Part 36 (1/2)
”About forty, sir, including those who appear dead or dying,” returned the second lieutenant.
”Twenty trips will take about two hours, as the cutter must return once to the s.h.i.+p with her first cargo. It will be time well spent, at all events,” said Fleetwood, calculating in his mind the delay which would be thus occasioned in discovering where Ada had been conveyed, and attempting her rescue. ”Mr Saltwell, I will entrust the command of the expedition to you,” continued the captain. ”Mr Viall,” to the surgeon, ”we, I fear, shall want your services on board; but, Mr Farral,” to the a.s.sistant-surgeon, ”you will proceed in the cutter, and render what aid you consider immediately necessary. Take, at all events, a couple of breakers of water, and a bottle or two of brandy. You will find some stimulant necessary to revive the most exhausted--I should advise you, Mr Viall, to have some soft food, such as arrow-root, or something of that nature, boiled for them by the time they come off. They have probably been suffering from hunger as well as thirst, and anything of a coa.r.s.e nature may prove injurious.”
The cutter was hoisted out, and every preparation quickly made. Numbers of volunteers presented themselves, but Linton's was the only offer which was accepted, as he undertook to go on to the rock in the first trip the dinghy made, and to render what aid he could to those who appeared to be on the brink of dissolution, when even a few minutes might make the difference, whether they died or recovered. Mr Saltwell gave the order to shove off, and away the cutter pulled up towards the rock, with the dinghy in tow, on her work of humanity.
The captain and those who remained on board watched the progress of the boats, as well as the movements on the rock, with intense interest. It is scarcely possible to describe the excitement on the rock, caused by the departure of the boat. If the actions had before been extravagant, they were now doubly so; they shrieked, they danced, they embraced each other with the most frantic gestures; and, indeed, appeared entirely to have lost all control over themselves.
The cutter dropped her anchor at the distance it was considered advisable from the rock; but her so doing seemed to make the unhappy maniacs fancy that she was not coming to their a.s.sistance, and their joy was at once turned into rage and defiance. One of them leaped into the water and endeavoured to swim towards the boat. Linton, who had taken the precaution before leaving the s.h.i.+p to arm himself, as had Raby, who was his companion, instantly leaped into the dinghy, with the two men destined to pull her; and they urged her on as fast as they could to succour the unhappy wretch, slacking away at the same time a rope made fast to the cutter. They had got near enough to see his eye-b.a.l.l.s starting from his head, as he struck out towards them, his hair streaming back, his mouth wide open, and every muscle of his face working with the exertion of which he himself was scarcely conscious, when, as he was almost within their grasp, he uttered a loud shriek, and throwing up his arms, sank at once before them. A few red marks rose where he had been, but they were quickly dispersed by the waves.
”The poor fellow must have broken a blood-vessel, sir,” said Raby.
”No, indeed,” replied Linton, ”every artery must have been opened to cause those dark spots. A ground shark has got hold of him, depend on it. Heaven grant we do not get capsized, or our chance of escape will be small. But, hark! what language are those fellows speaking? It is French, is it not?”
”French, sure enough, sir,” replied Jack Raby. ”I thought so, before we left the cutter.”
”_Sacre betes Anglais_! How dare you venture here? This is our island, far better than your miserable Malta. We have taken possession of it, and will hold it against all the world. Begone with you, or we will sink you, and your s.h.i.+p to the bottom; off, off.”
As they were uttering these words, they continued making the most violent gestures of defiance and contempt, but this did not prevent Linton from approaching the rock. It was larger than it had appeared to be at a distance; and at the spot to which he was making there was a little indentation where the water was comparatively smooth. I have said that there was a group of men in front of a tent, at the higher part of the rock, and these they now observed, were armed, and had thrown up a sort of fortification, with planks and chests, and spars, and other things cast on sh.o.r.e from the wreck, aided by the natural inequality of that part of the rock.
”Good Heavens!” thought Linton. ”And on so small a spot of ground, could not these men rest at peace with each other?”
Just as the dinghy was within two boat-hooks' length of the rock, a voice from among the group, hailed in English,--”Take care, sir, or those fellows will murder you all. They have been threatening to do it.
But if we could but get up a few drops of water here, we should soon be able to quiet them.”
”I have the water for you, and I will try what I can do to pacify them,”
shouted Linton, at the top of his voice. ”_A present, mes amis_” he said in French; ”we have come here as friends to aid you; we do not want to take your island, to which you are welcome; and to convince you that we do not come as enemies, any two of you can go off to the large boat there, where they may have as much food and water as they require.”
Two of them rather more sane than the rest, on hearing this, shouted out,--”Food and water, that is what we want--you are friends, we see--we will go.”
”No, no--if any go, all shall go!” exclaimed the rest, rus.h.i.+ng down to the water; but, so blind was the eagerness of the ma.s.s that these were precipitated headlong into the sea, and would have become food for the ground sharks had not Linton and his companions hauled them into the dinghy. He was now afraid that he should be obliged to return at some risk with the boat thus heavily laden, but before doing so he determined to make one more attempt to join the people on the top. His first care, before letting the boat again drop in, was to pour a few drops of brandy-and-water down the throats of the two Frenchmen they had rescued.
This so revived them, and with their immersion in the water, so restored their senses, that they rose up in the boat and shouted out to their companions:--”These men are friends--receive them as brethren among you, and we will be answerable for their honesty.”
”Now, messieurs, is your time,” said one. ”Hasten, if you desire to get on sh.o.r.e, or their mood will change.”
”Pull in,” cried Linton, and in another moment he and Raby, who carried a breaker of water on his shoulder, sprang on sh.o.r.e while the boat was hauled back to the cutter.
There they stood for an instant confronting the most ferocious looking beings it is possible to conceive in human shape. Their beards were long, and their hair wet and tangled, and hanging down over their shoulders, their eye-b.a.l.l.s were starting from their heads, and their limbs were emaciated in the extreme, lacerated, and clotted with blood and dirt--scarcely any of them having a rag of clothing to cover them.
”Now, my friends, allow us to proceed to a place where we may sit down and discuss our plans for the future,” said Linton, hoping thus to keep them quiet till he could get nearer the summit of the rock.
”_Waistcoat bien, c'est bien_,” they answered. ”Monsieur is a man of sense,” said one, with a maniac leer at his companion. ”We will allow him to make merry at our next feast, eh, comrades?”
And they laughed, and shouted at the wit of the poor wretch.
”We will proceed, then,” said Linton, who found them pressing on him.
”Push on, Raby, and try and gain the top before these madmen break out again. Let us advance, messieurs.”
”What, and join our enemies in the castle up there?” sneered the maniac, who had proposed them joining their feast, of the nature of which they could have little doubt. ”No, no. We see that you are no friends of the French, so over you go to feed the fishes.”
As he uttered these words, he made a rush at Linton, who with difficulty leaped out of his way, when the miserable wretch, unable to stop himself, ran on till he fell over into the water, where his companions derided his dying struggles. This attracted the attention of some; but the others made a rush at Linton, who had just time to draw his cutla.s.s, and to keep them off from himself and Raby, who, hampered with the water-cask, could do little to defend himself.
So rapidly had the events I have mentioned taken place, that there was not time even for the dinghy's return to bring them a.s.sistance. Had Linton chosen to kill his a.s.sailants, he might easily have preserved his own safety; but unwilling to hurt them, unconscious as they were of what they were about, he was very nearly falling a victim to his own humanity. As he and Jack Raby sprang up the rock they got round them, and on a sudden they found themselves attacked from behind. On turning his head for a moment, a powerful wretch seized his sword by the blade, and though it was cutting his hands through and through he would not let it go. At the same instant others threw their arms round his neck, and were dragging him to the ground, where in all probability they would instantly have destroyed him, when two persons sprang down from the top of the rock with heavy spars in their hands, and striking right and left on the heads of the maniacs, compelled them to let go their hold, and allow Linton and Raby to spring to their feet.