GREATLY PUT TO IT TO KNOW WHAT TO DO, I DO NOTHING.
The bumping and grinding together of the ships had ceased before Rodrigues came to take rest, showing that the grapnels were cast off that bound the three ships together; and now, from the easy movement, I surmised that we were under way, and making for some haven for the greater convenience of repairing injuries, distributing of stores, refreshment, etc., which was indeed the case. On board the Sea Lion Rodrigues had set a sufficiency of men to work her, and on the Faithful Friend a greater number for a like purpose, and to serve as guard over the prisoners in the roundhouse, while the rest he took with him on board his own ship to lead the way and conduct the prizes he had taken. About eight o'clock that evening (as I judge) we seemed to have come into very smooth water, and then the boy coming to the cabin called to Rodrigues that the master did wish to speak to him; whereupon Rodrigues sprang up and went out. Then for the first time could I stretch my limbs with ease; for though the bustle on deck, the hammering of the carpenters, and such noisy business affected his slumbers not in the least, yet did I but turn upon the carpet under his cot, his breathing would show that the sound had alarmed his senses, which was a remarkable thing, but not without parallel, for those who live in peril develop, as I may say, a new sense which never sleeps. Thus had I been constrained to lie very still (which was doubtless of great advantage to me for the healing of my wounds, but very little to the repose of my bones), for I knew full well that had he found me under his cot he would have slain me there, helpless as I was for defense, without any such compunction as stayed my hand from taking his life.
So now, as I say, being free to move, I stretched myself and turned me about with great relief and satisfaction, for here, as I take it, had I been lying on my back without motion the best part of ten hours. Presently I heard the voice of Rodrigues on the deck above, and feeling mighty faint for want of food, I lifted the valance and peeped out. There was just light enough to descry a wine-cooler in the corner of the cabin over against the chest I have mentioned, and urged on by my necessity I made bold to wriggle out from my hiding-place and creep over to it. By good chance it was unlocked, and inside were half a dozen good bottles, of which I scrupled not to appropriate the first I laid my hand on; then to make a good job of it while I was about it, I pried into a cabinet hard by, when by another good chance I lighted on a dish of dried raisins. Well content with this booty, I hied me back under the cot, and rolling up a corner of the carpet to serve as a pillow, I managed to refresh myself to my heart's content. Nay, I think I drank more of that wine (the most excellent that ever I did taste) than was good, for despite my determination to keep awake, I unconsciously fell asleep, which was the maddest thing a man in his right senses could have done; for had Rodrigues come back into that cabin he would surely have discovered me by my hard breathing; but this (thanks be to God!) he did not do; for having rested himself, he gave permission to his crew to relax awhile likewise, himself going on board the Faithful Friend for the better custody of the prisoners there, as I believe.
At this time the three ships, brought all well together, lay anchored within a good bay (as I am told) in an island which I take it must have been one of the Bahamas.
I was awoke by a bustling in the next cabin, to find the sun streaming full under the edge of the cot valance. I heard Rodrigues speaking there in a tone of command, but what he said my senses were yet too confused to make out; then I caught sight of the boy's feet again as he entered that one where I lay and set something down. And now he comes very briskly to the cot and sets about stripping it; that done, he shakes up the bed, turns it over as any maid would, and fetch out from the chest clean sheets, which he lays in the place of those who had stripped off, and so makes up the bed; after which he sets the furniture in order, and, tucking the foul linen under his arm, goes out.
All this while there was prodigious hurrying to and fro over head, tumbling of heavy goods below, creaking of pulleys, shouting of orders, and like confusion, which was caused by the shipping aboard of the black ship all the stores and treasure belonging to the Sea Lion and the Faithful Friend, to which this rogue Rodrigues had a fancy. But to think that in the midst of all this pother he took heed to having clean sheets laid in this bed did astonish me beyond all things.
The bustle continued all the morning; once or twice the boy came in with parcels, which he set atop of that he had already brought, but nothing else occurred to disturb my meditations. And these, as I grew accustomed to the noise around me, were of a very melancholy sort, not because of the sad outlook concerning my own fortunes, for I may truly say I had grown in a sort callous and indifferent to what became of me, but for thinking of Lady Biddy. I took myself very grievously to task for having slept all through that night like a log while she was in such an extremity.
"Is this your devotion, wretch!" says I to myself—"is this your love, that you can slumber in peace while she, hived up with rude sailors, destitute of common necessaries, is in peril of death at the hands of her wicked persecutors? Have you no bowels of pity, that you could make not one effort to save her, rascal?"
In this way I taunted myself, until, falling into a more reasonable state of mind, I began to reason as to what I might yet do in her behalf. I concluded from the shifting of the stores that Rodrigues had determined to abandon the two ships with their crew, for the mere hulls could be of little value to him. Coming to this decision, I was for getting away from the black ship and rejoining the Faithful Friend, that I might be near by Lady Biddy; but what could I then do? Was not this rather a gratification of my own selfish desire than a means of benefiting her? Was I not simply adding another hungry mouth to that destitute company? With these and a hundred such fruitless arguments did I torment myself; now preparing myself to get away, now resigning myself to stay where I was, getting no nearer to a rational determination in the end that I was in the beginning.
I was still in this torment when I heard the anchor weighing and the men singing as they used to do at this business. Suddenly their singing ceased, and I heard a great angry clamor of voices from a distance; nay, I do think I heard my uncle's big voice above the rest, and then the fellows above replying with laughter and derision, so that I knew we were leaving that unhappy company behind, as was the more evident by the bending of the ship before the wind. Then, desperate to think I was being carried away from Lady Biddy, I took resolution to dash through the cabin to the gallery and cast myself into the sea, and to this end I had set my hands and feet against the wall, to thrust my body from under the cot, when the door was thrown violently open, the cabin entered, and the sacking of the bed was pressed down over my head, which made me think that Rodrigues had come again to rest himself.
Turning silently on my back I glanced under the valance. At a little distance were the bare feet of the boy; close to the valance, standing beside the cot, were the feet of a man. Thus they stood immovable for a space, and then lightly they moved away and the door was closed behind them. But the sacking still bulged downward with the weight thrown on the bed. "Had Rodrigues laid there a wounded comrade?" I asked myself.
That it was Rodrigues who had entered and left the cabin I was sure, for I now heard his voice speaking low, as if giving orders to the boy, in the one adjoining.
If it be a wounded comrade he has laid here, then he is badly hurt, thought I, as I lay with my eyes fixed on the sacking, for there was no sign of movement; nor was there any sound of groaning or the like.
Only for a few minutes did matters stand thus, however; then there was a little movement above, followed by a quick start, and the next instant, in the space below the valance, I saw descend the sweetest little foot that ever man did see, and then its fellow, both neatly shod, after which fell the hem of an envious petticoat that shut them from my sight.
My heart quite ceased to beat as I asked myself, "Who is this woman?"
For a moment she stood where she had stepped to the ground, as if looking around to realize where she was; then like any doe she sprang toward the little windows that opened on to the gallery, and looking out, she gave a moan of despair, that by which plaintive, delicate sound, I knew that this dear creature was Lady Biddy.