first there was talk of old times, for it seemed that matterson and gleazen and captain jones were friends of long standing. then there was talk of strange wars and battles, particularly of one battle of insamankow, of which neither gleazen nor matterson had had other news than that which captain jones now gave them, and in which it seemed that the british had met with great disaster, although it puzzled me to know wherein such a battle even remotely concerned any of us. after that there was talk of various other things—a murderous plague of smallpox that years before had swept the african coast, a war between the fantis and ashantis, a cruiser that they, with oaths and laughter, said had struck her flag in battle with a slaver, a year's journey with desert caravans that traded with the arabs, and last of all, and apparently most important, curious ways of circumventing the laws of england and america and of bribing cuban officers of low degree and high.
all this, in a stuffy little place where the mingled smells of rum and spices and tobacco hung heavily on the air as they grew stale, filled me with disgust and almost with nausea. vile oaths slipped out between each two sentences, if by rare chance they were not woven into the very warp of the sentences themselves; such stories of barbarous and unbelievable cruelty were told and retold as i cannot bear to call to mind, to say nothing of repeating; and always i was aware of that sickening odor, now strong, now weak, which i had detected before we went below.
the first sign that the others gave of noticing it was when gleazen threw back his head and cried, "pfaw! what a stench! the smell is all i have against the trade."
matterson laughed, and captain jones with his grand manner said, "you have been too long away from it, mr. gleazen."
"too long? that's as may be. an old horse settles easy into harness again."
captain jones smiled. with apparent irrelevance, but with a reminiscent air, he said; "too long or no, it's a long time since first we met,—a long, long time, and yet i remember as yesterday what a night we had of it. it began when that blasted frenchman slipped his cables and sought to beat us up the river. it was you, gleazen, that saved us then. when your message came, with what haste we landed the boats and towed the old brig straight up stream! row? we rowed like the devil, and though our palms peeled, we won the race. it was a good cargo you had waiting, too. only seven died in the passage."
in the passage! already i had suspected, now i knew, that the ship with her fast lines and cruel officers was none other than a slaver; that the smell was the stench of a slave-ship; that in that very cabin men had bartered for human beings. if i could, i would have turned my back on them there and then; the repugnance that i had long felt grew into downright loathing. what would i not have given to be up and away with arnold lamont! but i was a mere stripling, alone, so far as help was concerned, in a den of villains crueler than wolves. though i would eagerly have left them, i dared not; and almost at once something happened that in any case would have held me where i was.
gleazen leaned across the punch-bowl and said to captain jones; "who is there in port will make a good captain[pg 121] for a smart brig with a neat bow, swift to sail and clever to work?"
captain jones ran his fingers through his stiff, shaggy hair. "now, let me see," he replied, "there's a man—"
cutting him sharply off, my uncle spoke up, "gentlemen, i will choose the master of my own vessel."
i knew by his voice that he, as well as i, was sickened by the situation in which we found ourselves. poor uncle seth, i thought, how little did he suspect, when he united his fortune with the golden dreams of neil gleazen, that he was to travel such a road as this!
"ah!" said gleazen. "and who will it be?" an unkind smile played around his mouth.
"gideon north, if he will come back to us," said my uncle.
"ah!" matterson, gleazen, and captain jones exclaimed as if with one breath.
for a minute or so the three sat in silence, looking hard at the top of the table; then matterson with a queer twist of his lips spoke in spanish. when, after another silence, the captain of the merry jack and eleanor answered at length in the same tongue, matterson responded briefly, and all three men nodded.
a quality so curiously and subtly dramatic pervaded the scene that i remember thinking, as i looked about, what a rare theme it would have made for a painter. i believe that a skillful artist, if he had studied the faces of us all as we sat there, could have put our characters on his canvas so faithfully that he would have been in danger of paying for his honesty with his life, had matterson or the strange captain had a chance at him in the dark. the very place in which we sat smelled of villainies, and the rat-like captain of the ship was a fit master of such a den.
gleazen now turned to my uncle. "very well," said he,[pg 122] with an amused smile, "joe, here, and arnold lamont are in good odor with him. suppose, then, that we let them go ashore and hunt him out and talk matters over. i've no doubt he'll come back. he went off in a tantrum, as a man will when he takes pepper up his nose. you must know where the fellow's staying. you were to send him the money due him. captain jones will lend them one of his boats for now, and i'll have our boat ready to take them all off together in, say, three hours' time."
as i have said in an earlier chapter of this narrative, by inclination i was a dreamer; and yet i must have been more than a mere dreamer, and worse, not to have scented by those dark looks and cryptic words some trouble or other afoot. it was as if for a long time i had seen the three to be united definitely against us, but as if i now for the first time perceived what a desperately black and sinful alliance they made—it was as if the spectacle struck me into a daze. when gleazen finished, the other two again nodded, and in the very manner of their nods there was something as cold and deliberate as a snake's eye. had i been able to rely upon the impressions of the moment, i should have said that time stood as still as the sun upon gibeon; that for many minutes we stared at one another in mutual suspicion; that the beating of my heart had all but ceased. but the impressions of the moment deceived me.
when gleazen stopped speaking, he hit with his elbow the ink-bottle that stood on the table. it tipped on its side, rolled deliberately across the table, and fell; but before it struck the floor, matterson, leaning out with a swift, dexterous motion, caught it, tried the stopper, and murmured as if to himself, "there's luck for you! not a drop is lost." in the time it had taken that bottle to roll across the table, and not a second more, i had suffered that untold suspense.
[pg 123]
now the spell was shattered, and hearing someone speaking in an undertone behind me, i turned and caught captain jones in the act of giving instructions in spanish to his negro steward.
i was surprised and angry. though of late i had heard much spanish, it seemed to me that to speak it under the circumstances was so rude as to verge on open affront. then uncle seth, gulping down his astonishment that gleazen should so readily accede to his wishes, spoke up for himself; and because i was so deeply interested in whatever he might have to say, i turned my back on the mungo, ceased to watch captain jones, and did not notice that the steward went immediately on deck. nor did i attribute any significance to the sound of oars bumping against the pins, which i soon afterwards heard. had not arnold lamont been waiting on deck with his eyes fixed apparently on the dark outline of the frigate, my stupidity must have cost us even more than it did.
"very well," said uncle seth. "i will do as you suggest."
"perhaps," said gleazen, thoughtfully, "sim muzzy, here, would like to go."
"oh, yes," cried sim, "i'm fair dying for a trip on dry land. yes, indeed, i'd like to go. i'd like it mightily. you've always said, mr. gleazen, i was too thick to do harm. oh, yes indeed!"
matterson smiled and captain jones covered his mouth with his hand, but gleazen gravely nodded.
"well, sim, go you shall," said he. "there ain't one of us here but is glad to see an honest man take his fling ashore, and havana's a city for you. such handsome women as ride about in their carriages! and such sights as you'll see in the streets! you'll be a wiser man e'er you come back to us, sim. i swear, i'd like to go myself,—but not to-night! i ain't one to neglect business for pleasure."
[pg 124]
when he shot a glance at matterson and captain jones, my eyes followed his, and i saw that once more they had fixed their gaze on the top of the table. now i was actually unable, so baffling had been their change of front, to make up my mind whether they were to be suspected or to be trusted.
"well," said gleazen, "we are all agreed. lay down your orders, seth. they'll carry them out to the last letter."
so uncle seth told me where to find gideon north, and neil gleazen wrote it on a paper,—in spanish, mind you!—and they put their heads together, every one, to think up such arguments as would induce captain north to return, all with an appearance of enthusiasm that amazed me and might easily have put my suspicions to shame but for those other things that had happened.
"i'll be civil to him," gleazen cried. "and you can tell him, too, that this is an honest voyage. we're to run no race with the king's cruisers, joe."
"aye," captain jones put in, "an able vessel and an honest voyage."
"with a mountain of treasure to be got," added matterson.
the three spoke so gravely and straightforwardly now, that i wondered at their insolence; and as sim and i got up to go, not yet quite believing that in reality, and not in a dream, we were being dispatched into the heart of that strange city, they accompanied us on deck and told arnold lamont that he was to go with us on our errand, and saw us safely started in the long boat of the merry jack and eleanor before returning to their punch.
i could see that arnold had no liking for the mission, but while we were in the boat he gave me no explanation of his uneasiness. indeed, sim muzzy talked so much and[pg 125] so fast that, when he once got started, you could scarcely have thrust the point of a needle into his monologue.
"she's a slaver," he murmured as we pulled away from the merry jack and eleanor. "a cruel-hearted slaver! thank heaven, we're never to have a hand in any such iniquity as that."
we looked back at the ship, black and gloomy against the sky, with many men moving about on her deck.
"you're a silly fool," one of the oarsmen cried, having overheard him, "a man without stomach, heart, or good red blood."
"stomach, is it?" sim retorted. "i'll have you know i eat my three hearty meals a day and they set well too. i can eat as much victuals as the next man. why—" and there was no stopping him till the boat bumped against a wharf and we three stepped out.
the boat, i noticed, instead of putting back to the ship, waited by the wharf.
i turned and looked at the restless harbor, on which each light was reflected as a long, tremulous finger of flame that reached almost to my feet, at the sky, in which the stars were now shining, and at the anchored ships, each with her own story, could one but have read it; then i yielded to sim's importunate call and in the darkness turned after him and arnold. what reason was there to suspect that simeon muzzy and i stood at a crossroads where our paths divided?
coming to the street, we stopped, and in the light from an open window put our heads together over the paper that gleazen had written out and given to us with instructions to show it to the first person we met and turn where he pointed.
"why, it's all in foreigner's talk!" sim exclaimed.
"let me see it," said arnold.
[pg 126]
he looked at it a long time and smiled. "i wonder," he said, "do they think we are so very simple?"
now a man came toward us. before he could pass, arnold stepped suddenly forward and addressed him in spanish.
"why," cried i, when the passerby had gone, "you, too—do you talk spanish?"
arnold turned to me with a smile and said, for the second time, "a man does not tell all he knows."
thrusting the paper into his pocket, he continued, "according to the directions that mr. gleazen has written down for our guidance, my friends, we should turn to the right. but according to my personal knowledge, which that man confirmed, we shall find gideon north by turning to the left."
to the left, then, we turned; and only arnold lamont, who told me of it afterward, saw one of the boatmen, when we had definitely taken our course, leave the boat and run into the darkness in the direction that neil gleazen wished to send us.
carriages passed us, and men on horseback, and negroes loitering along the streets. there were bright lights in the windows; and we saw ladies and their escorts riding in queer two-wheeled vehicles that i later learned were called volantes.
all was strange and bizarre and extraordinarily interesting. never did three men from a little country village in new england find themselves in a more utterly foreign city. but although sim and i had our eyes open for every new sight, i was nevertheless aware that arnold was more alert than either of us, and twice he urged us to keep our eyes and wits about us.
seeing nothing to fear, i inclined to smile at him. i now assumed that i was the bolder and more sophisticated of[pg 127] the two of us. as we tramped along in the darkness, i got over the sense of unreality and felt as much at home in that alien city as if i had been back in the familiar streets and lanes of boston.
three times arnold stopped to inquire the way; and the last time the man of whom he asked directions pointed at a house not a hundred yards distant and said, with a bow, "it is there, señor."
that he spoke in english, which he had heard sim and me use, so surprised us that for the moment we were off our guard. i was vaguely aware of hearing many feet trampling along, and afterwards i realized that i had absently noticed the rumble of voices; but the city was all so strange that i thought nothing of either the feet or the voices, and gave all my attention to the stranger. he was turning away, bowing and protesting his pleasure in serving us, when sim muzzy said in a wondering tone, "why, arnold,—joe,—how many people there are hereabouts! look there!"
arnold, turning as the poor fellow spoke, seized my arm. "mon dieu!" he gasped, startled into his native french. then in english he cried, "quick, joe! quick! vite! ha! strike out, sim, strike!"
around us there were indeed many men. they were approaching us from ahead and behind. suddenly, fiercely, three or four of them rushed at us.
from his belt arnold drew a knife and thrust at a man who had caught my collar. i lost no time in leaping free.
two of them, now, were upon arnold, crying out in spanish; but he eluded them by a quick turn.
i first saw him spring out of their reach, then an arm, flung round my throat, cut my wind. as i throttled, i saw arnold come charging back again, knife in hand. the blade slashed past my ear so closely that it cut the skin;[pg 128] something spurted over my neck and the back of my head, and the arm that held me fell.
arnold, his hand on my shoulder, dragged me free. stooping, he picked up a stone and hurled it into the midst of our assailants, eliciting a screech of pain and anger. when i bent to follow his example, i saw a chance light flash on his knife-blade. but where, i thought, is sim? then, somewhere in the crowd, i heard him choking and gagging. my first impulse was to rush to his rescue, but instantly i saw the folly of such a course, so greatly were we outnumbered. for a moment arnold and i held them off. just behind us was a street corner. as we darted toward it, one man dashed out from the crowd, the rest followed, and a second time, with hoarse shouts, they charged down upon us. they came in a solid phalanx, but we rounded the corner and fled. at top speed we raced down the street and round a second corner. distancing them for the moment, but with their yells ringing in our ears, we scrambled up over a wrought-iron gate that gave us hold for fingers and feet, through a garden rich with palms and statuary, over another gate and across still another street. there we scaled one gate more, and throwing ourselves down in some dense vines, lay quietly and got back our breath, while our eluded pursuers raced and called on the street outside.
the last thing i had heard as we ran was poor sim muzzy screaming for help.
"who—wh-wh-o—wh-what—were th-they?" i gasped out.
"i believe it to have been a press-gang," arnold replied. he, too, was gasping for breath, but he better controlled his voice.
after a time he added, "poor sim! i fear that he is now on his way into the service of the royal navy of spain."
[pg 129]
"but," i returned, "they cannot hold an american citizen."
"lawfully," said he, "they cannot."
"then we'll soon have sim out again."
to this, he did not reply. he said merely, "you and i, joe, must keep it a secret between us that i speak their language."
we lay a long time in the garden, with the stars shining above us and yellow lights streaming out of the house, and i thought of how skillfully arnold lamont had concealed his interest in what gleazen and matterson had said in a language they thought none of us could understand. but when the racing and shouting had gone, and come, and gone again, and when we both were convinced that all danger was past, we rose and stretched ourselves and went up to the house and knocked.
as the door swung open, a flood of light poured out into the garden; but we saw only an old negro, who stood like a black shadow in our way and assailed us with a broadside of angry spanish. his gray head shook with fury, i suppose at finding us in the garden, and he spread his arms to keep us from entering the house. behind him arose a hubbub, and an angry white man came rushing out. when to his fierce questions arnold shot back prompt answers, his anger died, and tolerance took its place, and finally a wave of cordiality swept over his face. stepping back he actually flung the door wide open and with stately bows ushered us into the high-studded hall. then the negro went bustling down the passage and spoke in a low voice, and i was amazed beyond measure to see gideon north himself step out of a lighted room.
in our flight arnold, shrewd, quick to think and to act, had led us to the garden in the rear of the very house of which we had come in search.
[pg 130]
"well," said captain north, when, after warm greetings and quick explanations, we were seated together behind closed doors, "of all that rascally crew in the cabin of the adventure, you two are the only ones i should be glad to see again. how in the name of beelzebub, prince of devils, did you light upon my lodging-house, and what has brought you here?"
now gleazen had suggested various arguments by which to bring captain north back to his command, and not the least of them was an apology of a kind from himself; but they had all lacked sincerity, and as i knew well enough that gleazen really would be very sorry if we should succeed in our errand, i had wisely determined to have none of them. it is exceedingly doubtful, however, if i should have dared to speak quite as plainly as did arnold lamont.
"sir," he said, "we have come on a strange errand. we ask you to return to a ship where you have suffered indignities, to resume a command that you have resigned under just provocation, to help a man who, i fear, has forfeited every right to call upon you for help."
"i'm no hand for riddles," said gideon north. "talk plain sea-talk."
"sir," said arnold, "i ask you to come back as captain of the adventure, to save seth upham from his—friends." arnold smiled slightly.
"blast upham and his friends!"
"as you will. but that pair of leeches will get the blood from his heart, and joe woods, his heir, will lose every penny of his inheritance."
"upham should have thought of that before. leave him alone. he lies in the bed he made."
"he, poor man, does not think of it now. indeed, i fear he's beyond saving."
[pg 131]
gideon north got up and went to the barred windows that opened upon the street.
"what is this wild-goose chase?" he suddenly demanded.
"exactly what the object is i do not know," arnold replied. "they talk of a treasure, but they are fit to rule an empire of liars. they are not, i believe, equipped for the slave trade, though of that you are a better judge than i."
still gideon north stood by the window. without turning his head, he remarked, "i wonder why they want me back."
"they?" at that arnold laughed. "they do not want you. not they! seth upham insisted against their every wish. we came to your door with a press-gang at our heels. they planned that joe and i should share sim muzzy's fate and never see you again—or them."
thereupon captain north turned about.
"i am interested," he said. "aye, and tempted."
he stood for a while musing on all he had heard; then he smiled in a way that gave me confidence.
"we are three honest men with one purpose," he said; "but gleazen and matterson are a pair of double-dyed villains. i go into this affair knowing that it is at the risk of my life, but so help me! i'll take the plunge."
after a pause he added, "you spend the night with me, lads, and we will go on board together in the morning. that alone will give 'em a pretty start, for i've no doubt they think already that they're well rid of the three of us, and by sun-up they'll be sure of it. what's more, we'll go armed, lads, knives in our belts and pistols in our boots."
