what dire misfortune had happened i could well guess. captain matthews had been attacked. he had promptly shot one of the mutineers, and thereafter the rest had killed him. my next impulse was to blow open the lock of the door as i had intended, and rush to avenge him, but wiser counsel prevailed and i did nothing. i am, i think, somewhat cool-headed in a crisis, and surely this was one. i could wait. a loaded pistol was better than an empty one, and to deal with me they would have to come to me for whatsoever purpose they might entertain, either to murder me or to release me. in either event i could do more than if i rushed headlong into the fray now. i could not help poor captain matthews. i was sure that whatever fell purpose they might entertain for my little mistress would be in abeyance until they had settled with me. i flattered myself that i[115] was too important to be disregarded by the mutineers. therefore, i carefully looked to my weapons, seeing to the priming and slipping an additional bullet in the barrel. after that i stood by the door, weapon in hand, grimly ready for the murderous mutineers.
i waited with every nerve strained to the utmost. i also listened most anxiously for the opening of the door of the after cabin which was her own, but she must have been in a sound sleep, indeed, for the door did not open. evidently she had heard nothing, mercifully she had not been awakened. after all, if she had come into the main cabin i think i must have come out also, one way or another; but so long as she slept, and so long as i could force the door when i wished, i waited. it was not an easy task, but i judged it best.
fortunately, i had not long to wait, for in less time by far than i have taken to tell it, the hatch was opened and a number of heavy-booted men clattered down the companionway. the cabin steward, of course, knew the arrangement of the after part of the ship and he brought them straight to my door. the key was in the lock[116] outside and i could hear them turn it. i loosened my sword which i had slung by its belt around my waist, grasped my two pistols more firmly, set my back against the side of the ship and made ready for whatever came.
the door was pushed open abruptly and i saw the cabin was crowded with men. at least half the crew was assembled there, and it was a little cabin, the rose of devon being but a small ship. the rest, i guessed, were on watch. i could not see the boatswain, evidently he had the deck. the vessel could not be left unwatched on such a night as this and in such a sea, and he was the fittest man to take charge of her. the steward had lighted both the cabin lanterns, several of the men carried hand lanterns which they had brought from the forepeak. there was plenty of illumination to show their villainous faces.
they were surprised to find me so prepared and i gave them no time to recover.
“the first man,” i hissed out, raising my firearms and leveling them at the group, “that tries to enter this berth without my permission gets a bullet through him!”
[117]“we mean you no harm, sir,” gruffly spoke out one who seemed to be a ringleader, a man rated as boatswain’s mate, whose name was glibby.
“what are you doing here,” i asked, “in the cabin at this time of night?”
“softly, softly, sir,” replied glibby, “we’re here to arsk questions, not to answer ’em.”
“what do you mean?” i cried.
“we’re masters of the ship.”
“captain matthews?”
“he’ll cap’n no more ships on this or any other seas,” answered glibby with truculent emphasis.
now it rose in my mind to shoot him then and there, murderous brute that he was—if i had been alone perhaps i would have done it without reckoning the consequences to myself, but i had another to think of. unless craft stood me in good stead her case was hopeless. and bad as glibby was, pimball was the chief villain. no, i decided, nothing much would be gained by killing the boatswain’s mate when the boatswain lived. i trust no man will think me a traitor or craven for what i said next. the idea[118] came to me on the instant and it seemed i could do no better than adopt it. god forgive me if it was wrong.
“curse him!” i broke out with well simulated heat, “serves him right. he disrates me and locks me up here just for stealing a kiss from a maid, and—”
“spoke like a man of spirit, mister hampdon,” cried glibby, greatly pleased evidently. “what did i tell ye, mates? he’s with us.”
“with you,” said i, carelessly pointing my weapons downward but taking good care to keep them ready, “i am with you, all right. what do you propose? i am sick of the treatment i received, and—”
“we want that ’ere treasure for ourselves.”
“and you shall have it, provided i get my share with the other men,” i answered, scarcely startled by their words, for this i had expected.
“we’ll share an’ share alike in everything,” answered glibby. “am i right, mates?”
“right you are,” came from the deep voices of the men.
“aye,” said glibby, “ship an’ treasure, an’—er—” with a frightful leer—“woman!”
[119]god! how i longed to clutch him by his throat and choke him! my temper rose again, but this time, as before, i managed to keep it down though with immense difficulty, as you may suspect.
“come out into the cabin, mr. hampdon,” said glibby with a certain complacent civility in his manner which he doubtless meant to be engaging, but for which i hated him the more if possible, “an’ we’ll talk it over.”
“wait,” said i. “who is in command of you?”
“why, mr. pimball, the bo’s’n, he’ll be in charge of the ship,” answered glibby.
“very good,” i said, “i must talk with him about the future. do you go on deck, glibby, and send pimball below and he and i with the rest of you will soon settle this matter.”
“all right,” answered the boatswain’s mate, turning to the companionway. “pimball can talk, him an’ you can come to terms, i make no doubt.”
now i couldn’t allow myself to hesitate for the thousandth part of a second. they say when a woman hesitates she is lost, but in a situation[120] like mine the man who hesitated would have been lost, too. ostentatiously again i shoved one pistol into the belt that hung at my right side, the other i dropped carelessly into the pocket of my coat, and as glibby clattered up the ladder, i walked fearlessly, to all appearances, out of the berth and into the cabin, the men giving back respectfully enough to leave me gangway.
“now what is it that you propose, master bo’s’n?” i began, sitting down at the cabin table, while the rest ranged themselves about it, some standing, some sitting on the transoms at the sides, as pimball came lumbering down into the cabin.
for a second he was nearer death than ever before in his life, or ever after but once, as you shall see, but prudence as before held my itching hand.
“we know,” began pimball insolently without further preliminaries, “that this ship’s cruisin’ for treasure. we know all we’ll git out of the cruise is what we signed for an’ nothin’ more. we’ve made a good guess that the island lays hereabouts, an’ we mean to have more’n our[121] wage. we’re goin’ to have our share of whatever’s found that we’re after.”
“so you shall,” i said, “i’m with you in that. i want something more than my wages, too.”
“what’s this woman, anyway?” broke out another. “why should she git it all? she’s a mere girl.”
“you have said right, mate, who and why indeed?” i answered smoothly, marking him down for my vengeance when my turn came. “now what are your plans?”
“we want that ’ere map or chart that you’ve been seed readin’ in your cabin,” said pimball.
now it happened that i was the keeper of that parchment and of the little stone god. she had appointed me their custodian. no one had sought to steal them, but i kept the chart ever on my person, and the idol in a locked drawer in my berth. i didn’t know as to the value of the chart; it might be immensely worth while, it might not. at any rate, it was in a little bag around my neck. i reached down, pulled out the bag, took the torn parchment from it, and threw the two halves on the table. there was not the least use in my pretending ignorance or[122] in refusing to give it up. they could kill me and take it anyway.
“there,” said i coolly, “you have it.”
pimball picked it up and looked at it searchingly, matching the halves and scrutinizing it dubiously.
“i can make but little out of it,” he said, staring hard at it, and scratching his head, and i doubted if the rascal could read a line for all his assumption of knowledge.
“you can at least see the latitude and longitude on it in the upper corner, can’t you?” i asked, hardly suppressing my contempt for the man.
“aye, that’s plain enough,” he answered, his face lighting a little as he laid the chart down on the table so that the others might see.
“and you see that little wavy line that runs up from the lagoon over the top of what looks like a wall to an opening in the side?” i continued, determining suddenly to inflame their minds with the treasure so that they would give less heed to other things more important to me.
“yes, i can make that out, too.”
“you see that little mark there?”
pimball turned around and faced the others[123] crowding about him in great and growing excitement.
“here, lights here,” he growled.
the men nearest him shoved forward with their lanterns, illuminating the torn sheepskin as they crowded around, and bent over the table, as i drew back to give them room.
“aye, i can make that out, too.”
“by—” burst out one hoarsely, “that’s the spot.”
“what does it mean?” the boatswain asked after a long stare.
“it means, if there is any truth in it, that the treasure is thereabouts.”
“what treasure?”
“the plunder of a spanish galleon.”
“an’ how did it git on the island?”
“it was buried in that cave there a hundred and fifty years ago by one philip wilberforce, an english buccaneer.”
“and how come this girl by news of it?”
“the story goes that this wilberforce was one of her forebears. his ship was wrecked and finally he alone survived. he escaped, was picked up and brought back to england with[124] nothing but the clothes he wore and this parchment in a bag round his neck. with all that he had gone through he lost his mind for a space. he recovered before he died enough to tell some story. his sons quarreled. the story, with one half of the parchment, went to one branch of the family and the other, with the other half, to another. they never got together again until her father and mother, strangely enough the last survivors of the two branches of the family which had been so long separated, came together by marriage, and after their death she pieced out the secret.”
i told them the exact truth as you see. how much of it they understood i could not tell. probably but little, yet the idea of the treasure was real enough undoubtedly and my glib way of rehearsing the story evidently made a great impression on them.
“is that all?” asked pimball, as i stopped for breath.
“all that i know.”
“and you think there is treasure there?”
now of late i had changed my mind, why i know not, but i had; yet it would not do to[125] tell them that, for i wanted so to fill their mind with gold as to leave no place for woman.
“i am sure of it,” i answered vehemently—“gold, silver, jewels, god knows what, everything to make us rich forever.”
“and what do you reckon the value of it all?”
“oh, several millions of pounds,” i answered lightly as if the treasure was so great that a million more or less was of no moment.
to the end of my life i shall never forget the gleaming of their eyes, the covetousness in their faces and their bearing, the tense silence broken only by their deep breathing, the vulgar passion for greed that suddenly filled the little cabin.
“hurrah!” cried out one old seaman suddenly, and the cabin on the instant was filled with wild cries, bestial, brutal shouts.
as the sound partially died away, i heard the door back of me open. now i had purposely so placed myself as to be between the crowd and the door. the door was opened but a little way. i was conscious that my lady was at last awake and listening.
“you’re the only navigator among us, mr. hampdon,” began pimball, smoothly enough,[126] after the men got measurably quiet again, “an if you’re really with us, you shall sail the ship there to that island. we’ll git the treasure aboard, sail away an’ sink her on the south american coast, an’ then every man for himself with all he can carry.”
“am i to be captain?” i asked.
“there’ll be no cap’n, every man for hisself, i say, but me an’ my mate, glibby, will take the watches in turn. you’ll navigate the ship an’ whatever is necessary for our safety we’ll do at your order. is it understood?” he went on with a manner that was meant to be ingratiating.
“yes,” answered i promptly, “but under one condition.”
“we makes no conditions but what pleases us,” said pimball darkly. “we’re masters of the ship, remember, an’ this is our last word.”
“it is not mine,” said i resolutely, yet without heat, for i had yet the hardest part of the bargain to drive and i must command myself if i were to command them.
“well, it’s got to be,” continued pimball with vicious menace, starting toward me with the marlinspike he carried upraised, while others[127] drew their sheath knives evidently prepared to back up their leader.
“now, my friends,” said i, coolly, “we might just as well understand each other. you can kill me if you want to, it would be easy enough, but when you have killed me you have killed your last chance at the treasure. you don’t know what latitude or longitude we are in now, there is not one of you that knows enough to take a sight or to sail the ship to the island. you are completely helpless without me. my life means the difference between treasure and no treasure to you. you are all smart enough to see that.”
“he speaks right,” said an old seaman at the back of the crowd.
“there stands a man of sense,” said i, “therefore you will hear my conditions and accede to them.”
“heave ahead,” said pimball roughly enough, evidently not liking the situation but failing utterly to see how it could be amended since i completely held the whip hand of them all.
“what i stipulate is very simple. first of all, i am to have my full and equal share of the[128] treasure with the rest. i am to be treated exactly like the others in the division, and my life and liberty, which are just as valuable to me as yours to any of you, are to be granted me, as i grant those of others.”
“why, we told you that in the first place,” growled out the boatswain, “if that’s all you’ve got to say—”
“but it isn’t.”
“what else?”
“the woman.”
“ah, the woman,” said pimball slowly.
“what had you proposed to do with her?” i asked.
“why—er i—er,” the man faltered, he actually did not dare to say what had been in his mind, and i’ve no doubt that my pistol never looked bigger than it did when i quietly laid my hand on its butt.
it was probable that the others had not as yet decided what was to be done with her, whatever pimball may have determined upon. i took advantage of their hesitation and pushed the matter to a speedy conclusion.
“well,” i said quickly, “i want her for myself.”[129] did i hear a groan in the cabin back of me? if i did, i could not afford to hesitate, i could not let them hear. “you saw how she treated me,” i cried, raising my voice and banging on the table with my fist; “she struck me, she had me imprisoned. i want her to be given over to me alone.”
“but—” began pimball, not relishing the abandonment of this prize which he had evidently marked for his own.
“i tell you what it is, mates,” said i, disregarding him and addressing the rest directly, “i am a poor man and the treasure, or my share of it, means a great deal to me, but revenge means much more. you give the woman to me and i will divide my share of the treasure among the crew.”
“well,” began pimball uncertainly, but the sentiment of the crew under this appeal to their greed was palpably against him.
“don’t be a fool, man,” cried the sailor who had spoken before. “give the lad the wench. when we git the treasure we can buy all the women we need.”
“aye, let him have her!” urged a second.
[130]“he’ll bring her to her knees,” said a third.
“this very night,” added a fourth with a hideous leer and a horrible laugh.
“stop it,” i cried, doubling my fist,—this was no assumed rage either, for my blood was boiling and i could scarce restrain myself longer. “this is my own affair.”
the men fell back. they forgot for the moment their advantage in numbers.
“well, that is agreed at last,” said pimball reluctantly enough, “you takes the woman, we takes the treasure.”
“agreed,” said i.
“is that right, mates?” he asked of the rest.
“right o,” was the answer.
“it’s all settled then,” said i, “but no—”
“bring out the gal then an’ let’s see her,” suddenly began one of the men, stepping forward.
i don’t know whether i could have controlled myself any further or not. i rose to my feet, my hand clutching the pistol. the lights danced before my eyes i was so furiously angered. i was about to raise my arm when she saved me. the door back of me was thrown open wide and[131] she stepped out into the cabin. how i thrilled to see her, erect, fearless, more beautiful than ever. she had thrown some sort of a robe about her, and thrust her bare feet into slippers. she had gathered the cloak over her breast with one hand. her hair was disheveled, but how beautiful she appeared. the men recoiled and i stepped back myself.
“i have heard all,” she cried, “you murderous villains, to have killed my captain and seized my ship, and you—you—” she turned to me, “to have bargained for me and to have bought me like an animal, a horse, a dog— oh, if i had a weapon!”
my pistol was still in my hand and she made a clutch at it, but i was too quick for her. i caught her by the wrist. the spell she had cast upon us by her sudden entrance, her beautiful presence, by her proud, brave demeanor was broken by that touch. the men laughed. god, the remembrance of that laugh makes my blood boil even now.
“i wish you joy of her,” said one.
“you’ll have a time tamin’ her,” cried a second.
[132]“ah, you think so,” i cried, determining to carry out the deception to the bitter end and to leave no chance for the least suspicion to arise. i seized her by the shoulders, secretly praying god to forgive me for what i was about to do, and shook her violently back and forth. it was easy enough. a baby in my hands would not have been more helpless. “silence, you fools,” i cried as the men began to laugh again, and then to her, “you belong to me, woman. do you hear? i’ve bought you. i am your master. get back into your cabin. i will have speech with you later.” helpless, amazed, petrified with terror, she could do nothing. i thrust her into the cabin, shut the door and faced the men. “will you gentlemen leave me alone to tame this she devil for a little while, and i will be on deck presently,” i panted out.
“very well,” said pimball, “but before we goes—” he pointed to a heavy bottle in the rack, “i proposes that we drinks the health of the new navigator an’ his lady.”
“right you are,” said i, making the best of that situation.
i reached for the glasses that were in the rack[133] and poured out a stiff dram for each man and added mighty little water to it. the room was soon filled with mocking, jeering toasts to my health and happiness. i drank with them. i have ever believed that when you attempt a thing it is better to give your whole heart to it, or you had better not try at all, and i did not propose to spoil the game that had progressed successfully so far, by not joining in. so i drank with the others although i would rather have swallowed poison. they went out one by one, pimball last.
“you’ll play fair with us, mr. hampdon,” he said earnestly and suspiciously, too, “or—”
“you will play fair with me, or—” i retorted.
“there’s my hand on it,” he interrupted and i took it, aye and shook it.
“i wish you joy of your woman,” he sneered.
“you will see how tame she is tomorrow,” i laughed, as he climbed up the ladder and soon disappeared.
my first instinct was to draw the hatch covers and bolt them, but i didn’t dare. in fact, pimball himself kicked them together. i turned to the shut door of her cabin. to throw open the[134] door was the work of a minute. there she stood. she had twisted some kind of a rope out of the sheets of her berth which she had hastily torn in strips. her purpose was plain. she had intended to end her life by hanging herself from the hook in the deck beam above to which one end of her rope was secured; and she would have done it, too, if i had not come in in the nick of time.
i stared at her for a moment and then reached forward and tore the plaited strands out of her hand and from around her neck and threw them to the deck. it was evidence to me of the deepness of her despair that she had attempted such a thing. it showed me for one thing the excellence of my acting for i couldn’t have conceived that she would try to do away with herself if she had the slightest suspicion that i was a true man still. i had convinced even her of my villainy i realized with a sudden pang.
