick Hardy, +who moved energetically about the frigate’s decks, with his eyes +every where, below and aloft, prompt, sharp, and quick, quite like +Cleveland, there, beside him, when they were together in the old +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283' name='page_283'></a>283</span> +“Scourge” during the hurricane, and chased, to her destruction, the +“Centipede.”</p> +<p>“Sail ho!” sang out the man on the fore-top-sail yard.</p> +<p>“Where away?”</p> +<p>“Right ahead, sir. A brig on the starboard tack!”</p> +<p>Ay, the old “Martha Blunt” bouncing along under all sail, squaring +off at the short-armed seas, and striking them doggedly, as she beat +up for the Windward Passage between Hayti and Cuba.</p> +<p>But there was an old sea-bruiser of a different build, who wore the +belt in the West Indies, and was after that sturdy old brig with teak +ribs for a hearty set-to; and when she came up alongside, in the +friendly sparring-match which ensued while both squared their main +yards, and lay for an hour side by side, there was considerable conversation; +so much talk, in fact––boats going to and fro, mingled +with roars and shrieks, and clasping of hands on board the brig––never +a sound on board the ship––that the blue pennant fluttered in +such a way it was hard to tell whether it was Jacob, or Piron, or +the sweet wife, or mademoiselle, or her lovely mother, who threw +their arms around that pennant’s truck.</p> +<p>Then yard-arm and yard-arm, the frigate with her canvas canopy +of upper sails furled, and the brig in her best bib and tucker, they +both filled away and moved side by side.</p> +<p>For a day or two they went on, talking and laughing to one another +in these friendly shakes of the hand over blue water, until one +day, the brig being to windward, she came upon an old water-logged +launch, with a broken mast and a torn sail hanging over her +side.</p> +<p>It fell calm, and Jacob Blunt ordered young Binks to get into the +yawl and tow the boat alongside, and to be smart about it; for the +breeze might make so soon as the fog rose, and the commodore was +not the man to be kept waiting in a big frigate. Mr. Binks was +smart about it, and presently he returned––though there was no hurry, +for the calm lasted a long time––with his water-logged prize.</p> +<p>There was no human being in this prize; but when she came alongside, +and a yard tackle was hooked on to let the water drain out of +her, Jacob Blunt and the people on board gave a pleasant yell of astonishment.</p> +<p>It was not the soiled pack of Spanish cards, or the few bundles of +saturated paper cigars floating about, which caused this excitement. +No, it was several canvas bags lying there in the stern-sheets, strapped +with strands of a woman’s red petticoat to the empty water-cask +beneath the thwarts; and not one of those canvas bags, or what was +in them, injured in the least by salt water. Very carefully were those +bags––and they were weighty––lifted on board the brig, over the rail +where the pirates swarmed some long years ago, on to the quarter-deck; +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284' name='page_284'></a>284</span> +and then there was another joyous shout from Jacob Blunt, +as when he had hailed the trade wind in that long past time.</p> +<p>“By all that’s wonderful, here is my old bag of guineas, and some +few Spanish milled dollars! Look at the mark, my darlings!”</p> +<p>Another weighty bag was set aside for Mrs. Timothy Binks, and +the rest were devoted, with some large doubloon reservations for +crew, to Martha Blunt and Jacob Blunt in their declining years.</p> +<p>Then, the weather being still calm and foggy, Jacob and his passengers +went on board the double-banked frigate for church service, +where they all prayed with much hope and thanksgiving for what +had passed and what was to come; and then they went into the commodore’s +cabin, where they remained ever so long a time.</p> +<p>Let us go back this same week again––a very long seven days it +has been for every body, particularly so for the icy-eyed man, who +was extremely anxious, as he kicked and lashed his mule, and kept +looking round the south side of Jamaica, from Portland Point to Pedro +Bluff and San Negril, throwing a ray of cold frost there day and +night, expecting that tall doctor to come striding along in that deep +water, heading due north.</p> +<p>And at last the dark figure hove in sight, in the schooner “Rosalie”––the +sweet little craft skimming exultingly over the seas, kissing +them occasionally with both her dainty, glistening cheeks, reeling +joyously over on her side, with her tidy dimity laced and spread in +one flat sheet of white, while the slender arms bent like whalebone +to the freshening breeze, and she left the dancing bubbles sparkling +and flashing lovingly in her wake.</p> +<p>Two hundred miles to go, and the breeze fell from fresh to light, +until at last, shrouded in a thick fog, one Sunday morning, when +there was no air at all, only a flat calm, the sea as smooth as a glass +mirror with the quicksilver clouded.</p> +<p>Then out sweeps, my lads! Ten of a side, and two of those bronzed +old lads at each sweep! All except the two after ones, where Ben +Brown and the tall doctor handled one apiece.</p> +<p>Thus, with sails down and bare arms, the light little “Rosalie” +continued gliding rapidly over the mirrored surface––a little ashamed +of herself, perhaps, at being seen in such a scanty rig––while her +commander guided her graceful course, and Harry Greenfield peered +about forward to see that no harm should arrest her dainty footsteps.</p> +<p>Presently was heard the toll of a bell. The sweeps paused, the +hide gromets resting on the <a name="P16"></a>thole-pins, and the water raining from +their broad blades.</p> +<p>“That must be a man-of-war off here on the quarter,” exclaimed +the young officer at the tiller, “ringing for church.”</p> +<p>The old seamen at the sweeps unconsciously took off their hats, +wiped the sweat from their brows, and listened.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285' name='page_285'></a>285</span></div> +<p>“It can hardly be the ‘Monongahela,’” said Ben, “though p’raps +she took more of a breeze to wind’ard, off the island.”</p> +<p>Still the schooner glided on noiselessly over the sea, until, a minute +later, Harry Greenfield sang out,</p> +<p>“Port, sir! or we’ll be plump into a vessel here ahead.”</p> +<p>The helm was put down, and the “Rosalie” sheered off to starboard +within a biscuit-toss of a large brig.</p> +<p>“By my grandmother’s wig!” said Ben, “that’s the old ‘Martha +Blunt!’”</p> +<p>“Henri,” said Paul Darcantel, in French, in his deep voice, “the +last request I shall ever make is to keep on. There is not a moment +to lose!”</p> +<p>“Give way, men!” shouted the officer, in a decided tone, as the +words came with a stifled gasp from his heaving breast, while the +sigh that followed was drowned in the splash of the sweeps in the +water as they again chafed in their gromets, and the foam flashed +away from the blades astern.</p> +<p>But there was another splash. A white object sprang with a +bound over the brig’s quarter, dipping below the surface of the calm +sea, and when it came up, two great flippers, with a large black head +between them, struck out like the paws of an alligator, breasting the +water with a speed that soon brought him within a few fathoms of +the schooner’s low counter. Then, seizing hold of the slack of the +main sheet, which was thrown to him, he came up, hand over hand, +as if he could tear the stern frame out of the schooner. A vigorous +grasp caught him by one paw, and, with the other laid on the taffrail, +he leaped on deck as if his feet had pressed a springboard instead of +the yielding water.</p> +<p>Again, as in the olden time, he held his little Henri aloft in his giant +arms; but this time it was Banou who was dripping from a souse, +and not his little master.</p> +<p>“Give way, my souls! Another thousand dollars if we get up to +the Key before dark!” said the deep, low tones of the tall doctor.</p> +<p>“Good Lord!” roared a voice from on board the brig, now shut +up again all alone in the fog––“if that old nigger has not gone and +jumped overboard, my name’s not Binks!”</p> +<p>“All right, Mr. Binks; Banou is safe! Send a boat on board the +‘Monongahela,’ and report that the schooner ‘Rosalie’ has passed +ahead,” went back in a clear note.</p> +<p>It was some considerable time before Binks could believe that he +had not been hailed by David Jones himself, for he had seen nothing, +being at the time in the lower cabin reading his Bible, and writing +his name, “Binnacle Binks, Master of brig ‘Martha Blunt,’” on the +fly-leaf; and he was only disturbed in this praiseworthy occupation +by a heavy body plunging overboard, and by one of the drowsy crew, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286' name='page_286'></a>286</span> +who had, with his comrades, been sleeping near, reporting that circumstance +with his eyes half shut.</p> +<p>Then young Binks took considerable more time to get a boat lowered, +and send her, with the cabin-boy, to the large frigate close on +his beam, whose bell had just struck seven.</p> +<p>The boat, too, with four sleepy hands to pull her, took considerable +time to find the ship, and then the whistles were piping to dinner, and +all the good people from the brig, with the flag-officers, had retired +to the commodore’s cabin for luncheon.</p> +<p>When Jacob Blunt heard the news, regardless of sherry and cold +tongue, he himself got in his boat, leaving his passengers in an excited +frame of mind, but rather comfortable on the whole, and returned to +the teak bosom of his “Martha.”</p> +<p>There he took young Binks firmly by the shoulder, and walked +him aft to the rail where his father––long since dead and murdered––had +been used to sit and sing sailor ditties.</p> +<p>Then he impressively told him that “this ’ere sort of thing wouldn’t +do! even if he was a readin’ the Bible, which was all very good on +occasion, sich as clear weather out on the broad Atlantic; but in fog +times, when schooners was creepin’ about in among the Antilles, and +partick’larly off Jamaiky or the south side of Cuby, mates and men +should be wide awake and lookin’ every wheres. And harkee, Binnacle! +when you commands this ’ere old brig, or maybe a bran-new +‘Martha Blunt,’ and me and my old woman lying below together in +narrow cabins, you must bear in mind these my words! Well, my +boy, don’t rub that ’ere sleeve over your eyes no more, and it will +be all right.”</p> +<p>Young Binks promised “that from that ’ere minnit he would never +sit on no rails, or sip no grog, or even read his old mother’s Bible +when he wos on watch, but always be as keerful as if there wos no +lady passengers or children on board, or bags of shiners in the lower +cabin stateroom––that he would! And his blessed old second father +might take his davy he, young Binks, would never be caught foul +again.”</p> +<p>Meanwhile the girlish schooner tripped away far out of sight, and +when the fog lifted and the breeze came to blow it to leeward she +was once more tidily dressed in snowy white, and splashing the water +from her black eyes, as the last rays of the setting sun showed +her the Tiger’s Trap in the distance.</p> +<p>“Henri, my boy, put your arms around me again as you did when +I lay in torture on the trestle on that island. Have no fears for me; +we shall meet again. There! now listen to me. Here is a packet +which I wish you to carry to Porto Rico with this letter. The old +judge is alive, I think, to whom this letter is addressed, and it may +perhaps soothe his declining years. I wish to take your little gig, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287' name='page_287'></a>287</span> +with Banou and Ben Brown––no more force––and if, as I believe, +that villain has returned to his former haunt, I will fulfill my oath to +its very letter. Meanwhile, so soon as we have shoved off, while the +breeze still holds, run down to the frigate––she is not three leagues +off––and you will be in your yearning parent’s arms, and those of the +girl you love, before they sleep. There! I know you will think of +me. Farewell!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288' name='page_288'></a>288</span> +<a name='CHAPTER_L__ON_A_BED_OF_THORNS' id='CHAPTER_L__ON_A_BED_OF_THORNS'></a> +<h3>CHAPTER L.<br /><br />ON A BED OF THORNS.</h3> +</div> +<table style='margin: auto' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;'> +“An orphan’s curse would drag to hell<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>A spirit from on high;</span><br /> +But oh! more horrible than that<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Is the curse in a dead man’s eye!”</span><br /> + <br /> +“O Heaven! to think of their white souls,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>And mine so black and grim!”</span></p> +</td></tr></table> +<p><span class='smcap'>“Ho</span>, ho!” said Captain Brand, as he stretched out his straight +legs in their canvas casings on the sand of the little cove, “safe and +sound, and not a soul to share this nice supper of that good old man +Miguel!</p> +<p>“Ho, ho!” continued he; “here at last! No Babette to cook for +me––no ‘Centipede’––nothing but that stanch little boat presented +me by that generous fisherman, who, I fear, is drowned by this time. +Well, let us enjoy ourselves! Excellent real snapper this! Sausage +rather too much garlic perhaps; but the brown bread and the aguardiente +unexceptionable. Blaze away, my little fire; your sticks cost +me much labor to dig out of my once comfortable house, but you are +better than gunpowder any day.</p> +<p>“Just to think of the years that have passed! That great bank of +sand there over the sheds, nearly as high as the crag, where my brave +fellows once caroused; the young cocoa-nut springing up on the crag +itself––not a vestige of my old habitation left, or the bright blades or +pleasant guests to dine with me!”</p> +<p>Here there was something of the old cold murderous scowl on the +captain’s face as he twisted the point of his nose.</p> +<p>“Ah! yes, there may be my wary-eyed Sanchez left, though the +last I heard of him he was in the Capilla dungeon of the Moro. And +that”––grating his teeth, and glaring with his icy eyes at the fire, as +if those two blocks of ice would put it out––“cursed doctor who pursues +me!</p> +<p>“Well, well, neither of those old friends are here yet, and before +another sun sets I shall bequeath the old den to them both! Ho, +ho! with those solid bags of clinking metal, I shall leave them as +much sand and rocks as they choose to walk over. What a sly +devil I was to stow that treasure away for a rainy day! Never +told a living being! Poisoned the fellow, too, who made the lock! +Capital joke, ’pon my soul!”</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289' name='page_289'></a>289</span></div> +<p>This was the very last of the very few jokes that Captain Brand +ever enjoyed.</p> +<p>“And, now I think of it, I wonder if my thirsty old mate’s bones +are yet lying there in the vault. What <i>was</i> his name? such a bad +memory I have! Oh! Gibbs––Bill Gibbs––with one leg! Ho, ho!”</p> +<p>Here Captain Brand drained some more aguardiente out of a +cracked earthen pot, and slapped his fine legs with rapture.</p> +<p>“And those dear girls who married me! Lucia, too!”</p> +<p>The dirty wretch started as the wing of a sea-bird swooped down +over the pure inlet; and he thought he saw a white fore finger beckoning +him on to his doom.</p> +<p>“Pshaw!” said he, smoothing down his filthy tattered shirt with +the finger of his mutilated left hand, “how nervous I am! But what +a bungle Pedillo made of that marriage! And my good Ricardo, +too! What a feast the sharks must have had on his oily, well-fed +carcass! Misericordia! Ho, ho! I believe I’ll bid my friends good-night.”</p> +<p>Captain Brand stretched himself out at full length on the shelly +strand, his boat secured by a clove-hitch round his right leg, which +rode calmly in the little inlet; his bald head, with the few dry gray +hairs on his temples, resting on Miguel’s sennit hat, and the thin +scum of frosty eyelids drawn over his frozen eyes––cracking their +covering at times––until at last the pirate, aided by fiery aguardiente, +slept.</p> +<p>A few late cormorants and sea-birds sailed over him in his fitful +slumber, and uttered a cold cry, as if their pecking-time had not come +yet, but would shortly, as they sought their silent retreats on the wall +of rocks opposite.</p> +<p>And Captain Brand dreamed, too––of the old laird, his father, in +prison; his mother weeping over forged notes; the sleeping, unsuspecting +people he had treacherously murdered; the pillages he had +committed; the men he had slain in open conflict; those he had executed +with his own private cord; the poor woman who had died in +worse torments, when, indeed, even knife or pistol, rope or poison, +would have been a mercy; the agony and sufferings of those who +survived them; with all the concomitant horrors which make the +blood run cold to think of, and which made the pirate’s almost freeze +in his veins––living years in minutes––did Captain Brand, as he lay +there on the chill sand in his troubled nightmare of a sleep.</p> +<p>“Ah! <i>Dios! Dios!</i>” chattered the Señora Banana Pancha, at the +other outlet to the inlet, rolling over on the ledge of the rocks at the +Tiger’s Trap.</p> +<p>“What has become of my Ig––Ig––naçio––the one-eyed old villain +who has persecuted me for forty years? Why did I cut the old +launch adrift before I got in myself? And here I am alone and desolate +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_290' name='page_290'></a>290</span> +on this cursed island, and my Ig––Ig––naçio––bless his spark +of an eye––not come back to me! Ah! <i>Dios! Dios!</i> what has become +of the little man? He will kill me, <i>cierto</i>, when he comes back +and finds the boat gone with all the money, which nearly broke his +thin back to bring here; but, <i>Dios! Dios!</i> I am dying of thirst, +and not a shred of dried fish or jerked beef has gone into my old +<span class="nowrap">mouth––”</span></p> +<p>Yes there has, Doña Pancha, for just then a piece of hawser-laid +rope––rather dry, perhaps, for mastication––was placed across your +crying mouth that you might bite upon, if you would only stop your +old tongue.</p> +<p>For while you were screaming on the rocks, and yelling for your +Ig––Ig––naçio, who went back for the last bag of gold that wasn’t +there, a light gig glided in like a blackfish, and a bigger blackfish +jumped up and stopped your old mouth, Pancha, with that bit of hide +rope. But if you will keep quiet, Pancha, and not exorcise Banou +for the Evil One, that old nigger will give you a cup of liquid not +known in the devil’s dominions, and treat you also to some white biscuit +to nibble upon.</p> +<p>Ah! you will, eh? and tell all about that thin curl of smoke, which +you believe to have been made by that coal-eyed Ig––Ig––naçio, away +up there by the inlet? Now keep quiet again, old Lady Banana; +and while your screaming mouth is gagged, don’t cut this small gig +away, or else she may navigate herself out to sea, as did your Ig’s +launch, and you be left desolate again.</p> +<p>The tropical night was still; the lizards wheetled, the breakers +roared on the outer ledge, the ripples washed musically on the shelly +shores, the alligators flapped about on the surface of the lagoon, the +insects buzzed around the mangrove thickets; and as the gray dawn +of morning appeared, and the rain began to fall, a steaming hot mist +arose, through which the sea-birds flapped their wings and sailed +away in search of their morning’s meal. The sharks and the deep-sea +fish, however, lay still and motionless low down by the base of +the reefs, and watched with their cold, round eyes. Captain Brand, +too, arose, and, opening <i>his</i> green-bluish eyes, smoothing his moulting +feathers, and splashing his fins in the wet sand, took an observation.</p> +<p>This was the rainy day for which Captain Brand had laid by all +that money to spend it in!</p> +<p>It was a Monday morning––Black Monday for Captain Brand––when, +after divesting his leg of the clove-hitch, he secured old Miguel’s +boat to a large stone, and then, according to his own ancient +practice, he clambered with difficulty up to the venerable crag. Captain +Brand had no spy-glass, and there was a good deal of rain falling, +but yet he thought he saw a large ship, a brig, and a small schooner +in the offing.</p> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291' name='page_291'></a>291</span></div> +<p>So Captain Brand scrambled down again, a good deal disconcerted, +knowing it would be hours and hours before those vessels got up to +the island, even were they so inclined; but, nevertheless, he bestirred +himself. Fortifying his inner man with the last half pint of aguardiente +for breakfast, which quite refreshed him, he went to work.</p> +<p>First, he took Miguel’s copper coffee-pot, into which he emptied +that disciple of the net’s shark-oil jug, which Miguel himself used for +a torch to attract the fish. Then, with a strip of old canvas––part +of one leg to Captain Brand’s trowsers; to such straits was he reduced––seized +like a ball on the end of a stick, and a match-box, he +was all ready for Black Monday’s work.</p> +<p>Captain Brand, however, made one serious omission; he snugly +stowed away his beautiful pistols in a locker of the boat to keep +them dry, never having been wet but twice before in all his marine +excursions––the first time at Cape Garotte, and the next when he +jumped overboard from the brigantine at St. Jago. He set great +store by these valuable implements, for they had done him good +service in time of need. Miguel came into possession of them afterward, +and sold them almost for their weight in gold.</p> +<p>But, for the first time, Captain Brand forgot his personal friends +and bosom companions. It was a great oversight; and he was extremely +sorry when it was too late to go back for them. However, +with the copper oil-pot dangling from his little finger, where the sapphire +once shone, and the torch-stick in the other hand, he marched +boldly over the sandy ridges toward the crag.</p> +<p>But, Captain Brand, there had been three pairs of open eyes watching +you through every mouthful of snapper you snapped, and every +drop of fiery white rum you swallowed. Ay! and while you tossed +about on the shelly beach, with the red glow of the embers of the fire +lighting up your cold-blooded, wrinkled face––while, twisting your +nose, you muttered ho! ho’s! of murderous satisfaction––there was +not a bird that swooped over you, or a lizard on the rocks with jet +beads of eyes, that watched you so sharply as did those attentive beholders +from the crag.</p> +<p>And when you made your observations from the young cocoa-nut +clump, those watchers retired down the opposite side, and two of +them clambered through a hole in the roof of the decaying little +chapel, while the other moved to the little cemetery of coral gravestones, +and there scooped a place in the sand and cactus behind the +one cut with the letter L.</p> +<p>Captain Brand meanwhile came on, picking his way through the +dense cactus, which lacerated his legs, and sadly tore the remains of +his loose canvas. The rain came down in torrents, the thunder growled +and crashed as the tropical storm burst over the island; and just +as a vivid sheet of forked lightning seemed to stride the crag, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292' name='page_292'></a>292</span> +the awful peal that followed shook it to its base, Captain Brand crept +for shelter within the cleft of the rock, and sat down to prepare for +a more extended research.</p> +<p>He may have been gone twenty minutes; but when he again +emerged the rain had ceased, the clouds were breaking away, and +the gentle sea-breeze blowing, while Captain Brand looked a thousand +years older. He seemed to have borrowed all the million of +wrinkles from his compadre, in addition to those he already possessed. +The thin lids of his frozen green––now quite solid––eyes +had apparently exhaled by intense cold, and left nothing but a stony +look of horror.</p> +<p>What caused our brave captain to reel and stagger as he plunged +with a bound out into the matted cactus, without his tattered hat, +like a wolf flying from the hounds? Had he trodden on a snake, or +seen his compadre, or had that white finger waved him away? Yes, +all three. But the interview with his one-eyed compadre had shocked +him most.</p> +<p>On he came, driving the hot, wet sand before him, toward the +Padre Ricardo’s chapel. There he paused for breath, though it was +only by a spasmodic effort that he could unclose his sheet-white lips, +where his sharp teeth had met upon them, and held his mouth together +as if he had the lockjaw, while he snorted through his nostrils.</p> +<p>“Ho!” he gasped, “the spying old traitor has sacked the cavern, +and the gold must have gone in that launch I saw the night I came +over the reef. Ho! the traitor has found the torture I promised +him; but I would like to have killed him a little slower.”</p> +<p>Here Captain Brand, having regained some few faculties and energy, +moved on beyond the church, till he came to the white coral headstone, +where he stood still.</p> +<p>It was his last walk on deck or sand! Shading his still horror-stricken +eyes by both hands, he glared to seaward.</p> +<p>“Ho, ho! there you are, my Yankee commodore, with that old +brig under convoy, and that pretty schooner! Reminds me of my +old ‘Centipede.’ <i>Bueno!</i> there are other ‘Centipedes,’ and I must +begin the world anew. I am not old; here is my strong right arm +yet; and who can stop me?”</p> +<p>Captain Brand made these remarks in a loud tone, as if he wanted +the whole world to hear him; and as if he had failed in early life, +and come to a strong resolution to retrieve his past errors.</p> +<p>As he waved his strong right arm aloft, while, in imagination, +blood rained from the blade of his cutlass after cleaving the skull by +a blow dealt behind the back of an unsuspecting skipper or mate, +suddenly he paused, and the arm fell powerless at his side, where it +hung dangling loose like a pirate from a gibbet on a windy night.</p> +<p>He caught sight of the old broken cocoa-nut trunk to which he had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293' name='page_293'></a>293</span> +hitched the green silk rope, with its noose around his victim’s neck, +and he endeavored to prevent himself falling to the sand.</p> +<p>“Ho!” he choked out, his jaws rattling like dry bones, “I see it all +now. The column was snapped just where the rope was hitched, and +the trestle must have been torn to pieces by the hurricane. Ho, ho! +That’s the way my man escaped, to dog me all over the world. Ho! +I have no time to lose; he may be here at any moment.”</p> +<p>This was the last connected speech that Captain Brand ever made +in this world, or in the world to come, perhaps, for at the last word +Paul Darcantel rose in all his revengeful majesty before him. With +folded arms he bent his dark, stern eyes upon the pirate, wherein the +revenge of twenty years was gleaming with a concentrated power.</p> +<p>“You palsied villain! the oath I took to you, and for which I have +been accursed, expired yesterday! I took another myself, when we +stood here last together, and I am come to fulfill that oath, and––strike!”</p> +<p>His terrible voice and words came back in an echo from the crag, +and they seemed with their intense energy to pierce and shrivel the +man before him into sleet. And the pirate would have fallen had not +two huge, black, lignum-vitæ paws grappled him about the body, pinioning +his arms to his sides as if they had been bolted through and +through, while at the same moment another pair of tough, sea-weed +flippers wound a lashing round his straight legs, and they laid him +gently down on the sandy esplanade.</p> +<p>“The trestle, Banou. And you, Ben, bring the hide strands, the +faded old cord, and that black altar-cloth!”</p> +<p>The pirate lay on his back, his eyes wide open––for he could not +shut them, since the lids had gone in frost––but the solid balls, light +green now in the light, rolled from side to side. He recognized the +old apparatus too, though it was in different hands than those of Pedillo +and his confederate; and he saw, also, that, though the pale +green rope was rotten, yet his knowledge of nautical matters taught +him that it yet might bear a taut strain, and that those coils of hide +thongs never gave way by any amount of tugging, and he saw as +well that they had been recently dipped in grease.</p> +<p>But what was to be done with that rotten, moth-eaten old cloth, +which the men used to play monté on on Saturday nights in the +sheds, and on which the good padre played <i>his</i> cards likewise in +the chapel? It was not to keep the cold air away from him, or +shield his half-naked body from the poisonous insects. Then what +could it be for?</p> +<p>“Lift him up, men, and when you lash him down, leave only that +little finger free!”</p> +<p>Ben Brown squatted himself on a stone beside the bier, and with +his cutlass unbuckled and laid on the sand, and sleeves rolled up, began +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294' name='page_294'></a>294</span> +his work as if he had a chafing-mat to make for the dead-eyes of +the frigate’s lower shrouds, and, though in a hurry, still intended to +make a neat job of it. He had a small and rather sharp-pointed marline-spike, +too, which he wore habitually, like a talisman, round his +neck, and which stood him in hand in the intricate parts of his task.</p> +<p>Taking in at a glance the exact amount of hide stuff he required, +he middled the coils, and passing each strand fair and square, his old +bronzed arms went backward and forward, under and over––sometimes +pricking a little hole by accident in the pirate’s own thin hide +as he passed the strips by the aid of his marline-spike, but always +apologizing in his bluff, rough way, though without squirting tobacco-juice +into his victim’s face, as did Mr. Gibbs to Jacob Blunt.</p> +<p>“Beg pardon, ye infarnal pirate! but that stick will do ye no +harm. It’ll heal much sooner than the iron spike one of yer crew +drove through both cheeks of my watch-mate when you gagged him +on board the brig.</p> +<p>“I say, old nigger, hand us a little more of that slush, will ye? +this ’ere strand won’t lie flat. Thankee, old darkey! Kitch hold +on that lower end, will ye? and draw it square up between his pins, +and straighten out that ’ere knee-joint a bit––so fashion.</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t hurt ye, you ugly villain, for a chaw of tobaccy.</p> +<p>“Warm work, shipmate! suppose you just toddle down to the +boat for that ’ere grafted bottle lyin’ in the starn sheets, and bring a +tin pot of fresh water with you; the gentleman might be thirsty, you +know. <i>I am</i>––Benjamin Brown, of Sandy Pint, seaman.”</p> +<p>So Benjamin plaited Captain Brand, late of the “Centipede,” down +on his bier; not a thong too little, or one in the wrong place. A strand +between each of his toes, and the big ones turned up in quite an ornamental +way, and worked around with a Turk’s-head knot.</p> +<p>“Breathin’ works all reg’lar, too, no bit of hide bearin’ an onequal +strain over his bread-basket. Throat and jaw-tackle in fair talkin’ +order, little finger free; and there, Capting Brand, jist let old Ben +reward ye, good for evil, ye child-murdering scoundrel, for the lick +your mate gave him with the pistol on the head, by placing this +soft pillow of green silk rope under your bare skull. There! a little +this side, so as ye can look at your finger, while I pass this broad +piece of stuff over your ear. Don’t ye look at me, ye infarnal scoundrel, +or I’ll let this ’ere copper spike slip into one of yer junk-bottle +glims!</p> +<p>“Now,” continued Ben, “I’ll take a spell till the doctor and the +old nigger come back.”</p> +<p>Ay, the job was done, and the mat over the dead-eyes of the +shrouds!</p> +<div class='figtag'> +<a name='linki_22' id='linki_22'></a> +</div> +<div class='figcenter'> +<img src='images/illo-296.jpg' alt='' title='' style='width: 500px; height: 494px;' /><br /> +<p class='caption' style='margin: 0 auto; text-align:center; width: 500px;'> +“NOW CAPTAIN BRAND KNEW WHAT WAS COMING.”<br /> +</p> +</div> +<p>During this neat and seamanlike operation Paul Darcantel wandered +away on the tracks of the flying wolf till he came to the cleft +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_297' name='page_297'></a>297</span> +in the rock. There he picked up and lighted the torch and stalked +on. Presently he came to the stones before the low cavern, and +pushed his way in with the blazing torch before him. Had Paul +Darcantel had nerves, they would have shaken at what he saw; but +having none to shake, he calmly fixed his eyes upon the sight.</p> +<p>There lay the head of the ancient Ignaçio, caught, as he tried to +creep out of the treasure-chamber, by the falling of the stone slab. +It must have been sudden, for the stump of a paper cigar was still +seized in his wrinkled lips, while the snakelike curls twined about +his ears, and his wary eye looked out with its usual suspicious intensity, +and seemed to throw out a spark of fire in the reflection of the +torch. Rising from a coil in a slimy bed of sand before the head was +a venomous serpent, with his graceful neck curved into the broad +flat head, all like an ebony cane, straight, motionless, and elegant to +the curved top––fascinated by that single living orb of the dead man.</p> +<p>The human intruder left this well-matched pair to their own venomous +devices, and winding his way on, he soon came to the open +door to the vaults. A powerful kick smashed in the door of the dungeon, +and while the rusty bolts were still ringing on the stone pavement, +Paul Darcantel entered the loathsome chamber.</p> +<p>He saw nothing at first save a few fragments of broken crockery +and a rusty metal pot––not even a rat. But flaring the torch down +upon the mouldy floor something sparkled in the light. This he +snatched, and it was the long-lost locket and chain which had last +rested around the baby-boy’s neck.</p> +<p>When the doctor strode back to the esplanade of the chapel he +found Benjamin Brown and Banou taking a friendly sip out of the +tin pot.</p> +<p>“Well, sir,” said Ben, as he got on his pins and strapped on his +cutlass, “there he is, sir! and as neat a piece of cross-lashing as ever +I did. He looks as if he growed there, jist like a hawk-bill turtle +a-bilin’ in the ship’s coppers, only he can’t paddle about.</p> +<p>“I did it marciful, too, sir, and tried to convarse with him, in case +he had any presents to make to his friends.</p> +<p>“Why, sir, and would you believe it? I offered to pour a drop of +grog––mixed or raw––down his tight mouth, but he never had the +perliteness to thank me or ax me a question, but only looked wicked +at me. Consarn him! if he had only winked, I wouldn’t mind it!” +said Ben, with much indignation; “but, howsever, I don’t b’lieve he’s +any think to leave or any friends left!”</p> +<p>But Captain Brand, though speechless without being tongue-tied, +and unable to wink, still thought. And what did the doctor propose +to do with him in case he was not to be stung to death by insects, +sand-flies, musquitoes, and what not?</p> +<p>“Lift the trestle for the last time, men, and stand it here over this +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298' name='page_298'></a>298</span> +thick bed of cactus, so as the little finger may touch the letter on +this white tomb-stone.”</p> +<p>Now Captain Brand’s doubts were relieved, and he knew what +was coming. Oh ho! ho!</p> +<p>“There! that is right! Now collect stones and rocks, and wall +this trestle up solid to the edge of the frame, so that a hurricane +can’t loosen it.”</p> +<p>Big Banou went to work now, and presently his job was done––coral +rocks, and loose head-stones of pirates, well packed down with +sand, made the sides of the living tomb. Then the black pall was +drawn over the body, and they left the pirate to his inevitable doom.</p> +<p>Soon the three executioners reached the Tiger’s Trap.</p> +<p>“Banou, take this locket and chain––ah! you know it well––to +your young master. Brown, the two thousand dollars will be placed +in your and Greenfield’s hands for distribution among the schooner’s +crew; make a good use of it! Tell the commodore that I shall take +an old woman we have found here away with me in a stolen fisherman’s +boat to Manzanillo, and within the year I shall be at home! +There! shove off, my lads!”</p> +<p>As the gig skimmed through the Tiger’s Trap, Paul Darcantel, +with the widow of Ignaçio, sailed out by the Alligator’s Mouth, and +as they crossed that roaring ledge, the sun sank in its unclouded +glory in the west, and the young moon, with its thin pearly crescent, +looked timidly down upon the island.</p> +<p>And the night passed, and the next and the next, with scorching +days and blazing suns between them; while the mangrove, the palm, +the cocoa-nut, and the cactus––ah! that luxuriant plant throve apace––shooting +up its steel-pointed bayonets two inches of a night in +thorny needles as thick as pins in a paper, growing clean through the +hide of ox or man like blood, till their hard-edged leaves met resistance, +when, turning flat side up, they put forth a score for one of the +needle bayonets! No escape from them. From shoulder to heel +one long, hopeless agony. The fierce sun flaming down, absorbed +by the black pall of death! The moon glimmering in pale white +rays of splendor through the moth-eaten holes upon the finger and +the white tomb-stone! All the day and all the night!</p> +<p>Was it a dream, Captain Brand? No, a frightful reality! Don’t +you feel a fresh thorn at every slow pulse of the heart they are aiming +at? And don’t you hear those dread croakings of gulls and cormorants +flapping in the air, who have left their prey on the reef to +join the vultures in their feast on the shore? You may almost catch +the grating sounds of the rasping jaws of the sharks as they crowd +into the inlet, and rest their cold noses on the shelly cove where you +slept!</p> +<p>Flesh and blood, and pinions and beaks can endure it no longer. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_299' name='page_299'></a>299</span> +A cloud of carnivorous birds swoop down at last, snap the black pall +in their talons and bills, and fly fighting and screaming away with +it. Another cloud, darker than the rest, light upon the body, and +while the needle-points pierce the palpitating heart, and the breath +flutters on the still clenched lips and nostrils, the eyes are picked out, +and the flesh is torn piecemeal, hide strands and all, till nothing is +left but a hideous white skeleton, with the long bony finger pointing +to the letter L.</p> +<p>The lizards wheetled on the rocks, the alligators lashed the lagoon +amid the steaming mist of the mangrove roots; the sharks and birds +returned to the reefs, the cocoa-nuts waved their tufted tops, the +palms crackled in the shower and gale, and the pure inlet murmured +musically on the shelly shore for years and years over and around +the deserted key, until the whitened bones crumbled into dust, and +were borne away by the four winds of heaven.</p> +<hr class='invis' /> +<p>The hemp has been tarred and spread, the strands twisted, and the +rope laid up. The knots have been turned in between good sailors +and bad––between pirates and men-of-war’s-men––and here Harry +Gringo hauls down his pennant until his reading crew care again to +take a cruise with him in blue water.</p> +<hr class='invis' /> +<div class="center"> +<p><span class="larger">THE END.</span></p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<p><span class="larger">Standard Works</span><br /> + <span class='smcap'>of</span><br /> +<span class="muchlarger"><b>Discovery and Adventure in Africa</b>.</span></p> +<p><span class='smcap'>published by</span><br /> +HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, N. Y.</p> +<p><span class="larger" title="pointing right">☞</span> <i>Sent by Mail, postage pre-paid, on receipt of price.</i></p> +</div> +<blockquote> +<p><i>The amount of travel literature which <span class='smcap'>Harper & Brothers</span> have published relating to Africa +makes a curious list, and illustrates the bent of geographical and political examination for some +time past. The octavos of Burton, Barth, Livingstone, Du Chaillu, Davis, and a number of other +celebrated travellers, form a small library, all the result of the last few years’ devotion to African +exploration</i>––<span class="nowrap">N. Y.</span> <span class='smcap'>Journal of Commerce</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><b>Speke’s Africa.</b> Journal of the Discovery of the Sources of the Nile. By +<span class='smcap'>John Hanning Speke</span>, Captain H.M. Indian Army, Fellow and Gold Medalist of +the Royal Geographical Society, Hon. Corr. Member and Gold Medalist of the +French Geographical Society, &c. With Map and Portraits, and numerous Illustrations, +chiefly from Drawings by Captain <span class='smcap'>Grant</span>. 8vo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$3 50</span>.</p> +<p><b>Reade’s Savage Africa.</b> Western Africa: being the Narrative of a Tour of +Equatorial, Southwestern, and Northwestern Africa; with Notes on the Habits of +the Gorilla; on the Existence of Unicorns and Tailed Men; on the Slave Trade; +on the Origin, Character, and Capabilities of the Negro, and of the future Civilization +of Western Africa. By <span class='smcap'>W. Winwood Reade</span>, Fellow of the Geog. and Anthropological +Soc. of Lond., and Corr. Member of the Geog. Soc. of Paris. With +Illustrations and a Map. 8vo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$3 50</span>.</p> +<p><b>Du Chaillu’s Equatorial Africa.</b> Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial +Africa; with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the +Chase of the Gorilla, the Crocodile, Leopard, Elephant, Hippopotamus, and other +Animals. By <span class='smcap'>Paul B. du Chaillu</span>, Corr. Member of the Amer. Ethnological +Soc.; of the Geog. and Statistical Soc. of New York, and of the Bost. Soc. of Nat. +Hist. Maps and numerous Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$3 75</span>.</p> +<p><b>Baldwin’s African Hunting.</b> African Hunting from Natal to the Zambesi, +including Lake Ngami, the Kalahari Desert, &c., from 1852 to 1860. By <span class='smcap'>William +Charles Baldwin</span>, F.R.G.S. With Map, Fifty Illustrations by Wolf and Zwecker, +and a Portrait of the Great Sportsman. 12mo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$1 50</span>.</p> +<p><b>Andersson’s Okavango River.</b> The Okavango River: A Narrative of +Travel, Exploration, and Adventure. By <span class='smcap'>Charles John Andersson</span>, Author of +“Lake Ngami.” With Steel Portrait of the Author, numerous Wood-cuts, and +a Map showing the Regions explored by Andersson, Cumming, Livingstone, Burton, +and Du Chaillu. 8vo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$2 50</span>.</p> +<p><b>Andersson’s Lake Ngami.</b> Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and Discoveries +during Four Years’ Wanderings in the Wilds of Southwestern Africa. By <span class='smcap'>Charles +John Andersson</span>. With numerous Illustrations, representing Sporting Adventures, +Subjects for Natural History, Devices for destroying Wild Animals, &c. +New Edition. 12mo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$1 00</span>.</p> +<p><b>Livingstone’s South Africa.</b> Missionary Travels and Researches in South +Africa; including a Sketch of a Sixteen Years’ Residence in the Interior of Africa, +and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loando on the West Coast; thence +across the Continent, down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean. By <span class='smcap'>David +Livingstone</span>, LL.D., D.C.L. With Portrait, Maps, and numerous Illustrations. +8vo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$3 00</span>.</p> +<p><b>Davis’s Carthage.</b> Carthage and her Remains: Being an Account of the Excavations +and Researches on the Site of the Phœnician Metropolis in Africa and +other adjacent Places, under the Auspices of Her Majesty’s Government. By Dr. +<span class='smcap'>N. Davis</span>, F.R.G.S. Profusely illustrated with Maps, Wood-cuts, Chromo-Lithographs, +&c., &c. 8vo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$3 00</span>.</p> +<p><b>Burton’s Central Africa.</b> The Lake Regions of Central Africa. A Picture +of Exploration. By <span class='smcap'>Richard F. Burton</span>, Capt. H.M.I. Army; Fellow and Gold +Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society. With Maps and Engravings on +Wood. 8vo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$3 00</span>.</p> +<p><b>Barth’s North and Central Africa.</b> Travels and Discoveries in North and +Central Africa. Being a Journal of an Expedition undertaken under the Auspices +of H.B.M.’s Government in the Years 1849-1855. By <span class='smcap'>Henry Barth</span>, Ph.D., +D.C.L. Profusely and elegantly illustrated. Complete in 3 vols. 8vo, Cloth, $9.</p> +<p><b>Cumming’s South Africa.</b> Five Years of a Hunter’s Life in the Interior of +South Africa. With Notices of the Native Tribes, and Anecdotes of the Chase of +the Lion, Elephant, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, Rhinoceros, &c. By <span class='smcap'>Gordon Cumming</span>. +With Illustrations. 2 vols. 12mo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$2 50</span>.</p> +<p><b>Wilson’s Western Africa.</b> Western Africa: Its History, Condition, and +Prospects. By <span class='smcap'>Rev. J. Leighton Wilson</span>, Eighteen Years a Missionary in Africa. +With numerous Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$1 25</span>.</p> +<blockquote> +<p>Mr. Wilson, an American missionary, has written the best book I have seen on the West Coast.––Dr. +<span class='smcap'>Livingstone</span>, <i>Rivershire, W. Africa</i>, Feb. 20, 1863.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><b>Discovery and Adventures in Africa.</b> Condensed Abstracts of the Narratives +of African Travellers. By Professor <span class='smcap'>Jameson, James Wilson</span>, and <span class='smcap'>Hugh +Murray</span>. 18mo, Cloth, 50 cents.</p> +<p><b>The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African Traveller.</b> By Major +Sir <span class='smcap'>Francis B. Head</span>. 18mo, Cloth, 50 cents.</p> +<p><b>Lander’s Niger Expedition.</b> Journal of an Expedition to explore the +Course and Termination of the Niger. With a Narrative of a Voyage down that +River to its Termination. By R. and J. <span class='smcap'>Lander</span>. Engravings. 2 vols. 18mo, +Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$1 00</span>.</p> +<p><b>Urquhart’s Pillars of Hercules.</b> The Pillars of Hercules; or, A Narrative +of Travels in Spain and Morocco in 1848. By <span class='smcap'>David Urquhart</span>, M.P. 2 vols. +12mo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$2 50</span>.</p> +<p><b>Owen’s Voyages.</b> Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and +Madagascar: performed under the Direction of Captain W. F. W. <span class='smcap'>Owen</span>, R.N. +2 vols. 12mo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$1 50</span>.</p> +<p><b>Mungo Park’s Central Africa.</b> Travels of Mungo Park, with the Account +of his Death, from the Journal of Isaaco, and later Discoveries relative to his lamented +Fate, and the Termination of the Niger. 18mo, Cloth, 50 cents.</p> +<hr class='short' /> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:center'><span class="larger"><b>MADAGASCAR.</b></span><br /></p> +<p><b>The Last Travels of Ida Pfeiffer</b>: inclusive of a Visit to Madagascar. +With an Autobiographical Memoir of the Author. Translated by H. W. <span class='smcap'>Dulcken</span>. +Steel Portrait. 12mo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$1 25</span>. (Uniform with Ida Pfeiffer’s “Second Journey +round the World”).</p> +<p><b>Three Visits to Madagascar</b>, during the Years 1853-1854-1856. Including +a Journey to the Capital, with Notices of the Natural History of the Country and +of the Present Civilization of the People. By the Rev. <span class='smcap'>William Ellis</span>, F.H.S. +With a Map and Wood-cuts from Photographs, &c. 8vo, Cloth, <span class="nowrap">$3 00</span>.</p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:center'><span class="muchlarger"><b>HARPER’S WEEKLY FOR 1864.</b></span><br /></p> +<p><span class='smcap'>Harper’s Weekly</span> is devoted to Art, Literature, General Information, and Politics. +It will contain a carefully condensed and impartial record of the events of +the day, pictorially illustrated wherever the pencil of the Artist can aid the pen of +the Writer. In Politics it will advocate the National Cause, wholly irrespective +of mere party grounds. Its Essays, Poems, and Tales will be furnished by the +ablest writers of both Continents. A new Novel, by Mr. <span class='smcap'>George Augustus Sala</span>, +entitled “QUITE ALONE,” will, by special arrangement with the Author, appear +in the <span class='smcap'>Weekly</span> simultaneously with its publication in Mr. <span class='smcap'>Dickens’s</span> “<i>All the +Year Round</i>.” The Publishers will see to it that the current Volume shall justify +the favorable opinions expressed by the loyal Press upon the Volume which has +just closed.</p> +<hr class='invis' /> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:center'><span class="larger"><b>Extracts from Notices by the Press.</b></span><br /></p> +<blockquote> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Harper’s Weekly</span> is the best publication of its class in America, and so far ahead of all other +weekly journals as not to permit of any comparison between it and any of their number. Its columns +contain the finest collections of reading matter that are printed. Thus, if you look into the +Volume for 1863, you will find that its stories, and miscellaneous articles, and poetry are from the +minds of some of the leading writers of the time. Its matter is of a very various character from +elaborate tales and well-considered editorial articles to the airiest and briefest jests, good-humored +hits at the expense of human follies, which proceed from the liveliest of minds. It is a vigorous +supporter of the war––discussing all questions that concern the contest in which we are engaged +with an amplitude of perception and a breadth of patriotism that place it very high indeed on the +roll of loyal and liberal publications. Its illustrations are numerous and beautiful, being furnished +by the chief artists of the country. Most of the illustrations are devoted to the war, including battle-pieces, +scenes made renowned by great events there occurring, and portraits of eminent military +and civil leaders. Even a person who could not read a line of its letter-press could intelligently +follow the history of the war through 1863 by going over the pictured pages of this volume,”––<i>Evening +Traveller</i> (Boston.)</p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Harper’s Weekly</span>, besides being a literary paper of the first class––the only one among American +or European Pictorials with a definite purpose consistently and constantly carried out––is at once a +leading political and historical annalist of the nation.”––<i>The Press</i> (Philadelphia).</p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Harper’s Weekly</span>.––In turning over its pages, we were struck anew with the fidelity with +which it delineates passing events: a true picture of the times. The scenes of the war, portrayed +by the graphic pencils of artists on the battle-field and in the camp, are re-produced in excellent +wood-cuts with marvelous promptness and accuracy. The letter-press furnishes an appropriate accompaniment +to the illustrations; presenting a pleasing variety, sprightly and entertaining. We +can not wonder at the popularity of the <i>Weekly</i> when we observe the spirit and enterprise with +which it is conducted.”––<i>Journal</i> (Boston).</p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Harper’s Weekly for 1863</span>.––From a careful examination of this work, as it came out in it +weekly form, we can honestly advise our readers to purchase the stately and pictured volume. We +dare not say how many duodecimo volumes of matter, and of good and interesting matter, it contains. +As a record of the events and opinions of the past year, and as literally a picture of the +time, it has a permanent value, while its wealth of excellent stories and essays makes it an endless +source of entertainment. The original editorial articles are of a very high order of merit, and relate +to subjects which attract the attention of all intelligent and patriotic minds. Soundness of +thought, liberality of sentiment, and thorough-going loyalty find expression in the most exquisite +English. Altogether, we should say that <i>Harper’s Weekly</i> is a necessity in every household.”––<i>The +Transcript</i> (Boston).</p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Harper’s Weekly</span> and <span class='smcap'>Magazine</span>, with their immense circulation, are grandly loyal and influential. +The <i>Weekly</i> especially has been true to the cause; and while it gives in admirable correspondence +and accurate pictures a complete illustrated history of the war, with all its battles, incidents, +and portraits of generals, it has splendidly enforced by argument and example its principles. +Closer reasoning is not to be found than that to which its editors might fairly challenge answer.”––<i>City +Item</i> (Philadelphia).</p> +</blockquote> +<hr class='short' /> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:center'><span class="larger"><i>Notices of Harper’s Weekly.</i></span><br /></p> +<blockquote> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Harper’s Weekly</span>, of which the Seventh Volume is now issued in neat, substantial binding, +shows the industry and zeal with which the cause of the Union has been maintained in its columns +during the year 1863. It has continued to increase the fervor of patriotic sentiment as well by its +appropriate pictorial illustrations as by its able editorial leaders commenting on the events of the +day. In its present shape, the journal furnishes copious materials for the history of the war, and +can not fail to find a place in public and private libraries as an important volume for permanent reference.”––<i>Tribune</i> +(New York).</p> +<p>“<span class='smcap'>Harper’s Weekly</span> <i>for</i> 1863––a journal of the year, kept in the most interesting way; and as +we turn over the pages we revive many now almost forgotten sensations, and see, bit by bit, how +history has grown. The volume closed and bound up becomes history; but it would not be just to +this publication to omit a remark on the influence which it has exerted during the year, and which +it continues to exert. An illustrated journal like <i>Harper’s Weekly</i>, which circulates, as we have +heard, over one hundred and twenty thousand copies per week, chiefly among families, and which +has probably a million of readers, has necessarily a great influence in the country. The <i>Weekly</i> has +consistently and very ably supported the Union, the Government, and the great principles to develop +which the Union was founded. Unlike most illustrated journals, <i>Harper’s Weekly</i> has displayed political +and literary ability of a high order as well as artistic merit. Its political discussions are +sound, clear, and convincing, and have done their share to educate the American people to a right +understanding of their dangers and duties. In its speciality––illustrations of passing events––it is +unsurpassed; and many of the pictures of the year do honor to the genius of the artists and engravers +of this country. Thus complete in all the departments of an American Family Journal, <i>Harper’s +Weekly</i> has earned for itself a right to the title which it assumed seven years ago, ‘<span class='smcap'>A Journal of +Civilization</span>.’”––<i>Evening Post</i> (New York).</p> +<p><span class='smcap'>Harper’s Weekly</span>.––This periodical merits special notice at the present time. There is probably +no weekly publication of the country that equals its influence. More than one hundred thousand +copies fly over the land weekly: they are read in our cars, steamboats, and families. Our youth especially +read them; and as <i>the</i> family newspaper of the nation, its power over the forming opinions +of the next generation of the American people is an important item.</p> +<p>It is abundant, if not superabundant, in pictorial illustrations––a means of strong impression, especially +on the minds of the young. Both by its illustrations and its incessant discussion of the occurrences +and questions of the war it is a “current history” and “running commentary” on the +great event, and there is probably no literary agency of the day more effective in its influence respecting +the war in the families of the common people. Most happy are we then to be able to say that +this responsible power is exerted altogether on the side of loyalty. No paper in the land is more outspoken, +more uncompromising for the Union, for the war, for even the policy of the President’s +“great Proclamation.” When the rebellion broke out we did the publishers the injustice of some +anxious fears about their probable course on the subject.</p> +<p>Steadily have they kept up with the Providential development of its events and questions; not +only abreast of them, but, in important respects, ahead of them. No periodical press in the nation +deserves better of the country for its faithfulness and “pluck” in all matters relating to the great +struggle. And we should do it injustice were we not to add that, with its outright loyalty and +bravery, it combines commanding ability. The editorial leaders which it continuously flings out +against all political traitors and flunkies strike directly at their mark. They are evidently from +pens both strong and polished. On even the astuter subjects of policy, finance, &c., it is eminently +able. And it makes no mistake in supposing its readers capable of an interest and of intelligence in +these respects. American families look keenly into such questions, and with such a really educational +force as this paper wields, it is especially right and commendable that it seeks to elevate the +common mind to the higher questions of the times. The American people will not fail to notice and +to remember the courageous and patriotic course of <i>Harper’s Weekly</i> in these dark times of hideous +treason, and of more hideous, because more contemptible, semi-treason.––<i>The Methodist, <span class="nowrap">N. Y.</span></i></p> +</blockquote> +<hr class='short' /> +<div class="center"> +<p class="larger"><b>TERMS.</b></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">One Copy for Four Months</td><td align="right">$1 00</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">One Copy for One Year</td><td align="right">3 00</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Two Copies for One Year</td><td align="right">5 50</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">“Harper’s Weekly” and “Harper’s Magazine” one year</td><td align="right">5 50</td></tr> +</table> +<hr class='invis' /> +<p class="smaller" ><i>An Extra Copy of either the Weekly or Magazine will be supplied gratis for every Club of <span class='smcap'>Ten +Subscribers</span>, at <span class="nowrap">$2 75</span> each; or, Eleven Copies for <span class="nowrap">$27 50</span>.</i></p> +</div> +<hr class='pb' /> +<div class="trnote"> +<p><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p> +<p>The author’s archaic spelling is preserved, including creative +Spanish spelling such as “Guantamano” and “Hasta huego”.</p> +<p>The author’s punctuation style is preserved.</p> +<p>Hyphenation has been made consistent.</p> +<p>A Table of Contents and List of Illustrations have been added.</p> +<p>In addition to making hyphenation consistent, the following +changes were made to the original text:</p> +<p><a href="#P1">Page 18</a>: <b>Escondide</b> standardized to <b>Escondido</b> (Why, madame, it +is only a week ago that a lot of us dined with him at his estate of <b>Escondido</b>)</p> +<p><a href="#P2">Page 19</a>: Added quote (he continued, turning toward the skipper, as the clear +sound of the cruiser’s bell struck his ear, <b>“I must</b> not forget what I +came for.”)</p> +<p><a href="#P3">Page 29</a>: Added tilde (“<i>El Doctor <b>Señor</b>, con tres de nosotros.</i>”)</p> +<p><a href="#P4">Page 34</a>: Removed extra end quote from <b>“ho!”</b> (sputtered the ruffian, as he pulled a pistol from his belt, +<b>“ho!</b> you mean fight, do ye?”)</p> +<p><a href="#P5">Page 49</a>: Removed accent from <b>“e”</b> (‘<i><b>Bueno</b>!</i>’ There’s more fish in the sea––and +under it too!)</p> +<p><a href="#P6">Page 85</a>: Changed from single quote (<b>“But</b> the best of the joke was, the moment he spoke)</p> +<p><a href="#P17">Page 86</a>: Added accent (In the centre arose a huge <b>épergne</b> of silver, fashioned +into the shape of a drooping palm-tree)</p> +<p><a href="#P7">Page 92</a>: Added tilde (“And the <b>señorita’s</b> too, I think,”)</p> +<p><a href="#P8">Page 136</a>: Removed dash from <b>money––you</b> (I wouldn’t remain another hour in this filthy hole for all the +<b>money you</b> have cheated me out of, you old rascal.)</p> +<p><a href="#P9">Page 166</a>: <b>hirtling</b> changed to <b>hurtling</b> (No more pauses or lulls +now in the <b>hurtling</b> tempest)</p> +<p><a href="#P10">Page 185</a>: <b>epaulettes</b> standardized to <b>epaulets</b> (in cocked hat, full-dress +coat, a pair of gleaming <b>epaulets</b>, sword by his hip, and his nether +limbs cased in white knee-breeches)</p> +<p><a href="#P11">Page 205</a>: Added quote (<b>“Well</b>, gentlemen, for some weeks after these occurrences we sailed +about the islands)</p> +<p><a href="#P12">Page 205</a>: <b>Mosquito</b> standardized to <b>Musquito</b> (The orders were to beat up the south side of Cuba, where we expected +to fall in with the <b>Musquito</b> fleet and some English vessels)</p> +<p><a href="#P13">Page 225</a>: <b>is</b> changed to <b>its</b> (A minute later, all that was left of the shattered hull fell broadside +into the open fangs of the ledge, which ground it with <b>its</b> merciless +jaws into toothpicks.)</p> +<p><a href="#P14">Page 252</a>: Removed repeated <b>“at all”</b> (he didn’t like his looks <b>at all</b>, +though he did make himself so fascinating to the beautiful widow +who sat next him)</p> +<p><a href="#P15">Page 261</a>: <b>believeing</b> changed to <b>believing</b> (as there is much reason for <b>believing</b> he did––with great disgust, on +board the dirty, dumpy old ballahoo)</p> +<p><a href="#P16">Page 284</a>: <b>tholl-pins</b> changed to <b>thole-pins</b> (The sweeps paused, the +hide gromets resting on the <b>thole-pins</b>, and the water raining from +their broad blades.)</p> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN BRAND OF THE "CENTIPEDE"***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 29047-h.txt or 29047-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/0/4/29047">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/0/4/29047</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying 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A. +(Henry Augustus) Wise + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Captain Brand of the "Centipede" + A Pirate of Eminence in the West Indies: His Love and Exploits, Together with Some Account of the Singular Manner by Which He Departed This Life + + +Author: H. A. (Henry Augustus) Wise + + + +Release Date: June 5, 2009 [eBook #29047] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN BRAND OF THE "CENTIPEDE"*** + + +E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Katherine Ward, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from +digital material generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/toronto) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 29047-h.htm or 29047-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29047/29047-h/29047-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29047/29047-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/captainbrandofce00wiseuoft + + +Transcriber's note: + + A Table of Contents and List of Illustrations have been added. + + Text in italics is enclosed by _underscores_. + + Text in bold face is enclosed by =equal signs=. + + Specific changes to the text are listed at the end of the book. + + + + + +CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE "CENTIPEDE." + +A Pirate of Eminence in the West Indies: +His Loves and Exploits, + +Together with Some Account of the Singular Manner +by Which He Departed This Life. + +by + +HARRY GRINGO, +(H. A. WISE, U.S.N.), + +Author of "Los Gringos," "Tales for the Marines," and +"Scampavias." + + "Our God and sailors we alike adore, + In time of danger--not before; + The danger passed, both are alike requited: + God is forgotten, and the sailor slighted." + +With Illustrations. + + + + + + + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN BRAND.] + + + +New York: +Harper & Brothers, Publishers, +Franklin Square. +1864. + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand +eight hundred and sixty-four, by +Harper & Brothers, +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District +of New York. + + + + +CONTENTS + CHAPTER PAGE + + Part I + I. Spreading the Strands 5 + II. Calm 7 + III. High Noon 15 + IV. Sunset 21 + V. Darkness 24 + VI. Danger 33 + VII. The Meeting and Mourning 42 + VIII. Captain Brand at Home 44 + IX. Captain and Mate 53 + X. An Old Spaniard with One Eye 61 + XI. Conversation in Pockets and Sleeves 69 + XII. Doctor and Priest 73 + XIII. A Manly Fandango 79 + XIV. A Pirates' Dinner 85 + XV. Drowning a Mother to Murder a Daughter 92 + XVI. Nuptials of the Girl with Dark Eyes 103 + XVII. Doom of Dona Lucia 112 + XVIII. End of the Banquet 119 + XIX. Fandango on One Leg 122 + XX. Business 133 + XXI. Treasure 138 + XXII. Pleasure 144 + XXIII. Work 150 + XXIV. Caught in a Net 154 + XXV. The Mouse that Gnawed the Net 160 + XXVI. The Hurricane 166 + XXVII. The Virgin Mary 168 + XXVIII. The Ark that Jack Built 173 + + Part II + XXIX. Laying Up the Strands 179 + XXX. Old Friends 186 + XXXI. The Commander of the "Rosalie" 193 + XXXII. A Splice Parted 198 + XXXIII. The Blue Pennant in the Cabin 201 + XXXIV. The Devil to Pay 203 + XXXV. And the Pitch Hot 208 + XXXVI. The Chase 214 + XXXVII. The Wreck of the "Centipede" 220 + XXXVIII. Vultures and Sharks 226 + XXXIX. Escondido 231 + XL. Paul Darcantel 236 + XLI. Instinct and Wonder 243 + XLII. Truth and Terror 247 + XLIII. Peace and Love 252 + XLIV. Snuff out of a Diamond Box 256 + XLV. Lilies and Sea-weed 262 + XLVI. Parting 266 + XLVII. Devotion 270 + XLVIII. All Alive Again 273 + XLIX. The Rope Laid Up 278 + L. On a Bed of Thorns 288 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + PAGE + Captain Brand Frontispiece + "When the Wind Comes from Good San Antonio" 12 + The Pirates Boarding the Brig 26 + The Night Chase 38 + The Pirate Den 47 + The "Panchita" 50 + "He Touched the Bell Overhead as He Spoke" 65 + A Pirates' Dinner 85 + The Pirate's Prey 94 + "A Supernatural Warning!" 116 + Shriving a Sinner 124 + "He Crept Forward on Hands and Knees" 141 + "A Dull, Heavy, Booming Roar" 156 + "See If You Can Not Slip That Pretty Silk Rope Over my + Head" 162 + Building the Boat 174 + The United States Frigate "Monongahela" 183 + "Queer Old Stick, That!" Said the Commodore 188 + And the Pitch Hot 208 + The Stern Chase 217 + "His Right Arm Poised with Clenched Hand Aloft," Etc. 256 + The Old Water-Logged Launch 280 + "Now Captain Brand Knew What Was Coming" 294 + + + + +PART I. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SPREADING THE STRANDS. + + "Shout three times three, like Ocean's surges, + Join, brothers, join, the toast with me; + Here's to the wind of life, which urges + The ship with swelling waves o'er sea!" + + "Masters, I can not spin a yarn + Twice laid with words of silken stuff. + A fact's a fact; and ye may larn + The rights o' this, though wild and rough + My words may loom. 'Tis your consarn, + Not mine, to understand. Enough--" + + +It was in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and five, and in the +River Garonne, where a large, wholesome merchant brig lay placidly on +the broad and shining water. The fair city of Bordeaux, with its great +mass of yellow-tinted buildings, towers, and churches, rose from the +river's banks, and the din and bustle of the great mart came faintly to +the ear. The sails of the brig were loosed, the crew were hauling home +the sheets and hoisting the top-sails with the clear, hearty songs of +English sailors, while the anchor was under foot and the cable rubbing +with a taut strain against the vessel's bluff bows. At the gangway stood +a large, handsome seaman, bronzed by the sun and winds of about half a +century, dressed in a square-cut blue jacket and loose trowsers, talking +to the pilot--a brown little Frenchman, in coarse serge raiment and +large, clumsy sabots. The conversation between them was carried on +partly by signs, for, in answer to the pilot, the other threw his +stalwart arm aloft toward the folds of the spreading canvas, and nodded +his head. + +"_Fort bien! vite donc! mon Capitaine_," said the pilot; "the tide is on +the ebb; let us go. Up anchor!" + +"Ay, pilot!" replied the captain, pulling out his watch; "in ten +minutes. The ladies, you know, must have time to say 'good-by.' Isn't it +so, my pilot?" + +The gallant little Frenchman smiled in acquiescence, and, taking off his +glazed hat with the air of a courtier, said, "_Pardieu!_ certainly; why +not? Jean Marie would lose his pilotage rather than hurry a lady." + +Going aft to the raised cabin on the quarter-deck, the captain softly +opened the starboard door, and looking in, said, in a kindly tone, + +"It is time to part, my friends; the pilot says we are losing the +strength of the tide, so we must kiss and be off." + +Two lovely women were sitting, hand clasped in hand, on the sofa of the +transom. You saw they were sisters of nearly the same age, and a little +boy and girl tumbling about their knees showed they were mothers--young +mothers too, for the soft, full, rounded forms of womanhood, with the +flush of health and matronly pride tinged their cheeks, while masses of +dark hair banded over their smooth brows and tearful eyes told the story +at a glance. They rose together as the captain spoke. + +"_Adieu, chere Rosalie!_ we shall soon meet again, let us hope, never +more to part." + +"Adieu, Nathalie! adieu, dearest sister! adieu! adieu!" + +The loving arms were twined around each other in the last embrace; the +tears fell like gentle rain, but with smiles of hope and trustfulness +they parted. + +"Ay," said the sturdy skipper, as he stood with eyes brimful of moisture +regarding the sisters, "ay, trust me for bringing you together again. +Well do I remember when you were little wee things, when I brought you +to France after the earthquake in Jamaica; just like these little rogues +here"--and he laid his brawny hands on the heads of the children, who +clung to each other within the folds of their mothers' dresses; "but +never fear, my darlings," he went on, "you will meet happily again. Ay, +that you shall, if old Jacob Blunt be above land or water." + +A boat which was lying alongside the brig shoved off; the little boy, +who had been left on board, was held high above the rail in the arms +of a sturdy negro, while the mother stood beside him, waving her +handkerchief to the boat as it pulled rapidly away toward the shore. + +"Man the windlass, lads!" cried the captain. "Mister Binks, brace round +the head-yards, and up with the jib as soon as the anchor's a-weigh." + +The windlass clinked as the iron palls caught the strain of the cable, +the anchor was wrenched from its oozy bed, the vessel's head fell off, +and, gathering way, she moved quietly down the River Garonne. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +CALM. + + "It ceased: yet still the sails made on + A pleasant noise till noon-- + A noise like that of a hidden brook + In the leafy month of June. + Till noon we quietly sailed on, + Yet never a breeze did breathe; + Slowly and smoothly went the ship, + Moved onward from beneath." + + +The great lumbering brig, with yards square, main-sail hauled up, and +the jib and trysail in the brails, lay listlessly rolling on the easy +swell of the water, giving a gentle send forward every minute or so, +when the sluggish sails would come with a thundering slap against the +masts, and the loose cordage would rattle like a drum-major's ratan on a +spree. The sea was one glassy mirror of undulations, shimmering out into +full blaze as the rising sun just threw its rays along the crest of the +ocean swell; and then, dipping down into the rolling mass, the hue would +change to a dark green, and, coming up again under the brig's black +counter, would swish out into a little shower of bubbles, and sparkle +again joyously. + +Away off in the distance lay the island of Jamaica--the early haze about +the mountain tops rising like a white lace veil from the deep valleys +below, with here and there a white dot of a cluster of buildings +gleaming out from the sombre land like the flicker of a heliotrope, and +at intervals the base of the coast bursting forth in a long, heavy +fringe of foam, as the lazy breakers chafed idly about the rocks of some +projecting headland. Nearer, too, were the dark succession of waving +blue lines in parallel bars and patches of the young land wind, tipping +the backs of the rollers in a fluttering ripple of cats'-paws, and then +wandering sportively away out to sea. + +On board the brig, forward, were three or four barefooted sailors, in +loose frocks and trowsers, moving lazily about the decks, drawing +buckets of water over the side and dashing it against the bulwarks, +while others were scrubbing and clearing up the vessel for the day. The +caboose, too, began to show signs of life, and a thin column of smoke +rose gracefully up in the calm morning air until it came within the +eddying influence of the sails and top-hamper, when a bit of roll would +puff it away in blue curls beyond. + +Abaft stood a low, squat-built sailor at the wheel, his striped Guernsey +cap hanging on one of the spokes, and his body leaning, half asleep, +over the barrel, which gave him a sharp twitch every now and then when +the sea caught the rudder on the wrong side. Near at hand, with an arm +around an after top-mast backstay, and head resting over the rail, was +the mate, Mr. Binks, with a spy-glass to his eye, through which he was +peering at the distant hills of Jamaica. Presently, as he was about to +withdraw the brass tube, and as the old brig yawed with her head +inshore, something appeared to arrest his attention; for, changing his +position, and climbing up to the break of the deck cabin, he steadied +himself by the shrouds, and rubbing his eye with the sleeve of his +shirt, he gave a long look through the glass, muttering to himself the +while. At last, having apparently made up his mind, he sang out to the +man at the wheel in this strain: + +"Ben, my lad, look alive; catch a turn with them halliards over the lee +wheel; and just take this 'ere glass and trip up to the fore-yard, and +see what ye make of that fellow, here away under the eastermost +headland." + +Ben, without more ado, secured the spokes of the wheel, clapped his cap +on his head, hitched up his trowsers, and, taking the glass from the +mate, rolled away up the fore-rigging. Meanwhile Mr. Binks walked +forward, stopping a moment at the caboose to take a tin pot of coffee +from the cook, and then, going on to the topsail-sheet bitts, he +carefully seated himself, and leisurely began to stir up the sugar in +his beverage with an iron spoon, making a little cymbal music with it on +the outside while he gulped it down. He had not been many minutes +occupied in this way when Ben hailed the deck from the fore-yard. + +"On deck there!" + +"Hallo!" ejaculated Mr. Binks. + +"I see that craft," cried Ben; "she's a fore and after, sails down, and +sweeping along the land. She hasn't got a breath of wind, sir." + +"Very well," said Mr. Binks, speaking into the tin pot with a sound like +a sheet-iron organ; "come down." + +As Ben wriggled himself off the fore-yard and caught hold of the futtock +shrouds to swing into the standing rigging, he suddenly paused, and +putting the glass again to his eye, he sang out: + +"I say, sir! here is a big chap away off on the other quarter, under +top-sails. There! Perhaps ye can see him from the deck, about a +handspike clear of the sun"--pointing with the spy-glass as he spoke in +the proper direction. + +"All right!" said the mate, as he began again the cymbal pot and spoon +music; "becalmed, ain't he?" + +"Yes, sir; not enough air to raise a hair on my old grandmother's wig!" +muttered Ben, as he slowly trotted down the rigging. + +The sun came up glowing like a ball of fire. The land wind died away +long before it fluttered far off from the island, and, saving the uneasy +clatter at times of the loose sails and running gear, all remained as +before. It was getting on toward eight o'clock, and while the cook was +dishing the breakfast mess for the crew beneath an awning forward of the +quarter-deck, the captain came up from his cabin below. The stalwart old +seaman stepped to the bulwarks, and, shading his eyes with his hand from +the glare, he took a broad glance over the water to seaward, nodded to +the mate, and said, in a cheerful voice, + +"Dull times, matey! No signs of a breeze yet, eh?" + +"No, captain," said Mr. Binks; "dead as ditch water; not been enough air +to lift a feather since you went below at four o'clock. But we have +sagged inshore by the current a few leagues during the night, and here's +old Jamaica plain in sight broad off the bow." + +"Well, it's not so bad after all, a forty-four days' passage--so I'll +tell my Lady Bird passenger." + +Going to the latticed door of the deck cabin, the jolly skipper threw it +wide open, clapped his hands together thrice, and then, placing them to +his mouth like a speaking-trumpet, he bellowed out, in a deep, low +roar, + +"Heave out there, all hands! Heave out, Lady Bird and baby! Land ho!" + +There came a joyous note from a soft womanly voice within a screen drawn +across the after cabin, mingled with a little cooing grunt from a child, +and presently an inner door swung back, and the sweetest little tot of a +boy came tumbling out into the open space, and sprang at once into the +captain's arms. The little fellow buried his brown curly head into the +old skipper's whiskers, and then, kicking up his fat naked legs, he +laughed and chattered like a magpie. + +"Aha! you young scamp, this small nose smells the oranges and cinnamon, +eh? And dear lazy mamma shuts her pretty eyes, and won't look for papa, +and so near home, too!" + +Here Madame Rosalie's low sweet voice trilled out merrily in a slightly +foreign accent, while the contralto tones vibrated on the ear like the +note of a harp. + +"Ah! _bon capitaine_, how could you deceive me? Still, I forgive you for +telling me last night that we were so far from Kingston. When you know, +too," she went on in her Creole accent, "how I love and want to see my +dear husband these last four years, since you carried him away in your +good big ship. But never mind, my good friend, I shall pay you off one +of these days; and now send, please, for Banou to dress his little +boy." + +Scarcely had the worthy skipper reached a bell-rope near at hand, and +given it one jerk, than the cabin door opened, and in stepped a brawny +black, whose bare woolly head and white teeth and eyes glittered with +delight. There was that about his face which indicated intelligence, +courage, devotion, and humanity--those indescribable marks of expression +which Nature sometimes stamps in unmistakable lines on the skin, whether +it be white or black. He was below the middle height, but the large head +was set with a great swelling throat on the shoulders of a Titan. His +loose white and red striped shirt was thrown well back over his black +and broad chest; and putting out a pair of muscular arms that seemed as +massive and heavy as lignum vitae, the boy jumped from the captain to +meet them; and then sticking his little soft legs down the slack of +Banou's shirt, he ran his rosy fingers in his wool, and shouted with +glee. + +"Oho!" said the black, as he passed his huge arms around the little +fellow, and smoothed down his scanty night-dress as if it were the +plumage of a bird, "oho! little Master Henri loves his Banou, eh? Good, +he take bath." + +Bearing his charge out upon the quarter-deck beneath the awning, he +pulled a large tub from under a boat turned upside down over the deck +cabin; and then, while the young monkey had scrambled round to his back, +and was beating a tattoo with his tiny fists on his shoulders, Banou +caught up a bucket and proceeded to draw water from over the side, which +he dashed into the tub. When he had nearly filled the tub he felt around +with his black paws as delicately as if he was about to seize a +musquito, and, clutching the kicking legs with one hand, he spun the +little fellow a somersault over his head, and skinning off at the same +time his diminutive frock, plunged him into the sparkling brine, singing +the while in a laughing chant: + + "Dis is the way strong Banou catch him, + First he strip and den he 'plash him; + Henri he jump and 'cream for his moder, + But Banou lub him more dan his broder!" + +Here the brawny nurse would souse him head over heels in the sparkling +water, lift him up at every dip, rub his black nose all over him, making +mock bites at the little legs and stomach; and, finally, holding him +aloft, dripping, laughing, and struggling, go on with his refrain: + + "What will papa say when he sees him, + Picaninny boy dat is sure to please him? + Big Banou he rub and dress him, + But little Henri he kick and pinch him!" + +All this time the men seated forward on the deck, pegging away deep into +their mess-kids, would pause occasionally, shake their great tarry +fingers at the imp, and chuckle pleasantly with their mouths full of +lobscouse, as if the urchin belonged to them as individual property. + +"What a tidy little chap he'll make some of these days," said Ben, +"a-furlin' the light sails in a squall! My eye! wouldn't I like to live +and see him!" + +"No, no, messmates," replied that worthy, as he crunched a biscuit and +took a sip of coffee out of the pot, "that 'ere child will, some of +these times, when he's growed a bit, be a-wearing gold swabs on his +shoulders, and a-givin' his orders like a hadmiral of a fleet!" + +"Quite right, my hearty! It'll never do for sich a knowin' little chub +to spend his days along shore a-bilin' sugar-cane on a plantation, and +a-footin' up accounts; for, ye mind, he was like the chip as was + + "'Born at sea, and his cradle a frigate, + The boatswain he nursed him true blue; + He'll soon learn to fight, drink, and jig it, + And quiz every soul of the crew!'" + +While these old salts were thus carving out a destiny for the youngster, +the black gave him a final souse in the tub, and then holding him up to +drain, as it were, for the last time, exclaimed, while his face lighted +up with pleasure, + +"Oho, my little massa! what will papa say to-morrow when he sees his +brave Henri?" + +"Ah! how happy he will be, Banou!" said the lovely mother, who had just +come on deck, as she kissed the mouth of the young scamp, while the +black wrapped and dried his little naked body in a large towel. + +"Ah! yes, my mistress, we all will be happy once more to get home to +master on the plantation." + +"Tell me! tell me, good _capitaine_," said she, turning in a pretty +coquettish way to the skipper, "when shall we get in port?" + +It was a sight to see her, in the loose white morning-gown folded in +plaits about the swelling bosom, her slender waist clasped by a flowing +blue sash, the dark brown satin bands of her hair confined by a large +gold filigree pin, and half concealed by a jaunty little French cap, +with the ribbons floating about her pear-shaped ears; and while her +soft, dark hazel eyes were bent eagerly toward the solid old skipper, +her round, rosy, dimpled fingers clasped a miniature locket fastened by +a massive linked gold chain around her neck. Ah! she was a sight to see +and love! + +"Tell me, _mon cher Capitaine_ Blunt, how many hours or minutes will it +be before I shall behold my husband?" + +The good-natured skipper laughed pleasantly at the eagerness of his +beautiful passenger, and opening his hands wide, he gave vent to a long, +low whistle, and replied, + +"When the wind comes from good San Antonio, my Lady Bird--when the +sea-breeze makes--then the old brig will reel off the knots! But see! +just now not a breath to keep a tropic bird's wings out. There, look at +that fellow!" + +High up in the heavens, two or three men-of-war birds, with wide-spread +pointed wings, and their swallow tails cut as sharp as knife-blades, +were heading seaward, and every little while falling in a rapid sidelong +plunge, as if in a vacuum, and then again giving an almost imperceptible +dash with their pinions as they recovered the lost space and continued +on in their silent flight. + +"That's a sure sign, Madame Rosalie," continued the skipper, "that the +trade wind has blown itself out, and the chances are that this hot sun +will drink up the flying clouds, and leave us in a dead calm till the +moon quarters to-night. What say you, Mr. Binks? am I right?" + +"Never know'd you to be wrong, sir," said the mate, with an honest +intonation of voice, as he tried to stare the sun out of countenance in +following the captain's glance. + +"_Helas!_" said the young mother, with a little sigh of sadness, as she +stood peering over the lee rail to the green hills and slopes of the +island, standing boldly out now with the lofty blue mountains cutting +the sky ten thousand feet in mid-heaven; "so near, too; and he is +thinking and waiting for us!" + +"Come," exclaimed the skipper, heartily, "the youngster wants his +breakfast!" + +[Illustration: "WHEN THE WIND COMES FROM GOOD SAN ANTONIO, MY LADY +BIRD--"] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +HIGH NOON. + + "No life is in the air, but in the waters + Are creatures huge, and terrible, and strong; + The swordfish and the shark pursue their slaughters; + War universal reigns these depths along. + The lovely purple of the noon's bestowing + Has vanished from the waters, where it flung + A royal color, such as gems are throwing + Tyrian or regal garniture among." + + +High noon! Still the stanch old brig bowed and dipped her bluff bows +into the long, easy swell of the tropics; the round, flat counter sent +the briny bubbles sparkling away in the glare of the noontide sun; the +sails flapped and chafed against the spars and rigging, while the crew +sheltered themselves beneath the awnings, and dozed on peacefully. + +Off to seaward a few dead trade-clouds showed their white bulging cheeks +along the horizon, and occasionally a fluttering blue patch of a breeze +would skim furtively over the backs of the rollers; but long before they +reached the brig they had expended their force, and expired in the +boundless calm. + +Not so, however, with the large sail that had been seen from the brig in +the early morning. For, with a lofty spread of kites and a studding-sail +or two, she at times caught a flirting puff of air, and when the sun had +passed the zenith she had approached within half a mile or less of the +brig. There was no mistaking the stranger's character. Her taunt, trim +masts, square yards, and clear, delicate black tracery of rigging, +shadowed by a wide spread of snow-white canvas over the low, dark +hull--which at every roll in the gentle undulations exposed a row of +ports with a glance of white inner bulwarks--while the brass stars of +her battery reflected sparks of fire from the blazing rays of the sun, +showed she was a man-of-war. + +"She's one of our cruisers, I think, sir," said the mate, as he handed +the spy-glass to the captain; "but Ben here believes contrariwise, and +says she is a French corvette." + +"Have to try again, Mr. Binks; for, to my mind, she's an out-and-out +Yankee sloop-of-war. Ay! there goes his colors up to the gaff! so up +with our ensign, or else he'll be burning some powder for us." + +Even while they were speaking a flag went rapidly up in a roll to the +corvette's peak, when, shaking itself clear, it lay white and red, with +a galaxy of white stars in a blue union, on the lee side of the spanker; +while at the same instant a long, thin, coach-whip of a pennant unspun +itself from the main truck, and hung motionless in the calm down the +mast. Her decks were full of men, standing in groups under the shade of +the sails to leeward; and on the poop were three or four officers in +uniform and straw hats. One of these last stood for some time gazing at +the brig--one hand resting on the ratlines of the mizzen shrouds, and +the other slowly swinging a trumpet backward and forward. Presently an +officer with a pair of gleaming epaulets on his shoulders mounted the +poop ladder, touched his hat, and waved his hand toward the brig. A +moment after-- + +"Brig ahoy!" came in a sharp, clear, manly tone through the trumpet. + +"Sir?" + +"What brig is that?" + +"The 'Martha Blunt!' named after my dear old wife, God bless her! and +myself, Jacob Blunt, God bless me!" added the jolly skipper, in a sotto +voce chuckle to the fair passenger who stood beside him. + +"Where are you from, and where bound?" came again through the trumpet. + +"Bordeaux, and bound to Kingston. We have a free passport from Sir +Robert Calder and Admiral Villeneuve." + +There was a wave of the trumpet as the speaker finished hailing, and +then touching his hat to the officer with the gold swabs, and pausing +only a moment, he moved to the other side of the corvette's poop. + +"It would be no more nor polite in him to tell us what his name is, +arter all the questions he's axed." + +"Don't ye know, Mr. Binks," broke in the captain, "that the dignity of a +man-of-war is sich that it wouldn't be discreet to tell no more than +that she has a cargo of cannon balls, and going on a cruise any wheres? +which ye may believe is as much valuable information as we might get out +of our own calabashes without asking a question." + +"You are allers right, Captain Blunt, but I did not tax my mind to think +when I spoke them remarks," said Binks, deferentially. + +The cruiser, however, seemed more communicative than the mate gave her +credit for, and a moment after the officer with the trumpet sang out, + +"This is the United States ship 'Scourge,' from Port Royal, bound on a +cruise! Please report us." + +And again, after a few words apparently with the officer with the +epaulets, the trumpet was raised to his lips, and he asked, "Have you +seen any vessels lately?" + +The skipper was on the point of answering the hail, when his mate said, +"Beg pardon, Captain Blunt, but Ben and me made out a fore-and-aft +schooner airly this morning, with sweeps out, pulling in under the +outermost headland there," pointing with his horny finger as he spoke. + +"Nothing, sir, but a small schooner at daylight sweeping to windward." + +"What?" came back in a clear, quick note from the corvette. + +"Small fore-and-after, sir, with sails down and sweeps out, close under +the land." + +In a moment two or three officers on the cruiser's deck put their heads +together, several glasses were directed toward the now dim mirage-like +shadow of the island, and the next instant the sharp ring of a +boatswain's whistle was heard, followed by a gruff call of, "Away there! +Ariels, away!" + +Immediately a cluster of sailors, in white frocks and trowsers and straw +hats, sprang over the ship's quarter to the davits; and then with a +chirruping, surging pipe, a boat fell rapidly to the water. The falls +were cast off, the cutter hauled up to the gangway, and soon an officer +stepped over the side and tripped down to the boat. The white blades of +the oars stood up on end in a double line, the boat pushed off, the oars +fell with a single splash, and she steered for the brig. Descending down +into the gentle valley of the long swell, she would disappear for an +instant, till nothing but the white hats and feather blades of the oars +were visible; and again rising on the crest, the water flashed off in +foam from her bows as she came dancing on. + +In a few minutes the coxswain cried, "Way enough," and throwing up his +hand with the word "Toss," the cutter shot swiftly alongside; the +boat-hooks of the bowmen brought her up with a sudden jar, and the next +moment an officer with an epaulet on his right shoulder and a sword by +his side stepped over the gangway. The skipper was there to receive him, +to whom he touched his cap with his fore finger; but as his eye glanced +aft he saw a lady, and he gracefully removed his cap and bowed like a +gentleman to her. He was a man of about eight-and-twenty, with a fine, +manly, sailor-like figure and air, and with a pair of bright, determined +gray eyes in his head that a rascal would not care to look into twice. + +"I am the first lieutenant of the 'Scourge,' sir," he said, turning to +the skipper, "and if you will step this way, I'll have a few words with +you." + +This was said in a careless tone of command, but withal with frankness +and civility. The captain led him aft toward the taffrail, but in +crossing the deck the little tot of a boy followed closely in his wake, +and getting hold of the officer's sword, which trailed along by its +belt-straps on the deck, he got astride of it, and seized on to the +coat-skirts of the wearer. The little tug he gave caused the officer to +turn round, and with a cheerful smile and manner he snatched the urchin +up in his arms, kissed him on both cheeks, and as he put him down again +and detached his sword for him to play with, he exclaimed, + +"What a glorious little reefer you'll make one of these days! Won't +you?" + +"_Oui! oui! mon papa!_" said the little scamp, as he looked knowingly up +in the officer's face. + +"Excuse my little boy, sir," said his mother, who was in chase of him; +and then turning to the child with a blush spreading over her lovely +face, "It is not your papa, Henri! papa is in Kingston." + +"Ah! madame, I love children. I had once a dear little fellow like this, +but both he and his sweet mother are in heaven now. God bless them!" + +A flush of sadness tinged his cheeks, and he passed his hand rapidly +across his eyes, as if the dream was too sad to dwell upon; but changing +his tone, and while with one hand he patted the little fellow's head, he +went on: "Madame lives in Jamaica?" + +"Oh yes; I was born there, but my parents were destroyed by an +earthquake when I was quite a little child, and this good captain here +carried my sister and myself to France soon after, where Monsieur--" +here she hesitated and blushed with pleasure--"where I married my +husband, who is a planter on the island. Perhaps you may know Monsieur +Jules Piron?" + +"Piron!" said the navy man, with warmth. "Ay, madame, for as fine a +fellow as ever planted sugar! Know him? Why, madame, it is only a week +ago that a lot of us dined with him at his estate of Escondido; you know +it, madame? in the grand piazza which looks down the gorge. But he +behaved very shabbily," said the officer, as his face lighted up gayly, +"for he kept a spy-glass to his eye oftener than the wine-glass to his +lips, in looking out seaward, and in talking of his wife and the little +boy he had never seen." + +"Oh, monsieur! you make me so happy," said the lovely woman, as with +sparkling eyes and heaving bosom she cried, "Banou! Banou! this +gentleman has just seen your good master." + +The black, who had been standing near and guarding every movement of his +little charge, who was trailing the sword about the deck, immediately +approached the officer, and, falling on his knees, seized his hand and +drew it toward his face. + +"Ah! madame, I see that kindness meets with a return as well from a dark +as a fair skin," said the officer, in a low tone, as he gently withdrew +his hand from Banou's grasp. + +"But," he continued, turning toward the skipper, as the clear sound of +the cruiser's bell struck his ear, "I must not forget what I came for." + +"You say, captain, that you saw a schooner at daylight, eh? This way, if +you please"--as he raised his cap to Madame Piron and walked over to the +other side of the deck. "What was she like?" + +"She was reported to me by the mate," replied Jacob Blunt. + +"Please send for him." + +"Oh! Mr.--a'--" + +"Binks, sir," said that individual, touching his hat and making an +awkward scrape at a bow. + +"Well, Mr. Binks, did you clearly make out the vessel you saw this +morning under the land?" + +"Can't say exactly, sir, as I did; but Ben Brown there was on the +fore-yard, and he got a good squint at her." + +"Ah! can I see the man?" + +The mate straightway went forward, and, after a few pokes about the lee +waist, Ben was roused out from under the jolly-boat and came rolling +aft. + +"_You_ saw the schooner, eh?" said the lieutenant, as if he was in the +habit of asking sharp questions and getting quick answers. + +"Yes, sir," said the squat seaman, as he hitched up his knife-belt, and +wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and took off his cap. + +"Where?" + +"Here away, sir," with a wave of his paw, "just clear of that bluff +foreland where the gap opens with the Blue Mountain." + +"How was she rigged?" + +"Bare sticks, sir, not much of a bowsprit, and no sail spread. I see her +first by the flash of her sweeps in the rising sun, as she was heading +about sou'-sou'-east into the land." + +"Two masts, you say?" + +"Ay, sir; but I thought as 'ow there was a jigger-like yard a-sticking +out over her starn, though I wasn't sartin." + +"So!" said the lieutenant, in a musing tone, and with rather a grave +face and compressed lip; "that will do; thank you, my man." Then placing +his hand on the skipper's shoulder, he drew him to one side, out of +ear-shot, and said, + +"Captain Blunt, are you much acquainted in these latitudes?" + +"Oh yes, sir, me and my old brig are regular traders here, from Bordeaux +to Jamaica, and so home to England." + +"No treasure, I presume?" went on the officer, with a smile. + +"Why, lieutenant, none to speak of, p'raps; just a handful of dollars +and a guinea or two in the bag for a few sacks of sugar or coffee, or a +pipe of rum, or sich like, on my own account." + +"Well, my friend, there is probably nothing to fear, but if the breeze +springs up, keep as close to the corvette as you can, and I shall ask +the captain to keep a look-out for you during the night." + +"By the way"--the officer continued in a low tone as he moved toward the +gangway--"in case any thing should happen, you had better hoist a +lantern at your peak or in the main-rigging--we have sharp eyes for ugly +customers, and one or two of them have been particularly troublesome of +late hereabouts." + +Turning for a moment to bid adieu to the fair lady passenger on the +quarter-deck, and recovering his sword after a playful struggle with the +youngster, he buckled it around his waist, and, stepping lightly over +the side and into the boat, the oars fell with a single splash, and the +cutter shot rapidly away toward the corvette. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SUNSET. + + "Light is amid the gloomy canvas spreading, + The moon is whitening the dusky sails, + From the thick bank of clouds she masters, shedding + The softest influence that o'er night prevails. + Pale is she, like a young queen pale with splendor, + Haunted with passionate thoughts too fond, too deep; + The very glory that she wears is tender, + The very eyes that watch her beauty fain would weep." + + +Not a breath from the lungs of Aeolus. The sun went down like a globe of +fire; but just as it touched the horizon it flattened out into an oval +disk, and, sinking behind a dead, slate-colored cloud, shot up half a +dozen broad rose and purple bands, expanding as they mounted heavenward, +and then fading away in pearly-tinted hues in the softening twilight +until it mingled in the light of the half moon nearly at the zenith. +There lay the island, too, now all clear again, with the blue tops of +the mountains marked in pure distinct outline, and falling away from +peak to peak on either hand, till the sea flashed up in sluggish creamy +foam at the base. The man-of-war birds came floating in from seaward, +high up, like black musquitoes, with their pointed wings wide spread and +heading toward the land, but now with never a quiver to their silent +pinions. A school of porpoises, too, broke water from the opposite +direction, and, crossing and recrossing each other's track, came leaping +and puffing over the gentle swells until they struck the brig's wake, +when they wheeled around her bows, dashed off on a swift visit to the +corvette, and then, closing up in watery phalanx, went gamboling, +leaping, and breaking water again to windward. Presently, along the +eastern horizon, the banks of clouds, which had been lying dead and +motionless all the sultry day, seemed to be imbued with life, and, +separating in their fleecy masses, mounted up above the sea, and soon +spread out, like a lady's fan, in all directions. + +"Ho! ho!" shouted Captain Blunt, clapping his hands, "what said I, +Madame Rosalie, when we saw the sun setting up his lee backstays a while +ago? A breeze, eh? Come, Mr. Binks, be wide awake! We shall be bowling +off the knots before the watch is out." + +The mate caught the enthusiasm of the skipper, and, jumping up on the +break of the deck cabin, he sang out, + +"D'ye hear there, lads? give us a good pull of the top-sail halliards, +and round in them starboard braces a bit! That's your sort! Well, the +head-yards! That'll do with the main! Up with the flying jib, and trim +aft them starboard jib and staysail sheets! There! Belay all." + +Meanwhile the corvette, with her lofty dimity kissing the sky, caught +the first light airs before the slightest ripple darkened the surface of +the water; and with her helm a-starboard, and her after-yards braced +sharp up, she silently swung round on her heel, while the spanker came +flat aft, like a sheet of white paper, and with the head-sails trimmed, +she slowly moved athwart the stern of the brig. The sharp whistles of +the boatswain and his mates, piping like goldfinches, were the only +sounds that were heard; and as the cruiser moved on in her course, the +declining moon cast a mellow light over the folds of her canvas, and, +like a girl in bridal attire, she threw a graceful shadow over the +smooth and swelling waters away off to windward. + +The sails of the brig, which had begun to swell out in easy drooping +lines, fell back again flat to the masts as the ship crossed her wake. +But as the corvette passed, the officer of the watch on the poop raised +his cap to the lovely woman who was standing out in graceful relief on +the upper cabin deck, with her little boy held up beside her in the +sturdy arms of the black, and placing the trumpet to his lips, said, in +a distinct voice, as if addressing the skipper, + +"We shall go about at midnight. Remember the directions I gave you this +morning. _Bon voyage, madame!_" He shook his trumpet playfully at the +boy, who put out his chubby arms with delight to the speaker, and then +hammered away with great glee on the crown of his bearer's head. + +"Thank you, sir," said Captain Blunt, who was leaning over the rail; and +then turning to his mate, he added, + +"Them Yankees, Mr. Binks, always treats a merchantman like gentlemen on +the high seas, and I never knew one on 'em to turn their backs on +friends or foes. What a pity they ever cut adrift from the Old Country! +Howsoever, matey, it can't be helped, and you had better up with the +port studding-sails, hang out all the rags, and make the old drogher +walk." + +Now came the rippling breeze all at once over the sea, fluttering +furtively for a minute or two, so as to make the top-sails of the brig +swell out and then fall back in a tremulous shiver; but again bulging +forward in a full-breasted curve, the vessel felt the tug, and began to +dash the spray from her bluff bows till it fell away beyond the lee +cathead in flying masses of foam. The studding-sail booms rolled out, +the sailors busied themselves aloft in making the additional sail, and +by-and-by the old brig floundered along, the bubbles gurgling out ahead +in the ruffled water, tipping over astern as the crests broke on her +quarter; at times plunging her bows into the rolling swell, but coming +up sturdily again, and so on as before. + +Meanwhile the corvette had edged away in a parallel course with the +brig, running past her at first as if she were at anchor, when she let +her topgallant-sails slide down to the caps, and, with the weather clew +of her main-sail triced up, she held way with the brig a mile or more to +windward. + +The moon was sinking well down in the west, and the clear, well-defined +crescent was occasionally obscured by the light fleecy clouds moving +under the influence of the trade wind, when, toward eight bells, the +moon gave one pure white glimmer, threw a rippling flood of light over +the waves, and sunk below the horizon. Still the stars twinkled and the +planets flamed out like young moons--masked at intervals by the +darkening clouds as they swept overhead in heavy masses--and tinging the +sea with shade, which would again break out in phosphorescent flashes as +the waves caught the reflection. + +"Now, Madame Rosalie," said the kind old skipper, "it is nearly +midnight; take your last snooze in the old barky, and wake up bright and +happy for Port Royal and--you know who, in the morning." + +The charming woman had been watching, with soul-rapt gaze, the lofty +hills of Jamaica from the last blaze of the setting sun, and until the +moon too had vanished and left only a dim blue haze over the island. She +started as the captain spoke, gave a deep sigh, kissed her hand to the +good old skipper, said "_Bon soir, mon ami_," and with a smile she +entered her cabin. + +The black was seated within the partition of the apartment, near a small +swinging cot, urging it gently to and fro, and watching over his little +charge. + +"Good-night, Banou," she said, in patois French; "you may go to bed, and +I will take care of my little boy." + +The black grinned so as to show his double range of white teeth beneath +the rays of the cabin lamp, and without a word he moved silently away. +The lady stood for a few moments gazing lovingly at the sleeping child, +and then drawing the miniature from her bosom, she detached it with the +chain from her neck, and after pressing it to her lips, she leaned +softly over the cot and fastened it around the little sleeper. As light +and zephyr-like as was the effort, it caused the little fellow to stir, +and reaching out his tiny arms, while a baby smile played around the +dimples of his cheeks, he clasped his mother's neck. + +Ah! fond and devoted mother! That was the last sweet infantile caress +your child was ever destined to give you! Treasure it up in joy and +sorrow, in sunshine and gloom, for long, long years will pass before you +press him to your heart again! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +DARKNESS. + + "The busy deck is hushed, no sounds are waking + But the watch pacing silently and slow; + The waves against the sides incessant breaking, + And rope and canvas swaying to and fro. + The topmost sail, it seems like some dim pinnacle + Cresting a shadowy tower amid the air; + While red and fitful gleams come from the binnacle, + The only light on board to guide us--where?" + + +On went the "Martha Blunt" with no fears of danger near. The bell struck +eight, the watch had been called, and the captain, taking a satisfactory +look all around the horizon, glanced at the compass, and, with a slight +yawn, said, + +"Well, Mr. Binks, I believe I'll turn in for a few hours; keep the brig +on her course, and at daylight call me. It will be time enough then to +bend the cables, for I don't think we shall want the anchors much afore +noon to-morrow. Where's the corvette?" + +"There she is, sir, away off on the port beam. She made more sail a few +minutes ago, and now she appears to be edging off the wind, and steering +across our forefoot. I s'pose she's enjoying of herself, sir, and +exercisin' the crowds of chaps they has on board them craft." + +"Well, good-night, matey"--pausing a moment, however, as the honest old +skipper stepped down the companion-way, and half communing with himself, +and then, with his head just above the slide, he added, "I say, Mr. +Binks, there's no need, p'r'aps, but you may as well have a lantern +alight and bent on to the ensign halliards there under the taffrail, in +case you want to signalize the corvette. Ah, Banou! that you, old +nigger? Good-night!" + +So Captain Blunt went slowly down below, and at the same time the black +went aft, coiled himself down on the deck, and made a pillow of the +brig's ensign. + +Mr. Binks wriggled himself upon the weather rail, where, with a short +pipe in his mouth, he kicked his heels against the bulwarks, and while +the old brig plunged doggedly on, he indulged himself with a song, the +air, however, being more like the growl of a bull-dog than a specimen of +music: + + "If lubberly landsmen, to gratitude strangers, + Still curse their unfortunate stars; + Why, what would they say did they try but the dangers + Encounter'd by true-hearted tars? + If life's vessel they put 'fore the wind, or they tack her, + Or whether bound here or there, + Give 'em sea-room, good-fellowship, grog, and tobaker, + Well, then, damme if Jack cares where!" + +"What d'ye think of that, Ben?" said Mr. Binks, as he finished his +ditty, and sucked away on his pipe. + +"Why, Mr. Mate," replied Ben, as he gave the wheel a spoke or two to +windward and glanced at the binnacle, "the words is first-rate, but it +seems to me your singing gear is a bit out o' condition, and I thought +you wos a prayin'; but the fact is," concluded Ben, apologetically, +"that whenever I hears grog and tobaker jined together, I likes to see +them in my fist." + +"Oh! you would, eh? Well, shipmate, turn and turn about is fair play; so +here, just take a pull at the pipe, and I'll step to the cuddy for the +bottle, and we'll have a little sniffler all around!" + +Saying this, Mr. Binks swung off the rail, handed Ben the pipe, and +after an absence of a few moments, he returned with a square case-bottle +and a pewter mug. + +"Now, Ben," said he, "this 'ere is not a practice, as you know, I often +is guilty of; but you bein' a keerful hand and a stiddy helmsman, and +port here close aboard, I've no objections to take a toss with ye." Then +pouring out a moderate quantity of the fluid, the mate handed it to Ben, +who, taking the pipe out of his mouth, and with one hand on the +king-spoke of the wheel and one eye at the compass-card, threw his head +back and pitched the dram down his throat. + +"My sarvice to ye, sir!" said Ben, as he smacked his lips and then shut +them tight together, fearful lest a breath of the precious liquid might +escape; "a little of that stuff goes a great ways." + +Mr. Binks hereupon measured himself off an allowance, and touching Ben +on the shoulder, raised the pewter to his lips. Before, however, +draining the cup, he tuned his pipes once more, and croaked forth in +this strain: + + "While up the shrouds the sailor goes, + Or ventures on the yard, + The landsman, who no better knows, + Believes his lot is hard. + But Jack with smiles each danger meets; + Casts anchor, heaves the log, + Trims all the sails, belays the sheets, + And drink his can of grog!" + +"Here comes the corvette, sir!" broke in Ben, as he stood on tiptoe, +holding on to the spokes of the wheel, and taking his eyes off the +binnacle a moment to get a clear view over the rail. "Here she comes, +with her starboard tacks aboard, athwart our bow, and moving like an +albatross!" + +The man-of-war had for an hour or more crept well to windward, and then, +wearing round, she came down close upon the wind under royals, and her +three jibs and spanker as flat as boards. As she whirled on across the +brig's bow, a few cables' length ahead, the sharp ring of the whistles +was again heard, and the moment after the head-sails fluttered and shook +in the wind, the sheets and blocks rattled, and with a clear order of +"Main-sail haul!" the after-yards swung round like magic, the sails +filled, and without losing headway the head-yards were swung, and she +gathered way on the other tack. On she came, with the spray flying up +into the weather leech of her fore-sail, the dark mazes of her rigging +marked out in clear lines against her white canvas, and the watch +noiselessly coiling up the ropes on her decks. As she pushed her sharp +snout through the water, and grazed along the brig's lee quarter, an +officer on the poop gave a rapid and searching glance around, peered +sharply along the brig's deck, waved his trumpet to the mate, and +resumed his rapid tramp to windward. In ten minutes after she had passed +the brig's wake nothing was seen of her save a dark, dim outline; a +light halo reflected on the water from her white streak, and an +occasional luminous flash of foam as it bounded away from her lean +bows. + +Half an hour went by. The mate was sitting on the weather rail droning +out an old sea-song to himself, and the four or five men of the watch +were dozing away along the bulwarks. Presently, however, Ben, the +helmsman, happened to let his eyes wander away from the compass-card for +a moment, as he steadied the wheel by his legs and bit a quid from his +plug of niggerhead to last him to suck for the remainder of the watch, +when, glancing beneath the bulging folds of the lee clew of the +main-sail, he clapped both hands again on the steering spokes, and +shouted, + +"Mr. Mate, here's a sail close under our lee beam!" + +"Where?" said Binks. But, before he had fairly time to run over to the +other side of the vessel and take a look for himself, a quick rattle of +oars was heard as a boat grated against the brig's side, and, before you +could think, a swarm of fellows started up like so many shadows above +the rail. In five seconds they had jumped on the deck, Ben fell like a +bullock from a blow from the butt-end of a pistol, the helm was jammed +hard down, the lee braces let fly, and, as the old brig gave a lurching +yaw in bringing her nose to windward, the weather leeches shivered +violently in the wind, and, taking flat aback, the studding-sail booms +snapped short off at the irons, and, with the sails, fell slamming and +thumping below. + +[Illustration: THE PIRATES BOARDING THE BRIG.] + +Meanwhile the mate had barely time to spring to the companion-way and +sing out, "We're boarded by pirates, Captain Blunt!" when he, too, +received an ugly overhand lick from a cutlass on his skull, and went +senseless and bleeding down the hatchway like a scuttle of coals. + +At the first noise, however, the black Banou sprang to his feet, and, as +he caught a glimpse of the fellows swarming over the side, he snatched +hold of the ensign halliards where the signal lantern had been bent on, +and in an instant it was dancing away up to the gaff, shrouded from view +to leeward of the vessel by the spread of the spanker. In another moment +the black leaped to the deck cabin and darted through the door. But in +less time than it has taken to tell it, the "Martha Blunt" had changed +hands. + +There, on the quarter-deck, stood in groups some sixteen barefooted +villains, in coarse striped gingham shirts, loose trowsers, and +skull-caps, and all with glittering, naked knives or cutlasses, and +pistols in their belts and hands. In the midst of this cluster of +swarthy wretches, near the companion-way, stood a burly, square-built +ruffian, with a pistol in his right hand, and his dexter paw pushing up +a brown straw hat as he ran his fingers across his dripping forehead and +a tangled mass of carroty, unshorn locks. There was a wisp of a red silk +kerchief tied in a single knot around his bare bull neck; the shirt was +thrown back, and exposed a tawny, hairy chest, as a ray of light flashed +up from the binnacle. He looked--as indeed he was--the lowest type of a +sailor scoundrel. His companions were of lighter build, and their dress, +complexion, and manner--to say nothing of their black hair and rings in +their ears--indicated a birth and breeding in other and hotter climes. + +"Well, my lads," said the big fellow, who seemed to be in command, "the +barkey is ours, and we've cheated that infarnal cruiser handsomely. Go +forward, Pedro, and gag them lubbers, and then tell the boys to trim aft +them jib sheets; and round in them after-braces, some of you, so we can +keep way with the schooner and take things easy." + +Here he laughed in a husky, spirituous, low chuckle, and then went on: +"This will make up for lost time, _amigos_! _Christo!_ there may be some +ounces on board. But who's left in the boat, Gomez?" This was addressed +to a bow-legged, beetle-browed individual, with a hare-lip, which kept +his face in a perpetual and skeleton-like grin, who hissed out from +between his decayed front tusks, + +"_El Doctor Senor, con tres de nosotros._" "_Bueno!_ all right; three of +the chaps will do to look out for her; but tell the doctor to drop the +boat astern, and veer him a rope from the gangway. There! that's well +with the braces! Keep her off a point; so--that'll do." + +As the orders were promptly obeyed, and the crew of the brig gagged, +and the vessel surged slowly on her course, the same speaker turned to +his men and said, + +"Now, my hearties! let's have an overhaul of the skipper. Hand him up +here, will ye? or, never mind," he added, "I'll just step down and have +a growl with him myself." + +As the mate pitched head foremost down the companion ladder, two of the +pirates jumped after him, and, dealing him another cruel stab with a +knife deep into the back, they passed on into the lower cabin. There was +a brief struggle, the sound of voices mingled with curses and threats, +and then all quiet again. + +In pursuance of his expressed purpose, the stout ruffian slewed himself +round, took a sweep about the horizon, then sticking his pistol in its +belt, he slowly descended the ladder, gave the wounded and dying mate a +kick, and with a hoarse laugh entered the cabin. + +There, on a small sofa abaft, between the two stern air-ports, sat +Captain Blunt. Blood was trickling down in heavy drops from a lacerated +bruise on his forehead; but, notwithstanding the swelling and pain of +the wound, his features were calm, stern, and honest. On either side of +him sat as villainous a brace of mongrel Portuguese or Spaniards as ever +infested the high seas; and his arms were pinioned by a stout cord to +the bolt above the transom. + +"My sarvice to you, sir!" said the leader of the gang, with a devilish +smile of derision, as he stuck his arms akimbo and squirted some +tobacco-juice from his filthy mouth across the cabin table at the +pinioned prisoner. + +"I s'pose you know by this time that you're a lawful prise, captured by +an hindependent constable of the West Indies, notwithstandin' ye had +sich safe escort and convoy all the arternoon?" + +Here he chuckled, squirted more juice over the table, then dropped down +on a sea-chest cleated to the deck, took off his hat, and scratched his +yellowish red hair. The poor captain said not a word, but shook a great +clot of blood from his brow. + +"Well, now, my old hearty, the first thing for you to do is to poke out +your manifest, and any other little matters of vallew ye may have stowed +away; and be quick, mind ye, for you haven't much time to sail in this +'ere craft. Howsoever, I s'pose ye can swim?" + +"You'll find the manifest and the ship's papers there, inside that +instrument-box; and all the money in the vessel is in that locker; and I +trust in Heaven it may burn your hands to cinders, you devils!" + +"Ho! smash my brains! keep a stopper on your jaw, or I'll squeeze your +dead carcass through that 'ere starn port." + +The fellow rose as he spoke, and, stepping up to the narrow state-cabin +near by, he jerked open the upper drawer of a small bureau affair, and +pulling out a canvas bag, sealed at the mouth, tossed it on to the +cabin table. The coin fell with the heavy dead sound peculiar to gold, +and the ruffian, after taking it up again and weighing it tenderly, +growled out, "This chink will do for a yapper, at any rate! So now let's +have a peep at what the cargo consists on." + +Then stepping a second time to the berth, he gave a kick to the +instrument-box, the lid flew off, and diving in his fist he drew out a +bundle of papers. Once more seating himself at the table beneath the +swinging lamp, he clumsily undid the papers and spread them before him. + +"What a blessed thing is edication," muttered he to himself, "and what a +power o' knowledge reading 'riting does for a man!" Putting his fat +stumpy finger on each line of the manuscript as he slowly began to spell +out the contents, he began, "Man-i-fest of Brig 'Martha Blunt'--Ja-cob +Blunt, master:" here he paused, and, squirting more tobacco-juice over +at the skipper, as if to attract his attention, he suddenly ejaculated, +"Hark ye! Master Blunt, what was the name of that man-o'-war vessel as +was lyin' by you this morning?" + +"The 'Scourge,'" replied the skipper, faintly, as he shook another great +drop of blood from his brow. + +"The what? The 'Scourge!' That Yankee snake! Smash my brains! D'ye know +that that ship has been a hangin' about the north side of Cuba for ever +so long, interruptin' our trade? And you an Englishman, to go and ax him +to purtect ye! take that!" + +Here he snatched a pistol from his sash, and, taking aim full at the +skipper's breast, he pulled the trigger. Fortunately, the weapon snapped +and did not explode. The ruffian held it a moment in his hand, and then +letting it rest upon the table, he said, with a horrible imprecation, + +"Ye see you wos not born to be shot; but we'll try what salt water will +do for ye by-and-by." + +Taking out his knife at the conclusion of this speech, he picked the +flint of his pistol, opened the pan, shook the priming, and then shoved +the weapon back in his belt. The mention of the "Scourge," however, had +evidently caused him some trepidation, for when he resumed the perusal +of the manifest it was in a hurried, agitated sort of way, and not at +all at his ease. + +Smoothing the papers again before him, he went on, making running +commentaries as he read: "Eighty-six cases of silks--light, and +easily stowed away; twenty-nine tons bar iron; sixty-four sugar-kettles! +it will help to sink the brig; forty pipes of Bordeaux; two hundred +baskets Champagne; three hundred and fifty boxes of claret--sour +stuff, I warrant you; two casks Cognac brandy--but I say, you Blunt," +said the fellow, looking up, "where's your own private bottle? It's +thirsty work spellin' out all this 'ritin', and my mouth's as dry as a +land-crab's claws. Howsoever," he continued, as he caught the +glance of satisfaction which came over the swarthy faces of his +companions beside the captain, "wait a bit, and we'll punch a hole in a +fresh barrel presently." + +Having run through the manifest, he opened another paper and exclaimed, +"Hallo! what have we here? List of passengers--Madame Rosalie Piron +and--ho! that's a French piece, I knows by the name. Where is she? +Hasn't died on the v'yage, has she? D'ye hear there, ye infarnal +Blunt?" + +The captain's face was troubled, and his head dropped down on his breast +without replying; but one of the scoundrels at his side struck him a +brutal blow with the back of his knife-hilt on the mouth, and jerking +up, he said, with an effort, + +"Yes, we have a female passenger on board, with a helpless child; but I +pray you, in God's name, to leave the innocent woman in peace. You've +robbed and ruined me and my poor old wife--turn me adrift if you like, +drown or hang me, but don't harm the poor lady." + +The tears blinded him as he spoke, and mingled with the bloody stream +which trickled down his cheeks. The ruffian's ugly face and bloodshot +eyes lighted up with a devilish and sinister satisfaction as the skipper +began his appeal, but before he had well finished speaking he broke in, + +"Avast your jaw! will ye? You'll have enough to look out for your own +gullet, my lad, without mindin' any body else's; so turn to and say your +prayers afore eight bells is struck, because there's sharks off +Jamaiky." + +Then addressing his own scoundrelly myrmidons, he exclaimed, "Look out +sharp for that old chap, my lads, while I goes to sarch for the woman +passenger!" As he turned, however, to leave the cabin, one of his +subordinates began to rummage about in a locker, when the burly brute +said, "Tonio, don't get to drinkin' too airly, boy, for ye know it's +agin the law till the prize is snug in harbor, or sunk, as the case may +be." + +"_Si, senor_," replied the man, with a nod and a grin, and he resumed +his seat again; but no sooner had their leader left the cabin than a +bottle and glasses were placed upon the table, and they fell to with a +will, complimenting the bound and wounded prisoner by pitching the last +drops from their tumblers into his face. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +DANGER. + + "What tale do the roaring ocean + And the night wind, bleak and wild, + As they beat at the crazy casement, + Tell to that little child? + And why do the roaring ocean + And the night wind, wild and bleak, + As they beat at the heart of the mother, + Drive the color from her cheek?" + + +In all this time so little noise had been made that even the watch +below, in the brig's forecastle, were snoozing away without a dream of +danger; though, had one of them shown his nose above the fore-peak, he +would have either been knocked down and murdered like the mate, or, with +a gag in his jaws, been hurled overboard. When the leader of the pirates +stepped again on deck, he said to his companions, who were still +clustered around the companion-way, + +"Well, my boys, we have 'arned a good prize--a fine cargo of the real +stuff--silks, wines, and what not, besides a few of the shiners!" Here +he jingled the bag of gold and dollars in his paws, and then threw it, +with an easy, indifferent toss, on to the slide of the companion-way. + +"But what think ye, lads?" he continued, in a hoarse whisper, "there's a +petticoat aboard! and, as sure as my name's Bill Gibbs, here goes for a +look; for there's nothing like lamplight for the lovely creeturs!" + +As he slewed round on his bare feet to approach the entrance to the deck +cabin, a move was made in the same direction by two or three of the +wretches of his band; but, shoving them roughly back with his heavy +fist, and clapping a hand to his belt, he said, in a threatening tone, + +"None o' that, my souls! I takes the first look myself; and if I think +her beauty'll suit the chief, why--I shall be able to judge, ye know, +whether she'll go furder on the cruise or swim ashore with the rest of +the lubbers at daylight to Jamaiky. Keep your eye on the schooner, +Pedro, and don't make no more sail! D'ye hear?" + +"Ay, ay, _si senor_!" quoth that worthy, as he and his followers fell +sulkily back. It took but three strides for Mr. Bill Gibbs to reach the +cabin door, when, finding it hard to open, after several trials at the +knob, he placed his burly shoulder against the edge of the panelwork, +and, throwing his powerful weight upon it, the door yielded with a snap +of the lock, and he pitched forward full length upon the cabin floor. +The noise startled the lady within, and speaking as if half asleep, she +called, + +"Banou! Banou! what is the matter?" + +"_Mon dieu, madame!_ we are prisoners in the hands of pirates!" + +Before more words were uttered, Mr. Bill Gibbs, who by this time had +regained his feet while giving vent to a volley of blasphemous curses, +roared out as he beheld the black, "Ho! nigger passengers, hay? A +mounseer of color, as I'm a Christian! I say, cucumber shins, is that +'ere woman as is talkin' as black as you be?" + +He was not left long in doubt concerning the color of the person he +alluded to, for at the instant the stateroom door flew open, and the +lovely woman, in her loose night-dress and hair streaming in brown, +heavy silken tresses over her fair neck and shoulders, with a pale and +terror-stricken face, stood before him. Speechless with agony, she gazed +at the coarse ruffian, who had, at the moment, reached the swinging cot +which held the little boy, and while he was in the act of looking at the +sleeping child, the mother uttered a fearful cry and the boy awoke. + +"Sarvice, madam! don't be scared! come and take the little chap! I ain't +goin' to hurt him--that is, if it be a him." + +The frightened mother, spell-bound at first, needed no second bidding, +and, forgetful of her disheveled dress, sprang forward, and with +outstretched arms, bare to the shoulder, was about to snatch her child. +The pirate, however, with his red eyes gleaming with unholy fire, threw +his great arm around the lovely woman's waist, and with a hoarse, +fiendish chuckle of triumph, attempted to draw her toward him. But, +quick as lightning, two black, sinewy paws clutched him with such a +steel-like grip about the throat that his sacrilegious arm dropped by +his side, and he was hurled violently back against the cabin bulkhead. +Then standing before him, the negro glared like an angry lion roused +from his lair as he looked round inquiringly at his mistress. + +"Ho!" sputtered the ruffian, as he pulled a pistol from his belt, "ho! +you mean fight, do ye?" + +"_Banou! mon pauvre Banou!_" screamed the terrified woman. "Yield! Oh, +sir, spare him! Don't harm us, and we will give you all we possess!" + +The burly scoundrel hesitated a moment, and balanced the cocked pistol +in his hand, as if undecided whether to blow the black's brains out on +the spot where he stood; and then shoving the weapon back in his sash, +and keeping a wary eye on his assailant, he exclaimed in an angry tone, + +"Well, come here, then, my deary, and give us a kiss for this nigger's +bad manners." + +Moving forward as he spoke, he caught up the little boy from the cot, +tore the gold chain and locket from his neck, which he thrust into his +pocket, and shook him roughly at arm's length, in hopes, perhaps, of +enticing the tender mother within his merciless grasp. But again the +black interposed his heavy frame before his mistress. + +"What! at it again, are ye? Well, then"--fumbling with his left hand for +his pistol--"say your prayers, ye imp of darkness." + +The black seemed, however, in no mood for praying; and putting forth his +slabs of arms like the paws of an alligator, he tried to grapple his foe +by the throat. The cries of the mother now mingled with those of the +child as he put out his little arms to shield his black protector. The +ruffian, foiled in his purpose, with baffled rage evaded the negro by +stepping to one side; and as he did so, he hurled the helpless child +with great force from him. The large cabin windows at the stern were +open to let in the breeze; and as the brig sank slowly down with her +counter to the following waves, and gurgled up as the sea eddied and +surged around the rudder, the faint, plaintive cry of the little boy +arose above the seething waters--a light splash followed--and the mother +had lost her child! + +"Oh, monster!" cried the heart-broken woman. "Oh, my boy! my boy! May +Heaven curse you forever!" as she sank down senseless on the deck. + +The awful howl of vengeance which burst from the deep lungs of Banou +came simultaneously with the report of the pirate's pistol, the bullet +from which struck the black hard in the left shoulder; but putting out +for the third time his sinewy arms, and this time with an iron grip that +only left the ruffian time to yell with a stifled curse for help, he was +hurled headlong, smashing through the latticed cabin door, and fell +stunned upon the outer deck. In an instant half a dozen pistol balls +whistled around the negro's head, and the knives of the pirates flashed +from their sashes as they rushed forward to bury the blades in his body; +but leaping to one side, and while two more bullets were driven into +him, he seized an iron-shod pump brake from the bulwarks, and, with a +mighty bound, whirled it once with the rapidity of thought high above +his head, and brought it down on the leg of his prostrate foe. Such was +the force of the blow that it smashed both bones, and drove the white +splinters through the brute's trowsers, where they gleamed out red and +bloody by the light of the binnacle lamp. Even then, wounded, and the +blood flowing from several places, and though almost encircled in the +grasp of the scoundrels, Banou made good his retreat to the cabin, and +planted his powerful body firmly against the door. + +With a volley of polyglot curses and yells in all languages, two or +three of the pirates stopped to raise their fallen leader, while the +others, leaving the wheel and vessel to herself, rushed in pursuit of +the black. Scarcely, however, had they made a step, when their ears were +saluted by a stunning crash from a heavy cannon, and the peculiar +humming sound of a round shot as it flew just above their heads between +the brig's masts. + +There, within half a cable's length to windward, loomed up the dark hull +of a large ship. The crew were evidently at quarters, with the battle +lanterns lit and gleaming in the ports, while the rays shot up the black +rigging and top-hamper, and spread out over the sails in fitful flashes +as she slowly forged abreast the brig, with her main top-sail to the +mast. For a minute not a sound was heard, though the decks were full of +men, some with their heads poked out of the open ports beside the guns, +or swarming along over the lee hammock-nettings and about the quarter +boats; but the next instant there came in a voice of thunder through the +trumpet, + +"What's the matter on board that brig?" + +There was no answer for a few seconds, until a choking voice, as if with +a pump-bolt athwart the speaker's mouth, mumbled out, + +"We're captured by pi--" + +A dull, heavy blow cut short these words; and though the reply to the +hail could hardly have been heard on board the ship, yet, as if divining +the true state of the case, loud, clear orders were given-- + +"Away, there, third and fourth cutters! away! Spring, men!" + +Then came the surging noise of the whistles as the falls dropped the +boats from the davits; then the men, leaping down into cutters--silently +and quick--no sound save the clash of a cutlass or the rattle of an +oar-blade as they took their places and shoved off. Again an order +through the trumpet-- + +"Clear away the starboard battery! Load with grape! Sail trimmers! +stations for wearing ship! Hard up the helm! Fill away the main-yard!" + +The "Scourge" had by this time forged ahead of the brig, her sails aback +or shivering, as she came up and fell off from the wind, and the boats +dancing with full crews toward her. No sooner, however, had the presence +of the unwelcome stranger been made known on board the brig than the +pirates seemed seized with a panic, and, without a second thought, they +scudded to leeward, where their boat had been hauled alongside, and +forgetful or indifferent for the fate of their companions below, though +dragging the while their maimed comrade to the rail, they lowered him +into the boat, jumped in themselves, and pulled away with all their +strength toward the schooner near. They were not, however, a moment too +soon; for as the last of the band disappeared, their places were +supplied by a crowd of nimble sailors to windward, headed by an officer +with his sword between his teeth as he swung over the bulwarks. The +first sound which greeted the new-comers was from below, and from the +throat of the honest skipper. Down the open companion-way leaped the +officer, with half a dozen stout, eager sailors at his heels, and dashed +right into the lower cabin. There was the brave old skipper, with but +one arm free, shielding himself and struggling--faint and well-nigh +exhausted--from the knives of the drunken brace of rascals who had been +left to guard him. A pistol in the hands of one of this pair was pointed +with an unsteady aim at the officer as he entered, but the ball struck +the empty rum-bottle on the table and flew wide of its mark; and before +the smoke of the powder had cleared away, a sword and cutlass had passed +through and through both their bodies, and they fell dead upon the cabin +floor. + +While Captain Blunt found breath to give a rapid explanation of the +trouble, and while the brig was once more got under control and the +wounded cared for, we will take a look at the man-of-war and the part +she bore in the business. + +At the first sound of the warning gun from the cruiser the schooner +began to show life; and drawing her head sheets, she wore short round on +her heel, with every thing ready to run up her fore and aft sails, and a +stay-tackle likewise rove and hanging over the low gunwale to hook on to +the boat and hoist it in the moment it came alongside. Meanwhile the +"Scourge" had shot ahead of the brig, and wearing round her forefoot, +with her starboard tacks on board, she emerged out beyond, like a hound +just slipped from the leash. As she cleared the brig, the schooner lay +with bare masts about three cables' length to windward, and the rattle +of oars told that her boat had just scraped alongside. At that moment a +clear, determined voice shouted through the trumpet, + +"Level your guns! Take good aim! Fire!" + +A brilliant series of sheets of flame burst forth from the corvette's +battery, lighting up the water and jet black wales, and away aloft to +the great towering maze of rigging and sails to the trucks, with the +topmen clustering to windward, and their very eyes and teeth lit up in +the glare; then, too, the crews of the guns, in their trim frocks and +trowsers; the marines on the top-gallant forecastle, with their +firelocks and white cross-belts; and abaft a knot of officers on the +poop, with night-glasses to their eyes, all standing out as clear as day +in the sudden flashes from the cannon. Then followed the concussive +roar, and the next instant you could hear the hurtling rush of the iron +hail as it flew singly or in bunches through the air, or skipped in its +deadly flight from wave to wave, until it went crashing into the +pirate's boat, slapping with heavy thumps against the schooner's side, +or furrowing along her decks; while a shower of white splinters flew +high over her low rail, and told how well the iron had done its +bidding. Then, with many a groan and imprecation, the shattered and +sinking boat was cut adrift, and, a moment after, the sails of the +vessel were spread, the sheets hauled flat aft, and, taking the breeze, +she heeled over till her lee rail was all awash, and away she walked, +right up to windward. + +But again came the clear, commanding tones on board the cruiser, mingled +with the jumping of the crew and ramming home the charges in the guns: + +"Load! round shot! Run out! One point abaft the beam! Fire as you bring +the schooner to bear!" + +Out belched the red flames; the heavy globes of iron, like so many black +peas in daylight, sung their deadly note as they darted on their way, +and the corvette gave a little heel to leeward as the shock of the +explosion was felt. One shot dropped within fifty yards of the low hull +of the schooner, bounded just clear of her after-deck, knocked off the +head and shoulder of a man at the tiller, and then went skipping away +over the water like a black foot-ball. Another messenger cut off the +schooner's delicate fore-top-mast as clean as a bit of glass, bringing +down the gaff-top-sail, and, what was equally pleasant, the fellow who +was setting it--pitching him over and over like a wheel, until he fell, +a bruised and lifeless lump of jelly, on the oak bitts at the fore-mast. +Before, however, they were treated to another of these metallic doses, +the pirates had got their craft in splendid trim; and with every stitch +of her canvas spread, and tugging and straining, she rushed on with the +heels of a race-horse, within three points of the wind. The "Scourge," +too, was now close hauled, her yards braced as fine as needles, and +crowded with every inch of sail that would draw; while every ten minutes +or so she would let slip two or more guns from a division at the chase. +But the uncertain gloom of starlight, and the darkening effect of the +passing trade-clouds, made the little vessel a very difficult object to +see; and though one of the last balls struck her on the narrow deck, +passed through that and the waterways, and out to windward, spoiling two +of her timbers, and no end of planking, yet this was the last damage she +received. Her crew, also, had got as well as could be out of harm's +way--both the sound and wounded--and were lying quietly as possible deep +down in the vessel's run. When daylight broke the breeze began to +slacken, but she was by this time hull down from the corvette, a long +way beyond the reach of her long eighteens in the bow ports, and eating +her way to windward, with no chance of being taken. + +[Illustration: THE NIGHT CHASE.] + +"It's no use," said the captain of the corvette to his first lieutenant, +as they stood watching the receding chase. "We may as well give it up; +she has the heels of us in this light wind, and will soon be out of +sight. I think, however," continued the captain, with a smile, "that +he'll remember the 'Scourge' when he meets her again. This is the second +time we have chased that fellow; and this heat, by the way the splinters +flew, we must have peppered the skin off his back." + +Shutting up the joints of the spy-glass which he held in his hand, he +took hold of the man-ropes of the poop ladder, and as he put his feet on +the steps, he said, + +"You can go about, Mr. Cleveland, and run down to the brig." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE MEETING AND MOURNING. + + "Moan! moan, ye dying gales! + The saddest of your tales + Is not so sad as life! + Nor have you e'er began + A theme so wild as man, + Or with such sorrow rife. + + "Then, when the gale is sighing, + And when the leaves are dying, + And when the song is o'er, + Oh! let us think of those + Whose lives are lost in woes-- + Whose cup of grief runs o'er!" + + +The afternoon following the night when the foregoing events transpired, +the "Martha Blunt" sailed slowly along the sandy tongue of land which +separates Port Royal from Kingston, and dropped anchor in the harbor. As +the cable rumbled out with a grating sound through the hawse-hole, and +the crew aloft were furling the sails, a large, gayly-painted barge, +pulled by a dozen blacks shaded by a striped awning, shot swiftly +alongside. Jabbering were those darkies, and clapping their hands, and +shouting joyously. A rope was immediately thrown from the gangway of the +brig, and a tall, handsome man, with a broad Panama hat, loose white +jacket and trowsers, sprang with a bound up the side, and leaped on +deck. + +Captain Blunt stood there to receive him. A broad white bandage was +passed around his head, and the tears trickled slowly down his bronzed +and honest cheeks. Just beyond him, under the shade of the awning, lay +Banou, stretched out at full length on a mattress; while Ben, the +helmsman, was kneeling beside him, fanning his hot and fevered face with +his tarpaulin. A yard or two beyond, on a broad plank resting on +trestles, lay the mate, Mr. Binks, cold and rigid in the grasp of death, +with the union jack folded modestly over his corpse. The black breathed +heavily and in pain; but when he caught sight of the gentleman as he +stepped on deck, a deathly blue pallor came over his countenance, and, +closing his eyes, the hot salt tears started in great drops from the +lids. + +"My God! captain," said the gentleman, with a bewildering stare, "what's +all this? What has happened?" + +The old skipper merely made a motion with his hand toward the cabin, +and, leaning painfully against the rail, wept like a child. The +gentleman's blood forsook his cheeks, and, with his knees knocking +together, he staggered like a drunken man toward the cabin door. A few +minutes later he emerged, bearing in his arms the sobbing, drooping form +of his wife. Starting from his close embrace for a moment as he bore her +to the gangway, she gave one shuddering, terrified, searching gaze over +the blue water to seaward, and then, with a wailing cry of agony, that +would have shaken the hardest heart, she fell sobbing again into her +husband's arms. + +The voices and joyous shrieks of the negroes in the barge alongside +subsided into low moaning groans; four or five came up, and carefully +lowered Banou down; then all got into the boat, and she moved mournfully +away toward the shore. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CAPTAIN BRAND AT HOME. + + "From his brimstone bed at break of day, + A-walking the Devil is gone, + To visit his snug little farm the Earth, + And see how his stock goes on." + + +Upon a broad, flat, rocky ledge, near a small, landlocked narrow inlet +of one of the clustering Twelve League Keys on the south side of Cuba, +stood a red-tiled stone building, with a spacious veranda in front, +covered by plaited matting and canvas curtains triced up all around. The +back and one side of the building rested against a craggy eminence which +overlooked the sea on both sides of the island, and commanded a wide +sweep of reef and blue water beyond. A few clumps of cocoa-nut-trees and +dwarf palms, with bare gaunt stems and tufted tops, stood out here and +there along the rocky slopes, while lesser vegetation of cactus and +mangrove bushes were scattered thickly over the island, cropping out +with jagged edges of rock down to the sandy beaches of the sea-shore. A +deep narrow inlet of blue water lay pure and still near the base of the +rocky height, where, too, was a shelving curve of white sand, sprinkled +about by a few mat sheds, while on the other side the rocks arose to an +elevation of a hundred and fifty feet, forming a precipitous wall to the +water. The inlet here took a sharp turn, scooped out in a secluded +basin, and then narrowing to less than forty yards in width, it wound +and twisted for a good mile in a thin blue channel to the open sea. Half +that distance farther out was a roaring ledge of white breakers, where +the long swell came hammering on it, bursting up in the air in brightish +green masses, and then tumbling over the reef and bubbling smoothly on +toward the shore. On a level with the water no channel could be +discerned through the ledge; but, looking down from the heights around +the inlet, a narrow blue gateway was marked out, skirted on the surface +by frothy crests of dead foam, and near where flocks of cormorants and +gulls were riding placidly on the inner side of the ledge. The island +itself was about two miles broad and seven long; and about midway of its +width the inlet formed a forked strait, one branch finding its way to +the north, between a low succession of sandy hummocks, where the water +was too shallow to float a duck, and the other finding an outlet, +scarcely a biscuit-toss wide, between two bluff rocks. With the trade +wind this passage was safe and accessible; but on the change of the +moon, with a breeze and swell from the south, the sea came bowling in, +in boiling eddies and whirlpools, and it required a nerve of iron to +attempt an entrance. Just within this narrow mouth, on a flat beveled +ledge of rock but a few feet above the water, was a small battery of two +long eighteen-pounders, and two twenty-four pounder carronades mounted +on slides and trucks, with platforms laid on a bed of sand. Near by, +beneath a low shed of tiles and loose stones, were a pile of round shot, +nicely blacked, and some stands of grape and canister in canvas bags and +cases, together with a large copper magazine of cartridges. Seated a +little way off on a low stool was a dingy Spaniard with a telescope laid +across his knees, which every little while he would raise to his eye and +take a steady glance around the horizon to seaward. At other times he +would roll and light a paper cigar, murmuring some low ditty to himself +as he sent the smoke in volumes through his nose. A small brass bell +hung beside the shed near the battery, together with a telegraphic card, +which was connected by a wire strung on low posts, or hooked from rock +to rock to the stone building away up at the basin. To return, however, +to the building: the veranda rested on square rough masonry full twenty +feet from the ground, which was loopholed for musketry, and with but one +narrow slip of a doorway that fell like a portcullis, banded and +strapped with bars and studs of wrought iron. Within this stone +inclosure was a large and roomy vault, half filled with cases, barrels, +and packages, and at the upper angle was a narrow subterranean vaulted +passage, barred also by an iron-bound door, which led to a succession of +whitewashed chambers--dark, damp, and gloomy--and then on, in a +fissure-like pathway, to another equally strongly secured outlet on the +other side of the crag. Leading to the veranda was a tautly-stretched +rope ladder lashed to eye-bolts let into the natural rock below, and +hooked on to the edge of the floor above. This was the only approach to +the main floor of the building from the outside, though within were +heavy trap-doors like the hatches of a ship, which communicated to the +chambers beneath. The whole structure was of stone and tiles, roughly +built, but yet strong and durable, and capable of resisting any assault, +unaided by cannon, that could be brought against it. The floor was +divided into four rooms, the smallest used for a kitchen, the next for a +magazine of small arms, and the third a spacious bedchamber, which +opened into a large square apartment facing the veranda, and which +deserves more notice. + +[Illustration: THE PIRATE DEN.] + +The lofty ceiling came down with the slant, showing the bare red tiles +and heavy square beams which supported the roof. In one of the stoutest +of these beams was an eye-bolt and copper-strapped block, through which +was rove a long green silk rope, with one end secured by a cleat on the +wall, and the other dangling loose, and squirming, whenever a current of +air struck it, like a long, slim snake. Around the sides of the room, +which were paneled with cedar, stood four or five quaint ebony armoires, +and as many cabinets, clocks, and bookcases, with here and there a +woman's work-stand, some of them curiously inlaid with pearl and silver. +The walls were hung with a great number of pictures of all kinds of +vessels--generally, however, of the merchant description--under full +sail, with vivid light-houses in the distance, and combing breakers +under the lee; and all portraying gallant crews and buoyant freights, +which probably had never reached their destinations. Among this gallery +of marine display was a broad framing of the "Flags of All Nations;" and +codes of signals, too, in bright colors, hung beside them. Farther on, +in a pretty panel by itself, surrounded by an edging of mother-o'-pearl, +was a triple row of female miniatures, a number of them of great beauty, +and many executed in excellent taste and art. In one corner was a large +chart-stand, covered with rolls of maps and nautical instruments, while +above were suspended, by white rope grummets, a pyramidal line of +spy-glasses and telescopes of all sizes and make. Near the centre of the +apartment stood a large round dining-table, on which was laid things for +a breakfast, a box of cigars, and a small silver pan of live coals. +There were but two windows to this room, both hung with striped muslin +curtains, the casements going to the floor, and looking out upon the +veranda; and but two doors, one leading to the kitchen, and the other to +the sleeping-chamber on the opposite side. + +Presently this last door opened, and, pushing aside a blue gauze curtain +which hung before it, an individual of about eight-and-twenty years of +age stepped languidly into the room. He was a tallish man, over six feet +in stature, rather spare in build, but with great breadth of shoulders, +and though pale, apparently from long illness, yet he was evidently very +active and muscular when his nerves were called into action. Had it not +been for a downward choleric curve to his large nose, and a little +parting at the corners of his wide mouth and compressed lips, the face +might have been thought handsome. The eyes were light blue, set close +together, but hard and stony, with no ray of mercy or humanity in them. +He wore no beard, and his light brown hair was thin and dry, and +carefully parted at the side. He was dressed in a snow-white pair of +loose drilling trowsers, cut sailor fashion, straw slippers, and silk +stockings; and above he wore a brown linen jacket with large pearl +buttons, and pockets. As he entered the room he held a delicate cambric +handkerchief, with a fine lace border, in his hands, which he seemed to +regard with curious interest as he lounged toward the windows of the +veranda. + +"I wish I could remember," he muttered musingly to himself, "which of +those sisters this bit of cambric belonged to, marked with an E.--Ellen +or Eliza--hum! They _would_ die--silly things!--tried to stab me! Ho! +what fun! Never left me even a miniature, either, for my collection. +'_Bueno!_' There's more fish in the sea--and under it too!" he +concluded, with an unpleasant elevation of his eyebrows. + +By this time he had approached the open window, and, shoving the +delicate fabric daintily in his pocket, he gave a slight yawn and looked +out. Before him lay the deep blue basin of the inlet, with a couple of +boats hauled up on the shore; a few idle sailors moving about, or +squatted beneath the sheds playing cards or sewing. Without letting his +eye rest more than a moment on this scene, he turned and gave a long, +earnest gaze between an opening of the rocks to seaward. Then, with an +angry frown, he approached the table, poured out a cup of black coffee, +threw rather than dropped in a lump of sugar, and sat himself down for +his morning's meal. He had scarcely, however, gulped down his cup of +coffee and choked after it a slice of toast, than he pushed away the +breakfast things, snapped his teeth together like a steel clasp, biting +a tooth-pick in twain by the effort; and then, tossing the pieces away, +he dashed his hand into the cigar-box, extracted one, touched it to the +pan of coals, and began to smoke savagely. At first the grateful smoke +appeared to soothe his chafed spirit, for he threw himself lazily into a +large cane-bottomed settee, and, stretching out his legs, seemed to +enjoy the tranquil scene around him with uninterrupted pleasure. But +soon a scowl darkened his face; he dropped his cigar on the floor, and +springing to his feet as if touched by a galvanic battery, he snatched +down a telescope from the wall, steadied it at the window-sash, and +peered again long and anxiously to windward. He saw nothing, however, +save the long, glassy, unbroken undulations of a calm tropical sea, +rolling away off beyond the ledge under a burning sun; no sign of a +breeze--not even a cat's-paw; and only now and then the leap of a +deep-sea fish sparkling for a moment in the air, and some sluggish gulls +and pelicans sailing and diving about the reef for their prey. Shutting +up the glass with a crash that made the joints ring, he strode to the +settee, where hung several knotted bell-ropes, and, seizing one, gave it +a sharp jerk. Then putting his ear to an aperture in the wall, where was +a hollow cane tube like the mouth of a speaking-trumpet, he listened +attentively till a hoarse whisper uttered the word, + +"_Senor._" + +Putting his mouth to the tube, he said, + +"Can you make out the 'Centipede' from the crag station?" + +"Not sure, sir, this morning; but last evening, at sunset, I saw a sail +which I took to be her. The sea-breeze is just beginning to make, and if +she's to windward of Punta Arenas she'll soon heave in sight." + +This colloquy was held in Spanish; and when the signal-man had ceased +speaking, the interlocutor lit another cigar mechanically, kicked a +foot-stool out of his way like a foot-ball, and thus communed with +himself as he rapidly paced between the table and the veranda: + +"Fourteen weeks ago yesterday since the schooner was off Matanzas; not a +word of news to cheer me through all that cursed fever; the spring trade +done, and the track deserted by this time!" + +Then pausing in his walk, he stopped at the chart-stand, and unrolling a +map, he went on: + +"Where, in the devil's name, could she possibly have gone to? She might +have been to Cape Horn and back before this. Miserable fool that I was +to trust the craft with that thirsty, thick-headed Gibbs! _Diavolo!_ he +may have been captured, and if he has, I hope his neck has been +stretched like a shred of jerked beef." + +Even while he was talking a bell struck near the settee, and, putting +his ear again to the tube, the hoarse voice said, + +"I can make her out now, _senor_. She's just caught the strong young +breeze, and is, hull up, coming along with the bonnet off her fore-sail +and a reef in her main-sail! There's a felucca to windward of her, which +I take to be the 'Panchita!'" + +"Ah ha!" laughed the individual in the room. "The 'Centipede' is safe, +then; and I am to have the pleasure, too, of a visit from the Tuerto, +the mercenary old owl, with his account of sales and his greed. But let +me once catch him foul, and, my one-eyed friend, I'll treat you to such +a dance that you won't need shoes!" + +Here he glanced with a meaning look at the silk rope swaying from the +beam above his head, and the laugh of satisfaction which followed was +not one a timid man would care to hear in a dark night; nor did it come +from his heart, as any one might have discovered from the ferocious +gleam of inward passion which shot out in the cold sparkle of his eyes +and flitted away over his grating teeth. + +Controlling his feelings, however, and stepping out on the veranda, he +drew aside the curtains and sung out to the men in the huts, "One of you +fellows, tell the boatswain I want him." + +The men started up, and a moment after a man in a blue jacket stood out +from one of the sheds and threw up his hand to his straw hat. + +[Illustration: THE "PANCHITA"] + +"Get together the people! Let run the cable at the Alligator's mouth, +and have three or four warps ready for the schooner when she passes the +point! The 'Panchita' is coming too, so look out, and have enough lines +to tow both vessels in case the breeze fails. Tell Mr. Gibbs to moor +close under the other shore in the old berth, and to come to me when +he's anchored! D'ye hear?" + +All this was said in a sharp tone of command, and by the alacrity with +which the orders were executed the men seemed to be accustomed to a +master who knew how to rule them. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CAPTAIN AND MATE. + + "So I hauled him off to the gallows' foot, + And blinded him in his bags; + 'Twas a weary job to heave him up, + For a doomed man always lags; + But by ten of the clock he was off his legs + In the wind, and airing his rags!" + + +A couple of hours had passed since the occupant of the stone building +had last spoken to his subordinates down at the inlet, but the +interval he devoted to a minute inspection of weapons in the armory +adjoining his bedroom. They were all in excellent order, of the best +make, and very neatly arranged in stands and cases around the room. +When he emerged again, after locking the door, he held an exquisite +pair of small pistols inlaid with gold in his hand, which he gently +polished with his cambric handkerchief, and then slipped them into +his trowsers pockets. Then he held short dialogues with the voice at +the signal-station, and, without looking out of the window, he +informed himself of what was doing outside, and what progress the +vessels made toward their haven. When, however, the schooner poked her +slim, low black bows, with her sails down, around the point, he gave one +stealthy peep, or glare rather, at her. He took all in at that glance, +from the patches of sheet-lead nailed over the shot-holes in her side, +to the sawed-off stump of the fore-top-mast; and then he remarked the +absence of the boat which was carried amidships, and the few men moving +about her deck. Ay! he took it all in with that one comprehensive +glance, and when he had done, he raised his fore finger quivering +with anger, and slowly and unconsciously passed it with an ominous +gesture across his throat. + +Soon was heard a sullen plunge as an anchor was let go, and the +splashing of the warps upon the water as the stern of the "Centipede" +was being moored to the rocks, to make room for her companion the +felucca, now shortly expected. + +"Mr. Gibbs is coming on shore, _senor_, and he seems to have a wooden +leg," came through the tube. "The doctor is coming with him, and there +is a little boy in the boat." + +"Ho!" muttered the man in the saloon, "where was that brat picked up?" + +Nothing more was said. The tall man lit a cigar, threw himself into an +easy attitude on the settee, opened a richly-bound volume, and waited. +Ten minutes may have gone by when the trampling of feet was heard on the +smooth rocks outside the building, and the voice of Mr. Gibbs +exclaimed, + +"Easy, will ye? Doctor! Don't ye see it tears the narves out of me to +hobble with this broomstick-handle of a leg! There! Stop a bit! How in +thunder am I to climb this ladder? Oh!" Here a low howl of pain. +"Another shove. Easy, old Sawbones! So--give us another push, will ye? +All right! There, that'll do." + +The next minute Mr. Bill Gibbs stood on the broad piazza, and, with the +assistance of a crutch, he hobbled to the entrance of the apartment, and +only pausing to recover his wind and compose his features, he pulled off +his straw hat and entered. + +"So ho! Mr. Gibbs," said the man on the settee, as the burly, lame +ruffian darkened the entrance, laying the book down as he spoke, and +waving his delicate handkerchief before him. + +"So ho! Mr. Gibbs, you've come back at last! Delighted to see you. I am, +'pon my soul. Ah! one of those stout pins gone? Why, how's this? Some +little accident? Santa Cruz rum and a tumble down the hatchway, perhaps, +eh? D'ye smoke? Take a cheroot. Put that bag on the table." + +All this was said in a gay, gibing tone, with an indifference and _sang +froid_ that a tight-rope dancer might have been proud of; and as he +ended, he threw a handful of cigars across the table, and pushed the pan +of coals toward his visitor. Before, however, Gibbs had time to utter a +word in reply, his companion, while lolling over the settee, caught up +an opera-glass from the table, and, placing it to his eyes, went on: + +"Ha! ho! the fore-top-mast of my pretty long-legged schooner is gone. +Pretty stick it was! I suppose, Master Gibbs, that _you_"--he nodded +fiercely without removing the glass--"cut it up for that lovely new leg +you've mounted. Ay, my beauty!" again apostrophizing the vessel, which +lay like a wounded bird in the calm inlet before him; "but where's my +handsome barge, that used to cover the long gun? Ho! stormy weather +you've seen of late." + +During all this one-sided conversation Gibbs had managed to wriggle his +mutilated body on to a wicker chair, where he steadied himself with his +crutch, evincing manifest signs of choler the while by running his fat +fingers through the reddish door-mat of hair, hitching up his trowsers, +and rapping nervously his timber stump of a leg on the floor, until at +last, unable, apparently, longer to control himself, he burst out, with +his bad face suffused with passion, + +"I say, Captain Brand, it's time to end them 'ere gibes. What's took +place is unfortinate; but, howsoever, I has a bag of shiners and a +wooden leg to show for it, and d----n the odds." + +"Stop, stop, my bull-dog! Don't be profane in my presence, if you +please. We are both Christians, you know, and friends too, I hope." + +This was said in a very precise, emphatic, and clear enunciation, and +without apparent heat; and Captain Brand smiled too--but such a smile, +as his wide mouth came down with a twitch at the corners, and left a +sort of hole, where the cigar was habitually stuck, to see his teeth +through. + +"And now, my friend, suppose you give me some little account of your +cruise, and fill up, if you can, any chinks that I haven't seen through +already," he concluded, throwing his legs again over the back of the +settee, and elevating his eyebrows as the cigar smoke curled in spiral +wreaths around his face. + +Mr. Gibbs hereupon settled himself more at ease in his chair, laid his +crutch across his knees, and began: + +"I s'pose, sir, you got the news I sent in a letter from Matanzas, after +we'd been chased out of the Nicholas Channel by that Yankee corvette?" + +Captain Brand nodded at the eye-bolt which held the green silk rope from +the ceiling, as if calculating mentally the strain it would bear, merely +as a matter of philosophical speculation, perhaps. + +"Well, arter that--and a very tight race it was--we ran down to the +Behamey Banks. There we picked up a Yankee schooner loaded with shingles +and lumber; and as the skipper was sarsy, I just made him and his crew +walk one of his own planks, and then bored a couple of holes through his +vessel, arter taking out some water which we stood in need of. You +hasn't a drop of summut to drink, has you, Captain Brand? becase it +makes my jaw-tackle dry to talk much." + +The captain merely motioned with a wave of his cambric handkerchief +to an open liquor-case which stood on a cabinet near, and to which +Mr. Gibbs hobbled; when, seizing a square flask of crystal incased in +a network of frosted silver, he returned with it to the table. Had +Mr. Gibbs chosen he might have brought with the flask a small, +thimble-shaped liqueur glass; but he did not, and contented himself +with a china coffee-cup which stood on the tray before him. He seemed a +little near-sighted too; and as he inverted the flask, gave no heed to +the quantity of fluid he poured into the cup. But he took care, however, +that it did not run over; and then, raising it with a trembling hand +to his lips, he said, "My sarvice to you, Captain Brand," and tossed it +down his capacious throat. The captain gave no response to this +compliment, but as Mr. Gibbs put down the coffee-cup he said blandly, + +"Thank you; but suppose you put that flask back in the case. I am +rather choice with that brandy; it was a--given to me by a--person who +was a--unfortunately hanged, and a--I rarely offer it a--the second +time." + +Puffing his cigar as he spoke in an easy manner, he then turned round to +listen to Mr. Gibbs's narrative. Becoming more genial as the brandy +loosened his tongue, Mr. Gibbs continued: + +"Well, sir, from the Behameys we ran to leeward, nearly to the Spanish +Main, in hopes, perhaps, of finding some stray fellow as was bound to +Europe; but we see nothing for days and days, and weeks and weeks, till +finally the water fell short again, and we beats up and runs into Santa +Cruz. There, as luck would have it, Eboe Pete and French Tom got into a +bit of a scrimmage up on a gentleman's plantation arter sunset, and was +werry roughly handled by a patrol of sogers as happened to be near. I +believe as how Eboe Pete died that night; and I heerd, too, that French +Tom had his skull cracked; and what does he go for to do but make a +confession to the authorities that the 'Centipede' was a pirate! + +"Well, captain, the moment that information reached me, and seein' +a sogers' boat gettin' ready, and the sogers running about the +water-battery of the fort, than I just slips the cable, and runs +out to sea like a bird; and, Lord love ye, sir! the way they pitched +round shot arter us was--was--" Here Master Gibbs paused for a +simile, and the captain observed with a hacking, cough-like laugh, + +"You saved the water-casks, though?" + +"Why no, sir; and we was forced to go upon a 'lowance of a pint a water +a man!" + +"Ho!" rejoined the listener. "Capital! Didn't suffer, I hope? Go on." + +"Howsomever, I says to myself, the captain wants a good valy'ble cargo, +and so we beats up again and stretches away back along the coast of +Jamaiky, on the look-out for any think that might be comin' that 'ere +way. Well, sir, d'ye see, airly one morning, as we was a lying as close +as wax under the land, we spies a big brig becalmed off to seaward; but +we diskivered at the same time that same Yankee cruiser as was in chase +of us off Matanzas. I know'd as how you would be displeased at any risks +being run, so we keeps clean and snug inshore, under a pint o' land, +till set of sun, and until arter the moon went down. Then the breeze +sprung up fresh from the old trade quarter, and says I, now we'll make a +dash at that 'ere drogher, and squeeze him as dry as bone-dust; more +pertikerly, ye see, captain, since the corvette, arter dodgin' about him +all day, had yawed off, and, with his port-tacks aboard, was beatin' to +wind'ard." + +Here Mr. Gibbs's auditor took the cigar from his mouth and rolled his +light blue eyes at him, puffed a thick volume of smoke through the +corner of his mouth, but said never a syllable. + +The narrator gave a wistful look at the brandy-flask, drained the last +few drops from the coffee-cup, pushed out his timber leg, and resumed: + +"So you see, sir, as I was a sayin', I says to myself, I'll get the boat +in the water with the lads, and, to make sure of all being conducted +shipshape, I'll go myself." + +"Oh!" said the captain, as his eyebrows went up and the corners of his +mouth came down, with the faintest breath of a sardonic smile, while he +lit a fresh cigar, "oh! you did!" + +"Ay, sir! So we let the old drogher go bouncing on past us, at about the +rate of five mile in four hours, when we crossed his wake under the jib, +and then we ups with the fore and main-sail, got a pull of the sheets, +and--" + +Captain Brand shook the point of his curved nose at the speaker, who +checked himself, and, giving an emphatic rap with his crutch on the +floor, went on with-- + +"Beg parding, sir; but, Lord love ye! we just walked up under his lee, +and afore he know'd where he wos, we boarded him, knocked over two or +three chaps, and had the skipper lashed down in his cabin as quick as +winkin' and as quiet as could be. Ay, sir, we had it all our own way; +but during the scrimmage wot should I see (here he inclined his head out +like a loggerhead turtle) but the lovelyest young 'oman as ever I +clapped eyes on!" Here his timber stump grated nervously on the floor. +"Says I, that's just the craft, with such a clean run and full bows, as +would please Captain Brand"--at which that individual rolled round on +his elbow and brought his eye to the opera-glass in the direction of the +schooner. + +"She isn't there, captain!" parenthesized the narrator, following the +motion with his head. "So I just fisted hold of her to hand her tenderly +into the boat, with a bag of shiners as wos found on board, when, so +help me---- --beg parding, sir--if a dwarfed giant of a nigger didn't +take an overhand lick at me with an iron pump-break, and nearly cut this +'ere larboard pin in two pieces; and, smash my brains!" he continued, +shaking his broad paw aloft with rage, "but what does I do, with all the +pain from the clip that da--(beg parding, sir) give me, I slams away +with a pistol bullet through the nigger's head--" + +"Didn't I see a little boy on board the 'Centipede?' Perhaps I was +mistaken, the sun blazes so fiercely, eh?" broke in Captain Brand, +though the sun didn't blaze with a fiercer light than shot out of his +deadly cold blue eyes. + +"Ho, ay, sir! that young imp was a bitin' at my t'other leg like a bull +terrier pup, while the nigger was attackin' me, and then he goes and +crawls out of the cabin winders, and was fished out of the water by the +chaps as wos towin' astarn in the boat." + +"Oh, really! how very fortunate!" muttered the captain; "go on; don't +stop, I pray you, Master Gibbs." + +"Well, sir, I knows very little what happened arter this, for the young +'oman was a screamin' and our chaps a cursin' about the decks, when all +of a sudden I fell off into a faint like, and the same time a heavy gun +came slamming into our very ears; and there was that infarnal corvette +agen bowlin' down within five cables' length of the brig, her battery +all alight and the whistles a callin' away the boats, in as violent a +haste as any think I can remember," said Gibbs, as he paused to catch +his breath. + +"You must have kept a sharp look-out, though?" But, without heeding this +remark, the burly scoundrel went on-- + +"Well, Captain Brand, the boys tumbled me over the side--" + +"Not forgetting the little bag of shiners!" sneered his auditor. + +"Tumbled me into the boat, sir, and then pulled like mad for the +schooner. I know'd, d'ye mind, captain, or leastways I felt sartain we +could show any think afloat our heels, and so away we scrambles aboard, +and off we splits. But ye must see by this time, sir, the corvette had +come down and rounded to on the weather beam of the drogher, acting like +a screen for the schooner close under his lee. It wos only a minnit, +though, while he was holding some jaw with those lubbers aboard the +brig, before he filled away again, and wearing sharp round her bows, he +diskivered us sartain. I don't think, as matters stood by this time, +that our boat was a boat-hook's length from the schooner when I jist see +a burst of red flashes from the man-o'-war's starboard ports, and heerd +an officer roar out, 'Give him the whole three divisions of grape!' when +I'm da--your parding agin, sir; I'm blest if ever I heerd sich a rain of +cold iron in all my sea-goin' experience. Ay, sir, by G--gracious, sir, +if about two bushels of them grape didn't riddle the barge like the +nozzle to a watering-pot, and same time tore seven of our noble fellows +all to rags--" + +"You saved the boat, of course?" suggested his companion, in a kind +voice, but with a frightful sneer. + +"Why, captain, we unfortinately lost her; for ye see, arter tumbling me +aboard the schooner, and arter bailing nigh as much blood as water--" + +"Capital! excellent! best joke I ever heard," broke in Captain Brand, +with a hollow laugh of much enjoyment. + +"Arter bailin' as much blood as water, and finding the man-o'-war was +heaving in stays to slam another broadside into us, we cut the boat +adrift, and then got the sheets flat aft, the gaff-top-sails up, and +away we drove with a crackin' breeze right up to wind'ard, like a +swordfish. Lord love ye, sir! we walked away from the cruiser, a eatin' +the wind out of him like a knife, and notwithstandin' he hove more nor +forty round shot at us, he only knocked away the fore-top-mast and some +other triflin' little damage about the hull, and"--he hesitated--"Lascar +Joe's head." + +"That counts off about half your crew, eh?" said Captain Brand, smiling +in his peculiar manner. "Well, what next?" + +"Why, sir, the next mornin' Belize Paul--as is part doctor, you +know--said as how my leg was to come off below the knee, and arter +givin' me a sip or two o' rum--" + +"Bottle," interjected the captain, twisting the beak of his nose in a +puff of smoke. + +"--Rum, why, smash my brains, sir, if he didn't hack it off with a +wood-saw!" + +"Well, what next?" + +"Then, sir, ye see, we run the schooner down Cape Cruz, where we kept +werry snug and quiet till sich times as the old one-eyed Diego judged +the coast clear to return to head-quarters." + +"Well, what then?" + +"That's all, Captain Brand!" concluded the narrator his garbled yarn, as +he again had recourse to scratching the door-mat on his head, and cast a +thirsty look at the brandy-flask. + +"That's all, is it?" hissed the man with the iron jaws, in a tone of +concentrated passion, as he sprang with a single bound from the settee, +and clutched Master Gibbs with both hands around his hairy throat until +his face turned livid purple and his eyes started from the sockets. +"That's all, is it, you drunken beast? That's all you have to tell after +idling away the summer, losing anchors and boats, and more than half my +crew, and bringing a hornet's nest down about our ears! That's all, is +it? And what would you say, now, if I should order the doctor to cut off +your other leg close behind your ears, you beast?" + +In the last stages of suffocation, the man was hurled on his back to the +floor, and there lay, bleeding a torrent from his mouth and nose. His +superior stood over him for a moment and put his hand in his trowsers +pocket for a pistol, and then he glanced rapidly at the green rope +squirming from the beams above; but, changing his purpose apparently, he +strode back to the settee and shouted "Babette!" + +Presently the door opened from the passage leading to the kitchen, and +there appeared a large, powerfully-made negro-woman, with her arms +akimbo, and a pair of bloodshot eyes gleaming from beneath a striped +Madras turban wound round her head. + +"Babette!" repeated the captain, resuming his seat and his habitual +polite air and voice, "serve out a barrel of Bordeaux and a beaker of +old Antigua rum to the 'Centipede's' crew to drink my health; and I say, +my beauty! have a pig or two killed; tell the boatswain to haul the +seine, and have a good supper for all hands to-night. And, Baba"--he +went on as if he had just thought of something--"there's my friend Gibbs +lying there--I believe he has fallen down in a fit--be very careful of +him--a bed in the vault--a little biscuit and water--he may be feverish +when he wakes up, you know. And, Babette, old girl, if you are in want +of kindling wood, you may as well use that timber leg of our friend +Gibbs! I don't think he'll want it again. There! _doucement_, Baba!" + +The negress gave a deep grunt of assent, and, seizing the senseless body +lying on the floor, she dragged it out of the room. Returning a few +moments after, she wiped up the blood with a cloth dipped in hot water, +and finally disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AN OLD SPANIARD WITH ONE EYE. + + "I fear thee, Ancient Mariner! + I fear thy skinny hand! + For thou art long, and lank, and brown, + As is the ribbed sea-sand." + + +"The 'Panchita' has passed Mangrove Point," came in the hoarse whisper +from the signal-man. "You can see her now from below, sir." + +Captain Brand put on a fine Panama hat, and stepped out on the veranda, +where, with a cigar in his mouth, he leaned over the balustrade, and +kept sharp watch on every thing that was going on below him. In a few +minutes a long pointed brown bowsprit protruded itself beyond the wall +of rocks, followed by a great triangular lateen sail, bent to a yard a +mile long, and tapering away like a fly-fishing-rod, where, at the end, +was a short bit of yellow and red pennant. As her bows came into view +they showed above a curved prow falling inboard, with a huge bunch of +sheepskin for a chafing-mat on the knob, and a thin red streak along the +wales, on a lead-colored ground, above her bottom, which was painted +green. As more of her proportions came into the picture, you saw a stout +stump of a mast, raking forward, with short black ropes of purchases for +hoisting the single yard, and heavy square blocks close down to the foot +of the mast. When this great sail had come out from the screen of rocks, +another light stick of a mast stood up over the taffrail, with another +lateen sail and whip-stalk of a yard, to which was bent the Spanish +Colonial Guarda Costa flag. In fact, she was a Spanish felucca all over, +from stem to stern, and truck to water-line. A few dingy hammocks were +stowed about halfway along her rail, and there were a good many men +moving about her decks in getting the cable clear, and a lot more +clinging like so many lizards along the bending yard, and all in some +attempt at uniform dress, in readiness to roll up the sail when the +anchor was down. There was a long brass gun, too, burnished like gold, +on a pivot slide, with all its equipment, trained muzzle forward in +front of the main-mast. No sooner had she sagged into the open basin, +with her immense sail hanging flat and heavy in the light air, than a +boat from the schooner boarded her, and presently she let go an anchor. +There were a few coarse compliments and greetings exchanged between the +crews of the two vessels, and some rough jokes made, as the last comer +veered out the cable, rolled up his sails, and set taut his running gear +in quite a tidy and man-of-war style. + +"Go on board the felucca, Jose, and give my compliments to Don Ignacio, +and say I shall be happy to see him," cried Captain Brand from the +piazza to a man at the cove; "and tell him," continued he, "that I +should have called in person, but I can't bear the hot sun since I +caught the fever. Take my gig." + +This was said in Spanish, and when he had finished speaking he shaded +his face behind the curtain and scowled. + +"You're a bird of ill omen, my one-eyed friend; but one of these days +I'll wipe out old scores, and new ones too, perhaps," Captain Brand +muttered to himself; and, from his murderous expression of face, he +seemed just the man to carry out his threat. Meanwhile, a light +whale-boat of a gig, manned by four men and a coxswain, pushed off from +the shore, and in three strokes of the oars she was alongside the +felucca. The coxswain stepped over the low rail, and, walking aft, +turned down a cuddy of a cabin, took off his hat, and delivered his +message. A minute later he again got into the boat, and pulled to the +cove, where he said to the captain, + +"Don Ignacio says he'll come in his own boat when he's ready." + +"_Bueno!_" was responded aloud; and then to himself: "Don't ask or +receive favors, eh? What an old file the brute is!" + +He said no more, but watched. Presently a small man came up out of the +cabin of the "Panchita," but so very slow, and with such a quiet motion +did he emerge, that one might suppose it was a wary animal rather than a +human being. He was scrupulously neat in attire--a brown pair of linen +trowsers, a Marseilles vest with silver filigree buttons, an embroidered +shirt-bosom with gold studs, and a dark navy-blue broadcloth coat, with +standing collar and anchor gilt buttons. His head-gear was simply a +white chip hat, with a very narrow brim and a fluttering red ribbon; but +beneath it his coal-black hair behind was chopped as close as could be, +leaving a single long and well-oiled ringlet on each side, which curled +like snakes around a pair of large gold rings pendent from his ears. His +complexion was dark, bilious, and swarthy, with a thin, sharp nose, and +a million of minute wrinkles, all meeting above, at the corners, and +under a small line of a mouth; quite like rays, in fact, and only +relaxed when the lips parted to show a few ragged, rotten pegs of sharp +teeth. But perhaps the most noticeable feature in his face was his +eye--for he had but one--and the spot where the other is seen in the +species was merely a red, closed patch of tightly-drawn skin, with a few +hairs sticking out like iron tacks. His single eye, however, was a jet +black, round, piercing organ, which seemed to do duty for half a dozen +ordinary glims, and danced with a sharp, malevolent scrutiny, as if the +owner was always in search of something and never found it, and every +body and every thing appeared to slink out of its light wherever it +glanced around. His age might have been any where from forty to sixty. +As he stepped on deck, clear of the cuddy cabin hatch, his sinister +optic played about in its socket--now scanning the long brass gun, the +half-furled sails, the crew, the ropes, or taking a steady, unwinking +glance at the midday sun, and then shining off to the shore, and +sweeping in the "Centipede," the little pool of blue water, and the +mouth of the inlet. Feeling apparently satisfied with the present aspect +of affairs, he slowly pulled out a machero from his waistcoat pocket, +plucked a cigarette from the case, and then proceeded deliberately to +strike a light. Even while performing this simple operation, his uneasy +orb, like unto a black bull's-eye, traversed about in its habitual way; +and when he raised the spark of fire with his brown, thin hand, and the +claws of fingers loaded with rings, he seemed to be looking into his own +mouth. Nodding to a fellow who stood near, with a crimson sash around +his waist, he inclined his eye toward the shore, blew out a thin wreath +of smoke from his lungs--all the while his vigilant organ shining like a +burning spark of lambent jet through the smoke--and merely said, + +"The boat!" + +In a moment a small cockle-shell of a punt was lowered from the stern of +the felucca, when, stepping carefully in, he seized a scull, and with a +few vigorous twists pushed her to the landing at the cove. + +During all these movements of the commander of the felucca Captain Brand +was by no means an inattentive observer; and, indeed, he was so +extremely critical that he stuck the tube of a powerful telescope +through an aperture of the curtains around him, and not only looked at +his cautious visitor, but he actually watched the expression of his +uneasy eye, and almost counted every wrinkle--finely engraved as they +were--on his swarthy visage; but, if Captain Brand's own visage +reflected an index of his mind, he did not seem over and above pleased +with what he saw. + +"Has a bundle of papers under his arm! I can see the hilt of that +delicate blade, too, sticking out from his wristband. Ah! I've seen him +throw that short blade from his coat-sleeve and strike a dollar at +twenty yards! Wonderful skill with knives you have, Don Ignacio; but you +never yet tried your knack with _me_! Oh no, my Tuerto--bird of ill omen +that you are! We can't do without one another just yet, so let us wait +and see what's in the wind!" + +Soliloquizing these remarks, Captain Brand withdrew his telescope as the +commander of the felucca approached, and, with a cheerful smile, waited +to receive him. A few moments later the one-eyed individual mounted the +rope-ladder stairway, carefully feeling the strands, however, and +looking suspiciously around him as he stepped lightly on the piazza. + +"_Ah! compadre mio!_" exclaimed Captain Brand, in Spanish, as he seized +his visitor by the flipper, and squeezed his fingers till the pressure +on his valuable rings made him wince, as he was led into the large and +spacious saloon, while at the same time the captain gave him a hearty +slap between his narrow shoulders. + +"_Ah! compadre!_ How goes the friend of my soul?" + +The small man gave no symptoms of joy at this warm greeting; but, +screwing his wiry frame out of the captain's caresses, his eye flashed +like a spark of fire quickly up and down and all around the apartment, +as if making a mental inventory of the furniture, and not omitting his +tall companion, from the crown of his head to the toes of his straw +slippers, when he quietly remarked through his closed teeth, + +"_Como estamos?_"--"How are we?" + +"Ah, Don Ignacio, _poco bueno, poco malo_! Half and half. Just getting +well over that maldito attack of Yellow Jack." + +"Hum! more bad than good. No? I've brought you some letters from the +agent at Havana." + +"Thanks--thanks, my friend. Ho! Babette! Babette! Some anisette for Don +Ignacio. _Presto!_ my good Baba. There--that will do!" he said, merrily, +as the liqueur and glasses were placed on the table. "And don't omit the +turtle-soup for dinner, and tell Lascar Joe to make it. Ah! I +forget--the best cook I had--the devil's making soup of him now. +However, do the best you can, my Baba, and let us have dinner about +sunset." + +Then turning to his visitor, with a graceful bow and a laugh, he added, +"And we'll have the doctor to join us, and tell how he cut off our poor +friend Gibbs's leg with a hand-saw. _Dios! amigo!_ Capital joke, 'pon my +honor!" + +Captain Brand's honor! Lord have mercy upon us! And he had very few +jokes, and never told one himself. + +"Hum!" replied the Tuerto, in the pause of the conversation. "There's +better jokes than that to hear. _Mira!_ look!" + +With this brief rejoinder he threw a bundle of newspapers on the table, +and, pulling out a packet of letters from a breast pocket, pitched it +toward his host. Then helping himself to a thimbleful of anisette, he +took off his narrow-brimmed chip hat for the first time, polished up his +eye a bit with the knuckle of his fore finger, and looked at his +companion fixedly. + +"Letters, I see, from our old friend Moreno, at Havana," said Captain +Brand, as he sat down on the settee, and with a pretty tortoise-shell +knife cut round the seals. "Ah! what says he? 'Happy to inform you,' is +he? 'Packages of French silks seized by custom-house on account of +informal invoice and clearance.' Why didn't the fool forge others, then? +Well, what next? 'Schooner "Reel," from Barbadoes, with cargo of rum and +jerked beef, wrecked going into Principe, and crew thrown into prison on +suspicion of being engaged in--' Oh! ah! served them right, when I +ordered them to St. Jago--delighted they must be! 'Bills for advances +and stores now due, please remit, per hands of Don Ignacio Sanchez--'" + +Here Captain Brand caught a ray from the one eye of his companion, which +he returned with interest; and then laying the letters down on the table +with the softest motion in life, he exclaimed, with a sigh, + +"Not the best news in the world, as you say, _compadre_; all those rich +goods, and those bags of coffee, and pipes of rum gone to the devil. But +these are little accidents in our profession." + +"_Como?_" said Senor Ignacio, "_our_ profession?" shaking his fore +finger before his paper cigar in a deprecating manner. "Speak for +yourself, _amigo_." + +"Ah! true," the other went on--"my profession. The freedom of the seas, +the toll of the tropics, the right of search, and all that sort of +buccaneering pastime, is liable, you know, to the usual risks." + +Here he inclined his head to one side and gave a slight clack to his +lips, as if to illustrate in a humorous way a man choking to death with +a knotted rope under his ear. "However, we must be more cautious in +future and retrieve the past disasters, for there are still on the sea +as good barks as ever floated." + +Captain Brand said this as if he were a merchant of large means and +strict integrity, and was about to enter into some shrewd commercial +speculation. + +"Hum!" murmured Senor Ignacio, while pouring out another little glass of +anisette. "_Amigo mio!_ you had better read the papers from Havana +before you talk of another cruise." + +"Oh! delighted to read the news--quite refreshing to get a peep at the +world after being cooped up here for months! Another French revolution! +Bonaparte alive yet! A Patriot war! Nelson and Villeneuve! All +interesting." + +Thus glancing rapidly over the prints, pausing at times at a paragraph +that arrested his attention, then tossing a paper away and taking up +another, till suddenly Captain Brand's hand shook with passion as he +read aloud, + +[Illustration: "HE TOUCHED THE BELL OVERHEAD AS HE SPOKE, AND, PUTTING +HIS MOUTH TO THE TUBE, ASKED, 'ANY THING IN SIGHT?'"] + +"His Britannic majesty's squadron has been augmented on the West India +station. The brig 'Firefly,' corvettes 'Croaker' and 'Joker,' touched at +Nassau, New Providence, on the 2d instant, bound to leeward. We also +learn that the United States have fitted out a squadron of small +vessels, called the Musquito Fleet, to search for the noted pirate +Brand, who has so long committed atrocities among the islands. He was +last chased by the American corvette 'Scourge,' off Morant Bay, on the +east coast of Jamaica, but escaped during the night. The following day a +shattered boat was picked up, which had been cut adrift from the +piratical schooner, containing several dead and dying bodies of the +pirates. One of the latter gave such information to the captain of the +'Scourge' as leads to the hope that Brand's retreat may soon be +discovered and his nest of pirates be destroyed. Recent advices from +Principe state that a vessel loaded with valuable merchandise struck on +the Cavallo Reef and went down. The crew, however, five in number, were +rescued, but on landing were identified by the mate of the English bark +'Trident' as a portion of the men who robbed that vessel and murdered +the master and several of the passengers. Our readers may remember that +among the latter were two sisters, who leaped overboard and were +drowned, to save themselves the horror of a more cruel fate. The men +alluded to, who were wrecked in the brig off Principe, were sent in +chains to Havana, and were yesterday publicly garroted in the Plaza of +Moro Castle." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CONVERSATION IN POCKETS AND SLEEVES. + + "He holds him with his skinny hand: + 'There was a ship,' quoth he. + 'Hold off! unhand me, graybeard loon!' + Eftsoons his hand dropp'd he." + + +Captain Brand laid down the paper without a sign of outward emotion, and +nodded his head several times at the one-eyed man facing him. He then +extracted his perfumed handkerchief, examined the cipher in the corner, +and waved it before his face. Don Ignacio pulled out a red silk bandana, +and polished his eye as if it were the lens of a spy-glass. At length +the former spoke: + +"_Amigo mio!_ The nets are spreading, but the fish are not in them +yet!" + +"No, _amigo_!" + +"Ah! _compadre, viento y ventura poca dura!_ the fair breezes have +chopped round in our teeth. Success, my friend, creates jealousy, envy, +hatred, and malice. Now here were we swimming along as quietly as sharks +under water, only coming up for a bite occasionally, when on come those +villainous swordfishes, and wish to drive us away." + +Captain Brand gave expression to this pious homily in a tone of virtuous +reproach against the world at large, and as if he were a very much +maligned and ill-used gentleman. He touched the bell overhead as he +spoke, and, putting his mouth to the tube, asked, + +"Any thing in sight?" + +"Nothing, _senor_." + +"Telegraph the man at the Tiger-trap station to keep a bright look-out, +and direct the gunner to keep the battery manned day and night! Tell the +boatswain to set taut the chain on the other side at the Alligator's +mouth!" + +Don Ignacio gave a rather suspicious glimmer at his vessel as this last +order was given, and smiled; that is, if a one-sided twitch to the +wrinkles about the line of his mouth could be tortured into a smile. His +companion seemed to divine what was passing in the Don's mind, for he +added politely, + +"The cable won't interfere with the 'Panchita!'" + +"No, _amigo_; the felucca is anchored just _out_side of it." The Tuerto +was not a man to leave any thing to chance, and he had taken the +precaution to be on the safe side of the pirates, either as friends or +enemies. He had indeed been as near an approach to a pirate himself as +could be, and had only abandoned the business for a profession quite as +bad, where there was less risk and more profit. In other words, he was +now a colonial officer in command of a Guarda Costa, winking--but +without shutting his eye--at piracy whenever he was well paid for it; +and he invariably was well paid for it, or else he made mischief. +Withal, he was as crafty and determined an old villain as ever sailed +the West Indies. He had amassed a large fortune, and owned several +tobacco estates--pretty much all his wealth acquired by the easy trouble +of holding his tongue. Yet his greed was insatiable, and he probably +would have sold the fingers from his hands, and his legs and arms with +them--all, save his single black ball of an optic, which was invaluable +to him--for doubloons. In fact, this feverish thirst after gold which +always raged in his hot veins had induced him to pay Captain Brand a +visit, and we shall see with what result. The truth is, however, that +Captain Brand was the only man of his numerous villainous acquaintance +afloat for whom he felt the least dread. He knew him to be bold, +skillful, and wary, and so the Don had a tolerably positive conviction +that, should he play him false, his own neck might get a wrench in the +garrote while he was throwing the noose for his coadjutor. + +To return, however, to the pair of worthies sitting in conclave in the +pirate's saloon: the captain, resuming the conversation, observed in a +careless tone, quite as if the subject under discussion was a mere +ordinary matter, + +"When will this swarm of hornets be down upon us?" + +The Spaniard blew a thick puff of smoke from his cigarette, and still +holding it between his teeth, while his eye glittered through the murky +cloud, he replied, + +"Perhaps a fortnight, a little more or less. I left St. Jago five days +ago, with orders from the Administrador to run down this side of the +island, and procure information for the English consul." + +"Any cruisers down that way?" + +"Ay! the corvette 'Scourge,' and the 'Snapper' schooner; they arrived +the night before I sailed." + +"Did you happen to see their officers, _amigo_?" + +"_Oh si!_ I had a long talk with the captain of the corvette at the +custom-house." + +"Holloa! and you told him--" + +"Yes; I showed him a chart of the Isle of Pines, and pointed out how to +get into the old hole." + +Here the pair laughed short laughs, when Brand continued his questions +with, + +"And how did he take the bait?" + +"Hooked him; for I heard him order his first lieutenant to be ready for +weighing at daylight, and say that my description tallied with that of +the dying man they picked up in the 'Centipede's' boat," replied the +Tuerto, with a chuckle. + +"_Bueno!_" exclaimed the pirate, as his face assumed an unwonted +sternness, while he rested his cheek on his left hand with the elbow on +the table, and slipped his right into the pocket of his trowsers. + +"_Bueno! amigo mio!_ But how do I know but you may have made a little +mistake, and described another haunt besides the Island of Pines, off in +this direction?" + +There was the faintest click of a noise in the captain's pocket as he +spoke, but not so faint but that it vibrated on the ear of the Spaniard, +and, pushing back his chair a foot or two from the table, he raised his +right hand, the fore fingers and thumb slightly bent inward, but +grasping a jewel-hilted knife, whose dim blue blade glimmered up the +loose sleeve. There was nothing threatening apparently in the movement, +though the two villains looked at each other with a cold, murderous, +unflinching glare. + +The Don was the first to break the silence; and he said, in a low, +hissing tone, + +"_Maldito!_ Because I had a little account of plata to settle with you +before the men-o'-war should roast you out. But beware, _Capitano mio_! +I left a little paper at St. Jago with directions where to find me in +case I did not return in a certain time." + +"Ho, _compadre_, how very cautious with your friends! Why, what has put +such thoughts into your head? _Diavolo!_ we have stood by one another +too long to separate now. There, my hand upon it." + +Saying this, Captain Brand's whole manner changed, and, drawing his hand +from his pocket, he reached over toward his companion. The Don, however, +watched him narrowly, and his eye shot out a wary sparkle as he withdrew +his hand, when, cautiously putting forth his own left, he touched his +cold, thin brown fingers to those of the man before him. This operation +ended, he quietly sipped a few drops of anisette, and rolled and lighted +another paper cigar. + +"Well, _amigo_, let us now proceed to business," said Brand, gayly, "for +dinner will soon be ready, and we have no time to lose. How stands the +account?" + +"The papers are on board the felucca, and it will be more convenient, +when the settlement is made, to come on board with the money. How would +to-morrow morning do? There's no hurry." + +"Just as you choose, friend of my soul! The doubloons, or the silk, or +broadcloth are ready for you at any moment. Pay you in any thing except +the delicious wines of France. _Bueno!_" he added, pulling out a +splendid gold repeater, with a marquis's coronet on the chased back. +"And now, _amigo_, accept this little token into the bargain." + +Don Ignacio's fiery eye twinkled with greed, but it was only for a +moment, when, giving a quick glance at the coronet and coat of arms, he +waved his fore finger gently to and fro, and shook his head. + +"What! No? Why, you know it once belonged to the Captain General of +Cuba, old Tol de rol de riddle rol--what was his name? He gave it me, +you know, together with some other trinkets, for saving his life--a--you +remember? Very generous old gentleman--nobleman indeed--he was. May he +live a thousand years, or more, if he can!" + +Ay, Don Ignacio did remember the circumstance attending that generous +transaction, and he remembered to have heard, also, that the Captain +General made a present of all his money and jewels with the point of a +broad blade quivering at his throat. He said nothing, however, in +allusion to this interesting episode, but he smiled meaningly, and went +on with his cigar. + +"Not take it, eh? Well, _amigo_, I must look you up something else; +but now for dinner. Babette, clear away for dinner. Here are the keys +of the wine-cellar. The best, my beauty, and plenty of it." Then +turning to his companion: "Suppose we take a stroll to the Tiger's Trap; +the sun is sinking, and a walk will give us an appetite for the +turtle-soup--_vamanos!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +DOCTOR AND PRIEST. + + "But soon I heard the dash of oars, + I heard the pilots' cheer; + My head was turned perforce away, + And I saw a boat appear. + + "The pilot and the pilot's boy, + I heard them coming fast; + Dear Lord in heaven! it was a joy + The dead men could not blast." + + +While Captain Brand and Don Ignacio Sanchez walked pleasantly along the +pebbly shore of the clear blue inlet to the Tiger's Trap, let us, too, +saunter amid the habitations which sheltered the pirate's haunt. + +Apart from the mat sheds of the shelly cove of the basin, where the +"Centipede" and "Panchita" were anchored, there was a nest of red-tiled +buildings which served the crew of the former vessel for a dwelling when +in port. It was pleasantly situated on a little sandy plateau, within a +stone's-throw of the water, and shaded by a cluster of palm-trees; while +in the rear was a dense jungle of canes and bushes, through which led +numerous paths to a small lagoon beyond. The buildings were of one +story, constructed of loose stones, the holes plastered with yellow +clay, with broad, projecting eaves extending over roughly-built piazzas. +They stood in a double row, leaving a stone pavement yard between, where +one or two cocoa-nut-trees lifted their slim trunks like sentinels on +guard. Two of the largest of these huts were mere shells inside, and +used for mess-rooms, exposing the unhewn girders and roof above, but all +whitewashed and tolerably clean. The floors were of rough mahogany +boards, or heavy dark planks, and no doubt part of the cargo of some +Honduras trader who had fallen into the pirates' hands. Around the sides +of these mess-rooms were arranged small tables and canvas camp-stools, +with eating utensils of every variety of pattern and value, from stray +sets of French porcelain to common delf crockery. A large open chimney +stood a little way off, where was a kitchen, in which the cookery was +carried on, under the superintendence of a couple of old negroes. Beyond +the mess-rooms were the sheds used for sleeping apartments, with lots of +hammocks of canvas and straw braid hanging by their clews from the +beams, quite like the berth-deck of a ship of war. Bags and sea-chests +stood out from the walls, with bits of mirrors here and there, some with +the glasses cracked, and others in square or round gilt frames. All, +however, was arranged with a certain degree of order, and the floor was +clean and well scrubbed. Another detached building, much smaller than +the rest, was divided by a board partition into two rooms. The first was +used for a storeroom, and was filled with bread in barrels, bags of +coffee and sugar, hams, dried fruits, beans, salt meats, and what not, +but every thing in abundance, and apparently the very best the market of +the high seas could produce. A strong door protected this repository, +with a wrought iron bar and padlock. The other portion of the building +was more habitable. There were chairs and tables; a couple of upright +bookcases with glass doors, one filled with books, odd numbers of +magazines, and old newspapers, and the other containing a multitude of +vials, pots, and bottles of medicine--a small apothecary's shop, in +fact, together with two or three cases of surgical instruments. Two +elegant bureaus, with rosewood doors and mouldings, like those furnished +passenger ships to the East Indies, stood against the wall at either +side; and near to each, in opposite corners, were low iron bedsteads, +without mattresses or bedding, and merely stretched with dressed and +embossed leather. For pillows were Chinese heel stools, and as for +covering, the climate dispensed with it altogether. Hanging against the +wall were a couple of brace of pistols and two or three muskets, and on +the table stood a square case-bottle of gin, some glasses, and a +richly-bound breviary clasped with a heavy gold strap; but in no other +part of these huts were fire-arms ever allowed, and very rarely was +liquor served out in more than the usual daily half-gill allowance. + +Seated at the table in the last room we have described were two men. +One, the shorter of the two, was dressed in a long, loose bombazine +cassock, girded about his waist by a white rope, which fell in knotted +ends over his knees. Around his open neck was hung a string of black +ebony beads, hooked on to a heavy gold cross, which rested on his +capacious breast, and which the wearer was continually feeling, and +occasionally pressing to his lips. His face was dark and sensual--thick, +unctuous lips, a flat nose, and large black eyes--while a glossy fringe +of raven hair went like a thick curtain all around his head, only +leaving a bluish-white round patch on the shaved crown. This individual +was the Padre Ricardo, who, for some good reasons best known to himself, +had left his clerical duties in his native city of Vera Cruz and taken +service with Captain Brand. One of the reasons for leaving--and rather +abruptly, too--was for thrusting a cuchillo into the heart of his own +father, who had reported him to his superior for his monstrous +licentiousness. The padre, however, always declared that he was +actuated entirely by filial duty in killing his old parent, to save him +the pain and disgrace which would have followed the exposure of his son! +He still clung, though excommunicated, to the priestly calling, and +prided himself upon his fasts and vigils, never omitting the smallest +forms or penances, and saying mass from Ave Maria in the early morning +to Angelus at vesper time in the evening. For Captain Brand he was ready +to shrive a dying pirate--and pretty busy he was, too, at times--or hear +the confession of one with a troubled conscience in sound health; which, +if important to the safety or well-being of the fraternity, he took a +quiet opportunity of imparting to his superior in command. In these +pursuits he not only made himself useful to Captain Brand, but he became +more or less his confidant and adviser, and seemed to maintain his +influence by ghostly advice over the superstitious feelings of the men. +The padre, however, utterly detested the sea, and never touched his soft +feet in the water if he could by any possibility avoid it; but since he +had plenty to eat and drink on the island, and no end of prayers for his +amusement when in charge of the haunt--as he was--to look out for the +people who were left when the "Centipede" sailed on a cruise, he thus +passed the time in a delightfully agreeable manner. + +The companion who sat opposite to the padre was a tall, gaunt, +cadaverous person, evidently of French extraction, with something kind +and humane about his face, but yet the physiognomy expressed the utmost +determination of character--such a heart and eye as could perform a +delicate surgical operation without a flutter of nerve or eyelid, and +who would stand before a leveled pistol looking calmly down the barrel +as the hammer fell. His face was intellectual, and he never smiled. His +whole appearance portrayed a thorough seaman. Where he came from no one +knew; nor did he ever open his lips, even to the captain, with a reason +for taking service among his band. All known about him was that he +landed from a slaver at St. Jago, and was engaged by Don Ignacio to +serve professionally with Brand in assisting the patriots on the Spanish +Main. When, however, he reached the rendezvous of the pirates, and +discovered that they were altogether a different sort of patriots than +he had bargained for, he nevertheless made no objections to remain, and +took the oath of allegiance, only stipulating that he should not be +called upon to take an active part in their proceedings. Here, then, he +remained for nearly three years, attending to the sick or wounded, +taking no interest in the accounts of the exploits of the freebooters +around him--rarely, indeed, holding speech with any one save his +room-mate, the padre, or occasionally a dinner or a walk with Captain +Brand. On the last expedition, however, of the "Centipede," he had been +induced to go on board, so that he might become a check and guard over +the brutal ruffian who had been placed temporarily in command; but, as +we have already seen, his influence had been of little avail. + +There was yet another occupant of the room inhabited by the doctor and +Padre Ricardo; and a low moaning cry caused the former to rise quietly +from his chair and approach the low iron bedstead on his side of the +lodging. There, beneath a light gauze musquito net, lay our poor little +Henri--his once round, rosy, innocent face now pale and thin, with a red +spot on each cheek, and a dark, soft line beneath the closed eyes. +Uneasily he moved in his fitful slumber; and putting his little hands +together as if in prayer, he murmured, "Oh mamma, mamma!" + +Beside the bed stood an unglazed jar of lemonade, together with a vial +and a spoon. The doctor drew nigh, and, gently pushing aside the +curtain, stood looking at the child for some minutes. Presently the +little sick boy feebly stretched out his delicate, thin limbs, and +unclosed his eyes. Oh! how dim, and sad, and touching was that look, as +he gave a timid, half-wild stare, and then, closing the lids tight +together, the hot drops bubbled out and coursed slowly down his tender +cheeks. + +The doctor, with the gentleness of a woman, bent over him, and taking up +his poor, limp little hand, he remained feeling the fluttering pulse and +catching the hot breath on his dark cheeks. As if communing with +himself, while a glow of compassion lighted up his careworn visage, he +muttered, + +"By the great and good God, who hears me, if I save this child I will +restore him to his heart-broken mother!" + +He sank down on his knees by the bedside as he made his vow, and letting +the little hand rest on the bed, he buried his face in his large bony +hands. What thoughts passed through that man's mind none but the +Almighty knows; but when he arose his stern features had resumed their +wonted expression, and, pouring a little lemonade in a glass, he held it +to the sleeper's lips. Then moving noiselessly back to the table, he +said, in a low tone, + +"Padre, the boy will live. His fever is leaving him, and he will get +well." + +"_Ave Maria! Santissima!_" ejaculated the padre, crossing himself and +kissing his cross; "I pray for him. You must give him to me, doctor. I +will make him a little priest, and he shall swing the censer and chant +the Misericordia when I get the new chapel built." + +"Time enough to think of that, _mi padre_, when he gets strong again. +But just now all the prayers _you_ can say for him will do him no good, +and so I hope you won't put yourself to the trouble." + +"_Cierto, amigo_, doctor; but don't sneer at the prayers of the Church. +They do good; they ease the soul and soothe the pangs of Purgatory." + +"Ah! and how long do you expect to stop in Purgatory?" + +"_Ave purissima!_ What a question to ask your pious and devout Padre +Ricardo!" + +"Question the devil when you want fire," retorted the doctor, as he +opened a book lying on the table before him, and put an end to the +dialogue. His companion quietly helped himself to a measure of pure gin, +and unclasped the covers of his richly-bound missal. + +Scarcely, however, had their conversation ceased, when a hoarse hum of +many voices was heard in the direction of the sheds without, mingled +with shouts in all tongues and uproarious laughter. + +"_Peste!_" said the doctor, looking out of an open window; "the people +have knocked off work and are coming home to their supper. They seem to +have brought some of the crew of the felucca with them too. We shall +have a loud night of it, for the captain has sent them a pipe of wine +and a barrel of rum to carouse with." + +"_Pobre citos!_ they have had a hard time of it during the summer--short +of rum, and water too, I hear, and they need refreshment and repose. So +many of my poor flock killed, too, by that savage American corvette, and +I not near to administer the last consolations and holy rite!" sighed +the padre, as he kissed the crucifix and bowed his head. "There is +Lascar Joe, too, among the missing! He refused the sacrament, infidel as +he was, the day before he sailed; but what turtle-soup he made!" The +padre hereupon sighed deeply again, but whether for the loss of the +Lascar or the soup, no one knows. + +The noise without increased--the rattle of crockery, the clinking of +glasses, the moving of feet, and all the sounds of hungry, boisterous +sailors at table. Soon, too, a shout or cheer would be heard, then a +verse of a song, roars of laughter, and now and then the tinkle of a +guitar struck by vigorous fingers in waltz or fandango. + +"_Merci!_" muttered the doctor, as he looked compassionately at the sick +child on the bed; "those noisy wretches will, I fear, disturb the little +boy, and it's as hot here too, padre, as the place we all are going +to." + +"It _is_ warm, my son!" he replied, as his thick unctuous lips parted +with a smile at his companion's allusion to another and a hotter place; +"but I think our good _capitano_ would have a cot slung for my little +priest in the saloon of the big building there. It is always cool on the +crag, you know." + +"Ah! perhaps he will," said the doctor, reflectively; "I'll see about +it." + +Stepping again to the bedside of the little sufferer, he laid a hand +gently on his forehead, where the soft curls lay in confusion about his +temples, and then quickly touching his pulse, he regarded him +attentively for a few moments, while at the same time a light glow of +perspiration came faintly over the innocent face and spread itself down +the neck. + +"His fever is breaking! _Grace a Dieu!_" whispered the doctor to the +padre; "his breath is regular and cool, and he is sleeping sweetly. Now, +if you like, we will go to see the captain, and, if he consents, I will +carry the child when he wakes to the dwelling." + +The doctor carefully closed the door of the room as he and his companion +stepped out into the open court-yard, and moved toward the spacious +sheds beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A MANLY FANDANGO. + + "While feet and tongues like lightning go + With--What cheer, Luke? and how do, Joe? + Dick Laniard chooses Meg so spruce, + And buxom Nell takes Kit Caboose." + + "Now around they go, and around and around, + With hop, skip, and jump, and frolicsome bound, + Such sailing and gliding, + Such sinking and sliding, + Such lofty curvetting + And grand pirouetting, + Mix'd with the tones of a dying man's groans, + Mix'd with the rattling of dead men's bones." + + +Twilight had taken the place of the red sun, the stars came timidly out +one by one, and then in sparkling clusters the brilliant constellations +illumined the blue heavens as the rosy twilight faded again away. Then +the ripple of the inlet came with a tranquil musical sound upon the +white pebbly beach, the lizards in the holes and crevices of the rocks +began their plaintive wheetlings, the frogs and alligators joined in the +chorus from the low lagoon in the distance, and the early night of the +tropic had begun. + +But louder far than the hum of the insects and reptiles, and brighter +than the lamps of heaven, arose the wild shouts and songs of the pirates +carousing, where the torches and wax-lights lit up the scene of their +orgies with the glare of day. The great mess-room was a blaze of light +from candles and lamps, stuck in brackets or gilt sconces about the +walls, or hanging awry in broken chandeliers from the lofty beams. The +remains of their feast had been cleared away, and the tables were +covered with bottles, cups, and glasses, with boxes of cigars and pans +of lighted coals. At one end of the room was a large table, on which was +laid a black cloth with a broad silver border--sometimes used by the +padre on great occasions--and covered with cards and piles of Mexican or +Spanish dollars. At the other end was a raised platform, where four or +five swarthy fellows with guitars in their hands were strumming away in +the clear rattling harmony of Spanish boleros and dances, shrieking out +at intervals snatches of songs in time to the music, or twirling the +instruments around their heads in a frenzy of excitement. At the +tables, too, were more of the excited band, vociferating with almost +superhuman fluency in various languages their exploits, pausing +occasionally amid the hubbub to clink their glasses together, and then +chattering and yelling on as before. In the centre of the apartment were +some half dozen of the same sort, either spinning around the floor in +the waltz, or moving with a certain air of careless, manly grace one +toward another in the gavotte or bolero. There were at the least some +sixty or seventy of these fellows in the room together, most of them +above the middle height, with finely-developed muscles, broad shoulders, +bushy whiskers, and flowing hair. They came apparently from all climes, +from Africa to the Mexican Gulf, and their features and complexions +partook of every imaginable type, from the light skin and florid +complexion of the Swede, to the low brow, oval olive cheek of the +Mediterranean, and the coal-black hue and flat nose of the Bight of +Benin. Their dress was uniform--frock collars cut square and thrown well +back over their ample chests; their nether limbs incased in clean duck +or brown linen trowsers, with silk sashes around their waists, and large +gold rings in their ears. Mingled here and there in the moving throng, +or leaning over the large table with the black cloth cover, were a few +fellows in the uniform rig of the Guarda Costa, in navy jackets and +black silk belchers around their throats; but all were without weapons +of any description, and were enjoying themselves each after his fancy. +Sentinels stood at the doors of the mess-room with drawn cutlasses over +their shoulders, so that in case of a violent quarrel or row, in dance, +drinking, or gaming, the culprits might be cared for. + +While the uproar was at its height, and the lofty tiled roof was ringing +with the gay and ribald songs and shouts of the excited crowds, two +persons appeared in the doorway at the middle of the room, and entered. +In a moment, as the busy revelers beheld them, the dance ceased, the +music of the guitars died away in a tinkling cadenca, the glasses +stopped clinking, the dollars no longer chinked, and the songs and +shouts were hushed. You might have heard a _real_ drop for a minute, +until one of the individuals who had entered slowly walked forward a few +paces and threw his right hand aloft in salutation. Then burst forth a +hoarse, simultaneous shout of + +"_Viva nuestro amigo! Viva el capitano!_" + +Captain Brand did not pause until he had reached the centre of the great +hall, where he stood calmly looking around upon the swarthy groups, who +crowded about in circles at a respectful distance from him; and then +amid the silence he spoke up, in a frank, off-hand manner, + +"Well, my men, I am glad to see you all once more around me. You have +not been so successful as I hoped, but we must take the good and ill +luck as it comes, and I have no fault to find with you. The times, +however, are bad enough; for I have certain news that our retreat here, +where we have so long been hid, may be discovered"--the villains around +held their breath and let their cigars lie dead in their mouths--"but," +went on their commander, "I shall do all that is prudent in the +circumstances for the benefit of all of us; and when we leave here you +will still have me for your leader, with my head, heart, and blade ever +ready to advise or protect you." As he stopped speaking another cheer +arose: + +"_Viva, nuestro amigo! viva! viva! El 'Centipede' y el capitano! Hasta +muerto!_ Long live the captain! We stand by you until death!" + +"Thank you, my friends; I have but one more word to say. The men who +have the relief at the signal-stations and the water-battery must keep +sober. Now go on again with the music." + +The captain, however, did not immediately quit the hall, but, while the +revel began once more with all its enthusiasm, he moved amid the crowd +of its adherents and said a cheerful word to many. + +"Ah! Pepe, your arm in a sling, eh! a graze of a grape-shot, eh? Why, +Hans, you here! nothing can hurt _you_! Well, Monsieur Antoine, how well +thou art looking; and that pretty sweetheart of thine at St. Lucie! Bah! +never look sad, man; thou shalt see her again. What, my jolly Jack Tar! +an ugly scratch, that, across your jaw--a splinter, eh? Never mind; a +little plaster and half allowance of grog will put you all right again. +So good-night, my friends. _Adios!_" + +Saying these words, all addressed to the individuals in their different +languages, he gave a graceful wave of his hand and passed out of the +building. As he rejoined his friend, the commander of the "Panchita," +who had waited at the threshold, while his wary glim of an eye searched +the faces and read the thoughts of all the villains who clustered about +the room--they both stepped out into the court-yard and sauntered +pleasantly on toward the crag. They had not, however, proceeded many +paces before they encountered the padre and the doctor. + +"Ah!" exclaimed the captain, who was in advance, "how goes it with my +doctor?" shaking his hand as he spoke. "Oh, _mi padre_, how art thou?" +turning to Ricardo. + +"_Salve!_ my son; not been so well this morning, with the old rheumatism +in my head." + +"Drunk!" said sententiously the doctor. + +Then again with a gay laugh to the other, "Well, my doctor, your first +cruise has not been so pleasant in the 'Centipede' as I hoped it might +be, but the next may be more agreeable." + +"Perhaps so, Captain Brand; but I shall have a word or two with you on +that subject to-morrow; and, in the mean while, _senor_, I brought a +little boy back with me who is ill from fever, and my quarters are so +stifling hot, and the air from the lagoon is so bad, that I would like +to stow him for a day or so, with your permission, in your quarters, +where it is cooler." + +"Certainly, doctor; why not? my house and all in it are at your service. +By the way, I was about to ask you and the padre to dine with me and Don +Ignacio there. Will you join us? Yes? Then let us move on, for dinner +must be ready by this time, and it would be a sin to keep Babette +waiting." + +Excusing himself for a few minutes, the doctor went for his sick charge, +and returned with him in his arms to the pirate's dwelling. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A PIRATES' DINNER. + + "But the best of the joke was, the moment he spoke + Those words which the party seemed almost to choke, + As by mentioning Noah some spell had been broke, + And, hearing the din from barrel and bin, + Drew at once the conclusion that thieves had got in." + + +When the guests had assembled in the pirate's saloon it was some minutes +before their host appeared. When, however, he did step into the room +from his private apartment adjoining, he was altogether a different man +in outward appearance than in the early morning. In place of the loose +sailor summer rig which he then wore, he was now attired as a gentleman +of elegant fashion of the time in which we write. His lower limbs were +clothed with flesh-colored silk stockings, and fitted into a pair of +pointed toed pumps with buckles of brilliants that a duchess might have +envied. A pair of white cassimere breeches, which set off to advantage +his well-shaped leg, were tied in a dainty bow of rose-colored satin +ribbon below the knee, and fitted him like a second skin. His waistcoat +was of rose-colored watered silk, embroidered with silver, and which, +with its flaps and ample proportions, was halfway hidden by a dress coat +of green velvet. This last garment had a sort of navy cut, with standing +collar richly laced with silver, gold buttons in a double row of the +size of doubloons, with loose sleeves and cuffs heavily laced with +silver also. His linen was of the most gossamer fineness, the collar +thrown slightly back and confined by a single clasp of rubies the size +of beans, while below was a frill of cambric ruffles sparkling with opal +studs framed in diamonds. The ruffles, too, at his wrist were of the +most beautiful point lace, secured by royal brilliants, and he was +altogether a dandy of such princely magnificence that the courtiers of +the days of the old French monarchy might have taken him for a study. +His manner, likewise, was every way in keeping with his splendid attire; +and the ease and grace with which he excused himself to his guests for +keeping them waiting certainly denoted a knowledge of a higher order of +breeding and society than that in which his lot had been cast. + +[Illustration] + +From the very moment of his entrance, however, Don Ignacio had measured +him at a glance. His single glittering eye of jet had taken him in from +the laced collar of his coat to the buckles of his shoes. Not a jewel in +his dress, from the flaming opals in his bosom to the brilliant stones +at his wrists, and down to the sparkling clusters at his feet, did not +his one uneasy optic drink in the flash and estimate the value. Nay, he +calculated by instinct the weight of the gold buttons on his coat and +the price of the exquisite lace which fell in snowy folds about his +hands. Oh, a rare mathematician was Don Ignacio! What greedy thoughts, +too, passed through that little Spaniard's brain! "Ah!" thought he, +"shall I take my debt in those priceless gems, each one the ransom of a +princess, which the old Captain General may one of these days reclaim? +Hola! no! Or shall I receive more negotiable commodities in gold, +cochineal, or silks? Well! _Veremos!_ we shall see!" + +The effect produced upon the good Padre Ricardo was altogether +different. As the captain entered with all his glorious raiment upon +him, he started back, and, bowing before him as if he were Saint Paul +himself, he seized his superior's white hand, and kissed it with fervent +devotion. Not satisfied with this mark of respect, he raised his dingy +paws, holding his crucifix before him, and murmured, in a sort of +ecstasy, + +"_Mi hico! mi capitano! que brillante!_"--"My son! my captain! what a +brilliant being you are!" + +Singularly in contrast, however, was the effect produced upon the +doctor, who merely raised his dark eyes in an abstracted gaze, gave +a careless and rather contemptuous nod of recognition, and then turned +to examine one of the richly-inlaid cabinets which adorned the +saloon. All these various phases of sympathy, attraction, or contempt +flickered like a sunbeam into Captain Brand's reflecting brain, as, with +a delicately-perfumed handkerchief in one hand, and a gold-enameled +and diamond-incrusted snuff-box in the other, he bowed gracefully to +his visitors, and seated himself at table. + +The table was now rolled out into the centre of the saloon, laid with a +snowy-white damask cloth, and covered with the equipage for a banquet. +At either corner were noble branches of solid silver candelabra, which +would have graced an altar, as perhaps they had, and holding clusters of +wax-lights, which shed their rays over the display below. In the centre +arose a huge epergne of silver, fashioned into the shape of a drooping +palm-tree, whose leaves were of frosted silver, and about the trunk +played a wilderness of monkeys. Beneath, around the board, were +cut-glass decanters, flat bulbous flasks of colored Bohemian glass, +crystal goblets, delicate and almost shadowy wine-cups from Venice, +silver wine-coolers, all mingled in with a heterogeneous collection of +rare china and silver dishes. Such wines, too, as filled those vessels! +not a prince or magnate in all the lands where the vine is planted could +boast of so rare and exquisite a collection. Pure, thin, rain-water +Madeira, full threescore years in bottle! Pale, limpid Port, whose color +had long since gone with age, and left only the musk-like odor; flasks +of Johannisberg of pearly light; bottles of Tokay for lips of cardinals; +tall, slim stems of the taper flasks of the Rhine; while the ruby hues +of wine from the Rhone stood clustering about amid pyramids of +pine-apples, oranges, and bananas, and all loading the air of the saloon +with their delicious fragrance. + +When the party had become fairly seated around the board, and while the +host was bailing out the soup from an enormous silver tureen with a +tea-cup--for it did not appear that he had ever been presented in the +usual way with a ladle--fishing out the floating morsels of rich +callipee, with the delicate frills of his sleeves turned back, he began +the conversation in the Castilian language: + +"Well, _amigos_, we are taking our last feast together, I fear, on this +little cluster of rocks, for a long time to come." + +"How!" exclaimed the padre, as he stuffed a wedge of turtle fat in his +oily mouth, and opened his round black eyes to their fullest extent in +manifest surprise. + +"_Como, mi hico!_" he repeated, as he passed a dirty paw over his smooth +chin, and looked inquiringly. + +"Yes, holy father, our good friend Don Ignacio here has brought us +somewhat startling intelligence. Capital soup, this. I shall give +Babette a dollar. Yes, the eagles and vultures are after us; all the +West India fleet; the Lord only knows how many ships, and brigs, and +gun-boats. Glass of Madeira with you, doctor?" wiping his thin lips with +a corner of the damask table-cloth as he spoke; "and they have tampered, +too, with my old friends the custom-house people. Take away the tureen, +Babette--and, in point of fact, I shouldn't be the least surprised to +see a swarm of those navy gentlemen off the reef here at any moment. A +sharp knife, Babette, for these teal--a duck should be cut, not torn. +Try that Moselle, Don Ignacio; I know your fancy for light wines. This +was given me by a Captain--'pon my soul, I forget his name; he had such +a pretty wife, Madame Matilde," glancing at the frame of miniatures on +the wall; "sweet creature she was; took quite a fancy for me, I believe, +and might have been sitting here at this moment, but a--really I forget +her other name. However, it makes no difference: the wine is called +Moselle." + +Now be it here observed that Don Ignacio drank very little wine or +stimulants of any sort, and never by any chance a drop from any vessel +which, with his single bright eye, he did not see his host first indulge +in. This self-imposed sacrifice may have been owing to his diffidence, +or modesty, or deference to Captain Brand, or, perhaps, other and +private reasons of his own; but yet he never broke through that rule of +politeness and abstemiousness. Sometimes, indeed, he carried his +principles so far as to refuse a meat or the fruits which his host had +not partaken of, and always with a slow shake of his brown fore finger, +as if he did not like even to smell the dish presented to him. + +"What! not even a sip of that nectar, _compadre mio_?" + +The compadre shook his digit, and observed that drinking nectar +sometimes made people sick. + +The captain laughed gayly, and said, "Bah! learning to drink does the +harm, and not the art, when properly acquired." + +During all the foregoing interlude the doctor remained in his grave, +calm humor, and only when the captain alluded to the lady whose +husband's name escaped him did he show signs of interest. Then his eye +followed the look toward the miniature, and his jaws came together with +a slight grating spasm. + +Padre Ricardo, however, was in excellent sympathetic spirits, eating and +drinking like a glutton of all within his reach, and turning his full +eyes at times, as if to a deity, upon his friend the captain. Once he +spoke-- + +"But, my son, you were talking of leaving this quiet retreat, where we +have passed so many happy hours." + +"Yes, friend of my soul! Those fellows with commissions, and pennants at +their mast-heads, and guns, and what not, seem determined to do us a +mischief." The devout padre crossed himself, and pressed the crucifix to +his greasy lips. "Ay! they would no doubt arraign us before some one of +their legal tribunals. Put us in prison, perhaps; or maybe give us a +slight squeeze in a rope or iron collar!" + +The padre groaned audibly, and dropped the wing of a teal he was +gnawing, forgetting, strange as it may seem, to cross himself. + +"_Hola, mi padre!_ cheer up! We are worth a million of dead men yet. The +world is wide, the sea open, and with a stout plank under our feet and +one of these fellows"--here he balanced a long carving-knife, dripping +with blood-red gravy, in his hand--"in our belts, who can stop us?" + +There was the cold, ferocious-eyed gleam of a dying shark in the +speaker's eyes as he went on with his carving; but the priest gave a +jerk of trepidation with his chin, and appeared anxious to hear more. + +"Don Ignacio, try a bit of this roast _guana_; it's quite white and +tender. No? Babette, give me some of that rabbit stew!" The one-eyed +individual was likewise helped to some of that savory ragout, and +proceeded to pick the bones with much care and deliberation. + +"Still _triste_, my _padre_! Come, come, this will never do. Join me in +a bumper of this generous old Port. _Bueno!_ may we attain the same age! +By the way, where did this rich stuff come from?" holding up the +decanter between the light and his face as he spoke. + +Don Ignacio's glittering optic pierced clear through the light ruby +medium of the wine, cut-glass decanter and all, as he furtively watched +his host, and was prepared to dodge in case the heavy vessel should slip +out of the captain's hand. Such things had happened, and might again; +besides, a hard flint substance with a multitude of sharp projections, +two or three inches thick and five or six pounds in weight, falling from +a height on a man's head, might kill him. The Don thought of all this, +and twitched something up his sleeve with his hand under the table. But +Captain Brand, it seemed, had no intention of smashing his elegant +dinner set of glass, and putting down the decanter and raising a finger +to his forehead, he said, "How did that wine come into my possession?" + +"Somebody gave it to you, perhaps. _Quien sabe?_ (Who knows?)" suggested +Don Ignacio. + +Without heeding the interruption, the captain's eye rested on the +brilliant snuff-box on the table beside him, where the letter L was set +in diamonds and blue enamel on the back, and catching it with a rap, his +face lighted up, and as he took a pinch and passed the box to the padre, +he exclaimed, + +"Ah! now I remember, my old friend--the Portuguese countess from Oporto. +_Dios! de mi alma!_ (God of my soul!) what a stately beauty was her +daughter!" + +Here Captain Brand sneezed, and, drawing a delicately-perfumed lace +handkerchief from his waistcoat pocket, blew his nose. Meanwhile the box +went round the table; Padre Ricardo took a huge pinch with his dirty +fingers, and feasted his eyes upon the precious lid. The doctor scarcely +gave the elegant bawble a glance as he helped himself. The Don, however, +examined it with the eye of a connoisseur, and not only that, but he +threw a spark at the captain's flashy waistcoat, and thought he detected +some other article in the capacious pockets vice the handkerchief. +Perhaps he may have been mistaken and perhaps not, though he was so very +suspicious an old villain that he sometimes did his friends injustice. +Nor did he put his thin brown fingers, with the few grains of snuff he +had dipped from the box, to his sheepskin nostrils till he had watched +the effect it had produced on those around him. + +"Ah! my friends, I remember distinctly now all about it," continued the +captain, as he returned the kerchief and shook a few specks of the +titillating dust from his point-lace sleeve; "it is about three years +ago, just before you came to live with me, padre, that we fell in with a +large ship bound to Porto Rico. She had been disabled in an awful +hurricane, which had taken two of her masts clean off at the decks, and +was leaking badly. We, too, had been a little hurt in the same gale, and +having made a pretty good season, I was anxious to get back here and +give the crews a rest. Well, we made out the ship about an hour before +sunset, and it was quite dark before we came up with her. There she lay, +rolling like a log, though there was not much sea on, and we could hear +her chain-pumps clanking, and saw the water spouting out from her +scuppers as pure almost as it went into her hold. As we came up +alongside they hailed me for assistance, and said the ship was sinking, +and could not live till morning. + +"Of course I could give them no actual assistance, situated as I +was"--here the narrator smiled as he glanced round upon his guests--"it +would have been simply absurd, you know, the idea of my putting men on +board to keep her afloat for the nearest gibbet. Bah! I did not dream of +such ridiculous nonsense. However, I determined to make her a visit, +and, if there should be any thing to save from the wreck in an undamaged +condition, why, I should look around. + +"Not too much of that Port, _mi padre_; think of your rheumatism in the +morning! Doctor, you don't drink! + +"Well, going on board, I found two lady passengers--the wife and +daughter of an old judge of the island of Porto Rico, with half a dozen +servants, who were all screaming, and praying, and beseeching me to save +them--all but one, a tall, graceful girl, with a large India shawl +wrapped around her shoulders, her white arms glancing through the folds, +and a pair of dark, liquid, almond-shaped eyes, such as I had never +before seen. The fact is, my friends, I had always before fancied blue. +But there stood this girl, with eyes like a wounded stag, leaning up +against the weather bulwarks near the open cabin door. + +"Babette, take away all but the wine and fruit, and bring fire. Pass +that box this way, if you please, _compadre_! Thank you." + +Don Ignacio seemed to have an affection for the trifle, and had counted +the brilliants over and over again, and made a mental calculation of +their weight and value; and when he did move it as he was desired, his +greedy eye followed it with fascination. + +"Yes, it's very pretty, and I set a great store by it," parenthesized +the host, as he resumed his tale: + +"The girl never screamed or even spoke, and, amid all the hubbub of a +drunken skipper and a disorderly crew, she remained quiet and unmoved. +To assure the people, I told them that I would stay by the ship and do +what I could for them. At this the old lady clasped me around the neck, +and kissed me, and blubbered over me more than ever she did, I imagined, +to the old Spanish judge, her husband--imploring me too, by all the +saints she could think of, to take herself and daughter out of the +sinking vessel at once. You may believe that I would much rather have +been treated in that way by the lovely girl with the wonderful eyes +instead of the fat, rancid old woman beside her; but there was no help +for it just then, and so I consented, with all the professions of +sympathy I could make, to do as she desired." + +Here the captain lit a pure Havana, and, after a few puffs and a sip of +Port, continued: + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER. + + "At last she startled up, + And gazed on the vacant air + With a look of awe, as if she saw + Some dreadful phantom there." + + +"No sooner had I assured the old lady that I would transfer them to my +vessel than her daughter made a step forward, and, letting her shawl +fall upon the deck, she seized my hand with both of hers, and said, in a +low contralto voice, + +"'Heaven bless you, _senor_!' + +"By the cestus of Venus, _caballeros_, the pressure of that girl's hand, +and the deep, speaking look of gratitude she gave me out of her liquid +eyes, quite did my business!" + +"And the senorita's too, I think," chimed in the one-eyed commander, as +he wagged his uneasy head at the narrator. + +"_Quien sabe?_" (who knows?) went on Captain Brand: "at all events, I +raised her soft patrician hand to my lips and kissed it respectfully. +Ha! I noticed, too, as I released her round, slender fingers, that she +wore a sapphire of great brilliancy--ay, here it is now. I keep it in +remembrance of the girl." + +Saying this, the host shook back the lace ruffles of his sleeve, and, +crooking his little finger, exhibited the jewel to his guests. + +"Go on, my son," said the padre, as his sensual face expressed his +satisfaction at the recital--"_Vamonos!_" + +"My holy father," responded the narrator, "beware of that wine-flask! +You have grand mass to-morrow! it is the feast of our patron saint, you +know." + +"_Si! si! hijo mio!_ your padre is always ready," crossing himself in a +half tipsy way as he spoke--"_Vamonos!_" The doctor looked as cold as +marble, and said not a word. + +"Well, gentlemen," went on Captain Brand, "I soon got that ship in a +tolerably wholesome state of command. I made my trusty old boatswain, +Pedillo, lock the fuddled skipper up sound and tight in his own +stateroom, and the rest of my men took a few ropes' ends, and belted the +lubbers of a crew until they went to work at the pumps with renewed +vigor. I also insisted upon the scared male servants of the passengers +lending a hand at that innocent recreation, for you see I had no +intention of letting the ship go down--" + +"With the Capitano Brand in her," interrupted Senor Sanchez. + +"No, by no manner of means; for the ship, I felt, was settling fast, and +I could hear the loose cargo, which had broken adrift below in the main +hold, playing the devil's own game; smashing and crushing from side to +side as the vessel rolled, and coming in contact with the stanchions and +beams, with a surging swash of water, too, which told the tale without +the trouble of breaking open the hatches. I took, however, the +precaution to run my eye over the manifest to see if, perchance, there +was any treasure in the after run or any where else, as, in case there +had been, I should have made some little effort to get at it. However, +there was nothing on board but wine, dried fruits, and heavy bale goods, +not worth the time or trouble, in the aspect of affairs at that time, to +save as much as a single cask or a drum of prunes. I glanced, too, at +the clearance list, and saw that the names of the passengers were La +Senora Luisa Lavarona, and the Senorita Lucia, lady and daughter, with +half a dozen orders and titles, of the judge in _Puerto Rico_. _Bueno!_ +roll me an orange, if you please, doctor! Ah! _gracias_, thanks." + +The doctor rolled the orange, and, had it been a grape-shot or any other +iron missile, its aim would have gone straight through the captain's +body, just above his left waistcoat pocket. + +"In the mean while the old lady rushed around in a tremendous hurry, in +and out of the cabin, losing her balance occasionally in the lurches, +ordering her maids to pull out trunks and boxes on to the deck; then +giving me a hug to relieve her feelings, and praying and crying between +whiles in the most whimsical manner. Not contented either with getting +out a pile of luggage and chests that would have swamped a jolly-boat, +she insisted upon waiting until a locker was broken open in the cabin +pantry for the purpose of rescuing six cases of old Port wine, which had +been, she told me, sent as a present from the Archbishop of Lisbon to +his friend the judge. At this juncture I persuaded her to send her +daughter and a few light articles first on board my vessel, when the +boat would then return for herself and the remainder of their property. +Accordingly, I carefully wrapped the lovely girl in shawls and cloaks, +and got her over the side and down into my boat, pitched a few light +caskets and cases in after the young beauty, and then, with a quiet word +or two into Pedillo's sharp ear, the boat shoved off. I suppose it may +have been half an hour before my boat returned, and then I learned from +the coxswain that he had shown his charge down into my private cabin, +and she appeared as comfortable and resigned as possible. Well, we made +quick work of it now, tumbled a good many things into the boat, when I +myself got in to receive the old lady and her retinue. By the way, among +the articles were the boxes of wine--this is some of it"--tapping the +decanter, now nearly empty from the attacks of the priest--"and in my +opinion it does great credit to the taste and judgment of that venerable +archbishop." + +"_Ave, purissima!_" said the padre, with a hiccough; "I shall be a +bishop myself one of these days. _Ora pro nobis!_" + +"You'll be a cardinal," gibed in the doctor, "if swilling wine will do +it." + +Captain Brand went on with his narrative: + +"Where was I? Oh! ah! We were waiting alongside the ship, with her lower +chain-plates not a foot above water, for the donna to be hoisted over +the rail, since she would not permit any of her attendants to precede +her--though Heaven knows they were anxious enough to do so. By this +time, too, after my men had left the deck of the ship, the crew had +somehow got hold of a barrel of wine, and, letting the pumps work +themselves, were guzzling away in grand style. I began to lose patience +at last, and shouted to the old lady to come at once, or I should be +compelled to leave her. She merely leaned over the rail, however, and +chattered forth that all she had in the world was at my service--of +course, figuratively she meant--but she must stay another minute to find +a jar of preserved ginger, which was her only cure for the cholic." + +"You didn't take the offer of the old lady as a figure of speech, I +presume?" asked the doctor. + +"No!" muttered the one-eyed old wretch, with a sneer. "And that jar of +ginger spared her any more attacks of cholic!" + +"_Caballeros_, you are both right. I did accept the gift of her worldly +goods in the frank spirit in which it was offered, without any +reservation; and, to my almost certain knowledge, the Senora Lavarona +was never more troubled with illness of any kind. + +"The fact was, that, finding the ship fast sinking, and her crew +becoming boisterous and rebellious as the imminent danger burst upon +them, they proposed, since their own boats were stove, to take +possession of mine! That _was_ a joke, to be sure! A dozen drunken +swabs, with naked hands, to capture ten of the old 'Centipede's' picked +men, with a pistol and knife each under their shirts; and"--here the +speaker laughed heartily--"and Captain Brand beside them! _Diavolo!_ +what silly people there are in this world!" + +The good padre joined his superior in this ebullition of feeling, and +seemed to enjoy the joke immensely, rolling his goggle eyes and head +from side to side, kissing his crucifix, and exclaiming, with devotion, + +"_Que hombre es eso!_"--"What a man he is!" + +[Illustration: THE PIRATE'S PREY.] + +"Well, _senores_, the next minute we let go the painter and floated +astern past the ship's counter, and a few strokes of the oar-blades sent +us dancing away to leeward, where the schooner was lying with her +main-sail up, and the jib-sheet hauled well to windward. We made no +unnecessary noise in getting alongside, and it took no great time to get +the boat clear, a tackle hooked on, and to swing her on board over the +long gun. Then we drew aft the sheets, set the fore-sail, and the +'Centipede' was once more reeling off the knots on her course." + +"But the ship, my son?" + +"Why, my padre, I was so busy attending to the schooner, and afterward +going below to break the sad news to my lovely dark-eyed passenger of +the loss of her mother, that I had no time to devote to the ship. +Pedillo, however, told me that he heard a good deal of frantic +shrieking, and prayers, and cursing, with, for a little while, the +renewed clank of the chain-pumps, but after that we had got too far to +windward to hear more. About midnight, though, Pedillo and some of the +watch thought they saw a white shower of foam like a breaking wave, and +a great commotion in the water, but that was all. So, you see, what +really became of that old craft we do not positively know; though for a +long time afterward I read the marine lists very attentively, yet I +never saw any accounts of her arrival at her destination. + +"Perhaps," added Captain Brand, with a peculiar smile, as he lit a fresh +cigar, "her arrival may have escaped my notice, as I hope it may, though +I think not." + +Don Ignacio intimated, by waving his fore finger to and fro, that such a +hope had no possible foundation in fact; and he stated, too, that he +knew the underwriters had paid the full insurance on the missing ship. + +"Ah! well, that seems to settle the matter, truly," murmured the +captain, as if he had long entertained painful doubts on the subject, +and now his mind was finally relieved. + +"But, _hico mio_! Son of mine! _La Senorita_--hiccough--with the +almond-shaped eyes--_Santissima!_--hic--how did she bear the--death of +her--hic--mother?" + +"_Por Dios, padre!_ there was a scene which would have drawn tears from +a--" + +"Pirate," suggested the doctor. + +The padre blubbered outright, and his round, tipsy eyes nearly popped +out of his head. + +"Ay, _monsieur_, even from mine! But to go back a little. When I had got +all snug on board the schooner, I went below, and moved softly on tiptoe +along the passage to the door of my beautiful cabin. + +"You remember, _amigo_," said the narrator, turning toward Don Ignacio, +"how that cabin was fitted, and how much it cost to do it. I think you +paid the bill for me? No?" + +Oh yes, Captain Brand was quite right. Don Ignacio remembered it well, +and the bill was a thousand gold ounces, sixteen thousand hard silver +dollars; and by no means dear at that, for the Don never allowed any +body to cheat _him_. + +"Cheats himself, though, sometimes. Don't charge more than the usual +commission." + +The one-eyed usurer looked wicked at this remark, but he said nothing, +being occupied at the moment rolling up a paper cigar with one hand, and +wetting the brown fore finger of the other. + +"Well, _caballeros_, I peeped through the lattice-work of the cabin +door, and there reclined my pretty prize--I recall her as if it were +yesterday--on one of the large blue satin damask lounges of the after +transoms. Her head rested on one of her round ivory arms, half hidden in +the luxurious pillows; her shawl, too, was thrown back; and with a +somewhat disordered dress, and a mass of glossy hair clustering in +ringlets about her neck and white shoulders, I thought then, as I do +now, that she was a paragon of loveliness. I saw her, as she thus +reclined, by the light of a large shaded crystal lamp, which hung by +silver chains from the cabin beams, and shed a rose-tinted effulgence +over the whole apartment. When I first approached the door the girl was +looking out of her own large liquid lamps, so superbly framed in a heavy +fringe of dark lashes, in evident curiosity around the elegant cabin. +Her looks wandered from the Turkey carpet on the floor to the beautiful +silk hangings, that exquisite set of inlaid pearl ebony furniture, the +display of knickknacks, and Dresden porcelain panels of the sides, and, +in fact, nothing seemed to escape her; and the good taste of the +fittings evidently met her approbation. At times, too, she would turn +her gaze out of the narrow little window of the stern, and peer +anxiously over the vessel's wake, which by this time was skimming along +like a wild duck, and leaving countless bubbles behind her. At the first +sound I made, however, in opening the door, she started up and stepped +forward to meet me. + +"'Oh, _Senor Capitano_, _mi madre_! (My mother!) What detains her? We +seem to be going very fast through the water!' + +"I gently took the girl's outstretched hands and led her back to the +cushioned transom. Then I told her, as kindly as I could, that I did +all in my power to save her good mother, but that the crew had +mutinied--they had taken possession of the unfortunate ship--great +confusion existed--and as I feared, you know, that my own boat would be +swamped by remaining longer alongside, I was compelled to leave her to +her fate. + +"'But my mother, _senor_!' exclaimed the girl, with anguish; 'she was +saved?' + +"'No, _senorita_,' I said, 'she went down with the ship; but the last +words she uttered--that is to me--were to invoke a blessing on my head, +and to consign all she possessed to my care.' The poor thing swooned +away as I uttered these words, and it was a long time before she came to +again. When she did, however, regain consciousness, tears came to her +relief, and I did all I could to soothe her distress by telling her +that, if the wind came fair, she would in the course of a few days be +restored to her father." + +"But the wind didn't come fair, eh?" broke in Don Ignacio, "and she +didn't see--" + +"No, _amigo_, the wind held steady from the opposite quarter, and I +thought it better not to beat up with a fished fore-mast, and all +that--and a--she did _not_ see her father." + +Captain Brand here wet his thin lips with a few sips of wine, said, +"Babette, bring coffee!" and resumed his story. + +"When the girl became a little more calm I induced her to retire to my +stateroom, where I left her to sob herself to sleep. Don't spill that +coffee, Babette, and put the liqueurs on the table. There, that will do, +old lady. + +"Well, _senores_, the next morning my pretty prize was too ill to leave +her room; but, as I handed her a cup of chocolate through the door +curtains, she thanked me with much gratitude for what I had done, and +knew that her dear father, the judge, would bless me." + +"So he will," snarled the one-eyed old rascal, "if he ever catches you, +when he draws the black cap over your head." + +"Possibly he may, though perhaps it will be some considerable time +before he has that pleasure." + +"Ah! _cuidado hico mio!_ Take care of yourself, my son," hiccoughed the +priest as he crossed himself. The captain gave a light laugh, sipped his +coffee, and went on as if a dungeon, scaffold, and noose were the last +things he ever thought of. + +"I amused myself during the day in looking over the trunks, caskets, and +what not we had saved from the sinking trader--presented to me, as you +know, by the old lady who was on board. There were, of course, a great +quantity of ladies' dresses, and a good many jewels and trinkets; among +the latter this fine snuff-box here, which our friend Don Ignacio so +much admires, and which I set aside as an especial testimonial of the +old lady's regard. Try another pinch, _amigo_? No? _Bueno!_ I caused +what I believed to be the daughter's elegant raiment to be placed in the +after cabin. For three days I never even saw my pretty passenger, though +I heard her low, sweet voice occasionally when I laid out something for +her to eat in the adjoining cabin. She sang, too, some little sad songs +with a voice which vibrated upon my ear like the notes of an Aeolian harp +sighing in the night wind. _Dios!_ how I regretted then and afterward +that I did not have a cabinet piano!" + +"Presented to you," suggested the doctor. + +"Yes, presented to me, so that she might have touched the keys with +those ivory and rose-tipped fingers. + +"So the time passed, the schooner flying on under whole sails, the wind +about two points free, and the weather as fine as silk. It was the +fourth evening, I think, after parting with the Oporto trader that I +induced my fair passenger to come on deck and take a little breath of +sea-air. You will observe, _caballeros_, that I did not make this +suggestion in the daytime, because the 'Centipede's' crew, you know, +were rather numerous, and some of them not so handsome in point of +personal looks as ladies at all times care to behold. Besides, there +were certain things about the decks--racks of cutlasses, lockers of +musketry along the rail, and a long brass twelve-pounder, which is not +altogether hidden by the boat, you know, and might have given rise to a +little curiosity, or maybe suspicion, even in the mind of a girl, as to +our character, pursuits, and so forth, which I should have been puzzled +to answer. Therefore I chose a clear starlight night to pay my homage, +and accordingly I went below about four bells of the first watch to +escort the little lady to the deck. She was dressed, and waiting for me +in the cabin; and if I was so struck with her beauty when I first saw +her, my heart thumped now against my ribs like a volley of musket-balls +against an oak plank. She wore a black silk robe, such as Spanish women +wear at early mass, and around the back part of her head--where the hair +was gathered in a glossy knot, and secured by a gold bodkin--fell the +heavy folds of a black lace mantilla, the lower end fastened sash +fashion around her lithe waist. She stepped, too, like a queen on a pair +of slim, long, delicate feet, with arched ball and instep, as if she +were in command of the schooner. + +"By my right arm!" exclaimed Captain Brand, shaking that member aloft in +a glorious fit of enthusiasm, "I am quite sure she had conquered me, and +that was more than half the battle! + +"Well, I led her to the quarter-deck, where some cushions and flags had +been placed for her near the weather taffrail, and where she sat down. +The schooner was at the time under the two gaff-top-sails, the main boom +and sheets eased off a little, those long masts, with the sticks above +them running clear away up the sky, almost out of sight, bending like +whalebone, and reeling over the long swell when the breeze freshened; +and not a sound to be heard save now and then a light creak from the +main boom as the broad white sail strained flat and taut over to +leeward, or the rush of the water as it came hissing along from her +sharp, clean bows, with a noise like a breeze through the leaves of a +forest, away off over the counter into luminous sparkles as it swished +out into our wake. The 'Centipede' was indeed doing her best, and you +all know what that is, when we have been chased many and many a time by +some of the fastest cruisers going. + +"You remember, Don Ignacio, how the 'Juno' frigate nearly ran us under, +and yet never gained a fathom on us in nine hours?" + +"Ay, _amigo_; but, had she not carried away her fore-top-mast, in +another hour there would have been nothing left of you afloat but +a--hencoop perhaps." + +"_Quien sabe, compadre?_ If hads had been shads you would have had fish +for your breakfast," rejoined the narrator; and then throwing back +the lappels of his green velvet coat with an air of gentlemanly +satisfaction, he hooked his thumbs in the arm-holes of his fine +waistcoat, and went on. + +"Well, _senores_, the graceful girl beside me never spoke scarcely for +half an hour. I divined, however, what her thoughts might have been in +dwelling on the painful scenes she had recently witnessed, and I held my +peace also; for, you see, I have had considerable experience with women, +and I have ever found that a man loses more by talking than by remaining +watchful and attentive." + +Captain Brand looked, as he gave utterance to this philosophical +sentiment, as if he were a thirsty, cold-eyed tiger, lying in wait to +spring upon an unwary passer-by. + +"Yes, I waited, until at last she spoke. + +"'_Capitano_,' she said, 'what a beautiful vessel you command, and how +fast she sails!' + +"What I replied, my friends, is neither here nor there; but I sank down +on the cushions beside the lovely girl, and poured out a torrent of +passionate words--which I really felt, too, at the time--as I don't +think I ever uttered before or since. She was a little startled and +nervous at first, but after a while I saw her stately head droop to one +side till it rested on my shoulder; I stole my arm around her yielding +waist and clasped her to my breast." + +Here Captain Brand looked as if the tiger had already sprung upon the +passer-by, and was sucking the blood, with his claws buried deep into +the carcass. + +"'_Senor_,' she murmured, in the low, sweet, plaintive note of a +nightingale, 'I am a young and inexperienced girl, of an old and noble +family; you have saved my life; my mother is gone, and I have no one to +advise with, and, if my dear father smiles upon my choice, I will marry +you; but do not, I implore you, deceive me!'" + +"And you did not deceive her, I hope?" broke in the doctor, with a +shiver of light from his determined eyes that was almost painful to see, +so earnest and terrible it was, as he leaned forward with both of his +clenched hands quivering nervously on the table. + +Captain Brand looked at the doctor with rather a suspicious stare, and +letting his thumbs drop from his armpits till they rested on the flaps +of his waistcoat pockets, he replied, in a careless tone, + +"Oh no, _monsieur_, I never deceived--a--that is to say, intentionally +deceived a woman in all my life!" + +"Let us hear more, my son," said the priest, thickly, who had now woke +up from a short nap. + +"_Bueno, caballeros!_" continued the narrator, as he tossed off a +thimbleful of maraschino from a wicker-bound square bottle after his +coffee. "Well, gentlemen, the young Portuguese damsel, Senorita +Lucia, and I sat there under the weather rail till the first faint +streaks of early dawn in the tropics began to announce the coming of +the gray morning. Then she arose, and, leaning with a soft pressure on +my arm, I took her to her cabin, kissed her sweet hands, and bade her +good-night." + +At this stage of the narrative Captain Brand threw himself triumphantly +back in his large Manilla chair, and ran his white muscular hands +through his dry light hair. Ay! the tiger had clutched his prey. An +unprotected, young, and lovely girl had been won and lost, and her +palpitating heart was soon to be torn from her tender body. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +NUPTIALS OF THE GIRL WITH DARK EYES. + + "With a pint and a quarter of holy water + He made the sacred sign, + And he dashed the whole on the only daughter + Of old Plantagenet's line!" + + "But the count he felt the nervous work + No more than any polygamous Turk, + Or bold piratical skipper, + Who, during his buccaneering search, + Would as soon engage a 'hand' at church + As a hand on board his clipper." + + +The captain got up from his chair, stepped to the settee, and, pulling +the signal-cord on the wall, held a short dialogue with the man at the +station; then, saying in a low, sharp whisper through the tube, "A +bright look-out, Pedro!" he resumed his place at the table. The doctor +had, in the mean while, got up and gone to the veranda, where, swinging +in a Yucatan grass hammock, shielded from the night wind, lay his little +patient sleeping soundly. Carefully closing the curtains again around +him, he returned to his place. The padre was now all awake again, with +his thick lips open, waiting for the captain to go on with his story. As +for Don Ignacio, he never stirred body or limb, but his eye traveled +about perpetually, and he observed the movements of his companions all +at the same time. Still the hoarse roar of the pirates in their carouse +arose from the covered sheds in the calm night, and the two solitary +lights from each mast-head of the felucca and schooner twinkled above +the basin of the inlet. + +"And now, _amigos_," began again Captain Brand, after he had assured +himself that all was going on as he could wish without, "I shall inform +you of the sequel of my adventure with the Senorita Lucia. The evening +after the night on which I had declared my passion, we were seated at +dinner in the after cabin. Such a choice little dinner, too, as only our +late friend, Lascar Joe, could prepare! Poor fellow, he'll never make +another of those famous curries, though, no doubt, he'll find fire and +pepper enough where he is, if the devil chooses to employ him. What a +neat hand he was, too, with that spiral-bladed Malay creese of his! Ah! +well--we were sitting over the dessert, and I was relating to my pretty +passenger some account of my early days, and of my lady mother and my +old squire of a father, omitting, perhaps, some few uninteresting +details--" + +Here the old commander of the felucca cackled, and his black, beady eye +glittered as the thought flashed through his head as to what details his +villainous compeer had omitted. How he forged his old father's name, +which brought down his gray hairs in sorrow and disgrace to the grave; +and how his poor mother, too, died of grief, together with other bitter +memories, all of which Captain Brand, the pirate, omitted to mention. + +"Yes, I related likewise some of my early privateering adventures, when +all the broad Atlantic was alive with the fleets of France, England, and +Spain; how I was captured by a Spanish brigantine"--omitting again to +state that he got up a mutiny with the crew of that brigantine, +poniarded the captain and mate in their sleep, and, assuming command of +the vessel, changed her colors for a black flag, and began his career as +a pirate in the Caribbean Sea--"and how I escaped. To all this she +listened with great interest, her large eyes dilating, and her bosom +swelling with sympathy as I proceeded, when suddenly the cabin door +opened, and my ugly friend Pedillo put his head in, and gave me a +warning nod. + +"'What is it?' I said, rather sharply, to Pedillo; 'and how dare you +intrude inside my cabin?' I fear, too, that I came very near doing a +mischief to my boatswain; for I am rather impulsive at times, and by the +merest accident I happened to have a small pistol in my pocket." + +Don Ignacio twitched his sleeve, and looked as if he believed such +accidents as pistols being found in the narrator's pockets happened +quite often. + +"'_Senor_,' said Pedillo, 'there are two sail standing out from the lee +of Culebra Island, and one of them appears to be a large--' + +"I stopped any farther particulars from the lips of my subordinate by a +motion of my finger, and then, kissing the hands of the girl, who was +somewhat surprised at what had transpired, I left the cabin and jumped +on deck. + +"The schooner was now running down through the Virgin's Passage between +St. Thomas and Porto Rico, with a fine breeze on the quarter, and the +sun was just sinking behind the last-named island. I snatched a +spy-glass from the rail, and looked ahead. There, sure enough, was a +sixteen-gun brig on the starboard tack heading across our track, and a +large frigate under single-reefed top-sails stretching away over to the +opposite shores of Culebra, while they were telegraphing bunting one +with another as fast as the bright-colored flags could talk. And, as +luck would have it, as I swept the glass round, what should I see but a +long rakish corvette in company with a huge whale of a line-of-battle +ship, with her double tier of ports glimmering away in the slanting rays +of the sun, both on the wind, and coming out from under the lee of +Culebra Point, just a mile or two astern of us. By the blood of +Barabbas, _caballeros_, we were in a trap for wolves, and the hounds +were in full cry! I immediately, however, luffed the schooner up, and +steered boldly for the frigate; and, as a puff of smoke spouted out from +the lee bow of the admiral to windward, and before the boom of the gun's +report reached us, I hoisted American colors. Seeing this, the brig hove +in stays, and, perhaps being ordered to board me, came staggering along +on the other tack across our forefoot, while the frigate went round too, +and held her wind toward her consorts to windward. Now this was just the +disposition which I wanted of the vessels, and it could not have been +done better for my plans had I been the admiral of the squadron. In less +than a quarter of an hour, the brig--and no great things she was, with a +contemptible battery, as I could see, of short carronades--hove aback a +little on the bow of the schooner, and gave us a warning of a +twenty-four pound shot across our forefoot, to heave to also, at the +same time hoisting the English ensign. + +"So ho!" ejaculated Captain Brand, as he twisted the point of his nose, +accompanied by a malevolent scowl, "_senores_, I at once hauled flat aft +the fore-sail, dropped the main peak, and put the helm up, as if to +round to under the brig's stern; whereupon my man-of-war friend dropped +a cutter into the water, and she had just shoved off in readiness to +board me, when, before you could light a paper cigar, I ran up the main +peak, got a pull of the sheets, and the 'Centipede' was off again like a +shark with his fin above water, heading for the narrow passage between +Culebra and Crab Islands. It was at least five minutes before that +stupid brig could believe his eyes, and ten more before he got hold of +the boat again, when she filled away and began to pop gun after gun at +me as fast as he could bring his battery to bear! There was only one +shot that skipped on board us, and that only smashed both legs of a +negro, and then hopped off through the fore-sail to windward. + +"Had I not had a good dinner that day and pleasant society on +board"--how peculiarly the speaker smiled--"I should perhaps have taught +that brig such a lesson that he would not have cared to report it to his +admiral. But as I knew I had the heels of him, and as the rest of the +squadron were now crowding all sail and keeping off in chase of me, I +ordered Pedillo, just by way of touching my hat and saying '_Adios_,' to +clear away the long gun and return the brig's salute. The shot struck +him just forward the night-heads by the bowsprit, and by the way the +splinters flew and his jib and head-sails came down, I knew I had +crippled him for an hour at least. At the same time, to prevent any +mistakes as to our quality, and to satisfy the admiral's curiosity, we +hauled down the Yankee colors and set our swallow-tailed flag!" + +"Rather dark bunting! no?" edged in Don Ignacio. + +"Ay, _amigo_! as black as that eye of thine, though not half so +murderous," retorted the pirate as he continued his narrative. + +"_Bueno_, there came the whole of the squadron down after us, spitting +out from their bridle ports mouthfuls of cold iron, which all went to +the bottom of the Virgin's Passage, for not one came within a mile of +the schooner; and then I led them such a dance through that intricate +cluster of reefs and islets, that soon after dark they gave up the game, +and I said '_Buenos noches_' to them all!" + +Here Captain Brand paused, made a careful selection of a beautifully +turned trabuco cigar from the box, shouted to Babette to produce some +old Santa Cruz rum, sugar, lemons, and hot water--screeching hot, he +said--at which the padre crossed himself; and then throwing his fine +legs, incased in the lustrous silk stockings, on a chair beside him, and +while his eyes gazed fondly on the brilliants sparkling in the buckles +of his shoes, he resumed his tale. + +"When I went below again, after every thing had become quiet on deck, I +found my stag-eyed sweetheart waiting to receive me! How superbly she +looked as she made a movement from the cushions where she had been +reclining, and exclaimed, + +"'Oh, _senor_, what has happened, and what was the cause of all that +noise of guns, and those cries of agony I heard above?' + +"'_Querida Lucia_, dearest,' I replied, 'we have been where there +are--a--pirates, but fortunately have escaped, and the cries you heard +were from one of my poor crew who got slightly wounded by a shot!' + +"'Ah, _malditos piratos_! cursed pirates!' exclaimed the charming +beauty, as she put both her hands in mine, 'and how thankful am I that +you are not hurt! But, _querido mio_! dear one!' she went on, 'when +shall we get to Porto Rico and _our_ dear father? We must be near, for I +heard one of your sailors shout to you the name of the island!' + +"In reply, I told her that we had been near Porto Rico, but +that--a--circumstances were such, on account of the dangerous pirates +who infested those seas, that I felt obliged, for her safety--you +understand--to run along by way of Hispaniola--she not having a very +clear idea of the position and geography of those parts--and that our +cruise might probably be prolonged for a few days more." + +"And into h----, perhaps," said the doctor, with a hollow voice and a +calm cold eye. + +"Oh no, my friends, certainly nothing so bad as that. Possibly to +heaven! but, _quien sabe_? no one can tell! + +"However," pursued the captain, "I soon succeeded in allaying her +apprehensions, and then I threw myself at her feet, and implored her to +risk her father's displeasure and to marry me at once; that she knew her +father was cold, stern, and obdurate, and should he frown upon my suit I +should die of despair!" + +"_Cierto!_" murmured Ignacio, with the grin of a skeleton. + +"I used these passionate appeals and many more, until at last the fond +girl yielded her consent to my entreaties. + +"'But the priest, _querido mio_!' she exclaimed, as she rose and +disengaged herself from my arms. I told her that I chanced to have one +on board as a passenger, who would perform the ceremony. + +"And so I had," added Captain Brand, "or at least a very near approach +to one, for my ugly boatswain, Pedillo, had been bred up--as an +acolyte--you comprehend--in the house of a rich old prelate of San Paulo +Cathedral in Trinidad, to whom Pedillo, one fine morning, gave about +eight inches of his cuchillo!" + +"_Jesus Maria!_" exclaimed Padre Ricardo, starting back with horror, and +telling his beads. + +"Ay, _mi padre_! Pedillo assassinated the holy father, and plundered his +cash-box besides; and so you see Pedillo was just the man I wanted." + +Don Ignacio nodded his wicked old head through a cloud of cigar smoke as +a sign of approval. + +"Accordingly, _senores_, the next day I made the trusty Pedillo cut off +all the bushy beard about his ugly face, and had the crown of his head +shaved besides--quite like that round, oily spot there on the top of +good Ricardo's poll--and then he rigged himself out in a clerical gown, +to which the trunks of my bride's old mother contributed, and, take my +word for it, he was as proper and rascally a looking priest as could be +found on the island of Cuba. He performed the ceremony, too, by way of +practice, on Lascar Joe and the second cook beforehand, with as much +decorum and solemnity, and gave as pious a benediction, as his old +Trinidad uncle, the prelate, ever did. Well, that evening we were +married." + +"How many times has the _capitano_ been married?" grunted out Don +Ignacio. + +"Why, let me reflect," as he threw his cold, icy look at the frame of +miniatures on the opposite wall. "You mean, _compadre_, how often the +ceremony has been performed. Ah! I think on eleven occasions. No, it was +only ten. Madame Mathilde had two husbands living when I made love to +her, and declined to take a third. But then, you know, I have an +affectionate disposition, and I can not set my heart against the +fascinations of the sex." + +He gave vent to these moral sentiments as if he really meant them to be +believed and generally adopted by his audience. + +"Well, that same evening I was married to the beautiful Senorita Lucia +Lavarona, though I am sorry to say that Pedillo did not perform his part +of the business as well as I had expected of him, from his practice in +the morning. He stammered a good deal, and when he raised the crucifix +to the lips of the young girl, her innocent looks and maidenly majesty +of deportment so struck my coadjutor with confusion that he let the +crucifix fall to the deck at her dainty feet. This little incident +caused me some displeasure; but, reflecting that the poet tells us + + 'A tiger, 'tis said, will turn and flee + From a maid in the pride of her purity,' + +I said nothing to the abashed Pedillo as I gave him back the emblem; but +I favored him with a look, with my right hand in my pocket--this +fashion." + +Here the cold-blooded scoundrel dipped his thumb and fore finger into +the flap of his waistcoat, while the commander of the "Guarda Costa" +waved his brown digit before him, as if he knew what was there all the +time. + +"Ah! that restored my new-made priest to his senses, and he then got +through the ceremony entirely to my satisfaction. + +"However," said Captain Brand, turning with lazy indifference toward +Padre Ricardo, "ever after this I resolved not to take the risk of such +another chance of failure, and this is the reason why I first sought +your services." + +"_Gracias a Dios!_ Thanks be to heaven, my son, that you found me!" said +the sacrilegious wretch, as he bowed to his superior and sipped a glass +of rum punch. "_Vamonos!_ let us hear more." + +"At the conclusion of our nuptials, while I held my sweet Lucia to my +heart, and kissed her pale brow, and while tears of crystal drops, half +in rapture and half in sorrow, dimmed her large, sparkling black eyes, +she withdrew this royal sapphire from her slender finger, and gently +placing the gem on mine--where you see it, _amigos_--she said, + +"'My dear and only love, this is the talisman of my race. It has been +for ages in my family, and it has been the guardian of our hope and +honor. Receive it, friend of my heart, and be the protector of the young +girl who yielded up to you her very soul!'" + +The doctor started as if he had been stung by a scorpion; but Captain +Brand, heedless or inattentive to the movement, went on: + +"Yes, _caballeros_, those were her very words; murmured, too, in her low +contralto tones with a pure, lisping Castilian accent, as she laid her +stately head on my shoulder. + +"Ay, those were rapturous moments; and it was in some degree--yes, I may +say in truth--entirely her own fault that they did not last. + +"Well, for some days--eight or ten, perhaps--with light baffling winds, +we crept stealthily along the south side of St. Domingo; but the weather +was delightful, and the time passed on the wings of a zephyr. In the +warm, soft evenings, with the moon or stars shedding their pearly gleams +over the sea, she sat beside me on the deck of the schooner, watching +with girlish interest the white sails above her head, or singing to me +the sweet little sequidillas of her native land. And again, starting up +from my arms, she would peep over the counter, trace the foam as it +flashed and bubbled in our wake, or point to the track of a dolphin as +he leaped above the luminous waves and went like a bullet to windward. + +"I flatter myself, _caballeros_, that there have been periods in my +career on the high seas, or on land, and may be again, for aught I +know," continued the elegant pirate, as he crossed his legs and threw +back the lappels of his velvet coat, so as to expose the magnificence of +his waistcoat, and the frills on his broad, muscular chest, "when men of +high birth and breeding, and lovely women too of noble lineage, have not +thought it beneath them to dine with or to receive the homage +of--a--Captain Brand. + +"And, _por Dios_!"--the narrator did not consider it unbecoming his +cloth and profession to swear in a foreign language--"_por Dios!_ +_senores_, I have known the time, too, when I have played whist with a +French prince of the blood and two knights of the Golden Fleece." + +"And you fleeced them? No?" muttered Don Ignacio, with an envious +glimmer from his greedy eye, as if no one had a right to rob the +community but himself. + +"And not only that," continued the captain, rapidly, "but the daughter +of an English peer of the realm once proposed to run away with me. Ho! +ho! yes, she actually proposed to elope with me; but as she was verging +on fifty years, and only weighed fifty pounds, with never a pound in her +pocket, I sighed my regrets. Ay, great compliment it was, but I declined +the honor. You yourself, _compadre_, must remember how I was received by +the people on the Buena Vista villa at Principe; how the obispo blessed +me, the old general embraced me, and the beautiful marquesa, with the +hour-glass waist, smiled on me." + +"_Cierto!_" That astute old Spaniard never forgot any thing, particularly +a debt due to him; and he remembered, moreover, to have heard that when +the noble _Mi Lord Inglez_ left the villa one dark night, a good deal of +plate, jewels, doubloons, and other valuable property disappeared with +him. Ay, the sly old fellow had a faint recollection as well of seeing +a heavily-armed schooner running the gauntlet through the forts before +daylight, and that she left a certain bag of gold ounces for him--Don +Ignacio Sanchez--somewhere in a secret hole beneath a well-known rock +inside the harbor. Oh, a wonderful memory for matters of this nature +had our rapacious one-eyed acquaintance! + +"Yes," went on his partner in many a scene of pillage and crime, "I have +every reason to know that I won the hearts, and purses too, sometimes, +of some of the fine people I met in refined society. But yet there have +been occasions when the game has gone against me--" + +Don Ignacio's tenacious memory came again into play, and he looked back +to the time when he himself had cleaned his profuse friend out of all +his gains at the card-table, even to the buttons off his coat; but he +gave no sign of remembrance of those days, and only blew a dense cloud +of smoke from his thin yellow nostrils as the captain spoke. + +"--Though those occasions have not been of frequent recurrence." + +The good Padre Ricardo at this juncture hoped that, by Saint Barnabas, +luck might, in all time to come, befriend his son and patron; croaking, +too, with a goblet of punch to his unctuous lips, "_Vamonos!_ Tell us +more of the adorable Dona Lucia!" + +Captain Brand rapped his snuff-box, opened the diamond-crusted lid, took +a dainty pinch, laid his cambric handkerchief over his kerseymere +breeches, and resumed his narrative. + +"So passed the days, _caballeros_; and when, one morning, the high +mountains back of Port Guantamano were reported to me, I felt a +presentiment that my dream of bliss was drawing to a close. Indeed, I +might probably have remained at sea a week or two longer, but the men +were getting a little impatient, and I thought it better to sacrifice my +own pleasure to theirs. That day we caught a cracking breeze out of the +Windward Passage, and toward midnight we came up with this little sandy +island here. + +"The preparations for going into port excited the curiosity of my bride; +for, poor thing! she believed we were bound into Porto Rico, and I had +some trouble in inducing her to go below before we crossed the reef. +_Bueno!_ the coast was clear, the signals were all right, and an hour +later the schooner had her anchor down and sails furled pretty much in +the spot where she now lies moored. + +"While, however, we were sweeping up the inlet, I sent a boat ahead, +with directions for my tidy old housekeeper, Babette, to have every +thing prepared to receive her new mistress. Just then one of those +terrible thunder-storms came up; heavy masses of clouds obscured the +sky, followed by such double-barrel shocks and intensely vivid lightning +as is only beheld in the tropics preceding the equinox. The rain, too, +came along in horizontal sheets, driven by a squall which burst in fury +over the island, and it seemed to me that all the devils from hell were +howling and shrieking in the air. + +"Shielded from the storm by a large boat-cloak, I carried my beautiful +bride, with her face nestling on my breast, to the cove, and then I bore +her into this fine saloon. + +"I shall never forget the sweet words she whispered, and the loving +caresses she gave me on that little journey, even while the tempest +almost dashed me to the ground, and the sharp flashes of lightning +nearly blinded me. They were the last she ever lavished upon me." + +No sigh escaped the lips of this cold-blooded monster as he uttered +these words; no sign of feeling for the ruin of a gentle girl whom he +had betrayed to his piratical den of infamy and crime--whose dream of +life was destroyed like a crushed rose-leaf, and all her hope gone from +that moment. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +DOOM OF DONA LUCIA. + + "I went into the storm, + And mocked the billows of the tossing sea; + I said to Fate, What wilt thou do to me? + I have not harmed a worm! + + "Thy dim eyes tell a tale-- + A piteous tale of vigils; and the trace + Of bitter tears is on thy beauteous face; + Beauteous, and yet so pale!" + + +"Thus it ever is, _caballeros_, and ever will be," went on Captain +Brand, in rather a reflecting strain. "There is a point to begin +and stop, and an end to joy as well as grief. We should, however, +take the world as it comes and as it goes. I do, and so do you, +_compadre_!"--pitching a cigar spear fashion at Don Ignacio to +attract his attention--"and, therefore, we should never look too +far ahead, and live only for the present. + +"Indulging then in this train of thought, as I set down my lovely burden +here, and the cloak fell from her shoulders, I was prepared for any +thing which might happen. I wore a slightly different costume at the +time than that she had been accustomed to see me in, as I always do when +I think there might be a chance of a surprise or trap laid for us in +entering the inlet. So, instead of fine linen and velvet, I had on a red +flannel shirt, canvas trowsers, with a cutlass slung to my side, and a +pair of pistols in my belt. I don't think I appear handsome in that rig, +but the fellows at my back somehow think it is becoming to me, +especially when we are engaged in a hand-to-hand fight! What say you, +_compadre_?" + +The Don said nothing, and merely waved his fore finger, as if dress was +not a matter to which he devoted much attention. He thought, however, +that sleeves should be cut loose for knives when the pockets were not +too small for pistols; but he uttered no word. + +"_Bueno!_ There I stood"--pointing to the corner of the room as he +spoke--"drenched with rain, and there stood my tall and lovely wife! + +"The saloon was brilliantly lighted; a profusion of plants and flowers +were clustered here, there, and every where, on cabinets and tables, in +striking contrast to the display exhibited yonder in that armory, where +pikes, muskets, and knives were gleaming through the open door. + +"Quick as the lightning which was piercing deep into the inmost crevices +of the rocks and lighting up the crag without, Lucia's dark eyes flashed +around the apartment from floor to ceiling, from flower to blade, +resting an instant on the frame of miniatures there--hers was not among +the collection _then_; it is the one in the middle, doctor--" + +There were no knives on the table, or else, from the deadly look the +doctor gave, he might have perhaps sprinkled the narrator's heart's +blood on the floor. + +"--Until at last her gaze of terror rested on _me_! No one, I fancy, can +tell the power of Spanish girls, who has never seen them when the whole +passion of their souls, either in love or hate, comes pouring in a black +blaze of jet from their gleaming eyes. + +"Advancing a step toward me, with her white hands clasped together, she +said, in a hurried, beseeching voice--and low as was the sound, I heard +it distinctly during the crashing thunder which shook the rocks of the +crag to their foundations-- + +"'_Senor!_ where am I? My father! Who--who--in the name of the Blessed +Virgin, art _thou_?' + +"Again giving a look of the utmost horror around the room, she pressed +her hands to her eyes, and said, in the same low, distinct tone, + +"'Speak, _senor_! For the love of our holy Savior, speak!' + +"I felt that the girl had saved me, by her own instinctive perception, a +world of painful explanations, and I replied, + +"'Lucia! I divine that all farther concealments are useless; you are in +the haunt of the most noted pirate of these seas, and that man stands +before you.' + +"_Caballeros!_" continued Captain Brand, "had my pretty prize swooned +away, or fallen down in a fit, or gone into hysterics and torn her +hair out by the roots, I should not have been greatly surprised; but +she did none of those things. On the contrary, she became as calm as +marble--frightfully so, in fact--and pushing back the bands of her +magnificent tresses from her pale forehead, she raised her round +white arm aloft, with her slender fore finger quivering like the tongue +of a viper in mid air, and then poured forth such a torrent of +awfully impressive words that I quailed before her. + +"Yes, _senores_, I am no coward, take me when you will; but on this +occasion I must honestly admit that I stood powerless before the gaze +and gesture of that slight, delicately-formed woman. + +"'Pirate--wretch--monster! may the curses of hell be heaped upon thee! +Murderer--betrayer! may thy heart be burned, and thy soul blasted +forever!' + +"I need not pain you, _senores_, by reciting the cruel words that came +hissing through her closed teeth, nor yet farther describe the terrible +concentrated gaze of hate and fury which streamed from those gleaming +eyes. Suffice it to say, that though often afterward I was treated in +the same manner, yet, on the occasion alluded to, I cut short the +interview by summoning Babette to see her mistress to her chamber, and +then, glad to escape, I went out of the house and attended to the duties +which required my presence." + +The padre, with his flat lips half open, eagerly drinking in--with his +Santa Cruz punch--the words of his patron; the doctor, calm, unmoved +now, and thoughtful; the one-eyed old rascal, still puffing his +cigarettes and allowing no rest to his uneasy, suspicious optic, all sat +listening, with each an interest peculiarly his own, to the fate of Dona +Lucia. The narrator leisurely arose and held his hourly confab with the +man at the signal-station, and then returning to his place, proceeded +with his discourse: + +"I shall pass rapidly over, my friends, many little incidents of a +rather unpleasant nature which occurred here, in this my rocky retreat, +for some months after the interview which I have described. I tried +every argument and persuasion I was master of to bring my proud bride to +reason, but to all my entreaties she turned a cold and chilling stare of +obdurate hate. Day by day the intensity of her detestation grew stronger +and stronger, and seemed to have become a part of her nature. Yes; the +gentle, yielding girl I had won on board the 'Centipede' had now become +as stern and unbending as a rock, and my controlling power over her mind +and love was gone. I left her entirely to herself for some weeks, until +one day I thought her passion might have subsided, and once more, +attired in a rich and splendid suit, I came in here, as she sat like a +marble statue at table. She never looked up at my entrance, but her eyes +shone like stars as she mechanically went through the forms of the +dinner laid before her. + +"'Lucia!' I said, gayly. No answer by word or look. 'Lucia! _querida +mia!_' I repeated, and, sinking on one knee beside her, attempted to +take her hand. + +"By all the saints, _senores_, that came near--very near--being the last +time that I ever should kneel to a woman; for with a movement so sudden +that I had barely time to leap aside, she snatched a long pointed +carving-knife from the table and lunged full at my throat! The blade +just grazed my jugular artery, inflicting a slight wound. But she never +turned round to see the extent of her effort, and again sat calm and +rigid at the table. + +"This was my last visit save one. I had long before abandoned these +comfortable quarters entirely, and occupied the rooms you do, _mi +padre_, out there among the men. In fact, my stern young bride was in +entire command of the island; and even my good Babette here stood in +such awe of her that she always crossed herself when called to approach +her mistress. + +"Month by month matters went on in this way, until the rainy season had +gone, and I was preparing for another cruise in the schooner; but hour +by hour the consuming passion which flamed in the veins of Lucia was +doing its work. I sometimes beheld her standing out on the veranda, tall +and stately as ever; and when the moon was at the full, it threw its +light upon her wan and sunken cheeks, and thin, wasted frame. Ay, there +she stood, like an almost transparent statue of alabaster, with her dark +eyes shining with an unearthly light, turned in one long tearless gaze +upon the ledge and combing breakers to seaward. It was singular, too, +the effect she produced even upon the horde of these brave fellows of +mine, for no persuasion could induce a man of them to come within +pistol-shot of that part of the house while she was thus keeping her +nightly vigils. And as for Pedillo, he acquired such a superstitious +dread of the girl he had married, and lived in such a state of abject +terror, that I had serious thoughts of shooting him through the head to +avoid the contaminating influence he exercised over his comrades. + +"Well, _caballeros_, late one Saturday night, while the men were +carousing and drinking success to the coming cruise--we were to sail on +the following Monday--and while I was returning from my usual stroll to +the Tiger's Trap to see the battery in order and the look-outs wide +awake, I met Babette toddling along, nearly out of breath. + +"'What is it, old lady?' You know, _amigos_, that Babette never spoke a +word in her life, but she made signs to let me know that I was wanted at +the crag, and that there was no time to be lost. I quickened my pace, +and, preceded by Babette, I once more darkened my own threshold. The +curtains and hangings were all closely drawn in the saloon here, and it +was dark as a tomb; but there was a light burning yonder in the passage +leading to the chamber, and I made my way to the door. + +"I shall never forget what I saw, though I should like to, as it comes +to me sometimes in the night, or when I am left much alone by myself." + +The pirate passed his hands over his eyes as if he saw something while +he spoke, and then, letting his voice drop to an almost sepulchral +pitch, he went on hurriedly: + +"I stood at the door, _caballeros_, and looked in. On the bed, which was +drawn to the middle of the chamber to get the air through the narrow +loopholed windows, with the gauze curtains falling square on all sides, +lay Lucia. Her attenuated frame scarcely presented an uneven surface +beneath the snowy sheet which covered it. Her superb hair was spread in +great black masses on the pillow, and her pale marble face reposed +there like an ivory picture in an ebony setting. Her eyes were wide +open, large and luminous, and her thin delicate hands were clasped +around a silver and pearl crucifix, which rested on her hollow breast. A +single taper in a silver lamp threw a lurid, flickering ray about the +room, and beside it was Babette on her knees quivering with terror, +while from one of the loopholed windows a broad white band of moonlight +streamed directly across the pillow and face of the dying girl." + +Captain Brand's face assumed a deathly pallor, and, with his icy blue +eyes fixed on vacancy, and his voice sunk to a hoarse whisper, he went +on: + +"As I appeared in the portals of the door, Lucia slowly raised her fore +finger, and beckoned me to approach. I could no more have resisted the +summons than if a chain cable to a frigate's anchor had caught me in its +iron coils, and was dragging me to the bottom of the sea. I moved to the +foot of the bed. + +"'_Pirato!_' came from her slightly-parted lips, in her old low and +distinct tones. '_Pirato_, behold your cruel work! Destroyer of mother +and child--of soul and body--may the curses of a dying woman and her +unborn child haunt you by day and by night!' I was dumb, and my pulse +stopped beating. + +"'_Ave Maria purissima!_' were the last words that came in a sweet, pure +whisper from her parted lips; she clasped the crucifix tighter, and the +spirit departed. I tore aside the gauze net to lay my hand on her heart, +when, on my soul! her right hand slowly relaxed its death-grasp on the +crucifix, and, rising to a vertical line, with the fore finger pointing +upward, quivered in the light of the waning moon, like, as it was, a +supernatural warning! Yes, that finger--" + +[Illustration: "A SUPERNATURAL WARNING! YES, THAT FINGER--"] + +"Mamma! mamma!" came in a weak, plaintive voice from the piazza, while +the villain, with his hands before him as if to shut out a frightful +vision, and eyeballs starting from their sockets, was hoarsely +whispering to his horror-stricken audience the last warning of the dead +Lucia. + +As the low moaning cry in the stillness which reigned around the saloon +struck his ear, he sprang with a bound to his feet, and, quick as +thought, with a pistol in each hand, he shouted, "Who's there?" + +"It is the little sick boy, _senor_. Do him no harm at your peril!" and +the doctor stood towering before the pirate's leveled weapons. + +"_Maldito_ on the brat! Pshaw!" said Captain Brand, quieting down, and +returning the pistols to his pockets. "How nervous I am! Excuse me, +_caballeros_. I was thinking of something else." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +END OF THE BANQUET. + + "There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks, + As he stalked away with his iron box. + Oh, ho! oh, ho! The cock doth crow, + It is time for the fisher to rise and go. + Fair luck to the abbot, fair luck to the shrine! + He hath gnawed in twain my choicest line; + Let him swim to the north, let him swim to the south, + The _pirate_ will carry my hook in his mouth." + + +In the pause which followed the dreadful episode just recounted by +Captain Brand, the padre was occupied in pattering a prayer, counting +his beads, and elevating his crucifix as if he was mumbling high mass at +the altar. Don Ignacio slowly waved his brown fore finger, and his +single spark of glowing eye glared fiercely and fixedly at his host. A +clammy sweat burst out on the pallid brow of the doctor, and his hands +were clutched before him on the table like the jaws of a steel vice. And +still the drunken shrieks and cheers of the piratical crew at the sheds +arose wild and shrill in the calm night, making a gloomy echo for the +banquet. The doctor was the first to break the awkward silence which +pervaded the saloon. + +"_Capitano!_" said he, in his habitual calm, deep voice, "with respect +to what you said in the early part of the evening, of breaking up this +establishment, what, may I ask, are your plans for the future?" + +"_Gracias!_ _amigo_ doctor! Thank you, my friend, for changing the +conversation. My plans! eh! ah! Well, they are these--" + +Here Captain Brand's face assumed its usual expression; and entirely +himself again, he went on to state, in a precise, business-like way, the +views he had resolved upon for future action. + +"--To-morrow, gentlemen, is Sunday. Those boisterous fellows out there, +after mass, will need rest all the day. On Monday, however, I shall +begin to change the rig of the schooner, fill up with provisions for a +long cruise, take on board all the loose odds and ends we have stowed +here, of course," he added, as he remarked an inquiring and a rather +alarmed mercenary look from the Tuerto's glim--"of course, after having +squared up all claims of our _compadre_ there!" + +"Hum!" croaked that sharp rascal, with a nod of satisfaction quite like +an old raven. + +"Then, _senores_, I shall burn or destroy the old sheds, and bury the +cannon and heavy articles we can not find room for in the 'Centipede;' +when, if nothing happens, we shall trip anchor and spread our sails for +sea! + +"Babette! Babette! Really I believe that dear old negress has fallen +asleep. Babette! ah! there you are, my beauty! See if you can't give us +a bowl of okra gumbo before we break up here!" + +Babette had not been asleep. Oh no! She had her ear to the door of the +saloon, and was listening to the sad history of Dona Lucia, and when her +master came to the final scene the old woman fell on her knees and +shivered all over, where she remained until the sound of the captain's +voice again called her to her duties. + +"And when we have left these quiet waters, my son!" broke in the padre, +"what then?" + +The fact was, that the carnivorous and vinous Father Ricardo knew that +his stomach was not suited for high winds and rough oceans, and was +hoping that some scheme might be devised to allow him to remain +tranquilly on the island. + +"Why, holy padre, I propose to steer clear of the West Indies by some +unfrequented track, and, striking the broad Atlantic, stretch down the +coast of Brazil. Perhaps we may double Cape Horn, and see what those +miserable patriots are fighting for in Chili and Peru; then maybe across +the Pacific, to the lovely islands and maidens of Polynesia; so on to +the China Seas, where we may fall in with an outward-bound Canton +trader, or a galleon with a ton or two of silver on board--who +knows?--there is plenty of blue water and fine ships every where; so we +must be content." + +Padre Ricardo made the sign of the cross, kissed his thumb and fore +finger, and, reaching his dirty paw over to the captain, shook hands +with him. + +"Ay, _amigos_!" continued the leader, without minding the friendly +interruption; "yes, my friends, we shall, I trust, give the hounds in +search of us the slip; and even should they scent out this retired +little spot, they will have their trouble for their chase, and find +nothing but a few stones and heaps of rubbish above ground." + +"They may find some little matters below, though," chimed in the +commander of the felucca. + +"If they do," retorted the pirate, with a meaning scowl, "I'll put the +spy who betrays it to such a torture as that he'll wish himself below +ground when I come back here." + +"_Cierto, amigo!_ no fear of that!" muttered the Tuerto, with some +little trepidation of manner. "_My_ papers are white." + +"Captain Brand," said the doctor, "my contract with you is nearly up, +and since I only agreed--as you know--to enlist my professional services +here on shore, I presume you will have no objections to permit me to +depart with Don Ignacio in the felucca." + +It would be difficult to say what caused the flush of passion which +overspread the leader's face as he listened to this simple request, but +it was full a minute before he replied, and then, having weighed the +matter carefully in his mind, he said, in a precise and determined tone, +in French, + +"_Monsieur le Docteur!_ the compacts that I have made with all those +that have taken service with me have never been broken except by death. +I can not, therefore, consider your request, and I shall expect you to +sail with me in the schooner." + +Then he added, quickly, as he noticed a certain haughty expression in +his subordinate's face, "Pardon me, _monsieur_; we had better not +discuss this question now. Suppose you see me on the morrow." + +"Willingly, _senor_, and you will find my resolution unchangeable." +Rising as he spoke, he bowed to his companions at table, and saying +"_Buenas noches!_ (good-night!)" he passed from the saloon to the +piazza. There he paused a moment, as if communing with himself, and then +approaching the grass hammock where the sick boy was sleeping, he gently +took the little fellow up in his arms. The child murmured "Mamma, +mamma!" and was borne away. + +Captain Brand followed the doctor with his searching, sharklike eyes +until he had left the apartment, and there was something that denoted +danger in the look; but he uttered no sound, and, placing a finger on +his lip, he nodded meaningly to the padre. + +A moment after Babette brought in the steaming gumbo soup, and the +pirate's feast was nearly ended. Don Ignacio waited until his companions +had swallowed a goodly portion of the grateful mess, when he too +refreshed himself. Then making his salutations in his usual observant +manner, he departed. He declined, however, the offer of his host's +society to his boat, saying he had, he knew, half a dozen of the +felucca's crew outside the building to guard his footsteps, and he would +not put the _capitano_ to the trouble. + +When the padre rose to give his benediction to his patron, the captain +took him impressively by the rope which girded his cassock about the +loins, and giving it a sharp jerk or two, he said, + +"My holy father, I think we shall have a sad duty to perform to-morrow. +Our old friend Gibbs has behaved badly, and I shall punish him. He is +now in the Capella dungeon. After early mass go and console him." + +The padre returned a meaning smile, crossed himself, and slowly left the +pirate alone in his saloon. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +FANDANGO ON ONE LEG. + + "God! 'tis a fearsome thing to see + That pale wan man's mute agony-- + Those pinioned arms, those hands that ne'er + Shall be lifted again--not even in prayer! + That heaving chest! Enough; 'tis done! + The bolt has fallen! the spirit is gone." + + +Day dawned in the east. The early spikes of morning shot up in rosy +bands from behind the lofty hills of Cuba and announced the coming of +the sun. The inlet and basin, framed in by their rocky walls, were still +clothed in the gloom of night, and dimly reflecting the fading stars on +the calm unruffled surface where the schooner and felucca were moored. +Away off in the distance a dense white misty vapor hung flat and low +over the lagoon and thickets of mangroves, with not a breath of air to +disturb the noxious fog or quiver a leaf in the silent groves. The +revels, too, of the drunken sailors had long since ceased; the +sentinels, with their cutlasses in the sheaths, paced slowly to and fro +before the doors of the sheds, and the look-outs at the signal-stations +and battery peered through the early dawn to seaward; else not a sound +or moving thing, save a teal or two fluttering with a sharp cry up and +down the lagoon; the music of the tiny ripples lapping on the shelly +beach; and the low roar, in a deep bass, breaking and moaning over the +ledge beyond the island. Such was the appearance of things where our +scene is laid in the Twelve League Group of Keys, on a Sunday morning, +in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and five. + +Half a mile, perhaps, inland from the sheds where the sailors lived, and +beneath the steep face of the ridge-like crag which split the island in +two parts, stood a low chapel, built of loose stones nicely fitted +together and roofed with tiles. A rough iron cross was fastened over the +doorless entrance, and at the other end was a stone balustrade, with a +rude painting of the Virgin over the altar, on which stood four or five +tall brass candlesticks and a lighted taper. Outside the building was a +narrow and secluded inclosure, surrounded by a low wall of coral rocks, +with a few head-stones marked with black crosses--the graves of the +pirates whose bones reposed beneath. At one end of this burial-place was +still another subdivision, where stood ten upright flat white stones, +on whose faces were rudely carved initial letters, with the years in +which the eternal sleepers had been laid beneath the sand. Far and near +sprang up close and almost impenetrable thickets of cactus, whose sharp +and pointed needle-shoots defied the passage of any thing more bulky +than land-crabs and lizards. One or two narrow pathways had been cut out +here and there, but they were overgrown again by the stubborn, hardy +vegetation; and only with the risk of losing one's trowsers, and having +one's legs cut in gashes, could a human being struggle through it. + +Within the chapel kneeled a dozen or more of the "Centipede's" crew, the +coarse and sodden faces and uncombed locks, from their night's debauch, +in striking contrast to the place and the apparent devoutness of manner +in which they crossed themselves while the rites of the Church were +going on. Before the altar stood Padre Ricardo, with his breviary on the +chancel beneath the taper, and chanting forth from his deep lungs the +services of the mass. In a few minutes the unholy hands and lips which +performed the solemn ceremony ceased word and gesture, and with a +sonorous benediction at the elevation of the Host, and a tinkle of a +bell, the sailors arose from their knees and again staggered back to the +sheds, to slumber through the day. When all had gone, the padre clasped +his missal, tucked it into his bosom, and making the sign of the cross +with a genuflexion before the Virgin, the sacrilegious wretch turned and +left the chapel. + +Pursuing the winding path which led to his own habitation for a certain +distance, he then turned to the left, and carefully picking his way +through the sharp cactus and Spanish bayonets along the face of the +crag, he stopped at a yawning fissure which gaped open in the rock. +Here, too, the same wiry vegetation had crept, and it was with great +difficulty, and many an "_Ave!_" and "_Santa Maria!_" that the padre +succeeded in passing into the dark, rugged mouth of the cavern. + +"By the ashes of San Lorenzo!" he muttered, "there are serpents and +venomous insects in this pit of purgatory. Oh, _misericordia_! what has +pierced my leg? Why should my son drag me through this hole? Ah! blessed +Saint Barnabas! a slimy reptile has crossed my instep!" + +Feeling with his outspread hands in his fright, as he gradually made his +way into the dripping cavern, getting narrower and lower as he +proceeded, he at last, after stumbling prayerfully along for about a +hundred and fifty yards, came to a loose pile of stones. Here opened +another low narrow fissure on the left, and, in some doubt, he was about +to enter; but the noise he made by stepping on a stone was answered by +the hissing warning of a serpent, and the scared padre fell back at his +full length in a pool of stagnant slimy water. + +"_O Madre di Dios!_ I am stung by a cobra! Holy Virgin! my new cassock +ruined too! _Ave Maria!_ light me out of this abode of the devil!" + +Slowly recovering, however, from his fright, he once more regained his +feet, and, after a few steps, which he was obliged to accomplish by +scraping his crown against the jagged rocks above, his outstretched +hands touched an iron-bound door. + +"_Gracias a Dios!_ Thanks be to all the saints, I am here at last; but, +alas! curses on me, I shall be obliged to return by the same path unless +my son allows me to escape by the casa." + +Cautiously searching with his fingers as he muttered these words, he +touched a bolt, and, grasping it with both hands, drew it partly out +like the knob of a bell. Then, placing his ear to the door, he presently +heard a rattling, creaking noise, as if a beam of timber, with pulley +and chain, was being raised from behind the entrance. When the sound +ceased the door yielded to the padre's sturdy shoulder, and there was +just room to admit his portly body. Here the passage was wider, the rock +evidently chiseled away by the hands of man, and on one side was an +artificial chamber, blasted out of the solid rock, with a narrow door +with heavy iron bolts on the outside. At this opening the padre paused +and listened. No sound caught his ear at first, but as he clutched the +bolt and it grated back in its bands, he was saluted by such a volley of +frightful curses as to make him start back and cross his ample breast. +It was the voice of Master Gibbs, lying there on a low iron settle in +the noisome dungeon, with not a ray of light to cheer him, and only a +jug of water and some weevily biscuit to save him from starvation. All +through the day and during the long, long hours of the awful night, in +pain and suffering from his lopped-off limb and bruises, had he lain on +his hard bed with clenched hands, blaspheming and impotently raging in +his agony and despair. No prayer, however, dawned in his ruthless heart, +or was breathed from his brutal lips; but curses upon curses came thick +and fast, till his tongue refused to give them utterance, and he fell +back in utter exhaustion. As the noise, however, of the bolt struck his +ear, he clutched the stone water-jug from the floor, and hurled it, with +a yell of execrations, toward the door, where the fragments fell with a +clattering crash on the stone pavement. + +Grinding his teeth in his frightful passion, he howled, + +"Let me but once put these hands on your bloodstained carcass, and if +the mother that bore ye will know her spawn again, my name's not Bill +Gibbs! Ha! you miserable swab, with your soft words and white hands! +when I get out of this hole I'll blow you and your infarnal hounds +to ----! Give me fair play, and, even on one of my legs, I'll cut the +cowardly heart out of you, Captain Brand! Come in, will ye? ye son of +the devil, and I'll bite the tongue out of your mouth by the roots!" + +[Illustration: SHRIVING A SINNER.] + + Here the hoarse and panting wretch again ceased his roarings, and +the padre timidly opened the door. + +"Ha! who's that? Babette?" + +"No, my son, it is your good Padre Ricardo, come to console you." + +What the maimed villain replied to the priest, and what means the holy +father took to allay the passion and assuage the sorrows of the man +lying helpless in the dungeon, or whether successful in his mission, is +not important to state in detail. An hour later, however, the priest +seemed relieved in body and spirit as he retired from the loathsome +hole, and shooting the bolt as he closed the door, cautiously felt his +way along the dark and narrow passage. Presently, as he turned an angle, +a ray of light from the loopholes of the great stone vault beneath the +pirate's dwelling lighted his pathway; and a moment after, with a hearty +sigh of satisfaction, he seized a cord above his head and gave it a +jerk. A bell sounded above, and then a large, square-hinged trap-hatch +fell down, swinging gently to and fro from the beams above. At the same +time the padre put his arms about a square wooden stanchion which +supported the floor of the saloon, and then painfully sticking his toes +in some deep-cut notches at the sides, he slowly began to mount upward. +When, however, his oily shaved crown appeared nearly at the level of the +floor, a vigorous grasp was laid on his shoulders, and he was pulled up +like a flapping lobster and rolled into the apartment. It was Captain +Brand who kindly assisted the holy father, and it was the captain's +hollow laugh which saluted him in his torn and soiled raiment, as, with +difficulty, he regained his perpendicular. + +"Laugh not, _hijo mio_, at my sorrowful plight," said the bruised +Ricardo, with some asperity; "I have met with dangers of venomous +serpents, and been stabbed cruelly by those villainous cactus." + +"But I raised the beam, my padre, the moment you made the signal." + +"You did, my son; but what I suffered in the cavern was as nothing to +what I endured when I entered the dungeon of the English Gibbs. _Jesus +Maria_, what an infidel he is!" + +"You did not find his spirit subdued, then, by bread and water?" + +"Far from it, my friend. He rages like a wild beast. He consigns your +body and soul to everlasting torments! But, what is more impious still," +went on the padre, as he crossed himself, "he damned your holy father, +and hoped I would roast in hell!" + +"But he confessed, Ricardo, and you gave him absolution?" + +"If calling me thief and assassin, and hurling his stone water-jug at my +head, be confession and forgiveness of sins, the ceremony has been +performed. Ah! my son, he needs no more mercy in this world!" + +"Of course not, my padre; and we will give him a short shrift and a long +rope." + +"Babette!" continued Captain Brand. "Ah! my Baba, you have not forgotten +to feed our jolly Gibbs there below? No? I thought not. Well, then, it +is Sunday, you know; give him a pint of pure rum for his morning's +draught. And, Baba, my beauty, slip a pair of iron ruffles over his +wrists, and then pass a cloth over those bloodshot eyes of his, and lug +him here beneath this hatch. Go down by your own ladder, and be quick, +my Baba, as I wish my breakfast presently!" + +All this was said in a cool and rather an affectionate tone, as Captain +Brand sipped a spoonful or two of chocolate from a cup of Dresden china. +Then turning to the padre, he said, + +"You would perhaps like a cordial, my father, to take the chill off your +stomach? Yes. You will find some capital Curacoa in that stand of +bottles there." + +The padre, forgetful of the dignity of his calling, shuffled with +indecent haste to the spot indicated, and, without going through the +form of filling one of the diminutive thimble-shaped glasses in the +stand, he boldly raised the silver-netted flask to his lips, and sucked +away until it was nearly empty. Then seating himself on the settee, he +lugged out his illuminated missal and pored over its contents. Captain +Brand occupied himself with opening the loop of the silk rope which fell +from the ceiling, and securing the end firmly on the stout cleat at the +wall. + +So passed the time until a noise beneath the room of a voice in anger, +and a body bumped and dragged along, once more attracted the attention +of those in the saloon. + +"Oh ho! is that you, Master Gibbs?" exclaimed Captain Brand, in a +cheerful voice. "You have risen early; but stop that profane language, +my friend, or you will never see daylight again!" + +The maimed ruffian only muttered, "Your friend, eh? blindfolded and +manacled!" And then, apparently abashed by the cool, commanding tone of +his superior, he held his peace. + +"Well, you are quiet, my lad. Now we'll see if we can't hoist you up +here in the saloon." + +"Thank ye, sir!" said Gibbs, aloud; and then he muttered to himself, +"Let me jest get one grip of ye, and I'll show ye how quiet I'll be." + +"Do you think we shall need assistance, my son?" whispered the padre +into the ear of his patron. + +"_Diavolo!_ No. I never wanted help in these little affairs, except in +the case of that violent Yankee whaler, who gave us much trouble, you +know, and we were obliged to call Pedillo," replied the captain, in the +same low tone. Then, raising his voice, he said, + +"Hark ye, Master Gibbs! Babette will lift you off the stones, and the +padre and I will raise you up to the room here. You don't weigh so much +as you did before you had your leg hacked off with a hand-saw--ho! and I +dare say you are as light now as a dried stockfish! Up with him, Baba! +There--steady! all right--here you are!" + +Saying this, Captain Brand, with the assistance of the stout negress and +the padre, raised the once burly ruffian, with a vigorous hoist that +made him groan, to the floor of the saloon, where they laid him out at +full length on his back. + +"Wait a moment, my hearty, till the hatch is raised, and then we will +raise you. Unpleasant position, no doubt," continued Captain Brand, as +the trap came up and was secured by a spring; "but then, you know, you +_would_ have that pin of yours cut off, and somehow you have been so +careless as to dispose of the nice leg you had the other day, made out +of the spruce fore-top-mast of the 'Centipede'--a very tough bit of a +spar it was." + +Here Master Gibbs grated his teeth and grinned hideously. + +The captain smiled like a demon, and, approaching the prostrate cripple, +said cheerfully--ay, in a frank and hearty tone-- + +"Now, my padre, place a comfortable chair for Master Gibbs, and we will +help him to a seat." + +The considerate Ricardo placed a large, roomy Manilla chair on the fatal +trap, and then aided his chief in lifting their victim to the position +assigned him. As they performed this operation, the captain, with the +gentleness of a tiger before he strikes his prey, and with a wink to the +padre, lightly passed the noose of the silk rope over the ruffian's +hairy throat, where it lay like a snake with its slack coil squirming at +the back of the chair. + +"Now, Master Gibbs, I am about to remove this bandage from your +beautiful red eyes," said Captain Brand, in his cold, chilling, +deliberate manner, "and if you so much as move when daylight shines +before you, I'll blow your brains out." + +Here the pirate leisurely cocked a pistol close to his subordinate's +ear, removed the bandage, and laid the weapon on the table within +reach. + +"No noise either, Master Gibbs!" continued Captain Brand, as he stirred +up the remains of his chocolate and gulped it down; "for it is Sunday +morning, and we must respect the feelings of our padre. You were unkind +to him, he tells me, just now, and even said some disrespectful things +of me. What have _I_ done to vex you?" + +The manacled wretch tried to raise his horny hands to his face when the +cloth was removed from his eyes, and rub those organs, while he glared +suspiciously around; but the captain pointed with his white finger in a +threatening way to the cocked pistol, and Master Gibbs let his hands +fall again. + +"Well, Captain Brand, I s'pose now you're going to treat me as a +faithful man who has sarved under you ought to be treated; and I'm +willin' to forgive what has passed." + +There was no look of forgiveness, however, in those brutal bloodshot +eyes, nor much signs of repentance in those grinding teeth and +compressed lips. + +"Why, no, my Gibbs, _I_ am _not_ going to treat you as a faithful man, +but I tell you what I will do"--here the captain moved his chair nearer +till his straw slipper touched the spring of the trap--"I will drink a +glass of grog with you in forgetfulness of the past and forgiveness for +the future." + +"Thank ye, Captain Brand; I do feel dry. That stuff Babette gave me a +while ago didn't touch the right spot, and I'll be glad to jine you." + +"Ah! _bueno_, my old friend; you _shall_ drink something that _will_ +touch the right spot! What shall it be? you have only to name it." + +"I'll take a toss of that old brandy you gave me the other day, if it's +the same to you, sir." + +"Oh, Master Gibbs, it's all the same to me. Delighted I am to oblige +you! _Padre mio!_ a glass of old Cognac for our friend--a tumblerful; a +wine-glass will do for me." + +The padre poured out the brandy as he was desired, handed the lesser +glass to the captain, and the tumbler he placed in the locked hands of +the victim. Slowly and painfully the subdued ruffian raised the glass to +his mouth, careful not to spill a drop; then, before draining it, he +cleared his throat, while at the same time the captain rose to his feet, +his right foot resting a little on the heel, and held the wine-glass +before him. + +"Now, then, Master Gibbs, for a toss that will touch the right spot." + +"Ay, ay, captain!" said Gibbs; "and here's forgiveness for the future." + +Scarcely had the words been uttered, and the liquor began to gurgle down +the hairy throat of the manacled wretch, than the pirate before him +pressed his foot with a quick, nervous action on the spring. + +Like a flash the trap fell, carrying chair and man with it. The hinges +of the hatch creaked, the wicker-work chair fell with a bound on the +stone floor below, the heavy beam overhead gave a jarring quiver as the +strong silk rope brought up with a shuddering surge on the cleat where +it was belayed at the wall, and with a gasping, choking cry of pain +mingled with the ring of the shattered tumbler on the pavement, the +ruffian of a hundred crimes fell full three feet, and hung struggling in +the death agony. With almost superhuman force he raised his clenched +hands and struck his forehead till the manacles were twisted like wire +by the effort, spinning around too by the lopsided weight of his body, +while the beam above yielded slightly to the strain, and the deadly +cord, no longer squirming, but taut as a bar of iron, held the wretch in +its knotted embrace, clasped tight around the throat. In a minute or two +the hands ceased beating the inflamed face and head, and fell with a +clank before the body; the legs gave a few convulsive twitches, a last +and violent spasm shook the frame, and there Master Gibbs hung, a warm +dead lump of clay. + +While this murderous business was going on, and the poor crippled wretch +was struggling in the jaws of death, the padre was chanting with his +profane tongue from his open breviary the _Salve Domine_, and his patron +coolly took down a telescope and swept it over the blue water to +seaward. When, however, after a quarter of an hour had elapsed, and the +body of their victim gave no more signs of life, the captain laid down +the telescope as the padre closed his missal, and remarked quietly, +while glancing critically down at the suspended body, + +"He did not go off so easy as I had anticipated; his bull-neck is not +broken, though the knot was perfectly well placed. However, he is stone +dead, and we will lower him down. You, my padre, will bury him!" + +"_Hijo mio!_ son of mine! spare me that troublesome duty. Would you have +me drag such a carcass through the cavern and consign him to consecrated +earth, when he refused the last holy offers of salvation?" + +"_Bueno_, my padre, I respect your feelings! You need not put him under +the sand; take him merely to his late dungeon, and lay him decently on +his bed." + +"Thank you, my son; your orders shall be obeyed!" + +Glad, apparently, to be relieved from farther exertion, though with +manifest symptoms of disgust, the priest, more infamous even than the +scoundrel he had assisted in hanging, clumsily descended the hatchway by +the way he came up, and awaited the movements of his chief. The captain +stepped to the wall, and, casting off the turns from the cleat, he +slowly lowered the body down till it rested on the pavement. + +"Unbend the rope from his neck, my padre, and hitch it on to that +Manilla chair. There--all right! you may return this way and breakfast +with me." + +Saying this, Captain Brand rounded up the chair, detached the silk rope, +hung the loop in its accustomed place, and then waited the reappearance +of his confederate. Not many minutes elapsed before the padre, having +performed the last rites, again ascended the stanchion, and was assisted +above the floor by his chief. Then both together got hold of a +ring-bolt in the trap, drew it up and secured the spring, placing square +bits of mahogany over the countersunk apertures, so as to prevent +accidental falls or hangings of themselves. Even while performing these +mechanical operations, the priest puffed out an account of his +proceedings below: how he had dragged the body to the dungeon; how, when +there, he had inadvertently stumbled and fallen on the top of it; and +that his lips--_maldito!_--came in contact with the open mouth of the +late Master Gibbs; but when he had recovered from the horror of this +frightful caress, he had said a short prayer and bolted the door. + +"You have done well, my padre; and now let us break our fast. Babette, a +couple of broiled snappers and a cold duck! Be lively, old lady, for I +have business to attend to after breakfast. _Hola, mi padre_, will you +wash your hands in water before sitting down? No! _bueno!_ I will myself +take a dip all over." + +No, the oily Ricardo never washed his hands, save wetting the tips of +his fingers in holy water in the chapel; and, indeed, he rarely touched +water in any quantity either outside or in; and it was with a look of +surprise, not unmingled with contempt, that he beheld his patron retire +for a bath. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +BUSINESS. + + "He had rolled in money like pigs in mud, + Till it seemed to have entered into his blood + By some occult projection; + And his cheeks, instead of a healthy hue, + As yellow as any guinea grew, + Making the common phrase seem true + About a rich complexion." + +The business which Captain Brand alluded to when he was about to partake +of breakfast with his friend the padre was, in the first instance, to +arrange some matters in the way of payment of debts to his compadre, Don +Ignacio Sanchez, commander of the Colonial Guarda Costa felucca +"Panchita." + +Accordingly, when he rose from table, and after a whispered dialogue and +reports as to the state of affairs in and around the den and island from +the men at the signal-stations, he summoned Pedillo. When that worthy +appeared below the veranda--for be it remembered that Captain Brand +never permitted the inferior officials of his band to pollute his +apartments, unless, perhaps, as in the case of his deceased subordinate, +Master Gibbs, it was on urgent business--Captain Brand ordered his gig +manned. + +Pedillo threw up his hand in token of assent, and walked down to the +brink of the basin to execute the command. Then, after a few minutes, +Captain Brand lit a cigar, dismissed the padre, put on his fine white +Panama straw hat, unlocked a strong cabinet with a secret drawer, +glanced over a paper before him, and, making a rapid calculation, he +caught up a heavy bag of doubloons, and left the house in charge of +Babette. The captain always told his guests that his fellows had +such love and respect for him that he rarely locked up his property, +and never placed a guard at his door. The truth was, that his +fellows--scoundrels, miscreants, and villains as they were--stood in +such fear and dread of their leader, that they were glad to keep out of +his way. Moreover, he never boasted or made any display before them, +living on shipboard, as on shore, by himself, but always ready and +terrible when the moment came for action; treating his crew, too, with +the most rigid impartiality, adhering strictly to his promises and +compacts with them, and never overlooking an offense. + +So Captain Brand left his dwelling in charge of his dumb housekeeper +Babette, and tripping down the rope ladder from the piazza in a clean +suit of brown linen and straw slippers, his beardless face shaded by his +broad-brimmed hat from the sun, and the bag of gold on his arm, he +jauntily walked toward the cove. + +"Ah! good morning, my doctor! Glad to meet you! How are the sick? Doing +well, I hope!" + +"Quite well, sir; but I was about to call upon you in relation to the +conversation we had last evening, and--" + +"Pardon me, _Monsieur le Docteur_, but I have been very busy this morning, +and am now going to see Don Ignacio on matters of importance"--here the +elegant pirate took the cigar from his thin lips and held it daintily +between his thumb and fore finger in the air--"and really, monsieur, I am +very sorry to miss your visit. But," he added, with one of his usual +smiles, "I shall be at leisure this afternoon, and in the cool of the +evening we can take a stroll. What say you?" + +The doctor nodded. + +"Apropos, _docteur_, suppose we have a little game of _monte_ afterward +at your quarters. I never permit gaming in mine, you know. The padre +will not object; and I am confident our _compadre_, the Tuerto, will be +delighted." + +"As you please, captain," replied the medico, with a cold, indifferent +air and averted face. "I will join you in the promenade, and I shall be +ready to receive you in the evening." + +"_Hasta huego, amigo!_" said Captain Brand, as he again stuck his cigar +between his teeth, waved his hand in adieu, and walked to his boat. + +"You don't love me, doctor," thought the pirate. "I don't fear you, +captain," thought the doctor. + +It was a touch of high art the way this notorious pirate pitched the bag +of gold toward his coxswain, crying, "Catch that, Pedillo!" and then the +almost girlish manner in which he pattered about the beach and held up +his trowsers, so that he might not even get his slippers damp. Had that +salt water been red blood, he would not have cared if his feet had been +soaked in it. And then, too, the little exclamation of joy when he +finally stepped into the stern-sheets, and sat down beneath the awning, +while he stretched his smooth brown linen legs out on the cushions. Oh, +it was certainly a touch of high piratical art! + +"The old 'Centipede' is looking a little rusty after her late cruise, +Pedillo!" throwing his head back to evade a curl of smoke, and casting +his cold eyes like a rattle of icy hail at the coxswain. "But I am glad +Pedro took your place"--puff, puff--"that knife-stab prevented you, of +course"--puff--"and we shall have her all tight and trig again in a day +or two." + +"_Si, senor!_" said Pedillo, respectfully; "and how goes Senor Gibbs, +_capitano_?" + +The _capitano_ rolled his icy eyes again at the coxswain, and replied, +carelessly, "Why, Pedillo, our friend Gibbs came to see me when the +'Centipede' anchored, but almost before"--puff--"he had given me an +account of his unfortunate cruise he fell down in a fit. The fact is, +however"--puff, puff--"that, what with hard drinking and inflammation +which set in on the stump of his lost leg, he has been in a very bad +way"--puff--"quite in a dangerous condition indeed, requiring all my old +Babette's care and attention"--puff--"but this morning the good padre +went to see him, and he told me a while ago that he left him without +fever, and altogether tranquil." + +Pedillo's wiry mustaches twirled of themselves. + +Meanwhile the boat skimmed lightly over the basin, and as the captain +ceased speaking she ran alongside of the felucca. Don Ignacio, with his +bright single eye in full burning power, and a cigarette between his +wrinkled lips, was on the deck of the vessel to receive his visitor; and +as he saw the coxswain follow his superior with a weighty bag under his +arm, his glimmering orb became brighter, if possible--as if it was +piercing through the thick canvas of the bag, and counting, ounce by +ounce, the contents--and putting out his fore finger, it was grasped +cordially by the white hand of Captain Brand. + +"_Como se va?_ How goes it with my _compadre_? Stomach and head all +clear after our long dinner of yesterday?" + +The _compadre_ said that his head was particularly clear that morning, +and as for his stomach he had not yet inquired; but if the _capitano_ +had any doubts as to the former proposition, he had better step below +and decide for himself. + +In accordance with this ambiguous invitation, the visitor and commander +disappeared down the small cuddy in the afterpart of the felucca, where +was a low, stifling hole of a cabin, dank with stale tobacco-smoke, and +smelling awfully of rats and roaches. There was a little round table in +the middle, and on one side was a single berth, with some dirty bedding, +which had not been cleaned, apparently, since the vessel was built. +Light was shed from a skylight above. + +Captain Brand gave a sniff of disgust as he entered this floating +sanctum of Don Ignacio, but, without remark, seated himself on a canvas +stool, and waved a perfumed cambric kerchief before his nose. + +Commander Sanchez, catching the inspiration, merely observed that it was +a little close certainly, and not so spacious as the superb cabin of the +schooner, and that sometimes, when lying in a calm off the lee side of +Cuba, it was hot enough to melt the tail off a brass monkey; but yet it +was his duty, and he did not particularly mind it. + +Hereupon Captain Brand requested Don Ignacio to produce his papers, and +they were presently laid upon the table. For a few minutes the pirate +was absorbed in running his cold eyes over the accounts--making +pencil-notes on the margins, and comparing them with a memorandum he +took from his pocket; but at last he threw himself back and exclaimed, + +"_Compadre_, the account of old Moreno, at the Havana, is correct to a +real--three hundred and twelve doubloons and eight hard dollars. Yours, +however, has some few inaccuracies--double commissions charged here and +there; all losses and sales charged to me, and all profits credited to +you." + +Don Ignacio spread out the palms of both his hands toward his +companion, as if to exorcise such unjust charges from the brain of his +confederate. + +"_O si, si, compadre!_ it is as I state, and you know it is true; but, +nevertheless, a few dozens of ounces more or less makes no difference; +and, to make short work, I am ready to pay. But," said Captain Brand, +laying a hand on the heavy bag of money beside him, "though I am quite +ready to cancel my debts in hard cash here on the spot, yet, as I am +bound on a long cruise--Heaven only knows where--I would prefer to keep +the gold and pay you in something else." + +Don Ignacio threw his head back and fixed his eye like a parrot on the +captain, waiting to hear farther. + +"What have I on hand besides gold? Well, there are a few bales of +Mexican cochineal, and English broadcloths, and some cases of French +silks, which you can have at a fair market value; then there is all that +collection of silver table-service, which you can take by weight; and, +besides, lots of rare furniture, which you may set your own price +upon--altogether much more than enough to pay Moreno and you both. What +say you, _compadre_? is it a bargain? or shall I carry the stuff with +me, and run the chance of disposing of it on the Spanish Main?" + +It was a long time before the crafty old Spaniard could make up his mind +whether to receive his pay in a simple portable currency, or take more +bulky matter, with the hope of making double the money by the operation. +Finally, however, his greed overcame his prudence, and he accepted the +last proposition, with the understanding that the articles should be +transferred to the felucca the next night. + +"Ah!" said Captain Brand, with another sniff of disgust, as he spat on +the dirty floor of the cabin, "I am glad the affair is settled, for I +wouldn't remain another hour in this filthy hole for all the money you +have cheated me out of, you old rascal." + +He said the last portion of this sentence to himself as he emerged from +the cuddy. + +"But listen, _amigo_!" he continued, as they both reached the deck. "You +will give me duplicate receipts on the part of Senor Moreno, so that I +can forward one to him from the next port I visit. And, by the way, +suppose you come on shore this afternoon for a stroll, and in the +evening we will have a little game of _monte_--eh?" + +"_Cierto!_ (certainly!)" returned the commander of the felucca; when +Captain Brand, with his bag of gold intact under his arm, got into his +boat and was pulled to the shore. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +TREASURE. + + "Gold! gold! gold! gold! + Bright and yellow, hard and cold, + Molten, graven, hammered, and rolled; + Heavy to get, and light to hold; + Hoarded, bartered, bought, and sold; + Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled; + Price of many a crime untold-- + Gold! gold! gold! gold!" + + +It was long past noon when the pirate returned to his island home, and +the day was hot, for the sea-breeze had not made, and the tropical sun +was pouring down its burning rays until the sand was roasting as in a +furnace; the very rocks throwing off a trembling mirage of heated air, +and the lagoon almost boiling under the fiery influence. The sailors, +with aching heads and parched mouths, were swinging in their grass +hammocks beneath the sheds; and, save the watchful vigilance of the men +at the look-outs and battery, the little island was wrapped in repose. + +Captain Brand, however, was as cool as a cucumber; and regardless of +the heat, and indifferent about _siesta_, he drew the curtains of the +saloon, and took some active exercise. First, however, he desired +his faithful Babette to get out some camphor trunks and pack the +contents of his splendid wardrobe. This operation was performed under +the critical eye of Captain Brand himself, to which he personally +lent his aid by stowing away, here and there, his caskets, trinkets, +and treasures--those which had been presented to him by the unfortunate +people who had the ill luck to make his acquaintance on the high seas, +or in midnight forays on shore. Then the captain opened and rummaged +cabinets, bureaus, and bookcases, making liberal presents to his +trusty housekeeper; and, turning from that occupation, he had all his +table furniture spread before him, when he made careful estimates of +the value of the silver, china, and glass. This concluded, Captain +Brand ordered Babette to furnish him a slight repast; and while it was +preparing--the captain taking the precaution to bolt his handmaiden in +her kitchen--he went quietly into his bedroom, and when he came out he +bore heavy burdens in his muscular arms, all of which he laid +conveniently near the trap in the floor. Then letting the hatch swing +softly down, he lowered the heavy articles by the silk rope, as he +had Master Gibbs, though not so suddenly, going down himself as +nimbly as a rat after them. In the vault beneath, Captain Brand struck +a light and set fire to a torch, which blazed out luridly, and illumined +the dark excavation and passages like day. Going slowly on, with his +burden in his arms, by the path by which we traced the padre, he +came to the outer door, which opened into the fissure in the crag; and, +after a vigorous effort, the beam was raised, and he passed out. Once +outside, he felt his way cautiously, stepping clear of the stagnant +pools beneath, and guarding his head from the jagged rocks above; and +then, lighting his way over the stones which had upset the equilibrium +of Don Ricardo, he crept slowly into an aperture on the right. + +[Illustration: "HE CREPT FORWARD ON HANDS AND KNEES, THE BLAZING TORCH +LIGHTING UP THE DAMP AND DRIPPING ROCKS."] + +No serpents or venomous reptiles disturbed the pirate's progress; for, +though there were plenty of them coiled or crawling near, yet their +instinct probably taught them that he was a monster with a more deadly +poison than themselves, and whose fangs were sharper, though his tongue +did not hiss a note of warning. Captain Brand put down his burden and +crept forward on hands and knees, the blazing torch lighting up the damp +and dripping rocks, all green and slimy from the tracks of the snake and +lizard. Where the narrow fissure seemed to end by a wall of natural +rock, the pirate rolled aside a large stone at the base, and scratching +away the sand, a large copper lock was displayed, in which, after +pushing aside the hasp, Captain Brand touched a spring, and it opened. +Then, exerting all the force of his powerful frame, a rough slab of +unhewn rock yielded to the effort, and rose like a vertical door slung +by a massive hinge at the top. Placing the large stone at the opening, +so as to prevent the slab falling to its place, the captain stood the +torch within the opening, and went back for his burden; then he +returned, and squeezed himself with it into a small excavated, uneven +chamber, where he sat down. + +"Nasty work," communed the pirate with himself, "but a safe place to lay +up a penny for a rainy day! Let me see. These two bags of doubloons, and +the small one my Gibbs brought me, with those three, there, of guineas, +and those sacks of dollars, will make about ten thousand pounds. That +will make me a nest-egg when I retire from the profession and return to +Scotland. They will have forgotten all my boyish follies by that time." + +Captain Brand alluded to forging his father's name, and other little +peccadilloes of a similar nature. + +"And I may be elected to Parliament--who knows? It is something of a +risk, perhaps, to leave all this pretty coin here, but then it's a +greater risk to carry it in the schooner"--he argued both ways--"and +then, again, damp does not decay pure metal. But," thought Captain +Brand, "suppose somebody should discover this little casket in the +rock. Ah! that's not probable, for no soul besides myself knows of it, +and even the very man who made the door did not know for what it was +intended; besides, he died long ago." + +Captain Brand had forgotten, in this connection, that the man who cut +out the stone chamber and door, and fashioned the hinge and lock, took +too much sugar in his coffee the morning the job was finished, and died +in horrible convulsions before night. Oh yes, that incident had entirely +escaped his memory! + +Captain Brand, having now thoroughly reasoned the matter out, gave each +of the bags lying on the sand a gentle kick to get a responsive echo +from the coin; and then creeping out of the treasure-chamber, he +withdrew the torch, removed the stone, and the heavy slab fell again +into its place. Then clasping the lock, covering it over with sand, and +rolling back the stone, he seized the torch and quickly returned to the +vault beneath his saloon. There, putting out the torch by rubbing it +against the stone pavement until not a spark was left, by the sunlight, +streaming through the loopholes around, he passed to one side and began +removing the cases of cochineal, silks, and what not, near to the +strongly-barred portcullis door, which opened toward the basin fronting +his dwelling. It was hard work, but Captain Brand seemed to enjoy it; +and even after he had arranged the packages intended for shipment in his +_compadre's_ felucca, he began again. Going to the farther corner of the +vault, he stopped before a strong mahogany door, and taking a key from +his pocket, unlocked and threw it wide open. It was as black as night +inside, floored and lined with wood, and emitting a choking atmosphere +of charcoal and sulphur. Piled around the walls were some fifty or a +hundred small barrels with copper hoops, and branded on the heads with +the word "powder." Unmindful of the odor and the rather combustible +material around him, Captain Brand again resumed his work, and rolled a +large number of the little barrels toward the doorway, near the +merchandise already there, saying to himself the while, + +"I think that will about fill the 'Centipede's' magazine, and we must +make a proper disposition of the remainder." + +Hereupon Captain Brand, actively bent upon the work of disposing of his +treasures, rolled out a dozen or two more of the little barrels. Strange +to say, among the very few articles that were never presented to him, +but actually bought of Senor Moreno, was this highly useful and +indispensable material of powder, and he therefore set much store by it. +And it was with a sigh of regret that the pirate stood the little +barrels on their ends in a line across the great vault of the building, +beneath kitchen, bedrooms, and saloon, and especially beside the square +upright stanchions on which the interior of the building rested. Not +content with this, he took a copper hammer and knocked in all the heads +of the little barrels, and then, with a scoop of the same metal, he +dipped out large quantities of the black material, and poured thick +trains of it from barrel to barrel, sometimes capsizing one, but always +particularly cautious not to rasp a grain of it beneath his grass +slippers and the pavement. Then he took a piece of match-rope, and +sticking one end deep into a barrel, he just poked the other end out of +a loophole, to be in readiness whenever Captain Brand should deem proper +to touch his lighted cigar to it. + +"There," said Captain Brand, "that piece of tow will burn about thirty +or forty minutes, and then--stand from under!" + +Ascending the hatchway again with the agility of a cat, he drew up and +secured the trap, and in ten minutes afterward he was freshly attired in +a nice pair of India panjammers, a grass cloth jacket and vest--with, of +course, the usual knickknacks in his pockets--and seated at table, where +his busy housekeeper had placed a broiled chicken and a bottle of old +Bordeaux before him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +PLEASURE. + + "But ever, from that hour, 'tis said, + He stammered and he stuttered, + As if an axe went through his head + With every word he uttered. + He stuttered o'er blessing, he stuttered o'er ban, + He stuttered, drunk or dry; + And none but he and the fisherman + Could tell the reason why." + + +"Babette," said Captain Brand, as he tapped a spoon against his +coffee-cup and puffed his cigar, while the stout dumb negress was +removing the remains of the light dinner, "Babette, old girl, you know +that we are going to leave here in a few days, and I should like to know +whether you care to go with us or remain here on the island." + +The negress made a guttural grunt of assent, and nodded her head till +the ends of her Madras turban fluttered. + +"Ho! you do, eh? Well, my Baba, I shall be sorry to leave you, for you +will be very lonely here, and it may be a long, very long time before I +come back." + +Babette jerked her chin up this time, and did not grunt. + +"It's all the same, eh? old lady! Well, I shall leave enough to eat to +last you a lifetime; but you will have to change your quarters, my Baba, +and live in the padre's shed, for I--a--don't think this house will be +inhabitable long after I am gone." + +The negress gave another grunt and nod of assent. + +"Yes. Well, old lady, the matter is decided, then; but, in case you +should have any visitors here after we have gone, you won't take any +trouble to describe what you have seen here? No! That shake of your head +convinces me--not if they roast you alive?" + +The hideous sign of understanding that the woman expressed in her dumb +way would have convinced any body without the trouble of uttering a +word. + +"_Bueno!_" said Captain Brand; "that will do for to-day." + +Rising as he spoke, he stepped to a cabinet, slipped a large handful of +doubloons in his trowsers pocket, put on his hat, and walked out. + +The sea-breeze swept over the island with its full strength, making the +lofty cocoa-nuts bow their tufted tops, the palm-trees rustle their +broad flat leaves and clash the stems together. The mangroves bent, too, +before the wind, and the sand eddied up in tiny whirls amid the great +expanse of cactus, while the vessels swung with taut cables to their +anchors. Even Captain Brand's hat nearly was blown off his dry light +hair as he joined his _compadre_, Don Ignacio, at the landing; and the +sandy dust blinded--though only for a moment--that one-eyed individual's +optic, and put out his cigarette as they struggled against the influence +of the breeze. But yet they walked on in the direction of the sheds, and +as they passed through the court-yard, where the men were lounging about +in yawning groups or sitting under the piazza, playing cards--getting up +and touching their hats as their chief passed--Senor Pedillo accosted +him thus: + +"_Capitano_, the people are thirsty, and desire a barrel of wine." + +"Not a drop, Senor Pedillo--not so much as would wet the bill of a +musquito! To-morrow at daylight let all hands be called, for we have +work to do, and we must be quick to do it." + +Pedillo slunk away, abashed by the positive tone of his commander; and +Captain Brand, with his companion, passed on to the domicile of the +padre and doctor. Pausing at the open door of the shed, they looked in. +The padre was lying flat on his back on his narrow bed, with his mouth +wide open, and snoring like a key-bugle with leaky stops; while his +beads and crucifix--misplaced emblems in contact with drunkenness and +debauchery--were reposing on his ample chest. The doctor was sitting +beside his own couch, whispering words of childish comfort to the little +boy, whose pale cheeks and brown curls reposed on the pillow of the bed. +The poor child's thin, limp fingers rested like the petals of a drooping +lily in the dark, bony hand of his friend, and his dim hazel eyes were +turned sadly toward him. + +"Holloa, _amigos_!" shouted Captain Brand, in a hearty voice. "We are +losing the glorious sea-breeze. _Vamanos!_ let us take a stroll to the +Tiger's Trap." + +Hereupon Captain Brand entered the room, and gave the padre a violent +tweak of the nose, at the same time puffing a volume of cigar-smoke +into his beastly mouth, which combined effort brought the holy father +to life in a trice, choking and sputtering, as he arose, a jargon of +paternosters, which an indifferent hearer might have mistaken for a +volley of execrations, so savagely were they uttered. + +"Take a sip of Geneva, my padre. There it is on the table. Ah! do you +call half a bottle a sip? Well! Come, doctor, let us be moving." + +Down by the narrow gorge of the inlet, and over the smooth rocks and +shelly shore, the party took their way, Don Ignacio leading with the +amiable priest, on whom he glared with his malevolent eye as if--he not +being a person from whom money or its equivalent could be squeezed--the +greedy old Spaniard would like to transfix him with a glance. In the +rear came Captain Brand and the doctor, the former as gay as a bird--of +the vulture species--and his companion grave, severe, and preoccupied. +Stopping as they reached the Tiger Trap Battery, where, after Captain +Brand had made a close inspection of the guns, and held sharp confabs +with the men who rose to receive him, he moved away a few steps, and, +resting his body against the lee side of a projecting rock, removed the +cigar from his frozen lips, and said, + +"The arguments you have urged, monsieur, and the views you entertain, +have a certain amount of reason in them. It is true you were deceived in +coming here, but yet you swore to remain and not betray us when you did +come. Well--ah! don't interrupt me; I divine what you are going to +say--you did not know what our real character was. Perhaps not. +Nevertheless, I can not consent to your going away with that old rascal, +Don Ignacio, there--that is, if he would take you, which I think he +would not, as your presence on board might compromise him with the Cuban +authorities; and," went on Captain Brand, as he crossed his legs, and +held his fine Panama hat on his head as a ruffle of the sea-breeze shot +around the rock, "with respect to your remaining here on the island, you +will only have that dumb old beast of a Babette for company; and it is +highly probable that the English or American cruisers will be down upon +you before a change of the moon, and they might--a--hang you, perhaps, +for a pirate. Ho! ho!" + +"If Don Ignacio declines to take me, Captain Brand, of course I can not +go in the felucca; but, let come what will, I am resolved not to sail in +the 'Centipede.'" + +The pirate regarded the doctor for a moment with a cold, freezing look, +not wanting, however, in a partial glimmer of respect and admiration, as +he thus resolutely stated his determination; and then, putting his +finger lightly on the doctor's arm, as he saw Don Ignacio and the padre +draw near, he said impressively, in a low tone, + +"_Monsieur le Docteur_, do not make hasty resolutions. _I_ command here, +and my will is law. I will turn the matter over, however, in my mind, +and give you a final decision before we part to-night. Now let us +return. The sun is down, and the rocks are slippery." + +"Well, _caballeros_, let us have a little social amusement," said +Captain Brand, as he sat down at the table in the padre's and doctor's +quarters, and wound up his splendid watch, the present from the Captain +General of Cuba. "But bear in mind that we must break up at midnight, +for our _compadre_ here has a multitude of articles to get on board his +felucca to-night, and I must be astir at daylight." + +Did Captain Brand think, while he turned the key of that gold repeater, +of the bloodstained wretch he had put to death in the morning, who was +lying stark and still in his narrow, damp resting-place, or of the poor +little sufferer who had been torn from his heart-broken mother sleeping +near him? Oh no, certainly not. Captain Brand was thinking of a little +game of monte. + +The padre lugged out a small store of dollars, and a gold ounce or two, +and other stray bits of gold, down to quartitos or eighths of +doubloons--all of it donations made him for remission of sins and +absolutions, presented at one time and another from the pirates of his +flock, such donations falling in pretty rapidly after a successful +cruise, but dwindling away to most contemptible gifts long before his +flock took to sea again. + +Captain Brand was very liberal to his crew, dividing a great deal of +money with them, but, since he rarely visited any foreign ports, they +had little chance of squandering it; and in the end it served merely as +a gaming currency to play with, and eventually coming back to him as +contributions for stores, ammunition, rigging, and so forth. The +captain, therefore, was a large gainer by the operation, as most of the +articles in eating and drinking, and the vessel's outfit, were--as we +know--generally presented to him, so that he was enabled to stow away +the cash for future gratification. + +Don Ignacio Sanchez was likewise a moneyed man, and came provided with a +long pouch of solid gold, which he made into little piles before him of +the exact size of those of the captain. The doctor, however, declined to +play, and sat an indifferent spectator of the game. + +"Let us begin, _senores_!" exclaimed the Don, as he rapidly shuffled the +cards, and his keen, black spark of fire lit up with animation at the +rich prospect before him. "We are losing precious time. I'll be +_banquero_! _Vamanos!_" + +So they began. The cards were dealt, and the betting went on. The padre +forgot breviary and beads in his excitement, and as his little pointings +were swept away, he forgot, too, the sacred ejaculations he was wont to +lard his discourse with, and he became positively profane. The captain +won largely in the beginning, and jeered his _compadre_ with great zest +and enjoyment; but that one-eyed, rapacious old Spanish rascal was not +in the least disturbed, and bided his time. At first the conversation +was light and jovial, Captain Brand insisting upon the doctor describing +minutely how he had hacked his friend Gibbs's leg off with a hand-saw, +laughing hugely thereat, and wiping the icy tears from his cold blue +eyes with his delicate cambric handkerchief. Then the fascinating game +began to fluctuate, and the luck set back with a steady run into the +piles of the banker. Captain Brand liked as little to lose his money as +any other gambler in cards, stocks, or dice, and he was somewhat chafed +in spirit; but what especially irritated him was losing it to that +wrinkle-faced, one-eyed, greedy old scoundrel, with no possible hope of +ever seeing a dollar of it again. As for the padre, he was dead broke; +and since his friends would not lend him a real, and the banker did not +play upon credit, he sat moodily by, and gloated over the winnings of +the Tuerto, cursing his own luck and that of his companions likewise. + +"Ho!" growled Captain Brand, "_maldito a la sota!_ I have lost my last +stake!" + +Even while he spoke the poor little boy murmured in a sobbing voice, +"Mamma, _chere_ mamma!" and turned uneasily in his little nest from his +fitful slumber. + +"That crying imp again!" said the now angry pirate, as he hurled the +padre's half empty gin jug in the direction of the couch, which crashed +against the wall, and fell in a shower of glass splinters over the +little sleeper. + +The child gave one terrified shriek, and, starting from the bed in his +little night-dress, now soiled and torn, he ran and threw himself on his +knees before the doctor. Another bottle was raised aloft by the long +muscular arm of the pirate; but, before you could wink, that arm was +arrested, and the missile twisted from his grasp. + +"For shame, you coward! Don't harm the boy. He will die soon enough in +this awful den without having his brains dashed out." + +"Ho, _Monsieur le Docteur_!" muttered the villain, looking as if he +would like to taste the heart's-blood of the resolute man who stood +before him, as he pushed a hand into his waistcoat pocket, "do you +presume to call names and oppose _my_ will?" + +But, controlling his passion with a violent contortion of face that +would have made one's blood run cold to see it, he changed his tone and +said, + +"Nonsense, doctor; you seem to take rather a strong interest in the +brat--possibly an injudicious one; but, since he is my prize, you know, +by law, come--what will you give for him? Ah! happy thought, we will +play for him! There, deal away, _compadre_. _Sota_ and _cavallo_! I take +the knave again, and you ten doubloons against the boy on the horse." + +The doctor said not a word, but nodded assent, and seemed absorbed in +the game. + +"_Presto!_ Turn the cards, you old sinner! Quick! _Por dios!_ horse has +kicked me, and the knave loses! _Monsieur_, the brat is yours!" + +Then starting up, Captain Brand hastily pulled out his watch, and said, +"_Hola, caballeros_, the time is up! I must say good-night." + +Don Ignacio's brown thin fingers, like a dentist's steel nippers, laid +down the cards, and carefully picked up his winnings, even to the +smallest bit of the precious metal, and dropped it piece by piece into +his long pouch, following them each with his glittering eye, like a +magpie peering into a narrow-necked bottle, and smiling with his +wrinkled old lips as the dull chink of the coin fell upon his ear. When +he had performed this operation, he tied up the mouth of the bag as if +he was choking somebody to death; and then, twitching something which +was partly hidden in his sleeve, he arose in readiness to go out. + +As, however, Captain Brand turned to follow his _compadre_, he looked +carelessly toward the doctor, and said, + +"By the way, monsieur, I have made up my mind with respect to our +conversation to-day, and you _shall_ remain on the island. No thanks. +Adieu. Now, Don Ignacio, if your men and boats are at the cove, we will +make sharp work with your business. _Vamanos!_" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +WORK. + + "Skeleton hounds that will never be fatter, + All the domestic tribes of hell, + Shrieking for flesh to tear and tatter, + Bones to shatter, + And limbs to scatter, + And who it is that must furnish the latter, + Those blue-looking men know well!" + + +When the pirate stood in his saloon on the morning subsequent to the +pleasurable events of the Sunday previous, he, as well as his saloon, +presented altogether a different aspect. The apartment had been stripped +of all its rare and costly furniture, cabinets, candelabra, plate, +china, and glass, and nothing of value was left save the camphor trunks +on the floor, the cane-bottomed settee, a few chairs, and a table. All +the beautiful things, ornamental as well as useful, had disappeared, +even to the rich packages of merchandise in the great vault beneath. The +late possessor, however, of all that worldly wealth did not appear to be +at all discomposed, or to cherish the faintest pang of regret at his +loss. In truth, he seemed to be relieved from an uncomfortable load of +responsibility; and feeling assured, perhaps, that in roaming about the +world he could collect a still more valuable collection--only give him +time--and he would exercise his critical taste with every pleasing +variety. It was thus he consoled himself as he stood there in his now +denuded room, attired in a pair of coarse canvas trowsers, a red flannel +shirt, with a short sharp hanger on his hip, and a double-barreled +pistol in his belt--quite the costume in which he so singularly shocked +Dona Lucia, whose lovely miniature once hung there on the wall in +company with the other miserable victims of his lust. + +Captain Brand had just entered his dwelling, having been up and actively +occupied ever since we last parted with him. Now he had come for a cup +of tea and dry toast; and, while Babette was bringing that simple +breakfast, the pirate stood, tall, erect, and powerful, with one +muscular arm resting high above his head on the side of the doorway, and +the other lying lightly on the shark's-skin hilt of his cutlass, looking +out to seaward--a very model, as he was, of a cool, prudent, desperate +villain. + +"Ah! there you go, you crafty old miser, in your guarda costa! Take +care, my compadre, of that reef. If that felucca's keel touches one of +those coral ledges there won't be a tooth-pick left of her in ten +minutes. San Antonio! but that was a close shave! How the sharks would +rasp your bones, for there's no flesh on them! Grazed clear, eh? +_Bueno!_ now you're in blue water, you rapacious scoundrelly old wretch, +and make the most of it." + +Captain Brand waved his hand in adieu to the felucca, which, with the +wind off shore, had crept through the coral gateway, and, with her great +lateen sail and green glancing bottom, was rising and falling on the +long swell as she slipped away to the eastward. He then gulped down his +tea, made one or two savage bites at his toast, and again walked out to +the veranda, descended the ladder, and took his course toward the +basin. + +There, too, the scene had changed; and instead of the tranquil, shelly +shore, only agitated by the musical rippling from the pure little inlet, +the faint cry of a sea-gull, or the chirps of the lizards in the +crevices of the rocks across the basin, those sounds had given place to +the nimble feet and voices of busy sailors. The "Centipede," also, had +been towed from her moorings to a jetty which projected into the water +from the shore, and there she lay, careened down, her keel half out of +the water, with a dozen of her crew scrubbing her lean sides till the +green-coated copper came flashing out in the sunlight like burnished +gold. With her slanting masts lashed to the jetty, carpenters were +engaged reducing the length of the fore-mast, and trimming out a spar +for a new bowsprit. The long gun, with its carriage, lay near, and +artisans were at work at a temporary forge, hammering out bolts and +straps to replace those which were weakened by long service. On the +shore, too, were a score or more of the piratical gang--Spaniards, +negroes, Indians, Italians, and who not--ferocious-looking scoundrels, +busy as bees, splicing and knotting ropes, stretching new rigging, +cutting running gear from the coils of hemp or Manilla-grass rope, or +making spun-yarn and chafing-mats; while beneath the low mat sheds hard +by, sail-makers were stitching away with their shining needles, making a +set of square sails for the changed rig of the "Centipede," or repairing +old sails. But this was not all; for in a shed beyond was the armorer, +with a few hands, grinding pikes and cutlasses, and cleaning small arms; +while farther still was the gunner and his mate, filling powder-cases +for the long gun and swivels, and making up musket and pistol +ball-cartridges. + +In the midst of all these busy throngs moved Captain Brand, hither and +thither, from vessel to forge, from sails to rigging, giving clear, +sharp directions in various languages--commendation here, reproof +there--inspecting with his own cold eyes every thing; judging of all; +quick, active, ready; never at a loss for an expedient, and urging on +the work like a thorough-bred seaman as he was, who knew his own duty +and how to make others do theirs. So went on the refitting of the +"Centipede," all through the burning hot tropical day; and while the +half-exhausted crew took a respite in the scorching noon for dinner, +still their leader toiled on. Or, if he took a rest, it was in closely +scrutinizing the progress made by his men, in puffing a cigar like to a +small high-pressure engine, or in clambering up the steep face of the +crag to the signal-station, where he would peer away in all directions +around the island--never missing the glance of a pelican's pinion or the +leap of a fish out of water. Then he would return to the cove and begin +anew the work. It was no longer the elegant Captain Brand, in +knee-breeches, point-lace sleeves, and velvet doublet, seated at his +luxurious table, groaning under splendid plate, fine wines, and +brilliant wax-lights, and dispensing a profuse hospitality, but Captain +Brand the pirate, in tarry rig, amid sailors, sails, and cordage, +munching a bit of hard biscuit at times, or a cube of salt-junk out of a +mess kid, but ever ready, never weary, and always up to the professional +mark. + +At the first gray blush of dawn on the following day Captain Brand was +astir again, and before the sun went down behind the waves the schooner +"Centipede" had been transformed into a brigantine, her fore-mast +reduced, new standing rigging fitted for it, with a new bowsprit and +head-booms, her rail raised four or five feet by shifting bulwarks, and +a temporary house built on deck over the long gun. She was also painted +afresh, with a white streak; and, with false head-boards on her bows to +hide her snakelike snout of a cutwater, no one, unless in the secret, +could have known that the clumsy box of a merchantman lying there was +once the low, swift, piratical schooner which had made so notorious a +name in the West Indies. Still the work was driven on with scarcely any +intermission--a few hours' repose for the crew at night, and an hour for +dinner in the day; but as for Captain Brand, he never slept at all--a +doze for an hour or two, perhaps, on his settee in the saloon, and a cup +of tea in the morning, with cigar-smoke, satisfied his frugal +requirements. The next day, by noon, the water and stores were got on +board the brigantine, her magazine stowed, the dunnage of the crew +transferred from the sheds, the captain's camphor trunks on board and +cabin in order, the sails bent, anchors on the bows, and, swinging to a +hawser made fast to the rocks, the vessel was ready to put to sea at any +moment. + +"Pedillo," said Captain Brand, as his vigilant gaze took in all around +him and then rested on the "Centipede"--"Pedillo, you may warp the +vessel down to the mouth of the Tiger's Trap so soon as you've strewed +some fagots ready for lighting in the sheds. When you get to the Trap, +tell the gunner to take a gang of hands and give that battery a good +coat of coal tar, plug the vents of the guns, and bury carriages and +all in the sand beside the magazine. Tell him to destroy the powder, and +pitch overboard all he can't conceal; and let him bear a hand about it, +for we shall sail with the last of the sea-breeze toward sunset. + +"And, Pedillo"--here the pirate's voice dropped to a whisper--"come back +after the vessel is secured, and bring that Maltese fellow without a +nose with you. It will be as well, perhaps, for you to provide yourself +with a few fathoms of raw-hide strips, as we may have occasion to use +it. _Quien sabe?_" + +Senor Pedillo's black wiry beard fairly bristled as he grinned +understandingly at his superior; and, getting into a bit of a canoe at +the jetty, he paddled off to the brigantine to execute his orders. + +Meanwhile Captain Brand slowly bent his steps toward the house under the +crag, and entered his spacious saloon for the last time. On the bare +table, too, was his last dinner, served on a few odd dishes and cracked +plates. + +"Babette, old girl!" said he, as he sat down to this repast, "you have a +bottle of good Madeira, and a flask of Hock left? No?" + +The negress shook her head violently, made the sign of the cross, and by +other telegraphic motions gave her master to understand that Padre +Ricardo had dropped in, drained both bottles, and then had reeled off on +board the brigantine. + +"The drunken selfish beast!" muttered Captain Brand; "it will be the +last taste of wine he will swallow for a long time." + +The pirate was quite correct in his schemes for the padre's reform, for +the next copious draught the holy father imbibed was the briny salt +water from the Caribbean Sea. + +"Well, my Baba, a drop of water, then! Thank you, old lady. Here's to +your health while I am gone. There--you need not blubber so over my +hand--good-by!" And so passed away from Captain Brand's sight the only +creature in the wide world who loved him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +CAUGHT IN A NET. + + "I closed my lids and kept them close, + And the balls like pulses beat; + For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky, + Lay like a load on my weary eye, + And the dead were at my feet." + + +Captain Brand did not linger long over his frugal dinner, and when he +had finished, as if he had not had enough exercise for the last three +days, he began to walk with long nervous strides across the saloon. + +"He called me coward, did he? and dared to lay his hands on me! By my +right arm, my Creole doctor, I'll teach you not to call hard names +again, and I'll paralyze your hands for all time to come." + +The pirate's jaws grated like a rusty bolt as he hissed out these +murderous threats; but as his eye caught the squirming green silk rope +as he swung round on his heel in his walk, he paused and muttered, + +"That bit of stuff may be of use. I'll take it by way of precaution." + +Hereupon he rapidly unrove the cord and coiled it away in the bosom of +his shirt. Then looking at his watch, he said, "Ho! the time approaches, +and here comes Pedillo." + +Lighting a cigar, he left his dwelling for the last time; and, after +pausing to hear a report from Pedillo that his orders had been executed +and the vessel all ready for sea, and whispering a few precise +directions in return, Captain Brand mounted up the steep face of the +crag again, and accosted the signal-man at the station. + +"Any thing in sight?" + +"Nothing to the eastward, _capitano_; but it has been a little hazy here +away to the southward since meridian, and I can hardly see through it." + +"_Bueno_, my man! give me the glass. You can go on board the brigantine. +I'll take a last look myself." + +While the signal-man scrambled down the crag, Captain Brand rested the +spy-glass on the trunk of the single cocoa-nut-tree, whose skeleton-like +fingers of leaves rattled above his head like a gibbeted pirate in +chains, and then he searched steadily along the hazy horizon. As he was +about, however, to withdraw his eye from the tube, something--a mere dim +speck--arrested his attention. Quickly dropping the glass, and as +rapidly rubbing the large lens and carefully adjusting the joints, he +raised it again, as a backwoodsman does his rifle with an Indian for a +mark. For full five minutes the pirate stood as motionless as the crag +beneath him, intently glaring through the tube at the speck in the +distance. At last he let the glass fall at his side, and pulling out his +watch with a jerk, he muttered to himself, + +"It is a large and lofty ship; but, should she be a cruiser after me, +she will find the bird flown and the nest empty. Ho, now for action!" + +Springing down the precipitous declivity as he spoke, he paused a moment +at a loophole of the vault beneath his dwelling, and puffing his cigar +into a bright coal, he carefully twitched the match-rope which led to +the train, opened the loose strands, and placed the fire to it. Waiting +an instant till he saw the nitre sparkle as it ignited, he moved away +with long, swinging strides toward the sheds. There, glancing through +the now deserted halls the crew had occupied, where quantities of +fagots, and kindling-wood, and barrels of pitch were standing, he +continued on till he came to the quarters of the doctor. The doctor was +standing at the open door on the thatched piazza, looking quietly at the +brigantine, whose sails were loosed, and the vessel hanging by a +sternfast, with her head just abreast the Tiger's Trap. + +"Ah! _Monsieur le Docteur_, I have merely called to bid you a final +adieu before I go on board; and as I have a few moments left, and a few +words to say, suppose you walk with me toward the chapel. _Allons!_ +there is a suspicious sail off there," waving his glass in the +direction, "and I wish to take a good look at her." + +"Doctor," continued Captain Brand, as they reached the little esplanade +facing the graves and church, "you will have no one left here on our +island save our dumb Babette, and the chances are rather remote for your +getting away, without, perhaps, some of the West India fleet should +happen to drop in here, which I do not think probable. I rely, however, +upon your keeping your oath, even if they do come, and not betraying the +secrets you are acquainted with." + +The pirate said this in an off-hand, friendly way, as he had his glass +leveled toward the sail he saw in the offing. + +"Captain Brand," replied the doctor, "I was deceived in coming here, as +you well know; but I shall religiously keep my oath for the twenty +years, as I swore to do. After that, if we both live so long, my tongue +and arm shall speak and strike." + +The pirate stepped back a little as he shut up the joints of the +spy-glass with a crash, and, with a scowl of hate and vengeance +combined, he said, in a loud voice, while his cold eyes gleamed like a +ray of sunlight on an iceberg, + +"And I, too, keep my oaths; and, without waiting twenty years, I strike +now!" + +Even while the treacherous villain spoke, two swarthy, sinewy scoundrels +crept stealthily from within the chapel, and, with the soft, slimy +movements of serpents, as their leader uttered the last word, they +sprang at the back of the doctor, and wound their coils around him, +twining strong strands of raw-hide rope about his arms, legs, and body. +Bound as in a frame of elastic steel, their victim was thrown, face +downward, upon the sand. + +"Be quick, Pedillo! the time is flying! Gomez, bring the corpse trestle +from the chapel." + +In a moment a wooden frame with legs, and stretched across with a bed +of light wire, which had been used to carry the mortal remains of +the pirates--and the poor women, too, beside them--to their last +resting-places, was brought out from the little church. Then the +bound victim was laid on it, face upward; again the hide thongs were +passed in numerous plaits until the body was lashed firmly to the +trestle. + +"Place it on the edge of that rock there, with his head toward the +cocoa-nut-tree. Take this silk rope, Gomez, and clove-hitch it well up +the trunk. There, that will do. I myself will perform the last act of +politeness." + +Saying this, the pirate widened the noose of the cord, and, slipping it +over the doctor's head, he placed the knot carefully under his left ear. +The victim gave no groan or sigh, and his dark, luminous eyes were fixed +on the blue sky above him in heaven. + +"_Monsieur le Docteur_," said Captain Brand, as he hurriedly looked at +his watch and raised his hat, "I have but one word of caution to give +you: if you struggle you will have your neck broken before you are stung +to death! Talk as much as you like; but, as Babette is a long way off, +and hard of hearing, I doubt if she comes to your assistance! Adieu!" + +[Illustration: "A DULL, HEAVY, BOOMING ROAR, THAT SHOOK THE CRAG TO ITS +BASE, ANNOUNCED THE RUIN OF THE PIRATES' DEN."] + +The retreating figures went leaping toward the inlet, and, as they +rushed through the sheds, applied a torch to the combustible material +deposited there, and then sprang on toward the Tiger's Trap. A few +minutes afterward the doctor turned his eyes in that direction, and saw +the sails of the brigantine sheeted home and run up like magic; and, +taking the last breath of the sea-breeze on her quarter, the sternfast +was cast off, and she slipped easily out of the gorge-like channel. +Still, as those dark stern eyes watched the receding hull of the +"Centipede," a sudden jar shook the island, a heavy column of white +smoke rose from below the crag like a water-spout, and, spreading out +like a palm-tree, came down in a deluge of timber, stones, and dust, +while sheets of vivid flame leaped out from the gloom, and an awful +peal, followed by a heavy, booming roar, that shook the crag to its +base, announced the ruin of the pirate's den. At the same time the red +fires gleamed in fitful flashes from the sheds, and, rapidly making +headway, all at once burst forth in wild conflagration, till the whole +nest was wrapped in flames. The shock of the explosion and the fires +killed the wind, and a lurid pall of smoke and cinders hung like a +gloomy canopy over the island. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE MOUSE THAT GNAWED THE NET. + + "There passed a weary time. Each throat + Was parched, and glazed each eye. + A weary time! a weary time! + How glazed each weary eye! + When, looking westward, I beheld + A something in the sky." + + +As the powder vomited forth its dreadful thunder, and as the stones and +timbers from the blasted den were hurled high in air, and scattered by +the explosive whirlwind far and near, some of the splinters and +fragments came down in dropping hail upon the red-tiled sheds and the +doctor's dwelling. At the first shock the lonely child started up in his +little bed, and while the earth rocked and the stones came pelting and +crashing on the roof, he screamed, "Mamma! mamma!" No loving echo came +back to those innocent lips, and naught was heard save the crackling of +the flame beyond, licking its tongue along the dry timber and roaring +joyously as it was fed. "Mamma! _chere_ mamma!" + +Yet no answer, and still the savage flames came careering wildly on till +the very stones of the court-yard cracked like slates, while the burning +flakes and cinders loaded the air, and the eddying volumes of smoke +reeled in dense clouds, and poured their suffocating breath into the +room where the forsaken child was crying. + +One more panting, helpless cry, and the little fellow instinctively flew +through the open doorway, where, blinded and choking with the +devastating element around him, he staggered feebly beyond its +influence. Yet again a flurry of thick smoke lighted up the forked and +vivid flames, and chased the child before it. + +Oh, fond mother! in your poignant grief for the loss of your poor +drowned boy, you were spared the agony of seeing him, even in +imagination, struggling faintly before that tempest of fire and smoke, +calling plaintively for her on whose tender bosom his head had rested, +while his naked feet were cut and bruised by the sharp coral shingle +beneath them. But onward and onward the boy wandered, and fortunately +his footsteps took the path into a purer atmosphere which led toward the +chapel. Here he looked timidly around at the lurid glare behind him, and +then entered the church and sank down exhausted, his feverish, smarting +eyes closing in slumber on the hard pavement beneath the image of the +Virgin Mary. + +Then came the close and sultry night--no murmur of a land-wind to drive +the smoky canopy away--the black cinders falling in burning rain on +basin, thicket, and lagoon, till even the very lizards and scorpions hid +themselves deep within the holes and crevices of the rocks. Midnight +came. The dim and silent stars were obscured by a veil of heavy clouds, +and with a low, muttering sound of thunder, the vapory masses unclosed +their portals, and the rain fell in torrents. The flames, now nearly +satisfied with their work, leaped out occasionally from the fallen +ruins, but were quenched by the tropical deluge, and smouldered away +amid the charred and saturated timbers. Then the thunder ceased, the +lizards and scorpions came from their retreats, the teal fluttered over +the lagoon, and the noise of the waves bursting over the reef came again +to the ear. Still there was no breath of air; the atmosphere was thick +and damp; and out from the mangrove thickets and wide expanse of cactus, +swarms of insects, musquitoes, and sand-flies in myriads went buzzing +and singing in the sultry, murky night. + +So dragged on the weary hours until day broke again, and the sea-birds +floated off seaward for their morning's meal, and the flying-fish +skipped with their silvery wings from wave to wave, as the dolphins +glittered in gold and purple after them below the blue water. No bright +and blazing sun came over the hills of Cuba to light up this picture, +but all was blight and gloom, with murky masses of dead, still clouds +hanging low down over the island. + +The little suffering boy, lying there on the coral pavement, with his +head resting on the thin, delicate arm, with pale, sweet face turned +half upward toward the Virgin, gave a feeble cry and opened his eyes. He +rose to a sitting posture, with his little hands resting on his lap and +little ragged shirt. Then, with his dim hazel eyes fixed upon the +painting, while the tears coursed slowly down his pallid cheeks, he put +forth his hands in a childish movement of supplication, and murmured +again his tearful prayer, "Mamma! mamma!" + +Presently rising, he turned his feeble footsteps toward the doorway, and +as his eye caught the stone bowl of holy water standing on its coral +pedestal near the portal, he bent down his feverish head and slaked his +parched lips. Revived by this, he timidly looked out from the chapel, +and shuddering as he beheld the gloomy wilderness around, he once more +screamed in a thin piercing cry, "Mamma! oh, _ma chere_ mamma!" + +That was the last sad wail for help for many and many a long year that +those infant lips were destined to utter; and when he again called upon +that dear name, his manly arms would clasp a joyful mother to his +swelling heart. + +"Henri!" came back like an echo in a clear shout to the shriek of the +boy. "Henri! Henri!" was reiterated again and again, each time in a +voice that seemed to split asunder the canopy of clouds above. + +The boy started and listened. + +"Henri! Henri! this way to your good friend the doctor! Quick, my little +boy!" + +Now with the step of a fawn the child ran out upon the sharp sandy +esplanade, and following the voice as he tripped lightly through the +narrow pathway between the needle-pointed cactus, in a moment he +stopped, with a look of horror, beside the trestle on which the bound +and nearly naked man was stretched. + +Ay, it was a sight to make a strong and stalwart man turn pale with +sickness and horror, much less a baby-boy of three or four years old. +There lay the man, all through the dreadful night, with swarms on swarms +and myriads upon myriads of stinging insects, biting and sipping, and +sucking his life-blood with distracting agony away. Ah! think of the +hellish torture often practiced by those bloody pirates upon their +victims in the West Indies! The bound man's eyes were closed, the lips +and cheeks puffed and swollen out of all human proportions, and the +inflamed body was one glowing red and angry surface. No needle could +have been stuck where the venomous stings of a thousand sand-flies or +musquitoes had not already sucked blood. Ay, well might the child start +back with horror! + +"It is your friend the doctor, Henri," he said in French, still in a +strong but kindly voice. "I can not see you, but get me a knife. No, my +child, never mind--you can not find one; don't leave me." + +Here the child timidly put his little hands out and brushed away the +poisonous insects, and then touched the doctor's face. + +"Ah! Henri, see if you can not slip that pretty silk rope over my head; +yes, that is the way--_doucement_--easily, my child! Well, now, my +Henri, you are weak and sick, my poor little boy; but listen to me--yes, +I feel your little hands on my eyes. Well, bite upon that cord that goes +across my throat. Bite till it snaps asunder! I am nearly choking, +little one; but don't cry." + +True, the strips of raw-hide, which had partially slackened in the rain +that had washed the body of the victim, now began to tauten again in the +sultry heat of the morning, and lay half hidden in the swollen throat, +stomach, and limbs of the tortured sufferer. + +Henri's sharp little teeth fastened upon the strand, biting and gnawing, +until finally it was severed, and the doctor gave a great sigh of +relief. + +[Illustration: "AH! HENRI, SEE IF YOU CAN NOT SLIP THAT PRETTY SILK ROPE +OVER MY HEAD."] + +"Blessings on you, my poor boy!" he murmured, painfully. "Now bite away +on the strands which bind the arm. There! Don't! don't hurry! Rest a +little, my child! Ah! it is well!" + + Again those sharp little teeth of a mouse had gnawed through the net +which bound the lion-hearted man; the ends of the raw-hide drew back and +twisted into spiral curls, and the right arm, though numbed and four +times its original size, was free. + +"Thanks be to God for all His mercies!" exclaimed the doctor, as with +difficulty he raised his released arm to his face and pushed back the +swollen lids from his closed eyes--"and to you, my little friend, for +saving this wretched life!" + +Waiting a few moments to recover his strength, the doctor made a mighty +effort, and some of the coils whose strands had been cut by those little +teeth yielded and gradually unrove, so as to leave the upper part of his +body free. Then, while the child was once more cutting the lashings of +his feet, he himself unfastened the knots of his left arm, and by a +vigorous effort he tore the net from off him and sat upright. Clasping +his numbed and swollen hands together, he turned his face and almost +sightless eyes to heaven. + +"May this awful trial serve as a partial forgiveness of my sins, and +make me a better man!" + +He paused, and laid his heavy arms around the child, while warm and +grateful tears trickled down his cheeks. Slowly, and like a drunken man, +his feet sought the sand, and then, weak, trembling, and faint, he +staggered along the path, the boy tripping lightly before him, till he +fell exhausted on the floor of the chapel. + +"Water, my Henri! water!" + +The child scooped it out from the stone bowl with his tiny hands and +sprinkled it on his friend's face. + +"There, that will suffice, my brave boy! Lay your cheek to mine!" + +What a sight it was--that dark, swollen, yet powerful frame lying on the +coral pavement, and the innocent child, like a dewdrop on the leaf of a +red tropical flower, nestling close beside it! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE HURRICANE. + + "'Twas off the Wash--the sun went down--the sea looked black and + grim, + For stormy clouds with murky fleece were mustering at the brim; + Titanic shades! enormous gloom! as if the solid night + Of Erebus rose suddenly to seize upon the light! + It was a time for mariners to bear a wary eye, + With such a dark conspiracy between the sea and sky!" + + +Past a September noon. The great canopy of dark, murky clouds fell lower +and lower, until they nearly touched the earth, wrapping as in a blanket +the single cocoa-nut-tree on the crag, and shutting out the light and +air of heaven as they settled over the noxious lagoon, the mangrove +thickets, and pure inlet. The sea-birds came screaming in from seaward, +fluttering their wide-spread wings in the sultry atmosphere, and +alighting on the smooth rocks, where they furled their pinions and put +their heads together. The flying-fish no longer skimmed over the waves, +and the dolphin and shark sank deep down in the blue water, or lay still +and quiet beside the coral groves. The rolling, swelling ocean of the +tropic, with its glassy, greasy surface unruffled by the faintest air, +rolled heavily on until it struck the coral ledge, when, with a dull, +heavy roar, it broke over in creamy foam, and came sluggishly in to the +sandy beach. There the tiny waves lashed the shelly strand, and all was +still again. No sun; no breeze; and even the birds, and serpents, and +insects gasped for breath. The fish below the sea, the animated nature +above, and the very leaves and vines of the forests and thickets knew +what was brewing in the great vacuum around. + +Slowly and painfully the man in the chapel regained his feet, and with +the child by the hand, moved on to the farthest corner by the rude +altar, where he sank down again, and, clasping the boy to his heart, +waited in breathless awe. As if the powder and flames had not done their +destructive work, the wrath of heaven was to be poured out over the +devoted den of the pirates. + +Then came a bellowing roar as a current of wind swept over the sea, +cutting a pathway in the blue water, and scooping it up in an impalpable +mist, hurrying on to the low beach of the island, and tearing the sand +and shells up in heaps--and then a lull. Now, as if all the demons of +winds had let loose their cavernous lungs from the four quarters of the +earth, and like the shocks of artillery, volley upon volley, came the +hurricane. The sea became one boiling, seething, hissing surface of +foam, pressed and flattened by the weight of the tempest, which laid the +black rocks bare on the ledge, and drove the water into both mouths of +the inlet, until, with a crashing shock, it met in the basin, and broke +over and over the cove, and high up the wall of rocks on the other side. +Two or three streams of whirlwind meeting, too, over the island, drove +the lagoon hither and thither, catching up the white pond-lilies by +their long stems, twisting off the dense thickets of mangroves by the +roots, burrowing holes in the sandy beds of the cactus, and shearing off +their flat, thorny leaves and needle points by the acre together; then a +rushing whirl around the cocoa-nuts, bowing their tufted tops at first +till they nearly touched the earth, when, the stout trunks snapping like +glass, they would go pitching and tossing from base to crown, careering +and dancing aloft, borne away with sand and mangrove, cactus, flowers, +and sticks, into the flying clouds before the hurricane. Then another +lull; and from the opposite direction again thundered the terrible +breath of the demons, sweeping thousands of sea-birds, with broken +pinions, screaming amid the gale, hurling them against the crag, +stripping the feathers from their crushed carcasses, and in a moment +burying them a foot deep in clouds of sand. No more pauses or lulls now +in the hurtling tempest; but with a steady, tremendous roar, which made +the earth tremble, the rocks quake, and laid every vestige of vegetation +flat to the ground, it came on mightier and mightier, and fiercer and +fiercer, with black masses of never-ending clouds sweeping close down +like dark midnight, as if heaven and earth had come together. All +through the gloomy day and through the night this elemental war, with +its legions of careering demons, continued to lash the sea and smite the +land; until, as if satiated with vengeance, the clouds belched forth in +red lightning, vomiting out peal upon peal of awful thunder as a parting +salute, and then, moderating down to a hard gale from another quarter, +broke away. The blue sky appeared, and the glorious sun once more came +up in his majesty over the distant hills of Cuba. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +THE VIRGIN MARY. + + "A weary weed, tossed to and fro, + Drearily drenched in the ocean brine, + Soaring high and sinking low, + Lashed along without will of mine; + Sport of the spoom of the surging sea; + Flung on the foam, afar and near, + Mark my manifold mystery-- + Growth and grace in their place appear." + + +With the boy clasped to his heart, the doctor sat beside the altar of +the chapel during all the direful strife without, shielding his little +charge from the clouds of fine sand and rubbish that every few minutes +came swirling within the temple, dashing the padre's candlesticks into +battered lumps of brass on the pavement, and tearing to atoms the votive +offerings hung around the walls by the pirates. But, as if in mercy to +the trustful souls lying there, the Virgin Mary still looked down in +sweet pity upon them, and the little chapel stood unharmed. + +When at last, however, the hurricane's back was broken, and Aeolus had +reined up his maddened chargers and curbed their flying wings, and when +all the demons of the wind had gone moaningly back to their caverns in +the clouds, the doctor arose, and with the boy beside him, knelt +devoutly before the altar while he uttered a fervent prayer of +thanksgiving. + +"Come, my Henri, now we may go out and see if we can find something to +eat and drink. You are weak and hungry, my poor little boy; but you +shall not suffer much longer." + +That strong man, with the heart of a gentle woman, had no thought of how +ill, and famished, and thirsty he himself was from the terrible torture +he had endured. No, he only thought of the child who had saved him. + +In front of the chapel the sand and bushes were piled up in ridgy heaps, +the coral wall around the cemetery had been thrown down, while the flat +head-stones over the pirates' graves had disappeared entirely. Not so, +however, with the white slabs near by where those poor doomed women were +lying; for the hurricane had spared their tombs, and a pall of pure +white sand was sprinkled evenly over their remains. Bending over them +was the trunk of the cocoa-nut, with its top stripped and its leafless +branches quivering in the wind; while from below them streamed out the +long, thin green silk rope which had so often served Captain Brand, the +pirate, for his private executions. Near at hand lay the trestle on +which the doctor had been stretched--caught by the base of the cocoa-nut +column, and half buried in sand--while the cruel strips of raw-hide +which had lashed the victim down were tied and twisted into a maze of +complicated knots by the nimble fingers of the winds. + +The doctor started, and his half-closed eyes shot out gleams of anger as +he beheld the unconscious implements designed for his torturing murder; +and leaving the child at the doorway to the chapel, he sallied out, +detached the rope, loosened the trestle from its sandy bed, and placed +them in a corner of the chapel. + +Then carefully picking his way, with the boy in his great arms, over +the trees and debris which obstructed the pathway, he speedily +reached the site on which had stood the sheds of the "Centipede's" +crew. Fire, water, and wind had done their work effectually, though +the fire had partially spared the detached storehouse and shed which +he had shared with the infamous padre. All else was a ruin of loose +blocks of stone, broken tiles, nearly buried in banks of sand. From a +well in the once busy court-yard, and which had also escaped the +devouring elements, the doctor drew a bucket or two of water, in which +he slaked the boy's thirst and then his own, and afterward poured water +over their bodies. Then, from a still smouldering beam which puffed out +at intervals a thin curl of smoke from beneath one of the sheds, he +lit a fire in the court-yard, while from the wreck of the storeroom he +succeeded in rescuing some hard biscuit and a ham. This last he tore +in shreds, and placing them on sticks before the fire, they were +thus enabled to make a hearty meal, first providing for the wants of +the child, however--soaking the biscuit for him, as if it were his first +duty on earth. Again raising the boy in his arms, he passed from the +ruined sheds and bent his steps toward Captain Brand's former dwelling. +The road was heaped with shells and sand, strewed with shoals of dead +fish and wounded or dying birds, while the wreck of a boat, mingled with +the timbers and planks of the jetty to the basin, were lying pell-mell +on the beach of the little cove. Casting his eyes around in search +of the once spacious dwelling, with its vaults, veranda, and saloon, he +could hardly at first trace a vestige of the structure. The powder, +more destructive even than the hurricane, had tossed walls and +building into a confused heap of rubbish; then came the wind and sand +on top of the rocks which had tumbled down by the concussion of the +first explosion, and then the water, packing all together as if no +habitation had ever existed there. The doctor walked slowly around +until he came to the angle where the kitchen once was, and there, three +fourths hidden beneath a mass of blackened stones and charred timber, +peered forth the white skeleton of a human being. The flesh had been +seared and burned from the face and skull by the instantaneous flash +of the powder, and there lay the remains of Babette, whitely bleached, +as if she had been thrown a lifeless corpse on the sea-beach. A few +yards below this frightful spectacle lay a number of shattered boxes +and trunks, then a confused bundle of clothes, and a sandy saturated +collection of kitchen utensils and crockery. Yes, the poor dumb woman, +the creature and witness of many a cruel scene, ignorant or uncertain +of the warning given her by the master she loved, had fallen another +tribute to his long list of victims. + +The doctor only waited long enough to select a few necessary articles +from the heterogeneous heap before him, and then, with the child still +clinging contentedly to his shoulder, he returned to the chapel. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE ARK THAT JACK BUILT. + + "Good heaven, befriend that little boat, + And guide her on her way! + A boat, they say, has canvas wings, + But can not fly away; + Though, like a merry singing-bird, + She sits upon the spray." + + +The land wind sighed and murmured; the sea-breeze wafted its rustling +influence over the waves; the long swells broke over the ledge; the +inlet flowed pure and limpid; and the gulls and sea-mews floated +gracefully over the reef, as if a hurricane had never poured its baneful +wrath upon it or the lonely island. + +Day by day and week by week, the man and boy, getting each hour stronger +and better, worked and worked. He with his great arms hewing and sawing, +and the child attending upon him like a shadow. By great toil and +exertion the doctor had succeeded in placing some of the timbers of the +jetty together as launching-ways, and on the cradle he had laid the +wreck of the old boat. Then, with an old saw and some tools he found +near the site of the mat sheds by the cove, he began to build the frail +ark which was to carry him and the child from the hated island. From the +storehouse, too, he obtained plenty of provisions to supply their wants, +and old sails and rope he found in abundance. Babette's collection of +worldly wealth provided them with linen and clothing, together with +utensils for eating and drinking; and he had made their dwelling in the +little chapel clean and habitable. Here they slept by night on an old +sail, and soundly too, the sleep of repentance and innocence. With the +early morning the man and the boy arose, and took their way to the cove. +The little fellow was clean and tidy now, dressed in a little loose +calico frock, and a queer contrivance of an old bonnet fashioned out of +Babette's gear, and on his feet were a pair of little canvas slippers, +stitched for him by his protector. After a bath in the basin of the +inlet the fire was kindled, and the simple breakfast prepared. Then, +while the strong man hewed, and sawed, and hammered beneath a temporary +awning which covered the open workshop, the boy would pick up shells +along the cove, or with a little rod and line, seated on a flat rock +near by, jerk out fish from the basin to serve for dinner. Sometimes he +would wander about in search of nails and spikes for the boat, or gather +sticks for the fire, but never out of hail, and never beyond the +watchful eyes of his friend. Yes, those watchful, kind eyes followed his +slightest movements; and while the hammer was going in vigorous blows on +the planks, or the axe chipping away a timber, his pleasant voice sang +Creole songs to the child, or encouraged his innocent prattle. A loaded +musket, which, with some ammunition, he had dug out from the wreck of +his old quarters, stood leaning against an upright post under the shade, +and woe to the man or beast that might have dared to approach the boy! +In the burning heat of the tropical day the labor ceased, and the child +either lay on his back on the soft sand beneath the awning, kicking up +his little legs, watching the small gulls as they skimmed across the +basin, or, with his brown curly head resting on the doctor's knees, +slept sweetly. Happy and contented he was, too, with the return of +health and strength; and if his budding memory looked back to her he had +lost, and the recollection of his faithful Banou, it was only for a +moment, and, like a childish dream, it passed away. + +[Illustration: BUILDING THE BOAT.] + +Every evening at sunset, when the work was done for the day, the doctor, +with Henri in his arms and the musket on his shoulder, would climb the +crag, and peer all around the island; but never a sail did he see from +the hour the "Centipede" spread her canvas, while he lay helplessly +bound on the trestle with the green noose around his neck. As the +twilight faded, the sole human occupants of the island returned to the +chapel, and when they had said a simple prayer, kneeling before the +Virgin, they laid themselves down on their canvas bed to rest till the +dawn. Many a silent hour in the watches of the tedious night did the +doctor lie awake, while the cool sweet breath of the child fanned his +cheek as he lay nestling beside him, pondering and wondering on the fate +of his charge. He knew absolutely nothing about his history save that he +had been pitched overboard from the brig the pirates were robbing; but +what was the name or nation of the vessel, where from, or whither bound, +he was in utter ignorance. He had questioned the leader Gibbs on that +occasion after the chase by the corvette, when he had lopped off the +brute's leg; but, what with suffering and drink, the ruffian had either +forgotten the brig's name, or feigned to, and all he could impart was +the belief that she was an English trader. Even from the boy, too, the +doctor could elicit nothing of importance, though day by day he tried +every means of leading the child's mind back to the past, but always +with the same result. + +"_Oui, ma chere mama! Bon Banou!_" and "_Ma petite cousine, Rosalie!_" +These were the only words the little fellow had to link his fate with +the future, and even they became fainter and fainter on his mind and +tongue as the time passed on. With this delicate web around the destiny +of the child, and that he spoke French, and had evidently been tenderly +nurtured, the doctor was forced to be content. + +Well, so the days and nights went by, and so the work went on, and the +little ark began to assume a wholesome look, and to be capable of +plowing the distant main. Then, when she was planked up, with a gunwale +on, and half-decked over forward, she was calked, and the seams payed +with pitch. When all ready for launching, early one morning the doctor +and the boy went gayly down to the cove. There, as the first golden rays +of the rising sun shot athwart the inlet, Henri stood up in the bows, +and with a large pearl-shell of pure spring water, he waved his tattered +bonnet round his curly locks, and with childish delight, as the vessel +began to move, he emptied the shell of its sparkling treasure, shouting, +as she slid off the ways into the basin, "_Ma petite cousine Rosalie!_" +The builder, too, took off his hat and shouted, in his deep bass, till +the rocks gave back the echo of "_Rosalie! Rosalie!_" + +Thus was the ark launched and christened by her captain and crew, +and there she rode on the basin, a little pinnace of about ten tons, +which had been once used to carry anchors, chains, and stores about the +harbor. A week or two more, and she was fitted with a single mast, +stepped well in the bows, for a jib and one square lug-sail. Then +ballast in bags of sand was laid along her keelson, and a couple of +breakers of fresh water got on board, together with a quantity of +cooked salt meat and hard biscuit stowed away under the half-deck +forward--where, too, was a cozy little nest of spare canvas, with an +oakum pillow, for the boy! Yes, there lay the good ship "Rosalie," +outward bound, with sails bent and gear rove, cargo on board, and +waiting for a wind. + +Meanwhile the doctor had tried her under sail, and satisfied himself +that every thing worked well, and that she was in proper trim. Then he +moored her within a fathom from the shore, and waited for a moon to +light him on his voyage. Whither? + +Carefully, too--like one who had passed a lifetime on the ocean, from +the China Seas to the broad Atlantic, under the suns of the tropics as +well as in the dim gloom of high latitudes--the doctor studied the +clouds and watched their course, noting the flight of the birds in the +air and the track of fish in the sea. At last the trade breezes began to +blow regularly and steadily; the land winds, too, in the gray of the +morning, fluttered timidly away out to sea, and the round pearly moon +shone bright and mellow over rock and water. + +"To-morrow, my brave boy, we shall sail away from the island. Ah! you +clap your hands, eh? Yes, we shall go to find mamma!" This was said as +man and child stood for the last time on the lofty crag, while the +former ranged his dark eyes scrutinizingly around the horizon. Nothing +in sight! + +Once more to their chapel of refuge, where, for the first time in all +their association, putting the child to sleep by himself, the doctor sat +down on the trestle by the entrance, and, lighted by the brilliant moon, +he caught up the tangled mazes of the hide net which had bound him, and +sedulously applied himself to a task before him. + +Any one who has seen the effect produced by a violent gale upon the +tattered shreds of a shivered main-top-sail, bound up into the most +tortuous knots that it is possible to conceive of, and so hard and solid +that you might saw the canvas balls in slices like boards, may form some +idea of the task the doctor had imposed upon himself to loosen the hide +strands tied together by the furious fingers of the hurricane. Patiently +and quietly, with no sign of temper, he applied himself to the work, and +with nothing but a sharp-pointed spike to aid his hands, he began to +unravel, bit by bit, the laced knots and bunches of raw-hide, without +ever cutting a strand, until, as the moon sank glimmering down, the +tangled mass lay in clear coils beside him--though in several pieces, +where it had been severed by the teeth of that little mouse purring +behind the altar--and the task was done. Then raising the trestle, he +bore it within the altar, and with the now unraveled coil of hide, and +the softer silk rope for a pillow, he again stretched himself upon what +once had been his bed of torture. + +For what possible object all this labor had been undertaken, or for what +future purpose--vague they must have been--no one but the persevering +man who did it can tell; and there he lay, no sound coming from his +compressed lips till the day dawned. Then he arose, and, kneeling over +the sleeping child, he again solemnly repeated the oath he had before +taken in his hut-- + +"Sleeping or waking, on land or sea, I devote the remainder of my +wretched life to returning this lost child to his mother. So help me +God!" + +The little boy stirred, as if the angels and the sweet Virgin were +whispering their protecting power over him, and, with a smile dawning +upon his rosy, dimpled cheeks, he raised the lids from his bright hazel +eyes, and put his fat round arms around the doctor's neck. If two great +drops fell upon that upturned innocent little face from the dark full +eyes bending over him, they were not tears of sorrow! Oh, no! It was the +dew of hope and trustfulness falling from the soul of a repentant sinner +relying upon an all-wise Providence. + +"Come, my Henri, say your little prayer of the morning, and we will go." +The man had taught the child that little prayer which he himself had +learned at his mother's knee. + +Up again to the crag, and down to the shelly margin of the shore; and a +long look the man gave at the ruin of shed and den, as he gently placed +the child on a sand-bag in the stern-sheets of the ark. Then he cast +off the rope which held the vessel to the hated strand, hoisted the +sail, and, as she bubbled along the inlet with the first sigh of the +land wind, he stood at the helm with his bare head lighted up by the +beams of the rising sun, and his lips moved in prayer. + +On, noiselessly through the Tiger's Trap sailed the little pinnace till +she bowed her rugged cutwater in the yielding waves, and with her square +lug-sail swelling gently to the freshening breeze, she held her course +to sea. I question much if the stanch brigantine, named the "Centipede," +which had preceded her through this tiger's gorge, with all the +ruffianly crew that manned her, and their villainous captain on her +quarter-deck, stood half the chance of a prosperous voyage as the tiny +ark, called the "Rosalie," which followed, with her noble, brave +commander, and his weak and boyish mate. Who can tell? + +END OF PART I. + + + + +PART II. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +LAYING UP THE STRANDS. + + "Ever drifting, drifting, drifting + On the shifting + Currents of the restless main, + Till in sheltered coves and reaches + Of sandy beaches, + All have found repose again." + + +It was in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twenty-two, and in +the broad and commodious harbor of Kingston, a great mercantile haven, +crowded with shipping from all parts of the commercial globe; landlocked +by reef and ridge, with the rocks and heights crowned by frowning +batteries of heavy cannon; while beyond were spread the lower and upper +town, in masses of low two-story buildings, with piazzas, bright green +jalousies, stately palm, tamarind, and cocoa-nut-trees waving above +them. At the mouth of the harbor strait, where stands Fort Augusta, lay +a magnificent double-banked American frigate, with a broad blue +swallow-tailed pennant at her main, standing out stiff, like a dog-vane, +from the lofty mast, as the ship rode to the strong sea-breeze. + +The stays and rigging came down from trucks, cross-trees, and tops in +straight black lines, from the great length of lower masts and +enormously square yards fore and aft; and from side to side, till they +met the long majestic hull and taper head-booms; while below were two +rows of ports, with the guns run out and the brass tompions gleaming in +their muzzles. The awnings were spread in one flat extended sheet of +white cotton canvas from bowsprit to taffrail, and from the wide-spread +lower booms at the fore-chains boats were riding by their painters. +Within a cable's length of the frigate's black quarter lay a low rakish +schooner, like a minnow alongside a whale, with a thin little coach-whip +streaming from her main-mast head, a long brass gun amidships, and +looking as trig and tidy as a French maid beside her portly mistress. + +The bell struck in twin notes _eight_ on board the frigate, echoed back +from the pigmy schooner in a faint, double succession of tinkles; the +whistles resounded from deck to deck in ear-splitting notes, surging and +chirruping all together, and then suddenly ceasing with a rattling beat +of a drum and a short bellow of "Grog, ho!" + +Between the guns of the main deck, and about the spar-deck battery +forward of the main-mast, sat five hundred lusty sailors on the white +decks around their mess-cloths, bolting hot pea soup after their grog, +and chatting and laughing in a devil-may-care sort of a strain, as if +the grub was good and the timbers sound, as they were, of the stanch +frigate beneath them. No noise, no confusion, but just as polite and +courteous, in their honest, seamanlike way, as half a legion of French +dancing-masters, they whacked off the salt pork before them with their +sheath-knives, munching the flinty biscuit, and all as happy and +careless of the past and future as clams at high water. Ay, there they +clustered, those five hundred sailors, in their snowy duck trowsers and +white, coarse linen frocks, with the blue collars laid square back over +their broad shoulders, exposing their bronzed and hairy throats, wagging +their jaws, and ready at any moment, at the tap of the drum, day or +night, to spring to the guns, and make the battery dance a jig as the +solid iron food went amid sheets of flame toward a foe. Yes, and ready, +too, in the gentle breeze or the howling tempest, to leap at the shrill +pipe of the whistle from the busy deck or their snug hammocks, and, like +so many monkeys, jump up the shrouds, lie out on the enormous yards +while the frigate was plunging bows under in the tumultuous seas, grasp +the writhing canvas in their sinewy paws, and wrap it up close and tight +in the hempen gaskets. Man-of-war sailors, for battle, or gale, or +spree, every one of them. + +On board that little consort near were about forty more of the same +sort, only older, more bronzed, and more deliberate and methodical in +manner, sipping their pea pottage after blowing away the steam, cutting +their pork after much reflection, and cracking their biscuit tranquilly. +Their conversation, too, was slow and dignified, each word well +considered before it came out, and never interrupting one another in a +yarn, as did the younger harum-scarum chaps in the big ship near. But +yet those weather-beaten old sons of Neptune, who had each one of them +seen sights that would make your hair stand on end to think of, could +handle that schooner when her low deck was buried waist-deep to the +combings of the main hatch in angry water, and make that Long Tom +amidships there spin round on its pivot, and never threw away idly one +of its solid globular messengers. Ay, trust them for that. + +Then honor to them all, those gallant tars who have fought the battles +of our country by sea and lake, and upheld those Stars and Stripes +until they are respected to the uttermost ends of the earth! Glory to +them, ye wise legislators, who sit in council upon the nation's wealth +and grandeur! Think of the fearless arms that have shielded your +otherwise unprotected shores when circled in a ring of dreadful fire +from the guns of a haughty foe. + +[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES FRIGATE "MONONGAHELA."] + +And you, too, ye rich traders! whose valuable cargoes roll hither and +thither over the trackless deep, cared for by those toiling tars who +fight and bleed for the flag that waves o'er your treasure--in stinging +gale, with frozen fingers, or under burning suns, with panting +breasts--think of them when your noble ships come gallantly into your +superb ports, and unlade their floating mines of wealth into your +spacious warehouses, while you in your lordly mansions sip your wine! +Think of those arms grasping the shivering sail in the mighty tempest, +in the black night, and the coarse fare they eat, the sometimes putrid +water they drink, and the hard beds they lie upon, while you are +reposing on downy pillows with your wives and little ones beside you! +Ah! take pity on the sailor, and scatter your shining gold over him in +his distress. + +When the time comes, as come it may, when the cannon of a hostile fleet +are thundering at your ports; when your lumbering craft are flying +before the rapacious grasp of quick-heeled cruisers, and fiery bombs are +hissing through the pure air, bursting in your marble palaces and +blasting your stores of wealth to dust, _then_ you will turn with +blanched faces to the sea, and wonder why you have so long forgotten the +noble hearts and stalwart arms that once were thrown around you. But not +before. + +On the flush quarter-deck of the frigate, by the raised signal lockers +abaft, stood a bronzed old quarter-master, a spy-glass resting on his +arm, through which every minute he peered around the harbor, giving an +eye, too, occasionally to the half-hour glass, whose sands dribbled +steadily into the lower bulb on the locker beside him. + +What cared he--no wife or child to cheer him! No cares save but to see +that the ensign did not roll foul of the halyards, that the broad +pennant blew out straight, that the half-hour glass did not need +turning, and that no boat approached the frigate without his reporting +it to the officer of the watch. Naught else save, perhaps, whether the +other old quarter-master, Charley Holmes, down below there on the +gun-deck, had wiped from his lips the moisture of the midday grog, and +would be up in time to take the relief while the pea soup was warm. +Nothing else. + +The lieutenant of the watch briskly paced the solid deck, scrubbed white +as milk with lime-juice and molasses, the even seams between the planks +glistening like the strands of a girl's raven tresses as his profane and +rapid feet pressed upon them. What thought he in his careless walk, with +the gleaming bunch of bullion on his right shoulder, sword by his side, +white trowsers, and gilt eagle buttons on his navy-blue coat? + +He was thinking how his pittance of pay would support, in a scrimpy way, +his poor mother and sister, who looked unto him as their only hope and +refuge. And he thought, too, as he tramped that noble deck, made +glorious by many a battle and victory in which he had borne a humble +part, that his rich and powerful country would eventually reward him +with increased pay and promotion. Were the single dollar which lay alone +in his trowsers pocket, and the light mist which arose off there beyond +the Apostles' Battery, opposite Port Royal Harbor, an evidence of one or +a sign of the last aspiration? We hope not; but we shall see.[*] + +Three or four midshipmen, too, pranced over that frigate's white +quarter-deck, on the port side, in their blue jackets and duck trowsers. +Little gay madcaps they were, scarcely well into their teens, with +little glittering toasting-forks of dirks dangling at their sides, and +ready for any lark or mischief. + +And what thought those boyish imps of reefers? Did they trace the flight +of that tropic man-of-war bird, sailing high up in the heavens, heading +seaward, away into the distant future, through clouds and sunshine, rain +and storm? And did they think, as they fluttered along the deck, that +their own career might lead them in that direction, toward the star of +promotion which shone so brightly near at hand, and was never reached; +or else, by a chance shot, to come tumbling down with a crippled pinion, +and hobble out their lives on shore? No. Those gay young blades, whose +mothers were dreaming and sighing for them, had no reflections of that +kind. They were chattering about the little frolic they had on their +last liberty day, when the captain ordered them off to the frigate at +sunset, and planning another for the week to come. Happy little scamps, +let them dance their careless thoughts away! + +"Two bells, sir," said the quarter-master to the officer of the watch. + +"Very good! Young gentlemen, tell the boatswain to turn the hands to, +and have the barge manned. Let the first lieutenant and the marine +officer know that the commodore is going to leave the ship. There, no +larking on the quarter-deck, Mr. Mouse!" + +This last command was addressed to a tiny youngster who was hardly big +enough to go without pantalettes, much less to wear a jacket and order +half a hundred huge sailors about, any one of whom was old enough to be +his great-grandfather. But yet that small lad did it, and could steer a +boat, too, or fly about like a ribbon in a high wind up there in the +mizzen-top, while the men on the yard were taking the last reef in the +top-sail. + +"Go down to the cabin, sir, and let the commodore and his friend know +the boat is ready." + +Down the ladder skipped Mr. Mouse, and while he was gone, the guard, in +their white summer uniform and cross-belts, stood at ease, resting on +their muskets on the quarter-deck, eight side-boys and the boatswain at +the starboard gangway, with the first lieutenant and the officer of the +watch standing near. + +Presently there came up from the after cabin hatchway a fine, handsome +man, in the very prime of life, in cocked hat, full-dress coat, a pair +of gleaming epaulets, sword by his hip, and his nether limbs cased in +white knee-breeches, silk stockings, and pumps. The one who followed him +was apparently a much older man, with grizzled locks, a dark, stern +face, and without epaulets. The first raised his hat as he stepped on +the quarter-deck--not a thread of silver was seen in his dark hair--and +then both bowed to the officers, who saluted them as they moved toward +the gangway. The boatswain piped, the marines presented arms, the drum +gave three quick rolls, and the commodore went over the gangway, +preceded by his companion. + +----- + + [*] This was written before the "Pay Bill" was passed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +OLD FRIENDS. + + "What though when storms our bark assail, + The needle trembling veers, + When night adds horror to the gale, + And not a star appears? + True to the pole as I to thee, + It faithful still will prove-- + An emblem dear of constancy, + And of a sailor's love." + + +The barge left the side of the frigate, a broad blue pennant with white +stars on a staff at her bow, with fourteen handsome sailors to man her, +all in clean white frocks and trowsers, with straw hats and flowing +black ribbons around them, on which was stamped in gold letters, +"Monongahela." + +The double bank of white ash oars flashed in the rippling waves of the +harbor as the barge was urged over the water, the current seething and +buzzing under her bows, and bubbling into her wake as she flew on toward +the town. In a mahogany box at the stern sat a bushy-whiskered coxswain, +whose body swayed to the stroke of the oars, while his hand grasped the +brass tiller as he steered amid the shipping. The commodore had settled +himself down under the boat's awning on the snow-white covered cushions +in the stern-sheets, and, with one foot resting on the elegant ash +grating beneath, he began to talk to the grave gentleman who sat +opposite to him. + +"It is many a long year since I last visited this superb harbor, but I +remember it as if it were yesterday. You never were here before, I +think? No? Well, if any of the old set I once knew, when I was first +lieutenant of the old 'Scourge,' are yet alive, we shall have a pleasant +time!" + +"One fine fellow," went on the commodore, "I know is. His name is Piron. +I had a note from him as soon as the frigate anchored yesterday, and I +shall ask him to dine sociably with me on board this evening. I hope you +will join us." + +The grave gentleman said that he had business which would detain him on +shore all night. + +The barge swept up to the mole, the oars were thrown up at a wave of the +coxswain's hand, and came into the boat on either side like shutting up +a pair of fans, while the boat-hooks checked her way, and she remained +stationary at the steps of the landing. The awning was canted, the +commodore and his friend got out and mounted the stairway, while the +boat's crew stood up with their hats off. On the mole were four or five +people in light West India rig of brown and white, and broad Guayaquil +sombreros. + +"Cleveland!" exclaimed a tall, handsome man, as he seized the +commodore by both hands, "how glad we are to see you! Here is Tom +Stewart, and Paddy Burns, and little Don Stingo, attorneys, factors, and +sugar-boilers, all of us delighted to welcome you back once more to +Jamaica!" + +Crowding about the commodore, shaking hands and slapping one another on +the back, standing off a step or two to see the effect of time on each +other's appearance, laughing heartily with many a happy allusion to days +gone by, those old friends and former companions, unmindful of the hot +sun, stood there with their faces lighted up and talking all together. + +"And you are a commodore, eh! Cleveland, with a broad pennant and a +squadron? Ah! we have kept the run of you, though. Read all about that +action you were in with the 'President,' and that bloody battle in the +'Essex' and 'Phebe' at Valparaiso, with Porter. And here you are again, +safe and sound, and hearty!" + +"And you too, Piron! The same as ever! Not tired of cane-planting yet? +But how is madame?" + +"Lovely a girl as ever, Cleveland, but never entirely got over that sad +loss of the little boy, you know. However, she will be overjoyed to see +you. She's been talking of you ever since we saw your appointment to the +station fifteen months ago. Apropos, we have her widowed sister with us, +whose husband was killed at Waterloo, and our little niece who came from +France--all out there at the old place of Escondido, where you must come +and pass a week with us. Nay, man, no excuse! The thing is arranged, and +it would be the death of Stingo, Tom Stewart, and Paddy Burns if you +disappoint us." + +"Well, Piron, I am your man, but not for a day or two, until I have made +some official calls here on the authorities. Meanwhile, gentlemen, you +all dine with me this evening on board the frigate, every mother's soul +of you! Coxswain, go on board and tell my steward to have dinner for +six. Stop at the schooner as you go off, and say to Mr. Darcantel that I +shall expect him to join us. Now, my friends, that matter is arranged, +and we will all go off in the barge at sunset." + +"Dry talking, isn't it, Stingo?" said Piron; "so, commodore, come, and +we'll have a sip of sangaree and a deviled biscuit to keep our mouths in +order. But, halloo! where is your friend, Cleveland? that tall man in +black? Parson or chaplain, eh?" + +"No," replied the officer; "an old friend of mine, my brother-in-law, +who takes a cruise with me occasionally; but he never goes in society, +and has taken himself off, as he always does when we get in port. He is +a glorious fellow, though, and I hope to present him to you yet. Never +mind him now." + +Arm in arm went the blue coat and bullion, locked in white grass +sleeves, along the busy quays, crowded with mule-carts and drays for +stores or shipping. Spanish dons, dapper Frenchmen, burly John Bulls, +standing at warehouse and posadas, all with cigars in their teeth, which +they puffed so lazily that the smoke scarcely found its way beyond the +brims of their wide sombreros. Negroes, too, with scanty leg gear, and +still scantier gingham shirts, having bales, or boxes, or baskets of +fruit on their heads, never any thing in their hands, chattering and +laughing one with another as they danced and jostled along the busy +mart; then through the hot, sandy ruts of streets, pausing now and then +to shake hands with some old acquaintance beneath the overhanging +piazzas; sedan-chairs moving about, with a negro in a glazed hat and red +cockade at either end of the poles, in a long easy trot, as they bore +their burdens of Spanish matron, or English damsel, or maybe a portly +old judge, or gouty admiral, on a shopping or business excursion to the +port; so on to the upper town, where the dwellings stand in detachments +by themselves--single or in pairs--with spacious balconies and bright +green Venetian blinds, all surrounded by gardens and vines; with noble +tamarind-trees, and cocoa-nuts swaying their lofty trunks, and rattling +their branches and leaves over the negro huts and offices below. Here +the party stopped, and, entering a house, were ushered into a cool, +lofty room, where there were a lot of mahogany desks, and a single old +clerk, who resembled a last year's dried lemon, with some few drops of +acid juice for blood, perched up on a hard stem of a high stool, with +four or five quill pens, like so many thorns, sticking out above his +yellow leafy ears. + +"All by myself here, Cleveland, as I told you. All my people are living +out there at Escondido. Very little business doing just now, and Paddy +Burns and Tom Stewart haven't had a suit or a fight for the last six +months. Inkstands dry, and my old clerk, Clinker, there, has forgotten +how to write English. + +"However," went on Piron, as the party threw themselves back on the +wicker arm-chairs, and enjoyed the breeze which fluttered merrily +through the blinds, "the cellar isn't quite dry yet; and I say, Clinker, +suppose you tell Nimble Jack, or Ring Finger Bill, to spread a little +luncheon here, with a bottle or two of Bordeaux, or something of that +sort!" The dried, fruity old gentleman dropped off his branch at the +desk like a withered nut, and then, with a husky kind of shuffle, betook +himself off. + +[Illustration: "QUEER OLD STICK, THAT!" SAID THE COMMODORE.] + + "Queer old stick, that!" said the commodore, as he unbuckled his +sword and laid it on the table. + +"Ah! he grew here, and will blow away one of these days. My father used +to tell me that he looked just the same when he first sprouted as he +does now. But he is a dear faithful old stump; and you must remember +hearing, Cleveland, of that frightful earthquake here in seventeen +hundred and eighty-three, which killed so many people? Yes? Well, it was +old Clinker who saved my sweet wife that is now--and her sister; though +he was nearly squeezed--drier, if any thing, than he is now--in doing +it. He lay, you know, Stingo, supporting the whole second story of the +house for seven hours, pressed as flat as a tamarind-leaf, while they +were getting those twin babies out of their cradle. Yes, God bless him!" +Starting up, while a flush of feeling darkened his face--"but, what is +more, he threw himself precisely where he did, as he saw the walls +giving way, so that not a hair of those children should be injured when +the beams came down. My father has told me since, that when they got a +lever under the timber and wedged old Clinker out, he gave a kind of +cackle; but, in my opinion, he has not drawn a breath from that day to +this. And, generally, he is a very taciturn old root, and rarely opens +his rind; but latterly he talks a good deal about the earthquake; says +he's sure there'll be another awful one before an interval of forty +years has passed, and wants us to go away. No objection, however, to +coming back when the thing is over, and then waiting forty years for +another. Don't laugh, you Paddy Burns, for if ever the '_Tremblor_' +gives you one little shake, you'll jump higher than you did when that +ugly Frenchman ran you through your waistcoat pocket, and you thought it +was your midriff. Now, Tom Stewart and Don Stingo, what are you grinning +about? Your teeth will chatter so fast at the next quake that you won't, +either of you, be able to deliver a charge to the jury over a false +invoice, or suck another drop of old Antigua rum." + +"But really, Piron," broke in the commodore upon this voluble harangue, +"do you give heed to these barkings of that old clerk?" + +"Why, yes, Cleveland," replied Piron, with rather a grave manner, "I do; +and, moreover, my sweet wife Rosalie out yonder, who has never got over +her grief for the loss of our boy, regards every word old Clinker says +as so much prophecy; and the upshot of the business is, I have made up +my mind to leave the island." + +"For where, my friend--back to France?" + +"No. Since the war and the peace, with Bonaparte at St. Helena, France +is no place for an Englishman, even with a French father, and I am going +to try America." + +"Truly, Piron, I am charmed to hear it. But what part of America?" + +"Why, I've bought a fine sugar estate at a bargain in Louisiana, and +there we shall pass the remainder of our days." + +"He! he!" sniggled Tom Stewart, while Don Stingo and Paddy Burns +cackled incredulously; but, at the same moment, Ring Finger Bill and +Nimble Jack, two jet-black persons, in loose striped gingham shirts +and bare feet, with an attempt at a grave expression of thick-lipped +coffee-coolers, the whites of their eyes turned up with becoming +decorum, and preceded by the old twig of a clerk, who seemed to +crackle in the sea-breeze as he again hung himself, stern on, to his +stool of a trunk, entered the cool counting-house, bearing trays, +fruits, and bottles, which they methodically arranged on the large +table. + +"Massa! him want small, red, plump snapper, make mizzible brile?" said +Nimble Jack. "S'pose Massa Ossifa him pick shell of land-crab, wid crisp +pepper for salad?" + +"No, no! Put those cool water-monkeys on the table and be gone! Come, +Clinker, take a bite with us!" + +Leaving this pleasant party to sip their claret and water, and nibble +their midday food, while they rambled back to the past or schemed into +the future, we will return to the frigate. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE COMMANDER OF THE "ROSALIE." + + "The handsomest fellow, Heaven bless him! + Setting the girls all wild to possess him, + With his dark mustache and his hazel eyes, + And cigars in those pretty lips--" + + "That girl who fain would choose a mate, + Should ne'er in fondness fail her, + May thank her lucky stars if Fate + Should splice her to a sailor." + + +"The 'Rosalie's' gig coming alongside, sir," reported the quarter-master +to the officer of the watch. + +"Very well. A boatswain's mate and two side-boys. Mr. Rat, have the +barge manned, and send her on shore for the commodore. Mr. Martin, tell +the boatswain to call all hands to furl awnings." + +While these orders were being executed, the whistles ringing through the +ship, the sailors lining the white hammocks, stowed in a double line, +fore and aft, around the nettings of the frigate, in readiness to cast +off the stops and lacings and let fall the awnings, the officer on deck +stood near the gangway. At the same time there tripped up the +accommodation-ladder, lightly touching the snowy man-ropes, a young +fellow of about one-and-twenty, dressed in undress frock-coat, one +epaulet, smooth white trowsers, and shoes. Catching up his sword in his +left hand as he reached the upper grating of the ladder, he took off his +blue, gold-banded cap, and half bounded, with a springy step, on to the +frigate's deck. + +Observe him well, young ladies, as he stands there; for of all the +scarlet or blue jackets on whose arm you have leaned and looked up at +with your soft violet, blue, or dark eyes, you never saw a young fellow +that you would sooner give those eyes, or those warm hearts too, +throbbing under your bodices, or who would drive you wilder to possess +him, than that gallant young sailor standing on the "Monongahela's" +deck. Ay, observe him well, that tall, graceful youth, with a waist you +might span with one of your short plump arms; those slim patrician feet, +that might wear your own little satin slippers; then that swelling chest +and those elegantly turned shoulders, which will take both of your arms, +one of these days, to entwine and clasp around them! Ah! but the round +throat and chin, the smiling mouth, half hiding a double row of even +teeth, with the merest moonshine of a mustache darkening the short upper +lip, and then those large, fearless hazel eyes, sparkling with health +and fun, shaded by a mass of chestnut curls, which cluster about his +clear open forehead! Ay, there he stands, "a king and a kingdom" for the +girl who wins him! + +"Well, Harry, give us your fist, my boy! How do you get on aboard your +prize? Not so roomy as the old frigate, eh? And a little more work than +when you were playing flag-lieutenant, eh? Well, glad to see you, but +can't stop to talk. So jump down below there in the wardroom; the mess +are just through dinner, and yours won't be ready for an hour yet. Come, +bear a hand, or I'll let these awnings fall on your new gold epaulet." + +The new-comer tripped as lightly down the ladder to the gun-deck +as Mr. Mouse, and making another dive down to the berth-deck, +exchanging a rapid volley of pleasantry with the midshipmen in +the steerage, he opened the wardroom door and entered. There, in +a large open space, transversely dividing the stern of the ship, +with rows of latticed-doored staterooms on either side, lighted by +open skylights from above, with a barrel of a wind-sail coming +down between the sashes, and every thing, from beams to bulkheads, +painted a glistening white, and the deck so clean that you might +have rubbed your handkerchief on it without leaving a stain on +the cambric, around a large extension mahogany table stretching +from side to side, the cloth removed, decanters and wine-glasses +here and there, and water-monkeys in flannel jackets hanging like +criminals from a gallows from the beams above, sat the wardroom +mess of the frigate. + +"By all that's handsome, here's Darcantel! Why, Harry, we are delighted +to see you!" exclaimed half a dozen voices; "come, sit down here and +take a glass of wine with us!" + +As the handsome young fellow entered the wardroom, all faces lighted up +as they saw him. The old sailing-master, who seldom indulged in more +than a scowl since he lost his right ear by the stroke of a cutlass in +capturing the tender to the "Plantagenet" seventy-four off the Hills of +Navesink; the rigid old major of marines, who pipe-clayed his very +knuckles, and wore a stiff sheet-iron padding to his stock to encourage +discipline in the guard; the dear, kind old surgeon, who swallowed +calomel pills by the pint, out of pure principle, and who lopped off +limbs and felt yellow fever pulses all through the still watches of the +hot nights with never a sign or look of encouragement; and the staid old +chaplain, who had often assisted the surgeon and helped to fill +cartridges, contributing his own cotton hose for the purpose when those +government stores gave out in battle, and who never smiled, even when +committing a marine to the briny deep; the purser, too, prim and +business-like, looking as if he were a complicated key with an iron +lock of his own strong chest, calculating perpetually the amount of +dollars deposited in his charge, the total of pay to be deducted +therefrom, and never making a mistake save when he overcharged the dead +men for chewing tobacco; and the gay, young, roistering lieutenants, who +never did any thing else but laugh, unmindful of navigation, pipe-clay, +pills, parsons, or pursers, though standing somewhat in awe of the +sharpish, exacting executive officer at the head of the table--all +welcomed, each in his peculiar way, the bright, graceful young blade who +dawned upon them. And not only the mess were cheered by his presence, +but also a troop of clean-dressed sable attendants, whose wide jaws +stretched wider, while the whites of their eyes seemed painfully like +splashes of whitewash on the outside of the galley coppers, as they +nudged one another and yaw-yaw'd quietly away aft there in the region of +the pantry. + +"Here, my salt-water pet, come and sit down by me, where all those old +fellows can see you! Steward, a wine-glass for Mr. Darcantel! What? you +won't take a sip of Tinta, and you can only stop a minute because you +are to dine with your uncle the commodore, eh? Well, I'll drink your +uncle's health even if you don't!" said the first lieutenant, as he +familiarly laid his hand on the young fellow's shoulder and drained his +glass. + +"Why, Harry, what the deuce did you come down here for?" squeaked out +the purser, as he unscrewed his lips into a pleasant smile. "You've put +an end to that interesting account the master was giving us of how he +lay inside Sandy Hook for six months with a glass to his--" + +"Mouth," broke in the surgeon. + + "It was Sam Jones the fisherman, + Who was bound to Sandy Hook; + But first upon the Almanac + A solemn oath he took-- + That he would catch a load of clams!" + +"Silence there, you roarer!" said the surgeon, as he popped a filbert +into the wide mouth of the rollicking fourth lieutenant, which cut his +song short off. "Yes, Harry, that's what you have done in coming here +for a minute. But stay a week with us, and the master will tell it you +again. We've heard it once or twice before." + +The old grizzled sea veteran scratched the remains of his ear, and +growled jocosely while nodding to young Darcantel. + +"Ah! my dear boy, and I'll tell you how the surgeon and nipcheese there +were entertained by a one-eyed old Spaniard at St. Jago." + +"Let's hear it!" roared every body except the medico and purser. "Out +with it, master!" + +"Well, messmates, when we were in the old 'Scourge,' a long time ago, +one day we anchored in St. Jago de Cuba." + +Here the surgeon and purser smiled horribly, and implored the grizzled +old navigator not to go on; every body had heard that old story; he +might fall ill with the _vomito pietro_, and would require pills; or +else there might be found a mistake in his pay account, and he would +like, perhaps, to draw for the imaginary balance not due to him, and to +drink his grog and scratch the remains of his old ear, or turn his +attention to the load of clams waiting for him at Sandy Hook! But, for +mercy's sake, don't repeat that silly, long-forgotten yarn! + +"Well, messmates, in less than an hour after we had anchored in St. Jago +they went on shore, and made the acquaintance of a little thin, sharp +old villain, with one eye, who invited them to make him a visit, and +pass the evening on a fine estate he owned near the base of the Copper +Hills, some distance--about four leagues, I believe--from the town. He +was a most respectable person, very rich, and commanded a Cuban guarda +costa to boot. The _capitano_, Don Ignacio Sanchez--wasn't that his +name, doctor? Oh! you forget--all right! Off they started with a guide, +on hired mules; but when they pulled up at their destination they found +the Don wasn't there, though they were handsomely entertained by the +senora--a comely, fat, and waspish body, with very few clothes on--who +cursed her Don for sending people to see her, and the visitors too for +coming. However, as her guests had not dined, she fed them bountifully +on a supper of the nastiest jerked beef and garlic they had ever +smelled. You told me so, purser." + +Both Pills and Purser had forgotten all about it, and thought it would +be better to talk of something else; that there was plenty of good wine +to drink in place of drying his lips on such dusty old rubbish. + +"Well, messmates, after the supper the old lady demanded a little game +of monte, and she insisted, too, on making herself banker, though she +had no money on the table to pay with in case she lost--which she had no +intention of doing. So she won every ounce, dollar, real, and centavo +they had in their pockets! The doctor and purser told me they saw her +cheat boldly; but yet she not only bagged all the money, but she won +their mules into the bargain!" + +Here those individuals confessed roundly--standing on the defensive--that +the fat old senora had a false pack of cards always ready in her ample +bosom, and had cheated them in the barest manner conceivable; but yet +they had no appeal, and were inclined, out of gallantry for the sex, to +behave like gentlemen, though she did drink aguardiente. + +"Well, messmates, toward midnight that hospitable wife of the Don began +to abuse our friends for not bringing more cash with them when they +visited ladies, and then fairly kicked them out of the house! Yes, you +both told me so when I lent you the money to pay the boatmen, after +being obliged to tramp all the way back to the port on foot, nearly +missing their billets in the old 'Scourge.'" + +"Go on, master! Tell us all about it; don't stop!" + +"Well, messmates, I was on deck while beating out of the channel, and +just abreast the Star Castle I saw a boat with two gentlemen in the +stern, stripped to a girt-line, and howling at rather than hailing the +ship. Bear in mind, doctor, the men refused to take either of you unless +you gave them your coats and trowsers before shoving off. And don't you +remember, Hardy, how they yelled at us, and we thought they were +deserters from that English gun-boat in St. Jago? And how the captain +arrested the pair of them when they got on board for going out of signal +distance? This is the first time _I_ ever told this yarn," concluded the +old navigator, tugging away at the lobe of his lost ear. + +The young lieutenants shouted, and the old major of marines, forgetful +of his iron-stuffed stock, laughed till he nearly sawed his chin off, +rubbing his chalky knuckles into his eyes the while. + + "But first upon the Almanac + A solemn oath he took-- + That he would catch a load of clams--" + +"The barge is coming off, Mr. Hardy, with the pennant flying, sir!" +reported a reefer, in the midst of the conversation, to the first +lieutenant, as he shoved his bright face through the wardroom door. + +"Very good, Mr. Beaver; but hark ye, sir! the next time you go ashore in +the market-boat, look sharp that the men don't suck the monkey. Three of +them came off drunk this morning. And inform Mr. Rat and Mr. Mouse that +if I see their heels on the cutter's cushions again, I'll take a better +look at them from the main-top-mast cross-trees. You understand, sir? +Steward, a glass of wine for Mr. Beaver!" Saying this, the executive +officer, with Harry Darcantel, arose and went on deck to receive the +commodore. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +A SPLICE PARTED. + + "Oh! for thy voice, that happy voice, + To breathe its loving welcome now! + Fame, wealth, and all that bids rejoice, + To me are vain! For where art thou?" + + "What is glory--what is fame? + That a shadow--this a name, + Restless mortal to deceive. + Are they renown'd--can they be great, + Who hurl their fellow-creature's fate, + That mothers, children, wives may grieve?" + + +The drum rolled, the marines presented arms, the boatswain piped, the +side-boys and officers took off their caps; and as the colors dropped +with the last ray of sunset from the peak, and the broad blue +day-pennant came fluttering down from the lofty main truck, Commodore +Cleveland and his friends stood on the splendid deck of the flag-ship +"Monongahela." + +It must have been with conscious pride that the brave and loyal +commander gazed around him on the noble frigate and her gallant crew. +The white decks, the tiers of cannon polished like varnished leather, +with the breechings and tackles laid fair and even over and around them; +the bright belaying-pins, holding their never-ending coils of running +gear--the burnished brass capstan--the great boom--board to the boats +amidships with a gleaming star of cutlasses, reflecting a glitter on the +ring of long pikes stuck around the main-mast near, all inclosed by the +high and solid bulwarks; while towering above, like mighty leafless +columns of forest pines, stood the lofty masts, running up almost out of +sight to the trucks in the fading light, supported by stays and shrouds, +singly and in pairs, and braided mazes--black, and straight, and +taut--never a thread loose on rigging or ratlin--and spreading out as +they came down in a heavy hempen net, till they disappeared over the +rail, and were clenched and spliced, or seized and clamped to the bolts +and dead-eyes of the chain-plates outside. Holding up too, in +mid-heaven, on those giant trunks--like a child its toys--the great +square yards of timber branches, laying without a quiver, in their black +lifts and trusses, with their white leaves of sails crumpled and packed +in smooth bunts in the middle, and running away to nothing on either +hand at the tapering yard-arms. + +Grand and imposing is the sight. And well may you wonder, ye land +lubbers, why all that mass of timber, sails, and cordage, with its +enormous weight, does not crush with the giant heels of the masts +through the bottom of the ship like unto an egg-shell, and tear the +stanch live-oak frame to splinters! + +The commander of the frigate saw all this, and he beheld at the same +time the clusters of happy sailors, sauntering with light step and +pleasant faces up and down the waist and gangways; and he heard, too, +the scraping of a fiddle on the forecastle, the shuffling, dancing feet, +and the least notion of a jovial sea-song coming up from the gun-deck. +Yes, it must have been a glorious pride with which that gallant officer +gazed around him from the quarter-deck of the magnificent frigate. + +Did he say to himself, "I am monarch of this floating kingdom; my will +is law; I say but the word, and those sails are spread and the ship +moves to wherever I command. My subjects, too, who watch my slightest +look and whisper, with that flag above, will pour broadside upon +broadside--ay, they have!--from those terrible guns upon whoever dares +to cross my track. Yes. They will fight for me so long as there is a +plank left in this huge ship to stand upon, and while there is a +rope-yarn left to hold the ensign--ay! even until my pennant, nailed to +the truck, sinks beneath the bloodstained waves?" Did the commander +think of all this? Perhaps he did. + +And yet, in all the pride of rank and power, bravely won and maintained +in many a scene of strife and deadly conflict, with visions of honest +patriotism and ambition for the future, did his thoughts go back long +years ago into the shadowy past, and was his spirit in the silent +church-yard, where the magnolia was drooping over a grass-green grave? +The sweet mother and her baby boy--the girl who had so fondly loved him, +and the child who played about his knees--oh that they could have lived +to share the wreaths of victory which were hung around his brow; that +they could have lived to see the sword his country gave him, to twine +but for one little moment their loving arms around his neck! No, the +magnolia waves its white flowers over mother and boy, and they sleep on +in their heavenly and eternal rest. + +Did Commodore Cleveland, as a saddened flash of thought swept over his +handsome face, while he stood on his quarter-deck, dwell on those +scenes? Yes, we know he did. By day and night, in war and peace, in gale +or calm, on deck or at banquet, in dream and action, the girl and mother +he so dearly loved was close clasped to his heart, and the child still +playing at his knee. + +"Gentlemen, let me make you acquainted with the first lieutenant, Mr. +Hardy; and permit me also to present my nephew, Mr. Darcantel, captain, +if you please, my friends, of the one-gun schooner 'Rosalie,' formerly +the slaver 'Perdita,' cut out of a river on the Gold Coast by the young +gentleman who stands before you." + +"Rosalie! why that's the name of my niece," exclaimed Piron; "and she is +prettier and whiter than your trim little craft, sir. But you must come +with the commodore to Escondido, and judge for yourself. But, bless my +soul! _you_ resemble our Rosalie, even if your schooner don't. Why, look +at him, Paddy Burns!" + +Don Stingo, and Tom Stewart, and the Paddy did look at him, and all +shook hands with him, laughing the while at Piron, and asking when old +Clinker looked for another earthquake. + +"Come, Piron, come, gentlemen, don't let us keep the soup waiting! By +the way, Mr. Hardy, will you do me the favor to take a glass of wine +with us after gun-fire?" + +"Thank you." + +"Suppose you bring little Mouse with you; I like children; and perhaps +you will excuse the younker from keeping his watch to-night? A little +extra sleep in hammock won't hurt him, you know." + +And so Commodore Cleveland raised his hat, followed by the eyes of +respect and devotion from officer and sailor, as he passed down the +ladder and entered his spacious cabin. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +THE BLUE PENNANT IN THE CABIN. + + "To Bachelors' hall we good fellows invite + To partake of the chase that makes up our delight." + + "Ask smiling honor to proclaim + What is glory, what is fame? + Hark! the glad mandate strikes the list'ning ear! + 'The truest glory to the bosom dear, + Is when the soul starts soft compassion's tear.'" + + +"Now, gentlemen, let me get off this heavy coat and epaulets. There! all +right, Domino! put the sword in its case, and give me a white jacket. +Choose your own places, my friends. Piron, sit here on my right; Henri, +take the foot of the table." + +These last words were said in French; whereupon Piron started and +whispered to the commodore, "By George, Cleveland, is that youth's name +Henry, and does he speak French?" + +"Hush, Piron, he may hear you. His mother was French, and he speaks the +language like a native. She died when he was a baby, and he doesn't like +to allude to it. Come, steward, we are all ready. Serve the gumbo!" + +The cabin of the frigate was divided by a light lattice-work bulkhead in +two parts, running from quarter to quarter of the vessel. The after part +had a large sleeping stateroom on either side, resting on the quarter +galleries, and opening on to another gallery which hung over the stern +of the frigate. Inside, in the open space, was a round table, cushioned +lounges, a few chairs, with a bronze lamp pendent from a beam above, +while taking the curve of the stern over the after windows was a range +of bookcases, half hidden by the gilt cornice and curtains of the +windows. The entire fittings and furniture of cabin and staterooms, +including the neat Brussels carpet on the deck, were elegant and useful, +though by no means luxurious. The forward cabin, where no carpet graced +the floor, was much more spacious. It took in the two after ports of the +gun-deck; and the carriages and cannon within the sills of the ports +were painted a marble white, as were the ropes, in covered canvas, that +held them. In a recess forward was a large mahogany sideboard, or +buffet, the top fitted with a framework for glasses and decanters, which +were reflected from a large mirror let into the bulkhead. In the middle +of this space was the dining-table, lighted by a pair of globe lamps +hanging from above, while neat racks for bottles and water-jugs, moving +on sliding brass rods, were also suspended from the paneled beams and +carlines of the upper deck ceiling. On the right--the starboard +side--was a door leading into a roomy pantry, where the steward and +Domino, and the servants of the commodore, bestirred themselves at +dinner-time. + +"So, my friends," exclaimed the commodore, "you wish to hear what became +of me after I last parted with you?" + +"By all means, Cleveland! we are all dying to hear, and--" Here Piron's +appeal was interrupted by the heavy report of a bow gun, which gave a +slight, though almost imperceptible jar to the frigate. + +"Smithereens! Stingo! what noise is that?" exclaimed Burns. + +"Only the nine o'clock gun, sir," replied Darcantel. + +"Hech, mon!" said Stewart, "ye needna upset ma glass of auld Madeira in +yer mickle fright, for I've seen the time when ye ha' laughed at the +music in the report of a peestol and the ping of a bullet! But your +nervous seestem seems to be unstrung ever since the sma' French dancing +count untied the string o' your waistcoat with his rapeer." + +"You don't think, Paddy, the commodore here is going to bang a forty-two +pound shot into our stomachs after all the good prog he's filled them +with?" added Stingo, _sotto voce_, while the rotund Milesian threw his +head back and twinkled careless defiance at them all. + +Just then the orderly swung the port-cabin door open, and standing up as +rigid as a pump-bolt, with a finger to the visor of his stovepipe hat, +in cross-belts and bayonet, he announced "Lieutenant Hardy and +Midshipman Mouse!" + +"Ah! Hardy, glad to see you!" rising as he spoke; "squeeze in there +between Stewart and Burns, or Darcantel! Here, gentlemen, let me exhibit +to you Mr. Tiny Mouse! Don't move, Piron; I'll make a place for him near +me." + +Saying this, the commodore took the lad affectionately by the hand, and +as he sat him down on a chair at his elbow, and while the conversation +went on with his guests, he said, in a kindly tone, + +"Tiny, my dear, the first lieutenant tells me you are a good boy and +attend to your duty. I hope you pay attention to your studies also, and +write often to your dear mother. Ah! you do? That is right; for you know +you are her only hope since your brave father was killed. There, sir, +you may swig a little claret, but don't touch those cigars." + +"Come, Cleveland! Cleveland! you are forgetting your adventures, my +boy!" + +"Well, my friends, you shall hear them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE DEVIL TO PAY. + + "And how then was the devil dressed? + Oh! he was dressed in his Sunday's best; + His jacket was red and his breeches were blue, + And there was a hole where the tail came through." + + "Hairy-faced Dick understands his trade, + He stands by the breech of a short carronade, + The linstock glows in his bony hand, + Waiting that grim old skipper's command!" + + +"The last dinner I had in Jamaica, and a very jolly one it was, as you +all know, was out at Escondido, where we kept it up so late that I only +got on board the 'Scourge' at daylight, in time to get her under way +with the land wind. Well, we were bound to windward, and for a week +afterward we rolled about in a calm off Morant Bay, maybe twenty leagues +off the island, and one morning we discovered a sail. She was a large +merchant brig, heading any way, and bobbing about, as we were, in the +calm. Toward noon, however, a light air sprang up, and we got within +hail, and I went on board to say a word or two to the skipper, for we +had news before leaving Kingston that that infamous pirate Brand, in his +long-legged schooner 'Centipede,' had been seen off Guadaloupe; and, in +fact, we had actually chased him off Matanzas three months before; so I +was ordered to give the brig a warning, particularly as she had reported +a suspicious craft in sight that same morning at sunrise. When I got on +board of her I saw--" + +Here Piron placed both hands to his face as he leaned his elbows on the +table, and the commodore, checking himself, hurried on: + +"Ah! well, we kept the brig in sight all day, and ran round her once or +twice in the evening, but toward midnight the trade wind freshened, and, +as the coast seemed clear, and we were anxious to make up for lost time +in the calm, we gradually came up to our course, and went bowling away +to windward. + +"I remember going below at the time, and just as I was about to turn in, +I heard a quarter-master sing out to Hardy there, who was junior +lieutenant of the ship, and who had the middle watch, that he saw a +light going up to the brig's gaff. In five seconds I was on the poop, +where I met the captain. + +"This is his only son, gentlemen, and a braver or more skillful seaman +never trod a ship's deck," said the commodore, as he passed his hand +affectionately over the boy's head, who was sitting beside him. + +But he forgot, perhaps, to say that he, Cleveland, had stood by the +father when he was struck dead by a cannon-shot, and that afterward he +had the boy appointed a reefer, and, out of his own means, helped the +widow to eke out her pittance of a pension. Yes, Cleveland forgot all +that as he smoothed the youngster's soft hair, while, with the men +around him, he drained his glass in silence to the memory of his +departed friend and chief. Then resuming, he went on: + +"In less than no time after the light was seen--for you must know, +gentlemen, that it was an understood signal between us--the 'Scourge' +was flying off with a stiff breeze abaft the beam, the crew at quarters, +and the boats ready to be lowered from the davits. When we ranged up +alongside the brig, and even before, we felt certain that our misgivings +would prove true, and so they did; and merely slamming a shot over her, +and dropping a couple of armed boats into the water, we luffed round her +bows, and there we saw that cursed schooner--venomous snake as she +was--just hoisting her sails, and creeping away to windward. + +"We let her have two or three divisions of grape, and followed the dose +up with round shot. I am sure we hit her, and that pretty hard, for we +knocked away her fore-top-mast, and we saw the splinters fly in showers +from her hull. However, she was well handled, and lying nearer the wind +than the 'Scourge,' when day dawned she was clear out of range, and +leaving us every minute. So we up helm and ran down again to the brig, +to see what mischief had been done and to pick up our boats. + +"Ah! yes, you all know what had taken place, so I won't go over the +details; but the same afternoon, after seeing the brig pointed straight +for Port Royal, and while we were once more on our course, we fell in +with a water-logged boat, in which were half a dozen dead and dying men. +One, a mongrel Indian from Yucatan, who was frightfully torn by two or +three grape-shot, before he died on board--as did all the others--gave +us, in his confused dialect, some account of the pirate he had served +under, and the haunt he frequented. As near as we could learn, the haunt +was situated somewhere on the south side of Cuba, on a rocky island +having a safe and secure inlet; but as he did not know the latitude or +longitude, we were left somewhat in the dark. The last words, however, +the mangled wretch uttered, as the gasping breath was leaving his body, +were, that the spot could be distinguished by a tall cocoa-nut-tree +which grew from a craggy eminence in the middle of the island. We buried +them all, pirates as they were, decently, and then we clapped on all +sail on our course. + +"Steward, another bottle of the old Southside that Mr. March sent me +from Madeira! Here, Domino, take Mr. Mouse up gently, and lay him down +on my cot in the after cabin. Dear little fellow, he is sound asleep; +and mind you draw the curtains around him, lest he take cold from the +draught of the stern windows!" + +Rather a striking contrast this to the way Captain Brand, the pirate, +treated the little Henri in the den there in the Doce Leguas. + +"Well, gentlemen, for some weeks after these occurrences we sailed about +the islands, touching here and there, until at last we arrived at the +Havana, took in stores and water, and then continued the cruise. The +orders were to beat up the south side of Cuba, where we expected to fall +in with the Musquito fleet and some English vessels, especially detailed +to destroy two or three nests of pirates who had for some years swarmed +in those seas and infested that coast. In the course of time we beat all +around the south side of Cuba, and at last dropped anchor in St. Jago, +where we learned from the English consular agent that five or six +fellows, who had been wrecked on the Carvalo reef, were identified as +having been part of a piratical crew who had plundered an English vessel +with a free passport bound to Havana, and had been sent there in irons +for trial. + +"The truth was, that the Spanish colonial authorities had so long +connived, winked at, or been indifferent to what was going on during the +wars of the Continent, that they allowed these piratical hordes to exist +and thrive at their very doors. The matter had already been brought to +the notice of the administrador of the port, and all other ports as far +along the coast as Cienfuegos, and in such a threatening manner, too, +that the governor at St. Jago, fearful of having his town blown down, +exerted himself in the arrest of the rascals I have alluded to, and +likewise in procuring information by dispatching guarda costas along the +south side of the island. + +"Accordingly, the very morning we anchored I went ashore with the +captain of the custom-house, where we met the deputy administrador and a +little withered, one-eyed old rascal, who was in the colonial service, +and who professed to know the haunt, or at least he said he thought he +did, of that notorious villain Brand. + +"I remember distinctly spreading a chart before him, and while he traced +with the end of his cigarette a course for the captain to steer by, I +stood near, watching him narrowly. But the fact was, that he had the +very sharpest spark of an eye set, or rather standing out, beside his +nose that any body ever saw in a human being's head; and instead of me +watching him, he seemed to be looking straight through me, and divining +my thoughts and suspicions. However, the spot he pointed out, and the +way he described it, with a cocoa-nut-tree on top of a rock, and the +passage through the reef, so nearly corresponded with the confused +account the Yucatanese gave us before he died, that the captain was +entirely convinced we were on the scent, though I myself was not more +than half satisfied. The place indicated was near the Isle of Pines, +three hundred miles off; but, to make the thing more plausible, that +one-eyed old scoundrel was detailed to run along the Doce Leguas Cays, +see what information he could pick up there, and then follow down after +us. + +"That night, or early the next morning, we were off again, and ran down +the coast, with a good offing to keep the wind, until we got to the +ground, and passed in by Cape St. Francis, and doubled round into the +Bight of Pines. There we fell in with a whole fleet of English and +American cruisers and schooner craft, who informed us that they had +searched every accessible spot where a man could walk dry-shod upon, +from Guayabos to the Isle of Mangles; that they had destroyed several +old and deserted piratical nests, and hung two or three ostensible +fishermen by way of wholesome warning to their allies the pirates; but +that was all; and from what they had learned, there did not seem to have +been an established retreat in that maze of cays and reefs for four or +five years. + +"So you see we had our cruise for nothing, and then the captain agreed +with me that we had both been most egregiously deceived by the Spanish +commander of the guarda costa. Well, we hauled our wind once more, +standing well out to sea, and after a tedious beat of some days we again +edged in toward the coast, somewhere near the Boca Grande of the Twelve +League Cays on the westernmost side. It was in the morning when we made +the land, and, steering close in, we got a good slant off the shore, and +kept the glasses going from the topmost cross-trees down all through the +day. For my part, as Hardy may perhaps remember, I scarcely took the +glass from my eye for eight hours, and from the mizzen-top I feel quite +sure that there were not many objects, from the size of a blade of grass +to a mangrove bush, that I did not examine, from the coral reefs up to +the rocky heights, let alone the cocoa-nut-tree that we were in search +of. + +"Toward afternoon, however, the weather came up hazy, the wind began to +fall off, and the barometer began to exhibit very queer spasms indeed, +rising with a sort of jerk at first, and then dropping down the tenth of +an inch at a clip, with the atmosphere becoming close and sultry, and +the men gasping about the decks as if we were about to choke at the next +breath. It was during the hurricane months, and the indications +certainly should have led us as far as our legs could carry us to open +water, instead of being caught embayed perhaps with half a thousand +reefs around us on what might prove a lee-shore; but, nevertheless, the +captain decided to hold on till sunset, and then make an offing. The +breeze still held in the upper sails, and so we slipped on in smooth +water till about five o'clock, when I heard a fellow sing out from the +main royal yard, + +"'On deck there! I can see a tall cocoa-nut-tree on an island here on +the port bow!' + +"Before the words were well out of his mouth I too caught the object, +and I knew at the first glance that it was the spot we were looking for. +At the same time the haze lighted up a bit, and we saw the ridge of +rocks and every thing as the haunt of that pirate Brand had been +described to us. So, my friends, we were all alive once more on board +the 'Scourge,' and the captain resolved to dash in upon the scoundrel's +nest before he could have time to leave it. + +"The engine was rigged and water spirted over the sails from the trucks +down, to make the canvas hold the wind, and in an hour after we were +within two leagues of the island, and just as the sun fell below the +horizon we caught sight of the mast-heads of a large vessel sticking up +over some bluff rocks near the bold shore. Not five minutes later the +hull of the craft came slowly out from the gap, under all sail, and we +discovered her to be a long and rather lumbering-looking brigantine, +painted lead-color, and bearing no resemblance to the schooner we had +twice chased before. Simultaneously, however, with her coming out into +full view, as she rounded in her head-yards and got a pull of the +main-sheet, with the breeze abeam and heading to the eastward, we beheld +a great volume of white smoke spout up over the rock near the +cocoa-nut-tree, with a vivid sheet of flame at the base, and before the +vast column turned, like the crown of a palm-tree, in its descent, we +were greeted by a dull, heavy roar, the concussion of which fairly made +the 'Scourge' tremble. Then, as the white smoke partially broke away, an +avalanche of rocks and timbers was scattered far and near, and nothing +visible but a veil of dust and masses of heavy smoke. Nearly at the same +moment of this explosion wreaths of heavy black smoke arose from another +spot nearer to the gap, lit up in the fading, hazy twilight with forked +red fires, and soon after a great conflagration burst forth, swirling +flakes of burning cinders all over the island, and casting a lurid glare +upon the water around us." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +AND THE PITCH HOT. + + "He is born for all weathers; + Let the winds blow high or blow low, + His duty keeps him to his tethers, + And where the gale drives he must go. + + "The wind blew hard, the sea ran high, + The dingy scud drove 'cross the sky, + All was safe lashed, the bowl was slung, + When careless thus Ned Halyard sung." + + +Said the commodore, with a knowing shake of his head, "Ah! gentlemen, if +the fellow, whoever he was, who was creeping away so nimbly in that +lazy-looking brigantine, with English colors at the peak, had written +down in detail what he had been doing on that secluded nook of an +island, and sent the information off to us in a letter, we could have +read it without breaking the seal. We could have told him that that +little scoundrel with one eye had purposely misled us, and had given him +warning to quit his strong-hold; and that he had hastily got his plunder +and people on board his vessel, blown up and set fire to his nest, and +that the brigantine he was now on board of was once upon a time the +notorious schooner 'Centipede!' Yes, we knew all that by instinct." + +Piron sat with his eyes fixed upon the speaker, taking in every word as +it fell from his lips, the teeth set close together and the hand +clenched which supported his head on the table. Paddy Burns and Tom +Stewart, too, looked eagerly that way, as did Harry Darcantel, while +Hardy sipped his wine and puffed his cigar leisurely, as if he knew the +tale by heart. + +"It had fallen nearly calm. A light air perhaps in the royals, though +nothing down below. But as we hauled down our colors at sunset, which +had been hoisted to let the fellow know who we were, down came his also. +Then there we both lay looking at each other. He knew by instinctive +experience that we were the American corvette 'Scourge,' mounting +eighteen twenty-four-pounder carronades and two long eighteens in the +bow ports; for the brigantine had once or twice determined their exact +calibres, and that we were the fastest cruiser, with the wind a point or +two free, that had been seen in the West Indies for twenty years. + +[Illustration] + + "Yes, he knew all about us, but he was still a little in doubt +whether we knew all about _him_. He lay--unfortunately, perhaps, for +him--a little beyond the range of our long guns, or else he might have +been spared a good deal of time and uneasiness, and we a long chase and +considerable risk. Ah! as the night came, the very fires he had kindled +in his den on shore prevented his escape; for while the calm lasted the +bright flames shone upon him with the glare of hell! There we lay all +that night without moving a muscle or a mile until day dawned--and such +a day as did dawn! + +"Meanwhile the barometer had fallen an inch and a half, until the master +began to believe the bulb leaked, and the mercury was dropping into the +case. Then, through the murky gloom of daylight, with the sea one flat +greasy surface, with never the splash of a fish to disturb it, while the +lowest whisper of the topmen aloft could be distinctly heard on deck, as +if we were hung in the vacuum of an exhausted receiver where a feather +would drop like a bullet, suddenly there came a sound from the direction +of the cays. Suppose, Burns, you saw a forty-two pound shot coming +toward you, and without you dodged quick, your head would be flying off +with it in the same direction?" + +"Whist, mon!" said Stewart, with a groan, "dinna be calling up sic +peectures of the brain, Cleveland. Paddy, there, ne'er thinks of ony +meesals bigger than a peestol bullet." + +"Well, my friends, we ran precisely a similar risk, though the +cloudy embrasures over the island had not quite enough thunder to +reach us. However, the brigantine knew what would follow as well as we +did--better, perhaps--and before you could swallow that glass of wine +she was stripped as bare as a bone, and down came her yards too, but +keeping the sticks up, and spreading a patch of a storm staysail +forward that you might apparently have put in your pocket. Her decks +and rigging were crowded with men while she was doing all this, but +the moment it was done, and well done too, they ran into their holes +below like so many rats, and we could only see a man or two left on +deck near the helm. + +"All hands had been called on board the 'Scourge' at four o'clock, and, +with the exception of securing the battery, every thing was ready to +make a skeleton of the ship the moment we saw the brigantine begin; for +she was a wary fish, and we had no idea of letting her give us the slip +the third time. I had the trumpet, however, and with the captain at my +elbow, the instant he saw that the brigantine was once more rigged +nearly in her old way, he gave me the word, 'Now, Cleveland, work +sharp!' + +"With a hundred and twenty men aloft, jumping about like cats, the light +sails, studding-sail booms, royal and top-gallant yards came down, the +top-gallant masts after them, and the flying jib-boom rigged in. Then +the top-sails close reefed and furled with extra gaskets, and so with +the courses; preventer braces clapped on, rolling tackles hooked, and +the spare purchases set up by the lower pennants. Meanwhile the +divisions on deck had got hawsers over the launch amidships, the chains +unbent, the anchors lashed down on the forecastle, and the quarter boats +triced well inboard and secured with the davits. At the same time the +light stuff from aloft was got below, the hammocks piped down, and the +carpenters slapped the gratings on the hatches, and stood ready with the +tarpaulins to batten them down. I never beheld a smarter piece of work +done afloat--not even, Hardy, in the 'Monongahela.' + +"As I turned round an instant a hoarse, howling bellow struck my ear +from the island, and I just caught a glimpse of the tall cocoa-nut-tree +flying round and round in the air like an inverted umbrella with a +broken stick; while at the same time the men from aloft had reached the +deck, and, jumping to the battery, the guns were run in and housed, +spare breechings and extra lashings passed, and life-lines rove fore and +aft. After that, gentlemen, there was no farther need of a trumpet. + +"You all know pretty well what sort of a thing a hurricane is, and the +one I speak of must, I think, have given you a touch of its quality here +in Jamaica." + +"Ay, by the holy Moses! we remember it well, bad luck to it; and so does +Tom Stewart and Piron there, for it didn't lave a stick of sugar-cane +standing from Montego Bay to Cape Antonio." + +"Yes," said Stewart; "and to show ye what a piff of wind can do, the +whirl of it caught up an eighteen-foot Honduras plank, and laid it +crosswise, like an axe, full seven inches into an old tamarind trunk +standing in my garden, and then twisted off the ends like a heather +broom! Hech, mon, ye may see it there now any day!" + +Piron was thinking of the barks that were driving before that hurricane, +with no thought of the damage done to his own plantations. + +"Well, then, I shall spare you all prolix description of it; and you +need only fancy a ship blown every where and every how except out of +water--now with the lower yard-arms cutting deep into the sea like +rakes, the lee hammock-nettings under water, the stern boat torn away +into splinters, the main-top-sail picked, bolt by bolt, from the yard +until there was not a thread left, and the lee anchor twisted bodily out +of its lashings and swept overboard! + +"Then a lull, while the sea got up and the ship dashed down on the other +side on her bow; then staggering back and making a stern-board till the +water was plunged up in a deluge over the poop. Recovering herself +again, and almost quivering on her beam-ends, the guns groaning and +creaking as the terrible strain came upon the breechings, with the shot +from the racks bounding about the decks, dinting holes in the solid oak +waterways big enough to wash your face in, and then hopping out of the +smashed half-ports to leeward. The spar-deck up to your armpits in +water, and every man of us holding on to the life-lines or standing +rigging like grim death, while all the time the roaring, thundering yell +of the hurricane taught us how powerless we were, by hand or voice, to +cope with the winds when they were let loose in all their might and +fury! + +"Nor need I relate to you the scene presented below--mess-chests, bags, +tables, crockery, flying from deck and beam to stanchion, smashing about +in the most dangerous way, pell-mell, while the worst of the tempest +lasted. But, gentlemen, the 'Scourge' had a frame of live-oak, to say +nothing of two or three acres of tough yellow-pine timber in her, a good +deal of fibrous hemp to hold the masts up; and, moreover, she was well +manned, and, though I say it myself, she had a skillful captain and +thorough-bred officers, in whose sagacity the crew could rely, to manage +that old 'Scourge.'" + +"That she had," exclaimed Hardy; "and the most skillful and the coolest +of them all was the first lieutenant!" The "Monongahela's" executive +officer here bounced off his chair as if he was prepared to fight any +man breathing who did not subscribe to that opinion. + +"Well, my friends, that awful hurricane continued for about twenty +hours, from late one morning till the beginning of the next. As for day, +there was none; for the sea and black clouds made one long night of it. +Fortunately, too, we had been driven off shore, and when the murky gloom +broke away, and we were able to look around, our first anxiety was to +see what had become of the brigantine. + +"Yes, and I truly believe, in all that turmoil of the elements, while we +were on the brink of foundering and going down to old Davy's locker, +that there was not an officer or man, from the captain to the cook, who +was not thinking of that pirate, and hoping that he might go down first. +I myself, however, felt a sort of confidence, as I was held lashed on +the poop to the mizzen rigging, that the brigantine might be caught and +whirled about--so long as she was above water--by the same blows of the +hurricane that beat upon the 'Scourge;' and when the tornado broke, and +some one sang out 'Sail ho!' I knew by instinct it must be the +'Centipede.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE CHASE. + + "With sloping masts and dipping prow, + As who pursued with yell and blow + Still treads the shadow of his foe, + And forward bends his head, + The ship drove past, loud roared the blast, + And southward aye we fled." + + "Clap on more sail, pursue, give fire-- + She is my prize, or ocean whelms them all." + + "So many slain--so many drowned! + I like not of that fight to tell. + Come, let the cheerful grog go round! + Messmates, I've done. A spell, ho, spell!" + + +"It was all hands again, gentlemen. The hurricane had settled +down into a moderate gale from northeast, though it was some time +before the awfully confused sea got to roll regularly. Then we +judged ourselves--for reckoning and observation had been out of +the question--to be a long way south of Jamaica, and even to the +southward of the great Pedro Bank. We did not wait this time for +the pirate to lead us in getting ready for a race, but we got up +a bran-new suit of top-sails and courses out of the sail-room, +and, so soon as the men could go aloft with safety, they were +ordered not to unbend the few tattered rags still clinging to the +yards, but to cut away at once. Up went the top-sails and courses, +and they were soon brought to the yards and set close-reefed, with +a storm-jib to steady the ship forward. Presently we gave her the +whole fore-sail and main-sail, and I think that even then, for +some hours, but one half the corvette's upper works could have been +visible as she plunged through the angry heaving seas. + +"It left us dry enough, however, to pay some heed to the brigantine +ahead of us. She was about four miles off, a little on our weather bow, +and as she rode up--splendid sea-boat that she was--like a gull on the +back of a mighty roller, we could see that her bulwarks--mere boards and +canvas, probably--had been washed away, the house between her masts gone +too, and, no doubt, her long gun, or whatever else had been lying hid +under it. And now she was once more the schooner 'Centipede,' long +and sharp, and without any rail to speak of, so that we could see her +deck from the stem to her taffrail at every lurch she made. The only +difference in her appearance was a short fore-mast with cross-trees, and +a top-mast for square sails. Almost as soon as our top-sail sheets were +hauled home, her own yards went up and the sail was spread, while with +the bonnet off her fore-sail, the whole jib and a close-reefed +main-sail, she went flying to the southward with the gale a point abaft +the beam. + +[Illustration: THE STERN CHASE.] + +"Thus we went on, the sea getting more regular every hour, so that we +could send up the top-gallant masts, get the yards across, shake a reef +or two out, and put the 'Scourge' in order. The schooner needed no +encouragement from us, but cracked on more sail until her long main-mast +reeled and bent over, as she came up on the breaking ridge of a wave, +like a whip-stalk. By noon the clouds had gone, and left us a clear sky, +with the gale going down into a full top-gallant breeze, sending the +corvette along good eleven knots. We got an observation for latitude, +and five hours later we determined the longitude and our position to be +a few leagues to leeward of the Sarrana Keys, with that bird of a +schooner before us heading for the Musquito coast. + +"If _we_ had caught a cataract of water as it rolled over our bows in +the morning, the schooner was taking _her_ bath in the afternoon, for +occasionally, for five minutes at a time, there was nothing seen of her +deck, and only the masts and broad white canvas above, like jury-sticks +out of a raft. But when she did slide up with her low, long hull +shooting clean out of water, till nearly half her keel, with the copper +sheathing flashing in the sun, was visible, she looked like a dolphin +making a spring after a shoal of flying-fish. And then on her narrow +deck we could see a few fellows lashed about the fore-mast, and a couple +more abaft steering her like a thread through a needle. + +"We began to gain upon her now, and whenever she kept a little away +before the wind the gap between us closed more rapidly; for the ship +could evidently outcarry the schooner, and, had the breeze freshened and +the sea kept up, we could have run her under if her masts didn't go out +of her, as we hoped and expected every minute they would. Gradually, +however, she watched her chance and hauled up till she brought the wind +barely abeam, and steered true for the Musketeers--a bad cluster of low +keys nearly surrounded by as terrible ledges and reefs as any to be +found in the Caribbean Sea. + +"Her captain was evidently bent upon playing a desperate game, but, if +he thought he would not find another ready to lay down the same stake, +he was greatly mistaken! It was about sunset when we made the keys, and +there we went--the schooner leading us about a mile--at a rate which +would have made both vessels leap clear over the first ledge they +struck, and perhaps have thrown summersaults of us into the bargain. I +asked the captain, who had never left my side on the poop, if we should +keep on. + +"'Yes, sir,' he replied, 'so long as we have a gun and a plank to float +it!' + +"And, by Saint Paul! we kept on. And there was not a soul on board the +'Scourge,' from the drummer-boy up, who did not agree with the captain. +How those villains on board the pirate relished this decision we could +only surmise; but, at all risks, he held his course with a nerve that +might have made the devil himself shudder. + +"By this time the sun was well down, and a brilliant moon was riding +high in the heavens; but, as bright as it was, the fellow who commanded +that schooner required an eye as keen as an albatross and a hand as +steady as an iron bar to guide his craft in the direction he was +going--too late for either of us to think of hauling off. + +"He must, too, have had a thorough knowledge of the reefs and keys, and +trusted, perhaps, if he got clear himself, that the corvette, drawing +eighteen feet water and ignorant of the channel, might touch something +which would throw the game in his hands. Our men had the ropes stretched +along the decks and the battery clear on both sides, so as to be ready +to wear, or tack, or fire, as our pilot ahead might require. + +"The reefs were to leeward of the string of low keys, which made the +water comparatively smooth, though the wind still swept strongly over us +and sang through the rigging; and it was here the 'Centipede' entered, +going like wild pigeons the pair of us. The outer reef had a fair, deep +passage, and so had the next; but the inner one presented but one narrow +gateway, scarcely wide enough for a ship to scrape through, with the +whole reef one uninterrupted fringe of black pointed rocks and roaring +white breakers, which toppled over, and boiled and eddied like a +thousand whirlpools into the smoother water inshore. + +"As the 'Centipede's' stern gave a sharp pitching jerk when she entered +this boiling gorge, we saw, in the moonlight, her head-yards laid +square, the fore and aft sails flowing in the sheets as she fell off +with wide wings and the wind on her quarter, and flew down inside the +reef. + +"Five minutes after we too entered this maelstrom chasm, and, though the +helm was hove hard up, and the after-sails shivered, yet, before the +'Scourge's' bows, going at the rate she was, could turn the sharp angle +of that water-gate, her port bilge grated against a coral ledge, and +grooved and broomed the planks and copper away like so much sea-weed! +But yet that slight graze never stopped us a hair's weight, and, with +additional sail, we rushed after our pilot, mile after mile, through +reef, ledge, breakers, inlets, and keys, now braced sharp up, and again +going free, until at last the fellow, having run us a dance of full ten +miles, once more emerged into the open water, close jammed on the wind, +steering nearly due east. + +"There, Hardy!" exclaimed the commodore, "I am tired of talking; suppose +you take up the thread of the yarn. Domino, another bottle of tinta!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +THE WRECK OF THE "CENTIPEDE." + + "Gun bellows forth to gun, and pain + Rings out her wild, delirious scream; + Redoubling thunders shake the main, + Loud crashing falls the shot-rent beam. + The timbers with the broadsides strain; + The slippery decks send up a steam + From hot and living blood; and high + And shrill is heard the death-pang cry!" + + "She struck where the white and fleecy waves + Looked soft as carded wool; + But the cruel rocks they gored her side + Like the horns of an angry bull." + + +Piron turned his gaze toward the first lieutenant, moved away the full +glasses of wine, which he had never raised to his lips since the +commodore began, and, resting his bloodless cheek on his other hand, +listened. + +"It's vera interesting indeed." "Tear an' ages, boy! Fire away!" quoth +the Scotchman and his Milesian crony in a breath. + +Hardy threw his arm over the shoulder of Harry Darcantel as if it was a +pleasant Corinthian column to lean upon, and breaking off the ashes of +his cigar on the rim of a wine-glass which he had specially devoted to +that purpose, he forthwith began: + +"I am quite confident, gentlemen, that I can not describe what afterward +took place so well as Commodore Cleveland, but, at all events, I'll do +my best. Nor do I remember very distinctly the events of the night after +we got out of the Musketeers Keys; for I was pretty well fagged out +myself, and all of us who had the watch below turned in to take the +first wink of sleep we could catch for forty hours. + +"The next morning, however, when I took the deck, I found the corvette +under royals and flying-jib, with a fresh trade wind blowing from about +east-northeast, and a smooth sea; though close hauled as we were, and +going ten knots, the spray was flying well up the weather leech of the +fore-sail. The 'Centipede' was about a mile and a half ahead, jammed on +the wind, and trying all she could to eat the wind out of us; but, as +the commodore there said at the time, he had thrown that trick away when +he cut off eight or ten feet of his fore-mast, and made a brigantine of +the craft, so that he could not brace his head-yards sharper, or lie +nearer the wind than we did. + +"I remember, also, that two or three of the officers and half a hundred +of the sailors were very anxious to pitch shot at the chase from the +long eighteen in the weather bridle port; but the captain refused, and +said we might lose a cable's length or two in yawing off to fire, and it +would be better to save the powder until we could slam a broadside into +him. But all the while that 'Centipede' was handled and steered in such +a thorough seamanlike manner, and proved herself such a beautiful +sea-boat, that I doubt if there was a man on board the 'Scourge' who +would not have given a year's pay to have taken her whole, and only +expended a spare top-mast studding-sail halliards for the necks of her +crew. + +"From the top-gallant forecastle we could see every thing that took +place on the schooner's deck: sometimes a lot of fellows forward reeving +some fresh gear, peering about the low bowsprit, or putting on a seizing +to a traveler on the jib-stay; with a chap or two aloft stitching a +chafing-mat on the lee backstays; and then aft a man shinning up the +main shrouds with a tin pot hung around his neck, greasing the jaws of +the main gaff, and twitching a wrinkle out of the gaff-top-sail, so that +it would lie as flat as this dining-room table set on end. + +"But always, from the very first moment we descried her--before the +hurricane and afterward--there were two fellows abaft by the taffrail. +One a large fat man, in a long dark dress, who appeared at times to be +leaning over the rail as if he were sea-sick; and the other a spare, +tall-built fellow, who sat there with a quadrant in his hands and +smoking cigars, measuring the distance between the two vessels as if he +were a government surveyor, and especially appointed to make a +hydrographical chart of the Caribbean Sea. Occasionally, too, we could +see him approach the binnacle, spread a chart on the deck at his feet, +examine it closely with a pair of dividers in his hands, and then he +would return to his seat on the taffrail, cigar in his mouth and +quadrant to his eye as before. + +"Nor were we idle on board the 'Scourge;' for when the breeze lulled we +slacked up the lower rigging and stays, got down all extra weight and +hamper from the tops, sent the watch below to the berth-deck with a +round shot apiece in their hammocks, moved a couple of carronades about +the spar-deck till we got the ship in the best sailing trim, and then we +went skipping and springing through the water with the elasticity of an +India-rubber ball. + +"At noon the sailing-master reported the position of the ship to be two +hundred and eighty miles from the nearest land, which was the Darien +Coast. So all that day and all that night, with a moon to make a lover +weep to see, we went bowling after our waspish consort in hopes before +long of taking the sting out of her. No kite ever pursued its quarry +with a keener eye than we did. No hound ever leaped after a wolf with +the froth streaming from his jaws and blood-red thirsty eyes, than did +the 'Scourge' chase that infamous pirate. The delay only made our eyes +sparkle and our teeth sharper in expectation; for we knew we would have +our prey sooner or later, and it was only a bite and a pleasure +deferred. + +"The next morning and all the day there was no change to speak of in our +respective positions. The 'Centipede' went skimming on over the water +with every thread of canvas she could spread, reeling over on her side +at times when the breeze freshened, while the spray flashed up joyously +and sparkled in the sun, leaving a bubbling current of foam in her wake, +which, before it had been entirely lost in the regular waves of the sea, +the corvette's sharp bows would plunge into, and again make it flash +high up to her fore-yard, and then go seething, and hissing, and kissing +her black sides until it rippled around her rudder and was lost again in +the wake astern. + +"And all the time that man sat with a cigar in his mouth on the pirate's +taffrail, while Commodore Cleveland there stood with a spy-glass to his +eye on the poop of the 'Scourge.' + +"You may imagine, gentlemen," continued Hardy, as he again knocked the +ashes off his cigar, "that going to sea is attended with some few +discomforts, such as battening down the hatches in a sirocco in the +Mediterranean off Tripoli; a simoom in the China Seas; a bitter +northwest gale off Barnegat, with the rigging and sails frozen as hard +as an iceberg; but if a man can catch forty winks of sleep once in a +while, whether in a hammock, or on an oak carronade slide with the +breech of a gun for a pillow, he may manage to weather through it. But +from the moment we first saw that pirate till we saw the last of him, +neither the first lieutenant of the 'Scourge' nor the commander of the +'Centipede' once closed their eyes, unless--well, I won't anticipate." + +Piron reached over his hand and shook that of his friend Cleveland +convulsively. + +"Vera weel, mon! vera weel!" "He's the very man to do it!" said Stewart +and Burns to Stingo, nodding backward at the commodore. + +Another striking contrast to the hand-shaking, virtuous compact between +Captain Brand and his friend, the pious padre Ricardo! I wonder if they +are shaking hands now! Probably not. + +"Gentlemen," resumed Hardy, as he shook the ashes level in his +wine-glass, as if he wished to preserve them to clean his teeth with +after smoking, "I will not detain you much longer. Both vessels were +making great speed, and long before sunset we had been keeping a bright +look-out for the land. At last it was reported, trending all around +both bows, low and with a trembling mirage of pines and mangroves +looming up, and a multitude of rocky keys dead ahead. We were steering +directly for Las Mulatas Islands, a cluster then little known to any +navigators save, perhaps, the buccaneers of the Gulf of Columbus, and +perhaps, too, with the intention of running us just such another dance +as our pilot had a night or two before. However, we were again all +prepared to explore the unknown reefs; and, moreover, we got the +starboard anchor off the bow, and bent the cables to that and the spare +anchors amidships, so as to be all ready to moor ship in case our pilot +required us to do so. And likewise the cutters were hanging clear from +the davits--the same boats which had once before paid a complimentary +visit to some of his friends--supposing he would like to entertain us in +person. + +"The sun went down again in a fiery blaze, and with its last ray there +slowly rose to the main truck of the pirate a swallow-tailed black flag, +with a white skull and cross-bones in the dark field. It fluttered for a +moment out straight and clear, and then twisted itself around the thin +mast, never more to be released by hands or halliards! That was the last +glimpse those pirates ever caught of the murderous symbol they had so +often fought and sailed under; and it was the last sun that a good many +aching eyes ever looked upon who were sailing there in that half league +of blue water. The moon, however, was riding bright and beaming, as +clear as a bell, overhead, and that was all the light we cared for. The +'Centipede,' no doubt, would have preferred no moon at all, with a +cloudy sky and a bit of a rain squall, to pursue the intricate +navigation before her; but Heaven arranged the atmospheric scenery +otherwise. + +"'By the deep eight!' sang out the leadsman in the port chains. 'The +mark five!' came from the opposite side. 'Another cast, lads--quick!' +'And a half four!' 'Six fathoms, sir!' + +"'We must have stirred up the sand, Cleveland,' said the captain; but +even as he spoke the man in the starboard chains cried, 'Three fathoms, +sir!' and while each instant we expected the ship to bring up all +standing, and the masts to go by the board, the other leadsman sung out, +joyfully, 'No bottom with the line, sir!' + +"Well, we were safely through that bed of coral, doing, no doubt, some +trifling damage to the tender shoots and branches, as we flew through a +narrow channel, with the waves breaking and moaning on the sandy shores +over the keys, out into deep water again. + +"Four or five miles beyond stood out a bluff rock, looking in the +moonlight like a dozing lion with his paws crossed before him, ready to +bound upon any who should approach his lair in the dense jungle of pines +and tangled thickets which stood up like a bristling mane on the ridge +behind. + +"The 'Centipede' was now but a short half-mile ahead of us, her deck +alive with men, and manifestly ready for some desperate devilment. On +her after rail, too, stood that man, tall and erect, his feet steadied +by the cavil of the main boom, a spy-glass to his eye, and looking at +the rocky lion now close aboard him, still with a cigar in his mouth; +and we thought we could even see the thin puffs of smoke curling around +his face. Suddenly, too, we saw the spy-glass whirled around his head, +and at the instant the vessel fell dead off before the wind, the great +main-sail flew over with a stunning crash and clatter of blocks and +sheets as the wind caught it on the other quarter, making the long +switch of a mast to spring like a bow, while the weather-shrouds slacked +up for a moment in bights, and then came back taut with a twang you +might have heard a mile! We could now see, as the space opened behind +the rock, another frightful jagged ledge, on which the rollers were +heaving in liquid masses high up a precipitous rock, and where the +channel was not a cable's length wide, leading into a foaming gloomy +inlet, where not even the beams of the moon could penetrate! I heard the +captain say, in his old decided way, + +"'Now for it, Cleveland! You take the battery, and I'll look out for the +ship!' + +"Then, gentlemen," said Hardy, with unusual animation, as he waved his +right arm aloft with an imaginary cutlass swinging over his head, "came +the word 'Fire!' + +"Yes, the entire starboard broadside, round shot, grape, and canister, +all pointed toward a centre, were delivered with one simultaneous +shock--the hurricane a mere cat's-paw in comparison--which shook the +corvette as if she had struck a rock, while the smoke and sheets of +flame spouted out from the cannon, half hiding the black torrent which +gushed forth from so many hoarse throats; and as the roar of the +concussion was taken up in terrible echoes from the lion on the rock, a +peppering volley of musket-balls from the marines on the poop and +forecastle made a barking tenor to the music. + +"Meanwhile the helm of the 'Scourge' was hove hard down, and as she just +swirled, by a miracle, clear of the ledge under our lee, and came up to +the wind with the sails slamming and banging hard enough to send the +canvas out of the bolt-ropes, the courses were clewed up, every thing +aloft came down by the run; anchor after anchor went plunging to the +bottom, and before the cables had fairly begun to fly out of the +hawse-holes with their infernal jar and rattle, high above the sounds of +flapping sails, snapping blocks, running chains, and what not, came +another clear order, 'Fire!' + +"Then pealed out the port broadside at a helpless, dismasted hulk within +two hundred yards of our beam, rolling like a worm-eaten log on the top +of a ruffled broad roller, going to break, in ten seconds, on the ledge, +whose pointed rocks stood up like black toothed fangs to grind its prey +to atoms! But before the fangs closed upon it our own teeth gave it a +shake; and as the breath of our bull-dogs was swept aft by the fresh +breeze, we could see the sluggish mass almost rise bodily out of water +as it was torn and split by the round iron wedges, the fragments flying +up in dark, ragged strips and splinters with squirming ropes around +them, looking, in the moonlight, like skeletons of gibbeted pirates +tossed, gallows and chains, into the air, and then coming down in dips +and splashes into the unforgiving water. + +"A minute later, all that was left of the shattered hull fell broadside +into the open fangs of the ledge, which ground it with its merciless +jaws into toothpicks. But in all the lively music and destruction going +on around us--which takes longer to tell than to act--we heard no human +voice save one, and that came in a loud, terrified yell amid the +crunching roar of the ledge, + +"'_O Madre! Madre dolorosa!_' + +"This, gentlemen, was the last sound that came from the piratical +schooner 'Centipede.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +VULTURES AND SHARKS. + + "Oh ho! oh ho! Above! below! + Lightly and brightly they glide and go; + The hungry and keen on the top are leaping, + The lazy and fat in the depths are sleeping!" + + "Ah! well-a-day! What evil looks + Had I from old and young; + Instead of the cross, the albatross + About my neck was hung." + + +When Hardy had concluded his part of the tale, he stuck the stump of his +cigar into the wine-glass of ashes, as if he had no farther use for +either, moistened his throat with a bumper of tinta, and almost +unconsciously passed his left arm around Harry Darcantel's neck. + +Stingo drank two bumpers, as if he had a particularly parched throat; +but Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart, strange to relate, never wet their +lips, and passed their hands in a careless way across their eyes, as if +there were moisture enough there--as, indeed, there was; feeling, as +they did, in the founts of their own generous natures, for their dear +friend who sat opposite. + +Piron's head rested, face downward, on his outspread hands, and a few +drops trickled through his close-pressed fingers, but they were not +wine. And as he raised his head and looked around the board, where +glowing, sympathizing eyes met his, he said, in a low, subdued voice, + +"I trust I may thank Heaven for avenging the murder of our child!" + +Even as he uttered these words, his gaze rested on the face of +Darcantel; and striking the table with a blow that made the glasses +jingle, he started back, as he had done on the frigate's quarter-deck, +and exclaimed, + +"Great God! can it be possible that that boy was saved from the clutches +of the drowned pirate!" + +Not so fast, good Monsieur Piron--not so fast. Your boy was saved, and +Captain Brand was not drowned. So keep quiet for a time, and you shall +not only see that bloody pirate, but hear how he departed this life; +only keep quiet! + +Paddy Burns said, with a violent attempt at indignation, "Wirra, ye +spalpeen! is it thinking of old Clinker and his 'arthquake ye are?" +While Tom Stewart ejaculated, "Heeh, mon! are you for breaking the +commodoor's decanters and wine-glasses, in the belief that ye are the +eerthquak yersel?" Stingo, who was more calm, and a less excitable +Creole, merely murmured, "Commodore, we want to hear more of what took +place, and then what became of you for the past sixteen or seventeen +years." + +"You shall hear more if you are not tired, gentlemen, though I have very +little to add to what Hardy has already related of the 'Centipede.' +Steward, let the servants turn in; and brew us, yourself, a light jorum +of Antigua punch! Now, then," said Commodore Cleveland, "I'm your man! + +"After we had scaled the guns on both sides of the 'Scourge,' as Hardy +has told you, the captain thought it an unnecessary trouble to lower the +boats to pick up the chips floating about the mouth of the channel; and, +besides, it would have been a bit dangerous, since the sea was coming in +savagely, boiling about the ship, with a very uncertain depth of water +around and under us; and, moreover, we had our hands full the best part +of the night in reeving new running-gear, bending a new sail or two that +had flapped to pieces when every thing was let go by the run in coming +to anchor. However, before morning, we were in cruising trim once more, +and ready to cut and run in case it was expedient to lose our +ground-tackle, and get out of what we afterward learned was the Garotte +Gorge. But by sunrise the wind fell away into a flat calm, and with the +exception of the long, triple row of rollers heaving in occasionally +from seaward, we lay as snug and quiet as could be. + +"After breakfast the quarter boats were lowered, and Hardy took one, and +I got in the other, and we pulled in toward the jaws of the channel, +between the Lion Rock and the ledge on the opposite side. + +"There were still a good many fragments of the wreck, which had +escaped the reacting current out to sea, floating about on the +water; some of the timbers, too, of the hull were jammed in the black +gums of the ledge, shrouded in sea-weed and kelp, as if all had +grown there together. Farther on was part of the fore-mast and top-mast, +swimming nearly in mid-channel, anchored as it were by one of the +shrouds--twisted, perhaps, around a sharp rock below. The top-sail +was still fast to the yards, hoisted and sheeted home, and laid in +the water transversely to the masts, just as it fell under the raking +fire of our first broadside, jerking over the main-top-mast with it. + +"A myriad of sea-birds, from Mother Carey's chickens to gulls and +cormorants, and even vultures and eagles from the shore, were clustered +on the wreck as thick as bees--screaming, croaking, and snapping at each +other with their hard beaks and bills, while thousands more were +hurrying in from seaward, and either swooped down over the ledge, or +tried to find a place on the floating spars. + +"The gorge, too, was alive with barracoutas and sharks, leaping out of +water, or with their stiff triangular fins cutting just above the +surface, and sometimes even grazing the blades of the cutter's oars. I +pulled slowly toward the wreck of the fore-mast, and hooked on to the +reef-cringle of the fore-top-sail. The birds did not move at our +approach, and one old red-eyed vulture snapped on the polished bill of +the boat-hook, leaving the marks of his beak in the smooth iron. Down in +the clear green depths, too, the water was alive with ravenous fish, and +we could see at times hundreds of them with their heads fastened on to +some dark object, rolling it, and biting it, and pulling every way, with +now and then the glance of a clean-picked bone shining white in the +limpid water as the mass was jerked out of our sight. + +"The bowmen, however, attracted my attention, and one of them sang out, +as he pointed with his finger, 'I say, Mr. Cleveland, here's the captain +and his priest lying in the belly of the top-sail!' + +"I walked forward, while the men fired a few pistols to scare away the +birds, and looked in. There, about a foot below the water, lay one +drowned man and half the body of another, who had evidently been cut in +twain by a twenty-four pound shot at the stomach, leaving only a few +revolting shreds of entrails dangling beneath the carcass. The other +corpse was a large, burly, fat man, wrapped in a black cassock, with a +knotted rope to confine it at the midriff, and around his thick bare +neck was a string of black beads, holding a gold and ebony crucifix, +pendent in the water. The eyes of the one with half a body had been +picked out by the gulls, but he still possessed a fang-like tusk, +sticking through a hare-lip under a fringe of wiry mustache, which gave +me a tolerable correct idea of his temper even without seeing his eyes. +The truck and shivered stump of the main-top-mast, too, with the +piratical flag still twisted around it, lay across his chest; but, as we +approached, an eagle seized it in his beak, and, tearing it in tattered +shreds, flew aloft, with the remains of the parted halliards streaming +below his talons. + +"The large lump rolling slowly over beside him had the crown of the head +shaved, and the mouth and eyes were wide staring open, as if it was +chanting forth a misericordia for his own soul. As I stood gazing at +these revolting objects, and while the men were firing pistols and +slashing the oars and boat-hooks around to drive away the greedy birds, +a huge pelican, unmindful of powder or ash, made one dashing swoop into +the sail, and as he came up and spread his broad pinions--nearly as +broad as the sail itself--he held in his pouch the crucifix from the +padre's neck, and as he slowly flapped his great wings and sailed away, +with the beads dropping pit-a-pat-pat on the glassy surface of the +water, a cloud of cormorants, gulls, and vultures took after him to +steal his plunder. + +"At the same time the sharks--many of them resting their cold, sharp +noses on the very leech of the top-sail--waiting like hungry dogs for a +bone, with a thousand more diving and cutting in the water beneath, at +last cut through the canvas belly of the sail, and, before you could +think, the floating corpses were within their serrated jaws. In another +moment the bodies rose again to the surface outside the sail and wreck; +then another dash from the monsters, and a greedy dive and peck from the +birds; a few bubbles and shreds of black threads, and that was the last +of those wretches until the sea shall give up its dead. + +"As for Hardy, he pulled higher up the gorge, and examined the rocks and +pools on both sides, but saw nothing living or dead, and we both +returned to the ship." + +Had Dick Hardy landed at the flat rock where the eddy swept in under the +Lion's paws, he might have seen the footprint of a man, with a straw +slipper in it; and following the track a few yards farther, he would +have passed his sword through a villain lying bleeding in a mangrove +thicket; and found, too, in his belt, snugly stowed away, a lot of +gleaming jewels, with a sapphire gem of priceless value on the finger of +his bloody hand. But never mind, Hardy! You will hear more of that man +one of these days, and you will have no cause for regrets--though he +will, perhaps; and, meanwhile, let him wander in quest of fresh +villainies over Spanish South America. + +"Well, gentlemen," resumed Commodore Cleveland, "although I have doubts +whether the mangled carcass we saw in the sail was the captain of that +notorious 'Centipede,' yet I felt confident at the time, and do now, +that it was scarcely possible for him or a man of his crew to have +escaped our fire and the water and rocks combined. So that evening, when +the land-wind made, we tripped anchor and sailed away from the coast of +Darien." + +"Come, my friends," said Piron, in a low, tremulous voice, rising as he +spoke, "we must not push Cleveland too far to-night, for it is getting +late, you know, and they keep early hours on board men-of-war." + +"No hurry, Piron! I'll talk to you all night, if you have the patience +to listen to me. No? Then I'll have the boat manned." He touched a +bell-rope which hung over his head, and the cabin door opened. "Orderly, +my compliments to the officer of the watch, and desire him to call away +the barge." + +While some of the gentlemen in the forward cabin left the table, and +stood about in groups chatting till the boat was reported, Piron put his +arm around the commodore's belt, and they moved aft into the starboard +stateroom. Little Mouse was lying sound asleep on the elegant cot, with +all his clothes on, but with a smile on his lips, and dreaming, maybe, +of the dear widowed mother he would one of those days make proud of +him. + +"Cleveland, my old friend, tell me more of that young Darcantel!" + +"Hist! Piron, don't wake little Tiny! There's nothing to tell more than +he is my adopted nephew, and the son of the gentleman who occupies that +stateroom opposite. But when we go out to Escondido I'll tell you about +his father, who has led a very adventurous life." + +"Well, good-night! You will bring young Darcantel with you, and this +little rogue, too, here in the cot. My wife and her sister will be +delighted to see you all. Good-night!" + +As the "Monongahela's" bell struck eight for midnight, the commodore's +guests got in the barge and pulled toward the shore. + +At the same time, a light gig, with handsome Harry Darcantel, went +alongside the "Rosalie," and Commodore Cleveland turned into his +friend's cot opposite, leaving small Mr. Mouse to sleep his dream out +till morning; while, as the barge ran up to the landing at Kingston +Harbor, and a gold ounce was slipped into the old coxswain's honest paw, +what did they all think about? Good-night! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +ESCONDIDO. + + "They bore her far to a mountain green, + To see what mortal never had seen; + And they seated her high on a purple sward, + And bade her heed what she saw and heard; + And note the changes the spirits wrought, + For now she lived in the land of thought." + + "'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out, + And force him to restore his purchase back, + Or drag by the curls to a foul death, + Cursed as his life." + + +Hidden in a cleft of the hills of Jamaica, fifteen hundred feet above +that blue tropical sea below, on the brow of a cool valley, where that +bounding stream of white water rushes from the tall peak in the sky in +tiny cataracts, till it forms a pool there, held in by the smooth rim of +rocks, where the cane-mill is lazily turning its overshot wheel, with +the spray flying off in streaming mist, and the happy blacks stacking +the sugar-cane in even fagots as they unlade the huge carts with solid +wheels cut out of a single drum of a cotton-tree; the six or eight yoke +of oxen ahead ruminating under the shade of the tropical foliage, with +never a switch to their tails; while the lively young sea-breeze comes +flurrying up the valley, whistling among the coffee bushes below, +bending the standing cane on the slopes, rattling the tamarinds, +cocoa-nuts, and plantains, and then climbing with noisy wings up the +mountain, is lost with a whirl in the heavy cloud which obscures the +lofty peak. + +Below the mill, where the mule-path crosses the foaming torrent by the +shaky bridge, which stands on cocoa-nut stilts, and never yet has been +thrown down by an earthquake, nestling under a precipitous crag, stood +the mountain seat of Escondido. Vines and parasitical plants, mingled +with scarlet creeping geraniums, made a living wall of dewy green and +red on the face of the hoary rock, falling over here and there at some +projecting acclivity in leafy torrents, and then forming a glowing green +cornice along the topmost edges of the height. + +The buildings stood on a flat esplanade below, looking down the gorge as +from the apex of a triangle, and taking in the overseer's houses on the +plantations, with their cone-shaped roofs, the fields of cane and coffee +groves, the cataract between, down to the white snowy beach at the +sea-shore, and the blue water crested by waves as far as the sight could +reach. + +The main house was square--standing on stilts, too, like the shaky +bridge--the lower part fenced in by straight bamboos, of one story, with +a broad roomy veranda going all round, where half a dozen grass hammocks +were slung between the windows which opened into the dwelling. A great +airy saloon and dining-room faced the valley, while six or eight cool +bedchambers looked out from the rear up at the green wall of the +precipice, and down on the sparkling stream of the mill. + +But there were no loopholes for musketry, nor vaults and dungeons. + +The sun had long passed the tall peaks of the blue mountains above, and +the shadows had fallen down the valley until even the patch of white +pebbly cove at the shore had become dim; and no sounds were heard save +the rustling of the sea-breeze, the splash of the torrent as it fell off +from the rickety old wheel of the cane-mill, mingled with the shrill +cries and songs of the negroes as they unloaded the carts. + +Yes; but there _were_ other sounds--the low, sweet tones of women's +voices--inside the villa of Escondido. Two lovely matrons were sitting +within that lofty saloon, hand clasped in hand, and gazing with glowing +pride upon a lovely girl, who waved lithe as a lily on its stem before +them. + +It is about seventeen years since we last saw this charming trio. And +now look at them, old bachelors, and tell me if, while old Time has been +scraping the hair off your own selfish heads, and pinching the noses, +too, of the ancient maids beside you, has not the scything old wretch +spared these lovely matrons? Look at their rounded forms, those soft +dimpled cheeks, and those bands of brown tresses, kissing the +pear-shaped ears before they are looped up in one magnificent knot of +satin at the back of the head. Look at them, you miserable old +procrastinators, and then kneel down before the ancient damsels you have +sneered at, even if they have the pelican gout and a crow's-foot at the +corners of their eyes! They are better than you are, any day; so bear a +hand, send for the parson--and now stand back. + +But come here, my young gallants, and take a peep at that Bordelaise +demoiselle standing before those fair matrons. Strange to say, she is +nearly a blonde, with large blue eyes, so very blue that--fringed with +lashes that cast a shade over the cheek--they seem almost black. Then, +too, that low, pure forehead, with great plaits of hair going round and +round her elegant head like a golden turban, and thin hoops of rings +quivering in the pearl-tipped ears. Tall and waving in figure, as +maidens are; with slim, arched feet, dimpled at the ankle; and round, +tapering fingers too, with a wrist so plump and soft that no manacles of +bracelets could press it without slipping off the ivory hand. Dressed +she was in a light mousseline, coyly cowering in loose folds around her +budding bosom to the slender waist, where, clasped by a simple buckle of +mother-o'-pearl, it fell flowing in gauzy, floating waves to her feet. +Look at her, my gallants, for she is Rosalie! + +"They are coming to-day, my aunt; and Uncle Jules says that our dear old +Captain Blunt has just arrived at Kingston, and is coming with them." + +"What else, my daughter?" + +The girl held a letter before her face, maybe to hide a little blush +which suffused her cheeks. + +"Why, mamma, he writes that the spring-cart, with Banou, was to start +overnight with the 'traps'--that means trunks, I suppose--and that--" + +"What, Rosalie?" + +"That there is a handsome young officer, the nephew of Commodore +Cleveland--_merci_, mamma! some of Uncle Jules's nonsense!" + +No such great nonsense, after all, mademoiselle, when your uncle Piron +tells you to keep that fluttering little heart safe within your bodice, +for there are thieves in blue jackets in the island of Jamaica. Strange, +too, as she spoke--with her animated face, large blue eyes, and +graceful, wavy figure--how much she resembled both those lovely women, +with their darker coloring, who sat smiling sweetly upon her. + +"Oh! here comes Uncle Banou. Well, my good Banou, what news of your +master?" said Madame Piron, as she put out her hand to the black, who +raised it respectfully to his lips. + +"He will be here with his friends at sunset, eh! And Mademoiselle +Rosalie must place the gentlemen's things in their rooms, and see that +the billiard-house has some cots made ready in it." + +"Nothing more?" + +"No, madame." + +"_Allons!_ Rosalie, we have no time to lose." + +Winding through the mazes of the tropical forest, over the broken stony +road, leading through a brilliant labyrinth of wild fig and acacia, +plume-like palms, white shafts of silk and cotton, and lance-wood, +mahogany, and ebony, parasitical plants in green and red, with endless +varieties of gay flowers strung and laced in superb festoons on trunk +and branch; singing birds and paroquets making the forest alive; while, +mingled with the delicious fragrance of orange-blossoms, cinnamon, and +pimento, the fresh breeze wheeled through clump and leaf, changing the +hues of plant and flower from white to crimson, green, purple, and gold, +as Nature painted them in gorgeous dyes. + +Through this brilliant vegetation, along the uneven road, came the sound +of horses' feet, with hearty shouts and laughter; and presently appeared +a cavalcade, mounted on mules and horses, all making the forest ring +with merriment. + +Ahead came Tom Stewart, on a small, sure-footed pony; and beside him Mr. +Tiny Mouse, reefer, on a high mule, with a scrubbing-brush mane, looking +like a fly pennant at the mast-head of the frigate, kicking his little +heels into the old mule, as if that mule minded it even so much as to +shake his long ears! Then straggling in the centre were Darcantel, +Stingo, and Paddy Burns; and behind them came a tall, muscular man, on a +mettled barb, which he controlled by a touch of his little finger. And +at his side, on the most diminutive of the donkey breed, with feet +touching the ground, clung stout Jacob Blunt, the sailor, in a more +dreadful trepidation than he had ever known on board his old teak-built +brig, lying there in the Roads of Kingston; while the rear was brought +up by Piron and Commodore Cleveland. + +"Now, you little madcap, look sharp when we turn the curve of the +mountain, and you'll catch a peep at Escondido; and don't you pinch that +old mule again on her back, or she'll pitch you up into that silk +cotton-tree." + +"If it pleases Providence to restore me safely to my dear old 'Martha +Blunt,' I'll take my davy never to sit astride of any d---- brute on +four legs again!" This mild vow came from the lips of Jacob Blunt, and +he honestly meant every word he said. + +"Give us another jolly song, Stingo; it will keep your throat clear for +the claret." + +"For the sake of my old timbers, sir, and as you vally my wife's +blessing, don't sing! There, you infarnal beast, you've yawed sharp up +into this ere bush, and put my starboard glim out forever! I say, Don +Spanisher, don't sing--_I'm_ going fast enough!" shouted the poor +skipper, as he passed his paws around the little brute's neck, with his +hat over his eyes. + +"Colonel," said Burns, as he reined up, and gave the perverse little +donkey a cut with his whip, which elicited another hoarse roar from the +old sailor as the animal half doubled himself up, and then ambled away +like a yawl in a short sea, until he came up to the people ahead, when +he stood stock-still and brayed maliciously, "have you another cigar, +colonel? Thankee! Fine scenery this about here--never visited Jamaica +before? Ye have been off the island, eh? It's a nate little spot Piron +has there, that it is; and the whole of us will be mighty sorry to lose +him. Is he going to lave? Yes, he is; and, what is worse, he is going to +take his swate wife and her sister. Is the sister handsome? Begorra! +handsome? Why, man, she's a beauty! And didn't I crack the elbow-joint +of that ugly, abusive divil, Peter Growler, for saying he had seen a +gray hair in her head, when I knew it was only a loose thread from her +lace cap--and me in love with her all the time. Bad luck to him! he's +never fired a pistol since." + +Here Paddy Burns's small eyes twinkled as he slowly raised the stock of +his riding-whip at a slender lance-wood-tree about twelve yards off, and +gave the lash a sharp crack. + +The person on the spirited barb almost unconsciously put his right hand +in his pocket. + +Take care, Paddy Burns; the colonel has a cool hand and a colder eye, +and has made a study of pistols--cannon and swivels too, perhaps. Knows +the cutlass exercise as well, and has had considerable experience in +bullets, knives, and ropes. Has murdered women--lots of them. Wouldn't +stick at killing a child with a junk bottle. And as for men--pshaw! Keep +a bright look-out, Paddy. Why, he'd drown your mother if you had a +sister to love. For didn't he drag his own old father and mother down to +a dishonored grave? and do you think, you brave, honest little Irishman, +that he would sleep a wink the less sound for putting you to death? Bah! +man. Shoot all the game you spring, but don't waste powder on a tiger or +a shark. You would like to take a mutual shot with him, though? Of +course you would--who doubts it? But then, gentlemen fight gentlemen; +and this colonel at your elbow is a scoundrel, miscreant, villain, +assassin, and--pirate! So you can't take a crack at him, Paddy Burns. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +PAUL DARCANTEL. + + "From the strong will, and the endeavor, + That forever + Wrestles with the tide of fate; + From the wrecks of hope far scattered, + Tempest shattered, + Floating waste and desolate." + + +"Well, Piron, as I have told you, after the peace was made in 1815, I +had command of a brig, and took a cruise on the coast of Brazil. After +that I was appointed to a thirty-six gun frigate--the old 'Blazer'--and +went, for three years, to the East Indies, and round home by the +Pacific. When we were paid off I made a tour in Europe with that boy's +father, Dr. Darcantel, and--" + +"But you promised to tell me, Cleveland, something about him." + +"Nothing easier; and, if we have half an hour before we get to +Escondido, I will give you all I know, in a general way, of his history. +Yes? Well, then, Darcantel is descended from one of the oldest and best +Creole families in our State of Louisiana, and the plantations of my +family and his father were contiguous to each other on the Mississippi, +some leagues up the coast above New Orleans. We had the same tutor when +we were children, and we grew up from infancy to boyhood together. He +was passionate and ungovernable even as a child; but as he was the heir +to a large estate, and his father dead, his weak mother humored and +allowed no one to curb him. I myself, one of a numerous family, was put +in the navy, and I went away on cruise after cruise, and did not get +home again to the old plantation for full seven years. I was a man then, +had seen some active service, and I held a commission as a lieutenant in +the navy. + +"In the mean while, Paul Darcantel, who had taken, at the time I left, a +strong fancy for medicine and surgery, had been sent to France to begin +his studies. How he applied himself we do not know; but with a large +letter of credit he spent a great deal of money; and we heard that, with +great talents and wonderful skill in his profession, he was yet unfitted +for close application, and plunged madly into the vortex of dissipation +around him. I heard, too--or at least my brothers told me--that his +extravagances had seriously impaired his fortune, and that his duels +had been so numerous and desperate as to make his name dreaded even in +Paris. On one occasion, at a cafe, he had cut a bullying hussar's head +clean off with his own sabre for knocking a woman down; and in another +duel, where he had detected a French count cheating him at cards, he +shot his nose off for a bet. With this unenviable reputation, and at the +urgent solicitations of his agent, after years of absence he returned to +his ancestral home. We met as of old--it was Paul and Henry--and though +still the same restive, hot-headed spirit as he had ever been, he yet +always listened patiently to what I said, and I could, in a manner, +control him. He paid very little attention to his property, however, and +when he did go to the city to consult with his factor or trustee, he got +into some wild frolic, duel, and scrape, and came back worn out with +fatigue and dissipation. He was a fine, stern-looking youth in those +days, with great muscular power, which, even with the endurance put upon +it by gaming and drinking, seemed not to be lessened. + +"After one of these visits to New Orleans, where his long-forbearing +agents had at last awakened him to a bitter sense of his delinquencies, +and when mortgage upon mortgage were laid with all their shocking truth +before him, he returned and came to me. With all his vices and faults, +he was truthful and generous. He told me all, and how he would try to do +better, and soothe the declining years of his too indulgent mother. + +"I always had great faith in the companion almost of my cradle, and I +loved him, I think, better than my own brothers. Well, he spread all his +affairs before me, and in my little den of an outhouse on the plantation +we both went systematically over the papers. We were two days and nights +at the business; and when, at last, I showed him that he would still, +with a little prudent economy, have a fair income, and eventually, +perhaps, redeem his hereditary property, he burst out in a wild yell of +delight, and hugged me in his arms. When he had put away the papers, I +said, + +"'Paul, you know I am engaged to be married, and I have not seen my +sweetheart for two whole days; she has a sister, too, prettier than my +Fifine, whom you have never seen since we were boys together. Come, will +you go with me? We can pull ourselves across the river.' + +"He hesitated; and it would have been, perhaps, better had he refused to +accompany me, for dreadful misery came of it." + +The commodore gave a deep sigh, and touched his horse with the spur. + +"I don't know, though, Piron; there is a fate marked out for us all, and +we should not exclaim against the decrees of Providence. Paul went with +me across the river. There, on the bank, was a little bower of an old +French-built stone house, where dwelt the last of a line of French +nobility who dated back to the days of Charlemagne. It was an +impoverished family, consisting of a reckless brother and two sisters, +who, with a few acres of sugar-cane and some old faithful servants, +managed to make both ends meet, and to support the establishment in a +certain air of elegance and comfort to which they had been accustomed. +They were of a proud and haughty race--the brother a disdainful and +imperious gentleman, smarting and brooding over the reverses of his +family, and rarely visiting his neighbors. His sisters--and they were +twins--were trustful, happy girls, and Josephine had been my childish +love." + +Here Cleveland bent over his saddle-bow, and if the quiet old horse he +bestrode believed the large drops which fell upon his sleek neck came +from the clouds, or the drooping foliage of the forest, that animal was +never more deceived in his quadruped life. We know that fact, for it +stands upon the angelic record. + +"Well, my dear Piron, as we entered the little saloon where Fifine was +seated at the piano, playing the sweet airs she had sung to me when a +little bit of a girl, and her beautiful sister bending over a table +near, absorbed in a book, while the candles under the glass shades +lighted up her dark passionate eyes and brunette complexion, Paul +approached her. It was not love at first sight, because they had played +together when children; but it was such a love as only begins and dies +with man or woman. The brother came in soon afterward, but there was no +love exchanged between him and Paul, and they met in a manner which +seemed to revive the early dislike they had entertained one toward the +other in boyhood. + +"So the time passed, and in the course of a few months Josephine and I +were married, and our home was made on my own old place. Still, night by +night, in storm, calm, or freshet, Paul pulled himself in a skiff across +that mighty river, and we could see the lights shining to a late hour in +the little bower. He had changed a great deal, for he loved with the +whole force of his fiery and impetuous nature. Pauline loved too, though +still she feared him. The brother, however, bitterly opposed their +union, and stormy scenes arose. Josephine and I did all we could to put +matters on a happy footing, but Jacques, the brother, grew more +determined as his sister refused to cast off her lover, till at last his +feeling against him broke out into open scornful insult; and though Paul +still persisted in seeing Pauline, yet we feared that the impetuous +spirits of the two men would, at any moment, burst out into open +violence. + +"Darcantel, however, controlled himself, avoided as much as possible any +altercations with Jacques, applied himself to the duties of his +plantation, and always promised me that he would wait and see if time +would not induce the brother to give his consent to the marriage. +Meanwhile Paul's mother died. A year passed. Fifine gave me a little +boy, who was called after me, and then I went again to sea. Nearly three +years later I returned, and the very night before I reached the +plantation a dreadful tragedy had occurred. I might, perhaps, have +prevented it had I been there, but it was ordered otherwise. + +"It seems that two days previously Jacques wrote to Paul--I saw the +letter--and it was something painful to read; for he not only +recapitulated his vices and follies, but he taxed him with being a +ruined gambler, who had brought his mother in sorrow to the grave, and +ended by swearing, in the most solemn manner, that if he dared again to +speak to his sister or darken their doors, he would shoot him like a +dog! + +"That evening, as usual, the skiff pursued its way across the river, and +late at night when it returned there was a fluttering white dress in the +stern. Scarcely, however, had the skiff left the bank than a boat shoved +out from the other side manned by four negroes, and came swiftly over in +pursuit. What afterward transpired I heard from an old married couple of +servants who had passed their lives with the family. It appears that +Paul, with Pauline in his arms, had barely reached the hall of the great +house, and was giving orders to close the doors, when Jacques rushed in +with a naked rapier in one hand and a pistol in the other. Paul adjured +him, by all he held sacred, not to attack him, as his blood was up, and, +unarmed as he was, he would do him a mischief. Pauline, too, implored +him by a sister's love to desist; but seeing him still advance, as she +partially shielded Paul, she told him that the man she loved was her +husband. + +"Blinded with haughty rage, this last admission rendered him ungovernable, +and he lunged with all his force at Darcantel. Paul parried his rapid +passes, though receiving some sharp thrusts in his arm and shoulder, and +still supporting his drooping, terrified wife on his left arm till, by a +quick spring, he got within Jacques's guard, and, seizing him by the +wrist, wrenched the weapon from his grasp. This was enough to make the +brother totally insane by passion from baffled revenge, when he leveled +his pistol and fired. There was a faint cry with the report, and a groan +from Jacques as the sword went through his body and heart, till the hilt +struck hard against his ribs as he fell, a dead man, on the marble +pavement. But the bullet from his pistol had pierced the fair forehead +of his sister, and she lay a bridal corpse in her husband's arms. It was +horrible. + +"I spare you all the afflicting details, Piron, and will only add that +Paul left the plantation that night, and when I got home I found an +envelope post-marked 'New Orleans,' inclosing a paper, which constituted +me his sole executor, and leaving our little boy his heir. I had but a +short leave of a month, and duty called me again away. It was on the +anniversary of the day the tragedy occurred, after another long +interval of four years in the 'Scourge,' that I again returned, and then +there was wailing and moaning in my own dwelling. My poor Josephine had +never recovered from the shock; she drooped away like a lily, her little +boy by her side, and both died during my absence." + +What makes the strong man's eyelids quiver and voice tremble--those eyes +that have looked calmly on death and carnage in every shape, with his +deep, calm voice cheering on the men to battle at his side? Ah! + +"It was midnight, and I walked out to the little grave-yard where my +fathers had been buried, and bending my steps to a cluster of magnolias +on a little mound by itself, I--I--a--kneeled down beside the sod where +reposed all I had loved on earth! I do not know how long I remained +there, but presently I heard a groan near by, and a tall man rose up +from where he had been stretched, face downward, on the ground, and I +beheld Paul Darcantel! I could hardly recognize him at first, for he +seemed fifty years older than when we had last parted. + +"'Cleveland,' he said, in a hollow, choking voice, 'forgive me! I am a +changed, and, I trust, a better man. I have been drawn to this holy spot +by the same errand which brought you hither, and though I did not expect +to meet you, yet I am glad of it now. Speak, and say you forgive me, and +you will shed a ray of hope and salvation into the heart of one who will +suffer unto the end! Speak!' + +"Old memories crowded around me, and I saw before me the child in the +cradle, and with our arms round each other's necks as we played +together. I forgot, for the moment, the sisters lying there--bride, +mother, and baby-boy. The magnolias bowed their white flowers in the +light of the waning moon, and we fell again into each other's arms. + +"After a time he said, 'My only friend, I have brought home with me a +little helpless boy; he is named Henry, after you, and will take the +place of the lost little one lying here. Whoever of us survives shall +inherit that estate. Come with me and look at him!' + +"He led me to the other mound, and there, beside the tree, a beautiful +child lay calmly sleeping, wrapped in a sailor's jacket, with his curls +escaping from a straw hat, and the head resting on one arm on the grave +beneath him. + +"'Be good to him,' Paul went on, 'for the sake of those we have lost +ourselves! His mother's name was Rosalie.' + +"He stooped down as he said this, and, raising the boy in his arms, he +kissed him passionately, and then put him gently in mine. 'Let him kneel +sometimes at this grave, my friend, and pray for me.' + +"In another moment Paul Darcantel had gone. The little fellow partly +woke, and put his arms affectionately around my neck, and whispered +'Mamma! mamma!' That dashing, brave young fellow ahead there was once +that boy. + +"Well, I took the child to the house, where my good mother and sisters +went wild over him, and there he passed a happy boyhood. Years went by, +and he grew apace, the pride and delight of us all; and as he evinced +the greatest fondness for me and the accounts I gave him of my life at +sea, I had him appointed a reefer in the navy. Since that he has seen a +great deal of service; been distinguished in action; and, on shipboard +as well as on shore, liked and respected by all who know him. + +"In the mean while his father went away, nobody knew whither, for years +and years. He wrote to me, however, and to his son, from all parts of +the world; and when I made the tour in Europe I spoke about, Darcantel +was my companion. But while there he passed a retired life, never went +into society, but visited every hospital in every sea-port from the +Mediterranean to Aberdeen in Scotland; for he is not only a surgeon, as +I have reason to know, of wonderful skill, but a thorough-bred seaman +too; and when he has been with me on board ship there is no one whose +opinion of the weather, or other nautical matters, do I place greater +reliance on. I could tell you of half a dozen times when his advice to +me has saved serious damage. And during all these years Darcantel's +estates, under the careful supervision of my eldest brother, have been +redeemed from their load of debt, and now he enjoys a noble income--or, +rather, he spends nothing on himself, but devotes it to widows and +orphans, and sick or worn-out sailors. + +"In the seventeen years which have gone by since he brought his child to +me he has made several visits of a month or two's duration to the +plantations, but only when Henry was on leave from duty. Then it was a +pleasant sight to see them both together, and the touching air of +affection which bound the youth to his father. Henry, from a child, +often went and prayed beside the grave under the magnolias, and to this +day he believes that his own mother lies buried there. Perhaps it is as +well that he should cherish this early belief; for I may tell you in +confidence, Piron, that we believe there at home that he is the +illegitimate offspring of some erring passion of Darcantel, though none +of us have ever learned it positively from his father's lips. He is not +a person to be questioned by any one, not even by me; and as he seems +anxious to throw a thick veil over the past, we never venture to draw it +aside. + +"When, however, I was appointed to my present command, Darcantel +desired to sail with me, and see the West India Islands, which he had +not visited for an age. I was only too happy to have him, especially as +Harry there--whom I love like a father--was named to the little +schooner he had cut out in Africa on his last cruise, and ordered to +join my squadron. But whenever we get into port his father goes +quietly on shore; passes his time, I think, among the sailors of the +foreign shipping, spending money freely among the deserving, and +again coming back in his calm, stern way. He told me, however, Piron, +yesterday, that perhaps he might accept your kind invitation to come +up here, though not for some days. By George!" said the commodore, +"that must be Escondido!" + +Piron sighed as if a pleasant dream had vanished. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +INSTINCT AND WONDER. + + "'Ho! sailor of the sea! + How's my boy--my boy?' + 'What's your boy's name, good wife, + And in what good ship sailed he?'" + + "Through the night, through the night, + In the saddest unrest, + Wrapped in white, all in white, + With her babe on her breast, + Walks the mother so pale, + Staring out on the gale, + Through the night!" + + +As the cavalcade trotted round the curve of the peak, and then walked +the cattle down the steep zigzag road of the beautiful valley, the +commodore said, "But, Piron, tell me who that large man is with the +black hair and blue eyes." + +"Why, Cleveland, all I know of him is that he landed at Kingston in a +vessel from the Isthmus of Panama, and is going to Cuba on his way to +England. He came to me, hearing that I was the consignee of old Blunt's +older brig, bound to New Orleans, and so home, to know if he could be +dropped at St. Jago, where he has some property or debts to collect; and +since the old skipper has no objection, he has taken passage in the brig +when she goes with me and my family. I have since met him--he calls +himself Colonel Lawton--at dinners of our set, and he seems to be an +Englishman or Scotchman. Tom Stewart thinks the latter from his accent, +and for his liking for snuff; but Paddy Burns differs, and believes he +don't like snuff, but only takes it to show his splendid box. Any way, +he speaks all languages, Spanish, French, Italian, and English, and can +talk slang in them all like a native. He has served, too, from his own +account, with Bolivar there on the Spanish Main; and he was with +Cochrane in that desperate affair of cutting out the 'Esmeralda' in +Callao Bay. A very amusing, entertaining vagabond he is, and I asked him +to join us to make the acquaintance of my people on our last frolic to +the valley; but, somehow, I am rather sorry that I gave him a passage +with us in the brig, for I don't altogether like his looks." + +"Neither do I, Piron; his hair is too black for his light blue eyes. +However, we must make the most of him." + +Over the shaky bridge of the torrent, where Jacob Blunt prayed earnestly +for Martha Blunt, and d----d his donkey as if he had never rocked on +water before; Mr. Mouse, with a last tiny kick on the saddle-flaps of his +lofty mule, tumbled off; Colonel Lawton swinging himself from the saddle +of his barb as if he had been part of him; Tom Stewart, Paddy Burns, and +Don Stingo sliding off any way; Harry Darcantel trying to descend in +fine style, and failing miserably; Piron and the commodore doing the +thing leisurely; Jacob Blunt pulled off bodily; while the laughing +blacks took the beasts and led them away. + +There were three pair of eyes that watched all this grace and clumsiness +from the windows of the saloon. Two pair of dark ones smiled, and the +pair of blue opened until they seemed like azure globes, and then they +closed until the fringe of chestnut lashes nearly hid them from sight. + +"Colonel Lawton, do me the favor to follow my old friend Banou--you too, +Captain Jacob, and Lieutenant Darcantel and Mr. Mouse; Paddy Burns and +Stingo, here, will show you your quarters in the old billiard-room. +Come, commodore, the rest of us will find quarters in the casa." + +An hour later the saloon and sala were all alight, and the sashes of the +jalousies closed, for it was cool at times up there at Escondido. There, +too, stood the party of gentlemen, Mr. Mouse being a prominent figure in +the background. Then came a rustling of robes, and as the great folding +doors swung open, the three ladies lit up the saloon in a halo of +loveliness with brighter rays than were shed from the wax-lights in the +chandelier. Two fair hands were placed in those of Cleveland, and the +look which accompanied went back to the happy morning on the old brig's +deck, away off there to sea. + +"Oh, monsieur, I can not say how glad I am to see you once more! Let me +present you to my sister, Madame Nathalie Delonde, and _our_ daughter. +Ah! my dear Captain Blunt, both your children before you again, and you +have come to take us away." + +"Colonel Lawton, _ma chere_," said Piron. + +"And, mesdames," said the commodore, "let me also present my nephew, +Lieutenant Darcantel, and Mr. Mouse." + +What caused that woman to start as the girl took the tiny reefer by the +hand, and impulsively clasped those white hands together, while her +heart beat in yearning throbs, and her bosom rose and fell like billows +by the shore? Why did she then raise one hand to her fair neck, and, as +if in a dream, feel for the golden links of the chain, with the other +hand pressed to her panting heart for the locket which once reposed +there? How was it that, bewildered by a mother's instinct, she gazed at +the youth before her, and then turned her eyes hopelessly around in +search of her husband in the crowd? + +"Yes, madame. This is my nephew, Henry Darcantel." + +"Ah! Henri! Excuse me, _monsieur_. I am charmed to see you!" + +Why, now, did the touch of his hand make her heart beat faster, and send +a thrill of joy through her frame? Only be a little calm, madame, for a +while longer, and don't be sad and ponder all night, like your good +Jules Piron does habitually. Wait; Jules will tell you all _he_ knows +when you are alone to-night. + +The doors of the sala were thrown open. The broad pennant leading with +Madame Rosalie; the military chieftain marching beside Madame Nathalie, +much to the animosity of Paddy Burns. Then Mr. Mouse convoying +mademoiselle, to the infinite disgust of the commander of the "Rosalie," +one-gun schooner, formerly the "Perdita." But what made that old negro +in spotless white, standing at the door, jerk his head back and open his +great eyes till there was no black left in them? And why did he blunder +about the table afterward, and pour wine over the colonel's richly-laced +coat, while staring like an ogre at the young blue-jacket opposite? That +old Banou, perhaps, did not like to see his young mistress too much +attended to by every gay scamp who came near her. Oh no; of course not. +But then, if that brawny negro in white had only known over whose arm +and mutilated hand he was pouring light wine in his abstraction, he +would have crammed that heavy cut decanter in powdered glass splinters +down the chieftain's throat. There would have been claret of a different +color spilled then--quantities of it. You needn't feel in your pockets, +colonel, or look round the sala to see if perchance there is a green +silk rope squirming from the ceiling. We don't keep any of those pretty +things out at Escondido. So go on with your dinner, you cold-eyed +scoundrel, and tell all the lies you can to that lovely woman at your +elbow; how you wanted to save Bolivar's life, and it was saved without +you. Don't forget, either, to tell her how that patriot had you drummed +out of his army, suspecting you of having assassinated the officer near +you in the confusion of battle, and robbing him of his watch to replace +the one presented to you by the captain general. Paddy Burns is watching +you, Colonel Lawton, and that whole-souled little Irishman is not the +man to be trifled with. Now remove the covers. But take care, Banou--you +nearly twitched off the military gentleman's hair. Tom Stewart saw it, +and he noticed, too, a broad red seam, like the track of a musket +bullet--honorable wound, no doubt--under your black glossy wig. + +Mr. Mouse had fallen desperately in love with the perfumed damsel beside +him, and he knew she was up to her rose-tipped ears in love with him, +oh! fifty fathoms deep; but his mother liked girls, and he would leave +her half-pay! Still he didn't forget his adoration for the roast duck; +and he slyly swigged some Madeira too, with a wary eye on the broad +pennant through the flowers of the epergne. Talked, too, did that +reefer--ay, chattered--and said that the quiet young officer on her left +was very well liked in the steerage, and commanded a pretty little craft +named the "Rosalie." She knew that before, did she? Well, his father was +a cold, stern man, but he was kind and generous, and had been very good +to his poor mother, God bless him! + +Commodore Cleveland talked in a low tone, all through the dinner, to the +lady who did not eat at the head of the table, but who occasionally +rested her white hand, with a trustful reliance, on the great +tanned-leather paw of Jacob Blunt, that honest mariner not wishing to +talk to any body, man or woman. That ancient mariner was mentally +cursing donkeys; speculating how he should get back to the "Martha +Blunt" brig, in Kingston harbor; and praying for Martha Blunt, wife, +riding at single anchor near Plymouth beach. Piron took wine with every +body, said a word or two all around the table, and talked to Tom Stewart +about certain business matters connected with the plantation when he had +gone. + +Then came the last course, and the dessert of delicious fruits, which +quite stopped Mr. Mouse's mouth, and even his palpitating heart ceased +beating; while Mademoiselle Rosalie nibbled some lady-finger biscuit, +and bent her graceful head to listen to the music of the earnest lips +beside her. + +We told you, miss, how it would be; and, in spite of the warning, there +you are--the color coming and going over your girlish cheeks, and never +saying a word! "What a couple that would make!" thought Madame Nathalie. +And what a resemblance in expression there is between them--he with his +dark hair and eyes, and she fair and blue. Be careful, my sweet Rosalie! +And so thought her sister and her sister's husband; Stingo, too, old +Banou, and every one save Tiny Mouse, who had no rivals but Rat, Beaver, +and Martin, and he could take the wind out of their sails any day. + +The party of ladies rose from the table, and leaving the men--all +except the captain of the "Rosalie" and Mr. Mouse, who would have +remained had he not seen a shake of the broad pennant's finger--went +into the saloon. Then there was a brilliant prelude on the piano, a +touch of a guitar by stronger fingers, an air from an opera, a song or +two, much conversation--while Reefer Mouse slept on the sofa--and +coffee. Then it was late; every one was fatigued, _bon soirs_ were said, +and the party--coffee and all--separated. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +TRUTH AND TERROR. + + "In slumbers of midnight the sailor-boy lay, + His hammock swung loose at the sport of the wind; + But watch-worn and weary, his cares flew away, + And visions of happiness danced o'er his mind." + + "And how the sprites of injured men + Shriek upward from the sod; + Ay! how the ghostly hand will point + To show the burial clod; + And unknown facts of guilty acts + Are seen in dreams from God!" + + +In a great square room, standing, as usual, on cocoa-nut stilts, which +had once been used for a billiard-room, were half a dozen iron-framed +cots, ranged along the walls, in which some of the Escondido's guests +were to bivouac. Every thing, however, was tidy and comfortable; +snow-white bedclothes and gauze musquito nets, lots of napkins and +ewers, and things for bathing behind a screen of dimity curtains; and +not forgetting a large table--vice the billiard-table--in the centre, on +which stood plenty of sugar and limes, cinnamon and nutmeg, bottles and +flasks, red and white, and--very little water, in jugs. + +The occupants of this bivouac had turned in, and the lights had been +doused. Conversation, however, was kept up, especially by the thin +little voice of Mr. Mouse, who, having enjoyed a nap in the early +evening, and having been danced and tumbled about on the trip to the +lodge by Harry Darcantel, who was in tiptop condition, the reefer was as +wide awake as a blackfish. Don Stingo chanted a few convivial airs and +snored; so did Jacob Blunt, with a spluttering groan intermixed; and +Paddy Burns fell off into a doze, saying blasphemous words addressed to +the world at large, with a mutter against the military, hoping he might +look at a Bolivian patriot edgewise with a friend and companion of his, +Mr. Joe Manton, at his side; he would put an end to any more lies about +charges of cavalry, and cutting out frigates in Callao Bay. That Paddy +Burns would, though he didn't wear a wig and a large sapphire on the +only finger he had left on his left hand, and with a diamond snuff-box, +too! Presented to you by a connection of your family, was it? Take a +pinch out of it? D---- him, no! Begorra, the snuff is not Lundy Foot's, +and the box is brass, sir, brass! + +"I say, Mouse, keep quiet, will you, and let me go to sleep!" Harry +Darcantel did not think of going to sleep; that was a fib he told the +reefer; he wanted merely to shut his eyes and dream of--you know who--a +tall, graceful girl with blue eyes and light hair, who looked at him +once or twice such looks that there was no sleep for him for ever so +long. What did she say? Why, she never opened her pouting lips to show +those even pearly teeth. She only looked out of those soft blue eyes. +That was all! + +"Mr. Darcantel, I think of getting married." + +"The d---- you do! And who to, pray?" + +"Why," said Mr. Mouse, as he rolled over and kicked the sheet off his +slate-pencil built legs, "I haven't made up my mind; but do you know +that that pretty girl up there at the big house has taken quite a fancy +to me, and when you were presented to her mother she gave me _such_ a +squeeze of the hand! Oh my!" + +Here Mr. Mouse's narrative was cut short by a pillow hitting him plump +on the mouth, clean through his musquito net. + +"Very charming young lady, Mr. Mouse," said a quiet voice, in a cool +tone, on the other side of him; "she did seem to take a violent fancy to +you." + +Mr. Mouse rolled over, and then, sitting up in his cot, replied, "Yes, +sir! and that was her mother sitting by you when the big nigger in white +capsized the wine over your sleeve, and nearly pulled your a--hair +off." + +Look out, Mr. Mouse! If that man there beside you once gives a twitch at +your curls, he'll pull something more than hair--perhaps a little scalp +with it! + +"Oh!" was the sound that came back. + +"Yes, sir; and the other beautiful lady next the commodore is her +sister. She had a son just mademoiselle's age, who was murdered by +pirates off Jamaica ever so many years ago, and Commodore Cleveland +chased them in a ship he was first lieutenant of--my father commanded +the ship--she was the old 'Scourge.'" + +"Hold your tongue!" came from the cot where the spare pillow was thrown +from. + +"Ho!" said the military chieftain; but if the room had not been so dark, +the way his eyes opened and emitted an icy glare of surprise would have +made Tiny Mouse shiver with cold. + +"Oh dear, yes, colonel, I heard the commodore tell all about it the +other night on board the frigate. He thought I was asleep, but I kept +awake through the best part of it." + +"The best part of it?" + +"Why, sir, how an old one-eyed Spaniard deceived my father, and sent +him on a fool's errand from St. Jago down to the Isle of Pines, and +afterward how the 'Scourge' chased the piratical schooner in a hurricane +for ever so long, clear away to the coast of Darien, where they blew her +out of water, and killed every scoundrel on board!" + +Not every one, Mr. Mouse. There is the very greatest of those scoundrels +grinding his teeth and glaring your way at your elbow. + +"What was the name of that cape, Darcantel, where the schooner was +destroyed? No, I won't be quiet; the colonel wants to hear all about it. +There's a good fellow, tell me!" + +"Garotte Cape." + +The listener slowly raised the mutilated hand, and put the finger with +the sapphire ring to his throat, evidently not liking the name of that +cape, for it caused a choking sensation to utter it--"Ho! Cape +Garotte!" + +"Yes, sir; and Darcantel's father here once chartered a vessel, and went +all the way down there to explore the place, and was gone fifteen +months! Wasn't he, Darky?" said the boy, familiarly. + +"Mouse, I tell you what it is, if you don't shut up that little flytrap +of yours, I'll make Rat lick you when you go on board!" + +"Rat lick me?" said Tiny, as he jumped straight up in the cot; "I gave +him and Martin a black eye apiece only on our last boat-duty day for +saying your father, the doctor, had killed his brother-in-law in a +duel!" + +"Hush, my dear little fellow! you did a very foolish thing. There, say +no more on that subject; it gives me pain, my Tiny. So talk on as much +as you like." + +"My dear friend," exclaimed the lad, in a broken voice; as he plunged +through his net and put his arms around Darcantel, "I wouldn't grieve +you for the world; but do you suppose, little as I am, that I wouldn't +fight for the doctor, who is so kind to me, and has done so much for my +poor dear sweet mother?" + +Here there was a sob as he wound his arms closer round his friend's +neck, and cried like a child, as he was. + +"Well, never mind, Tiny; go to sleep, now! I am not angry. There, turn +in!" + +"I won't speak another word to-night, Harry, for any soul +breathing--little fool that I am!" + +"I beg your pardon, monsieur," said the colonel, in French, with a +slight quiver on his tongue, "but did your father really go all the way +down to Darien out of mere curiosity?" + +"Yes, sir, he did go there to see if by any chance one of the pirates +had escaped; and he traveled, too, a good deal about among the Indians, +making inquiries." + +"Ho! and did he pick up any information there?" + +"Why, sir, I am not positive, but I believe that he got a hint that a +European had wandered over that country who had been wounded in the head +and hand, and was almost naked; but the natives could give him but very +meagre accounts. He continued on, however, down the Isthmus, on the +Pacific side, by sea, as far as Chili, when he went into the interior to +Peru, crossed the Andes, and followed down the Orinoco to Para, when he +sailed again for England." + +"Oh! no other motive than curiosity?" + +"Perhaps he had; for he once told me he had some old scores to settle +with the man who commanded the pirate, and if he was alive he felt quite +sure he would, one of those days, put him to death. My father, sir, is a +very determined person, and never forgets an oath." + +"Truly, monsieur, you interest me. But what sort of a man in appearance +is your father--a doctor, I think you said?" + +"He is a tall gentleman of about fifty, sir, though he looks much older; +for he has suffered deeply in early life, when my mother--a--died; but I +shall have the pleasure of introducing him to you, colonel. He is now on +board our frigate at Kingston, and told me he would be up here to-morrow +or the next day." + +"Ah! thank you extremely, Monsieur Darcantel. I shall have--a--much +curiosity to see him." + +No more words that night; but much thinking and moving of thin lips, and +eyes staring in the dark, wide open. There was low grating of teeth, +too! And a man lay in that large room on a narrow cot, surrounded by a +gauze net; and, so far as mental torture went, it was not unlike a +trestle net we once saw without gauze, where a gaunt frame was +stretched, with myriads of sand-flies, musquitoes, and stinging +insects sucking his heart's blood. Sometimes the eyelids closed, as if +they were a film of ice forming over the blue cold orbs within; and +again the fabric cracked, and they were wide open once more. They +could read, too, those frozen orbs; and like heavy flakes of snow +falling on bloodstained decks, till it covered with a weight of lead the +stark, stiff corpse beneath, they yet tried to pierce into the dark +region beyond. And the heart beat with a slow and measured tramp, like +a moose crunching through the sharp, treacherous crust of snow, and +then stood stock-still! Had a letter, traced with the fingers of an +icicle, been congealed a hundred feet deep in the heart of a toppling +iceberg on the coast of Labrador, those eyes could have read it as +clear as day! + +"You infamous pirate, Captain Brand!" it began--"the son of the man who +destroyed the 'Centipede' and her crew, and the boy whom your brutal +mate tore from the mother you saw at dinner to-day, are near you! That +calm, stern, determined doctor, too, whom you laced down on the trestle +for poisonous insects to kill, has been on your track for the past +seventeen years, and will soon hold you in his iron gripe! There will be +no mercy then!" + +The eyes closed, the heart stopped beating, and the thin lips and +tongue, as dry as cartridge-paper, now took up the strain, while the +mutilated hand clutched convulsively, as if there were fifty fingers +fingering knives and pistols. + +"Shall I assassinate my old doctor, and run the risk of being arrested +and hung? No! He thinks me dead, and I will go back to the island, +redeem my treasure, and pass the remainder of my life tranquilly in the +highlands of Scotland!" + +Don't be too sanguine, Colonel Lawton; for, though your ten thousand +pounds in gold is still in the vault, yet there is Don Ignacio Sanchez, +whose estates have been confiscated, and who has just got out of ten +years' imprisonment in the Moro of Havana, glad to save his neck from +the iron collar, and, without the little jewel-hilted blade up his +sleeve, is now turning about to see how he may redeem his lost fortunes. +Don't be an hour too late, I pray you, Captain Brand, for that sharp eye +of Don Ignacio has already, perhaps, looked at the shiny cleft in the +crag, and thinks he knows what lies hidden there! Oh, _si_! nothing but +mouldy beans and paper cigars to live upon for ten years, and fond of +more substantial food, even though it were yellow greenish gold, +mildewed by damp, but yet solid and refreshing. _Cierto_--certainly! +_Quien sabe_--who knows? + +But be careful, Don Ignacio! Don't take your old wife with you on that +projected expedition, for you have treated that old woman--who resembles +a rotten banana--badly! You have won back in monte all she ever won by +cheating, besides the half ounces you used to give her for the +Church--cheated her by drawing two cards at a time when you saw the +numerals with that spark of an eye, and when you knew that she would win +if you drew fairly! Yes, you have, you old sinner, for more than two +score of years! And she hates you now--though you don't think it--worse +than you did Captain Brand! Have an eye to that old banana! + +So passed that short night--long enough, however, for somebody--and +before the fresh land-wind had woke up to creep down the valley, there +was a mettled barb, with open nostrils, galloping up the broken road as +if he had the devil on his back--as perhaps he had, or Colonel Lawton, +or Captain Brand, possibly all three, but it makes very little odds to +us. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +PEACE AND LOVE. + + "And many a dim o'erarching grove, + And many a flat and sunny cove; + And terraced lawns, whose bright cascades + The honeysuckle sweetly shades; + And rocks whose very crags seem bowers, + So gay they are with grass and flowers." + + +It was a delightful breakfast with the merry party at Escondido as they +sat under the wide, cool piazza in the shade, with the sun throwing his +slanting rays through the vines and clusters of purple grapes, and +through the orange-trees, where the yellow fruit was fast losing its +fragrant dew--all the men once more in summer rig, and the ladies in +flowing muslin and tidy caps. + +"My dear," said Piron to his wife, "we have lost one of our guests, +Colonel Lawton; he went away at daylight this morning, and left a +message to me, and compliments to you all, that business of importance, +which he had forgotten, demanded his immediate return to Kingston." + +There was no sorrow expressed by the lady or her fair sister, and even +the men treated it with indifference, except Mr. Burns, who remarked, as +he snapped a tooth-pick in twain, that, for his part, he was glad the +fellow had gone; he didn't like his looks at all, though he did make +himself so fascinating to the beautiful widow who sat next him. + +"Ah! Monsieur Burns, think you I would prefer a scarlet coat when--" + +"You might get a blue!" broke in Paddy, with a comical twinkle of his +eye, as he winked in the direction of Commodore Cleveland, who sat +opposite. + +"No, no," exclaimed the pretty widow, hastily, as she shook her finger +at her despairing admirer, "that is not what I was going to say--when +those red coats there from England killed my poor husband at Quatre +Bras." + +"Ah! yes, my dear--bad luck to them! But an Irishman would never have +been so cruel, you know, though, 'pon me sowl," went on Paddy, as he +stuck a fork in an orange and began to divest it of its peel, West +India fashion, to present it to the matron beside him, "I fear I should +like to kill any man who loved ye, Madame Nathalie, myself." + +"What a droll man you are, Monsieur Burns," replied the widow, laughing +outright, "when you know you would prefer a jug of Antigua punch, any +day, to me. Stop, now! didn't you say, at your grand dinner in Kingston, +that you would never allow a woman to darken your doors?" + +"I--a meant--a black woman, my dear; as true as me name's Paddy Burns, I +did!" + +"What are you two laughing at, my sister?" + +"Why, here is Mr. Burns making love to me at breakfast, and before night +he will be abusing me for not pouring enough rum in his punch!" + +"That's his caractur, Madame Nathalie; for I, Tom Stewart, am the only +person he ever loved, and he sometimes offers to shoot me for giving him +unco' good advice." + +"Howld yer tongue, ye divil ye! and you too, Stingo, or the pair of ye +shall niver taste another sip of the old claret. Ye've ruined me cause +entirely! But I'll lave ye me property, madame, when I'm gone." + +"He's been talking of going, Nathalie," said Piron, "for the last twenty +years, and has left his estate to at least thirty women, to my certain +knowledge; but he hasn't got off yet, and--" + +"Tom Stewart, ye miserable limb of the law! make out me will this very +night." + +Jacob Blunt unclosed his salt-junk mouth, and roared out in a peal of +laughter that would have shivered his old brig's spanker, and caused, +perhaps, Martha Blunt, sposa, to have spanked him, Jacob, had she heard +and seen that mariner wagging his old bronzed face at the lovely woman +facing him. + +Mr. Tiny Mouse, who could not touch bottom on his high chair, with his +little heels dangling about, forgetful of discipline, fairly kicked the +broad pennant on the shins of his white ducks, screaming joyously; the +three women made the piazza vibrate with their musical trills; Stingo +and Stewart choked; Cleveland and Darcantel were amused; and old black +Banou looked at his master, and grinned till his double range of teeth +seemed like a white wave breaking at the cove. And then Paddy Burns took +up the chorus, and after one or two Galway yells his friends took him +up, thumped him smartly on the back, and stood him up against one of the +posts of the piazza to have his laugh out. When he did, however, recover +the power of speech, he wiped his eyes and looked around till they +rested on Madame Nathalie, when, with his white napkin held up like a +shield beside his rubicund visage, he spluttered, + +"By me sowl, Tom Stewart, I mane what I say; and Paddy Burns's word is +his bond!" + +Ay, and so it was, you generous, whole-souled Milesian! And you did this +time make a will. Tom Stewart and Stingo witnessed it, with handsome +legacies therein set forth; and when one night you tumbled down--Well, +we won't mention the particulars; but Paddy kept his word. + +As the party rose from the breakfast table to get ready for a stroll +down to the mill and around the plantation, one fair woman's hand was +placed with a confiding, friendly clasp in that of Monsieur Burns; and +then, as a graceful girl reached up to pull down her great flat straw +hat from the post, Paddy Burns kissed her on the forehead, and she +returned it too, as if she knew how to perform that ceremony even before +people. Mr. Reefer Mouse had some thoughts of getting jealous, and +calling Mr. Burns out, at ten paces, ships' pistols, and all that sort +of thing; but the round, red-faced gentleman kissed him too, declaring +the while, as he held him aloft, that he was first-rate kissing--that he +was; nearly as good as mademoiselle, which quite disarmed Tiny's wrath, +and then he hooked on to the damsel's delicate flipper, and tripped away +with her down the valley. + +Harry Darcantel exchanged a nod--not of defiance--with Paddy Burns, as +much as to hint that those were not dangerous kisses--oh, not at all; +and passing his hand over his brown mustache, he followed after the +couple before him. Yes, Harry, Tiny's legs will get tired soon, and he +will be hungry, and come back to old Banou for luncheon, while you will +be putting aside the coffee bushes, and imploring mademoiselle to keep +her straw hat about her lovely face, and not to get tanned by the sun. +And when she turns her humid eyes toward you, you begin to believe the +sky is never so blue as those eyes! + +Tom Stewart, Stingo, and Burns never walked; they preferred lounging +about the veranda, smoking cigars, and talking over the price of sugar +and coffee, together with minor matters connected with factors' profits +and suits at law. Jacob Blunt leaned over the bridge, thinking of the +"Martha Blunts," brig and wife--not unfrequently confounding the two +together--thinking this was to be his last voyage by land or sea, and +that young Binks, his mate, should take command, and steer that old +teak-built vessel carefully--oh, ever so keerful--or else the old hulk +might come to grief. + +Piron and his wife going mournfully down the valley--she with her +mother's eyes gazing far out to sea, and he with his strong arm around +her, whispering words of consolation; both looking, night and morning, +out over the blue water, from chamber and piazza, and seeing nothing but +a breaking wave and a baby-boy drowning beneath it--nothing more! + +Madame Nathalie and Cleveland went on gallantly ahead--he with his blue +pennant flying, and she with a black silk widow's ribbon around the +frill of her cap, and a broader band about that muslin waist--talking of +those they had both lost years ago, and trusting they were in heaven, as +they believed they were; hope to meet again themselves in Louisiana, and +see a great deal of one another in time to come--not a doubt of it! Yes, +the cruise was more than half over, and he was quite tired of the sea. +She, however, thought the sea beautiful, and never tired of looking at +it. True, not rolling on top of it all the time--liked to sleep without +rocking. + +When the sea-breeze came fluttering up the gorge again, through the +canes and the coffee-trees, and shaking up the superb foliage of the +tropical forest, with the brilliant feathered tribes nestling close +together on the lofty branches, and before the first salt breath had +been exhaled in the clouds about the topmost peaks of the Blue +Mountains, thousands of feet in the air, the party at Escondido had +again returned to the broad piazzas, where, with blinds open, and +swinging in cool grass hammocks, the men took siesta, while the ladies +sought the pretty bowers within. + +So passed one happy day, like the one gone before; and before the close +of the week Dr. Darcantel joined the party, to take the place of Colonel +Lawton; and a few days after old Clinker crackled up, very dry and +thorny, with parchment in his pockets to take inventories, and do musty +business generally. + +Then the fair women, escorted by the navy men, and the Droger and +Stingo, took their departure for the town house and ships in Kingston, +leaving Paddy Burns, and Tom Stewart, and Clinker with Piron to close up +matters, prior to his leaving the island. Paul Darcantel said he would +remain with them likewise, since he had got through his business in +Spanish Town and Port Royal, and wanted quiet. Madame Rosalie was the +last to leave; and before her husband lifted her into the saddle, they +stood together on the piazza, she looking with that still yearning gaze +over the sea, and seeing nothing but breaking waves. That was the last +look from Escondido! + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +SNUFF OUT OF A DIAMOND BOX. + + "Hark! a sound, + Far and slight, + Breathes around + On the night; + High and higher, + Nigh and nigher, + Like a fire + Roaring bright." + + "Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace-- + Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place; + I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, + Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right; + Rebuckled the check-strap, chained slacker the bit, + Nor galloped less steadily, Roland, a whit." + + +Another week rolled on. Old Clinker had pounded the parchment down as +flat as last year's palm-leaves, rustling himself like the leaves of an +old book, and began to squeeze out a few dry remarks about earthquakes. +He at last got Paddy Burns, who was a round, fat man, with much blood in +him, in such a state of excitement, by talking about cracks, and yawning +chasms, and splits in the earth, clouds of dust, sulphureous smells, and +beams falling down and pressing people to powder over their wine, that +Paddy declared he thought he was swallowing sawdust and eating dried +codfish at every sip of Antigua punch and suck of orange he took. + +Tom Stewart, likewise, said he couldn't sleep a wink for quaking, and +had cut a slice clean out of his chin while shaving, because his glass +shook by a slamming door, and he thought his time had come. + +Darcantel said nothing, but he took a quiet fancy to old Clinker, and +talked for hours with him of the effect earthquakes had upon ships, and +especially of general matters connected with the shipping interest, +being withal very particular with regard to the appearance of the +crews. + +Piron looked grave, and heard the old clerk out, as if dried fruit were +better than fresh, and limes sweeter than oranges. + +Well, they were all sitting over their dessert at their last dinner at +Escondido, for they were all going to leave old Clinker in the morning. + +[Illustration: "HIS RIGHT ARM POISED WITH CLENCHED HAND ALOFT," ETC.] + + "Well, Clinker," said Piron, kindly, "don't let us talk any more +about the earthquake. You told me yesterday that you had a note from +Colonel Lawton, saying he would not take passage in the brig with us to +New Orleans, as his business obliged him to leave before we could +sail?" + +Clinker choked out something like "Yes," as if it were the last sound a +body could sigh with three or four hundred tons on his back. + +"I'm dooced glad to hear it, Piron; for your military friend didn't +enlist my fancy at all, and I don't believe any more of his patriot +sarvice than I do in Clinker's earthquake. That colonel is a baste; and +if my words prove true, I'll lave a thousand pounds to old Clinker +there." + +Paddy Burns's words did prove true; and old Clinker was with him when he +gave a quake the earth had nothing to do with, it being entirely of an +apoplectic nature; but he got the thousand pounds nevertheless. + +"For once in your life, Burns, I agree with ye; and if that military mon +went to shoot grouse with me in the Hielands, I'd tramp behind him, and +keep both barrels of me gun cocked. The devil take his black wig and his +green eyes! and he passing himsel' aff for a Scot, too! Tut, mon!" + +"By the way, Clinker," said Piron, during a pause in the conversation, +"if the colonel is not going with us, I must take him back his +magnificent snuff-box he forgot when he left us so suddenly the other +morning. Here it is, with the letters of his name on it in brilliants. I +thought it too valuable to send by one of the blacks, and I kept it to +carry myself." + +How singular it was that the colonel should have forgotten his royal +treasure! Keep your wits about you, Captain Brand, or one of these days +you'll be forgetting your pistols. + +"Given to him by a connection of his family, was it, Paddy? Weel, mon, +let's take a peench for the honor of Sackveel Street, and then push it +along to Meester Darcantel." + +The doctor was sitting in his calm, grave way, listening to the +disjointed words--like dry nuts dropping on the ground--from the +shriveled lips of Clinker; but as he abstractedly put his fingers in the +box, and turned his eyes languidly as he pushed down the lid, he gave a +bound from his chair--with the box clutched in his left hand--giving a +jar to the room and table that even made Clinker believe the forty-year +earthquake had come before its time. + +Standing there, with his tall, majestic figure, like a statue of bronze, +his right arm poised with clenched hand aloft in a threatening attitude, +his dark, grizzled locks bristling above his head, the black eyes +flaming with an inhuman light, as if prepared to crush, with the power +of a god, the pigmies around him, he said, in a deep low voice, which +made the glasses ring and shudder, + +"Who owns this bawble?" + +"It belongs to a Colonel Lawton who has been staying here!" exclaimed +Piron, quickly and hurriedly. + +"What sort of man?" came again from those terrible lungs, without +relaxing a muscle of his frame. + +"A square-built, tallish fellow, of about feefty, with greenish-blue +eyes, a black wig, and a glorious sapphire ring on the only finger of +his left hand!" roared Burns and Stewart together. + +Again came the jar of the earthquake to make the building, table, +glasses, and all shake, as Paul Darcantel strode with his heels of +adamant out of the sala and to the veranda; then a bound, which was +heard in the room; and after five minutes' stupid silence Banou +appeared. + +The buckra gentleman had torn rather than led his master's barb from the +stable, and scarcely waiting for a saddle, had thrown himself like an +Indian across his back. There! his master might hear the clattering of +the hoofs up the steep. + +"The mon's daft--clean daft, mon!" "Be me sowl, it's the only pair of +eyes I iver wouldn't like to look at over me saw-handled friend, Joe +Manton!" "He's taken the box with him," crackled Clinker. + +But that was the last that Paddy Burns, or Stewart, or Clinker ever saw +of man or box. Piron rose and listened to the sound of the receding +hoofs from the veranda; and when he resumed his place his lips were +sealed for the night. _He_ saw, however, and the rest of them heard a +good deal about the man and the box in time to come. + +Did that blooded horse, as he dashed round the curve of the peak, with +his thin nostrils blazing red in the dark night, know who his rider was, +and on what errand he was bound? It was not snuff that distended those +wide nostrils as he plunged down the broken road, through the close, +deep forest, over rocks and water-courses, without missing a step with +his sure, ringing hoofs; and mounting the sharp gorge beyond with the +leap of a stag, his mane and tail streaming in the calm, thick night; +the eyes lanterns of pursuing light, flashing out before his precipitous +tread in jets of fire, as his feet struck the flinty stones, with a +regular, enduring throb from his heaving chest, as an encouraging hand +patted his shoulder and urged him onward. + +Down the mountain again, with never a shy or a snort--the horse +knowing the rider, and the man the noble beast; the lizards wheetling +merrily, and the paroquets on the tree-tops waking up to chatter with +satisfaction. Then into the beaten track along by the sea-shore, the +horse increasing his stride at every minute, the spume flying in +flakes from his flaming nostrils, and the man bending to his hot +neck, smoothing away the white foam, until, with a panting stagger, +horse and rider stood still in the town of Kingston. + +"Here, my boys, rub this your master's horse down well, and walk him +about the court-yard for an hour. There! Take this between you!" + +One last pat of the steed's arched neck, a grateful neigh as the dark +face pressed against his broad head, and Paul Darcantel strode away in +the gray light of the morning. + +"Gorra mighty! Nimble Jack, look at dis! Bress my modder in hebben, it +am one gold ounce apiece, sure as dis gemman's name Ring Finger Bill! De +Lord be good to dat tall massa! Him must hab plenty ob shiner to hove +him away on poor niggers!" + +Even while the tall man strode on toward the port, and as the happy +blacks were chattering over their yapper, and walking the gallant steed +up and down the paved court-yard, a dull, heavy-sailing Spanish +brigantine was slowly sagging past Gallows Point and the Apostles' +Battery, when, creeping on by the frowning forts of Port Royal, she held +her course to sea. + +Very different sort of craft from the counterfeit brigantine, with +clean, lean bows, slipping out from the Tiger's Trap one sultry evening +before a hurricane, which went careering, with a sea-hound after her, +down to the Garotte Gorge. Different kind of a crew too; and Captain +Brand must have remarked the contrast, with his keen, critical, nautical +eye--that is, if he chanced to sail in both brigantines, as there is +much reason for believing he did--with great disgust, on board the +dirty, dumpy old ballahoo now just clear of Drunkenman's Cay, and +heading alongshore for Helshire Point, bound for St. Jago de Cuba. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +LILIES AND SEA-WEED. + + "Oh leave the lily on its stem! + Oh leave the rose upon the spray! + Oh leave the elder bloom, fair maids, + And listen to my lay!" + + "When descends on the Atlantic + The gigantic + Storm-wind of the equinox, + Landward in his wrath he scourges + The toiling surges, + Laden with sea-weed from the rocks." + + +By day and night, under sun or moon, and in breeze or calm--by the +resounding shore--on the rippling water--in saloon and grove, picnicking +and boating--under vine or awning--all around in the whirling waltz, the +measured contra-danza--amid the tinkle of guitar or trill of piano, the +rattle and crash of the full band on board the frigate--gently rocking +on the narrow deck of the "Rosalie," or down in the brig of teak, there +was ever a white arm linked in the arm of blue--now timidly, then with a +confiding pressure--now a furtive look of blue eyes into dark, then a +fixed, steady gaze from the brown to the light--here a palpitating +pause, and then the blue arms wound around the waving stem--two white +arms clasping, with a passionate caress, the neck of the weed--and, yes! +the lily floating on the white cheek of the pond had been caught by the +strong weed, and with the reacting tide was going out to sea! Ay! the +sailor had won the maiden! + +But while the lily rocked hither and thither on the pond, with its blond +leaves and petals of blue, and its pliant stem in danger at every tide, +did the fond mothers watch it from the bank? That they did, thinking of +the time when they were lilies of the pond themselves, with no fears of +danger near. But at last it came, and, like blooming flowers, they swung +to and fro in the rain, dropping a tear or two from their own rosy +leaves--more in dewy sorrow than in fear--and waiting for sunshine; +bending their beautiful heads of roses the while one toward another, +peeping out with their dark violet eyes, and listening, as the wind +shook them, with a tremble of apprehension, and clinging hopefully to +the straight support on which they reclined. + +By day and night, in burning sun with not a drop to drink, and in the +sultry night with no morsel of food to eat--through the searing sand in +the streets and lanes, down by the quays--to every vessel in the crowded +harbor--in every hotel and lodging-house in Kingston--up and down +Spanish Town--away off to Port Royal--occasionally going on board the +frigate for gold, then on shore again--in ribald wassail and drunken +dance, gaming hells especially, and low crimping houses, maroon and +negro huts, and wretched haunts of vice--scattering gold like cards, +dice, rum, and water--no end to it--in large yellow drops too--and still +striding on, questioning, gleaming with those revengeful eyes--never +resting brain or body, without drink or meat--went Paul Darcantel. + +Oh, Paul, that cowardly villain saw you from the very moment you took +that pinch of snuff out of his blue enameled box--ay, even before, when +you walked your mule slowly up the broken road, while a goaded barb was +curbed back in the gloomy forest till you had passed, with his rider's +finger in his waistcoat pocket. And in all your ceaseless wanderings, by +day and night, that now timid, terror-stricken villain has been +following you; dodging behind corners--under the well-worn cloths of +monte banks--in the back rooms of pulperias--hiding in nests of +infamy--every where and in all places steering clear of you. + +Oh, Paul! what a deceived man you are! + +And while you are doing all this, just turn your eyes out to the calm +spot off Montego Bay, where that leaky old brigantine is bobbing about. +The dirty, surly _capitano_ kicking and beating the hands from taffrail +to bowsprit, particularly one great tall fellow, without a hat, and but +a few dry thin hairs to shield his skull from the scorching sun; cursing +him, as he puffs a cigarette, for being the most idle scoundrel of a +skulk on board! But he--the scoundrel!--laughing with a hollow laugh up +the sleeve of his filthy shirt, with never a dollar in his belt or an +extra pair of trowsers in the forecastle, with bare feet, and still, +cold eyes, now turned to green--eating nasty jerked beef and drinking +putrid water--never sleeping for vermin--kicked and cuffed about the +decks. + +But yet he smiled with a devilish satisfaction, Paul, for he has escaped +_you_, and was bound to St. Jago de Cuba! From there he would +charter--steal, perhaps--a small boat, and run over to the Doce Leguas +Cays, where there were ten thousand pounds in mildewed gold!--if nobody +had discovered it, which was not probable--and he--the scoundrel!--would +gather it up in bags, and slink away to some other part of the world. + +You must be very quick, Captain Brand, for the leaky brigantine does not +sail so fast as the "Centipede," and your ancient compadre, Don Ignacio, +is just out of prison. His old, fat, banana wife is very sorry for it, +but that's none of your business. + +And you, Doctor Paul! don't you pity that flying, dirty wretch, with his +mutilated hand, and soul-beseeching gaze out of those greenish frozen +eyes, where a ray of mercy never entered, but whose icy lids fairly +crack as your shadow stamps across them? + +No, not a ray of pity or mercy for the infamous villain; not even a +twitch of the little finger of his bloody, mutilated white hand! No, not +the faintest hope of pity! He shall die in such torments as even a +pirate never devoted a victim. + +But you are worn out, Darcantel; your prey has escaped you. The people +think you mad, as you are, for revenge; and though your stride is the +same, and your frame still as nervous as a galvanized corpse, yet flesh +and blood can not stand it. Go on board the "Monongahela," and talk to +that true friend whose counsels you have ever listened to since you were +rocking in your cradle; or take that noble, gallant youth in your arms +and console him--for he needs consolation--and think of the mouse who +gnawed the net years and years ago. + +Well, you will, Paul Darcantel; but before you do, you will step into +that jeweler's shop and buy a trifle for old Clinker there, out at +Escondido. You want a ring, the finest gem that can be found on the +island of Jamaica. There it is--its equal not to be bought in the whole +West India Islands, or the East Indies either. + +"I gave a military man an ounce for the setting alone, but the +sapphire-looking stone may be glass. He was going to sail the next +morning in a Spanish brigantine for St. Jago de Cuba, and wanted the +money to pay his bill at the lodging-house adjoining. The senor might +take it for any price he chose to put upon it." + +What made that old dealer in precious stones and trinkets turn paler +than his old topaz face as he yelled frantically for his older Creole +wife? The senor had seized the ring as he broke his elbows through the +glass cases which contained the time-honored jewelry, and dashed a +yellow shower of heavy gold ounces over the floor of the little shop, +smashing the glass door of that too in his exit! And when the little +toddling fat woman appeared in the most indecent dress possible to +conceive of, with scarcely time to light her paper cigar, she +exclaimed, + +"_Es lunatico, hombre! ay, demonio con oro!_ A crazy man--a demon with +gold!" And forthwith she picked up the pieces and looked at them +critically to be sure of their value. "_Son buenos, campeche!_ All +right, old deary; we'll have such a podrida to-day! Baked duck, with +garlic too! So shut the door. There's the ounce you gave the officer man +for the ring, and I'll guard the rest." + +That old woman did, too; and that very night she won--in the most +skillful way--from her shaky old topaz, in his tin spectacle setting, +his last ounce, and locked all up in her own little brass-nailed trunk +for a rainy season for them both, together with their daughter's +pickaninnies. + +Paul Darcantel whirled and spun round the corners and along the sandy +streets till he reached the landing, moving like a water-spout, and +clearing every thing from his track. There he sprang into the first boat +he saw, seized the sculls, despite the shrieks and gesticulations of the +old nigger whose property it was, and who jumped overboard with a howl +as if a lobster had caught him by the toe, and paddled into a +neighboring boat, where, with the assistance of another ancient crony, +they both let off volley upon volley of shrieks, which alarmed the +harbor, while the boat went shooting like a javelin toward the +men-of-war. + +However, those old stump-tailed African baboons found a gold ounce in +their boat after it had been set adrift from the American frigate. What +a jolly snapping of teeth over a tough old goose stuffed with onions +that night, with two respectable colored ladies and a case-bottle of rum +beside them! You can almost sniff the fragrant odor as it arises, even +at this distance. I do, and shall, mayhap, many a time again, in lands +where stuffed goose and comely colored ladies abound. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +PARTING. + + "The very stars are strangers, as I catch them + Athwart the shadowy sails that swell above; + I can not hope that other eyes will watch them + At the same moment with a mutual love. + They shine not there as here they now are shining; + The very hours are changed. Ah! do ye sleep? + O'er each home pillow midnight is declining-- + May one kind dream at least my image keep!" + + +There had been a small party on board the "Monongahela" the night before +to bid the commodore good-by--all old friends of both parties--the +Pirons, Burns, Stewart, Stingo, and Jacob Blunt. Clinker was not there, +for he never went where it was damp, and if he got musty it must be from +mildew on shore. The "Martha Blunt," under the careful management of +young Binks, the mate, with Banou and all the baggage on board, was +being towed by two of the frigate's boats down the harbor, with her +yards mast-headed, all ready to sheet home the sails when the black +pilot should say the land-wind would make and the passengers to come on +board. + +The lights were twinkling from lattice and veranda in the upper and +lower town, the lanterns of the French and English admirals were shining +from the tops of their flag-ships, and the revolving gleams from the +beacon on the Pallissadoes Point flickered and dazzled over the gemmed +starlit surface of the water. The awning was still spread on the +after-deck of the "Monongahela;" and there, while the officer of the +watch paced the forward part of the deck with the midshipmen to leeward, +the sentries on the high platform outside and on the forecastle, the +party of ladies and gentlemen stood silently watching and thinking. + +There is no need explaining their looks or their thoughts; we know all +about them. How Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart, with little Stingo, were +going over the time, thirty years or more back, when with Piron there, +boys together, they all swam on the beach of that fine harbor. The old +school-house, too, with the tipsy old master, who whacked them soundly, +drunk or sober; their frolics at the fandangoes in Spanish Town; their +transient separations in after life on visits to France or the Old +Country; the hearty joy to meet again and drink Jamaica forever. And now +their companion in tropical heat and mountain shade was going to part +with them, and sail away over that restless ocean, never, perhaps, to +meet again! + +Even old Clinker, as he sat on his stem by the old worm-eaten desk, with +his dried old lemon of a face lying in his leaves of hands--with no +light in the dark, deserted old counting-house--looked out between his +fibres of fingers and saw the cradle, with the sleeping twins within it, +while the rafters pressed him as flat as the old portfolio before him. +And now, as a drop or two of bitter juice exuded from his shriveled +rind, he saw those lovely twins floating away, never more to be saved +from an earthquake by old Clinker. + +Mr. Mouse, likewise, was wide awake, and hopping about with a kangaroo +step, a little in doubt why Miss Rosalie was so pale, why those blue +eyes were so dim, and why she said to him "Go away, little one," with a +quivering, tremulous voice and hand. Mouse told Rat, and Rat told Martin +and Beaver, that the poor girl was in love with him, Tiny, and that he +would make it all right one of these days, when he got an epaulet on his +little shoulder. + +Softly, like the cool breath of a slumbering child, came a faint air +from the land. The bell of the frigate, clanging in its brassy throat, +struck for midnight. The sentinels on their posts cried "All's well!" +The old brig was letting fall her top-sails, and the sound of the oars +in the cutter's row-locks ceased. + +"Cleveland," said Piron, quietly, "while the ladies and our friends are +getting into the barge, come down with me in your cabin. I wish to have +a parting word with you." + +So they go down. + +"Now, my dear friend, you have seen as well as I how wildly those young +people are in love with each other; so has my wife and her sister; and, +indeed, _my_ sweet Rosalie seems more in love with him than our niece. I +have not had the heart to put a thorn in the path of their happiness, +and God grant it may all come right. But, Cleveland, you know that we +come from an old and noble stock, where the bar sinister has never +crossed our escutcheon, and I can not yet make up my mind to an +immediate engagement. This our niece has consented to--Stop, Cleveland, +hear me out. I do not, however, carry my prejudices to any absurd +extent, nor have I spoken on this subject to the girl, and only to her +mother and my wife; but I wish you to explain the way we feel, in your +own kind manner, to your friend's son. Say to him what a trial it has +been to us--how we all love him"--he pressed his handkerchief to his +eyes--"and after he has learned all, if he still persists in urging his +suit when the cruise is over, he shall have our consent and blessing. +Time may work changes in them both; and meanwhile I shall not mention +the matter to our little Rosalie, as we fear for the consequences." + +"Spoken like a true father and a noble gentleman, my dear Piron! I have +thought as you and your excellent wife do on this matter; but, like you, +I have not had the courage to give even a hint of warning to Henry. I +shall, however, break the matter gently to him, and send my coxswain for +his father also, whom I have not seen for a week, and who, they tell me, +has been raging about Kingston ever since he ran away from you at +Escondido. His son loves him devotedly, and a word from him will do more +than I could say in a lifetime." + +"The ladies are in the barge, commodore," squeaked Midshipman Mouse, as +he popped his tiny head into the cabin. + +"Very well, sir. And tell Lieutenant Darcantel that I wish to see him +to-morrow morning, before church service. Come, Piron!" + +On the lower grating of the accommodation-ladder stood the commodore, +with his first lieutenant, as the barge shoved off. + +"I am heartily obliged to you, Commodore Cleveland," said Jacob Blunt, +"for your kindness to me; and if Mr. Hardy will permit, I'll give the +boats' crews a glass of grog for their trouble in towing the old brig." + +Certainly! Jacob knew what was proper under the circumstances, and liked +a moderate toss himself after a hard night's work as well as the lusty +sailors in the boats, and the youngsters, Rat and Martin, who steered +them. + +So the barge shoved off, with no other words spoken, though there were +white handkerchiefs wet with women's tears, and red bandanas, too, +somewhat moist; while following in the barge's wake went a light +whale-boat gig, pulled by four old tars, who could make her leap, when +they had a mind, half out of water, for it was in those brawny old arms +to do it. But now they merely dipped the long oar-blades in the water, +and could not keep up with the barge. + +They knew--those corrugated old salts--that their gallant, considerate +young captain there in the stern-sheets, with the tiller-ropes in his +hands, who steered so wildly about the harbor, had something more +yielding than white-laced rope in his flippers; and that the sweet +little craft under white dimity, with her head throwing off the +sparkling spray as she lay under his bows, was in no hurry to go to +sea--not caring much, either, to what port she was bound, so long as she +found good holding-ground when she got in harbor with both bowers down, +and cargo ready for another voyage--not she! + +Finally, old Jacob Blunt, master, again in full command of brig +"Martha," with Mr. Binnacle Binks catting the anchor forward, all sail +made, sheets home, and every thing shipshape, with a fresh, steady +land-wind, and a light gig towing astern, went steering out to sea, +bound to New Orleans by way of the Windward Passage. + +At the first ray of sunrise the gig's line was cast off; and with the +waves breaking over her, those four old sons of Daddy Neptune bared +their tattooed arms--illustrative of ships, anchors, and maidens--and +bent their bodies with a will toward the harbor. + +"Take keer, sir, if it's the same to you, or we'll be on that ledge off +the ''Postles' Battery.' It looks jist like that 'ere reef in the +Vargin's Passage as I was wunce nearly 'racked on, in the 'Smasher,' +sixteen-gun brig." + +"No fear, Harry Greenfield." + +"Beg your parding, Mr. Darcantel, but that 'ere wessel you is heading +for is that old clump of a Spanish gun-boat; our craft is off here, +under the quarter of the 'Monongaheelee.'" + +"Oh yes, Charley; I see the 'Rosalie.'" + +What made these old salts slew gravely round one to the other, as their +sixteen-feet oars rattled with a regular jar in the brass row-locks, and +shut one eye tight, as if they enjoyed something themselves? Probably +they were thinking of a strapping lass, in blue ribbons, who lived +somewhere in a sea-port town long years ago. But yet they loved that +young slip of sea-weed, whose head was bent down to the buttons of his +blue jacket, his epaulet lopsided on his shoulder, his sword hilt +downward, and his brown eyes tracing the lines of the ash grating where +pretty feet had once rested, while he jerked the tiller-ropes from side +to side, and his gig went wild by reef and point toward the "Rosalie." + +When the gig's oars at last, in spite of her meandering navigation by +her abstracted helmsman, trailed alongside the schooner, and while her +crew were cracking a few biscuits and jokes on deck, with the sun high +up the little craft's masts, her captain hurried down to his small +cabin, and changed his rig for service on board the frigate. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +DEVOTION. + + "To walk together to the kirk, + And all together pray, + While each to his Great Father bends-- + Old men and babes, and loving friends, + And youths and maidens gay!" + + "Farewell! farewell! but this I tell + To thee, thou wedding-guest, + He prayeth well who loveth well + Both man, and bird, and beast!" + + +Sunday morning in Kingston harbor. The deep-toned bells from cathedral +and church were wafted off from the town; the troops at Park Camp +marching with easy tread to their chapel; matrons and maidens, with bare +heads, fans, and mantillas, going along demurely; portly judges, +factors, and planters trudging beside palanquins of their Saxon spouses; +negroes in white; Creoles in brown, cigarettes put out for a time; while +swinging censers and rolling sound of organs and chants, or prayers and +sermons from kirk and pulpits, told how the people were worshiping God +according to their several beliefs. + +On the calm harbor, too, and in Port Royal, lay the men-of-war, the +church pennants taking the place of the ensigns at the peaks, the bells +tolling, and the sailors--quiet, clean, and orderly--were attending +divine service. + +On board the "Monongahela" the great spar-deck was comparatively +deserted--all save that officer with his spy-glassing old quarter-master, +and the sentries on gangway and forecastle. The ropes, however, were +flemished down in concentric coils, the guns without a speck of dust +on their shining coats, the capstan polished like an old brass +candlestick, and every thing below and aloft in a faultless condition. + +As Harry Darcantel came rather languidly over the gangway, and went down +to the main deck, where the five hundred sailors in snowy-white +mustering clothes were assembled, Commodore Cleveland beckoned to him +with his finger as he stood talking at the cabin door to his first +lieutenant. + +"Hardy, I do not feel well this morning; make my excuses to the +chaplain, and go on with the service. Come in, Harry. Orderly, allow no +one, not even the servants, to enter the cabin--except Dr. Darcantel, in +case he should come on board." + +The stiff soldier laid his white-gloved finger on the visor of his hat. +Then the chaplain, standing on his flag-draped pulpit at the main-mast, +with those five hundred quiet, attentive sailors seated on capstan-bars +and match-tubs between the silent cannon, and no sound save his mild, +persuasive voice, as he read the sublime service from the good lessons +before him. Then, after a short but impressive sermon, adapted to the +comprehension of the honest tars around him, with a kindly word, too, +for the sagacious officers who commanded them, he closed the holy book +and delivered the parting benediction. + +As he began, a shore boat, in spite of the warning of the sentry at the +gangway, came bows on to the frigate's solid side, and as she went +dancing and bobbing back from the recoil of the concussion, a tall, +powerful man leaped out of her, and, by a mighty spring, caught the +man-ropes of the port gangway, and swung himself through the open port +of the gun-deck. Bowing his lofty head with reverential awe as the last +solemn words of the benediction were uttered by the chaplain, he joined, +in a deep, guttural voice, the word "Amen," and strode on and entered +the cabin. + +The curtains were closely drawn of the after cabin, even to shut out the +first whisper of the young sea-breeze which was fluttering in from Port +Royal; and there stood that noble officer, with his strong arm thrown +around the gallant youth--the picture of abject woe--talking in his +kind, feeling accents, trying to console him, painting the sky bright in +the distance, and begging him, by all the love and affection he bore him +through so many years, to be a man, and trust to his good conscience and +his right arm to cleave his way through the clouds and gloom which +surrounded him. + +"There, Henry, you are calmer now. Sit down here in my stateroom, and +while you think of that fond girl, give a thought to that poor bereaved +mother, Madame Rosalie, who loves you for the resemblance she thinks you +bear to her little boy, who was murdered by pirates just seventeen years +ago off this very island." + +"What do you say, Cleveland?" said a voice behind him, with such deep, +concentrated energy that the commodore fairly started. "What did you say +about a lost child and a Madame Rosalie?" + +Paul Darcantel stood there in the softened crimson light, with his +sinewy, bony hands upraised, his gaunt breast heaving, with unshorn +beard and tangled, grizzly locks, the iron jaw half open, and his dark, +terrible eyes gleaming with unearthly fire. + +"Speak, Harry Cleveland! For the wife you have lost, speak!" + +"My dear, dearest friend, do be calm! Why have you been so long away +from me? I wanted you here, but you did not come. Our poor boy has had +_his_ first lesson in this world's grief, and I have felt obliged to +tell him all--yes, every thing! That the grave he has so often wept +over, under the magnolia, does not contain his mother; and that--" + +"Merciful God!" said Paul Darcantel, sinking down on his knees, with his +hands clasped together, while the first tears for more than twenty years +streamed from his agonized eyes. "There is a Providence in it all! That +boy is not my son! I saved him from the pirate's grasp, and that woman +must be his mother!" + +Lower and lower the lofty head bent till it touched the deck, the bony +hands clasped tight together, and those eyes--ah! those parched eyes--no +longer dry! + +"Paul, Paul, what is this I hear? For the love of heaven and those +angels who are waiting for us, speak again!" + +"My father--my more than father, I am not illegitimate, then! No such +shame may cause your boy to blush for his mother?" + +While strong and loving arms raised the exhausted man from the deck, and +while he becomes once more the same determined Paul Darcantel, and with +hand grasped in hand is rapidly recounting unknown years of his +existence, let us leave the cabin. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +ALL ALIVE AGAIN. + + "Among ourselves, in peace, 'tis true, + We quarrel, make a rout; + And having nothing else to do, + We fairly scold it out; + But once the enemy in view, + Shake hands, we soon are friends; + On the deck, + Till a wreck, + Each common cause defends." + + +Down in the steerage, where a bare cherry table stood, and upright +lockers ranged around, with a lot of half-starved reefers devouring +their dinner--not near so good or well served as the sailors' around +their mess-cloths on the upper decks--with a few urchins utterly +regardless of steerage grub, and a dollar or two in their little fists, +all nicely dressed in blue jackets and white trowsers, waiting for the +hands to be turned to and the boats manned, to go on shore for a lark. + +Abaft in the wardroom, two or three of the swabs, the surgeon's mates, +and the jaunty young marine lieutenant were getting into their bullion +coats and fine toggery, and buckling on their armor to do sad havoc +among the planters' families in the evening, away there in Upper +Kingston. As for the first lieutenant, the purser, the fleet surgeon, +the sailing-master, and the old major of marines, they had been ashore +before, and didn't care to go again; growling jocosely among themselves +on board the frigate, and glad to get rid of the juvenile gabble. + +Presently, and before the hands were turned to from dinner, the cabin +bell rang so violently that the orderly's brass scale-plate fixtures on +his leather hat fairly rang too as he opened the sacred door. + +"Tell the first lieutenant I want him." + +The dismayed soldier forgot to lay his white worsted finger on his visor +as he slammed to the door and marched out on the gun-deck. + +"Mr. Hardy, unmoor ship! Hoist a jack at the fore and fire a gun for a +pilot! Get the frigate under weigh, sir, and be quick about it!" + +"Ay, ay, sir!" + +As Hardy rapidly passed his old cronies, who were tramping along the +deck as he mounted the after-ladder, he said, with a nod, + +"By the Lord! I haven't seen the commodore in such a breeze since he +blew that pirate out of water at Darien." + +In a minute the "Monongahela's" bell struck two, and the boatswain and +his mates, piping as if their hairy throats would split, roared out, +"All hands!" and a moment later, "All hands unmoor ship!" + +"What does that mean?" said a cook of a mess to Jim Dreen, the old +quarter-master, who had just come down from his watch. + +"Mean? why, you lazy, blind duff b'iler, it means that I've lost my +blessed dinner." + +"Hallo!" says Rat to Beaver, "what's that? Unmoor ship on my liberty +day! I swear I'll resign!" + +No you won't, reefers, but you'll trip aloft as fast as your little legs +will carry you--Mouse in company--up to the fore, main, and mizzen tops, +and squeak there as much as you like; but jump about and look sharp that +nothing goes wrong, or Mr. Hardy will be down upon you like a main +tack. + +Bang from the bow port and the union jack at the fore! + +"God bless my soul, fellows, this is the most infernal tyranny I ever +heard of!" came from the wardroom; "all of us engaged to dine and dance +in Kingston this evening, and--" + +"It's 'All hands up anchor, gentlemen!'" and away they all went. + +Down went the mess-kids, and down came the awnings, and up came the +boats to their davits; in went the bars to both capstans, the nippers +clapped on, and the muddy cables coming in to the tunes of fifes; while +above the running gear was rove, the Sunday bunts to the sails cast off, +and the five hundred sailors dancing about on the decks, spars, and +rigging of that American double-banked frigate, as if they could always +work her sails and battery to the admiration of their good commodore +there, who was looking at them from the quarter-deck. + +"Massa captan," said the shining ebony pilot, in his snowy suit, as he +took off his fine white Panama hat, "dis is de ole pilot, sa, Peter +Crabreef--name after dat black rock way dere outside. Suppose you tink +ob beating dis big frigate troo de channel? Unpossible, wid dis +breeze!" + +"Peter Crabreef," said the old sailing-master, to whom these observations +were addressed, "you had better not give such a hint to that gentleman +there in the epaulets; for if you do, you'll never see Mrs. Crabreef +again! You had better keep your wits about you, too, and plenty of +water under the keel, for the commodore is fond of water!" + +"Sartainly, massa ossifa! I is old Peter, and never yet touch a nail of +man-of-war copper battam on de reefs!" + +On board the pigmy black schooner near, half a dozen old salt veterans +were squinting at the flag-ship and holding much deliberate speculation +as to what all the row meant. Old Harry Greenfield, however, with Ben +Brown, who were the gunner and boatswain of the little vessel, observed +that, "In the ewent of our bein' wanted, ye see, Harry, it will be as +well to have the deck tackle stretched along for heavin' in, and get the +prop from under the main boom." + +Even as they spoke, a few bits of square bunting went up in balls to the +mizzen of the frigate, and, blowing out clear, said, as plain as flags +could speak, "Prepare to weigh anchor!" + +At the same moment the "Rosalie's" gig came bounding like a bubble over +the water with the tall gentleman beside the young commander in the +stern-sheets. There was a great, nervous, bony hand now holding his, but +with as an affectionate pressure as the soft dimpled fingers he himself +had held the night before. Gig not steered at all wild now, but going as +straight as a bullet to the schooner. + +The stirring sounds of the fifes as the sailors danced round with the +bars in the capstans, with a beating step to keep time to the lively +music, were still heard on board the frigate, and then came from the +forecastle, + +"The anchor's under foot, sir!" + +"Pawl the capstan! Aloft, sail-loosers! Trice up! Lay out! Loose away!" +Almost at the instant came down the squeaks from aloft of, "All ready +with the fore! the main! the mizzen!" "Let fall--sheet home! hoist away +the top-sails!" + +Again were heard the quick notes of the fifes on both decks, and in less +than five minutes more the anchors were catted, and the "Monongahela," +under a cloud of canvas, began to move. + +But where was the "Rosalie," late "Perdita," all this time? Why, there +she goes, with never a tack, through the narrow strait, lying over under +the press of her white dimity like a witch on a black broomstick, as she +shoots out to sea. + +And who is that tall man, on that narrow deck, clapping on to sheet and +tackle, though there was no need of assistance, or skill, or seamanship +to be displayed on board that craft, except by way of love of the thing? +And why does he, during a pause when there was nothing more that could +possibly be done, stand by the weather rail, shaking a great huge old +seaman by both hands till he almost jarred the schooner to her +keel?--Ben Brown, the helmsman, whom you have heard of on board the +"Martha Blunt," who, by some accidental word he dropped near to the tall +gentleman, caused that hand-grasping collision. + +It was not another five minutes before the other thirty-nine old +sea-dogs knew all about every body, and where they were bound, and so +on. They did not care a brass button for the thousand silver dollars +they were to have from the tall gentleman--not they! They wanted merely +to lay their eyes along that Long Tom amidships, and to have a cutlass +flashing over their shoulders--so fashion! Pistols and pikes! Fudge! + +But where was the "Martha Blunt?" Oh, that old teak brig was bouncing +along past Morant Point, with a good slant from the southward, pretty +much where she was some seventeen years before, with a few more +passengers in her deck cabin, reading their Bibles, and praying for +those who go down to the sea in ships on that Sabbath day--one looking +with her sad eyes out of the stern windows, and another doing the same, +and both thinking of the same boy who had been dashed out of one of +those windows; and though both of them knew the other's thoughts, yet +they did not dream they were thinking of the same person at the time. + +And where was the Spanish brigantine, with the exacting _capitano_--who +was a slaver in dull times--and his pleasant mate, who would think no +more of sticking a knife into you than he did of kicking that skulking, +icy-eyed sailor on board--detesting as he did the entire Saxon race ever +since Cadiz was bombarded--and feeding him on rotten jerked beef? There +were no prayers, only curses, on board that brigantine as she dropped +anchor in St. Jago that fine Sunday morning. + +And where was our ancient one-eyed mariner, formerly in command of the +colonial guarda costa felucca, the "Panchita," named after his fat +banana of a sposa? Oh, the Don--simply Ignacio now--had had a quiet +confab with the deputy administrador all about some treasure which he +knew was concealed, and where--for he had seen with his bright eye the +light of a torch in a cleft of a crag--and he would go shares with that +official if he would give him a little assistance. + +"_Oh, cierto!_" Why not? And there was an old launch, with a torn lateen +sail, which Columbus might have been proud to command; and, in this fine +weather, he might sail back to Port Palos in her. + +Oh yes! But, to keep all secret, he would merely take old Pancha, his +wife, for crew. And so, with a few bundles of paper cigars, and some +dried fish and water--the only property they possessed, save his eye +and a pack of cards, and those valuables rescued with difficulty--they +sailed the night before the blessed Sunday. _He_ never came back, +though. No blame attributable to the eye--that was as bright and +wary an old burning spark of suspicious fire as ever; but then old +Pancha held the cards, and this time she won. Very singular it was, +_cierto_. If Ignacio had not gone back again for another bag which +was not there, why, the _sota_ of a knave being the next card--Ah! we +won't anticipate. + +But we are all alive yet, except those murdered women, whose white coral +head-stones still stand up there in the cactus, and poor Binks, and +those slashing blades of the poisonous, many-legged "Centipede," who +were eaten by the sharks--all alive the rest of us, and wide awake! + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +THE ROPE LAID UP. + + "The captain is walking his quarter-deck + With a troubled brow and a bended neck; + One eye is down the hatchway cast, + The other turns up to the truck on the mast." + + "The breeze is blowing--huzza, huzza! + The breeze is blowing--away, away! + The breeze is blowing--a race, a race! + The breeze is blowing--we near the chase." + + +Well, the positions of all hands were simply these. The icy-eyed man, +without snuff-box, or ring on that mutilated flipper, with two under +pockets in his shirt, and something in them, a pair of filthy old canvas +trowsers, and no hanger by his side, where there had been so much +hanging in the good old times, slipped overboard like a conger eel, and +swam on shore at St. Jago de Cuba. Without a _real_ of wages--for he was +to work his passage--and because he didn't feel inclined to work, the +_capitano_ in command assisted his agile subordinate to kick him all the +voyage. + +Had, however, the mate presented that cold eel his knife for a moment +before he jumped overboard and squirmed to the shore, that cuchillo +would have found a redder sheath than the crimson sash which usually +held it. Fortunately perhaps for the mate, he was not of a generous +disposition, save with kicks and ropes'-ends, or else he might have +regretted his philanthropy. + +So soon as the icy-blue man had congealed, as it were, in the sun until +he was quite dry and frozen again, he slunk away to the ditch of the old +fort, where he thawed till nightfall, and then entered the town; hanging +round the pulperias, smacking and cracking his parched lips for a +measure of aguardiente, only two centavos a cup, and not caring for that +fine, generous, pale, amber-colored old Port sent to him by the good +Archbishop of Oporto! But, not having the copper centavos--though his +own coppers stood so much in need of moisture--he continued to skulk +on. + +Presently, coming to the wide streets and to the outskirts of the town, +he spied a large mule, ready caparisoned for the road, hitched to the +door of a house, waiting for his owner to mount him. The icy green-eyed +individual, disgusted for the time with blue salt water, and being, as +we know, a capital cavalry-man--in dashing charges among the patriots, +and caprioling also up the Blue Mountains to Escondido--thought he would +take another gallop on the dry ground, just to keep his hand and little +finger in; so he quietly cast off the mule's painter, and flung his +canvas legs over the beast as if he belonged to him. And so he did; for +he told the man at whose place he passed an hour or two that night, and +who thought he knew the master to whom the mule had once belonged, that +it had been presented to him by an old friend, whose name--as had the +mule's--escaped him. + +All this time the one-eyed man, with his banana woman, Pancha, were +creeping along the water part of the land--with the Peak of Tarquina in +sight--toward Cape Cruz, bound round that peninsula, and so on to the +Doce Leguas Cays; while the man on the mule navigated by the Sierras del +Cobre of St. Jago, steering by bridle for Manzanillo, and then to take +water again for the same secret destination. + +The cargo that both expected to take in there was about ten thousand +pounds sterling in mildewed coin of various realms and denominations; +but it was there, and would pass current any where. + +So they sailed and navigated. It was tedious work, though; and it took a +week for the old launch with the torn sail to get into the Tiger's +Trap--fine weather, and no sea--and there make fast to the rocks. At the +same evening hour the mule with his passenger planted his fore feet, +like a pair of kedges over his bows, in the fishing village near +Manzanillo, and foundered bodily, going down with his freight slap-dash +in the mud. The passenger, however, escaped, and skulled along by the +shore, where he fell in with a poor fisherman who was about to shove off +in his trim, wholesome bark for professional recreation on the Esperanza +bank. + +Glad was old Miguel Tortuga to have a strong man to assist him for the +privilege of joining in a sip of aguardiente and catching a red snapper +or two; so they jumped on board and spread the sail. + +Had old Miguel, however, seen the sharklike eyes of his assistant in the +sunlight, or dreamed what a snapper was about to catch _him_, he would +not have gone fishing that night, and it would have saved him much +tribulation at daylight the next morning, when he was picked off a small +rock by a fisher acquaintance of his from Manzanillo. + +But we have nothing to do with old Miguel; and need only say, to console +him, that his stanch boat went safely through the blue gateway of the +roaring ledge of white breakers, and late Sunday night lay calmly in the +inlet abreast Captain Brand's former dwelling. + +To go back again for a week, the "Monongahela"--double-banked leviathan +as she was--came plunging out to sea from Kingston, every man and boy, +from Jack Smith on her forecastle to Bill Pump in the spirit-room, and +from Richard Hardy to Tiny Mouse, knowing from the first plunge the +frigate made what they all sailed for. + +With her proud head toward the east, she went dashing on past the White +Horse Rocks, and woe to the small angry waves which did not get out of +her way, for she smashed them contemptuously in foaming masses from her +majestic bows, sending them back in sparkling spray and bubbles to hiss +their angry way to leeward in her wake. On she went, far off to sea, +where the trade wind was strongest, disdaining gentle zephyrs near the +land, with her great square yards swinging round at every watch while +beating to windward--the tacks close down, yards as fine as they would +lay, and the heavy sheets flat aft. + +Every evening the surgeon, the purser, the chaplain, the major, and the +old sailing-master were in the cabin, going over the chase of a certain +pirate in a schooner "Centipede" away down on the Darien Coast, with +Cape Garotte there under their lee, and the vultures and the sharks +grinding the bones and tearing the flesh of the half of a man with the +tusk gleaming out of his wiry mustache; and the padre, with his eyes +staring wide open, and the crucifix, borne away by the carnivorous birds +of prey. + +All of those dreadful particulars, together with matters that had gone +before--of a lost boy, a heart-broken mother, and a murdered mate, Mr. +Binks, on board the brig "Martha Blunt"--the party at Escondido, the +snuff-box, and Paul Darcantel--all about him, too, from the tragedy on +the plantation, his despair, and reckless life afterward, when he served +in slavers, where he did something to allay the sufferings of the poor +wretches; and afterward how he was trepanned to the "Doce Leguas," went +a cruise with Mr. Bill Gibbs, whose leg he hacked off with a hand-saw, +not knowing at the time about the locket; the little child he had saved; +how that child had saved him from his torture on the trestle with his +mouselike teeth; how he had wandered the wide world over searching and +searching for the mother of that boy! + +And there the boy was--the manly, brave young fellow now--whom officers +and sailors had always loved, flying away with the dark doctor--no +longer Darcantel, but Harry Piron--with his fond father and mother in +the distance, and the sweet girl he adored with her blonde head resting +in her mother's lap. + +[Illustration: THE OLD WATER-LOGGED LAUNCH.] + +Ay, every soul in the ship knew all about it, and talked of it, and +drank to the happiness of the young couple--all save Dick Hardy, who +moved energetically about the frigate's decks, with his eyes every +where, below and aloft, prompt, sharp, and quick, quite like Cleveland, +there, beside him, when they were together in the old "Scourge" +during the hurricane, and chased, to her destruction, the "Centipede." + +"Sail ho!" sang out the man on the fore-top-sail yard. + +"Where away?" + +"Right ahead, sir. A brig on the starboard tack!" + +Ay, the old "Martha Blunt" bouncing along under all sail, squaring off +at the short-armed seas, and striking them doggedly, as she beat up for +the Windward Passage between Hayti and Cuba. + +But there was an old sea-bruiser of a different build, who wore the belt +in the West Indies, and was after that sturdy old brig with teak ribs +for a hearty set-to; and when she came up alongside, in the friendly +sparring-match which ensued while both squared their main yards, and lay +for an hour side by side, there was considerable conversation; so much +talk, in fact--boats going to and fro, mingled with roars and shrieks, +and clasping of hands on board the brig--never a sound on board the +ship--that the blue pennant fluttered in such a way it was hard to tell +whether it was Jacob, or Piron, or the sweet wife, or mademoiselle, or +her lovely mother, who threw their arms around that pennant's truck. + +Then yard-arm and yard-arm, the frigate with her canvas canopy of upper +sails furled, and the brig in her best bib and tucker, they both filled +away and moved side by side. + +For a day or two they went on, talking and laughing to one another in +these friendly shakes of the hand over blue water, until one day, the +brig being to windward, she came upon an old water-logged launch, with a +broken mast and a torn sail hanging over her side. + +It fell calm, and Jacob Blunt ordered young Binks to get into the yawl +and tow the boat alongside, and to be smart about it; for the breeze +might make so soon as the fog rose, and the commodore was not the man to +be kept waiting in a big frigate. Mr. Binks was smart about it, and +presently he returned--though there was no hurry, for the calm lasted a +long time--with his water-logged prize. + +There was no human being in this prize; but when she came alongside, and +a yard tackle was hooked on to let the water drain out of her, Jacob +Blunt and the people on board gave a pleasant yell of astonishment. + +It was not the soiled pack of Spanish cards, or the few bundles of +saturated paper cigars floating about, which caused this excitement. No, +it was several canvas bags lying there in the stern-sheets, strapped +with strands of a woman's red petticoat to the empty water-cask beneath +the thwarts; and not one of those canvas bags, or what was in them, +injured in the least by salt water. Very carefully were those bags--and +they were weighty--lifted on board the brig, over the rail where the +pirates swarmed some long years ago, on to the quarter-deck; and then +there was another joyous shout from Jacob Blunt, as when he had hailed +the trade wind in that long past time. + +"By all that's wonderful, here is my old bag of guineas, and some few +Spanish milled dollars! Look at the mark, my darlings!" + +Another weighty bag was set aside for Mrs. Timothy Binks, and the rest +were devoted, with some large doubloon reservations for crew, to Martha +Blunt and Jacob Blunt in their declining years. + +Then, the weather being still calm and foggy, Jacob and his passengers +went on board the double-banked frigate for church service, where they +all prayed with much hope and thanksgiving for what had passed and what +was to come; and then they went into the commodore's cabin, where they +remained ever so long a time. + +Let us go back this same week again--a very long seven days it has been +for every body, particularly so for the icy-eyed man, who was extremely +anxious, as he kicked and lashed his mule, and kept looking round the +south side of Jamaica, from Portland Point to Pedro Bluff and San +Negril, throwing a ray of cold frost there day and night, expecting that +tall doctor to come striding along in that deep water, heading due +north. + +And at last the dark figure hove in sight, in the schooner "Rosalie"--the +sweet little craft skimming exultingly over the seas, kissing them +occasionally with both her dainty, glistening cheeks, reeling joyously +over on her side, with her tidy dimity laced and spread in one flat sheet +of white, while the slender arms bent like whalebone to the freshening +breeze, and she left the dancing bubbles sparkling and flashing lovingly +in her wake. + +Two hundred miles to go, and the breeze fell from fresh to light, until +at last, shrouded in a thick fog, one Sunday morning, when there was no +air at all, only a flat calm, the sea as smooth as a glass mirror with +the quicksilver clouded. + +Then out sweeps, my lads! Ten of a side, and two of those bronzed old +lads at each sweep! All except the two after ones, where Ben Brown and +the tall doctor handled one apiece. + +Thus, with sails down and bare arms, the light little "Rosalie" +continued gliding rapidly over the mirrored surface--a little ashamed of +herself, perhaps, at being seen in such a scanty rig--while her +commander guided her graceful course, and Harry Greenfield peered about +forward to see that no harm should arrest her dainty footsteps. + +Presently was heard the toll of a bell. The sweeps paused, the hide +gromets resting on the thole-pins, and the water raining from their +broad blades. + +"That must be a man-of-war off here on the quarter," exclaimed the young +officer at the tiller, "ringing for church." + +The old seamen at the sweeps unconsciously took off their hats, wiped +the sweat from their brows, and listened. + +"It can hardly be the 'Monongahela,'" said Ben, "though p'raps she took +more of a breeze to wind'ard, off the island." + +Still the schooner glided on noiselessly over the sea, until, a minute +later, Harry Greenfield sang out, + +"Port, sir! or we'll be plump into a vessel here ahead." + +The helm was put down, and the "Rosalie" sheered off to starboard within +a biscuit-toss of a large brig. + +"By my grandmother's wig!" said Ben, "that's the old 'Martha Blunt!'" + +"Henri," said Paul Darcantel, in French, in his deep voice, "the last +request I shall ever make is to keep on. There is not a moment to +lose!" + +"Give way, men!" shouted the officer, in a decided tone, as the words +came with a stifled gasp from his heaving breast, while the sigh that +followed was drowned in the splash of the sweeps in the water as they +again chafed in their gromets, and the foam flashed away from the blades +astern. + +But there was another splash. A white object sprang with a bound over +the brig's quarter, dipping below the surface of the calm sea, and when +it came up, two great flippers, with a large black head between them, +struck out like the paws of an alligator, breasting the water with a +speed that soon brought him within a few fathoms of the schooner's low +counter. Then, seizing hold of the slack of the main sheet, which was +thrown to him, he came up, hand over hand, as if he could tear the stern +frame out of the schooner. A vigorous grasp caught him by one paw, and, +with the other laid on the taffrail, he leaped on deck as if his feet +had pressed a springboard instead of the yielding water. + +Again, as in the olden time, he held his little Henri aloft in his giant +arms; but this time it was Banou who was dripping from a souse, and not +his little master. + +"Give way, my souls! Another thousand dollars if we get up to the Key +before dark!" said the deep, low tones of the tall doctor. + +"Good Lord!" roared a voice from on board the brig, now shut up again +all alone in the fog--"if that old nigger has not gone and jumped +overboard, my name's not Binks!" + +"All right, Mr. Binks; Banou is safe! Send a boat on board the +'Monongahela,' and report that the schooner 'Rosalie' has passed ahead," +went back in a clear note. + +It was some considerable time before Binks could believe that he had not +been hailed by David Jones himself, for he had seen nothing, being at +the time in the lower cabin reading his Bible, and writing his name, +"Binnacle Binks, Master of brig 'Martha Blunt,'" on the fly-leaf; and he +was only disturbed in this praiseworthy occupation by a heavy body +plunging overboard, and by one of the drowsy crew, who had, with his +comrades, been sleeping near, reporting that circumstance with his eyes +half shut. + +Then young Binks took considerable more time to get a boat lowered, and +send her, with the cabin-boy, to the large frigate close on his beam, +whose bell had just struck seven. + +The boat, too, with four sleepy hands to pull her, took considerable +time to find the ship, and then the whistles were piping to dinner, and +all the good people from the brig, with the flag-officers, had retired +to the commodore's cabin for luncheon. + +When Jacob Blunt heard the news, regardless of sherry and cold tongue, +he himself got in his boat, leaving his passengers in an excited frame +of mind, but rather comfortable on the whole, and returned to the teak +bosom of his "Martha." + +There he took young Binks firmly by the shoulder, and walked him aft to +the rail where his father--long since dead and murdered--had been used +to sit and sing sailor ditties. + +Then he impressively told him that "this 'ere sort of thing wouldn't do! +even if he was a readin' the Bible, which was all very good on occasion, +sich as clear weather out on the broad Atlantic; but in fog times, when +schooners was creepin' about in among the Antilles, and partick'larly +off Jamaiky or the south side of Cuby, mates and men should be wide +awake and lookin' every wheres. And harkee, Binnacle! when you commands +this 'ere old brig, or maybe a bran-new 'Martha Blunt,' and me and my +old woman lying below together in narrow cabins, you must bear in mind +these my words! Well, my boy, don't rub that 'ere sleeve over your eyes +no more, and it will be all right." + +Young Binks promised "that from that 'ere minnit he would never sit on +no rails, or sip no grog, or even read his old mother's Bible when he +wos on watch, but always be as keerful as if there wos no lady +passengers or children on board, or bags of shiners in the lower cabin +stateroom--that he would! And his blessed old second father might take +his davy he, young Binks, would never be caught foul again." + +Meanwhile the girlish schooner tripped away far out of sight, and when +the fog lifted and the breeze came to blow it to leeward she was once +more tidily dressed in snowy white, and splashing the water from her +black eyes, as the last rays of the setting sun showed her the Tiger's +Trap in the distance. + +"Henri, my boy, put your arms around me again as you did when I lay in +torture on the trestle on that island. Have no fears for me; we shall +meet again. There! now listen to me. Here is a packet which I wish you +to carry to Porto Rico with this letter. The old judge is alive, I +think, to whom this letter is addressed, and it may perhaps soothe his +declining years. I wish to take your little gig, with Banou and Ben +Brown--no more force--and if, as I believe, that villain has returned to +his former haunt, I will fulfill my oath to its very letter. Meanwhile, +so soon as we have shoved off, while the breeze still holds, run down to +the frigate--she is not three leagues off--and you will be in your +yearning parent's arms, and those of the girl you love, before they +sleep. There! I know you will think of me. Farewell!" + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +ON A BED OF THORNS. + + "An orphan's curse would drag to hell + A spirit from on high; + But oh! more horrible than that + Is the curse in a dead man's eye!" + + "O Heaven! to think of their white souls, + And mine so black and grim!" + + +"Ho, ho!" said Captain Brand, as he stretched out his straight legs in +their canvas casings on the sand of the little cove, "safe and sound, +and not a soul to share this nice supper of that good old man Miguel! + +"Ho, ho!" continued he; "here at last! No Babette to cook for me--no +'Centipede'--nothing but that stanch little boat presented me by that +generous fisherman, who, I fear, is drowned by this time. Well, let us +enjoy ourselves! Excellent real snapper this! Sausage rather too much +garlic perhaps; but the brown bread and the aguardiente unexceptionable. +Blaze away, my little fire; your sticks cost me much labor to dig out of +my once comfortable house, but you are better than gunpowder any day. + +"Just to think of the years that have passed! That great bank of sand +there over the sheds, nearly as high as the crag, where my brave fellows +once caroused; the young cocoa-nut springing up on the crag itself--not +a vestige of my old habitation left, or the bright blades or pleasant +guests to dine with me!" + +Here there was something of the old cold murderous scowl on the +captain's face as he twisted the point of his nose. + +"Ah! yes, there may be my wary-eyed Sanchez left, though the last +I heard of him he was in the Capilla dungeon of the Moro. And +that"--grating his teeth, and glaring with his icy eyes at the +fire, as if those two blocks of ice would put it out--"cursed +doctor who pursues me! + +"Well, well, neither of those old friends are here yet, and before +another sun sets I shall bequeath the old den to them both! Ho, ho! with +those solid bags of clinking metal, I shall leave them as much sand and +rocks as they choose to walk over. What a sly devil I was to stow that +treasure away for a rainy day! Never told a living being! Poisoned the +fellow, too, who made the lock! Capital joke, 'pon my soul!" + +This was the very last of the very few jokes that Captain Brand ever +enjoyed. + +"And, now I think of it, I wonder if my thirsty old mate's bones are yet +lying there in the vault. What _was_ his name? such a bad memory I have! +Oh! Gibbs--Bill Gibbs--with one leg! Ho, ho!" + +Here Captain Brand drained some more aguardiente out of a cracked +earthen pot, and slapped his fine legs with rapture. + +"And those dear girls who married me! Lucia, too!" + +The dirty wretch started as the wing of a sea-bird swooped down over the +pure inlet; and he thought he saw a white fore finger beckoning him on +to his doom. + +"Pshaw!" said he, smoothing down his filthy tattered shirt with the +finger of his mutilated left hand, "how nervous I am! But what a bungle +Pedillo made of that marriage! And my good Ricardo, too! What a feast +the sharks must have had on his oily, well-fed carcass! Misericordia! +Ho, ho! I believe I'll bid my friends good-night." + +Captain Brand stretched himself out at full length on the shelly strand, +his boat secured by a clove-hitch round his right leg, which rode calmly +in the little inlet; his bald head, with the few dry gray hairs on his +temples, resting on Miguel's sennit hat, and the thin scum of frosty +eyelids drawn over his frozen eyes--cracking their covering at +times--until at last the pirate, aided by fiery aguardiente, slept. + +A few late cormorants and sea-birds sailed over him in his fitful +slumber, and uttered a cold cry, as if their pecking-time had not come +yet, but would shortly, as they sought their silent retreats on the wall +of rocks opposite. + +And Captain Brand dreamed, too--of the old laird, his father, in prison; +his mother weeping over forged notes; the sleeping, unsuspecting people +he had treacherously murdered; the pillages he had committed; the men he +had slain in open conflict; those he had executed with his own private +cord; the poor woman who had died in worse torments, when, indeed, even +knife or pistol, rope or poison, would have been a mercy; the agony and +sufferings of those who survived them; with all the concomitant horrors +which make the blood run cold to think of, and which made the pirate's +almost freeze in his veins--living years in minutes--did Captain Brand, +as he lay there on the chill sand in his troubled nightmare of a sleep. + +"Ah! _Dios! Dios!_" chattered the Senora Banana Pancha, at the other +outlet to the inlet, rolling over on the ledge of the rocks at the +Tiger's Trap. + +"What has become of my Ig--Ig--nacio--the one-eyed old villain who has +persecuted me for forty years? Why did I cut the old launch adrift +before I got in myself? And here I am alone and desolate on this cursed +island, and my Ig--Ig--nacio--bless his spark of an eye--not come back +to me! Ah! _Dios! Dios!_ what has become of the little man? He will kill +me, _cierto_, when he comes back and finds the boat gone with all the +money, which nearly broke his thin back to bring here; but, _Dios! +Dios!_ I am dying of thirst, and not a shred of dried fish or jerked +beef has gone into my old mouth--" + +Yes there has, Dona Pancha, for just then a piece of hawser-laid +rope--rather dry, perhaps, for mastication--was placed across your +crying mouth that you might bite upon, if you would only stop your old +tongue. + +For while you were screaming on the rocks, and yelling for your +Ig--Ig--nacio, who went back for the last bag of gold that wasn't there, +a light gig glided in like a blackfish, and a bigger blackfish jumped up +and stopped your old mouth, Pancha, with that bit of hide rope. But if +you will keep quiet, Pancha, and not exorcise Banou for the Evil One, +that old nigger will give you a cup of liquid not known in the devil's +dominions, and treat you also to some white biscuit to nibble upon. + +Ah! you will, eh? and tell all about that thin curl of smoke, which you +believe to have been made by that coal-eyed Ig--Ig--nacio, away up there +by the inlet? Now keep quiet again, old Lady Banana; and while your +screaming mouth is gagged, don't cut this small gig away, or else she +may navigate herself out to sea, as did your Ig's launch, and you be +left desolate again. + +The tropical night was still; the lizards wheetled, the breakers roared +on the outer ledge, the ripples washed musically on the shelly shores, +the alligators flapped about on the surface of the lagoon, the insects +buzzed around the mangrove thickets; and as the gray dawn of morning +appeared, and the rain began to fall, a steaming hot mist arose, through +which the sea-birds flapped their wings and sailed away in search of +their morning's meal. The sharks and the deep-sea fish, however, lay +still and motionless low down by the base of the reefs, and watched with +their cold, round eyes. Captain Brand, too, arose, and, opening _his_ +green-bluish eyes, smoothing his moulting feathers, and splashing his +fins in the wet sand, took an observation. + +This was the rainy day for which Captain Brand had laid by all that +money to spend it in! + +It was a Monday morning--Black Monday for Captain Brand--when, after +divesting his leg of the clove-hitch, he secured old Miguel's boat to a +large stone, and then, according to his own ancient practice, he +clambered with difficulty up to the venerable crag. Captain Brand had no +spy-glass, and there was a good deal of rain falling, but yet he thought +he saw a large ship, a brig, and a small schooner in the offing. + +So Captain Brand scrambled down again, a good deal disconcerted, knowing +it would be hours and hours before those vessels got up to the island, +even were they so inclined; but, nevertheless, he bestirred himself. +Fortifying his inner man with the last half pint of aguardiente for +breakfast, which quite refreshed him, he went to work. + +First, he took Miguel's copper coffee-pot, into which he emptied that +disciple of the net's shark-oil jug, which Miguel himself used for a +torch to attract the fish. Then, with a strip of old canvas--part of one +leg to Captain Brand's trowsers; to such straits was he reduced--seized +like a ball on the end of a stick, and a match-box, he was all ready for +Black Monday's work. + +Captain Brand, however, made one serious omission; he snugly stowed away +his beautiful pistols in a locker of the boat to keep them dry, never +having been wet but twice before in all his marine excursions--the first +time at Cape Garotte, and the next when he jumped overboard from the +brigantine at St. Jago. He set great store by these valuable implements, +for they had done him good service in time of need. Miguel came into +possession of them afterward, and sold them almost for their weight in +gold. + +But, for the first time, Captain Brand forgot his personal friends and +bosom companions. It was a great oversight; and he was extremely sorry +when it was too late to go back for them. However, with the copper +oil-pot dangling from his little finger, where the sapphire once shone, +and the torch-stick in the other hand, he marched boldly over the sandy +ridges toward the crag. + +But, Captain Brand, there had been three pairs of open eyes watching you +through every mouthful of snapper you snapped, and every drop of fiery +white rum you swallowed. Ay! and while you tossed about on the shelly +beach, with the red glow of the embers of the fire lighting up your +cold-blooded, wrinkled face--while, twisting your nose, you muttered ho! +ho's! of murderous satisfaction--there was not a bird that swooped over +you, or a lizard on the rocks with jet beads of eyes, that watched you +so sharply as did those attentive beholders from the crag. + +And when you made your observations from the young cocoa-nut clump, +those watchers retired down the opposite side, and two of them clambered +through a hole in the roof of the decaying little chapel, while the +other moved to the little cemetery of coral gravestones, and there +scooped a place in the sand and cactus behind the one cut with the +letter L. + +Captain Brand meanwhile came on, picking his way through the dense +cactus, which lacerated his legs, and sadly tore the remains of his +loose canvas. The rain came down in torrents, the thunder growled and +crashed as the tropical storm burst over the island; and just as a vivid +sheet of forked lightning seemed to stride the crag, and the awful peal +that followed shook it to its base, Captain Brand crept for shelter +within the cleft of the rock, and sat down to prepare for a more +extended research. + +He may have been gone twenty minutes; but when he again emerged the rain +had ceased, the clouds were breaking away, and the gentle sea-breeze +blowing, while Captain Brand looked a thousand years older. He seemed to +have borrowed all the million of wrinkles from his compadre, in addition +to those he already possessed. The thin lids of his frozen green--now +quite solid--eyes had apparently exhaled by intense cold, and left +nothing but a stony look of horror. + +What caused our brave captain to reel and stagger as he plunged with a +bound out into the matted cactus, without his tattered hat, like a wolf +flying from the hounds? Had he trodden on a snake, or seen his compadre, +or had that white finger waved him away? Yes, all three. But the +interview with his one-eyed compadre had shocked him most. + +On he came, driving the hot, wet sand before him, toward the Padre +Ricardo's chapel. There he paused for breath, though it was only by a +spasmodic effort that he could unclose his sheet-white lips, where his +sharp teeth had met upon them, and held his mouth together as if he had +the lockjaw, while he snorted through his nostrils. + +"Ho!" he gasped, "the spying old traitor has sacked the cavern, and the +gold must have gone in that launch I saw the night I came over the reef. +Ho! the traitor has found the torture I promised him; but I would like +to have killed him a little slower." + +Here Captain Brand, having regained some few faculties and energy, moved +on beyond the church, till he came to the white coral headstone, where +he stood still. + +It was his last walk on deck or sand! Shading his still horror-stricken +eyes by both hands, he glared to seaward. + +"Ho, ho! there you are, my Yankee commodore, with that old brig under +convoy, and that pretty schooner! Reminds me of my old 'Centipede.' +_Bueno!_ there are other 'Centipedes,' and I must begin the world anew. +I am not old; here is my strong right arm yet; and who can stop me?" + +Captain Brand made these remarks in a loud tone, as if he wanted the +whole world to hear him; and as if he had failed in early life, and come +to a strong resolution to retrieve his past errors. + +As he waved his strong right arm aloft, while, in imagination, blood +rained from the blade of his cutlass after cleaving the skull by a blow +dealt behind the back of an unsuspecting skipper or mate, suddenly he +paused, and the arm fell powerless at his side, where it hung dangling +loose like a pirate from a gibbet on a windy night. + +He caught sight of the old broken cocoa-nut trunk to which he had +hitched the green silk rope, with its noose around his victim's neck, +and he endeavored to prevent himself falling to the sand. + +"Ho!" he choked out, his jaws rattling like dry bones, "I see it all +now. The column was snapped just where the rope was hitched, and the +trestle must have been torn to pieces by the hurricane. Ho, ho! That's +the way my man escaped, to dog me all over the world. Ho! I have no time +to lose; he may be here at any moment." + +This was the last connected speech that Captain Brand ever made in this +world, or in the world to come, perhaps, for at the last word Paul +Darcantel rose in all his revengeful majesty before him. With folded +arms he bent his dark, stern eyes upon the pirate, wherein the revenge +of twenty years was gleaming with a concentrated power. + +"You palsied villain! the oath I took to you, and for which I have been +accursed, expired yesterday! I took another myself, when we stood here +last together, and I am come to fulfill that oath, and--strike!" + +His terrible voice and words came back in an echo from the crag, and +they seemed with their intense energy to pierce and shrivel the man +before him into sleet. And the pirate would have fallen had not two +huge, black, lignum-vitae paws grappled him about the body, pinioning his +arms to his sides as if they had been bolted through and through, while +at the same moment another pair of tough, sea-weed flippers wound a +lashing round his straight legs, and they laid him gently down on the +sandy esplanade. + +"The trestle, Banou. And you, Ben, bring the hide strands, the faded old +cord, and that black altar-cloth!" + +The pirate lay on his back, his eyes wide open--for he could not shut +them, since the lids had gone in frost--but the solid balls, light green +now in the light, rolled from side to side. He recognized the old +apparatus too, though it was in different hands than those of Pedillo +and his confederate; and he saw, also, that, though the pale green rope +was rotten, yet his knowledge of nautical matters taught him that it yet +might bear a taut strain, and that those coils of hide thongs never gave +way by any amount of tugging, and he saw as well that they had been +recently dipped in grease. + +But what was to be done with that rotten, moth-eaten old cloth, which +the men used to play monte on on Saturday nights in the sheds, and on +which the good padre played _his_ cards likewise in the chapel? It was +not to keep the cold air away from him, or shield his half-naked body +from the poisonous insects. Then what could it be for? + +"Lift him up, men, and when you lash him down, leave only that little +finger free!" + +Ben Brown squatted himself on a stone beside the bier, and with his +cutlass unbuckled and laid on the sand, and sleeves rolled up, began +his work as if he had a chafing-mat to make for the dead-eyes of the +frigate's lower shrouds, and, though in a hurry, still intended to make +a neat job of it. He had a small and rather sharp-pointed marline-spike, +too, which he wore habitually, like a talisman, round his neck, and +which stood him in hand in the intricate parts of his task. + +Taking in at a glance the exact amount of hide stuff he required, he +middled the coils, and passing each strand fair and square, his old +bronzed arms went backward and forward, under and over--sometimes +pricking a little hole by accident in the pirate's own thin hide as he +passed the strips by the aid of his marline-spike, but always +apologizing in his bluff, rough way, though without squirting +tobacco-juice into his victim's face, as did Mr. Gibbs to Jacob Blunt. + +"Beg pardon, ye infarnal pirate! but that stick will do ye no harm. +It'll heal much sooner than the iron spike one of yer crew drove through +both cheeks of my watch-mate when you gagged him on board the brig. + +"I say, old nigger, hand us a little more of that slush, will ye? this +'ere strand won't lie flat. Thankee, old darkey! Kitch hold on that +lower end, will ye? and draw it square up between his pins, and +straighten out that 'ere knee-joint a bit--so fashion. + +"I wouldn't hurt ye, you ugly villain, for a chaw of tobaccy. + +"Warm work, shipmate! suppose you just toddle down to the boat for that +'ere grafted bottle lyin' in the starn sheets, and bring a tin pot of +fresh water with you; the gentleman might be thirsty, you know. _I +am_--Benjamin Brown, of Sandy Pint, seaman." + +So Benjamin plaited Captain Brand, late of the "Centipede," down on his +bier; not a thong too little, or one in the wrong place. A strand +between each of his toes, and the big ones turned up in quite an +ornamental way, and worked around with a Turk's-head knot. + +"Breathin' works all reg'lar, too, no bit of hide bearin' an onequal +strain over his bread-basket. Throat and jaw-tackle in fair talkin' +order, little finger free; and there, Capting Brand, jist let old Ben +reward ye, good for evil, ye child-murdering scoundrel, for the lick +your mate gave him with the pistol on the head, by placing this soft +pillow of green silk rope under your bare skull. There! a little this +side, so as ye can look at your finger, while I pass this broad piece of +stuff over your ear. Don't ye look at me, ye infarnal scoundrel, or I'll +let this 'ere copper spike slip into one of yer junk-bottle glims! + +"Now," continued Ben, "I'll take a spell till the doctor and the old +nigger come back." + +Ay, the job was done, and the mat over the dead-eyes of the shrouds! + +[Illustration: "NOW CAPTAIN BRAND KNEW WHAT WAS COMING."] + +During this neat and seamanlike operation Paul Darcantel wandered away +on the tracks of the flying wolf till he came to the cleft in the +rock. There he picked up and lighted the torch and stalked on. Presently +he came to the stones before the low cavern, and pushed his way in with +the blazing torch before him. Had Paul Darcantel had nerves, they would +have shaken at what he saw; but having none to shake, he calmly fixed +his eyes upon the sight. + +There lay the head of the ancient Ignacio, caught, as he tried to creep +out of the treasure-chamber, by the falling of the stone slab. It must +have been sudden, for the stump of a paper cigar was still seized in his +wrinkled lips, while the snakelike curls twined about his ears, and his +wary eye looked out with its usual suspicious intensity, and seemed to +throw out a spark of fire in the reflection of the torch. Rising from a +coil in a slimy bed of sand before the head was a venomous serpent, with +his graceful neck curved into the broad flat head, all like an ebony +cane, straight, motionless, and elegant to the curved top--fascinated by +that single living orb of the dead man. + +The human intruder left this well-matched pair to their own venomous +devices, and winding his way on, he soon came to the open door to the +vaults. A powerful kick smashed in the door of the dungeon, and while +the rusty bolts were still ringing on the stone pavement, Paul Darcantel +entered the loathsome chamber. + +He saw nothing at first save a few fragments of broken crockery and a +rusty metal pot--not even a rat. But flaring the torch down upon the +mouldy floor something sparkled in the light. This he snatched, and it +was the long-lost locket and chain which had last rested around the +baby-boy's neck. + +When the doctor strode back to the esplanade of the chapel he found +Benjamin Brown and Banou taking a friendly sip out of the tin pot. + +"Well, sir," said Ben, as he got on his pins and strapped on his +cutlass, "there he is, sir! and as neat a piece of cross-lashing as ever +I did. He looks as if he growed there, jist like a hawk-bill turtle +a-bilin' in the ship's coppers, only he can't paddle about. + +"I did it marciful, too, sir, and tried to convarse with him, in case he +had any presents to make to his friends. + +"Why, sir, and would you believe it? I offered to pour a drop of +grog--mixed or raw--down his tight mouth, but he never had the +perliteness to thank me or ax me a question, but only looked wicked at +me. Consarn him! if he had only winked, I wouldn't mind it!" said Ben, +with much indignation; "but, howsever, I don't b'lieve he's any think to +leave or any friends left!" + +But Captain Brand, though speechless without being tongue-tied, and +unable to wink, still thought. And what did the doctor propose to do +with him in case he was not to be stung to death by insects, sand-flies, +musquitoes, and what not? + +"Lift the trestle for the last time, men, and stand it here over this +thick bed of cactus, so as the little finger may touch the letter on +this white tomb-stone." + +Now Captain Brand's doubts were relieved, and he knew what was coming. +Oh ho! ho! + +"There! that is right! Now collect stones and rocks, and wall this +trestle up solid to the edge of the frame, so that a hurricane can't +loosen it." + +Big Banou went to work now, and presently his job was done--coral rocks, +and loose head-stones of pirates, well packed down with sand, made the +sides of the living tomb. Then the black pall was drawn over the body, +and they left the pirate to his inevitable doom. + +Soon the three executioners reached the Tiger's Trap. + +"Banou, take this locket and chain--ah! you know it well--to your young +master. Brown, the two thousand dollars will be placed in your and +Greenfield's hands for distribution among the schooner's crew; make a +good use of it! Tell the commodore that I shall take an old woman we +have found here away with me in a stolen fisherman's boat to Manzanillo, +and within the year I shall be at home! There! shove off, my lads!" + +As the gig skimmed through the Tiger's Trap, Paul Darcantel, with the +widow of Ignacio, sailed out by the Alligator's Mouth, and as they +crossed that roaring ledge, the sun sank in its unclouded glory in the +west, and the young moon, with its thin pearly crescent, looked timidly +down upon the island. + +And the night passed, and the next and the next, with scorching days and +blazing suns between them; while the mangrove, the palm, the cocoa-nut, +and the cactus--ah! that luxuriant plant throve apace--shooting up its +steel-pointed bayonets two inches of a night in thorny needles as thick +as pins in a paper, growing clean through the hide of ox or man like +blood, till their hard-edged leaves met resistance, when, turning flat +side up, they put forth a score for one of the needle bayonets! No +escape from them. From shoulder to heel one long, hopeless agony. The +fierce sun flaming down, absorbed by the black pall of death! The moon +glimmering in pale white rays of splendor through the moth-eaten holes +upon the finger and the white tomb-stone! All the day and all the +night! + +Was it a dream, Captain Brand? No, a frightful reality! Don't you feel a +fresh thorn at every slow pulse of the heart they are aiming at? And +don't you hear those dread croakings of gulls and cormorants flapping in +the air, who have left their prey on the reef to join the vultures in +their feast on the shore? You may almost catch the grating sounds of the +rasping jaws of the sharks as they crowd into the inlet, and rest their +cold noses on the shelly cove where you slept! + +Flesh and blood, and pinions and beaks can endure it no longer. A cloud +of carnivorous birds swoop down at last, snap the black pall in their +talons and bills, and fly fighting and screaming away with it. Another +cloud, darker than the rest, light upon the body, and while the +needle-points pierce the palpitating heart, and the breath flutters on +the still clenched lips and nostrils, the eyes are picked out, and the +flesh is torn piecemeal, hide strands and all, till nothing is left but +a hideous white skeleton, with the long bony finger pointing to the +letter L. + +The lizards wheetled on the rocks, the alligators lashed the lagoon amid +the steaming mist of the mangrove roots; the sharks and birds returned +to the reefs, the cocoa-nuts waved their tufted tops, the palms crackled +in the shower and gale, and the pure inlet murmured musically on the +shelly shore for years and years over and around the deserted key, until +the whitened bones crumbled into dust, and were borne away by the four +winds of heaven. + + * * * * * + +The hemp has been tarred and spread, the strands twisted, and the rope +laid up. The knots have been turned in between good sailors and +bad--between pirates and men-of-war's-men--and here Harry Gringo hauls +down his pennant until his reading crew care again to take a cruise with +him in blue water. + + + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + + Standard Works + OF + =Discovery and Adventure in Africa=. + + PUBLISHED BY + HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, N. Y. + + _Sent by Mail, postage pre-paid, on receipt of price._ + + _The amount of travel literature which HARPER & BROTHERS have + published relating to Africa makes a curious list, and + illustrates the bent of geographical and political examination + for some time past. The octavos of Burton, Barth, Livingstone, + Du Chaillu, Davis, and a number of other celebrated travellers, + form a small library, all the result of the last few years' + devotion to African exploration_--N. Y. JOURNAL OF COMMERCE. + +=Speke's Africa.= Journal of the Discovery of the Sources of the Nile. +By JOHN HANNING SPEKE, Captain H.M. Indian Army, Fellow and Gold +Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society, Hon. Corr. Member and Gold +Medalist of the French Geographical Society, &c. With Map and Portraits, +and numerous Illustrations, chiefly from Drawings by Captain GRANT. 8vo, +Cloth, $3 50. + +=Reade's Savage Africa.= Western Africa: being the Narrative of a Tour +of Equatorial, Southwestern, and Northwestern Africa; with Notes on the +Habits of the Gorilla; on the Existence of Unicorns and Tailed Men; on +the Slave Trade; on the Origin, Character, and Capabilities of the +Negro, and of the future Civilization of Western Africa. By W. WINWOOD +READE, Fellow of the Geog. and Anthropological Soc. of Lond., and Corr. +Member of the Geog. Soc. of Paris. With Illustrations and a Map. 8vo, +Cloth, $3 50. + +=Du Chaillu's Equatorial Africa.= Explorations and Adventures in +Equatorial Africa; with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the +People, and of the Chase of the Gorilla, the Crocodile, Leopard, +Elephant, Hippopotamus, and other Animals. By PAUL B. DU CHAILLU, Corr. +Member of the Amer. Ethnological Soc.; of the Geog. and Statistical Soc. +of New York, and of the Bost. Soc. of Nat. Hist. Maps and numerous +Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 75. + +=Baldwin's African Hunting.= African Hunting from Natal to the Zambesi, +including Lake Ngami, the Kalahari Desert, &c., from 1852 to 1860. By +WILLIAM CHARLES BALDWIN, F.R.G.S. With Map, Fifty Illustrations by Wolf +and Zwecker, and a Portrait of the Great Sportsman. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +=Andersson's Okavango River.= The Okavango River: A Narrative of Travel, +Exploration, and Adventure. By CHARLES JOHN ANDERSSON, Author of "Lake +Ngami." With Steel Portrait of the Author, numerous Wood-cuts, and a Map +showing the Regions explored by Andersson, Cumming, Livingstone, Burton, +and Du Chaillu. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. + +=Andersson's Lake Ngami.= Lake Ngami; or, Explorations and Discoveries +during Four Years' Wanderings in the Wilds of Southwestern Africa. By +CHARLES JOHN ANDERSSON. With numerous Illustrations, representing +Sporting Adventures, Subjects for Natural History, Devices for +destroying Wild Animals, &c. New Edition. 12mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +=Livingstone's South Africa.= Missionary Travels and Researches in South +Africa; including a Sketch of a Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior +of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loando on the +West Coast; thence across the Continent, down the River Zambesi, to the +Eastern Ocean. By DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D., D.C.L. With Portrait, Maps, +and numerous Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. + +=Davis's Carthage.= Carthage and her Remains: Being an Account of the +Excavations and Researches on the Site of the Phoenician Metropolis in +Africa and other adjacent Places, under the Auspices of Her Majesty's +Government. By Dr. N. DAVIS, F.R.G.S. Profusely illustrated with Maps, +Wood-cuts, Chromo-Lithographs, &c., &c. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. + +=Burton's Central Africa.= The Lake Regions of Central Africa. A Picture +of Exploration. By RICHARD F. BURTON, Capt. H.M.I. Army; Fellow and Gold +Medalist of the Royal Geographical Society. With Maps and Engravings on +Wood. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. + +=Barth's North and Central Africa.= Travels and Discoveries in North and +Central Africa. Being a Journal of an Expedition undertaken under the +Auspices of H.B.M.'s Government in the Years 1849-1855. By HENRY BARTH, +Ph.D., D.C.L. Profusely and elegantly illustrated. Complete in 3 vols. +8vo, Cloth, $9. + +=Cumming's South Africa.= Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Interior +of South Africa. With Notices of the Native Tribes, and Anecdotes of the +Chase of the Lion, Elephant, Hippopotamus, Giraffe, Rhinoceros, &c. By +GORDON CUMMING. With Illustrations. 2 vols. 12mo, Cloth, $2 50. + +=Wilson's Western Africa.= Western Africa: Its History, Condition, and +Prospects. By REV. J. LEIGHTON WILSON, Eighteen Years a Missionary in +Africa. With numerous Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. + + Mr. Wilson, an American missionary, has written the best book I + have seen on the West Coast.--Dr. LIVINGSTONE, _Rivershire, W. + Africa_, Feb. 20, 1863. + +=Discovery and Adventures in Africa.= Condensed Abstracts of the +Narratives of African Travellers. By Professor JAMESON, JAMES WILSON, +and HUGH MURRAY. 18mo, Cloth, 50 cents. + +=The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African Traveller.= By Major Sir +FRANCIS B. HEAD. 18mo, Cloth, 50 cents. + +=Lander's Niger Expedition.= Journal of an Expedition to explore the +Course and Termination of the Niger. With a Narrative of a Voyage down +that River to its Termination. By R. and J. LANDER. Engravings. 2 vols. +18mo, Cloth, $1 00. + +=Urquhart's Pillars of Hercules.= The Pillars of Hercules; or, A +Narrative of Travels in Spain and Morocco in 1848. By DAVID URQUHART, +M.P. 2 vols. 12mo, Cloth, $2 50. + +=Owen's Voyages.= Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and +Madagascar: performed under the Direction of Captain W. F. W. OWEN, R.N. +2 vols. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +=Mungo Park's Central Africa.= Travels of Mungo Park, with the Account +of his Death, from the Journal of Isaaco, and later Discoveries relative +to his lamented Fate, and the Termination of the Niger. 18mo, Cloth, 50 +cents. + + +=MADAGASCAR.= + +=The Last Travels of Ida Pfeiffer=: inclusive of a Visit to Madagascar. +With an Autobiographical Memoir of the Author. Translated by H. W. +DULCKEN. Steel Portrait. 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. (Uniform with Ida +Pfeiffer's "Second Journey round the World"). + +=Three Visits to Madagascar=, during the Years 1853-1854-1856. Including +a Journey to the Capital, with Notices of the Natural History of the +Country and of the Present Civilization of the People. By the Rev. +WILLIAM ELLIS, F.H.S. With a Map and Wood-cuts from Photographs, &c. +8vo, Cloth, $3 00. + + * * * * * + + + + +=HARPER'S WEEKLY FOR 1864.= + +HARPER'S WEEKLY is devoted to Art, Literature, General Information, and +Politics. It will contain a carefully condensed and impartial record of +the events of the day, pictorially illustrated wherever the pencil of +the Artist can aid the pen of the Writer. In Politics it will advocate +the National Cause, wholly irrespective of mere party grounds. Its +Essays, Poems, and Tales will be furnished by the ablest writers of both +Continents. A new Novel, by Mr. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA, entitled "QUITE +ALONE," will, by special arrangement with the Author, appear in the +WEEKLY simultaneously with its publication in Mr. DICKENS'S "_All the +Year Round_." The Publishers will see to it that the current Volume +shall justify the favorable opinions expressed by the loyal Press upon +the Volume which has just closed. + + +=Extracts from Notices by the Press.= + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY is the best publication of its class in America, and so +far ahead of all other weekly journals as not to permit of any +comparison between it and any of their number. Its columns contain the +finest collections of reading matter that are printed. Thus, if you look +into the Volume for 1863, you will find that its stories, and +miscellaneous articles, and poetry are from the minds of some of the +leading writers of the time. Its matter is of a very various character +from elaborate tales and well-considered editorial articles to the +airiest and briefest jests, good-humored hits at the expense of human +follies, which proceed from the liveliest of minds. It is a vigorous +supporter of the war--discussing all questions that concern the contest +in which we are engaged with an amplitude of perception and a breadth of +patriotism that place it very high indeed on the roll of loyal and +liberal publications. Its illustrations are numerous and beautiful, +being furnished by the chief artists of the country. Most of the +illustrations are devoted to the war, including battle-pieces, scenes +made renowned by great events there occurring, and portraits of eminent +military and civil leaders. Even a person who could not read a line of +its letter-press could intelligently follow the history of the war +through 1863 by going over the pictured pages of this volume,"--_Evening +Traveller_ (Boston.) + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY, besides being a literary paper of the first class--the +only one among American or European Pictorials with a definite purpose +consistently and constantly carried out--is at once a leading political +and historical annalist of the nation."--_The Press_ (Philadelphia). + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY.--In turning over its pages, we were struck anew with +the fidelity with which it delineates passing events: a true picture of +the times. The scenes of the war, portrayed by the graphic pencils of +artists on the battle-field and in the camp, are re-produced in excellent +wood-cuts with marvelous promptness and accuracy. The letter-press +furnishes an appropriate accompaniment to the illustrations; presenting +a pleasing variety, sprightly and entertaining. We can not wonder at the +popularity of the _Weekly_ when we observe the spirit and enterprise +with which it is conducted."--_Journal_ (Boston). + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY FOR 1863.--From a careful examination of this work, as +it came out in it weekly form, we can honestly advise our readers to +purchase the stately and pictured volume. We dare not say how many +duodecimo volumes of matter, and of good and interesting matter, it +contains. As a record of the events and opinions of the past year, and +as literally a picture of the time, it has a permanent value, while its +wealth of excellent stories and essays makes it an endless source of +entertainment. The original editorial articles are of a very high order +of merit, and relate to subjects which attract the attention of all +intelligent and patriotic minds. Soundness of thought, liberality of +sentiment, and thorough-going loyalty find expression in the most +exquisite English. Altogether, we should say that _Harper's Weekly_ is a +necessity in every household."--_The Transcript_ (Boston). + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY and MAGAZINE, with their immense circulation, are +grandly loyal and influential. The _Weekly_ especially has been true to +the cause; and while it gives in admirable correspondence and accurate +pictures a complete illustrated history of the war, with all its +battles, incidents, and portraits of generals, it has splendidly +enforced by argument and example its principles. Closer reasoning is not +to be found than that to which its editors might fairly challenge +answer."--_City Item_ (Philadelphia). + +_Notices of Harper's Weekly._ + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY, of which the Seventh Volume is now issued in neat, +substantial binding, shows the industry and zeal with which the cause of +the Union has been maintained in its columns during the year 1863. It +has continued to increase the fervor of patriotic sentiment as well by +its appropriate pictorial illustrations as by its able editorial leaders +commenting on the events of the day. In its present shape, the journal +furnishes copious materials for the history of the war, and can not fail +to find a place in public and private libraries as an important volume +for permanent reference."--_Tribune_ (New York). + +"HARPER'S WEEKLY _for_ 1863--a journal of the year, kept in the most +interesting way; and as we turn over the pages we revive many now +almost forgotten sensations, and see, bit by bit, how history has +grown. The volume closed and bound up becomes history; but it would +not be just to this publication to omit a remark on the influence +which it has exerted during the year, and which it continues to exert. +An illustrated journal like _Harper's Weekly_, which circulates, as +we have heard, over one hundred and twenty thousand copies per week, +chiefly among families, and which has probably a million of readers, has +necessarily a great influence in the country. The _Weekly_ has +consistently and very ably supported the Union, the Government, and +the great principles to develop which the Union was founded. Unlike most +illustrated journals, _Harper's Weekly_ has displayed political and +literary ability of a high order as well as artistic merit. Its +political discussions are sound, clear, and convincing, and have done +their share to educate the American people to a right understanding of +their dangers and duties. In its speciality--illustrations of passing +events--it is unsurpassed; and many of the pictures of the year do +honor to the genius of the artists and engravers of this country. +Thus complete in all the departments of an American Family Journal, +_Harper's Weekly_ has earned for itself a right to the title which it +assumed seven years ago, 'A JOURNAL OF CIVILIZATION.'"--_Evening Post_ +(New York). + +HARPER'S WEEKLY.--This periodical merits special notice at the present +time. There is probably no weekly publication of the country that equals +its influence. More than one hundred thousand copies fly over the land +weekly: they are read in our cars, steamboats, and families. Our youth +especially read them; and as _the_ family newspaper of the nation, its +power over the forming opinions of the next generation of the American +people is an important item. + +It is abundant, if not superabundant, in pictorial illustrations--a +means of strong impression, especially on the minds of the young. Both +by its illustrations and its incessant discussion of the occurrences and +questions of the war it is a "current history" and "running commentary" +on the great event, and there is probably no literary agency of the day +more effective in its influence respecting the war in the families of +the common people. Most happy are we then to be able to say that this +responsible power is exerted altogether on the side of loyalty. No paper +in the land is more outspoken, more uncompromising for the Union, for +the war, for even the policy of the President's "great Proclamation." +When the rebellion broke out we did the publishers the injustice of some +anxious fears about their probable course on the subject. + +Steadily have they kept up with the Providential development of its +events and questions; not only abreast of them, but, in important +respects, ahead of them. No periodical press in the nation deserves +better of the country for its faithfulness and "pluck" in all matters +relating to the great struggle. And we should do it injustice were we +not to add that, with its outright loyalty and bravery, it combines +commanding ability. The editorial leaders which it continuously +flings out against all political traitors and flunkies strike +directly at their mark. They are evidently from pens both strong and +polished. On even the astuter subjects of policy, finance, &c., it +is eminently able. And it makes no mistake in supposing its readers +capable of an interest and of intelligence in these respects. +American families look keenly into such questions, and with such a +really educational force as this paper wields, it is especially right +and commendable that it seeks to elevate the common mind to the higher +questions of the times. The American people will not fail to notice +and to remember the courageous and patriotic course of _Harper's Weekly_ +in these dark times of hideous treason, and of more hideous, because +more contemptible, semi-treason.--_The Methodist, N. Y._ + + + TERMS. + + One Copy for Four Months $1 00 + One Copy for One Year 3 00 + Two Copies for One Year 5 50 + "Harper's Weekly" and "Harper's Magazine" one year 5 50 + + +_An Extra Copy of either the Weekly or Magazine will be supplied gratis +for every Club of TEN SUBSCRIBERS, at $2 75 each; or, Eleven Copies for +$27 50._ + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's note: + +The author's archaic spelling is preserved, including creative +Spanish spelling such as "Guantamano" and "Hasta huego". + +The author's punctuation style is preserved. + +Hyphenation has been made consistent. + +In addition to making hyphenation consistent, the following +changes were made to the original text: + + Page 18: =Escondide= standardized to =Escondido= (Why, + madame, it is only a week ago that a lot of us dined with + him at his estate of =Escondido=) + + Page 19: Added quote (he continued, turning toward the + skipper, as the clear sound of the cruiser's bell struck his + ear, ="I must= not forget what I came for.") + + Page 29: Added tilde ("_El Doctor =Senor=, con tres de + nosotros._") + + Page 34: Removed extra end quote from "ho!" (sputtered the + ruffian, as he pulled a pistol from his belt, ="ho!= you + mean fight, do ye?") + + Page 49: Removed accent from "e" ('_=Bueno=!_' There's more + fish in the sea--and under it too!) + + Page 85: Changed from single quote (="But= the best of the + joke was, the moment he spoke) + + Page 86: Added accent (In the centre arose a huge =epergne= + of silver, fashioned into the shape of a drooping + palm-tree) + + Page 92: Added tilde ("And the =senorita's= too, I + think,") + + Page 136: Removed dash from =money--you= (I wouldn't remain + another hour in this filthy hole for all the =money you= + have cheated me out of, you old rascal.) + + Page 166: =hirtling= changed to =hurtling= (No more pauses + or lulls now in the =hurtling= tempest) + + Page 185: =epaulettes= standardized to =epaulets= (in + cocked hat, full-dress coat, a pair of gleaming =epaulets=, + sword by his hip, and his nether limbs cased in white + knee-breeches) + + Page 205: Added quote (="Well=, gentlemen, for some weeks + after these occurrences we sailed about the islands) + + Page 205: =Mosquito= standardized to =Musquito= (The orders + were to beat up the south side of Cuba, where we expected to + fall in with the =Musquito= fleet and some English vessels) + + Page 225: =is= changed to =its= (A minute later, all that + was left of the shattered hull fell broadside into the open + fangs of the ledge, which ground it with =its= merciless + jaws into toothpicks.) + + Page 252: Removed repeated "at all" (he didn't like his + looks =at all=, though he did make himself so fascinating to + the beautiful widow who sat next him) + + Page 261: =believeing= changed to =believing= (as there is + much reason for =believing= he did--with great disgust, on + board the dirty, dumpy old ballahoo) + + Page 284: =tholl-pins= changed to =thole-pins= (The sweeps + paused, the hide gromets resting on the =thole-pins=, and + the water raining from their broad blades.) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPTAIN BRAND OF THE "CENTIPEDE"*** + + +******* This file should be named 29047.txt or 29047.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/0/4/29047 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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