CHAPTER VI.
THE ENGLISHMAN’S RELATION CONTINUED
(THE CELL).
“’Twas a sound, a voice—but whether of man, or beast, or worse, we knew not; and it proceeded from the chasm; a sudden, loud, weird, shrieking sound that rose and scattered until the very wood seemed full of it, and died gradually away.
“Suddenly there leaped forth a figure. From the darkness of the cavity it came, and stood confronting us. ’Twas the figure of a little lad!
“But he was gaunt as a skeleton; and the great seaman’s watch-coat that he wore, hung about him like a sack, falling almost to the ground. His legs, appearing like sticks beneath the loosely fastened coat, were bare; and so, also, were his feet. But strangest of all in the look of the lad, was his face.
“’Twere impossible to describe it. Blithe, it was miserable; majestic, it was menial; wise, it was wild and witless as the face of an antic; haggard and deadly pale, the eyes roving continually, shining with a spectral light. The face of a little child. And yet, I tell you, it gave me a scare.
“The little lad stood looking upon us; then, lifting his hand with a strange eerie gesture, he cried:
“‘Welcome, ye pilgrims! Lo! lo! the Promised Land! Milk and honey! a land flowing with milk and honey! Eat of it! drink! sing!—sing for joy of it! The sun! the sun! see, ’tis red, red as the Red Sea! Aha, Pharaoh! Where is Pharaoh now? He strives to follow thee, O sun! Down! down! there’s sea enough.’
“So he raved in his frenzy, the crazy lad; but Ouvery, lumbering forward with a curse, took him with his clenched fist a great buffet on the head, so that he fell down like one dead. And Ouvery laughed, laughed! But not for long!
“A man burst forth from the thicket behind, and felled the great pirate as if he were a figure of pasteboard!
“’Twas an Indian—that same Mosquito Indian you took up with me from the boat. He consorted with the pirates; an innocent abetter of their devilish work, a malefactor in whom was no guile. For the Mosquito Indians do love and revere the English wheresoever they meet with them, honest mariners or pirates, making no discrimination; and are, for their part, much esteemed by them for their valour, their sagacity, their dexterity in striking fish, and the like.