CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY.
Our drive was a most unpleasant one for me, for the cart had no springs,and the boy Moses, like Jehu, drove furiously. It fortunately lastedonly some five-and-twenty minutes or so, however; and at the end of thatperiod we pulled up on what I guessed, from the running of the vehicleand the sound of rippling water, to be a sandy beach. My conjectureproved to be correct, for when presently I was hauled out fromunderneath the forage, and stood upon my feet, more dead than alive, Ifound that we were on the margin of a tiny creek or cove, about three-quarters of a mile to the westward of the outskirts of Kingston. Asmall canoe lay hauled up on the sand, and in the bottom of this craft Iwas carefully deposited; after which she was run down into the water,when Caesar and Peter sprang lightly into her, giving her a final shoveto seaward as they did so, and paddled away, leaving Moses and his cartto make the best of their way back to the town.
Lying upon my back in the bottom of the canoe, with my face turnedupward to the stars, I was able to see that we were heading eastwardtoward Kingston harbour; and about half an hour later the canoe glidedup alongside a small felucca, of some thirty tons burden and was madefast by her painter. The canoe secured to his satisfaction, the negroCaesar climbed over the felucca's low bulwarks, and I heard his barefeet pattering along the deck until, as I supposed, he reached thecompanion, when the sounds became muffled, and were presently lost.
Then I caught the sound of voices,--Caesar's and others'--but soindistinctly that I was unable to distinguish what was being said. Theconversation, however, was brief, for in three or four minutes the treadof Caesar's bare feet again became audible, accompanied by that ofothers; and I then discovered that a conversation, of which I was thesubject, was being conducted in Spanish! This seemed to suggest that Ihad fallen into the hands of the enemy, though why the Spaniards shouldwish to kidnap so very unimportant a personage as myself I could not forthe life of me imagine, unless they had adopted some new system ofwarfare, one element of which consisted in kidnapping as many of theenemy's officers as possible, without much reference to their importanceor otherwise!
But of course I should soon see; for as I lay there in the bottom of thecanoe, cogitating to this effect, I became aware, from the remarksinterchanged by those on deck, that I was about to be transferred to thefelucca; and if the Spaniards had adopted the novel system of kidnappingBritish officers, I should doubtless find some of my fellow-officers onboard in the same plight as myself.
Presently Caesar swung himself over the felucca's bulwarks and down intothe canoe, when he at once seized me by the shoulders, and, calling uponhis friend Peter to lend him a hand, proceeded to pass me up over thefelucca's rail to the three Spanish-speaking individuals who stood ondeck stretching out their arms to receive me. They were very carefulnot to hurt me unnecessarily during the process of transfer, from whichcircumstance I derived a certain amount of comfort; the inference beingthat, whatever might be their motive in thus seizing me, no bodily harmto me was intended. Having safely transferred me from the canoe to thedeck of the felucca, my abductors next conveyed me below to the hot,stuffy little cabin of the craft, where, outstretched upon a locker thatwas barely long enough to accommodate my length, they left me without aword, and returned to the deck, carefully closing the doors and drawingover the slide at the head of the companion ladder, and then ascarefully closing both flaps of the hitherto open skylight. This done,their conversation with Caesar and his satellite was continued in aleisurely, desultory fashion for about half an hour,--the burden of itbeing unintelligible to me through the closed skylight,--when I heardthe two negroes descend into their canoe and shove off, wishing theothers a quick and pleasant passage. Then followed some leisurelymovements on deck, accompanied by the throwing down of a rope or two,the creaking of blocks and parralls, a _few_ quiet ejaculations as ofmen pulling and hauling, the clink of windlass pawls, the loud slattingof loose canvas in the strong land-breeze that was blowing; andfinally--as the latter sounds ceased--I felt the felucca heel stronglyover to port, and heard the increasing gurgle and wash of water alongthe bends and under the counter of the little craft, accompanied by anoccasional call from for'ard to the helmsman, by which I knew that wewere under way, and standing down the harbour toward Port Royal.
By and by I felt the felucca come upright, there was a warning cry ondeck, a sudden, violent flap of canvas overhead, and the felucca heeledslightly over to starboard; by which I knew that she had squared away,jibed over, and was running out of the harbour. A few minutes later Ifelt her beginning to rise and fall over the gathering seas as sheskimmed away off the land; the motion steadily grew stronger, merginginto a swift, floating, forward rush, as the seas came up astern of her,followed by a long, dragging pause as the crest swept past; andpresently the companion slide was pushed back, the doors at the head ofthe ladder were flung open, and a man--one of those who had helped toconvey me below--descended into the cabin.
"Phew! senor, you are warm down here!" he exclaimed, in perfect English,as he stood gazing thoughtfully down upon me. I could of course make noreply, as I was still gagged; but he probably observed the dreadfulcondition that the gag and the lashings round my wrists and ankles hadreduced me to, for he continued, as he stooped over me--
"We are now at sea; and as it is therefore impossible for you to raisean alarm, or effect your escape, I think I may safely make you a littlemore comfortable. You look terribly distressed, amigo; and my ordersare imperative that you are to be delivered safe and sound. There!" ashe removed the gag and cast off the lashings, "that ought to be more toyour liking."
"For pity's sake," I ejaculated, "give me something to drink! Thathorrible gag has all but suffocated me!"
"Something to drink? With pleasure, senor. What shall it be--plainwater or `grog,' as you English call it? I think it had better be grog,for I cannot recommend the water we carry in our scuttle-butt."
So saying, he went to a little cupboard alongside the companion ladder,and produced therefrom a water monkey, two tin pannikins, and a bottleof rum, all of which he placed on the cabin table.
"There, senor, help yourself freely; the little _Josefa_ and all thatshe contains is yours!"
"Thanks, senor," I replied, as I poured out with a shaking hand andbenumbed fingers a generous modicum of rum, filling up the pannikin withevil-smelling water, "I drink to our better acquaintance."
So saying, I emptied the pannikin at a gulp, and set it down upon thetable. "And now, senor," I continued, as my companion, in turn,proceeded to help himself and to pledge me, "perhaps you will kindlyinform me, first, whom I have the honour to address; secondly, why Ihave been brought aboard this felucca; and, thirdly, to what place youpropose to convey me?"
"Assuredly, senor," answered the Spaniard; "it will afford me muchhappiness to gratify so very natural and reasonable a request. In thefirst place, senor, I am your Excellency's most humble servant, JuanDominguez, captain of this felucca. In the next place, you are here byorder of my excellent friend and patron, Don Pedro Morillo, captain ofthe brigantine _Guerrilla_; and, in the third place, I am conveyingyou--also by Don Pedro's orders--to Cariacou, an island which Iunderstand you have already visited, under certain memorablecircumstances."
So that was it, was it? I was kidnapped, not in accordance with somewild scheme of the Spaniards to cripple our too active navy by robbingit of every officer that they could lay hands upon, but in order that acowardly, bloodthirsty pirate might at leisure, and in safety, wreak hisrevenge upon me for the injury that I, in the exercise of my duty, haddone him. Speaking in all frankness, I do not believe I am a coward;but I confess that the information thus calmly communicated to me bythis Spaniard--who was most probably a naturalised British subject--caused my blood to run cold; for I had heard quite enough of Morillo tofeel tolerably well assured that if his motive in causing me to bekidnapped was revenge, he would not be satisfied with merely shootingme, or stabbing me to the heart; he wo
uld undoubtedly exercise hisutmost ingenuity to render my passage out of this world as lingering andpainful as possible; and, from all accounts, he was quite an adept inthe art of torture!
"You seem disturbed at my intelligence, amigo," remarked my companion,gazing upon me with a smile of amusement. "Well," he continued,"perhaps you have cause to be; who knows? I have heard that it was youwho, taking advantage of my friend's absence at sea, visited Cariacouand destroyed poor Morillo's batteries and buildings there, carrying offhis brig and everything else that you and your crew could lay handsupon. I hope, for _your_ sake, that Morillo was misinformed, and thatyou will be able to demonstrate to his complete satisfaction your entirefreedom from all complicity in that very ill-advised and malicioustransaction; he may then be content to simply hang you at his yardarm.But if you fail to convince him--phew! I sincerely pity you; I doindeed, senor."
"Thanks, very much," retorted I, with the best attempt at sarcasm that Icould muster,--for I began to perceive that this fellow was amusinghimself by endeavouring to frighten me, and I did not intend to affordhim very much gratification in that way,--"your pity is infinitelycomforting to me, especially as it is evident to me that the feeling isgenuine. May I ask whether your share in this present transaction isundertaken purely out of friendship for Morillo, or is it being carriedout upon a business basis?"
"Well, to be strictly truthful, there is a little of both," answeredDominguez. "Why do you inquire, if it is not an indiscreet question?"
"Now," thought I, "I wonder whether this question of his is intended toindicate that he is open to a bribe--a bribe to put me ashore again,safe and sound, provided that I make him a sufficiently liberal offer.Perhaps the attempt may be worth making; it will, at all events, enableme to judge what are my chances, so far as he is concerned." So Ireplied--
"To be candid with you, friend Dominguez, it occurred to me that you hadundertaken this little adventure as much with the object of turning amore or less honest penny as for any other reason. Now, supposing thatI should experience any difficulty in satisfying Morillo upon the pointthat you just now referred to, what do you imagine will be the result?Something exceedingly unpleasant for me, I assume, since you were goodenough to express pity for me."
"Something exceedingly unpleasant?" he repeated, with a laugh. "Well,yes, that is one way of putting it, certainly, but it is a very mildway; so ridiculously mild that it suggests no idea of what was in mymind when I said I pitied you. Flaying alive is unpleasant, so is beingroasted alive over a slow fire, so is gradual dismemberment--a finger ora toe at a time, then a hand or a foot, and so on until only the trunkremains,--all these are unpleasant, _exceedingly_ so, I should imagine,from what I have seen of the behaviour of those who have undergone thoseoperations at my friend's hand; but in the contingency you just nowsuggested, I fancy that Morillo would do his best to devise somethingconsiderably better--or worse, whichever you please to call it--for_you_."
I shuddered, and a feeling of horrible sickness swept over me. Striveas I would, I could not help it, as this inhuman wretch spoke, withevident gusto, of the torments to which I might--failing Morillo'sability to devise still greater refinements of cruelty--be subjected.But by the time that he had finished speaking, I had succeeded inrallying my courage sufficiently to remark--
"Thanks; your reply to my question leaves nothing to be desired in theway of lucidity. Now, supposing I should happen to feel some repugnanceto those delicate attentions on Morillo's part that you have justalluded to, what inducement would be sufficient to persuade you to 'boutship, and land me on the wharf at Kingston, instead of at Cariacou?"
"Ah," replied Dominguez, "that is a question that is not to be answeredoff-hand; there are several points that occur to me as requiring carefulconsideration before I could name the sum that would induce me to act asyou wish. Of course you will understand that I have no personal animusagainst you; you have never injured me, and therefore I have no feelingof revenge to gratify by delivering you into Morillo's power. But, onthe other hand, Morillo is my friend, and I am always glad to oblige himwhen I can, particularly when, as in the present case, I am well paidfor it. Now, if I were to act as you suggest, I should be thwarting,instead of obliging him; I should convert him from a friend into anenemy; and I think that you are now in a position to understand whatthat means. It means that I should be compelled to _disappear_ ascompletely as though the ground had opened and swallowed me; because itis one of Morillo's characteristics that, while he is a staunch andgenerous friend, he is also a bitter and relentless enemy. He _never_forgives; so long as his enemy lives, he will never rest until he hasbeen revenged upon him. And this reminds me that if you and I shouldsucceed in coming to an arrangement, you must not regard the matterbetween yourself and Morillo as settled; I warn you that you will haveto maintain a ceaseless watch, for so long as you and he live he willnever relax his efforts to get you into his power. Afloat, and with agreatly superior force, you _may_ reckon yourself to be reasonably safe;but _ashore_--no! Very well. Now, what I have told you will enable youto understand my position in relation to this matter: at present I amhis friend, but I have his enemy in my power; and if I aid and abet thatenemy to escape I become his enemy, which will necessitate my promptretreat to the other side of the world, to begin life afresh, with thehaunting feeling that, go where I will and do what I may, I am _neversafe_! That alone points to a necessary demand on my part of aconsiderable sum--a _very_ considerable sum--from you as compensationfor the many serious inconveniences and dangers that must inevitablyfollow upon my falling in with your proposal. But that is not all.There is my mate, Miguel, and the lad Luis, for'ard; both of them wouldrequire some very substantial inducement to lead them to fall in withour views. Altogether, I should say that what you propose wouldprobably cost you--well, at least, ten thousand pounds."
"Ten thousand pounds?" I ejaculated. "Nonsense, man; you must bedreaming. Why, I could no more raise ten thousand pounds than I couldfly."
"No?" he queried coolly; "not even to save yourself from--"
"Not even to save myself from the utmost refinement of cruelty that yourfriend Morillo is capable of devising," I answered decisively.
"Pardon me, senor, but I can scarcely believe you," retorted Dominguez,with that hateful, sneering smile of his. "You have been exceptionallyfortunate in the matter of prizes since your arrival in these waters,and I feel convinced that in prize money alone you must now have a veryhandsome sum standing to your credit. Then, if I am correctly informed,you have made many friends. You are, for instance, a great favouritewith the admiral, who would doubtless be willing to advance a veryconsiderable sum to help you out of your present exceedinglydisagreeable predicament; and I have no doubt there are others who wouldbe equally willing to help you if your position were clearly laid beforethem."
"But, man alive, I cannot do it," I exclaimed angrily. "So far as prizemoney is concerned, I suppose three thousand pounds is the very utmostthat I possess. And as for the admiral, I am no more to him than anyother officer, and I am certain that he would absolutely refuse toadvance a single penny-piece for such a purpose as you suggest; to do sowould simply be offering an inducement to you--and others like you--tokidnap officers, and then hold them to ransom. But I tell you what itis," I continued; "you may rest assured of this, that if any harmbefalls me,--if, in short, you deliver me into Morillo's power,--theadmiral will make you suffer as severely for it as Morillo himself couldpossibly do. So there you are, between two fires; and, if you care formy opinion, it is that the admiral is likely to prove a worse enemy toyou than even Morillo over this business."
"That, possibly, might be the case if the admiral happened to discoverthat I have been implicated in it," replied my companion, withexasperating composure. "But then, you see, he never will! I havetaken every possible precaution against that."
"How about Caesar and Peter, the two negroes who brought me aboardhere?" I inquired.
"Pshaw!" answered Do
minguez impatiently, "do you suppose they wouldinform against me? Not they. Why, they are both--well, never mind whatthey are, except that I feel perfectly safe, so far as they areconcerned."
"Very well," I retorted, "time will show whether your confidence in themis well founded or not. Meanwhile, my position is such that threethousand pounds is the outside figure I can offer you as my ransom, andyou may take it or leave it as you please."
"Then I fear, amigo, that your days are numbered," replied Dominguezcomposedly, as he rose from his seat preparatory to returning on deck."I am sorry for you," he continued, "very sorry; but I _must_ think ofmyself before all else, and three thousand is not nearly temptingenough. Possibly when you have had a little longer to think it over youwill be able to see your way to make a very considerable advance uponthat sum. There is plenty of time; the _Josefa_ is a grand little ship,but she has one fault, she is slow, and I do not expect that we shallreach Cariacou in less than a full week. You have therefore six orseven days before you in which to consider the matter; and should yousee your way to raise the ten thousand, at any time before we sight theisland, I shall be happy to talk with you again. Meanwhile, there isyour bunk. Will you turn in at once, or would you prefer to take a turnon deck first?"
"Thanks," answered I, with alacrity, delighted to discover that I wasnot to be confined to the cabin. "I think I will go on deck for half anhour or so, to get a breath of fresh air; it is rather close down here."
"As you will," returned Dominguez, amicably enough; "I have no fear ofyour attempting to escape. You are scarcely likely, I think, to gooverboard and offer yourself as a meal to the sharks. Do you smoke? Ican recommend these," as he drew from a locker a box of cigars.
I helped myself to one mechanically, and lit it, Dominguez following myexample, and then politely offering me precedence up the companionladder. I accepted the courtesy, and made my way somewhat stiffly upthe steep steps; for my limbs were still cramped from the compression ofthe ligatures wherewith I had been bound. After what I had passedthrough it was an inexpressible relief to me to find myself once morebreathing the free, pure air of heaven, with the star-spangled skyarching grandly overhead.
It was a brilliantly fine night,--or morning rather, for it was by thistime past two o'clock a.m.,--the sky cloudless save for a small shred ofthin, wool-like vapour skimming rapidly athwart the stars; the tradewind was blowing a moderate breeze, and the felucca was bruising alongon an easy bowline with long, swinging plunges and soarings over thelow, jet-black, glistening surges at a pace of some five and a halfknots perhaps, with a perfect thunder of roaring, breaking seas underher bluff bows, and a belt of winking, sparkling sea-fire, a couple offathoms wide, sweeping past her lee rail and swirling into the broad,short wake that she trailed behind her. The land was still clearly insight on our port quarter, the range of the Liguanea Mountains toweringhigh into the star-lit sky and gradually sloping away to the eastward inthe direction of Morant Point. Beside Dominguez and myself there wasbut one other figure visible on deck, that of the man at the helm--along, thin, weedy-looking figure, so far as I could make out in theghostly starlight, but one who had evidently used the sea for some time,if one might judge by the easy, floating poise of his figure on theplunging deck as he stood on the weather side of the tiller, with thetiller rope lightly grasped in his right hand, swaying rhythmically tothe leaps and plunges of the little hooker. As Dominguez followed meout on deck he stepped aft to the small, dimly lighted binnacle, glancedinto it, made some brief remark in a low tone to the silent helmsman,walked forward and took a long look ahead and on both bows, and then,returning aft, excused himself to me for turning in, upon the plea thatit would soon be his watch on deck, and so dived below and left me.
Left thus to myself, I fell to mechanically pacing the short deck of thefelucca for a few minutes, smoking thoughtfully the while and turningover in my mind the disquieting conversation that had just passedbetween Dominguez and myself; then, my gaze happening to wander aft tothe solitary figure at the tiller, I sauntered aft and endeavoured tostrike up a conversation with him. The fellow, however, proved to be soboorish and saturnine in his manner that I quickly abandoned the attemptand, pitching my half-smoked cigar over the rail, retired below andtumbled, "all standing," into the bunk that Dominguez had indicated asmine, where, despite the food for serious reflection that theoccurrences of the night afforded me, I soon fell into a sound sleep.
The week that succeeded my abduction was so utterly barren of eventsthat it may be passed over with the mere remark that throughout thewhole of the time we had perfect weather, with a steady, moderate tradewind, under the impulsion of which the felucca bruised along upon herproper course, reeling off her five to six knots per hour with theregularity of a clock; and during the whole of that time, strange tosay, we sighted not a single sail. I had been by no means idle duringthis time, however, as may well be supposed; for every day at noon sawthe little hooker a hundred and thirty to a hundred and fifty milesnearer the spot where, if nothing happened in the interim to prevent it,I was to be delivered into the hands of a fiend in human form, whosehatred of me was so intense and vindictive that he had taken aconsiderable amount of trouble, and put himself to considerable expense,merely to get me into his power and wreak a blood-curdling revenge uponme.
But to tamely submit to be thus handed over to Morillo's tender mercieswas the very last thing that I contemplated. I had every reason tobelieve that the picture drawn by Dominguez of the form which Morillo'srevenge would probably take was a tolerably truthful one; and while Iwas prepared to face death in any form at a moment's notice in the wayof duty, I had not the remotest intention of permitting myself to betortured to death merely to gratify the ferocity of a piratical outlaw,if I could possibly help it. So for the first three or four days Idevoted myself wholly to the task of endeavouring to bribe my custodiansto forego their intention of handing me over to Morillo, and to land meupon the nearest British territory instead. But I by and by made thediscovery that my efforts in this direction were doomed to failure;Dominguez was clearly so profoundly impressed with Morillo's power, andwith his tenacious memory for injuries, that the conviction had borneitself in upon him that if he yielded to my persuasions it would beabsolutely necessary to his safety, not only to buy over the whole ofthose engaged upon the business of my abduction, but also to place thewhole width of the globe between himself and Morillo; and to executethese little matters satisfactorily would, according to his owncalculations, necessitate the disbursement on my part of the modestamount of ten thousand pounds sterling, a sum which, as I explained tohim over and over again, it was utterly beyond my power to raise. Itwas not that Dominguez was grasping or avaricious; it was simply that heregarded a certain course of action necessary to his own safety andwell-being, in the event of his consenting to yield to my wishes; and ashe had no intention of suffering any pecuniary or other loss or damageby so yielding, it appeared to him that the thing could not be doneunder the sum he had named, and there was the whole matter in a nut-shell. The attempt at bribery having thus resulted in failure, thereremained to me but one other alternative, that of a resort to force--myself against Dominguez and the two men who formed his crew. For, comewhat would, I was firmly resolved never to suffer myself to be deliveredalive into Morillo's hands; if it was my doom to die at the end of thisadventure, I would die fighting. So, while feigning to yield to theinexorable force of circumstances, I began to meditate upon the mostpromising means whereby to escape from the exceedingly unpleasantdilemma in which I found myself involved; and after giving the wholematter my most careful attention, I came to the conclusion that mysimplest plan would be to take--or attempt to take--the felucca fromDominguez and his associates, and, having done so, make for the nearestBritish harbour.