“Jump in, boy, and give a hand to Nancy.”
Nancy did not require a hand, she jumped in very steadily, and took the rudder. Davy threw me one oar, took the other himself, and we were off, stealing noiselessly along under the great cliffs, where darkness still dwelt. But the sky over our heads grew lighter every moment, and we ruefully perceived that ere long it would be broad day. Yet it seemed safer to be on the water than on the land, where we could even now discern dim figures looking for us.
“Ah, what is that?” in a horror-struck whisper from Ann.
That was a dark blue object, very unpleasing to behold, sodden with water, and wedged in a crevice of the cliffs.
“That is one of them,” said Davy, grimly, “cleft to the chin by a scythe in a Welshman’s hands. The ruffians had burnt his cottage, with his old mother in it; he caught this one, that’s all. I wish I had served that fellow up there the same, Nancy.”
“Where have you been, Davy?” I asked, to divert his remorseful thoughts, and unable to restrain my curiosity.
“Among these blacks of parlez-vous. They nabbed me last night as neat as could be—we had a bit of a scrimmage though. I was coming back from a little bit of business.”
“Oh, Davy, you shouldn’t!” from Ann.
“And I got in too near, never expecting ships here; who would? We were round the corner and on them almost, before we knew it; we made off then, but they saw us and gave chase. We made as fast as we could for a place I know, a good out-of-the-way cave—we’ve got a few about here, Nan—and they came after us. They’d some man who knew the coast among them, that I’ll swear; any stranger must have found out the sharpness of our rocks; but not a bit of it. On they came quite comfortable, and close behind us they were as we got to the mouth of the cave. Levi Mathias stood up in the bow of the boat ready to jump ashore when one of the French marines shot him. I hope to have something to say before that’s done with yet. Out tumbled our men anyhow, running through the surf and up the cliffs, into the darkness anywhere, for the Frenchmen carried torches as well as muskets. Well, they nabbed me.”
“You didn’t like to leave Levi,” said Nancy, softly.