Very little time was afforded the latter for looking about, wondering what was to happen next; all he saw on deck was a group of marines and about a couple of dozen of the sailors doing something to one of the boats, while the officers were looking on.
The next minute his attention was taken by the beautiful country spreading out beyond the sh.o.r.e, a quarter of a mile away across the sparkling waters of the harbour.
But there was something else to take his attention during the next minute, for there was the clanking of irons, and he saw Humpy Dee and his five companions marched up from below to be called to where he was standing with Nic.
The poachers looked repellent enough as they followed Humpy Dee"s example, and scowled at the pair who had come up from the sick bay, and seemed to receive little sympathy from those who were looking on. Then there was an order given by one of the officers, and the crew of the boat climbed quickly in, while the marines came up behind the prisoners.
"They"re going to take us ash.o.r.e," thought Pete excitedly, and the idea had hardly been grasped, before a couple of old hats were handed to him and his companion by the sergeant of marines.
"They"re going to put uz with Humpy and that lot," said Pete to himself excitedly; "and I must speak now."
He spoke. It was hurriedly and blunderingly done, and the officer whom he addressed looked at him frowningly.
"What!" he cried; "this man is not one of you--one of the gang taken that night?"
"No, master; he"s a gentleman, and took by mistake."
Humpy Dee"s eyes flashed, and he burst into a coa.r.s.e laugh.
"Silence, you scoundrel!--How dare you?" cried the officer angrily.
"Couldn"t help it, master," growled Humpy. "Make a horse laugh to hear such gammon."
"What! Do you say that what he tells me is not true?"
"It is true, master," cried Pete, "every word--"
"All lies," snarled the poacher savagely. "He was in the fight, and got hurt. He"s one of us. That Pete Burge peached on us, and brought the sailor Jacks on us; and he wants to get out of it to let us go alone.
Lies, captain; all lies."
"What do you say, my men?" said the officer sternly, turning to Humpy"s companions.
"Same as he does," cried the pressed men in chorus.
"And you?" cried the officer, turning to Nic. "Are you one of this fellow"s comrades?"
"No, master, he aren"t," cried Pete; "he aren"t, indeed. He"s nought to me. He"s--"
"Silence, sir!" roared the officer. "You, sir," he continued, turning to Nic, "speak out. Are you one of this fellow"s comrades?"
Nic looked at him blankly, and there was silence on the deck, as the various groups stood there in the burning sunshine.
"Well, sir, why don"t you answer?" cried the officer.
Nic"s answer was in dumb-show, for, poor fellow, he did not grasp a word. He knew that the man by his side had been with him a great deal, and nursed and helped him, speaking soothingly when he was at his worst--every one else seemed strange; and without a word he smiled sadly in Pete"s face and took hold of his arm.
"That will do," said the officer, who had his orders to carry out. "In with them!"
The marines laid their hands on Nic"s and Pete"s shoulders, while the sergeant signed to the others to climb into the boat; Humpy Dee turning, as he got in last, to give Pete a savage look of triumph.
Pete turned sharply to the marine who was urging him to the side.
"Tell me, mate," he whispered quickly; "just a word. Where are we going to be took?"
The marine glanced swiftly aside to see if it was safe to answer, and then whispered back:
"Off to the plantations, I s"pose. There, keep a good heart, lad. It aren"t for ever and a day."
The plantations--to work as a kind of white slave for some colonist far-away.
Pete, in his ignorance, only grasped half the truth; but that half was bad enough to make him sink down in the boat as it was lowered from the davits, put his lips close to Nic"s ear, and groan more than say:
"Oh, Master Nic, lad, what have you done?"
Then the boat kissed the water; the order was given; the oars fell with a splash; and, as the men gave way, Pete Burge darted a wild look about him, to find Humpy Dee just at his back, glaring malignantly, and as if about to speak, as he leaned forward.
But no word came, for the marine sergeant clapped a hand upon his shoulder and thrust him back.
"All right," said Humpy Dee; "my time"ll come bimeby. Better than being a pressed man, after all."
Nic had been a long while in the darkness below deck, and his eyes were feeble; but, as the boat glided on rapidly towards the sh.o.r.e, they became more accustomed to the light, and he gazed wonderingly about in his confused state, seeing nothing of the trouble ahead, only the fact that he was approaching the far-stretching, sun-brightened sh.o.r.e.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
HUMPY DEE"S LITTLE THREATS.
However much he might have been disposed to make a fresh appeal on his companion"s behalf, Pete had no opportunity; for, upon the boat being run alongside of a roughly-made wharf, he and the others were hurried out and marched away to a kind of warehouse, and the care of them handed over to some people in authority, by whom they were shut-in, glad of the change from the broiling sun outside to the cool gloom of the interior, lit only by a grated window high up above the door, from which the rays streamed across the open roof, leaving the roughly-boarded floor in darkness.
After a few minutes the eyes became accustomed to the gloom, and the men seated themselves upon the empty chests and barrels lying about, Pete securing one for Nic, who sat down mechanically, with his head thrown back so that he could gaze at the light. Pete contented himself with the rough floor, where he half-lay, listening to his companions in misfortune, half-a-dozen yards away, as they talked over their position and wondered where they were to go--to a man keeping aloof from Pete, the traitor they accredited with bringing them to their present state.
The men were better informed than Pete had been, his stay in company with Nic and the dislike in which he was held by his old companions having kept him in ignorance of facts which they had picked up from the sailors. And now Pete gradually grasped in full that of which he had previously only had an inkling--that the pick of the prisoners had been reserved for man-o"-war"s-men, those who were considered unsuitable having been reserved for handing over to the colonists. This was in accordance with a custom dating as far back as the days of Cromwell, the Protector being accredited with ridding himself of troublesome prisoners by shipping them off to the plantations as white slaves, most of them never to return.
"Well," said Humpy Dee aloud, in the course of conversation, "I suppose it means work."
"Yes," said another; "and one of the Jacks told me you have to hoe sugar-cane and tobacco and rice out in the hot sun, and if you don"t do enough you get the cat."
"If any one tries to give me the lash," growled Humpy, "he"ll get something he won"t like."
"They"ll hang you or shoot you if you try on any games, old lad," said another of the men.
"Maybe, if they can," said Humpy, with a laugh. "Perhaps we may be too many for them. I mean to take to the woods till I can get taken off by a ship."
"Ah, who knows?" said another. "I aren"t going to give up. Place don"t look so bad. See that river as we come up here?"
"Of course," growled Humpy.
"Well, I dare say there"ll be salmon in it, same as there is at home."