WE DEFY JENSEN
That unhappy Barbara! Her sin had found her out indeed. She was a wicked
woman, for she had been part and parcel in the treason, she had been
hand and glove with the traitors. But she did not mean such wickedness
to the women-folk, and she did what she had done for her husband's sake,
thinking that he would be a pirate king and she his consort. This was
what she meant when she had called herself a queen. With such falsehoods
had Jensen stuffed the ears of the man and his wife, snaring them to
their fate. As I had loved her once, so I pitied her now. She had shared
in a great crime, but it would be hard to shape a greater penalty for
her sin.
By the time that the parson had finished his story we who were listening
to him felt dismal, and we looked at each other grimly.
'What is the first thing to be done?' Lancelot said softly, more to
himself than as really asking any advice upon the matter from us.
'Fire a volley upon those devils when they draw near, and so rid the
earth of them,' I suggested.
Lancelot shook his head.
'They are under the protection of a flag of truce----' he began, when I
interrupted him hotly.
'What right,' I raged at him, 'what right have such devils to the
consideration of honourable warfare and of honourable men?'
Lancelot sighed.
'None whatever; but that does not change us from being honourable men
and from carrying on our contest according to the rules of honourable
warfare. They are devils, ruffians, what you will, but we--we are
gentlemen, and we have passed our word. We cannot go back from that.'
I know very well that I blushed a fiery red, from rage against our enemy
and shame at Lancelot's reproof. But I said nothing, and Mr. Ebrow
spoke.
'Mr. Amber,' he said, clasping Lancelot's hand as he spoke, 'you are in
the right, in the very right, as a Christian soldier and a Christian
gentleman. Their hour will come without our anticipating it.' And then
he wrung my hand warmly, in token that he understood my feelings too,
and did not overmuch blame me.
'One thing at least is certain,' said Lancelot. 'You must not return to
the mercies of those villains.'
Mr. Ebrow drew himself stiffly up. He was wet and weary, and the ugly
cut on his forehead did not add to the charm of his rugged face, but
just at that moment he seemed handsome.
'Mr. Amber,' he said, 'I passed my word to those men that I would return
after I had given you their message, and I will keep my word.'
'But,' said Lancelot, 'they will kill you!'
'It is possible,' said the man of God calmly. 'It is very probable. But
I have in my mind the conduct of the Roman Regulus. Should I, who am a
minister of Christ, be less nice in my honour than a Pagan?'
'Nay, but if we were to restrain you by force?' asked Lancelot.
'Mr. Amber,' Ebrow answered, 'it was your duty just now to administer a
reproof to your friend; I hope you will not force me to reprove you in
your turn. I have given my word, and there is an end of it; and if you
were to hold me by the strong hand I should think you more worthy to
consort with those pirates than with me.'
It was now Lancelot's turn to blush. Then he gripped Mr. Ebrow's hand.
'I beg your pardon,' he said, and there were tears in his eyes as he
spoke. 'You have taught me a noble lesson.'
Mr. Ebrow seemed as if he would be going, but I stayed him.
'Reverend sir,' said I, 'may I make so bold as to ask what is this
message that you have to deliver to us?'
For, as a matter of fact, we had so plied him with questions, and he had
been so busy in answering us, that he had not as yet delivered to us the
pirates' message, of which he was the spokesman.
There came a spot of colour on his grey jaws as I spoke.
'True. I fear I make but a poor intermediary,' he said. 'The pirates
propose, in the first place, that you make common cause with them, and
recognise the authority of Cornelys Jensen as your captain, in the which
case Cornelys Jensen guarantees you your share of the spoiling of the
Royal Christopher, and in future a fitting proportion of whatever
profits may come from their enterprises.'
'I suppose you do not expect us to consider that proposition?' said
Lancelot.
Mr. Ebrow almost smiled.
'No, indeed,' he said, 'and I do but discharge my promise in repeating
it to you. I must tell you too that he added that he was wishful to make
your sister his wife.'
There came into Lancelot's eyes the ugliest look I ever saw there, and
for myself I know not how I looked, I know only how I felt, and I will
not put my feelings into words. I suppose Mr. Ebrow understood us and
our silence, for he went on with his embassy. 'In the second place,
then, they call upon you to swear that you will take no part against
them, and will, on the contrary, do your endeavour to protect them in
case they should be attacked by other forces.'
'That also needs no consideration,' said Lancelot.
Mr. Ebrow nodded.
'Of course not, of course not. Then, in the third place, they call upon
you to throw down your weapons and to surrender yourselves to them as
prisoners of war, in which case they pledge themselves to respect your
lives and preserve you all as hostages for their own safety.'
'And if we refuse even this offer,' Lancelot asked, 'what is to happen
then?'
'In that case,' said Mr. Ebrow, 'they declare war against you; they will
give you no quarter----'
'Let them wait till they are asked!' I broke in; but Lancelot rested his
hand restrainingly upon my arm.
'As for the matter of quarter,' he said, 'it may prove in the end more
our business to give it than to seek for it. Quarter we may indeed give
in this sense, that even those villains shall not be killed in cold
blood if they are willing to surrender. But every man that we take
prisoner shall most assuredly be tried for his life for piracy and
murder upon the high seas. Will you be so good as to tell those men from
me that if they at once surrender the person of Cornelys Jensen and
their own weapons they shall be treated humanely, kept in decent
confinement, and shall have the benefit of their conduct when the time
for trial comes? But this offer will not hold good after to-day, and if
they attempt again to approach the island they shall be fired upon.'
'Well and good, sir,' said Mr. Ebrow. 'Have you anything more to say,
for my masters did but give me a quarter of an hour, and I feel sure
that my time must be expired by now?'
'Only this,' answered Lancelot, 'that if they want to fly their black
flag over this island they must come and take it from us.'
I never saw Lancelot look more gallant, with courage and hope in his
mien, and the soft wind fretting his hair. But the brightness faded away
from his face a moment after as he added:
'It grieves me to heart, sir, that you have to return to those
ruffians.'
Mr. Ebrow extended his hand to Lancelot with a wintry smile.
'It is my duty. I do but follow my Master's orders, to do all in His
Name and for His glory.'
He wrung Lancelot's hand and mine, and the hand of every man in our
troop. He gave us his blessing, and then, turning, walked with erect
head to the sea.
As soon as the pirates saw him coming they rowed their boat a little
nearer in, when they rested on their oars, while we stood to our guns
and the parson waded steadily out into the deeper water.
When he reached their boat they dragged him on board roughly, and we
could see from their gestures and his that he was telling them the
result of the interview with us.
The telling did not seem to give any great satisfaction to the villains,
and least of all to Jensen, for he struck the parson a heavy blow in the
face with his clenched hand that felled him, tumbling down among the
rowers. Then Jensen turned and shook his fist in our direction, and
shouted out something that we could not hear because of the distance and
the slight wind.
It seemed to me as if for a moment Jensen had a mind to order his boats
to advance and try to effect a landing, and I wished this in my heart,
for I was eager to come to blows with the villains, and confident that
we should prove a match for them.
But it would seem as if discretion were to prevail with them, in which,
indeed, they were wise, for to attempt to land even a more numerous
force in the face of our well-armed men would have been rash and a rough
business. We saw the boats sweep round and row rapidly away, and we
watched those scarlet coats dwindle into red spots in the distance.