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mountain.
The men gathered about master and mate and Jacob, then Harry Malcolm went swarming up the rigging and from the
maintop sail yard studied the dim bulk of the mountain. After a time he cried down to them, "Douse all lights and hold her on
her course! "
For an hour they stood toward the land, then Malcolm came down from aloft smiling, and there ran through the ship a great
wave of talk. Though a man had never sailed those seas before, he would not have found the reason for their talk hard to
guess, since there were few secrets on board. Time and distance had made less the grumbling occasioned by the disastrous
brush with the Porcupine and by the littleness of the profit got from the pink, and they had warmed their hearts with the Old
One's tales.
Bearing to the west, the Rose of Devon skirted the dark shore for miles; but the master and mate were growing anxious lest
dawn overtake them before they should reach the hiding-place they sought; and when they rounded a certain wooded point
and sailed into a deep, secluded bay where a ship might lie for a year unseen -- which put an end to their fears -- they let go
their anchors with all good will and furled their sails: and at break of day they kedged the ship into a cove that might have
been a dock, so straight were the shores and so deep the water.
"Mind you, Ned," or "Mind you, Hal, the night we landed on Hispaniola?" the men from the Blue Friggat were saying. And
"'Twas thou at my side when we stole down through the palms and bottled the garrison in the little fort." And "Ah, what wine
we got that night! "
"Yea, and how drunk we got! So that Martin Barwick was of a mind to go fight a duel with the captain of the soldiers. And
then they burst out and drove us all away, and there was an end of our taking towns for a long, long while."
"I will have you know that I was no drunker than any man else," Martin snarled, and they laughed uproariously.
"Come," cried another, "since we have laid our ship in her chosen berth, let us sleep while the idlers watch. We shall be off in
the cool of the afternoon."
"Nay, in the morning!"
"Afternoon or morning matters little," said old Jacob thickly, in the corner where he sat watching all the men. "The hour is
near when we shall lay in the hold a goodly cargo. I know well this town. We need only find two more such towns to get the
money to keep us the rest of our lives like so many dukes, each of us in a great house in England, with a park full of deer, and
the prettiest tavern wenches from all the country round to serve us in the kitchen."
That day, while the men slept in such cool places as they could find, the cook and the carpenter stood watch; and a very good
watch they kept, for they were prudent souls and feared the Old One and dared not steal a wink of sleep. Bur though there
was much need that the men should sleep, there was small need of a watch, for the ship lay in that deep cove in the little
round bay, with masses of palms on the high banks, which hid her from waterline to truck.
At mid-afternoon, as the Old One had bade them, the cook and the carpenter called the men, who came tumbling up, quickly
awake and breathing heavily, since there was work to be done ere another morning broke, and, like enough, blood to be
spilled.
From a chest of arms Harry Malcolm handed out muskets and pistols and pikes. "This for you," he said
"And this for you -- and here's a tall gun for Paul Craig. Nay, curse not! Prayers, Paul, shall profit thee more than curses."
"I tell ye what, I ll not carry this great heavy gun," quoth he, and turned a dull red from anger.
"Blubububububub!" one cried, and all laughed.
"'Tis lucky, Paul," retorted Harry Malcolm, "that Tom Jordan is an easy, merciful man, or there's more than one back would
bear a merry pattern in welts." He took up another musket -- cumbersome, unwieldy weapons they were which a man must
rest for firing - and handed it to another. "And this for you."
Jacob was turning over and over on his palm powder from a newly opened barrel, and the Old One was leaning on the
quarter-deck rail, whence he sleepily watched the small groups that were all the time gathering and parting. Will Canty, his
face a little whiter than ordinary and his hand holding his firelock upright by the barrel, stood ill at ease by the forecastle. The
boys lurked in corners, keeping as much as possible out of the way, but watching with wide eyes the many preparations. And
indeed it was a rare sight, for the staunch old ship, her rigging restored and her many leaks stopped, lay in her little cove
where a cool breeze stirred the ropes, and the afternoon sun shone through the palms brightly on the deck, and the men
moved about bare-armed and stripped to their shirts.
"It would save much labour," said the carpenter, "were we to use this fair breeze to go by sea."
"True, carpenter, but a ship coming in from sea is as easy spied by night as by day, whereas a company of men descending
from the hills by night will have the fort before the watchdogs bark. And who is there will grudge labour in such a cause?"
The Old One looked about and the carpenter himself nodded assent.
Only Paul Craig grumbled, and at him the others laughed as they ate and drank.
They slept again till just before dawn, then, running a plank to the shore, they gathered under the palms, for there was need of
a last council before leaving the ship.
"We are forty men," said the Old One, "and forty men are all too few; but though it is little likely that any will stumble on the
ship in our absence, it is a matter of only common prudence that we post a guard ere we go."
"Yea, a guard!" cried Paul Craig. "I, now, am a very watchful man."
"Nay, but think, Paul, how great a meal thou can'st eat when thou hast climbed up hill and down with thy gun, and how much
thou can'st drink.'It would be no kindness to leave thee. We must leave some lithe, supple lad who hath no need for the
tramp." And the Old One chuckled. "Come, Paul and Martin, you shall lead our van."
Harry Malcolm met his eye, and he nodded. "I name to guard our ship,'' said he, "the cook and Joe Kirk and Will Canty. Do
you, lads, load the swivel guns and keep always at hand two loaded muskets apiece. Fire not unless the need is urgent, and
keep the ship with your lives, for who knows but the lives of us all are staked upon your watchfulness and courage? You,
Harry, since you know best the road, shall lead, with Paul and Martin upon either hand; the rest shall follow, and Jacob and I
will guard the rear." He turned to the three who were to stay. "If there is good news, I will send men to bring the ship round to
the harbour where, God willing, we shall load her to the deck with yellow chinks. If bad news -- why, you may see us in one
day, or three, or five -- Or maybe never."
He arched his brews and tossed his piece to his shoulder, and with Jacob at his side, he followed the others, who were already
labouring under the weight of their weapons as they filed up the steep acclivity. The Old One and Jacob slowly climbed the
wild, rough hill and paused until the marching column was out of hearing.
"You are a strange man," said Jacob. "I would wring his neck without thought."
"That were a mere brutal jest such as affordeth little joy," the Old One replied. "I will wind him in a tangle of his own
working, then I will take the breath from his nostrils deliberately and he will know, when he dies, that T know what T know."
"You are a strange man."
"I can keep order among the gentlemen better than could any captain in the King's service; and such a game as this sharpens a
man's wits. We shall see what we shall see."
Jacob slipped away by himself and the Old One followed his men. All that morning, unseen and unsuspected, Jacob sat
behind a rock within earshot of the ship. The palms shielded him and shaded him and he got himself into such a corner that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]