"There are scouts about who might attempt to stop us if they suspected we were fugitives. I have, however, the pa.s.s-word, and can without difficulty mislead them if we encounter any. Your own people, too, may be in the river looking out for the schooner."
"I think not," answered Staunton. "We had lost one of our boats, and as I am believed dead, my successor (poor fellow, how he will be disappointed!) will, if he acts wisely, not attempt to capture the "Espanto" except with the "Sylph" herself."
"The greater necessity, then, for our getting out to sea. It is already dawn. Observe the red glare bursting through the mist in the eastern sky, just through the vista of palm-trees up that long reach. We shall soon have no longer the friendly darkness to conceal us."
As she was speaking a large canoe was seen gliding calmly up the stream, close in with the bank. The people in her hailed in the negro language, and the man who was first in the canoe promptly answered in the same.
"Ask them if they have seen the English man-of-war," said Juanetta.
The negroes answered that she was still riding at anchor off the mouth of the river.
"We shall thus be safe if we can reach the open sea," she observed; "but we have still some miles to row before we can get clear of the treacherous woods which surround us; and perhaps when our flight is discovered, our pursuers may take one of the other channels, and we may find our egress stopped at the very mouth of the stream. This suspense is dreadful."
"We may yet strike a blow for you, and for our own liberty, senora,"
answered Staunton. "It was fortunate the obscurity prevented the people in the canoe from discovering us."
"That matters little. No one would venture to stop me but that man, that demon rather in human disguise, Daggerfeldt, as you call him," she replied, bitterly, p.r.o.nouncing the name as one to which she was unaccustomed. "Ah, senor; love--ardent, blind, mad love--can be turned to the most deadly hatred. Criminal, lost as I have been, I feel that there is a step further into iniquity, and that step I have refused to take. The scales have fallen from my eyes, and I have seen the enormity of my wickedness, and have discovered the foulness of my wrongs. From his own lips the dreadful information came. In the same breath he acknowledged that he had murdered my father and deceived me. As he slept he told the dreadful tale; the sight of you conjured up the past to his memory; other murders he talked of, and treachery of all sorts attempted. He mocked, too, at me, and at my credulity. I learned also that he still contemplated your destruction as well as mine. I who had preserved his life, who had sacrificed my happiness here and hereafter for his sake, was to be cast off for another lady fairer and younger, so it seemed to me, but I could not understand all his words, for sometimes he spoke in his native language, sometimes in Spanish. Enough was heard to decide me. I had long contemplated quitting him. I knew that it was wrong remaining, but had not strength before to tear asunder my bonds, till the feeling that I might rescue you, and make some slight reparation to heaven for my wickedness, gave me strength to undertake the enterprise. There, senor, you know the reason of your liberation; my trusty Mauro, who has ever been faithful, provided the means."
She spoke in a hurried tone, and her sentences were broken, as if she hesitated to speak of her disgrace and misery, but yet was urged on by an irresistible impulse. Even while she was speaking her eye was on the alert, and her hand continued skilfully to guide the canoe. The stars had gradually disappeared, sinking as it were into a bed of thick leaden-coloured mist, which overspread the narrow arch overhead, while in the east a red glow appeared which melted away as the pale daylight slowly filled the air. It was day, but there was no joyousness in animated nature, or elasticity in the atmosphere, as at that time in other regions. A sombre hue tinted the trees, the water, and the sky; even the chattering of innumerable parrots, and the cries of those caricatures of men, many thousands of obscene monkeys, appeared rather to mock at than to welcome the return of the world to life.
The canoe flew rapidly on. Suddenly Juanetta lifted her paddle from the water; her ears were keenly employed.
"Hark!" she said, "cease rowing; there is the sound of oars in the water. Ah! it is as I thought. There is a boat endeavouring to cut us off by taking another channel; she is still astern of us though, but we must not slack our exertions."
Captain Staunton redoubled his efforts, as did his men on his telling them they were pursued. After the story he had heard, he was now doubly anxious to rescue the unfortunate girl from the power of the miscreant Daggerfeldt. They now entered a broader reach of the river below the fork, where the channel which Juanetta supposed their pursuers had taken united with the one they were following. They had got some way down it when Staunton observed a large boat emerging from behind the woody screen. Juanetta judged from his eye that he had caught sight of the boat.
"Is it as I thought?" she asked, calmly.
Staunton told her that he could distinguish a boat, evidently pursuing them, but whether she belonged to his ship or to the slaver, he could not judge.
"We must not stay to examine; if we were mistaken we should be lost,"
she observed; "but we have the means of defending ourselves--see, I had fire-arms placed in the bottom of the canoe, and here are powder-horns under the seat. Mauro has carefully loaded them, and if they attempt to stop us we must use them."
On they pulled, straining every nerve to the utmost, but the canoe was heavily laden, and the boat gained on them. Staunton trusted that their pursuers might be his own people, but his hope vanished when one of them rose; there was a wreath of smoke, a sharp report, and a bullet flew over their heads and splintered the branch of a tree which grew at the end of a point they were just then doubling.
"Aim lower next time, my bo", if you wish to wing us," shouted Jack Hopkins, who saw no use in longer keeping silence.
"Ah!" exclaimed Juanetta, "the blue sea--we may yet escape."
As she spoke, another shot better aimed took effect on the quarter of the canoe, but did no further injury. It showed, however, that there were good marksmen in the boat intent on mischief, and that they were perilously near already. For some time they were again shut out from their pursuers, but as the latter doubled the last point, they had, too evidently, gained on them.
"If any one again rises to fire, you must take also to your arms, senor," said Juanetta, a shudder pa.s.sing through her frame; "and if it is he, kill him--kill him without remorse. He has shown none. That rifle at your feet was his--it was always true to its aim."
She had scarcely ceased speaking, when a figure stood up in the boat.
It seemed to have the likeness of Daggerfeldt. Staunton seized the rifle to fire--he was too late. Ere he had drawn the trigger, a flash was seen, and Juanetta, with a wild shriek, fell forward into the canoe.
Staunton fired; the man who had sent the fatal shot stood unharmed, but the oar of one fell from his grasp, and got entangled with those of the others. This would have enabled the canoe to recover her lost ground, had not Mauro, on seeing his beloved mistress fall, thrown up his paddle, exclaiming that he wished to die with her.
"She may yet be saved if you exert yourself," cried Staunton, in Spanish; "row--for your life row; I will attend to your mistress."
Urged by the officer"s commanding tone, the negro again resumed his paddle. Staunton, still guiding the canoe, raised Juanetta, and placed her back in the stern-sheets--she scarcely breathed. The ball had apparently entered her neck, though no blood was to be seen. He suspected the worst, but dared not utter his fears lest Mauro should again give way to his grief. Several other shots were fired at them from the boat, which was rapidly gaining on them. They were close on the bar, in another moment they would be in clear water.
The slaver crew shouted fiercely; again a volley was fired, the b.a.l.l.s from which went through and through the sides of the slight canoe, without wounding any one, but making holes for the water to rush in.
One more volley would sink them, when a loud cheerful shout rung in their ears, and two boats with the British ensign trailing from the stern were seen pulling rapidly towards them.
Jack Hopkins and Bob Short answered the hail; the pirates, too, saw the boats, they ceased rowing, and then pulling round, retraced their course up the river. The canoe, with the rapid current, flew over the bar, and had barely time to get alongside the barge of the "Sylph," when she was full up to the thwarts. We need not say that his crew welcomed Captain Staunton"s return in safety with shouts of joy, after they had believed him dead.
With the strong current then setting out of the river it was found hopeless to follow the slaver"s boat. They were soon alongside the brig.
Poor Juanetta was carried carefully to the captain"s cabin, watched earnestly by Mauro. The surgeon examined her wound.
"Her hours are numbered," he said. "No art of mine can save her."
THE ACTION.
Calm and treacherously beautiful as was the morning on which Captain Staunton regained his ship, scarcely had she got under way to stand in closer to the mouth of the river, in order to watch more narrowly for the schooner, should she attempt to run out, than a dark cloud was seen rising over the land. It appeared on a sudden, and extended rapidly, till it spread over the whole eastern sky.
"I fear that it will not do with the weather we have in prospect to send the boats up the river again to retrieve our defeat, Mr Collins," said Captain Staunton, pointing to the threatening sky.
"I think not, sir, with you," answered the lieutenant; "in fact, if I may advise, the sooner we shorten sail the better, or we may have it down upon us before we are prepared."
"You are right, Mr Collins; shorten sail as soon as you please," said the captain.
"All hands shorten sail," was sung along the decks.
"Aloft there"--"Lay out"--"Be smart about it"--"In with every thing"--"Let fly"--"Haul down"--"Brail up"--"Be smart, it will be down upon us thick and strong, in a moment"--"Up with the helm"--"Look out there aloft"--"Be smart, my lads."
Such were the different orders issued, and exclamations uttered in succession by the officers.
A moment before, the sea was smooth as gla.s.s, and the brig had scarcely steerage-way. Now the loud roaring of the angry blast was heard, and the flapping of the yet unfolded canvas against the masts; the ocean was a sheet of white foam, and the sky a canopy of inky hue. Away the brig flew before it, leaving the land astern, her sails were closely furled, and she remained unharmed, not a spar was sprung, not a rope carried away, not a sail injured. Thus she flew on under bare poles till the squall subsided as quickly as it had arisen, and sail was again made to recover the ground they had lost.
Land was still visible, blue and indistinct, but many fears were naturally entertained lest the slaver, which had already given them so much trouble, should have got out of the river with her living cargo, and by keeping either way along sh.o.r.e, have escaped them. For some minutes the wind entirely failed, and curses loud and deep were uttered at their ill luck, when, as if to rebuke them for their discontent, the fine fresh sea-breeze set in, and, with a flowing sheet, carried them gayly along.
Every eye was employed in looking out for the slaver, for they could not suppose she would have lost the opportunity of getting out during their absence. They were not kept long in suspense.
"A sail on the starboard bow," cried the look-out from the masthead.
"What is she like?" asked the first lieutenant.
"A schooner, sir. The slaver, sir, as we chased afore," answered the seaman, his anxiety that she should be so making him fancy he could not be mistaken.
"The fellow must have sharp eyes indeed to know her at this distance,"
muttered the lieutenant to himself with a smile; "however, I suppose he"s right. We must not, though, be chasing the wrong craft while the enemy is escaping. Which way is she standing?" he asked.
"To the southward, sir, with every st.i.tch of canvas she can carry," was the answer.
The officer made the proper official report to the captain.
"We must be after her at all events," said Captain Staunton. "Haul up, Mr Collins, in chase. Send Mr Stevenson away in the barge to watch the mouth of the river."