WE LAY OUR HEADS TOGETHER CONCERNING WHAT IS BEST TO BE DONE.
Now having slain the dog, as I have shown, we crouched us down, that we
might not be seen, feeling pretty secure; for those who pursued were a
good way to the north of the path we had cut for ourselves, and unless
by accident they hit upon that, they might hack and hew for a whole week
(now there was no dog to betray our whereabouts) without coming nigh us.
Indeed, as the old saying goes, 'twas like searching of a needle in a
bottle of hay, with this addition--that they who searched were no bigger
than the needles they sought. As we squatted there we could plainly see
them chopping at the growth to make a passage (which was a comforting
assurance they had not hit upon the alley we had made), together with
much cursing and swearing; very grateful also to our ears, as showing
they liked not their business, and crying out to the dog, who, for aught
they knew, had started some game or was busy battening upon his prey.
For some time this uproar continued, and at one moment it seemed to be
coming perilously near; but in the end they overshot us, going down the
hill some way below. Then they gave over shouting, and we heard no more
of them, by which we judged they had given up the attempt to find us or
the dog in despair, and were gone back the way they had come.
So when we counted it safe to move, we once more began to force our
passage down to the river; and, not to tire the reader as much as we
tired ourselves in this business, we at length reached the water-side.
Here, being exhausted with our exertions and faint for want of food, we
made a fire, and ate a serpent roasted on the embers, which Matthew had
cut down; and this I recollect, because it was the first time I had
tasted of these reptiles; nor should I then have eaten it, having a
great loathing for such worms, but that Matthew assured me they were
excellent meat, as indeed they are for those who can get no better.
While we were regaling ourselves I begged Matthew to tell me why he had
come down to the river instead of returning to the road.
"For two reasons, master," he replies. "First of all, there was not a
bend of that road that was safe for us, seeing that at any turn we might
have marched smack into the hands of the Portugals."
"I don't see that," says I; "for we had stood a better chance of
catching sight of Lewis de Pino and his train going on before us than
they of spying us creeping on behind them."
"How about the others?" says he.
"What others?"
"Why, they who have been hunting us with the dog."
"They, I take it, are Lewis de Pino's men," says I.
"Lord love you, master, not they!" says he. "Do you think that dog was
his, too? Oh, no! He and I are old enemies. He belongs to my old master
the factor, and is kept at the station to hunt poor runaways. I knew the
moment I heard his bark that my factor's men were on our heels. Villain!
he is shrewd enough to know you would follow in your cousin's steps, and
dispatched his men--if he be not himself at their head--to search the
road and apprise De Pino of your escape. Now, master, if they had
slipped by without being betrayed by the dog they would have spurred on
till they overtook De Pino, and finding us not with him would have laid
in ambush to take us as we followed after. Do you think I'm far out in
my calculation?"
"No," says I; "you're right, I must allow, Matthew; and now for your
second reason."
"The second hangs on to the first, master; for it stands to reason that
if we ran a fair chance of losing our own liberty by sticking to the
road, we were in a poor way to save the female. I went a bit too far
maybe in supposing that you had no certain scheme of your own for
circumventing De Pino."
"No," says I; "you were in the right again there: I had no fixed
purpose."
"You had a notion maybe that we might catch De Pino and his men all
napping, and that we might just get away with the female before they
woke."
I admitted that if I had any scheme at all it was no better than that.
"Well, master," says Matthew, "we must give the Portugals credit for
having sense enough to sleep with one eye open after being warned that
you were at large, and so you must see that it would be courting our own
destruction to attempt any such design as that."
"Ay," says I, "but I sha'n't be content to escape destruction myself if
my cousin is to be abandoned to a worse fate."
"True, master," says he; "but as her escape depends on our existence, we
must insure the latter for to compass the former."
"There I agree with you," says I; "but do you, if you can, show me by
what means you reckon to get at my Lady Biddy, for up to this you have
only led me further away from her."
"Master," says he, "so far as my observation goes, the best part of
mortal success has been achieved by the turning of happy accidents to
advantage, and our success in this undertaking must likewise depend upon
favorable circumstances coming to our hand. Nevertheless, we can do
something, and the best chance of gaining a victory is to attack the
enemy on the side where assault is least looked for; and so," says he,
seeing I was pretty well driven to the end of my patience with his
philosophy, "instead of hanging about in De Pino's rear, where he
undoubtedly expects to spy us, we must get in front of him, where he as
little looks to meet us as the man in the moon."
"And how on earth do you expect to get in front of him by coming down
here?"
"By the river," says he, "where there are neither rocks to throw us
over, nor briars to balk our progress."
"He will be leagues ahead of us, man, before nightfall," says I, in
desperation.
"No matter for that; we'll be leagues ahead of him before daybreak. I
warrant we'll be at Valetta a day before he arrives."
"Where is Valetta?"
"Valetta is a town on this river that he must pass through. 'Tis four
days' march from here by road--a shorter journey than by the river; but
we must advance while he is resting, journeying by night as well as by
day. Turn and turn about, we need never stop at our oars save to eat our
meals together."
"But we have no boat," says I.
"We must make one," says he.
I laughed, yet not merrily, and asked him if he expected we could make a
boat in four days, when it had cost me four months and more to make a
raft.
"Lord love you, master," says he, "we'll be afloat in four hours."