The Madman and the Pirate, Robert Michael Ballantyne [philippa perry book TXT] 📗

you please. Bu'st you's lungs if you like, for you's in de bow'ls ob de hill here."

Rosco felt that he was in the negro's powers and remained silent.

"I's berry sorry to leave you tied up," said Ebony, rising to quit the place, "but when men is foolish like leetil boys, dey must be treat de same. De straw will keep you comf'rable. I daren't leave de torch, but I'll soon send you food by a sure messenger, and come back myself soon as iver I can."

"Stay, Ebony, I'm at your mercy, and as no good can come of my remaining bound, I must give in. Will you unbind me if I promise to remain quiet?"

"Wid pleasure," said the negro cheerfully, as his glistening teeth showed themselves. "You promise to wait here till I come for you?"

"I promise."

"An' you promise not to shout?"

"I do."

In a moment the rope was cast off, and Rosco was free. Then Ebony, bidding him keep up his heart, glided out of the cavern and left him in profound darkness.

Captain Fitzgerald searched the island high and low, far and wide, without success, being guided during the search chiefly by Ebony.

That wily negro, on returning to the village, found that the search had already begun. The captain had taken care that no one, save those to whom he had already spoken, should know what or who he was searching for, so that the pirate might not be prematurely alarmed. Great, therefore, was his surprise when he was accosted by the negro, and asked in a mysterious manner to step aside with him out of ear-shot of the sailors who assisted him.

"What have you got to say to me, my man?" he asked, when they had gone a few yards into the palm-grove.

"You's lookin' for the pirit!" said Ebony in a hoarse whisper, and with a superhumanly intelligent gaze.

"Why, how came _you_ to know that?" asked the captain, somewhat perplexed and thrown off his guard.

"Ho! ho!" laughed Ebony in a subdued voice, "how I comes to know dat, eh? I come to knows many t'ings by putting dis an' dat togider. You's cappen ob man-ob-war. Well, you no comes here for notting. Well, Rosco de pirit, de horroble scoundril, hims lib here. Ob course you come for look for him. Hofficers ob de Brish navy got notting else to do but kotch an' hang sitch varmints. Eh? I's right?"

"Well, no," returned Captain Fitzgerald, laughing, "not altogether right as to the duties of officers of the British navy. However, you're right as to _my_ object, and I see that this pirate is no friend of yours."

"No friend, oh! no--not at all. Him's far more nor dat. I lub him as a brudder," said the negro with intense energy.

Captain Fitzgerald laughed again, for he supposed that the negro spoke ironically, and Ebony extended his thick lips from ear to ear because he foresaw and intended that the captain would fall into that mistake.

"Now you lose no time in sarch for him," said Ebony, "an' dis yar nigger will show you de way."

"Do, my fine fellow, and when we find him, I'll not forget your services."

"You's berry good, a'most too good," said Ebony, with an affectionate look at his new employer.

So, as we have said, the village and island were searched high and low without success. At last, while the searching party was standing, baffled, on the shore farthest from the village, Captain Fitzgerald stopped abruptly, and looking Zeppa in the face, exclaimed, "Strange, is it not? and the island so small, comparatively."

"Quite unaccountable," answered Zeppa, who, with his son, had at last joined in the search out of sheer anxiety as to Rosco's fate.

"Most perplexing!" said Orlando.

"Most amazin'!" murmured Ebony, with a look of disappointment that baffles description.

Suddenly the negro pointed to the beach, exclaiming, "Oh! I knows it now! Look dare. You see two small canoes? Dere wor _tree_ canoes dare yisterday. De t'ird wan am _dare_ now. Look!"

They all looked eagerly at the horizon, where a tiny speck was seen. It might have been a gull or an albatross.

"Impossible," said Zeppa. "Where could he hope to escape to in that direction--no island within a thousand miles?"

"A desprit man doos anyt'ing, massa."

"Well. I shall soon find out, for the wind blows in that direction," said the captain, wheeling about and returning to his ship.

Soon the sails were spread, the anchor weighed, the coral reef passed, and the good ship was leaping merrily over the sea in pursuit of the pirate, while Ebony was seated on the straw beside Rosco, expanding his mouth to an extent that it had never reached before, and causing the cavern to ring with uproarious laughter.


CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

It need scarcely be said that the man-of-war did not overtake the pirate's canoe!

She cruised about for some days in the hope of falling in with it. Then her course was altered, and she was steered once more for Ratinga. But the elements seemed to league with Ebony in this matter, for, ere she sighted the island, there burst upon her one of those tremendous hurricanes with which the southern seas are at times disturbed. So fierce was the tempest that the good ship was obliged to present her stern to the howling blast, and scud before it under bare poles.

When the wind abated, Captain Fitzgerald found himself so far from the scene of his recent visit, and so pressed for time, as well as with the claims of other duties--possibly, according to Ebony, the capturing and hanging of other pirates--that he resolved to postpone his visit until a more convenient season. The convenient season never came. Captain Fitzgerald returned home to die, and with him died the memory of Rosco the pirate--at least as far as public interest in his capture and punishment was concerned--for some of the captain's papers were mislaid and lost and among them the personal description of the pirate, and the account of his various misdeeds.

But Rosco himself did not die. He lived to prove the genuine nature of his conversion, and to assist Waroonga in his good work. As it is just possible that some reader may doubt the probability--perhaps even the possibility--of such a change, we recommend him to meditate on the fact that Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor, became Paul, the loving Apostle of the Lord.

One morning, not long after the events just narrated, Zeppa came to Rosco's hut with a bundle under his arm. He was followed by Marie, Betsy, Zariffa, and Lippy with her mother. By that time Lippy had been provided with a bonnet similar to that of her friend Ziffa, and her mother had been induced to mount a flannel petticoat, which she wore tied round her neck or her waist, as her fancy or her forgetfulness inclined her. The party had accompanied Zeppa to observe the effect of this bundle on Rosco.

That worthy was seated on a low couch constructed specially for him by Ebony. He was busy reading.

"Welcome, friends all," he said, with a look of surprise at the deputation-like visit.

"We have come to present you with a little gift, Rosco," said Zeppa, unrolling the bundle and holding up to view a couple of curious machines.

"Wooden legs!" exclaimed Rosco with something between a gasp and a laugh.

"That's what they are, Rosco. We have been grieved to see you creeping about in such a helpless fashion, and dependent on Ebony, or some other strong-backed fellow, when you wanted to go any distance, so Orlando and I have put our heads together, and produced a pair of legs."

While he was speaking the on-lookers gazed in open-eyed-and-mouthed expectancy, for they did not feel quite sure how their footless friend would receive the gift.

"It is kind, _very_ kind of you," he said, on recovering from his surprise; "but how am I to fix them on? there's no hole to shove the ends of my poor legs into."

"Oh! you don't shove your legs into them at all," said Zeppa; "you've only got to go on your knees into them--see, this part will fit your knees pretty well--then you strap them on, make them fast, and away you go. Let's try them."

To the delight of the women and children, Rosco was quite as eager to try on the legs as they were to see him do it. The bare idea of being once more able to walk quite excited the poor man, and his hands trembled as he tried to assist his friend in fixing them.

"Keep your hands away altogether," said Zeppa; "you only delay me. There now, they're as tight as two masts. Hold on to me while I raise you up."

At that moment Tomeo, Buttchee, Ebony, Ongoloo, Wapoota, and Orlando came upon the scene.

"What a shame, father," cried the latter, "to begin without letting us know!"

"Ah! Orley, I'm sorry you have found us at it. Marie and I had planned giving you a surprise by making Rosco walk up to you."

"Never mind," cried Rosco impatiently; "just set me on my pins, and I'll soon walk into him. Now then, hoist away!"

Orley and his father each seized an arm, and next moment Rosco stood up.

"Now den, don' hurry him--hurrah!" cried Ebony, giving a cheer of encouragement.

"Have a care, friends; don't let me go," said Rosco anxiously, clutching his supporters' necks with a convulsive grasp. "I'll never do it, Zeppa. I feel that if you quit me for an instant, I shall go down like a shot."

"No fear. Here, cut him a staff, Ebony," said Zeppa; "that'll be equal to three legs, you know, and even a stool can stand alone with three legs."

The staff was cut and handed to the learner, who, planting it firmly on the ground before him, leaned on it, and exclaimed, "Let go!" in tones which instantly suggested "the anchor" to his friends.

The order was obeyed, and the ex-pirate stood swaying to and fro, and smiling with almost childlike delight. Presently he became solemn, lifted one leg, and set it down again with marvellous rapidity. Then he lifted the other leg with the same result. Then he lifted the staff, but had to replace it smartly to prevent falling forward.

"I fear I can only do duty as a motionless tripod," he said rather anxiously.

"Nebber fear, massa--oh! Look out!"

The latter exclamation was caused by Rosco falling backwards; to prevent which catastrophe he made a wild flourish with his arms, and a sweep with his staff, which just grazed the negro's cheek. Zeppa, however, caught him in his arms, and set him up again.

"Now then, try once more," he said encouragingly.

Rosco tried, and in the course of half-an-hour managed, with many a stagger and upheaval of the arms and staff to advance about eight or ten yards. At this point, however, he chanced to place the end of the right leg on a soft spot of ground. Down it went instantly to the knee, and over went the learner