AT BAY.
Justin returned to the grotto and busied himself with putting out of
sight all Britomarte’s and Judith’s little personal effects that might
have tempted the cupidity of the pirates or reminded them of the
presence of women on the island.
Having done this, he went to one of the caverns where the stores taken
from the ship were kept, and he selected from them tobacco, pipes,
whisky, greatboots, sticks, guns, pistols, swords, sabres, a little of
everything, in fact, that looked like a man’s peculiar property and
suggested only the presence of man, and he brought them into the grotto
and scattered them about in careless disorder.
Then he sat down to rest and to wait for what should come next.
With rest came the opportunity of reflection, for up to this moment he
had acted from impulse only. But now in the midst of his clear sense of
the danger that threatened not only himself, but her who was dearer to
him than his own life, he thought with keen anxiety of his beloved
native country, plunged in all the horrors of civil war and menaced with
destruction. And, oh! the intolerable longing that filled his soul to
get back to her, to fight for her, and, if need were, to die for her.
But this could not be, he knew. The ship that he had hoped would have
borne him and his companions back to their homes was now discovered to
be a pirate, sailing under false colors, and making prey of unarmed
merchantmen. He and his party, if they should escape death from the
crew, must remain on the lone island waiting for the improbable event of
another vessel’s arrival to take them off. But even in his deepest
distress Justin did not despair; his trust in Divine Providence was too
strong to permit him to do so.
While thus reflecting, he suddenly became conscious of the approach of
the pirate crew.
He arose to his feet, and standing over the unconscious form of the
drunken captain, waited to receive them.
They reached the front of the grotto; but they did not come in
immediately; they stood about in groups and seemed to be waiting a
summons, until at length one of their number advanced to the door of the
grotto and touched his hat.
“Well, my man, what is wanted?” inquired Justin, assuming a calmness he
was far from feeling; and yet his disturbance was not upon his own
account, but solely upon Britomarte’s.
“If you please, sir, we wanted to tell the captain that the tide
serves,” replied the man, civilly enough.
Justin pointed at the insensible form at his feet, but even before he
had done so the man’s eye had fallen on it, and the man’s disgust broke
out in an oath.
“By ——! There he is again, as drunk as ——!”
“If you are going to make sail, my man, you and your mates will have to
take your captain and carry him off in his present state,” said Justin,
speaking with a forced quietness.
“By all the fiends in flames, we’d serve him right to leave him here!
And a precious good opportunity to get rid of him; and a glorious
riddance it would be, too!” said the man, stooping over and staring at
the fallen captain.
“You would not surely abandon your chief in his present helpless state
of unconsciousness?” remonstrated Justin, who had no desire to receive
the pirate permanently.
“Oh, wouldn’t we, though? I don’t know why we come back for him at all,
that I don’t! If anybody had stated the proposition to sail without him,
I’m sure we would have done it. If we leave him here it will save his
life and save us the trouble of cutting his throat, which we would be
sure to do before long,” said the man, coolly, as with his hands on his
knees he stooped low and stared intently into the stupid face of the
captain.
“Is he so very unpopular on his ship, then?” inquired Justin, as with
difficulty he repressed the disgust and horror awakened by the man’s
words and manner.
“Unpopular! Why, shiver my timbers, if we have ever been in a fight or
storm yet that he hasn’t got as drunk as Julius Cæsar, and left the
ordering of the fight, or the working of the ship, to Mate Mulligan. And
Mulligan we want for our captain. And Mulligan we mean to have!” said
the man, suddenly turning and leaving the unconscious captain and going
out to his companions, to whom he began to talk in a low and earnest
voice.
Justin did not attempt to follow or to interfere with him. Upon
reflection he was glad that a subject so full of interest and excitement
as the disposition and desertion of their captain by his crew should
have arisen to engage their thoughts and prevent them from remembering
the existence of the women on the island. He watched the man who was
haranguing his mates outside; he saw how, with eager eyes and fierce
gestures, they crowded around him; and so he was not surprised when the
speaker at length left his turbulent hearers and returned to the grotto
door and touched his hat and said:
“Master, the boys mean to leave that lubber here and elect Mate Mulligan
captain and me first mate. But, master, we will take you off, as you
have done the handsome by us in the matter of the keg of whisky; if you
don’t mind cruising round a bit with the certainty of a fight now and
then, and the chance of some day or other getting into port somewhere.”
“Thank you; but I am colonized here for the present, and do not wish to
leave just yet,” said Justin.
“Just as you please, master! Have you got any more of that good liquor
left?”
“Yes, there it is; help yourselves; you are quite welcome to the whisky,
tobacco, pipes, or anything else you may see here in my Robinson Crusoe
establishment,” said Justin.
“Now that is what I call handsome! Here, mates, lend a hand and help to
carry some of this liquor and ’bacco to the boats!” said the man, once
more going to the door and calling to his companions.
They all came in at his summons.
Justin noticed that the man whom Captain Spear had called Mulligan was
not among them. And thus he knew that Mulligan had no part in the
mutiny, and had been elected captain of the pirate ship in his absence,
without his knowledge, and possibly against his will.
The men touched their hats, civilly, to their host, and then began to
take up the articles pointed out, and to carry them off.
“Good-by, master! Sorry to leave so kind a host! Call again when we pass
this way! Meantime, wish you joy of the new comrade we have left you!”
said the ringleader of the mutiny, as with a bottle of whisky in each of
his pockets and one in each of his hands, he followed the last sailor
from the grotto.
Justin went to the door and watched them out of sight, and then he took
his telescope and climbed the mountain to the tableland on the summit
and watched them as they entered their boat and rowed toward the ship.
With the aid of his glass he saw them embark, unload their boat and draw
it up and secure it to the davits; and still he watched them while they
got up their anchor, spread their canvas to the breeze and made sail;
and still further he watched until the ship had sailed away from the
island and waned in the distance.
Then he hurried down the mountain side and into the grotto to look after
the pirate captain, his late guest, who was henceforth to be his
prisoner.
He found Captain Spear still in the heavy sleep of intoxication.
He left him and went to one of the caverns where articles rescued from
the wreck were kept, and looked up a set of fetters, consisting of
handcuffs and anklets, such as are often kept on board East Indiamen for
the restraint of a possible mutineer or other criminal. He had brought
them off the wreck, not with the most distant idea that he should ever
be obliged to put them to their legitimate use, but for the same reason
that he saved every portable piece of iron that he could find—namely,
because he knew that it would be valuable on their desert island, where
they might remain for years, or for life, cut off from all supplies from
without.
Having found the fetters, he returned to the grotto, and, stooping down,
fastened them upon the wrists and ankles of the sleeping pirate.