Sail Ho! Part 84

"How can I help it? He is one. We have him to thank for our position here, for those two people being left on the ship, at the mercy of those scoundrels."

His whole manner changed as he said this, and his voice sounded full of fierce anger.

"Yes," I faltered, "that's all true; but you will not be revengeful?"

"A doctor revengeful, Dale?" he said quickly.

"I don't mean that," I said. "I mean, you will do your best to save his life?"

"For him to be punished by the law?"

"I was not thinking of that," I said hastily. "I mean, that you will do all you can to cure him, Mr Frewen?"

"Why, of course, my lad--of course. Am I not a doctor? I am neither prosecutor nor judge. You have curious ideas about my profession."

"I could not help it, Mr Frewen," I pleaded. "It is only that I am so anxious for him to recover."

"And do you another ill turn, Dale--betray us once more!"

"No, no, it isn't that." I cried; "it is only that I should like him to live and be sorry for all this. I believe, after what has taken place to-night, he would be only too glad to come over to our side, and fight for us."

"Perhaps so, if he were well enough; but who would ever dream of trusting him again?"

I was silent, thinking as I was how terrible was the slip my messmate had made, and seeing now clearly how it must take years for him to climb back to the position he held when we left the London Docks.

"There," said Mr Frewen at last, "you need not be afraid, Dale. I shall treat him as I would any other patient. A medical man has but one aim when he treats a sick person, a surgeon one who is injured--to make the sufferer well again. That is my duty here, and I shall do it to the best of my ability."

I did not answer, only laid my hand upon his, and he pressed it warmly, holding it for some moments before turning his back to me; and I made out that he rested his arm upon the side of the boat, and sat gazing at the dim lights which showed where the ship lay.

For some time no one spoke, and we lay there gently rising and falling on the golden-spangled water. There was not a breath of wind, and the silence was so great that any one could have imagined that the occupants of the boat were asleep.

But no one dozed for a moment, only sat or lay there, trying to bear patiently their mental and bodily suffering.

It was the captain who broke the silence, toward morning, by saying to the mate--

"Have you settled what to do, Brymer?"

"Yes," said the mate, starting. "I can't quite make out how we are situated till daylight, but unless Jarette has taken them out, we have the boat's spars and sails. You know how fast she is, and I propose, if we can do so, to--"

He stopped short, for Walters moaned piteously till Mr Frewen bent down over him and altered the position in which he lay.

"Yes, go on," said the captain feebly.

"I propose hoisting sail in the morning."

"And making for the Cape?"

"No, sir; weather permitting, and if we have a sufficiency of provisions and water, I shall keep pretty close to the ship--our ship. I shall keep just out of range of a bullet, and that is all; merely hang about or follow her when she catches the wind, until some other vessel heaves in sight. Captain Jarette is a clever, cunning man, but he has, I think, given us our chance, and we shall hang on to him till a chance comes for seizing the ship again."

"I thought our case was hopeless to-night," said the captain.

"And so did I, for a time, sir," continued the mate; "but he has over-reached himself in trying to get rid of us--hoist himself with his own petard--if the weather will only favour us now."

Mr Frewen drew a deep breath, which sounded to me as if full of relief, and the mate went on--

"It is not too much to expect that if at any time we make an attack now, some of the men will side with us."

"Don't matter if they don't, sir," growled Bob Hampton, in the deepest of deep ba.s.s voices. "We're strong enough, if you'll only give us a chance."

"All depends on chance, my lads," said Mr Brymer. "Let's get the daylight, and see what we have on board."

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

That daylight seemed as if it would never come, and a more painful and depressing time I never spent, in spite of the glory of the starry heavens, and the beauty of their reflections in the calm sea beneath.

It was hard sometimes not to believe that many of the stars had fallen, and were sinking slowly down into the dark, inky black of the ocean, where I could see dots of light travelling here and there, now looking mere pinheads, now flashing out into soft effulgent globes, whose brightness reached a certain point, and then slowly died out.

Every now and then too there was a disturbance some little distance down, as if something had suddenly pa.s.sed along, and caused all the phosph.o.r.escent creatures to flash and sparkle, and mingle their lights into a pale lambent blaze, which soon pa.s.sed away, leaving all still and calm as before, with the tiny stars gliding softly here and there.

But the greater part of my attention was taken up by the lights dimly visible on board the ship, where I tried to picture what was going on in the cabin where Mr Denning and his sister were prisoned. Jarette would, I know, have taken possession of the guns, but without doubt Mr Denning would have kept the little revolver which I knew he wore hidden about his person. And, what was more, I knew that he had the stern courage to use it if put to the test, in spite of his weakness.

"And if he does use it," I thought, "it could only be against Jarette."

"If he does," I said half-aloud, "what a change in the state of affairs it would produce!"

"What yer talking about, Mr Dale?" said Dumlow, who was nearest to me of those forward; "not asleep, are you?"

"Asleep!--who could go to sleep at a time like this?"

"Ah, it's hard lines, sir," said Barney Blane, joining. "Such a pity, too, just as we'd found a way of getting along over the cargo! Next thing would have been as we should have took the ship."

"And we'll do that yet somehow, Barney," I whispered, for I felt in my heart that Mr Frewen would not rest till some desperate effort had been made to save Mr and Miss Denning.

Barney said he hoped we should, if it was only to give him one chance at Jarette.

"One charnsh," growled Dumlow, whose voice sounded as if he were very sore indeed. "I on'y want half a charnsh, my lad; that'll be enough for me. I don't brag, but on'y give me half a charnsh, I don't care if he's all pistols. I says on'y give me half a charnsh, and the side of the ship close by--"

"What'll you do?--chuck him overboard, mate?"

"Ay, that I will, just as if he were a mad cat, and that's about what he is. Just think of it, our getting that dose as the doctor meant for him. I can't get over it, and that's a fact."

The night pa.s.sed slowly by--so slowly that I felt we must have been roused up quite early, and directly after we had gone to sleep. But at last the golden clouds began to appear high up in the sky, then it was all flecked with orange and gold, and directly after the great sun rolled slowly up over the ruddy water, lighting the ship where she lay not a quarter of a mile off, till the whole of her rigging looked as if the ropes were of bra.s.s, and the sails so many sheets of ruddy gold. To us it seemed to give life as well as light, and instead of feeling despairing, and as if all was over, the brightness of that morning made me look eagerly at the ship, and ask myself whether the time had not come for us to make our dash and secure it. For I could not see a soul visible at first, not even a man at the wheel. Then my heart gave a throb, for I could see a white face framed in the little opening of one of the cabin-windows.

"It's Miss Denning," I said to myself, and I waved my hand, and then felt for a handkerchief to wave that.

But I had none, though it did not matter, for my signal had been seen, and a white handkerchief was waved in response.