The Sea Wolves/Chapter 17
So overwhelmingly fierce was the sun at twelve o'clock that the crew of the life-boat suffered intolerably. The early breeze of morning fell away altogether at eight bells, and a torrid, sweltering light poured down pitilessly upon the rock. In this, however, the men had fortune with them, since no boats from the shore came near the reef; and they lay unmolested, though suffering much, until the first welcome failing of the light. Then, with no more delay, they began to row with powerful strokes toward the further land, and to realize for the first time the import of the cargo they carried.
When they had come well into the bay, and lay upon their oars to consider upon a place of landing, the difficulties of the previous day readily recurred to them. It was clear that the Spaniards with whom they had been brought to a brawl would continue to look for them at the pool of the stream, and such a haven was no longer to be thought of. Yet a rapid survey of the bay had shown to them the outline of a village on its eastern side, and this they could not approach, nor the headland to the westward, which had the watch-tower upon its summit. And in this perplexity they remained for a long spell, while the boat drifted in the loom of the land.
"It just comes to this," said Messenger, when they had argued the matter for the tenth time, "we must find a place we can hold while one of us gets to Ferrol and brings a ship. For that purpose we shall want something a little stronger than bushes above us; and we don't look to camp in this ship it may be for a week, it may be for two. My own inclination sends me round the eastward headland, there to learn what's beyond the village; and if there's no ground likely, it won't kill us to pull back again."
"If my inclination led me, I should shift straight for a square meal and a long drink at the nearest bar," responded Kenner dolefully; but, finding that he had no sympathy from the others, who put the boat at once upon the course Messenger had indicated, he turned to the nigger and addressed him with sorrow, to which the man responded with a great show of teeth and an ambiguous "By golly!" He meant to convey the intimation that he was hungry; but so, indeed, were all of them, though there could be no leisure for food neither then nor for many hours; and they rowed in a determined silence right round the eastern headland, standing in the dark a couple of miles away from the village, and coming at length to a second bay, which was not so deep as the other; but had cliffs of repelling steepness and seemingly impregnable face.
Here they coasted for a half-mile or more, until at last the cliffs, though of equal height, were split into close ravines of whitish earth, and showed numberless inlets and tiny creeks—some of them with a stretch of sandy beach, some shoreless fjords. It was the work of an hour or more to explore the first half-dozen of these with any exactitude; but after many rejections and selections they put at last into a natural harbour which seemed to be cut by nature just for their own purpose. Not only did a channel of the sea, some eight feet wide, run into this haven, giving water even at the bottom of the tide, but the passage turned some thirty feet from the shore, and there disclosed a perfect fjord. Cliffs of great altitude almost shut out the sky; a still basin of water gave to the retreat all the aspect of a lagoon. It was in all things such a harbour as they might have prayed for; and when, they being just come to the head of it, the moon sent radiating beams down through the white cañon and a thousand pinnacles of rock glinted in the yellow light, there was a wild picturesqueness about their retreat which surpassed description.
Burke's first exclamation when the boat grounded was one of delight.
"If there's a finer spot for throwing the stuff ashore between here and Lisbon, I'll give you my share!" said he; and with that he sprang upon the beach, of which there was not three feet, and the others followed him, stretching themselves as men whose limbs were racked with cramp and confinement. To haul the ship up was not their purpose; but they forced her broadside to the sand, and then, at Messenger's dictation, they began to act.
"Now, boys," said he, and he spoke exultingly, "out with the stuff; there's another journey to be made before dawn, and the night's short enough, any way."
In half an hour kegs and cases lay piled upon the sand, and the life-boat stood high in the water. Then Burke, who had taken a hasty sounding, gave his advice for the disposition of the cargo with a readiness which again emphasized the quick working of a curiously ill-balanced brain.
"Look you," said he, "there's a rock bottom at the turn of the passage, and a pool two feet deep here. You couldn't want better if it had been made for you. Drop the stuff there, and there it lies till the Day of Judgment for all the sea'll do to it."
At these words they rolled the freight into the sea-pool, where it sank with a heavy splash; and then, scarce consenting to wait, as Burke insisted, for a cloud, which was coming up with a gentle westerly wind, to cover the moon, they pushed out heedlessly to sea, and by dawn a second load lay in the calm water of the cove, and the men prepared in the light of the day for their own concealment and for that of their boat.
As the morning light flooded their retreat, yet left it dim, for the sky above them where the cañon opened was black with rain clouds, they could begin to see their environment and its possibilities. On either side of them was a wall of rock, but on the left side the precipice was broken into irregular ridges. The first of these, at the height of five feet or less, appearing to form a rude path leading right through the cañon to the hill-land beyond it. It was this ledge which the quick eye of Messenger selected for the camping-place, and, having hauled himself up to it, he found by walking no more than fifty yards that there was a hollow under the rock where the whole of them could be in shelter and almost absolute concealment.
In such a retreat they camped during that day, feeding upon the biscuits and the fruit, and suffering their insatiable hunger for meat; but early in the night, leaving Kenner in charge of the haven, the other four put out again; and, holding off the land in their hope of escaping all observation, they came, after rowing for a couple of hours, within a quarter of a mile of the reef before they were able to observe it closely.
The moon had not yet risen; and the night was dark with storm cloud. The westerly wind, which had been increasing since the dawn, blew freshly, and they could see the silver of surf beating up upon the pinnacles and flecking them with foam. This deterred them in no way, but, having ceased to row for a spell that they might shape the best course possible to make the inner pool, they were suddenly startled by a low cry from Fisher, who had the tiller, and whose eyes were glued upon the reef.
"Prince," said he, "is that a man moving on the poop there, or can't I see straight?"
"By gosh! it is a man!" said Burke; and the nigger, chiming in, cried—
"Two men, sah, and a keg for to lug, by golly!"
If a shot had come among them, you could not have surprised them more sharply. For some moments they sat speechless, laying upon their oars, and watching the two fellows who were were well occupied hauling out one of their kegs into a boat anchored on the shoreward side of the islets; but whose mast stood above the ledge with a triced-up lug-sail flapping to the breeze. So busy were they that no sound of the approaching ship's boat had disturbed them; nor did they see her as she lay with her crew stupefied and wordless. And when they had lowered the keg of bullion, they disappeared into the cabin again, seemingly unconscious of observation or of danger. But Messenger had already made up his mind, and, pulling out his revolver, he said—
"Burke, if a man among them goes ashore living, the game's up. Have you got any cartridges in your belt?"
"I've half-a-dozen, and five in the shooting-iron," replied Burke. "What's the youngster got?"
"He'll stand by the boat," said Messenger quickly, "and come aboard only when I call him. Are you quite ready?"
"Ay, ay!" cried Burke; and upon that they shot the boat with rapid strokes to the inner pool of the reef, and sprang nimbly to the poop.
A lantern was burning in the depth of the cabin, and by its light they saw two men bending over a case of sovereigns which they had broken open, and whose dazzling contents held them spell-bound.
Though the light was dim enough, and burned flickeringly, the saloon shone with a dazzling radiance of brightness which was blinding to the eyes. Before the astonished men there lay a fortune of gold; a cube of sovereigns pressing thick upon each other; a mass of glittering, scintillating metal which was as a sun to the cabin. To bathe their hands in it, to pour it in cupfuls back to the treasure-box, to listen to the chink of it—this was the occupation of the two Spaniards upon whose vision such a sight had come, and it held them indifferent to sound and suspicion, cast upon them that inexplicable spell which is the potency of treasure. But to the others watching the spectacle was one which moved every impulse of greed; and, with clenched teeth and nerves playing, they prepared to leap down the ladder and begin the attack.
"Mark your man," said Messenger in a whisper, "and shoot straight! They'll have knives, and it's best fought apart. I go first."
He went lightly down the ladder as he spoke, and, the Spaniards immediately turning, he shot at the one upon the left hand; but the fellow raised his arm as the trigger fell, and the bullet split the bone of it and spent itself in the far cushions. The other, with a pitiful cry upon his lips, whipped out his knife and dropped under the wrecked table, where Burke shot at him twice; and each time he groaned as though the bullet had burned his body. Meanwhile the lantern had rolled over at the jar, and in the utter darkness (for they yet lacked the light of the moon) Messenger closed in upon the fellow who had been wounded, and hugged him in a fierce embrace, so that he bawled with the pain of the arm which was broken, and yet fought to hold off the revolver which was so near to his temple. Such a struggle could scarce have endured for two minutes but for the intervention of the man under the table, who, of a sudden, slashed with his knife at Messenger's legs, and cut one of them from the knee-cap to the shin. The smart of the wound and a touch of the knife in the other leg, compelled the Prince to let his man loose, and, flinging him with a great effort upon the floor, he deliberately shot at his body as he lay; but the pain had unnerved him, and at the fourth shot only did the Spaniard quiver and his limbs draw up in the contraction of death.
"BURKE SHOT AT HIM TWICE" (p. 184)
It was now a horrid scene. One of the Spaniards was dead, as they thought; the other hid behind the cases, craving for mercy and shaking in all his limbs. To shoot at this man was impossible, even had there been light by which to load; but the dark was unbroken, and they knew the hiding-place only when they saw gleaming eyes, as the eyes of a brute, shining up from the shadow, or heard the muttered prayer of one to whom death was very near. Others, perchance, would have let the man go, leaving him at the worst a prisoner upon the rock. But the lust of the gold and the terror of pursuit were upon the men; and, having whispered together, they suddenly stepped over the cases, and as the cowering sailor rose up to receive them Burke struck at his head with his revolver, and Messenger gripped his arm with all the strength left to him.
For some moments the three rocked in desperate embrace. Burke had missed his blow, and, staggering, had fallen across the chest of the Spaniard, who dug the nails of his left hand into his throat, and was threatening to choke him every time he renewed his grip. The very fall of the giant skipper prevented the Prince aiming a blow at the Spaniard's head, and he needed the strength of both his hands to cope with the tremendous arm which held the sheath-knife. Thus for a spell they rolled about on the floor, the one now as fierce as the two, enraged and hopeless in the terrible combat. Indeed, the daring of his struggle was beyond description; and Burke was upon the very point of unconsciousness when a chance move brought it to an end.
The great American was, as I have said, near to being choked. So strong was his agony that he rolled at last right round under the Spaniard's clutch; and, thus turning his body, the sheath of his knife struck Messenger's leg. Burke himself could not speak; but his partner felt the touch of the haft, and, holding to the doomed man's arm with one of his hands only, he drew Burke's blade from the sheath quickly, and with savage strength drove it into the soft body again and again. Yet still the man was not done with, for as the others rose up he of a sudden, in the horrid contraction of his muscles, slashed fiercely with the hand that held his knife; and at the stroke he laid open Burke's face from the temple to the chin, sending the huge scoundrel howling from the cabin to the deck, where he lay, with oaths upon his lips, near blinded with his blood. Thither Messenger followed him, white and sick with the shock of reaction, sweat gathering thick upon his forehead, his ragged clothes torn the more, his legs scarred and slashed—yet with his nerve as ready and his purpose as set as at the beginning of it.
"Burke!" he cried, when he came to the top of the companion, "where are you?—did you get cut, man?"
"Cut!" yelled Burke, "cut! Look at me; I guess there's coals on my cheek—burn his body! I'm blinded!"
Messenger bent down and looked at the upturned and hideous face. He shuddered as he saw it, and, pulling at his soft linen shirt at the throat, he tore off a great piece and bound op the wound clumsily, while the other howled childishly with the pain of it.
"That'll hold you till we're ashore," said the Prince, as he worked with deft fingers; "get into the boat and take a pull at the spirits—you, there, Joe! bring her in and come aboard."
"Aye, aye!" sang out the man, and with the words he brought the nose of the life-boat up to the rock, and Burke staggered into it, falling prone when he had made the step, and lying like a hulk by the bow-thwart. But the nigger jumped to the rock, and, descending the companion, began to haul up the remaining kegs; and at last, with prodigious labour, they raised the case of sovereigns, though the roughly fastened lid came off again, and sent many coins jingling upon the steps and to the floor.
Of the bullion all, with the exception of two small kegs, was now either sunk in the white haven or stowed in the lifeboat; but one keg lay near the body of the dead Spaniard, and his left hand rested upon it. The light in the cabin was at this time somewhat better, and Messenger, taking a last look round, observed the forgotten plunder, and made a step forward to take it; but the upturned visage of the dead man was so repellent, there was such a distortion of feature and of form, that the observer was seized for the first time with uncontrollable terror, and he rushed from the cabin with a cry in his throat. The sharp air, for the west wind was now blowing strongly, nerved him again, but not to dare the saloon. He knew that he could not have looked upon that face again for ten kegs of the bullion, and he strove to send the nigger in his place. But the man howled out at the suggestion, and fell upon his knees imploringly.
"De Lord help me, sah, I not touch it! I not go there; he look at me, sah!"
"Then get up for a fool!" snarled Messenger; and he gave him three sound kicks, which sent him headlong into the longboat.
The wind now blew a full gale, and the sea was beginning to surge heavily upon the reef. Fisher, who had sat at the tiller of the longboat through the whole affair, and upon whom the fight had come as a revelation, compelling him to see of what kind were the men his friends, still kept the nose of the boat toward the centre of the pool; but Messenger called upon him to take an oar, and he obeyed as a man who hears, but can make no answer. The nigger was at the bow-thwart; and, thus manned, they backed out the ship to the rough of the open, and were preparing to row for the shore when a new idea arose.
"Hold her there!" cried Messenger. "I'd clean forgotten their boat; and that won't do at all. Back astern, stroke and paddle on, bow."
The Spaniards' "ketch" had been made fast in the inner channel, the painter being hitched to a boat-hook driven between a crevice. She now rode uneasily, labouring in the fresher wind. A dog curled up in the cuddy barked loudly as the longboat ran alongside.
"When we've got the keg, and before we let her go," said Messenger, when the ships touched, "we might see if there's any thing to eat aboard. Just climb up, Hal, and look; but don't be long about it."
Fisher went doggedly with the nigger, while the other held with boat-hooks to the shrouds of the smack. The sea was then so fresh that it was no easy matter to reach the ketch's deck, and, once there, the lad needed a seaman's feet to keep his hold. Yet this he scarcely noticed, for his thoughts were about the scene in the other cabin, and the light which it had thrown upon the character of the one man he called a friend. What desperate adventure was he embarked upon? he asked himself again and again. How came it that the companion who had shown through long years the placid face of an emotionless being had become of a sudden a madman or a fiend? The answer took in his mind a hundred shapes, but all of them reflected only his own helplessness, or seemed to tell him to hold his tongue and go through with it. There was no other course; yet he knew that now he stood alone, and fell to wondering about the future both of the others and of himself.
These things, I say, he thought as he rolled the keg to the lifeboat and searched the ship's cabin, wherein there was a stove burning with the embers of charcoal; but they passed for a moment from his mind when the dog came to him and barked a truce. The truth was that when he beat open the locker of the cabin, and took therefrom two great hunks of coarse meat, with a sack of biscuit, some rye bread, and another sack of potatoes, he knew the adventurer's joy at the prospect of food, and in that matter was at one with the others of the party. Thus it came that he found himself crying out childishly as he hurled the things down to the longboat and Messenger stored them.
"Don't forget the water, if you can lift it," cried the latter, "and throw any spare rope there is; we shall want it yonder."
This was a wise thought, and Fisher quickly rolled the two kegs from the waist of the ship to the side, and, with the nigger's help, got them aboard. Then, having also taken all the ropes they could lay hands upon, they pushed off and let go the ketch's painter, at which she drifted slowly for some moments until the current took her, and she went swirling away, with the dog barking pitifully at the taffrail. She was out of sight in five minutes, and then began that long and laborious row to the distant haven—a row which might never have been accomplished but for the fact that tide and current swept strongly under them, and that the wind, full from the west, eased their labour. Yet they dared not to sail, so strong was the breeze; and when they had rowed for an hour, the light on the headland beyond their bay was still afar off.
During this journey Burke lay in a state of semi-insensibility near the bows. Fisher had suggested giving him water, but Messenger intervened, crying to let him lie. He, for his part, cared nought whether the man lived or died: and all his hope was that of getting quickly to the creek where Kenner waited. After that the future would be apparent; but at the moment it was as doubtful as the night above them. With this in his mind he urged the others to greater effort; but scarce had he spoken when the rowers ceased suddenly to work and a cry broke from all of them.
For with his words a gun boomed out over the sea by the far headland, and a rocket left a fiery trail upon the curtain of the sky.