The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane Part 20

Not foreseeing her danger, but only transported with joy to think she was to be delivered from her captivity, Lady Biddy replied that she demanded nothing better.

"Your effects will be landed afterwards. I doubt if you would care for me to send my men into your cabin for them at the present moment."

"But," says Lady Biddy, thinking of me, and then she stopped.

"I understand what is in your thoughts. You are concerned for your friend; so am I. I cannot answer for his life if my men find him. They would insist upon his death in return for the injury inflicted upon Tonga. Therefore must he wait until the company is landed and gone in search of water."

At this moment the boatswain came to say that the boat was prepared.

"You will take this lady to the sh.o.r.e, and see that no injury is offered her--not a word uttered that may offend her," says Rodrigues; and then stepping back, that she might have freedom to pa.s.s, he takes off his hat and makes her a prodigious fine bow. Yet Lady Biddy hesitated, fearing treachery to me; and still more might she have feared it if her spirits had been quite composed, and her judgment in a condition to weigh all that Rodrigues had said.

"What have you to fear?" says he, speaking low. "What harm could the most treacherous wretch inflict with impunity? If you have told the truth--which I do not doubt--a cry from you will insure the destruction of all you leave in this ship. Your cry from the sh.o.r.e would sound as clearly in this still air as from here. Think what you will of me, but believe that I am not a fool. Farewell!"

Hoping for the best, seeing no better course open to her, and yet troubled with misgivings, Lady Biddy descended the side and took her place in the barge. Then in silence the men pulled her ash.o.r.e. Yet did they look keenly one at the other, as if expecting some merry turn of this business--one thrusting his tongue in his cheek, a second winking his eye, and a third hawking as if he had a rheum.

However, they said not one word, and having set Lady Biddy on sh.o.r.e very tenderly, they shoved off and returned to the ship.

Now, not knowing which way to turn nor what to do, for her position being so unexpected, and feeling like one set alone in another world, Lady Biddy rested her hand on the tree by which she stood, and in a kind of maze watched the boat returning to the ship.

Then she began to wonder how long it would be ere the men would be dispersed and I should come to her, and what means we should find of getting to that town Rodrigues had spoken of.

The men left the boat and went up on board, and still Lady Biddy watched, as if she had but just woke from her sleep, and was dazed (as she told me); but of a sudden a great shout burst upon her ear, and as quickly it flashed upon her intelligence that a false trick had been put upon her, which she might have foreseen had she been as subtle as Rodrigues, which (thanks be to G.o.d) she was not. Then for the first time it occurred to her that while she was being carried to the sh.o.r.e Rodrigues might send part of his company below to take the powder from the armory, or to be prepared with muskets to shoot me dead the moment I lifted the trap.

And now hearing this shout she was convinced that precautions had been taken to prevent the blowing up of the ship, and the men were rushing into the cabin to take me.

But this was not the worst. As she strained her eyes, as if to pierce the side of the ship and know my fate, she perceived a boat shoot from the further side of the ship and turn towards her. For a moment she believed that I had contrived to escape, for there was but one man in the boat; but looking more narrowly she perceived, to her horror, that the man was Tonga the negro; and coming towards her he raised a terrible yell of savage joy and triumph.

Rodrigues, true to his word, had offered the black a reward for the pain he had been put to; and now, as he came on exulting to satiate his l.u.s.t and vengeance, my poor Lady Biddy screamed aloud to me.

But it was too late; and Lady Biddy, feeling she was now most surely undone, could not even cry again for help.

CHAPTER XXVI.

HOW I GOT AWAY FROM THE VILE PIRATE AND SETTLED TONGA HIS BUSINESS.

Seeing nothing but impenetrable thickets on one hand, and the sea on the other, and no means of escape either this way or that from the raging savage, Lady Biddy, I say, did give herself up for lost; and so, falling on her knees, she prayed the Almighty to take her life there and then, that she might be saved from the loathsome pa.s.sion of the negro. Yet was her case not so bad as to call for this last remedy neither, as I shall presently show.

In great commotion of mind I stood in the little cabin with the grenade in my hand and the lamp burning steadily at my feet, prepared to play the part of the destroyer, while still cherishing the faint flickering hope that my lot rather was to be that of the preserver.

Thus I waited an incredible length of time (as it seemed to me), until, my anxiety becoming no longer tolerable, I scratched again upon the wall for a signal to Lady Biddy.

Then getting no answer, I ventured again to the panel-door and peeped through. The big cabin was empty; nor could I spy through the further door any sign of her, but only the ship's company drawn across the deck, with Tonga lying p.r.o.ne before them.

But at a glance I perceived that most of the men were looking up towards the deck over my head, and then catching a faint sound from thence, which my eager intelligence made out to be my lady's voice, I was no longer in doubt as to her whereabouts.

At this point I heard Rodrigues call to his boatswain to man the boat, which he speedily set about to do. Now, while these fellows were thus busily occupied, I saw my chance to get out on to the gallery unperceived through the little door there, which had been set open to let a current of air through. So creeping low and nimble as any cat I crossed the s.p.a.ce that was open to observation from the deck (without being seen, thanks be to G.o.d), and that way got me on to the quarter gallery.

Yet what I was to do there, I knew not; still, it was a comfort to change my place, for any shift seems for the best when one is tormented with apprehension.

After another tedious spell I heard the oars splash, and presently, to my complete amazement, I caught sight of the barge, with eight or ten l.u.s.ty men in it, pulling towards the sh.o.r.e with all their will, and Lady Biddy seated on one of the thwarts alone.

I withdrew cautiously to that end of the gallery where the bulk of the ship did somewhat conceal me from the rowers in the boat, whose faces were towards the ship (yet not so far but that, crouching down, I might watch what came of this business), and thence I saw them set Lady Biddy on sh.o.r.e. At first I thought that this was but an indulgence of Rodrigues, that she might refresh herself while the men were getting water; but this notion was put out of my head the next minute by seeing the fellows shove off and return towards the ship, leaving her there alone. Had she told Rodrigues all, and was the boat returning to fetch me, I asked myself, or was there some wicked design to leave her there alone?

Being better minded to trust myself than Rodrigues, I made up my mind to swim to the sh.o.r.e, which was no great matter, the distance being half a mile at the outside, and the sea very fair and smooth; so climbing over the rail, I dropped from that gallery into the lower one which projected beyond it. And luckily for me I did so at that time, for scarcely had I come to my feet when I heard a mighty uproar on the deck, with the clatter of arms (which, doubtless, had been silently furnished for the men's use from the armory while Lady Biddy was being carried to the sh.o.r.e), and then much hallooing and shouting in that part of the coach I had so fortunately got out of. Nay, I did hear one rascal come to the gallery door above and cry, as he looked out, that I was not there.

"Now," thinks I, "is my time to get out of this hornets' nest"; and so clambering over this rail as I had over the other, and recommending myself to Providence (for as like as not in such waters as these might be sharks or water serpents), I dropped down plumb into the water, and coming up again, struck out vigorously for the sh.o.r.e, keeping as low under water as I well could.

"Happily," thinks I, "they are looking for me elsewhere, so may I chance to escape this bout scot free"; and with this thought, added to the bewildering delightful expectation of being ere long beside Lady Biddy and at a safe distance from the tiger who sought my destruction, I pushed on with great speed, feeling no fatigue whatever, but only a great joy.

Then suddenly I heard a hoa.r.s.e shout of triumph, which did for the moment lead me to think I had been perceived from the ship; but casting my eye around I spied on my right hand a skiff and Tonga in it, pulling the oars; yet feebly, because of his arms being wrenched as I have described.

'Twas a wonder he had not caught sight of me; but I think his eyes were chiefly occupied in glancing over his shoulder to see if the fair girl were trying to escape him, and truly, as the proverb runs, "One sees naught but the deer when one runs with the hounds."

As I caught sight of him he shifted his oars, which he had hitherto been pulling (and could, I take it, no longer do for the suffering of his arms), and standing up in the boat, with his face to the sh.o.r.e, he took to pushing the oars for his greater comfort. Thus was his back set towards me, so that, unseen and with very little ado, I overtook the boat, and laying hold of the sling at the stern, I let him pull me towards the sh.o.r.e, to his greater pain and exhaustion.

This maneuver did not serve me another turn, for against the black stern of the boat my dark head was indistinguishable from the ship, unless one did carefully examine with a spygla.s.s; and doubtless by this time Rodrigues and his company, having found that I was no longer in the ship, were scanning the sea to know if I were there. That I had been in the cabin pretty recently, and that Lady Biddy had told him no more than the truth, Rodrigues might see full well by the burning lamp and the grenade I had left behind me.

At last the boat ran around, and, dropping my feet, I felt the sandy bottom. Then, glancing along the side, I saw my poor Lady Biddy kneeling beside a tree with her face hid in her hands, to shut out the sight of that horrid black, which did stir my entrails with hatred of him.

Yet I saw full well that I must not discover myself till I was got on firm ground, for a man up to his neck is powerless--though he have the heart of a lion--against another whose limbs are free to act. With a blow of an oar Tonga might have settled my business; and, knowing this, I kept still hid from him under the gunwale of the boat until he leapt out on to the sand.

Crouching down more like a tiger than a human being, he slowly went up the sandy slope, and to make the resemblance greater, a low growl of savage exultation came from his throat, and he drew up his arms, with all his fingers spread out, as if preparing to spring upon his poor helpless victim.

Quickly and yet silently I made my way out of the water and followed in his footsteps. Arms I had none, but presently, drawing near him, I spied a great stone half buried in the sand, and this I wrenched up at one tug, though it weighed, as I believe, over a quarter of a hundredweight, and was sucked down by the wet sand.

Hearing the sound that was made by the wet sand dropping from the stone, he turned about, and, catching sight of me, set up a fearful cry of rage; but it was the last cry he ever made, for I held the stone lifted over my head, and, dashing it forward with all the might of my body, I struck him full in the face with it, crushing in the bones and bursting the brains from his skull.

Then all was silent, save a faint cry of despair from Lady Biddy, who, daring not to uncover her eyes from the moment she saw the black on sh.o.r.e, thought that his cry of rage was intended for her, and that the crash which followed was but some preparation for her destruction.

I thew some sand over the b.l.o.o.d.y, formless thing that had been a human face the minute before, that the ghastly spectacle might not shock Lady Biddy, and then I went to her side softly over the sand.

Now did I fear to let Lady Biddy know that her enemy was dead and a deliverer at hand, lest by the sudden commotion of feelings I might unhinge her mind. For a moment I wondering how I should manage this business for the best, and then, my wits failing to help me, I yielded to the desire of my heart, and dropping on my knees by her side murmured with a true and devout heart:

"G.o.d be praised!"

CHAPTER XXVII.

OF OUR FURTHER ESCAPES, AND A STRATAGEM BY WHICH OUR ENEMIES WERE PUT TO GREAT DISCOMFORT.

Hearing these words, Lady Biddy did rouse herself up as from a dream, and seeing me kneeling by her side with bent head, and the negro lying at a distance quite still she gave a little scream of surprise, and then, clasping my folded hands in hers, fell to weeping and laughing out of all measure; but I knew not which was the more piteous to hear.