← catalogue

Martin Conisby's Vengeance

by Jeffery Farnol · English · Gutenberg #9835 · 557,043 chars · public domain (US)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Martin Conisby's Vengeance
    
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: Martin Conisby's Vengeance

Author: Jeffery Farnol


        
Release date: February 1, 2006 [eBook #9835]
                Most recently updated: December 26, 2020

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9835

Credits: Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and PG Distributed Proofreaders


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARTIN CONISBY'S VENGEANCE ***




Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and PG
Distributed Proofreaders











MARTIN CONISBY'S VENGEANCE

BY JEFFERY FARNOL


1921


TO MY DEAR AUNTS

MRS. MARRIOTT

AND

MISS JEFFERY
"AUNTIE KIZ"

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK




CONTENTS

CHAPTER


I HOW MY SOLITUDE CAME TO AN END

II MY TROUBLES BEGIN

III HOW I HEARD A SONG THAT I KNEW

IV HOW I LABOURED TO MY SALVATION

V TELLETH HOW ALL MY TRAVAIL CAME TO NOUGHT

VI HOW I SUCCOURED ONE DON FEDERIGO, A GENTLEMAN OF SPAIN

VII I AM DETERMINED ON MY VENGEANCE, AND MY REASONS THEREFOR

VIII HOW THE DAYS OF MY WATCHING WERE ACCOMPLISHED

IX WE FALL AMONG PIRATES

X HOW I CAME ABOARD THE _HAPPY DESPATCH_ AND OF MY SUFFERINGS THERE

XI HOW I FOUGHT IN THE DARK WITH ONE POMPEY, A GREAT BLACKAMOOR

XII OF BATTLE, MURDER AND RESOLUTION DAY, HIS POINT OF VIEW

XIII HOW WE FOUGHT AN ENGLISH SHIP

XIV TELLETH HOW THE FIGHT ENDED

XV HOW I FELL IN WITH MY FRIEND, CAPTAIN SIR ADAM PENFEATHER

XVI HOW I HAD WORD WITH MY LADY, JOAN BRANDON

XVII TELLETH THE OUTCOME OF MY PRIDEFUL FOLLY

XVIII OF ROGER TRESSADY AND HOW THE SILVER WOMAN CLAIMED HER OWN AT LAST

XIX HOW JOANNA CHANGED HER MIND

XX I GO TO SEEK MY VENGEANCE

XXI HOW I CAME TO NOMBRE DE DIOS

XXII HOW AT LAST I FOUND MY ENEMY, RICHARD BRANDON

XXIII HOW I FOUND MY SOUL

XXIV OF OUR ADVENTURE AT SEA

XXV WE ARE DRIVEN ASHORE

XXVI OUR DESPERATE SITUATION

XXVII WE COMMENCE OUR JOURNEY

XXVIII WE FALL IN WITH ONE ATLAMATZIN, AN INDIAN CHIEF

XXIX TELLETH SOMEWHAT OF A STRANGE CITY

XXX WE RESUME OUR JOURNEY

XXXI I MEET A MADMAN

XXXII HOW I FOUND MY BELOVED AT LAST

XXXIII OF DREAMS

XXXIV OF LOVE

XXXV OF THE COMING OF ADAM AND OF OUR GREAT JOY THEREIN




MARTIN CONISBY'S VENGEANCE




CHAPTER I

HOW MY SOLITUDE CAME TO AN END


"Justice, O God, upon mine enemy. For the pain I suffer, may I see him
suffer; for the anguish that is mine, so may I watch his agony! Thou art a
just God, so, God of Justice, give to me vengeance!"

And having spoken this, which had been my prayer for three weary years, I
composed myself to slumber. But even so, I started up broad awake and my
every nerve a-tingle, only to see the moonlight flooding my solitude and
nought to hear save the rustle of the soft night wind beyond the open door
of the cave that was my habitation and the far-off, never-ceasing murmur
that was the voice of those great waters that hemmed me in,--a desolate
ocean where no ships ever sailed, a trackless waste that stretched away to
the infinite blue.

Crouched upon my bed I fell vaguely a-wondering what should have roused me,
hearkening to the distant roar of the surf that seemed to me now plaintive
and despairing, now full of an ominous menace that banished gentle sleep.

Thereupon I must needs bethink me how often I had waked thus during my long
and weary sojourn on this lonely island; how many times I had leapt from
slumber, fancying I heard a sound of oars or voices hailing cheerily beyond
the reef, or again (and this most often and bitterest phantasy of all) a
voice, soft and low yet with a wondrous sweet and vital ring, the which as
I knew must needs sound within my dreams henceforth,--a voice out of the
past that called upon my name:

"Martin--Oh, Martin!"

And this a voice that came to me in the blazing heat of tropic day, in
the cool of eve, in the calm serenity of night, a voice calling, calling
infinite pitiful and sweet, yet mocking me with my loneliness.

"Martin, dear love! Oh, Martin!"

"Joan!" I whispered and reached out yearning arms to the empty air.
"Damaris--beloved!"

Beyond the open door I heard the sighing of the wind and the roar of the
surf, soft with distance, infinite plaintive and despairing. Then, because
sleep was not for me, I arose and came groping within my inner cave where
stood a coffer and, lifting the lid, drew forth that I sought and went and
sat me on my bed where the moon made a glory. And sitting there, I unfolded
this my treasure that was no more than a woman's gown and fell to smoothing
its folds with reverent hand; very tattered it was and worn by much hard
usage, its bravery all tarnished and faded, yet for me it seemed yet to
compass something of the vivid grace and beauty of that loved and vanished
presence.

Almost three years of solitude, of deluding hopes and black despair, almost
three years, forgotten alike of God and man. So that I had surely run mad
but for the labour of my days and the secret hope I cherished even yet that
some day (soon or late) I should see again that loved form, hear again the
sweet, vital ring of that voice whereof I had dreamed so long.

Almost three years, forgotten alike of God and man. And so albeit I prayed
no more (since I had proved prayers vain) hope yet lived within me and
every day, night and morn, I would climb that high hill the which I had
named the Hill of Blessed Hope, to strain my eyes across the desolation
of waters for some sign which should tell me my time of waiting was
accomplished.

Now as I sat thus, lost in bitter thought, I rose to my feet, letting fall
the gown to lie all neglected, for borne to me on the gentle wind came a
sound there was no mistaking, the sharp report of a musket.

For a moment I stood utterly still while the shot yet rang and re-echoed
in my ears and felt all at once such an ecstasy of joy that I came nigh
swooning and needs must prop myself against the rocky wall; then, the
faintness passing, I came hasting and breathless where I might look seaward
and beheld this:

Hard beyond the reef (her yards braced slovenly aback) a ship. Betwixt this
vessel and the reef a boat rowed furiously, and upon the reef itself a man
fled shorewards marvellous fleet and nimble. Presently from his pursuers in
the boat came a red flash and the report of a musquetoon followed by divers
others, whereat the poor fugitive sped but the faster and came running
to that strip of white beach that beareth the name Deliverance. There he
faltered, pausing a moment to glance wildly this way and that, then (as
Fortune willed) turned and sped my way. Then I, standing forth where he
might behold me in the moon's radiance, hailed and beckoned him, at the
which he checked again, then (as reassured by my looks and gesture) came
leaping up that path which led from the beach. Thus as he drew nearer I saw
he was very young, indeed a mere stripling. From him I glanced towards
his pursuers (they being already upon the reef) and counted nine of them
running hitherward and the moon aglint on the weapons they bore. Thereupon
I hasted to my cave and brought thence my six muskets, the which I laid
ready to hand.

And presently comes this poor fugitive, all panting and distressed with his
exertions, and who (clambering over that rampire I had builded long ago to
my defence) fell at my feet and lay there speechless, drawing his breath
in great, sobbing gasps. But his pursuers had seen and came on amain with
mighty halloo, and though (judging by what I could see of them at the
distance) they were a wild, unlovely company, yet to me, so long bereft of
all human fellowship, their hoarse shouts and cries were infinitely welcome
and I determined to make them the means of my release, more especially as
it seemed by their speech that some of them were Englishmen. To this end I
waited until they were close, then, taking up my nearest piece, I levelled
wide of them and fired. Startled by the sudden roar they incontinent
scattered, betaking them to such cover as they might. Then I (yet kneeling
behind my rampire) hailed them in mighty kindly fashion.

"Halt, friends!" cries I. "Here is harm for no man that meaneth none. Nay,
rather do I give ye joyous welcome in especial such of you as be English,
for I am an Englishman and very solitary."

But now (and even as I spake them thus gently) I espied the fugitive on his
knees, saw him whip up one of my muskets (all in a moment) and fire or
ever I might stay him. The shot was answered by a cry and out from the
underbrush a man reeled, clasping his hurt and so fell and lay a-groaning.
At this his comrades let fly their shot in answer and made off forthwith.
Deserted thus, the wounded man scrambled to hands and knees and began to
creep painfully after his fellows, beseeching their aid and cursing them by
turns. Hearing a shrill laugh, I turned to see the fugitive reach for and
level another of my weapons at this wounded wretch, but, leaping on him
as he gave fire, I knocked up the muzzle of the piece so that the bullet
soared harmlessly into the air. Uttering a strange, passionate cry, the
fugitive sprang back and snatching out an evil-looking knife, made at me,
and all so incredibly quick that it was all I could do to parry the blow;
then, or ever he might strike again, I caught that murderous arm, and, for
all his slenderness and seeming youth, a mighty desperate tussle we made of
it ere I contrived to twist the weapon from his grasp and fling him panting
to the sward, where I pinned him beneath my foot. Then as I reached for
the knife where it had fallen, he cried out to me in his shrill, strangely
clear voice, and with sudden, fierce hands wrenched apart the laces and
fine linens at his breast:

"Stay!" cried he. "Don't kill me--you cannot!"

Now looking down on him where he lay gasping and writhing beneath my foot,
I started back all in a moment, back until I was stayed by the rampire, for
I saw that here was no man but a young and comely woman.




CHAPTER II

MY TROUBLES BEGIN


Whiles I yet stood, knife in hand, staring at her and mute for wonder, she
pulled off the close-fitting seaman's bonnet she wore and scowling up at me
shook down the abundant tresses of her hair.

"Beast!" said she. "Oh, beast--you hurt me!"

"Who are you?" I questioned.

"One that doth hate you!" Here she took a silver comb from her pocket and
fell to smoothing her hair; and as she sat thus cross-legged upon the
grass, I saw that the snowy linen at throat and bosom was spotted with
great gouts of blood.

"Are ye wounded?" quoth I, pointing to these ugly stains.

"Bah! 'Tis none of mine, fool! 'Tis the blood of Cestiforo!"

"Who is he?"

"The captain of yon ship."

"How cometh his blood on you?"

"'Twas when I killed him."

"You--killed him?"

"Aye--he wearied me. So do all my lovers, soon or late."

Now as I looked on this woman, the strange, sullen beauty of her (despite
her masculine apparel) as she sat thus combing her long hair and foul with
a dead man's blood, I bethought me of the wild tales I had heard of female
daemons, succubi and the like, so that I felt my flesh chill and therewith
a great disgust and loathing of her, insomuch that, not abiding the sight
of her, I turned away and thus beheld a thing the which filled me with
sudden, great dismay: for there, her sails spread to the fitful wind, I saw
the ship standing out to sea, bearing with her all my hopes of escape from
this hated island. Thus stood I, watching deliverance fade on my sight,
until the ship was no more than a speck upon the moon-bright waters and all
other thoughts 'whelmed and lost in raging despair. And now I was roused by
a question sudden and imperious:

"Who are you?"

"'Tis no matter."

"How came you here?"

"'Tis no matter for that, either."

"Are you alone?"

"Aye!"

"Then wherefore trouble to shave your beard?"

"'Tis a whim."

"Are you alone?"

"I was."

"And I would you were again."

"So do I."

"You are Englishman--yes?"

"I am."

"My mother was English--a poor thing that spent her days weeping and died
of her tears when I was small--ah, very small, on this island."

"Here?" quoth I, staring.

"Twenty and one years agone!" said she, combing away at her glossy hair.
"My mother was English like you, but my father was a noble gentleman of
Spain and Governor of Santa Catalina, Don Esteban da Silva y Montreale, and
killed by Tressady--Black Tressady--"

"What, Roger Tressady--o' the Hook?"

"True, Señor Englishman," said she softly and glancing up at me through her
hair; "he hath a hook very sharp and bright, in place of his left hand. You
know him? He is your friend--yes?"

"I know him for a cursed pirate and murderer!"

"_Moi aussi, mon ami_!" said she, fixing me with her great eyes. "I am
pirate, yes--and have used dagger and pistol ere to-day and shall again."

"And wear a woman's shape!"

"Ha--yes, yes!" cried she, gnashing her teeth. "And there's my curse--I am
woman and therefore do hate all women. But my soul is a man's so do I use
all men to my purpose, snare them by my woman's arts and make of 'em my
slaves. See you; there is none of all my lovers but doth obey me, and so do
I rule, with ships and men at my command and fearing no man--"

"And yet," said I, interrupting, "you came fleeing hither to save your life
from yonder rabblement."

"Tush--these were mostly drunken rogues that knew me not, 'listed but late
from a prize we took and burned. I shall watch them die yet! Soon shall
come Belvedere in the _Happy Despatch_ to my relief, or Rodriquez of the
_Vengeance_ or Rory or Sol--one or other or all shall come a-seeking me,
soon or late. Meantime, I bide here and 'tis well you stayed me from
killing you, for though I love not Englishmen, I love solitude less, so are
you safe from me so long as we be solitary. Ah--you smile because you are
fool and know me not yet! Ah, ah--mayhap you shall grow wiser anon. But
now," said she, rising and putting away her comb, "bring me where I may
eat, for I am famished with hunger."

"Also you are very foul of blood!" said I.

"Yes," says she soft-voiced, and glancing from me to her stained finery and
back again. "Yes. And is this so great a matter?"

"To-night you murdered a man!"

"I killed him--yes. Cestiforo--he was drunk. And was this so great a
matter?"

"And you--a woman!" said I, marvelling.

"Aye, to my sorrow!" said she, gnashing white teeth, "Yet am I strong as a
man and bolder than most."

"God preserve me from such!" quoth I fervently.

"You--you?" cried she. "What thing are you that seeming man must blench at
a little blood? Are you yourself so innocent, you that know Tressady o' the
Hook?"

"Howbeit I am no murderer, woman."

"Ah--bah!" cried she, with flick of scornful fingers. "Enough of words,
Master Innocent. Bring me where I may eat and bed me till morning."

Thereupon (and mighty unwilling) I brought her into the cave and lighting
two candles of my own contriving, I set before her such viands as I had,
together with bread I had newly baked, and with no word of thanks this
strange, fierce creature fell to eating with a voracity methought very
disgusting.

Now the more I saw of her the more grew my disgust and the end of it was
I determined to put the whole length of the island betwixt us and that at
once. To this end I began collecting such articles as I should want, as
my light hatchet, sword, pistols, etc. I was buckling on my belt when her
voice arrested me, albeit she spoke me very sweetly and soft:

"You go now to your woman--your light of love--yes?"

"There is no woman but yourself," said I, frowning.

"Liar! Then what of this?" and she pointed slender finger; then I saw that
tattered garment lying where I had dropped it and this woman spurning
it with her foot. So I stooped forthwith, and snatching it from her
desecrating touch, folded it across my arm, whereat she fell to sudden
laughter very ill to bear.

"Ah--ah!" said she, softer than before and most hatefully a-smiling, "'tis
for her sake your chin goeth bare and smooth--yes? She is over-nice in the
matter of--"

"I tell you she is gone!" said I in fury.

"Gone--gone, is she? And you alone here, longing but for her return,
through weeks and months and years waiting for her to come back to you; is
not this the truth of it, yes?" Now I, knowing this for very truth, could
but scowl, finding no word to say, whiles this creature nodded and flashed
white teeth in her hateful smile. "You loved this woman," said she, "do
love her; dead or living, rotting bones or another's delight, you do love
her yet, poor, miserable fool!"

All unheeding, I folded the garment with reverent hands while she taunted
me thus, until, seeing me nothing moved, she fell to rank vileness,
bespattering that pure memory with tongue so shamelessly foul that I
(losing all patience) turned on her at last; but in this moment she was on
her feet and snatching my sword made therewith a furious pass at me, the
which I contrived to parry and, catching the blade in this beloved garment,
I wrenched the weapon from her. Then, pinning her in fierce grip and
despite her furious struggles and writhing, I belaboured her soundly with
the flat of the blade, she meanwhile swearing and cursing at me in Spanish
and English as vilely as ever I had done in all my days, until her voice
broke and she choked upon a great sob. Thereupon I flung her across my bed
and taking such things as I needed, strode out of the cave and so left her.

But scarce was I without the cave than she came following after me; and
truly never was greater change, for in place of snarling daemon here was
tender maid all tearful sighs, gentle-eyed and with clasped hands reached
out to me in supplication and (despite her male attire) all woman.

Perceiving the which, I turned my back upon her and hasted away all the
faster.

So here was I, that had grieved in my solitude and yearned amain for
human fellowship, heartily wishing myself alone again and full of a new
apprehension, viz: That my island being so small I might chance to find the
avoidance of this evil creature a matter of some difficulty, even though
I abandoned my caves and furniture to her use and sought me another
habitation.

Now as I went I fell to uneasy speculation regarding this woman, her
fierce, wild beauty, her shameless tongue, her proud and passionate temper,
her reckless furies; and bethinking me of all the manifest evil of her, I
felt again that chill of the flesh, that indefinable disgust, insomuch
that (the moon being bright and full) I must glance back, more than once,
half-dreading to see her creeping on my heels.

Having traversed Deliverance Sands I came into that cleft or defile, 'twixt
bush-girt, steepy cliffs, called Skeleton Cove, where I had builded me a
forge with bellows of goatskin. Here, too, I had set up an anvil (the which
had come ashore in a wreck, together with divers other tools) and a bench
for my carpentry. The roof of this smithy backed upon a cavern wherein I
stored my tools, timber and various odds and ends.

This place, then, I determined should be my habitation henceforth, there
being a little rill of sweet water adjacent and the cave itself dry and
roomy and so shut in by precipitous cliffs that any who might come to my
disturbance must come only in the one direction.

And now, as I judged, there being yet some hours to sunrise, I made myself
as comfortable as might be and having laid by sword and belt and set my
pistols within easy reach, I laid down and composed myself to slumber. But
this I could by no means compass, being fretted of distressful thought
and made vain and bitter repining for this ship that had come and sailed,
leaving me a captive still, prisoned on this hateful island with this wild
creature that methought more daemon than woman. And seeing myself thus
mocked of Fortune (in my blind folly) I fell to reviling the God that made
me. Howbeit sleep overtook me at last, but an evil slumber haunted by
visions of this woman, her beauty fouled and bloody, who sought out my
destruction where I lay powerless to resist her will. Low she bent above
me, her dusky hair a cloud that choked me, and through this cloud the
glitter of her eyes, red lips that curled back from snapping teeth, fingers
clawed to rend and tear; then as I gazed, in horror, these eyes grew soft
and languorous, these vivid lips trembled to wistful smile, these cruel
hands clasped, soft-clinging, and drew me near and ever nearer towards that
smiling, tender mouth, until I waked in a panic to behold the dawn and
against the sun's growing splendour the woman standing and holding my
pistols levelled at me as I lay.

Now I do think there is no hale man, howsoever desperate and careless of
life, but who, faced with sudden, violent death, will not of instinct
blench and find himself mighty unready to take the leap into that dark
unknown whose dread doth fright us one and all; howbeit thus was it with
me, for now as I stared from the pistol muzzle to the merciless eyes behind
them, I, that had hitherto esteemed death no hardship, lay there in dumb
and sweating panic, and, knowing myself afraid, scorned and hated myself
therefor.

"Ah--ah!" said she softly but with flash of white teeth. "Will ye cower
then, you beater of women? Down to your knees--down and sue pardon of me!"
But now, stung by her words and the quaking of my coward flesh, I found
voice.

"Shoot, wanton!" said I. "Shoot, lest I beat you again for the vile,
shameless thing you are." At this she flinched and her fierce eyes wavered;
then she laughed loud and shrill:

"Will ye die then? Yes? Will ye die?"

"Aye," I nodded, "So I may be quit of you."

"Hath dying then no fears for you--no?"

"'Tis overpast!" quoth I.

"Liar!" said she. "Wipe the craven sweat from you! You beat me, and for
this you should die, but though you fear death you shall live to fear me
more--aye, you shall live awhile--take your life!"

So saying, she tossed the pistols down beside me and laughed.

"When I wish to kill and be done with you, my steel shall take you in
your sleep, or you shall die by poison; there be many roots and berries
hereabout, Indian poisons I wot of. So your life is mine to take whensoever
I will."

"How if I kill you first?"

"Ah, bah!" said she, snapping her fingers. "Try an you will--but I know men
and you are not the killing sort. I've faced death too oft to fear it, or
the likes of you. There lie your pistols, fool; take 'em and shoot me if
you will!"

Thereupon I stooped and catching up the pistols tossed them behind me.

"And now," said I, rising, "leave me--begone lest I thrash you again for
the evil child you are."

"Child?" says she, staring as one vastly amazed, "child--and to me, fool,
to me? All along the Main my name is known and feared."

"So now will I whip you," quoth I, "had others done as much ere this, you
had been a little less evil, perchance." And I reached down a coil of
small cord where it hung with divers other odds and ends. For a moment she
watched me, scowling and fierce-eyed, then as I approached her with the
cords in my hands, she turned on her heel with a swirl of her embroidered
coat-skirts and strode away, mighty proud and disdainful.

When she was clean gone I gathered me brush and driftwood, and striking
flint and steel soon had a fire going and set about cooking certain strips
of dried goat's flesh for my breakfast. Whiles this was a-doing I was
startled by a sudden clatter upon the cliff above and down comes a great
boulder, narrowly missing me but scattering my breakfast and the embers of
my fire broadcast. I was yet surveying the ruin (dolefully enough, for I
was mighty hungry) when hearing a shrill laugh I glanced up to find her
peering down at me from above. Meeting my frowning look she laughed again,
and snapping her fingers at me, vanished 'mid the bushes.

Spoiled thus of my breakfast I was necessitated to stay my hunger with such
viands as I had by me. Now as I sat eating thus and in very ill humour, my
wandering gaze lighted by chance on the shattered remains of a boat that
lay high and dry where the last great storm had cast it. At one time I had
hoped that I might make this a means to escape from the island and had
laboured to repair and make it seaworthy but, finding this beyond my skill,
had abandoned the attempt; for indeed (as I say) it was wofully bilged and
broken. Moreover, at the back of my mind had always lurked a vague hope
that some day, soon or late, she that was ever in my dreams, she that had
been my love, my Damaris, might yet in her sweet mercy come a-seeking me.
Wherefore, as I have before told, it had become my daily custom, morn and
eve, to climb that high land that I called the Hill of Blessed Hope, that I
might watch for my lady's coming.

But to-day, since Fate had set me in company with this evil creature,
instead of my noble lady, I came to a sudden and fixed resolution, viz:
That I would waste not another hour in vain dreams and idle expectations
but would use all my wit and every endeavour to get quit of the island so
soon as might be. Filled with this determination I rose and, coming to the
boat, began to examine it.

And I saw this: it was very stout-built but its planks wofully shrunk with
the sun, and though much stove forward, more especially to larboard, yet
its main timbers looked sound enough. Then, too, it lay none so far from
high-water mark and despite its size and bulk I thought that by digging a
channel I might bring water sufficient to float it, could I but make good
the breakage and caulk the gaping seams.

The longer I looked the more hopeful I grew and the end of it was I hasted
to bring such tools as I needed and forthwith set to work. All the morning,
and despite the sun, I laboured upon this wrecked boat, stripping off her
cracked and splintered timbers and mightily pleased to find her framework
so much less damaged than I had dared hope, insomuch that I presently fell
a-whistling; but coming on three ribs badly sprung I became immediately
dejected. Howbeit I had all the wood I could wish as planks, bulkheads
and the like, all driven ashore from wrecked vessels, with bolts and nuts
a-plenty; thus as I worked I presently fell a-whistling again.

Suddenly, I was aware of the woman watching me, and glancing at her as she
leaned cross-legged against an adjacent boulder, she seemed no woman but a
pert and handsome lad rather. Her thick hair, very dark and glossy, fell in
curls to her shoulders like a modish wig, her coat was of fine blue velvet
adorned with silver lace, her cravat and ruffles looked new-washed like
her silk stockings, and on her slender feet were a pair of dainty, buckled
shoes; all this I noticed as she lolled, watching me with her sombre gaze.

"What would you with the wreck, fool?" she demanded, whereupon I
immediately betook me to my whistling.

"You do grow merry!" said she, frowning, whiles I whistled the louder. And
when she would have spoken further, I fell to hammering lustily, drowning
her voice thereby.

"Will you not speak with me then--no?" she questioned, when at last I
paused. But I heeding her no whit, she began swearing at me and I to
hammering again.

"Curst fool!" cried she at last, "I spit on you!" The which she did and so
swaggered away and I whistling merrier than ever.




CHAPTER III

HOW I HEARD A SONG THAT I KNEW


I was early at work next morning, since now my mind was firm-set on
quitting the island at all hazards, thereby winning free of this woman once
and for all. To this end I laboured heartily, sparing myself no pains and
heedless of sweat and sun-glare, very joyous to see my work go forward
apace; and ere the sun was very high my boat lay stripped of all the
splintered timbers on the larboard side. My next care was to choose me
such planks from my store of driftwood as by reason of shape and thickness
should be best adapted to my purpose. And great plenty of wrought wood had
I and of all sorts, it having long been my wont to collect the best
of such as drove ashore and store it within those caves that opened on
Deliverance Beach. Thus, after no great search, I had discovered all such
planking as I needed and forthwith began to convey it down to the boat.

In the which labour the woman met me (I staggering under a load of my
planks) and strutted along beside me, vastly supercilious and sneering.

"Hold!" cried she. "He sweateth, he panteth purple o' the gills! And
wherefore, to what end?"

"To win free of two things do weary me."

"Ah--ah? And these?"

"This island and yourself."

"So! Do I then weary you, good Master Innocence?"

"Mightily!"

"Ah--bah! 'Tis because you be fool and no man!"

"Mayhap," said I, taking up my hammer, "howbeit I do know this island for a
prison and you for an evil thing--"

"Ah!" sighed she softly. "I have had men hanged for saying less!"

"So would I be quit of you as soon as may be," said I, fitting my first
timber in place whiles she watched me, mighty disdainful.

"So you would mend the boat, _amigo mio_, and sail away from the island and
me--yes?"

"God knoweth it!"

"Mayhap He doth, but what o' me? Think ye I shall suffer you to leave me
here alone and destitute, fool?"

"The which is to be seen!" said I; and having measured my plank and sawed
it to proper length I began to rivet it to the frame, making such din with
my hammer that she, unable to make herself heard, presently strode away in
a fury, to my great content.

But, in a little back she cometh, and on her hip that bejewelled Spanish
rapier that had once been part of Black Bartlemy's treasure (as hath been
told) and which (having my own stout cut-and-thrust) I had not troubled to
bring away from the cave.

Whipping out the long blade then, she makes with it various passes in the
air, very supple and dexterous, and would have me fight with her then and
there.

"So-ho, fool!" cried she, brandishing her weapon. "You have a sword, I
mind--go fetch it and I will teach ye punto riverso, the stoccato, the
imbrocato, and let you some o' your sluggish, English blood. Go fetch the
sword, I bid ye."

But I nothing heeding, she forthwith pricked me into the arm, whereon I
caught up a sizable timber to my defence but found it avail me no whit
against her skill and nimbleness, for thrice her blade leapt and thrice I
flinched to the sharp bite of her steel, until, goaded thus and what with
her devilish mockery and my own helplessness, I fell to raging anger and
hauled my timber full at her, the which, chancing to catch her upon an
elbow, she let fall her sword and, clasping her hurt, fell suddenly
a-weeping. Yet, even so, betwixt her sobs and moans she cursed and reviled
me shamefully and so at last took herself off, sobbing wofully.

This put me to no little perturbation and distress lest I had harmed her
more than I had meant, insomuch that I was greatly minded to follow her
and see if this were so indeed. But in the end I went back to my boat and
laboured amain, for it seemed to me the sooner I was quit of her fellowship
the better, lest she goad me into maiming or slaying her outright.

Thus worked I (and despite the noon's heat) until the sun began to decline
and I was parched with thirst. But now, as I fitted the last of my timbers
into place, the board slipped my nerveless grasp and, despite the heat, a
sudden chill swept over me as borne upon the stilly air came a voice, soft
and rich and sweet, uplifted in song and the words these:

  "There be two at the fore
  At the main hang three more
  Dead men that swing all in a row
  Here's fine, dainty meat
  For the fishes to eat,
  Black Bartlemy--Bartlemy, ho!"

Awhile I leaned there against the boat, remembering how and with whom I had
last heard this song, then wheeling about I caught my breath and stared as
one that sees at last a long-desired, oft-prayed-for vision: for there,
pacing demurely along the beach towards me, her body's shapely loveliness
offset by embroidered gown, her dark and glossy ringlets caught up by
jewelled comb, I thought to behold again the beloved shape of her I had
lost well-nigh three weary years agone.

"Damaris!" I whispered, "Oh, loved woman of my dreams!" And I took a long
stride towards her, then stopped and bowed my head, suddenly faint and
heartsick, for now I saw here was no more than this woman who had fled me
a while ago with curses on her tongue. Here she stood all wistful-eyed and
tricked out in one of those fine gowns from Black Bartlemy's secret store
the which had once been my dear lady's delight.

Now in her hands she bore a pipkin brimful of goat's milk.

"I prithee, sir," said she softly, "tell now--shall there be room for me in
your boat?"

"Never in this world!"

"You were wiser to seek my love than my hate--"

"I seek neither!"

"Being a fool, yes. But the sun is hot and you will be a thirsty fool--"

"Where learned you that evil song?"

"In Tortuga when I was a child. But come, drink, _amigo mio_, drink an you
will--"

"Whence had you that gown?"

"Ah--ah, you love me better thus, yes? Why, 'tis a pretty gown truly,
though out o' the fashion. But, will you not drink?"

Now, as I have told, I was parched with thirst and the spring some way off,
so taking the pipkin I drained it at a draught and muttering my thanks,
handed it back to her. Then I got me to my labour again, yet very conscious
of her as she sat to watch, so that more than once I missed my stroke and
my fingers seemed strangely awkward. And after she had sat thus silent a
great while, she spoke:

"You be mighty diligent, and to no purpose."

"How mean you?"

"I mean this boat of yours shall never sail except I sail in her."

"Which is yet to prove!" said I, feeling the air exceeding close and
stifling.

"Regard now, Master Innocence," said she, holding up one hand and ticking
off these several items on her fingers as she spoke: "You have crossed me
once. You have beat me once. You have refused me honourable fight. You have
hurt me with vile club. And now you would leave me here alone to perish--"

"All true save the last," quoth I, finding my breath with strange
difficulty, "for though alone you need not perish, for I will show you
where--where you--shall find abundance--of food--and--" But here I stopped
and gasped as an intolerable pain shot through me.

"Ah--ah!" said she, leaning forward to stare at me keen-eyed. "And doth it
begin to work--yes? Doth it begin so soon?"

"Woman," I cried, as my pains increased, "what mean you now? Why d'ye stare
on me so? God help me, what have you done--"

"The milk, fool!" said she, smiling.

"Ha--what devil's brew--poison--"

"I warned you but, being fool, you nothing heeded--no!"

Now hereupon I went aside and, dreading to die thus miserably, thrust a
finger down my throat and was direly sick; thereafter, not abiding the
sun's intolerable heat, I crawled into the shade of a rock and lay there as
it were in a black mist and myself all clammy with a horrible, cold sweat.
And presently in my anguish, feeling a hand shake me, I lifted swooning
eyes to find this woman bending above me.

"How now," said she, "wilt crave mercy of me and live?"

"Devil!" I gasped. "Let me die and be done with you!"

At this she laughed and stooped low and lower until her hair came upon my
face and I might look into the glowing deeps of her eyes; and then her arms
were about me, very strong and compelling.

"Look--look into my eyes, deep--deep!" she commanded. "Now--ha--speak me
your name!"

"Martin," I gasped in my agony.

"Mar--tin," said she slowly. "I will call you Martino. Look now, Martino,
have you not seen me long--long ere this?"

"No!" I groaned. "God forbid!"

"And yet we have met, Martino, in this world or another, or mayhap in the
world of dreams. But we have met--somewhere, at some time, and in that time
I grasped you thus in my arms and stared down thus into your eyes and in
that hour I, having killed you, watched you die, and fain would have won
you back to life and me, for you were a man,--ah, yes, a man in those dim
days. But now--ah, bah! You are but poor fool cozened into swallowing a
harmless drug; to-morrow you shall be your sluggish self. Now sleep, but
know this--I may slay you whenso I will! Ah, ah--'tis better to win my love
than my hate." So she loosed me and stood a while looking down on me, then
motioned with imperious hand: "Sleep, fool--sleep!" she commanded and
frowning, turned away. And as she went I heard her singing of that vile
song again ere I sank into unconsciousness:

  "There are two at the fore.
  At the main hang three more
  Dead men that swing all of a row--"




CHAPTER IV

HOW I LABOURED TO MY SALVATION


I found myself still somewhat qualmish next morning but, none the less,
got me to labour on the boat and, her damage being now made good on her
larboard side, so far as her timbering went, I proceeded to make her seams
as water-tight as I could. This I did by means of the fibre of those great
nuts that grew plenteously here and there on the island, mixed with the gum
of a certain tree in place of pitch, ramming my gummed fibre into every
joint and crevice of the boat's structure so that what with this and
the swelling of her timbers when launched I doubted not she would prove
sufficiently staunch and seaworthy. She was a stout-built craft some
sixteen feet in length; and indeed a poor enough thing she might have
seemed to any but myself, her weather-beaten timbers shrunken and warped by
the sun's immoderate heats, but to me she had become as it were a sign and
symbol of freedom. She lay upon her starboard beam half full of sand, and
it now became my object to turn her that I might come at this under side,
wherefore I fell to work with mattock and spade to free her of the sand
wherein (as I say) she lay half-buried. This done I hove and strained until
the sweat poured from me yet found it impossible to move her, strive how I
would. Hereupon, and after some painful thought, I took to digging away the
sand, undermining her thus until she lay so nicely balanced it needed but a
push and the cumbrous structure, rolling gently over, lay in the necessary
posture, viz: with her starboard beam accessible from gunwale to keel. And
mightily heartened was I thus to discover her damage hereabouts so much
less than I had dared hope.

So I got me to work with saw, hammer and rivets and wrought so diligently
(staying but to snatch a mouthful of food) that as the sun westered, my
boat was well-nigh finished. Straightening my aching back I stood to
examine my handiwork and though of necessity somewhat rough yet was it
strong and secure; and altogether a very excellent piece of work I thought
it, and mightily yearned I for that hour when I should feel this little
vessel, that had been nought but a shattered ruin, once more riding the
seas in triumph.

But now and all at once, my soaring hopes were dashed, for though the boat
might be seaworthy, here she lay, high and dry, a good twelve yards from
the tide.

Now seeing I might not bring my boat to the sea, I began to scheme how best
I should bring the sea to her. I was yet pondering this matter, chin in
hand, when a shadow fell athwart me and starting, I glanced up to find this
woman beside me, who, heeding me no whit, walks about and about the boat,
viewing my work narrowly.

"If you can launch her she should sail well enough, going large and none
so ill on a bowline, by her looks. 'Tis true scat-boat--yes. Are you a
sailor--can ye navigate, ha?"

"Not I."

"'Tis very well, for I am, indeed, and can set ye course by dead reckoning
an need be. Your work is likely enough, though had you butted your timbers
it had been better--so and so!" And in this I saw she was right enough, and
my work seemed more clumsy now than I had thought.

"I'm no shipwright," said I.

"And here's sure proof of it!" quoth she.

"Mayhap 'twill serve once her timbers be swelled."

"Aye, she may float, Martino, so long as the sea prove kind and the wind
gentle; aye, she should carry us both over to the Main handsomely, yes--"

"Never!" quoth I, mighty determined.

"How then--will ye deny me yet, fool? Wherefore would ye leave me here,
curst Englishman?"

"Lest you goad me into slaying you for the evil thing you are."

"What evil have I wrought you?"

"You would have poisoned me but yesterday--"

"Yet to-day are you strong and hearty, fool."

And indeed, now I came to think of it, I felt myself as hale and well as
ever in all my life. "Tush--a fico!" says she with an evil gesture. "'Twas
but an Indian herb, fool, and good 'gainst colic and calenture. Now
wherefore will ye be quit o' me?"

"Because I had rather die solitary than live in your fellowship--"

"Dolt! Clod! Worm!" cried she 'twixt gnashing teeth, and then all in a
moment she was gazing down at me soft and gentle-eyed, red lips up-curving
and smooth cheek dimpling to a smile:

"Ah, Martin," sighs she languorously, "see how you do vex me! And I am
foolish to suffer such as you to anger me, but needs must I vex you a
little in quittance, yes."

At this I did but shrug my shoulders and turned to study again the
problem--how to set about launching my boat.

"Art a something skilful carpenter, eh, Martino," said she in a while;
"'twas you made the table and chairs and beds in the caves up yonder, eh,
Martino?"

"Aye."

"And these the tools you made 'em with, eh, Martino?" and she pointed where
they lay beside the boat.

"Nay," quoth I, speaking on impulse, being yet busied with my problem, "I
had nought but my hatchet then and chisels of iron."

"Your hatchet--this?" she questioned, taking it up.

"Aye!" I nodded. "The hatchet was the first tool I found after we were cast
destitute on this island."

"Ah--ah--then she was with you when you found it--the woman that wore this
gown before me, eh, Martino?"

"Aye--and what then?"

"This!" cried she and wheeling the hatchet strong-armed, she sent it
spinning far out to sea or ever I might stay her.

Now, beholding the last of this good hatchet that had oft known my dear
lady's touch, that had beside, been, as it were, a weapon to our defence
and a means to our comfort, seeing myself (as I say) now bereft of it thus
wantonly, I sprang to my feet, uttering a cry of mingled grief and rage.
But she, skipping nimbly out of reach, caught up one of my pistols where
she had hid it behind a rock and stood regarding me with her hateful smile.

"Ah, ah!" says she, mocking, "do I then vex you a little, _amigo mio_? So
is it very well. Ha, scowl, fool Martino, scowl and grind your teeth; 'tis
joy to me and shall never bring back your little axe."

At this, seeing grief and anger alike unavailing, I sat me down by the boat
and sinking my head in my hands, strove to settle my mind to this problem
of launching; but this I might by no means do, since here was this devilish
creature perched upon an adjacent rock to plague me still.

"How now, Martino?" she questioned. "What troubleth your sluggish brain
now?" And then, as she had read my very thought: "Is't your boat--to bring
her afloat? Ah--bah! 'tis simple matter! Here she lies and yonder the sea!
Well, dig you a pit about the boat as deep as may be, bank the sand about
your pit as high as may be. Then cut you a channel to high-water mark
and beyond, so with the first tide, wind-driven, the sea shall fill your
channel, pour into your pit, brimming it full and your banks being higher
than your boat she shall swim and be drawn seaward on the backwash. So,
here's the way on't. And so must you sweat and dig and labour, and I joy
to watch--Ah, yes, for you shall sweat, dig and labour in vain, except you
swear me I shall sail with you." So saying, she drops me a mocking courtsey
and away she goes.

She gone and night being at hand, I set aside two or three stout spars
should serve me as masts, yards, etc., together with rope and cordage for
tackle and therewith two pair of oars; which done, I got me to my cave and,
having supped, to bed.

Early next morning I set myself to draw a circle about my boat and mark out
a channel thence to the sea (even as she had suggested) since I could hit
upon no better way. This done, I fell to with spade and mattock but found
this a matter of great labour since the sand, being very dry and loose
hereabouts, was constantly shifting and running back upon me.

And presently, as I strove thus painfully, cometh my tormentor to plague me
anew (albeit the morning was so young) she very gay and debonnaire in her
'broidered gown.

"Ha!" said she, seating herself hard by. "The sun is new-risen, yet you do
sweat wofully, the which I do joy to see. So-ho, then, labour and sweat, my
pretty man: it shall be all vain, aha--vain and to no purpose."

But finding I heeded her no more than buzzing fly, she changed her tune,
viewing me tender-eyed and sighing soft:

"Am I not better as a woman, eh, Martino?" asked she, spreading out her
petticoats. "Aye, to be sure your eyes do tell me so, scowl and mutter as
you will. See now, Martino, I have lived here three days and in all this
woful weary time hast never asked my name, which is strange, unless dost
know it already, for 'tis famous hereabouts and all along the Main; indeed
'tis none so wonderful you should know it--"

"I don't!" said I. "Nor wish to!"

"Then I will tell you--'tis Joan!" Hereupon I dropped my spade and she,
seeing how I stared upon her, burst into a peal of laughter. "Ah, ah!"
cried she. "Here is pretty, soft name and should fit me as well as another.
Why must you stare so fool-like; here is no witchcraft, for in the caves
yonder 'Joan' meeteth me at every turn; 'tis carven on walls, on chairs, on
table, together with 'Damaris' and many woful, lovesick mottoes beside."

Now I, knowing this for truth, turned my back and ground my teeth in
impotent anger, whiles this woman mocked me with her laughter.

"Damaris--Joan!" said she. "At first methought these two women, but now do
I know Joan is Damaris and Damaris Joan and you a poor, lovelorn fool. But
as for me--I am Joanna--"

Now at this I turned and looked at her.

"Joanna?" said I, wondering.

"Ah, you have heard it--this name, before--yes?"

"Aye, in a song."

"Oh, verily!" said she and forthwith began singing in her deep, rich voice:

  "There's a fine Spanish dame
  And Joanna's her name
  Shall follow wherever you go--"

"Aha, and mark this, Martino:

  "Till your black heart shall feel
  Your own cursed steel
  Black Bartlemy--Bartlemy, ho!"

"But this was my mother--"

"Ha--she that stabbed and killed the pirate Bartlemy ere he slew her? But
she was a Spanish lady."

"Nay, she was English, and lieth buried hereabouts, 'tis said; howbeit,
she died here whiles I was with the Indians. They found me, very small and
helpless, in the ruins of a burned town and took me away into the mountains
and, being Indians, used me kindly and well. Then came white men, twenty
and two, and, being Christians, slew the Indians and used me evilly and
were cruel, save only one; twenty and two they were and all dead long ago,
each and every, save only one. Aha, Martino, for the evil men have made me
endure, I have ever been excellent well avenged! For I am Joanna that some
call 'Culebra' and some 'Gadfly' and some 'Fighting Jo.' And indeed there
be few men can match me at swordplay and as for musket and pistol--watch
now, Martino, the macaw yonder!" She pointed to a bird that stood preening
itself on a rock at no little distance and, catching up the pistol,
levelled and fired; and in place of the bird was nought but a splash of
blood and a few poor, gaudy feathers stirring lazily in the gentle wind.

"See," cried she, with a little, soft laugh, "am I not a goodly _camarado_
for any brave fellow, yes?"

"Truly," said I, turning away, "I think your breeches do become you best--"

"Liar!" she cried. "You know I am handsomer thus! Your eyes ha' told me so
already. And look ye, I can be as soft and tender, as meek and helpless as
any puling woman of 'em all, when I will. And if I hate fiercely, so is my
love--ha, d'ye blench, fool, d'ye shrink; you thing shaped like a man, must
ye cringe at the word 'love'?"

"Aye!" said I, over my shoulder. "On your lips 'tis desecration!"

"Desecration--desecration?" quoth she, staring on me great-eyed and biting
at her scarlet nether lip. "Ha, dare ye say it, dog?" And crying thus, she
hurled the pistol at me with aim so true that I staggered and came nigh
falling. Stung by the blow I turned on her in a fury, but she leapt to her
feet and showed me my own knife glittering in her fist.

"Ah, bah--back to your labour, slave!" she mocked.

"Have done, woman!" I cried. "Have done, or by the living God, you will
goad me into slaying you yet--"

"Tush!" said she, "I am used to outfacing men, but you--ha, you should be
fed on pap and suckets, you that are no man! 'Tis small wonder you lost
your Joan--Damaris; 'tis no wonder she fled away and left you--"

Now at this (and nothing heeding her knife) I sprang at her and she,
letting fall the knife, leapt towards me; and then I had her, felt her all
soft and palpitant in my furious grip, heard a quivering sigh, saw her
head sway back across my arm and she drooping in my embrace, helpless and
a-swoon. And holding her thus 'prisoned and crushed against me, I could not
but be conscious of all the tender, languorous beauty of her ere I hasted
to lay her upon the sand. My arms were yet about her (and I upon my knees)
when her bosom heaved to sudden, tremulous sigh and opening her eyes, she
smiled up at me.

"Ah, Martino," sighed she softly, "do not these petticoats become me vastly
well, yes?" And reaching up, she set her arms about me. "Am I not better
than dream-woman, I that men have died for--I, Joanna?"

Now hereupon I shivered and loosing her hold rose to my feet and stood with
head averted that I might not behold her. Presently she arose also and
coming where lay the knife, took it up and stood turning it this way and
that.

"Martin," said she in her soft, dreamy speech, "you are mightily strong
and--mightily gentle, and I do think we shall make a man of you yet!"

So saying, she turned and went away, the knife glittering in her hand. As
for me I cast myself down and with no thought or will to labour now, for it
seemed that my strength was gone from me.




CHAPTER V

TELLETH HOW ALL MY TRAVAIL CAME TO NOUGHT


That night, the moon being at the full and I very wakeful, I lay harassed
of a thousand fretting thoughts, and each and every of this woman Joanna;
and turning on my sleepless couch I cursed that hour the which had set her
in my company.

Yet, even so, I must needs bethink me of all the supple warmth of her as
she lay in my arms, of the velvety touch of her cheek that had by chance
brushed my hand. Hereupon I would strive to turn my thoughts upon the
labours of to-morrow only to find myself recalling the sound of her voice,
now deep and soft and infinite sweet, now harsh and shrill and hatefully
shrewish; or her golden-brown eyes, thick-lashed and marvellous quick in
their changes from sleepy languor to flaming malevolence.

Thus lay I, haunted of her memory and all the sudden, bewildering changes
of her moods until at last I started up, and coming to the entrance of my
cave, saw her standing without and the moon bright on her face.

"Art wakeful too, Martino?" asked she softly. "'Tis the moon belike, or the
heat of the night." Here she came a slow pace nearer; and her eyes were
sweet and languorous and on her vivid mouth a smile infinite alluring.
Slowly she drew near, thralling me as it were with the wonder of her look
that I had neither power nor will to move or speak. Confident of herself
and assured in her beauty she reached out her hands to me, her long lashes
swept down, veiling her eyes; but, even then, I had seen their flash of
triumph, and in that moment, bursting the spell that bound me, I turned
from her.

"Go--leave me!" said I, finding my voice at last. "Here is no place for
you!" And I stood thereafter with head averted, dreading her sighs and
tears; instead (and to my unutterable relief) she brake out into a storm
of sea-oaths, beslavering me with vile abuse and bitter curses. Now,
hearkening to this lewd tirade, I marvelled I should ever have feared and
trembled because of the womanhood of creature so coarse and unsexed. Thus
she continued alternately mocking at and reviling me until she must needs
pause for lack of breath; then I turned to look at her and stood amazed to
behold that passionate head bowed upon her hands.

"Aye, I weep," she sobbed. "I weep because I am woman, after all, but in
my heart I hate you and with my soul I despise you, for you are but a mock
man,--the blood in your veins skim milk! Ah, by God, there is more of
vigorous life in my little finger than in all your great, heavy, clod-like
carcase. Oh, shame!" Here she lifted her head to scowl on me and I, not
enduring her look, glanced otherwhere. "Ha--rot me!" cried she, wagging
scornful finger. "Rot me but you are afraid of me--afraid, yes!"

"True!" said I. "So will I win free of you so soon as I may--"

"Free of me?" cried she, and throwing herself on the sands, sat crouched
there, her head upon her knees and sobbing miserably. "So you will abandon
me then?" said she at last.

"Aye."

"Even though I--vow myself your slave?"

"I want no slave."

"Even though I beseech you on my knees?"

"'Twere vain, I sail hence alone."

"You were wiser to seek my love than my hate."

"But I was ever a fool."

"Aye, verily!" she cried passionately. "So do you yearn ever for your
light-o'-love, for your vanished Joan--your Damaris that left you--"

"Now I pray you go!" said I.

"I wonder," sighed she, never stirring, "I wonder why I do not kill you? I
hate you--despise you and yet--"

Slowly she got to her feet and moved away with dragging step but paused
anon and spake again with head a-droop:

"Living or dead, you shall not leave the island except I go with you!"
Then she went her way and something in her attitude methought infinitely
desolate.

Left alone, I stood awhile in gloomy thought, but rousing presently, I
betook me into my cave, and lying down, fell at last to uneasy slumber. But
waking suddenly, I started up on elbow full of an indefinable fear, and
glancing without the cave, I saw a strange thing, for sand and rock and
bush-girt cliff had on an unfamiliar aspect, the which I was wholly unable
to account for; rocks and trees and flowering vines shone throbbing upon my
vision with a palpitant glow that came and went, the like of which I had
never seen before.

Then, all at once, I was up and running along Skeleton Cove, filled with a
dreadful apprehension, and coming out upon Deliverance Beach, stood quaking
like one smitten with a palsy; for there, lapped about in writhing flame
and crackling sparks, was all that remained of my boat, and crouched upon
the sands, watching me by the light of this fire, was she who called
herself Joanna.

And now, perceiving all the wanton cruelty of this thing, a cold and
merciless rage took me and staring on this woman as she stared on me, I
began to creep towards her.

"I warned you, fool, I warned you!" cried she, never moving. "'Tis a brave
fire I've made and burns well. And now you shall kill me an you will--but
your boat is lost to you for ever, and so is--your Damaris!"

Now at sound of this loved name I stopped and stood a great while staring
at the fire, then suddenly I cast myself on my knees, and lifting up my
eyes to the stars already paling to dawn, I prayed God to keep me from the
sin of murder.

When at last I rose to my feet, Joanna was gone.

The sun was high-risen when I came again, slow and heavy-footed, to behold
what the fire had left of my boat; a heap of ashes, a few fragments of
charred timber. And this the sorry end of all my fond hopes, my vain
schemes, my sweat and labour.

And as I gazed, in place of my raging fury of last night was a hopeless
despondency and a great bitterness against that perverse fate that seemed
to mock my every endeavour.

As I stood thus deject and bitterly cast down, I heard the step of this
woman Joanna and presently she cometh beside me.

"You will be hating me for this, hating me--yes?" she questioned; then,
finding me all regardless of her, she plucked me by the sleeve. "Ah--and
will you not speak to me?" cried she. Turning from her, I began to pace
aimlessly along beside the lagoon but she, overtaking, halted suddenly in
my path. "Your boat would have leaked and swamped with you, Martino!" said
she, but heeding her no whit I turned and plodded back again, and she ever
beside me. "I tell you the cursed thing would ha' gone to pieces at the
first gust of wind!" she cried. But I paced on with neither word nor look
until, finding me thus blind and deaf to her, she cursed me bitterly and so
left me alone and I, following a haphazard course, presently found myself
in a grove of palmetto trees and sat me down in this pleasant shade where
I might behold the sea, that boundless, that impassable barrier. But in a
while, espying the woman coming thitherwards, I rose and tramped on again
with no thought but to save myself from her companionship.

All the morning then I rambled aimlessly to and fro, keeping ever amid the
woods and thickets, staying my hunger with such fruit as I fell in with,
as grapes and plantains; or sitting listlessly, my hands idle before me, I
stared out across these empty, sun-smitten waters, until, dazzled by their
glare, I would rise and wander on again, my mind ever and always troubled
of a great perplexity, namely: How might I (having regard to the devilish
nature of this woman Joanna) keep myself from slaying her in some fit of
madness, thereby staining my soul with her murder.

So came I at last to my habitation in Skeleton Cove and chancing to espy
my great powderhorn where it hung, I reached it down and going without the
cave, scattered its contents broadcast, this being all the powder I had
brought hither.

It being now late noon and very hot, I cast myself down in the shade of a
rock, and lying there, I presently came to the following resolution, viz:
To shun the woman Joanna's company henceforth as well as I might; moreover
(and let her haunt me how she would) to heed her neither by word or look,
bearing all her scorns and revilings patiently, making no answer, and
enduring all her tyranny to the uttermost. All of which fine conceits were
but the most arrant folly and quickly brought to nothing, as you shall
hear. For even now as I sat with these high-flown notions buzzing in my
head, I started to her sudden call:

"Martino--Martino!"

Glancing up, I beheld her poised upon the rocks above me and a noose of
small cord in her hand. As I watched, she began to whirl this around her
head, fast and faster, then, uttering a shrill, strange cry, she let fly
the noose the which, leaping through the air, took me suddenly about the
throat and she, pulling on it, had me half-strangled all in a moment. Then
as, choking, I loosed this devilish noose from me (and or ever I could
rise) she came running and casting herself down before me, clasped my feet
and laid her head upon them.

"Martino!" she cried, "Oh man, beat me an you will, trample on me, kill me;
only heed me--heed me a little!"

Now seeing her thus miserably abject and humbled, I grew abashed also and
fain would have loosed me from her clasp but she held me only the faster;
and thus, my hand coming upon her head, she caught that hand and kissed it
passionately, wetting it with her tears.

"Oh, Martino," said she, wofully a-sobbing, "I do know at last wherefore--I
may not kill you. 'Tis because I love you. I was fool not to guess it ere
this, but--I have never loved man ere now. Aye, I love you--I, Joanna, that
never loved before, do love you, Martino--"

"What of your many lovers?"

"I loved no one of them all. 'Tis you ha' learned me--"

"Nay, this is no love--"

"Aye, but it is--in very truth. Think you I do not know it? I cannot
sleep, I cannot eat--except you love me I must die, yes. Ah, Martino, be
merciful!" she pleaded. "For thee I will be all woman henceforth, soft and
tender and very gentle--thine always! Oh, be merciful--"

"No," I cried, "not this! Be rather your other self, curse me, revile me,
fetch the sword and fight with me--"

"Fight thee--ah, no, no! The time for this is passed away. And if I did
grieve thee 'twas but that I might cherish and comfort thee--for thou art
mine and I thine henceforth--to death and beyond! Look, Martino! See how I
do love thee!"

And now her arms were about me, soft and strong, and beholding all the
pleading beauty of her, the tender allure of her eyes, the quiver of her
scarlet mouth and all her compelling loveliness, I stooped to her embrace;
but even so, chancing to lift my gaze seaward, I broke the clasp of these
twining arms and rose suddenly to my feet. For there, her rag of sail
spread to the light-breathing air, was a boat standing in for the island.




CHAPTER VI

HOW I SUCCOURED ONE DON FEDERIGO, A GENTLEMAN OF SPAIN


I was out upon the reef, waving my arms like any madman and shouting to
the vague figure huddled in the stern sheets. As the boat drew nearer, I
discovered this figure to be a man in Spanish half-armour, and the head of
this man was bowed meekly upon steel-clad breast like one overcome with
great weariness. But presently as I watched he looked up, like one awaking
from sleep, and gestured feebly with his arm, whiles I, beholding here the
means to my deliverance, babbled prayers of thankfulness to God.

After some while, the boat being within hail, I began to call out to this
solitary voyager (for companion had he none, it seemed) how he must steer
to avoid the rocks and shoals. At last, the boat being come near enough and
the sea very smooth, I waded out and, watching my chance, clambered aboard
over the bows and came, all dripping, eager to welcome this heavensent
stranger and thus beheld the boat very foul of blood and him pale and
hollow-cheeked, his eyes dim and sunken; moreover his rich armour was
battered and dinted, whiles about one leg was knotted a bloody scarf.

"Señor," said I, in my best Spanish, "a lonely man, giveth you right hearty
greeting!"

"I thank you, sir," he answered and in very excellent English, "though I do
much fear you shall abide solitary, for as I do think I am a-dying. Could
you--bring me--water--"

The words ended in a sigh and his head drooped so that I feared he was
already gone. But, finding he yet breathed, I made haste to lower the sail
and, shipping oars, paddled towards that opening in the reef that gave upon
the lagoon. Being opposite this narrow channel I felt the boat caught by
some tide and current and swept forward ever more rapidly, insomuch that
I unshipped the oars and hasting into the bow, caught up a stout spar
wherewith to fend us off from the rocks. Yet more than once, despite all my
exertions, we came near striking ere, having passed through this perilous
gut, we floated into the placid waters of the lagoon beyond.

Very soon I had beached the boat as securely as I might on that spit of
sand opposite Skeleton Cove, and finding the Spaniard yet a-swoon I lifted
him, albeit with much ado, and setting him across my shoulder, bore him
thus into the cool shade of the cave. There I laid him down beside the
little rill to bathe his head and wrists with the sweet water and moisten
his parched lips. At this he revived somewhat and, lifting his head,
eagerly drank so much as I would allow, his sunken eyes uplift to mine in
an ecstasy.

"Young sir," said he in stronger voice, "for your kind charity and this
good water may the Saints requite thee. 'Tis three nights and two days
since I drank--"

A shadow fell betwixt us and looking up I beheld Joanna. Now in one hand
she grasped the Spaniard's sword she had stolen out of his boat and her
other hand was hid behind her, wherefore I watched her narrowly, as she
stood gazing down at this wounded man; and at first she scowled at him, but
slowly her look changed and I saw her vivid lips curl in her baleful smile.

"Oh," said she very softly, "Oh, marvel of marvels! Oh, wonder of wonders,
even and in very truth it is Don Federigo de Rosalva y Maldonada, wafted
hither by wind and tide to Joanna and judgment. Oh, most wonderful!"

Now hereupon this poor wounded wretch lifted himself to peer up into her
smiling face with hanging jaw, like one amazed beyond all speech, whiles
she, slim and shapely in her 'broidered gown, nodded her handsome head.
"Verily," quoth she, "'tis the hanging, bloody governor of Nombre de Dios
come to Justice! I pray you, Señor, how many of our company ha' you strung
aloft since last we met?"

Here, though with much painful ado, the Don got to his feet and made her a
prodigious fine bow.

"The Señorita Joanna honours me by her notice," said he. "I should have
doubtless known her at once but for her change of habit. And I am happy to
inform the Señorita I have been so fortunate as to take and hang no
less than five and twenty of her pirate fellowship since last I had the
gratification of meeting her."

"Ha, you lie!" cried she passionately. "You lie!"

"They swing in their chains along the mole outside Nombre de Dios to
witness for my truth, Señorita. And now," said he, propping himself against
the rock behind him, "it is my turn to die, as I think? Well, strike,
lady--here, above my gorget--"

"Die then!" cried she and whipped a pistol from behind her, but as she
levelled I struck up the weapon and it exploded harmless in the air.
Uttering a scream of bitter rage, she thrust with the sword, but I put up
the stroke (thereby taking a gash in the arm) and gripping the rapier by
the guards I twisted it from her hold. And now she turned on me in a very
frenzy:

"Kill me then!" she panted, striving to impale herself on the sword in my
hand. "If this man is to come betwixt us now, kill me in mercy and free
me from this hateful woman's flesh--" But here, spying my arm bloody, she
forgot her anger all in a moment. "Are ye hurt?" said she. "Are ye hurt and
all to save this miserable fool!" And suddenly (or ever I might prevent)
she caught my arm, kissing the wound, heedless of the blood that bedabbled
her cheek in horrid fashion.

"Oh, Martino," said she, leaning 'gainst a rock when at last I broke from
her, "you are mine now and always, as you were in other times long since
forgot. In those days your blood was on my lips, I mind, and your kisses
also ere you died. Mine you are to death, aye, and through death to life
again--mine. And to-day is to-day and death not for you or me--yet awhile!"

When she was gone I turned to find this wounded man upon his knees, his
head bowed above a little gold crucifix between his hands.

"Sir, what would you?" I questioned, struck by his expression, when at last
he looked up.

"I make my peace with God, Señor, since I am soon to die--"

"Nay, sir, I do trust your hardships are ended--"

"Shall be, Señor, to-day, to-morrow, the day after?" said he, smiling
faintly and shrugging his shoulders. "A sudden shot, steel i' the
back--'tis better than death by famine in an open boat. You, Señor, have
saved me alive yet a little, doubtless for your own ends, but my death
walketh yonder as I know, death in form shapely and fair-seeming, yet sure
and unpitying, none the less."

"Ha, d'ye mean yon woman?" I questioned.

"The Señorita Joanna--verily, Señor."

"Never think it!" quoth I. "'Tis wild, fierce creature, yet is she but a
woman and young--"

Now hereupon this wounded man lifted weary head to stare on me, his eyes
very bright and keen.

"Señor," says he, "either you do mock me, or you nothing know this woman.
But I do know her well and too well. Señor, I have warred with and been
prisoner to you English, I have fought Indians, I have campaigned again
buccaneers and pirates these many years, but never have I encountered foe
so desperate, so bold and cunning as this Señorita Joanna. She is the very
soul of evil; the goddess of every pirate rogue in the Indies; 'tis she
is their genius, their inspiration, her word their law. 'Tis she is ever
foremost in their most desperate ploys, first in attack, last in retreat,
fearless always--I have known her turn rout into victory. But two short
months ago she vowed my destruction, and I with my thousands at command
besides divers ships well armed and manned; to-day I am a woful fugitive,
broken in fortune, fleeing for my life, and, Señor, Fate has brought me,
through shipwreck and famine all these weary miles, into the grasp of her
slender, cruel hands. Thus and thus do I know myself for dead man and shall
die, howsoever I must, as becometh me."

His keen eyes lost their fire, his head drooped, and looking down on him as
he lay huddled against the rock, I did not doubt but that much of this was
no more than the raving of his disordered fancy.

So I set my arm about this poor gentleman and brought him into my
habitation, where I loosed off his chafing armour and set myself to feed
and cherish him, bathing the hurt in his leg, the which I found very angry
and inflamed. This done I bade him be of good comfort and yield himself to
slumber. But this he could no way accomplish, being restless and fevered
and his mind harping continually on the strange fate had set him thus in
Joanna's power and the sure belief that he must die, soon or late, at her
hands.

"For look now, Señor," said he, "and observe my strange destiny. Scarce two
months since I set out in a well-found galleon, I and three hundred chosen
men, to hunt down and destroy this very woman--her and her evil company.
One of their ships we fell in with, which ship, after long and sharp
debate, we sunk. But it coming on to blow and our own vessels being much
shattered by their shot, we sprung a leak, the which gaining on us, we
were forced to take to our boats; but the wind increased and we were soon
scattered. On the third day, having endured divers perils, we made the
land, I with Pedro Valdez my chief captain and ten others and, being short
of water, they went ashore one and all, leaving me wounded in the boat.
And I lying there was suddenly aware of great uproar within the thickets
ashore, and thereafter the screams and cries of my companions as they died.
Then cometh Pedro Valdez running, crying out the Indians were on us, that
all was lost and himself sore wounded. Nevertheless he contrived to thrust
off the boat and I to aid him aboard. That night, he died and the wind
drove me whither it would; wherefore, having committed Pedro Valdez his
body to the deep, I resigned myself to the will of God. And God hath
brought me hither, Señor, and set me in the power of the Señorita Joanna
that is my bitter foe; so am I like to die sudden and soon. But, Señor,
for your kindness to me, pray receive a broken man's gratitude and dying
blessing. Sir, I am ever a Maldonada of Castile and we do never forget!"
There he reached out to grasp my hand. "Thus, Señor, should this be my last
night of life, the which is very like, know that my gratitude is of the
nature that dieth not."

"Sir," said I, his hand in mine and the night deepening about us, "I am a
very solitary man and you came into my life like a very angel of God (an
there be such) when I stood in direst need, for I was sick of my loneliness
and in my hunger for companionship very nigh to great and shameful folly.
Mayhap, whiles you grow back to strength and health, I will tell you my
story, but this night you shall sleep safe--so rest you secure."




CHAPTER VII

I AM DETERMINED ON MY VENGEANCE, AND MY REASONS THEREFOR


I found this Spanish gentleman very patient in his sickness and ever of a
grave and chivalrous courtesy, insomuch that as our fellowship lengthened
so grew my regard for him. He was, beside, a man of deep learning and
excellent judgment and his conversation and conduct a growing delight to
me.

And indeed to such poor wretch as I that had been forced by my bitter
wrongs to company with all manner of rogues and fellows of the baser sort,
this Don Federigo (and all unknowing) served but to show me how very far I
had sunk from what I might have been. And knowing myself thus degenerate
I grieved mightily therefore and determined henceforth to meet Fortune's
buffets more as became my condition, with a steadfast and patient serenity,
even as this gentleman of Spain.

It was at this time he recounted, in his courtly English, something of the
woes he and his had suffered these many years at the hands of these roving
adventurers, these buccaneers and pirates whose names were a terror all
along the Main. He told of the horrid cruelties of Lollonois, of the bloody
Montbars called the "Exterminator," of the cold, merciless ferocity of
Black Bartlemy and of such lesser rouges as Morgan, Tressady, Belvedere and
others of whom I had never heard.

"There was my son, young sir," said he in his calm, dispassionate voice,
"scarce eighteen turned, and my daughter--both taken by this pirate
Belvedere when he captured the _Margarita_ carrack scarce three years
since. My son they tortured to death because he was my son, and my
daughter, my sweet Dolores--well, she is dead also, I pray the Mother of
Mercies. Truly I have suffered very much, yet there be others, alas! I
might tell you of our goodly towns burned or held to extortionate ransom,
of our women ravished, our children butchered, our men tormented, our
defenceless merchant ships destroyed and their crews with them, but my list
is long, young sir, and would outlast your kind patience."

"And what o' vengeance?" I demanded, marvelling at the calm serenity of his
look.

"Vengeance, young sir? Nay, surely, 'tis an empty thing. For may vengeance
bring back the beloved dead? Can it rebuild our desolate towns, or cure any
of a broken heart?"

"Yet you hang these same rogues?"

"Truly, Señor, as speedily as may be, as I would crush a snake. Yet who
would seek vengeance on a worm?"

"Yet do I seek vengeance!" cried I, upstarting to my feet. "Vengeance for
my wasted years, vengeance on him hath been the ruin of my house, on him
that, forcing me to endure anguish of mind and shame of body, hath made of
me the poor, outcast wretch I am. Ha--'tis vengeance I do live for!"

"Then do you live to a vain end, young sir! For vengeance is an emptiness
and he that seeketh it wasteth himself."

"Now tell me, Don Federigo," I questioned, "seek you not the life of this
Belvedere that slew your son?"

"'Tis my prayer to see him die, Señor, yet do I live to other, and I pray
to nobler purpose--"

"Why, then," quoth I fiercely, "so is it my prayer to watch my enemy die
and I do live to none other purpose--"

"Spoke like true, bully lad, Martino!" cried a voice, and glancing about, I
espied Joanna leaning in the opening to the cave. She was clad in her
male attire as I had seen her first, save that by her side she bore
the bejewelled Spanish rapier. Thus lolled she, smiling on me
half-contemptuous, hand poised lightly on the hilt of her sword, all
graceful insolence.

"Eye for eye, Martino," said she, nodding. "Tooth for tooth, blood for
blood: 'tis a good law and just, yes! How say you, Señor Don Federigo; you
agree--no?"

With an effort Don Federigo got to his feet and, folding his cloak about
his spare form, made her a prodigious deep obeisance.

"'Tis a law ancient of days, Señorita," said he.

"And your health improves, Señor, I hope--yes?"

"The Señorita is vastly gracious! Thanks to Don Martino I mend apace. Oh,
yes, and shall soon be strong enough to die decorously, I trust, and in
such fashion as the Señorita shall choose."

"Aha, Señor," said she, with flash of white teeth, "'tis an everlasting joy
to me that I also am of noble Spanish blood. Some day when justice hath
been done, and you are no more, I will have a stone raised up to mark where
lie the bones of a great Spanish gentleman. As for thee, my poor Martino,
that babblest o' vengeance, 'tis not for thee nor ever can be--thou that
art only English, cold--cold--a very clod! Oh, verily there is more life,
more fire and passion in a small, dead fish than in all thy great, slow
body! And now, pray charge me my pistols; you have all the powder here." I
shook my head. "Fool," said she, "I mean not to shoot you, and as for Don
Federigo, since death is but his due, a bullet were kinder--so charge now
these my pistols."

"I have no powder," said I.

"Liar!"

"I cast it into the sea lest I be tempted to shoot you."

Now at this she must needs burst out a-laughing.

"Oh, Englishman!" cried she. "Oh, sluggard soul--how like, how very like
thee, Martino!" Then, laughing yet, she turned and left me to stare after
her in frowning wonderment.

This night after supper, sitting in the light of the fire and finding the
Don very wakeful, I was moved (at his solicitation) to tell him my history;
the which I will here recapitulate as briefly as I may.

"I was born, sir, in Kent in England exactly thirty years ago, and being
the last of my family 'tis very sure that family shall become a name soon
to be forgotten--"

"But you, Señor, so young--"

"But ancient in suffering, sir."

"Oh, young sir, but what of love; 'tis a magic--"

"A dream!" quoth I. "A dream sweet beyond words! But I am done with idle
dreaming, henceforth. I come then of one of two families long at feud, a
bloody strife that had endured for generations and which ended in my father
being falsely accused by his more powerful enemy and thrown into prison
where he speedily perished. Then I, scarce more than lad, was trepanned
aboard ship, carried across seas and sold a slave into the plantations.
And, mark me, sir, all this the doing of our hereditary enemy who, thus
triumphant, dreamed he had ended the feud once and for all. Sir, I need not
weary you with my sufferings as a planter's slave, to labour always 'neath
the lash, to live or die as my master willed. Suffice it I broke free at
last and, though well-nigh famished, made my way to the coast. But here my
travail ended in despair, for I was recaptured and being known for runaway
slave, was chained to an oar aboard the great _Esmeralda_ galleas where
such poor rogues had their miserable lives whipped out of them. And here my
sufferings (since it seemed I could not die) grew well-nigh beyond me to
endure. But from this hell of shame and anguish I cried unceasing upon God
for justice and vengeance on mine enemy that had plunged me from life and
all that maketh it worthy into this living death. And God answered me in
this, for upon a day the _Esmeralda_ was shattered and sunk by an English
ship and I, delivered after five bitter years of agony, came back to my
native land. But friends had I none, nor home, since the house wherein I
was born and all else had been seized by my enemy and he a power at Court.
Him sought I therefore to his destruction, since (as it seemed to me) God
had brought me out of my tribulation to be His instrument of long-delayed
vengeance. So, friendless and destitute, came I at last to that house had
been ours for generations and there learned that my hopes and labour were
vain indeed, since this man I was come to destroy had himself been captured
and cast a prisoner in that very place whence I had so lately escaped!"

Here the memory of this disappointment waxing in me anew, I must needs
pause in my narration, whereupon my companion spake in his soft,
dispassionate voice:

"Thus surely God hath answered your many prayers, young sir!"

"And how so?" cried I. "Of what avail that this man lie pent in dungeon
or sweating in chains and I not there to see his agony? I must behold him
suffer as I suffered, hear his groans, see his tears--I that do grieve a
father untimely dead, I that have endured at this man's will a thousand
shames and torment beyond telling! Thus, sir," I continued, "learning that
his daughter was fitting out a ship to his relief I (by aid of the master
of the ship) did steal myself aboard and sailed back again, back to
discover this my enemy. But on the voyage mutiny broke out, headed by that
evil rogue, Tressady. Then was I tricked and cast adrift in an open boat by
Adam Penfeather, the master--"

"Penfeather, young sir, Adam Penfeather! Truly there was one I do mind
greatly famous once among the buccaneers of Tortuga."

"This man, then, this Penfeather casts me adrift (having struck me
unconscious first) that I might secure to him certain treasure that lay
hid on this island, a vast treasure of jewels called 'Black Bartlemy's
treasure.'"

"I have heard mention of it, Señor."

"Here then steered I, perforce, and, storm-tossed, was cast here, I and--my
comrade--"

"Comrade, Señor?"

"Indeed, sir. For with me in the boat was a woman and she the daughter of
my enemy. And here, being destitute of all things, we laboured together to
our common need and surely, aye, surely, never had man braver comrade or
sweeter companion. She taught me many things and amongst them how to
love her, and loving, to honour and respect her for her pure and noble
womanhood. Upon a time, to save herself from certain evil men driven hither
by tempest she leapt into a lake that lieth in the midst of this island,
being carried some distance by a current, came in this marvellous fashion
on the secret of Black Bartlemy's hidden treasure. But I, thinking her
surely dead, fought these rogues, slaying one and driving his fellow back
to sea and, being wounded, fell sick, dreaming my dear lady beside me
again, hale and full of life; and waking at last from my fears, found this
the very truth. In the following days I forgot all my prayers and the great
oath of vengeance I had sworn, by reason of my love for this my sweet
comrade. But then came the pirate Tressady and his fellows seeking the
treasure, and after him, Penfeather, which last, being a very desperate,
cunning man, took Tressady by a wile and would have hanged him with his
comrade Mings, but for my lady. These rogues turned I adrift in one of
the boats to live or die as God should appoint. And now (my vengeance all
forgot) there grew in me a passionate hope to have found me peace at last
and happiness in my dear lady's love, and wedded to her, sail back to
England and home. But such great happiness was not for me, it seemed. I was
falsely accused of murder and (unable to prove my innocence) I chose rather
to abide here solitary than endure her doubting of me, or bring shame or
sorrow on one so greatly loved. Thus, sir, here have I existed a solitary
man ever since."

"And the Señorita Joanna, young sir?"

When I had told him of her coming and the strange manner of it, Don
Federigo lay silent a good while, gazing into the fire.

"And your enemy, Señor?" he questioned at last. "Where lieth he now to your
knowledge?"

"At Nombre de Dios, in the dungeons of the Inquisition, 'tis said."

"The Inquisition!" quoth Don Federigo in a whisper, and crossed himself.
"Sir," said he, and with a strange look. "Oh, young sir, if this be so
indeed, rest you content, for God hath surely avenged you--aye, to the very
uttermost!"




CHAPTER VIII

HOW THE DAYS OF MY WATCHING WERE ACCOMPLISHED


Our fresh meat being nearly all gone, I set out next morning with my
bow and arrows (in the management of which I had made myself extreme
dexterous); I set out, I say, minded to shoot me a young goat or, failing
this, one of those great birds whose flesh I had found ere now to be very
tender and delicate eating.

Hardly had I waved adieu to the Don (him sitting in the shade propped in
one of my great elbow chairs) than I started a goat and immediately gave
chase, not troubling to use my bow, for what with my open-air life and
constant exercise I had become so long-winded and fleet of foot that I
would frequently run these wild creatures down.

Away sped the goat and I after it, along perilous tracks and leaping from
rock to rock, joying in the chase, since of late I had been abroad very
little by reason of Don Federigo's sickness; on I ran after my quarry, the
animal making ever for higher ground and more difficult ways until we were
come to a rocky height whence I might behold a wide expanse of ocean.

Now, as had become my wont, I cast a look around about this vast horizon
and stopped all at once, clean forgetting my goat and all else in the world
excepting that which had caught my lonely glance, that for which I had
looked and waited and prayed for so long. For there, dim-seen 'twixt the
immensity of sea and sky, was a speck I knew for the topsails of a ship.
Long stood I staring as one entranced, my hands tight clasped, and all
a-sweat with fear lest this glimmering speck should fade and vanish utterly
away. At last, dreading this be but my fancy or a trick of the light, I
summoned enough resolution to close my eyes and, bowing my head between my
hands, remained thus as long as I might endure. Then, opening my eyes, I
uttered a cry of joy to see this speck loom more distinct and plainer than
before. Thereupon I turned and began to hasten back with some wild notion
of putting off in Don Federigo's boat (the which lay securely afloat in the
lagoon) and of standing away for this ship lest peradventure she miss
the island. Full of this dreadful possibility I took to running like any
madman, staying for nothing, leaping, scrambling, slipping and stumbling
down sheer declivities, breasting precipitous cliffs until I reached and
began to descend Skeleton Cove.

I was half-way down the cliff when I heard the clash of steel, and
presently coming where I might look down into the cove I saw this: with his
back to a rock and a smear of blood on his cheek stood Don Federigo, armed
with my cut-and-thrust, defending himself against Joanna; and as I watched
the flash of their whirling, clashing blades, it did not take me long to
see that the Don was no match for her devilish skill and cunning, and
beholding her swift play of foot and wrist, her lightning volts and passes,
I read death in every supple line of her. Even as I hasted towards them, I
saw the dart of her long blade, followed by a vivid, ever-widening stain on
the shoulder of the Don's tattered shirt.

"Ha-ha!" cried she and with a gasconading flourish of her blade. "There's
for Pierre Valdaigne you hanged six months agone! There's for Jeremy Price!
And this for Tonio Moretti! And now for John Davis, sa-ha!" With every name
she uttered, her cruel steel, flashing within his weakening guard, bit into
him, arm or leg, and I saw she meant to cut him to pieces. The sword was
beaten from his failing grasp and her point menaced his throat, his
breast, his eyes, whiles he, leaning feebly against the rock, fronted her
unflinching and waited death calm and undismayed. But, staying for no more,
I leapt down into the cove and fell, rolling upon the soft sand, whereupon
she flashed a look at me over her shoulder and in that moment Don Federigo
had grappled her sword-arm; then came I running and she, letting fall her
sword, laughed to see me catch it up.

"Ha, my brave English clod," cried she. "There be two swords and two
men against one defenceless woman! Come, end me, Martino, end me and be
done--or will you suffer the Don to show you, yes?" And folding her arms
she faced me mighty high and scornful. But now, whiles I stared at her
insolent beauty and no word ready, Don Federigo made her one of his grand
bows and staggered into the cave, spattering blood as he went.

And in a little (staying only to take up the other sword) I followed him,
leaving her to stand and mock me with her laughter. Reaching the Don I
found him a-swoon and straightway set myself to bare his wounds and staunch
their bleeding as well as I might, in the doing of which I must needs
marvel anew at Joanna's devilish skill, since each and every of these hurts
came near no vital spot and were of little account in themselves, so that a
man might be stabbed thus very many times ere death ended his torment.

After awhile, recovering himself somewhat, Don Federigo must needs strive
to speak me his gratitude, but I cut him short to tell of the ship I had
seen.

"I pray what manner of ship?"

"Nay, she is yet too far to determine," said I, glancing eagerly seawards.
"But since ship she is, what matter for aught beside?"

"True, Señor Martino! I am selfish."

"How so?"

"Unless she be ship of Spain, here is no friend to me. But you will be
yearning for sight of this vessel whiles I keep you. Go, young sir, go
forth--make you a fire, a smoke plain to be seen and may this ship bring
you to freedom and a surcease of all your tribulations!"

"A smoke!" cried I, leaping up. "Ha, yes--yes!" And off went I, running;
but reaching Deliverance I saw there was no need for signal of mine, since
on the cliff above a fire burned already, sending up huge columns of thick
smoke very plain to be seen from afar, and beside this fire Joanna staring
seaward beneath her hand. And looking whither she looked, I saw the ship
so much nearer that I might distinguish her lower courses. Thus I stood,
watching the vessel grow upon my sight, very slowly and by degrees, until
it was evident she had seen the smoke and was standing in for the island.
Once assured of this, I was seized of a passion of joy; and bethinking me
of all she might mean to me and of the possibility that one might be aboard
her whose sweet eyes even now gazed from her decks upon this lonely island,
my heart leapt whiles ship and sea swam on my sight and I grew blinded by
stinging tears. And now I paced to and fro upon the sand in a fever of
longing and with my hungry gaze turned ever in the one direction.

As the time dragged by, my impatience grew almost beyond enduring; but
on came the ship, slow but sure, nearer and nearer until I could
discern shroud and spar and rope, the guns that yawned from her high,
weather-beaten side, the people who crowded her decks. She seemed a great
ship, heavily armed and manned, and high upon her towering poop lolled one
in a vivid scarlet jacket.

I was gazing upon her in an ecstacy, straining my eyes for the flutter of
a petticoat upon her lofty quarter-deck, when I heard Don Federigo hail me
faintly, and glancing about, espied him leaning against an adjacent rock.

"Alas, Señor," says he, "I know yon ship by her looks--aye, and so doth the
Señorita--see yonder!" Now glancing whither he pointed, I beheld Joanna
pacing daintily along the reef, pausing ever and anon to signal with her
arm; then, as the ship went about to bear up towards the reef, from her
crowded decks rose a great shouting and halloo, a hoarse clamour drowned
all at once in the roar of great guns, and up to the main fluttered a black
ancient; and beholding this accursed flag, its grisly skull and bones, I
cast me down on the sands, my high hopes and fond expectations 'whelmed in
a great despair.

But as I lay thus was a gentle touch on my bowed head and in my ear Don
Federigo's voice:

"Alas, good my friend, and doth Hope die for you likewise? Then do I grieve
indeed. But despair not, for in the cave yonder be two swords; go fetch
them, I pray, for I am over-weak."

"Of what avail," cried I bitterly, looking up into the pale serenity of his
face, "of what avail two swords 'gainst a ship's company?"

"We can die, Señor!" said he, with his gentle smile. "To die on our own
steel, by our own hands--here--is clean death and honourable."

"True!" said I.

"Then I pray go fetch the swords, my friend; 'tis time methinks--look!"
Glancing towards the ship, I saw she was already come to an anchor and a
boatful of men pulling briskly for the reef where stood Joanna, and as they
rowed they cheered her amain:

"La Culebra!" they roared. "Ahoy, Joanna! Give a rouse for Fighting Jo!
Cap'n Jo--ha, Joanna!"

The boat being near enough, many eager hands were reached out to her and
with Joanna on board they paddled into the lagoon. Now as they drew in to
Deliverance Beach they fell silent all, hearkening to her words, and I
saw her point them suddenly to Skeleton Cove, whereupon they rowed amain
towards that spit of sand where we stood screened among the rocks, shouting
in fierce exultation as they came. Don Federigo sank upon his knees with
head bowed reverently above his little crucifix, and when at last he looked
up his face showed placid as ever.

"Señor," quoth he gently, "you do hear them howling for my blood? Well,
you bear a knife in your girdle--I pray you lend it to me." For a moment I
hesitated, then, drawing the weapon forth, I sent it spinning far out to
sea.

"Sir," said I, "we English do hold that whiles life is--so is hope.
Howbeit, if you die you shall not die alone, this I swear."

Then I sprang forth of the rocks and strode down where these lawless
fellows were beaching their boat.




CHAPTER IX

WE FALL AMONG PIRATES


At my sudden coming they fell silent, one and all, staring from me to
Joanna, where she stood beside a buxom, swaggering ruffling fellow whose
moustachios and beard were cut after the Spanish mode but with a monstrous
great periwig on his head surmounted by a gold-braided, looped hat. His
coat was of scarlet velvet, brave with much adornment of gold lace; his
legs were thrust into a pair of rough sea-boots; and on his hip a long,
curved hanger very broad in the blade.

"'S fish!" said he, looking me over with his sleepy eyes. "Is this your
Englishman, Jo? And what must we do wi' him--shall he hang?"

"Mayhap yes--when 'tis so my whim," answered she, 'twixt smiling lips and
staring me in the eyes.

But now, and all at once, from the wild company rose a sudden hoarse murmur
that swelled again to that fierce, exultant uproar as down towards us paced
Don Federigo.

"Aha, 'tis the Marquis!" they cried. "'Tis the bloody Marquis! Shoot the
dog! Nay, hang him up! Aye, by his thumbs. Nay, burn him--to the fire wi'
the bloody rogue!"

Unheeding their vengeful outcry he advanced upon the men (and these
ravening for his blood), viewing their lowering faces and brandished steel
with his calm, dispassionate gaze and very proud and upright for all his
bodily weakness; pausing beside me, he threw up his hand with haughty
gesture and before the command of this ragged arm they abated their clamour
somewhat.

"Of a surety," said he in his precise English, "it is the Capitan
Belvedere. You captured my daughter--my son--in the _Margarita_ carrack
three years agone. 'Tis said he died at your hands, Señor Capitan--"

"Not mine, Don, not mine," answered this Belvedere, smiling sleepily. "We
gave him to Black Pompey to carbonado." I felt Don Federigo's hand against
me as if suddenly faint, but his wide-eyed gaze never left the Captain's
handsome face, who, aware of this look, shifted his own gaze, cocked his
hat and swaggered. "Stare your fill, now," quoth he with an oath, "'tis
little enough you'll be seeing presently. Aye, you'll be blind enough
soon--"

"Blind is it, Cap'n--ha, good!" cried a squat, ill-looking fellow, whipping
out a long knife. "Hung my comrade Jem, a did, so here's a knife shall
blind him when ye will, Cap'n, by hookey!" And now he and his fellows began
to crowd upon us with evil looks; but they halted suddenly, fumbling with
their weapons and eyeing Joanna uncertainly where she stood, hand on hip,
viewing them with her fleering smile.

"Die he shall, yes!" said she at last. "Die he must, but in proper fashion
and time, not by such vermin as you--so put up that knife! You hear me,
yes?"

"Hanged my comrade Jem, a did, along o' many others o' the Fellowship!"
growled the squat man, flourishing his knife, "Moreover the Cap'n says
'blind' says he, so blind it is, says I, and this the knife to--" The
growling voice was drowned in the roar of a pistol and, dropping his knife,
the fellow screamed and caught at his hurt.

"And there's for you, yes!" said Joanna, smiling into the man's agonised
face, "Be thankful I spared your worthless life. Crawl into the boat, worm,
and wait till I'm minded to patch up your hurt--Go!"

For a moment was silence, then came a great gust of laughter, and men
clapped and pummelled each other.

"La Culebra!" they roared. "'Tis our Jo, 'tis Fighting Jo, sure and
sartain; 'tis our luck, the luck o' the Brotherhood--ha, Joanna!"

But, tossing aside the smoking pistol, Joanna scowled from them to their
captain.

"Hola, Belvedere," said she. "Your dogs do grow out of hand; 'tis well I'm
back again. Now for these my prisoners, seize 'em up, bind 'em fast and
heave 'em aboard ship."

"Aye, but," said Belvedere, fingering his beard, "why aboard, Jo, when we
may do their business here and prettily. Yon's a tree shall make notable
good gallows or--look now, here's right plenty o' kindling, and driftwood
shall burn 'em merrily and 'twill better please the lads--"

"But then I do pleasure myself, yes. So aboard ship they go!"

"Why, look now, Jo," said Belvedere, biting at his thumb, "'tis ever my
rule to keep no prisoners--"

"Save women, Cap'n!" cried a voice, drowned in sudden evil laughter.

"So, as I say, Joanna, these prisoners cannot go aboard my ship."

"Your ship?" said she, mighty scornful. "Ah, ah, but 'twas I made you
captain of your ship and 'tis I can unmake you--"

"Why look ye, Jo," said Belvedere, gnawing at his thumb more savagely and
glancing towards his chafing company, "the good lads be growing impatient,
being all heartily for ending these prisoners according to custom--"

"Aye, aye, Cap'n!" cried divers of the men, beginning to crowd upon us
again. "To the fire with 'em! Nay, send aboard for Black Pompey! Aye,
Pompey's the lad to set 'em dancing Indian fashion--"

"You hear, Jo, you hear?" cried Belvedere. "The lads are for ending of 'em
sportive fashion--especially the Don; he must die slow and quaint for
sake 'o the good lads as do hang a-rotting on his cursed gibbets e'en
now--quaint and slow; the lads think so and so think I--"

"But you were ever a dull fool, my pretty man, yes!" said Joanna, showing
her teeth. "And as for these rogues, they do laugh at you--see!" But as
Belvedere turned to scowl upon and curse his ribalds, Joanna deftly whisked
the pistols from his belt and every face was smitten to sudden anxious
gravity as she faced them.

"I am Joanna!" quoth she, her red lips curving to the smile I ever found so
hateful. "Oh, Madre de Dios, where now are your tongues? And never a smile
among ye! Is there a man here that will not obey Joanna--no? Joanna that
could kill any of ye single-handed as she killed Cestiforo!" At this was an
uneasy stir and muttering among them, and Belvedere's sleepy eyes widened
suddenly. "Apes!" cried she, beslavering them with all manner of abuse,
French, Spanish and English. "Monkeys, cease your chattering and list to
Joanna. And mark--my prisoners go aboard this very hour, yes. And to-day we
sail for Nombre de Dios. Being before the town we send in a boat under flag
of truce to say we hold captive their governor, Don Federigo de Cosalva y
Maldonada, demanding for him a sufficient ransom. The money paid, then
will we fire a broadside into the city and the folk shall see their proud
Governor swung aloft to dangle and kick at our mainyard; so do we achieve
vengeance and money both--"

From every throat burst a yell of wild acclaim, shout on shout: "Hey, lads,
for Cap'n Jo! 'Tis she hath the wise head, mates! Money and vengeance, says
Jo! Shout, lads, for Fighting Jo--shout!"

"And what o' your big rogue, Jo?" demanded Belvedere, scowling on me.

"He?" said Joanna, curling her lip at me. "Oh, la-la, he shall be our
slave--'til he weary me. So--bring them along!"

But now (and all too late) perceiving death to be the nobler part, even as
Don Federigo had said, I determined to end matters then and there; thus,
turning from Joanna's baleful smile, I leapt suddenly upon the nearest of
the pirates and felling him with a buffet, came to grips with another; this
man I swung full-armed, hurling him among his fellows, and all before a
shot might be fired. But as I stood fronting them, awaiting the stab or
bullet should end me, I heard Joanna's voice shrill and imperious:

"Hold, lads! You are twelve and he but one and unarmed. So down with your
weapons--down, I say! You shall take me this man with your naked hands--ha,
fists--yes! Smite then--bruise him, fists shall never kill him! To it, with
your hands then; the first man that draweth weapon I shoot! To it, lads,
sa-ha--at him then, good bullies!"

For a moment they hesitated but seeing Joanna, her cheeks aglow, her
pistols grasped in ready hands, they laughed and cursed and, loosing off
such things as incommoded them, prepared to come at me. Then, perceiving
she had fathomed my design and that here was small chance of finding sudden
quietus, I folded my arms, minded to let them use me as they would. But
this fine resolution was brought to none account by a small piece of
driftwood that one of these fellows hove at me, thereby setting my mouth
a-bleeding. Stung by the blow and forgetting all but my anger, I leapt and
smote with my fist, and then he and his fellows were upon me. But they
being so many their very numbers hampered them, so that as they leapt upon
me many a man was staggered by kick or buffet aimed at me; moreover these
passed their days cooped up on shipboard whiles I was a man hardened by
constant exercise. Scarce conscious of the hurts I took as we reeled to and
fro, locked in furious grapple, I fought them very joyously, making right
good play with my fists; but ever as I smote one down, another leapt to
smite, so that presently my breath began to labour. How long I endured, I
know not. Only I remember marvelling to find myself so strong and the keen
joy of it was succeeded by sudden weariness, a growing sickness: I remember
a sound of groaning breaths all about me, of thudding blows, hoarse shouts,
these, waxing ever fainter, until smiting with failing arms and ever-waning
strength, they dragged me down at last and I lay vanquished and
unresisting. As I sprawled there, drawing my breath in painful gasps, the
hands that smote, the merciless feet that kicked and trampled me were
suddenly stilled and staring up with dimming eyes I saw Joanna looking down
on me.

"Oh, Martino," said she in my ear, "Oh, fool Englishman, could you but love
as you do fight--"

But groaning, I turned my face to the trampled sand and knew no more.




CHAPTER X

HOW I CAME ABOARD THE _HAPPY DESPATCH_ AND OF MY SUFFERINGS THERE


I awoke gasping to the shock of cold water and was dimly aware of divers
people crowding about me.

"'Tis a fine, bull-bodied boy, Job, all brawn and beef--witness your eye,
Lord love me!" exclaimed a jovial voice, "Aha, Job, a lusty lad--heave
t'other bucket over him!" There came another torrent of water, whereupon I
strove to sit up, but finding this vain by reason of strict bonds, I cursed
them all and sundry instead.

"A sturdy soul, Job, and of a comfortable conversation!" quoth the voice.
"Moreover a man o' mark, as witnesseth your peeper."

"Rot him!" growled the man Job, a beastly-seeming fellow, very slovenly and
foul of person, who glared down at me out of one eye, the other being so
bruised and swollen as to serve him no whit.

"He should be overside wi' his guts full o' shot for this same heye of mine
if 'twas my say--"

"But then it ain't your say, Job, nor yet Belvedere's--'tis hern,
Job--hern--Cap'n Jo's. 'He's to be took care of,' says she, 'treated kind
and gentle,' says she. And, mark me, here's Belvedere's nose out o' joint,
d'ye see? And, talkin' o' noses, there's your eye, Job; sink me but he
wiped your eye for you, my--"

"Plague and perish him!" snarled Job, kicking me viciously. "Burn him, 'tis
keelhaul 'im I would first and then give 'im to Pompey to carve up what
remained--"

"Pompey?" exclaimed this fellow Diccon, a merry-seeming fellow but with a
truculent eye. "Look 'ee, Job, here's a match for Pompey at last, as I do
think, man to man, bare fists or knives, a match and I'll lay to't."

"Pshaw!" growled Job. "Pompey could eat 'im--bones and all, curse 'im!
Pompey would break 'is back as 'e did the big Spaniard's last week."

"Nay, Job, this fellow should make better fight for't than did the
Spanisher. Look 'ee now, match 'em, and I'll lay all my share o' the voyage
on this fellow, come now!"

"A match? Why so I would, but what o' Belvedere?"

"He sulketh, Job, and yonder he cometh, a-sucking of his thumb and all
along o' this fellow and our Jo. Joanna's cocked her eye on this fellow and
Belvedere's cake's dough--see him yonder!"

Now following the speaker's look, I perceived Captain Belvedere descending
the quarter-ladder, his handsome face very evil and scowling; spying me
where I lay, he came striding up and folding his arms, stood looking over
me silently awhile.

"Lord love me!" he exclaimed at last in huge disgust and spat upon me. "Aft
with him--to the coach--"

"Coach, Cap'n?" questioned Job, staring. "And why theer?"

"Because I say so!" roared Belvedere.

"And because," quoth Diccon, his eye more truculent than ever, "because
women will be women, eh, Captain?" At this Belvedere's face grew suffused,
his eyes glared and he turned on the speaker with clenched fist; then
laughing grimly, he spurned me savagely with his foot.

"Joanna hath her whimsies, and here's one of 'em!" quoth he and spat on me
again, whereat I raged and strove, despite my bonds, to come at him.

"I were a-saying to Job," quoth the man Diccon, thrusting me roughly beyond
reach of Belvedere's heavy foot, "that here was a fellow to match Pompey at
last."

"Tush!" said Belvedere, with an oath. "Pompey would quarter him wi' naked
hands."

"I was a-saying to Job I would wager my share in the voyage on this fellow,
Belvedere!"

"Aye, Cap'n," growled Job, "'tis well enough keeping the Don to hang
afore Nombre but why must this dog live aft and cosseted? He should walk
overboard wi' slit weasand, or better--he's meat for Pompey, and wherefore
no? I asks why, Cap'n?"

"Aye--why!" cried Belvedere, gnashing his teeth. "Ask her--go ask Joanna,
the curst jade."

"She be only a woman, when all's said, Cap'n--"

"Nay, Job," quoth Belvedere, shaking his head. "She's Joanna and behind
her do lie Tressady and Sol and Rory and Abnegation Mings--and all the
Fellowship. So if she says he lives, lives it is, to lie soft and feed
dainty, curse him. Let me die if I don't wish I'd left her on the island to
end him her own way--wi' steel or kindness--"

"Kindness!" said Diccon, with an ugly leer. "Why, there it is, Cap'n; she's
off wi' the old and on wi' the new, like--"

"Not yet, by God!" snarled Belvedere 'twixt shut teeth and scowling down on
me while his hand clawed at the pistol in his belt; then his gaze wandered
from me towards the poop and back again. "Curse him!" said he, stamping in
his impotent fury. "I'd give a handful o' gold pieces to see him dead and
be damned!" And here he fell a-biting savagely at his thumb again.

"Why, then, here's a lad to earn 'em," quoth Job, "an' that's me. I've a
score agin him for this lick o' the eye he give me ashore--nigh blinded me,
'e did, burn an' blast his bones!"

"Aye, but what o' Joanna, what o' that she-snake, ha?"

"'Tis no matter for her. I've a plan."

"What is't, Job lad? Speak fair and the money's good as yourn--"

"Aye, but it ain't mine yet, Cap'n, so mum it but I've a plan."

"Belay, Job!" exclaimed Diccon. "Easy all. Yonder she cometh."

Sure enough, I saw Joanna descend the ladder from the poop and come mincing
across the deck towards us.

"Hola, Belvedere, mon Capitan!" said she, glancing about her quick-eyed.
"You keep your ship very foul, yes. Dirt to dirt!--ah? But I am aboard and
this shall be amended--look to it. And your mizzen yard is sprung; down
with it and sway up another--"

"Aye, aye, Jo," said Belvedere, nodding. "It shall be done--"

"_Mañana_!" quoth she, frowning. "This doth not suit when I am aboard,
no! The new yard must be rigged now, at once, for we sail with the
flood--_voilà_!"

"Sail, Jo?" said Belvedere, staring. "Can't be, Jo!"

"And wherefore?"

"Why--we be short o' water, for one thing."

"Ah--bah, we shall take all we want from other ships!"

"And the lads be set, heart and soul, on a few days ashore."

"But then--I am set, my heart, my soul, on heaving anchor so soon as the
tide serves. We will sail with the flood. Now see the new yard set up and
have this slave Martin o' mine to my cabin." So saying, she turned on her
heel and minced away, while Belvedere stood looking after her and biting at
his thumb, Job scowled and Diccon smiled.

"So--ho!" quoth he. "Captain Jo says we sail, and sail it is, hey?"

"Blind you!" cried Belvedere, turning on him in a fury. "Go forward and
turn out two o' the lads to draw this carcass aft!" Here bestowing a final
kick on me, he swaggered away.

"Sail wi' the flood, is it?" growled Job. "And us wi' scarce any water
and half on us rotten wi' scurvy or calenture, an' no luck this cruise,
neither! 'Sail wi' the flood,' says she--'be damned,' says I. By hookey,
but I marvel she lives; I wonder no one don't snuff her out for good an'
all--aye, burn me but I do!"

"Because you're a fool, Job, and don't know her like we do. She's 'La
Culebra,' and why? Because she's quick as any snake and as deadly. Besides,
she's our luck and luck she'll bring us; she always do. Whatever ship she's
aboard of has all the luck, wind, weather, and--what's better, rich prizes,
Job. I know it and the lads forrad know it, and Belvedere he knows it and
is mighty feared of her and small blame either--aye, and mayhap you'll be
afeard of her when you know her better. 'She's only a woman,' says you.
'True,' says I. But in all this here world there ain't her match, woman or
man, and you can lay to that, my lad."

Now the ropes that secured me being very tight, began to cause me no
little pain, insomuch that I besought the man Diccon to loose me a little,
whereupon he made as to comply, but Job, who it seemed was quartermaster,
and new in the office, would have none of it but cursed me vehemently
instead, and hailing two men had me forthwith dragged aft to a small cabin
under the poop and there (having abused and cuffed me to his heart's
content) left me.

And in right woful plight was I, with clothes nigh torn off and myself
direly bruised from head to foot, and what with this and the cramping
strictness of my bonds I could come by no easement, turn and twist me how I
might. After some while, as I lay thus miserable and pain in every joint of
me, the door opened, closed and Joanna stood above me.

"Ah, ah--you are very foul o' blood!" said she in bitter mockery. "'Twas
thus you spake me once, Martino, you'll mind! 'Very foul o' blood,' said
you, and I famishing with hunger! Art hungry, Martino?" she questioned,
bending over me; but meeting her look, I scowled and held my peace. "Ha,
won't ye talk? Is the sullen fit on you?" said she, scowling also.
"Then shall you hear me! And first, know this: you are mine henceforth,
aye--mine!" So saying, she seated herself on the cushioned locker whereby
I lay and, setting her foot upon my breast and elbow on knee, leaned above
me, dimpled chin on fist, staring down on me with her sombre gaze. "You
are mine," said she again, "to use as I will, to exalt or cast down. I can
bestow on ye life or very evil death. By my will ye are alive; when I
will you must surely die. Your wants, your every need must you look to me
for--so am I your goddess and ruler of your destiny, yes! Ah, had you been
more of man and less of fish, I had made you captain of this ship, and
loved you, Martino, loved you--!"

"Aye," cried I bitterly, "until you wearied of me as you have wearied of
this rogue Belvedere, it seems--aye, and God knoweth how many more--"

"Oh, la-la, fool--these I never loved--"

"Why, then," said I, "the more your shame!"

As I uttered the words, she leaned down and smote me lightly upon my
swollen lips and so left me. But presently back she came and with her three
of the crew, bearing chains, etc., which fellows at her command (albeit
they were something gone in liquor) forthwith clapped me up in these
fetters and thereafter cut away the irksome cords that bound me. Whiles
this was a-doing, she (quick to mark their condition) lashed them with her
tongue, giving them "loathly sots," "drunken swine," "scum o' the world"
and the like epithets, all of the which they took in mighty humble fashion,
knuckling their foreheads, ducking their heads with never a word and mighty
glad to stumble away and be gone at flick of her contemptuous finger.

"So here's you, Martino," said she, when we were alone, "here's you in
chains that might have been free, and here's myself very determined you
shall learn somewhat of shame and be slave at command of such beasts as
yonder. D'ye hear, fool, d'ye hear?" But I heeding her none at all, she
kicked me viciously so that I flinched (despite myself) for I was very
sore; whereat she gave a little laugh:

"Ah, ah!" said she, nodding. "If I did not love you, now would I watch you
die! But the time is not yet--no. When that hour is then, if I am not your
death, you shall be mine--death for one or other or both, for I--"

She sprang to her feet as from the deck above came the uproar of sudden
brawl with drunken outcry.

"Ah, Madre de Dios!" said she, stamping in her anger. "Oh, these bestial
things called men!" which said, she whipped a pistol from her belt, cocked
it and was gone with a quick, light patter of feet. Suddenly I heard the
growing tumult overhead split and smitten to silence by a pistol-shot,
followed by a wailing cry that was drowned in the tramp of feet away
forward.

As for me, my poor body, freed of its bonds, found great easement thereby
(and despite my irons) so that I presently laid myself down on one of
these cushioned lockers (and indeed, though small, this cabin was rarely
luxurious and fine) but scarce had I stretched my aching limbs than the
door opened and a man entered.

And surely never in all this world was stranger creature to be seen. Gaunt
and very lean was he of person and very well bedight from heel to head, but
the face that peered out 'twixt the curls of his great periwig lacked for
an eye and was seamed and seared with scars in horrid fashion; moreover the
figure beneath his rich, wide-skirted coat seemed warped and twisted beyond
nature; yet as he stood viewing me with his solitary eye (this grey and
very quick and bright) there was that in his appearance that somehow took
my fancy.

"What, messmate," quoth he, in full, hearty voice, advancing with a
shambling limp, "here cometh one to lay alongside you awhile, old
Resolution Day, friend, mate o' this here noble ship _Happy Despatch_,
comrade, and that same myself, look'ee!"

But having no mind to truck with him or any of this evil company, I bid him
leave me be and cursed him roundly for the pirate-rogue he was.

"Pirate," said he, no whit abashed at my outburst. "Why, pirate it is. But
look'ee, there never was pirate the like o' me for holiness--'specially o'
Sundays! Lord love you, there's never a parson or divine, high church or
low, a patch on me for real holiness--'specially o' Sundays. So do I pray
when cometh my time to die, be it in bed or boots, by sickness, bullet or
noose, it may chance of a Sunday. And then again, why not a pirate? What o'
yourself, friend? There's a regular fire-and-blood, skull-and-bones look
about ye as liketh me very well. And there be many worse things than a mere
pirate, brother. And what? You'll go for to ask. Answer I--Spanishers,
Papishers, the Pope o' Rome and his bloody Inquisition, of which last I
have lasting experience, _camarado_--aye, I have I!"

"Ah?" said I, sitting up. "You have suffered the torture?"

"Comrade, look at me! The fire, the pulley, the rack, the wheel, the
water--there's no devilment they ha'n't tried on this poor carcase o' mine
and all by reason of a Spanish nun as bore away with my brother!"

"Your brother?"

"Aye, but 'twas me she loved, for I was younger then and something kinder
to the eye. So him they burned, her they buried alive and me they tormented
into the wrack ye see. But I escaped wi' my life, the Lord delivered me
out o' their bloody hands, which was an ill thing for them, d'ye see, for
though I lack my starboard blinker and am somewhat crank i' my spars alow
and aloft, I can yet ply whinger and pull trigger rare and apt enough for
the rooting out of evil. And where a fairer field for the aforesaid rooting
out o' Papishers, Portingales, and the like evil men than this good ship,
the _Happy Despatch?_ Aha, messmate, there's many such as I've despatched
hot-foot to their master Sathanas, 'twixt then and now. And so 'tis I'm a
pirate and so being so do I sing along o' David: 'Blessed be the Lord my
strength that teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight.' A rare
gift o' words had Davy and for curses none may compare." Hereupon, seating
himself on the locker over against me, he thrust a hand into his great side
pocket and brought thence a hank of small-cord, a silver-mounted pistol and
lastly a small, much battered volume.

"Look'ee, comrade," said he, tapping the worn covers with bony finger,
"the Bible is a mighty fine book to fight by; to stir up a man for battle,
murder or sudden death it hath no equal and for keeping his hate agin his
enemies ever a-burning, there is no book written or ever will be--"

"You talk blasphemy!" quoth I.

"Avast, avast!" cried he. "Here's no blasphemy, thought or word. I love
this little Bible o' mine; His meat and drink to me, the friend o' my
solitude, my solace in pain, my joy for ever and alway. Some men, being
crossed in fortune, hopes, ambition or love, take 'em to drink and the like
vanities. I, that suffered all this, took to the Bible and found all my
needs betwixt the covers o' this little book. For where shall a wronged
man find such a comfortable assurance as this? Hark ye what saith our
Psalmist!" Turning over a page or so and lifting one knotted fist aloft,
Resolution Day read this:

"'I shall bathe my footsteps in the blood of mine enemies and the tongues
of the dogs shall be red with the same!' The which," said he, rolling his
bright eye at me, "the which is a sweet, pretty fancy for the solace of one
hath endured as much as I. Aye, a noble book is Psalms. I know it by heart.
List ye to this, now! 'The wicked shall perish and the enemies of the Lord
be as the fat of rams, as smoke shall they consume away.' Brother, I've
watched 'em so consume many's the time and been the better for't. Hark'ee
again: 'They shall be as chaff before the wind. As a snail that melteth
they shall every one pass away. Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!'
saith Davy, aye and belike did it too, and so have I ere now with a pistol
butt. I mind once when we stormed Santa Catalina and the women and children
a-screaming in the church which chanced to be afire, I took out my Bible
here and read these comfortable words: 'The righteous shall rejoice when he
seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked so
that a man shall say: Verily there is a reward for the righteous.' Aha,
brother, for filling a man wi' a gust of hate and battle, there's nought
like the Bible. And when a curse is wanted, give me David. Davy was a man
of his hands, moreover, and so are you, friend. I watched ye fight on the
sand-spit yonder; twelve to one is long enough odds for any man, and yet
here's five o' the twelve wi' bones broke and never a one but wi' some mark
o' your handiwork to show, which is vastly well, comrade. Joanna's choice
is mine, messmate--"

"How d'ye mean?" I demanded, scowling, whereupon he beamed on me
friendly-wise and blinked his solitary eye.

"There is no man aboard this ship," quoth he, nodding again, "no, not one
as could keep twelve in play so long, friend, saving only Black Pompey--"

"I've heard his name already," said I, "what like is he and who?"

"A poor heathen, comrade, a blackamoor, friend, a child of Beelzebub
abounding in blood, brother--being torturer, executioner and cook and
notable in each several office. A man small of soul yet great of body,
being nought but a poor, black heathen, as I say. And ashore yonder you
shall hear our Christian messmates a-quarrelling over their rum as is the
way o' your Christians hereabouts--hark to 'em!"

The _Happy Despatch_ lay anchored hard by the reef and rode so near the
island that, glancing from one of her stern-gallery windows I might behold
Deliverance Beach shining under the moon and a great fire blazing, round
which danced divers of the crew, filling the night with lewd, unholy riot
of drunken singing and shouts that grew ever more fierce and threatening. I
was gazing upon this scene and Resolution Day beside me, when the door was
flung open and Job the quartermaster appeared.

"Cap'n Jo wants ye ashore wi' her!" said he, beckoning to Resolution, who
nodded and thrusting Bible into pocket, took thence the silver-mounted
pistol, examined flint and priming and thrusting it into his belt, followed
Job out of the cabin, locking the door upon me. Thereafter I was presently
aware of a boat putting off from the ship and craning my neck, saw it was
rowed by Resolution with Joanna in the stern sheets, a naked sword across
her knees; and my gaze held by the glimmer of this steel, I watched them
row into the lagoon and so to that spit of sand opposite Skeleton Cove.
I saw the hateful glitter of this deadly steel as Joanna leapt lightly
ashore, followed more slowly by Resolution. But suddenly divers of the
rogues about the fire, beholding Joanna as she advanced against them thus,
sword in hand, cried out a warning to their fellows, who, ceasing from
their strife, immediately betook them to their heels, fleeing before her
like so many mischievous lads; marvelling, I watched until she had pursued
them out of my view.

Hereupon I took to an examination of my fetters, link by link, but finding
them mighty secure, laid me down as comfortably as they would allow and
fell to pondering my desperate situation, and seeing no way out herefrom
(and study how I might) I began to despond; but presently, bethinking me of
Don Federigo and judging his case more hopeless than mine (if this could
well be), and further, remembering how, but for me, he would by death have
delivered himself, I (that had not prayed this many a long month) now
petitioned the God to whom nothing is impossible that He would save alive
this noble gentleman of Spain, and thus, in his sorrows, forgot mine own
awhile.

All at once I started up, full of sudden great and joyful content in all
that was, or might be, beholding in my fetters the very Providence of God
(as it were) and in my captivity His answer to my so oft-repeated prayer;
for now I remembered that with the flood this ship was to sail for Nombre
de Dios, where, safe-dungeoned and secure against my coming lay my
hated foe and deadly enemy, Richard Brandon. And now, in my vain and
self-deluding pride (my heart firm-set on this miserable man, his undoing
and destruction) I cast me down on my knees and babbled forth my passionate
gratitude to Him that is from everlasting to everlasting the God of Mercy,
Love and Forgiveness.




CHAPTER XI

HOW I FOUGHT IN THE DARK WITH ONE POMPEY, A GREAT BLACKAMOOR


I was yet upon my knees when came Job the quartermaster with two men
who, at his command, dragged me to my feet and out upon deck; cursing my
hampering fetters, they tumbled me down the quarter-ladder and so down into
the waist of the ship.

Now as I went I kept my eyes upraised to the serene majesty of the heavens;
the moon rode high amid a glory of stars, and as I looked it seemed I had
never seen them so bright and wonderful, never felt the air so good and
sweet upon my lips.

Being come to the fore-hatchway I checked there, despite my captors'
buffets and curses, to cast a final, long look up, above and round about
me, for I had a sudden uneasy feeling, a dreadful suspicion that once I
descended into the gloom below I never should come forth alive. So I stared
eagerly upon these ever-restless waters, so bright beneath the moon, upon
the white sands of Deliverance Beach, on lofty palmetto and bush-girt cliff
and then, shivering despite all my resolution, I suffered them to drag me
down into that place of shadows.

I remember a sharp, acrid smell, the reek of bilge and thick, mephitic air
as I stumbled on betwixt my captors through this foul-breathing dimness
until a door creaked, yawning suddenly upon a denser blackness, into which
I was thrust so suddenly that I fell, clashing my fetters, and lying thus,
heard the door slammed and bolted.

So here lay I in sweating, breathless expectation of I knew not what, my
ears on the stretch, my manacled hands tight-clenched and every nerve
a-tingle with this dreadful uncertainty. For a great while it seemed I lay
thus, my ears full of strange noises, faint sighings, unchancy rustlings
and a thousand sly, unaccountable sounds that at first caused me direful
apprehensions but which, as I grew more calm, I knew for no more than the
flow of the tide and the working of the vessel's timbers as she strained at
her anchors. All at once I sat up, crouching in the dark, as from somewhere
about me, soft yet plain to hear, came a sound that told me some one was
stealthily drawing the bolts of the door. Rising to my feet I stood,
shackled fists clenched, ready to leap and smite so soon as chance should
offer. Then came a hissing whisper:

"Easy all, brother! Soft it is, comrade! 'Tis me, messmate, old Resolution,
friend, come to loose thy bilboes, for fair is fair. Ha, 'tis plaguey dark,
the pit o' Acheron ain't blacker, where d'ye lay--speak soft for there's
ears a-hearkening very nigh us."

In the dark a hand touched me and then I felt the muzzle of a pistol at my
throat.

"No tricks, lad--no running for't if I loose ye--you'll bide here--come
life, come death? Is't agreed?"

"It is!" I whispered. Whereupon and with no more ado, he freed me from my
gyves, making scarcely any sound, despite the dark.

"I'll take these wi' me, friend and--my finger's on trigger."

"Resolution, how am I to die?"

"Black Pompey!" came the hissing whisper.

"Hath Joanna ordered this?"

"Never think it, mate--she's ashore and I swam aboard, having my
suspicions."

"Resolution, a dying man thanks you heartily, purely never, after all, was
there pirate the like o' you for holiness. Could I but find some weapon to
my defence now--a knife, say." In the dark came a griping hand that found
mine and was gone again, but in my grasp was a stout, broad-bladed knife.

"'Let the heathen rage,' saith Holy Writ, so rage it is, says I, only smite
first, brother and smite--hard. And 'ware the starboard scuttle!" Hereafter
was the rustle of his stealthy departure, the soft noise of bolts, and
silence.

And now in this pitchy gloom, wondering what and where this scuttle might
be, I crouched, a very wild and desperate creature, peering into the gloom
and starting at every sound; thus presently I heard the scrape of a viol
somewhere beyond the bulkheads that shut me in and therewith a voice that
sang, the words very clear and distinct:

  "Oh, Moll she lives in Deptford town,
  In Deptford town lives she;
  Let maid be white or black or brown.
  Still Moll's the lass for me;
  Sweet Moll as lives in Deptford town,
  Yo-ho, shipmates, for Deptford town,
  Tis there as I would be."

Mingled with this singing I thought to hear the heavy thud of an unshod
foot on the planking above my head, and setting my teeth I gripped my knife
in sweating palm.

But now (and to my despair) came the singing again to drown all else,
hearken how I would:

  "Come whistle, messmates all.
  For a breeze, for a breeze
  Come pipe up, messmates all,
  For a breeze.
  When to Deptford town we've rolled
  Wi' our pockets full o' gold;
  Then our lasses we will hold
  On our knees, on our knees."

Somewhere in the dark was the sudden, thin complaint of a rusty and
unwilling bolt, though if this were to my right or left, above or below
me, I could not discover and my passionate listening was once more vain by
reason of this accursed rant:

  "Who will not drink a glass,
  Let him drown, let him drown;
  Who will not drink a glass,
  Let him drown.
  Who will not drink a glass
  For to toast a pretty lass,
  Is no more than fool and ass;
  So let him drown, let him drown!"

A sudden glow upon the gloom overhead, a thin line of light that widened
suddenly to a square of blinding radiance and down through the trap came
a lanthorn grasped in a hugeous, black fist and, beyond this, an arm, a
mighty shoulder, two rows of flashing teeth, two eyes that glared here and
there, rolling in horrid fashion; thus much I made out as I sprang and,
grappling this arm, smote upwards with my knife. The lanthorn fell,
clattering, and was extinguished, but beyond the writhing, shapeless thing
that blocked the scuttle, I might, ever and anon, behold a star twinkling
down upon me where I wrestled with this mighty arm that whirled me from my
feet, and swung me, staggering, to and fro as I strove to get home with
my knife at the vast bulk that loomed above me. Once and twice I stabbed
vainly, but my third stroke seemed more successful, for the animal-like
howl he uttered nigh deafened me; then (whether by my efforts or his own,
I know not) down he came upon me headlong, dashing the good knife from my
grasp and whirling me half-stunned against the bulkhead, and as I leaned
there, sick and faint, a hand clapped-to the scuttle. And now in this
dreadful dark I heard a deep and gusty breathing, like that of some
monstrous beast, heard this breathing checked while he listened for me a
stealthy rustling as he felt here and there to discover my whereabouts. But
I stood utterly still, breathless and sweating, with a horror of death at
this great blackamoor's hands, since, what with the palsy of fear by reason
of the loss of my knife, I did not doubt but that this monster would soon
make an end of me and in horrid fashion.

Presently I heard him move again and (judging by the sound) creeping on
hands and knees, therefore as he approached I edged myself silently along
the bulkhead and thus (as I do think) we made the complete circuit of the
place; once it seemed he came upon the lanthorn and dashing it fiercely
aside, paused awhile to listen again, and my heart pounding within me so
that I sweated afresh lest he catch the sound of it. And sometimes I would
hear the soft, slurring whisper his fingers made against deck or bulkhead
where he groped for me, and once a snorting gasp and the crunch of his
murderous knife-point biting into wood and thereafter a hoarse and
outlandish muttering. And ever as I crept thus, moving but when he moved,
I felt before me with my foot, praying that I might discover my knife and,
this in hand, face him and end matters one way or another and be done with
the horror. And whiles we crawled thus round and round within this narrow
space, ever and anon above the stealthy rustle of his movements, above his
stertorous breathing and evil muttering, above the wild throbbing of my
heart rose the wail of the fiddle and the singing:

  "Who will not kiss a maid,
  Let him hang, let him hang;
  Who fears to kiss a maid,
  Let him hang.
  Who will not kiss a maid
  Who of woman is afraid,
  Is no better than a shade;
  So let him hang, let him hang!"

until this foolish, ranting ditty seemed to mock me, my breath came and
went to it, my heart beat to it; yet even so, I was praying passionately
and this my prayer, viz: That whoso was waiting above us for my death-cry
should not again lift the scuttle lest I be discovered to this man-thing
that crept and crept upon me in the dark. Even as I prayed thus, the
scuttle was raised and, blinded by the sudden glare of a lanthorn, I heard
Job's hoarse voice:

"Below there! Pompey, ahoy! Ha'n't ye done yet an' be curst?"

And suddenly I found in this thing I had so much dreaded the one chance to
my preservation, for I espied the great blackamoor huddled on his knees,
shading his eyes with both hands from the dazzling light and, lying on the
deck before him a long knife.

"Oh, marse mate," he cried, "me done fin' no curs' man here'bouts--"

Then I leaped and kicking the knife out of reach, had him in my grip, my
right hand fast about his throat. I remember his roar, the crash of the
trap as it closed, and after this a grim and desperate scuffling in the
dark; now he had me down, rolling and struggling and now we were up, locked
breast to breast, swaying and staggering, stumbling and slipping, crashing
into bulkheads, panting and groaning; and ever he beat and buffeted me with
mighty fists, but my head bowed low betwixt my arms, took small hurt, while
ever my two hands squeezed and wrenched and twisted at his great, fleshy
throat. I remember an awful gasping that changed to a strangling whistle,
choked to a feeble, hissing whine; his great body grew all suddenly lax,
swaying weakly in my grasp, and then, as I momentarily eased my grip, with
a sudden, mighty effort he broke free. I heard a crash of splintering wood,
felt a rush of sweet, pure air, saw him reel out through the shattered door
and sink upon his knees; but as I sprang towards him he was up and fleeing
along the deck amidships, screaming as he ran.

All about me was a babel of shouts and cries, a rush and trampling of feet,
but I sped all unheeding, my gaze ever upon the loathed, fleeing shape
of this vile blackamoor. I was hard on his heels as he scrambled up the
quarter-ladder and within a yard of him as he gained the deck, while behind
us in the waist were men who ran pell-mell, filling the night with raving
clamour and drunken halloo. Now as I reached the quarter-deck, some one of
these hurled after me a belaying pin and this, catching me on the thigh,
staggered me so that I should have fallen but for the rail; so there clung
I in a smother of sweat and blood while great moon and glittering stars
span dizzily; but crouched before me on his hams, almost within arm's
reach, was this accursed negro who gaped upon me with grinning teeth and
rolled starting eyeballs, his breath coming in great, hoarse gasps. And I
knew great joy to see him in no better case than I, his clothes hanging in
blood-stained tatters so that I might see all the monstrous bulk of him.
Now, as he caught his breath and glared upon me, I suffered my aching body
to droop lower and lower over the rail like one nigh to swooning, yet very
watchful of his every move. Suddenly as we faced each other thus, from the
deck below rose a chorus of confused cries:

"At him, Pompey! Now's ye time, boy! Lay 'im aboard, lad, 'e be
a-swounding! Ha--out wi' his liver, Pompey--at him, he's yourn!"

Heartened by these shouts and moreover seeing how feebly I clutched at the
quarter-rail, the great negro uttered a shrill cry of triumph and leapt at
me; but as he came I sprang to meet his rush and stooping swiftly, caught
him below the knees and in that same moment, straining every nerve, every
muscle and sinew to the uttermost, I rose up and hove him whirling over my
shoulder.

I heard a scream, a scurry of feet, and then the thudding crash of his fall
on the deck below and coming to the rail I leaned down and saw him lie,
his mighty limbs hideously twisted and all about him men who peered and
whispered. But suddenly they found their voices to rage against me, shaking
their fists and brandishing their steel; a pistol flashed and roared and
the bullet hummed by my ear, but standing above them I laughed as a madman
might, jibing at them and daring them to come on how they would, since
indeed death had no terrors for me now. And doubtless steel or shot would
have ended me there and then but for the man Diccon who quelled their
clamour and held them from me by voice and fist:

"Arrest, ye fools--stand by!" he roared. "Yon man be the property o'
Captain Jo--'tis Joanna's man and whoso harms him swings--"

"Aye, but he've murdered Pompey, ain't 'e?" demanded Job.

"Aye, aye--an' so 'e have, for sure!" cried a voice.

"Well an' good--murder's an 'anging matter, ain't it?"

"An' so it be, Job--up wi' him--hang him--hang him!"

"Well an' good!" cried Job again. "'Ang 'im we will, lads, all on us, every
man's fist to the rope--she can't hang us all, d'ye see. You, Diccon, where
be Belvedere; he shall be in it--"

"Safe fuddled wi' rum, surely. Lord, Job, you do be takin' uncommon risks
for a hatful o' guineas--"

So they took me and, all unresisting, I was dragged amidships beneath the
main yard where a noose was for my destruction; and though hanging had
seemed a clean death by contrast with that I had so lately escaped at
the obscene hands of this loathly blackamoor, yet none the less a sick
trembling took me as I felt the rope about my neck, insomuch that I sank to
my knees and closed my eyes.

Kneeling thus and nigh to fainting, I heard a sudden, quick patter of
light-running feet, a gasping sigh and, glancing up, beheld Job before
me, also upon his knees and staring down with wide and awful eyes at an
ever-spreading stain that fouled the bosom of his shirt; and as he knelt
thus, I saw above his stooping head the blue glitter of a long blade that
lightly tapped his brawny neck.

"The noose--here, Diccon, here, yes!"

As one in a dream I felt the rope lifted from me and saw it set about the
neck of Job.

"So! Ready there? Now--heave all!"

I heard the creak of the block, the quick tramp of feet, a strangling cry,
and Job the quartermaster was snatched aloft to kick and writhe and dangle
against the moon.

"Diccon, we have lost our quartermaster and we sail on the flood; you are
quartermaster henceforth, yes. Ha--look--see, my Englishman is sick! Dowse
a bucket o' water over him, then let him be ironed and take him forward to
the fo'castle; he shall serve you all for sport--but no killing, mind."
Thus lay I to be kicked and buffeted and half-drowned; yet when they had
shackled me, cometh the man Diccon to clap me heartily on the shoulder and
after him Resolution to nod at me and blink with his single, twinkling eye:

"Oh, friend," quoth he, "Oh, brother, saw ye ever the like of our Captain
Jo? Had Davy been here to-day he might perchance ha' wrote a psalm to her."

That morning with the flood tide we hove anchor and the _Happy Despatch_
stood out to sea and, as she heeled to the freshening wind, Job's
stiffening body lurched and swayed and twisted from the main yard. And thus
it was I saw the last of my island.




CHAPTER XII

OF BATTLE, MURDER AND RESOLUTION DAY, HIS POINT OF VIEW


And now, nothing heeding my defenceless situation and the further horrors
that might be mine aboard this accursed pirate ship, I nevertheless knew
great content for that, with every plunge and roll of the vessel, I was so
much the nearer Nombre de Dios town where lay prisoned my enemy, Richard
Brandon; thus I made of my sinful lust for vengeance a comfort to my
present miseries, and plotting my enemy's destruction, found therein much
solace and consolation.

I had crept into a sheltered corner and here, my knees drawn up, my back
against one of the weather guns, presently fell a-dozing. I was roused by
a kick to find the ship rolling prodigiously, the air full of spray and a
piping wind, and Captain Belvedere scowling down on me, supporting himself
by grasping a backstay in one hand and flourishing a case-bottle in the
other.

"Ha, 's fish, d'ye live yet?" roared he in drunken frenzy. "Ha'n't Black
Pompey done your business? Why, then--here's for ye!" And uttering a great
oath, he whirled up the bottle to smite; but, rolling in beneath his arm, I
staggered him with a blow of my fettered hands, then (or ever I might avoid
him) he had crushed me beneath his foot: and then Joanna stood fronting
him. Pallid, bare-headed, wild of eye, she glared on him and before this
look he cowered and shrank away.

"Drunken sot!" cried she. "Begone lest I send ye aloft to join yon
carrion!" And she pointed where Job's stiff body plunged and swung and
twisted at the reeling yard-arm.

"Nay, Jo, I--I meant him no harm!" he muttered, and turning obedient to her
gesture, slunk away.

"Ah, Martino," said Joanna, stooping above me, "'twould seem I must be for
ever saving your life to you, yes. Are you not grateful, no?"

"Aye, I am grateful!" quoth I, remembering my enemy.

"Then prove me it!"

"As how?"

"Speak me gently, look kindly on me, for I am sick, Martino, and shall be
worse. I never can abide a rolling ship--'tis this cursed woman's body o'
mine. So to-day am I all woman and yearn for tenderness--and we shall have
more bad weather by the look o' things! Have you enough knowledge to handle
this ship in a storm?"

"Not I!"

"'Tis pity," she sighed, "'tis pity! I would hang Belvedere and make
you captain in his room--he wearies me, and would kill me were he man
enough--ah, Mother of Heaven, what a sea!" she cried, clinging to me as a
great wave broke forward, filling the air with hissing spray. "Aid me aft,
Martino!"

Hereupon, seeing her so haggard and faint, and the decks deserted save for
the watch, I did as she bade me as well as I might by reason of my fetters
and the uneasy motion of the ship, and at last (and no small labour) I
brought her into the great cabin or roundhouse under the poop. And now she
would have me bide and talk with her awhile, but this I would by no means
do.

"And why not, Martino?" she questioned in soft, wheedling fashion. "Am I so
hateful to you yet? Wherefore go?"

"Because I had rather lie in my fetters out yonder at the mercy o' wind and
wave!" said I.

Now at this she fell to sudden weeping and, as suddenly, to reviling me
with bitter curses.

"Go then!" cried she, striking me in her fury. "Keep your chains--aye, I
will give ye to the mercy of this rabble crew ... leave me!" The which I
did forthwith and, finding me a sheltered corner, cast myself down there
and fell to hearkening to the rush of the wind and to watching the
awful might of the racing, foam-capped billows. And, beholding these
manifestations of God's majesty and infinite power, of what must I be
thinking but my own small desires and unworthy schemes of vengeance! And
bethinking me of Don Federigo (and him governor of Nombre de Dios) I
began planning how I might use him to my purpose. My mind full of this, I
presently espied the mate, Resolution Day, his laced hat and noble periwig
replaced by a close-fitting seaman's bonnet, making his way across the
heaving deck as only a seaman might (and despite his limp) and as he drew
nearer I hailed and beckoned him.

"Aha, and are ye there, camarado!" said he. "'Tis well, for I am a-seeking
ye."

"Tell me, Resolution, when shall we sight Nombre de Dios?"

"Why look now, if this wind holdeth fair, we should fetch up wi' it in some
five days or thereabouts."

"Don Federigo is governor of the town, I think?"

"Verily and so he is. And what then?"

"Where lieth he now?"

"Safe, friend, and secure. You may lay to that, brother!"

"Could you but get me speech with him--"

"Not by no manner o' means whatsoever, _amigo_! And the reason why? It
being agin her orders."

"Is he well?"

"Well-ish, brother--fairly bobbish, all things considered, mate--though not
such a hell-fire, roaring lad o' mettle as yourself, comrade. David slew
Goliath o' Gath wi' a pebble and you broke Black Pompey's back wi' your
naked hands! Here's a thing as liketh me mighty well! Wherefore I grieve to
find ye such an everlasting fool, brother."

"How so, Resolution?"

"When eyes look sweetness--why scowl? When lips woo kisses--wherefore take
a blow instead? When comfort and all manner o' delights be offered--why
choose misery forrard and the bloody rogues o' her fo'castle? For 'tis
there as you be going, mate--aye, verily!" Here he set a silver whistle to
his mouth and blew a shrill blast at which signal came two fellows who, at
his command, dragged me to my feet and so away forward.

Thus true to her word, Joanna banished me from the gilded luxury of cabin
and roundhouse and gave me up to the rogues forward, a wild and lawless
company of divers races and conditions so that they seemed the very scum of
the world, and yet here, in this reeking forecastle, each and every of them
my master.

Nor can any words of mine justly paint the wild riot and brutal licence
of this crowded 'tween-deck, foul with the reek of tobacco and a thousand
worse savours, its tiers on tiers of dark and noisome berths where men
snored or thrust forth shaggy heads to rave at and curse each other; its
blotched and narrow table amidships, its rows of battered sea chests, its
loathsome floor; a place of never-ceasing stir and tumult, dim-lighted by
sputtering lamps.

My advent was hailed by an exultant roar and they were all about me, an
evil company in their rage and draggled finery; here were faces scarred by
battles and brutalised by their own misdeeds, this unlovely company now
thrust upon me with pointing fingers, nudging elbows, scowls and mocking
laughter.

"What now--is he to us, then?" cried one. "Hath Jo sent us her plaything?"

"Aye, lads, and verily!" answered Resolution. "Here's him as she calleth
Martin O; here's him as out-fought Pompey--"

"Aye, aye--remember Pompey!" cried a bedizened rogue pushing towards me,
hand on knife.

"Why, truly, Thomas Ford, remember Pompey, but forget not Job as died so
sudden--in the midst o' life he were in death, were Job! So hands off your
knife, Thomas Ford; Captain Jo sendeth Martin for your sport and what not,
d'ye see, but when he dieth 'tis herself will do the killing!"

Left alone and helpless in my fetters, I stood with bowed head, nothing
heeding them for all their baiting of me, whereupon the man Ford, catching
up a pipkin that chanced handy, cast upon me some vileness or other the
which was the signal for others to do likewise so that I was soon miserably
wet from head to foot and this I endured without complaint. But now they
betook them to tormenting me with all manner of missiles, joying to see me
blench and stagger until, stung to a frenzy of rage and being within reach
of the man Ford (my chiefest tormentor) I sprang upon him and fell to
belabouring him heartily with the chain that swung betwixt my wrists, but
an unseen foot tripped me heavily and ere I could struggle free they were
upon me. But now as they kicked and trampled and buffeted me, I once
again called upon God with a loud voice, and this was the manner of my
supplication:

"Oh, God of Justice, for the pains I now endure, give to me
vengeance--vengeance, Oh, God, upon mine enemy!"

And hearing this passionate outcry, my tormentors presently drew away from
me, staring on me where I lay and muttering together like men greatly
amazed, and left me in peace awhile.

Very much might I tell of all I underwent at this time, of the shameful
indignities, tricks and deviltries of which I was victim, so that there
were times when I cursed my Maker and all in this world save only my
miserable self--I, that by reason of my hate and vengeful pursuit of my
enemy, had surely brought all these evils on my own head. Yet every shame
I endured, every pain I suffered did but nerve me anew to this long-sought
vengeance on him that (in my blind folly) I cursed as the author of these
my sufferings.

But indeed little gust have I to write of these things; moreover I began
to fear that my narrative grow to inordinate length, so will I incontinent
pass on to that time when came the quartermaster Diccon with Resolution Day
to deliver me from my hateful prison.

And joy unspeakable was it to breathe the sweet, clean air, to hear the
piping song of the wind and the hiss of the tumbling billows, to feel the
lift and roll of the great ship as she ploughed her course through seas
blue as any sapphire; though indeed small leisure had I for the glory of it
all, as they hurried me aft.

"What now?" I enquired hopelessly. "What new deviltries have ye in store?"

"'Tis Jo!" answered Diccon. "'Tis Joanna, my bully!" and here he leered and
nodded; "Joanna is sick and groweth womanish--"

"And look'ee now, friend," quoth Resolution, clapping me on the back,
"you'll mind 'twas old Resolution as was your stay and comfort by means of
a knife i' the matter o' the heathen Pompey, comrade? You'll not forget old
Resolution, shipmate?"

"And me," quoth Diccon, patting my other shoulder. "I stood your friend so
much as I might--aye, did I!"

Thus talked they, first in one ear then in the other, picturing to my
imagination favours done me, real or imagined, until, to hear them, they
might have been my guardian angels; while I went between them silent and
mighty sullen, casting about in my mind as to what all this should portend.

So they brought me aft to that gilded cabin the which gave upon the
stern-gallery; and here, outstretched on downy cushions and covered by a
rich embroidery, lay Joanna.

Perceiving me, she raised herself languidly and motioned the others to be
gone, whereupon they went out, closing the door; whereupon she spake, quick
and passionate:

"I have sent for you because I am weak with my sickness, Martino, faint and
very solitary!"

"And must I weep therefore?" said I, and glancing from her haggard face I
beheld a small, ivory-hilted dagger on the table at her elbow.

"Ah, mercy of God--how the ship rolls!" she moaned feebly and then burst
forth into cursings and passionate revilings of ship and wind and sea until
these futile ravings were hushed for lack of breath; anon she fell to
sighing and with many wistful looks, but finding me all unheeding, fell
foul of me therefore:

"Ha, scowl, beast--scowl--this becomes thy surly visage. I shall not know
thee else! Didst ever smile in all thy sullen days or speak me gentle word
or kindly? Never to me, oh, never to me! Will ye not spare a look? Will ye
not speak--have ye no word to my comfort?"

"Why seek such of me?" I demanded bitterly. "I have endured much of shame
and evil at your will--"

"Ah, fool," sighed she, "had you but sent to me--one word--and I had freed
you ere this! And I have delivered you at last because I am sick and
weak--a woman and lonely--"

"Why, there be rogues for you a-plenty hereabouts shall fit ye better than
I--"

"Oh, 'tis a foul tongue yours, Martino!"

"Why, then, give me a boat, cast me adrift and be done with me."

"Ah, no, I would not you should die yet--"

"Mayhap you will torture me a little more first."

"'Tis for you to choose! Oh, Martino," she cried; "will you not be my
friend, rather?"

"Never in this world!"

At this, and all at once, she was weeping.

"Ah, but you are cruel!" she sobbed, looking up at me through her
tears. "Have you no pity for one hath never known aught of true love
or gentleness? Wilt not forget past scores and strive to love me--some
little--Martino?"

Now hearkening to her piteous accents, beholding her thus transfigured, her
tear-wet eyes, the pitiful tremor of her vivid lips and all the pleading
humility of her, I was beyond all thought amazed.

"Surely," said I, "surely you are the strangest woman God ever made--"

"Why then," said she, smiling through her tears, "since God made me, then
surely--ah, surely is there something in me worthy your love?"

"Love?" quoth I, frowning and clenching my shackled hands. "'Tis an
emptiness--I am done with the folly henceforth--"

"Ah--ah ... and what of your Joan--your Damaris?" she questioned eagerly.
"Do you not love her--no?"

"No!" said I fiercely. "My life holdeth but one purpose--"

"What purpose, Martino, what?"

"Vengeance!"

"On whom?"

"'Tis no matter!" said I, and question me how she might I would say no
more, whereupon she importuned me with more talk of love and the like folly
until, finding me heedless alike of her tears and pleadings, she turned on
me in sudden fury, vowing she would have me dragged back to the hell of the
forecastle there and then.

"I'll shame your cursed pride," cried she. "You shall be rove to a gun and
flayed with whips--"

But here, reaching forward or ever she might stay me, I caught up the
ivory-hilted dagger:

"Ah!" said she softly, staring where it glittered in my shackled hand.
"Would you kill me! Come then, death have I never feared--strike, _Martino
mio_!" and she proffered her white bosom to the blow; but I laughed in
fierce derision.

"Silly wench," said I, "this steel is not for you! Call in your rogues and
watch me blood a few--"

"Ah, damned coward," she cried, "ye dare not slay me lest Belvedere torment
ye to death--'tis your own vile carcase you do think of!"

At this I did but laugh anew, whereat, falling to pallid fury, she sprang
upon me, smiting with passionate, small fists, besetting me so close that
I cowered and shrank back lest she impale herself on the dagger I grasped.
But presently being wearied she turned away, then staggered as the ship
rolled to a great sea, and would have fallen but for me. Suddenly, as she
leaned upon me thus, her dark head pillowed on my breast, she reached up
and clasped her hands about my neck and with head yet hid against me burst
into a storm of fierce sobbing. Staring down at this bowed head, feeling
the pleading passion of these vital, soft-clasping hands and shaken by her
heart-bursting sobs, I grew swiftly abashed and discomfited and let the
dagger fall and lie unheeded.

"Ah, Martino," said she at last, her voice muffled in my breast. "Surely
nought is there in all this wretched world so desolate as a loveless woman!
Can you not--pity me--a little, yes?"

"Aye, I do pity you!" quoth I, on impulse.

"And pity is kin to love, Martino! And I can be patient, patient, yes!"

"'Twere vain!" said I. At this she loosed me and uttering a desolate cry,
cast herself face down upon her couch.

"Be yourself," said I, spurning the dagger into a corner; "rather would I
have your scorn and hate than tears--"

"You have," said she, never stirring. "I do scorn you greatly, hate you
mightily, despise you infinitely--yet is my love greater than all--"

Suddenly she started to an elbow, dashing away her tears, fierce-eyed,
grim-lipped, all womanly tenderness gone, as from the deck above rose the
hoarse roar of a speaking trumpet and the running of feet; and now was loud
rapping on the door that, opening, disclosed Diccon, the quartermaster.

"By your leave, Captain Jo," cried he, "but your luck's wi' us--aye, is it!
A fine large ship a-plying to wind'ard of us--"

In a moment Joanna was on her feet and casting a boat-cloak about herself
hasted out of the cabin, bidding Diccon bring me along.

The wind had fallen light though the seas yet ran high; and now being come
to the lofty poop, I might behold our crowded decks where was mighty bustle
and to-do, casting loose the guns, getting up shot and powder, a-setting
out of half-pikes, swords, pistols and the like with a prodigious coming
and going; a heaving and yo-ho-ing with shouts and boisterous laughter,
whiles ever and anon grimy hands pointed and all heads were turned in the
one direction where, far away across the foam-flecked billows, was a speck
that I knew for a vessel.

And beholding these pirate rogues, how joyously they laboured, with what
lusty cheers they greeted Joanna and clambered aloft upon swaying yards to
get more sail on the ship obedient to her shrill commands, I knew a great
pity for this ship we were pursuing and a passionate desire that she might
yet escape us. I was yet straining my eyes towards the chase and grieving
for the poor souls aboard her, when, at word from Joanna, I was seized and
fast bound to a ringbolt.

Scarce was this done than Joanna uttered a groan and, clapping her hand to
her head, called out for Resolution, and with his assistance got her down
to the quarter-deck.

By afternoon the sea was well-nigh calm and the chase so close that we
might behold her plainly enough and the people on her decks. Her topmasts
were gone, doubtless in the great storm, and indeed a poor, battered thing
she looked as she rolled to the long, oily swell. All at once, out from her
main broke the golden banner of Spain, whereupon rose fierce outcries from
our rogues; then above the clamour rose the voice of Diccon:

"Shout, lads--shout for Roger, give tongue to Jolly Roger!" and looking
where he pointed with glittering cutlass, I beheld that hideous flag that
is hated by all honest mariners.

And now began a fight that yet indeed was no fight, for seeing we had the
range of them whereas their shot fell pitifully short, Belvedere kept away
and presently let fly at them with every heavy gun that bore, and, as
the smoke thinned, I saw her foremast totter and fall, and her high,
weather-beaten side sorely splintered by our shot. Having emptied her great
guns to larboard the _Happy Despatch_ went about and thundered death and
destruction against them with her starboard broadside and they powerless
to annoy us any way in return. And thus did we batter them with our great
pieces, keeping ever out of their reach, so that none of all their missiles
came aboard us, until they, poor souls, seeing their case altogether
hopeless, were fain to cry us quarter. Hereupon, we stood towards them, and
as we approached I could behold the havoc our great shot had wrought aboard
them.

The enemy having yielded to our mercy and struck their flag, we ceased our
fire, and thinking the worst, over and done, I watched where Belvedere
conned the ship with voice and gesture and the crew, mighty quick and
dexterous in obedience, proved themselves prime sailor-men, despite their
loose and riotous ways, so that, coming down upon the enemy, we presently
fell aboard of them by the fore-chains; whereupon up scrambled old
Resolution, sword in hand, first of any man (despite his lameness) and with
a cry of "Boarders away!" sprang down upon the Spaniard's blood-spattered
deck and his powder-blackened rogues leaping and hallooing on his heels.

And now from these poor, deluded souls who had cast themselves upon our
mercy rose sudden awful shrieks and cries hateful to be heard as they fled
hither and thither about their littered decks before the pitiless steel
that hacked and thrust and smote. Shivering and sweating, I must needs
watch this thing done until, grown faint and sick, I bowed my face that
I might see no more. Gradually these distressful sounds grew weaker and
weaker, and dying away at last, were lost in the fierce laughter and
jubilant shouting of their murderers, where they fell to the work of
pillage.

But hearing sudden roar of alarm, I looked up to see the Spanish ship was
going down rapidly by the head, whereupon was wild uproar and panic, some
of our rogues cutting away at the grapples even before their comrades had
scrambled back to safety; so was strife amongst them and confusion worse
confounded. The last man was barely aboard than our yards were braced round
and we stood away clear of this sinking ship. Now presently uproar broke
out anew and looking whence it proceeded, I beheld four Spaniards (who it
seemed had leapt aboard us unnoticed in the press), and these miserable
wretches methought would be torn in pieces. But thither swaggered
Belvedere, flourishing his pistols and ordering his rogues back, and falls
to questioning these prisoners and though I could not hear, I saw how
they cast themselves upon their knees, with hands upraised to heaven,
supplicating his mercy. He stood with arms folded, nodding his head now and
then as he listened, so that I began to have some hopes that he would spare
them; but all at once he gestured with his arms, whereon was a great
gust of laughter and cheering, and divers men began rigging a wide plank
out-board from the gangway amidships, whiles others hasted to pinion these
still supplicating wretches. This done, they seized upon one, and hoisting
him up on the plank with his face to the sea, betook them to pricking
him with sword and pike, thus goading him to walk to his death. So this
miserable, doomed man crept out along the plank, whimpering pleas for mercy
to the murderers behind him and prayers for mercy to the God above him,
until he was come to the plank's end and cowered there, raising and
lowering his bound hands in his agony while he gazed down into the
merciless sea that was to engulf him. All at once he stood erect, his
fettered hands upraised to heaven, and then with a piteous, wailing cry he
plunged down to his death and vanished 'mid the surge; once he came up,
struggling and gasping, ere he was swept away in the race of the tide.

Now hereupon I cast myself on my knees and hiding my face in my fettered
hands, fell to a passion of prayer for the soul of this unknown man. And as
I prayed, I heard yet other lamentable outcries, followed in due season by
the hollow plunge of falling bodies; and so perished these four miserable
captives.

I was yet upon my knees when I felt a hand upon my shoulder and the touch
(for a wonder) was kindly, and raising my head I found Resolution Day
looking down on me with his solitary, bright eye and his grim lips
up-curling to friendly smile.

"So perish all Papishers, Romanists, Inquisitioners, and especially
Spanishers, friend!"

"'Twas cruel and bloody murder!" quoth I, scowling up at him.

"Why, perceive me now, _amigo_, let us reason together, _camarado_--thus
now it all dependeth upon the point o' view; these were Papishers and evil
men, regarding which Davy sayeth i' the Psalms, 'I will root 'em out,' says
he; why, root it is! says I--and look'ee, brother, I have done a lot o'
rooting hitherto and shall do more yet, as I pray. As to the fight now,
mate, as to the fight, 'twas noble fight--pretty work, and the ship well
handled, as you must allow, _camarado_!"

"Call it rather brutal butchery!" said I fiercely.

"Aye, there it is again," quoth he; "it all lieth in the point o' view! Now
in my view was my brother screaming amid crackling flames and a fair young
woman in her living tomb, who screamed for mercy and found none. 'Tis all
in the point o' view!" he repeated, smiling down at a great gout of blood
that blotched the skirt of his laced coat.

"And I say 'tis foul murder in the sight of God and man!" I cried.

"Ha, will ye squeak, rat!" quoth Belvedere, towering over me, where I
crouched upon my knees. "'S fish, will ye yap, then, puppy-dog?"

"Aye--and bite!" quoth I, aiming a futile blow at him with my shackled
fists. "Give me one hand free and I'd choke the beastly soul out o' ye and
heave your foul carcase to the fishes--"

Now at this he swore a great oath and whipped pistol from belt, but as he
did so Resolution stepped betwixt us.

"Put up, Belvedere, put up!" said he in soothing tone. "No shooting,
stabbing nor maiming till _she_ gives the word, Captain--"

"Curse her for a--" Resolution's long arm shot out and his knotted fingers
plunged and buried themselves in Belvedere's bull-throat, choking the word
on his lips.

"Belay, Captain! Avast, Belvedere! I am one as knew her when she was
innocent child, so easy all's the word, Belvedere." Having said which,
Resolution relaxed his grip and Belvedere staggered back, gasping, and with
murder glaring in his eyes. But the left hand of Resolution Day was hidden
in his great side pocket whose suspicious bulge betrayed the weapon there,
perceiving which Belvedere, speaking no word, turned and swaggered away.

Now seating himself upon the gun beside me, Resolution drew forth from that
same pocket his small Bible that fell open on his knee at an oft-studied
chapter.

"Now regarding the point o' view, friend," quoth he, "touching upon the
death o' the evil-doers, of the blood of a righteous man's enemies--hearken
now to the words o' Davy."




CHAPTER XIII

HOW WE FOUGHT AN ENGLISH SHIP


For the days immediately following I saw nothing of Joanna but learned from
Resolution and Diccon that her sickness had increased upon her.

"'Tis her soul, I doubt!" quoth Diccon, shaking his head. "'Tis too great
for her body--'tis giant soul and her but a woman--so doth strong soul
overcome weak body, and small wonder, say I?"

"Nay, Diccon," said Resolution, his bright eye sweeping the hazy distance,
"'tis but that she refuseth her vittles, and since 'man cannot live by
bread alone' neither may woman, and 'tis more than bread she needeth and
so she rageth and thus, like unto Peter's wife's mother, lieth sick of a
fever." Here for a brief moment his bright eye rested on me and he scowled
as he turned to limp the narrow deck.

Much might I narrate of the divers hazards of battle and storm that befell
us at this time, and more of the goodly ships pillaged and scuttled and
their miserable crews with them, by Belvedere and his bloody rogues; of
prayers for mercy mocked at, of the agonised screams of dying men, of flame
and destruction and death in many hideous shapes. All of the which nameless
evils I must perforce behold since this Belvedere that shrank at Joanna's
mere look, freed of her presence, took joyous advantage to torment me with
the sight of such horrors, such devil's work as shrieked to heaven for
vengeance; insomuch that Diccon and divers others could ill-stomach it at
last and even grim Resolution would have no more.

Now although Belvedere and his rogues had taken great store of treasure
with small hurt to themselves, yet must they growl and curse their fortune,
since in none of the captured vessels had they taken any women, and never
was the cry of "Sail, ho!" than all men grew eager for chase and attack;
and thus this accursed ship _Happy Despatch_ stood on, day after day.

Much will I leave untold by reason of the horror of it, and moreover my
space is short for all I have set myself to narrate, viz: how and in what
manner I came at last to my vengeance and what profit I had therein. So
will I pass on to that day when, being in the latitude of the great and
fair island of Hispaniola, we descried a ship bearing westerly.

Hereupon (since greed is never satisfied) all men were vociferous for chase
and attack, and Belvedere agreeing, we hauled our wind accordingly and
stood after her with every sail we could carry.

The _Happy Despatch_ was a great ship of some forty guns besides such
smaller pieces as minions, patereros and the like; she was moreover a
notable good sailer and as the hours passed it was manifest we were fast
overhauling our quarry. And very pitiful was it to see her crowding sail
away from us, to behold her (as it were) straining every nerve to escape
the horrors in store. Twice she altered her course and twice we did the
like, fetching ever nearer until it seemed she was doomed to share the
bloody fate of so many others. By noon we were so close that she was plain
to see, a middling-size ship, her paint blistered, her gilding tarnished as
by a long voyage, and though very taut and trim as to spars and rigging,
a heavy-sailing ship and sluggish. A poor thing indeed to cope with such
powerful vessel as this _Happy Despatch_, for as we closed in I could count
no more than six guns in the whole length of her. As to crew she might have
been deserted for all I saw of them, save one man who paced her lofty poop,
a smallish man in great wig and befeathered hat and in his fist a sword
prodigiously long in the blade, which sword he flourished whereat (as it
were a signal) out from her mizzen wafted the banner of Portugal, and
immediately she opened fire on us from her stern-chase guns. But their
shooting was so indifferent and artillery so pitiful that their shot fell
far short of us. Thus my heart grieved mightily for her as with our guns
run out and crew roaring and eager we bore down to her destruction.

Now all at once, as I watched this unhappy ship, I caught my breath and
sank weakly to my knees as, despite the distance and plain to see, upon
her high poop came a woman, hooded and cloaked, who stood gazing earnestly
towards us. Other eyes had noticed her also, for up from our crowded decks
rose a hum, an evil murmur that swelled to a cry fierce, inarticulate,
bestial, whiles all eyes glared upon that slender, shapely form; presently
amid this ravening clamour I distinguished words:

"Oh, a woman! Aha--women! Hold your fire, lads--no shooting; we want 'em
all alive! Easy all, bullies--nary a gun, mates--we'll lay 'em 'longside
and board--Aye, aye--board it is!"

Now being on my knees, I began to whisper in passionate prayer until,
roused by a shambling step, I glanced up to find Resolution Day beside me.

"What, d'ye pray, brother? 'Tis excellent well!" Said he, setting a
musquetoon ready to hand and glancing at the primings of his pistols. "Pray
unceasing, friend, plague the Throne wi' petitions, comrade, and a word or
so on behalf of old Resolution ere the battle joins, for there's--"

"I pray God utterly destroy this accursed ship and all aboard her!" I
cried.

"And do ye so?" said he, setting the pistols in his belt. "Why, then, 'tis
as well you're safe i' your bilboes, _amigo_, and as to your blasphemous
praying, I will offset it wi' prayerful counterblast--Ha, by my deathless
soul--what's doing yonder?" he cried, and leant to peer across at the
chase, and well he might. For suddenly (and marvellous to behold) this ship
that had sailed so heavily seemed to throw off her sluggishness and, taking
on new life, to bound forward; her decks, hitherto deserted, grew alive
with men who leapt to loose and haul at brace and rope and, coming about,
she stood towards us and right athwart our course. So sudden had been this
manoeuvre and so wholly unexpected that all men it seemed could but stare
in stupefied amaze.

"Ha!" cried Resolution, smiting fist on the rail before him. "Tricked,
by hookey! She's been towing a sea anchor! Below there!" he hailed.
"Belvedere, ahoy--go about, or she'll rake us--"

And now came Belvedere's voice in fierce and shrill alarm:

"Down wi' your helm--down! Let go weather braces, jump, ye dogs, jump!"

I heard the answering tramp of feet, the rattle and creak of the yards as
they swung and a great flapping of canvas as the _Happy Despatch_ came up
into the wind; but watching where our adversary bore down upon us, I beheld
her six guns suddenly multiplied and (or ever we might bring our broadside
to bear) from these gaping muzzles leapt smoke and roaring flame, and we
were smitten with a hurricane of shot that swept us from stem to stern.

Dazed, deafened, half-stunned, I crouched in the shelter of the mizzen
mast, aware of shrieks and cries and the crash of falling spars, nor moved
I for a space; lifting my head at last, I beheld on the littered decks
below huddled figures that lay strangely twisted, that writhed or crawled.
Then came the hoarse roar of a speaking trumpet and I saw Resolution, his
face a smother of blood, where he leaned hard by across the quarter-rail.

"Stand to't, my bullies!" he roared, and his voice had never sounded so
jovial. "Clear the guns, baw-cocky boys; 'tis our turn next--but stand by
till she comes about--"

From the companion below came one running, eyes wild, mouth agape, and I
recognised the man Ford who had been my chief persecutor in the forecastle.

"What now, lad--what now?" demanded Resolution, mopping at his bloody face.

"Death!" gasped Ford. "There be dead men a-lay-ing forward--dead,
look'ee--"

"Likely enough, John Ford, and there'll be dead men a-laying aft if ye're
not back to your gun and lively, d'ye see?" But the fellow, gasping again,
fell to his knees, whereupon Resolution smote him over the head with his
speaking trumpet and tumbled him down the ladder.

"Look'ee here," quoth he, scowling on me, "this all cometh along o' your
ill-praying us, for prayer is potent, as I know, which was not brotherly in
you, Martin O, not brotherly nor yet friendly!" So saying, he squatted on
the gun beside me and sought to staunch the splinter-gash in his brow; but
seeing how ill he set about it, I proffered to do it for him (and despite
my shackles), whereupon he gave me the scarf and knelt that I might come
at his hurt the better; and being thus on his knees, he began to pray in a
loud, strong voice:

"Lord God o' battles, close up Thine ear, hearken to and regard not the
unseemly praying of this mail Martin that hath not the just point o' view,
seeing through a glass darkly. Yonder lieth the enemy, Lord, Thine and
mine, wherefore let 'em be rooted out and utterly destroyed; for if these
be Portingales and Papishers--if--ha--if--?" Resolution ceased his prayer
and glancing up, pointed with stabbing finger: "Yon ship's no more
Portingale than I am--look, friend, look!"

Now glancing whither he would have me, I saw two things: first, that the
_Happy Despatch_ had turned tail and second that our pursuers bore at her
main the English flag; beholding which, a great joy welled up within me so
that I had much ado to keep from shouting outright.

"English!" quoth Resolution. "And a fighting ship--so fight we must, unless
we win clear!"

"Ha, will ye run then?" cried I in bitter scorn.

"With might and main, friend. We are a pirate, d'ye see, w' all to lose and
nought to gain, and then 'tis but a fool as fighteth out o' season!"

Even as he spoke the English ship yawed and let fly at us with her
fore-chase and mingled with their roar was the sharp crack of parting
timbers and down came our main-topmast.

"Why, so be it!" quoth Resolution, scowling up at the flapping ruin where
it hung. "Very well, 'tis a smooth sea and a fighting wind, so shall you
ha' your bellyful o' battle now, friend, for yonder cometh Joanna at last!"

And great wonder was it to behold how the mere sight of her heartened our
sullen rogues, to hear with what howls of joy they welcomed her as she
paced daintily across the littered deck with her quick glance now aloft,
now upon our determined foe.

"Ha, 'tis so--'tis our Jo--our luck! Shout for Cap'n Jo and the luck o' the
Brotherhood!"

And now at her rapid commands from chaos came order, the decks were
cleared, and, despite wrecked topmast, round swung the _Happy Despatch_
until her broadside bore upon the English ship. Even then Joanna waited,
every eye fixed on her where she lolled, hand on hip, watching the approach
of our adversary. Suddenly she gestured with her arm and immediately the
whole fabric of the ship leapt and quivered to the deafening roar of her
guns; then, as the smoke cleared, I saw the enemy's foreyard was gone and
her sides streaked and splintered by our shot, and from our decks rose
shouts of fierce exultation, drowned in the answering thunder of their
starboard broadside, the hiss of their shot all round about us, the crackle
of riven woodwork, the vicious whirr of flying splinters, wails and screams
and wild cheering.

And thus began a battle surely as desperate as ever was fought and which
indeed no poor words of mine may justly describe. The enemy lay to windward
and little enough could I see by reason of the dense smoke that enveloped
us, a stifling, sulphurous cloud that drifted aboard us ever more thick
as the fight waxed, a choking mist full of blurred shapes, dim forms that
flitted by and vanished spectre-like, a rolling mystery whence came all
manner of cries, piercing screams and shrill wailings dreadful to hear,
while the deck beneath me, the air about me reeled and quivered to the
never-ceasing thunder of artillery. But ever and anon, through some rent
in this smoky curtain, I might catch a glimpse of the English ship, her
shot-scarred side and rent sails, or the grim havoc of our own decks. And
amidst it all, and hard beside me where I crouched in the shelter of the
mizzenmast, I beheld Resolution Day limping to and fro, jovial of voice,
cheering his sweating, powder-grimed gun-crews with word and hand. Suddenly
I was aware of Joanna beside me, gay and debonnaire but ghastly pale.

"Hola, Martino!" cried she. "D'ye live yet? 'Tis well. If we die to-day we
die together, and where a properer death or one more fitting for such as
you and I, for am I killed first, Resolution shall send you after me to
bear me company, yes."

So saying, she smiled and nodded and turned to summon Resolution, who came
in limping haste.

"What, are ye hurt, Jo?" cried he, peering. "Ha, Joanna lass, are ye hit
indeed?"

"A little, yes!" said she, and staggering against the mast leaned there as
if faint, yet casting a swift, furtive glance over her shoulder. "But death
cometh behind me, Resolution, and my pistol's gone and yours both empty--"

Now glancing whither she looked, I saw Captain Belvedere come bounding up
the ladder, cutlass in one hand and pistol in the other.

"Are ye there, Jo, are ye there?" he cried and stood to scowl on her.

"Resolution," said she, drooping against the mast, "fight me the ship--"

"And what o' me?" snarled Belvedere.

"You?" cried she. "Ah--bah!" and turning, she spat at him and, screaming,
fell headlong as his pistol flashed. But over her prostrate form leapt
Resolution and there, while the battle roared about them, I watched as,
with steel that crashed unheard in that raging uproar, they smote and
parried and thrust until an eddying smoke-cloud blotted them from my view.
Now fain would I have come at Joanna where she lay, yet might not for my
bonds, although she was so near; suddenly as I watched her (and struggling
thus vainly to reach her) I saw she was watching me.

"And would you aid your poor Joanna, yes?" she questioned faintly.

"'Twas so my thought--"

"Because I am dying, Martino? Doth this grieve you?"

"You are over-young to die!"

"And my life hath been very hard and cruel! Would you kiss a dying woman
an' she might creep to your arms, Martino?"

Slowly and painfully she dragged herself within my reach and, beholding the
twisted agony of her look, reading the piteous supplication in her eyes,
I stooped to kiss the pale brow she lifted to my lips and--felt two arms
about me vigorous and strong and under mine the quivering passion of her
mouth; then she had loosed me and was before me on her knees, flushed and
tremulous as any simple maid.

I was yet gazing on her in dumb and stark amaze, when from somewhere
hard by a man cried out in wild and awful fashion, and as this agonised
screaming swelled upon the air, Joanna rose up to her feet and stood
transfigured, her eyes fierce and wild, her clenched teeth agleam 'twixt
curling lips; and presently through the swirling smoke limped Resolution
Day, a dreadful, bedabbled figure, who, beholding Joanna on her feet,
flourished a dripping blade and panted exultant.

"He is dead?" she questioned.

"Verily and thoroughly!" said Resolution, wringing blood from his beruffled
shirt sleeve. "And a moist end he made on't. But thee, Joanna, I grieved
thee surely dead--"

"Nay, I screamed and dropped in time, but--hark, the Englishman's fire
is ceasing and see, Resolution--look yonder!" and she pointed where our
antagonist, sore battered in hull and spars, was staggering out of the
fight.

And now in place of roaring battle was sudden hush, yet a quietude this,
troubled by thin cryings, waitings and the like distressful sounds; and
the smoke lifting showed something of the havoc about us, viz: our riven
bulwarks, the tangled confusion of shattered spars, ropes and fallen
gear, the still and awful shapes that cumbered the spattered decks, more
especially about the smoking guns where leaned their wearied crews, a
blood-stained, powder-grimed company, cheering fitfully as they watched the
English ship creeping away from us.

To us presently cometh Diccon, his blackened face streaked with sweat,
hoarse-voiced but hearty:

"Aha, Captain Jo--your luck's wi' us as ever! Yon curst craft hath her
bellyful at last, aye, has she!"

"I doubt!" quoth Resolution, shaking his head, whiles Joanna, leaning
against the mast, pointed feebly and I noticed her sleeve was soaked with
blood and her speech dull and indistinct:

"Resolution is i' the--right--see!"

And sure enough the English ship, having fetched ahead of us and beyond
range of our broadside guns, had hauled her wind and now lay to, her people
mighty busy making good their damage alow and aloft, stopping shot-holes,
knotting and splicing their gear, etc. Hereupon Diccon falls to a passion
of vain oaths, Resolution to quoting Psalms and Joanna, sighing, slips
suddenly to the deck and lies a-swoon. In a moment Resolution was on his
knees beside her.

"Water, Diccon, water!" said he. "The lads must never see her thus!" So
Diccon fetched the water and between them they contrived to get Joanna to
her feet, and standing thus supported by their arms, she must needs use her
first breath to curse her weak woman's body:

"And our mainmast is shot through at the cap--we must wear ship or 'twill
go! Veer, Resolution, wear ship and man the larboard guns ... they are cool
... I must go tend my hurt--a curst on't! Wear ship and fight, Resolution,
fight--to the last!"

So saying, she put by their hold and (albeit she stumbled for very
weakness) nevertheless contrived to descend the quarter-ladder and wave
cheery greeting to the roar of acclaim that welcomed her.

"And there's for ye!" quoth Resolution. "Never was such hugeous great
spirit in man's body or woman's body afore, neither in this world or any
other--no, not even Davy at Adullam, by hookey! Down to your guns, Diccon
lad, and cheerily, for it looks as we shall have some pretty fighting,
after all!"

But at the hoarse roar of Resolution's speaking trumpet was stir and
clamorous outcry from the battle-wearied crew who came aft in a body.

"Oho, Belvedere!" they shouted, "Us ha' fought as long as men may, and now
what?"

"Fight again, bullies, and cheerily!" roared Resolution. At this the uproar
grew; pistols and muskets were brandished.

"We ha' fought enough! 'Tis time to square away and run for't--aye,
aye--what saith Belvedere, Belvedere be our Cap'n--we want Belvedere!"

"Why then, take him, Bullies, take him and willing!" cried Resolution;
then stooping (and with incredible strength) up to the quarter-railing he
hoisted that awful, mutilated thing that had once been Captain Belvedere
and hove it over to thud down among them on the deck below. "Eye him over,
lads!" quoth Resolution. "View him well, bawcock boys! I made sure work,
d'ye see, though scarce so complete as the heathen Pompey might ha' done,
but 'tis a very thoroughly dead rogue, you'll allow. And I killed him
because he would ha' murdered our Joanna, our luck--and because he was for
yielding us up, you and me, to yon ship that is death for us--for look'ee,
there is never a ship on the Main will grant quarter or show mercy for we;
'tis noose and tar and gibbet for every one on us, d'ye see? So fight,
bully boys, fight for a chance o' life and happy days--here stand I to
fight wi' you and Diccon 'twixt decks and Captain Jo everywhere. We beat
off you Englishman once and so we will again. So fight it is, comrades all,
and a cheer for Captain Jo--ha, Joanna!"

Cheer they did and (like the desperate rogues they were) back they went,
some to their reeking guns, others to splice running and standing rigging,
to secure our tottering mainmast and to clear the littered decks; overboard
alike went broken gear and dead comrade. Then, with every man at his
quarters, with port fires burning, drums beating, black flag flaunting
aloft, round swung the _Happy Despatch_ to face once more her indomitable
foe (since she might not fly) and to fight for her very life.

So once again was smoke and flame and roaring battle; broadside for
broadside we fought them until night fell, a night of horror lit by the
quivering red glare of the guns, the vivid flash of pistol and musket
and the pale flicker of the battle lanthorns. And presently the moon was
casting her placid beam upon this hell of destruction and death, whereas I
lay, famished with hunger and thirst, staring up at her pale serenity with
weary, swooning eyes, scarce heeding the raving tumult about me.

I remember a sudden, rending crash, a stunning shock and all things were
blotted out awhile.




CHAPTER XIV

TELLETH HOW THE FIGHT ENDED


When sight returned to me at last, I was yet staring up at the moon, but
now she had climbed the zenith and looked down on me through a dense maze,
a thicket of close-twining branches (as it were) whose density troubled me
mightily. But in a little I saw that these twining branches were verily a
mass of ropes and cordage, a twisted tangle that hung above me yet crushed
me not by reason of a squat column that rose nearby, and staring on this
column I presently knew it for the shattered stump of the mizzenmast. For a
great while I lay staring on this (being yet much dazed) and thus gradually
became aware that the guns had fallen silent; instead of their thunderous
roar was a faint clamour, hoarse, inarticulate, and very far away. I was
yet wondering dreamily and pondering this when I made the further discovery
that by some miraculous chance the chain which had joined my fettered
wrists was broken in sunder and I was free. Nevertheless I lay awhile
blinking drowsily up at the moon until at last, impelled by my raging
thirst, I got to my knees (though with strange reluctance) and strove to
win clear from the tangle of ropes that encompassed me; in the which labour
I came upon the body of a dead man and beyond this, yet another. Howbeit I
was out of this maze at last and rising to my feet, found the deck to heave
oddly 'neath my tread, and so (like one walking in a dream) came stumbling
to the quarter-ladder and paused there awhile to lean against the
splintered rail and to clasp my aching head, for I was still greatly
bemused and my body mighty stiff and painful.

Looking up after some while I saw the _Happy Despatch_ lay a helpless
wreck, her main and mizzenmasts shot away and her shattered hull fast
locked in close conflict with her indomitable foe. The English ship had
run us aboard at the fore-chains and as the two vessels, fast grappled
together, swung to the gentle swell, the moon glinted on the play of
vicious steel where the fight raged upon our forecastle. Mightily heartened
by this, I strove to shake off this strange lethargy that enthralled me and
looked about for some weapon, but finding none, got me down the ladder (and
marvellous clumsy about it) and reaching; the deck stumbled more than once
over stiffening forms that sprawled across my way. Here and there a battle
lanthorn yet glimmered, casting its uncertain beam on writhen legs, on
wide-tossed arms and shapes that seemed to stir in the gloom; and beholding
so many dead, I marvelled to find myself thus unharmed, though, as I
traversed this littered deck, its ghastliness dim-lit by these flickering
lanthorns and the moon's unearthly radiance, it seemed more than ever that
I walked within a dream, whiles the battle clamoured ever more loud. Once
I paused to twist a boarding-axe from stiffening fingers, and, being come
into the waist of the ship, found myself beside the main hatchway and
leaned there to stare up at the reeling fray on the forecastle where pike
darted, axe whirled, sword smote and the battle roared amain in angry
summons. But as I turned obedient to get me into this desperate fray, I
heard a low and feverish muttering and following this evil sound came upon
one who lay amid the wreckage of a gun, and bending above the man knew him
for Diccon the quartermaster.

"How now, Diccon?" I questioned, and wondered to hear my voice so strange
and muffled.

"Dying!" said he. "Dying--aye, am I! And wi' two thousand doubloons hid
away as I shall ne'er ha' the spending on--oh, for a mouthful o' water--two
thousand--a pike-thrust i' the midriff is an--ill thing yet--'tis better
than--noose and tar and gibbet--yet 'tis hard to die wi' two thousand
doubloons unspent--oh, lad, I parch--I burn already--water--a mouthful for
a dying man--"

So came I to the water-butt that stood abaft the hatchway, and filling a
pannikin that chanced there with some of the little water that remained,
hastened back to Diccon, but ere I could reach him he struggled to his
knees and flinging arms aloft uttered a great cry and sank upon his face.
Then, finding him verily dead, I drank the water myself and, though
lukewarm and none too sweet, felt myself much refreshed and strengthened
thereby and the numbness of mind and body abated somewhat.

And yet, as I knelt thus, chancing to lift my eyes from the dead man before
me, it seemed that verily I must be dreaming after all, for there, all
daintily bedight in purple gown, I beheld a fine lady tripping lightly
among these mangled dead; crouched in the shadow of the bulwark I watched
this approaching figure; then I saw it was Joanna, saw the moon glint
evilly on the pistol she bore ere she vanished down the hatchway. And now,
reading her fell purpose, I rose to my feet and stole after her down into
the 'tween-decks.

An evil place this, crowded with forms that moaned and writhed fitfully in
the light of the lanthorns that burned dimly here and there, a place foul
with blood and reeking with the fumes of burnt powder, but I heeded only
the graceful shape that flitted on before; once she paused to reach down
a lanthorn and to open the slide, and when she went on again, flames
smouldered behind her and as often as she stayed to set these fires
a-going, I stayed to extinguish them as well as I might ere I hasted after
her. At last she paused to unlock a door and presently her voice reached
me, high and imperious as ever:

"Greeting, Don Federigo! The ship's afire and 'tis an ill thing to burn, so
do I bring you kinder death!"

Creeping to the door of this lock-up, I saw she had set down the lanthorn
and stood above the poor fettered captive, the pistol in her hand.

"The Señorita is infinitely generous," said Don Federigo in his courtly
fashion; then, or ever she might level the weapon, I had seized and wrested
it from her grasp. Crying out in passionate fury, she turned and leapt at
me.

"Off, murderess!" I cried, and whirling her from me, heard her fall and lie
moaning. "Come, sir," said I, aiding the Don to his feet, "let us be gone!"
But what with weakness and his fetters Don Federigo could scarce stand, so
I stooped and taking him across my shoulder, bore him from the place. But
as I went an acrid smoke met me and with here and there a glimmer of flame,
so that it seemed Joanna had fired the ship, my efforts notwithstanding. So
reeled I, panting, to the upper air and, loosing Don Federigo, sank to the
deck and stared dreamily at a dim moon.

And now I was aware of a voice in my ear, yet nothing heeded until, shaken
by an importunate hand, I roused and sat up, marvelling to find myself so
weak.

"Loose me, Señor Martino, loose off my bonds; the fire grows apace and I
must go seek the Señorita--burning is an evil death as she said. Loose off
my bonds--the Señorita must not burn--"

"No, she must not--burn!" said I dully, and struggling to my feet I saw a
thin column of smoke that curled up the hatchway. Gasping and choking,
I fought my way down where flames crackled and smoke grew ever denser.
Suddenly amid this swirling vapour I heard a glad cry:

"Ah, _Martino mio_--you could not leave me then to die alone!" And I saw
Joanna, with arms stretched out to me, swaying against the angry glow
behind her. So I caught her up in my embrace and slipping, stumbling, blind
and half-choked, struggled up and up until at last I reeled out upon deck,
and with Joanna thus clasped upon my breast, stood staring with dazed and
unbelieving eyes at the vision that had risen up to confront me. For there
before me, hedged about by wild figures and brandished steel, with slender
hands tight-clasped together, with vivid lips apart and eyes wide, I
thought to behold at last my beloved Damaris, my Joan, my dear, dear lady;
but knowing this false, I laughed and shook my head.

"Deluding vision," said I, "blest sight long-hoped and prayed for--why
plague me now?"

I was on my knees, staring up at this beloved shape through blinding tears
and babbling I know not what. And then arms were about me, tender yet
strong and compelling, a soft cheek was pressed to mine and in my ear
Joan's voice:

"Oh, my beloved--fret not thyself--here is no vision, my Martin--"

"Joan!" I panted. "Oh, Damaris--beloved!" And shaking off these fettering
arms, I rose to my feet. "Joan, is it thou thyself in very truth, or do I
see thee in heaven--"

And now it seemed I was sinking within an engulfing darkness and nought to
see save only the pale oval of this so loved, oft-visioned face that held
for me the beauty of all beauteous things. At last her voice reached me,
soft and low, yet full of that sweet, vital ring that was beyond all
forgetting.

"Martin--Oh, Martin!"

Out towards me in the growing dark I saw her hands reach down to me: and
then these eager, welcoming hands were seized and Joanna was between us on
her knees.

"Spare him--Oh, lady, in mercy spare my beloved--kill me an you will, but
spare this man of mine--these arms have cradled him ere now, this bosom
been his pillow--"

"Joan!" I muttered, "Oh, Damaris, beloved--"

But seeing the stricken agony of her look and how she shrank from my touch,
I uttered a great cry and turning, sped blindly away and stumbling, fell
and was engulfed in choking blackness.




CHAPTER XV

HOW I FELL IN WITH MY FRIEND, CAPTAIN SIR ADAM PENFEATHER


It was the pommel of the long rapier dangling from the chair-back that
first drew and held my eye, for this pommel was extremely bright and
polished and gleamed on me like a very keen and watchful eye as I watched,
though conscious also of the luxury of panelled walls, of rich floor
coverings and tapestried hangings, and the man who sat writing so
studiously at the carven table. And presently, roused by the scratch of his
industrious quill, I fell to watching him, his bowed head, the curve of his
back as he stooped. A small, lean man but very magnificent, for his coat of
rich purple velvet sat on him with scarce a wrinkle, his great peruke fell
in such ample profusion of curls that I could see nought but the tip of
his nose as he bent to his writing, and I wondered idly at his so great
industry. Now presently he paused to read over what he had written and
doing so, began to push and pull at his cumbrous wig and finally, lifting
it off, laid it on the table. Thus I saw the man was white-haired and that
his ears were mighty strange, being cut and trimmed to points like a dog's
ears; and beholding the jut of brow and nose and resolute chin, I fell to
sudden trembling, and striving to lift myself on the bed, wondered to find
this such a business.

"Adam!" said I, my voice strangely thin and far away, "Adam Penfeather!"

In one movement, as it seemed to me, he was out of the chair and leaning
above me. "Why, Martin," said he. "Why, comrade! Lord love you, Martin, are
ye awake at last? Here you've lain these twelve hours like a dead man and
small wonder, what with your wound--"

"So you have come--at last, Adam?"

"And in good time, shipmate!"

"Where am I?"

"Safe aboard my ship, the _Deliverance_."

"'Twas you fought the _Happy Despatch_?"

"Aye, Martin, and should have very properly destroyed every rogue aboard
but for my lady--"

"My lady?" said I, sitting up. "My lady--Joan?"

"Aye, verily--"

"Then 'tis true--all true!" said I, and fell a-trembling. "My lady's here?"

"She is, Martin, and more's the pity. For look'ee, having boarded yon
devil's craft and cut down such as resisted, I was very properly for
hanging such as remained, when down on me comes my lady and is for carrying
the rogues to trial, the which is but vain labour and loss o' time, since
each and all of my twenty and three prisoners is bound to swing soon or
late, as I told her, but, 'No matter, Sir Adam,' says she. 'Law is law, Sir
Adam,' quo' she. When cometh Godby, running, to say the cursed ship was
afire, and coming to the main hatchway, I beheld, half-strangled in the
smoke, yourself, shipmate, and a woman in your arms--"

"Ha--'twas Joanna!" said I, leaping in the bed. "What of her, Adam--what of
her, man?"

"A fine woman, I'll allow, Martin, and by her looks a lady of quality--"

"Say a demon rather--a very she-devil!"

"Why, as you will, Martin, as you will!" said he. "Only rest you, lest the
fever take you again."

"How was I wounded, then?"

"A flying splinter in the head, Martin, so Surgeon Penruddock says. But
then you have a marvellous stout skull, as I do know, shipmate."

"What ha' you done with Joanna--where is she?"

"Content you, Martin, she is safe enough and well cared for; you shall see
her anon," said he, stroking his long chin and viewing me with his quick,
keen eyes, "But first you shall eat!" And he rang the small silver bell
that stood upon the table, whereon in came a soft-footed serving-man in
handsome livery, who, receiving Adam's commands, presently bowed himself
out again.

Hereupon Adam set on his periwig and fell to pacing slowly to and fro, his
feet soundless upon the rich carpet, viewing me now and then like one
that ponders some problem. Now, beholding his air of latent power and
indomitable mastery, the richness of his habit, the luxury that surrounded
him, it seemed in very truth that he was the great gentleman and I the
merest poor suppliant for his bounty; whereupon I must needs contrast his
case with mine and perceiving myself no better than I had been three weary
years since, to wit: the same poor, destitute wretch, I fell into a black
and sullen humour:

"You go vastly fine these days!" quoth I, scowling (like the surly dog I
was).

"Aye, Martin--I am so vastly rich!" he sighed. "I am a baronet, shipmate!"
he nodded dolefully. "And what is worse, I own many rich manors and
countless broad acres besides divers castles, mansions, houses and the
like. Thus all men do protest friendship for me, and at this moment there
be many noble ladies do sigh for me or the manors and castles aforesaid.
And there was a duchess, Martin, was set upon wedding my riches (and me
along of 'em) but I have no leaning to duchesses, though this one was young
and comely enough. So went I to the King, who by his grace suffered me to
fit out, provision, arm and man this ship at my own expense, Martin, and
square away for the Spanish Main to sink, burn and utterly destroy such
pirate vessels as I can bring to action. So here am I, shipmate, since I
had rather fight rogues when and where I may than marry a duchess once. And
here cometh what shall do you a world o' good, Martin--broth with a dash
o' rum--which is good for a man, soul and body!" said he, as the
serving-fellow appeared, bearing a silver tray whereon stood broth in a
silver bowl of most delectable odour. And indeed, very good broth I found
it.

So whiles I ate, Adam, sitting near, told me much of his doings since he
left me solitary on Bartlemy's Island, but of my lady Joan Brandon he spoke
no word.

"'Tis but three short years since we parted, shipmate, three short years--"

"Three long, empty years!" said I bitterly.

"Aye, truth!" quoth he. "You had a mind to nought but vengeance, which is
an empty thing, as belike you'll allow, Martin, you being now three long,
empty years the wiser?"

Here, what with the hot broth and my hotter anger, I came nigh to choking,
whereupon he rose and, seeing the bowl empty, took it from me and
thereafter set another pillow to my back, the while I reviled him
impotently.

"There, there, Martin!" said he, patting my shoulder as I had been a
petulant child. "Never miscall Adam that is your friend, for if you have
wasted your

Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/9835