THE CONFLICT.
CAPTAIN BRAMBLE knew very well that he had desperate men to deal with in
the taking of a slaver on the coast, but he had gathered his evidence
and witnesses in such a strong array that he felt warranted in going to
any length in securing possession of a clipper craft which had been so
fully described to him. He was not wanting in personal courage, and
therefore, with a well-selected body of sailors and marines, and one or
two officers, he quietly pulled away from the ship's side, under cover
of the night, and landed at the proposed spot. Here he found Maud
patiently awaiting his coming, and ready to lead him to the hiding-place
of the "Sea Witch" and her crew. The men were all well armed, and
instructed how to act in any possible emergency that was to be met with
in the business which brought them on shore.
On the whole body pressed in silence, through a tangled and narrow path,
being more than once startled by the growl of some wild animal, whose
haunts they disturbed. It was weary struggling by this path through the
wood, but it was the only way to approach the desired point by land.
Maud hesitated not, but stole or glided through the tangled undergrowth,
as though she had passed her whole life-time in the deep, tangled ways
of the jungle. As they went on, the moon gradually rose and lifted up
the dark path by little gleamings which stole in through the thick
leaves and close-turning branches of the lofty vegetation.
On, on they press; and now they pause at a sign from Maud, and listen to
the sound of voices, which have a strange and echo-like sound in that
wild and tangled spot. Hark! those voices are not from the tongues of
natives; that is English which they speak.
"Hist! hist!" whispered the Quadroon, "we are almost upon them!"
"In which direction?" asked the English officer.
"Here, see you not those bright, silver-like scales through the leaves?"
"Yes."
"That is the river's bed, and they lie on board their craft, moored
close to us."
"How many do they number?"
"I know not."
"It is not important," continued the Englishman, turning to his
followers, and in a low voice bidding them look to their weapons, for
the game was near at hand.
A few more steps brought the party to the skirts of the thicket, where
it bordered on a small clearing, opening upon the river, and looking
across which--while they were themselves screened by the jungle--they
discovered the dark hull of the "Sea Witch," with her lower masts and
their standing rigging. The vessel was moored close to the shore, with
which a portable gangway connected it. Shallow as the water was, yet so
light was her draft that she evidently floated upon its sluggish
current. Voices were heard issuing from the fore hatch, and two or three
petty officers were seated about the entrance to the cabin, smoking
cigars and pipes, all unconscious of any danger.
"There is your prey! Spring upon it, and be quick, for they will fight
like mad, and he will lay a dozen of you by the heels before you take
the 'Sea Witch!'" said Maud.
Captain Bramble rushed forward to the attack, followed by his men, and
was soon on the deck of the vessel; but though he took Mr. Faulkner and
his crew by surprise, he did not find them entirely unprepared, and
after dropping eight of his people upon the slaver's deck, and being
himself, severely wounded in the arm, Captain Bramble thought it best to
beat a retreat, at least for a few moments, and so sought again the
shelter of the jungle.
The conflict, which was very brief, was also a very sanguinary, and five
of the slaver's people had been either mortally wounded or killed
outright; but from the habit of constantly wearing their arms, even to
pistols, when on the coast, they had been found in a very good situation
at even the shortest notice for defending themselves. Captain Bramble
now saw evident tokens of a purpose to unmoor the vessel, and let her
drift out into the river, which would at once place her beyond his
reach, as he had no boats within a league of the spot; and therefore he
resolved upon a second onslaught, and this time divided his men into
three parts--one to board at the bows, one at the stern, and himself
leading a dozen picked men at the waist.
This division of his forces was the best manouvre he could possibly
make, and succeeded admirably, since his own people outnumbered the
slavers, and by dividing them he strengthened his own power and weakened
theirs. Once more upon their deck, the hand-to-hand battle was short,
bloody and decisive, until towards its close, Captain Bramble found
himself driven into the forecastle with a number of his followers, and
at the same moment saw the mate of the "Sea Witch," with those of his
people that were left alive hastening to embark in a quarterboat, and
pull away from the vessel's side with great speed.
A sort of instinct explained to him the meaning of this, and hurrying
his people on shore with the wounded, they sought the shelter of the
jungle once more. Scarcely had they gained the shade of the thick
undergrowth, when a report like that of a score of cannons rang upon the
night air, and high in the air soared a body of flame and wreck in
terrific confusion. The slavers had placed a slow match in connection
with the magazine, and had blown in one instant of time that entire and
beautiful fabric into ten thousand atoms!
Even Maud, with all her hatred and passion, quailed at the shock, and
trembled as she crouched to the ground with averted face. She realized
the result of her treachery, but looked in vain for the object on whom
she had hoped to reck the strength of her indignation and her hate.
Where was he? This was a question that Captain Bramble had several times
asked; but in vain, until now, when suddenly there appeared before their
eves, hastening towards the scene, Captain Will Ratlin.
"Seize him, my men! seize him, and bind his arms!--he is our prisoner,"
said the English officer.
"By what authority do you give such an order as that, Captain Bramble?"
asked the young commander.
"In the queen's name, sir; in the name of the English people, who abhor
pirates and slavers!" was the taunting reply of the Englishman.
"Stand back!" said Captain Ratlin, felling two seamen to the earth who
approached him to lay hands upon his person, and at the same time
drawing a revolver from his pocket. "Stand back, I say! I carry the
lives of six of you in this weapon, and I am not one to miss my aim, as
your valiant leader yonder well knows.--Now, Captain Bramble, I will
surrender to you, provided you accede to my terms, otherwise you cannot
take me alive!"
"Well, sir, what have you to offer?" said the English officer,
positively quailing before the stern and manly front of the young
commander.
"That you accept my word of honor to obey your directions as a prisoner,
but that you shall not bind my arms or confine me otherwise."
"Have your own way," replied the Englishman, doggedly; "but give up your
weapons."
"Do you promise me this, Captain Bramble?"
"I do."
"It is well, sir; there goes my weapon;" saying which he hurled it far
into the river's bed.
As soon as Maud saw him, she sprang to her feet, and with all the
bitterness of expression which her countenance was capable of, she
scowled upon his upright figure and handsome features. It was evident
she felt a bitter disappointment at his absence from the late affray,
and would only have rejoiced had she believed he was blown to atoms with
his vessel by the wild explosion which had so lately shaken the very
earth upon which she now stood. It was plain that up to this very
moment, however, that the young commander had never suspected her of
treachery, or even jealousy, towards himself; but now, he would have
been worse than blind not to have seen and realized, also, the deep
malignant feeling which was written on her dark, but handsome face.
"Maud," he said, in a low, but reproachful tone, "is it you who have
betrayed us?"
"Ay," said the girl, quickly, and with a shrill cadence of voice, "a
double heart should be dealt doubly with. It was I who led these people
hither, and I hoped the fate of so many of your ship's company might
have been yours!--but you are a prisoner now, and there's hope yet!"
"Maud, Maud! have I ever wronged you or your father?" asked Captain
Ratlin, reproachfully.
"Do you not love that white-faced girl you brought hither?"
"And if I did, Maud, what wrong is that to thee? Did I promise thee
love?"
"Nay; I asked it not of you," said the angry girl.
"But you have done me a great wrong, Maud; one that you do not yourself
understand. I forgive you though, poor girl; you are hardly to blame."
These kindly-intended words only aggravated the object to whom they were
addressed, and she turned away hastily to the shade of the thick
vegetable growth, where he lost sight of her figure among the branches
and leaves, while he walked on with the English officer and his people
over the ground they had just passed, towards Don Leonardo's. There
being now no further cause for secrecy, they marched openly, and
enlivened the way with many a rude jest, which grated harshly upon the
ears of the wounded, who were borne upon litters made from branches of
the hard, dry leaves of the palm.
As they came upon the open spot where stand the barracoons and Don
Leonardo's dwelling, they found the entire family aroused and on the
watch, the heavy explosion of the "Sea Witch's" magazine having seemed
to them like an earthquake. Don Leonardo, who shrewdly suspected the
truth, seemed satisfied at a single glance as to the state of affairs,
and walking up to the young commander, and watching for a favorable
opportunity, when not overheard, he asked, significantly: "Treachery?"
"Yes."
"Whom?"
"It matters not," was the magnanimous reply; for Captain Ratlin was too
generous to betray the Quadroon to her father, though she had proved
thus treacherous to him.
As he now recognized himself to be a prisoner, and had been told by
Captain Bramble that he must go forthwith on board his ship as such, he
desired to say a few words to Mrs. Huntington and her daughter, a
request which his rival could hardly find grounds for refusing, and so
he took occasion to explain to them the state of affairs, and to advise
them to the best of his ability, touching their own best course in order
to safely reach England. They felt that his advice was good, as truly
disinterested, and both agreed to abide strictly by it; but doubted not
that as Captain Ratlin had not been engaged in any slave commerce, and
indeed had not been in the late action at all, that he would be very
soon liberated, and free to choose his own calling.
Captain Ratlin was conveyed on board the ship in the harbor, and Mrs.
Huntington and her daughter also, with Maud and some other witnesses
that Captain Bramble desired; and the vessel shaped her course along the
coast towards Sierra Leone, where there was sitting an English court of
admiralty, with extraordinary authority relative to such cases Captain
Bramble was now about to lay before them, and who would be only too much
gratified at the bringing before them of an offender to make an example
of him.
Captain Bramble of course offered to Mrs. Huntington and her daughter
his own cabin for their greater comfort, and strove to make their
position as comfortable as possible for them while they were on board;
but he had not the nice sense of honor, that true delicacy of spirit,
which should have led him to remember they were his guests from
necessity, and that to push a suit under such circumstances was not only
indelicate but positively insulting. And yet he did so; true, he did not
actually importune Miss Huntington, but his attentions and services were
all rendered under that guise and aspect which rendered them to her most
repulsive.
Captain Bramble took good care that his prisoner and rival should have
no degree of intercourse with her whom he knew very well Captain Ratlin
loved. Under pretence that he feared his prisoner would attempt to
escape, he kept him under close guard, and did not permit him once upon
deck during the entire trip from the factory of Don Leonardo to the
harbor of Sierra Leone. This chafed the young commander's spirit
somewhat, but yet he was of too true a spirit to sink under oppression;
he was brave and cheerful always. Of course, Miss Huntington saw and
understood all this, and the more heartily despised the English officer
for the part he played in the unmanly business.
Maud kept by herself. She felt miserable, and as is often the case,
realized that the success of her treachery, thus far, which, in her
anticipation, had promised so much, had but still more deeply shadowed
her heart. The English officer looked upon her with mingled feelings of
admiration for her strange beauty, with contempt for her treachery, and
with a thought that she might be made perhaps the subject of his
pleasure by a little management by-and-by. It was natural for a heart so
vile as his to couple every circumstance and connection in some such
selfish spirit with himself; it was like him.
"Maud," he said to her, one day.
"Well," she answered, lifting her handsome face from her hands, where
she often hid it.
"You have lost one lover?"
The girl only answered by a flashing glance of contempt.
"How would you like another?"
"Who?" she said, sternly.
"Me!" answered Captain Bramble.
"You!" she said, contemptuously, and with so much expression as to end
the conversation.
No, he had not rightly understood the Quadroon; it was not wounded
pride, that sentiment so easily healed when once bruised in the heart of
a woman; it was not that which moved the laughter of the Spanish
slaver--it was either love, or something very like it, turned to actual
hate, and the native power of her bosom for revenge seemed to be now the
food upon which she sustained life itself. Taking her lonely place in
the cabin, after the conversation just referred to, she again hid her
face in her hands, and remained with her head bowed in her lap for a
long, long while, half dreaming, half waking. Poor, untutored,
uncivilized child of nature! she was very, very unhappy now.