HOW I CAME ABOARD THE _HAPPY DESPATCH_ AND OF MY SUFFERINGS THERE
I awoke gasping to the shock of cold water and was dimly aware of divers
people crowding about me.
"'Tis a fine, bull-bodied boy, Job, all brawn and beef--witness your eye,
Lord love me!" exclaimed a jovial voice, "Aha, Job, a lusty lad--heave
t'other bucket over him!" There came another torrent of water, whereupon I
strove to sit up, but finding this vain by reason of strict bonds, I cursed
them all and sundry instead.
"A sturdy soul, Job, and of a comfortable conversation!" quoth the voice.
"Moreover a man o' mark, as witnesseth your peeper."
"Rot him!" growled the man Job, a beastly-seeming fellow, very slovenly and
foul of person, who glared down at me out of one eye, the other being so
bruised and swollen as to serve him no whit.
"He should be overside wi' his guts full o' shot for this same heye of mine
if 'twas my say--"
"But then it ain't your say, Job, nor yet Belvedere's--'tis hern,
Job--hern--Cap'n Jo's. 'He's to be took care of,' says she, 'treated kind
and gentle,' says she. And, mark me, here's Belvedere's nose out o' joint,
d'ye see? And, talkin' o' noses, there's your eye, Job; sink me but he
wiped your eye for you, my--"
"Plague and perish him!" snarled Job, kicking me viciously. "Burn him, 'tis
keelhaul 'im I would first and then give 'im to Pompey to carve up what
remained--"
"Pompey?" exclaimed this fellow Diccon, a merry-seeming fellow but with a
truculent eye. "Look 'ee, Job, here's a match for Pompey at last, as I do
think, man to man, bare fists or knives, a match and I'll lay to't."
"Pshaw!" growled Job. "Pompey could eat 'im--bones and all, curse 'im!
Pompey would break 'is back as 'e did the big Spaniard's last week."
"Nay, Job, this fellow should make better fight for't than did the
Spanisher. Look 'ee now, match 'em, and I'll lay all my share o' the voyage
on this fellow, come now!"
"A match? Why so I would, but what o' Belvedere?"
"He sulketh, Job, and yonder he cometh, a-sucking of his thumb and all
along o' this fellow and our Jo. Joanna's cocked her eye on this fellow and
Belvedere's cake's dough--see him yonder!"
Now following the speaker's look, I perceived Captain Belvedere descending
the quarter-ladder, his handsome face very evil and scowling; spying me
where I lay, he came striding up and folding his arms, stood looking over
me silently awhile.
"Lord love me!" he exclaimed at last in huge disgust and spat upon me. "Aft
with him--to the coach--"
"Coach, Cap'n?" questioned Job, staring. "And why theer?"
"Because I say so!" roared Belvedere.
"And because," quoth Diccon, his eye more truculent than ever, "because
women will be women, eh, Captain?" At this Belvedere's face grew suffused,
his eyes glared and he turned on the speaker with clenched fist; then
laughing grimly, he spurned me savagely with his foot.
"Joanna hath her whimsies, and here's one of 'em!" quoth he and spat on me
again, whereat I raged and strove, despite my bonds, to come at him.
"I were a-saying to Job," quoth the man Diccon, thrusting me roughly beyond
reach of Belvedere's heavy foot, "that here was a fellow to match Pompey at
last."
"Tush!" said Belvedere, with an oath. "Pompey would quarter him wi' naked
hands."
"I was a-saying to Job I would wager my share in the voyage on this fellow,
Belvedere!"
"Aye, Cap'n," growled Job, "'tis well enough keeping the Don to hang
afore Nombre but why must this dog live aft and cosseted? He should walk
overboard wi' slit weasand, or better--he's meat for Pompey, and wherefore
no? I asks why, Cap'n?"
"Aye--why!" cried Belvedere, gnashing his teeth. "Ask her--go ask Joanna,
the curst jade."
"She be only a woman, when all's said, Cap'n--"
"Nay, Job," quoth Belvedere, shaking his head. "She's Joanna and behind
her do lie Tressady and Sol and Rory and Abnegation Mings--and all the
Fellowship. So if she says he lives, lives it is, to lie soft and feed
dainty, curse him. Let me die if I don't wish I'd left her on the island to
end him her own way--wi' steel or kindness--"
"Kindness!" said Diccon, with an ugly leer. "Why, there it is, Cap'n; she's
off wi' the old and on wi' the new, like--"
"Not yet, by God!" snarled Belvedere 'twixt shut teeth and scowling down on
me while his hand clawed at the pistol in his belt; then his gaze wandered
from me towards the poop and back again. "Curse him!" said he, stamping in
his impotent fury. "I'd give a handful o' gold pieces to see him dead and
be damned!" And here he fell a-biting savagely at his thumb again.
"Why, then, here's a lad to earn 'em," quoth Job, "an' that's me. I've a
score agin him for this lick o' the eye he give me ashore--nigh blinded me,
'e did, burn an' blast his bones!"
"Aye, but what o' Joanna, what o' that she-snake, ha?"
"'Tis no matter for her. I've a plan."
"What is't, Job lad? Speak fair and the money's good as yourn--"
"Aye, but it ain't mine yet, Cap'n, so mum it but I've a plan."
"Belay, Job!" exclaimed Diccon. "Easy all. Yonder she cometh."
Sure enough, I saw Joanna descend the ladder from the poop and come mincing
across the deck towards us.
"Hola, Belvedere, mon Capitan!" said she, glancing about her quick-eyed.
"You keep your ship very foul, yes. Dirt to dirt!--ah? But I am aboard and
this shall be amended--look to it. And your mizzen yard is sprung; down
with it and sway up another--"
"Aye, aye, Jo," said Belvedere, nodding. "It shall be done--"
"_Mañana_!" quoth she, frowning. "This doth not suit when I am aboard,
no! The new yard must be rigged now, at once, for we sail with the
flood--_voilà_!"
"Sail, Jo?" said Belvedere, staring. "Can't be, Jo!"
"And wherefore?"
"Why--we be short o' water, for one thing."
"Ah--bah, we shall take all we want from other ships!"
"And the lads be set, heart and soul, on a few days ashore."
"But then--I am set, my heart, my soul, on heaving anchor so soon as the
tide serves. We will sail with the flood. Now see the new yard set up and
have this slave Martin o' mine to my cabin." So saying, she turned on her
heel and minced away, while Belvedere stood looking after her and biting at
his thumb, Job scowled and Diccon smiled.
"So--ho!" quoth he. "Captain Jo says we sail, and sail it is, hey?"
"Blind you!" cried Belvedere, turning on him in a fury. "Go forward and
turn out two o' the lads to draw this carcass aft!" Here bestowing a final
kick on me, he swaggered away.
"Sail wi' the flood, is it?" growled Job. "And us wi' scarce any water
and half on us rotten wi' scurvy or calenture, an' no luck this cruise,
neither! 'Sail wi' the flood,' says she--'be damned,' says I. By hookey,
but I marvel she lives; I wonder no one don't snuff her out for good an'
all--aye, burn me but I do!"
"Because you're a fool, Job, and don't know her like we do. She's 'La
Culebra,' and why? Because she's quick as any snake and as deadly. Besides,
she's our luck and luck she'll bring us; she always do. Whatever ship she's
aboard of has all the luck, wind, weather, and--what's better, rich prizes,
Job. I know it and the lads forrad know it, and Belvedere he knows it and
is mighty feared of her and small blame either--aye, and mayhap you'll be
afeard of her when you know her better. 'She's only a woman,' says you.
'True,' says I. But in all this here world there ain't her match, woman or
man, and you can lay to that, my lad."
Now the ropes that secured me being very tight, began to cause me no
little pain, insomuch that I besought the man Diccon to loose me a little,
whereupon he made as to comply, but Job, who it seemed was quartermaster,
and new in the office, would have none of it but cursed me vehemently
instead, and hailing two men had me forthwith dragged aft to a small cabin
under the poop and there (having abused and cuffed me to his heart's
content) left me.
And in right woful plight was I, with clothes nigh torn off and myself
direly bruised from head to foot, and what with this and the cramping
strictness of my bonds I could come by no easement, turn and twist me how I
might. After some while, as I lay thus miserable and pain in every joint of
me, the door opened, closed and Joanna stood above me.
"Ah, ah--you are very foul o' blood!" said she in bitter mockery. "'Twas
thus you spake me once, Martino, you'll mind! 'Very foul o' blood,' said
you, and I famishing with hunger! Art hungry, Martino?" she questioned,
bending over me; but meeting her look, I scowled and held my peace. "Ha,
won't ye talk? Is the sullen fit on you?" said she, scowling also.
"Then shall you hear me! And first, know this: you are mine henceforth,
aye--mine!" So saying, she seated herself on the cushioned locker whereby
I lay and, setting her foot upon my breast and elbow on knee, leaned above
me, dimpled chin on fist, staring down on me with her sombre gaze. "You
are mine," said she again, "to use as I will, to exalt or cast down. I can
bestow on ye life or very evil death. By my will ye are alive; when I
will you must surely die. Your wants, your every need must you look to me
for--so am I your goddess and ruler of your destiny, yes! Ah, had you been
more of man and less of fish, I had made you captain of this ship, and
loved you, Martino, loved you--!"
"Aye," cried I bitterly, "until you wearied of me as you have wearied of
this rogue Belvedere, it seems--aye, and God knoweth how many more--"
"Oh, la-la, fool--these I never loved--"
"Why, then," said I, "the more your shame!"
As I uttered the words, she leaned down and smote me lightly upon my
swollen lips and so left me. But presently back she came and with her three
of the crew, bearing chains, etc., which fellows at her command (albeit
they were something gone in liquor) forthwith clapped me up in these
fetters and thereafter cut away the irksome cords that bound me. Whiles
this was a-doing, she (quick to mark their condition) lashed them with her
tongue, giving them "loathly sots," "drunken swine," "scum o' the world"
and the like epithets, all of the which they took in mighty humble fashion,
knuckling their foreheads, ducking their heads with never a word and mighty
glad to stumble away and be gone at flick of her contemptuous finger.
"So here's you, Martino," said she, when we were alone, "here's you in
chains that might have been free, and here's myself very determined you
shall learn somewhat of shame and be slave at command of such beasts as
yonder. D'ye hear, fool, d'ye hear?" But I heeding her none at all, she
kicked me viciously so that I flinched (despite myself) for I was very
sore; whereat she gave a little laugh:
"Ah, ah!" said she, nodding. "If I did not love you, now would I watch you
die! But the time is not yet--no. When that hour is then, if I am not your
death, you shall be mine--death for one or other or both, for I--"
She sprang to her feet as from the deck above came the uproar of sudden
brawl with drunken outcry.
"Ah, Madre de Dios!" said she, stamping in her anger. "Oh, these bestial
things called men!" which said, she whipped a pistol from her belt, cocked
it and was gone with a quick, light patter of feet. Suddenly I heard the
growing tumult overhead split and smitten to silence by a pistol-shot,
followed by a wailing cry that was drowned in the tramp of feet away
forward.
As for me, my poor body, freed of its bonds, found great easement thereby
(and despite my irons) so that I presently laid myself down on one of
these cushioned lockers (and indeed, though small, this cabin was rarely
luxurious and fine) but scarce had I stretched my aching limbs than the
door opened and a man entered.
And surely never in all this world was stranger creature to be seen. Gaunt
and very lean was he of person and very well bedight from heel to head, but
the face that peered out 'twixt the curls of his great periwig lacked for
an eye and was seamed and seared with scars in horrid fashion; moreover the
figure beneath his rich, wide-skirted coat seemed warped and twisted beyond
nature; yet as he stood viewing me with his solitary eye (this grey and
very quick and bright) there was that in his appearance that somehow took
my fancy.
"What, messmate," quoth he, in full, hearty voice, advancing with a
shambling limp, "here cometh one to lay alongside you awhile, old
Resolution Day, friend, mate o' this here noble ship _Happy Despatch_,
comrade, and that same myself, look'ee!"
But having no mind to truck with him or any of this evil company, I bid him
leave me be and cursed him roundly for the pirate-rogue he was.
"Pirate," said he, no whit abashed at my outburst. "Why, pirate it is. But
look'ee, there never was pirate the like o' me for holiness--'specially o'
Sundays! Lord love you, there's never a parson or divine, high church or
low, a patch on me for real holiness--'specially o' Sundays. So do I pray
when cometh my time to die, be it in bed or boots, by sickness, bullet or
noose, it may chance of a Sunday. And then again, why not a pirate? What o'
yourself, friend? There's a regular fire-and-blood, skull-and-bones look
about ye as liketh me very well. And there be many worse things than a mere
pirate, brother. And what? You'll go for to ask. Answer I--Spanishers,
Papishers, the Pope o' Rome and his bloody Inquisition, of which last I
have lasting experience, _camarado_--aye, I have I!"
"Ah?" said I, sitting up. "You have suffered the torture?"
"Comrade, look at me! The fire, the pulley, the rack, the wheel, the
water--there's no devilment they ha'n't tried on this poor carcase o' mine
and all by reason of a Spanish nun as bore away with my brother!"
"Your brother?"
"Aye, but 'twas me she loved, for I was younger then and something kinder
to the eye. So him they burned, her they buried alive and me they tormented
into the wrack ye see. But I escaped wi' my life, the Lord delivered me
out o' their bloody hands, which was an ill thing for them, d'ye see, for
though I lack my starboard blinker and am somewhat crank i' my spars alow
and aloft, I can yet ply whinger and pull trigger rare and apt enough for
the rooting out of evil. And where a fairer field for the aforesaid rooting
out o' Papishers, Portingales, and the like evil men than this good ship,
the _Happy Despatch?_ Aha, messmate, there's many such as I've despatched
hot-foot to their master Sathanas, 'twixt then and now. And so 'tis I'm a
pirate and so being so do I sing along o' David: 'Blessed be the Lord my
strength that teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight.' A rare
gift o' words had Davy and for curses none may compare." Hereupon, seating
himself on the locker over against me, he thrust a hand into his great side
pocket and brought thence a hank of small-cord, a silver-mounted pistol and
lastly a small, much battered volume.
"Look'ee, comrade," said he, tapping the worn covers with bony finger,
"the Bible is a mighty fine book to fight by; to stir up a man for battle,
murder or sudden death it hath no equal and for keeping his hate agin his
enemies ever a-burning, there is no book written or ever will be--"
"You talk blasphemy!" quoth I.
"Avast, avast!" cried he. "Here's no blasphemy, thought or word. I love
this little Bible o' mine; His meat and drink to me, the friend o' my
solitude, my solace in pain, my joy for ever and alway. Some men, being
crossed in fortune, hopes, ambition or love, take 'em to drink and the like
vanities. I, that suffered all this, took to the Bible and found all my
needs betwixt the covers o' this little book. For where shall a wronged
man find such a comfortable assurance as this? Hark ye what saith our
Psalmist!" Turning over a page or so and lifting one knotted fist aloft,
Resolution Day read this:
"'I shall bathe my footsteps in the blood of mine enemies and the tongues
of the dogs shall be red with the same!' The which," said he, rolling his
bright eye at me, "the which is a sweet, pretty fancy for the solace of one
hath endured as much as I. Aye, a noble book is Psalms. I know it by heart.
List ye to this, now! 'The wicked shall perish and the enemies of the Lord
be as the fat of rams, as smoke shall they consume away.' Brother, I've
watched 'em so consume many's the time and been the better for't. Hark'ee
again: 'They shall be as chaff before the wind. As a snail that melteth
they shall every one pass away. Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!'
saith Davy, aye and belike did it too, and so have I ere now with a pistol
butt. I mind once when we stormed Santa Catalina and the women and children
a-screaming in the church which chanced to be afire, I took out my Bible
here and read these comfortable words: 'The righteous shall rejoice when he
seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked so
that a man shall say: Verily there is a reward for the righteous.' Aha,
brother, for filling a man wi' a gust of hate and battle, there's nought
like the Bible. And when a curse is wanted, give me David. Davy was a man
of his hands, moreover, and so are you, friend. I watched ye fight on the
sand-spit yonder; twelve to one is long enough odds for any man, and yet
here's five o' the twelve wi' bones broke and never a one but wi' some mark
o' your handiwork to show, which is vastly well, comrade. Joanna's choice
is mine, messmate--"
"How d'ye mean?" I demanded, scowling, whereupon he beamed on me
friendly-wise and blinked his solitary eye.
"There is no man aboard this ship," quoth he, nodding again, "no, not one
as could keep twelve in play so long, friend, saving only Black Pompey--"
"I've heard his name already," said I, "what like is he and who?"
"A poor heathen, comrade, a blackamoor, friend, a child of Beelzebub
abounding in blood, brother--being torturer, executioner and cook and
notable in each several office. A man small of soul yet great of body,
being nought but a poor, black heathen, as I say. And ashore yonder you
shall hear our Christian messmates a-quarrelling over their rum as is the
way o' your Christians hereabouts--hark to 'em!"
The _Happy Despatch_ lay anchored hard by the reef and rode so near the
island that, glancing from one of her stern-gallery windows I might behold
Deliverance Beach shining under the moon and a great fire blazing, round
which danced divers of the crew, filling the night with lewd, unholy riot
of drunken singing and shouts that grew ever more fierce and threatening. I
was gazing upon this scene and Resolution Day beside me, when the door was
flung open and Job the quartermaster appeared.
"Cap'n Jo wants ye ashore wi' her!" said he, beckoning to Resolution, who
nodded and thrusting Bible into pocket, took thence the silver-mounted
pistol, examined flint and priming and thrusting it into his belt, followed
Job out of the cabin, locking the door upon me. Thereafter I was presently
aware of a boat putting off from the ship and craning my neck, saw it was
rowed by Resolution with Joanna in the stern sheets, a naked sword across
her knees; and my gaze held by the glimmer of this steel, I watched them
row into the lagoon and so to that spit of sand opposite Skeleton Cove.
I saw the hateful glitter of this deadly steel as Joanna leapt lightly
ashore, followed more slowly by Resolution. But suddenly divers of the
rogues about the fire, beholding Joanna as she advanced against them thus,
sword in hand, cried out a warning to their fellows, who, ceasing from
their strife, immediately betook them to their heels, fleeing before her
like so many mischievous lads; marvelling, I watched until she had pursued
them out of my view.
Hereupon I took to an examination of my fetters, link by link, but finding
them mighty secure, laid me down as comfortably as they would allow and
fell to pondering my desperate situation, and seeing no way out herefrom
(and study how I might) I began to despond; but presently, bethinking me of
Don Federigo and judging his case more hopeless than mine (if this could
well be), and further, remembering how, but for me, he would by death have
delivered himself, I (that had not prayed this many a long month) now
petitioned the God to whom nothing is impossible that He would save alive
this noble gentleman of Spain, and thus, in his sorrows, forgot mine own
awhile.
All at once I started up, full of sudden great and joyful content in all
that was, or might be, beholding in my fetters the very Providence of God
(as it were) and in my captivity His answer to my so oft-repeated prayer;
for now I remembered that with the flood this ship was to sail for Nombre
de Dios, where, safe-dungeoned and secure against my coming lay my
hated foe and deadly enemy, Richard Brandon. And now, in my vain and
self-deluding pride (my heart firm-set on this miserable man, his undoing
and destruction) I cast me down on my knees and babbled forth my passionate
gratitude to Him that is from everlasting to everlasting the God of Mercy,
Love and Forgiveness.