Harry Milvaine Part 27

"'Oh, no!' he replied, 'of course not. _You_ wouldn't hang _me_ at the yard-arm if you had me on the _Adelaide_, eh, captain? No, no; I'm sure you wouldn't. You're _much_ too good a fellow for that.'

"'Ah, my friends,' he added, 'business is business. Now if my fellows return from your ship to-morrow with an unsatisfactory answer, I shall cut off both your ears, captain, and send them; then your nose. That's business. Have another cigar?'

"But poor Brackenbury was far too sick at heart to smoke any more.

"At bedtime that night two immensely tall negroes entered the room silently and stood waiting for orders.

"'Why don't you speak, eh?' said Brackenbury.

"Both suddenly knelt in front of Brackenbury and opened great, red, cavernous mouths.

"'Why,' cried O'Brady, aghast, 'never a tongue have they between the pair of them! Horrible! Shut your mouths, ye sturgeons! Here, put us to bed. We come all in pieces, you know. You'll see.'

"And now Brackenbury pulled out his teeth. O'Brady did the same.

"The blackamoors looked scared.

"Then Brackenbury took off his wig and threw it on the bed.

"Both negroes glared at him.

"O'Brady quietly removed a gla.s.s eye and placed it on the table.

"The negroes edged towards the door.

"But it is the last straw that breaks the camel's back. The last straw in this case was...o...b..ady's cork leg. When he sat down and whipped that off, the blackamoors rushed headlong to the door and fled howling along the corridor.

"Then Marco came in, all smiles and politeness.

"'They will neever, neever come again,' said Marco, laughing, when Dolosa's guests explained what had happened.

"Two mornings after this the crisis came, for Marco politely informed them that the first officer of the _Adelaide_ had refused to hand over the specie to ransom his captain.

"'So,' said Marco, 'one of you veel have de ears cut off dis morning.

But neever mind, geentlemans, neever mind,' he added, consolingly.

"Dolosa was as polite as if nothing were about to happen. It was a breakfast fit for a king, but, singular to say, neither Brackenbury nor O'Brady had the least bit of appet.i.te. They felt sick at heart with the shadow of some coming evil.

"They retired soon after to their room, but hardly had they entered ere the urbane Marco glided in and tapped each on the shoulder.

"He pointed smilingly to his own ears with his two thumbs.

"'De time is coome, geentlemans,' he said; 'but it is nodings, geentlemans. Neever mind, neever mind.'

"'But I do mind,' spluttered Brackenbury. 'Confound it all, even if we don't bleed to death right away, what will our wives say to us when we return to them with no more ears than an adder? I tell you, Marco, your master is a diabolical scoundrel.'

"'Hush! hush! capitan,' cried Marco. 'Do not speak so. De walls have ears.'

"'Yes, and I want to keep mine.'

"'See, see,' continued Marco, as two stalwart blacks opened the door and beckoned to the unfortunate prisoners.

"The courtyard into which they were led was a gloomy one indeed, surrounded by high bare walls on three sides, with a cliff on the other going sheer down to the river's side black and dismal.

"Le Comte Pedro de Dolosa lifted his hat.

"'So sorry to trouble you, gentlemen,' he said, 'but the case is urgent.

Who comes first?'

"He pointed to the executioners as he spoke. They were the same negroes who had led them to the yard.

"Brackenbury confessed afterwards that he now felt as pale as death. It did not tend to restore his equanimity to observe one hulking negro heating an iron to redness in a charcoal stove. This he knew was to cauterise the awful wound after the ear had been severed.

"'Who comes first?' repeated the count, sharply.

"'Captain Brackenbury, of course,' said O'Brady. 'He has the honour to be captain of the ship.'

"'No, no, no!' cried Brackenbury; 'you first, O'Brady; honour be hanged, you're ten years older than I. Age before honour any day.'

"'Gentlemen,' said Dolosa, 'as _you_ cannot agree, _I_ will solve the difficulty. Captain Brackenbury, stand forw--'

"He never finished the sentence.

"Such a yell suddenly rang through and around his mansion, accompanied by the clashing of swords and cracking of pistols. It was--

"'As if men fought upon the earth, And fiends in upper air.'

"'Hurrah!' cried Brackenbury. 'Our ears are saved.'

"'Off with them--quick,' cried Dolosa, 'to the dungeon, and garrote them both.'

"He pulled a pistol from his belt as he spoke and rushed away to join the _melee_.

"Meanwhile the black giants--not the two whom they had so frightened in their bedroom--hurried Brackenbury and O'Brady along a corridor.

"But little did they know the mettle that O'Brady was made of.

"All at once he stopped short. He quickly bent down, and, to the utter astonishment of his would-be executioners, he undid a leg.

"That leg, Brackenbury said, was a good old-fashioned one, and of considerable weight.

"Before the hulking negroes recovered their fright, one was felled to the ground.

"'Poor old O'Brady,' said Brackenbury, while telling the story, 'tumbled on top of him, but I got the leg, and with it I quickly smashed the other. In less than a minute both were senseless, and we bound them hand and foot with the very cords they would have strangled us with.'

"Dolosa was shot, his house was fired, for the _Adelaide's_ men had come in time.

"In two weeks more Brackenbury told me the _Adelaide_ had rounded the Horn, and was bearing merrily up for home, with a spanking breeze and stunsails set. For ships could sail in those days."