A MYSTERIOUS FLIGHT.
I could not restrain a smile, even at this most solemn moment, as I
heard the Skipper's ending. I sat looking at the water for a little--at
the resting place of the men, which was marked for a short time by the
bubbles which came to the surface; and then a light wind ruffled the
water, and I closed my eyes, breathing a few words for the living as
well as for the dead. When I opened them again, I had lost trace of
those nameless graves for all time.
As I rowed the boat swiftly toward shore, away from that scene of
sadness, I pondered upon the situation. It seemed to me that the others
had not considered seriously enough our strangely exceptional fate. In
most accounts of shipwreck and adventure the castaways are left upon a
desolate island with savages more or less gentle, who help and care for
them; or else the natives are bloodthirsty wretches, who, if they come
in contact with the shipwrecked people, are outnumbered and overcome.
Then a vessel heaves in sight at the right moment, and takes the
unfortunates to home and happiness. There was the alternative of being
shipwrecked upon an utterly desolate land, where provisions were few and
enemies none. Our case was not any one of these three. We had not been
obliged to seek refuge upon a desert island, far from home and friends.
On the contrary, we were but twelve hundred miles at the most from
Belleville, which was the centre of our world. The anxiety which filled
my thoughts was caused by recent facts in our history, which followed
each other rapidly through my mind, and which gave me reason to fear
that if we could not quickly get safe passage away from the island
something of a dangerous nature might befall us. That black monarch,
"King Henry of the North," as he chose to style himself, was at this
time reigning over the island of Haiti with resolute and powerful sway.
No absolute monarch ever ruled a people with as decided and unbrooked a
will as Henri Christophe. The French occupation, which had lasted about
one hundred years, had been finally ended with the revolution of 1793.
Toussaint l'Ouverture had instigated and led the most bloody rebellion
of modern times. The slave of the Breda plantation, through
insurrection, wars, and bloodshed, had become a great general, and so
the dictator of the entire island known as Santo Domingo. It is an
almost incredible fact that Toussaint was a gentle and humane man, even
though he rose against and massacred the whites that his people with him
might throw off the yoke of slavery. Had Toussaint been alive at this
day, I knew that we should have had nothing to fear, but his mantle had
fallen upon other shoulders, and those who had succeeded him had lost
sight of the primary cause of the uprising. Like some other reformers,
his path ran with blood, but it was either that or continued slavery for
himself and his people. Toussaint was the grand figure of the Haitien
revolution. The Marquis d'Hermonas said of him, "God in this terrestrial
globe could not commune with a purer spirit." It was well known that
Toussaint's enemies were treated with a gentleness and consideration
which was abnormal in those days of bloodthirsty cruelty and excess. But
at the time of which I write Toussaint had died in the Alps. The French,
short-sighted as to a policy which should have urged upon them the
recognition of Toussaint as the best governor which the island could
procure, instead of treating with him, and forming an honourable peace,
decoyed him on board one of their ships. He was sent to France, where he
died in the Chateau de Joux. His death was caused by Alpine rigour, and
it is hinted that it was aided by unnatural means. Toussaint was a
courageous general, a keen legislator, an astute philosopher, a good
citizen, a generous enemy, and a faithful friend. Had we but had such a
man to turn to, I should have felt no fear, but there had been wars and
bloodshed since Toussaint's time. His generals, Dessalines, Christophe,
and Petion, had continued the war with the greatest bitterness. They had
driven out the French, who, however, had left their various mixed
progeny behind them. That progeny, the product of two races, who
despised their black mothers and hated their white fathers, were always
at war with the blacks and whites alike. Then Dessalines, following the
example of Bonaparte, in 1804, crowned himself emperor, saying, "I am
the only noble in Haiti." This would be laughable if the results had not
been so disastrous and far reaching. Then came the downfall of
Dessalines. Then Petion was elected president. There were more
conspirings, more treachery, and more bloodshed, and finally Christophe
crowned himself king. This was in 1811, about ten years before the last
cruise of the Yankee Blade.
Back from the coast, about eight to ten miles as the crow flies, upon a
mountain height which overlooks the sea and land as far as the eye can
reach, Christophe had built his wonderful citadel, the tragic erection
of which cost a life for each stone laid.
This black prince lived in the greatest luxury and, as far as his light
shone, in unbounded magnificence. No refusal was ever brooked by him. If
a workman was ordered to accomplish the impossible, and the article
desired was not forthcoming at the time set by the despot, the
unfortunate being was dragged from his hiding place and hurled off the
precipice of the citadel. I had heard that thirty thousand men had
perished in this way. I remember now the words of a historian whose book
I have lately read:
"As long as a stone of this wall shall stand, so long will there remain
a monument to one of the greatest savages and murderers who has ever
disgraced God's earth."
Christophe's palace at "Sans Souci" was one of the wonders of the world.
It would have graced any country; have reflected glory upon any people.
The earthquake of '42 damaged its fair beauty, but its remains stand
to-day a proof of the power, the determination, and the inventive genius
of that terrible black king. Seated under a camaito tree, which spread
its green shade over the marble terrace, this absolute monarch held
court. No one dared to look upon his face. Officers, soldiers, and
prisoners alike trembled and hid their eyes as they knelt before him. If
any one displeased or unconsciously thwarted the king, he was haled away
to a dungeon, which generally meant death.
Is it wonderful, then, that I regarded our going to the interior of the
island as little less than suicidal? We were in danger of lawless bands
from the West and from the East, for there was discontent with the black
king Henri, and irresponsible parties of griffes and mulattoes, not to
speak of outlawed whites who had no standing at home, were in hiding
among the rocks and caves of that extraordinary formation known as the
island of Santo Domingo. I had wondered how Captain Schuyler had dared
to bring his niece with him on this cruise of the Yankee Blade, for the
buccaneers were still pursuing helpless craft upon the high seas. They
usually feared a close proximity to civilized lands, but carried on
their nefarious business upon the open ocean, making sudden and
unexpected dashes from the Isle of Pines, which was their stronghold.
I think that I have written enough without going further into detail to
show why, though we had been ashore barely twenty-four hours, I was
anxious to escape from this place of horrors. These reflections ran
through my brain in the space of a very few seconds, as thoughts will,
and I trailed my oars and spoke.
"Captain Schuyler," I said, "why did you run the risk of bringing your
niece on such a dangerous voyage?"
The Skipper looked up at me for a moment, as if not comprehending my
question.
"God bless your soul! Dangerous? Dangerous? What do you mean, Mr.
Jones?"
"I consider it a very foolish thing, Captain, to----"
"What! Mr. Jones, do you know who you are speaking to, sir? This is
mutiny, Mr. Jones, rank mutiny! Rank----"
"No, Captain," I answered calmly and slowly, "it is no mutiny. I must
speak my mind. I can not understand your action, with pirates still
roaming the high seas----"
"Yes, yes, high seas," broke in the Skipper; "but who ever dreamed of
their coming so close to shore? Why, I've been sailing these waters now
for seven years, since I gave up the Calcutta trade, and I never so much
as saw a pirate craft. I've hugged the shore pretty close, it's true,
and----Pshaw, Mr. Jones, you're nervous! I recognise the signs. A man's
always nervous when he's in love. I used to be; I----"
"I am not unnecessarily nervous," said I. "Your niece is a very
beautiful young girl----"
"Do you think so?" said the Skipper in a surprised tone. "Why, do you
know, Jones, I never thought her even good-looking. You should have seen
her Aunt Mary 'Zekel at her age!"
"I regret my loss," I said. "But that's neither here nor there----"
"You are foolish, Jones! You imagine things."
"I suppose the loss of the Yankee and the balls of those pirates are all
in my fancy."
"Good God! No! I wish they were. I can't say that," answered the
Skipper, "but----"
"Hardly, I fancy," said I impatiently, "with the old Yankee sunk and our
party ashore, half of them dead, some of them buried, the others----"
"Don't go on so, Jones. Those men may not have been pirates. Sometimes
people pretend they are pi----"
"Don't split hairs, Captain. I think if a Britisher or an American
should capture them, and knew what they done, they would give them a
short shrift. I can't see how you can be so unimpressed with our
dreadful situation."
I looked up at the Skipper and saw the tears welling over from his eyes.
"Don't scold me, Jones," he said in a broken voice. "God knows I can't
see my way clear to anything! Tell me what you think best, and I'll do
it."
I saw that the old man's nerve was gone, and I suspected that with it
had departed some of the good judgment for which he had been noted, I
had heard, in years gone by. Had I started from Coenties Slip with the
ship, I should have remonstrated with him, if possible, for taking a
young girl on so hazardous a voyage; but I had joined the ship at
Martinique, my own vessel having been lost off that island in a
hurricane, of which more another time. The Captain had quarreled with
his Mate, he had deserted, and I had taken the job, and glad to get it,
too. My surprise was great when I found Miss Archer on board. I had
always been pessimistic about her presence there, and now something like
what I had anticipated had happened, and here was I left to care for a
Captain who was broken and old, and a young girl of my own nation, for
whose welfare I found that I cared more than was good for my peace of
mind, and a boy who was of no use except to give us an occasional
laugh, and a Bo's'n who went off into strange, mysterious attacks, and
talked at such times miles over my head, as well as his own--a
sublimated Bo's'n, who, though entirely illiterate in his normal
moments, in attacks such as I have described spoke like a professor; who
one moment was soaring in the skies, and raving of things spiritual and
supernatural, and the next moment was talking like the veriest old Jacky
that ever came out of a forecastle. I, too, was feeling upset with all
that we had gone through, but I must keep my courage up if we were to
escape from that accursed island.
"Jones, what do you say to rowing back up along the beach and seeing if
those fellows are alive? We ought to bury them decently if they have
died since yesterday." The Skipper seemed suddenly to have developed a
fancy for the role of Chaplain. Having tasted the pleasure of being in
close communication with Heaven, on a confidential footing, so to speak,
with Providence, the apologist and recommender of the dead of his crew,
he hated to give up the job. I have noticed the same sort of frenzy in
my wife at times. She (to speak mildly) used to dissipate, at certain
seasons, in church meetings, going to Wednesday evening and Friday
evening meetings, to noon prayer meetings, and three times to church.
On Sundays many's the time I've walked the floor with little Adoniah
Schuyler second, while she was listening to Reverend Vandenwater thunder
hell and damnation at the unrepentant. She has come in with an uplifted
look on her face and an air of holy calm, which assured me that the next
world held no place for such degenerates as myself. The Reverend
Vandenwater demanded all her time and attention for the "Refuge for the
Progeny of the Bondsman." But the Reverend Vandenwater disappeared with
the funds of the Refuge, and she has not dissipated so extensively
since. I used to tell her when she talked about the love of the Lord
that it was spelled with a "V," which at times created a coolness in the
family. But I have digressed.
I told the Skipper that I thought we had been enjoying ourselves long
enough away from the camp, and that we should now return as soon as
possible. As I spoke, I rested for a moment on my oars and turned my
head in the direction of the camp.
"Strange!" said I; "there's no one on the beach." The Skipper stood up
in the boat.
"No," he said, "there isn't. Perhaps they have gone a little farther
into the shade." There were no figures moving about, no Cynthia, no
Bo's'n, no Minion. One never knew what Lacelle would be up to, so I did
not worry myself at not seeing her. I turned again to face the Skipper,
and all at once I perceived a strange vessel coming rapidly toward the
coast, and as I looked, the French flag which she bore was supplemented
by another. I could not believe my eyes. I did really rub them and look
again. Yes, it was true. The Jolly Roger fluttered for a moment at the
masthead, and as suddenly was lowered to the rail. It confirmed my
suspicions as to the pass to which the island had come, that a pirate
craft could sail openly along the coast in broad daylight, displaying
her signal of murder and death! That it was a signal to some one in
waiting on the shore, I could not hesitate to believe. Then, in what
terrible danger were we and our party from an assault both on the land
and on the water. We were, indeed, between the devil and the deep sea.
"Captain," said I, scrambling hastily over the middle seat, "take the
other pair, for God's sake!"
"What's the matter with the man?" exclaimed the Captain, as I tumbled
hastily into the bows and picked up the extra pair of oars. "Just when
one begins to feel peaceful and calm, communing with his Maker, as it
were, you----"
"You'll commune with your Maker sooner than you care to, Captain," said
I, "if you don't pick up those oars. That pirate's come back, or else
it's another one. I saw the Roger----"
The Skipper had by this time turned about, deliberately removed his
coat, and taken up the oars.
"What! that vessel? She's no more a pirate than you are."
"I tell you I saw the crossbones as plain as I see your back. Pull,
Captain, for the love of God!"
The Skipper did bend to his oars, but his mutterings were proof that he
had little confidence in my judgment or eyesight.
"Just thinking peacefully of my latter end----"
"You'll have your latter end closer in view, Captain," said I, "if you
don't pull like hell."
My violent word brought him down from his heavenly flight, and pull he
did, but we had quite a distance yet to go.
"She's a beauty," said the Skipper. "She's so long and low and rakish,
but so was the Yankee Blade. Not quite so much free board as the Yankee,
has she, now?"
"Captain, excuse me, but if you would pull more and talk less----"
"Well, I'll pull, Mr. Jones, I'll pull, but I'll remember your language,
Mr. Jones, and when I get----"
I looked over my shoulder as I rowed.
"Our people are nowhere to be seen, Captain. Do you think they could
have noticed that signal?"
"You are crazy, man, utterly and entirely out of your head. I told you
that men in love were insane. They would never show that flag if they
had it."
"They know what they are about, sir," said I. "They wouldn't do it for
fun. Let us beach the boat and run for it."
The Skipper suddenly seemed to catch my fear. We beached the boat some
hundred yards from the camp.
"Which way, Jones?"
"For the camp, Cap'n, the camp! If you ever ran in your life, run now."
I sped along the beach, taking it just where the retreating water had
left the sand hard and firm, the Skipper pounding along after me on his
fat, short legs. I did not think of the danger of being seen by those on
board the vessel, and, had I done so, I should have been sure that they
were busy with their signals and their rounding to. As I ran, I turned
my head now and then to watch the approach of the craft. She was a
beautiful sight, the long, low schooner, all sails set, pointing
directly for the shore. She ran so far in, that one would think that
they meant to run directly up on the beach, but I argued that their
confidence bespoke their knowledge of these waters. The wind had risen,
and the trades were blowing freshly along, parallel with the shore line.
We had reached the camp now. No one was to be seen. I turned for one
more glimpse of the dreadful vessel, and as I looked she began to haul
down her jibs. She rounded to, shot up head to wind, and lowered her
foresail and dropped anchor pretty nearly together.
"You see, she knows her ground," said I.
The Skipper looked blankly about him. There was no sign of any of our
party. There was no trace of any of the provisions or of our occupation
of the place except a broken leaf or two and the remains of the fire,
and that was heaped with wet sand, which was fast drying between the
embers and the sun. I called "Cynthia! Cynthia!" frantically, regardless
of the proprieties or of what the Skipper would think, or of her
resentment if she heard me. There was no response. I ran here and there.
I hallooed, I shouted, with no thought of whom else might hear. The four
living, breathing human beings whom we had left at our camp had
vanished out of life as if they had never existed! I ran anxiously
through the undergrowth, and as I ran I stumbled over the one thing
which the party in their flight or imprisonment, I knew not which, had
forgotten.
It was the spyglass, lying closely hidden under some large leaves that
grew upon the bank of the stream. I took it up and pointed it at the
strange vessel. Her decks seemed alive with men. I saw that they were
lowering some boats. They were coming ashore, then! We took turns in
watching the movements of the crew, and discovered that they had got
down two boats, and were preparing to lower a third. The first two were
pulling directly for the cove or mouth of the stream.
"Comin' ashore for water, probably," said the Skipper. "Bo's'n has seen
'em probably, and has come down from his high horse long enough to hide
the party. We're all right, Jones. Don't be so dreadful scared. They
won't stay above half an hour."
I devoutly hoped not.
We now ran up the bank of the stream toward the face of rock which rose
precipitately from the grass-grown valley. As I looked toward it, I
could not fail to admire the beauty of its vine-covered precipice. On
either side the hills sloped backward, but the cliff stood bold and
vertical, like a verdure-covered fortress. Behind those leafy hiding
places the guns of an enemy might lie secure until the day of need.
"Cynthia! Cynthia!" I shouted again. I never thought of calling any
other name. "Cynthia" was all that I wanted to find. As we neared the
face of the rock we perceived that the stream ran exactly out from its
centre, through which it had made in the ages past an archway for
itself. We stooped and drank of it. It was cold, as if it had emerged
from a glacier. I bathed my head and my hands. The Skipper did the same.
And then I took up my cry of "Cynthia! Cynthia!" I had begun to call
now as a matter of habit, not at all as if I expected to obtain a
response, and was looking around for a place where the Skipper and I
could secrete ourselves until the pirates had procured their water, when
I heard a whistle or sort of chirrup from somewhere above. I raised my
eyes toward the sheer straight wall of rock, and saw a human face
looking down. It was forty feet over my head, but I knew it better than
I knew any face in the world. It was the face of Cynthia, smiling down
on me as if we had never had any tiffs, as if no danger threatened, as
if it were the most natural place for her to be, and, above all, as if
she were glad to welcome me.
I could see nothing of Cynthia's body. Her head only protruded from a
mass of vines which covered the face of the rock, from vines rooted in a
spot a hundred feet above her head, and falling to the ground where I
stood. The Skipper looked upward at the signal from Cynthia.
"Always knew you was a tomboy, Cynthy. But for the Lord's sake, how did
you climb up there?"
"Better hurry, Uncle," answered Cynthia; "they're getting near land."
"But how?" asked the puzzled Skipper. "How? I don't see any vine that'll
hold my weight. Besides, they'd see me climbin' up the face."
"Round to the right, your right, and up the hill!" It was Cynthia's
voice again, and we eagerly obeyed. We skirted the base of the ragged
cliff. The last words that we heard from Cynthia were, "the ceiba tree,"
and we took them as our guide. We pushed through the low underbrush and
climbed the broken shale, sending down shovel loads of small stones at
every step. It was hot work. I panted and dripped, and the poor
Skipper's face was the colour of fire. I was glad for both our sakes
when we reached the ceiba tree and stood leaning against it, fanning
ourselves with our hats. Here we were concealed from the men in the
boats by the trees that fringed the shore, and felt in no hurry to start
on again. We were at a loss as to how to proceed farther when, as I
looked about for a continuing path, a hand protruded from the bushes
which grew against the cliff, and I saw some beckoning fingers. I pushed
the Skipper forward. He grasped the hand in his and disappeared. I heard
what sounded like "Atton." This might mean anything. I took it to be an
order from Lacelle, and that the word was spoken in her Haitien French,
and was intended for "_attendez_." I was not and never have been a
scholar of the French language, but one who follows the sea for a
livelihood picks up more or less of the words of various nations, and I
thought that I must be right in my surmise. So I waited. I did not think
that they would leave me alone, and, if they did, I had no fear of the
strangers coming up the hill in that blazing sun when they had landed
merely for the purpose of securing water. As I leaned against the rock
waiting for developments--for that developments of some kind must come I
was certain--the hand was put forth again, and I was drawn within the
recess. The bushes grew so close to the face of the cliff that I had
left them behind me and had entered an archway of rock before I realized
the change. The darkness and the cold of this strange interior were the
more obvious because of our exertion under a fierce tropical sun, and
they told me that I was treading a passage well surrounded by rock
masses within the deep interior of the great cliff. I could see
absolutely nothing, and I groped stumblingly along. As I walked I
dragged the fingers of my left hand against the wall upon that side of
me. The other was clasped in the hand of my leader. We proceeded some
distance in this way upon a level, and then began to descend a sharp
declivity. Here my feet would have gone too fast for safety had not my
guide restrained me with a grasp of iron. At the foot of this incline we
found a level, along which we proceeded for some distance, and then we
began to ascend again. Our footsteps resounded hollowly as we felt along
the mysterious way.
Among the strange feelings that surged like a flood through my being,
the one which impressed me the most was the fact that one of my hands
was held in a cold, moist grasp. It was held firmly and steadily. I
withdrew my other hand from the wall and endeavoured to lay it suddenly
upon the wrist of the leader. But it was as if my guide could penetrate
the gloom, for as I attempted this my fingers were at once released, and
I was left to grope alone. I struggled miserably for a moment, fearing
to stand still, fearing to move, not knowing into what black abyss I
might plunge at any moment; and then I shouted, "Come back! Come back!"
Terrible echoes answered me; but the hand, the horrible moist hand, was
again laid upon mine, and I was being led _somewhere_, as before.
My wish was to slide my fingers up along the arm of my guide and
discover, if possible, what manner of being this was who led me. My
manoeuvre had been foiled, however, and after two of these attempts I
heard the words whispered softly in my ear, in tone of warning it seemed
to me, "Pe'nez gar'." Then I resigned myself to being led blindly
onward, feeling that I must trust to my leader or be lost.
I wondered if I were to meet Cynthia, or if this were some ghostly trap
into which I had fallen. The air was full of mystery. I had heard weird
tales of the old caves of Santo Domingo, of which Haiti was a part, and
of strange disappearances--of men with a spirit for adventure groping
their way in those caverns and appearing never more to human eye.
Strange odours arose. The air seemed heavy and weighed down upon my
head. I seemed to breathe the atmosphere of a charnel house. The
blackness of darkness was upon me, but I resigned myself hopelessly to
the leadership of that ghostly hand. I shudder now when I recall that
mysterious contact. The very memory of it strikes a chill to my heart.
My head whirls when I remember my stumbling and halting movement through
that passage of dread, shivering with fear that the next step might dash
me into an unfathomable pit. Perhaps the Skipper had already met his
fate! Cynthia was safe; at least, we had heard her voice. But was she
not perhaps reserved for some terrible future, when we, her protectors,
should be gone? With these agonizing thoughts in my mind, I groped and
stumbled on.
The ghostly presence was as elusive as the soap in the bath tub. When I
endeavoured to clasp the hand with both of mine, and thought that I had
my fingers on something tangible, they closed together upon themselves.
I felt a pressure against my side, my back. My hand touched a cold form
that it gave me a chill to feel, and I tried to prove to myself that it
was no delusion; but even as I groped in the darkness the form eluded
me, and I was alone.