CHAPTER XLI.
The imperturbable Hargrave presented herself the next morning as perfectly rested, and ready to dress her mistress, and put her hair (now for so long neglected) into proper order. A piece of coolness and effrontery that so surprised me I remained quite dumb.
Not so the young ones; but I am ashamed to repeat all that was said, for, though they had right on their side, the unfortunate woman was set upon by all, and if tongues could sting, she would not have been alive now. At last she sat down in a remote corner of the rock, to weep and bewail herself, thinking, I dare say, that she had escaped from one set of savages into another. And, though she derived some consolation part of the time in what she called "tidying herself," she shed many a tear over her torn garments and battered appearance, declaring that she had had her clothes ruined by the rough way in which the captain and Smart had dragged her about. "Say that again," said Felix, "and I must spit at you to show my contempt."
That the captain and Smart had joined us soon became known among the pirates, and if they had been so severely repulsed before by two boys, it was madness attempting another assault.
So they set about means of devising how they could dislodge us, without endangering their own lives. Madame's increasing illness became our great care now, she was becoming delirious, and there was no possibility of subduing the fever upon this baking rock.
"A little cooling lime juice, Ma'am, I would venture to advise," said Hargrave.
"And who has put a stop to our having that?" was uttered on various sides, in various indignant tones.
Hargrave shrunk back into her corner again, while the captain said, "I will draw up some sea water, with which you must bathe her head. Smart's wound will fester I doubt; we have nothing here to ease that, I am grieved to say."