With Drake on the Spanish Main Part 19

The pursuer came in sight again just as the _Mirandola_ was approaching the rocky ridge which had been a barrier to Dennis's exploration of the sh.o.r.e on his first day on the island. He was rejoiced to see that in wearing she had lost a little. Then a sudden idea struck him. Beyond the ridge was the entrance to the gully, and up the gully the broad pool in which the _Maid Marian_ lay. Would not the best course after all be to play a trick on the pursuer? Why not try to run into the pool? When the _Mirandola_ had once rounded the shoulder of the cliff she would again be almost out of sight; if she could run into the gully the pursuers would almost certainly suppose that she had fled round the northern side of the island; and safe in the pool, she might lie there until the chase had been given up. He mentioned his idea to Amos.

"Be jowned if it bean't a right merry notion," cried the mariner.

But none knew better the difficulty of steering the vessel safely into the gully. There was no time for consideration. If once she pa.s.sed the entrance the vessel could not beat back again before the pursuer came within range. The slightest failure in Turnpenny's seamans.h.i.+p would run the bark on the rocks. But the old mariner knew the gully.

With set lips and a deep indentation between his brows he stood at the helm and gave his orders to the men.

"Stand by the halliards," he cried, "and let go the moment I say the word."

It was important to have plenty of way on the vessel, for the instant she came to the headland the wind would be taken out of her canvas.

Easing the helm gently over, Turnpenny called to the men to let go as the s.h.i.+p rounded the point; in a few moments the canvas was all taken in, and with the way on her she glided up the gully.

Within ten minutes from the time when the notion first occurred to Dennis the _Mirandola_ lay side by side with the wreck of the _Maid Marian_ in the pool, invisible from the open sea.

"Mum's the word," said Turnpenny when the anchor had been dropped.

"Muzzle your jaws for a while. Master Hazelrig and me we knows this island, and we'll mount the cliff yonder and see what the don Spaniard makes of us now."

Leaving the men to swim ash.o.r.e if they chose, Dennis and Turnpenny sprang overboard, soon found their footing, and scrambled up the rocks and the cliff, keeping well under cover. When they reached the top they saw the pursuer about three miles distant. She had shortened sail, and was evidently inclined to give the coast a wider berth than the _Mirandola_ had done. It was growing dusk when she came level with the gully, standing about a mile from the sh.o.r.e. Her movements for a time were erratic; clearly the people on board distrusted the waters round the island, and were somewhat perplexed as to the course taken by the fugitive. At length they decided apparently to abandon the pursuit, for she stood to windward, and the two watchers breathed again.

CHAPTER XVI

Jan Biddle, Master

"G.o.d be praised!" said Turnpenny, fervently; "we have escaped out of the hands of the enemy."

"And we find ourselves once more on Maiden Isle, the which I never thought to set foot on more. I am glad of it, Amos, for now that we have a bark fit to carry us over the sea, I would fain take with us certain things that belonged to my dear comrades. They will be cherished by their sorrowing folks at home."

"True, the sight of such belongings of the dead and gone do have a morsel of comfort in it. And moreover we can take some of your stores, for though our own monkey s.h.i.+p be not ill provided, yet the victuals be Spanish, and 'twill make new men of our comrades to give 'em a rasher of bacon now and again."

"Ay, but why monkey s.h.i.+p, Amos?"

"Why, sir, I cannot put my tongue to the name your fancy gave the vessel, and to my thinking it is not to compare with _Anne Gallant_, and _Jesus_, and _Minion_, and other craft I have served aboard, to say nothing of the _Susans_ and _Bettys_ that are well beknown in Plimworth Sound."

"Well, have your way. To my ears _Mirandola_ hath a pleasant sound, and it will always keep me in mind of my good friend. But 'tis time we returned to our comrades."

When they reached the entrance of the chine they found that the crew had all come ash.o.r.e, save one or two who were curiously examining the wreck of the _Maid Marian_. They could not refrain from shouting a glad "Huzza!" when they learnt that the pursuing vessel was standing away. Jan Biddle and one of his cronies had been rummaging in Dennis's hut and sheds, finding little to reward them, however, almost everything having been transferred to Skeleton Cave. Night was drawing on apace, and though some of the crew were for setting sail in the darkness, the majority agreed with Dennis that it would be better to defer their departure until the following night. This plan would give them a whole day's rest; it would render it less likely that the pursuer would be still in the neighbourhood; and it would enable them to carry more water on board, which was desirable in view of the possibility of a protracted voyage. Dennis and Amos decided to occupy their old hut; the men were given their choice of the sheds, now all but empty, and the huts erected by the maroons near the logwood grove.

They all declared for sleeping ash.o.r.e rather than on board s.h.i.+p, Hugh Curder and Gabriel Batten, however, volunteering to remain on deck as a night watch.

Next day, after the stores and things which Dennis wished to take home had been transferred from the cave to the vessel, and several barrels of fresh water from the spring in the cliff had been placed in her hold, the men broke up into little groups and wandered about the island, revelling in their liberty and in the abundance of fruit which they could have for the picking. Several times Dennis went to the cliff top on one side and Amos on the other side of the island to scan the horizon for a sail, but neither saw any sign of one. In the afternoon Dennis ventured to sound Sir Martin's trumpet as a signal of recall, and the men came dropping back in ones and twos and threes in antic.i.p.ation of departure.

The tide was at flood, and Dennis had just given the order to go aboard, when Tom Copstone suddenly exclaimed--

"Zuggers! Where be Gabriel Batten?"

"Is he not here?" asked Dennis.

"Not the ghost of him," said Amos, looking round on the company.

"He were always a ninny-hammer," cried Jan Biddle angrily. "Never did I know such a man for simples and other trash. Sure he be roaming somewheres with his nose to the ground, trying to smell out some herb that will heal a scratch or cure a distemper."

"Blow up the trumpet for en," suggested Copstone; "Gabr'el be a vitty lad--none the worse for not being made so rampageous as 'ee, Jan Biddle, for all he do go wool-gathering at whiles."

Biddle glared at the speaker, but said no more. Hugh Curder, being the man with the brazen lungs, blew a loud blast on the trumpet which set the cliffs and the chine reverberating. They waited; the wanderer must have gone far indeed if he was out of earshot of that strident blare.

But as time went on, and he did not appear, Dennis began to be somewhat vexed.

"'Twas thoughtless of the man," he said; "already is the tide beginning to ebb, in two hours it will be impossible to embark this night, and that entails upon us the loss of another day."

"Embark without him," growled Biddle. "What is he that he should keep a score of good men waiting his pleasure?"

"Nay, nay," said Dennis. "We cannot leave him here. You have had your sufferings and sorrows, from the like of which G.o.d save us all; but is there a man of you that hath dwelt alone upon an island, spending nights and days without the sight of a face, or the sound of a voice?

That have I done, and not willingly shall I subject a man to a like solitude. There is still a little s.p.a.ce during which the tide will serve. Let us scatter in parties, some going this way, some that, and halloo; perchance some of us may light on our comrade."

The suggestion was adopted; only Jan Biddle and his few particular friends went about the search grudgingly. But though the men scoured the island from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e, and kept up the quest to the very verge of nightfall, long after the tide had run so low that the idea of setting sail till next day had to be abandoned, they discovered no trace of the straggler, and returned weary and irritable when the trumpet recalled them.

"He may come in by and by," said Dennis cheerfully. "If not we must e'en take up the search in the morning. We shall have a whole day wherein to pursue it. Let us now get our supper and commend ourselves and our comrades to G.o.d."

"Odspitikins!" cried Jan Biddle. "What did I say! What a captain is this! Here be we, twenty-one souls, raped up here for one slummaking micher not worth a varden."

"My heart!" shouted Amos, "you were best keep a still tongue in your noddle, Jan Biddle, or with the captain's leave I'll clap 'ee in irons the instant we go aboard, and keep 'ee under hatches for a sluddering mutineer--ay, and larrap 'ee first, I warrant 'ee."

Biddle's experience of the strength of Turnpenny's arm did not encourage him to repeat his protest; but when the supper was spread on the rocks above the pool, he carried off his portion to a place apart, and nursed his wrath among a small group of his comrades who followed him. The malcontents numbered eight in all, and four of these were Frenchmen, with whom Biddle could converse freely in their own tongue.

Again they slept ash.o.r.e, except the two who had been selected to keep watch on the vessel. The precaution seemed hardly necessary, for it was unlikely that a hostile s.h.i.+p would appear in the night; but Turnpenny had suggested that it was well to keep up the customs observed at sea. The men chosen for this night's watch were two steady fellows named William Hawk and Luke Fenton.

Dennis lay awake for some time, talking with Amos about the missing man. Though he had maintained a cheerful composure before the crew, he was in reality not a little vexed at the delay caused by the thoughtlessness of Gabriel Batten.

"Is it true, what Biddle said," he asked, "about Batten's madness for gathering simples?"

"Ay, 'tis true. He be a vitty lad, as Tom Copstone said, and a good seaman, quiet withal; but he has a maggot, and 'tis that, without a doubt, that has led him aroaming. There be a time for everything, and though I do not deny that Gabriel's skill in simples has ofttimes served us well, 'tis not to be wondered at that the men make a pucker about it."

"Well, we must find him to-morrow. We cannot sail away without him; why, there is not even a Mirandola here now to bear him company."

"Be jowned if I don't ballirag en to-morrow for his hanticks, od-rat-en!"

Dennis pa.s.sed a restless night, waking often, to wonder what had become of the wanderer. He resolved to set out himself as soon as dawn broke, and take advantage of his knowledge of the island to search thoroughly.

Finding himself unable to sleep again, he got up while the chine was still in darkness, and walked to the edge of the cliff overlooking the pool. In the gloom he could just see the dark form of the _Maid Marian_; but then he started, rubbed his eyes, looked again, and felt a shock of amazement when he realized that the other vessel was no longer there. Next moment it flashed upon him that she must have dragged her moorings and floated away on the very last of the ebb-tide, and the fact that no alarm had been given seemed to show that the watchers had fallen asleep, overcome by the sweltering heat of the tropical night.

Calling to Amos, he set off at full speed down the cliff towards the opening of the gully, narrowly escaping a serious fall in the darkness.

He was much relieved to see, on rounding the shoulder of the cliff, the dark hull of the vessel in front of him. The tide was so low that it was marvellous she had floated so far without grounding, and the thought that she might strike a reef and cause further delay while repairs were made prompted a vigorous shout, to waken the neglectful watch ere it was too late. But there came no answering hail from the vessel; and fearing that, even if she did not run aground, the men on board might not have sufficient seamans.h.i.+p to bring her back in safety, he dived into the water and struck out in her wake.

As he did so, he heard footsteps behind him, two or three voices, and the sound of another splash. Evidently some one had followed him. The _Mirandola_ was moving very slowly; the motion of the tide was indeed almost imperceptible, and Dennis, being a good swimmer, soon came under her counter. Catching hold, by a happy chance as he thought, of a rope that had formed her mooring cable, he swarmed hand over hand up the side and on to the deck. But no sooner had his feet touched the planks than two figures sprang towards him, a blanket was thrown over his head, and before he could utter a sound he was flung down, gagged, and pinioned.

Even through the thick folds of the blanket Dennis was able to hear a great scuffling on board within a few seconds of his own discomfiture.

Then all was still, except for the m.u.f.fled tones of his captors'

voices. He could not hear what they said, but it was not long before he knew from the greater motion of the vessel that they must have hoisted sail. Not for a moment did he doubt the meaning of it all.

Who but Jan Biddle and his fellow malcontents would have had the daring to run off with the vessel? The man was a ruffian in looks, and Dennis had already had several evidences of his turbulent spirit. And, lying helpless and half smothered on the deck, he did not have to seek far for the motive of the act. It was not merely chagrin at being denied a rank; the man knew that there were pearls in the hold, a valuable treasure, and his treachery was prompted by cupidity. He had supposed, Dennis suspected, that as a simple mariner among the crew he would get but a small portion of the treasure when it should be divided, and persuaded some of the men to make this attempt to secure the whole.