Humphrey Armstrong walked on blindly farther and farther into the
forest, for he was moved more deeply than ever he had been moved before.
The presence of this man was hateful to him, and yet he seemed to
possess an influence that was inexplicable; and his soft deep tones,
which alternated with his harsher utterances, rang in his ears now he
was away.
"Good heavens!" he cried at last, as he nearly struck against one of the
stone images which stood out almost as grey and green as the trees
around, "what an end to an officer's career--the lieutenant of a
wretched pirate king! New nation! Bah! what madness!"
"Captivity has unmanned me," he said to himself, as he sat down upon a
mossy fragment of stone in the silent forest path, and the utter silence
and calm seemed refreshing.
He sat thus for some time, with his head resting upon his hand, gazing
back along the narrow path, when, to his horror, just coming into view,
he saw the figure of the buccaneer approaching, with head bent and arms
crossed over his chest, evidently deep in thought.
Humphrey started up and backed away round a curve before turning, and
walked swiftly along the path, looking eagerly for a track by which he
could avoid another encounter, when for the first time he became aware
of the fact that he was in the way leading to the old temple which had
been formed into a mausoleum, and, unless he should be able to find
another path, bound for the ancient structure.
He almost ran along the meandering path, feeling annoyed with himself
the while, till the gloomy pile loomed before him, and he climbed up the
doorway and looked back.
All was silent and dim as he stooped and entered, stepping cautiously
on, and then, as soon as well sheltered, turning to gaze back and see if
the buccaneer came in sight.
The place struck chill and damp; there was a mysterious feeling of awe
to oppress him as he recalled the chamber behind him, or rather, as he
stood, upon his left; and its use, and the strange figures he had seen
seated about, all added to the sense of awe and mystery by which he was
surrounded; while the feeling of annoyance that he should have shrunk
from meeting this man increased.
Just then there was the faint drip of water as he had heard it before,
followed by the whispering echoes; and, moved by the desire to know how
near he was to what must be a deep well-like chasm, he stooped, felt
about him, and his hand encountered a good-sized fragment of the stone
carving which had mouldered and been thrust by the root of some growing
plant from the roof.
He did not pause to think, but threw it from him, to hear it strike
against stone.
It had evidently missed what he intended, and he had turned to gaze
again at the path, when he found that it had struck somewhere and
rebounded, to fall with a hideous hollow echoing plash far below.
Humphrey's brow grew damp as he listened to the strange whispers of the
water; and then he looked once more at the path, wondering whether the
horrible noise had been heard, for just then the buccaneer came into
sight and walked slowly toward the old temple.
But the echoes of that plash were too much shut up in the vast hollow
below, and the buccaneer, still with his arms folded and chin resting
upon his chest, walked on, evidently to enter the old building.
Humphrey hesitated for a moment, half intending to boldly meet his
captor; but he shrank from the encounter, and weakly backed away farther
into the darkness, till he was in the dim chamber where the coffin lay
draped as before, and the strange figures of the old idols sat around.
There was no time for further hesitation. He must either boldly meet
the buccaneer or hide.
He chose the latter course, glancing round for a moment, and then
stepping cautiously into one of the recesses behind a sitting figure,
where he could stand in complete darkness and wait till the buccaneer
had gone.
The latter entered the next moment, and Humphrey felt half mad with
himself at his spy-like conduct, for as he saw dimly the figure enter,
he heard a low piteous moan, and saw him throw himself upon his knees
beside the draped coffin, his hands clasped, and his frame bending with
emotion, as in a broken voice he prayed aloud.
His words were incoherent, and but few of the utterances reached the
listening man's ears, as he bit his lips with anger, and then listened
with wonder at what seemed a strange revelation of character.
"Oh, give me strength!" he murmured. "I swore revenge--on all--for the
wrongs for the death--loved--strength to fight down the weakness--to
be--self--for strength--for strength--to live--revenge--death."
The last word of these agonised utterances was still quivering upon the
air as if it had been torn from the speaker's breast, when the
dimly-seen doorway was suddenly darkened, and there was a quick
movement.
Humphrey Armstrong's position was one which enabled him, faint as was
the light, to see everything--the draped coffin, the kneeling figure
bent over it prostrate in agony of spirit, and a great crouching form
stealing softly behind as if gathering for a spring.
Was it Bart? No; and the doorway was again darkened, and he saw that
two more men were there.
Friends? Attendants? No. There was the dull gleam of steel uplifted
by the figure bending over the buccaneer.
Assassination without doubt. The moment of peril had come, lightly as
it had been treated, and, stirred to the heart by the treachery and
horror of the deed intended, Humphrey sprang from his place of
concealment, struck the buccaneer's assailant full in the chest, and
they rolled out together on the temple floor.
"Quick, lads, help!" shouted the man whom Humphrey had seized, and his
companions rushed in, for a general melee to ensue at terrible
disadvantage, for the assailants were armed with knives, and those they
assailed defenceless as to weapons other than those nature had supplied.
Humphrey knew this to his cost in the quick struggle which ensued. He
had writhed round as he struggled with the would-be murderer, and
contrived to get uppermost, when a keen sense of pain, as of a red-hot
wire passing through one of his arms, made him loosen his hold for a
moment, and the next he was dashed back.
He sprang up, though, to seize his assailant, stung by the pain into a
fit of savage rage, when, as he clasped an enemy, he found that it was
not his first antagonist, but a lesser man, with whom he closed fiercely
just as the fellow was striving to get out of the doorway--a purpose he
effected, dragging Humphrey with him.
The passage was darker than the inner temple, where hoarse panting and
the sounds of contention were still going on, oaths, curses, and
commands uttered in a savage voice to "Give it him now!"--"Now strike,
you fool!"--"Curse him, he's like an eel!"--and the like came confusedly
through the doorway, as, smarting with pain and grinding his teeth with
rage, Humphrey struggled on in the passage, savagely determined to
retain this one a prisoner, as he fought to get the mastery of the
knife.
How it all occurred was more than he could afterwards clearly arrange in
his own mind; what he could recall was that the pain weakened him, and
the man with whom he struggled wrenched his left arm free, snatched the
knife he held from his right hand, and would have plunged it into
Humphrey's breast had not the latter struck him a sharp blow upwards in
the face so vigorously, that the knife fell tinkling on the ground, and
the struggle was resumed upon more equal terms.
It was a matter of less than a minute, during which Humphrey in his rage
and pain fought less for life than to master his assailant and keep him
prisoner. They had been down twice, tripping over the stone-strewn
pavement, and once Humphrey had been forced against the wall, but by a
sudden spring he had driven his opponent backwards, and they were
struggling in the middle of the opening, when a wild shriek rang out
from the inner temple--a cry which seemed to curdle the young officer's
blood--and this was followed by a rush of someone escaping.
His retreat was only witnessed by one, for the struggle was continued on
the floor. The two adversaries, locked in a tight embrace, strove to
reach the feet, and, panting and weak, Humphrey had nearly succeeded in
so doing, when his foe forced him backwards, and he fell to cling to the
rugged stonework.
For as he was driven back the flooring seemed to crumble away beneath
his feet; there was a terrible jerk, and he found himself hanging by his
hands, his enemy clinging to him still, and the weight upon his muscles
seeming as if it would tear them apart. In the hurry and excitement
Humphrey could hardly comprehend his position for the moment. The next
he understood it too well, for the stone which had given way fell with a
hideous echoing noise, which came from a terrible distance below.
Almost in total darkness, his hands cramped into the interval between
two masses of broken stone which formed part of the _debris_ of the roof
above, hanging over a hideous gulf at the full stretch of his arms, and
with his adversary's hands fixed, talon-like, in garb and dress as he
strove to clamber up him to the floor above.
At every throe, as the man strove to grip Humphrey with his knees and
climb up, some fragment of stone rushed down, to fall far beneath,
splashing and echoing with a repetition of sounds that robbed him of
such strength as remained to him, and a dreamy sensation came on apace.
"It is the end," thought Humphrey, for his fingers felt as if they were
yielding, the chilling sensation of paralysis increased, and in another
minute he knew that he must fall, when the grip upon him increased, and
the man who clung uttered a hoarse yell for help.
"Quick, for God's sake! Quick!" he shrieked. "I'm letting go!"
But at that instant something dark seemed to come between him and the
gleaming wet stone away above him in the roof, and then there was quite
an avalanche of small stones gliding by.
It was the scoundrel's companion come at the call for help, thought
Humphrey; and he clung still in silence, wondering whether it was too
late as his strained eye-balls glared upward.
"Where are you?" came in a husky voice.
It was to save his life; but though Humphrey recognised the voice, he
could not speak, for his tongue and throat were dry.
"Are you here? Hold on!" cried the voice again; and then there was the
sound of someone feeling about, but dislodging stones, which kept
rattling down and splashing below.
"Where are you!" cried the voice above Humphrey; but still he could not
reply. His hands were giving way, and he felt that his whole energy
must be devoted to the one effort of clinging to the last ere he was
plunged down into that awful gulf.
But the man who clung to him heard the hoarsely-whispered question, and
broke out into a wild series of appeals for help--for mercy--for pity.
"For God's sake, captain!" he yelled, "save me--save me! It was Black
Mazzard! He made me come! Do you hear! Help! I can't hold no longer!
I'm falling! Help! Curse you--help!"
As these cries thrilled him through and through, Humphrey was conscious
in the darkness that the hands he heard rustling above him and
dislodging stones, every fall of which brought forth a shriek from the
wretch below, suddenly touched his, and then, as if spasmodically,
leaped to his wrists, round which they fastened with a grip like steel.
To Humphrey Armstrong it was all now like one hideous nightmare, during
which he suffered, but could do nothing to free himself. The wretch's
shrieks were growing fainter, and he clung in an inert way now, while
someone seemed to be muttering above--
"I can do nothing more--I can do nothing more!" but the grip about
Humphrey's wrists tightened, and two arms rested upon his hands and
seemed to press them closer to the stones to which they clung.
"Captain--captain! Are you there?"
"Yes," came from close to Humphrey's face.
"Forgive me, skipper, and help me up! I'll be faithful to you! I'll
kill Black Mazzard!"
"I can do nothing," said the buccaneer, hoarsely. "You are beyond my
reach."
"Then go and fetch the lads and a rope. Don't let me fall into this
cursed, watery hell!"
"If I quit my hold here, man, you will both go down; unless help comes,
nothing can be done."
"Then, call help! Call help now, captain, and I'll be your slave!
Curse him for leaving me here! Where's Joe Thorpe?"
"He was killed by Mazzard with a blow meant for me," said the buccaneer,
slowly.
"Curse him! Curse him!" shrieked the man. "Oh, captain, save me, and
I'll kill him for you! He wants to be skipper; and I'll kill him for
you if you'll only--Ah!"
He uttered a despairing shriek, for as he spoke a sharp tearing sound
was heard; the cloth he clung to gave way, and before he could get a
fresh hold he was hanging suspended by the half-torn-off garb. He swung
to and fro as he uttered one cry, and then there was an awful silence,
followed by a plunge far below.
The water seemed to hiss and whisper and echo in all directions, and the
silence, for what seemed quite a long space, was awful. It was,
however, but a few instants, and then there was a terrific splashing as
if a number of horrible creatures had rushed to prey upon the fallen
man, whose shrieks for help began once more.
Appeals, curses, yells, piteous wails, followed each other in rapid
succession as the water was beaten heavily. Then the cries were
smothered, there was a gurgling sound, and the water whispered and
lapped and echoed as it seemed to play against the stony walls of the
place.
A few moments and the cries recommenced, and between every cry there was
the hoarse panting of a swimmer fighting hard for his life as he struck
out.
The buccaneer's eyes stared wildly down into the great cenote, or
water-tank, whose vast proportions were hidden in the gloom. He could
see nothing; but his imagination supplied the vacancy, and pictured
before him the head and shoulders of his treacherous follower as he swam
along the sides of the great gulf, striving to find a place to climb up;
and this he did, for the hoarse panting and the cries ceased, and from
the dripping and splashing it was evident that he had found some
inequality in the wall, by means of which he climbed, with the water
streaming from him.
The task was laborious, but he drew himself up and up, climbing slowly,
and then he suddenly ceased, uttered a terrible cry, and once more there
was a splash, the lapping and whispering of the water, and silence.
He was at the surface again, swimming hard in the darkness and striving
once more to reach the place where he had climbed; but in the darkness
he swam in quite a different direction, and his hoarse panting rose
again, quick and agitated now, the strokes were taken more rapidly, and
like a rat drowning in a tub of water, the miserable wretch toiled on,
swimming more and more rapidly and clutching at the wall.
Once an inequality gave him a few moments' rest, and he clung
desperately, uttering the most harrowing cries, but only to fall back
with a heavy splash. Then he was up once more fighting for life, and
the vast tank echoed with his gurgling appeals for help.
Again they were silenced, and the water whispered and lapped and echoed.
There was a splash, a hoarse gurgle, a beating of the water as a dog
beats it before it sinks.
Again silence and the whispering and lapping against the sides more
faint; then a gurgling sound, the water beat once or twice, a fainter
echo or two, and then what sounded like a sigh of relief, and a silence
that was indeed the silence of death.
Suddenly the silence in that darkness was broken, for a hoarse voice
said--
"Climb up!"
"Climb!" exclaimed Humphrey, who seemed to have recovered his voice,
while his frozen energies appeared to expand.
"Yes. Climb. I can hold you thus, but no more. Try and obtain a
foothold."
Humphrey obeyed as one obeys who feels a stronger will acting upon him.
"Can you keep my hands fast?" he said. "They are numbed."
"Yes. You shall not slip now. Climb!"
Humphrey obeyed, and placed his feet upon a projection; but it gave way,
and a great stone forced from the wall by his weight fell down with a
splash which roused the echoes once more.
Humphrey felt half-paralysed again; but the voice above was once more
raised.
"Now," it said, "there must be foothold in that spot where the stone
fell. Try."
The young officer obeyed, and rousing himself for a supreme effort as
his last before complete inaction set in, he strove hard. The hands
seemed like steel bands about his wrists, and his struggle sent the
blood coursing once more through his nerveless arms. Then, with a
perfect avalanche of stones falling from the crumbling side, he strove
and strained, and, how he knew not, found foothold, drew himself up, and
half crawling, half dragged by the buccaneer as he backed up the slope,
reached the level part of the passage between the entrance and the
doorway of the inner temple, where he subsided on the stones, panting,
exhausted, and with an icy feeling running through his nerves.
"Commodore Junk," he whispered hoarsely as he lay in the semi-darkness,
"you have saved my life."
"As you saved mine."
Those two lay there in the gloomy passage listening to the solemn
whisperings and lappings of the water, which seemed to be continued for
an almost interminable time before they died out, and once more all was
silent. But the expectancy remained. It seemed to both that at any
moment the miserable would-be assassin might rise to the surface and
shriek for help, or that perhaps he was still above water, clinging to
the side of the cenote, paralysed with fear, and that as soon as he
recovered himself he would make the hideous gulf echo with his appeals.
By degrees, though, as the heavy laboured panting of their breasts
ceased, and their hearts ceased beating so tumultuously, a more
matter-of-fact way of looking at their position came over them.
"Try if you can walk now," said the buccaneer in a low voice. "You will
be better in your own place."
"Yes--soon," replied Humphrey, abruptly; and once more there was
silence, a silence broken at last by the buccaneer.
"Captain Armstrong," he said softly, at last, "surely we can now be
friends!"
"Friends? No! Why can we?" cried Humphrey, angrily.
"Because I claim your life, the life that I saved, as mine--because I
owe you mine!"
"No, no! I tell you it is impossible! Enemies, sir, enemies to the
bitter end. You forget why I came out here!"
"No," said the buccaneer, sadly. "You came to take my life--to destroy
my people--but Fate said otherwise, and you became my prisoner--your
life forfeited to me!"
"A life you dare not take!" cried Humphrey, sternly. "I am one of the
king's officers--your king's men."
"I have no king!"
"Nonsense, man! You are a subject of His Majesty King George."
"No!" cried the buccaneer. "When that monarch ceased to give his people
the protection they asked, and cruelly and unjustly banished them across
the seas for no greater crime than defending a sister's honour from a
villain, that king deserved no more obedience from those he wronged."
"The king--did this?" said Humphrey, wonderingly, as he gazed full in
the speaker's face, struggling the while to grasp the clues of something
misty in his mind--a something which he felt he ought to know, and which
escaped him all the while.
"The king! Well, no; but his people whom he entrusts with the care of
his laws."
"Stop!" cried Humphrey, raising himself upon one arm and gazing eagerly
in the buccaneer's face; "a sister's honour--defended--punished--sent
away for that! No; it is impossible! Yes--ah! I know you now! Abel
Dell!"
The buccaneer shrank back, gazing at him wildly.
"That is what always seemed struggling in my brain," cried Humphrey,
excitedly. "Of course, I know you now. And you were sent over here--a
convict, and escaped."
The buccaneer hesitated for a few moments, with the deep colour going
and coming in his face.
"Yes," he said, at last. "Abel Dell escaped from the dreary plantation
where he laboured."
"And his sister!"
"You remember her story!"
"Remember! Yes," cried Humphrey. "She disappeared from near Dartmouth
years ago."
"Yes."
"What became of her--poor girl?" said Humphrey, earnestly; and the
buccaneer's cheeks coloured as the words of pity fell.
"She joined her brother out here."
"But he was a convict."
"She helped him to escape."
"I see it all," cried Humphrey, eagerly; "and he became the pirate--and
you became the pirate--the buccaneer, Commodore Junk."
"Yes."
"Good heavens!" ejaculated Humphrey. "And the sister--your sister, man
the handsome, dark girl whom my cousin--Oh, hang cousin James! What a
scoundrel he could be!"
It was the sturdy, outspoken exclamation of an honest English gentleman,
and as the buccaneer heard it, Humphrey felt his hand seized in a firm
grip, to be held for a few moments and then dropped.
"But he's dead," continued Humphrey. "Let him rest. But tell me--the
sister--Oh!"
A long look of apology and pity followed the ejaculation, as Humphrey
recalled the scene in the temple, where the long coffin lay draped with
the Union Jack--the anguish of the figure on its knees, and the
passionate words of adjuration and prayer. It was as if a veil which
hid his companion's character from him had been suddenly torn aside, and
a look of sympathy beamed from his eyes as he stretched out his hand in
a frank, manly fashion.
"I beg your pardon," he cried, softly. "I did not know all this. I am
sorry I have been so abrupt in what I said."
"I have nothing to forgive," said the buccaneer, warmly, and his swarthy
cheeks glowed as Humphrey gazed earnestly in his eyes.
"And for the sake of brave old Devon and home you spared my life and
treated me as you have?"
"Not for the sake of brave old Devon," said the buccaneer, gravely, "but
for your own. Now, Captain Humphrey Armstrong, can we be friends?"
"Yes!" exclaimed Humphrey, eagerly, as he stretched out his hand. "No!"
he cried, letting it fall. "It is impossible, sir. I have my duty to
do to my king and those I've left at home. I am your prisoner; do with
me as you please, for, as a gentleman, I tell you that what you ask is
impossible. We are enemies, and I must escape. When I do escape my
task begins again--to root out your nest of hornets. So for heaven's
sake, for the sake of what is past, the day I escape provide for your
own safety; for my duty I must do!"
"Then you refuse me your friendship?"
"Yes. I am your enemy, sworn to do a certain duty; but I shall escape
when the time has come, I can say no more."