TOM JORDAN'S MERCY
They anchored that noon in a great bay surrounded by forests and
mountains, which formed a harbour wherein a thousand sail of tall ships
might have lain. Through the long afternoon, while the Rose of Devon
swung at her anchor, the wind stirred the palms and a wild stream,
plunging in a succession of falls down a mountainside, shone like a
silver thread. But Paul Craig sat guard over Will Canty, who lay in the
steerage chained to the mizzenmast, and there was no chance for any
one of the men to speak with Will. And on deck the carpenter measured
and sawed and planed for his purpose; and having shaped his stock he
wrought a coffin.
First he threw nails in a little heap on the deck, then, kneeling,
he drove them home into the planed boards. It was rap-rap-rap, and
rap-rap-rap. The noise went through the ship, while the men looked at
one another; and some chuckled and said that the Old One was a rare
bird; but the Old One, coming out of the great cabin without so much
as a glance at the lad who lay chained to the mast, stood a long time
beside the carpenter. He kept a grave face while he watched him work,
and very serious he looked when he turned away and came and stood
beside Philip Marsham.
"There are men that would slit the fellow's throat," he said, "or burn
him at stake, or flay him alive; but I have a tender heart and am by
nature merciful. Though he broke faith and dipped his hands in black
treachery, I bear him no ill will. I must needs twist his thumbs to
wring his secrets out of him and I can no longer keep him about me;
yet, as I have said, I bear him no ill will. Saw you ever a finer
coffin than the one I have ordered made for him?"
What could a man reply? Although there had been complaining and revolt
before, the Old One again held the ship in the palm of his hand, for
they feared his irony more than his anger.
Darkness came and they lowered the coffin into the boat, whither man
after man slid down.
"Come, boatswain," said the Old One, in a quiet, solemn voice. "There
is an oar to pull."
And what could a man do but slide with the others down into the
boat and rest on the loom of an oar? Phil shared a thwart with the
carpenter, and raised his oar and held it upright between his knees.
The coffin lay across the boat amidships, and there were four oars,
two on the one side and two on the other; but a man sat beside each
oarsman, two more crowded into the bow, and two sat in the stern sheets
with the Old One. Then they lowered Will Canty to the bottom in front
of the Old One, where he lay bound hand and foot.
Shoving off from the ship, the oarsmen bent to their task and the Old
One steered with a sweep; but the boat was crowded and deep in the
water, and they made slow progress.
Mosquitoes swarmed about them and droned interminably. The water licked
at the boat and lapped on the white beach. The wind stirred in the
palms. The great bay with its mountains and its starry sky was as fair
a piece of land and sea as a man might wish to look upon in his last
hour; but there are few men whose philosophy will stand by them at such
a moment, and there is an odd quirk in human nature whereby a mere
droning mosquito can drive out of mind the beauty of sea and land--nay,
even thoughts of an immeasurable universe.
The men beat at mosquitoes and swore wickedly until the Old One bade
them be silent and row on, for although they had come near the shore
the water was still deep under the boat, which tossed gently in the
starlight.
A time followed in which the only sounds were of the wind and the
waves and the heavy breathing of the men. Some were turning their
heads to see the shore and the Old One had already risen to choose a
landing-place, when Will Canty--who, although bound hand and foot, had
all the while been edging about in the stern unknown to the others till
he had braced his feet in such a way that he could get purchase for a
leap--gave a great spring from where he lay, and thus threw himself up
and fell with his back across the gunwale, whence, wriggling like a
worm, he strove to push himself over the side.
The Old One sprang forward in fury to seize and hold him, and caught
him by the wrist; but one of the men in zeal to have a hand in the
affair drove the butt of his gun against Will Canty's chin, and in
recovering the piece he stumbled and pushed the Old One off his
balance. So the Old One lost his hold on Will Canty's wrist and before
the rest knew what was happening Will had slipped into the deep water
and had sunk. That he never rose was doubtless the best fortune that
could have befallen him, and likely enough it was the blow of the gun
that killed him. But the Old One was roused to such a pitch of wrath at
being balked of his revenge that he was like a wild beast in his fury.
Quicker than thought, he turned on the man who had pushed against him,
and reaching for the coffin that was made to Will's measure--a great,
heavy box it was!--raised it high and flung it at the fellow.
It gashed the man's forehead and fell over the side and floated away,
and the man himself, with a string of oaths, clapped his hand to the
wound, whence the blood trickled out between his fingers.
"Swine! Ass!" the Old One snarled. "I was of a mind to lay thee in Will
Canty's bed. But let the coffin go. Th' art not worthy of it." The boat
grated on white sand, and leaping to his feet the Old One cried with a
high laugh as he marked his victim's fear, "Get thee gone! If ever I
see thy face again, I will slit thy throat from ear to ear."
"Nay, nay, do not send me away! Do not send me away!" the man wailed.
"O God! No, not that! I shall perish of Indians and Spaniards! The wild
beasts will devour me. Nay! Nay!"
The Old One smiled and reached for a musket, and the poor fellow, his
face streaked with gore, was overcome by the greater terror and fled
away under the palms. No shot was fired and neither knife nor sword was
drawn ere the echo of the fellow's wailing died into silence; but the
Old One then fired a single shot after him, which evoked a last scream.
"Come, Martin, take the scoundrel's oar," quoth the Old One, and he
turned the head of the boat to sea.
They said little and were glad to row briskly out to the ship. Action
is ever welcome at the time when a man desires most of all to get away
from memory and thought.
That night, when they were all asleep, Martin leaped out on the deck
and woke them by shrieking like a lunatic, until it seemed they were
all transported into Bedlam. He then himself awoke, but he would say
only, "My God, what a dream! Oh, what a dream!" And he would rub his
hands across his eyes.
The grumblers continued quietly to grumble, for that is a joy no
power on earth can take away, but there was no more talk of another
captain. Some said that now the luck would change and told of prizes
they had taken and would take, and recalled to mind the strong liquors
of Bideford and the pasties that Mother Taylor would make for them.
Others, although they said little, shook their heads and appeared to
wish themselves far away. But whether a man felt thus or otherwise,
there was small profit of their talking.
For another day and night they lay at anchor and ate and drank and
sprawled out in the sun. The Rose of Devon, as they had earlier had
occasion to remark, was richly found, and they had still no need to
bestir themselves for food and drink. But any man with a head on his
shoulders must perceive that with old Jacob, who had gone so wisely
about his duties and had so well held his own counsel in many things,
the ship had lost something of stability and firm purpose even in her
lawless pursuits.
And Will Canty, too, was gone! As the old writer has it, "One is choked
with a fly, another with a hair, a third pushing his foot against the
trestle, another against the threshold, falls down dead: So many kind
of ways are chalked out for man, to draw towards his last home, and
wean him from the love of earth." Though Will Canty had died a hard
death, he had escaped worse; and as Priam, numbering more days than
Troilus, shed more tears, so Philip Marsham, outliving his friend,
faced such times as the other was spared knowing.
Of all this he thought at length, and fearing his own conscience more
than all the familiars of the Inquisition, in which he was singularly
heartened by remembering the stout old knight in the scarlet cloak, he
contrived a plan and bode his time.
In the darkness of the second night, when the Old One had somewhat
relaxed his watchfulness, Boatswain Marsham slipped over the bow and
lowered himself silently on a rope he had procured for the purpose,
and very carefully, lest the noise be heard on board the ship, seated
himself in Tom Jordan's boat and rowed for shore. An honest man can go
so far in a company of rogues and no farther.
Reaching the land and hauling the boat up on the beach in plain sight
of those left in the Rose of Devon, where they might swim for it if
they would, he set off across the hills and under the palms. Upon
reaching the height he looked back and for a moment watched the old
ship as she swung with the tide on the still, clear water. He hoped he
should never see her again. Then he looked down at the tremulous and
shimmering bay where Will Canty lay dead, and was glad to plunge over
the hill and leave the bay behind him.