Maiden Isle Again
As they sailed back in the pinnace to the secret haven, the weary
adventurers were surrounded by their comrades, and feasted their ears
with wondrous tales of what had befallen them. Ellis Hixom also had a
story to tell. A few days after the departure of the company, there
had staggered into the clearing three men in the last stage of
exhaustion. Two were English, one French. They were pitiable objects,
their eyes bright with fever, their cheeks haggard with famine, their
feet blistered and bleeding from long wandering in the woods. Each man
carried a bag of pearls.
And they told a pitiful story. They had escaped, they said, from
captivity in Nombre de Dios, and set out with three comrades, bearing
plunder from the houses of their captors. It was well known along the
coast that Drake was somewhere in hiding, and they marched eastward,
hoping by good hap to light upon his encampment. But as they rested
one night, the leader had overheard a plot on the part of three of the
men to slay the rest and make off with the booty. Fearing that if it
came to a fight he and his two comrades would stand but little chance
against the others, who were men of exceeding great strength and
ferocity, the three had slipped away in the darkness and had since been
tramping for days through the forest, unable to find sufficient food,
and subsisting on berries and mushrooms. Once they had almost stumbled
into a village of maroons, and fled for their lives, dreading lest they
should be taken for Spaniards and slain before the error was discovered.
"And where are they now?" asked Drake.
"On the _Pascha_, sir," replied Hixom, "where they are slowly
recovering of their calentures."
"And the name of the leader?"
"Jan Biddle, by his own account a skilful mariner and----"
"Ay, I have heard tell of him," interrupted Drake with a grim smile.
"Master Hazelrig," he added, calling Dennis up, "I learn that the
captain of your mutineers waits your judgement on my vessel."
He repeated what Hixom had told him.
"What is the name of the other Englishman, Master Hixom?" asked Dennis.
"Dick Rackstraw, methinks. The Frenchman's name is Michel Barren."
"Then what has become of our comrade Billy Hawk, I wonder? Biddle and
his crew deserted from us with the treasure, when we came ashore in our
boat. Billy Hawk went after them; I fear me there has been foul play."
"We will enquire into that matter when we gain our haven," said Drake,
"and see what Master Biddle has to say for himself."
As soon as he reached the haven, Drake boarded the _Pascha_ and called
Biddle and his companions before him. He listened patiently to the
man's wild tale, then sent a boat ashore to bring off Dennis and
Turnpenny. Biddle's jaw dropped when he saw them come over the side.
He attempted to bluster it out, but Drake cut him short.
"You are a foul liar and a mutineer," he said sternly. "Art a murderer
also? What didst thou to Billy Hawk thy comrade? Answer to the point,
villain."
"Afore God, sir, I know nought of him. With me came but four men, and
two of those lie dead in the forest, of a strange sickness that got
hold of them after that they had drunken of the water of a certain
river. Of Billy Hawk I saw nor heard nought."
"My poor comrade!" said Turnpenny. "I fear me he be gone or alost."
"These are your men," said Drake, turning to Dennis. "The punishment
of mutiny is death. Do with them as you list."
"I would fain leave them in your hands, sir," replied Dennis. "For me,
I would not that any man should die."
"I will consider of it. Have them put in irons and carried below."
Next day he decided, on Dennis's intercession, to content himself with
holding the men closely confined in the vessel. The bags of pearls
were taken from them and handed to Dennis and Turnpenny. And ere the
day was out Robert Pike was sent to join them. Drake had learnt of the
mischievous part the man had played, which had resulted in the failure
of his attack on the mule trains.
"A little darkness and solitude may teach him to refrain from the
bottle," he said.
The enterprise had so nearly succeeded that when Drake declared he
would make the attempt again, as soon as the time came for another
convoy of treasure to cross the isthmus, every man of his company
eagerly besought him for a place in the expedition. But Dennis
reminded him of his promise to lend him a pinnace in which to sail to
Maiden Isle and bring off his comrades.
"I will hold to my word," said Drake. "You and your brawny henchman
have suffered less than the most of my men, by reason, I wot, of your
being inured to hardships on your island. Some days must needs pass
before we are ready to attempt other enterprises. The island is but a
day's sail, you said?"
"Ay, sir, and with good hap we should return on the second day, or the
third at most."
"Then take the _Minion_ pinnace, and good hap go with you. You will
need men. Choose out eight according to your mind, and a few maroons
also. Juan was with you, I bethink me; he will doubtless serve you
right faithfully. In sooth, I shall be mighty rejoiced to have with me
the dozen men you go to find, for if they be in spirit and body like to
you and your henchman, they will be most serviceable when I make my
next journey to Panama. I would go fetch them myself, as I had
purposed, but that our preparations demand my presence here."
Next day, then, the _Minion_ pinnace sailed out of the little haven
with a crew of eight Englishmen and five maroons, three of whom were
the men who had accompanied Dennis from the island. Mirandola also was
on board. He had disappeared when Dennis set off with Drake to cross
the isthmus, but had evidently kept a watch on the settlement, for the
day after they returned he came out of the forest and attached himself
to his old master with demonstrations of delight. A brisk breeze was
blowing off shore; the pinnace was a first-rate sailer; by midday they
were in sight of the island, and in the afternoon they rounded the
shoulder of the cliff, Turnpenny steering the vessel into the gully.
Dennis, standing in the bows, caught sight of a group of men beyond the
pool, near his sheds. They were partly hidden by the foliage, and when
they saw the strange vessel making straight towards them, with the
evident intention of coming to an anchorage, they took to their heels
and disappeared.
"Poor souls! they take us for Spaniards," said Turnpenny. "I warrant
they be most desperately in the dumps. 'Tis nigh a month since we
departed hence."
The pinnace dropped anchor beside the _Maid Marian_, and the men went
ashore.
"Blow a blast," said Dennis to one of the men, who carried a trumpet,
"with notes that will be familiar to their ears."
As the shrill notes rang out, he stepped ahead of the men, with
Mirandola on his shoulder. Before long a man appeared among the trees
far up the chine.
"Hallo hoy!" shouted Turnpenny. "Be that you, Tom Copstone? Come,
comrade, never be afeard. We've come to take 'ee off, poor soul, and
bring 'ee to Master Drake, who will make us all rich with much gold and
treasure. Come, my hearts, Ned Whiddon, and Hugh Curder, and all."
Turnpenny's well-known voice was more successful than the trumpet's
notes in banishing the men's mistrust. Soon they came hasting down the
gully, Copstone leading.
"I said it! I knew it," he cried, as he approached. "'You and me,
Haymoss'--the blessed words stayed in my noddle, and I knew 'ee would
come back somewhen, dear soul. But we be in piteous case. 'Tis a long
ninny-watch we ha' kept, and hope was wellnigh drownded, sir. We could
not make it out; we was mazed, every man of us; but you be come back,
praise be to God."
He told how the disappearance of the _Mirandola_ had filled them first
with consternation, then with bitter rage. Some of the men declared
that they had been decoyed to the island; that they had been betrayed
and deserted for the sake of the treasure. From the first Copstone and
Whiddon had absolutely refused to believe that Dennis and Turnpenny had
wilfully left them; Hugh Curder, indeed, had made a shrewd guess at
what had actually happened; but the rest clung to their first notion,
gave way to bursts of rage and reviling, and as the days passed,
settled down into a state of moody despair.
Copstone had tried to induce them to fit out the _Maid Marian_ for sea,
but he had found it impossible to whip up enough energy among them.
They had some reason for their reluctance, inasmuch as, the stores of
the _Maid Marian_ having been put aboard the _Mirandola_, there was no
provision for a long voyage. The fruits of the island would spoil in a
week or so, whereas if they clung to the island they were at least sure
of finding a sufficient subsistence. But they had been troubled even
on this point, for some of the men fell ill through recklessly eating
fruits and berries without first ascertaining whether they were fit for
food, and with broken health their spirits had been still further
depressed.
"Poor souls!" said Turnpenny. "'Ee do look a wangery and witherly
crew. But 'ee be all here, all twelve, not a man lacking? My heart!
where be Gabriel Batten?"
"He never come back!"
"Never come back! What do 'ee mean?"
"We looked for en, up along and down along, but nary a crim of him did
we see."
"Ay, and another be gone, too," said Hugh Curder. "But a sennight
agone, poor Joe Toogood vanished out of our sight, and we never seed
him again."
"Be there devils upon the island, Haymoss?" asked Ned Whiddon,
anxiously. "Be there pixies that lead poor souls into some ditch or
quagmire, where they be swallowed quick in the pluffy ground? Once we
was bold mariners all, but now we be poor timorsome creatures, afeard
when the wind soughs in the trees."
Dennis remembered the boa-constrictor from whose clammy coils he had
saved the monkey that now sat upon his shoulder.
"'Twas no sprites nor pixies, comrades," he said. "Without doubt they
came unawares upon a big serpent that charmed them first with his fiery
eyes, and then swathed them in his fearsome coils till he had crushed
the life out of them. Poor souls! poor souls!"
"But now 'tis time to be merry, lads," said Amos quickly, "for here we
be, and our pinnace yonder is named the _Minion_, the same as the bark
that Captain Hampton handled so cunningly at St. John d'Ulua; and we be
goin' to take 'ee all back to Master Drake, who lies by a secret haven,
in little small huts built by the maroons; and there be archery butts,
and a smith's anvil, and other such homely things. And we have seen
wondrous things, my lads--the blue south sea beyond, and the treasure
town, and Master Drake be set on leading us forth to adventure for gold
and jewels beyond price. 'Tis time to be merry, souls!"
And catching the infection of his cheery good-will, Hugh Curder flung
his hat in the air and began--
Ill is the weather that bringeth no gain,
Nor helps good hearts in need.
Dennis had transferred to the _Mirandola_--now, alas! at the bottom of
the sea--the greater part of the _Maid Marian's_ stores that he kept in
his sheds; but there was a goodly remnant still in the cave, and this
he determined to put on board the _Minion_ and carry to Port Diego.
The afternoon was too far advanced for the work to be completed that
night; so he determined to sleep on the island and make an early start
next morning. As soon as it was light he sent a number of Turnpenny's
old comrades in different directions across the island to get a supply
of fresh fruit, while the men he had brought from the mainland set
about carrying the stores from the cave to the pinnace.
They had not been long at the work, however, when Ned Whiddon came
hurrying back.
"God-a-mercy, sir," he cried, "we have spied a crew of strangers on the
south shore, and in the offing two vessels at anchor. They be all clad
and armed in the Spanish fashion, and when they set eyes on us they
gave chase, and but that we know the island now as well as we know the
lanes to home, none of us would have 'scaped."
Other men came in while he was speaking. Dennis trembled for the fate
of those who had gone towards the northern shore and had not yet
returned.
"'Tis ill news indeed," he said. "Run, Curder, after the men that have
gone northward, and warn them that Spaniards are here to trouble us,
lest they have not already discovered it. Comrades," he added,
addressing the men about him, whose countenances bespoke their
alarm--"comrades, we must take counsel together. What think you, Amos,
we should do?"
"Why, sir, we should steal out in the pinnace as soon as our men be
back along, leaving these stores, and thread a way betwixt the reefs to
nor'ward; for the knaves could not follow us save in their boats."
"Ay, sir," said Copstone, "that be the true way of it. God send the
tide be high enough to serve."
"Then get aboard and make all ready to depart. Amos, look to all
things, and make the rest of our comrades to embark as they arrive. I
will run to the top of the cliff to spy if the coast be clear."
But on reaching the spot whence he had often before looked so longingly
and vainly for a sail, he made a most unwelcome discovery. About a
mile to the south-west of the island lay a large vessel, which, since
she was busily engaged in signalling, was clearly a consort of the two
ships that Whiddon had seen. Keeping well under cover, Dennis raced
along to a point half a mile south, whence the whole southern offing
was visible. There were the two vessels; and, even as he looked, a
boat was lowered from the nearest of them, rapidly filled with men, and
was rowed towards the beach.
The sight was enough to cause the boldest heart to quake. If the
pinnace ran out of the gully, she would have to pass within half a mile
of the ship, for the tide was low, and even the little _Minion_ drew
too much water to make her way northward until she had run at least
half a mile out to sea. This would bring her under the guns of the
third vessel, and the Spaniards must be poor marksmen indeed if they
failed to hit her at this range.
He was beginning to retrace his steps when Turnpenny came up hurriedly.
"We be all aboard, sir, save yourself and Nick Joland. Have 'ee seen
him?"
"No."
"He be but late better of a fever, as Tom telled me; pray he be not
swooned."
At this moment they heard loud shouts to their right. Running down
through the trees, careful not to expose themselves, they saw four
Spaniards chasing this very Nick Joland, a thin cadaverous-looking man
whose stumbling gait betrayed his weakness. He was making almost in a
straight line for a large bignonia bush that stood alone at the end of
the narrow clearing just below where the two men were watching.
With one accord Dennis and Turnpenny stole to the bush and dropped down
behind it.
"Let Joland pass," whispered Dennis; "then we can tackle the knaves as
they come up."
"Without arms?" replied Turnpenny.
Dennis nodded. In a few moments the fugitive, panting hard, ran past
the bush. The four Spaniards, running in a body, were close at his
heels.
"Now!" Dennis whispered.
They sprang out with a yell, and though they were unarmed, the odds
were not utterly against them, for the Spaniards were startled by this
unexpected onset. A single blow from Turnpenny's sledge-hammer fist
stretched one of them senseless on the ground. Dennis felled his man,
but his arm was less powerful, and the Spaniard began dizzily to regain
his feet while Dennis grappled with another. As he rose he reeled just
within reach of Turnpenny's arm. Catching him round the middle, the
seaman flung him bodily at the fourth Spaniard, who was making
furiously at him with drawn sword, Their heads collided with a terrific
thud, and down they fell on the grass together.
[Illustration: "The seaman flung him bodily at the fourth Spaniard."]
Meanwhile Dennis had come to grips with the third man, a heavy and
muscular fellow, who had only been prevented by the suddenness of the
onslaught from using his sword, which he was unable in the surprise of
the moment to shorten before Dennis was within his guard. Dropping the
weapon, he strove to crush his antagonist by sheer strength. But
Dennis was a wrestler. He neatly tripped the Spaniard, who fell,
dragging his opponent with him. With a tremendous effort, he heaved
himself uppermost and pinned Dennis to the ground. His hand was
already on Dennis's throat when suddenly a bright object hurtled
through the air, striking him with terrific force on the side of the
head. His grip relaxed, he fell with a groan upon Dennis, the object
that had struck him clattering to the ground.
Dennis was up in a moment. The strange missile was the headpiece of
one of the Spaniards. It had fallen from his head in the tussle, and
been picked up by Nick Joland, who, seeing the diversion in his favour,
had hurried up at the critical moment in time to save Dennis from
strangulation.
"Dead as door-nails!" said Turnpenny succinctly, seeing Dennis glance
at the Spaniards on the ground. "'Tis a terrible heave-up, sir; we
were best to run back along to our comrades in the pinnace, for there
be gashly work afore us. And we will take these knaves' swords and
calivers. Crymaces! there be more running towards us, and a round
dozen; we durst not bide their coming. We have but bare time to get
back to the chine. Stir your stumps, Nick Joland; we can't save 'ee
twice, man."