Then the lovers seated themselves, and with their hands interlocked, talked of the future, which they were pleased to fancy would be full of sunshine and without a cloud.
CHAPTER VI.
A SLIGHT CHANGE.
They were very unpleasantly interrupted by the sharp report of a pistol, apparently proceeding from the deck, and springing to his feet, the harpooner darted up the companion-way.
As he emerged from the entrance, however, he was seized and thrown down before he could use his rifle, by three of the New Zealanders, who had evidently been lying in wait for him. They fastened his arms and his legs with strong cords, and then stepping back a few paces, glared upon him with Satanic exultation. At the same moment, turning his eyes to the right, he saw the corpulent figure of Stump lying near the foot of the mizzen-mast, and, bending over it, the sinewy form of the savage Driko. The islander was engaged in securing the limbs of the prostrate man with ropes, and upon raising his head to obtain a better view, Marline perceived that the poor fellow was senseless. His pistol was lying by his side, and near that a belaying-pin, the latter of which, the young man at once divined, had been used to deal the shipkeeper the blow which had deprived him of consciousness.
“Ay, ay,” said one of the New Zealanders, as though he guessed our hero’s thoughts, “De Portuguese at de wheel go behind him and knock him down with pin—strikee on de head—and den de pistol ’e go off, and we know you den pretty soon come up from de cabin, and we wait for you. Hi! hi! hi! Very good dis way to catch you!”
The fierce Driko had by this time finished his task, and rising to his feet, he now turned his eagle eyes, blazing with fury, upon the face of Marline.
“You makee lay down lances, eh? You makee you captain of dis ship, eh? Now me captain, and me killee you!”
With which words he moved to the carpenter’s chest, took therefrom a keen-edged hatchet, then rushed to the side of the prostrate youth, and lifted the weapon on high to deal the fatal blow!
At that critical instant, a cry of anguish was heard, as Alice—who had been alarmed by the prolonged absence of her lover, and who naturally experienced a presentiment of evil—rushed from the companion-way, and threw herself between the glittering steel and the body of the harpooner!
“Spare him! spare him! Oh, for heaven’s sake, Driko—stay your hand!” she cried, in tones of such earnest entreaty, that even the stern islander was moved. He remembered—and the wild men of the Pacific isles seldom forget a favor—that this young girl had once, while the vessel was anchored near Honolulu, and the captain was ashore, saved him from being flogged by the flinty-hearted Briggs.