Arthur D. Howden Smith

“ The purple twilight deepened. Rain sheeted down from clouds scarce higher than our mast-heads. A lurid glare of lightning flickered and was quenched in the sea. And the wind smote us with a mad howl of exultation, sucking up into its embrace everything that was not fastened to the deck.
The James shuddered under the blow, bearing down by the head and heeling to starboard. My great-uncle and I were pushed forward on our faces. The helmsman was doubled over the wheel. Peter bent to cover Moira, crouching above her on hands and knees. ”

“ My great-uncle, as immaculate as when he had ascended the James' bulwarks, stood a little ahead of the mass of his followers, his serene face and rich clothing in startling contrast with their nakedness and frank brutality. A trickle of blood dripped from the point of his slender sword. His attitude was that of an honorable man who wishes to be reasonable in a difficult situation.
"I believe I heard an appeal for quarter," he said quietly.
"Sir, you did," replied O'Donnell. "I have spoken for the gentleman beside me, Señor Don Ascanio de Hurtado y Custa, who is captain of this vessel." ”

“ Peter beckoned urgently from the rail.
"We don't talk," he ordered grimly. "We go."
There was a coil of spare cable handy, and we dropped it overside, sliding one by one into the jolly-boat which Darby held steady beneath the heft of the bowsprit. The Walrus had swung with the tide until her stern was toward the town, and Darby and I took the oars and rowed quietly along the mass of the pirate's hull in the direction of the scattered lights that represented Savannah. How beautiful they seemed to us, those tiny glimmers of rush-lights and lanthorns in a clearing in the wilderness! ”

“ I wriggled through the gap in the bulkhead, and he passed the lanthorn after me. Its flame was burning low, but I had sufficient light to determine that I stood in a stores-hold crammed with casks of rum, salt meat and ship's biscuit. A door in its for'ard bulkhead led to another hold of the orlop deck, where were a hatch and ladder leading up to the gundeck. I crept as far as the foot of the ladder and listened to the snores of the scores of men who slept in hammocks slung between the great guns of the battery. That way lay our only path of escape. ”

“ What do any of us care for the Spaniards, who have not been men enough to live up to their declarations of support of the Stuarts? Why, this girl you mouth about would cheerfully suffer death, dishonor, any torment, to win for her king the means of power we shall afford him. And this treasure, which the Spaniards have wrung from the lands they stole from the poor Indians, we wring from them as remorselessly that we may apply it to a purpose infinitely higher than the placating of royal favorites and mistresses, which is the way 'twould go in Madrid. ”

“ But I'd never seek to deny that we had pleasure from the thrill that came to us late in the afternoon of that day as we stood on the narrow beach of the islet beside a great stack of kegs and chests, axes, pickaxes and shovels, a barrel of water and boxes of food from Ben Gunn's larder, watching the boat that had landed us pull back to the James.
The ensuing five days demanded an amount of manual labor which extracted wails of indignation from Colonel O'Donnell, much uncomplaining effort from Moira and all the strength Peter and I possessed. ”

“ Murray returned their stares with an undisguised repugnance which I discovered myself to share. The Walrus was a revelation after the ordered discipline of the Royal James. In a word, she was pig-dirty. Her deck was littered with all kinds of rubbish; her rigging was slack and spliced in a fashion which seemed lubberly to me, who was a lubber; her canvas was torn, poorly patched and wretchedly furled; boats, barrels, lumber, spare spars and cables lay about in entire confusion. The planks we trod on were slippery with grease. The paint was peeling from the bulwarks. ”

“ Murray himself with Coupeau, Peter and me stood in the center of the enclosure where he could keep watch upon all that went on.
The afternoon was warm and drowsy. The Walrus looked like a toy ship on the oily-smooth surface of the inlet. There was not a sign of life aboard her, and the forest that spread betwixt us and the shore hugged silently whatever secrets it covered.
My great-uncle frowned thoughtfully.
"This is not like Flint," he remarked. "He must always fly bull-headed to the attack." ”

“ I shall dispose of the Walrus within the next few hours."
"Andt Gott," 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. ”

“ Up you go! All the sensations as come to a poor, honest pirate as is hung in chains at Execution Dock."
The rope tautened; the unseen block whined louder; and I rose involuntarily from my position across Peter's belly. My feet were jerked from a thwart, and I kicked the air. The grunts of men hauling in unison floated from the brig's deck, and as I rose faster I commenced to swing like a pendulum.
And now I understood Silver's warning as to my head, for I came into violent collision with the brig's hull and by mere luck escaped with a bruised shoulder instead of a broken skull. ”

“ Another dim vision of shot-rent bulwarks and towering sails, and the gray gloom became denser than ever. Figures on our own deck were indistinct in it.
The Spaniard blindly returned our fire as the James felt her way toward him, the thunder of the two broadsides overpowering, numbing, like the roaring of two beasts fighting in the night. I felt my great-uncle's hand on my arm; his voice was low, but distinct.
"We shall soon be broadside on with her," he said. "The O'Donnells will be on the poop. You had best get for'ard, Robert. ”

“ So I decided this evening I should have some savor of adventure to make up for being cooped all these weeks in that horrid, dirty old ship; and I made Don Pablo, who was officer of the deck, call away a boat for me—and he wringing his hands and pleading would I bring about his ruin."
I laughed, myself, at the wonderful spontaneity of her mood. Faith, I could imagine how the young dons aboard the frigate philandered themselves sick over her.
"But that has naught to do with your going to the Whale's Head tonight," I reminded her. "Indeed, you should never think of it." ”

“ Who would suspect a man who had his daughter with him? 'Tis true this enterprise is fraught with danger, but no maid can go through life without sniffing peril. We will guard her as we shall the treasure."
"I'll hold you to that," rapped O'Donnell as he climbed over the bulwarks and felt for the ladder. "I am not proud of myself when I think of her innocence. Holy saints, what a coil! Well, well, no matter. I must be going, for the night wanes."
"Yes," assented Murray. "And stir your frigate's captain to a swift passage." ”

“ And therefore, Robert, are they silent, and not because of the spell of evil deeds which you think to decipher from our surroundings. Evil enough the island hath known, I doubt not. What place could not as much be said of? But men, and especially seamen, reck little of an evil past if land be usefully available for their needs. No, no, my boy; you shall sleep securely tonight in Captain Kidd's Anchorage, for all the ghostly memories it contains. And Peter shall eat without a qualm, for the James will lie as still as the dry land in the haven's shelter. ”

“ 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 the Santissima 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." ”

“ What have you to say of your craft in deluding O'Donnell into risking his daughter aboard this treasure-ship? Do you call it honorable to persuade a foolish unbalanced fellow to take an innocent young girl out of a convent, carry her half across the world, and then, to cloak a miserable conspiracy, plunge her into the society of such scoundrels as Flint and yourself? ”

“ 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?" ”

“ Dazed by treatment I had never sustained before, I stood heedless as the ropes were unfastened beneath my arm-pits, my bonds slipped off and the gag extracted from my aching jaws. I was just beginning to take in the aspect of my surroundings when Corlaer's cask of a body topped the bulwarks, swung with ludicrous unconcern for an instant as I dare say mine had done and then lurched in and crashed to the deck. The Dutchman was purple in the face, with white spots dotting the congested area of his cheeks, and gasping for breath. ”

“ The French frigate disappeared, making the best of the heavy weather, and the Walrus was blown north and west for five days, past the latitude of Spyglass Island, past the scattered rocks and cays of the Bahamas, past the Floridas. Impossible now to watch for the tall spars of fighting-ships—as impossible as it would have been to fight them or for them to fight us, with the gray waves toppling mainyard high and the gunports buried half the time. ”

“ Coupeau was busier than ever about the battery, testing breech-ropes, pinning tighter carriage-wheels, filing glassy-smooth a pile of shot for the chase-guns that might be called upon to lop a vital spar at extreme range.
But nothing happened that day or the next. And so three more days passed with increasing tension. The lookouts in the crosstrees were relieved every two hours, that the men's vision might be fresh and unstrained. The sight of a sail anywhere on the horizon sent the crew scampering to the guns and swung the ship's bows in that quarter ”

“ Ormerod dot he let you come with me into the Iroquois country. We make a forest-runner out of you—ja! Dot's better than a pirate."
Darby contemplated this, drawing a circle on the floor with the toe of one boot.
"No," he decided finally. "I'd rather be a pirate. I know nothing of your forest, but the sea—ah, that's the life for me! And sure, a pirate has more of traveling and adventure than a forest-runner, with none but red savages and wild beasts to combat. No, no, Master Peter, I am for the pirates, and I care not how soon it may be." ”

“ May ye never know sleep that will rest ye or kindness that— Ah, but what will be the use of it all? For there will be nothing but just the fires of hell to punish one that's as bad as you."
He turned wearily and saw me, and the tears trickled down his freckled cheeks.
"Oh, Master Bob, I doubt me the cap'n dead or close to it, and Bones he—he—drove me forth, for—for fear I'd spy on him, says he—and him wi' the treasure-map he blan-handered from Flint in his weakness! By the Rock o' Cashel, I'm finished wi' pirates. They're a poor lot. Leave us go home." ”

“ My eyes strayed to the Spaniard's decks. Little knots of men ran about confusedly. A stolid-looking fellow aimed a pistol at me, and a ratline over my head fell apart. Officers were driving the sailors forward to meet us. A man in a laced coat and periwig was shouting orders from the poop, and my pulse quickened, for at his shoulder was the lanthorn-jawed face of Colonel O'Donnell—aye, and in rear of both a skirt fluttered in the midst of a huddle of raven-black figures, priests and nuns.
"Jump!" squeaked Peter in my ear. ”

“ If there was a hint of an indicated threat in this remark Murray ignored it.
"Master Martin knows his ship," he answered, "as doth Captain Flint his. You lads are forever pondering why certain men rise to command. There lies the answer, Silver. 'Tis knowledge of how to handle your ship; aye, and to fight her, and to plan at need how not to fight her."
Silver knuckled his forehead, handing back the glass.
"Sure, sir, they all says a good captain is born and never made, and we be main fortunate as has two that can't be beat or took or harried from their ways." ”

“ There were axes in the box from which I had procured the rope, and we equipped ourselves with them, waded thigh deep through the tangle of water and wreckage and attacked the maze of stays and rigging that united the dangling mizzenmast to the ship. Not a man helped us. There was not a living man in sight aft of the mainmast, and it was as much as a man's life was worth to try to work aft of that point, for on the one side there was a wide breach in the bulwarks through which the waves poured, and opposite was the gap the mizzenmast had crushed. ”

“ I obeyed him without objection, for every breath was precious and the James was already adrift, her anchor merely a pendulous weight for'ard.
The rudder I surmounted with ease, standing erect with a hand on one of Peter's legs to steady me. I stepped up to the ridge upon which the Dutchman stood with no more difficulty, holding to his leather belt. Then I changed my hand-hold to a ridge in the carving, and by his direction braced the toes of one foot in the slack of his belt as I heaved myself upward. Peter grunted. That was all. ”

“ Man, there'd be a dozen such chances while we awaited the Spaniard, and one of them you'd go for. No, I can't risk it. Alone, I can contrive not to attract attention. In company, we should stir up a hornet's nest."
"Curse me for a canting mugger, then, if I'll trade on it," snarled Flint. "I'll not trust you, Murray, and that's flat."
"Suppose that I gave you a hostage?" suggested my great-uncle tentatively.
"Hostage? Who could ye give me for hostage whose life would mean aught to you? No, no! Martin or any man you'd see with his throat cut, and never bat an eye." ”