We were approaching the sea.
My mind immediately became filled with gloomy forebodings, for I conjectured that our captors were about to embark in some vessel and take us away from the island of Cuba altogether.
This was a terrible thought, and one that in my most dejected hour had never occurred to me. All trace of us might be lost if once we were forcibly removed from Spanish soil. And whither were these villains going to take us?
Whilst I was oppressed with these sombre thoughts, a little incident occurred which cheered me somewhat. The bandage which was around my eyes had slipped a little, and I was enabled to see to a certain extent what was going on around me. It was very dark, but the flare of the torches enabled me to see objects close at hand. As far as I could tell, we had just emerged from the forest, and were now following a stony track leading down to the sea-coast. The latter was not visible in the intense gloom that prevailed; but every moment the roar of the waves became more distinctly audible, and the briny breath of the ocean came sweeping up on the wings of the night breeze.
At the head of the party, I could just discern the chief, who was evidently acting as guide; and I could also see the gunner and Ned Burton, who were only a few paces in front of me. My coxswain, I thought, seemed to walk with some difficulty, and I attributed this to the effects of the flogging he had received.
In about ten minutes’ time we were near enough to the sea to enable me to make out the white surf of the breakers as they dashed on some outlying rocks that seemed to act as a natural breakwater to the little bay we were approaching. The booming noise of the waves breaking upon the beach was mild compared to the roar caused by this buffeting of the great boulders. The storm clouds we had observed in the sky during the afternoon had all vanished, and the celestial star-gems, flashing and twinkling, shone down brilliantly from their setting of dark lapis lazuli. Not a vapour obscured the clear radiance of heaven’s vaulted dome, with its ghostly light from a myriad distant worlds.
Was that a dark-hulled, rakish-looking vessel I saw riding upon the sombre waters of the bay?
It looked uncommonly like it, but the faint starlight was so deceptive, and the glare of the torches so distracting, that I really could not tell for certain. That it was a genuine little bay we were fast descending into seemed beyond all question, for I could now make out the dark irregular line of the coast as it reared itself against the starlit sky.
My thoughts were now concentrated upon the vessel I thought I had seen anchored in the bay. Had she been a genuine trader, she would surely have had a light burning as a signal to other vessels to give her a wide berth.
Ah, there she was! Yes, I saw her indistinctly, it is true; but still that hasty glance was enough to satisfy a sailor’s keen eye.