CHAPTER IV.IN CONFINEMENT.
Thesteward—a tall man with a long face, dark gray eyes, and thin lips, advanced, and proceeded to secure the handcuffs to the wrists of the young man.
The latter eyed him sternly, for a few moments, before he ventured to address him.
“What has the captain ever done to you, Joseph,” he then said, “that you should thus turn traitor?”
“He! he! he!” laughed the Portuguese, “Captain Lark more better as Captain Howard. He take de ship to some port and sell him—cargo and all. Den me get big share of de profit.”
Marline had benefited this man in many ways—had often, by kindly interposition, shielded him from the blows of the first mate; had even, on one occasion, saved him from falling overboard while he was aloft assisting the watch to reef themain topsail in a gale of wind; and yet the ungrateful villain seemed now to exult in the misfortunes of his benefactor.
“Where is Alice?” inquired the latter, as the steward locked the handcuffs.
The Portuguese chuckled, but did not reply.
“Speak!” cried the harpooner, fiercely. “Where is she?”
“Why, of course, in de cabin—in her own room—me fasten her in so she can’t get out!”
“You are a sneaking wretch, Joseph!”
“What you say? No call me dat—I tell you,” cried the steward, as he pushed the young man against the rail.
The chief mutineer interposed. With the stock of his pistol he dealt the Portuguese a blow upon the head that felled him to the deck.
“Equal rights!” he said, quietly, as he pointed to the prostrate man, and placed the pistol in his pocket; “that’s the law aboard o’ this craft, in future. This way, Driko, Amolo, and Black Squall,” he added, motioning to three of the New Zealanders; “take Marline to the run, and fasten the hatch the same as it was fastened when I was there!”
The men obeyed with alacrity, and Marline was in the run. No sooner had the hatch been secured, than he heard the rushing of the water, and the grinding of the icebergs against the ship’s bottom, as she boomed upon her way.
His reflections were certainly very gloomy. The thought that Alice was only separated from him by a few planks, and yet that he could neither hold converse with her, nor go to her in case that Tom Lark, or any of his party, should insult her, worked upon his mind until it was wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement.
“What are the plans of these mutineers in regard to the young girl?” he asked himself again and again, and although it seemed to him that theymustrespect the purity, the loveliness, and the goodness of one who had benefited them by a thousand of those kindly little attentions to their welfare and comfort which a woman in a ship—especially if she have influence with the captain—has it in her power to bestow, yet there was a presentiment within him that whispered of trouble and suffering.
And with his head bowed upon his bosom—with his manacledhands against his brow, and his heart beating loud and fast with anxiety—he offered up a silent but fervent prayer to God, to spare his beautiful Alice—to shield her from all harm—and restore her to the arms of those who loved her.
That prayer was scarcely finished when he felt a hand upon his arm, and on lifting his head, he was enabled to make out in the gloom with which he had by this time become familiar, the outlines of a human countenance.
“Hist!” whispered a low voice, “don’t speak too loud; it’s me—Stump—and this if I ain’t mistaken is Harry Marline!”
“Ay, ay, you are right!” cried the harpooner, much surprised, “but where in the name of heaven, Stump, did you come from? You were not confined here were you? I thought you were in league with the mutineers.”
“That’s the way of the world,” muttered the shipkeeper, mournfully. “Yes—yes, that’s the way with ’em all! Sarcumstances always goes against a man, hows’ever honest he may be! But I didn’t think it, Marline—no, blast me if I did—thatyou, my chum, would ever mix up my deeds with those of them infarnal scoundrels!”
“Forgive me!” exclaimed the young man, joyfully grasping the hand of his friend as tightly as his irons would admit. “I was altogether too hasty, and I’m sorry for it. But, tell me how you came here.”
“Ay, ay,” said Stump. “I’ll explain matters willingly enough, especially as it will give me a chance to curse those rascally blueskins again, and to show you as I always was for maintaining, that them creatur’s ain’t to be trusted.”
He proceeded to tell his story, commencing with those incidents with which the reader is already acquainted.
“Yes,” continued the exasperated seaman, as soon as he had described the manner in which he had been thrust into the hole, “they fastened the hatches above me, and then I heard ’em go aft, and presently the voice of Tom Lark ordering ’em to cut the cable, and loosen the topsails, broke upon my ears, so that I knowed they had set that big hang-dog rascal at liberty. Scarcely was the ship under way, when I also heard that wild fiend Driko, proposing to Lark to knock me in the head, and thus get rid of me. But Tom, you know, although he is a parfect savage whenhe holds a grudge against anybody, doesn’t care to shed blood when he can get along without it, and that was the reason, as I take it, that he refused to comply with the polite request of that infarnal pow-wow.”
“Did you overhear any thing that gave you an idea of what Lark intended to do with the ship?”
“Not a bit of it, but I haven’t a doubt that he intends to take the craft into some out o’ the way port, and sell her—cargo and all.”
“That’s very probable,” replied his friend. “It’s a pity,” he added, “it’s a pity that the captain and his boat’s crew didn’t stay aboard as they are in the habit of doing. Then this misfortune might have been prevented.”
“Ay, ay, but we’ll be even with ’em yet,” replied the narrator, “and now I’ll tell you how I came here, which was done by a little of that ‘injunyewity’ for which the Stump natur’ has always been famous. As soon as I perceived that the craft was under way, says I to myself, ‘Why,’ says I, ‘I’m only fastened with ropes, and p’raps if I can find the old saw which is somewhere in the hold, I can make short work of ’em. And so I crept about as well as I was able, looking for the instrument, which I soon came afoul of. It was a long time hows’ever before I could get it in the right position, for I could only use my teeth to do that, and they ain’t quite as parfect as the teeth of a shark, seeing as three of ’em were once knocked out by an old woman, because I took her part against her husband who was beating her—blast him—and the rest are almost ruined by the long use of baccy and the habit of biting off the ends of spun yarn. Well, I tugged and pulled with my teeth for a long time and at last got the saw ship-shape. Then I turned my back to it, and by running the ropes that was about my wrists, up and down the edge, I soon had ’em apart. The rest was easy, and I was glad enough, lad—mightily glad to find myself freed from the cords.”
“And afterward you heard the mutineers as they led me to the run,” said Marline, “and you thought you’d take a cruise in this direction to see who the prisoner was. Isn’t that so?”
“Exactly,” repeated Stump, “but I didn’t dream who it was until I had crept close to that big opening in the partition that divides the run from the steerage. Then, as I’d got familiar-likewith the dark, I was surprised enough to see you, and I couldn’t imagine how you came here, which is the same even now.”
Marline at once proceeded to enlighten his companion, and as soon as he had concluded, the shipkeeper seized both the hands of his friend and gave them a hearty squeeze.
“Misfortunes attends the best of us,” he said philosophically, “but we’ll hope for the best—ay, ay, we’ll hope for the best, and work for it too. The gal—Miss Alice—is the great ‘consideration,’ and if we can only get her safe, why, if we can dothatit’s all right.”
“You do not think they’ll attempt to harm her?” cried Marline, interrogatively.
“I don’t know about Tom Lark,” replied Stump, “but, as to them pow-wows, I wouldn’t trust ’em—not one of ’em. The flesh of that gal is tender, and them fellows are cannibals and like good grub.”
“Can not you contrive some way for me to get an interview with Alice?” said Harry.
Stump gave his pigtail a jerk.
“I don’t see how it could be done,” he said, thoughtfully. “The hatches are all fastened above us—the door ofherroom is locked besides, and—and—ay! ay! I have it!” he suddenly interrupted, “which is that that rascally steward must open the hatch before long to pass you some food, and p’raps I’ll get a chance to pounce on him, gag him and tie him up. The rest will be as easy as the greasing of a marlinspike. I’ll get—if he has ’em about him, which I think is likely—the key of her room and the one which unlocks your handcuffs.”
“Thanks!—a thousand thanks, for this happy thought, my dear chum!” cried the harpooner.
“P’raps we may even be able to bag the mutineers themselves,” said the shipkeeper, “to shut ’em all up—the pow-wows in the forecastle, and Lark in the cabin. It’s wonderful—parfectly wonderful,” he added, thoughtfully, “how one idee leads to another. Them that is given to reflection, and the Stumps were always famous for that, propagates idees—fairly breeds ’em—one from another!”
“Hush!” whispered Marline. The sound of footsteps approaching the hatch was heard.
“It’s him—it’s that rascally Portuguese,” muttered the shipkeeper. “I’d know that walk of his from a thousand, lad. It’s peculiar—something like the tramp of a mule, and them that walks so ain’t to be trusted. Now the walk of the Stumps in every generation has been like that of a duck—a sort of waddle, and them that moves in that way generally takes to the water.”
The noise of the crow-bar—by means of which the hatch had been secured—was heard, as the implement was removed, and the next moment, just as Stump drew back, the trap was pulled aside from the opening, into which a face—the owner of which had stooped upon his knees—was thrust. Without waiting to take a survey of it, the shipkeeper seized the intruder by the hair of the head and pulled him head foremost into the run. But, before he had quite accomplished this feat, and yet when it was too late to draw back, he had seen the face clearly enough to recognize the harsh and decided lineaments of Tom Lark, which were different in every respect from those of the steward.
“Ay, ay, thatwasa mistake, sure enough!” cried Stump, scrambling quickly through the opening, as soon as the uplifted legs of the prostrate man beneath had been removed from it, “such a mistake as I never made before in my life, and as prudence is the better part of valor, I think I am parfectly justified in getting out of the run!”
He lifted his feet clear of the aperture just in time to escape the hand of the mutineer as the latter, who had by this time risen from his uncomfortable posture, made a furious attempt to clutch the bottoms of his pants.
“You wretched imp of Satan!” roared Lark, in a voice of thunder, as the other eluded his grasp, “you shall suffer for this trick!”
And he thrust a hand into the side-pocket of his Guernsey, to procure his pistol.
Stump saw the movement, and quickly seizing the crow-bar lying at his feet, he dealt the mutineer such a heavy blow upon his head—which projected at least eighteen inches above the combings of the hatch—that he dropped senseless into the run.
“It was all done in self defense!” cried the shipkeeper, ashe leaped back into the hold. “Ay, ay—that it was, sure enough. But, bad as the man is—and he’s a parfect shark—it cost me something to give him that blow, seeing as I’m not in the habit of indulging myself in that way. I hope I haven’t committed murder—I hope he isn’t dead!”
“He’s only stunned, I guess,” replied Marline. “He’ll soon come to his senses.”
“You think he will?” cried Stump, twitching his pigtail a little nervously. “You think he’ll broach to again? My eyes! seeing as that’s the case, then I think it would be as well to take time by the forelock—to provide myself with his pistol, and to make him fast, so he can’t do any more harm. He’ll never forgive me—no, never—when he gets over his faint. It’s astonishing how the human family holds grudges!” And, drawing his sheath-knife, he proceeded, with all possible dispatch, to cut from one of the numerous coils of ratlin stuff lying about him, a sufficient number of the twisted strands to secure the arms and legs of the giant.
This task was soon accomplished, after which the mutineer was properly secured, and his pistol transferred from his own to the pocket of his conqueror.
“Now, then,” said the latter, breathing a sigh of relief, “I think he’ll be surprised when he wakes.”