CHAPTER VI.A SLIGHT CHANGE.
Theywere very unpleasantly interrupted by the sharp report of a pistol, apparently proceeding from the deck, and springing to his feet, the harpooner darted up the companion-way.
As he emerged from the entrance, however, he was seized and thrown down before he could use his rifle, by three of the New Zealanders, who had evidently been lying in wait for him. They fastened his arms and his legs with strong cords, and then stepping back a few paces, glared upon him with Satanic exultation. At the same moment, turning his eyes to the right, he saw the corpulent figure of Stump lying near thefoot of the mizzen-mast, and, bending over it, the sinewy form of the savage Driko. The islander was engaged in securing the limbs of the prostrate man with ropes, and upon raising his head to obtain a better view, Marline perceived that the poor fellow was senseless. His pistol was lying by his side, and near that a belaying-pin, the latter of which, the young man at once divined, had been used to deal the shipkeeper the blow which had deprived him of consciousness.
“Ay, ay,” said one of the New Zealanders, as though he guessed our hero’s thoughts, “De Portuguese at de wheel go behind him and knock him down with pin—strikee on de head—and den de pistol ’e go off, and we know you den pretty soon come up from de cabin, and we wait for you. Hi! hi! hi! Very good dis way to catch you!”
The fierce Driko had by this time finished his task, and rising to his feet, he now turned his eagle eyes, blazing with fury, upon the face of Marline.
“You makee lay down lances, eh? You makee you captain of dis ship, eh? Nowmecaptain, and me killeeyou!”
With which words he moved to the carpenter’s chest, took therefrom a keen-edged hatchet, then rushed to the side of the prostrate youth, and lifted the weapon on high to deal the fatal blow!
At that critical instant, a cry of anguish was heard, as Alice—who had been alarmed by the prolonged absence of her lover, and who naturally experienced a presentiment of evil—rushed from the companion-way, and threw herself between the glittering steel and the body of the harpooner!
“Spare him! spare him! Oh, for heaven’s sake, Driko—stay your hand!” she cried, in tones of such earnest entreaty, that even the stern islander was moved. He remembered—and the wild men of the Pacific isles seldom forget a favor—that this young girl had once, while the vessel was anchored near Honolulu, and the captain was ashore, saved him from being flogged by the flinty-hearted Briggs.
But then, he had afterward made her a present of a beautiful string of pearls, and had thought at the time that the gift would cancel the obligation. Now, however, many doubts upon this subject passed through his mind, as he looked downupon the sweet, earnest face of the fair pleader, and listened to her beseeching voice.
He remained buried in reflection for some time, and then in order to put an end to his perplexity, turned to his companions, and solicited their opinion upon the all-important question.
An animated discussion between them—one which was kept up withunabated ardor for nearly a quarterof an hour—was the result; and then the dusky “lawyers” unanimously decided that the gift of pearls did not quite release Driko from his obligations to his pretty benefactress.
The islander promptly threw his hatchet aside, and implied, by a dignified motion of his hand to Alice, that he would spare her lover’s life.
“Me get out of de ‘tankee’ (thank you) in dis way,” said he, “and me no owe you any more. S’posee Marline makee me mad again, why den, habbing no more tankee, me killee,quick.”
“Well, blast me!” cried Stump, who had by this time recovered his senses, “that’s what I call a lubberly way of reasoning, although good enough, I suppose, for a pow-wow. But, I tell you what it is, blackskin—if you were only a little more than half civilized, you’d feel that you was under etarnal obligations to that gal for saving your hide. She’s a sort of omnipotent creatur’, she is, and the contrast atween her pretty skin and them tater (tattoo) marks upon yours, is wonderfully striking and pictur’sque! Besides—”
The mutineers did not give the shipkeeper an opportunity to conclude his observations. Two of them lifted him to his feet, and hurried him along to the main-hold, in which they bundled him without any ceremony. Marline was soon afterward transferred to the same quarter, and Alice was led back to her apartment—the door of which was then closed and locked.
“Well,” said Stump, as he rolled over upon his back after the hatch had been secured above the heads of the two prisoners, “here we are again, thrown into nearly the same situation as we was before. We ain’t made much progress in good luck, and as misfortunes never comes single, I suppose there’ll be more breakers presently. That Portuguese sarved me a most unmannerly trick sure enough, and if I ever gethold of his long head, I shall punch it of a sartainty. But, I’ve l’arned by it another lesson, which is that them that doesn’t look on both sides of a question, is pretty sure to get swamped.”
“Ay, ay,” responded Marline, “and I ought to have thought to caution you to be on your guard against that sneaking villain at the wheel. Do you suffer any from the effects of the blow?”
“I’ve a hard head,” replied the shipkeeper, “which has always been a distinguishin’ feature of the Stumps, and mine is peculiar in that way, seeing as I was much given to butting when I was a youngster, at school, a l’arning my letters. I didn’t make much progress in books on that account; I was always and etarnally a-having these butting matches with my little shipmates, and the more I butted, the harder my head grew, which is the reason, as I take it, that after awhile I couldn’t get any l’arnin’ into it. As a nat’ral consequence, the blow I got from the Portuguese—blast him—hasn’t affected my in’ard functions.”
“I am glad to hear it,” replied Marline. “And now we must hope for the best. I think it very likely that the ship will be seen and boarded before long, by our shipmates in the boats.”
“If hoping on my part will do any good, she sartainly will be; and now I think that we might as well make a s’arch for that saw which proved a friend to me the other time I was here. It isn’t particularly wise to put up with troubles, when they can be prevented.”
And the speaker, with much difficulty, proceeded to roll himself about in different directions, in order that he might come into contact with the instrument. This, however, was not to be found, and after he had fruitlessly exerted himself until every bone in his body ached, the shipkeeper worked himself back to the side of his chum, declaring that he believed the Kanakas had guessed the manner in which he had previously liberated himself, and so had carried away the tool.
“Never mind,” replied Marline, “if we remain quiet, the cords will not give us much inconvenience.”
He had scarcely spoken, when a stream of light, caused by the opening of the run-hatch, darted into the after-part of thehold; an occurrence which was duly commented upon by Stump.
“Ay, ay,” said he, “they are a-setting Tom Lark at liberty; and, as soon as that animal gets on deck, he’ll wear ship, and then there’ll be no chance for the craft to fall in with any of the boats. It’s really miraculous, it is, the amount of mischief that such a wolf can make before the law brings him to justice, and—”
“Hark!” interrupted Marline, “the ship is in the ice now!”
“So she is,” replied Stump, as the grinding of the floating bergs against the vessel’s sides and her bottom, became louder each moment; “she’s in for it sure enough, and now if that infarnal champion for ‘equal rights’ as he calls ’em, doesn’t look out he’ll have us a-going to the locker below in a stove ship, which I wouldn’t relish exactly, seeing as my hands and feet are tied criminal-like, and Davy Jones might make a mistake and take me for a pirate. When I go below I’d prefer to go as an honest tar should, with neither ropes nor handcuffs about me. There!” he added, as the after hold again became dark, “they’ve taken him out; he’s at liberty, the big mule—and a mighty pleasant time we’ll have of it. We are prisoners now for a sartainty.”
“It is too soon yet to despair,” replied Marline. “Lark will wear ship of course, but even then, there’ll be a chance of his falling in with the boats. So keep up your spirits, my friend.”
“My spirits ain’t sunk yet,” retorted Stump, “and I think it would be a heavy sea that ’ud sink ’em. To make light of our misfortun’s is the surest way of getting rid of ’em, and it’s astonishing to me how some of my fellow creatur’s will fret themselves about small matters, and thinktheirtroubles is ‘catamount’ to everybody else’s.”
“There’s some truth in that,” retorted Marline, “and there’s nothing like meeting our misfortunes with a brave front. But look, my friend,” he suddenly added in a whisper, as he lifted his head, “it seems to me that I can make out the outlines of a figure moving about in the steerage. There is certainly somebody there, or I am very much deceived.”
“Ay, ay,” replied Stump, “you are sartainly right. I see the creatur’, and I can’t imagine who he is, seeing as only the faint outlines of him is visible. But if he stays there muchlonger we’ll get a clearer squint of him, for we are getting more accustomed-like to the darkness every minute. It’s a-making parfect cats of us—it is—so far as our eyes are consarned—this being in confinement; only I hope that it won’t prevent us from seeing clear in the daylight.”
The harpooner was about to reply, when both men suddenly beheld a number of jets of blue flame shoot up amid the gloom of the after-hold, shedding a faint, unearthly light upon surrounding objects, and thus bringing into bold relief the long, cruel face and gleaming eyes of the Portuguese steward.
“Blast him!” ejaculated Stump, “there he is, sure enough, and if them blue flames ain’t prognostical of his future downfall into the great lower hold, that’s prepared for such sinners, then you may have my pigtail, which is dearer to me than life. But, what the infarnal blackskin intends to do with that furnace of blazing charcoal that he carries, baffles my scrutiny into human natur’.”
“We shall soon see,” replied the harpooner—a terrible suspicion flashing through his mind, “we shall soon see. The villain is capable of any crime.”
“He’s a sneaking wretch,” added the shipkeeper, “as is proved by his doing every thing in a sneaking way. He must have been one of them that just liberated the chief mutineer, and in his gen’ral underhand manner, he’s contrived to remain in the hold, escaping the observation of Lark, who was too glad, I’ll warrant, when he found himself free to pay attention to his sat’lite. But whatcanthe infarnal imp be going to do with that charcoal furnace?”
Stump, however, was soon enlightened, and the suspicions of his chum confirmed; for the steward now advanced rapidly toward them, and placed the furnace upon a cask within a few yards of their feet. Then he darted forward, and drawing a pump-bolt from his pocket, he thrust it into the mouth of the shipkeeper and secured it with strong cords, heedless of the indignant remonstrances of the harpooner, and his loud hail to those on deck; for the young man did not believe that they were cognizant of the infernal plans of the Portuguese.
“Ay, ay,” said the latter, “you may cry until you be hoarse, but neither Lark nor de men will heed you, for deyt’ink you only do it so as dey can you let out of de hold. Hey! hey! hey! dis is fine revenge for de knock-down you make Lark give me. Now den, me gag you de same as Stump!” And suiting the action to the words, he forced an iron belaying-pin, with which he was provided, into the mouth of the prisoner.
“Dere,” said he, malignantly, when he had secured the instrument—“now me leave you and go on deck. De charcoal burn in de furnace, and de gas kill you before long time, de same as a rat!”
With which comfortable assurance he departed, and the two men soon afterward heard him open the run-hatch in order to make his way into the cabin.
Bound and helpless—deprived even of the consolation of speech—the situation of the two was now miserable enough. The deadly gas from the burning charcoal was fast poisoning the close atmosphere of the hold, and the prisoners could taste the sickening vapor as it entered their throats.
The air became more stifling every moment. The seamen felt their temples throb with violence—an acute pain tearing through the brain like a knife shot at intervals into the head of each.
They believed that their doom was sealed—that they were destined to expire in this miserable pent-up spot, with their rebellious shipmates within hailing distance of them, and yet—if we except the Portuguese—unaware of their condition.