The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane

  CHAPTER VIII.

  WE ARE OVERCOME, AND WITH BARBAROUS TREATMENT SET ASHORE AND LEFT THERE.

  Of a truth none are so suspicious as those who should be suspected, andlosing sight of this fact was our undoing.

  To begin with 'twas a silly thing to go into the captain's cabin at thattime; it was still more imprudent to sit there with him discussing ourmeans of escape. For it happened that Ned Parsons, seeing me no longerinquisitive about the shifting of the crews, became curious to know whathad become of me, and presently sighted me sitting, as I say, with SirHarry. Doubtless Rodrigues, in his place, would have taken some craftymeans of discovering our design and circumventing it; but this Parsonswas of another kidney, and prone to reflect upon the advisability of hisactions after they were performed rather than before. Wherefore, at thefirst sniff of danger, he goes below, collects a dozen choice rogues,and having gone into the armory and furnished themselves with weapons,they slipped on deck, and in a twinkling rushed into the roundhouse andfell upon us. We were the less prepared for this attack because thefellows, having no shoes to their feet, came on noiselessly along thedeck; and indeed, from the moment we first spied them to the time theywere in the coach, there was barely time for Sir Harry to catch up ashort sword for his defence, and I a spyglass that lay on the table. SirHarry ran the first of the party through the vitals, and I managed tolay Ned Parsons' head open with the spyglass; but we could do no more,for we were thrown down by sheer force of weight and numbers, and afterthat our bootless struggles did not prolong by a few minutes the work ofbinding us hand and foot. From these bonds there was no escaping; NedParsons himself, with the blood yet trickling down his face and grizzledbeard, making fast each knot and testing its security. When this wasdone, he went out to the main deck and spoke to the men crowded there,and they replied with a great cheer, and so betook themselves to theirwork, shouting and talking among themselves with much content. But tomake more sure of us, and that all might see we were not contriving ourescape, this Ned Parsons hauled us out of the roundhouse into the midstof the deck, and there we lay in the burning sun all day, and none hadthe humanity to give us meat or drink, though they for the most partmade themselves as drunk as beggars by midday. Nay, when Sir Harry, whohad been as kind to these wretches as any man could be, asked one togive him a cup of water, the villain would not, but replied, with abrutal laugh, that he should have more water than he could drink atsundown, by which cruel speech we preceived that our fate was sealed,and that they only awaited the occasion of Rodrigues' coming on board tocast us into the sea.

  The breeze continuing very fresh, we pressed onward; but towards eveningthe wind abated, as it does in these latitudes about sundown, the sailsflapped against the mast, and the anchor was dropped.

  Soon after this Rodrigues came abroad, and first he consulted withParsons, who had contrived to keep more sober than the rest; then theyheld a council with all the men in the fore part of the ship, afterwhich Rodrigues comes to us, with his hat in his hand, as civil as maybe, and with a wicked smile on his face that showed all his pointedteeth, so that with his hypocritical air he did look more like a fiendthan a man.

  "Gentlemen," says he, "I am sorry to tell you we must part. The men, oneand all, have resolved to seek their fortunes elsewhere than in Guiana,and lest their design should be distasteful to you and lead to anyfurther breaking of heads or spitting with steel, they would have me, asbeing now chief in command, drop you overboard with a shot tied roundyour necks. I have done my best to alter their disposition, but the mostthey will consent to in your favor is that you shall be allowed to goyour way in consideration of your giving them free permission to gotheirs, with a solemn promise on your part that you will hereafter donothing, if you have the chance, to bring us to the gallows."

  "Do with us what you will," answers Sir Harry.

  "Ay, and be cursed for the villain you are," adds I.

  "As you do not refuse the offer it is my duty to make, I shall hold ityou accept," says Rodrigues, taking no notice of me; "betwixt gentlemenno formalities are needed. It is understood that in accepting your lifeyou agree to the conditions, and this understanding will be as bindingon you to do us no harm--if, as I say, you get the chance--as though youhad put hand and seal to a bond."

  Then making us a bow, he went back to the men, who, on hearing what hehad to say, gave another cheer, and some set about lowering Sir Harry'sown barge, while others went below and fetched up all manner of storesto put in it. All being in readiness, we were taken to the side of theship, bound as we were, and with a rope reeved through a block at theyard-arm, we were hauled up and lowered like cattle into the barge thatlay alongside. For the first time we perceived that the land was distantno more than half a mile or so. After us the Indian Cazique Putijma,whom, as I have said, Sir Harry had brought abroad at Punto de Gallo fora pilot, was made to come down in the barge, and then half a dozenseamen in that boat that had brought Rodrigues from the _Adventurer_towed us with a line to the shore, the crew giving us a jeer as wesheered off, and Rodrigues (with a bow) wishing we might have a pleasantjourney to Manoa, and find a kind reception and store of gold there.

  Having brought us to land and made our barge fast, the boat's crew, withsomewhat more humanity than their fellows, bade us good-bye andgod-speed, and then pulled off quickly back towards their ship, forthere was no moon that night, and it was now grown so dark that we couldbut just descry the two ships lying off in the bay.

  All this time Putijma, who was unbound, had sat in the barge with hisknees up to his chin in profound silence; for such is the stoiccharacter of these Indians when overcome by misfortune from which theysee no escape. But now Sir Harry, who spoke Spanish, addressed him inthat tongue, begging him to cut our cords, and this he did; but it wasyet some minutes ere either of us could move, so benumbed and stiff werewe with our long confinement. When I got the use of my limbs and hands,I drew a dram of liquor from the puncheon among our stores, and gave itto Sir Harry, who was thereby much refreshed. Then did we get out of theboat to exercise our legs, and finding the sand still warm and pleasantwith the sun's heat, we lay ourselves down to sleep, there being nobetter thing to do. But first I got from the boat a couple of muskets,with powder and ball, and two hatchets, that we might not be unprovidedagainst the attack of wild beasts or cannibals in the night if any suchthere might come upon us.

  But Putijma never stirred out of the boat, nor could Sir Harry any waycheer him out of his despondent mood; and the last I saw of him he wasstill sitting with his knees huddled up to his chin, and so we presentlyfell asleep.

  We slept soundly, and nothing disturbed our slumber all through thatnight. The sun was some degrees above the horizon when I awoke, and asmart breeze ruffling the sea. Sitting up I looked out for the ships,but they were no longer in the bay; yet methought I spied one sail onthe horizon to the south. Then I got upon my feet and looked for thebarge and the Indian Cazique, but trace or sign of either could I seenone. I rubbed my eyes and looked again; then I ran a hundred yardsalong the shore eastward, and again as far to the west; for I could notat once realize that this man was treacherous to us. But 'twas all invain; he was nowhere to be seen. So I roused up Sir Harry, telling himhow the Indian had played us false and gone away with the boat, whichwas our only means of getting back to Trinidad, and like distractedcreatures we ran along the shore a mile one way and a mile the other,hallooing aloud, as trying to cheat ourselves with the hope of thatPutijma had slipped away by accident, and drifted into some creek. Butat length we gave up the quest, and stood gazing before us as still andsilent as statues of stone, quite overwhelmed by this last stroke ofmisfortune.

  And thus were we two poor men abandoned on an unknown coast. I say wetwo poor men, for now were we leveled to the same degree by a cruelfate, being possessed of no more than a gun and a hatchet apiece besidesthe clothes we stood in, and with the same dismal expectation ofperishing unfriended in a wilderness.