WE ESCAPE THE SPANIARDS.
Now that I knew his real sentiments towards me, it was very difficult to
preserve my composure and indifference in the presence of Captain Manuel
Nunez. As I sat at table with him, or talked with him on deck or in his
cabin, I had hard work to keep from telling him my real thoughts of his
wicked nature. Nay, sometimes I was sore put to it to keep my hands from
his throat. Nothing would have pleased me better than to find either him
or my cousin Jasper in some lonely spot where no odds could have favored
them or me. Then my wrongs should have received full vengeance, and none
would have blamed me for meting it out to these two villains. Judge how
hard it was for me to have to associate, week after week, with one of
the men who had so deeply wronged me, and, moreover, to have to
preserve towards him a certain degree of cordiality. Try as I would,
however, I could not give Nunez as much in the way of politeness as
Nunez gave me. My manners were surly at the best, and I had much ado to
preserve them at all.
Getting in the way of fair winds, we sighted the Bahamas, and passed the
north-west coast of Cuba somewhere about the beginning of September. We
were then some five hundred miles from Vera Cruz, but it was not until
Christmas week that we bore down upon the Mexican coast. It was, I
think, on Christmas morning that I first saw the shores of that
beautiful land, whose natural loveliness served but to make more evident
the horrible cruelties of the men who had seized and possessed it. Fair
and wonderful it was as the mists lifted under the sun's warmth to see
the giant peak of Orizaba lifting its head, snow-white and awful, into
the clear air, while full seventeen thousand feet below it the land lay
dim and indistinct, nothing more than a bank of gray cloud.
"You would think a country with such a mountain as that would be a place
of much delight, master, would you not?" said Pharaoh Nanjulian,
pointing to the great white peak. "It looks fair and innocent enough,
but it is a very devil's land, this Mexico, since the Spaniards overran
it; and yonder peak is an emblem of nothing in it, except it be the
innocence of those who are murdered in God's name."
"What mountain is that?" I inquired.
"Orizaba, master. It lies some sixty miles beyond Vera Cruz, and is of a
height scarcely credible to us Englishmen. God be thanked that there is
so little wind to-day! With a fair breeze we should have been in port
ere nightfall. As it is, we must take our chance to-night, master, or
fall into the hands of the Inquisition."
"I am ready for aught," said I. "But have you thought of a plan?"
"Aye, trust me for that. Marry! I have thought of naught else since we
came through the Bahamas. Certainly our chances are exceedingly small,
for we must needs land in a country that is infested with our enemies,
but we will do our best."
"Tell me your plan, Pharaoh."
"'Tis simplicity itself, master. To-night it is my watch. When the
captain is asleep in his cabin, do you come on deck and go aft. You will
find a boat alongside, and into it you must contrive to get as you best
can. Hide yourself there so that no one can see you from the deck. When
the watch is changed, instead of going forward I shall make for the
boat. No one will see me, I promise you. When I am with you we shall cut
the boat adrift and let the vessel outsail us. Then we must make for the
coast in the direction of Tuxtla. We shall know which way to steer
because of the volcano. But after that--why, I know not what we shall
do."
"Have you no plan?"
"Marry, I have ideas. We might go across country to Acapulco, hoping to
find there an English ship; but 'tis a long and weary way, and what with
Indians and wild beasts I fear we should never get there. Howbeit let us
tackle one danger at a time."
Being then called to dinner I went below, and was perforce once more
obliged to sit at meat with my jailer, who, now that his charge of me
was coming to an end, was more polite than ever, and treated me with
exceeding great courtesy.
"You have been on deck, Master Salkeld," said he, "and have doubtless
perceived that we are in sight of land."
"I have seen the great mountain, Senor," I answered.
"True, the land is yet little more than a line. If the wind had been
fair we should have dropped anchor ere midnight. Your voyage has been a
long one, but I trust you have not been inconvenienced."
"Only as a man may be by the loss of his liberty, Senor."
"You will soon be free," he answered, giving me one of his strange,
mocking smiles. "And I trust that when we part it will be with a full
recognition on your side of the way in which I have carried out our
bargain."
"As I do not remember our bargain, Senor, I am afraid that is hardly
possible," I made answer.
"Chut! your memory is certainly at fault. However, the facts will
probably occur to you--later."
"Part of the bargain, if I remember your first mention of it, Senor, was
that you should carry me to the West Indies."
"You are right in that," said he.
"Are we approaching the West Indies?"
"The West Indies is a wide term, Master Salkeld. We are certainly not
approaching the West India islands. We are, in fact, off the coast of
Mexico, and the mountain you see in the distance is the famed peak of
Orizaba. To-morrow morning we shall drop anchor in the port of Vera
Cruz."
"And what shall I do there, Senor?"
He smiled at the question--a mysterious smile, which had a grim meaning
behind it.
"Who knows, Senor? There are many occupations for a young and active
gentleman."
Now, for the life of me I could not help asking him a very pertinent
question before I left the cabin to return on deck.
"Senor," I said, "seeing that we are to part so soon you will perhaps
not object to giving me some information. How much did my cousin, Master
Jasper Stapleton, pay you for your share in this matter?"
He gave me a curious glance out of his eye corners.
"The amount of your passage-money, Master Salkeld, was two hundred
English guineas. I hope you consider the poor accommodation which I have
been able to give you in accordance with that sum."
"I have no fault to find with the accommodation, Senor," I replied. "So
far as the bodily comfort of your prisoner was concerned you have proved
yourself a good jailer."
"Let us hope you will never find a worse, Master Salkeld," he answered,
with another mocking smile. "But, indeed, you wrong me in speaking of me
as a jailer. Say rather a kind and considerate host."
I repressed the words which lay on the tip of my tongue ready to fling
at him, and went on deck. The wind was still against us, and the ship
made little progress, for which both Pharaoh and I were devoutly
thankful, neither of us being minded to make Vera Cruz ere night fell.
Certainly there was little to choose between the two courses open to
us. If we were handed over to the Inquisitors by Nunez, we should
certainly be burned at the stake, or, at any rate, racked, tortured, and
turned over to a slave-master. If we reached shore we should have to
undergo many privations and face all manner of perils, with every
probability of ultimately falling into the hands of the Spaniards once
more. Indeed, so certain did it seem that we should eventually meet our
fate at the stake, or the rack, that more than once I doubted whether it
was worth our while to attempt an escape.
But life is sweet, however dark its prospects may be, and a true man
will always fight for it, though the odds against him are great. And,
moreover, when a man knows what manner of death it is that awaits him,
he will make the most desperate efforts to escape it, if it be such a
death as that intended for us by the Spaniards. Now, although I had
lived in such an out-of-the-way part of England, I had heard many a
fearful story of the wrongs and cruelties practiced by the Inquisitors
in Mexico. Tales came across the wide ocean of rackings and tormentings
and burnings, of men given over to slavery, wearing their San-benitos
for many a weary year, and perhaps dying of torture in the end. We would
do something to escape a fate like that, God helping us!
Late that night Captain Nunez stood by my side on deck. The wind now
blew from the north-west, and the ship was making headway towards land.
To the south-east, through the darkness, glimmered the volcanic fire of
Tuxtla, but the giant peak of Orizaba had disappeared.
"To-morrow at sunrise, Master Salkeld, we shall be in the port of Vera
Cruz," said Nunez. "I have some friends there to whom I will give you an
introduction. Till then, Senor, sleep well."
He smiled at me in the dim lantern light and went below. I remained
pacing the deck for another hour. Once or twice I looked over the side
and saw the boat swinging below our stern. Now, the poop of the Spanish
ship was of a more than usual height, and I foresaw that I should have
some difficulty in getting into the boat, and run a fair chance of
drowning. Better drown, I thought, than burn; and so, after a time, the
deck being quiet, I climbed over the side and managed to drop into the
boat, where I made haste to hide myself as I best could.
It was some two hours after that when Pharaoh Nanjulian joined me, and
immediately cut us adrift.
The ship seemed to glide away from us into the darkness.