CHAPTER XXI
In which a Grave is Digged
When the stars had gone out and the moon begun to pale, I raised my facefrom my hands. Only a few glowing embers remained of the fire, and thedriftwood that we had collected was exhausted. I thought that I wouldgather more, and build up the fire against the time when the othersshould awake. The driftwood lay in greatest quantity some distance upthe beach, against a low ridge of sand dunes. Beyond these the islettapered off to a long gray point of sand and shell. Walking toward thispoint in the first pale light of dawn, I chanced to raise my eyes, andbeheld riding at anchor beyond the spit of sand a ship.
I stopped short and rubbed my eyes. She lay there on the sleeping oceanlike a dream ship, her masts and rigging black against the pallid sky,the mist that rested upon the sea enfolding half her hull. She mighthave been of three hundred tons burthen; she was black and two-decked,and very high at poop and forecastle, and she was heavily armed. My eyestravelled from the ship to the shore, and there, dragged up on thepoint, the oars within it, was a boat.
At the head of the beach, beyond the line of shell and weed, the sandlay piled in heaps. With these friendly hillocks between me and thesea, I crept on as silently as I might, until I reached a point justabove the boat. Here I first heard voices. I went a little further, thenknelt, and, parting the long coarse grass that filled the hollow betweentwo hillocks, looked out upon two men who were digging a grave.
They dug in a furious hurry, throwing the sand to left and right, andcursing as they dug. They were powerful men, of a most villainous castof countenance, and dressed very oddly. One with a shirt of coarsestdowlas, and a filthy rag tying up a broken head, yet wore velvetbreeches, and wiped the sweat from his face with a wrought handkerchief;the other topped a suit of shreds and patches with a fine bushy ruff,and swung from one ragged shoulder a cloak of grogram lined withtaffeta. On the ground, to one side of them, lay something long andwrapped in white.
As they dug and cursed, the light strengthened. The east changed fromgray to pale rose, from rose to a splendid crimson shot with gold. Themist lifted and the sea burned red. Two boats were lowered from theship, and came swiftly toward the point.
"Here they are at last," growled the gravedigger with the broken headand velvet breeches.
"They've taken their time," snarled his companion, "and us two here onthis d----d island with a dead man the whole ghost's hour. Boarding aship's nothing, but to dig a grave on the land before cockcrow, with theman you're to put in it looking at you! Why couldn't he be buried atsea, decent and respectable, like other folk?"
"It was his will--that's all I know," said the first; "just as it washis will, when he found he was a dying man, to come booming away fromthe gold seas up here to a land where there isn't no gold, and neverwill be. Belike he thought he'd find waiting for him at the bottom ofthe sea, all along from the Lucayas to Cartagena, the many he sent thereafore he died. And Captain Paradise, he says, says he: 'It's illcrossing a dead man. We'll obey him this once more----'"
"Captain Paradise!" cried he of the ruff. "Who made him captain?--cursehim!"
His fellow straightened himself with a jerk. "Who made him captain? Theship will make him captain. Who else should be captain?"
"Red Gil!"
"Red Gil!" exclaimed the other. "I'd rather have the Spaniard!"
"The Spaniard would do well enough, if the rest of us weren't English.If hating every other Spaniard would do it, he'd be English fastenough."
The scoundrel with the broken head burst into a loud laugh. "D'yeremember the barque we took off Porto Bello, with the priests aboard?Oho! Oho!"
The rogue with the ruff grinned. "I reckon the padres remember it, andfind hell easy lying. This hole's deep enough, I'm thinking."
They both clambered out, and one squatted at the head of the grave andmopped his face with his delicate handkerchief, while the other swunghis fine cloak with an air and dug his bare toes in the sand.
The two boats now grated upon the beach, and several of their occupants,springing out, dragged them up on the sand.
"We'll never get another like him that's gone," said the worthy at thehead of the grave, gloomily regarding the something wrapped in white.
"That's gospel truth," assented the other, with a prodigious sigh. "Hewas a man what was a man. He never stuck at nothing. Don or priest, manor woman, good red gold or dirty silver,--it was all one to him. Buthe's dead and gone!"
"Now, if we had a captain like Kirby," suggested the first.
"Kirby keeps to the Summer Isles," said the second. "'Tisn't often nowthat he swoops down as far as the Indies."
The man with the broken head laughed. "When he does, there's a noise inthat part of the world."
"And that's gospel truth, too," swore the other, with an oath ofadmiration.
By this the score or more who had come in the two boats were halfway upthe beach. In front, side by side, as each conceding no inch ofleadership, walked three men: a large man, with a villainous face muchscarred, and a huge, bushy, dark-red beard; a tall, dark man, with athin, fierce face and bloodshot eyes, the Spaniard by his looks; and aslight man, with the face and bearing of an English gentleman. The menbehind them differed no whit from the two grave--diggers, being asscoundrelly of face, as great of strength, and as curiously attired.They came straight to the open grave, and the dead man beside it. Thethree who seemed of most importance disposed themselves, still side byside, at the head of the grave, and their following took the foot.
"It's a dirty piece of work," said Red Gil in a voice like a raven's,"and the sooner it's done with, and we are aboard again and booming backto the Indies, the better I'll like it. Over with him, brave boys!"
"Is it yours to give the word?" asked the slight man, who was dressedpoint-device, and with a finical nicety, in black and silver. His voicewas low and clear, and of a somewhat melancholy cadence, going well withthe pensiveness of fine, deeply-fringed eyes.
"Why shouldn't I give the word?" growled the personage addressed, addingwith an oath, "I've as good a right to give it as any man,--maybe abetter right!"
"That would be scanned," said he of the pensive eyes. "Gentlemen, wehave here the pick of the ship. For the captain that these choose, thoseon board will throw up their caps. Let us bury the dead, and then letchoice be made of one of us three, each of whom has claims that might beput forward----" He broke off and picking up a delicate shell began tostudy its pearly spirals with a tender, thoughtful, half-pleased,half-melancholy countenance.
The gravedigger with the wrought handkerchief looked from him to therascal crew massed at the foot of the grave, and, seeing his ownsentiments mirrored in the countenances of not a few, snatched thebloody clout from his head, waved it, and cried out, "Paradise!"Whereupon arose a great confusion. Some bawled for Paradise, some forRed Gil, a few for the Spaniard. The two gravediggers locked horns, anda brawny devil with a woman's mantle swathed about his naked shouldersdrew a knife, and made for a partisan of the Spaniard, who in his turnskilfully interposed between himself and the attack the body of abawling well-wisher to Red Gil.
The man in black and silver tossed aside the shell, rose, and enteredthe lists. With one hand he seized the gravedigger of the ruff, andhurled him apart from him of the velvet breeches; with the other hepresented a dagger with a jewelled haft at the breast of the ruffianwith the woman's mantle, while in tones that would have befittedAstrophel plaining of his love to rocks, woods, and streams, he pouredforth a flood of wild, singular, and filthy oaths, such as would havedisgraced a camp-follower. His interference was effectual. Thecombatants fell apart and the clamour was stilled, whereupon thegentleman of contrarieties at once resumed the gentle and indifferentmelancholy of manner and address.
"Let us off with the old love before we are on with the new, gentlemen,"he said. "We'll bury the dead first, and choose his successorafterward,--decently and in order, I trust, and with due submission tothe majority."
"I'll fight for my rights," grow
led Red Gil.
"And I for mine," cried the Spaniard.
"And each of us'll back his own man," muttered in an aside thegravedigger with the broken head.
The one they called Paradise sighed. "It is a thousand pities that thereis not amongst us some one of merit so pre-eminent that faction shouldhide its head before it. But to the work in hand, gentlemen."
They gathered closer around the yawning grave, and some began to liftthe corpse. As for me, I withdrew as noiselessly as an Indian from mylair of grass, and, hidden by the heaped-up sand, made off across thepoint and down the beach to where a light curl of smoke showed that someone was mending the fire I had neglected. It was Sparrow, whoalternately threw on driftwood and seaweed and spoke to madam, who satat his feet in the blended warmth of fire and sunshine. Diccon wasroasting the remainder of the oysters he had gathered the night before,and my lord stood and stared with a frowning face at thenine-mile-distant mainland. All turned their eyes upon me as I came upto the fire.
"A little longer, Captain Percy, and we would have had out asearch-warrant," began the minister cheerfully. "Have you been buildinga bridge?"
"If I build one," I said, "it will be a perilous one enough. Have youlooked seaward?"
"We waked but a minute agone," he answered. As he spoke, he straightenedhis great form and lifted his face from the fire to the blue sea.Diccon, still on his knees at his task, looked too; and my lord, turningfrom his contemplation of the distant kingdom of Accomac; and MistressPercy, one hand shading her eyes, the slender fingers of the other stillimmeshed in her long dark hair, which she had been braiding. They staredat the ship in silence until my lord laughed.
"Conjure us on board at once, captain," he cried. "We are thirsty."
I drew the minister aside. "I am going up the beach, beyond that point,again; you will one and all stay here. If I do not come back, do thebest you can, and sell her life as dearly as you can. If I comeback,--you are quick of wit and have been a player; look that you takethe cue I give you!"
I returned to the fire, and he followed me, amazement in his face. "MyLord Carnal," I said, "I must ask you for your sword."
He started, and his black brows drew together.
"Though the fortunes of war have made me in some sort your captive,sir," he said at last, and not without dignity, "I do not see, upon thisisle to which we are all prisoners, the need of so strong testimony tothe abjectness of my condition, nor deem it generous----"
"We will speak of generosity another day, my lord," I interrupted. "Atpresent I am in a hurry. That you are my prisoner in verity is enoughfor me, but not for others. I must have you so in seeming as well as intruth. Moreover, Master Sparrow is weaponless, and I must needs disarman enemy to arm a friend. I beg that you will give what else we musttake."
He looked at Diccon, but Diccon stood with his face to the sea. Ithought we were to have a struggle, and I was sorry for it, but my lordcould and did add discretion to a valour that I never doubted. Heshrugged his shoulders, burst into a laugh, and turned to MistressPercy.
"What can one do, lady, when one is doubly a prisoner--prisoner tonumbers and to beauty? E'en laugh at fate, and make the best of a badjob. Here, sir! Some day it shall be the point!"
He drew his rapier from its sheath, and presented the hilt to me. I tookit with a bow, and handed it to Sparrow.
The King's ward had risen, and now leant against the bank of sand, herlong dark hair, half braided, drawn over either shoulder, her facemarble white between the waves of darkness.
"I do not know that I shall ever come back," I said, stopping beforeher. "May I kiss your hand before I go?"
Her lips moved, but she did not speak. I knelt and kissed her claspedhands. They were cold to my lips. "Where are you going?" she whispered."Into what danger are you going? I--I--take me with you!"
I rose, with a laugh at my own folly that could have rested brow andlips on those hands, and let the world wag. "Another time," I said."Rest in the sunshine now, and think that all is well. All will be well,I trust."
A few minutes later saw me almost upon the party gathered about thegrave. The grave had received that which it was to hold until the crackof doom, and was now being rapidly filled with sand. The crew ofdeep-dyed villains worked or stood or sat in silence, but all looked atthe grave, and saw me not. As the last handful of sand made it levelwith the beach, I walked into their midst, and found myself face to facewith the three candidates for the now vacant captaincy.
"Give you good-day, gentlemen!" I cried. "Is it your captain that youbury or one of your crew, or is it only pezos and pieces of eight?"