"And he hath seen the pirates, or I am amiss," I added. "His escape must have been exceeding narrow."
Darby's eyes waxed as large as a cat's in the dark.
"Whurra, whurra, do but look to the shot-hole in the side of him! 'Tis he will have made a noble prayer. And now will ye mock me for saying there are pirates abroad, Master Robert?"
"Not I, Darby. Yon fellow has been closer to death than I like to think of," I answered.
"Now there was as true a word as ever was heard spoke," proclaimed a pleasant voice behind me. "And shows most unaccountable understanding and humanitee, so it do, seeing as there's precious few landsmen as stop to figger out the chances a poor sailor must take and never a thankee from his owners nor aught but curses from his skipper, like as not. True as true, young gentleman. I makes you my duty, and says as how, seeing I was one of them vouchsafed a miraculous salvation, I hopes you'll permit me to offer my most humble thanks."
I swung around to scrutinize the owner of the voice and saw a handsome, open-faced man in the prime of life, big and strong of his body, but with only one leg. The other, the left, had been lopped off high up near the hip, and he supported himself upon a long crutch of very fine-carved hardwood—mahogany, I afterward discovered. This crutch he employed with all the dexterity of his missing limb. A thong from a hole under the armpiece was looped around his neck, so that when he chose to sit down his support could never fall out of his reach; and in its butt was set a sharp spur of steel to give it a grip upon rough ground or slippery decks.
While I looked at him and he was first speaking he hopped up beside me with a confidential air that was very flattering to a young man and impressed Darby even more than it did me.
"Are you from the brig yonder?" I asked curiously.
"Aye, aye, young gentleman, I am; and one of the miserable sinners as was saved by an inscrootable Providence as takes no account o' men's deserts, just or unjust, as the preachers' sayin' is. Out of Barbaders, I am, in the brig Constant. Name o' Silver, sir—John, says my sponsors in baptism.
"But my mates most generally calls me 'Barbecue' 'count o' my being held a monstrous fine cook. And there's a tale to that, young sir. Ah, yes! This weren't the first time I suffered at the hands o' them pirates that scourge and ravage the seas to the despite of poor, honest sailormen."