I jumped ashore, and was proceeding along the beach for it, when suddenly I was confronted by Antonio, who from a thicket had been watching our operations and departure.
His tawny skin—for he was naked to the waist—his ferocious aspect, his head of matted hair, his colossal strength, and atrocious character were not without a due effect upon the boat's crew at this crisis.
"Shove off—shove off!" I heard several voices cry in the boat; "here comes that dog of a Cubano."
I struggled with Antonio; but he laughed loudly, and drew his pistol with the air of one who would enforce obedience; besides, his eyes, which the tangled masses of his hair overhung, were flashing with malignant fire, as all the slumbering devil was roused within him.
The whole crew saw this, and I perceived that Marc Hislop made an attempt to rise up and spring overboard to my succor; but as all their hopes of reaching Tristan da Cunha depended entirely upon his skill and knowledge of navigation, he was seized by Warren, Chute, and others, roughly thrust down in the stern sheets, and forcibly held there.
I saw now that the fear and selfishness of the rest prevailed over all that Hislop, Lambourne, and Carlton could urge; for amid a storm of contending tongues, I perceived the oars dipping in the water again and again, and flashing like silver blades in the moonlight as they were feathered; and the longboat with all my companions, shot from the creek into the bay, and bore away to seaward about two in the morning, leaving me on the beach alone—marooned with the fiendish Cubano!
CHAPTER XXXIX.
A NEW DANGER.
Had not Antonio held me fast, and menaced me with his pistol, I would have sprung into the water, and undeterred by the sharks that were forever gliding stealthily about in the bay, would have swam after the boat; for desperate though the fortune of those who were there, I would rather have shared it than live on the island of Alphonso with such a companion.
His fierce mocking laugh grated harshly in my ear, but I heeded him not, and continued to gaze after the boat and the lessening forms of those who had abandoned me, not without a fond and desperate hope that they would return for me. Every moment I expected to see her put about; but no! she held steadily on, till hull, and sail, and crew were blended into one little dark spot, which ere long could scarcely be discerned on the moonlit morning sea.