This went on till a little while before the hour of daybreak. The weather was now very quiet, and the brig floated stealthily through the darkness, under small canvas. I had no mind to pass the island and find it astern of me, and perhaps out of sight, at sunrise.
I went into the cabin, when dawn was close at hand, to drink a glass of grog and puff at a pipe of tobacco. The lady Aurora was in her berth. She had been about during the night; had once or twice joined me on deck, and we had conversed cautiously as we walked. I sat upon the locker in which, some nights before, I had stowed away the materials for my scheme. How long was the execution of that scheme going to take? Would the lady Aurora’s courage be equal to the part I had allotted to her? Was Jimmy’s half-addled head to be depended uponin the instant of a supremely tragic crisis, when action, saving or delaying time by a minute or two, might make all the difference between life and death?
Thus thinking, I sat upon the desperately-charged locker, puffing at my pipe and drinking from my glass. Suddenly the thunder of Yan Bol’s voice resounded through the little interior:
“Landt on der starboardt bow!”
I sprang to my feet, and gained the deck in a heart-beat. Dawn was breaking right ahead. A melancholy, faint green light lay spread low down along the sky; against that light ran the horizon—a deep black line; and on the right, or about three points on the starboard or lee bow, there stood against that green light of dawn the pitch-black mass of the Island of New Amsterdam, defined as clearly upon the growing light as the fanciful edges of an ink-stain on white blotting-paper.
It was not the Island of St. Paul’s.ThatI knew. It was, therefore, Amsterdam Island; and, filled as I was with anxiety and distracted by many contending passions, a momentary emotion of pride swelled my heart when I beheld that island, scarcely five miles distant, within three points under the bows of the little brig.
Yan Bol stood beside me with folded arms. The ear-flaps of his hair cap helmeted his face; his skin was green with the faint light ahead; he looked like a mariner of Tromp’s day in casque-like cap.
“So dot vhas der island? Dot vhas New Amsterdam, hey?Potsblitz!Vhas not der Doytch everywhere in her day? But dot day vhas gone. Und dot vhas der island, hey? Vell, she vhas in good time, und I likes der look of der vetter. Vhere vhas der landing-place, I fonders?”
I told him I couldn’t say; I was without a chart of the island. Its configuration, to our approach, was that of a lofty mass of coal-black rock southeast, with a down-like shelving of the stuff into the interior, and a facing seaward of rugged, horribly precipitous cliff. I should say it scarcely measured five miles north and south. The ocean looked lonely with it, as a babe makes lonelier the figure of the lonely woman who carries it; the melancholy picture of the deep at that moment—of that picture of faint green dawn blackening out the forlorn pile of island and the indigo sweep of the sea-line on either hand of it, and all astern of us the thickness of the smoky shadows of the departing night—is indescribable.
The sun rose right behind the island. It shot out a hundred beams of splendor before lifting its flaming upper limb; it was then a fine morning; the water of this Indian Ocean brimmed in a dark and beautifully pure blue to the base of the iron-like steeps; the flash and dazzle of rollers were visible at points, the sky was hard and high with a delicate shading and interlacery of gray cloud, and the wind was small and about northwest.
I looked south for the Island of St. Paul; it was invisible from the altitude of our deck, though I dare say on a fine, clear day it may be seen from the top of Amsterdam Island.
“Vere vhas the landing-places, I fonders,” said Bol.
I fetched the glass and carefully covered as much of the island as our bearings commanded. While I kneeled I felt a hand upon my shoulder.
“Qué tiempo hace?” inquired the lady Aurora in a cool, collected voice, looking down into my face.
I answered in Spanish that the weather was fine and promised to keep so.
“Good-morning, Mr. Bol,” said she.
“Goodt-morning, marm. I hope you vhas vell dis morning? Dot vhas der island at last. She vhas a Doytchman’s discovery. I likes to tink of der Doytchers all der way down here.”
The lady Aurora made no reply, probably not having understood a syllable of Bol’s speech. I put the telescope into the Dutchman’s hand, and bade him look for himself. The lady arched her brows at the island, and glanced interrogatively round the sea, fixing her eyes upon me full with a look of meaning. I faintly inclined my head. Often had I read her meaning in her face when I had failed to grasp her words, so facile and fluent was the eloquence of her looks.
All the crew save Hals and Jimmy were collected on the forecastle-head, staring at the island. The caboose chimney was smoking, and Hals’ head frequently showed in the caboose doorway while he took a view of the land. Galen constantly pointed and talked much, and was the center of a little crowd. Bol stood up, and said he could see no signs of a landing-place.
“There’ll be one on the eastern side, I dare say,” said I. “You’re bound to have a landing-place somewhere. I wish I had a chart of the island. The last survey I remember was D’Entrecasteaux’. It is enough, of such an island as this, to know that it exists. Look at it!”
The sun was hanging over it now; its light revealed many slopes of the land falling to the precipitous edge of the cliffs. A most horribly barren rock did it seem—desolate beyond the dreams of the wildest fancy of an uninhabited island. There may have been some sort of growth on top; I know not; I saw no verdure. All was cold, naked, iron-hard cliff, swelling centrally into a prodigious summit, around which even as I watched dense white masses of mists were beginning to form and crawl, reminding me of the magnificent growth and fall of lace-like vapor on Table Mountain—the fairest and most marvelous of all the airy sights of the world when viewed by moonlight.
I hauled the brig in to within a mile of the land, then, observing discolored water, I ordered a cast of the hand-lead to be taken; no bottom was reached. We shifted the helm, trimmed sail, and stood about southeast, rounding the point which I have since ascertained is called Vlaming Head, so named after the Dutch navigator who was off this island in 1696. Here we found fifty fathoms of water, and black sand for a bottom. The rollers broke very furiously against the base of Vlaming Head. Foam was heaped in a vast cloud there, as though the sea was kept boiling by a great volcanic flame just beneath.
We trimmed sail afresh and steered northeast. The land rose black and horribly desolate; but the swell being from the west the sea was smooth, and the tremble of surf small along the whole range this side. All this while we eagerly gazed at the coast in search of a landing-place—of any platform of sand and split of cliff by which the inland heights might be gained. Bol’s round face grew long, and he swore often in Dutch. Many of the men came aft to be within talking distance of the quarter-deck, and hoarsely-uttered remarks and oaths fell from them, as they gazed at the precipitous front of the island and beheld no spot to land on.
The wind was scarcely more than a light draught of air, owing to the interposition of the land; it was off the bow, too, by this time, and we were braced up sharp to it. I told Bol to send the crew to breakfast while the brig made a board into the northeast to enable her to fetch the northern parts of the island, where now lay our only chance of finding a landing-place. Impatience worked like madness in me, and no man of all our ship’s company could have been wilder to behold a landing-place than I.
The breezes lightly freshened as we stood off from theisland. I put the brig into the hands of Galen, and went below to get some breakfast. Miss Aurora and I conversed in subdued voices; she ate little, and was pale, but I saw courage in her mouth and eyes. While Jimmy waited I told him that, if we found a landing-place, our business might be settled before sundown. “Before sundown,” said I to him, “we may, but I don’t say we shall, be sailing along, the island astern, old England before us, and a handsome promise of dollars for you, my lad, when we arrive. Are ye all there?”
“All there, master,” said he, feeling his wrist.
“You’ve gone through your lessons o’er and o’er again?”
“O’er and o’er, master.”
“This job’ll make a fine man of you. You shall knock off the sea and choose a calling ashore. What would you be? Oh, but don’t think of that yet. Have nothing in your mind but this,” said I, holding up my hand and twisting it as though I screwed a man by the throat. “Afterward turn to and whistle and dance till you give in.”
His grin was deep and prolonged. The feeling that he was now being enormously trusted by me bred a sort of manliness in him. Methought he was a little less of a fool than he used to be; his gaze had gathered something of steadfastness, his grin something of intelligence.
When our stretch had brought the northern point of the island abeam, we put the brig about and headed for the island on the starboard tack; and now, after we had been sailing for some time, the telescope gave me a sight of what we were all on the lookout for. The northern point of the island sloped to the edge of the sea, in perhaps half a mile’s length of surf-washed margin. The surf was but a delicate tremble. The climb to the height was steep; but fair in the lenses lay the half-mile of landing-place, whether sand or beach or rock I knew not.
“Yonder’s where you’ll be able to get ashore,” I cried, thrusting the telescope into Yan Bol’s hands.
“What d’ye see?” bawled Teach, who overhung the bulwark rail.
“A landing-place, my ladts, und she vhas all right,” thundered Bol, with his eye at the telescope.
“Anything alive ashore?” cried Teach.
“All vhas uninhabited,” answered Bol.
“Ne’er a hut?” shouted Teach.
“Vhas dot uninhabited, you tonkey? Dere vhas no shtir.Dot vhas der country for my dollars until by um by. Hurrah!”
He rose slowly and heavily from his posture of leaning, and put the glass down. I took another long look at the island we were approaching. There was majesty in its loneliness; there was majesty in the altitude its dark terraces and inland heights rose to. A crown of cloud was upon the brow of its central height, and the sunshine whitened into silver that similitude of regal right—as real and lasting, for all its being vapor, as any earthly crown of gold!
“There’s your island, and there’s your landing-place,” said I, thrusting my hands into my pockets. “What’s the next stroke, Yan Bol?”
“Vhat vhas der soundings here?” he answered, going to the side and looking down.
“What do you want with the soundings?”
“Shall you not pring oop?”
“No, by thunder!” I cried. “What? Bring up off that island with four men and a boy to man the capstan should it come on to blow a hurricane on a sudden out of the eastward there, putting that black coast dead under our lee? No, by thunder! If we are to bring up I’ll go ashore with you; I’ll not stay with the brig; I’ll not risk my life. Oh, yes! It will kill the time to hunt for the dollars at low water after the brig’s stranded and gone to pieces, eh? Bring up?” I continued, shouting out that all the men might hear me; “send plenty of victuals ashore if that’s your intention. I’m no man-eater; and what but Dutch and English flesh will there be to eat if it comes to anchoring?”
“Mr. Fielding knows what he’s talking about,” sung out Teach; “I’m to stay aboard for one, and I guess he’s right. No good to talk of slipping if it comes on to blow; we aren’t flush of anchors, and the end of this here traverse is a blooming long way off yet.”
“How vhas she to be?” cried Bol, looking round the sea.
“How was she to be?” I exclaimed. “Why, heave to under topsails and a topgallant sail.”
“Suppose she cooms on to blow und ve vhas still ashore?”
“Well?”
“Veil, der vetter obliges you to roon, und you lost sight of der island und us. How vhas dot, mit noting to eat ashore, und der vetter tick und beastly for dree veeks, say?”
“Look here, Bol,” said I, speaking loudly, “you are wasting valuable time in talking damned nonsense. You’re all for supposing.Ichoose to suppose because I am to be left in charge of this brig, frightfully short-handed, and don’t mean to depend upon her ground tackle. D’ye understand me?” He gave one of his immensely heavy nods. “Butyou—there are always chances and risks in a job of this sort, and recollect ’tis your own bringing about—‘twas you and Teach yonder who contrived it.”
“Vell?” he thundered impatiently.
“Get your boat over as smartly as may be when the time arrives. Load her with as much silver as you may think proper to take for the first jaunt. Stow a piece or two of beef and some barrels of bread—you say there is fresh water ashore?”
“Blenty,” said the Dutchman.
“You can bring off the victuals when your job’s ended,” said I.
“Mr. Fielding, you’re right,” said Teach. “Yan, ’tis only agin the chance of our being blowed off. If that’s to happen, ye must have enough to eat till we tarns up agin. But what’s that chance?” cried he, with a stare up aloft and around. “If the fear o’t’s to stop us, good-night to the burying job.”
Bol trudged a little way forward; the men gathered about him and held a debate. I marched aft with my hands in my pockets as though indifferent to the issue of their council, having made up my mind. But for all that it was a time of mortal anxiety with me.
After ten minutes Bol came aft and told me that the crew were agreed the brig should be hove to. There was no anchor at the bow, and precious time would be wasted in making ready the ground tackle. Next, we should have to haul in close to land to find anchorage, and the crew were of my opinion that the brig was a perished thing with such a coast asthatclose aboard under her lee, should it come on to blow a hard inshore wind.
“Und besides,” he continued, “ve doan take no silver mit us to-day. Our beesiness vhas to oxplore. Ve take provisions und shovels, und der like, vhen ve goes ashore now, und ve begins to dig if ve findts a place dot all vhas agreed vhas a goodt place for hiding der money.”
“Then turn to and get all ready with the boat,” said I; “we shall be in with the land close enough in a few minutes.I want a mile and a half of offing—nothing less—otherwise I go ashore in the boat and you stop here.”
“Hov your way, sir; hov your way,” he rumbled in his deepest voice. “Vhat should I do here? Soopose ve vhas blowned away out of sight of der island; how vhas I to findt her?”
Saying this he left me, and in a few minutes all hands were in motion. I stopped them, in the middle of their labors over the boat, to bring the brig to a stand. We laid the main topsail aback, and since it was now certain that I should not be able to put my scheme into execution that day, I ordered them to reduce the ship to very easy canvas; the mainsail was furled, the forecourse hauled up, the trysail brailed up, and other sails were taken in, one or two furled, and one or two left to hang. The fellows then got the longboat over. They swayed her out by tackles, and when she was afloat and alongside they lowered some casks of beef and pork and some barrels of bread and flour into her. We were handsomely stocked with provisions, and I foresaw the loss of those tierces and barrels without concern.
The señorita came to my side, and we stood together at the rail, looking down into the boat and watching the proceedings of the men. It was a very fine day; the hour about one. The island lay in lofty masses of dark rock within two miles of us, bearing a little to the southward of east. The great heap of land filled the sea that way. The searching light of the sun revealed nothing that stirred. I saw not even a bird; but that might have been because the sea-fowl of the island were too distant for my sight. An awful bit of ocean solitude is Amsterdam Island. The sight of it, the reality of it, makes shallow the bottom of the deepest of your imaginations of loneliness. The roar of the surf, at points where the flash of it was fierce, came along in a note of cannonading. You’d have thought there were troops firing heavy guns t’other side the island.
The men threw the fore-peak shovels into the boat, along with crowbars, carpenter’s tools, and whatever else they could find that was good to dig with. They handed down oars, mast, and sail. I particularly noticed the sail. It was a big, square lug with a tall hoist. The biggest galley-punts in the Downs carry such sails. The fellows lighted their pipes to a man. They grinned and joked and put on holiday looks. It was a jaunt—a fine change—a jolly run ashore for the roguesafter our prodigious term of imprisonment. Besides, every man possessed a great fortune; every man might reckon himself up in thousands of dollars! I could not wonder that they grinned and wore a jolly air.
The following men entered the boat: John Wirtz, William Galen, Frank Hals, John Friend, William Street, and lastly, Yan Bol. Hals, as you know, was the cook. They took him, nevertheless—perhaps because he was suspicious, and wished to see for himself where the pit was dug; perhaps because he was an immensely strong man—short, vast of breech, of weight to sink, with his foot, a shovel through granite. And the following men were left behind to help me to control the brig: James Meehan, Isaac Travers, Henry Call, Jim Vinten, and Thomas Teach.
The men in the boat shoved off, hoisting the big lug as they did so. The devils sent up a cheer, and Bol flourished his hair cap at me and the lady. I returned the salute with a cordial wave of the hand, and the lady bowed. They hauled the sheet of the lug flat aft, that the boat might look a little to windward of the landing-place, where, so far as I could distinguish, there was a sort of split, or ravine, which would provide easy access to the inland heights and flats. I watched the boat’s progress through the water with keen interest and anxiety. Flattened in as the sheet was, the little fabric swam briskly. The wind was small, yet the boat drove a pretty ripple from either bow and towed some fathoms of wake astern of her.
“We’llchanceit, all the same!” thought I, setting my teeth.
I watchedthe boat until she entered the tremble of surf. ’Twas a mere silver fringe of surf, so quiet was the water on this, the lee side of the island. The sail of the boat shone in that slender edge of whiteness like a snowflake; then vanished on a sudden. I looked through the glass, and saw the men on either gunwale of the boat running her up the beach clear of the wash.
I was so provoked by that sight, that I was mad then and there to start on my scheme of release. The resolution seized me like a fit of fever, and the blood surged through me in aflood of fire. I went to the lee side of the deck to conceal my face. In a few minutes I had reconsidered my resolution and was determined to wait. For, first, the afternoon was advancing; the boat was not likely to stay long ashore; her sail might be showing out on the blue water, under the dark height of cliffs, ere I was half through with what lay before me. Next, the wind was very scant; it was scarce a four-knot air of wind, though the brig should be able to spread the canvas of aRoyal Georgeto the off-shore draught. There was nothing, then, to be done but wait; to pray for a continuance of fine weather and a little more wind.
The brig lay very quiet. The swell of the sea ran softly, and the hush that was upon the island—such a hush as was on the face of the earth when it was first created—was spread, like something sensible, throughout the atmosphere; and this silence of desolation was upon the breast of the sea. I kept the deck throughout the afternoon, often looking at the landing-place. The boat lay high and dry, watched by a single figure; the others were gone inland. They had sailed away without firearms—an oversight, I reckon; or they might have asked of one another, “What was the good of going armed to a desolate island?” Yet I had a sort of sympathy for that lonely figure down by the boat when I thought of him as unarmed. Frightfully lonesome he looked, with the great face of the cliff hanging high up behind him and spreading away, huge and sullen, on either hand. I guess, had I been that man, I should have yearned for a loaded musket. Crusoe carried two, and went the easier for the burden.
The sun would set behind the island. It was sinking that way when I spied the sail of the boat. The men had their oars over, and she came along pretty fast. I calculated her speed, and cursed it. She drew alongside, some of the men halloaing answers to questions bawled by Teach and the others, who were on the forecastle. Bol scrambled up, and shouting for all hands to get the boat inboard and stowed for the night, he stepped up to me, who was standing aft with Miss Aurora, Call being at the wheel.
“She vhas all right,” said he, thick of voice with fatigue.
“What was all right?”
“Vell, first of all, she vhas der prettiest leedle islandt in der whole vorldt for hiding money in. Ve looked about us—all vhas still. Dere vhas birdts in der air, und dot vhas all, und dey vhas still too. Dere vhas no sign of man ever havinglandted upon dot island. Mr. Fielding, she vhas still undiscovered.”
“Did you find any fresh water?”
“Blenty. Sweet und coldt.”
“Have you dug your pit?”
“Donnerwetter, no! Dot vhas to take a morning. Der ground vhas hard like dis.” He stamped his foot. “Dere vhas no caves; ve look for a hole, und dere vhas nothing so big ash a monkey might hide in.”
“Have you stowed the provisions securely away?”
“Dot vhas all right, Mr. Fielding. Everyting vhas ready for der morning.” He cast his gaze round upon the sky.
“Have you found a place for the burial of the money?”
“Yaw, a first-rate place,” he answered, with a glance at the island. “Shtop till der shob is over, den you und Teach und der odders dot stays mit you goes ashore und you take der bearings of der place for yourself.”
“I’ll do that. It’s fair, Bol.”
“She vhas fair,” he answered. “If you vhas villing, marm,” he continued, addressing Miss Aurora, “you shall go mit us likewise. Dere vhas noting so goodt for man, fimmin, und beast as a leedle run ashore after months of board ship.”
She did not understand him. I explained, giving her a look; she addressed me in Spanish and English.
“The lady will be glad to go ashore, and looks forward to it,” said I.
Nothing more was said. The huge bulk of the man seemed wearied out to the heels of his feet; and, indeed, the straining and climbing involved in the ascent of those inland steeps must have sorely tested the muscle and bones whose load was Bol’s fat. He went forward and sat down. The men had swayed the longboat inboard, had chocked her, and were now shipping the gangway and clearing up.
I considered a little and then resolved to let the brig lie as she was. We had a full two-mile offing, which was enough with a short lee-shore to deal with in case of a heavy, sudden inshore gale.
The sun went down behind the island, as it had risen behind the island, to our gaze when coming from the east. The western sky was a sheet of red splendor, and the island stood in a deep purple against it until the light went out of the heavens, when the land floated in shadow upon the dusk like a vast thick smoke hovering. Never a light kindled by mortalthere! The whole mighty spirit of the great ocean solitude was in that shadow. A few clouds hung high, and the stars were bright, with a merry fair weather twinkling among them that made me hopeful of clear skies and brisk winds.
The night passed quickly. I lay upon the cabin locker, fully dressed, and was up and down every hour. The air was soft and mild, for Amsterdam Island lies upon the pleasantest parallel in the world, where the atmosphere is sweet and dry, where it is never too hot, though at night-time it may be sometimes cold, and the wonder is that you should find such hideous barrenness and nakedness as you observe in this island in the most temperate, cheerful, and fruitful of climates.
Miss Aurora retired early, at my request. I was afraid of her on the eve of such a day as to-morrow might prove. She was a little heedless in her questions, talked somewhat loud, as the foreigner will when he discourses in our tongue, and to provide against all risks of our betraying ourselves by sitting in company below, or walking the deck together, I told her to go to bed.
At midnight Bol relieved Galen. I walked with Bol awhile, and all our talk was about the island, the depth at which the money should be buried, the mark that was to denote the treasure, and so forth. He wanted to know if money was to be injured by lying in the earth; I answered that the metal out of which money was made came from the earth. What would be a good mark to set up? I told him he was a carpenter and ought to know; but I advised him not to bury the money so carefully that we should never afterward be able to find out where it lay hid. He said it would not do to erect a cross, or any sign that indicated human handiwork, lest men should land after we had left the island, and guessing at the meaning of the mark, fall a-digging. The place they had settled on he informed me was at the foot of a peculiar rise of land of a very strange shape. He described this rise of land and its appearance seemed to be that of the head of a cat. Once beheld it could never be forgotten. It was the wish of the men, however, when the money was buried, and I went on shore to view the spot and take its correct bearings from different points of the island, that I should make a sketch in black and white of the peculiarly-shaped rise of land or little hill; this would be copied, and each man hold a drawing of the hill for himself with all particulars written underneath.
“I’ll do whatever is reasonable and right,” said I.
“Dere vhas two ton belonging to you, Mr. Fielding.”
“I don’t forget.”
In this walk we settled the next day’s proceedings. I advised Yan Bol to take three tons of silver with him ashore when he started early in the morning with his digging party.
“Shall ve not dig der pit first?”
“Yaw, but also take a portion of your cargo with you. The boat’s capacity of five tons was right enough for Captain Greaves’ island; but here a roller may catch and capsize you, even as you’re going ashore, unless you show the best height of side you can manage. Three tons a trip won’t hurt—I’ll not advise more.”
“Yaw, dot vhas right. I himself vhas for tree. But vhy take der silver ashore before der pit vhas dig?”
“To save time. Then, with three tons, you’ll have boxes and chests to enable you to gauge the depth and space you require. You don’t want to dig forty feet when ten may do.”
“No, by Cott, Mr. Fielding, nor would you if you only shoost knew how hardt vhas dot land. Vell, you vhas right. A leedle at a time, und ve starts to-morrow mit a leedle; und vhen der pit vhas dig ve comes back for more.”
“How long will it take you to dig the pit?”
“Vell, dot vill be ash she shall turn out. She may mean a morning’s shob, but all vhas right und safe, I hope, before der sun vhas sunk.”
I went below and slept for an hour. The men got their breakfast early. Hals lighted the caboose fire before the sun was up, and the hands breakfasted when the east was still rosy with the dawn into which the sun had sprung in glory. I say in glory, for it was a very perfect morning, the sky of a deep blue, and the sea of a silver azure with the sunlight upon it. The breeze was light out of the north; but, if it held, it fanned with weight enough to serve my turn.
The men got the boats over as on the previous day. Yan Bol rolled up to me, who had come on deck long before sunrise, and said, “Mr. Fielding, how many cases vhas dere in tree tons?”
“About twenty,” said I, “they won’t all run alike in size. If they were all alike of course there’d be thirty.”
“Vell, ve takes twenty.”
“Yes, a little at a time, if you please. Two tons are mine. If you capsize, who bears the loss?”
“Dere vhas no capsize,” said he. “Look what a beautifulday she vhas! Und how many dollars, Mr. Fielding, vhas dere in tree ton?”
“One hundred and ten thousand dollars.”
He rounded his little eyes and smacked his huge lips, and could find no more to say than, “Vell, vell!”
He and Galen and three or four others shortly afterward went below and got into the lazarette, whence they handed out twenty cases of the silver. I feigned a prodigious interest, roaring out to the fellows in the boat, as I hung over the rail, to trim more by the head, to trim more by the stern, to keep the stuff amidships for the sake of stability; and then I bid Teach observe that three tons were to the full as much as should go per trip. “For,” says I, “look well, and you’ll find her a ton deeper than, in my opinion, her safety allows. But what are we sending ashore? Is it Thames ballast? Or is it something more precious than all your eyeballs put together? I’ll have my two tons go alone. No other man’s ton shall go along with mine,” and so I went on shouting.
All being ready the crew of the boat entered her. They were the same as on the preceding day. I regretted this, for I had hoped that Teach or Travers or Meehan—Call I did not fear—would have taken the place of Friend, who, as you know, was the mildest man of the whole bunch of rogues; but I kept my mouth shut; I durst make no suggestion that way. We are all good men, the fellows would have said; what reason has he in wishing Friend to remain?
Call was at the wheel. I sung out to Meehan to lay aft and loose the trysail, adding, that the others might hear me, that the brig wanted more after-sail to keep her head to. The three men lay aft, and in a few minutes the sail was set.
In this time the longboat was slipping through the water toward the land. When the trysail was set I asked Meehan, who claimed to be a bit of a cook in his way, to boil me a pot of cocoa; I had been up all night, I said, and had breakfasted ill (the girl and I had not breakfasted at all). Travers and Teach went on to the forecastle; I watched them light their pipes, coming to the galley for a light, and returning to the forecastle; they leaned upon the rail in the head, and watched the boat.
“I shall be wanting a word with Teach below shortly,” said I to Call; “does he know the Sydney coast? I’d like him to hit upon a spot for casting this brig away—something to keep in mind. There’s no chart aboard that’s going to help me inthat job. Keep a lookout. Don’t leave the wheel, and mind you hallo if I’m wanted.”
I entered the cabin, and found the lady Aurora standing at the table, and the lad Jimmy near the door of my berth.
“The hour has come,” said I, feeling myself grown pale on a sudden, “and the man’s at hand. How is it with you?”
I gently grasped her wrist and looked at her.
“Only be quick, Señor Fielding. It is this waiting and waiting that tries the nerves,” she answered in effect.
“How is it with you, Jimmy?”
“I’m ready, master.”
“Where’s the bag?” said I to the señorita.
“It’s there,” said she, pointing to a locker.
“Sit upon it, for I am about to send.”
I entered my berth and brought out a chart of the continent of New Holland. I carried it to the table on the same side on which the lady had seated herself, and spread it, putting, as I well remember, a metal mug at each corner to keep the curled sheet flat. I then stepped to a scuttle and peered through it, and descried the sail of the boat close in with the island. I turned to the table again and called to Jimmy.
“Go now and send Teach here,” and when he was gone I overhung the chart in a posture of anxious scrutiny; though in this while I several times glanced at the lady Aurora, who was sitting just behind me, and observed that she sat very still, her face as composed as at any time since I had known her, her eyes bent upon a book which she had taken from the table before sitting. The motion of the brig was gentle; the cabin became warm, almost hot; a little while before I descended I had looked through the skylight at Jimmy, who stood beneath, and he had quietly closed and secured the frames.
Teach came down, and behind him was Jimmy. He descended the steps without the least manner of suspicion. He wore a round hat, and his feet were naked, the bottoms of his trousers being turned up midway the height of the calves of his legs. I bade him uncover in the presence of a lady; he asked pardon, and threw his hat down upon the deck.
“Here’s a chart of New Holland,” said I, pointing to it. “D’ye know anything of the coast down Port Jackson way?”
“No, sir,” said he.
“Where’s this brig to be wrecked? Come you here.” Hecame to my side, and I put my finger upon the line that denoted the coast near Port Jackson, holding my left hand behind me. “All hereabouts is wild ground, I reckon—and if the brig’s to be stranded, the spot should be within a comfortable tramp of the town of Sydney,” and as I pronounced these words I motioned with my left hand, on which, as swiftly as you fetch a breath, the lady Aurora whipped a big bag, thickened for the face with wadding, over the head of Teach, dragging it down to his shoulders and holding it there, and all as nimbly as the hangman pulls down the cap over the malefactor’s face. In the same instant of her doing this I grasped Teach by his right arm and Jimmy seized him by his left, and pulling out a pair of handcuffs from my pocket I brought the fellow’s wrists together and manacled him.
His first struggles were furious; but how should he be able to help himself in the grasp of two men, each of whom was out and away stronger than he? He kicked and plunged with frantic violence, but he could utter no sound. He was fairly suffocated by the thickly-lined bag which Miss Aurora had whipped down over his head.
Not an instant was to be lost; moreover, I had no intention to kill the man, though I reckoned by the gathering faintness in the capers he cut that his senses were going. Grasping him by the arms Jimmy and I dragged him aft and thrust him into a spare berth that lay between mine and the cabin I had occupied in Greaves’s time. Miss Aurora followed and handed me a gag of her own manufacture. I pulled the cap off the man and found him nearly gone; we sat him on a locker with his back against the ship’s side and I gagged him, taking care to see that the nostrils were clear. So there he was, gagged, handcuffed, and very nearly dead, and there was nothing to fear from him at present.
I shut the door of the berth and went again to the chart, while Miss Aurora sat behind me upon the bag as before. I slipped a second pair of handcuffs from my left into my right pocket, and then told Jimmy to send Travers below.
“If he asks you what I want,” said I, “answer that Mr. Fielding and Teach are talking about casting away the brig and looking at the chart of Australia.”
In a few moments Travers arrived. He was closely followed by Jimmy. He descended the steps without the least appearance of misgiving. I perceived, however, that in a moment he began to cast his eyes about for Teach.
“D’ye know anything of the coast of New Holland, Travers?”
“Nothen, sir.”
“Teach and I have been talking about casting this brig away. Teach’ll be here in a moment,” said I, with a significant sideways motion of my head toward my berth, which I was willing the fellow should construe as he pleased. “This is the spot which Teach recommends,” said I, putting my finger upon the chart. “Draw near, will you. You’ll understand my meaning when your eyes are on the drawing of the coast.”
He came at once to my side, cap in hand. I bade him observe the conformation of the coast, and while I spoke I made a motion with my left hand, whereupon, with lightning speed, the cap was on him! The man halloed faintly inside: ’twas like a voice from the height of a tall chimney; then, Jimmy and I bringing his brawny arms together, I slipped the handcuffs on.
He was a more powerfully built man than Teach, but without that devil’s desperate spirit. He appeared to understand what we meant to do, felt his helplessness, and after a brief, fierce struggle stood quiet. We ran him, silent and suffocating in his bag, to the forward cabin on the larboard side, by which time he was nearly spent for want of air, so that, when we drew the bag off his head, he was black in the face. I waited a few minutes till he rallied somewhat, then gagged him with a second gag of Miss Aurora’s manufacture. We next pulled off his boots, to provide against his kicking at the door, and threw them into the cabin, and shutting him up I went to the locker in which I had stored my borrowings from the magazine, as you have heard, and thrust a couple of loaded pistols into my pocket.
My lady Aurora had fallen into a chair: she was deadly white and trembled violently, and seemed to be fainting. I told Jimmy to give her a glass of brandy and follow me on deck. I dared not pause now, no, not even though her life should be risked by my going. I went on deck and stood a minute at the companion. Call was at the wheel, carelessly grasping the spokes. I looked toward the island; the boat was clearly ashore, her sail lowered, and nothing therefore to be seen of her, at that distance, with the naked eye.
Taking no notice of Call I walked to the caboose and looked in, expecting to see Meehan at work there boiling mycocoa. The caboose was empty, but the fire burned briskly as though freshly trimmed, and a saucepan was boiling upon it. I stepped swiftly to the fore-scuttle, that is to say, to the hatch by which the sailors entered or left the forecastle, and, when I was within a few feet of it, I spied Meehan’s head in the act of rising to come on deck. I sprang and struck him hard, crying out, “Keep below till you’re wanted.” He fell backward, and I instantly drove the cover of the scuttle over the hatch and secured it by its bar.
Call remained to be dealt with. As I walked aft Jimmy came up out of the cabin. Call was very white. He let go the wheel, and cried out, “Mr. Fielding, where’s my mates?”
“Where you’ll be in a minute, my man,” said I, pulling out one of the two pistols I had pocketed; for I had not foreseen in the case of Meehan so easy a capture.
“There’s no need to show me that,” said the fellow in his small voice, nodding his head at the pistol, “I follows your meaning, and I’ll work as a good man if ye’ll take me on.”
“No, I won’t trust you. Not yet, anyhow; though I should be mighty glad to believe you trustworthy.”
“Try me, sir,” he exclaimed.
“No, by——! Jimmy, lay hold of that wheel and keep it steady. Call, get you forward,” and I pointed with my pistol to the forecastle.
He went like a lamb, and I followed at his heels. Indeed, I needed no weapon with this man; in strength I was twice his master; in nimbleness and the art of fisticuffs he was not within a league of my longest shadow. I could have tossed him by scruff and breech over the rail, and have drunk a pint with the same breath I did it in.
When we came to the scuttle, I told him to open it and descend. Meehan roared out, when he saw daylight; I answered that I would send a bullet through his brains if he made any noise, that his and Call’s wants should be seen to presently, and that I was going to sail the brig home to save the men who had been left with me from the gallows.
“Where’s Teach and Travers?” bawled Meehan.
“Dead—dead—dead!” I cried, then closed and secured the scuttle as before, and ran to the cabin.
I found my lady very much better. She had drunk a little brandy, and was eating a biscuit; the trembling had left her, and her face was steady.
“All the men are secured,” said I.
She clapped her hands and cried, “You have been very quick,” and then laughed with hysteric vehemence; and, no doubt, to satisfy me that she was composed, she at the same moment got up from her chair, and said, “What is next to be done?”
“Follow me,” said I.
I went on deck, and pointing the glass at the landing-place, took a long look. The fellows had hauled the boat high and dry; I could not see what sort of a beach it was; the boat lay beyond the thin line of feathering surf. There were figures about her in motion. I counted all the men who had gone in her. The telescope was poor—poor even for that age of marine spy-glasses—and I was unable to distinguish clearly. But the boat was high and dry, and the men were out of her and busy with their cargo;thatwas certain; so I put down the glass, and, going to the wheel, called to the señorita to come to me.
“Hold it thus,” said I.
She at once stationed herself in Jimmy’s place and grasped the spokes. Then, followed by the lad, I ran to the cabin, and, together, out of the locker we brought up three rounds for the long brass pivoted twenty-four pounder. We likewise loaded with all possible speed six muskets, which, with the remaining pistols that lay in the locker, we conveyed on deck. When this was done, I charged the long gun, taking care to see that all was ready for quickly reloading.
“Now, Jimmy,” said I, “it is time to swing the main topsail yard and be off.”
The wind hung in the north; it was a little pleasant breeze, with just enough of weight to tremble the water into a darker dye of blue with the summer rippling and wrinkling of it, and to put a dance into the blinding sparkles under the sun. I went forward with the lad, and first we hoisted the standing-jib; then went to the main braces and, the wind being very light, we swung the yards easily. The topgallant sails had been clewed up on the previous day, and had hung by their gear unstowed all night. Both yards were heavy, for theBlack Watchwas very square in her rig; so to masthead the canvas we led the halliards to the little capstan on the quarter-deck, and set the sails with fairly taut leeches. A couple of staysails we also ran aloft, by which time the brig had wore. We then trimmed for the northerly draught, and in less than twenty minutes from the start of the operations the brig wasstanding eastward, and slowly gathering way, with Jimmy at the wheel, holding the little ship steady to my directions, myself near him, glass in hand, watching the men ashore, and the girl at my side.
I had reckoned on this—that, when the men saw me fill on the brig they’d suppose something to make me uneasy had hove into sight, or that I was maneuvering to take up a new position. I guessed they’d never imagine for a long while that I was running away with the brig. I had taken particular care for weeks past that they should observe nothing in me to excite distrust. And then there were Teach and the others; and I counted upon Bol’s and upon Bol’s mates’ confidence in the loyalty of those shipmates. So they’d watch us for some time without suspicion; and every minute was precious, because every minute the distance widened and the pace briskened.
Thus had my calculations forerun, and now I stood with the telescope at my eye, watching and waiting.
Five minutes passed—no more. I had turned to look at the compass and to glance aloft; and now I leveled the glass afresh.
“They’re after us!” I cried.
In those five minutes they had launched the boat and, as I looked, were hoisting the sail and throwing their oars over. I was mightily startled at first. I had never imagined they’d prove so keen in their guessing; but reflection speedily cooled me, and brought my nerves to their proper bearing.
The boat gained on us slowly. The pace of the brig was about four miles an hour; the boat’s a mile faster than that. Presently I could count the steady pulse of her five oars. I had no fear, but I was very eager to come off with the brig without killing any of those men. The lady Aurora said:
“They’re catching us up.”
“Yes,” said I; “and if they can come within hail they’ll make me a hundred fine promises and entreat me to take them on board; and, a few minutes after they are on board, my corpse will be floating astern—another shocking example of forecastle gratitude. I’m done with ’em,” said I, scarcely supposing while I talked that she wholly understood me; and, putting my hand upon the long brass gun, I moved it until the muzzle was over the boat.
I knew the little fabric was out of range, but I wished the men to see the feather-leap of white water, the flash of themissile, that they might understand I shot with ball; and, having everything to my hand, I bid Miss Aurora step a little aside, and fired. The gun roared in thunder, and belched out a big cloud of smoke. I dodged the smoke to mark the flight of the ball, which hit the water several cables’ lengths this side the boat. If the spurt of it was plain to me, it was plain to them. I put Jimmy to the gun to clean it while I watched the boat. She continued in pursuit; but now, by aid of the glass, I made out something white flying at her masthead—a signal of truce, as though the fellows and I had been at war. Some man must have torn up his shirt to produce that flag; for there were no white handkerchiefs in the longboat, and nothing to answer to what was flying save what one or another carried on his back.
“I want no truce! I want no peace! I want to have nothing whatever to do with you!” I cried, while I went about to load the long gun again.
This time I resolved to load with case as well as round, that the splash might emphasize my hint. I asked Aurora to hold the wheel, and bid Jimmy rush into the cabin and bring up some canister out of the locker. I clapped in some case on top of the ball, took aim, and fired. The brig thrilled to the explosion. I wondered to myself what the imprisoned fellows forward and the two men below would be thinking of this bellowing of artillery.
The ball and musket-shot struck the sea before I saw the splash; the smoke of the gunpowder hung a bit, clouding aft before blowing clear, and I could not spring to the side in time to see. I ordered Jimmy to make ready the gun for loading afresh, being now hot in heart with the noise of the firing and angry, too, with the stubborn pursuit of the devils astern; and I told Miss Aurora that, if they did not shift their helm, I’d blow them out of water.
“I want no man’s life,” I exclaimed—“not even Yan Bol’s; but if they creep much closer, and I can manage to plump a ball among those——”
But here my speech was arrested; for, having talked with my eye at the glass, I saw them lower the lugsail on board the longboat; they then pulled her around and hoisted her sail afresh.
“There she goes!” cried I.
“De veras!Oh, glorious! Oh, glorious!” exclaimed the señorita, dropping the wheel to clap her hands.
“Yes, there she goes,” said I, “the second hint sufficed. I wish the shot may not have hurt any man of them. Was she out of reach? Yes, there she goes. Wise ye are, Yan Bol. I should have sunk you. Never should you have gained footing aboard this brig. And has not the breeze slightly freshened too since you started in pursuit? Ay, there is a little foam in our wake, and the glance under the sun is keen. We should have run you out of sight, Yan Bol, and you in pursuing would have run the island out of sight, and then without compass, without provisions, without water, how would ye have managed, you scoundrel Dutchman?”
I put down the glass and clapped the boy on the shoulder.
“Jimmy, you have done well. Yours’ll be a good share of dollars for this job. Now jump, my lively, and get some breakfast for the lady and me—and some breakfast for yourself.”
The poor fellow, grinning with delight, fled forward with the speed of a hare. I took the wheel from the señorita, and she stood beside me.
“What’ll dose men do?”
“They will return to the island.”
“Will not dey starf?”
“They have plenty of provisions, and they have a good boat.”
“What will dey do with de money dey have taken?”
“May it founder them! The dogs! To force us down here when we should be in the Channel, or at home! Here am I now with this big brig on my single pair of hands, and you and the boy as helps and four horrible scoundrels to sentinel and feed.”
I felt sick with heart-weariness at that moment. An eternity of waters stretched between me and England in the measureless miles of Southern Ocean, in the measureless miles of south and north Atlantic. How was I to manage with one half-crazy boy and a girl to help me, and four prisoners to guard?
“De dollars are saved,” said the señorita, bringing her eyes with a flash in them from the boat to my face.
“You are the greatest heroine the world has ever produced,” said I.
“It is a day of glory for you, and your money is safe,” said she.
I looked at her a little sullenly; I was in no temper for irony.
“If de money is safe, I am safe,” said she, “for one goes before de other, and to be safe I am content to be second.”
I heeded her not; her tongue was a rattle, and very heedless at times. After a little, finding I did not speak, she looked at the boat through the glass. Long practice had now enabled her to keep open the eye she applied to the telescope. I, too, gripping the spokes, gazed astern; the sail of the boat was like the wing of a white butterfly out on the dark blue, that thrilled with the breeze. The island hung massive and rugged in the sky, but already was it growing blue in the blue air.
At this time Jimmy came along with some breakfast. He put the tray upon the deck. The pot of cocoa Meehan was to have cooked had overboiled and was burnt. Jimmy brought us some fresh coffee, salt beef, and biscuit. The girl and I ate and drank, Jimmy meanwhile holding the wheel. My lady asked me how the prisoners were to breakfast? Could they feed themselves with handcuffs?
“No,” said I.
“They’ll need to be regularly supplied with food,” said she. “Who’ll feed them?”
“Parece que quiere hacer buen tiempo,” said I to change the subject.
When I had breakfasted I held the wheel that Jimmy might eat. I was forever racking my brains to conceive how I was to manage, alone as I was with the youth. The girl was of no earthly use. Indeed, for the matter of that, the boy himself did not know how to steer, and was a poor sailor aloft, though as “an idler” he was expected, and was used to help the men in reefing and in putting the brig about. I was grateful for the beautiful morning with its gentle breeze. “Perhaps,” I said to myself, “I shall have worked out some theory of navigating the brig with the aid of Jimmy, before a change of weather happens.”
The lad took the wheel, and I went below to remove the gags from the men. I had a brace of loaded pistols in my pocket, and I pulled out one of them, and looking to its priming, I walked to the berth in which we had thrown Teach, and opened the door. The man’s posture was that in which we had left him, saving that his head had fallen forward. I did not like his looks, and felt afraid; I went up to him and took his arm; he did not stir. I lifted his head by the chin, and saw death in his eyes. On this, full of horror and pity, I removed the gag. It was a piece of drill with a lump ofstuffing stitched amidships to fill the mouth. Aurora had made it, as she had made the bag with which we had stifled the two men. The stuffed part of the gag that had filled the man’s mouth was soaked with blood, and when I pulled the gag off, and the head fell forward, a quantity of dark blood followed.
No doubt he had ruptured a blood vessel; in any case, his death was not to be laid to the account of the gag, in other words, to our having suffocated him. Nevertheless, I was as greatly shocked, and viewed him with as much horror as though he had died by my hands.
I then bethought me of Travers and rushed, with my heart beating hard, to his berth, dreading to find him dead likewise. The man was standing upright, looking at the sea through the scuttle. He turned when I entered, and presented his gagged face to me. I thanked God to find him alive. So far we had managed all this business bloodlessly. I am one, and ever was one, of those who count human life the most sacred thing under God’s eye.
I had thrust the pistol into my pocket at the sight of Teach, and now kept it there in the presence of this man Travers, gagged and handcuffed as he was. He motioned piteously with his head, lifting his fists a little way toward his face. I at once took the gag off, and threw it aside. He tried to speak; he fetched many breaths, during which some froth gathered upon his lips; he then, in a dim, husky voice that seemed to rise from the bottom of his chest, exclaimed:
“Water!”
I ran into the cabin and filled a mug with fresh water; he remained standing where I had left him. I put the mug to his mouth, and he drank long and deep. The water refreshed him, and he found his voice.
“What are ye going to do with me?” he asked.
“Keep you under hatches,” said I.
“Where’s Bol and the others?”
“Ashore on the island.”
“Left to their fate, sir?”
“You know better. Have they not the longboat, plenty of provisions and water? If Captain Greaves were alive he’d yardarm the four of you—no, not the four; Teach is dead.”
“Did you kill him?”
“He’s dead,” I shouted in a rage; “I have killed no man.You would have killed me—there is no stain on my conscience.”
“Are ye carrying the brig home?”
“Where else?”
“Teach dead!” he muttered. “Mr. Fielding, for God’s sake, take me on. You’ll find me a true man.”
“Which d’ye choose—the bilboes or those bracelets?”
He answered me with a savage stare. I turned to go.
“Leave me some water,” he called.
I filled the mug afresh, placed it where he could put his lips to it, and locked the door upon him.
I lookedin upon Teach again. The sight was piteous. The handcuffs gave a wild pathos to that picture of death. The sight was not to be borne. I removed the handcuffs, and then took a steady view of his face, and felt the man’s wrist to make sure that he was dead. He was stone dead; and I went on deck.
Miss Aurora leaned upon her elbows on the rail, looking at the Island of Amsterdam, that was fading into a dark blue cloud. I said:
“Teach is dead.”
She started, and shrunk back and stared at me, and instantly reflected the expression she saw in my face. Her features then relaxed, and, slightly shrugging her shoulders, she exclaimed:
“He was not a good man. Yet good men are dying every day. Teach’s time had come. Did we kill him?”
“I don’t think so.”
“That pleases me. I would have killed him for my honor or for my liberty. It is God’s doing, and it must be good.”
I found that Jimmy kept the brig to her course fairly well, and roamed about the deck for awhile by myself, considering how I should act if we did not presently, and, indeed, speedily, fall in with a ship to help us with the loan of two or three men. I then asked Miss Aurora to hold the wheel, and took Jimmy below with me to help clap the bilboes on to Travers, that I might relieve the poor devil of his handcuffs. WhileI put the bilboes on, Travers asked me why I refused to give him a chance to turn to.
“You’ve had a chance of proving yourself an honest man for weeks past. I’ll not trust you now.”
“Mr. Fielding, we meant to act square by you.”
“Yes, by knocking me over the head when I’d served your turn.”
I sent Jimmy in a hurry for provisions and water to place in this prisoner’s berth. The beast couldn’t read, or I should have tossed him a book or two. I was eager to regain the deck, for her ladyship was on no account to be left alone at the wheel. Travers asked for his pipe and tobacco. I told him he should have them; and then, threatening to shoot him through the head if he made any noise, attempted to break out, or acted in any way to imperil the safety of the ship, I locked him up.
I put a loaded pistol into Jimmy’s hand, keeping a brace in my pocket; and, finding that the brig made a straight wake to the set of the helm, as surrendered by me to Miss Aurora, with the request that she would hold the spokes steady, I went forward with the lad, lifted the hatch, and sung out.
Both men came under the hatch and looked up. I let them see that the boy and I were armed, and said:
“Call, I am here to give you a chance. If you’ll come on deck and help me to carry on the work of the brig, good and well.”
“I asked to turn to afore,” said he, putting his hand on the coaming as though to come up.
“I’m willing to turn to,” said Meehan.
“I’ll abide by Call’s behavior,” said I.
“It’s cussed hot and black down here,” exclaimed Meehan. “Aint ye going to let us have a light?”
“You shall have a light,” said I; “but mind your fire. We have the boats, and I shan’t lift the hatch.”
“What made ye clip me o’er the head?” he growled. “I’d ha’ stepped back had ye arsted me.”
“Come up, Call.”
The man rose instantly, and stood blinking to the splendor of the morning.
“Go aft and take the wheel,” said I. “The course is as you find it.”
I was about to put on the hatch cover.
“Aint I to be let up?” said Meehan.
“No.”
“Aint I to have anything to eat and drink?”
“Yes.”
“Hell seize the blooming lot of ye!” said he, and disappeared in a single stride.
I closed the hatch cover, but opened it shortly after to hand down a breaker of water, a quantity of provisions, and oil for the forecastle lamp. I say to “hand down”; but the ruffian was so sulky that he refused to answer to my call, and I had to tell him what I had brought, and to threaten him with thirst and starvation, before he would come under the hatch to receive the things. The belch of heat and of foul atmosphere was so disgusting when I first lifted the cover, that I guessed the fellow would suffocate if I did not give him some fresh air. The cover opened on strong hinges. I procured a bit of chain; then inserted a wedge to keep the cover open to about half the length of your thumb. I now passed the chain through the staple and the eye of the bar, securing the links at a place out of reach of our friend’s knife. This done, I went aft with Jimmy, and could scarcely forbear laughing to observe the lady Aurora in the posture of haranguing Call. She stood up before him, and menaced him with her forefinger; and she was saying as I approached:
“If you do not behave well it is death; I am a Spanish lady and know not fear. I will kill any man for my liberty or for my honor, and my liberty I must have, but I have it not while I am in this little ship. I desire to be at Madrid. Be honest and help Mr. Fielding, and your reward will be great I tell this, I—I—the Señorita de la Cueva—she tells you this on her honor as a Spanish lady.” She touched her bosom with her forefinger, then looked round and saw me close by.
“I am willing to prove a true man,” said Call, “this here mucking job was never my relish.Iwas never for casting this here brig away. But how’s one voice to sound when a whole blooming squadron of throats is a-hollering?”
“Jump aloft and stow that topgallant sail along with Jimmy,” said I.
With the help of this man Call I snugged the brig down to topsails and forecourse as a provision against change of weather. I kept him on deck all day, and he ate on deck under my eye; he behaved well, yet I dared not trust him; while I slept he might liberate the other two, and then truly should I be a dead man; for of course Meehan and Traverssecretly raged against me, and would take all the risks of washing about without a navigator and of being hanged if they were boarded and the truth discovered; all risks would they accept, I say, to be revenged upon me. I took Call below into the cabin and made him help me drag Teach’s body out of the berth it lay in; I then put his legs in irons to keep him quiet through the night. He protested violently, and his remonstrance often rose into coarse, injurious language.
“I’ll trust you presently, but not now,” said I, and so I locked the door and came away. I heard him swearing, and then he began to sing as I went on deck.
It was some time between eight and nine o’clock. All the stars were out, the sky was cloudless, and the evening as beautiful as the morning had been splendid. The wind had shifted into the east, and was a small soft wind; it held our little show of canvas steady, and the brig rippled quietly onward over the wide dark sea. I stationed my lady Aurora at the wheel and entered the cabin with Jimmy; there we made fast a cannon ball to the feet of the dead man Teach, and picking him up we carried him to the gangway, which we opened that his plunge might be from a little height only. I was a sailor; for many months Teach had been a shipmate of mine; I had hated him—but he was dead and his last toss at a sailor’s hand must be decorous and reverent. So we dropped him gently feet foremost and he went down instantly, leaving behind him a little cloud of fire that was sparkling even when it had slided into the vessel’s wake.
Four days passed. I will not stop to explain how we managed; shall I tell you why? Because, when I look into the mirror of my memory for the vision of what happened in those four days I find the presentment dim, vague, foggy. These things I recollect; that I did not trust Call, that I freed him from time to time that he might take a trick at the wheel, threatening to stop his food and water if he refused, and that every night at eight bells or thereabouts I put him away with the bilboes on. That I kept the other two men imprisoned, supplying them every morning with provisions for twenty-four hours. That I held the brig’s head for the Cape of Good Hope, praying daily for the sight of a ship and beholding nothing. That for two days after our losing sight of Amsterdam Island, the weather continued very glorious, then darkened with a wind that breezed up out of the southward and blew fresh, but happily never too hard for our whole topsails.
These things I remember.
I was awakened on the night of the fourth or, let me say, in the dark hours of the morning of the fifth day by the boy Jimmy calling my name. I had wrapped myself up in Greaves’ cloak, sat me down near the wheel, at which I had been standing for two hours, and had fallen into a deep sleep without intending to sleep. The lad had taken the helm from me; when he called I sprang to my feet.
“What is it?”
“See that light, master?”
I looked and saw what I supposed was a ship on fire. A ruddy glare was coloring the sky at the extremity of the sea about three points on the lee bow. I thought to myself, if she is a ship on fire and beyond control, her people will help me to navigate the brig home. The fancy, the hope, elated me; I was wide awake on a sudden, though I had sat down dog tired.
A long swell was rolling out of the south, and a five-knot breeze was blowing off our larboard quarter. I put the helm up for the light, and when I had it fair ahead I gave the spokes to Jimmy, and fetched the telescope out of the cabin where, on a locker, lay the lady Aurora sleeping. The telescope resolved the red light into several tongues of flame which waxed and waned; I had then no doubt whatever that the fire was a burning ship, and forthwith fell to walking first to one then to the other side of the brig, for long spells at a time overhanging the bulwark rail, straining my sight into the darkness, and hearkening with all my ears.
By and by, recollecting that an empty tar barrel stood upon the forecastle, I resolved to make a flare. I rolled the barrel aft, kindled it, and Jimmy and I flung the barrel overboard.
It burnt finely, and lighted up a great space of the sea. If the people of the burning ship were in the neighborhood they’d know by the fire upon the water that help was at hand, and rest on their oars till daybreak, which was hard by.
When the dawn broke the ship was about a mile distant. Smoke was rising from her decks. I sought in vain in all directions for a boat. I saw no fire now on board the ship, and when I pointed the telescope I perceived that she was hove to, and that the smoke was local as though it rose from chimneys. Between us and the ship was a vast lump of red stuff that lifted and fell; it was scored and flaked with white, and its redness was that of blood. The sun came up andtouched it, and now I perceived—by this time we had neared it—that the loathsome bulk was a part of a great whale, freshly “cut in,” as it is termed. A number of birds were on it, and they tore the horrid mass with their beaks, and many birds hovered over it.
I looked very hard at the ship. I seemed to know her. Her numerous davits and crowd of boats bespoke her a whaler, and I knew by the sight of that vast heap of whale which had gone adrift that she was “trying out”—that is, boiling down the blubber that came from the whale. In fact, my nose told me of what was going on when I was half a mile away.
The flash of the sun on the skylight awakened Miss Aurora; she came on deck, and cried out on beholding the whaler.
“This is a very wonderful thing,” said I. “Do you know that ship?”