From the Dead Man's Chest theRoyal Jamesheaded northwest into the Atlantic. Murray knew that theSantissima Trinidadmust have sent the tidings of his feat the length and breadth of the Antilles. By now the Spanish squadrons would have put to sea from San Juan de Porto Rico, Santo Domingo and the Havana, and the Caribbean would be aswarm withgarda costas; but more to be feared than all the Spaniards' efforts would be the consequence of the complaint sure to be dispatched to the port admiral at Kingston. The Jamaica frigates would carry a hunting-call to every English cruiser on the West Indian station.
As it was, we were chased by a strange sail in the latitude of southern Hispaniola, whose heaping canvas and lumbering gait bespoke the ship-o'-the-line; and off Cuba we sighted three sail—a frigate and two sloops—who chased us two days and a night to the eastward. And the day after that we encountered the Brazils fleet, under convoy of two sail of the line and half a dozen small fry, but my great-uncle, nothing daunted, displayed his white ensign, fired a salute to the Portuguese admiral and sailed through them.
Then we picked up a smart so'easter and ran our westing down packet-fashion, with never a sail in sight for a week, until a morning when the sun came up at our backs like a burnished copper plaque and we saw the cone of the Spyglass lifting out of the haze ahead. A league or two farther on the whole island shaped itself beneath its spine of hills, and a column of smoke from the Spyglass told us that Flint's lookout had detected us.
The wind had continued strong through the night, but after dawn it turned puffy and 'twas nearly noon when we passed into Captain Kidd's Anchorage on the last of the flood. There was a great bustle aboard theWalrus, with boats plying to and from the shore, and as our anchor splashed, the longboat put off from her side, Flint's red coat like a flame in the stern sheets.
"Glory!" exclaimed Moira O'Donnell, her blue eyes wide with delighted horror. "There's one I'd not need to have pointed out to me to know him a pirate—or the dreadful knaves that do be rowing the oars. My faith, look to the color of them, as red as Indians with the sun, and they without the clothes any heathen would be by way of wearing."
She clapped her hands.
"But I like the kerchiefs on their heads. See! All red and green and yellow and blue. And the marks they have done in their skins."
Her father was otherwise impressed. He glowered down at the heap of treasure kegs, chests and packages which Murray had ordered fetched on deck that morning, and then stared off at Flint's gaudy figure.
"And 'tis to scoundrels like yon ye'll be trusting the lives of all of us, Andrew Murray!" he snarled. "By times, man, I think there's a green madness in your brain. Why, the view of that gold and silver below would be sufficient to tempt better men than they to commit murder."
My great-uncle took snuff.
"Your diagnosis is correct,chevalier," he retorted. "They would cheerfully commit murder for a coveted knife or a sixpence with a hole in it. My design in revealing to them the entire extent of the treasure we carry is to impress them at once with my good faith and benumb their acquisitive faculties by the sight of greater wealth than they ever dreamed of obtaining at one time."
A snort from Peter diverted attention to the Dutchman.
"You do not agree with me?" inquired Murray mildly.
"Neen! A t'ief is a t'ief. He steals to steal."
"Plausible," assented my great-uncle. "Your idea is?"
"If Flint has der feel for it it don't matter what you show him. He wants all."
"Ah!"
Murray regarded more attentively the boatload of pirates just rounding up to our port quarter.
"I see that Captain Flint has with him John Silver and the red-haired Irish boy he calls his luck. Humph! You may be right, friend Peter. But I should not be greatly concerned over that. In many ways——"
He broke off, considering. Colonel O'Donnell caught him up.
"Yes? Yes? What new deviltry are you planning?"
My great-uncle smiled.
"Certes, 'tis no deviltry to plan in a good cause—in the Good Cause. Eh, Mistress Moira?"
She shook her head.
"You will be took quick with your wits for me to fathom them, Master Murray," says she. "I am but a young maid that knows no more than that right is right."
"I protest you underrate yourself," he answered.
"What Moira thinks is of no consequence," interrupted O'Donnell. "You have not answered me."
"True,chevalier. I was thinking. My thoughts are not completely shapen, but 'twill do no harm if I reveal that it occurred to me that in many ways it might simplify our problem did Captain Flint resort to force."
The Irishman counted the gunports in theWalrus'side.
"He seems to carry as heavy metal——"
"But on the sea, as on the land, 'tis the brain which overmatches brute force,chevalier. You, who are an engineer, do not need to be reminded of this axiom. However, we are not yet come to the issue, and I am never one for engaging in a search for trouble. All I know clearly at this moment is that we can not afford to wander far afield from the island, with the cruisers of three nations quartering the seas for us."
"We are in animpasse," reflected O'Donnell gloomily.
"Not at all," rejoined my great-uncle. "We have played our hand with entire success so far in the game. 'Tis now for us to sit back and await the plays of other participants. What they do must determine our next— But Captain Flint is come aboard. This conversation is without purpose, since fact must now displace conjecture."
He eyed us all somewhat gravely.
"I have but one word more to say," he added. "Whatever happens, leave me to do the talking."
"Ye'd do it whether we would or no," growled O'Donnell.
Flint climbed over the bulwarks with a racket of oaths and swaggered up to the poop. Martin dropped a whip from a block on the mainyard, and John Silver was hauled up in its bight, his crutch hanging from his neck. Darby and the rest scaled the side ladder and mingled with theJames'crew. Their eyes popped from their heads as they circled the heap of treasure, Long John stumping with them, listening avidly to the accounts of theJames'men, hefting the weight of the packages of bullion and painfully deciphering the inscriptions on the kegs and chests of coin.
Their chief was equally frank in revealing the lust of greed the picture wakened in him. His green eyes flickered hotly on either side of his thin, beaked nose, and his blue jowl was bluer than ever, the weather-worn skin over his cheekbones laced with a network of crimson veins that brightened as his excitement increased.
Yet he forgot the treasure the instant his gaze fell upon Peter and me.
"So your hostages returned to ye, Murray? Gut me, 'twas a pretty trick ye played us! Ye'd keep faith wi' me, ye would! Oh, yes! Ye'd give me two hostages, instead o' one. You'll fulfill your contract, you will. There's no need for it, to be sure, but ye'll do anything to prove good faith to me! And take both or none, says you. Both or none! Well, ye fooled me that time, Murray, but ye never will again, by thunder—not if my name's John Flint!"
My great-uncle heard him out in silence, waiting until he had stepped off the poop-ladder and stood facing us.
"I am not responsible for your losing the hostages," he replied then in his iciest tones. "Stap me, Flint, I warned you your ship was in a disgraceful condition. With all hands drunk, did you think to keep fast two men of strength and intelligence?"
"Drunk or sober, we were promised them," asserted Flint, a trifle less belligerently. "And sure, ye could ha' turned 'em back to us—not that that will do me any good for the two men they killed, they or whoever helped 'em to break from theWalrus."
"Nobody from theRoyal Jamesassisted them," said Murray. "You have my word for that. I can not say as much for your own ship, although they told me when they discovered themselves to me, several days after our sailing, that they had acted alone."
"Alone or not, where's my two men?" blustered Flint. "Good hands don't grow on trees."
"No; aboard theWalrusthey stab one another to death," agreed my great-uncle. "Come, come, you have no proof in support of your charge."
"No proof?" howled Flint. "These two broke out of my lazaret, and the same night the two men on watch——"
My great-uncle raised his eyebrows.
"Tut, tut! Really, now! 'Two men on watch!' What would you have? John Silver and Blind Pew could have escaped from such slender guards, let alone two whole men, one of them the strongest ever I knew."
"Well, two broke free and two died," insisted Flint. "And if the two who broke free were not the means——"
"What proof have you of it?"
"Proof?"
"Aye, proof, I said. Their bodies, what of them?"
"Why, we never——"
My great-uncle shrugged his shoulders.
"You see? You have been talking loosely, I fear, my friend. But you must suffer me to repeat that if you left your ship all night with a watch of two men on deck you deserved to lose your hostages and the lives of the watch. At any rate, you'll not have my sympathy."
Flint's fingers twitched on his hanger-hilt.
"I tell ye, Murray, there's a foul smell about this whole business. You were all for giving me hostages—'twas no idea of mine. And then they no sooner come aboard my ship than they're away again. I like it not. Here's trickery or ye may gut me for a preacher."
"Had I found your hostages on theJamesbefore sailing or within a day after, you should have had them back again," said Murray firmly. "But there is no point to this argument; for hostages or no hostages, you see me returned with the treasure, as I promised."
"—— me, ye've been long enough gone," complained Flint. "It hath been a month more than ye promised."
"For that I had excellent reasons," answered my great-uncle. "I was chased twice on my way hither."
Flint was impressed by this—also, his eyes strayed, as if lured by a magnet of irresistible power, back to the heap of treasure on the deck below.
"Ye must ha' had rare success," he admitted unwillingly. "We ha' the gold o' the Indies here!"
He looked up and happened to meet the awe-struck gaze of Moira O'Donnell. A sneer curled his lips.
"But ye carry passengers, I see," he insinuated. "Gold and women! 'Tis a fine combination, Murray, but there's a rule in our Articles you were all for establishing. Number Four, eh? It sticks in my crop, for ye called it once on me.
"'And that there may be less occasion for broils amongst our company, we do further decree that gaming may be prohibited at any time when in the captain's judgment it becomes dangerous to our harmony, as likewise, that at no time and under no circumstances may women be taken and kept as spoil aboard our vessels or any vessel upon which our company may chance to fare.'
"What d'ye say to that? What of Rule Four now?"
"I wish it was observed as strictly aboard theWalrusas on theRoyal James" returned Murray. "As to gaming, it seems that you allow your crew full license."
"I'll govern my own ship," responded Flint sourly. "Ye ha' yet to answer my questions."
My great-uncle took snuff.
"This lady," he said, with the slightest emphasis, "is the daughter of my friend here, Colonel O'Donnell, a gentleman who represents in our venture the group of my friends who made it possible for me to intercept the treasure-ship."
O'Donnell, whose face had been growing redder and redder throughout this conversation, plucked his daughter by the elbow and led her away.
"I'll be thanking ye to let me know when the time comes there's an end o' mangy curs in these parts," he remarked over his shoulder. "'Tis not to be hearing my daughter insulted and my own self explained to the scum of the sea that I'll be standing quiet and idle in front of as——"
"Peace,chevalier!" interrupted Murray, and there was a ring in his voice that compelled obedience.
Flint's blue jowl took on a sickly greenish pallor and the tiny veins over his cheekbones commenced to beat.
"—— me for a —— —— —— if I'll stand for such from any sneaking, longjawed, Irish Papist ——"
"That will do," said my great-uncle without raising his voice.
Flint subsided.
"Colonel O'Donnell and his daughter are my guests," my great-uncle continued. "They have played essential parts in our capture of the treasure. I must insist, Flint, that you accord them a courtesy similar to that which I should extend to friends of yours in a like situation."
"They're no friends o' mine," growled Flint. "This is more o' your cursed political blethering. Well, I'm sick o' it, Murray, and I care not who knows it. First, ye carry us north to America, just to crimp two men, with not two hundred pounds in booty to show for the voyage. Next, ye shut me up here for the better part of six months for my men to rot with fever and drink and my ship to foul her bottom——"
"On both these counts you have your own negligence to blame," put in my great-uncle.
"—and last," Flint fumed on without heeding him, "ye bring to the Rendeyvoo a man and a woman who are not of our company, and who, for all ye know, may go hence, and loose a King's ship on us some day when we are careened and helpless."
"Not you," returned Murray sarcastically. "You'll not careen, Flint. That would mean work for your crew. But you concern yourself needlessly. Colonel O'Donnell has reasons for keeping his share in our enterprise under cover. He is more safely to be trusted in the circumstances than many another."
"I care not who he is or what you may have on him," cried Flint, working himself into a fury. "Ye ha' introduced four strangers into our midst without the let or permission of others of our company."
"I do not recognize the right of any other to tell me what I shall or shall not do," replied my great-uncle haughtily. "Such as it is, this company is the creation of my efforts, and I venture the assertion, Captain Flint, that it will not long survive my leadership. The four strangers of whom you complain have been essential factors in enabling me to win the treasure before you—which now awaits your convenience for division, according to the terms I originally stipulated."
If Murray's last words were intended to stimulate Flint's cupidity anew they succeeded. The captain of theWalrusopened his mouth to shout defiance, then let his eyes wander again to the pile under the break of the poop.
"How—how much?" he asked, almost fearfully.
"Seven hundred and sixty-three thousand, nine hundred and ninety-five pounds in coin and bullion, without counting a chest of jewels and three chests of plate," replied my great-uncle promptly. "You will note that I have favored our people in the division, allotting to them all in excess of the million and a half pounds theSantissima Trinidadwas expected to carry."
A cunning look crept into Flint's face.
"Where's the rest?" he croaked.
My great-uncle took snuff.
"Quite safely disposed of, I assure you," he answered.
"Down below?"
"No, 'tis no longer aboard."
Flint swallowed hard.
"Ye mean it ain't here? It ain't aboard theJames?"
"Precisely, captain."
"Gut me!" roared Flint. "Ye divided it by your lone? Wi'out a man from theWalrusto stand by and see fair play? I'll not support it, Murray. Curse me if I will!"
My great-uncle tapped his snuff-box.
"Your suspicions are quite unnecessary," he said. "Had I intended to defraud you, be sure I would not have enlarged the sum intended for division betwixt the two ships by sixty-three thousand pounds and more. Indeed, figuring in the jewels and plate, there must be an excess of better than one hundred thousand pounds."
"I know your tricks!" yelled Flint. "May I be —— —— for a —— —— —— if any lousy swab of a sea-lawyer politician is a-goin' to cast dust in my eyes. 'Twould be the very thing you'd do, Murray, to attempt to cozen me into believing seven hundred thousand pounds had been set aside for your 'friends' by throwing in an extra hundred thousand pounds for our division. 'Friends!' By thunder, the only friend ye know is yourself, ye dried-up wisp of a ——"
"That will do," said my great-uncle in his still, level voice.
Flint opened and shut his mouth rapidly without a sound issuing forth.
"I bar personalities, captain," warned my redoubtable relative.
One hand barely touched his sword-hilt.
"I trust there will be no occasion for me to repeat the warning," he remarked.
Flint's baffled rage was comic to behold.
"Aye, you and your fine gentleman ways!" he choked. "I know ye! Gut me if I'll support it to be swindled thus. A woman and strangers aboard! And eight hundred thousand pounds missing! 'Safely disposed of,' says you! I'll warrant. Safe where you can collar it any time you please. I knowed it as soon as I marked the flutter of a petticoat. A woman and gold——"
Long John Silver swung himself up on to the poop from the head of the port ladder and stamped toward us.
"Beggin' your pardon, Cap'n Murray, sir!" His pleasant voice broke through Flint's diatribe.
"My duty, Master Ormerod. And Master Corlaer, too. Like old times, ain't it, gentlemen, all of us together? I hopes as how ye'll overlook my boldness, Cap'n Murray, but I ha' a word to speak to Cap'n Flint—fo'csle council, sir."
My great-uncle took another pinch of snuff.
"Ah, yes," he observed drily. "I recall that aboard theWalrusthe fo'csle council must be heard. I trust that you can instil some common sense into your captain's head. He hath need of it, Silver."
Flint glared, but Silver snatched whatever reply he intended out of his mouth.
"Thank 'ee, sir. You just let me an' Cap'n Flint ha' a word in private, and maybe we'll see a way out o' this tangle."
"Suit yourself," said my great-uncle with a shrug.
Silver pulled his forelock, and his large face lighted up as if a considerable favor had been conferred.
"We won't be no time at all, sir. Thank 'ee kindly."
He put his free hand under Flint's elbow, and I marveled to see the ease with which he was able to bend his captain to his will. Accustomed as I was to Murray's autocratic discipline, it was a revelation to establish contact again with the free-and-easy spirit of theWalrus, where any man might become commander if he was able to muster a majority of the fo'csle to raise cutlasses in his behalf. Flint obediently followed his quartermaster to the sta'b'd side of the poop, and there they laid their heads close and collogued for a quarter-glass, Silver at first arguing and Flint resisting him.
"Silver is no man to let hard on four hundred thousand pounds slip through his hands," I said.
"Andt maybe he says not to let eight hundred thousand pounds get away, needer," commented Peter. "Ja, I t'ink so."
Murray nodded slowly.
"You are more like to be right than wrong, friend Peter. Of all theWalrus'people he hath the most acute intelligence. A choice knave!"
Colonel O'Donnell stalked back to us from the extremity of the stern with Moira on his arm.
"Did ye put a flea in the rascal's ear, Murray?" he demanded. "By the Mass, I never thought to hear ye tolerate such impudence on your own deck."
"I am no man for quarreling without an adequate end in sight," returned my great-uncle. "Never threaten unless you must,chevalier, and then smite with a sure aim."
"Words!" grumbled the Irishman. "'Tis time we had a little action."
Moira disengaged herself from her father and came to stand betwixt Peter and me.
"If there's to be more fighting," says she, "I will have a pistol and cutlass and do my share. I'll not stand idly by to be shot at the way I was on theSantissima Trinidad—more by reason that if I must sail with pirates I'll be preferring Captain Murray to the fellow yonder in the red coat."
There was a high gallantry about her that drew a chuckle even from Peter.
"Some time I take you to der wilderness country, andt we shoot us bears andt scalp Injuns," he promised.
She clasped her hands.
"I am all for that, Peter," she cried. "Sure, I'd sooner fight Indians than pirates. But see, Bob! There's the red-headed boy will be making signals to you from the larboard ladder."
Darby McGraw's flaming top-knot projected just far enough above the level of the deck to show his eyes and a hand that jerked mysteriously at me.
"Come up, Darby," I invited him.
But he shook his head vigorously, so I crossed to his side.
"What is ailing you?" I asked.
"Sorra a trouble in the whole of creation," he returned in his rich brogue. "But I'd walk my two feet over the galley-stove as soon as stand so near the old devil as yourself, Master Bob. My troth, he's the terrible cruel feller, and him that ancient old he'd oughter been waked these many years past."
"He's no more to be feared than Flint," I answered, laughing.
"Ah, there's little ye know to be saying the like of that!" exclaimed Darby. "With Flint 'tis a blow and a curse and 'take it or leave it!' But him! He'd put the evil eye on the lot of us if the notion but came into the head of him."
"I rather be his friend than his enemy," I admitted. "Do they fear him so aboard theWalrus?"
Darby squinted sideways at me.
"Whiles they fear him. And then again when the rum is flowing— But I'll be saying what maybe I'll be sorry for later. I see ye found the elegant young maid that went to the Whale's Head with ye. My faith, ain't she the pretty creature! Will she be a pirate, too?"
"No more than Peter and me."
"Do ye tell me that same! And ye took her along with the treasure, the lads do be saying below. That was the grand haul! But they say, too, a good half of it ye buried on that island Long John do be always singing about."
"So you have heard that!" I cried.
"Troth, yes. They was telling Long John and me before he come up to speak with Cap'n Flint. God save us, who'd think there was so much money in the world? But here comes John and the cap'n now. I'd better be skippin'."
He slid down the ladder as he spoke, and I rejoined the group about my great-uncle. Flint strode across the deck, his face like a thunder-cloud. Silver, at his elbow, exhibited a countenance wreathed in smiles.
"We'll divide what's below," said Flint abruptly.
"I rejoice that you have come to your senses," replied Murray.
Silver spoke up.
"He's a main jealous cap'n, Cap'n Flint is, sir. Allus has a lookout for the interests o' his crew. A kind o' gardeen for us, ye might say. But we're all mighty beholden to yourself for counting in theWalrussame as theJames; and speakin' on behalf o' theWalrus, I make bold to say as we won't forget it, Cap'n Murray, sir."
My great-uncle listened to this with the shadow of a smile on his face.
"I thank you, Silver," he acknowledged blandly. "I was confident you would appreciate the situation. Will you divide at once, Flint?"
Flint growled in his throat, then mastered his temper by a substantial effort.
"We'll appoint the usual committee o' six to check over with your men, Murray," he rasped. "I'll send my boats to shift our portion."
And he turned on his heel. John Silver pulled his forelock and nodded to all of us.
"Thank 'ee kindly, Cap'n Murray. My duty, sirs. And the young lady. Mighty nice to ha' a sweet, pretty face in the cabin, ain't it? Well, gentlemen, there's no excuse now for any o' us if we don't go home and make them happy as we left for the sea."
"Not the slightest," agreed my great-uncle. "I take it you are returning to your dear old mother, Silver—or is it your fondly waiting wife?"
Silver grinned.
"'Tain't neither, sir. But there's a sightly gal in St. Pierre in Martinico as I could set up shop with. A bit o' color in her, but then——"
He swept his arm in a liberal gesture as he stumped off to the ladder and hopped lightly down to the maindeck after his commander.
The candles burned with a steady, spear-shaped flame, undeviating, motionless, so that the shadows were cast upon the paneling of the cabin walls in solid blocks like streaks of a darker coloring in the polished woodwork. The air was so still that we could hear the sea-birds calling down the inlet, the seethe and suck of water about the rudder, the splash of a fish, the patter of the feet of the watch.
Mistress O'Donnell had retired to her stateroom, with the appearance of the wine, for both her father and Murray held punctiliously to the polite usage of society in this respect, Colonel O'Donnell, I think, because he dreaded lest she should witness one of his periodical bouts when he would saturate himself to a state of insensibility, and Peter and I must carry him to his berth, as we had done the first night he came aboard theRoyal James.
My great uncle, for want of other diversion, had undertaken to teach Peter to play chess, with some saturnine advice and comment from the Irishman; and to my amusement—as likewise to Murray's, I must admit—Peter proved himself a most redoubtable tyro, and once he had been coached in the rudiments presented a shrewd defensive gambit.
"Check at last!" exclaimed my relative, sinking back in his chair—of the four of us, he alone wore coat and stock and still contrived to maintain an air of cool well-being in that humid atmosphere. "You pushed me, Peter. Stap me, but you did! I'd not like to match my game with yours six months from now. Had you developed your queen's knight eight moves back— But 'tis futile to argue concerning what might have been. As well seek to prognosticate the future of our own lives."
Peter giggled and muttered that he was "no goodt,neen."
"I would we might say, 'Check!' in this weary coil we are caught in," grumbled O'Donnell. "I see not that we are any farther forward with your confederates yonder."
He waved his hand out of the stern-window.
"They carried away their four hundred thousand pounds, but every man of them was as glum in the face as though 'twas so many bodeens instead of a prince's ransom. St. Patrick! When I think of what four hundred thousand pounds would do with the English Parliamentmen that will be selling their souls to whoever bids them the highest!"
"We have paid a price,chevalier," returned my great-uncle. "If we receive what we purchased, well and good. If not——"
He spread out his hands in deprecation.
"I am bound to concede, however, that I do not augur the best from what little information we have to go upon. Have you noted, gentlemen, that still as is the night, we hear no sounds of carousing aboard theWalrus?"
'Twas true, and had been true since the last boatload of treasure was transferred to Flint's ship shortly after dusk.
"You think he will fight then?" I asked from my seat under the stern windows, whence I could see the lights of theWalrus, dimly yellow in the thick, velvety, tropic darkness.
"I hope he will fight, my dear nephew," my great-uncle corrected me. "I fear Captain Flint has outlived his usefulness to me, and if my fears are well founded, the sooner we can smash him the better I shall be pleased. But I make it a rule never to think on the possibilities of the future. Rather I prepare for whatever eventualities may arise and let it go at that."
"And are ye prepared tonight for treachery if this fellow Flint will be turning upon ye?" demanded O'Donnell.
Murray indulged himself with a pinch of snuff.
"Within reason,chevalier, yes. We have a strict watch, and the battery hath been cast loose and provided. More I can not do. The one advantage which Flint possesses is that I must wait upon whatever line of conduct he devises or his crew dictate to him."
The Irishman downed a goblet of brandy in a single gulp.
"Bah!" he cried. "'Tis easy enough for you to be talking the like of that. But I tell ye I am thinking we'd maybe better choose the now whether we'll push the fighting to Flint or pass out to sea."
My great-uncle shook his head.
"That would be poor tactics, either way. A fight means loss of life and ship damage, and if it can be avoided without loss we are by so much the gainer. Also, the seas are dangerous for us, as you should know,chevalier—and for another reason, Martin agrees with me the weather is working up for a violent storm."
"St. Patrick aid us!" protested O'Donnell. "I'm not able at all to make out how ye stand, Murray, and that's the naked truth. One moment you're crying for a fight with Flint, and the next you say to avoid it, if that can be managed."
"Quite true,chevalier," assented my great-uncle calmly. "And I fail to see that my position is a false one. I prefer not to force the issue. My policy is summed up in that."
"But you don't know what derWalruswill do, dat's der trouble," said Peter, looking up from the chessmen with which he had been toying on the table-top.
"And that, too, I have admitted, friend Peter," answered Murray.
"One night Bob andt me swam in der water from derWalrusto derJames," pursued Peter as if my great uncle had not spoken. "Maybe we could do dot again,ja."
"Ha!" cried O'Donnell, smiting the table with his fist. "The very thing."
But my great-uncle sat unmoved.
"It could be done!" I exclaimed. "And none besides ourselves have knowledge of it."
Murray's wonderful, tawny eyes settled upon my face.
"Aye, it could be done," he agreed. "But there is danger, lad. 'Tis a still night. You can hear the fish leap."
"And Flint's people keep a slovenly watch," I replied. "But Peter and I are good swimmers. We'll not make a sound."
Peter commenced to blow out the candles.
"Ja," he said. "Me, I don't like der water when it makes waves, but quiet it is nice."
My great-uncle smiled in the dwindling light.
"I should be a hypocrite as well as a fool, did I refuse your offer, gentlemen," he said. "'Tis not only our own lives are at stake, but Mistress Moira's too."
A groan came from Colonel O'Donnell.
"Ah, didn't I tell ye the way we would be left to the mercy of your cutthroats and latch-drawers, Murray? And now 'tis yourself must admit it! A sorry business it is, and I wish to God I'd never heard your name or gone forth of Spain."
Murray himself blew out the last candle.
"Well, well,chevalier," he answered a little tartly, "forth of Spain you went, and aboard theRoyal Jamesyou are, and the one hope of life you have is that you stay aboard theRoyal James—and this is saying naught of the obligations we owe to your friends on the other side."
Peter's great bulk glided by us.
"I go get a rope," he squeaked.
"A rope!" hiccuped O'Donnell. "And if we don't end in the noose of a rope, we'll likely be walking the plank. I care little for myself. I'll have seen my life and had my fling. But it was an ill day, Murray, you prevailed on me to fetch Moira along. I can't think what was in your mind—a young maid in a pirate hold! 'Tis wicked past belief."
"Tut, tut," remonstrated my great-uncle. "My reasons were of the best, and have been vindicated by events. But here is Peter. You found the rope?"
"Ja," answered Peter, and knotted an end around a leg of the table as I had done the night of our surreptitious entry.
O'Donnell sought solace in another glass of brandy. Murray assisted Peter and me to undress, and accompanied us to the stern windows.
"No needless risks, remember," he whispered as I crawled over the sill. "And above all, avoid discovery. Better learn nothing than be found out."
I had wrapped my ankles around the pendent rope and was prepared for a cautious slide into the water when a faint chuckle escaped him.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I was but thinking what a sturdy pirate you are become."
He withdrew his head before I could answer, and I dropped into the tepid water, with care that there should be no splash. An instant later Peter was beside me, and we began to swim with long, slow strokes in the direction of the blobs of light which were the only indication of theWalrus, so impalpable was the texture of that breathless night. There was not even a star in the sky—and the sky itself was invisible.
The hull of the pirate ship did not take shape until we were under the sheer of the stern. A single, guttering lanthorn seemed to burn in the main cabin, which was tenantless. And we paralleled the sta'b'd side, attracted by a hum of voices for'ard.
Peter's hand on my shoulder detained me as we swam beneath the heel of the bowsprit.
"Here you climb oop," he breathed in my ear. "They are all on her deck. I t'ink dey smoke der pipe in council,ja!"
I trod water, and explored with both arms above my head.
"There's no rope within reach," I told him.
"Dot's all right. I lift you."
He was clutching the cutwater with both hands and bracing his feet against the swell of the bow.
"Come on," he urged. "Oop on to my shoulders. I hold you,ja."
"But if we splash?"
"We don't splash. You go oop; I go down under der water. Dot's all."
I forged alongside of him and gingerly climbed his immense shoulders, using a grip on his hair for haulage. Then I reached overhead again, and this time got my hands upon a stay of the bowsprit which ran from midway of the spar to a turnbuckle on the bow.
"Steady," I whispered. "I'm going to jump."
"Ja!"
I threw my legs upward and twined them around the stay, hanging like a monkey from it, and Peter went under with a gurgling ripple which might have been made by a fish. Presently he came to the surface and swam beneath me.
"Can you climb, Bob?"
"I think so."
"Goodt! I waidt."
The stay was fortunately dry—had it been slippery-wet I could never have swarmed it—and I was able, after much effort, to secure a grip on the bowsprit and lift myself astraddle of it. From here ordinarily the deck should have been visible, but in that intense darkness I could see no more than a vague loom of spars and a blur of light in the waist. The hum of voices was more audible, but still indistinct.
I worked down the bowsprit to the lift of the bows; but still I could see nothing, even on the fo'csle. 'Twas plain, however, that here was no watch to fear, and I dropped to the deck and crawled aft on my hands and knees toward the hum of talk, which I made certain now came from the waist.
The fo'csle was littered with spare cables, water-casks and other sailor's truck, which I had to avoid displacing; but I had my reward, for as I advanced the hum of voices dissolved into words and phrases.
—"a foxy 'un, Murray is," said a seaman's voice.
"And theyJamesfellers'll fight us, whatever 'ee say," added a second.
"O' course they will!"
This was Silver's unmistakable oily speech.
"Who wouldn't fight for the grandest fortune as any gentlemen adventurers ever had a chance at?"
I wriggled behind a chase-gun, and peered over its breech into the waist. Two battle-lanthorns were suspended from the mainyard, and their yellow glare revealed theWalrus'crew squatted in serried ranks around the butt of the mainmast, where Flint, Bones, Silver and several others sat on upturned rum-barrels.
Flint leaned forward, wrathfully insistent, as I propped myself against a trunnion.
"Gut me if I thought to find such skulkers in my crew!" he snarled. "D'ye think to take any prize wi'out loss?"
"Aye," said a third seaman doggedly, "but we ha' never yet fought wi' Murray. Them as does don't ha' luck."
A murmur of assent answered him.
"Ah," struck in Silver, "but there's a first time always, mates. Murray's like the rest o' us. A ball or a cutlass-edge will finish him. And I say again, who wouldn't risk death for more'n a million and a half o' pounds in good gold and hard silver as'll buy every man jack o' us such pleasures as few men ever comes by, mates?"
"But there's only as much aboard theJamesas we ha' here," objected one of the first speakers.
"True for you, Tom Allardyce," said Flint. "But the rest's safe enough, ain't it?"
"There's only them few knows o' it," returned the man. "They said on theJamesthere was but the three men and the girl was landed to bury it."
Flint's answering laugh was horrible.
"And d'ye think that out o' four people, not countin' Murray—and one o' the four a girl—we can't make one talk? I tell ye, Tom, the stuff is as good as divided."
"Ye ha' first to catch Murray," retorted Allardyce.
"And why won't we?" demanded Silver. "Didn't we take what he was ready to give us and thank him for it like blessed lambs? And if he does suspect, what good'll it do him? On a night like this he'll never know where we are until we're on him. Two good broadsides, and then we'll sweep his decks."
Nobody spoke for a time.
"When does the ebb make?" asked Flint with a stretch and a yawn.
"Another two glasses yet," said Bones.
"——, I must ha' a bit of sleep," growled the pirates' captain. "Come to a vote, lads, and be done wi' it. Will, ye go or won't ye? Ye all know what mercy Murray'll give ye, if he ever hears o' this council—and there's them, as would like to blab, be sure o' that."
Silver pulled himself erect, cuddling his crutch under his. arm.
"Quartermaster speaks for the crew," he said. "And my view is as how the crew is for fightin' for their just rights. TheWalrushas played second fiddle long enough, and here's a chance as isn't likely to come again."
There was a second brief interval of silence.
"Nobody contrary," announced the one-legged man cheerfully. "Council's over! Keep quiet, mates. No drinkin', no fightin'. There'll be plenty o' both later."
The squatting ranks broke up into groups, and a number of men strolled for'ard toward my hiding-place. But I did not await them. From the shelter of the chase-gun I hunched myself back behind a water-cask, and so regained the bows, slipped overside and slid down the anchor-cable to the water.
A huge white shape floated up to me.
"Is dot you, Bob?"
"Yes. They're for attacking theJameswhen the tide turns."
He headed down-stream without a word. We were half-way to theJamesbefore he spoke.
"Dot Murray, he is a lucky feller. Always he gets what he wants."
"What does he want?" I panted.
"Now he gets rid of Flint andt derWalruscrew,ja."
"But he'll lose their half of the treasure if——"
"Maybe; maybe he don't. Andt after dot he gets rid of derJames."
"You're crazy, Peter," I said indignantly, trying my best to keep pace with him. "He'd be stranded here."
"Oh, he don't do dot here—maybe he don't do dot at all; maybe der tdefil stops helping him,ja. But if he gets der chance, you watch him, Bob. He gets rid of derJames, and maybe he gets rid of us, ja."
"Well, why do we help him, then?" I snapped, recalling my great-uncle's parting gibe.
"Dot's where he is smart, Bob. He makes it so we got to help him to safe our own skins, ja. Andt der little gal, too. For him and der Irisher dot drinks like a Lenape squaw I ain't got no use. But you andt der little gal—dot's different."
"Do you mean he intends to sacrifice all of us? And carry away the whole treasure for himself?"
"I don't know, Bob. Murray, he is a funny feller. Very funny! He likes you. He likes der little gal. Maybe he likes me—I don't know. Andt he is honest about dot oldt king dot lifs in Rome. But if any of us come in his way, he would push us aside. Dot's him now!"
The stern of theRoyal Jamesrose before us, and in one of the open windows my great-uncle's fine white head showed like a faded picture in a frame seen across a darkened room.
"Once before he planned too big," Peter whispered on. "Maybe this time Gott speaks loud to der tdefil andt stops him."
My great-uncle's voice floated down, quietly distinct.
"They are gone overlong. Gadzooks,chevalier, if they do not shortly return I'll slip my cable and take advantage of what remains of the flood to come at theWalrusand finish matters off-hand."
O'Donnell's reply was simply a querulous echo from the interior of the cabin.
"That sounds as though he had some use for us," I murmured to Peter, noiselessly treading water beside me.
"Ja. Use he has for us. Maybe he needs us when he gets rid of derJames, eh? If der tdefil fails him, he can have use for honest men, Bob."
"We'll soon know," I retorted, and twitched the rope which dangled by the rudder-post.
"Who is there?" challenged my great-uncle, instantly alert.
"Robert," I whispered back, and commenced to climb.
Both Murray and O'Donnell—the latter for the time being stirred out of his habitual gloom—assisted me over the window-sill, and it affected me oddly to note my great-uncle's unconcern for the water I dripped on his silken coat.
"You ha' suffered no hurt?" he asked eagerly.
"No, no," I answered. "Make haste to help Peter up. They are coming against us with the making of the ebb."
He was betwixt me and the window, and I could see the faint smile of satisfaction on his face.
"'Tis what was to be expected of them," he remarked. "We must improve our watch. 'Tis no compliment to our people that they failed to suspect aught of your going and coming."
Peter squattered into the cabin like an enormous toad.
"Oof!" he squeaked. "I haf bubbles under my skin. We haf a fight tonight, Murray,ja?"
"Thanks to you and Robert, friend Peter, 'twill be rather in the nature of a chastisement than a fight," he answered urbanely. "If you will pardon me, gentlemen, I will go and complete the necessary arrangements."
A tinkle of glass told me that O'Donnell was refilling his goblet.
"What's a fight to the likes of him?" muttered the Irishman dolefully. "Treachery and scheming and murdering, aye, it's a fine night for such! Oh, blessed saints, where'll we be this time the morrow?"
"Safe, beyond question," I sought to encourage him as I drew on my breeches. "'Tis never theWalrus'scaly crew will overcome us."
"Be not too sure, Master Ormerod," he retorted with unusual vehemence. "I am thinking there is the curse of high Heaven on this venture and all connected with it."
Nevertheless he buckled on his sword and accompanied us to the deck when we were dressed. Men were scurrying silently to and fro, and from an open hatch came the whine of tackle as a piece was shifted on the gundeck. Aloft, squads of topmen were unfurling shreds of canvas to give theJamessteerage way at need. On the poop my great-uncle was issuing his final orders to Martin, Saunders and Coupeau.
"You, Saunders," he said, "will stand by the anchor-cable with a broad-ax and upon my giving the word hew it asunder. Your position, Martin, will be in the waist. Keep men on the fore and main yards, ready to make sail when the cable is cut. Coupeau, of you I expect an initial broadside of crushing effect and a second fire if circumstances permit. Now to your stations, and above all things instruct your men to preserve silence. The man who makes a noise I will blow from a gun forthwith, and let that be my declaration to Flint!"
The officers gave their acknowledgments and flitted away. Simultaneously Peter pointed up the inlet.
"See!" he exclaimed.
TheWalrus'riding-light winked out. An interval of minutes, and one of the waist-lights followed it. Another interval, and she disappeared completely in the black maw of the night.
My great-uncle sneezed delicately.
"In the dark one is clumsy," he observed. "I fear I have abused my nose with an over heavy dose of Rip-Rap. Well, well! Perhaps there is a parable in the incident for such clever fellows as Captain Flint.
"I must ask you not to move about, gentlemen. We have the better part of a glass to wait for the ebb, but caution is our watchword!"
We heard theWalrusbefore we had sight of her—the slatting of a head-sail, a rattling block, a vague creak of cordage. Then an impression of a mighty shadow, a towering spiderweb of spars and lacy rigging, stealing ghost-like from the enshrouding dark.
She floated nearer. Nearer still. And nearer. It seemed that the two vessels must collide, and the suspense became unbearable. I wondered at my great-uncle's restraint. Would he never—I gasped with relief as his cool, even tones clove the silence.
"Touch off, Coupeau."
Crash! The deck leaped underfoot; the anchored hull surged forward. A red sheet of flame girdled theJames'side, and in the instant's glare theWalruswas revealed in stark detail against a setting of glittering, black water and low, forested shores. I saw a man in her foretop, aimlessly balancing a grenade. I saw men staring curiously from the gunports as our broadside smashed into them. I had a glimpse of the brutal face of Bones, peering over the bulwarks, a cutlass in his teeth.
The darkness returned, and a multitude of echoes dinned back and forth across the inlet. There was a rending and cracking of timbers, with such screams as I never hope to hear again, the screams of wicked men who face an unexpected death, oaths and blasphemy and piteous appeals, all blended into one terrible, heart-searching whole.
My great-uncle's level voice dominated the confusion as easily as it had the silence.
"Cut your cable, Saunders!"
Flint's bellow answered from theWalrus.
"Give it to 'em, ye cowardly swabs! Stand to your guns!"
The red tongues of theWalrus'guns licked out at us; the staggering roar of their discharging smote the night. The fabric of theRoyal Jamesquivered and shook as the iron hail lashed into her. A moaning and screeching rose from waist, fo'csle and gundeck:
"Oh, God!"
"My leg! My leg!"
"It hurts! Sweet Christ, how it——"
"They're out! My guts are a-runnin' out!"
"Where's my arm? Oh, God, where's my arm?"
But a third time my great-uncle mastered the uproar.
"Make sail, Martin!"
Coupeau had reloaded his guns, and theJamesfired a second broadside with the same crushing unanimity as before. TheWalrusreceded as if our fire had had the effect of physically repelling her from us. Clouds of smoke came between the ships, and I perceived that we were benefiting from the severing of the anchor-cable. The ebb tide was already sweeping us down the Anchorage toward the open sea.
TheWalrusshot off another ragged broadside, which for the most part splashed water or scattered mud, and then settled to a pegging chase, the Long Toms on her fo'csle barking fitfully as they tossed the twelve-pound shot athwart our decks. Our guns were silent. Our gundeck spewed forth men, whom Martin hustled to the yards to shake out every sail to catch the errant wind that veered gustily from southeast to southwest.
Colonel O'Donnell waved his fist at my great-uncle.
"What madness will have taken ye now, Murray?" he cried. "There was the grand chance ye had to finish the rascals once and for all. Are ye feared of them that ye turn tail—you that ha' struck first blow; aye, and second, too?"
"Not at all, sir," rejoined my great-uncle. "Having struck first blow and second blow, as you so aptly phrase it, I am of a mind to strike also thecoup de grace. And this with as trifling damage to my own vessel as is possible."
"Man, you'll never have another such chance as that ye just cast away," mourned the Irishman.
"For a soldier,chevalier, you reveal astonishing lack of judgment," returned my great-uncle. "Had I remained to finish conclusions with Captain Flint in the narrow space of the anchorage I might conceivably have gained the victory, but it must have been by means of subordinating brains to brawn, and with loss in proportion thereto. I prefer to force him to sea, where, by maneuvering and proper strategy, I can secure the same object at a half or a third of the cost."
"'Tis all the same," retorted O'Donnell. "If ye sink him, ye lose his treasure."
"Quite true," assented Murray. "But what would you say to driving him ashore, eh?"
What O'Donnell would have answered to this I know not; for there was a sudden drumming of feet on the deck, and Moira cast herself into his arms.
"Oh,padre," she cried tearfully, "and are ye safe from the cannon? I waked in my bed with their roaring, and it came over me we were on theSantissima Trinidadonce more, and poor Señor Nunez, the apothecary, groaning from his death-wound—and him that was looking forward to the quiet end of his days in the little house by Alcantara!
"And then I was thinking 'twas all a horrid dream. But the cannon blatted again, and the ship trembled, and there was a shriek at my very door. So out I ran in my shift, and Diomede the blackamoor was lying in his blood on the cabin floor, and Ben Gunn beside him a-praying. And with that I put on me enough clothing for decency's sake, and came to find ye, for my four bones are clattering with fear, and that's Heaven's truth!"
O'Donnell drew her close.
"There, there, acushla," he said with a tenderness he had only for her. "The worst will be over. There's naught for ye to fear."
She reached up and stroked his face.
"Troth, and I was thinking that same if I could but come at you,padre," says she. "But 'tis terrible fearsome to be sleeping by your lone self, and awake in the midst of a sea-fight."
Her father swore under his breath.
"Ah, 'tis I was the weak, foolish fellow to drag you into such a venture! There'll come a day I must answer——"
She stopped his mouth with her hand.
"As if I'd be anywhere else than just here!"
I turned my head, not wishing to be prying into their affairs, and a quarter-mile astern I saw a jet of flame and heard the smacking report of one of theWalrus'chase-guns.
Moira said something more that I did not hear, and he interrupted her.
"Get ye below, my maid until we——"
There was a harsh, whistling sound in the air, and the hairs on one side of my head rose up, and on the heels of this came the thud of a shot as it struck timber.
"Close, egad!" commented my great-uncle.
O'Donnell swayed strangely and drooped over his daughter's shoulder.
"Padre!" The dazed grief in her voice was tragical. "Why won't ye stand? Are ye hit? Oh, blessed Virgin, there's no sense left in him! Bob, Master Peter, help me! He's so—so—heavy."
Peter and I jumped to aid her, and Murray was not far behind us. We lowered O'Donnell's tall body to the deck, and I ran for a lanthorn. When I returned with it my great-uncle had assumed command of the situation.
"We can feel no blood or broken bones," he said. "Hold your light here by his head, if you please, Robert."
The yellow glow played over the Irishman's long face. His lips were drawn back in what had been a smile; his eyes were fixed and glassy; no pulse beat in his corded throat. Moira crouched beside him, chafing his limp hands and crooning a medley of endearments in English, Irish and Spanish. Murray, opposite her, thrust exploring fingers into the bosom of her father's shirt. A startled look appeared in my great-uncle's lambent eyes, but his features preserved their immobility.
"'Tis useless to cry to him, lass," he said gently. "He doth not answer, you see."
"But he will!" she protested. "Sure, ye must soon be finding what is wrong with him, sir. It may be a sup of brandy would bring him round."
My great-uncle reached across and plucked from her grasp the hand she had been rubbing.
"Come," he said, rising, "we will ask Peter to carry him to his berth, shall we?"
"But—but—we must bring him to!"
"We can not bring him to," he answered kindly.
She stood up, bewildered.
"Not—bring—him—to? But why?"
"Because his heart no longer beats," said my great-uncle. "Quick! Catch her, Robert."
She lay like a tired child in my arms.
"Dead!" she murmured faintly.
"He can not be dead!" I exclaimed. "There's not a wound on him."
"Neen," said Peter.
He picked up the lanthorn from where I had dropped it on the deck and directed the light upon the upper part of Colonel O'Donnell's head. A blue bruise like a scar was spread across the Irishman's left temple.
"A graze-shot," pronounced Peter. "Der cannonball came dot close.Ja!"
"But the skin is not even broken," I objected.
"Ja, but dot don't matter."
Murray bent over and fingered the bruise.
"Peter is right," he said. "'Twas the concussion affected the brain. I have heard of such a freak shot, but never seen it happen before."
Moira clung to my arms.
"And he is really dead? Thepadreis really dead? And he unshriven, without a comfort of the Church! Oh, holy saints, be his advocates! Sure, was there ever a crueler end?"
She collapsed in a passion of weeping.
"Conduct her below, Robert," said my great-uncle. "We will follow you."
She suffered me to lead her from the poop without objection, more like a child than ever, sobbing and protesting and repeating the same things over and over again, in an abandonment of grief which only the Irish can attain.
"'Tis you are the kind friend," she stammered when we had reached her stateroom, "And oh, Bob, I have the sore need of you, I that am an orphan in a pirate ship. Troth, I haven't a friend in the wide world unless it be you and Master Corlaer. But I am the bad, selfish girl to be thinking of my own plight, and the father that loved me this moment gone up to Peter's Gate, and him without the holy wafer to his lips or so much as a prayer said over him. Ah, what ill deed did we do, either one of us, that he should be taken from me so, without a word of parting? The sisters were always after saying we must reconcile ourselves to God's mercy, but 'tis little mercy has been shown to me."
I quieted her at last, brought her a swallow of brandy and induced her to lie down.
"I mustn't be crying the way I will have done," she apologized, gulping her sobs. "Himself will be needing all the prayers I can say, and a boiling of candles, too. Do you go on, Bob—only promise you'll not leave me by my lone if there's more fighting. I could never stand to hear the thundering of the cannon after—after—that—and no one by to bid me take heart o' grace."
The gray dawnlight was seeping through the stern windows when I rejoined my great-uncle and Peter in the main cabin. Peter was as placid as ever, puffing industriously at a long clay pipe; but my relative displayed more concern than I remembered to have observed in him at any time in the past.
"I trust you were able to calm the poor lass?" he greeted me. "Stap me, what a sorry business! I'd never have chosen O'Donnell for a traveling companion, but without him I know not what to do. The whole venture——"
He shook his head and stared out the window beside him, clicking the lid of his snuffbox open and shut.
"But we have first to attend to theWalrus," he added presently. "I shall do so with the less reluctance after that last shot. The cursed luck of it! A beaten enemy's blow in the dark, blindfolded, by gad! And to think it must strike down of all men the one most essential to my schemes. I could— Well, well, no matter! We must triumph over the unexpected. 'Tis the chasm all great leaders must cross to win the final victory."
I found myself somehow instinctively hostile to his attitude.
"What have you done with Colonel O'Donnell?" I asked coldly.
"Peter carried him to his stateroom. We will give him decent burial when we return to the island. And perhaps some day we can come for him in state with a squadron of King's ships and bear him home to a grave in the land he was exiled from."
My great-uncle's spirits brightened noticeably as he contemplated the picture his words presented.
"Yes, yes," he murmured half to himself. "What O'Donnell could have done surely I can do. Our friends in Avignon will help. And Robert!"
He turned to me.
"Ah, my boy, this unfortunate incident is my best justification for pressing you in my cause. What should I do without you and Peter? 'Twill be for you two, with Mistress Moira, to establish our connections with the king's agents in France."
"You seem to forget I am no Jacobite," I answered unpleasantly.
"Tut, tut, you shall be as stout a Jacobite as Prince Charles himself."
"Not I!"
He smiled.
"We'll leave that to Mistress Moira."
"Maybe you forget derWalrus," interposed Peter.
"Not so, Peter. I shall dispose of theWalruswithin the next few hours."
"AndtGott," added Peter as if Murray had not spoken.
My great-uncle laughed merrily.
"My dear Peter, men of judgment will inform you that there is no God—or, if we concede a God, there is every reason to assign a superior degree of power to the inevitable Devil representing the opposing virtue of godliness. Indeed, did I incline to bow down before any superhuman authority I should elect Satan by preference. But a ripe experience has inclined me to the view that the Devil is as much a figment of men's imaginations as God. Since the beginning of recorded time a priestly caste— But here we are drifting into a philosophical discussion; and as you very properly reminded me, theWalrusawaits our attention. Let us go on deck."
"Der wise man don't know eferyt'ing," answered Peter. "Neen!"
"Essentially true," agreed my great-uncle. "I must confess myself ignorant of such staple points as why we are here, the excuse for human existence, the relative significance of this world of ours, the utility of the differing qualities of goodness and evil. But any serious consideration, friend Peter, must convince as profound a thinker as yourself that the very existence of men and women is of itself prima-facie evidence that there can be no Divine Author of omnipotent or sentient powers."
"We better go on deck," said Peter.
"After you," protested my relative as we rose. "'Tis a pleasure to debate with you, Peter. Take care, pray! Gunn has not removed all of the evidence of Diomede's passing. Strange, is it not, how a black fellow like Diomede and a man who hath been the confidant of princes like O'Donnell should both be abolished by a simple organic disruption? That alone, Peter, should suffice to disprove the humbug of an all-wise Providence. An all-wise Providence, forsooth! Here am I, arranging to reconstruct for the better a most unhappy trio of kingdoms, with consequences bound to improve the well-being of the entire world, and my plan is suffered to be placed in jeopardy by an ignorant sailor's blind shot in the dark! What could be more absurd?"
Peter did not answer him, and we passed out upon the maindeck, where sailors were busy removing the traces of theWalrus'first broadside which had wrought a certain amount of minor damage and caused the deaths of several men. 'Twas now light enough to see about us, but the light was of a quality I had never known before—a hard, coppery glare, with the sun obscured from view. The sea was quite flat, and the wind continued intermittent, veering from one-quarter of the south to the other. Spy-glass Island lay to larboard, its contour amazingly distinct—as if it were bitten into the frame of steel-blue sea and dully shimmering sky that encompassed it. TheWalrus, like theJames, had cleared Captain Kidd's Anchorage, and was running due north before the wind betwixt us and the islet called Skeleton Island.
Murray bent a shrewd eye aloft and hailed Martin.
"How is it you carry no sail on the mizzen?" he demanded.
"Account o' that there last —— —— —— shot, cap'n," answered the mate, tugging his forelock. "If ye look to it ye'll see as how a —— —— twelve-pounder bored into her."
We all followed his pointing finger to a gouge beneath the mizzen yard. The shot that had grazed Colonel O'Donnell's head had done more than graze the mizzen. The mast was whittled away to a depth of several inches as cleanly as if a giant's ax had chopped into it.
My great-uncle took snuff very slowly.
"What luck! What luck!" he muttered.
And then louder:
"'Twas an expensive shot for us, gadzooks! Well, Martin, we must fish the mast at our earliest opportunity, but we can make shift to corner Flint without it. TheWalrusis foul and heavy in the water. TheJamescan sail circles round her in this wind."
There was a worried look in Martin's weather-beaten face.
"Askin' your pardon, sir, I don't like this —— —— wind. We're in for a —— of a storm or I'm a —— —— —— lubber."
My great-uncle shrugged his shoulders.
"Storm or no storm, Martin, theWalruscarries nigh four hundred thousand pounds."
"Aye, sir; and by your favor, best sink her and be done wi' it and run for shelter."
"Sink her! Man, we'd lose the treasure."
"Better lose theWalrus'treasure than go down ourselves," insisted Martin doggedly. "Have it your own way, sir, but I'm a —— —— —— if it ain't fixin' to blow up one o' these here tarrible Caribbee storms as pluck the hairs outn your head."
Murray regarded the four quarters of the sky for several moments.
"With your prognostications I find no quarrel, Martin," he said finally; "but I believe we have ample time to head theWalrus. Flint dares not run south because he knows the hornet's nest we have stirred up in those seas. My purpose is to box him in and force him to beach. If this wind continues we should bring him to book on the north coast of the island, and so soon as theWalrushas taken ground we will wear and beat in for the North Inlet. Doth that satisfy you?"