"But your side won, then, and I"m a prisoner?"
"Nay; your side won, master."
"How can that be?" cried Nic.
""Cause it is. They was too many for uz. They come down like thunder on uz, and "fore we knowed where we was we was tied up in twos and being marched away."
"Our side won?" said Nic, in his confusion.
"That"s right, master. You zee, they told Humpy Dee and the rest to give in, and they wouldn"t; so the zailor officer wouldn"t stand no nonsense. His men begun with sticks; but, as our zide made a big fight of it, they whips out their cutlashes and used them. I got one chop, and you nearly had it, and when two or three more had had a taste of the sharp edge they begun to give in; and, as I telled you, next thing we was tied two and two and marched down to the river, pitched into the bottoms of two boats, and rowed aboard a ship as zet zail at once; and next night we was pitched down into the boats again and hoisted aboard this ship, as was lying off Plymouth waiting to start."
"Waiting to sail?"
"That"s right, master! And I s"pose she went off at once, but I was too bad to know anything about it. When I could begin to understand I was lying here in this hammock, and the doctor telled me."
"One moment. Where are the others?"
"All aboard, sir--that is, twenty-two with uz."
"Some of our men too?"
"Nay, zir; on"y our gang."
"But I don"t understand, quite," said Nic pitifully. "I want to know why they have brought me. Tell me, Pete Burge--my head is getting confused again--tell me why I am here."
"Mistake, I s"pose, sir. Thought, zeeing you all rough-looking and covered with blood, as you was one of us."
Nic lay with his head turned in the speaker"s direction, battling with the horrible despairing thoughts which came like a flood over his disordered brain; but they were too much for him. He tried to speak; but the dark waters of the pool were there again, and the next minute he felt as if he had been drawn by the current beneath the fall, and all was mental darkness and the old confusion once more.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
WILLIAM SOLLY HAS THOUGHTS.
It would have been better, perhaps, for Nic Revel if he had not heard the result of the plan to get help from Captain Lawrence"s ship and its disastrous results for him.
For Pete Burge"s narrative was correct enough, save that he made an omission or two, notably the fact that he was captured while making a brave effort to save Nic from the savage blows being dealt out to him by Humpy Dee, who was trying to visit upon his head the disappointment he felt through the failure of the raid.
It was from finding Nic, helplessly insensible, being carried off by Pete that in the dark the sailors took the young man for one of the party they were to attack; and hence it was that he was tied fast to his injured companion, carried down the hill-slope to the river, bundled into the boat with the other prisoners, and carried off, there being no further communication held with the sh.o.r.e. Captain Lawrence knew nothing till long afterwards about Nic being missing, and the long, long search made for him in the pool; two of the men, when questioned later on during the inquiry, having seen him go down in the fierce struggle.
But no one, during the confusion which ensued, had seen him rise again; for it was somewhere about that time that those who bore torches, and saw that the fight was going against them, dashed them down into the water, hoping the darkness would cover their escape.
The Captain, in the triumphant issue of the encounter, had stood to see the prisoners all bound, and soon after, upon not finding his son, accepted Solly"s suggestion that Nic had walked down to see the prisoners off, and perhaps gone on board to thank the officer for his help.
The next morning the ship was gone, and a horrible dread a.s.sailed master and man as to Nic"s fate. Then came the information from the two labourers who had taken part in the defence and the search, every inch of the pool and river being examined, till the suspicion became a certainty that Nic had been swept down the river and carried out to sea, the cap he wore having been brought in by one of the fishermen who harboured his boat in the mouth of the stream.
But Captain Revel did not rest content with this: in his agony he communicated with Captain Lawrence, who came on at once, and confessed now to his old friend why, when his help was asked, he had jumped at the idea. They wanted men for one of the ships bound for Charleston and the West Indies, the pressgangs having been very unsuccessful; and as the salmon-poachers were described to him as being strong, active fellows, the idea struck him that here was a fine opportunity for ridding the neighbourhood of a gang of mischievous ne"er-do-weels--men who would be of service to their country, and henceforth leave his old brother-officer in peace; while any of them not particularly suitable could be easily got rid of among the sugar and tobacco plantations.
"Then," said Captain Revel, "you have sent them away?"
"Yes; they sailed the next night. It was rather a high-handed transaction; but the service wanted them badly, and we can"t afford to be too particular at a time like this."
"But do you think it likely that my poor boy was among the prisoners?"
"Impossible," said the Captain. "If he were--which is not in the least likely--all he had to do was to speak and say who he was. But absurd!
I should have known, of course."
"But after he was on board the other vessel?"
"My dear old friend," said Captain Lawrence sympathetically, "I shrink from dashing your hopes, but I feel how unjust it would be to back you up in the idea that he may have gone with the impressed men. He is a gentleman, and an English officer"s son, and he would only have to open his lips to any one he encountered, and explain his position, to be sent home from the first port he reached."
"Yes, yes, of course," said the Captain bitterly; "and I shall never see my poor boy again."
Captain Lawrence was so uneasy about his friend that he went back to the boat and sent her off to the ship, returning afterwards to the house, bitterly regretting that he had sent his men ash.o.r.e and allowed himself to be tempted into making a seizure of the poachers.
Captain Revel was seated in his arm-chair when Captain Lawrence re-entered the house, looking calm, grave, and thoughtful. His friend"s coming made him raise his head and gaze sorrowfully; then, with a weary smile, he let his chin drop upon his breast and sat looking hard at the carpet.
"Come, Revel, man," cried Captain Lawrence, "you must cheer up. We sailors can"t afford to look at the black side of things."
"No, no; of course not," said the stricken man. "I shall be better soon, Jack; better soon. I"m getting ready to fight it."
"That"s right; and before long you will have the boy marching into the room, or else sending you a letter."
"Yes, yes," said Captain Revel, with a sad smile, and in a manner totally different from that which he generally a.s.sumed, "he"ll soon come back or write."
"But, poor fellow! he does not think so," said Captain Lawrence to himself, as Nic"s father relapsed into thoughtful silence.
"Solly, my lad," said the visitor, when he felt that he must return to his vessel, "your master has got a nasty shock over this business."
"Ay, ay, sir; and he aren"t the only one as feels it. I ought never to ha" left Master Nic"s side; but he put me in my station, and, of course, I had to obey orders."
"Of course, my lad. Here, we must make the best of it, and hope and pray that the boy will turn up again all right."
Solly shook his head sadly.
"Ah, don"t do that, my man," cried Captain Lawrence. "You a sailor, too. There"s life in a mussel, Solly. A man"s never dead with us till he is over the side with a shot at his heels."
"That"s true, sir," said the old sailor; "but, you see, I"m afraid.
There was some fierce fighting over yonder in the pitch-dark, where the lights waren"t showing. Sticks was a-going awful. If my poor boy got one o" they cracks on his head and went beneath, there was plenty o"
water to wash him out o" the pool and down the river."
"Yes; but hope for the best, man; hope for the best. Remember the bit of blue that comes in the wind"s eye often enough when we"re in the worst part of a gale."
"Ay, sir, that"s what I do--hope for the best, and that if my poor young master, who was as fine a lad as ever stepped, is done for, I may some day find out who it was that hit that blow, and pay it back."
"No, Solly," said Captain Lawrence sternly. "An English sailor does not take revenge in cold blood for what was done in hot. Never! There, I must get off, and in a few days I hope to be back to see my old friend again. Meanwhile, I know he"s in good hands, and that he would not wish to be watched over by any one better than William Solly, his old companion in many a trouble of the past."
"It"s very kind o" you to say so, sir," said Solly humbly.