Fire Cloud Part 5

"I have been in a good many fights, but never before one like that.

"As we expected no quarter, we gave none. The crew of the Spanish vessel rather outnumbered us, but not so greatly as to make the contest very unequal. And in our case desperation supplied the place of numbers.

"The deck was soon slippery with gore, and there were but few left to fight on either side. The captain of the Spanish vessel was one of the first killed. Some were shot down, some were hurled over the deck in the sea, some had their skulls broken with boarding pikes, and there was not a man left alive of the Spanish crew; and of ours, I at first thought that I was the only survivor, when the negro cook who had been forgotten all the while, came up from the cabin of our brig, bearing in his arms his little son, of course unharmed, but nearly frightened to death. Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that with the exception of a few slight scratches, I escaped without a wound.

"To my horror I now discovered that both vessels were fast sinking.

But the cook set me at my ease on that score, by informing me that there was one small boat that had not been injured. Into this we immediately got, after having secured the small supply of provisions and water within our reach, which from the condition the vessels were, was very small.

"We had barely got clear of the sinking vessels, when they both went down, leaving us alone upon the wide ocean without compa.s.s or chart; not a sail in sight, and many a long, long league from the nearest coast.

"For more than a week we were tossing about on the waves without discovering a vessel. At last I saw that our provisions were nearly gone. We had been on short allowance from the first. At the rate they were going, they would not last more than two days longer. What was to be done? Self preservation, they say is the first law of human nature; to preserve my own life, I must sacrifice my companions. The moment the thought struck me it was acted upon.

"Sam, the black cook, was sitting a straddle the bow of the boat; with a push I sent him into the sea. I was going to send his boy after him, but the child clung to my legs in terror, and just at that moment a sail hove in sight and I changed my purpose.

"Such a groan of horror as the father gave on striking the water I never heard before, and trust I shall never hear again."

"At that instant the whole party sprang to their feet as if started by a shock of electricity, while most fearful groan resounded through the cavern, repeated by a thousand echos, each repet.i.tion growing fainter, and fainter until seeming to lose itself in the distance.

"That's it, that's it," said the captain, only louder, and if anything more horrible.

"But what does all this mean?" he demanded of Lightfoot, who had joined the astonished group.

"Don't know," said the woman.

"Where's Black Bill?" next demanded the captain.

"Here I is," said the boy crawling out from a recess in the wall in which he slept.

"Was that you, Bill?" demanded his master.

"No; dis is me," innocently replied the darkey.

"Do you know what that noise was?" asked the captain.

"S'pose 'twas de debble comin' after ma.s.sa," said the boy.

"What do you mean, you wooley-headed imp," said the captain; "don't you know that the devil likes his own color best? Away to bed, away, you rascal!"

"Well, boys," said Flint, addressing the men and trying to appear very indifferent, "we have allowed ourselves to be alarmed by a trifle that can be easily enough accounted for.

"These rocks, as you see, are full of cracks and crevices; there may be other caverns under, or about as, for all we know. The wind entering these, has no doubt caused the noise we have beard, and which to our imaginations, somewhat heated by the liquor we have been drinking, has converted into the terrible groan which has so startled us, and now that we know what it is, I may as well finish my story.

"As I was saying, a sail hove in sight. It was a vessel bound to this port. I and the boy were taken on board and arrived here in safety.

"This boy, whether from love or fear, I can hardly say, has clung to me ever since.

"I have tried to shake him off several times, but it was no use, he always returns.

"The first business I engaged in on arriving here, was to trade with the Indians; when having discovered this cave, it struck me that it would make a fine storehouse for persons engaged in our line of business. Acting upon this hint, I fitted it up as you see.

"With a few gold pieces which I had secured in my belt I bought our little schooner. From that time to the present, my history it as well known to you as to myself. And now my long yarn is finished, let us go on with our sport."

But to recall the hilarity of spirits with which the entertainment had commenced, was no easy matter.

Whether the captain's explanation of the strange noise was satisfactory to himself or not, it was by no means so to the men.

Every attempt at singing, or story telling failed. The only thing that seemed to meet with any favor was the hot punch, and this for the most part, was drank in silence.

After a while they slunk away from the table one by one, and fell asleep in some remote corner of the cave, or rolled over where they sat, and were soon oblivious to everything around them.

The only wakeful one among them was the captain himself, who had drank but little.

He sat by the table alone. He started up! Could he have dozed and been dreaming? but surely he heard that groan again!

In a more suppressed voice than before, and not repeated so many times, but the same horrid groan; he could not be mistaken, he had never heard anything else like it. The matter must be looked into.

CHAPTER V.

Although it was nearly true, as Captain Flint had told his men, that they were about as well acquainted with his history since he landed in this country as he was himself, such is not the case with the reader.

And in order that he may be as well informed in this matter as they were, we shall now endeavor to fill up the gap in the narrative.

To the crew of the vessel who had rescued him and saved his life, Captain Flint had represented himself as being one of the hands of a s.h.i.+p which had been wrecked at sea, and from which the only ones who had escaped, were himself and two negros, one of whom was the father of the boy who had been found with him. The father of the boy had fallen overboard, and been drowned just before the vessel hove in sight.

This story, which seemed plausible enough, was believed by the men into whose hands they had fallen, and Flint and the negro, received every attention which their forlorn condition required. And upon arriving in port, charitable people exerted themselves in the captain's behalf, procuring him employment, and otherwise enabling him to procure an honest livelihood, should he so incline.

But honesty was not one of the captain's virtues.

He had not been long in the country before he determined to try his fortune among the Indians.

He adopted this course partly because he saw in it a way of making money more rapidly than in any other, and partly because it opened to him a new field of wild adventure.

Having made the acquaintance of some of the Indians who were in the habit of coming to the city occasionally for the purpose of trading, he accompanied them to their home in the wilderness, and having previously made arrangements with merchants in the city, among others Carl Rosenthrall, to purchase or dispose of his furs, he was soon driving a thriving business. In a little while he became very popular with the savages, joined one of the tribes and was made a chief.

This state of things however, did not last long. The other chiefs became jealous of his influence, and incited the minds of many of the people against him.

They said he cheated them in his dealings, that his attachment to the red men was all pretence. That he was a paleface at heart, carrying on trade with the palefaces to the injury of the Indians. Killing them with his fire water which they gave them for their furs.

In all this there was no little truth, but Flint, confident of his power over his new friends, paid no attention to it.

A crisis came at last.

One of the chiefs who had been made drunk by whiskey which he had received from Flint in exchange for a lot of beaver skins, accused the latter of cheating him; called him a paleface thief who had joined the Indians only for the purpose of cheating them.

Flint forgetting his usual caution took the unruly savage by the shoulders and thrust him out of the lodge.