"The night came out of the dusk a fine starlight to seaward, beyond the
reefs where the Indiaman lay, the high side of the island glooming back
against the deep blue glistening sky, till you didn't see how large it
might be; while the white water hung glimmering off to leeward from the
rocks. The ship's crew had kindled a fire on the long strand near the
boats, and we heard their noise getting louder and louder above the
sound of the sea plashing upon it--evidently through their making free
with liquor. Jones, being no doubt well acquainted with every part of
the ground, proposed to go over and see how things stood, and where the
passengers might be; at the same time, as Mr Rollock was more likely to
come conveniently to speech of them, both for explaining our being here
and putting them on their guard, he agreed to go too.
"One or other of them was to hurry back as quickly as possible, while
the men and myself waited in readiness for whatever might turn up. Hour
after hour passed, however, till I was quite out of patience, not to say
uneasy beyond description. All was still, save below toward the water's
edge--the seamen's voices at times mixing with the washing hum of the
surge on the sand, then rising over it in the chorus of a forecastle
song, or a sudden bit of a quarrelsome uproar; notwithstanding which
they began apparently to settle down to sleep.
"At last the planter came skirting round the hill through the trees,
quite out of breath, to say they had discovered the spot where the
ladies had no doubt been taken by their friends, as Captain Finch
himself, with one of the ship's officers, and two or three cadets, were
walking about on the watch, all of them armed. To judge by this, and the
fact of the other gentlemen being still apparently on the wreck, Finch
mistrusted his men. However, the planter thought it better not to risk a
hasty shot through him by going nearer; and, to tell the truth, I
thought it better myself to wait till daylight, when we should see if
the rest got ashore; or possibly, as I wished to Heaven were the case,
the schooner might heave in sight. 'Where is Mr Jones, though?' asked I;
on which I found he had gone over for the first time towards the well
for some water, as he told Mr Rollock. Indeed, the passengers were
settled near the thick of the wood on this side of the watering-place,
none of the Indiaman's people seeming to know as yet there was such a
thing on the island.
"We each of us held our breath, and listened to hear Jones come back. I
was just on the point of leading my party that way, when I caught the
sound of some one panting, as it were up the ridge from the shore, and
next moment saw, to my great surprise, it was the creature Jones had
such a horror of--the dog that had run wild on the island, sniffing with
his nose to the ground as if he were in chase of something; while the
straw hats and tarpaulins of half-a-dozen fellows with ship's muskets
and cutlasses followed him over the hill, not thirty paces above us.
"I signed to Jacobs to keep quiet, as they halted together, looking at
the dog; and, from what I could catch of their words, they had noticed
it ever since sundown, sitting at the foot of the hill watching what
went on, till the animal ran toward them as if they were friends, every
now and then turning and making for the heights with a bark and a
whimper, as it did at present. One of the men was Foster. 'I tell ye
what it is,' said he, 'there's some fellow on the island already, mates.
If we ketch him, why, we'll have it out of him--then down with it
quietly to the shore, and go off in the long-boat, seeing as how this
blasted fool of a skipper of ours has spoiled our pleasure!' The dog
turned again, wagged his tail, and put his nose to the ground. I thought
at first he'd bring them right upon us, when suddenly he broke off with
a yelp exactly into the track Jones had taken with Mr Rollock on leaving
us. The sailors kept away in his wake, down through the bushes into the
thick dusk of the trees; upon which the planter and I started to our
feet at once, and held cautiously after them, the five man-o'-war's-men
following at our heels, Indian file.
"Jones, however, had either heard the dog, or got an inkling of the
thing, and he had taken a long round so as to join us from behind: the
Indiaman's men keeping on for a quarter of an hour or so, when they
brought up again, seemingly doubtful whether to follow the creature or
not; and we dropped like one man into the shadow, till they made sail
once more. Soon after, the planter pointed to the trees where the
passengers were, and, on a sign from me, the whole of us edged down to
the spot, till we were standing within sight of the half-finished fire,
where the Judge's kitmagar was sitting asleep, tailor-fashion, with his
flat turban sunk to his breast. One of the cadets stood down the slope a
little, betwixt that and the beach where the crew were, leaning sleepily
on his gun, and nodding, while in the midst was a sort of shed, run up
with branches and cocoa-nut leaves, where you could see a glimpse of the
different ladies' dresses, young and old, asleep on the ground.
"The starlight fell right down into the opening, and showed the
glistening edges of the leaves, with the sea broad out beyond the cocoas
at the foot of the rising ground; so bidding Jones look out sharp, I
stepped carefully through. My eye lighted at once on Sir Charles Hyde
lying in one nook of the shelter, wrapped up in his pilot-coat--the
first time in the old gentleman's life for a good while, I daresay, that
he had passed his night on the ground, especially with such a lot of
berths taken up beside him. Still, he was sound enough at the time, to
judge by his breathing, trifle as it was to the planter's; and close by
him was his daughter, with her cloak drawn half over her head in the
shadow--her hair confused about her cheek as it pressed white into the
bundle of red bunting she had for a pillow, and one hand keeping the
cloak fast at the neck, as if she dreamt of a stiff breeze. The sight
went to my heart, and so did the notion of waking her; but I heard
sounds below on the beach, as if the rest of the crew missed their
shipmates, probably getting jealous after their booze, and not unlikely
to seek them up the island, so the more it struck me there was no time
to be lost in coming to an understanding. Accordingly, I stooped down
quietly, and touched her on the shoulder.
"Violet Hyde opened her eyes at once, and looked at me; but whether it
was the starlight showing my uniform, or her fancying it was still the
Indiaman in the Atlantic, in place of crying out, why, there was almost
a smile on her lips as she saw me from the ground. Next moment, however,
she drew her hand across her eyelids, sat up with the help of the other
arm, and gazed on me in a bewildered way, naming me at the same time
below her breath. 'Yes, Miss Hyde!' I said hastily; and a few words
served to give her a notion of the case as well as to advise her to wake
up the Judge, with the rest of the ladies, and be ready to move the
moment we came back. My first thought was to take Foster's own plan, and
secure the long-boat, if we could only get betwixt the Indiaman's crew
and the water; or even try our own, or the opposite side of the island,
and carry off the other boats to the wreck; after which we might keep
off till the schooner appeared, as she couldn't be long of doing in this
weather.
"I had just stolen back to the men and Mr Rollock, when all at once
there was a wild cry, not twenty yards off, among the brushwood. A heavy
blow and a struggle, in the midst of which three shots, one after the
other, were heard from the cadets; next minute, with oaths and curses to
the mast-head, and a crash through amongst the branches in the dark,
Foster and his shipmates came making for the opening. Something
horrible flashed through my mind as I fancied I had caught Finch's
voice, whether one way or the other I couldn't say, for I had no thought
at the time excepting for Violet. Shriek upon shriek broke from the
ladies ere I well knew I had big Harry himself by the hairy throat of
him, as he was aiming a left-handed stroke of his cutlass at the Judge,
who had sprung betwixt him and his daughter. The strength of that
ruffian was wonderful, for he flung me off and levelled Sir Charles Hyde
at the same moment, the Judge's body tripping me.
"Jones and my own men, as well as the planter, were hard at work with
the other five desperate villains, while the cadets and the second
officer of the _Seringapatam_ rushed in from the trees--all of it
passing in half-a-minute. As I started to my feet, Foster had lifted
Violet Hyde in his arms, and was dashing through the darkest of the wood
with her toward the hollow, when, just as I was hard upon him, doubly to
my horror, above all the screams of the ladies I could hear the wild
drunken shouts of the crew below coming up from the beach like so many
devils. Foster had got as far as the next opening where the rubbish of
the hut was, and, no doubt catching the sound as well as myself, all at
once he dropped the young lady on the grass--in a faint as she was, and
her white dress stained with blood, as I thought from _herself_. 'Now,
ye----' shouted he, turning bolt round till her moveless figure lay
betwixt us, with a flourish of his cutlass, which I fancied was bloody
too, 'who are _you_? You'll have a dozen on ye directly, but what's meat
for the skipper's meat for the passenger, so----' 'Devil!' said I,
through my teeth, as I edged round; and Foster was in the very act of
rushing at me, whether he trod on her or not, when my voice or dress
seemed to strike him in the dusk. 'How the bloody comfort did _you_----'
said he, shrinking back for a moment; 'so much the better,' and he
sprang forward again right upon me, with a swinging boarder's blow at my
head, which flashed off my blade with a force enough to have shivered
it, had it not been a first-rate old cut-and-thrust I had tried pretty
stiffly before. If I hadn't been in such a fury of rage and a hurry at
once, 'twould have been Harry's last hit; but, at the third he made, I
caught him fair under it, the point going through and through his body,
as I thrust him back stride by stride--his cutlass waving fiercely all
the time in the air clear of my head, for the stroke came under his arm.
The moment he fell, though I knew nothing before that of where we were,
there was a heavy plunge; I had nearly followed on top of him, as he
went head-foremost down the tank-well under the trees; but next moment,
without a thought more to him in the heat of the struggle, I was lifting
Violet off the grass. What I did or what I said, to see if she would
revive, I don't really know; but I remember as well as if it were last
night the very sound of her voice as she told me she wasn't hurt. The
affair in the wood below us had suddenly ceased during these five or ten
minutes--indeed, as I found afterwards, Jones and my party had settled
every one of the five, either altogether or for the time; but the uproar
of more than twenty fierce voices could be heard beyond them, cursing
and yelling as they came stumbling and crashing up amongst the brushwood
in a body; while the ladies and their companions struggled up from all
sides toward the height, wild with terror. I met Sir Charles Hyde
hurrying to seek his daughter, however; and the moment he had her in his
arms, I rushed down, pistol in hand, to join my men, who were standing
firm below, as the mutineers burst into the opening, no doubt with the
notion they had only the cadets to do with.
"'Here, my lads!' I sang out; 'make every man of them prisoner--down
with 'em to the schooner!' And as I broke suddenly through in the
starlight in the midst of them, Jones, Jacobs, the planter, and the
other four man-o'-war's-men sprang after me, one by one--taking the cue,
and shouting as if to ever so many behind us, 'Here they are,
shipmates--this way--settle the blackguards!' In fact, the moment I
appeared, the gang of half-drunken fellows were taken aback. One of them
roared as if he saw the very devil; and giving them no time to think, we
drove them scattering down toward the beach. One of Foster's party,
however, being only stunned, had contrived to get down amongst them; and
in a little while, seeing we didn't follow, the whole lot of them
appeared to get an inkling of the truth, on which they rallied. It
wasn't long ere I saw they had got desperate, and were planning to
divide, and come somewhere over upon us round the heights; so that, in
the dark, with our small party, not knowing their numbers, the best we
could do was to gather up toward the peak, and secure the ladies.
Accordingly, we passed an uncomfortable enough time during the rest of
the night, till daybreak, when still no signs of the schooner, as we saw
in the clear to north-eastward. Frightful notions came into my head of
something having happened to her; the mutineers below were on both sides
of the island, and they held the watering-place. We hadn't provisions
for a single breakfast to half the party of us--and the fellows being
now fairly in for it, they could starve us out if they chose. You may
conceive, accordingly, what a joyful sight met my eyes, when, on the
dusk lifting off to northward, we could see the lovely craft under all
sail not six miles off, bearing down before a fresh breeze for the deep
end of the island!
"The wind had headed her off on her way back; and, knowing nothing of
the wreck, Westwood might have landed at the mercy of the villains in
the bush. But the minute we saw his boat out, the whole of us, save the
Judge and the planter, made a clean charge down upon them--the
schooner's men joining us with the oars and boat-stretchers; and in
half-an-hour the whole gang, having lost heart, were taken and lashed
fast by the wrists on the beach, to a single man.
"On searching the watering-place during the day, we found someone had
covered the mouth of the tank with sticks and leaves, through which
Harry Foster had gone when he fell. The stuff had fallen in over him;
and the well being evidently made deep into the rock, to hold water the
longer, with the roots of the trees growing out into it, his body never
came up. Somehow or other, no one liked to sound it to the bottom; but
the thing that horrified all of us the most was to find Captain Finch
himself lying quite dead amongst the brushwood near where the passengers
had pitched their quarters, with a cut through his skull enough to have
killed an ox. It was supposed Foster had suddenly come upon him, as he
and his shipmates looked out for the hoard they thought the pirates had
in the island, while Finch was on guard over the ladies. Whether the
fellow took a new notion at the moment, or what it was, the whole gang
of them made their rush upon the second mate and the cadets, the minute
after the captain met his death.
"As for Jones, he told me he had noticed the dog watching the seamen
below, and the idea got into his head of what might happen. There was
that about the animal to give one a dread you couldn't describe. How it
had lived all this time, and how the customs came back on it, after
growing perfectly wild, of carrying on like what it did that night, was
a mystery; but Jones said he hadn't heard it bark before, neither had
the man he knew of, since the time he was first left _alone_ on
White-water Island. In fact, the whole of us might have hunted it down
before we left. But 'No!' Jones said; 'there's a perfect fiend in the
brute, I do believe--yet it strikes me by this time, the creature
belongs to--to the Almighty, sir!' The men and passengers had been taken
off the Indiaman's wreck, which there was no chance of getting off the
reef; so, taking out the best of her stores and the passengers'
property, we had every soul aboard the schooner, and at last set sail to
the south-east, meaning to go in at Madras, where a sloop might be sent
to recover more from the ship. 'Twas with no ordinary state of things,
from stem to stern, that we dropped White-water Island astern.