GREATLY PUT TO IT TO KNOW WHAT TO DO, I DO NOTHING.
The bumping and grinding together of the ships had ceased before
Rodrigues came to take rest, showing that the grapnels were cast off
that bound the three ships together; and now, from the easy movement, I
surmised that we were under way, and making for some haven for the
greater convenience of repairing injuries, distributing of stores,
refreshment, etc., which was indeed the case. On board the _Sea Lion_
Rodrigues had set a sufficiency of men to work her, and on the _Faithful
Friend_ a greater number for a like purpose, and to serve as guard over
the prisoners in the roundhouse, while the rest he took with him on
board his own ship to lead the way and conduct the prizes he had taken.
About eight o'clock that evening (as I judge) we seemed to have come
into very smooth water, and then the boy coming to the cabin called to
Rodrigues that the master did wish to speak to him; whereupon Rodrigues
sprang up and went out. Then for the first time could I stretch my limbs
with ease; for though the bustle on deck, the hammering of the
carpenters, and such noisy business affected his slumbers not in the
least, yet did I but turn upon the carpet under his cot, his breathing
would show that the sound had alarmed his senses, which was a remarkable
thing, but not without parallel, for those who live in peril develop, as
I may say, a new sense which never sleeps. Thus had I been constrained
to lie very still (which was doubtless of great advantage to me for the
healing of my wounds, but very little to the repose of my bones), for I
knew full well that had he found me under his cot he would have slain me
there, helpless as I was for defense, without any such compunction as
stayed my hand from taking his life.
So now, as I say, being free to move, I stretched myself and turned me
about with great relief and satisfaction, for here, as I take it, had I
been lying on my back without motion the best part of ten hours.
Presently I heard the voice of Rodrigues on the deck above, and feeling
mighty faint for want of food, I lifted the valance and peeped out.
There was just light enough to descry a wine-cooler in the corner of the
cabin over against the chest I have mentioned, and urged on by my
necessity I made bold to wriggle out from my hiding-place and creep over
to it. By good chance it was unlocked, and inside were half a dozen good
bottles, of which I scrupled not to appropriate the first I laid my hand
on; then to make a good job of it while I was about it, I pried into a
cabinet hard by, when by another good chance I lighted on a dish of
dried raisins. Well content with this booty, I hied me back under the
cot, and rolling up a corner of the carpet to serve as a pillow, I
managed to refresh myself to my heart's content. Nay, I think I drank
more of that wine (the most excellent that ever I did taste) than was
good, for despite my determination to keep awake, I unconsciously fell
asleep, which was the maddest thing a man in his right senses could have
done; for had Rodrigues come back into that cabin he would surely have
discovered me by my hard breathing; but this (thanks be to God!) he did
not do; for having rested himself, he gave permission to his crew to
relax awhile likewise, himself going on board the _Faithful Friend_ for
the better custody of the prisoners there, as I believe.
At this time the three ships, brought all well together, lay anchored
within a good bay (as I am told) in an island which I take it must have
been one of the Bahamas.
I was awoke by a bustling in the next cabin, to find the sun streaming
full under the edge of the cot valance. I heard Rodrigues speaking there
in a tone of command, but what he said my senses were yet too confused
to make out; then I caught sight of the boy's feet again as he entered
that one where I lay and set something down. And now he comes very
briskly to the cot and sets about stripping it; that done, he shakes up
the bed, turns it over as any maid would, and fetch out from the chest
clean sheets, which he lays in the place of those who had stripped off,
and so makes up the bed; after which he sets the furniture in order,
and, tucking the foul linen under his arm, goes out.
All this while there was prodigious hurrying to and fro over head,
tumbling of heavy goods below, creaking of pulleys, shouting of orders,
and like confusion, which was caused by the shipping aboard of the black
ship all the stores and treasure belonging to the _Sea Lion_ and the
_Faithful Friend_, to which this rogue Rodrigues had a fancy. But to
think that in the midst of all this pother he took heed to having clean
sheets laid in this bed did astonish me beyond all things.
The bustle continued all the morning; once or twice the boy came in with
parcels, which he set atop of that he had already brought, but nothing
else occurred to disturb my meditations. And these, as I grew accustomed
to the noise around me, were of a very melancholy sort, not because of
the sad outlook concerning my own fortunes, for I may truly say I had
grown in a sort callous and indifferent to what became of me, but for
thinking of Lady Biddy. I took myself very grievously to task for having
slept all through that night like a log while she was in such an
extremity.
"Is this your devotion, wretch!" says I to myself--"is this your love,
that you can slumber in peace while she, hived up with rude sailors,
destitute of common necessaries, is in peril of death at the hands of
her wicked persecutors? Have you no bowels of pity, that you could make
not one effort to save her, rascal?"
In this way I taunted myself, until, falling into a more reasonable
state of mind, I began to reason as to what I might yet do in her
behalf. I concluded from the shifting of the stores that Rodrigues had
determined to abandon the two ships with their crew, for the mere hulls
could be of little value to him. Coming to this decision, I was for
getting away from the black ship and rejoining the _Faithful Friend_,
that I might be near by Lady Biddy; but what could I then do? Was not
this rather a gratification of my own selfish desire than a means of
benefiting her? Was I not simply adding another hungry mouth to that
destitute company? With these and a hundred such fruitless arguments did
I torment myself; now preparing myself to get away, now resigning myself
to stay where I was, getting no nearer to a rational determination in
the end that I was in the beginning.
I was still in this torment when I heard the anchor weighing and the men
singing as they used to do at this business. Suddenly their singing
ceased, and I heard a great angry clamor of voices from a distance; nay,
I do think I heard my uncle's big voice above the rest, and then the
fellows above replying with laughter and derision, so that I knew we
were leaving that unhappy company behind, as was the more evident by the
bending of the ship before the wind. Then, desperate to think I was
being carried away from Lady Biddy, I took resolution to dash through
the cabin to the gallery and cast myself into the sea, and to this end I
had set my hands and feet against the wall, to thrust my body from under
the cot, when the door was thrown violently open, the cabin entered, and
the sacking of the bed was pressed down over my head, which made me
think that Rodrigues had come again to rest himself.
Turning silently on my back I glanced under the valance. At a little
distance were the bare feet of the boy; close to the valance, standing
beside the cot, were the feet of a man. Thus they stood immovable for a
space, and then lightly they moved away and the door was closed behind
them. But the sacking still bulged downward with the weight thrown on
the bed. "Had Rodrigues laid there a wounded comrade?" I asked myself.
That it was Rodrigues who had entered and left the cabin I was sure, for
I now heard his voice speaking low, as if giving orders to the boy, in
the one adjoining.
If it be a wounded comrade he has laid here, then he is badly hurt,
thought I, as I lay with my eyes fixed on the sacking, for there was no
sign of movement; nor was there any sound of groaning or the like.
Only for a few minutes did matters stand thus, however; then there was a
little movement above, followed by a quick start, and the next instant,
in the space below the valance, I saw descend the sweetest little foot
that ever man did see, and then its fellow, both neatly shod, after
which fell the hem of an envious petticoat that shut them from my sight.
My heart quite ceased to beat as I asked myself, "Who is this woman?"
For a moment she stood where she had stepped to the ground, as if
looking around to realize where she was; then like any doe she sprang
toward the little windows that opened on to the gallery, and looking
out, she gave a moan of despair, that by which plaintive, delicate
sound, I knew that this dear creature was Lady Biddy.