I AM SHOT OUT OF ONE SHIP AND CRAWL INTO ANOTHER, WITH WHAT ADVANTAGE
MAY YET BE SEEN.
My first feeling on recovering consciousness was of a great weight
oppressing me, and this I presently found was due to two dead men lying
athwart me, where they had fallen in their last agony. Using all my
strength, it was as much as I could do to thrust him off--one fellow
lying across my breast with his shoulder against my throat, and the
other again across my middle, his arms thrown out upon the first.
The cause of my weakness was not that blow that had felled me, but the
loss of blood from two wounds--one in my thigh and the other in the
thick of my arm--which I had received without any knowledge on my part,
and now for the first time discovered by my clothes being glued to those
parts and a great smarting when I struggled to free myself from the
weight of the dead bodies.
Being once more able to breathe freely, I lay back on the deck exhausted
and faint with the effort, and slowly brought back to my mind what had
happened. The silence on board, save for the sound of reveling from the
black ship alongside, told me that the battle was over; and it needed
but little to convince me how the fight had ended; but, thinking of my
dear Lady Biddy, I presently set my hands, all stiff and sticky with
blood, on the deck, and raised myself up, looking towards the coach.
Then it was I saw Rodrigues and heard him order his men to cast all us
poor fellows, whom he termed carrion, overboard, without regard to our
being dead or living. Then, once more, a weariness as of death coming
over me, I fell again on my back, with a giddiness in my head and
despair at heart, which robbed me of all vigor, while the stench of
spilled blood made my bowels heave with sickness. The pirates, coming
now to clear the deck, took up one poor corpse, lifted him on to the
bulwarks, and so bundled him over; and in this wise three or four more,
when, seeing the labor before them, one fetched from below the wooden
gangway wherewith they slide merchandise from a wharf down into a ship,
which they now thrust through one of the upper deck gun-ports, making it
fast with cords. This way, with less trouble and much quicker, they shot
the "carrion" into the water, taking no heed if some poor wretch but
slightly wounded did cry for pity and mercy, except by inhuman laughter
and fiendish jests.
Two or three rascals came and carried off the corpses I had thrust from
me, and then I knew my turn was come, and naught could save me, for I
had no strength to help myself. And back came those two (who were new
hands and so did not recognize me), and one kicking me over on my face,
the other took up my legs by the knees, while the first laid hold of me
by the shoulders, and so they bore me, like so much butcher's flesh to
the cutting board, and flung me on to the slanting gangway. By this time
the slope was all slippery with gore of blood, so that no sooner was I
cast on than I slid down like a stone, and shot thence deep into the sea
below.
Now, whether I owed it to the cold, invigorating virtue of the
refreshing sea, the smarting anew of my wounds in the salt thereof, or
the instinct which possesses nearly every creature to make one final
struggle for existence in the presence of death, I can not say; only
this I know, that no sooner had the waters closed over my head than
energy returned to my spirit and strength to my limbs, and striking out
manfully with my arms and legs, I shortly came to the surface of the
water, not more than a couple of fathoms from the stern of the _Faithful
Friend_.
But here was no hold at all, nor could I see that I was much better off
than if I had never risen from the deep, till, casting my eyes about, I
spied a rope hanging over the stern of the black ship and trailing in
the sea, which rope was part of her rigging (for she also had suffered
in the gale, to say nothing of our shot). To this I swam, and being
still full of new-born vigor, I drew on it till it became taut, and I
could keep my head above water with no exertion at all.
Here I rested a bit, all the while searching how I might better my
condition, and perceiving that my rope passed over the lower stern
gallery, I presently got the rope between my knees, and by passing one
hand over the other made a shift to pull myself up, though not without
difficulty, for as I drew myself out of the water I began to turn round
and round on the strained rope like a joint of meat at the end of a
string. However, this was but a trifle of trouble, and hand over hand I
climbed up till at length I reached the gallery, where I took another
rest, and returned thanks to God with as grateful a heart as I could
find.
This gallery, I take it, opened into the steward's room, for through the
ports I heard the clinking of mugs and the voices of men within, and
seeing that at any moment some fellow might look out and spy me, I felt
it would not do to linger there; so I went again to my rope, which hung
conveniently on one side of the ports, and pulled myself up to the
gallery above, which is what is called the captain's parade, that
balcony against the chief cabins where the officers alone are privileged
to walk. Here, as luck would have it, the wreck of a sail hanging down
from the deck above formed a kind of screen, where I might rest for the
present secure from observation. With a glad heart I crawled under this
refuge, and, sitting down to fetch my breath, I thought it not amiss to
look to my wounds. On the crown of my head was a lump as big as a fair
egg, and the scalp cut, but no longer bleeding; in my thigh was a pike
wound about three inches long, but not deep. By tearing off the foot of
my stocking and so drawing the other part high, I managed to make a very
fair dressing for this wound. The other, which was, as I say, in the
fleshy part of my arm, gave me little anxiety, for, though it still bled
pretty freely, I could get at it easily, and, binding it round with my
neckerchief, I felt no further concern about it, but only satisfaction
to find that my case was no worse.
Scarcely had I come to this conclusion when I heard the trampling of
feet on the deck above, and the sound of voices, with one in a higher
tone giving orders. And the first thing these men did was to haul upon
the sail which screened me.
"I am a lost man if I stay here longer," thinks I; so slipping along
still under the sail I came to the little door opening on to the
gallery. By happy chance this was not fastened, save by a latch, and
seeing, as I peered through the lattice window, that no one was on the
other side, I slipped through, and found myself in a prodigious fine
cabin; for this Rodrigues was no common, sluttish jack-sailor, but a man
who, when he could afford it, lived like any prince, indulging himself
in every extravagant luxury that a voluptuous taste can conceive. Here
was a thick carpet on the floor, and all round the sides ran a sofett,
furnished with cushions in the Moors' style, with fine paintings and
mirrors above, and a lantern of colored glass like gems hanging from the
ceiling, which was painted as pretty as could be with devices of flowers
and cherubs. To the windows were silk curtains of a rose color; but to
speak of all these appointments have I no time; only will I say this,
that never anywhere else have I seen such expense wasted as in the cabin
of this scoundrel pirate. Nor had I time or inclination then to take
note of all this bravery, being only concerned to find me some hole
where I might hide for safety. And now came a bustle on the outside of
the cabin, so that I felt I had but come out of the frying-pan into the
fire, and which way to turn I knew not. I could not go into the body of
the ship for the men there, nor back into the gallery neither for the
men above; yet to stay where I stood would be as bad as either.
In this pickle I halted till spying an opening on one side between the
sofetts, I pushed the gilded panel to see if, perchance, this were some
fantastic kind of door; and, sure enough, it was, giving way readily to
my hand, and closing behind me softly with spring-work. And there I
found myself in a cabin smaller than the other, but still mighty fine,
and fitted up as a bed-chamber, with a good cot fixed on one side, hung
with saffron taffety. Other door to this chamber was there none; nor
could I see any place of safety but under the cot, whither therefore I
did creep--recommending myself to Providence--without further ado, and
not a whit too soon neither, for scarcely had I got my long legs well
out of sight when the door opened and a boy came in, as I could see by
his little bare feet peeping under the valance.
Putting my eye close to the ground, I saw him go to a polished chest on
the other side and fetch from one drawer a clean shirt and a pair of
stockings; then from another slop shoes, a pair of trunks, and the like;
till, having set out all that was necessary, he gathered them up in his
arms and carried them away, from which I opined that Rodrigues had yet
another cabin where he was about to change his bloody and besmirched
clothes for these other. Nor was I far out in this surmise, for in some
ten minutes or so, the door was flung open, and I caught sight of those
same slop-shoes and clean stockings for a moment as he stood by the side
of the cot thrusting back the curtains before he threw himself down to
rest. As his deep breathing proclaimed that he had fallen asleep, I was
for a while sorely tempted to creep out from my hiding-place and cut the
villain's throat as he lay there; nay, so well could I make out where he
lay over my head that, putting the point of my jack-knife against the
sacking, I felt sure that I could, with one forcible thrust, drive it up
into his black heart. Yet I could not do this either way; for, first, my
sentiment revolted against taking the life of a defenseless man, as
against murder--despite his cruel treatment of the helpless wounded and
myself--and then my reason forbade me to attempt such a desperate
measure, for if Rodrigues died there yet remained forty or fifty
desperate villains to overcome, and how was one wounded man by any
possibility to accomplish that feat? To fail in such an attempt would be
to provoke the enemy to such a fury of revenge that he would massacre
every one of those whose release had been attempted. I say massacre, but
a yet worse fate might be reserved for Lady Biddy, whose dear sake now
did most concern me. With this reflection I gently shut up my
jack-knife, and slipped it back into my pocket for better employment.