Commodore Junk Part 34

"I didn't know it was you," he said, in a hoa.r.s.e whisper. "Lightning seems to make it darker. Where away?"

"Fifty yards south," said Jack, quietly.

"Then look here, my lad. I don't want to disobey orders; but I'm a man and you're only a--"

"Man," said Jack, quietly.

"Then you stop by the boat and--"

"Bart!"

"Nay, nay, let me speak, my lad. Let me say all I want. You can trust me. If Bart Wrigley says he'll do a thing for you, he'll do it if he's got the strength and life in him. So let me do this, while you wait for me. Come, now, you will!"

"No! Come with me. I must be there."

Bart drew in a deep breath, and muttered to himself as he listened to the peculiarly changed voice in which his companion spoke.

"You're master," he said; "and I'm ready."

"Yes. Take my hand, and speak lower. There may be watchers about."

For answer Bart gripped his companion's hand, and together they walked for some distance along the hard sand, where the spray from the rollers swept up. Then turning inland suddenly, they had taken about twenty steps to the west when a vivid flash of lightning showed them that their calculations had been exact, for there before them in all its horror, and not a dozen yards away, stood the rough gibbet with the body of a man pendent from the cross-beam, the ghastly object having stood out for a moment like a huge cameo cut in bold relief upon some ma.s.s of marble of a solid black.

"Abel! Brother!" moaned Jack, running forward to sink kneeling in the sand, and for a few moments, as Bart stood there in the black darkness with his head instinctively uncovered, there arose from before him the wild hysterical sobbings of a woman, at first in piteous appeal to the dead, then in fierce denunciation of his murderers; but as the last cry rang out there was a flickering in the sky, as if the _avant garde_ of another vivid flash--the half-blinding sheet of flame which lit up the gibbet once again; and it seemed strange to Bart that no woman was there, only the figure of a short, well-built man, who stood looking toward him, and said in a hoa.r.s.e, firm voice--

"We are not likely to be interrupted; but to work, quick!"

"Right!" said Bart, hoa.r.s.ely; and directly after, a rustling sound, accompanied by a heavy breathing, was heard in the black darkness, followed soon after by the clinking of iron against iron.

There was a faint flicker in the sky again, but no following flash, and the darkness seemed to have grown more intense, as the panting of some one engaged in a work requiring great exertion came from high up out of the ebon darkness.

"The file, man, the file."

"Nay, I'll wrench it off," came from where the panting was heard. Then there was more grating of iron against iron, repeated again and again, when, just as an impatient e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n was heard, there was a loud snap, as if a link had been broken, a dull thud of a bar falling, and the panting noise increased.

"Now, lad, quick! Can you reach? That's right. Steady! I can lower a little more. Easy. A little more away. You have all the weight now.

May I let go?"

"Yes."

There was the clank of a chain. Then a heavy thud as if someone had dropped to the ground, and then the chain clanked again.

"No, no; wait a moment, my lad. Lower down. That's it. Let's leave these cursed irons behind."

The rough grating of iron sounded again, the heavy panting was resumed, and another sharp crack or two arose, followed by the fall of pieces on the sand.

"That's it!" muttered Bart, as a dull clang arose from the earth. "We needn't have been afraid of any one watching here."

"I'll help."

"Nay; I want no help," panted Bart, as he seemed to be lifting some weight. "You lead on, my lad. Pity we couldn't have landed here."

The reason was obvious; for seaward the waves could be heard rus.h.i.+ng in and out of a reef with many a strange whisper and gasping sound, giving plain intimation that a boat would have been broken up by the heavy waves.

"Shall I go first?"

"Ay; go first, lad. Keep close to the water's edge; and you must kick against the rope."

There proved to be no need to trust to this, for, as they reached the water's edge, where the sand, instead of being ankle deep, was once more smooth and hard, a phosph.o.r.escent gleam rose from the breaking waves, and the wet sh.o.r.e glistened with tiny points of light, which were eclipsed from time to time as the two dark, shadowy figures pa.s.sed slowly along, the first accommodating its pace to that of the heavily-burdened second, till the first stopped short, close to where the boat was moored.

It was plain to see, for the rope shone through the shallow water, as if gilded with pale, lambent gold; while, when it was seized and drawn rapidly, the boat came skimming in, driving from each side of its bows a film as of liquid moonlight spread thinly over the water beyond, where the waves broke upon the sand.

There was the sound of a voice as the figures waded in, one holding the boat, and the other depositing his burden there.

"What's that?" whispered Bart. "Did you speak?"

"No."

"Quick! Get hold of the grapnel. No. On board, lad, quick!"

"Halt! Who goes there?" cried a voice close by from where the darkness was thickest.

For answer Bart cut the grapnel line, made sure that his companion was in the boat, and then, exerting his great strength, he ran out with it through the shallow water, just as there was a vivid flash of lightning, revealing, about twenty yards away, a group of soldiers standing on the rough sh.o.r.e, just beyond the reach of the tide.

"Halt!" was shouted again, followed by a warning. And then followed a series of rapid orders; four bright flashes darted from as many muskets, and the bullets whistled overhead, the intense darkness which had followed the lightning disturbing the soldiers' aim.

Orders to re-load were heard; but the boat was well afloat by now, and Bart had crawled in, the tiller had been seized, and the sail was rapidly hoisted, the wind caught it at once, and by the time another flash of lightning enabled the patrol to make out where the boat lay, it was a hundred yards from sh.o.r.e, and running rapidly along the coast.

A volley was fired as vainly as the first, and as the bullets splashed up the water, Bart laughed.

"They may fire now," he said. "We shall be a hundred yards farther before they're ready again."

They sailed on into the darkness for quite two hours, during which the lightning ceased, and the mutterings of the thunder were heard no more.

But though a careful look-out was kept--and Bart felt that they had pretty well calculated the position of the schooner--they could not find her, and the sail was lowered down.

"We've gone quite far enough," growled Bart. "Where's that light that Dinny was to show?"

There was no answer, and no light visible from where they lay for the next three hours, waiting patiently till the first faint streak of dawn should show them the waiting vessel, and their ghastly burden could be carried aboard ready for a sailor's grave.

"It is a trick, Bart," said Jack at last, as he glanced at their freight lying forward beneath a spare sail.

"Ay, I felt it, my lad," said Bart, frowning. "I felt it last night.

Black Mazzard hain't the man to leave alone; and what's a couple o'

bottles o' rum to such as he?"

"The villain--the coward!" cried Jack, bitterly. "At a time like this!"

"Ay, it's a bad time, my lad," said Bart, "but we've done our work, poor chap; and the sea's the sea, whether it's off a boat or a schooner. You mean that, don't you, now?"