Martin Conisby's Vengeance Part 20

"Joan, man--my Lady Brandon!"

"Aye, and mighty downcast by her look. 'G.o.dby,' says she to me a while back, 'if I find not my father now, I do think my poor heart will break!'

And the sweet sad eyes of her, pal--"

"I'll get up!" said I, tossing off the bed clothes.

"Lord, Mart'n, what'll Cap'n Adam say--"

"'Tis no matter!"

"Are ye strong enough, pal?"

"To be sure!" said I, and getting upon my feet, reeled for very weakness and should have fallen but that G.o.dby propped me with his shoulder; supported thus and despite G.o.dby's remonstrances, I staggered to and fro and gradually found my strength return in some small measure, whereupon I began to dress myself forthwith.

"Whither are we sailing, G.o.dby?"

"To the nearest secure anchorage, Mart'n, for what wi' storm and battle we are so battered and sprung, alow and aloft--and small wonder, here's four ships we've destroyed since we left Old England, battle, murder and sudden death, pal!"

So with G.o.dby's help I got me out upon the broad quarter-deck and saw the _Deliverance_ for a fine, roomy ship, very clean and trim, her decks new-scoured, her bra.s.s-work gleaming in the sun; though here and there the carpenters were still repairing such damage as she had taken in the fight.

"A n.o.ble ship, pal," says G.o.dby, as I sat me down on one of the guns, "and looks vasty different to what she did three days since, her foreyard and main-to'-gallant mast shot away and her starboard bulwarks shattered fore and aft and three shot-holes under water as can't be come at till we careen."

"'Twas hot fight--I marvel your damage was no greater," says I, glancing hither and thither for sight of my lady, and my heart throbbing with expectation.

"Nay, Mart'n, 'twas guile, 'twas craft, 'twas seamanship. Lord love your eyes, pal, Cap'n Adam seized him the vantage point by means of a fore-course towing under water, and kept it. For look'ee, 'tis slip our floating anchor, up wi' our helm and down on 'em 'thwart-hawse and let fly our larboard broadside, veer and pound 'em wi' our starboard guns, keeping the weather gauge, d'ye see, pal, till their fire slackens and them blind wi' our smoke and theirs. Then to close wi' 'em till our gun muzzles are nigh touching and whiles we pound 'em below, 'tis grappling irons and boarders away! Aha, a wonderful man is Cap'n Adam--oh, 'tis beautiful sight to watch him take ship into action; 'tis sight to warm a man's in'nards and make archangels sing for j'y, pal. Aye, deafen, blind and choke me but a man o' men is Cap'n Adam Penfeather!"

"He is come to great repute, I hear!" said I, my hungry gaze wandering.

"Verily he hath, Mart'n; the King do honour him vastly especially since he pinked a strutting, quarrelsome gentleman through the sword-arm in St.

James's Park, and him a nearl, pal!"

"At last!" says I.

"Anan, pal?" he questioned, but looking where I looked. "Aye," he nodded, "'tis my Lady Brandon, and mighty despondent by her looks as I told ye, Mart'n." All unconscious of me she crossed the deck slow-footed and coming to the lee bulwark, paused there, her lovely head down-bent upon her hands.

Now watching her as she stood thus, my eager gaze dwelling on every line of the beloved shape, I was filled with such overmastering emotion, an ecstasy so keen, that I fell a-trembling and my eyes filled with sudden, blinding tears; and bowing my face on my hand, I sat thus a while until I had composed myself. Then I arose and made my way towards her on stumbling feet.

Suddenly she turned and espying me, started and fell a-trembling, even as I.

"Martin," said she below her breath. "Oh, Martin!"

"Damaris!" I muttered. "Beloved--!"

Now at this she gave a little gasp and turned to gaze away across the placid waters, and I saw her slender hands clasp and wring each other.

"Have you no word of greeting for me?"

"I rejoice to--to see you well again, Martin!"

"Have you no word of--love for me, after all these years, Damaris?" At this she shrank away and, leaning 'gainst the bulwark, shook her head, and again I saw that hopeless gesture of her quivering hands.

"Is your love for me dead, then?" I questioned, coming a pace nearer.

"Ah, never that, Martin!" she whispered. "Only I have--buried it deep--within my heart--where it shall lie for ever hid for thy sake and her sake and--and that--which is to be--this poor Joanna hath told me--"

Now hereupon I laughed and caught her hands and kissed them and they, the pretty things, trembling 'neath my kisses.

"G.o.d love thee for sweet and n.o.ble woman, my Damaris," said I, sinking to my knees before her, "and now, thus kneeling in the sight of G.o.d and thee, hear me swear that hateful thing of which you speak never was and never shall be!" Here I clasped my arms about her, felt her yield and sway to my embrace, saw a dawning glory in her eyes.

"Martin," said she, quick-breathing, "if this be so indeed--"

"Indeed and indeed, Joanna spake a shameful lie--a woman p.r.o.ne to every evil, being a murderess and--"

"A murderess, Martin?"

"Aye, by her own confession, and I do know her for a pirate beside, more desperate and resolute than any, known to every rogue along the Main as Captain Jo."

Now here my lady stirred in my embrace and looked down on me with troubled gaze.

"And yet, dear Martin, you lived with her on--on our island?"

"Aye, I did--to my torment, and prayed G.o.d I might not slay her." And here in breathless fashion I told my lady of Joanna's coming and of the ills that followed; but seeing the growing trouble in her look, my arms fell from her and great bitterness filled me. "Ah, G.o.d in heaven, Damaris!" I cried, "never say you doubt my word--"

"Martin!"

I rose to my feet to behold Joanna within a yard of us. For a long and breathless moment she looked from me to other of us and then, shuddering, hid her face in her two hands.

"Dear my lady," said she at last, "if by reason of his wound my loved Martin hath grown strange to me and all his love for me forgot--if indeed you do love him--to you that have been more than sister and gentle friend to miserable Joanna, to you I do yield my love henceforth, nor will I repine, since my love for thee shall teach me how to bear my shame, yes--"

"Ha, d.a.m.ned liar!" I cried, and turned on Joanna with clenched fists; and then my lady's restraining arms were about me and I sank half-swooning against the ship's side.

"Dear Martin," said she, viewing me tearful-eyed, "you are not yourself--"

"No!" cried I, burying my throbbing head betwixt my arms. "I am Fortune's Fool--the world is upside down--G.o.d help me, I shall run mad in very truth.

Oh, d.a.m.ned Fortune--curst Fate!" and I brake out into futile raving awhile.

When at last I raised my head it was to behold my lady clasping this vile creature in her arms and cherishing her with tender words and caresses, the which sight wrought me to a very frenzy of cold and bitter rage. Said I:

"My Lady Brandon, G.o.d knoweth I have greatly loved you, wherein I have wasted myself on a vain thing as is to me right manifest. So now, since you have buried your love, mine do I tear from me and cast utterly away; henceforth I am no more than an instrument of vengeance--"

"Martin!" cried she. "Oh, dear Martin, for the love of G.o.d--"

But (Oh, vain folly! Oh, detestable pride!) I heeded not this merciful appeal nor the crying of my own heart, but turning my back upon my n.o.ble lady, stumbled away and with never another word or look. And thus I (that was born to be my own undoer) once more barred myself out from all that life offered me of happiness, since pride is ever purblind.

Presently, espying G.o.dby where divers of his fellows rove new tackle to a gun, I enquired for Adam.

"I' the gun room, Mart'n--nay, I'll stand along wi' you."

So he brought me down to the gun room where sat Adam, elbows on table, chin on hand, peering up at one who stood before him in fetters, a haggard, warworn figure.