As said above, it was now past six o'clock, and Mr. White and the
boatswain were the only unwounded officers with whom I dared intrust the
command of the boats in executing my plans for leaving the ship.[B]
[B] Mr. Richards, the third mate, had been killed by a grape bullet when
we ran down upon the larger of the pirate crafts. He was a young man of
great promise, of but twenty-two years of age, and my cousin's son.
The long-boat and the gig were all that remained sound and uninjured,
the others having been shot or stove during the engagement. It was
arranged that Mr. Jeks, the boatswain, should command the long-boat, and
Mr. White the gig. The passengers and the less seriously wounded were to
go in the long-boat; Mr. White to take those who had been more
dangerously hurt in the gig.
By this time the wind had died down again, and it was as calm as it had
been the two days before, so that the smoke hung thick about the ship
and upon the water, and did not drift away. Although, because of this
thick cloud, we could not see our enemy, and so could not point our guns
with any sureness of aim, it also prevented him from seeing us and what
we were about, so that all our movements were concealed from him as his
were from us.
Mr. Langely having come upon deck at this time, though very weak and
feeble from the pain of his wound, I intrusted the clearing away and
lowering of the boats to him, while I went below to advise the women of
our plans, and to tell them to get together such matters as they might
need in this emergency. I found them in a most pitiable state, having
been sent below at the first sign of the approaching battle, and left
by themselves for all this long time with no light but that of a
lantern slung from the deck above, hearing the uproar of the fight and
the groans of the wounded without once knowing whether matters were
going for us or against us.
The two ladies sat, or rather crouched, upon a chest or box, holding one
another by the hand. Mistress Ann lay huddled in a corner in a most
extreme state of terror and distraction.
I may even yet see in my mind's eye how Mistress Pamela appeared when I
clambered down the ladder: her face was as white as marble, and her eyes
gazed out from the shadow of her brows with a most intense and burning
glance. My heart bled for the poor creatures when I thought how much
they must have suffered since they were sent to this dreadful place.
So soon as they saw me they fell to screaming, and clung to one another.
Nor did I wonder at their distraction when I beheld myself a few
minutes later in the glass in my cabin, for my face and hands were
blackened with the smoke of the powder, my shirt and waistcoat were
stained with the blood which had poured out from the wound in my head,
and around my brow was bound a bloody napkin which I had hastily wrapped
about my head so soon as I had recovered from the first effects of my
wound. But just then I knew not how I looked, nor reckoned anything of
it, for in a fight such as we had passed through one has little time to
think of such matters.
"Ladies," said I, speaking as gently as I could, "be not afraid; it is
I, Captain Mackra."
At this Mrs. Evans burst into a great passion of weeping, with her face
buried in her hands, while Mistress Pamela still regarded me, though
with a fixed and stony stare.
"Oh God!" she cried; "and are you hurt?" And she pointed with her
outstretched finger to my head.
[Illustration: SO SOON AS THEY SAW ME THEY FELL TO SCREAMING, AND CLUNG
TO ONE ANOTHER.]
"Why, no," says I, making shift to force a laugh in spite of the anxiety
with which I was consumed; "it is a mere scratch, and nothing to speak
of. There is no time now to talk of such little matters as this, but
only of leaving the ship, for we can defend ourselves no longer. Get
together what things you need from your cabin, and make haste, for there
is no time to lose."
I believe that Mistress Ann had fainted clean away when she had caught
sight of me climbing down the ladder, for we found that she was in no
condition to move, so I picked her up in my arms and bore her to the
great cabin, the others following close behind. There I left them and
went again upon deck, where I found that they were bringing the wounded
up from below.
I hope I may never see such a sight again to the very last day of my
life, for it is one thing to behold a man shot in the heat of an action,
and another and a mightily different thing to see one of one's own
shipmates carried groaning in a hammock wet and stained with his blood.
We had so grounded that we lay within fifty yards of the shore, and it
could take but a little while for a boat to go thither and return to the
ship again. Nevertheless, I deemed it necessary to give the Rose of
Paradise into the keeping of some one going upon this first passage, and
upon whom I could entirely rely. The boatswain had the care of the
women, which was, of course, of the first importance of all; therefore,
there remained no one in whose hands I could place it with as much
confidence as in those of Mr. White.
It was very necessary to keep up the show of fighting, lest the pirates
should think we had surrendered, and so come aboard of us, but all hands
who could be spared from the guns were engaged in lowering the wounded
into the long-boat and gig.
Leaving Mr. Langely in charge of this, I took Mr. White into my cabin;
there I opened the locker that I had made in my berth, and took out the
box containing the jewel.
"Sir," said I, "I am about to show you a sign both of my regard and of
my esteem. In this box is a jewel worth above three hundred thousand
pounds; this I intrust for the present into your keeping. When you get
to the shore you will not return with the gig, but will remain where you
are, sending the boat back under some one whom you may choose among your
crew. Should I perish, or should the pirates board this ship before you
return (in which event I cannot hope to escape with my life), you will
convey this trust to Mr. Longways, the Company's agent at the king's
town. And now, sir, I wish you God's speed."
Mr. White was about to reply, but I checked him, telling him that he
could best show his regard for me by leaving the ship without further
words.
We quitted my cabin together, and just outside we met Captain Leach,
whom I had noticed repeatedly for the last half-hour, and never very far
away from me. He came directly towards Mr. White and me, but he did not
so much as glance at the box that Mr. White held, but spoke to me.
"I came upon Mistress Pamela Boon's account," said he. "The women are
ready to quit the ship, and Mistress Ann is yet in a dead swoon."
"I will go to them," said I; and then turning to Mr. White, I said, very
seriously, "Remember!"
He did not answer, but bowed his head, and I turned and left him,
Captain Leach following close behind me. He did not enter with me into
the great cabin, but waited without, and when I came out a few minutes
later I saw that he was gone.
I found the ladies waiting in the cabin, each with a bundle tied up in a
kerchief. The waiting-woman lay upon the floor, still in a swoon, with
Mistress Pamela kneeling beside her, chafing and slapping her hands,
whilst Mrs. Evans sat at the table with her face buried in her palms. So
soon as I entered Mistress Pamela arose.
"Sir," said she, "Captain Leach told me he would inform you that we were
ready."
"So he did, madam," said I, "and I am come to help you embark."
As there was no sign of the waiting-woman's revival from her fit, I was
constrained to carry her upon the deck, as I had already done from
below.
The boat under command of Mr. White was already gone, for it had taken
several minutes for me to bring the women upon deck. We stowed them into
the long-boat, and it pushed off immediately and was lost in the smoke.
We then brought up the rest of the wounded from below, who were those
who had been most desperately hurt in the action. These we laid upon the
deck, so as to be in readiness for lowering into the boats so soon as
they should return. In the mean time I had given orders to those not
thus occupied with the wounded to load many of the guns, with
slow-matches in the breeches to burn from five to ten minutes. Thus the
firing might be kept up after all had left the ship, whereby we hoped
that the pirates would be stayed a while from boarding and so discover
our absence. In about ten minutes the gig returned without Mr. White,
and the master's mate, who was in command in his stead, said that he had
remained ashore with the women, as I had commanded him. In a very little
while, the long-boat also returning, we got all hands aboard and pushed
off, the guns still firing now and then as the slow-matches burned down.
So we came safe to shore, but with no time to spare, for by the great
shouts that were presently raised we knew that the pirates had come
aboard the _Cassandra_, and in less than three minutes after the last
man had quitted her. Not more than fifteen or twenty minutes had been
occupied in making ready and quitting the ship; for which celerity, and
for the great coolness shown in this trying emergency, all praise is due
both to the officers and the men. The fight had lasted for more than
four hours and a half, during which time we had nine men killed, among
whom was the third mate above mentioned, and twenty-two wounded, three
of whom afterwards died upon the island.
Besides the clothes and valuables which many had fetched away with
them[C] we had also brought off with us from the ship a quantity of
musquets and pistols, and a dozen or more rounds of ammunition for each
able-bodied man.
[C] I may say here that I myself was but poorly equipped in this
respect, having not only forgot my watch, which I had left hanging in my
cabin, but being also without shoes and stockings, which I had stripped
off so that I might more readily swim for it if the pirates should come
aboard whilst the boats were gone on their first trip to the shore. At
the last moment I was so busied in supervising the lowering of the
wounded into the boats that I did not think of returning for the one or
of securing the other.
As soon as we landed we plunged directly into the thick brush, which
there grew close down to the edge of the beach. Having thrust our way
through these thickets for some distance, we found the others waiting
for us at a little open space at the base of three palm-trees which
stood about two hundred yards from the shore, it being then nigh to
sunset, and with but little chance of the pirates following us that day.
Mr. White was standing near my passengers, who were gathered together in
a group, but one of them was missing. _It was Captain Leach._
"And where is Captain Leach?" I cried, looking directly at Mr. White.
He gazed at me in an exceedingly strange manner, and I saw that he grew
as pale as death to the very lips. "And did he not come in the boat
with you, sir?" said he at last, in a low and husky voice.
At these words a terrible fear came over me. "Where is the box I gave
you?" I cried; and seeing that he was not like to answer, repeated the
question--"Where is the box I gave you?"
By way of reply Mr. White fumbled for a moment or two in his
waistcoat-pocket, and presently handed me a scrap of paper. I opened it,
and tried to read, though my hand trembled so that I could hardly
contrive to make out what it was. But in spite of that, and the blurring
of my eyesight, every word and every letter is stamped upon my memory as
upon a plate of brass.
It was written as though in mine own handwriting, and very hastily
scrawled, but so like that I could not have told it myself had I not
known it to be a forgery.
These were the words:
"_Sir,--I have altered my mind in regard to the box. Please deliver it
to the bearer (Captain Leach), who will take present charge of it, and
will convey it to me._
"John Mackra."
As I still held the letter in my hand, gazing stupidly at it, but seeing
nothing, the whole villany of the business was, as it were, revealed to
me. I saw that when Captain Leach had left the ship in the native canoe
two nights ago he had come straight to the pirates and had made some
bargain with them for that accursed Rose of Paradise; that when he had
gone aboard the _Greenwich_ and the Ostender the next day, it was not to
secure a passage for himself, but rather to persuade them to sacrifice
the _Cassandra_, and so save their own wretched hulks; that when he had
sent me to the women in the great cabin it was to get rid of me so that
he might tamper with Mr. White; and last of all, that he had kept this
forged letter about him for just such an occasion as this. Then I
thought of my shipmates killed and wounded, of my vessel and cargo lost,
of all these poor people outcasts upon this savage, desert coast, with
no present prospect or hope of help, and of the stone itself thus
cheated out of my hands at the last moment, and after all the suffering
and the blood that had been shed. There came a great roaring in mine
ears, all things began to reel before my sight, a dark cloud seemed to
encompass me, and then I knew nothing more.