The next time the doctor came below to see his patients he examined Pete
Burge.
"Humph!" he ejaculated. "Lucky for you, my man, that you have such a
thick skull. You'll do now; but you've had a narrow escape. There, you
can go up on deck every day a bit, but keep out of the sun; it's very
hot, and getting hotter. It will do you more good than stopping down in
this black hole."
"Thank ye, master," said Pete; and he lay still in his hammock, waiting
for the doctor to go on deck before getting out and beginning to dress.
"Look here," said the doctor; "you are not off the sick-list yet, and
you will come down and look after this lad till he is fit to go up.--
Well, how are you, my lad?--Hold that light closer," he continued,
turning to his assistant. "Humph! fever stronger.--Has he been talking
to you--sensibly?"
"Yes, zir," replied Pete. "A good deal muddled at first, but he began
asking questions at last."
"What about?"
"Didn't know how he come here, and I had to tell him."
"Yes! What then?"
"Give a zort of a groan, zir, and been talking to hisself ever zince."
"Humph! Poor wretch," muttered the doctor, and he gave some
instructions to his assistant before turning once more to Pete:
"Look here, you had better stay with your mate when you are not on deck.
If he gets worse you can fetch me."
"Where shall I find you, zir?" asked Pete.
"Ask one of the men."
Pete began to dress as soon as he was alone, and found that it was no
easy task on account of a strange feeling of giddiness; but he succeeded
at last, and stepped to Nic's hammock and laid a cool hand upon the poor
fellow's burning brow. Then he went on deck, glad to sit down right
forward in the shade cast by one of the sails and watch the blue water
whenever the vessel heeled over.
The exertion, the fresh air, and the rocking motion of the ship produced
a feeling of drowsiness, and Pete was dropping off to sleep when he
started into wakefulness again, for half-a-dozen men came up a hatchway
close at hand, with the irons they wore clinking, to sit down upon the
deck pretty near the convalescent.
Pete stared as he recognised Humpy Dee and five other partners in the
raid.
"There, what did I tell you?" said the first-named, speaking to his
companions, but glaring savagely at Pete the while. "There he is. I
allus knowed it. He aren't in irons. It was his doing. Give warning,
he did, and they brought the sailor Jacks up. It was a regular trap."
"What do you mean?" said Pete wonderingly.
"What I say. I always knew you'd turn traitor and tell on us."
"You don't know what you're talking about," cried Pete. "Look here,
lads."
The men he addressed uttered a low growl and turned from him in disgust.
"Oh, very well," said Pete bitterly; "if you like to believe him instead
of me, you can."
"I told you so," went on Humpy Dee, whose countenance looked repulsive
now from a patch of strips of sticking-plaster upon his forehead; "and
he says I don't know what I'm talking about."
"That's right," said Pete; "you don't."
"Maybe; but I do now. Look ye here, Pete Burge; it's your doing that
we're here. Nearly the whole lot on us took--there, you can see some of
'em sailors now. Pressed men. They took the pick of us; but we're not
good enough, we're not, while you're to be a bo'sun, or some'at o' that
sort, you expect. But you won't, for, first chance I get, Pete Burge,
I'm going to pitch you overboard, or put a knife in your back; so look
out."
"You don't know what you're talking about," said Pete again, for nothing
better occurred to him; and as the charge seemed to have gone home for
truth with the other unfortunates, one and all embittered by sickness,
injuries, and confinement in irons below deck, Pete sulkily did as they
did, turned away, confident that Humpy Dee's threat would not be put in
force then; for a marine was standing sentry over them, till the men in
irons were marched below, Pete finding that, as one on the sick-list, he
was free to go up or down when he liked.
During the next fortnight the man puzzled himself as to what was to
become of them. He had seen others of his companions often enough,
going about their duties; but every one turned from him with a scowl of
dislike, which showed that the charge Humpy had made had gone home, and
that all believed he had betrayed them.
The consequence was that he passed much of his time below decks, and
preferred to come up for his breath of fresh air after dark, passing his
time beside Nic's hammock, thinking what he ought to do about him, and
making up his mind what it was to be as soon as the poor fellow grew
better and fully recovered his senses.
"I'll tell the doctor then," he said to himself. "There's no good in
telling him now, for if I did they'd take him away and put him in a
cabin, where it would only be lonezome for him and for me too; and no
one would wait on him better than I do."
But Nic did not get better, as Pete wished, nor yet as the doctor
essayed to make him.
"It has got on his brain, poor fellow," said that gentleman one day,
when the patient was able to walk about, apparently nearly well, but his
mind quite vacant. He talked, but the past was quite a blank.
"But he'll get it off, won't he, zir?" said Pete, who felt the time to
speak had come.
"Some day, my lad. I dare say his memory will come back all of a sudden
when he is stronger and better able to bear his trouble; so perhaps it's
all a blessing for him in disguise."
There was so much in this that Pete felt that it was not the time to
speak yet.
"What good can it do him till he can think?" he said to himself. "It
will only be like me losing a mate as can be a bit o' comfort, now every
one's again' me. I mean to stick to him till he can speak out and tell
'em as I didn't inform again' the others."
So Pete held his tongue, and being so much below, was almost forgotten,
save by the men of the watches who had to bring the two sick men their
rations; and finally he left it till it was too late. For he awoke one
morning to find that they were in port in a strange land, and in the
course of the morning the word was passed to him and his unfortunate
companion to "tumble up."
"Here, master," he said to Nic; "you're to come up."
Nic made no objection, but suffered himself to be led on deck, where he
stood, pale and thin, the wreck of his former self, blinking in the
unwonted light, and trying to stare about him, but in a blank way,
ending by feeling for and clinging to Pete's arm.
Very little time was afforded the latter for looking about, wondering
what was to happen next; all he saw on deck was a group of marines and
about a couple of dozen of the sailors doing something to one of the
boats, while the officers were looking on.
The next minute his attention was taken by the beautiful country
spreading out beyond the shore, a quarter of a mile away across the
sparkling waters of the harbour.
But there was something else to take his attention during the next
minute, for there was the clanking of irons, and he saw Humpy Dee and
his five companions marched up from below to be called to where he was
standing with Nic.
The poachers looked repellent enough as they followed Humpy Dee's
example, and scowled at the pair who had come up from the sick bay, and
seemed to receive little sympathy from those who were looking on. Then
there was an order given by one of the officers, and the crew of the
boat climbed quickly in, while the marines came up behind the prisoners.
"They're going to take us ashore," thought Pete excitedly, and the idea
had hardly been grasped, before a couple of old hats were handed to him
and his companion by the sergeant of marines.
"They're going to put uz with Humpy and that lot," said Pete to himself
excitedly; "and I must speak now."
He spoke. It was hurriedly and blunderingly done, and the officer whom
he addressed looked at him frowningly.
"What!" he cried; "this man is not one of you--one of the gang taken
that night?"
"No, master; he's a gentleman, and took by mistake."
Humpy Dee's eyes flashed, and he burst into a coarse laugh.
"Silence, you scoundrel!--How dare you?" cried the officer angrily.
"Couldn't help it, master," growled Humpy. "Make a horse laugh to hear
such gammon."
"What! Do you say that what he tells me is not true?"
"It is true, master," cried Pete, "every word--"
"All lies," snarled the poacher savagely. "He was in the fight, and got
hurt. He's one of us. That Pete Burge peached on us, and brought the
sailor Jacks on us; and he wants to get out of it to let us go alone.
Lies, captain; all lies."
"What do you say, my men?" said the officer sternly, turning to Humpy's
companions.
"Same as he does," cried the pressed men in chorus.
"And you?" cried the officer, turning to Nic. "Are you one of this
fellow's comrades?"
"No, master, he aren't," cried Pete; "he aren't, indeed. He's nought to
me. He's--"
"Silence, sir!" roared the officer. "You, sir," he continued, turning
to Nic, "speak out. Are you one of this fellow's comrades?"
Nic looked at him blankly, and there was silence on the deck, as the
various groups stood there in the burning sunshine.
"Well, sir, why don't you answer?" cried the officer.
Nic's answer was in dumb-show, for, poor fellow, he did not grasp a
word. He knew that the man by his side had been with him a great deal,
and nursed and helped him, speaking soothingly when he was at his
worst--every one else seemed strange; and without a word he smiled sadly
in Pete's face and took hold of his arm.
"That will do," said the officer, who had his orders to carry out. "In
with them!"
The marines laid their hands on Nic's and Pete's shoulders, while the
sergeant signed to the others to climb into the boat; Humpy Dee turning,
as he got in last, to give Pete a savage look of triumph.
Pete turned sharply to the marine who was urging him to the side.
"Tell me, mate," he whispered quickly; "just a word. Where are we going
to be took?"
The marine glanced swiftly aside to see if it was safe to answer, and
then whispered back:
"Off to the plantations, I s'pose. There, keep a good heart, lad. It
aren't for ever and a day."
The plantations--to work as a kind of white slave for some colonist
far-away.
Pete, in his ignorance, only grasped half the truth; but that half was
bad enough to make him sink down in the boat as it was lowered from the
davits, put his lips close to Nic's ear, and groan more than say:
"Oh, Master Nic, lad, what have you done?"
Then the boat kissed the water; the order was given; the oars fell with
a splash; and, as the men gave way, Pete Burge darted a wild look about
him, to find Humpy Dee just at his back, glaring malignantly, and as if
about to speak, as he leaned forward.
But no word came, for the marine sergeant clapped a hand upon his
shoulder and thrust him back.
"All right," said Humpy Dee; "my time'll come bimeby. Better than being
a pressed man, after all."
Nic had been a long while in the darkness below deck, and his eyes were
feeble; but, as the boat glided on rapidly towards the shore, they
became more accustomed to the light, and he gazed wonderingly about in
his confused state, seeing nothing of the trouble ahead, only the fact
that he was approaching the far-stretching, sun-brightened shore.