With these thoughts running confusedly in my head and urging me to desperate leaps which I had never dared to attempt in cooler blood, I descended that rocky gorge like any bounding ball, till coming to level ground, I spied half a dozen fellows clustered together in the shadow of a rock round one who was slicing a pine-nut to share among them. But no Lady Biddy could I see; nor was there any sign of her between them and the boat which lay hard by in the creek, as I have said.
By this time, the heat of my spirits being somewhat abated I reasoned with myself that to attack those six men, unarmed as I was, would be a piece of foolhardy madness which could do her no good, nor me neither, except as the cutting of my throat would put me out of my present anxiety, and that if I was to rescue her at all it must be by cunning. Whereof I set myself to approach them unseen, that I might learn, if possible, where they had bestowed their captive, and this I did without great difficulty, for hereabouts were many scattered stones and abundant growth of prickly shrubs, ground-palms, and the like.
Being come so nigh them that I could hear their remarks upon the fruit they were eating, which seemed entirely to occupy their thoughts, I waited for the conversation to take another turn. Presently one of them, flinging himself on the ground, says:
"Well, mates, I take it we've done work enough for this bout, so here shall I lie at my ease till it be time to fill the barricoes and get back a ship-board."
"Ay, I'm with you there, Jack," says another, following his example.
The rest were not slow to lie down likewise, save one, who, scratching his head, says:
"How about this here female we are to carry back alive or dead?"
"Plague take her, say I, and the likes of her," grunted he who spoke first. "What do we want of females? She's brought us no luck, and I'd as soon see a rat in the ship."
"So say I," chimed in his mate. "The other fellows have gone after her, and let them catch her if they may. For my own part I wish her no worse luck than to give them leg-bail and lose herself in these woods. You don't catch me running after no females till I get back to Penzance."
Hearing this I was struck with amazement, and could not too much admire my folly in rushing headlong into danger without proper occasion. For now I readily perceived what was the fact, that Lady Biddy, awaking after my departure, had caught sight of the men at the foot of the gorge and taken measures to conceal herself from discovery should they ascend. While thus hidden she had seen me come upon that point of rock, and to attract my attention, had called me by name as loud as she dared. My descent had been too furious for her to stop me by her further cries, which were lost upon my ear; and thus, in going to her, as I thought, had drawn myself away.