Our drive was a most unpleasant one for me, for the cart had no springs,
and the boy Moses, like Jehu, drove furiously. It fortunately lasted
only some five-and-twenty minutes or so, however; and at the end of that
period we pulled up on what I guessed, from the running of the vehicle
and the sound of rippling water, to be a sandy beach. My conjecture
proved to be correct, for when presently I was hauled out from
underneath the forage, and stood upon my feet, more dead than alive, I
found that we were on the margin of a tiny creek or cove, about three-
quarters of a mile to the westward of the outskirts of Kingston. A
small canoe lay hauled up on the sand, and in the bottom of this craft I
was carefully deposited; after which she was run down into the water,
when Caesar and Peter sprang lightly into her, giving her a final shove
to seaward as they did so, and paddled away, leaving Moses and his cart
to make the best of their way back to the town.
Lying upon my back in the bottom of the canoe, with my face turned
upward to the stars, I was able to see that we were heading eastward
toward Kingston harbour; and about half an hour later the canoe glided
up alongside a small felucca, of some thirty tons burden and was made
fast by her painter. The canoe secured to his satisfaction, the negro
Caesar climbed over the felucca's low bulwarks, and I heard his bare
feet pattering along the deck until, as I supposed, he reached the
companion, when the sounds became muffled, and were presently lost.
Then I caught the sound of voices,--Caesar's and others'--but so
indistinctly that I was unable to distinguish what was being said. The
conversation, however, was brief, for in three or four minutes the tread
of Caesar's bare feet again became audible, accompanied by that of
others; and I then discovered that a conversation, of which I was the
subject, was being conducted in Spanish! This seemed to suggest that I
had fallen into the hands of the enemy, though why the Spaniards should
wish to kidnap so very unimportant a personage as myself I could not for
the life of me imagine, unless they had adopted some new system of
warfare, one element of which consisted in kidnapping as many of the
enemy's officers as possible, without much reference to their importance
or otherwise!
But of course I should soon see; for as I lay there in the bottom of the
canoe, cogitating to this effect, I became aware, from the remarks
interchanged by those on deck, that I was about to be transferred to the
felucca; and if the Spaniards had adopted the novel system of kidnapping
British officers, I should doubtless find some of my fellow-officers on
board in the same plight as myself.
Presently Caesar swung himself over the felucca's bulwarks and down into
the canoe, when he at once seized me by the shoulders, and, calling upon
his friend Peter to lend him a hand, proceeded to pass me up over the
felucca's rail to the three Spanish-speaking individuals who stood on
deck stretching out their arms to receive me. They were very careful
not to hurt me unnecessarily during the process of transfer, from which
circumstance I derived a certain amount of comfort; the inference being
that, whatever might be their motive in thus seizing me, no bodily harm
to me was intended. Having safely transferred me from the canoe to the
deck of the felucca, my abductors next conveyed me below to the hot,
stuffy little cabin of the craft, where, outstretched upon a locker that
was barely long enough to accommodate my length, they left me without a
word, and returned to the deck, carefully closing the doors and drawing
over the slide at the head of the companion ladder, and then as
carefully closing both flaps of the hitherto open skylight. This done,
their conversation with Caesar and his satellite was continued in a
leisurely, desultory fashion for about half an hour,--the burden of it
being unintelligible to me through the closed skylight,--when I heard
the two negroes descend into their canoe and shove off, wishing the
others a quick and pleasant passage. Then followed some leisurely
movements on deck, accompanied by the throwing down of a rope or two,
the creaking of blocks and parralls, a _few_ quiet ejaculations as of
men pulling and hauling, the clink of windlass pawls, the loud slatting
of loose canvas in the strong land-breeze that was blowing; and
finally--as the latter sounds ceased--I felt the felucca heel strongly
over to port, and heard the increasing gurgle and wash of water along
the bends and under the counter of the little craft, accompanied by an
occasional call from for'ard to the helmsman, by which I knew that we
were under way, and standing down the harbour toward Port Royal.
By and by I felt the felucca come upright, there was a warning cry on
deck, a sudden, violent flap of canvas overhead, and the felucca heeled
slightly over to starboard; by which I knew that she had squared away,
jibed over, and was running out of the harbour. A few minutes later I
felt her beginning to rise and fall over the gathering seas as she
skimmed away off the land; the motion steadily grew stronger, merging
into a swift, floating, forward rush, as the seas came up astern of her,
followed by a long, dragging pause as the crest swept past; and
presently the companion slide was pushed back, the doors at the head of
the ladder were flung open, and a man--one of those who had helped to
convey me below--descended into the cabin.
"Phew! senor, you are warm down here!" he exclaimed, in perfect English,
as he stood gazing thoughtfully down upon me. I could of course make no
reply, as I was still gagged; but he probably observed the dreadful
condition that the gag and the lashings round my wrists and ankles had
reduced me to, for he continued, as he stooped over me--
"We are now at sea; and as it is therefore impossible for you to raise
an alarm, or effect your escape, I think I may safely make you a little
more comfortable. You look terribly distressed, amigo; and my orders
are imperative that you are to be delivered safe and sound. There!" as
he removed the gag and cast off the lashings, "that ought to be more to
your liking."
"For pity's sake," I ejaculated, "give me something to drink! That
horrible gag has all but suffocated me!"
"Something to drink? With pleasure, senor. What shall it be--plain
water or `grog,' as you English call it? I think it had better be grog,
for I cannot recommend the water we carry in our scuttle-butt."
So saying, he went to a little cupboard alongside the companion ladder,
and produced therefrom a water monkey, two tin pannikins, and a bottle
of rum, all of which he placed on the cabin table.
"There, senor, help yourself freely; the little _Josefa_ and all that
she contains is yours!"
"Thanks, senor," I replied, as I poured out with a shaking hand and
benumbed fingers a generous modicum of rum, filling up the pannikin with
evil-smelling water, "I drink to our better acquaintance."
So saying, I emptied the pannikin at a gulp, and set it down upon the
table. "And now, senor," I continued, as my companion, in turn,
proceeded to help himself and to pledge me, "perhaps you will kindly
inform me, first, whom I have the honour to address; secondly, why I
have been brought aboard this felucca; and, thirdly, to what place you
propose to convey me?"
"Assuredly, senor," answered the Spaniard; "it will afford me much
happiness to gratify so very natural and reasonable a request. In the
first place, senor, I am your Excellency's most humble servant, Juan
Dominguez, captain of this felucca. In the next place, you are here by
order of my excellent friend and patron, Don Pedro Morillo, captain of
the brigantine _Guerrilla_; and, in the third place, I am conveying
you--also by Don Pedro's orders--to Cariacou, an island which I
understand you have already visited, under certain memorable
circumstances."
So that was it, was it? I was kidnapped, not in accordance with some
wild scheme of the Spaniards to cripple our too active navy by robbing
it of every officer that they could lay hands upon, but in order that a
cowardly, bloodthirsty pirate might at leisure, and in safety, wreak his
revenge upon me for the injury that I, in the exercise of my duty, had
done him. Speaking in all frankness, I do not believe I am a coward;
but I confess that the information thus calmly communicated to me by
this Spaniard--who was most probably a naturalised British subject--
caused my blood to run cold; for I had heard quite enough of Morillo to
feel tolerably well assured that if his motive in causing me to be
kidnapped was revenge, he would not be satisfied with merely shooting
me, or stabbing me to the heart; he would undoubtedly exercise his
utmost ingenuity to render my passage out of this world as lingering and
painful as possible; and, from all accounts, he was quite an adept in
the art of torture!
"You seem disturbed at my intelligence, amigo," remarked my companion,
gazing upon me with a smile of amusement. "Well," he continued,
"perhaps you have cause to be; who knows? I have heard that it was you
who, taking advantage of my friend's absence at sea, visited Cariacou
and destroyed poor Morillo's batteries and buildings there, carrying off
his brig and everything else that you and your crew could lay hands
upon. I hope, for _your_ sake, that Morillo was misinformed, and that
you will be able to demonstrate to his complete satisfaction your entire
freedom from all complicity in that very ill-advised and malicious
transaction; he may then be content to simply hang you at his yardarm.
But if you fail to convince him--phew! I sincerely pity you; I do
indeed, senor."
"Thanks, very much," retorted I, with the best attempt at sarcasm that I
could muster,--for I began to perceive that this fellow was amusing
himself by endeavouring to frighten me, and I did not intend to afford
him very much gratification in that way,--"your pity is infinitely
comforting to me, especially as it is evident to me that the feeling is
genuine. May I ask whether your share in this present transaction is
undertaken purely out of friendship for Morillo, or is it being carried
out upon a business basis?"
"Well, to be strictly truthful, there is a little of both," answered
Dominguez. "Why do you inquire, if it is not an indiscreet question?"
"Now," thought I, "I wonder whether this question of his is intended to
indicate that he is open to a bribe--a bribe to put me ashore again,
safe and sound, provided that I make him a sufficiently liberal offer.
Perhaps the attempt may be worth making; it will, at all events, enable
me to judge what are my chances, so far as he is concerned." So I
replied--
"To be candid with you, friend Dominguez, it occurred to me that you had
undertaken this little adventure as much with the object of turning a
more or less honest penny as for any other reason. Now, supposing that
I should experience any difficulty in satisfying Morillo upon the point
that you just now referred to, what do you imagine will be the result?
Something exceedingly unpleasant for me, I assume, since you were good
enough to express pity for me."
"Something exceedingly unpleasant?" he repeated, with a laugh. "Well,
yes, that is one way of putting it, certainly, but it is a very mild
way; so ridiculously mild that it suggests no idea of what was in my
mind when I said I pitied you. Flaying alive is unpleasant, so is being
roasted alive over a slow fire, so is gradual dismemberment--a finger or
a toe at a time, then a hand or a foot, and so on until only the trunk
remains,--all these are unpleasant, _exceedingly_ so, I should imagine,
from what I have seen of the behaviour of those who have undergone those
operations at my friend's hand; but in the contingency you just now
suggested, I fancy that Morillo would do his best to devise something
considerably better--or worse, whichever you please to call it--for
_you_."
I shuddered, and a feeling of horrible sickness swept over me. Strive
as I would, I could not help it, as this inhuman wretch spoke, with
evident gusto, of the torments to which I might--failing Morillo's
ability to devise still greater refinements of cruelty--be subjected.
But by the time that he had finished speaking, I had succeeded in
rallying my courage sufficiently to remark--
"Thanks; your reply to my question leaves nothing to be desired in the
way of lucidity. Now, supposing I should happen to feel some repugnance
to those delicate attentions on Morillo's part that you have just
alluded to, what inducement would be sufficient to persuade you to 'bout
ship, and land me on the wharf at Kingston, instead of at Cariacou?"
"Ah," replied Dominguez, "that is a question that is not to be answered
off-hand; there are several points that occur to me as requiring careful
consideration before I could name the sum that would induce me to act as
you wish. Of course you will understand that I have no personal animus
against you; you have never injured me, and therefore I have no feeling
of revenge to gratify by delivering you into Morillo's power. But, on
the other hand, Morillo is my friend, and I am always glad to oblige him
when I can, particularly when, as in the present case, I am well paid
for it. Now, if I were to act as you suggest, I should be thwarting,
instead of obliging him; I should convert him from a friend into an
enemy; and I think that you are now in a position to understand what
that means. It means that I should be compelled to _disappear_ as
completely as though the ground had opened and swallowed me; because it
is one of Morillo's characteristics that, while he is a staunch and
generous friend, he is also a bitter and relentless enemy. He _never_
forgives; so long as his enemy lives, he will never rest until he has
been revenged upon him. And this reminds me that if you and I should
succeed in coming to an arrangement, you must not regard the matter
between yourself and Morillo as settled; I warn you that you will have
to maintain a ceaseless watch, for so long as you and he live he will
never relax his efforts to get you into his power. Afloat, and with a
greatly superior force, you _may_ reckon yourself to be reasonably safe;
but _ashore_--no! Very well. Now, what I have told you will enable you
to understand my position in relation to this matter: at present I am
his friend, but I have his enemy in my power; and if I aid and abet that
enemy to escape I become his enemy, which will necessitate my prompt
retreat to the other side of the world, to begin life afresh, with the
haunting feeling that, go where I will and do what I may, I am _never
safe_! That alone points to a necessary demand on my part of a
considerable sum--a _very_ considerable sum--from you as compensation
for the many serious inconveniences and dangers that must inevitably
follow upon my falling in with your proposal. But that is not all.
There is my mate, Miguel, and the lad Luis, for'ard; both of them would
require some very substantial inducement to lead them to fall in with
our views. Altogether, I should say that what you propose would
probably cost you--well, at least, ten thousand pounds."
"Ten thousand pounds?" I ejaculated. "Nonsense, man; you must be
dreaming. Why, I could no more raise ten thousand pounds than I could
fly."
"No?" he queried coolly; "not even to save yourself from--"
"Not even to save myself from the utmost refinement of cruelty that your
friend Morillo is capable of devising," I answered decisively.
"Pardon me, senor, but I can scarcely believe you," retorted Dominguez,
with that hateful, sneering smile of his. "You have been exceptionally
fortunate in the matter of prizes since your arrival in these waters,
and I feel convinced that in prize money alone you must now have a very
handsome sum standing to your credit. Then, if I am correctly informed,
you have made many friends. You are, for instance, a great favourite
with the admiral, who would doubtless be willing to advance a very
considerable sum to help you out of your present exceedingly
disagreeable predicament; and I have no doubt there are others who would
be equally willing to help you if your position were clearly laid before
them."
"But, man alive, I cannot do it," I exclaimed angrily. "So far as prize
money is concerned, I suppose three thousand pounds is the very utmost
that I possess. And as for the admiral, I am no more to him than any
other officer, and I am certain that he would absolutely refuse to
advance a single penny-piece for such a purpose as you suggest; to do so
would simply be offering an inducement to you--and others like you--to
kidnap officers, and then hold them to ransom. But I tell you what it
is," I continued; "you may rest assured of this, that if any harm
befalls me,--if, in short, you deliver me into Morillo's power,--the
admiral will make you suffer as severely for it as Morillo himself could
possibly do. So there you are, between two fires; and, if you care for
my opinion, it is that the admiral is likely to prove a worse enemy to
you than even Morillo over this business."
"That, possibly, might be the case if the admiral happened to discover
that I have been implicated in it," replied my companion, with
exasperating composure. "But then, you see, he never will! I have
taken every possible precaution against that."
"How about Caesar and Peter, the two negroes who brought me aboard
here?" I inquired.
"Pshaw!" answered Dominguez impatiently, "do you suppose they would
inform against me? Not they. Why, they are both--well, never mind what
they are, except that I feel perfectly safe, so far as they are
concerned."
"Very well," I retorted, "time will show whether your confidence in them
is well founded or not. Meanwhile, my position is such that three
thousand pounds is the outside figure I can offer you as my ransom, and
you may take it or leave it as you please."
"Then I fear, amigo, that your days are numbered," replied Dominguez
composedly, as he rose from his seat preparatory to returning on deck.
"I am sorry for you," he continued, "very sorry; but I _must_ think of
myself before all else, and three thousand is not nearly tempting
enough. Possibly when you have had a little longer to think it over you
will be able to see your way to make a very considerable advance upon
that sum. There is plenty of time; the _Josefa_ is a grand little ship,
but she has one fault, she is slow, and I do not expect that we shall
reach Cariacou in less than a full week. You have therefore six or
seven days before you in which to consider the matter; and should you
see your way to raise the ten thousand, at any time before we sight the
island, I shall be happy to talk with you again. Meanwhile, there is
your bunk. Will you turn in at once, or would you prefer to take a turn
on deck first?"
"Thanks," answered I, with alacrity, delighted to discover that I was
not to be confined to the cabin. "I think I will go on deck for half an
hour or so, to get a breath of fresh air; it is rather close down here."
"As you will," returned Dominguez, amicably enough; "I have no fear of
your attempting to escape. You are scarcely likely, I think, to go
overboard and offer yourself as a meal to the sharks. Do you smoke? I
can recommend these," as he drew from a locker a box of cigars.
I helped myself to one mechanically, and lit it, Dominguez following my
example, and then politely offering me precedence up the companion
ladder. I accepted the courtesy, and made my way somewhat stiffly up
the steep steps; for my limbs were still cramped from the compression of
the ligatures wherewith I had been bound. After what I had passed
through it was an inexpressible relief to me to find myself once more
breathing the free, pure air of heaven, with the star-spangled sky
arching grandly overhead.
It was a brilliantly fine night,--or morning rather, for it was by this
time past two o'clock a.m.,--the sky cloudless save for a small shred of
thin, wool-like vapour skimming rapidly athwart the stars; the trade
wind was blowing a moderate breeze, and the felucca was bruising along
on an easy bowline with long, swinging plunges and soarings over the
low, jet-black, glistening surges at a pace of some five and a half
knots perhaps, with a perfect thunder of roaring, breaking seas under
her bluff bows, and a belt of winking, sparkling sea-fire, a couple of
fathoms wide, sweeping past her lee rail and swirling into the broad,
short wake that she trailed behind her. The land was still clearly in
sight on our port quarter, the range of the Liguanea Mountains towering
high into the star-lit sky and gradually sloping away to the eastward in
the direction of Morant Point. Beside Dominguez and myself there was
but one other figure visible on deck, that of the man at the helm--a
long, thin, weedy-looking figure, so far as I could make out in the
ghostly starlight, but one who had evidently used the sea for some time,
if one might judge by the easy, floating poise of his figure on the
plunging deck as he stood on the weather side of the tiller, with the
tiller rope lightly grasped in his right hand, swaying rhythmically to
the leaps and plunges of the little hooker. As Dominguez followed me
out on deck he stepped aft to the small, dimly lighted binnacle, glanced
into it, made some brief remark in a low tone to the silent helmsman,
walked forward and took a long look ahead and on both bows, and then,
returning aft, excused himself to me for turning in, upon the plea that
it would soon be his watch on deck, and so dived below and left me.
Left thus to myself, I fell to mechanically pacing the short deck of the
felucca for a few minutes, smoking thoughtfully the while and turning
over in my mind the disquieting conversation that had just passed
between Dominguez and myself; then, my gaze happening to wander aft to
the solitary figure at the tiller, I sauntered aft and endeavoured to
strike up a conversation with him. The fellow, however, proved to be so
boorish and saturnine in his manner that I quickly abandoned the attempt
and, pitching my half-smoked cigar over the rail, retired below and
tumbled, "all standing," into the bunk that Dominguez had indicated as
mine, where, despite the food for serious reflection that the
occurrences of the night afforded me, I soon fell into a sound sleep.
The week that succeeded my abduction was so utterly barren of events
that it may be passed over with the mere remark that throughout the
whole of the time we had perfect weather, with a steady, moderate trade
wind, under the impulsion of which the felucca bruised along upon her
proper course, reeling off her five to six knots per hour with the
regularity of a clock; and during the whole of that time, strange to
say, we sighted not a single sail. I had been by no means idle during
this time, however, as may well be supposed; for every day at noon saw
the little hooker a hundred and thirty to a hundred and fifty miles
nearer the spot where, if nothing happened in the interim to prevent it,
I was to be delivered into the hands of a fiend in human form, whose
hatred of me was so intense and vindictive that he had taken a
considerable amount of trouble, and put himself to considerable expense,
merely to get me into his power and wreak a blood-curdling revenge upon
me.
But to tamely submit to be thus handed over to Morillo's tender mercies
was the very last thing that I contemplated. I had every reason to
believe that the picture drawn by Dominguez of the form which Morillo's
revenge would probably take was a tolerably truthful one; and while I
was prepared to face death in any form at a moment's notice in the way
of duty, I had not the remotest intention of permitting myself to be
tortured to death merely to gratify the ferocity of a piratical outlaw,
if I could possibly help it. So for the first three or four days I
devoted myself wholly to the task of endeavouring to bribe my custodians
to forego their intention of handing me over to Morillo, and to land me
upon the nearest British territory instead. But I by and by made the
discovery that my efforts in this direction were doomed to failure;
Dominguez was clearly so profoundly impressed with Morillo's power, and
with his tenacious memory for injuries, that the conviction had borne
itself in upon him that if he yielded to my persuasions it would be
absolutely necessary to his safety, not only to buy over the whole of
those engaged upon the business of my abduction, but also to place the
whole width of the globe between himself and Morillo; and to execute
these little matters satisfactorily would, according to his own
calculations, necessitate the disbursement on my part of the modest
amount of ten thousand pounds sterling, a sum which, as I explained to
him over and over again, it was utterly beyond my power to raise. It
was not that Dominguez was grasping or avaricious; it was simply that he
regarded a certain course of action necessary to his own safety and
well-being, in the event of his consenting to yield to my wishes; and as
he had no intention of suffering any pecuniary or other loss or damage
by so yielding, it appeared to him that the thing could not be done
under the sum he had named, and there was the whole matter in a nut-
shell. The attempt at bribery having thus resulted in failure, there
remained to me but one other alternative, that of a resort to force--
myself against Dominguez and the two men who formed his crew. For, come
what would, I was firmly resolved never to suffer myself to be delivered
alive into Morillo's hands; if it was my doom to die at the end of this
adventure, I would die fighting. So, while feigning to yield to the
inexorable force of circumstances, I began to meditate upon the most
promising means whereby to escape from the exceedingly unpleasant
dilemma in which I found myself involved; and after giving the whole
matter my most careful attention, I came to the conclusion that my
simplest plan would be to take--or attempt to take--the felucca from
Dominguez and his associates, and, having done so, make for the nearest
British harbour.