Having done this, he went to one of the caverns where the stores taken from the ship were kept, and he selected from them tobacco, pipes, whisky, greatboots, sticks, guns, pistols, swords, sabres, a little of everything, in fact, that looked like a man’s peculiar property and suggested only the presence of man, and he brought them into the grotto and scattered them about in careless disorder.
Then he sat down to rest and to wait for what should come next.
With rest came the opportunity of reflection, for up to this moment he had acted from impulse only. But now in the midst of his clear sense of the danger that threatened not only himself, but her who was dearer to him than his own life, he thought with keen anxiety of his beloved native country, plunged in all the horrors of civil war and menaced with destruction. And, oh! the intolerable longing that filled his soul to get back to her, to fight for her, and, if need were, to die for her. But this could not be, he knew. The ship that he had hoped would have borne him and his companions back to their homes was now discovered to be a pirate, sailing under false colors, and making prey of unarmed merchantmen. He and his party, if they should escape death from the crew, must remain on the lone island waiting for the improbable event of another vessel’s arrival to take them off. But even in his deepest distress Justin did not despair; his trust in Divine Providence was too strong to permit him to do so.
While thus reflecting, he suddenly became conscious of the approach of the pirate crew.
He arose to his feet, and standing over the unconscious form of the drunken captain, waited to receive them.
They reached the front of the grotto; but they did not come in immediately; they stood about in groups and seemed to be waiting a summons, until at length one of their number advanced to the door of the grotto and touched his hat.
“Well, my man, what is wanted?” inquired Justin, assuming a calmness he was far from feeling; and yet his disturbance was not upon his own account, but solely upon Britomarte’s.
“If you please, sir, we wanted to tell the captain that the tide serves,” replied the man, civilly enough.
Justin pointed at the insensible form at his feet, but even before he had done so the man’s eye had fallen on it, and the man’s disgust broke out in an oath.
“By ——! There he is again, as drunk as ——!”