'Twas not very long before Uncle Moses was back, bringing welcome
blankets, in which I rolled myself while my clothes were drying at
a fire Joe kindled in the wood. The old negro said that we could
not expect any reinforcements before daybreak, the people being
quite unwilling to march during the night so far from their homes.
He had brought back with him, however, Noah and Jacob on horseback,
and indeed I suspected that without them even Uncle Moses himself
would not have conquered his dread of the bugaboos and faced the
night journey a second time.
Some three hours after daybreak the dusky recruits came dropping in
with weapons of all sorts--firelocks, knives, bludgeons--and with
food, of which I for one was mighty glad, being sharp set after my
swimming and a cold night. The negroes made a great clamour as
their numbers increased--there were soon pretty nearly a hundred of
them, all the able-bodied men on the estate and a fair sprinkling
of women, too. 'Twas hopeless, the noise being so great, to expect
that Vetch would not get a shrewd notion of the size of our force,
and I saw no reason for attempting to conceal it; indeed, I
nourished a secret hope that, being a coward at heart, he would be
daunted at sight of us, and yield up Mistress Lucy on terms. But
this hope soon took wing.
The tide had now left the brig high and dry on the sand. She had
heeled over, but not enough to make it possible for her crew to use
their brass guns against the negroes who crowded the top of the
cliff. They made some attempt to train the guns, but desisted when
they saw that the utmost elevation would reach no higher than
halfway up. But the cliff top was well within range of their
muskets, as one unfortunate negro, approaching the edge too closely
found to his cost. A shot struck him on the leg, and he ran howling
back, causing his companions to scuttle like rabbits into the
woodland.
We had discussed during the night what course we should follow in
the morning, but without arriving at any conclusion. I hoped that
we should find ourselves in a state to make an organized assault on
the brig and carry it by main force; but this idea was speedily
dashed when I came to take stock of our forces and armament. We had
but eight muskets among us; I counted more than twenty buccaneers
on the sloping deck of the brig. Though we so greatly outnumbered
them I saw that a direct assault could not succeed. From the
vantage of the deck they would have us at their mercy; and though
fifty disciplined men, even unarmed, might perhaps swarm up and
overcome them by sheer weight of numbers, I believed that the
negroes would have no stomach for so desperate an undertaking.
And my former gloom and trouble of mind descended upon me, when I
saw the tide begin to creep up again. Unless we could do something
before the flood the buccaneers would without doubt get the vessel
off, for she had not sufficient way on when she struck to run her
deep into the sand, and they had only to jettison a part of her
cargo to float her.
I walked apart with Cludde and Punchard, all three of us at our
wit's end. With only eight muskets we could not fire fast enough to
keep the deck clear of men, and our store of ammunition was scanty;
further, I doubted whether the negroes were sufficiently practised
with firearms to make good marksmen. It seemed that we should ere
long see the buccaneer vessel slipping out of our reach.
'Twas a chance act of Joe Punchard that drew me out of my
heaviness, and set my wits a-jump. We were walking along the
cliffs, and came to that gap I have before mentioned, where Cludde
and I had nearly broke our necks the night before.
"'T'ud ha' saved a deal o' trouble if that there barrel had rolled
a bit further," says Joe, and he picks up a stone and shies it out
to sea, for the mere easement of his temper. My eyes followed the
flight of the stone idly, but when it flopped into the water a
notion came to me which I was quick to impart.
"By Jupiter, Cludde," I cried, "we'll bombard 'em!"
He stared at me as though he feared my wits were astray, but when I
pointed to the innumerable stones strewing the cliff side, from
boulders of great size to nuggets no bigger than an apple, and
showed how easy 'twould be for our negroes to cast them on to the
very deck of the brig, his face changed, and I saw a light in his
eyes that reminded me of the time when he was one of the
ringleaders in the prankish tricks of the Shrewsbury Mohocks. Then
all at once he fell sober again.
"But what's the good," he said. "We can clear the deck, 'tis true;
but be never a whit the nearer to capturing the vessel."
"I don't know that," said I. "If we clear the deck they go down
below; if they go down below they will not be able to keep so good
a lookout upon us; and while the niggers are stoning the deck we
may get a chance to creep up and be among 'em before they know it."
"But they would see us from the portholes," he persisted.
"True, if we are fools enough to approach 'em broadside," I said.
"The bow is pointing shorewards; if we make for a point exactly
opposite and go in single file in a line with the vessel's keel,
they will not see us unless they put their heads clean out of the
portholes and look down and aslant, and they will not do that with
the chance of getting a broken skull."
"Smite my timbers," cries Joe, "'tis a pretty ploy, and would
tickle my captain mightily. We'll do it, sir, and all I wish is
that the niggers can aim straight."
We lost no time in putting things in trim for the venture, and
indeed 'twould not be long before the tide washed the brig and
rendered the attack I proposed impossible. Gathering the negroes,
we set them to collect stones of a fair size (but not too big, for
I did not wish to break holes in the deck with jeopardy to Mistress
Lucy), and pile them up so as to be handy. And since I have ever
believed that folk, whether black or white, work more willingly if
they see the aim and purpose of their toil, I told them as they set
about the task what our intent was. It pleased them, and they
worked with a will, being indeed childishly eager to begin the
bombardment before the time was ripe.
When a sufficiency of missiles had been collected, I ranged the
negroes along the cliff so that, while they could see the brig,
they could scarcely be seen from it. They were stupid enough to be
sure; from what I saw of negroes then and since I cannot but think
they are no better than children in intelligence; and in their
eagerness to begin this merry sport, as they regarded it, they went
a deal too near the edge of the cliff and exposed too large a
portion of their bodies.
There was nothing for it but to place them in position ourselves,
which I did, Cludde and Joe assisting (the latter with some
roughness of handling and of speech), and we marked out a line for
them beyond which we forbade them to advance. Then, all being ready
I gave the word. Instantly some three score stones, none less than
a pound in weight, hurtled down, many of them falling on to the
sand, a dozen, maybe, finding the deck, and two or three striking
the buccaneers.
There was a roar from below, which the negroes answered with a wild
whoop, and then a dozen muskets flashed, and the slugs whistled
over our heads or embedded themselves in the cliff. Another shower
of stones fell, a greater proportion this time hitting the mark,
which filled the simple negroes with such joy that they pressed
forward in full view from the ship, many of them exposing the whole
upper half of their bodies.
What ensued taught them a lesson. A second fusillade burst from the
vessel; two of the negroes fell with howls of pain; the rest
scurried back in dismay, and some few took to their heels and fled
squealing into the woods. I called them back and rated them soundly
for disobeying orders, and then we placed them again in a secure
position and the bombardment recommenced.
I reckoned that within a minute or two five hundred stones had been
hurled from the cliff, and though many more fell upon the sand than
upon the deck I saw that the effect was answering my hopes. Some of
the crew retreated to the lee side of the masts; others crouched
under the guns, whence they fired their muskets, slowly and with
difficulty, doing us no harm; others again took refuge by the break
of the poop, and in the round house and the forecastle.
One man with great boldness tried to climb the rigging to the
cross-trees, no doubt with intent to get a better aim. But he
instantly became the target for a perfect hurricane of stones, and
he dropped to the deck and crawled painfully away. In a few minutes
not a man was to be seen.
Bidding the negroes continue to throw, but not so rapidly, I lay
down on the cliff top and took a good look at the vessel. So far as
I could discover, no one was so posted as to be able to see below
the level of the deck and I deemed that the time had come to
attempt the second and more hazardous part of my plan. Leaving
Uncle Moses to superintend the activities of the main body of
negroes, I crept down the gap with Cludde, Punchard and a score of
the men who possessed arms of a sort, and came (not without some
perilous stumbles) to the sea line, immediately opposite to the bow
of the brig. Then those of us who had muskets lit our matches, and
I set forward across the sand, bending almost double, and making
straight for the figurehead, the others close behind me in single
file. Stones were still falling from the cliff, and I was in fear,
as we approached the vessel, lest some of the negroes should be hit
and betray us with a cry. But we arrived beneath the bow without
this mishap and undiscovered, and crept round to the larboard side,
where we were sheltered by the intervening hull.
We made for the cable to which the kedge anchor was attached, and I
began to swarm up, any sound that I may have made being smothered
by the clatter of stones on the planks of the deck. I gained the
poop without being seen, but immediately afterwards I heard a yell
from the roundhouse, and the men who had sheltered there began to
pour out.
But having seen the uselessness of their fusillade against the
cliff they had allowed their matches to go out, so that I was for
the moment safe from musket shot. When I fired and brought down the
first man, the rest hesitated, and seeing my companions clambering
up behind me they scuttled back into the roundhouse again. The
instant Joe Punchard reached the deck he swung round one of the
brass guns to command the roundhouse. It was already loaded, as the
buccaneers knew, and Joe cried out that he would send them all to
Davy Jones if they showed their noses outside the door.
The shower of stones had now ceased, and the men who had gone below
were swarming up to meet this unlooked-for boarding party. Cludde
and I, with our negroes, were upon them before they had time to
collect their wits. And then ensued as pretty a bit of close
fighting as ever I was engaged in. We laid about us right lustily
with our clubbed muskets, and I will say for the black men that
they were not a whit less doughty than the white. Our first success
had, I suppose, given them confidence; and Noah, with his firm
belief in the virtue of the talisman slung about his neck, threw
himself into the very forefront of the struggle, dodging the
cutlasses of the buccaneers with great agility, and slipping in
under their guard with shrewd thrusts of his knife.
They still outnumbered us, I think (for you may be sure I was too
busy to count them); but they were disheartened, no doubt, as any
men would be, at this rude and sudden onslaught on their security,
and with their comrades cooped up under the menace of the guns they
fought without the confidence that goes so far to win victory.
Moreover, they lacked leadership. The master of the brig, as I
afterwards discovered, was in the roundhouse, and Vetch (in this
equal to himself) was not to be seen, having ever a tender regard
for the safety of his skin. And so, after some few minutes of it,
the buccaneers turned tail and fled for their lives into the
forecastle, where they barricaded themselves.
Leaving Cludde to keep an eye on them, I rushed down the companion
to find Vetch and to assure Mistress Lucy that her troubles were at
an end. And there was Vetch, trying to batter down the door of the
cabin in which she had locked herself. His design, I guessed, was
to seize her and use her to extort terms from us. He had the
advantage of me in that I was coming from the full daylight into
the dimness of below decks, and before I had reached the ladder
foot he fired his pistol at me, the bullet striking my thigh. I
fell to the floor; he sprang over my body and up the steps; I cried
out to Cludde to seize him, and to Mistress Lucy that the fight was
over, and then all things became a blank to me.
When I came to myself, I knew by the lazy rocking of the vessel
that it was once more afloat; I was lying on a bench beneath a
porthole, and when I turned my head to see more particularly where
I was, Mistress Lucy came towards me, her eyes shining with
kindness.
"Mistress Lucy!" I cried, trying to rise, but wincing at an
exquisite pain in my leg.
"Don't move," she said. "The surgeon said you were to lie quite
still."
"The surgeon!" I repeated, scarce believing I had heard aright.
"Yes, you are surprised," she said with a smile; "but that is not
the strangest of the many strange things that have happened of
late. One of the crew of this vessel was once a surgeon; he took
his degrees in Edinburgh, he told me--"
"And that's true," said a harsh voice, and there entered the cabin
one of the buccaneers--a big bottle-nosed fellow, with a face of
purple hue. "And how are ye the noo, Mister?"
"Mighty shaky!" I said. "What is wrong with me?"
"A bit wound in the dexter femur," he said, "within a hair's
breadth like o' your femoral artery and kingdom come.
"But ye'll do fine," he added, feeling my pulse. "Man, ye've good
blood in your veins, and me having a good hand at the cutting,
we'll verra soon have ye on your two feet again; and the lassie
will no like be fashed at that, I'm thinkin'."
"I am to thank you then for cutting out the bullet," I said, and
then, remembering how I had come by it, I cried: "Have they got
that villain?"
"Meanin' Vetch?" says the man. "Hoots! Ye'll no catch him; he's a
slithery man, yon. He was up and awa' before he could be stoppit,
with a wheen o' yelling niggers after him. Aweel, I'm no that sorry
mysel', for he wasna just what ye would call a gentleman."
I suppose that something of what I was thinking showed in my face,
for the Scotchman continued:
"I had naething against him as an employer, ye ken; he was sound
wi' the siller; but his dealin' wi' sic a bonny lassie kind o'
affrontit me, and I'm well enough pleased ye got the better of him
in that regard. I mind o' the time when I had a wee-bit lassie
mysel'."
And then the besotted fellow began to weep, and comforted himself
with a long pull from a flask he took from his pocket. 'Twas plain
that the drink had been his undoing, and indeed, before I parted
company with him in Port Royal some days later, he told me with
maudlin tears the story of his declension from surgeon on a king's
ship to buccaneer, and preached me many an impressive sermon on the
text of the bottle.
Mistress Lucy had withdrawn while we were talking, and Sandy
MacLeod, as he was named, dressed my wound again with a hand as
tender as a woman's. And then Joe Punchard came down to see me,
Cludde remaining on deck to keep an eye on the crew. Vetch had
sprung overboard, and run fleetly as a deer to the shore, and
though the negroes on the cliff sped after him with yells, they had
a round of half a mile to go over rough ground, and could not catch
him. I would fain have him in my power, so that he might receive
his desserts at the hands of a jury, and be deprived at least of
further opportunities of mischief, but my vexation at his escape
was solaced by the knowledge that Mistress Lucy's safety was
secure.
I talked things over with Joe, and we decided to sail the brig
round the coast to Port Royal, and hand Mistress Lucy over to her
friends in Spanish Town. The management of her estate gave us some
concern. It could not be left without a responsible head, and the
overseers, being, as I learned from her, men whom Vetch had put in
when he dismissed McTavish and the other white men whom he had
found there on his arrival, were scarcely to be trusted.
As the result of a consultation with Mistress Lucy, she asked
Cludde (who had begged and received her forgiveness) to return to
Penolver and take charge until we should have had time to reengage
McTavish and send him up from Spanish Town. Mistress Lucy being now
of age, Vetch's brief authority had come to an end, and I supposed
that he would make his way to Dry Harbor and take ship to England.
I could imagine the rage of Sir Richard when his emissary should
return and report the total failure of his scheme. 'Twould sort
with his violent and overbearing character to make Vetch a
scapegoat (a man in the wrong must ever have someone to kick); and
I wondered to what new villainy Cyrus would turn for his
livelihood.
We had some trouble with the buccaneers when I told them they would
be required to work the brig to Port Royal. They felt a very
natural reluctance to come within reach of the merchants and
shipmen who had suffered from their depredations. But I took it
upon myself to promise them good pay and immunity from arrest,
provided they joined a king's ship forthwith, and being seconded by
Sandy MacLeod the surgeon, who had much influence with his
comrades, I brought them to acquiesce. And so, having bade farewell
to Cludde and the friendly negroes, Uncle Moses and Noah (Jacob
would accompany me), we waited a few hours until the old nurse
Patty had been sent up from the house and then we unfurled our
sails to a favoring wind, and in the course of three days made the
harbor of Port Royal.
During the voyage I saw almost nothing of Mistress Lucy. My wound
kept me to my cabin; she did not often stir from hers, and 'twas
Patty who bestowed on me the ministrations that are so pleasant to
a sick man. I own I was somewhat disappointed in this matter. 'Twas
nothing that Mistress Lucy had not uttered a word of thanks to me
for what I had done for her (she was much more affable with Joe
Punchard); her refraining spared me embarrassment, for a man of my
nature is ill at ease under any demonstration of gratitude; but
there were many other things we might have talked about, and the
mere sight of her would have been a comfort. But, as I say, she saw
me but seldom, and spoke very little, and I felt a spasm of
jealousy when I learned that she spent hours on deck chatting with
Punchard, who for his part, when he came to see me, spoke of her
with all the adoration of a worshipper.
And when, on arriving at Port Royal, I was carried ashore, and
Mistress Lucy came and took leave of me, she said nothing but a
mere "Goodby, Mr. Bold," though to be sure she looked on me with
wondrous kindness.
And when she was gone I could not forbear heaving a monstrous sigh
at the thought that she was now a lady of great property, whereas I
was but a second lieutenant, poor on eighty pounds a year.