CHAPTER VII.
THE PERPLEXITY OF BEING NEITHER THOROUGH-FACED ROGUE, ARRANT FOOL, NORHONEST MAN.
We stayed at Fuerteventura nine days, and then made sail, being again ingood condition and nothing lacking, and shaped our course for the WestIndies. And as Parsons had foreseen, Rodrigues was appointed captain ofthe _Adventurer_, while Parsons took the place of master on board the_Sure Hawk_. This pleased the _Adventurer's_ company vastly, for alllooked upon Rodrigues with open admiration, backed up by secret hope;and, indeed, there was no man more proper for this post.
No sooner had we quitted our anchorage than we began, Parsons and I, towork upon the minds of those foolish fellows who had to be prepared forthat change we intended to bring about. So now Parsons, instead ofpainting the glories and delights of Guiana, as he had done with a veryfree hand, when inducing them to leave their fishing villages and joinour ships, did treat all such glories with derision, telling them theywere like all to get a good deal more than they expected, and thrustinghis tongue in his cheek with a wink of his one eye at me for all to see.Whereupon these fellows did begin to scratch their heads and think theyhad been hoodwinked, and led into a business which had been better leftalone. And from that he went on to tell of all the horrible beasts andworms there existed in the marshes of those parts; the poisonous fruitsin the forests, all so like the wholesome that one never knew whetherhis meal was to give him strength or burst him open by its venomousswelling; of the cannibals, whose shoulders grew higher than theirheads, and whose arms were two fathoms long; and such-like wild stories.If any one doubted the truth of what he said, he would appeal to one ofthose men who had previously voyaged with Rodrigues, and these, seeingwhich way the cat jumped, confirmed him in every lie, no matter howoutrageous. Then he came gradually to talk of Hawkins and Morgan, andfellows of that kidney, exalting them to the skies--in fine, we carriedthis business so well that by the time we arrived at Trinidado there wasnot one man aboard the _Sure Hawk_ but that heartily wished to rove theSouth Sea for gold rather than to seek it in Guiana; yet, for all that,a good half of the crew were stanch and faithful to our captain, andprepared to die with him in the wilds; nor would they listen to anythingin his disfavor, or any project of desertion. And the reason of this wasthat Sir Harry Smidmore, being of a lively and sanguine temperament, andhaving unbounded faith in the success of his enterprise, had ever acheerful and kind word for his men, and neglected not to comfort thecompany in every possible way, so that he won all the hearts to him thathad any decent feeling. Indeed, as the fresh sea air purged away mysplenetic humor, and the society of sturdy men inspired me with awholesome shame of those contemptible humors which were bred bysolitude, I no longer harbored an envious jealousy toward Sir Harry,perceiving plainly how far above mine were his claims to the love ofLady Biddy Fane. Feeling thus with regard to him, I could neither wishto do him a mischief myself, nor to see him come to harm by other hands.Yet every day it became more obvious that a cruel end awaited him. Therewas no chance of his forsaking the expedition into Guiana to become apirate on the high seas, and it was therefore clear that he must beprivately got rid of to avoid a mutiny amongst these thirty or fortygood men who were stanch to him.
I own I was greatly perplexed over this matter, and more than once I wason the point of revealing the conspiracy to him; for I felt that, if hewere murdered, I should, in a manner, have his blood upon my conscience;but as many times was I deterred from this confession by recalling myoath to Rodrigues, and by a certain sense of honor which may exist evenamongst such rogues as we were. And so I was terribly put to it all thetime we lay at Punto de Gallo, revictualing and making the finalpreparations for going up the Orinoco.
We lay off Punto de Gallo three days, and the men of both shipsmingling, Ned Parsons and Rodrigues found occasion to lay their headstogether pretty frequently; and this boded me no good, for Parsons hadever kept a jealous and suspicious watch upon my movements, and musthave perceived my growing love for our captain. On the evening of thethird day, we three being ashore together, and come to a spot free fromobservation, Rodrigues says:
"If this breeze holds, we are likely to sail to-morrow; and as we maynot get another chance of conversing privily, let us settle what's to bedone, and how we are to do it when we are aboard."
"Ay, we've had enough shill-I-shall-I," says Parsons, in his surly tone.
"We should have been further off from success if we had gone a shorterway to work, Ned," said Rodrigues, "as you know well enough, though youwon't own to it. If we had followed your advice and thrown the captainoverboard when we left the Canaries, half the men would have beenagainst us, and looked upon the first storm that came as a judgment uponus. It's no good setting men to a task before they're prepared for it.Now there's not a man aboard the _Adventurer_ who is not thirsting toget at the Spaniard."
"You've had them all to yourself; but it's another matter aboard the_Sure Hawk_," says Parsons; "there's a score of half-hearted fellowsamongst us that were better at home."
"That's as you think, Ned. What say you, Pengilly?"
"The men's hearts are as stout as ours," says I; "and as ready to meetthe Spaniard as any of your crew. I'll answer for them."
"Perhaps you'll answering for their flinging the captain overboard whenthe time comes?" says Parsons, with a sneer.
"I'll answer for you, Parsons, if there's a cowardly murder to be done;but for no one on board the _Sure Hawk_," says I. "I warn you,Rodrigues, that if you attempt the life of Sir Harry, you'll have ascore of us to settle with, him and Benet Pengilly among the number."
"There, didn't I tell you as much?" says Parsons, nudging Rodrigues.
Rodrigues frowned on him to be still, and turning to me, says, calmly--
"What do you mean by that, Pengilly?"
"I mean this: our captain shall not be murdered," says I.
"And how can you prevent it, pray?" asks Parsons.
"There'll be plenty of time to warn him before you can silence me,Parsons."
"Didn't he swear secrecy by the cross, Rodrigues?"
"Yes, I did," says I; "but I'll break my oath rather than have murder onmy conscience!"
"Conscience! How long have you been troubled with that commodity?" askshe.
"Fool! you be still," cries Rodrigues, stamping his foot. "Haven't yousense enough to see that Pengilly's warning saves us from the very thingthat I have dreaded all through? I know the mischief of havingdiscontented men in a crew."
"Settle it how you will," says Parsons with an oath, getting up andturning his back on us. "Curse this dodging backwards and forwards, sayI!"
"If the captain were out of the way, and you took his place, as lawfulrepresentative of your uncle, the men would do your bidding, wouldn'tthey, Benet?" said Rodrigues in a friendly tone.
"No doubt," says I; "but I will not have any hand in this business ifviolence is to be done to Sir Harry."
"Then what do you propose we should do?" asks he.
"He lies ashore to-night: why shouldn't we sail without him?"
"That's better than ever!" cries Parsons, turning round. "Leave him hereto send a king's ship after us. A plaguey good notion, that," and heburst out into a horse-laugh.
"That won't do, Ben," says Rodrigues; "as Ned says, we should have aman-of-war sent after us, and so have to fight English as well asSpaniards. I think I can offer something better than that"; and drawingme aside that Parsons might not hear, he dropped his voice and said:"Supposing, when we are out at sea, we tell the captain ourdetermination to go roving, and ask him to join us?"
"He will refuse: that's certain."
"Very well; then let us give him one of the ships and let him go with asmany of the men as choose to join him. What say you to that?"
I agreed to this readily; for it seemed a better way out of the messthan any I had imagined.
"Good," says he; "so shall it be. Now, leave me alone with Parsons. Heis a self-willed, headstrong fellow; but I know how to manage him, and Ipromise you
I will make him hear reason."
So I left them, never dreaming but that Rodrigues, for his own interest,was dealing fairly in this business, and speaking his mind honestly.
That night our captain brought aboard an Indian Cazique named Putijmafor our pilot. This man told us that the true mouth of the Oronoque andthe best for us to enter was in the Boca de Nairos, and about thirtyleagues south of Punto de Gallo; and thither it was agreed, the breezeremaining prosperous, we should sail the next day.
When this news was imparted to our company there was a great cheer, andevery man set to with a will getting the ship ready that she might sailat daybreak; and the sky being very fair and clear they worked all nightto this end, and there was such bustle of men coming on board, shoutingof orders, and getting things in their places, that no sleep was to begot.
A little before daybreak I turned out of my cot, and, going on deck,found that some were already aloft shaking out the sails, while otherswere heaving up the anchor, and all singing of sea songs, and as merryas any grigs. Ere yet the sun had risen our sails filled; we left ouranchorage, and, looking out, I spied the _Adventurer_, her sails spread,following pretty close in our wake. Then, the light growing amain, Iperceived one strange face amongst our company, and then another, andafter that a third and fourth, and so on, till I numbered a full dozen;yet these men were not so strange to me but that I recognized them asbeing part of the crew of the _Adventurer_. Upon this, suspectingmischief, I cast my eye about for those men whom I have spoken of asbeing stanch and loyal to our captain, and not one of these could Ifind. In this I saw clearly the villainy of that subtle Rodrigues, who,by thus shifting the crew, ensured his plan against opposition, for notone man now on board the _Sure Hawk_ could be counted on to side withthe captain in going to Guiana, whereas all would readily agree toridding themselves of him in order that they might follow their ownlawless bent uninterrupted; meanwhile, by his own persuasion and theinfluence of the rascally crew on the _Adventurer_, those simple fellowsfrom the _Sure Hawk_ who still held to an honest course could be easilywon over to his purpose. To make sure that the change on board was notdue to accident, I sought out Ned Parsons; but the rascal, seeing mecoming, feigned to be mightily busy, so that I could not get a word outof him in any way, which served to convince me of his treachery. Gettingno satisfaction from him, I went into my cabin, and there, sitting on mycot, I turned the matter over in my mind, and, after looking at it thisway and that, I resolved I would go and warn Sir Harry of his danger;for, as I told Rodrigues, I was prepared to break any number of oathsrather than be a party to a foul murder. And, lest I should be creditedwith more generosity in coming to this decision than I deserve, I willhere confess that I was not unmindful of my own peril. For, if it servedthe purpose of these desperadoes to throw our captain overboard, whyshould they spare me? I laid no faith whatever in the promises ofRodrigues; nay, I was inclined to believe Ned Parsons the honester rogueof the two. I knew that all he considered was how to advance his ownfortune. Had the crew been more difficult to seduce and less disposed tobecome pirates, then it would have served his turn to carry out hisoriginal project, and give the enterprise a fair face by appointing me,as nephew of Sir Bartlemy Pengilly, their generalissimo; but now that itwas clear the whole body of men needed no such countenance to theirproject, it would be expedient to get rid of me as well as Sir Harry. Soto the captain, who still lay in the cabin, I went, and asked him if heknew of the change that had been made.
"Ay, Pengilly," says he cheerfully; "I ordered it so. Parsons tells methere is a lawless spirit spreading amongst the men on the _Adventurer_,and he picked out certain of them as being the worst. These Rodriguesbegged me to take with us in the _Sure Hawk_ in exchange for those hethought might bring the rest to a healthier way of thinking on the_Adventurer_."
"That villain, Rodrigues!" I exclaimed. "I saw his devilish hand inthis. We are lost!"
"Lost? What do you mean by that?" asks Sir Harry, bating his breath.
"I mean that you have parted with the only honest men in the crew, andhave none but ruffians left about you."
"Nay, you wrong them. Desperate they are, for who but desperate menwould dare a desperate enterprise? But they are honest--I'll answer for'em. They have sworn to follow me, and they will."
"You will be lucky to get away without such followers," says I; "but, intruth, I doubt if we do ever set foot again on dry land."
Sir Harry could not speak awhile for astonishment. At length he says,speaking low:
"Are you sure of this you tell me, Pengilly? Are you honest with me?"
"I'll say nothing for my honesty," says I; "but I'll swear to the truthto what I tell you. There's not a man but is already a pirate at heart;and they only want a signal from Rodrigues to kill us and hoist thebloody flag."
Sir Harry started up, and took a pace or two across the cabin; then,coming to a stand, he turns and says:
"No, Pengilly; I can't believe this. Tell me you have tried to fool me,and I'll forgive you."
"Nay, but you must believe," says I, "or you can not escape else"; andthen I laid bare all that I knew, with my own share in the villainousscheme, not sparing myself the shame of this confession. He listened tome patiently, but when I came to an end he says, with passion:
"God forgive you, Pengilly! for my ruin is on your head."
But presently growing calmer, for I made no attempt to defend myselffrom this charge, he adds:
"Take no heed of what I said, Benet. You have done no more nor less thanI, or a better man than I, could have done in your place. You risk yourlife in trying to save mine, whereas you might have made your fortune(though I doubt if you could ever have enjoyed it) by betraying me."
"He held out his hand, and I took it. Then in a more cheerfull andvigorous tone, he says:
"Come, we are both in the same pickle; let us see how, perchance, we mayget out of it."
Then we set our wits to work that we might discover how we two were toovercome the craft and force of all those hardy villains that wasagainst us. I was for knocking Parsons on the head, taking thenavigation in our own hands, running the ship ashore, or on the firstshoal we came to; and I think Sir Harry would have acted on this design,but that it pleased Providence to give us no chance that way.
The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane Page 7