Here, in the sands. Thee I'll rake up--
LEAR
His mind made up, his intentions announced, and his ship in readiness,
Captain Truck gave his orders to proceed with promptitude and clearness.
The ladies remaining behind, he observed that the two Messrs. Effingham,
as a matter of course, would stay with them as protectors, though little
could harm them where they were.
"I propose to leave the ship in the care of Mr. Blunt," he said, "for I
perceive something about that gentleman which denotes a nautical instinct.
If Mr. Sharp choose to remain also, your society will be the more
agreeable, and in exchange, gentlemen, I ask the favour of the strong arms
of all your servants. Mr. Monday is my man in fair or foul, and so, I
flatter myself, will be Sir George Templemore; and as for Mr. Dodge, if he
stay behind, why the Active Inquirer will miss a notable paragraph, for
there shall be no historian to the expedition, but one of my own
appointing. Mr. Saunders shall have the honour of cooking for you in the
meanwhile, and I propose taking every one else to the Dane."
As no serious objections could be made to this arrangement, within an hour
of the time when the ship was fastened, the cutter and jolly-boat
departed, it being the intention of Captain Truck to reach the wreck that
evening, in season to have his sheers ready to raise by daylight in the
morning; or he hoped to be back again in the course of the succeeding
day. No time was to be lost, he knew, the return of the Arabs being hourly
expected, and the tranquillity of the open sea being at all times a matter
of the greatest uncertainty. With the declared view of making quick work,
and with the secret apprehension of a struggle with the owners of the
country, the captain took with him every officer and man in his ship that
could possibly be spared, and as many of the passengers as he thought
might be useful. As numbers might be important in the way of intimidation,
he cared almost as much for appearances as for any thing else, or
certainly he would not have deemed the presence of Mr. Dodge of any great
moment; for to own the truth, he expected the editor of the Active
Inquirer would prove the quality implied by the first word of the title of
his journal, as much in any other way as in fighting.
Neither provisions nor water, beyond what might be necessary in pulling to
the wreck, nor ropes, nor blocks, nor any thing but arms and ammunition,
were taken in the boats; for the examination of the morning had shown the
captain, that, notwithstanding so much had been plundered, a sufficiency
still remained in the stranded vessel. Indeed, the fact that so much had
been left was one of his reasons for hastening off himself, as he deemed
it certain that they who had taken away what was gone, would soon return
for the remainder. The fowling-pieces and pistols, with all the powder and
ball in the ship, were taken: a light gun that was on board, for the
purpose of awaking sleepy pilots, being left loaded, with the intention of
serving for a signal of alarm, should any material change occur in the
situation of the ship.
The party included thirty men, and as most had fire-arms of one sort or
another, they pulled out of the inlet with spirit and great confidence in
their eventual success. The boats were crowded, it is true, but there was
room to row, and the launch had been left in its place on deck, because it
was known that two boats were to be found in the wreck, one of which was
large: in short, as Captain Truck had meditated this expedient from the
moment he ascertained the situation of the Dane, he now set about carrying
it into effect with method and discrimination. We shall first accompany
him on his way, leaving the small party in the Montauk for our future
attention in another chapter.
The distance between the two vessels was about four leagues, and a
headland intervening, those in the boats in less than an hour lost sight
of their own ship, as she lay shorn of her pride anchored within the reef.
At almost the same moment, the wreck came into view, and Captain Truck
applied his glass with great interest, in order to ascertain the state of
things in that direction. All was tranquil--no signs of any one having
visited the spot since morning being visible. This intelligence was given
to the people, who pulled at their oars the more willingly under the
stimulus of probable success, driving the boats ahead with
increasing velocity.
The sun was still some distance above the horizon, when the cutter and
jolly-boat rowed through the narrow channel astern of the wreck, and
brought up, as before, by the side of the rocks. Leaping ashore, Captain
Truck led the way to the vessel, and, in five minutes, he was seen in the
forward cross-trees, examining the plain with his glass. All was as
solitary and deserted as when before seen, and the order was immediately
given to commence operations without delay.
A gang of the best seamen got out the spare topmast and lower-yard of the
Dane, and set about fitting a pair of sheers, a job that would be likely
to occupy them several hours. Mr. Leach led a party up forward, and the
second mate went up with another further aft, each proceeding to send down
its respective top-gallant-mast, top-sail-yard, and top-mast; while
Captain Truck, from the deck, superintended the same work on the
mizen-mast. As the men worked with spirit, and a strong party remained
below to give the drags, and to come up the lanyards, spar came down after
spar with rapidity, and just as the sun dipped into the ocean to the
westward, everything but the lower-masts was lying on the sands, alongside
of the ship; nothing having been permitted to touch the decks in
descending. Previously, however, to sending down the lower-yards, the
launch had been lifted from its bed and landed also by the side of
the vessel.
Ail hands were now mustered on the sands, and the boat was launched, an
operation of some delicacy, as heavy rollers were occasionally coming in.
As soon as it floated, this powerful auxiliary was swept up to the rocks,
and then the men began to load it with the standing rigging and sails,
the latter having been unbent, as fast as each spar came down. Two kedges
were found, and a hawser was bent to one, when the launch was carried
outside of the bar and anchored. Lines being brought in, the yards were
hauled out to the same place, and strongly lashed together for the night.
A great deal of running rigging, many blocks, and divers other small
articles, were put into the boats of the Montauk, and the jolly-boat of
the wreck, which was still hanging at her stern, was also lowered and got
into the water. With these acquisitions, the party had now four boats, one
of which was heavy and capable of carrying a considerable freight.
By this time it was so late and so dark, that Captain Truck determined to
suspend his labours until morning. In the course of a few hours of active
toil, he had secured all the yards, the sails, the standing and running
rigging, the boats, and many of the minor articles of the Dane; and
nothing of essential importance remained, but the three lower masts.
These, it is true, were all in all to him, for without them he would be
but little better off than he was before, since his own ship had spare
canvas and spare yards enough to make a respectable show above the
foundation. This foundation, however, was the great requisite, and his
principal motive in taking the other things, was to have a better fit than
could be obtained by using spars and sails that were not intended to
go together.
At eight o'clock, the people got their suppers, and prepared to turn in
for the night. Some conversation passed between Captain Truck and his
mates, concerning the manner of disposing of the men while they slept,
which resulted in the former's keeping a well-armed party of ten with him
in the ship, while the remainder were put in the boats, all of which were
fastened to the launch, as she lay anchored off the bar. Here they made
beds of the sails, and, setting a watch, the greater portion of both gangs
were soon as quietly asleep as if lying in their own berths on board the
Montauk. Not so with Captain Truck and his mates. They walked the deck of
the Dane fully an hour after the men were silent, and for some time after
Mr. Monday had finished the bottle of wine he had taken the precaution to
bring with him from the packet, and had bestowed his person among some
old sails in the cabin. The night was a bright starlight, but the moon was
not to be expected until near morning. The wind came off the sands of the
interior in hot puffs, but so lightly as to sound, that it breathed past
them like the sighings of the desert.
"It is lucky, Mr. Leach," said the Captain, continuing the discourse he
had been holding with his mate in a low voice, under the sense of the
insecurity of their situation; "it is lucky, Mr. Leach, that we got out
the stream anchor astern, else we should have had the ship rubbing her
copper against the corners of the rocks. This air seems light, but under
all her canvas, the Montauk would soon flap her way out from this coast,
if all were ready."
"Ay, ay, sir, if all were ready!" repeated Mr. Leach, as if he knew how
much honest labour was to be expended before that happy moment
could arrive.
"If all were ready. I think we may be able to whip these three sticks out
of this fellow by breakfast-time in the morning, and then a couple of
hours will answer for the raft; after which, a pull of six or eight more
will take us back to our own craft."
"If all goes well, it may be done, sir."
"Well or ill, it must be done. We are not in a situation to play at
jack-straws!"
"I hope if may be done, sir."
"Mr. Leach!"
"Captain Truck!"
"We are in a d----le category, sir, if the truth must be spoken."
"That is a word I am not much acquainted with, but we have an awkward
berth of it here, if that be what you mean!"
A long pause, during which these two seamen, one of whom was old, the
other young, paced the deck diligently.
"Mr. Leach!"
"Captain Truck!"
"Do you ever pray?"
"I have done such a thing in my time, sir; but, since I have sailed with
you, I have been taught to work first and pray afterwards; and when the
difficulty has been gotten over by the work, the prayers have commonly
seemed surplusage."
"You should take to, your thanksgivings. I think your grandfather was a
parson Leach."
"Yes, he was, sir, and I have been told your father followed the same
trade."
"You have been told the truth, Mr. Leach. My father was as meek, and
pious, and humble a Christian as ever thumped a pulpit. A poor man, and,
if truth must be spoken, a poor preacher too; but a zealous one, and
thoroughly devout. I ran away from him at twelve, and never passed a week
at a time under his roof afterwards. He could not do much for me, for he
had little education and no money, and, I believe, carried on the business
pretty much by faith. He was a good man, Leach, notwithstanding there
might be a little of a take-in for such a person to set up as a teacher;
and, as for my mother, if there ever was a pure spirit on earth it was in
her body!"
"Ay, that is the way commonly with the mothers, sir."
"She taught me to pray," added the captain, speaking a little thick, "but
since I've been in this London line, to own the truth, I find but little
time for any thing but hard work, until, for want of practice, praying has
got to be among the hardest things I can turn my hand to."
"That is the way with all of us; it is my opinion, Captain Truck, these
London and Liverpool liners will have a good many lost souls to
answer for."
"Ay, ay, if we could put it on them, it would do well enough; but my
honest old father always maintained, that every man must stand in the gap
left by his own sins; though he did assert, also, that we were all
fore-ordained to shape our courses starboard or port, even before we were
launched."
"That doctrine makes an easy tide's-way of life; for I see no great use in
a man's carrying sail and jamming himself up in the wind, to claw off
immoralities, when he knows he is to fetch up upon them after all
his pains."
"I have worked all sorts of traverses to get hold of this matter, and
never could make any thing of it. It is harder than logarithms. If my
father had been the only one to teach it, I should have thought less about
it, for he was no scholar, and might have been paying it out just in the
way of business; but then my mother believed it, body and soul, and she
was too good a woman to stick long to a course that had not truth to
back it."
"Why not believe it heartily, sir, and let the wheel fly? One gets to the
end of the v'y'ge on this tack as well as on another."
"There is no great difficulty in working up to or even through the passage
of death, Leach, but the great point is to know the port we are to moor in
finally. My mother taught me to pray, and when I was ten I had underrun
all the Commandments, knew the Lord's Creed, and the Apostles' Prayer, and
had made a handsome slant into the Catechism; but, dear me, dear me, it
has all oozed out of me, like the warmth from a Greenlander."
"Folks were better educated in your time, Captain Truck, than they are
now-a-days, by all I can learn."
"No doubt of that in the world. In my time, younkers were taught respect
for their betters, and for age, and their Catechism, and piety, and the
Apostles' Prayer, and all those sort of things. But America has fallen
astern sadly in manners within the last fifty years. I do not flatter
myself with being as good as I was when under my excellent dear mother's
command, but there are worse men in the world, and out of Newgate, too,
than John Truck. Now, in the way of vices, Leach, I never swear."
"Not you, sir; and Mr. Monday _never_ drinks."
As the protestation of sobriety on the part of their passenger had got to
be a joke with the officers and men of the ship, Captain Truck had no
difficulty in understanding his mate, and though nettled at a retort that
was like usurping his own right to the exclusive quizzing of the vessel,
he was in a mood much too sentimental and reflecting to be angry. After a
moment's pause, he resumed the dialogue, as if nothing had been said to
disturb its harmony.
"No, I _never_ swear; or, if I do, it is in a small gentlemanly way, and
with none of your foul-mouthed oaths, such as are used by the
horse-jockeys that formerly sailed out of the river."
"Were they hard swearers?"
"Is a nor'-wester a hard wind? Those fellows, after they have been choked
off and jammed by the religion ashore for a month or two, would break out
like a hurricane when they had made an offing, and were once fairly out of
hearing of the parsons and deacons. It is said that old Joe Bunk began an
oath on the bar that he did not get to the end of until his brig was off
Montauk. I have my doubts, Leach, if any thing be gained by screwing down
religion and morals, like a cotton bale, as is practised in and about
the river!"
"A good many begin to be of the same way of thinking; for when our people
_do_ break out, it is like the small-pox!"
"I am an advocate for education; nor do I think I was taught in my own
case more than was reasonable. I think even a prayer is of more use to a
ship-master than Latin, and I often have, even now, recourse to one,
though it may not be exactly in Scripture language. I seldom want a wind
without praying for it, mentally, as it might be; and as for the
rheumatis', I am always praying to be rid of it, when I'm not cursing it
starboard and larboard. Has it never struck you that the world is less
moral since steamboats were introduced than formerly?"
"The boats date from before my birth, sir."
"Very true--you are but a boy. Mankind appear to be hurried, and no one
likes to stop to pray, or to foot up his sins, as used to be the case.
Life is like a passage at sea. We feel our way cautiously until off
soundings on our own coast, and then we have an easy time of it in the
deep water; but when we get near the shoals again; we take out the lead,
and mind a little how we steer. It is the going off and coming on the
coast, that gives us all the trouble."
"You had some object in view, Captain Truck, when you asked me if I ever
prayed!"
"Certain. If I were to set to work to pray myself just now, it would be
for smooth water to-morrow, that we may have a good time in towing the
raft to the ship--hist! Leach did you hear nothing?"
"There was a sound different from what is common in the air from the land!
It is probably some savage beast, for Africa is full of them."
"I think we might manage a lion from this fortress. Unless the fellow
found the stage, he could hardly board us, and a plank or two thrown from
that, would make a draw-bridge of it at once. Look yonder! there is
something moving on the bank, or my eyes are two jewel-blocks."
Mr. Leach looked in the required direction, and he, too, fancied he saw
something in motion on the margin of the bank. At the point where the
wreck lay, the beach was far from wide, and her flying jib-boom, which was
still out, projected so near the low acclivity, where the coast rose to
the level of the desert, as to come within ten feet of the bushes by which
the latter was fringed. Although the spar had drooped a little in
consequence of having lost the support of the stays, its end was still
sufficiently high to rise above the leaves, and to permit one seated on it
to overlook the plain as well as the starlight would allow. Believing the
duty to be important, Captain Truck, first giving his orders to Mr. Leach,
as to the mode of alarming the men, should it become necessary, went
cautiously out on the bowsprit, and thence by the foot-ropes, to the
farther extremity of the booms. As this was done with the steadiness of a
seaman and with the utmost care to prevent discovery, he was soon
stretched on the spar, balancing his body by his legs beneath, and casting
eager glances about, though prevented by the obscurity from seeing either
far or very distinctly.
After lying in this position a minute, Captain Truck discovered an object
on the plains, at the distance of a hundred yards from the bushes, that
was evidently in motion. He was now all watchfulness, for, had he not seen
the proofs that the Arabs or Moors had already been at the wreck, he knew
that parties of them were constantly hovering along the coast, especially
after every heavy gale that blew from the westward, in the hope of booty.
As all his own people were asleep, the mates excepted, and the boats could
just be discovered by himself, who knew their position, he was in hopes
that, should any of the barbarians be near, the presence of his own party
could hardly be known. It is true, the alteration in the appearance of the
wreck, by the removal of the spars, must strike any one who had seen it
before, but this change might have been made by another party of
marauders, or those who had now come, if any there were, might see the
vessel for the first time.
While such thoughts were rapidly glancing through his mind, the reader
will readily imagine that the worthy master was not altogether at his
ease. Still he was cool, and as he was resolved to fight his way off, even
against an army, he clung to the spar with a species of physical
resolution that would have done credit to a tiger. The object on the plain
moved once more, and the clouds opening beyond he plainly made out the
head and neck of a dromedary. There was but one, however; nor could the
most scrupulous examination show him a human being. After remaining a
quarter of an hour on the boom, during all which time the only sounds that
were heard were the sighings of the night-air, and the sullen and steady
wash of the surf, Captain Truck came on deck again, where he found his
mate waiting his report with intense anxiety. The former was fully aware
of the importance of his discovery, but, being a cool man, he had not
magnified the danger to himself.
"The Moors are down on the coast," he said, in an undertone; "but I do not
think there can be more than two or three of them at the most; probably
spies or scouts; and, could we seize them, we may gain a few hours on
their comrades, which will be all we want; after which they shall be
welcome to the salt and the other dunnage of the poor Dane. Leach, are you
the man to stand by me in this affair?"
"Have I ever failed you, Captain Truck, that you put the question?"
"That you have never, my fine fellow; give me a squeeze of your honest
hand, and let there be a pledge of life or death in it."
The mate met the iron grasp of his commander, and each knew that he
received an assurance on which he might rely.
"Shall I awake the men, sir?" asked Mr. Leach.
"Not one of them. Every hour of sleep the people get will be a lower mast
saved. These sticks that still remain are our foundation, and even one of
them is of more account to us, just now, than a fleet of ships might be at
another time. Take your arms and follow me; but first we will give a hint
to the second-mate of what we are about."
This officer was asleep on the deck, for he had been so much wearied with
his great exertions that afternoon as to catch a little rest as the
sweetest of all gifts. It had been the intention of Captain Truck to
dismiss him to the boats: but, observing him to be overcome with
drowsiness, he had permitted him to catch a nap where he lay. The
look-out, too, was also slumbering under the same indulgence; but both
were now awakened, and made acquainted with the state of things on shore.
"Keep your eyes open, but keep a dead silence," concluded Captain Truck;
"for it is my wish to deceive these scouts, and to keep them ignorant of
our presence. When I cry out 'Alarm!' you will muster all hands, and clear
away for a brush, but not before. God bless you, my lads! mind and keep
your eyes open. Leach, I am ready."
The captain and his companion cautiously descended to the sands, and
passing astern of the ship, they first took their way to the jolly-boat,
which lay at the rocks in readiness to carry off the two officers to the
launch. Here they found the two men in charge so soundly asleep, that
nothing would have been easier than to bind them without giving the alarm.
After a little hesitation, it was determined to let them dream away their
sorrows, and to proceed to the spot where the bank was ascended.
At this place it became necessary to use the greatest precaution, for it
was literally entering the enemy's country. The steepness of the short
ascent requiring them to mount nearly on their hands and feet, this part
of their progress was made without much hazard, and the two adventurers
stood on the plain, sheltered by some bushes.
"Yonder is the camel," whispered the captain: "you see his crooked neck,
with the head tossing at moments. The fellow is not fifty yards from the
body of the poor German! Now let us follow along this line of bushes, and
keep a sharp look-out for the rider."
They proceeded in the manner mentioned, until they came to a point where
the bushes ceased, and there was an opening that overlooked the beach
quite near the wreck.
"Do you see the boats, Leach, here away, in a line with the starboard
davit of the Dane? They look like dark spots on the water, and an ignorant
Arab might be excused for taking them for rocks."
"Except that they rise and fall with the rollers; he must be doubly a Turk
who could make such a blunder!"
"Your wanderers of the desert are not so particular. The wreck has
certainly undergone some changes since yesterday, and I should not wonder
if even a Mussulman found them out, but--"
The gripe of Mr. Leach, whose fingers almost entered the flesh of his arm,
and a hand pointed towards the bushes on the other side of the opening,
silenced the captain's whisper, A human form was seen standing on the
fringe of the bank, directly opposite the jib-boom. It was swaddled in a
sort of cloak, and the long musket that was borne in a hollow of an arm,
was just discernible, diverging from the line of the figure. The Arab, for
such it could only be, was evidently gazing on the wreck, and presently he
ventured out more boldly, and stood on the spot that was clear of bushes.
The death-like stillness on the beach deceived him, and he advanced with
less caution towards the spot where the two officers were in ambush, still
keeping his own eye on the ship. A few steps brought him within reach of
Captain Truck, who drew back his arm until the elbow reached his own hip,
when he darted it forward, and dealt the incautious barbarian a severe
blow between the eyes. The Arab fell like a slaughtered ox, and before his
senses were fairly recovered, he was bound hands and feet, and rolled over
the bank down upon the beach, with little ceremony, his fire-arms remaining
with his captors.
"That lad is in a category," whispered the captain; "it now remains to be
seen if there is another."
A long search was not rewarded with success, and it was determined to lead
the camel down the path, with a view to prevent his being seen by any
wanderer in the morning.
"If we get the lower masts out betimes," continued the captain, "these
land pirates will have no beacons in sight to steer by, and, in a country
in which one grain of sand is so much like another, they might hunt a week
before they made a happy landfall."
The approach of the two towards the camel was made with less caution than
usual, the success of their enterprise throwing them off their guard, and
exciting their spirits. They believed in short, that their captive was
either a solitary wanderer, or that he had been sent ahead as a scout, by
some party that would be likely to follow in the morning.
"We must be up and at work before the sun, Mr. Leach," said the captain,
speaking clearly, but in a low tone, as they approached the camel. The
head of the animal was tossed; then it seemed to snuff the air, and it
gave a shriek. In the twinkling of an eye an Arab sprang from the sand, on
which he had been sleeping, and was on the creature's back. He was seen to
look around him, and before the startled mariners had time to decide on
their course, the beast, which was a dromedary trained to speed, was out
of sight in the darkness. Captain Truck had thrown forward his
fowling-piece, but he did not fire.
"We have no right to shoot the fellow," he said, "and our hope is now in
the distance he will have to ride to join his comrades. If we have got a
chief, as I suspect, we will make a hostage of him, and turn him to as
much account, as he can possibly turn one of his own camels. Depend on it
we shall see no more of them for several hours, and we will seize the
opportunity to get a little sleep. A man must have his watch below, or he
gets to be as dull and as obstinate as a top-maul."
The captain having made up his mind to this plan was not slow in putting
it in execution. Returning to the beach they liberated the legs of their
prisoner, whom they found lying like a log on the sands, and made him
mount the staging to the deck of the ship. Leading the way into the cabin,
Mr. Truck examined the fellow by a light, turning him round and commenting
on his points very much as he might have done had the captive been any
other animal of the desert.
The Arab was a swarthy, sinewy man of forty, with all his fibres indurated
and worked down to the whip-cord meagreness and rigidity of a racer, his
frame presenting a perfect picture of the sort of being one would fancy
suited to the exhausting motion of a dromedary, and to the fare of a
desert. He carried a formidable knife, in addition to the long musket of
which he had been deprived, and his principal garment was the coarse
mantle of camel's hair, that served equally for cap, coat and robe. His
wild dark eyes gleamed, as Captain Truck passed the lamp before his face,
and it was sufficiently apparent that he fancied a very serious
misfortune had befallen him. As any verbal communication was out of the
question, some abortive attempts were essayed by the two mariners to make
themselves understood by signs, which, like some men's reasoning, produced
results exactly contrary to what had been expected.
"Perhaps the poor fellow fancies we mean to eat him, Leach," observed the
captain, after trying his skill in pantomime for some time without
success; "and he has some grounds for the idea, as he was felled like an
ox that is bound to the kitchen. Try and let the miserable wretch
understand, at least, that we are not cannibals."
Hereupon the mate commenced an expressive pantomime, which described, with
sufficient clearness, the process of skinning, cutting up, cooking, and
eating the carcass of the Arab, with the humane intention of throwing a
negative over the whole proceeding, by a strong sign of dissent at the
close; but there are no proper substitutes for the little monosyllables of
"yes" and "no," and the meaning of the interpreter got to be so confounded
that the captain himself was mystified.
"D--n it, Leach," he interrupted, "the man fancies that he is not good
eating, you make so many wry and out-of-the-way contortions. A sign is a
jury-mast for the tongue, and every seaman ought to know how to practise
them, in case he should be wrecked on a savage and unknown coast. Old Joe
Bunk had a dictionary of them, and in calm weather he used to go among his
horses and horned cattle, and talk with them by the hour. He made a
diagram of the language, and had it taught to all us younkers who were
exposed to the accidents of the bea. Now, I will try my hand on this Arab,
for I could never go to sleep while the honest black imagined we intended
to breakfast on him."
The captain now recommenced his own explanations in the language of
nature. He too described the process of cooking and eating the
prisoner--for this he admitted was indispensable by way of preface--and
then, to show his horror of such an act, he gave a very good
representation of a process he had often witnessed among his sea-sick
passengers, by way of showing his loathing of cannibalism in general, and
of eating this Arab in particular. By this time the man was thoroughly
alarmed, and by way of commentary on the captain's eloquence, he began to
utter wailings in his own language, and groans that were not to be
mistaken. To own the truth, Mr. Truck was a good deal mortified with this
failure, which, like all other unsuccessful persons, he was ready to
ascribe to anybody but himself.
"I begin to think, Mr. Leach," he said, "that this fellow is too stupid
for a spy or a scout, and that, after all, he is no more than a driveller
who has strayed from his tribe, from a want of sense to keep the road in a
desert. A man of the smallest information must have understood me, and yet
you perceive by his lamentations and outcries that he knows no more what I
said than if he were in another parallel of latitude. The chap has quite
mistaken my character; for if I really did intend to make a beast of
myself, and devour my species, no one of the smallest knowledge of human
nature would think I'd begin on a nigger! What is your opinion of the
man's mistake, Mr. Leach?"
"It is very plain, sir, that he supposes you mean to broil him, and then
to eat so much of his steaks, that you will be compelled to heave up like
a marine two hours out; and, if I must say the truth, I think most people
would have inferred the same thing from your signs, which are as plainly
cannibal as any thing of the sort I ever witnessed."
"And what the devil did he make of yours, Master Cookery-Book?" cried the
captain with some heat. "Did he fancy you meant to mortify the flesh with
a fortnight's fast? No, no, sir; you are a very respectable first officer,
but are no more acquainted with Joe Bunk's principles of signs, than this
editor here knows of truth and propriety. It is your blundering manner of
soliloquizing that has set the lad on a wrong traverse. He has just
grafted your own idea on my communication, and has got himself into a
category that a book itself would not reason him out of, until his fright
is passed. Logic is thrown away on all 'skeary animals,' said old Joe
Bunk. Hearkee, Leach, I've a mind to set the rascal adrift, condemning the
gun and the knife for the benefit of the captors. I think I should sleep
better for the certainty that he was trudging along the sand, satisfied he
was not to be barbecued in the morning."
There is no use in detaining him, sir, for his messmate, who went off on
the dromedary, will sail a hundred feet to his one, and if an alarm is
really to be given to their party, it will not come from this chap. He
will be unarmed, and by taking away his pouch we shall get some ammunition
for this gun of his, which will throw a shot as far as Queen Anne's
pocket-piece. For my part, sir, I think there is no great use in keeping
him, for I do not think he would understand us, if he stayed a month, and
went to school the whole time."
"You are quite right, and as long as he is among us, we shall be liable to
unpleasant misconceptions; so cut his lashings, and set him adrift, and be
d---d to him."
The mate, who by this time was drowsy, did as desired, and in a moment the
Arab was at liberty. At first the poor creature did not know what to make
of his freedom, but a smart application, _à posteriori_, from the foot of
Captain Truck, whose humanity was of the rough quality of the seas, soon
set him in motion up the cabin-ladder. When the two mariners reached the
deck, their prisoner was already leaping down the staging, and in another
minute his active form was obscurely seen clambering up the bank, on
gaining which he plunged into the desert, and was seen no more.
None but men indurated in their feelings by long exposure would be likely
to sleep under the circumstances in which these two seamen were placed;
but they were both too cool, and too much accustomed to arouse themselves
on sudden alarms, to lose the precious moments in womanish apprehensions,
when they knew that all their physical energies would be needed on the
morrow, whether the Arabs arrived or not. They accordingly regulated the
look-outs, gave strong admonitions of caution to be passed from one to
another, and then the captain stretched himself in the berth of the poor
Dane who was now a captive in the desert, while Mr. Leach got into the
jolly-boat, and was pulled off to the launch. Both were sound asleep in
less than five minutes after their heads touched their temporary pillows.