by Howard Pyle
“Yes, I am,” I said.
“To-night?” says he.
“To-night,” says I.
“Then God bless you!” said he, and he gave my hand a hearty grip. Then he turned upon his heel and went below, and I knew that my time for acting had arrived.
I had not much fear of sharks, for I had seen enough of those cowardly creatures to know that they rarely or never attack a swimmer or a moving man, but only a body floating upon the water as though dead; moreover, at night they are asleep or in deep water, for they are not often seen upon the surface after the darkness has fairly fallen.
After the captain left me I looked around and saw that no one else was nigh upon the deck. I took my calabash gourds and entered the boat that hung from the davits astern. Taking a hint from Captain Leach, I had secured a coil of line by which I might lower myself into the water, for if I had dropped with a splash I would have been pretty sure to have been discovered. Having removed my shoes and stockings, which I wrapped in a piece of tarpaulin, together with my tinder-box and flint and steel, all of which I secured upon my head, and having slipped the cords which bound the calabashes under my arms, I slid down the line into the water astern.
Having committed my life into the keeping of Providence, I struck out boldly for the shore, being aided by a current which set towards it, and directing my course by the lights which glimmered faintly in the distance. So I reached the beach, and built a fire, whereby I dried my clothes. Then, having put on my shoes and stockings, which had been kept pretty dry by the tarpaulin, I walked up the beach in the direction of the scattered row of houses which, the moon having now risen, stood out very plain at about a quarter of a mile distant. I found the town to consist of a great straggling collection of low one-story buildings, mostly made of woven palm-branches, smeared over with mud which had dried in the sun. At this time it could not have been much less than nine o’clock, and all was dark and silent. I went aimlessly here and there, not knowing whither to direct my steps, until at last I caught sight of a little twinkle of light, which I perceived came through a crack of an ill-hung shutter. I went around to the front of the hut, which seemed larger and better made than others I had seen. Above the door hung an ill-made sign, and the moon shining full upon it, I could plainly see a rude picture of a heart with a crown above it, and underneath, written in great sprawling letters, —
“Le Cœur du Roy.”
— From this I knew that it was an ordinary, at which I was greatly rejoiced, and also what suited me very well was to find that it was French, for I had no mind to fall in with English people just then, and I knew enough of French to feel pretty easy with the lingo. So into the place I stepped, as bold as brass, and ordered a glass of grog and something to eat.
There were perhaps half a score of rough, ill-looking fellows gathered around a dirty table playing at cards by the light from a flame of a bit of rope’s-end stuck in a calabash of grease. They laid down their cards when I came in, and stared at me in a very forbidding fashion. However, I paid no attention to them, but sat down at a table at some little distance, and by-and-by the landlord, a little pot-bellied, red-faced Frenchman, brought me a glass of hot rum and a dish of greasy stew seasoned with garlic. He would have entered into talk with me, but I soon gave him to understand that I had no appetite for conversation just at this time; so after having made a bargain for lodgings during the night, he withdrew to a bench in the farther corner of the room, where I presently saw him fall asleep.
If I had hoped to escape from meeting my own countrymen, I soon discovered that I was to be sadly disappointed, for before I had been in the place a quarter of an hour I found that at least half the fellows around the table were Englishmen. They were the most villanous, evil-looking set of men that I had beheld in a long time, and I could not but feel uneasy, for I had with me gold and silver money to the value of between ten and eleven guineas, and by their muttering together and looking in my direction now and then I knew that they were talking concerning me.
Presently one of the fellows got up from the table and came over to the place where I sat.
“Look ‘ee, messmate,” said he, seating himself upon the corner of the table beside me; “be ye English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, or what?” At first I was of a mind to deny being an Englishman, but on second thoughts I perceived that it would be useless to do so, there being the scum of so many peoples at that place that I could not hope to escape exposure.
“Why, shipmate,” said I, “I’m an Englishman.”
“Where do ye hail from?” said he.
“Over yonder,” said I, pointing in the direction of the Lavinia.
“Did ye come aboard of the craft that ran into the harbor to-day?”
I nodded my head.
“Did ye come ashore without leave?”
I nodded my head again.
The others had all laid down their cards and were looking at us by this time, and I knew not what would have been the upshot of the matter had not the door just then been flung open and a great rough fellow come stumping into the place.
“Well,” he bawled, in a loud, hoarse voice, “poor Ned is on his way to h — l hot-foot to-night. I just came by his stew-hole over yonder. Pah!” — here the fellow spat upon the floor— “he was screeching and howling and yelling as though the d — l was basting him already.”
“Who’s with him now?” says one of the fellows at the table.
“Who’s with him?” says the other, in a mightily contemptuous tone. “Why, d’ye think that anybody would be such a —— fool as to stay with him now, with nothing to be got for it but the black tongue and a cursing?”
“But what I say is this,” said an ill-looking one-eyed fellow: “he’s not the man to serve his trade for all these here years and nothing to show for it. It’s all very well to say that Jack Mackra shot the hoops off his luck; but you mark my words, he’s got a cable out to windward somewhere, and he ain’t goin’ to run on the lee shore with an empty hold.” I was so amazed to hear my own name spoken that I knew not at first whether to believe that which mine ears had heard or whether they had heard aright. Then it was as though a sudden light flashed upon me. I needed not the next speech to tell me everything.
“Well,” says one of the fellows, “even if so be as Ned England is going to smell brimstone before this time to-morrow, I for one see no reason to lose our game. Come along, Blake,” he sang out to the fellow who had been speaking to me, and who rejoined the others upon being bidden.
I was in a great ferment of spirits at all this, for I perceived very clearly that England was mightily sick, and perhaps dying, with that dangerous fever known as the “black tongue,” from which it is a rare thing for a man to recover with his life.
I observed that the fellow who had lately come into the ordinary did not join in the game along with the rest, but sat looking on. By-and-by I contrived to catch his eye as he glanced in my direction, whereupon I beckoned to him, and he came over to the table where I sat. Only a few words passed between us, and those in a very low tone.
“Is Ned England all alone?” said I.
“Yes,” said he.
“Will you show me where he is?” said I.
He shot a quick look at me from under his brows. “How much will you give?”
“A guinea” said I.
“I’ll do it.”
“When?”
“To-morrow morning.”
That was all that passed, and then he moved away and joined the others at the table.
The next morning I purchased a good large pistol from mine host, for I saw that with such companions as I was like to fall in with I would need some sort of weapon to protect myself. Having loaded it with a brace of slugs, I thrust it in my belt, and then stepped out of the door, where I found my acquaintance of the night before waiting for me.
“Are you ready?” said I.
“Yes,” said he, “I am; but I must see the color of your money before I go a single step.
”
“It is yellow,” said I, and held the guinea out in the palm of my hand.
When he saw it his eyes shone like coals and his fingers began to twitch. “Hand it over,” says he, “and I’ll take ye straight.”
“No, no,” said I; “avast there, shipmate. You get your money when I see Captain Edward England, and not before.”
“So be it,” says he. “Lay your course straight ahead yonder, and I’ll follow after and tell you how to go.”
I looked coolly into the fellow’s face, and could not help grinning. “Why,” says I, “to tell the truth, shipmate” (here I drew my pistol out of my belt and cocked it), “I have no appetite for a knife betwixt the ribs; so you’ll just march ahead, and if you try any of your tricks I’ll put a brace of bullets through your head as sure as you’re alive.”
The fellow looked at me for a while in a puzzled sort of way; then he grinned, and swinging on his heel strode away, I following close behind him with the pistol ready cocked in my hand. We went onward in this way for about half a mile, until we came to a little hut that stood by itself beyond the rest of the town. My guide stopped short about fifty paces away from the hut. “There’s where you’ll find Ned England,” said he, “and I’ll go no farther for ten guineas, for I’ve no notion of catching the black tongue; and if you’ll hearken to a bit of advice, shipmate, you’ll give it a wide berth yourself.”
I felt assured the fellow was telling me the truth, so I paid him his guinea, and then turned away and left him standing where he was, and as I stopped in front of the hut and looked back I saw that the man was yet standing in the very same spot, staring after me.
I may confess that I myself was somewhat overcome with fear of the dreadful disease, wherefore I stood for a moment before I knocked upon the door. But I presently rallied myself, calling to mind that this was the only means of recovering the Rose of Paradise, even if it was at the risk of my own life; therefore I knocked loudly on the door with the butt of my pistol.
My guide, who stood still in the same place, called out to me that there was no one to hear my knocking; so I pushed open the door and entered the hut.
For a while I saw nothing, for it was very dark within. But I heard a hoarse and chattering voice, scarce above a whisper, crying continually, “Hard a-lee! — hard a-lee! — hard a-lee!”
Presently mine eyes became accustomed to the gloom, and I might see the things around more clearly. There, in the corner of the room, lying upon a mat of filthy rags, his body almost a skeleton, his bloodshot eyes glaring out from under his matted hair, I beheld the famous pirate, Captain Edward England.
THERE, IN THE CORNER, I BEHELD THE FAMOUS PIRATE, CAPTAIN EDWARD ENGLAND.
XVI.
I MAY TRULY say that when I saw the doleful state of the poor wretch, and how he lay there without so much as a single soul to moisten his lips or to give him a draught of cold water, I forgot mine own troubles for the time being, and thought only of his pitiable condition.
I sometimes misdoubt whether I should have felt grieved for such a wicked and bloody man, who had for years done nothing but commit the most dreadful crimes, such as murther and piracy and the like, yet seeing him thus prostrated, lying helpless, and deserted by all his kind, I could not help my bowels being stirred by compassion; wherefore I thought neither of the danger from his fever, nor of the many grievous injuries which he had done, both to myself and to others, but only of relieving his present distresses.
My first consideration was to make him more clean, wherefore I fetched some water from a rivulet which I had noticed flow nigh to that place, and washed his hands and face, and so much of his body as seemed to me fitting. Then I gathered some fresh palm-leaves, and covered them over with a bit of sail which I found rolled up in the back part of the hut, and having thus made thereof a clean and comfortable bed, I carried the poor wretch thither and laid him upon it.
As I had eaten nothing that morning, I went back into the town and bought a lump of meat and some fresh fruit, and then back again to the hut. I noticed here and there some that stood and looked after me, though they said nothing to me, nor molested me in any manner. I afterwards found that my guide had so spread the news of my going to England’s hut that many knew it, and accredited me with being a friend of the pirate’s, and even a partaker in his wicked and nefarious deeds. Whether it was from this or from fear of contagion of the fever I know not, but certain it is I was never once molested so long as I was upon that island.
When I returned to the hut it seemed to me that the sick man had less fever than when I left him, which perhaps happened from the refreshment of the washing that I had given him, though it might have been that the crisis of his distemper had arrived, and that his complaint had now lessened in its intensity.
Some time after mid-day I was sitting beside the sick man, fanning both him and myself, for though the nights were cool at this season of the year, the middle of the day was both exceeding hot and sultry. He had ceased in his incessant and continuous muttering and talking, and was now lying quite silent, though breathing short and quick with the fever. Suddenly he spoke. “Who are you?” said he, in a quick, sharp voice.
I thought at first he was still rambling in his mind, but when I looked at him I saw that his bloodshot eyes were fixed upon me. I placed my hand upon his brow, and though still very hot, I fancied that the skin was not so dry nor so hard as it had been.
“Who are you?” said he again in the same tone.
“There,” said I, “lie still and rest. You have been mightily sick.”
“Is it Jack Mackra?” said he.
“Yes,” said I.
“And what do you do here?” said he.
“I am come to care for you just now,” said I; “but now rest quietly, for I will not answer one single question more, and that I promise you.”
He did not seek to speak again, but lay quite still, as though meditating; and presently, as I sat fanning him, I saw him close his eyes, and after a while, by his deep and regular breathing, knew that he was asleep, and that his fever had turned.
As I remember all the circumstances concerning these things, I think that up to this time I had given little if any thought concerning the treasure of which I had been in quest; but now, seeing the sick man fairly asleep, and in what seemed to me a fair way to mend, my mind went instantly back to it again, for I felt well assured that I should find it or some signs of it about the place where I then was.
It is not needful to recount all the manner in which I prosecuted my search for the gem, for not only did I examine every scrap of paper about the place in hopes of finding some matter concerning it, but I sounded the walls, and pierced wellnigh every inch of the dirt floor with a sharpened stick of wood, but found not one single sign of it anywhere. I even searched in the pockets of the breeches which the sick man wore, and of his coat and waistcoat, which hung against the wall, but discovered nothing to reward my search — all that I found there being a book of needles and thread, a tailor’s thimble, a great piece of tobacco, such as seafaring men always carry with them, a ball of yarn about half the bigness of an orange, and a hasp-knife.
I cannot tell the bitter disappointment that took possession of me when my search proved to be of so little avail; for I had felt so sure of finding the jewel or some traces of it, and had felt so sure of being able to secure it again, that I could not bear to give up my search, but continued it after every hope had expired.
When I was at last compelled to acknowledge to myself that I had failed, I fell into a most unreasonable rage at the poor, helpless, fever-stricken wretch, though I had but just now been doing all that lay in my power to aid him and to help him in his trouble and his sickness. “Why should I not leave him to rot where he is?” I cried, in my anger; “why should I continue to succor one who has done so much to injure me, and to rob me of all usefulness and honor in this world?” I ran out of the cabin, and up and down, as one distracted, hardly knowing whither I went. But b
y-and-by it was shown me what was right with more clearness, and that I should not desert the poor and helpless wretch in his hour of need: wherefore I went back to the hut and fell to work making a broth for him against he should awake, for I saw that the fever was broken, and that he was like to get well.
I did not give over my search for the stone in one day, nor two, nor three, but continued it whenever the opportunity offered and the pirate was asleep, but with as little success as at first, though I hunted everywhere. As for Captain England himself, he began to mend from the very day upon which I came, for he awoke from his first sleep with his fever nigh gone, and all the madness cleared away from his head; but he never once, for a long while, spoke of the strangeness of my caring for him in his sickness, nor how I came to be there, nor of my reasons for coming. Nevertheless, from where he lay he followed me with his eyes in all my motions whenever I was moving about the hut.
One day, however, after I had been there a little over a week, against which time he was able to lie in a rude hammock, which I had slung up in front of the door, he asked me of a sudden if any of his cronies had lent a hand at nursing him when he was sick, and I told him no.
“And how came you to undertake it?” says he.
“Why,” said I, “I was here on business, and found you lying nigh dead in this place.”
He looked at me for a little while in a mightily strange way, and then suddenly burst into a great loud laugh. After that he lay still for a while, watching me, but presently he spoke again.
“And did you find it?” says he.
“Find what?” I asked, after a bit, for I was struck all aback by the question, and could not at first find one word to say. But he only burst out laughing again. “Why,” says he, “you psalm-singing, Bible-reading, straitlaced Puritan skippers are as keen as a sail-needle; you’ll come prying about in a man’s house looking for what you would like to find, and all under pretence of doing an act of humanity, but after all you find an honest devil of a pirate is a match for you.”