CHAPTER XXVII.AT BAY.
Justin returned to the grotto and busied himself with putting out of sight all Britomarte’s and Judith’s little personal effects that might have tempted the cupidity of the pirates or reminded them of the presence of women on the island.
Having done this, he went to one of the caverns where the stores taken from the ship were kept, and he selected from them tobacco, pipes, whisky, greatboots, sticks, guns, pistols, swords, sabres, a little of everything, in fact, that looked like a man’s peculiar property and suggested only the presence of man, and he brought them into the grotto and scattered them about in careless disorder.
Then he sat down to rest and to wait for what should come next.
With rest came the opportunity of reflection, for up to this moment he had acted from impulse only. But now in the midst of his clear sense of the danger that threatened not only himself, but her who was dearer to him than his own life, he thought with keen anxiety of his beloved native country, plunged in all the horrors of civil war and menaced with destruction. And, oh! the intolerable longing that filled his soul to get back to her, to fight for her, and, if need were, to die for her. But this could not be, he knew. The ship that he had hoped wouldhave borne him and his companions back to their homes was now discovered to be a pirate, sailing under false colors, and making prey of unarmed merchantmen. He and his party, if they should escape death from the crew, must remain on the lone island waiting for the improbable event of another vessel’s arrival to take them off. But even in his deepest distress Justin did not despair; his trust in Divine Providence was too strong to permit him to do so.
While thus reflecting, he suddenly became conscious of the approach of the pirate crew.
He arose to his feet, and standing over the unconscious form of the drunken captain, waited to receive them.
They reached the front of the grotto; but they did not come in immediately; they stood about in groups and seemed to be waiting a summons, until at length one of their number advanced to the door of the grotto and touched his hat.
“Well, my man, what is wanted?” inquired Justin, assuming a calmness he was far from feeling; and yet his disturbance was not upon his own account, but solely upon Britomarte’s.
“If you please, sir, we wanted to tell the captain that the tide serves,” replied the man, civilly enough.
Justin pointed at the insensible form at his feet, but even before he had done so the man’s eye had fallen on it, and the man’s disgust broke out in an oath.
“By ——! There he is again, as drunk as ——!”
“If you are going to make sail, my man, you and your mates will have to take your captain and carry him off in his present state,” said Justin, speaking with a forced quietness.
“By all the fiends in flames, we’d serve him right to leave him here! And a precious good opportunity to get rid of him; and a glorious riddance it would be, too!” said the man, stooping over and staring at the fallen captain.
“You would not surely abandon your chief in his present helpless state of unconsciousness?” remonstrated Justin, who had no desire to receive the pirate permanently.
“Oh, wouldn’t we, though? I don’t know why wecome back for him at all, that I don’t! If anybody had stated the proposition to sail without him, I’m sure we would have done it. If we leave him here it will save his life and save us the trouble of cutting his throat, which we would be sure to do before long,” said the man, coolly, as with his hands on his knees he stooped low and stared intently into the stupid face of the captain.
“Is he so very unpopular on his ship, then?” inquired Justin, as with difficulty he repressed the disgust and horror awakened by the man’s words and manner.
“Unpopular! Why, shiver my timbers, if we have ever been in a fight or storm yet that he hasn’t got as drunk as Julius Cæsar, and left the ordering of the fight, or the working of the ship, to Mate Mulligan. And Mulligan we want for our captain. And Mulligan we mean to have!” said the man, suddenly turning and leaving the unconscious captain and going out to his companions, to whom he began to talk in a low and earnest voice.
Justin did not attempt to follow or to interfere with him. Upon reflection he was glad that a subject so full of interest and excitement as the disposition and desertion of their captain by his crew should have arisen to engage their thoughts and prevent them from remembering the existence of the women on the island. He watched the man who was haranguing his mates outside; he saw how, with eager eyes and fierce gestures, they crowded around him; and so he was not surprised when the speaker at length left his turbulent hearers and returned to the grotto door and touched his hat and said:
“Master, the boys mean to leave that lubber here and elect Mate Mulligan captain and me first mate. But, master, we will take you off, as you have done the handsome by us in the matter of the keg of whisky; if you don’t mind cruising round a bit with the certainty of a fight now and then, and the chance of some day or other getting into port somewhere.”
“Thank you; but I am colonized here for the present, and do not wish to leave just yet,” said Justin.
“Just as you please, master! Have you got any more of that good liquor left?”
“Yes, there it is; help yourselves; you are quite welcome to the whisky, tobacco, pipes, or anything else youmay see here in my Robinson Crusoe establishment,” said Justin.
“Now that is what I call handsome! Here, mates, lend a hand and help to carry some of this liquor and ’bacco to the boats!” said the man, once more going to the door and calling to his companions.
They all came in at his summons.
Justin noticed that the man whom Captain Spear had called Mulligan was not among them. And thus he knew that Mulligan had no part in the mutiny, and had been elected captain of the pirate ship in his absence, without his knowledge, and possibly against his will.
The men touched their hats, civilly, to their host, and then began to take up the articles pointed out, and to carry them off.
“Good-by, master! Sorry to leave so kind a host! Call again when we pass this way! Meantime, wish you joy of the new comrade we have left you!” said the ringleader of the mutiny, as with a bottle of whisky in each of his pockets and one in each of his hands, he followed the last sailor from the grotto.
Justin went to the door and watched them out of sight, and then he took his telescope and climbed the mountain to the tableland on the summit and watched them as they entered their boat and rowed toward the ship.
With the aid of his glass he saw them embark, unload their boat and draw it up and secure it to the davits; and still he watched them while they got up their anchor, spread their canvas to the breeze and made sail; and still further he watched until the ship had sailed away from the island and waned in the distance.
Then he hurried down the mountain side and into the grotto to look after the pirate captain, his late guest, who was henceforth to be his prisoner.
He found Captain Spear still in the heavy sleep of intoxication.
He left him and went to one of the caverns where articles rescued from the wreck were kept, and looked up a set of fetters, consisting of handcuffs and anklets, such as are often kept on board East Indiamen for the restraint of a possible mutineer or other criminal. He hadbrought them off the wreck, not with the most distant idea that he should ever be obliged to put them to their legitimate use, but for the same reason that he saved every portable piece of iron that he could find—namely, because he knew that it would be valuable on their desert island, where they might remain for years, or for life, cut off from all supplies from without.
Having found the fetters, he returned to the grotto, and, stooping down, fastened them upon the wrists and ankles of the sleeping pirate.