Commodore Junk Part 45

"An' ye want to know! Well, divil a wan of us can tell, unless it's the skipper's took a fancy to ye bekase ye're such a divil to fight, and he wants ye to jyne the rigiment."

"Regiment! Why, you've been a soldier!"

"And is it me a sodjer! Why, ye'll be wanting to make out next that I was a desarther when was only a prishner of war." Humphrey sighed.

"Sure, and ye're wanting something, sor. What'll I get ye! The skipper said ye were to have iverything you wanted."

"Then give me my liberty, my man, and let me go back to England--and disgrace."

"Sure, and I wouldn't go back to England to get that, sor. I'd sooner shtop here. The skipper's always telling Bart to look afther ye well."

"Why?" said Humphrey, sharply.

"Why?" said Dinny, scratching his head; "perhaps he wants to get ye in good condition before ye're hung."

"Hung?"

"Yis, sor. That's what Black Mazzard says."

"Is that the man who tried to cut me down with a boarding-axe?"

"That's the gintleman, sor; and now let me put ye tidy, and lay yer bed shtraight. Sure, and ye've got an illigant cabin here, as is good enough for a juke. Look at the ornaments on the walls."

"Are there any more places like this?"

"Anny more! Sure, the wood's full of 'em."

"But about here?"

"About here! Oh, this is only a little place. Sure, we all live here always when we ar'n't aboard the schooner."

"Ah, yes! The schooner. She was quite destroyed, was she not?"

"Divil a bit, sor. Your boys didn't shoot straight enough. The s.h.i.+p ye came in was, afther we'd got all we wanted out of her. She was burnt to the wather's edge, and then she sank off the reef."

Humphrey groaned.

"Ye needn't do that, sor, for she was a very owld boat, and not safe for a journey home. Mak' yer mind aisy, and mak' this yer home. There's plinty of room for ye, and--whisht! here's the captain coming. What'll he be doing here?"

"The captain!" cried Humphrey. "Then that man took my message."

"What message, sor?"

At that moment the steps which had been heard coming as it were down some long stone corridor halted at the doorway of the prisoner's chamber, someone drew aside a heavy rug, and the buccaneer, wearing a broad-leafed hat which shaded his face, entered the place.

"You can go, Dinny."

"Yis, sor, I'm going," said Dinny, obsequiously; and, after a glance at the prisoner, he hurriedly obeyed.

There was only a gloomy greenish twilight in the old chamber, such light as there was striking in through the forest-shaded window, and with his back to this, and retaining his hat, the captain seated himself upon a rug covered chest.

"You sent for me," he said, in a deep, abrupt tone.

Humphrey looked at him intently, the dark eyes meeting his, and the thick black brows contracted as the gaze was prolonged.

"You sent for me," he repeated, abruptly; "what more do you want?"

"I will tell you after a while," said Humphrey; "but first of all let me thank you for the kind treatment I have received at your hands."

"You need not thank me," was the short reply. "Better treatment than you would have given me."

"Well, yes," said Humphrey. "I am afraid it is."

"Your cousin would have hung me."

"My cousin! What do you know of my cousin!"

"England is little. Every Englishman of mark is known."

Humphrey looked at him curiously, and for the moment it seemed to him that he had heard that voice before, but his memory did not help him.

"My cousin would have done his duty," he said, gravely.

"His duty!" cried the captain, bitterly. "Your country has lost a treasure in the death of that man, sir."

"Good heavens, man! What do you know--"

"Enough, sir. Let Captain James Armstrong rest. The name is well represented now by a gentleman, and it is to that fact that Captain Humphrey owes his life."

The latter stared at the speaker wonderingly.

"Well, sir, why have you sent for me!"

"To thank you, Commodore Junk, and to ask you a question or two."

"Go on, sir. Perhaps I shall not answer you."

"I will risk it," said Humphrey, watching him narrowly, "You spared my life. Why?"

"I told you."

"Then you will give me my liberty?"

"What for?--to go away and return with another and better-manned s.h.i.+p to take us and serve the captain of the schooner as I have served you?"

"No. I wish to return home."

"What for?"