An admirable spy and an admirable jailer, was he not?
Before we had finished our meagre breakfast, we knew that the two vessels were no longer alongside each other, and that our brig was cleaving her way through the waves again as if nothing out of the common had happened. She had doubtless been brought to her course again; but what of the captured craft? Had a prize crew been put on board, and was she accompanying us on our mysterious voyage? We came to the conclusion that this must be so; for there had been no time to transfer her cargo to the deck of the brig, and the pirates would not have scuttled her without performing this very necessary operation.
We were now very careful not to talk on subjects that might be considered treasonable by our captors, for fear of being overheard. I managed, by great good fortune, to sleep away a good many hours of this particular day, which was an uncommonly hot one. The pain in my head from which I had suffered so much on the two previous days had now entirely disappeared, but the place where I had been struck by the miscreant’s pistol was still swollen and sore. For this latter misfortune, however, I cared but little.
It was about the hour of sunset that Mr. Triggs aroused me from a fitful slumber into which I had fallen.
“Wake up, Mr. Darcy,” he said; “we’ve come to an anchor.”
I was keenly on the alert in a moment. At anchor! Yes, but where?
Of course, I had been expecting to hear the news at any moment; and yet, when it came, it gave me a sort of electric shock.
The brig was lying steadily upon the water. I heard the last links of her cable rumbling out of the hawse-hole. Yes, we were at anchor.
A half-hour of anxious suspense followed, during which we hardly spoke. I felt very despondent, and so, judging from their looks, did my companions. Then heavy footsteps resounded on the deck above us, and half a dozen armed men—one with his left arm in a sling, and another with a bandaged head—descended the companion ladder, bringing tools with them wherewith to release us from our manacles.
This latter operation did not take long, and our guards then secured our wrists with stout twine and led us on deck. How thankful I was that they did not blindfold us.