Commodore Junk Part 65

"Gone!" he said, laconically.

"Mazzard? Gone!" cried the buccaneer, excitedly.

"Yes; and the man who was on guard lying dead, crushed with a stone."

"From the explosion?" cried the buccaneer.

"From Black Mazzard's hands," replied d.i.c.k, stolidly.

"Well," said the captain, drawing in his breath hard as he thought of the possibility of the escaped prisoners coming in contact, "there will be two to capture when the day breaks. No one can get away."

In an hour a messenger came from the sea in the shape of Bart, and he made his way to the captain's side.

"Well?"

"You were right; they intended the sea;" and he explained about the boat.

"And yet you have come away?"

"Two men are watching," said Bart, stolidly.

"Bah! you must be mad."

"And two planks are rifted out of the boat. It will take a carpenter to make her float."

"Bart, forgive me."

"Forgive you! Ah, yes! I forgive."

"I have need of all your aid. Captain Armstrong has escaped."

"Not far."

"No; but there is worse news. Mazzard has brained his keeper, and is at liberty."

"Hah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bart.

"And those two may meet."

"Always of him," muttered Bart, sadly. "Well, skipper, what is it to be now, when he is captured?"

"Death."

"To Captain Armstrong?"

"Man, are you mad? Let Mazzard be taken, and that Irishman, too."

"And--"

"Silence, man! Let them be taken. I rule here."

Bart drew a long breath.

"Nothing can be done till daylight, except wait."

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

THE SAFEST PLACE.

"No, no, man; make for the forest," whispered Humphrey, just at daybreak, as Dinny began to take advantage of the coming light to seek a safe place of concealment.

"What for, sor? To get buried in threes that don't so much as grow a cabbage, where there's no wather and no company but monkeys and the shpotted tigers. Lave it to me, sor, and I'll tak' ye to a place where ye can lay shnug in hiding, and where maybe I can get s.p.a.che of the darling as the bastes freckened away."

"Where shall you go, then? Why not to that old temple where Mazzard made his attempt to kill the captain?"

"There, sor! Why, the captain would find us directly. You lave it to me."

Humphrey would have taken to the forest without hesitation, but, worn-out and suffering keenly from disappointment, he was in no humour to oppose, and, signifying his willingness, he followed the Irishman by devious ways in and out of the ruins for some time, till Dinny crouched down, and motioned to Humphrey to do the same.

The place was such a chaos, and so changed by the terrific force of the explosion that Humphrey had felt as if he were journeying along quite a new portion of the forest outskirts, till, as he obeyed his companion and they crouched down among some dense herbage, he stared with astonishment at the sight before him, a couple of hundred yards away.

For there, beyond one of the piles of crumbling ruins, was a perfectly familiar pathway, out of which he saw step into the broad sunshine the picturesque figure of the buccaneer captain, who strode toward a group of waiting men.

A discussion seemed to take place, there were some sharp orders, and then the whole party disappeared.

"Why, Dinny, man, are you mad?" whispered Humphrey. "I trusted to you to take me to some place of hiding, and you've brought me right into the lion's den."

"Well, sor, and a moighty purty place too, so long as the lion's not at home. Sure and ye just saw him go out."

"But, Dinny--"

"Whisht! Don't spake so loud, sor. Sure, now, if a cannon-ball made a hole in the side of a ship, isn't that the safest place to put your head so as not to be hurt. They niver hit the same place twice."

"Then your hiding-place is my old lodging--my prison?"

"Av coorse it is! The skipper has been there to mak' sure that ye really are gone; and now he knows, he'll say to himself that this is the last place ye'd go and hide in; and troth, he's quite roight, isn't he?"

Humphrey hesitated for a few moments, and then, feeling how true the man's words were, he gave way.

"Sure, sor, and it's all roight," whispered Dinny. "Aren't I thrying to keep my head out of a noose, and d'ye think I'd be for coming here if it wasn't the safest place. Come along; sure, it is a lion's den, as ye call it, and the best spot I know."

He whispered to Humphrey to follow cautiously, and crept on all-fours among the dense growth, and in and out among the loose stones at the very edge of the forest, till the tunnel-like pathway was reached in safety, when, after crawling a few yards out of the blinding sunshine into the shadowy gloom, Dinny rose to his feet.

"There, sor," he said, "we can walk like Christians, now, and not like animal bastes. There isn't a sound."

As he spoke, there was a peculiar cry, and a gorgeously-plumaged bird flitted into sight, and perched on a piece of stone in the sunny opening of the tunnel, where its scarlet breast and dazzling golden-green plumage glittered in the sun.