Marjorie Page 31

  CHAPTER XXXI

  A PIECE OF DIPLOMACY

  When Jensen was within a few feet of the stockade he halted, andsaluted Lancelot with a formal gravity that seemed grotesque underthe circumstances. I will do the rascal this justice, that he lookedwell enough in his splendid coat, though his carriage was toofantastical--more of the stage player than the soldier. Lancelot,looking down at the fellow without returning his salutation, asked himwhat he wanted.

  'Come, Captain Amber,' said Jensen boldly, 'you know what I want verywell. I want to come to terms. Surely two men of the world like us oughtto be able to make terms, Captain Amber.'

  'I do not carry the title of Captain,' Lancelot answered, 'and I haveno more in common with you than mere life. My only terms are theunconditional surrender of yourself and your accomplices. In theircase some allowance may be made. In yours--none!'

  Jensen shrugged his shoulders and smiled with affability at Lancelot'smenaces.

  'The young cock cackles louder than the old cock ever crowed,' he said;but he said it more good-humouredly than sneeringly, and it was evidentthat he was more than willing to propitiate Lancelot. 'We ought to maketerms, for we are both at a loose end here, and might at least agree notto annoy each other. For you see, Lieutenant--if you will take thattitle--that as you judge you shall be judged. If you have no terms forus we will have no terms for you.'

  It was a proof of his own vanity that he thus thrust a title uponLancelot, thinking to please him, for when Lancelot, calling him by hissurname, told him again that he had no terms to make with him, he drewhimself up with an offended air and said:

  'I call myself Captain Jensen, if you please.'

  'It does not please me,' Lancelot retorted, 'to call you anything but apirate and a rogue. Go back to your brother rogues at once!'

  To my surprise, Jensen kept his temper, and seemed only hurt instead ofangry at Lancelot's attack.

  'Hot words,' he said quietly, 'hot words. Upon my honour, you do mewrong, Lieutenant Amber, for I persist in respecting the courtesies ofwar. I wish with all my heart that we could agree, but if we cannot wecannot, and there's an end of it. But there is another matter I wish tospeak about.' He paused, as if waiting for permission, and when Lancelotbade him be brief, he went on: 'We have one among us who is moreinclined to your party than to mine. I mean your reverend friend ParsonEbrow.'

  For my part I was glad to hear that the poor man was still alive, for Ifeared that the pirates had killed him after their first attempt. But Isaw Lancelot's face flush with anger, and his voice shook as he calledout that if any harm came to Mr. Ebrow he would hold every man of thegang responsible for his life.

  'Harm has come to him already,' Jensen answered; 'but not from us, butfrom you, his friends. He was hurt in the boats last night by yourfire.'

  At this Lancelot gave a groan, and we all felt sick and sorry, whileJensen, who knew that we could hear, though he could only see Lancelot,smiled compassionately.

  'Do not be alarmed,' he said. 'The godly man is not mortally wounded.Only his face, which was always far from comely, has not been betteredby a shot that travelled across the side of the left cheek from jaw toear. Now, another man in my place, Lieutenant, knowing the store you setby the parson, might very well use him to drive a bargain with you. Heis no friend of ours, and the use upon him of a little torture mightinduce you to think better of the terms you deny.'

  Lancelot grew pale, and he made as if he would speak, but Jensen delayedhim with a wave of the arm.

  'Pray let me conclude, Lieutenant Amber,' he went on. 'Another man,having such a hostage, might use him pretty roughly. But I am not ofthat kidney. I want to fight fair. The reverend gentleman is no use tome. We want no chaplain. He is a friend of yours, and if we win the daysome of you will be glad of his ghostly offices. But he is in our way,and I cannot answer for the temper of my people if he exhorts us anymore. So I shall be heartily obliged if you will take him off our handsand relieve me of the responsibility of his presence.'

  I had listened to this, as you may believe, in some amazement, andLancelot seemed no less surprised. 'What do you mean?' he asked; andJensen answered him:

  'I mean what I say. You can have your parson. Two of my men, with thisflag, will bring him down, for the poor gentleman is too feeble to walkalone from loss of blood, and leave him in your charge. After that wewill send no more messages, but fight it out as well as we can till oneor other wins the day.'

  He took off his hat as he spoke and made Lancelot a bow; and this timeLancelot returned his salutation.

  'I can only thank you for your offer,' Lancelot said, 'and accept itgladly. If I cannot change my terms, at least be assured that thischarity shall be remembered to your credit.'

  'I ask no more,' Jensen replied; 'and you shall have your man within thehalf-hour.'

  With that he clapped his hat proudly upon his head again, and turning onhis heel marched away in a swaggering fashion, while Lancelot slippeddown again into the shelter of the house. In a few minutes Jensen's redcoat had disappeared among the trees, and then we all turned and staredat each other.

  'The devil is not so black as he is painted, after all,' Lancelot saidto me, 'if there is a leaven of good in Cornelys Jensen. But I shall beheartily glad to have Mr. Ebrow among us, for if the worst come it willbe better to perish with us than to lie at their mercy.'

  I did not altogether relish Lancelot's talk about our perishing, forI had got it into my head that we were more than a match for thepirates, with all their threats and all their truculence, and myfriend's readiness to face the possibility of being victims insteadof victors dashed my spirits. But I thought of Marjorie, and felt thatwe must win or--and then my thoughts grew faint and failed me, but notmy promise and my resolve.

  We had not waited very long after Jensen's departure when we saw signsof the fulfilment of his promise. Three men came out of the wood wherehe had entered, two in scarlet and one in black. We could see that thetwo men in scarlet were supporting the man in black, who seemed to bealmost unable to move, and as the three drew nearer we could see, atfirst with a spy-glass and soon without, that he in the middle had hisface all bound about with bloody cloths. At this sight all our heartsgrew hot with anger and pity, and there was not one of us that did notlong to be the first to reach out a helping hand to the parson. Wecould see, as the group came nearer, that Jensen's men were not handlingtheir captive very tenderly. Though his limbs seemed so weak that hisfeet trailed on the ground, they made shift to drag him along at a walkthat was almost a trot, as if their only thought was to be rid as soonas possible of their burden, whose moanings we could now plainly hear ashe was jerked forward by his escort. It seemed such a shocking thingthat a man so good and of so good a calling should be thus maltreatedthat, to speak for myself, it called for all my sense of the obligationsof a white flag to stay me from sending a bullet in the direction of hiscowardly companions. I could see that Lancelot was as much angered as I,by the pallor of his face and the way in which he clenched his hands.

  However, in a few seconds more the pirates had hauled their helplessprisoner to within a few feet of our fortress. Then, to the increase ofour indignation, they flung him forward with brutal oaths, so that hefell grovelling on his injured face just in front of our doorway, andwhile he lay prone one of the ruffians dealt him a kick which made himgroan like a dog. After they had done this the two red-jackets drew backa few paces and waited, according to the agreement, laughing the whileat the plight of the clergyman.

  In a moment, obedient to a word from Lancelot, a dozen hands liftedthe beam and swung the door back. Lancelot sprang forward, followed hardby me, to succour our unhappy friend; and between us we lifted him fromthe ground, though with some effort, for he seemed quite helpless andsenseless with his ill-treatment and the fall, and unable to give usthe least aid in supporting him. Jensen's two brutes jeered at us forour pains, bidding us mind our sermon-grinder and the like, with manyexpletives that I shall not set down. Indeed, their speech a
nd behaviourso discredited their mission that it would have jeopardised theirsafety, for all their flag of truce, with a commander of lesspunctiliousness than Lancelot. But he, without paying heed to theirmutterings, propped the prisoner up stoutly, and carried him, huddledand trailing, toward the stockade. As we moved him he moaned feebly,and kept up this moaning as we carried him inside the stockade and drewhim toward the most sheltered corner to lay him down.

  My heart bled for the parson in his weakness, with his head all swathedin bloody bandages, and I shuddered to think what his face would belike when we took off those coverings. I turned to pile some coatstogether for him to rest upon, but I was still looking at him as he hunghelpless against Lancelot, when, in a breath, before my astounded eyes,the limp form stiffened, and Mr. Ebrow, stiff and strong, flung himselfupon Marjorie and caught her in his arms. Quickly though the act wasdone, I still had time to think that Mr. Ebrow's calamities had turnedhis brain, and to feel vexation at the increase to our difficulties witha mad-man in our midst. In the next instant I saw that Mr. Ebrow wassquatting on the ground behind Marjorie, sheltered by her body, which heheld pinioned to his with his left arm, while his right hand held apistol close to her forehead. Then a voice that was not the voice of Mr.Ebrow called out that Marjorie was his prisoner, and that if any manmoved to rescue her he would blow the girl's brains out. And the voicethat made these threats was the voice of Cornelys Jensen!

  I cannot tell you how astounded we were at this sudden turn in ourfortunes. Our garrison, taken by surprise, had left their posts everyman, and stood together at one end of our parallelogram. Lancelot stoodstill and white as a statue. I leant against the wall and gasped forbreath like a man struck silly. Marjorie lay perfectly still in thegrasp of her enemy, and Jensen's eyes between the bandages seemed tosurvey the whole scene with a savage sense of mastery. He was so wellprotected where he crouched by Marjorie's body that no one dared tofire, or, indeed, for the moment, to do anything but stare instupefaction. The stroke was so sudden, the change so unexpected, thedash so bold, that we were at a disadvantage, and for a space no onemoved.

  In a loud voice Jensen called upon every man to throw down his weapons,swearing furiously that if they did not do so he would kill Marjorie.Marjorie, on her part, though she could not free herself from Jensen'shold--for Jensen had the clasp and the hold of a bear--cried out to thembravely to do their duty, and defend the place, and pay no heed to her.But the men were not of that temper; they were at a loss; they fearedJensen, and this display of his daring unnerved them. They stood idly ina mass, while I, from where I stood, could see through the open door, towhich no one else paid any heed, Jensen's men coming out of the wood,with only a few hundred yards of level ground between them and us. Iwas cumbered, as I told you, with some sea-coats, that I had caught upto make a couch for Mr. Ebrow, and as I held them to me with my leftarm, they almost covered me from neck to knee. Now, in my pocket Icarried the little pistol that Lancelot had given me, and in my firstmoment of surprise my right hand had involuntarily sought it out. Now, Iwas not much of a shot, and yet in a moment I made my mind up what Iwould do. I would, under cover of the coats, which I clutched to me,fire my piece through my pocket at Jensen, trusting to God to straightenthe aim and guide the bullet. In that moment I took all the chances. IfI hit Jensen, who was somewhat exposed to me where I stood, all would bewell. If I missed him and he at once killed Marjorie, or if, missinghim, I myself wounded or killed Marjorie, I knew that at least I shouldbe doing as Marjorie would have me do, and in either of these cases wecould despatch Jensen and have up our barricade again before help wouldcome to him. All this takes time to tell, but took no time in thethinking, and my finger was upon the trigger when, in the providence ofGod, something happened which altered every purpose--Jensen's and theothers', and mine. There came a great crash through the air loud asimmediate thunder, with a noise that seemed to shake heaven above andearth below us. Every one of us in that narrow place knew it for theroar of a ship's gun.

  CHAPTER XXXII

  THE SEA GIVES UP ITS QUICK

  The clatter of that reverberation altered in a trice the wholeconditions of our game. Jensen, in his surprise, looked up for a moment,and in that moment I had flung myself upon him, and his pistol, goingoff, spent its bullet harmlessly in the skies. In another second he hadknocked me to the ground with a force that nearly stunned me; but beforehe could use another weapon twenty hands were upon him, and twentyweapons would have ended him but for Lancelot's command to take himalive. In a trice we had flung our door in its place and swung the beamacross, and there we were, none the worse for our adventure, with thechief of our enemies fast prisoner in our hands. Already the pirateswere scouring back into the woods, and though certain of our men had thepresence of mind to empty their muskets after them, and bring down thetwo rogues who had carried the sham Ebrow to us, most of us wereoccupied in peering through the loopholes on the other side of thefortress at a blessed sight. Not half a mile away rode the ship that hadfired the shot; the smoke of the discharge was still in the air abouther. She was a frigate, and she flew the Dutch flag.

  You may imagine with what a rapture we saw that frigate and that flag.It could only mean succour, and we were sick at heart to think that wehad no flag with us to fly in answer. But we waited and watched withbeating hearts behind our walls, and presently we could see that a boatwas lowered and that men came over the side and filled it, and then itbegan to make for Fair Island as fast as stroke of oar could carry it.With a cry of joy Lancelot thrust his spy-glass into my hand, crying outto me that Captain Amber was on board the boat. And so indeed he was,for I had no sooner clapped the glass to my eye than there I saw him,sitting in the stern in his brave blue coat, and at the sight of him myheart gave a great leap for joy. We opened our seaward gate at once, andin a moment Marjorie and Lancelot and I were racing to the strand,followed by half a dozen others, leaving the stockade well guarded, andorders to shoot Jensen on the first sign of any return of the piratesfrom the woods. Though, indeed, we felt pretty sure that they wouldmake no further attempt against us, having lost their leader, and beingnow menaced by this new and unexpected peril.

  As the boat drew nearer shore Lancelot tied a handkerchief to the pointof his cutlass and waved it in the air, and at sight of it the figure inblue in the stern raised his hat, and the men rowing, seeing him dothis, raised a lusty cheer, and pulled with a warmer will than ever, sothat in a few more minutes their keel grated on the sand.

  Captain Amber leaped out of the boat like a boy, splashing through thewater to join us, while the Dutch seamen hauled the boat up and staredat us stolidly. Captain Amber clasped Marjorie's hand and murmured tohimself 'Thank God!' while tears stood in his china-blue eyes, and wereanswered, for the first time that I ever saw them there, by tears inMarjorie's. Next he embraced Lancelot, and then he turned to me andwrung my hand with the same heartiness as on that first day inSendennis, and it seemed to me for the moment as if that strand andisland and all those leagues of land and water had ceased to be, and Iwere back again in the windy High Street, with my mother's shop-belltinkling.

  Only for a moment, however. There was no time for day-dreams. Hurriedlywe told Captain Amber all that we had to tell. Much of the ugly story wefound that he knew, and how he knew you shall learn later. Our immediateduty was to secure the pirates who were still at large on the island,and this proved an easy business. For the Dutch commander, who claimedthe authority of his nation for all that region, sent one of his menwith a flag of truce, accompanied by one of us for interpreter, to letthem know that if they did not surrender unconditionally he would firstbombard the wood in which they sheltered, and then land a party of men,who would cut down any survivors without mercy. As there was no help forit, the pirates did surrender. They came out of the woods, a sorry gang,and laid down their arms, and with the help of the Dutchmen, who lent usirons, we soon had the whole band manacled and helpless.

  So there was an end of this most nefarious mutiny. With Cornelys Je
nsenfast in fetters the heart of the business would have been broken evenwithout help from the sea. There was no man of all the others who was atall his peer, either for villainy or for enterprise and daring. Even ifthere had been, the pirates would have had no great chance, while, asit was, their case had no hope in it, and they succumbed to their fatein a kind of sullen apathy. Honest men had triumphed over rogues oncemore in the swing of the world's story, as I am heartily glad to believethat in the long run they always have done and always will do, until theday when rogues and righteous meet for the last time.

  We soon heard of all that had happened to Captain Marmaduke after heleft the Royal Christopher--or rather, after he had been forced to putforth from Early Island. It had been Captain Marmaduke's intention tomake for Batavia, in the certainty of finding ships and succour there.By the good fortune of the fair weather, his course, if slow by reasonof the little wind, was untroubled; and by happy chance, ere he had cometo the end, he sighted the Dutch frigate, and spoke her. The Dutchcaptain consented to carry Captain Amber back to the wreck. On theirarrival at Early Island they found the place in the possession of a fewhalf-drunken mutineers, who were soon overpowered, and they learnt thetale of Jensen's treachery from the lips of the captive women. It wasthen that they sailed for Fair Island, with the women and prisoners onboard, and arrived just in time to serve us the best turn in the world.

  There was nothing for us now to do but to ship off our prisoners toBatavia in the frigate, where they would be dealt with by Dutch justice,and be hanged with all decorum, in accordance with the laws of civilisedStates. We were to go with the frigate ourselves, for at Batavia it wasour Captain's resolve to buy him a new ship and so turn home to his ownpeople and his own country, and try his hand no more at colonies, whichwas indeed the wisest thing he could do. Let me say here that to ourgreat satisfaction we found Mr. Ebrow in the woods, tied nearly naked toa tree, alive and well, if very weak; but without a complaint on hislips or in his heart.

  I was one of the earliest to go aboard the frigate, and the first sightI saw on her decks was a group of women huddled together in all theseeming of despair. These were the victims of the pirates' lust, and asthey sat together they would wail now and then in a way that was pitifulto hear. But there was one woman who sat a little apart from the othersand held her head high, and this woman was Barbara Hatchett. I scarceknew if I should approach her or no, but when she saw me, which was themoment I came aboard, she made me a sign with her head, and I at oncewent up to her. All the warm colour had gone out of her dark face, andthe fire had faded from her dark eyes, but she was still very beautifulin her misery, and she carried herself grandly, like a ruined queen. AsI looked at her my mind went back to that first day I ever saw her andwas bewitched by her, and then to that other day when I found her in thesea-fellow's arms and thought the way of the world was ended. And forthe sake of my old love and my old sorrow my heart was racked for her,and I could have cried as I had cried that day upon the downs. But therewere no tears in the woman's eyes, and as I came she stood up and heldout her hand to me with an air of pride; and I am glad to think that Ihad the grace to kiss it and to kneel as I kissed it.

  'Well, Ralph,' she said, 'this is a queer meeting for old friends andold flames. We did not think of this in the days when we watched the seaand waited for my ship.'

  I could say nothing, but she went on, and her voice was quite steady:

  'This is a grand ship, but it is not my ship. My ship came in and myship went out, and the devil took it and my heart's desire and me.'

  She was silent for a moment, and then she asked me what the boats werebringing from the island. I told her that they were conveying theprisoners aboard to be carried to trial at Batavia. She heard me with achangeless face, as she looked across the sea where the ship's boatswere making their way to the ship, and after awhile she asked me if Ithought that we were bound to forgive our enemies and those who had usedus evilly.

  I was at a loss what to answer, but I stammered out somewhat to theeffect that such was our Christian duty. The words stuck a little in mythroat, for I did not feel in a forgiving mood at that moment.

  'So Mr. Ebrow tells us,' she went on softly. Mr. Ebrow had been sent onboard at once, and had immediately devoted himself, sick and weak thoughhe was, to ministrations among the unhappy women. 'So Mr. Ebrow says,and he is a good man, and ought to know best. Shall I forgive, Ralph,shall I forgive?'

  There was to me something infinitely touching in the way in which shespoke to me, as if she felt she had a claim upon me--the claim that asister might have upon a brother.

  I told her that Mr. Ebrow, being a man of God, was a better guide andcounsellor than I, but that forgiveness was a noble charity. Indeed, Iwas at a loss what to say, with my heart so wrung.

  'Well, well,' she said, 'let us forgive and forget,' and--for there wasno restraint upon the movements of the woman--she moved toward the side,where they were lifting the manacled prisoners on board. Jensen was inthe first batch, but not the first to be brought on board, and hecarried himself sullenly, with his eyes cast down, and seemed to noticenothing as he was brought up on the deck. The prisoners were so securelybound that no especial guard was placed over them during the process oftaking them from the boats, and so, before I was aware of it, Barbarahad slipped by me and between the Dutch sailors, and was by Jensen'sside. For the moment I thought that she had come to carry out herpromise of forgiveness; but Jensen lifted his face, and I saw it, andsaw that it was writhed with a great horror and a great fear. And then Isaw her lift her hand, and saw a knife in her hand, and the next momentshe had driven it once and twice into his breast by the heart, andJensen dropped like a log, and his blood ran over the deck. Then sheturned to me, and her face was as red as fire, and she cried out,'Forgive and forget!' and so drove the knife into her own body and fellin her turn. It was all done so swiftly that there was no time foranyone to lift a hand to interfere, and when we came to lift them upthey were both dead. This was the end of that beautiful woman, and thisthe end of Cornelys Jensen. He should have lived to be hanged; it wastoo good a death for him to die by her hand; but I can understand how itseemed to her hot blood and her wronged womanhood that she could onlywash out her shame by shedding her wronger's blood. May Heaven havemercy upon her!

  CHAPTER XXXIII

  THE LAST OF THE SHIP

  It was many a weary month before we saw Sendennis again, but we did seeit again. For Captain Marmaduke was so dashed by the untoward results ofhis benevolence and the failure of his scheme that he saw nothing betterto do than to turn homeward, after mending his fortunes by the sale ofthe greater part of his Dutch plantations. A portion, however, he setapart and made over as a settlement for the remnant of the colonists,who, having got so far, had no mind to turn back, and as an asylum forthe wretched women. With the aid of the Dutchmen we got the RoyalChristopher off her reef and made shift to tow her into harbourage atBatavia, and there Captain Amber sold her and bought another vessel,wherein we made the best of our way back to England, with no furtheradventures to speak of. At Sendennis I had the joy to find my motheralive and well, and the wonder to find that my birth-place seemed tohave grown smaller in my absence, but was otherwise unchanged.

  And at Sendennis the best thing happened to me that can happen to anyman in the world. For one morning, soon after our home-coming, I prayedMarjorie to walk with me a little ways, and she consented, and we wenttogether outside the town and into the free sweet country. We fared tillwe came to that place where Lancelot once had found me, drowned infolly, and there I showed Marjorie the picture that Lancelot had givenme, the picture of her younger self. And somehow as she took it from myhands and looked at it there came a little tremor to her lips and mysoul found words for me to speak. I told her again that I loved her,that I should love her to the end of my days. I do not remember all Isaid; I dare say my words would show blunderingly enough on plain paper,but she listened to them quietly, looking at the sea with steady eyes.When I had done she stood s
till for a little, and then answered, and Iremember every word she said.

  'We are young, you and I, but I do not believe we are changeable. I feelvery sure that you have spoken the truth to me; be very sure that I amspeaking the truth to you. I love you!'

  And so for the first time our lips met and the glory came into my life.I sailed the seas and made my fortune and married my heart's desire,and we roved the world together year after year, and always the glorystaying with me in all its morning brightness.

  All my life long I have hated parting from friends, parting fromfamiliar faces and familiar places. Yet by the course which it haspleased Providence to give to my life it has been my lot to have manypartings, both with well-loved men and women and with well-loved landsand dwellings. It is the plague of the wandering life, pleasant as it isin so many things, that it does of necessity mean the clasping of somany hands in parting, that it does of necessity mean the saying of somany farewells. Yet, after all, parting is the penalty of man for histransgression, and the most stay-at-home, lie-by-the-fire fellow has hisshare with the rest. Thus the philosopher by temperament, like my LordChesterfield, takes his friendships and even his loves upon an easycovenant, and the religious accept in resignation, and the rest shift asbest they can. And so I hold out my hand and wish you good luck andGod-speed!

  THE END