THE SAN ILDEFONSO.
The bowman held the boat's-head to the shore by the hook, which he
grasped with his left hand, while stretching out his right to me.
'Twas old Tom Lambourne; there was no mistaking that quaint and
tattooed visage of his!
"Hilloah, Master Rodney, here we are again, come back for you, after
all;" he exclaimed, joyfully.
"Tom, Tom!" I gasped, while seizing his hard brown hand, and leaping
without invitation, into the boat, where my hands were immediately
grasped by Hislop, who had been steering. "Oh, Hislop, Marc Hislop!"
I added, in a breathless voice, and nearly sank down overcome by
emotion.
"You didn't think _I_ would leave you there, my boy, if I could help
it?" said he. "Thank heaven, we have come in time. I have counted
every day, every hour, aye, every moment, and have scarcely ever
slept for thinking of you, and the wretched condition in which you
were left."
I could not reply, but, completely overcome by the revulsion of
feeling, seated myself in the stern-sheets, and wept.
"What is this in your hand?" said Hislop, with astonishment; "a
sword, and blood on it too! Where did it,--where did this come from?"
"Antonio,"--I began.
"The villanous Cubano?"
"Yes," my voice sank into a whisper, I was so weak.
"What of him?--where is he?"
"He tried to kill me when he saw the boat approaching, and--and--"
"What then?"
"I ran him through the body."
"But where is he now?" continued Hislop. "Our work in rescuing you
will be but half done if we leave him unhanged."
"He is lying wounded, dying, perhaps, on the beach. Oh, Hislop, it
is horrible! For pity's sake, for heaven's sake, go some of
you--behind those rocks," I added, incoherently, for in my joy at
escaping, I felt it possible even to compassionate and forgive
Antonio.
"Remain here," said Hislop, and leaping ashore, followed by Tom
Lambourne, he went at once to the place I indicated.
I now looked at the boat's crew, eight in number and to my surprise
found they were all Spaniards; bearded, mustachioed, and armed with
sheath-knives in their sashes; some wore red nets on their heads,
others red night-caps, and they might all have passed--especially
those with earrings--for blood relations of the Cubano.
I had scarcely made this unpleasant discovery when Hislop and
Lambourne appeared, half supporting and half dragging Antonio toward
the boat, into the bow of which they thrust him with very little
ceremony; and there he lay in a heap, as it were, with his eyes
closed and his bare and hairy chest covered with blood and sand.
His right hand still clenched his Albacete* knife, the weapon with
which he had committed so many crimes; so Hislop tore it from him,
and cast it into the sea.
* Albacete is a town of Murcia, where the cutlers manufacture a great
number of sheath-knives.
He moaned heavily, and the Spanish oarsmen looked at each other, and
then at me, with eyes the reverse of friendly in expression; but now
Hislop seated himself, assumed the tiller-lines, and said, in their
own language,--
"Shove off for the ship, marineros. We must have the wounds of this
picaro looked to at once; so give way with a will."
The boat's head fell round, her stern lay to the beach of that
detested island of Alphonso, and the sturdy _Espanoles_, with their
bare feet planted firmly on the stretchers, bent their backs at every
stroke, and made the boat fly through the moon-lit bay, toward the
ship, which lay more than a mile distant outside the coral reef.
In a few minutes I related to Hislop, how my time had been spent
since his departure, and how I had feared that the desperate sequel
of to-night would assuredly ensue when Antonio found a ship off the
island.
"He will dangle from the yard-arm now, if ever a rascally pirate
swung there!" said Hislop, through his clenched teeth.
After my loneliness on the island, I cannot describe how pleasant his
voice--the voice of a valued and trusted friend--sounded in my ear!
He told me that the boat's crew soon repented of their selfishness
and folly in leaving the island, and next day would have returned,
but they had lost all idea of its bearings, and being without compass
or chart, were compelled to run in what they believed to be the
direction of Tristan da Cunha.
A sea half swamped the boat, and washing away the tarpaulin which
covered the bread-bags, soaked and destroyed their contents; yet,
having no other food, they were compelled to eat these salt-sodden
biscuits, and thus their thirst became excited to agony, as they were
under a vertical sun, and their supply of fresh water was rapidly
consumed.
For six days and nights they endured unspeakable misery; and just
when they were sucking the last putrid drops from the barrel-staves,
a large vessel hove in sight, running due west, under a cloud of
canvas. She saw their signal, bore down, and picked them up.
She proved to be the _San Ildefonso_, a Spanish merchant-ship of
sixteen hundred tons, bound from Java to Cadiz, with a mixed crew of
Spaniards and Lascars, and with a few cabin passengers; in all about
sixty souls.
Her skipper, the Captain José Estremera was very unwilling to add to
the number of his crew, lest provisions should run short, and flatly
refused at first to haul up for the island, and take me off.
For two days he resisted all the entreaties of Hislop and others,
till the former found one ally in a Portuguese friar, who was
returning from his mission in Java, and another in a wealthy Dutch
passenger.
Fra Anselmo held the terrors of Pandemonium before the capitano, and
the Dutch planter held a handful of guilders, so the yards were
trimmed anew, the charts were consulted carefully, and in two days
more the look-out man in the fore-cross-trees of the _San Ildefonso_
sighted the great mountain of the island.
Hislop had many doubts whether he would find me alive, fearing that I
might perish of hunger, of despair, or by the hand of the Cubano.
Just as he concluded his narrative, I found myself under the towering
side of the Spanish merchant-ship.
She had a long flush deck: was pierced for and carried twelve brass
nine-pounders, and had top-gallant bulwarks aft. Over these and
along her side was a row of faces, surveying us in the moonlight with
expressions of wonder and interest.
I sprang up the rope-ladder, and on reaching the deck my hands were
caught and shaken by Ned Carlton, old Probart, Burnet the cook, Boy
Bill, and others of our crew, who all expressed in various fashions,
but chiefly by swearing at themselves, their contrition for having so
selfishly abandoned me; but that was all over now, and I desired them
to forget it.
Antonio was next hoisted on board. His appearance and his wounds
excited great astonishment; and now, surrounded by a crowd of dark
and grim-looking Spanish seamen, and darker leathery-visaged Lascars,
we were conducted aft to the quarter-deck, where Captain José
Estremera awaited us, together with a number of passengers, whose
curiosity was excited by the whole affair.