We sat silent in the cave for a long time. I had not lighted the ship’s lantern we had left there at our last visit, having no use for it elsewhere on the island, since we went to bed at dark and rose at dawn, for some of the light of the dying day filtered through from the outside cave. There was nothing that we needed light for anyway. We sat close together on the remains of one of the chests to protect us from the damp sand. I always carried with me a flask of spirits. Not that I am a drinking man, I left and still leave that practice to the gallants of the day, but I have found it useful in some dire emergency, and now as Mistress Lucy shivered in the chill, damp air, I heartened her and strengthened her with a dram.
As it was summer and not far from the line, I had not brought the boat cloak with us. I had not even worn my sailor’s jacket, but my mutilated leather waistcoat was heavy and warm and I was thankful that I had it. The pieces which I had cut from it for the soles of her little shoes had not spoiled it for wear either, since I had been careful in their selection. I took it off and despite her protestations slipped it on her. In girth it was big enough to encircle her twice, which was all the better for her comfort. I drew it around to cover her breast with a double fold and with a length of line I had in my pocket I made it fast. We sat close together and talked in low whispers and I thrilled at the contact of her sweet presence in spite of our peril.
How long we talked or how long we waited I have no means of telling. It grew dark in the cave very early and when I ventured into the outside room after what seemed an interminable wait, I found night had fallen. I felt pretty sure that we need apprehend no attack that night and yet it was necessary to keep watch, so I proposed that one of us should sleep while the other listened. Naturally she was the first to take rest. It was too damp and cold to lie down on the sand, so I wedged myself against one of the least rotted of the chests whose shape had been kept intact by the pile of gold and silver bars it had contained, and somewhat hesitatingly offered her the shelter of my arm.
“Madam,� I said, with all the formality I could muster, “you must have sleep. You cannot lie upon this damp sand, it is bad enough to sit upon it; but upon my shoulder and within the support of my arm you shall have rest.�
“I trust you,� she replied, coming closer to me, “and if I am to sleep I know that I shall be safe within your arms.�
“As my sister, had I one, or as my mother, were she alive and here, will I support you,� said I, which was, I must admit, untrue, for I had a great to-do to keep my arm from trembling, and I felt sure she would hear my heart throbbing madly when she nestled close to me, her head upon my shoulder. And she has since admitted that she did feel the tremor and hear the throb, whereat she was most glad. But I knew nothing of that then, nor for a long time after.
Before she closed her eyes, however, she made her evening prayer for herself and for me, and then she made me promise that I would awaken her when I judged it to be midnight, and upon my promise she nestled down and went to sleep, her head upon my shoulder. Surely never had man a more precious charge than I that night!
I sat there motionless, my bared sword at my side, listening. I could hear nothing, no sound except her soft breathing and once in a while the sough of the night wind through the trees outside, which penetrated faintly into the cave, and at more infrequent intervals the cry of some night bird came to me, but there was no sound of humanity. How long I sat there, I know not. It was my purpose to keep awake the night through, and I think I must have kept awake the greater part thereof, but toward morning my head dropped back on the pile of ingots and I fell asleep. Yet I did not relax my clasp upon the sleeping figure lying upon my breast. It was she who awakened when the dim light began to sift through the narrow opening into the little cave where we sat.
CHAPTER XVI
IN WHICH WE ARE BELEAGUERED IN THE CAVE
“MASTER HAMPTON,� she said, bending over me, having arisen without disturbing me, “it is morning.�