A HORRIBLE VILLAIN.
I stayed not long in doubt. The steel-grey light of dawn shone upon
the sea; and there, within half a mile astern of us, was a great ship
flying the flag of St. George.
She was out after us; a consort belike of the vessel we had crippled
in our scampering away. A very swift sailer she must have been,
considering the speedy sailing we had made all along. But there was
small gratulation on that score for the King’s ship now. For her
foremast had gone by the board, shot away by our stern-chasers; and,
having slewed right round, she lay wallowing in the troughs of the sea.
I climbed the poop-ladder, and stepped to the place where my brother
stood with the gunners patting caressingly the nozzle of the piece
that had served his turn so bravely. Wallis, the master-gunner, stood
looking earnestly to leeward, where a wall of mist held down upon the
sea. He spoke a word to my brother and pointed that way. Dick had a
spyglass in his hand, and immediately he set it to his eye, bringing it
to bear. As I drew near, I heard him say he descried seven great ships
which stood close-hauled towards us. Hereupon he gave the glass to the
master-gunner; who, having looked awhile, said he took those ships for
pirates. “And you’ll leave ’em the King’s ship to grind their teeth on,
Captain,” said he, laughing.
But Dick shook his head, “No, no,” said he, “that sort of people don’t
meddle with King’s ships. You get no dew of heaven in them. They’re
going for some Spanish port, to sack a city, belike.”
“Well, ’tis a pity,” said Wallis. But indignation seized on me, and I
said hotly:
“How is’t a pity? Do you wish to see your own people barbarously
murdered, you base traitor!”
The man hung his head, grinning sourly, and looking sideways up at my
brother; who told me to be off with my theatricals, as he called it.
Whereupon the gunner laughed. I had returned upon him; but, from the
cabin beneath, there came the dull report of a pistol-shot.
I knew what it was. Ouvery had seized on the occasion of my absence to
enter the master’s cabin, had fired at the poor invalid, and, no doubt,
murdered him.
And so it proved; for, on making haste to the cabin, I saw the
Englishman lay dead in his bed, being shot through the skull into the
brain. Yea, I did very narrowly escape a like fate myself; for that
enormous and infernal villain, Ouvery, stood crouching in shadow behind
the alley-way door, and, as I stepped by him, he let fly at me with a
second pistol that he had. However, I had caught a shuffling motion he
made before he fired at me, and, by an instinct, I turned my head in
the nick of time. The bullet missed me.
I immediately drew my rapier, and made a pass upon him even as he
leaped on me. But he came a little sideways, so that my point took him
on the shoulder. He gave a yelping cry, and would have closed with me;
but, quick as a flash, I dropped, casting myself with such force at his
booted ankles, which I clutched, as handsomely tripped him, so that he
fell all his length forward on the cabin floor. Thereupon, before ever
he could recover himself, I sprang on top of him, and held him so that
he could not anyways stir or lift himself up. I was mad with passion
against this horrible wretch, and if I had had a pistol in my hand, I
would have made no more to have set it to his head and murdered him,
than to have killed a rat!
Now, the entire affair had passed in the space of a few moments, and
the Captain had just entered the cabin. He stepped forward, and, in a
voice that trembled, bade me stand up and let the Quartermaster alone.
But this was an order I flatly denied to obey.
“Let him alone!” said I. “Why, he hath just endeavoured as much as
possibly he could to murder me; and look you his bloody work there on
the bed!”
“Stop your mouth, and get up!” said he.
“I’ll get up,” said I, “if you’ll undertake that he shall immediately
hang at the mainmast!”
“That’s my business,” said the Captain. “Up with you, or you shall hang
there yourself!”
Now, Surgeon Burke was come hither, standing at the entry of the cabin,
and it came into my thoughts to appeal from my brother unto him.
However, I perceived the foolishness of this. “Well, have it as you
will,” said I, and got to my feet.
Ouvery lay some moments where he was, gnawing the mat upon the floor
with his teeth, and growling like a dog. Thereupon he stirred, slowly
turned over on his back, and so lay lumpish and dazed and retching
after a disgusting manner. This horrible villain did reek of rum, so
that the cabin was full of the stench of it; and, becoming faint, I was
fain to get forth to the open air.
As I passed out of the cabin, Surgeon Burke winked his eye to me, and
said in my ear:
“Never you mind, my boy! I’ll take him in hand. I’ll bleed him, to the
last drop!”