CHAPTER XXVI.
HOW I GOT AWAY FROM THE VILE PIRATE AND SETTLED TONGA HIS BUSINESS.
Seeing nothing but impenetrable thickets on one hand, and the sea on the other, and no means of escape either this way or that from the raging savage, Lady Biddy, I say, did give herself up for lost; and so, falling on her knees, she prayed the Almighty to take her life there and then, that she might be saved from the loathsome passion of the negro. Yet was her case not so bad as to call for this last remedy neither, as I shall presently show.
In great commotion of mind I stood in the little cabin with the grenade in my hand and the lamp burning steadily at my feet, prepared to play the part of the destroyer, while still cherishing the faint flickering hope that my lot rather was to be that of the preserver.
Thus I waited an incredible length of time (as it seemed to me), until, my anxiety becoming no longer tolerable, I scratched again upon the wall for a signal to Lady Biddy.
Then getting no answer, I ventured again to the panel-door and peeped through. The big cabin was empty; nor could I spy through the further door any sign of her, but only the ship's company drawn across the deck, with Tonga lying prone before them.
But at a glance I perceived that most of the men were looking up towards the deck over my head, and then catching a faint sound from thence, which my eager intelligence made out to be my lady's voice, I was no longer in doubt as to her whereabouts.
At this point I heard Rodrigues call to his boatswain to man the boat, which he speedily set about to do. Now, while these fellows were thus busily occupied, I saw my chance to get out on to the gallery unperceived through the little door there, which had been set open to let a current of air through. So creeping low and nimble as any cat I crossed the space that was open to observation from the deck (without being seen, thanks be to God), and that way got me on to the quarter gallery.
Yet what I was to do there, I knew not; still, it was a comfort to change my place, for any shift seems for the best when one is tormented with apprehension.
After another tedious spell I heard the oars splash, and presently, to my complete amazement, I caught sight of the barge, with eight or ten lusty men in it, pulling towards the shore with all their will, and Lady Biddy seated on one of the thwarts alone.