DOLORES DELIVERS JUDGMENT.
On the level sward before the village the three yachtsmen paced back and
forth in an ecstasy of apprehension. Pascherette had left them, after
playing them like fish with her own charms and a hinted promise of
Dolores's favors as bait; and the moment they were alone Venner shook
off the spell in a resurging determination to attend to the safety of
his vessel in person.
"Follow me, Pearse; come Tomlin!" he said. "We are three mad fools to
stand here while these pirates loot and wreck the Feu Follette!"
Tomlin shuddered as he started to follow. Pearse kept silence, but did
not hesitate. But they had not stepped ten paces before they realized
fully the completeness of their helplessness, for Venner, first to
attempt the path down, was brought to a halt by a musket leveled at his
breast, the musketeer showing only his head and shoulders above the
cliff edge. And as Tomlin and Pearse came up, they, too, were abruptly
halted in like manner; and a grinning Carib motioned each back with an
unspoken command which was none the less inexorable.
They returned to their first positions, and resumed their nervous walk,
condemning themselves as utter idiots for venturing unarmed into such a
nest of vipers at the urge of curiosity, novelty, feminine attraction,
greed--whatever their motives had been. And here Dolores came upon them,
while all about them swarmed the disgruntled pirates from the sloop, and
those of the mutineers whose abject fears warned them to take whatever
punishment their queen chose to mete out rather than to escape only to
be brought back to endure penalties immeasurably more terrible.
Yellow Rufe and Sancho were not minded to stay, however; they had
vanished; and Dolores's keen eyes noted this the moment she surveyed the
scene. She walked swiftly to the door of the council hall, turned to
face the mob, and lifted an arm for attention. Then fell a hush full of
anxiety or terror, according to the degree of culpability in the
consciousness of her audience.
"Summon every creature in the village," she cried, "and let no man or
woman dare to leave this place until ye hear my thoughts concerning this
day's work!"
Men scattered eagerly through the huts, calling by name all who were not
present in the crowd, and presently more of the community came out,
their faces mostly reflecting the terror that was in their souls; for
none might ever foretell the moods of their queen. Inscrutable as night,
her eyes were like pools of violet shadow wherein lurked promise or
threat of unimaginable things; every line of her face and form was a
line of a riddle that could prove in the solution either magnificent
generosity, fearless justice, or implacable vengeance: like the
lightning, Dolores struck where she willed, and in what fashion she
chose; it was useless to attempt avoidance.
Venner and his friends looked on curiously, a feeling akin to awe
pervading them at the increasing evidence before their eyes of the power
wielded by this splendid fury, they had yet to know. When all were
present, except those whose activities on the schooner had already
procured them a passport to another world, Dolores swept the crowd with
a penetrating glance and called for Milo, who appeared from the rear of
the council hall laden with chains and bilboes which he cast down at her
feet. Then the angry impatience of the disappointed sloop's crew proved
too intense, and Caliban bounded to the front, squealing shrilly:
"The fiend may take you with your irons! Shall we, men who followed Red
Jabez through a sea of blood, cower to a woman of such soft mettle?
Dolores, queen or woman or wench, it is for you, not us, to explain.
Lads--" he shrieked, flashing about and haranguing his companions--"back
me in this. We will know why the sloop lacked powder; why to-day's work
has brought no reward!"
The deformed little demon stepped back to the crowd, and paced to and
fro with feverish gestures, scowling blackly at every turn that brought
him face to face with Dolores. The packed mob milled and murmured, some
afraid, many of Caliban's mind yet not daring to openly support him.
Venner and his friends sensed the thrill of it, for their brief
experience of the pirate queen left them in slight doubt as to the
outcome of Caliban's speech. Dolores herself stood motionless for a full
minute after the hunchback ceased his defiance, and under her lowered,
heavily lashed eyelids the dark eyes seemed to slumber; only in her lips
was any trace of the alertness that governed her brain, and those
scarlet petals, which seemed to have been plucked from a love flower in
the garden of passion, slowly, almost imperceptibly parted, until the
dazzling teeth gleamed through in a smile that none might yet determine
whether soft or terrible. And as the seconds heaped suspense upon
suspense, the overbold Caliban was seized with a choking fear that he
was to pay the price. Then Dolores spoke, slowly, quietly, almost
soothingly; and those of her hardened ruffians who thought they knew her
best hung on her words in shivery uncertainty.
"For those bold words, Caliban, my father had stripped thy poisonous
skin from thy putrid flesh. Yesterday thy queen might not have proved
more merciful. Yet do I know how thy disappointment chafes thy brave
soul, and because of that thy rash speech goes unpunished." The hush
intensified, for the leniency of Dolores was little less to be feared
than her fury. A smile of ineffable radiance broke over her beautiful
face, and she extended her right hand and said, still in the same slow,
even voice: "Come, Caliban. Thou art worthy of my mercy. Kneel, that I
may know thy heart is right."
Now the suspense reached its climax. Somewhere behind those softly
spoken words surely lurked some awful, cunningly cloaked threat.
Caliban went white, ghastly; his brave tongue stuck to his palate, and
the thin lips slavered with growing panic.
"Come, Caliban!"
The girl's command was uttered no louder, her expression was unchanged;
in her glorious eyes gleamed no trace of anything other than benign
forgiveness; she remained motionless as before, with her rounded arm and
shapely hand extended in a manner that revealed their every perfection.
"Come, Caliban!"
Again the words fell from her smiling lips, and now the quivering
hunchback obeyed, drawn irresistibly by her magnetism, sick with dread
of the stroke he in common with all his mates expected to fall.
"Kneel! See, I give thee my hand to kiss," Dolores said, and smiled upon
the cowering wretch with a tender brilliance that sent a tremendous
flutter through the hearts of the three yachtsmen.
Caliban knelt and took the proffered hand, then at her word he stood
before her, scarcely certain yet that his head was solidly established
on his shoulders. She motioned him to stand on one side of her, then,
aglow with warm color, she addressed the puzzled throng:
"My bold sea tigers, the ship that escaped thy sloop is but one ship.
The seas are full of such. Yet, until to-day, how many have ye been
forced to let go because of thy poor equipment in craft? Thy sloop, how
small, how old--yet what rich prey escaped thy guns since the Red
Chief's swift brig laid her bones here? None! Yet ye complain because I
prevented thee destroying the beautiful schooner the gods have this day
sent to us!"
Now the purport of her speech struck home; the seemingly soft-brained
weakness that had forbidden the rape and pillage of the schooner stood
in part explained. And as the light filtered through thick skulls and
shone upon all but atrophied brains, a deep muttering swelled into the
embryo of a throaty cheer that needed but one look of encouragement from
Dolores to spring into noisy life. As for Venner, his expression was
reflected in Tomlin, and both in Pearse; and awakening or resurrected,
fear was the keynote of all.
"The vampire means to suck us dry after all!" whispered Venner hoarsely.
His friends could only squeeze his arm in mute sympathy. They harbored
no doubts at all.
Dolores went on:
"With such a vessel as this"--pointing to the schooner--"that Indiaman
to-day had never shown heels. And more, how think ye my store is
replenished? Dost think I tap the rock for wine? Does Milo crush the
granite and bring forth meat for thy hungry bellies? Are my treasures
kept at high tide by snatching the colors from the sunset? Fools!" she
cried, and for a moment passion conquered her calm. "In that schooner
are wines that will make thy hot blood living flame; meats that will put
teeth into the throats of the toothless; treasures fit for thy queen's
treasury. And more to thy hand, my brave jackals, those pretty pieces of
ordnance, which the sun even now paints with liquid gold, will outrange
the guns of a king's ship." Pausing, she bent upon the murmuring crew a
look of blazing majesty; then concluded with a vibrant demand: "Now dost
know why thy queen withheld thy senseless hands from witless
destruction?"
Her question was scarcely heard before the answer came. From a hundred
rusty throats pealed a huzzah that rolled out over the sea and sent the
sea-birds squawking with fright to more peaceful surroundings.
"Dolores! Dolores! That's a queen for the tribe of Jolly Roger!" howled
Hanglip, and tumult rang again.
The girl raised her hand, and silence fell once more.
"Hear my judgment upon such of ye as are not of thy mind," she cried,
and now the smile had gone; her eyes flashed and the words fell red-hot
from her scornful lips.
"I demand no tales from thy mouths. Hiding among these woods Yellow Rufe
and Sancho, he of the one eye and the mutilated hand, think to ward off
my vengeance. By meridian to-morrow I command those traitors to be
brought to me. Fail in this, and ye shall see that Dolores can be
terrible, too."
The crowd took this as a dismissal, and broke into parties to scour the
woods. Only slaves and women remained, and Pascherette ran to her
mistress's side and whispered, with a sidelong look of coquettish
allurement at Venner and his friends.
"Something about to happen!" Venner whispered, hoping that it might
prove something in recompense for his day of stress. Dolores cast a look
of cool indifference toward them and told Milo:
"Put these strangers in separate chambers, Milo. Iron them securely and
look to it well. Thou art answerable for them."
No more. She took Pascherette and departed.