CHAPTER XXXI
"The night came out of the dusk a fine starlight to seaward, beyond thereefs where the Indiaman lay, the high side of the island glooming backagainst the deep blue glistening sky, till you didn't see how large itmight be; while the white water hung glimmering off to leeward from therocks. The ship's crew had kindled a fire on the long strand near theboats, and we heard their noise getting louder and louder above thesound of the sea plashing upon it--evidently through their making freewith liquor. Jones, being no doubt well acquainted with every part ofthe ground, proposed to go over and see how things stood, and where thepassengers might be; at the same time, as Mr Rollock was more likely tocome conveniently to speech of them, both for explaining our being hereand putting them on their guard, he agreed to go too.
"One or other of them was to hurry back as quickly as possible, whilethe men and myself waited in readiness for whatever might turn up. Hourafter hour passed, however, till I was quite out of patience, not to sayuneasy beyond description. All was still, save below toward the water'sedge--the seamen's voices at times mixing with the washing hum of thesurge on the sand, then rising over it in the chorus of a forecastlesong, or a sudden bit of a quarrelsome uproar; notwithstanding whichthey began apparently to settle down to sleep.
"At last the planter came skirting round the hill through the trees,quite out of breath, to say they had discovered the spot where theladies had no doubt been taken by their friends, as Captain Finchhimself, with one of the ship's officers, and two or three cadets, werewalking about on the watch, all of them armed. To judge by this, and thefact of the other gentlemen being still apparently on the wreck, Finchmistrusted his men. However, the planter thought it better not to risk ahasty shot through him by going nearer; and, to tell the truth, Ithought it better myself to wait till daylight, when we should see ifthe rest got ashore; or possibly, as I wished to Heaven were the case,the schooner might heave in sight. 'Where is Mr Jones, though?' asked I;on which I found he had gone over for the first time towards the wellfor some water, as he told Mr Rollock. Indeed, the passengers weresettled near the thick of the wood on this side of the watering-place,none of the Indiaman's people seeming to know as yet there was such athing on the island.
"We each of us held our breath, and listened to hear Jones come back. Iwas just on the point of leading my party that way, when I caught thesound of some one panting, as it were up the ridge from the shore, andnext moment saw, to my great surprise, it was the creature Jones hadsuch a horror of--the dog that had run wild on the island, sniffing withhis nose to the ground as if he were in chase of something; while thestraw hats and tarpaulins of half-a-dozen fellows with ship's musketsand cutlasses followed him over the hill, not thirty paces above us.
"I signed to Jacobs to keep quiet, as they halted together, looking atthe dog; and, from what I could catch of their words, they had noticedit ever since sundown, sitting at the foot of the hill watching whatwent on, till the animal ran toward them as if they were friends, everynow and then turning and making for the heights with a bark and awhimper, as it did at present. One of the men was Foster. 'I tell yewhat it is,' said he, 'there's some fellow on the island already, mates.If we ketch him, why, we'll have it out of him--then down with itquietly to the shore, and go off in the long-boat, seeing as how thisblasted fool of a skipper of ours has spoiled our pleasure!' The dogturned again, wagged his tail, and put his nose to the ground. I thoughtat first he'd bring them right upon us, when suddenly he broke off witha yelp exactly into the track Jones had taken with Mr Rollock on leavingus. The sailors kept away in his wake, down through the bushes into thethick dusk of the trees; upon which the planter and I started to ourfeet at once, and held cautiously after them, the five man-o'-war's-menfollowing at our heels, Indian file.
"Jones, however, had either heard the dog, or got an inkling of thething, and he had taken a long round so as to join us from behind: theIndiaman's men keeping on for a quarter of an hour or so, when theybrought up again, seemingly doubtful whether to follow the creature ornot; and we dropped like one man into the shadow, till they made sailonce more. Soon after, the planter pointed to the trees where thepassengers were, and, on a sign from me, the whole of us edged down tothe spot, till we were standing within sight of the half-finished fire,where the Judge's kitmagar was sitting asleep, tailor-fashion, with hisflat turban sunk to his breast. One of the cadets stood down the slope alittle, betwixt that and the beach where the crew were, leaning sleepilyon his gun, and nodding, while in the midst was a sort of shed, run upwith branches and cocoa-nut leaves, where you could see a glimpse of thedifferent ladies' dresses, young and old, asleep on the ground.
"The starlight fell right down into the opening, and showed theglistening edges of the leaves, with the sea broad out beyond the cocoasat the foot of the rising ground; so bidding Jones look out sharp, Istepped carefully through. My eye lighted at once on Sir Charles Hydelying in one nook of the shelter, wrapped up in his pilot-coat--thefirst time in the old gentleman's life for a good while, I daresay, thathe had passed his night on the ground, especially with such a lot ofberths taken up beside him. Still, he was sound enough at the time, tojudge by his breathing, trifle as it was to the planter's; and close byhim was his daughter, with her cloak drawn half over her head in theshadow--her hair confused about her cheek as it pressed white into thebundle of red bunting she had for a pillow, and one hand keeping thecloak fast at the neck, as if she dreamt of a stiff breeze. The sightwent to my heart, and so did the notion of waking her; but I heardsounds below on the beach, as if the rest of the crew missed theirshipmates, probably getting jealous after their booze, and not unlikelyto seek them up the island, so the more it struck me there was no timeto be lost in coming to an understanding. Accordingly, I stooped downquietly, and touched her on the shoulder.
"Violet Hyde opened her eyes at once, and looked at me; but whether itwas the starlight showing my uniform, or her fancying it was still theIndiaman in the Atlantic, in place of crying out, why, there was almosta smile on her lips as she saw me from the ground. Next moment, however,she drew her hand across her eyelids, sat up with the help of the otherarm, and gazed on me in a bewildered way, naming me at the same timebelow her breath. 'Yes, Miss Hyde!' I said hastily; and a few wordsserved to give her a notion of the case as well as to advise her to wakeup the Judge, with the rest of the ladies, and be ready to move themoment we came back. My first thought was to take Foster's own plan, andsecure the long-boat, if we could only get betwixt the Indiaman's crewand the water; or even try our own, or the opposite side of the island,and carry off the other boats to the wreck; after which we might keepoff till the schooner appeared, as she couldn't be long of doing in thisweather.
"I had just stolen back to the men and Mr Rollock, when all at oncethere was a wild cry, not twenty yards off, among the brushwood. A heavyblow and a struggle, in the midst of which three shots, one after theother, were heard from the cadets; next minute, with oaths and curses tothe mast-head, and a crash through amongst the branches in the dark,Foster and his shipmates came making for the opening. Somethinghorrible flashed through my mind as I fancied I had caught Finch'svoice, whether one way or the other I couldn't say, for I had no thoughtat the time excepting for Violet. Shriek upon shriek broke from theladies ere I well knew I had big Harry himself by the hairy throat ofhim, as he was aiming a left-handed stroke of his cutlass at the Judge,who had sprung betwixt him and his daughter. The strength of thatruffian was wonderful, for he flung me off and levelled Sir Charles Hydeat the same moment, the Judge's body tripping me.
"Jones and my own men, as well as the planter, were hard at work withthe other five desperate villains, while the cadets and the secondofficer of the _Seringapatam_ rushed in from the trees--all of itpassing in half-a-minute. As I started to my feet, Foster had liftedViolet Hyde in his arms, and was dashing through the darkest of the woodwith her toward the hollow, when, just as I was hard upon him, doubly tomy horror, above all the screams of the ladies I could hear th
e wilddrunken shouts of the crew below coming up from the beach like so manydevils. Foster had got as far as the next opening where the rubbish ofthe hut was, and, no doubt catching the sound as well as myself, all atonce he dropped the young lady on the grass--in a faint as she was, andher white dress stained with blood, as I thought from _herself_. 'Now,ye----' shouted he, turning bolt round till her moveless figure laybetwixt us, with a flourish of his cutlass, which I fancied was bloodytoo, 'who are _you_? You'll have a dozen on ye directly, but what's meatfor the skipper's meat for the passenger, so----' 'Devil!' said I,through my teeth, as I edged round; and Foster was in the very act ofrushing at me, whether he trod on her or not, when my voice or dressseemed to strike him in the dusk. 'How the bloody comfort did _you_----'said he, shrinking back for a moment; 'so much the better,' and hesprang forward again right upon me, with a swinging boarder's blow at myhead, which flashed off my blade with a force enough to have shiveredit, had it not been a first-rate old cut-and-thrust I had tried prettystiffly before. If I hadn't been in such a fury of rage and a hurry atonce, 'twould have been Harry's last hit; but, at the third he made, Icaught him fair under it, the point going through and through his body,as I thrust him back stride by stride--his cutlass waving fiercely allthe time in the air clear of my head, for the stroke came under his arm.The moment he fell, though I knew nothing before that of where we were,there was a heavy plunge; I had nearly followed on top of him, as hewent head-foremost down the tank-well under the trees; but next moment,without a thought more to him in the heat of the struggle, I was liftingViolet off the grass. What I did or what I said, to see if she wouldrevive, I don't really know; but I remember as well as if it were lastnight the very sound of her voice as she told me she wasn't hurt. Theaffair in the wood below us had suddenly ceased during these five or tenminutes--indeed, as I found afterwards, Jones and my party had settledevery one of the five, either altogether or for the time; but the uproarof more than twenty fierce voices could be heard beyond them, cursingand yelling as they came stumbling and crashing up amongst the brushwoodin a body; while the ladies and their companions struggled up from allsides toward the height, wild with terror. I met Sir Charles Hydehurrying to seek his daughter, however; and the moment he had her in hisarms, I rushed down, pistol in hand, to join my men, who were standingfirm below, as the mutineers burst into the opening, no doubt with thenotion they had only the cadets to do with.
"'Here, my lads!' I sang out; 'make every man of them prisoner--downwith 'em to the schooner!' And as I broke suddenly through in thestarlight in the midst of them, Jones, Jacobs, the planter, and theother four man-o'-war's-men sprang after me, one by one--taking the cue,and shouting as if to ever so many behind us, 'Here they are,shipmates--this way--settle the blackguards!' In fact, the moment Iappeared, the gang of half-drunken fellows were taken aback. One of themroared as if he saw the very devil; and giving them no time to think, wedrove them scattering down toward the beach. One of Foster's party,however, being only stunned, had contrived to get down amongst them; andin a little while, seeing we didn't follow, the whole lot of themappeared to get an inkling of the truth, on which they rallied. Itwasn't long ere I saw they had got desperate, and were planning todivide, and come somewhere over upon us round the heights; so that, inthe dark, with our small party, not knowing their numbers, the best wecould do was to gather up toward the peak, and secure the ladies.Accordingly, we passed an uncomfortable enough time during the rest ofthe night, till daybreak, when still no signs of the schooner, as we sawin the clear to north-eastward. Frightful notions came into my head ofsomething having happened to her; the mutineers below were on both sidesof the island, and they held the watering-place. We hadn't provisionsfor a single breakfast to half the party of us--and the fellows beingnow fairly in for it, they could starve us out if they chose. You mayconceive, accordingly, what a joyful sight met my eyes, when, on thedusk lifting off to northward, we could see the lovely craft under allsail not six miles off, bearing down before a fresh breeze for the deepend of the island!
"The wind had headed her off on her way back; and, knowing nothing ofthe wreck, Westwood might have landed at the mercy of the villains inthe bush. But the minute we saw his boat out, the whole of us, save theJudge and the planter, made a clean charge down upon them--theschooner's men joining us with the oars and boat-stretchers; and inhalf-an-hour the whole gang, having lost heart, were taken and lashedfast by the wrists on the beach, to a single man.
"On searching the watering-place during the day, we found someone hadcovered the mouth of the tank with sticks and leaves, through whichHarry Foster had gone when he fell. The stuff had fallen in over him;and the well being evidently made deep into the rock, to hold water thelonger, with the roots of the trees growing out into it, his body nevercame up. Somehow or other, no one liked to sound it to the bottom; butthe thing that horrified all of us the most was to find Captain Finchhimself lying quite dead amongst the brushwood near where the passengershad pitched their quarters, with a cut through his skull enough to havekilled an ox. It was supposed Foster had suddenly come upon him, as heand his shipmates looked out for the hoard they thought the pirates hadin the island, while Finch was on guard over the ladies. Whether thefellow took a new notion at the moment, or what it was, the whole gangof them made their rush upon the second mate and the cadets, the minuteafter the captain met his death.
"As for Jones, he told me he had noticed the dog watching the seamenbelow, and the idea got into his head of what might happen. There wasthat about the animal to give one a dread you couldn't describe. How ithad lived all this time, and how the customs came back on it, aftergrowing perfectly wild, of carrying on like what it did that night, wasa mystery; but Jones said he hadn't heard it bark before, neither hadthe man he knew of, since the time he was first left _alone_ onWhite-water Island. In fact, the whole of us might have hunted it downbefore we left. But 'No!' Jones said; 'there's a perfect fiend in thebrute, I do believe--yet it strikes me by this time, the creaturebelongs to--to the Almighty, sir!' The men and passengers had been takenoff the Indiaman's wreck, which there was no chance of getting off thereef; so, taking out the best of her stores and the passengers'property, we had every soul aboard the schooner, and at last set sail tothe south-east, meaning to go in at Madras, where a sloop might be sentto recover more from the ship. 'Twas with no ordinary state of things,from stem to stern, that we dropped White-water Island astern.