Howard Pyle's Book of pirates : fiction, fact & fancy concerning the buccaneers & marooners of the Spanish Main
gray eyes rolled in his head like two balls, so that what with his
flat face and the round holes of his nostrils he presented an
appearance which, under other circumstances, would have been at once
ludicrous and grotesque.
"By the blood!" cried he, "to be sure it is murder that has happened
here."
"Not murder!" cried Jonathan, in a shrill and panting voice. "Not
murder! It was all an accident, and I am as innocent as a baby."
The newcomer looked at him and then at the two figures upon the
floor, and then back at him again with eyes at once quizzical and
cunning. Then his face broke into a grin that might hardly be called
of drollery. "Accident!" quoth he. "By the blood! d'ye see 'tis a
strange accident, indeed, that lays two men by the heels and lets the
third go without a scratch!" Delivering himself thus, he came forward
into the room, and, taking the last victim of Jonathan's adventure by
the arm, with as little compunction as he would have handled a sack of
grain he dragged the limp and helpless figure from where it lay to the
floor beside the first victim. Then, lifting the lighted candle, he
bent over the two prostrate bodies, holding the illumination close to
the lineaments first of one and then of the other. He looked at them
very carefully for a long while, with the closest and most intent
scrutiny, and in perfect silence. "They are both as dead," says he,
"as Davy Jones, and, whoever you be, I protest that you have done your
business the most completest that I ever saw in all of my life."
"Indeed," cried Jonathan, in the same shrill and panting voice, "it
was themselves who did it. First one of them attacked me and then the
other, and I did but try to keep them from murdering me. This one fell
on his knife, and that one shot himself in his efforts to destroy me."
"That," says the seaman, "you may very well tell to a dry-lander, and
maybe he will believe you; but you cannot so easily pull the wool over
the eyes of Captain Benny Willitts. And what, if I may be so bold as
for to ask you, was the reason for their attacking so harmless a man
as you proclaim yourself to be?"
"That I know not," cried Jonathan; "but I am entirely willing to tell
thee all the circumstances. Thou must know that I am a member of the
Society of Friends. This day I landed here in Kingston, and met a
young woman of very comely appearance, who intrusted me with this
little ivory ball, which she requested me to keep for her a few days.
The sight of this ball--in which I can detect nothing that could be
likely to arouse any feelings of violence--appears to have driven
these two men entirely mad, so that they instantly made the most
ferocious and murderous assault upon me. See! wouldst thou have
believed that so small a thing as this would have caused so much
trouble?" And as he spoke he held up to the gaze of the other the
cause of the double tragedy that had befallen. But no sooner had
Captain Willitts's eyes lighted upon the ball than the most singular
change passed over his countenance. The color appeared to grow dull
and yellow in his ruddy cheeks, his fat lips dropped apart, and his
eyes stared with a fixed and glassy glare. He arose to his feet and,
still with the expression of astonishment and wonder upon his face,
gazed first at our hero and then at the ivory ball in his hands, as
though he were deprived both of reason and of speech. At last, as our
hero slipped the trifle back in his pocket again, the mariner slowly
recovered himself, though with a prodigious effort, and drew a deep
and profound breath as to the very bottom of his lungs. He wiped, with
the corner of his black-silk cravat, his brow, upon which the sweat
appeared to have gathered. "Well, messmate," says he, at last, with a
sudden change of voice, "you have, indeed, had a most wonderful
adventure." Then with another deep breath: "Well, by the blood! I may
tell you plainly that I am no poor hand at the reading of faces. Well,
I think you to be honest, and I am inclined to believe every word you
tell me. By the blood! I am prodigiously sorry for you, and am
inclined to help you out of your scrape.
"The first thing to do," he continued, "is to get rid of these two
dead men, and that is an affair I believe we shall have no trouble in
handling. One of them we will wrap up in the carpet here, and t'other
we can roll into yonder bed curtain. You shall carry the one and I the
other, and, the harbor being at no great distance, we can easily bring
them thither and tumble them overboard, and no one will be the wiser
of what has happened. For your own safety, as you may easily see, you
can hardly go away and leave these objects here to be found by the
first comer, and to rise up in evidence against you."
This reasoning, in our hero's present bewildered state, appeared to
him to be so extremely just that he raised not the least objection to
it. Accordingly, each of the two silent, voiceless victims of the
evening's occurrences was wrapped into a bundle that from without
appeared to be neither portentous nor terrible in appearance.
Thereupon, Jonathan shouldering the rug containing the little
gentleman in black, and the sea captain doing the like for the other,
they presently made their way down the stairs through the darkness,
and so out into the street. Here the sea captain became the conductor
of the expedition, and leading the way down several alleys and along
certain by-streets--now and then stopping to rest, for the burdens
were both heavy and clumsy to carry--they both came out at last to the
harbor front, without anyone having questioned them or having appeared
to suspect them of anything wrong. At the waterside was an open wharf
extending a pretty good distance out into the harbor. Thither the
captain led the way and Jonathan followed. So they made their way out
along the wharf or pier, stumbling now and then over loose boards,
until they came at last to where the water was of a sufficient depth
for their purpose. Here the captain, bending his shoulders, shot his
burden out into the dark, mysterious waters, and Jonathan, following
his example, did the same. Each body sank with a sullen and leaden
splash into the element, where, the casings which swathed them
becoming loosened, the rug and the curtain rose to the surface and
drifted slowly away with the tide.
As Jonathan stood gazing dully at the disappearance of these last
evidences of his two inadvertent murders, he was suddenly and
vehemently aroused by feeling a pair of arms of enormous strength
flung about him from behind. In their embrace his elbows were
instantly pinned tight to his side, and he stood for a moment helpless
and astounded, while the voice of the sea captain, rumbling in his
very ear, exclaimed, "Ye bloody, murthering Quaker, I'll have that
ivory ball, or I'll have your life!"
These words produced the same effect upon Jonathan as though a douche
of cold water had suddenly been flung over him. He began instantly to
struggle to free himself, and that with a frantic and vehement
violence begotten at once of terror and despair. So prodigious were
his efforts that more than once he had nearly torn himself free, but
still the powerful arms of his captor held him as in a vise of iron.
Meantime, our hero's assailant made frequent though ineffectual
attempts to thrust a hand into the breeches' pocket where the ivory
ball was hidden, swearing the while under his breath with a terrifying
and monstrous string of oaths. At last, finding himself foiled in
every such attempt, and losing all patience at the struggles of his
victim, he endeavored to lift Jonathan off of his feet, as though to
dash him bodily upon the ground. In this he would doubtless have
succeeded had he not caught his heel in the crack of a loose board of
the wharf. Instantly they both fell, violently prostrate, the captain
beneath and Jonathan above him, though still encircled in his iron
embrace. Our hero felt the back of his head strike violently upon the
flat face of the other, and he heard the captain's skull sound with a
terrific crack like that of a breaking egg upon some post or billet of
wood, against which he must have struck. In their frantic struggles
they had approached extremely near the edge of the wharf, so that the
next instant, with an enormous and thunderous splash, Jonathan found
himself plunged into the waters of the harbor, and the arms of his
assailant loosened from about his body.
The shock of the water brought him instantly to his senses, and, being
a fairly good swimmer, he had not the least difficulty in reaching and
clutching the crosspiece of a wooden ladder that, coated with slimy
sea moss, led from the water level to the wharf above.
After reaching the safety of the dry land once more, Jonathan gazed
about him as though to discern whence the next attack might be
delivered upon him. But he stood entirely alone upon the dock--not
another living soul was in sight. The surface of the water exhibited
some commotion, as though disturbed by something struggling beneath;
but the sea captain, who had doubtless been stunned by the tremendous
crack upon his head, never arose again out of the element that had
engulfed him.
* * * * *
The moonlight shone with a peaceful and resplendent illumination, and,
excepting certain remote noises from the distant town, not a sound
broke the silence and the peacefulness of the balmy, tropical night.
The limpid water, illuminated by the resplendent moonlight, lapped
against the wharf. All the world was calm, serene, and enveloped in a
profound and entire repose.
Jonathan looked up at the round and brilliant globe of light floating
in the sky above his head, and wondered whether it were, indeed,
possible that all that had befallen him was a reality and not some
tremendous hallucination. Then suddenly arousing himself to a renewed
realization of that which had occurred, he turned and ran like one
possessed, up along the wharf, and so into the moonlit town once more.
VI
_The Conclusion of the Adventure with the Lady with the Silver Veil_
Nor did he check his precipitous flight until suddenly, being led
perhaps by some strange influence of which he was not at all the
master, he discovered himself to be standing before the garden gate
where not more than an hour before he had first entered upon the
series of monstrous adventures that had led to such tremendous
conclusions.
People were still passing and repassing, and one of these groups--a
party of young ladies and gentlemen--paused upon the opposite side of
the street to observe, with no small curiosity and amusement, his
dripping and bedraggled aspect. But only one thought and one intention
possessed our hero--to relieve himself as quickly as possible of that
trust which he had taken up so thoughtlessly, and with such monstrous
results to himself and to his victims. He ran to the gate of the
garden and began beating and kicking upon it with a vehemence that he
could neither master nor control. He was aware that the entire
neighborhood was becoming aroused, for he beheld lights moving and
loud voices of inquiry; yet he gave not the least thought to the
disturbance he was creating, but continued without intermission his
uproarious pounding upon the gate.
At length, in answer to the sound of his vehement blows, the little
wicket was opened and a pair of eyes appeared thereat. The next
instant the gate was cast ajar very hastily, and the pock-pitted
negress appeared. She caught him by the sleeve of his coat and drew