Across the Spanish Main, Harry Collingwood [100 books to read txt] 📗

were, and also the shell of the turtle. Then there was the gruesome task of digging up the body of poor Evans. It had to be done, and the sooner the better, as Roger said; so all three went to the unpleasant duty. The mound of sand was removed, the tilling taken out, and they presently came upon the body. The sand was brushed from the hair and clothing of the corpse, and it was then carried to the hut, placed in its previous position, and covered with the blanket in which it had been buried.

This completed their preparations for the pirates’ landing—for it was certain that they would land; otherwise why should they have returned to the island? Their work had lasted longer than they thought, and away to the east the first sign of dawn was apparent by the time they had finished. They knew the marvellous rapidity with which the day comes and goes in those regions, and recognised the need for haste if they were to gain their proposed place of concealment unperceived; for there would certainly be sharp eyes on board the pirate, looking for the first sign of the marooned man. They therefore took, each man, his share of the provisions, and, keeping carefully below the concealing top of the sand-bank, started to run at their utmost speed for the ledge of rocks which was to be their refuge.

Meanwhile daylight was coming with terrible rapidity. The shore extremity of the ledge of rocks was reached after what seemed an eternity, and they began their passage out along it as fast as they could go. It was dangerous going among the rocks, but danger, frightful danger, spurred them on. Looking seaward they could make out the hull of the pirate vessel quite distinctly, and they all prayed that they might not be so easily perceived. At last they reached the hollow among the rocks, which was to be their haven of refuge, and tumbled over one another into it.

Having at length got their breath, Jake Irwin put forward the sensible suggestion that they should take their morning meal at once; and they proceeded to do so, all, however, with a very unpleasant feeling that it might quite possibly be their last. They finished with a hearty draught of brandy-and-water, to put some spirit into them after their toilsome night’s work, Bevan and Irwin having taken especial care to bring a good quantity of the liquor along. Then they scrambled cautiously up and had a look at the schooner, taking care to remain well hidden themselves. They were, in their present position, much nearer to the pirate vessel than when they first saw her, and, as the sun got up and shone on her stern, they could, with some little difficulty, make out her name—the Black Pearl,—which was painted in large red letters across her counter. Presently signs of returning life were apparent on board, and soon afterwards a boat was filled with men and lowered. It pushed off as soon as it touched the water, and made for the shore.

How fortunate was it, thought Roger, and how much like a special dispensation of Providence for their safety, that they had forgotten to replenish the fire on the night before! Had it been burning, the pirates would have known that living beings were on the island, for Evans’s body gave evidence that it had been dead too long for them to suppose that a fire lit by him would still be burning. The remains of it they certainly would see, but they would doubtless believe that Evans had made it, and that it had gone out after his death, little dreaming that at the moment when they let go their anchor the ashes could have been scarcely cold.

While these thoughts were passing through Roger’s mind, the boat landed, and her people got out and proceeded quickly up the beach. A shout presently announced that they had caught sight of the new hut, toward which all hands at once wended their way. For some time nothing was seen or heard of the pirates; but eventually three of them went down to the beach again, and, entering the boat, pulled off to the ship.

“Going to inform Leirya that the victim of his cruelty is dead,” whispered Roger to Bevan; and the latter nodded.

After the boat had remained some few minutes alongside the Black Pearl, a man of enormous size was seen to descend the ship’s side and enter her, when she again pushed off, and was pulled shorewards once more.

“I’ll stake my allowance of grog for the day,” whispered Jake Irwin to the two others, “that that man in the stern-sheets there, handlin’ the tiller, is José Leirya hisself, comin’ ashore to make sure that the man is really dead, and to secure they there papers what Evans said he stole from the cabin; that’s what’s brought him back, I’ll warrant. It’s a pity you didn’t remember, sir, to take ’em from the body. Evans said they was vallyble.”

Roger, according to his promise, did not inform Jake that he had the papers in his possession at that moment.

“Ss—sh!” whispered Jake, suddenly withdrawing his head from its point of lookout, “here they come! God in heaven! why don’t they go back to the ship now they see as Evans is dead? What more do they want? Surely, sir, we didn’t leave nothin’ about that’d show ’em we was here, did we? I thought we cleared away all our traces.”

“So we did,” replied Roger, “so far as I can remember, that is. It is perhaps only by chance that they are coming this way.”

The men came nearer and nearer, and ventured out a little way along the rocks. Presently they heard a voice at some distance away shout in Spanish: “Ha, you, Gomez, go out to the end of that ledge and see if the water is deep enough for boats to lie alongside the rocks.”

A voice replied: “Ay, ay, Captain!” from a point so close to them that its owner must have come almost to their hiding-place without the fugitives either seeing or hearing him.

The three looked at one another, and then, as if the same thought had come to each of them at the same moment, they with one accord advanced cautiously and stationed themselves behind a rock by which the man must pass to reach the edge of the ledge. Here, where they now were, everything that might transpire would be screened from the others, unless some of them were following Gomez out along the ledge. But they must risk that. Crouching low, and as silent as watching cats, they waited for the man Gomez.

In a moment or two they heard his footsteps on the rocks, and his heavy breathing. Nearer and nearer he came, and now he was almost on them! Then with a spring they had him, and he was down among the rocks before he could utter a sound. Quick as lightning Jake pushed a handful of sand and sea-weed into the Spaniard’s mouth, and clapped his hand over it to prevent its ejection, Roger and Bevan at the same instant seizing the man’s arms and legs. The eyes of Gomez were staring and starting out of his head with mortal terror at this utterly unexpected attack. Jake drew his knife. Roger shook his head violently in dissent, but Jake whispered hastily: “It must be, sir; we can’t help it; it is his life or ours!”

Roger turned his head away, and the next moment he heard a horrible choke and gurgle, while the body writhed violently as he held the arms. A flood of something hot rushed over his hands and arms, and he felt quite sick.

“Now, sir, quick!” said Jake. “It’s our only chance. There’s an overhanging ledge of rock here. We must take the provisions, and this ’ere corpse, and git into the water, floatin’ under the ledge until they goes; for when this chap Gomez is found to be missin’, they’ll search and find us if we don’t do as I say. We must risk the sharks!”

There was clearly nothing else for it; so they slipped in, taking the corpse with them, and all got under the ledge—which quite concealed them—and supported the dead body, that it might not float away and betray them.

The proceeding was fraught with danger, as sharks swarmed in those waters, and the blood that was oozing from the Spaniard’s body would be almost certain to attract those monsters of the sea,—their scent for blood being very keen. The flesh of the fugitives crept, and the knowledge that one of them might be seized kept them in a state of perfectly agonising suspense. They had been in for some time, and the position was becoming unendurable when: “Gomez, Gomez, where are you? Hasten, man; we do not want to wait here all day!” came from the very ledge underneath which they were floating, and holding, meanwhile, the corpse of the man who was then being called by name.

“Where can he be, curse him?” growled the same voice. “What has become of the lazy hound? Carrajo, I will flog him when we get on board! Gomez!”

There was, of course, no reply.

“He may have fallen in and been drowned, or taken by a shark, perchance,” suggested another voice.

More oaths followed, together with a lengthy dissertation on Gomez’s ancestors, both immediate and remote. At this moment Bevan gave vent to a suppressed gasp, and, following his gaze, the others saw the dorsal fins of several sharks which had evidently scented the blood still draining from the body of the slain man, and were now searching for their prey. Then the concealed listeners heard—from someone who had evidently been to the edge of the ledge to search for the missing man—

“I have looked, Captain, and Gomez is nowhere to be found.”

There were more awful oaths from José—for it was indeed that renowned and most notorious scoundrel,—and then he again spoke:

“He must have fallen in and been drowned—curses on him for a clumsy fool! Yes; and there are the sharks that have taken his worthless carcass. Come, you; we will return to the schooner. It is useless to search further for him, for he will never come back.”

Meanwhile the sharks were coming ever closer and closer still, while the footsteps of the pirate and his companions were heard retreating. The minds of the hiding trio were much relieved at the departure of José Leirya and his villains, and particularly at José’s mention of his intention to return to the vessel; but the suspense of waiting for them to retire, while the sharks were edging ever nearer and nearer, was awful. The triangular fins of these terrible monsters were now darting rapidly hither and thither, and at every dart the voracious fish came nearer than before. Momentarily they expected to see one or more of the fins disappear below the surface, and they knew that when that happened they might anticipate seizure by the shark a few seconds later. But as yet the fins remained visible on the surface of the water.

Poor Roger was nearly fainting with anxiety and apprehension, while Bevan was rapidly becoming exhausted. At length the strain on their nerves became unendurable, and Jake Irwin said: “I don’t think those fellows’ll hear us now, even if we splash; and if we don’t splash, they sharks’ll be at us in a few minutes. Anyhow, I’m a-goin’ to risk it!”

Forthwith they all began to splash vigorously, although as yet they dared not shout. The sudden commotion of the water, coming after the dead silence that had previously reigned, startled the great fish, and the fins instantly scattered in all directions, to the great relief of the fugitives. But, as Jake said: “That won’t keep ’em off very long; they’ve smelled blood, and they’ll be around again directly.”

He then swam a stroke or two, very cautiously, out from under the ledge, in order