"I am a miserable slave, sir."
"Yes, yes, I know. Then look here, can we not all escape together?"
"Escape, sir! How?"
"Through Dinny's help."
"He would not give it, sir. It would be impossible. I--I--there! I
will speak out, sir--I can bear this horrible life no longer! I have
asked him to take me away."
"Well, will he not?"
"He is afraid, sir."
"And yet he loves you?"
"He says so."
"And you believe it, or you would not run risks by coming here?"
"Risks!" said the woman, with a sigh. "If Mazzard knew I came here he
would kill me!"
"The wretch!" muttered Humphrey. Then aloud, "Dinny must help us.
Woman, surely you can win him to our side! You will try!"
"Try, sir! I will do anything!"
"Work upon his feelings, and I will try and do the same."
"He fears the risk of the escape, and also what may happen to him when
he gets back to England. He has been a buccaneer, and, he tells me, a
soldier. He will be charged with desertion."
"I will answer for his safety," said Humphrey, hastily. And then
running to the curtain he made sure that Bart was not listening.
"Be cautious," he said, as he went back and began to pace up and down,
with his eyes fixed upon the ground. "Tell me, could we get a boat?"
"I don't know, sir; I think so. Would it not be better to take to the
forest?"
"That we must consider. First of all, Dinny must be won over."
"I will try."
"How could I communicate with you?"
"You could not, sir. I came to-day to warn Dinny to be cautious, for
Mazzard suspects something. He has gone to the men's place, or I could
not be here."
"But you can come sometimes and speak to me. You will be able to know
whether anyone is here."
"If I can come, sir," said the woman; "but it is very difficult. The
Commodore is always about; nothing escapes him."
"A scoundrel!"
"I don't think he is such a very bad man," said the woman.
"Indeed! Ah, women always find an excuse for a good-looking scoundrel!"
"I don't think a man who is faithful to the woman he loved can be very
bad," said the voice, softly.
"Faithful! why, I suppose he has a dozen wives here?"
"He! Oh, no! I don't know, sir, exactly, but I have seen him go to the
old chamber in one of these ruinous places, and he goes there to pray by
the side of a coffin."
"What!" cried Humphrey.
"Yes, a coffin; and it contains the body of the woman he loved, or else
of his sister. No one here knows but Dinny and Bart, and--"
"Hist!" whispered Humphrey, catching up a bunch of grapes and beginning
to eat them.
He had heard the distant step of his guardian, and then there was
silence, for Bart seemed to creep up and listen before entering, which
he did at last, to find the prisoner muttering to himself and eating the
grapes.
"Done?"
"Yes. You can clear away."