CHAPTER XIV.
—“I’ll serve his mind with my best will.”Timon of Athens.
—“I’ll serve his mind with my best will.”Timon of Athens.
—“I’ll serve his mind with my best will.”Timon of Athens.
—“I’ll serve his mind with my best will.”
Timon of Athens.
A short time after the capture of Emmanuel Appadocca, there might be observed a narrow canoe, with a single individual in it, far out at sea, apparently going still farther out,—for it was lustily paddled against the long sweeping waves that seemed at every moment to be about to bury the frail bark under their heavy volumes.
The trade wind, which still blew, seemed to impede the progress of the canoe, and it was evident that the solitary person, who sat in its stern, found it necessary to exert all his strength in order to make any headway.
But whither away such a frail vessel in the immensity of the ocean, and still going farther out to sea? andwhat could be the design of the individual who seemed to brave so recklessly the fury of the waves?
Upon closer observation it might have been perceived, that the person who sat alone at the stern of the canoe was our old acquaintance, Jack Jimmy.
As soon as his master was captured, he had taken to flight, but not with the design of abandoning the interest of his young master, as he still called Appadocca. He had managed to insinuate himself among the coteries of boatmen and porters that skulked about the beach, and unobserved among them, he had been able to watch what befell his master. Effectually he saw Appadocca, when he was marched down a prisoner to the boat, and witnessed his embarkation. He discovered by his inquiries, that the boat belonged to the British man-of-war, that was then lying off the harbour, and heard the tale which had by that time become a nine day’s wonder of the place, “of a man who was taken by a pirate, thrown overboard, picked up by a vessel, and had come to St. Thomas’ after the pirate, and had had him taken.”
Jack Jimmy had now gained sufficient intelligence; his own sagacity developed to him the whole extent of his master’s position.
“Good bye, buddee,” he cried, as soon as he hadheard the last word of the story, and set off, at the height of the speed at which his short legs would carry him, and left his wondering story-tellers in convulsive laughter at his apparent eccentricity.
Jack Jimmy kept running in this manner for nearly two hours, without any abatement of the speed with which he had started. Perspiration flowed in torrents over his cheeks, and those who met him, stopped to stare at the individual who was so eccentrically giving himself such violent exercise while exposed to the scorching rays of a vertical sun.
Jack Jimmy did not stop until he reached a secluded spot by the sea-shore, where, at the foot of two opposing hills, the sea had eaten away a deep recess, and had left as in exchange for the land which it had robbed, numbers of strange and beautiful shells, that paved the place. Within this natural shelter, some fishermen’s canoes were drawn up. Jack Jimmy looked around him carefully, and seeing no one at hand, he walked up to one of the canoes, and with two stones managed to grind asunder the small rope with which it was fastened to a stake, and then concentrating his powers, endeavoured to launch it. But his strength was not equal to the task: vainly he repeated his efforts—still no success—he gave up the task, for the moment, indespair, and sat on the ground and wept from vexation.
His despair soon gave way to a fiercer feeling.
“You must go in de water,” he cried, addressing the canoe, and rising in desperation, he applied his strength to it again;—it began to move a little, “Tenk Gad,” Jack Jimmy cried. Again another strain:—it moved again, and by little and little, Jack Jimmy got it nearer and nearer to the water’s edge: by one long and straining effort he finally succeeded in launching it.
He sprang into it as soon as it was afloat, tore up one of the thwarts, and paddled with it vigorously out to sea.
When he had got at a considerable distance from land he stopped.
The sun was then sinking, shedding soft and sweet brilliancy over the evening hour. “Yes, me ’member,” said Jack Jimmy, “wen we lef de ’chooner, you bin behind a wee”; and after having thus spoken to that luminary, and probably made his calculations, in his own original way, he steered the canoe towards the east, and continued the powerful use of his paddle until he arrived at the spot where the reader has discovered him.
Jack Jimmy held his lonely course on the great ocean until next morning; when he discovered the pirate vesselat a distance. He redoubled his strokes, and made for her. In a short time he had gained her sides.
Arriving alongside, he nimbly jumped on board, and threw himself flat on the deck, with his face downwards, and at the foot of Lorenzo, who was standing with a spy-glass in his hand at the gangway.
The officer had perceived the small canoe, and on using his glass, he had discovered that the lonely individual in it was Jack Jimmy. His mind at once misgave him. The captain is taken was his first thought.
It was with impatient anxiety, therefore, that he inquired of Jack Jimmy, when he got on deck, what had become of his master.
The little negro shook his head convulsively at the question, and interjected, “Massa!” but seemed incapable of saying anything else. Lorenzo waited a few moments, but Jack Jimmy could say nothing more.
“Speak, fellow,” cried he with vehemence, “where is the captain? Is—is—is he taken?”
“Ah! Garamighty,” answered Jack Jimmy.
“Will you speak, sir,” cried Lorenzo with fury. “Is your master taken?”
Jack Jimmy shook his head violently again, and cried, “Yes, yes, Garamighty, massa, massa!” he continued, “big, big English ship, take massa.”
“And where is the ship?”
“In St. Thomas’, massa,” answered Jack Jimmy.
“Make sail,” was Lorenzo’s immediate command; “keep her way.”
The schooner immediately sheered off to the wind, and in an instant was bounding over the waves for St. Thomas’.
When she neared the island, Lorenzo prudently cast her in the wind, and remained lying too until it was dark, at which time he drew nearer the harbour, and making use of a boat, recognoitred the “big English ship,” as Jack Jimmy had described it.
After the officer had properly examined the large ship-of-war which held his chief captive, and had managed to elicit further and more explicit information from Jack Jimmy, whose excitement of nerves had now a little subsided, he began to think of the measures which he ought to take to effect the liberation of his friend and superior. His first impulse was to fife to arms, to attack the huge fabric, whose very sides seemed to frown destruction on the light schooner. Prudence, on reflection, however, forbad such a step. There was too great disproportion between the large ship and the small craft of the pirates, and between the armament and complement of the one and of the other; and even if, by afierce and sudden assault, the pirates should carry the man-of-war, what chance was there of rescuing the chief? Probably he was secured in some deep recess below decks, whither, perhaps, even the roar of the ship’s guns could scarcely echo; and if even the comparatively few men that composed the crew of the schooner, could gain any advantage over the four-times more numerous complement of the ship, it could only amount to a mere temporary possession of the upper deck. Besides, the whole harbour, on the event of a combat, would be alarmed, and it was probable that the pirates, even if victors, would be entirely unable to contend against the multitudes which would be dispatched against them from the shore. “No, I must try other means,” thought the officer. After much deliberation, he at last resolved on the plan of watching the ship-of-war, and of discovering, by every possible means, in what part of the vessel Appadocca was confined, so that he might attempt a surreptitious entry on board, and carry away the prisoner.
For that purpose he sent three men ashore in disguise, that they might procure as much information as possible. These were not long at a loss in devising means for doing so.
The pirate schooner was manned by individuals whohad been of a superior class in society, before they exiled themselves from it. Chiefly men of education, they were doubly dangerous in their illicit pursuits, inasmuch as they could bring to bear upon their purposes, the assistance of art, and the power of inventing.
They easily disguised themselves when they were a-shore, as vendors of fruit, and as the other small dealers that may be seen of a-morning, in their little canoes around the ships at anchor, in the ports of the tropics.
In their assumed course of bartering, they managed to elicit from the sailors of the man-of-war, intelligence about Appadocca, and the part of the vessel in which he was confined.
As soon as they became possessed of as much information as they possibly could procure, they returned on board the schooner, and carefully narrated the sum of their observation to Lorenzo.
Return we now to Appadocca himself.