Yr Ynys Unyg Part 27

And then Jenny told us how good and brave Miss Zoe had been, and how neither of them would have been taken prisoners had it not been for that "squawking" Hargrave. Upon which Gatty and the boys declared they wished her no worse fate than to be married to one of the pirates.

_Schillie_ (with gravity).--"I will make over to her my interest with the King."

_Gatty._--"We might actually have been on board sailing away at this moment instead of frying up here, with these frightful pirates blinking and grinning at us, as if they never saw Christians before."

_Sybil._--"Perhaps they never did, Gatty."

_Serena._--"Jenny, did you know that we were discovered in the caverns through Hargrave? They made her a trap to catch us."

_Jenny._--"Miss Zoe told me, Miss, she was afraid from what she could make out that they were going to make something out of Mrs. Hargrave.

But I could not understand them at all. Nevertheless we both cautioned her as much as possible, though she was in such a sad way I doubt if she heard us. After awhile she was taken away from us, and, though I told her the last thing to be sure to be careful, and do her duty by her mistress, she screamed so I don't think she minded me one bit. The women were pretty civil, but very wild and bad looking, and I would not bear them to touch Miss Zoe, which they were trying to do all the while. And, oh, Miss Zoe was so brave, and, whenever I said you were all dead she said so too."

_Gatty._--"How could you tell such fibs, Zoe? Madame will give you that odious Theresa Tidy's Nineteen Maxims of Neatness and Order, to do into German, for being so naughty."

"Angel child, never, never could I punish her after her agonizing sufferings," murmured the good kind Madame.

The strict watch kept over us began to be so wearisome we were glad when night veiled us in her dark mantle.

It was astonishing with what composure we laid down to rest, secure in the sharks' guard for some few hours yet, while the morrow, with all its probable horrors, seemed not to present itself to any mind. "We trusted in G.o.d that he would deliver us."

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

The morning's light brought us no change either for worse or better, excepting that under cover of the night Smart had gone to search for our other companions. He gave us orders what to do, in case of an attack, and departed with these comforting words "Let a score on 'em attack ye, and I'll be bound the young gentlemen, if they be but steady, can keep 'em off. Any ways Mrs. E. can, and if we hear shots cap'in and I will just come in the rear in nick o' time."

We sat composedly down to such breakfast as we had, which led to an examination as to what had been brought up. We had plenty of water, bread, yams, and potatoes. No little girl had forgotten her parrot, or the boys their monkeys; in fact Felix declared his had been very useful, as he made him carry two great potatoes. "But," said Lilly, "you had to carry him, so it made no great difference."

"Moreover," says Felix, "I brought my two hens, because they lay eggs, and Tommy is so fond of eggs."

_Lilly._--"I do think you love Smart more than any of us, more than your Mother."

_Felix._--"Oh! any body may have the other egg, but I must keep one for my Tommy. He has never been quite well since he was with those brutes.

And I am his doctor he says, so I order him eggs. And if I bid him do it, I know he would eat twenty, one after another."

_Mother._--"How odd it seems to Schillie, our laughing at all this nonsense of the children, when we certainly are in a very uncomfortable position. We seem to think we are in no danger, now we have got the captain and Smart to help us, and I doubt if we were ever in a worse predicament than now."

_Schillie._--"Predicament or not, it's extremely nasty not being allowed any water to wash with, and I shall owe Hargrave a grudge all my life.

Here we have been accustomed to bathe two or three times a-day, now stewed to death we are only allowed sufficient water to send bread down our throats, that would otherwise stick there."

_Mother._--"I wish that may be our greatest inconvenience; it's all very well for Smart to say that we are in no danger, but if these people keep staring at us and watching us all day as they did yesterday what are we to do? They'll stare us out, let alone the chance of our being broiled to death. I feel quite sure Madame will have a brain fever if we don't take care."

_Schillie._--"Well don't fuss. We can last out a week of this work, perhaps, and then we shall at all events be less fat for the fishes. I intend to try the depths of those caverns before I put myself in the power of that pirate captain."

I shuddered as she pointed down to the blue waters, through whose depths we could see endless caverns of fantastically shaped coral.

"Oh! Ma'am, Ma'am," cried Jenny, "they are coming up." We ran for our weapons, concealing them as well as we could, and then stood on the defensive, Schillie on one side of the path and I on the other, the rest all ready to hand us the guns. "Shoot, Schillie, shoot," I said, "hit the foremost man, and he'll tumble over the others."

"I am trying, I am indeed, but don't you know I cannot even kill a wasp!

Hang me if I can do it," said Schillie, turning white as a sheet, and letting her gun drop. Steadily Otty raises his gun, fires, and the foremost man falls, knocking over two others, and causing great confusion. Felix, by way of calming it, fires his gun right into the middle of them.

Their imprecations were loud and deep, and their rage seemed boundless as they looked up at their two little antagonists. One man dead, two hurt. "Very good boys," say we. But the pirates were not to be driven back in this manner. It was too humiliating to be repulsed by two boys.

They seemed speculating as to what had become of Smart, he was evidently not with us. So once more they essayed the ascent, sheltering themselves as well as they could from the guns, by creeping under cover of the ledges of rock. "Now let's all be firm this time," we whispered, "for shoot them we must." Schillie took a great gulp of water, seized her gun, and once more we all stood ready. "Let them come quite close," said Oscar.

But a fresh person appeared on the scene of action, whose shrill screams told her name better than anything. Not that anybody seemed hurting or molesting her, but attracted, I suppose, by the sound of the guns, she had ventured forth from her hiding place, and discovered us all roosting at the top of the rock. Not being able to entertain more than one idea at a time, and that idea being since her separation from us solely how she could rejoin, it was not a matter of wonder, that to see us, was to make her rush down towards us. It never entered her limited capacity to think that the pirates might object to the re-union. However they showed themselves most civil and polite towards Mrs. Hargrave, though we on the rock did not give them credit for acting entirely from disinterested motives.

_Schillie._--"Upon my life! if they are not going to let that mad woman come up here. You may be sure, June, they have some motive for this gratuitous kindness. I dare say they think such an a.s.s of a woman will be more likely to do us harm than good by her presence. Well! any body may help her up that likes, I won't."

"Nor I, nor I," sounded on all sides.

But there was no need for us to offer, for the amiable pirates were kindly a.s.sisting her up themselves. Little did Mrs. Hargrave dream that they were making a convenient shield of her most precious self and that if we hoped to execute our former manuvre we should have to send our bullets through her first. She thought of nothing but being again amongst us, and scrambled and struggled towards us, screaming the whole time.

_Oscar._--"Mother, I must shoot her, there is no help for it. If one of those fellows gets footing on here, we may as well give ourselves up.

You see he is close behind her."

_Mother._--"We will just make one effort. Wait till she is so near that I can grasp hold of her, and then shoot; she must take her chance."

With the greatest coolness the brave boy did as he was bid; and I had no sooner grasped the woman than he fired. With a squall that no one could think proceeded out of human lips, she lost her footing and held on by me, and if Schillie had not had firm hold of me, Serena and Sybil of her, I must have gone over with Hargrave and the pirate. As it was, he fell dead, and we dragged her up, and, pulling her to some distance, we never stayed to enquire if she was wounded or not, but ran back to our posts. They were swarming up, just under a ledge, ready to make a bolt out upon us if we looked off one moment. "Get stones, little ones,"

whispered Serena, "they will help us, perhaps." Now they bolt. We all fire simultaneously. They retreat again, some wounded, but none dead.

We took up the second relay of guns, Schillie carrying off the others to reload.

"In the name of all that's horrible," we heard her say, in a loud angry voice, "what are you doing here?"

_Hargrave._--"I am not going to be shot at and killed by those dreadful guns any more, and, besides, the pirates gave me to understand down there as the sun would soon set the powder in a blaze, and we should all be blown up. Look at me, bleeding like a pig, and half my ear and one of my best ear-rings gone. No, no, though I was dead, as I thought, I was determined to throw the powder and shot over the rock, that you might be safe, if I died the next minute."

"Bring me that rope, Lilly," said Schillie, in a voice of concentrated rage. Gatty sprung to help her, and in two minutes the foolish woman was tied, with her hands behind her back, to one of the palm trees, and they returned to help us, as best we could be helped. We trusted that Smart would hear the firing, and come to our a.s.sistance before all hope was gone. But the pirates themselves ceased their warfare against us, finding the stones quite as destructive as the guns; besides, they seemed to be in a great state of uncertainty and trouble among themselves, and had so many consultations, and talked at such a rate, that we lost ourselves in conjectures as to what it could be all about.

"They are in a mighty rage against us, I think, for killing the two men," said Oscar. "They don't want to hurt us, apparently," said Serena, "as they never fixed their guns at us." "Why, my dear child, don't you see that is against their interests to hurt any of us," said Schillie, "they want to sell us, or some such blessed thing."

_Gatty_ (demurely).--"I don't think the king will sell you, little Mother."

_Schillie._--"None of your nonsense. Miss. I'll marry you to him if you don't mind, and a regular dun duckity mud-coloured spouse you will have."

_Gatty._--"If you please, little Mother, you are and have been so cross to me since we came up here."

_Schillie._--"And no wonder, you young noodle, talking such nonsense, and behaving like a young ape when we are in such danger; and June is just as bad, encouraging you in all this stuff."

_Mother._--"Come, don't let us quarrel, night is coming on. Go to bed, children. You and I must watch, Schillie."

_Schillie._--"And I, feeling like a dead dog, wanting a week's sleep at least."

_Mother._--"Then Hargrave shall help me."

_Schillie._--"Help the pirates you mean; but who has looked after that female lately?"

We went to see her, and luckily she was unable to have her feelings wounded by any remark that might have been bottling up against her, for through her nose she gave audible demonstrations that she considered her troubles and sorrows over, and that any remonstrances on our parts would only be regarded as an unpleasant dream of the night.