CHAPTER XVII
"Well, ma'am," resumed the commander, "I came to myself again at last, but when, how, or where, I really did not know, nor even what had been the matter with me; except that I lay on my back upon something or other softer than the planks, my head aching like to split, and so stupid, I couldn't take the trouble to choose amongst the strange notions that came creeping over me. 'Twas pitch-dark, too, and choking hot. The sole wish I had was for a drop of water; but there I stuck in the same helpless plight, more like a nightmare than aught else; and as for time, if it went by what I felt, why, I might have lain, then and before, long enough for one of the Seven Sleepers. First one fancy, and then another, came looming up from over my brain, like a sail on the horizon, till my head was full of it. That ugly rascal's story got hold of me, and I thought I was stowed away below in some abominable slaver; then I was the sick captain lying in my cot dreaming, with all as still and dark as death. As my wits cleared, however, I began to hear plenty of sounds, as it were, buzzing and rustling and booming in my very ears, then far away again. Confused though I was, a horrid idea struck me as I tried to listen—that Finch and his understrappers had put me ashore in the woods or handed me over to some of those villainous blacks with the filed teeth; and the Seringapatam must be gone, Heaven knew how long!
"Suddenly, as if to clinch my notion, I started for a moment at the loud cry of a bell-bird, as I thought at first; but, the next instant, a sort of a thick crust seemed to clear off my hearing, and I knew it was 'two bells' going on deck, so that I was still on board; after which a regular bustle got up of a sudden overhead. I heard people running up the nearest ladder from below; cadets shouting and clattering, apparently with muskets and cutlasses; the creak of the davit-blocks letting down the boats, and the chief officer's voice alongside. What with my broken head, though, and the want of air and water, I felt too sick to give them a thought. It wasn't long, either, before the whole Indiaman seemed to be as quiet as a church, except one heavy pair of feet on the quarter-deck above; then that stopped as well, and I heard nothing but the dull sound of the tide through her thick outer-timbers, gurgling up and poppling along, like to make me mad for thirst. I put up my hand to my head, and found my hair on one side all sticky, and covered with cockroaches; but though the very touch of their bristly feelers made my blood creep, and the wretches began to dig with their pincers into the wound, I was too weak to keep brushing them away as fast as they swarmed about it.
"It must have been rather some sort of swoon than a doze that I woke out of again, when I heard a man's voice not far off, through the stillness of the 'tween-decks, reading aloud, which I soon made out to be Mr Knowles's, the missionary's; and, from the key of it, it was evidently the Bible he was reading. In a little while he gave up, and another voice came in, that I knew still better. It was Violet Hyde's—low enough, but so clear at times, that it seemed to come into the dark where I lay half-senseless, and afterwards I could even call back some of the very words; then it came to a stand, and I heard her two or three times apparently answering someone I couldn't hear. All at once, the missionary struck up the first note of a psalm-tune, and her lovely voice slid into it, till there was nothing in the whole ship, as it were, but that—singing the old Evening Hymn—alone—such music, I thought, never was on sea or land—when down from some opening above, out of heaven, you might have fancied, fell a chorus like the sound of angels and cherubs joining in at the end, once and again; catching up the air out of her sweet tongue, and drowning it in a way to ravish one's soul, till it sank into a hush in which you could hear the missionary's voice rise, as he prayed aloud, over the whispers of the ladies and children stealing away from round the skylight—with the slight creak of the rudder, now and then, in its case abaft, and the tide bumping and tapping outside, from the deadwood at her counter to the hollow planking amidships.
"As for me, at first blush I thought it all part of my queer visions, till somehow or other I began to revive a bit, and felt for the door of the place they had boxed me up into. However, it was fast enough, and as soon as I tried to stand upright, something over my head gave me a shove down again—it being evidently one of the steward's store-rooms abaft of the cuddy, full of bags and such like lumber, where the best I could do was to stretch myself on the heap of old canvas again, groaning from sheer weakness and desperation. Just then I heard a light step coming close past the door, out of the large cabin, and I gave another groan. A dress rustled, and the foot started to the other side of the passage.
"'For God's sake open the door!' said I, in a faint voice. 'What—who—is there?' exclaimed Miss Hyde, anxiously; but my mouth was so dry I couldn't answer her. Next moment she was trying the handle, though to no purpose; for a little after I caught the sound of her footsteps hastening off, and once more my senses left me. It couldn't have been more than a minute or two, however, for I heard the missionary's voice still praying beside Captain Williamson's cot, when a gush of air suddenly revived me, and I sat up winking at a glare of light, in which Violet Hyde's face seemed to be hovering brighter than the lamp she had in her two hands, as she stood and gazed at me between wonder and dismay; while the steward held the door only half open behind her, peeping in at me with one eye like a fellow watching a hyena in a cage. 'Miss!—miss!' said he, trying to shove the door to again, 'take care—he's a pirate, ma'am, he is! The chief officer'll blow me up for it, your ladyship!' 'Mr Westwood!' exclaimed she, pushing it wide in spite of him, 'what—what is this!—you are all over blood, Mr Westwood! Oh, are you wounded?—what can be—run, run for something,' said she to the steward—'where is the surgeon?' 'The doctor's gone with the rest of 'em, miss,' said he. With this I took hold of something to scramble up, bringing down a bag of cabin-biscuit over me, and got on my legs in the midst of the dust; but grim enough I must have looked, with my face like a North American Indian's, and the cockroaches sticking in my hair, as I stumbled out of the corner. The little Cockney of a steward seemed to think me dangerous, for all I saw of him next moment was his striped gingham jacket vanishing round a bulkhead aft. 'Oh,' stammered I, leaning against the doorpost, 'it's—it's nothing, after all—only—a little water!' The truth was, my brain felt so confused still, that I really was not quite sure how the case stood—whether I hadn't in fact bowsed up my jib too taut that night, and tumbled on my head, or kicked up some row or other; so I suppose I must have looked rather ashamed, which the young lady appeared to notice, by the expression of her face as she moved towards the cuddy, and slipped quietly through one of the folding-doors. 'Hush!' said she, gravely, holding up her finger, as she came out again and closed it, carrying a couple of decanters and a glass; 'poor Captain Williamson seems asleep—he was removed there this evening for air.' As I drank one tumbler of water after another, I fancied the young lady watched me curiously; however, I had scarce quenched my thirst when my own ideas got clear enough, as well as my tongue, to give an offhand account of what had happened. Violet Hyde started, and her voice faltered, as she said, 'Then—then you must have been shut up here all day—oh, how cruel of them! so hot, too! Oh, what a wonder you were not actually——' 'All day!' said I—'what day is it, then, Miss Hyde?' 'It is Sunday evening!' answered she, the tears rushing somehow or other into her eyes. 'Oh, how glad I am that I happened to pass! But your head—what a dreadful wound you must have got, Mr Westwood!' continued she; 'something must be done to it, indeed!'
"What the sweet young creature hesitated and blushed about for the first time, I never guessed; but I can't help thinking that anything short of an angel would have laughed at the ridiculous figure I must have cut, with powdered biscuit added to the blood, the hair, and the cockroaches—although my worthy friend's handspike from behind the foremast had laid the bone bare, so that the bleeding saved it from a lump. I hardly know how it came about, but, five minutes after, there I was sitting on the planks of the 'tween-decks, while the charming girl herself stooped over me with a basin in one hand and a sponge in the other—the muslin sleeves tucked half up off her two round white arms, as she began to wash the blood carefully off the place. I couldn't stand it a minute, however. To feel her fairy fingers soiling themselves in such dirty work, for such a fellow as me, Ned Collins, made me shiver all over; so bolt upright I started, carrying away the sponge in the neck of my coat, and squeezing a teacupful of water down my back at every wriggle—while my lovely sick-nurse stood with one pretty little wrist out, betwixt alarm lest she had hurt me, and surprise at my life-like condition. After giving my face a wipe, however, and swallowing a glass or two of wine, with some of the biscuit I had knocked down, I felt wonderfully well, except for an ache at the top of my head. The next thing that occurred to me, of course, was to have my friend the mate made aware of his mistake; but as for the curious quietness of the Indiaman at that hour, even of a Sunday evening, I couldn't understand it, and I looked for a cap to go on deck with immediately. The young lady seemed to be looking up the after-hatchway, and listening, I thought, and the lady passengers could be heard talking about the poop; but when Violet Hyde turned round, and our eyes met again, I caught an anxious expression in them that puzzled me. 'Do you think it will be long before we shall hear them?' said she, next moment. 'Who?—whom?' asked I, hastily. 'Oh!' said she, starting,'you could not have known they had gone, Mr Westwood. Tell me, Mr Westwood,' said she, coming nearer to me, putting her hand lightly on my arm, and glancing into my face, 'tell me, did you not know that that vessel was in the river?' 'Vessel, Miss Hyde?' I said, looking at her steadily in turn. 'It's all one riddle to me—what vessel do you mean, madam?' 'The—the pirate!' exclaimed she, breathlessly; and turning towards the hatchway again, while I stood eyeing her stupidly, all abroad, so to speak. 'For heaven's sake, tell me what you mean, Miss Hyde!' said I, putting my hand to my head. 'Ah, but you look so white—you are not well yet, sir,' said she, softly. 'To think how all the passengers were amused, and even papa too, when they heard this morning of your being arrested as a—a——But nobody could know you were so hurt, Mr Westwood. Then when some of the sailors came back, and said they had seen the French ship in disguise——' 'By Jupiter! the brig they meant?' I broke out. 'Then, good heavens! they must have painted her lead-colour, and turned her back into a schooner! That was she, for a thousand!' 'And, you know, yesterday morning, sir,' continued the young lady, 'you told me you knew our friends were there, instead of being lost, as we thought!'
"'Yes, yes!' said I, 'there must be some bad scheme at the bottom; but by morning we'll have a slap at them, for certain. For my part I feel——' 'Why,' said Miss Hyde, turning anxiously to me, 'almost everybody in the ship has gone already. Whenever the truth was discovered, there was such a confusion amongst the gentlemen and the officers that they could not think of anything else; and, as soon as the sun had set, they all crowded into the boats and went away together, to surprise the pirates in the dark.' 'Good God!' exclaimed I, in sheer amazement, and making toward the hatchway. 'Miss Hyde! do you say so!—How many were there then, ma'am?' I asked. 'Oh,' said she, quickly, 'I am so glad there was such a number—five boats quite full, I believe. Not a single gentleman would stay, except little Tommy's father, who is upstairs—and papa was one of the first to get down into a boat with his rifle. But do you not think,' added she, with somewhat of a tremble in her voice, 'do you not think the people in the French ship will yield, or at least give our friends up?'
"'I hope to goodness they may!' said I, turning away from the eagerness those soft eyes of hers glittered with, as she leant out before the faint glimmer through the cuddy-door, the light of the lamp in her hand shining bright over her hair and her shoulders; while the gloomy stillness of the whole ship, below, made me think of the voice that had hailed us through the lagoon, and the same man's face—as I had no doubt now it was—when I saw it aboard the brig at sea, before the thunder-squall came on. I almost fancied I saw Finch and him meeting at the present moment, with the mate's awkward look as the Frenchman's sword flashed across him—my fingers gripped together for the handle of a cutlass, to go tumbling up amongst the men over the schooner's bulwarks in the creek—when all at once another notion darted into my head, to remind me where we were in the meantime; I ran to the companion and sprang up the stair on to the quarter-deck.
"It was a hot, still night; but the change from the closeness below to the deck seemed to make quite a new man of one in an instant. I jumped on the nearest carronade-slide, and looked round to see how the land lay, which at first was difficult enough to do. They had got the Indiaman fair afloat again, I found, a little more off the shore, and farther down—the starboard gun I stood upon being, as I guessed by the shape of the trees, about opposite the mud fort, which Finch had probably been peppering at as he threatened, since the port was open, and two or three shot lying in the scuppers beside it. 'Twas somewhere nigh-hand eight o'clock of the evening, I think, and quite black on the nearest bank—you couldn't even make out the top of the woods against the sky; but another cable-length would have served to open the lower reach of the river, where it came brimming up full round the point with the night flow, sending a floating sort of a glimmer along in the dusk over against us. One could even pitch upon a line where it ran side by side with the heavy shadow that took in the ship, going across to the swampy-looking shore off our larboard side, and blackening away up-stream, while the dim bubbles and eddies swept out of the one into the other. I could just catch the low, deep roar of the sea more than a mile off, muffled by the trees and mangroves on both sides between it and us; and, the tide having come almost to a standstill, you heard the ripple against her bows get gentler and gentler, with a weak plash here and there in the dark among the grass and sedge alongshore, which seemed to wake up a chirping mutter in the bushes—and at times you'd have thought something came wading out from the edge; till in a few minutes both river and forest had sunk, as it were, into a sleep. The quieter they got, however, the more uneasy I began to feel at the state I saw things in upon deck; absolutely not a soul to be seen from wheel to bowsprit, except one man walking back and forward by himself on the forecastle, and giving a look now and then carefully enough over at the cable; Mr Brown being on the poop with his family and the knot of ladies, talking under their breath; while the old Scotch mate could be seen through the cabin skylight, leaning his bald crown over his two hands, under the lamp near the captain's cot, to listen to the missionary, as he sat gravely whispering and looking at him through his spectacles.