CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT.
The next time the doctor came below to see his patients he examined PeteBurge.
"Humph!" he ejaculated. "Lucky for you, my man, that you have such athick skull. You'll do now; but you've had a narrow escape. There, youcan go up on deck every day a bit, but keep out of the sun; it's veryhot, and getting hotter. It will do you more good than stopping down inthis black hole."
"Thank ye, master," said Pete; and he lay still in his hammock, waitingfor the doctor to go on deck before getting out and beginning to dress.
"Look here," said the doctor; "you are not off the sick-list yet, andyou will come down and look after this lad till he is fit to go up.--Well, how are you, my lad?--Hold that light closer," he continued,turning to his assistant. "Humph! fever stronger.--Has he been talkingto you--sensibly?"
"Yes, zir," replied Pete. "A good deal muddled at first, but he beganasking questions at last."
"What about?"
"Didn't know how he come here, and I had to tell him."
"Yes! What then?"
"Give a zort of a groan, zir, and been talking to hisself ever zince."
"Humph! Poor wretch," muttered the doctor, and he gave someinstructions to his assistant before turning once more to Pete:
"Look here, you had better stay with your mate when you are not on deck.If he gets worse you can fetch me."
"Where shall I find you, zir?" asked Pete.
"Ask one of the men."
Pete began to dress as soon as he was alone, and found that it was noeasy task on account of a strange feeling of giddiness; but he succeededat last, and stepped to Nic's hammock and laid a cool hand upon the poorfellow's burning brow. Then he went on deck, glad to sit down rightforward in the shade cast by one of the sails and watch the blue waterwhenever the vessel heeled over.
The exertion, the fresh air, and the rocking motion of the ship produceda feeling of drowsiness, and Pete was dropping off to sleep when hestarted into wakefulness again, for half-a-dozen men came up a hatchwayclose at hand, with the irons they wore clinking, to sit down upon thedeck pretty near the convalescent.
Pete stared as he recognised Humpy Dee and five other partners in theraid.
"There, what did I tell you?" said the first-named, speaking to hiscompanions, but glaring savagely at Pete the while. "There he is. Iallus knowed it. He aren't in irons. It was his doing. Give warning,he did, and they brought the sailor Jacks up. It was a regular trap."
"What do you mean?" said Pete wonderingly.
"What I say. I always knew you'd turn traitor and tell on us."
"You don't know what you're talking about," cried Pete. "Look here,lads."
The men he addressed uttered a low growl and turned from him in disgust.
"Oh, very well," said Pete bitterly; "if you like to believe him insteadof me, you can."
"I told you so," went on Humpy Dee, whose countenance looked repulsivenow from a patch of strips of sticking-plaster upon his forehead; "andhe says I don't know what I'm talking about."
"That's right," said Pete; "you don't."
"Maybe; but I do now. Look ye here, Pete Burge; it's your doing thatwe're here. Nearly the whole lot on us took--there, you can see some of'em sailors now. Pressed men. They took the pick of us; but we're notgood enough, we're not, while you're to be a bo'sun, or some'at o' thatsort, you expect. But you won't, for, first chance I get, Pete Burge,I'm going to pitch you overboard, or put a knife in your back; so lookout."
"You don't know what you're talking about," said Pete again, for nothingbetter occurred to him; and as the charge seemed to have gone home fortruth with the other unfortunates, one and all embittered by sickness,injuries, and confinement in irons below deck, Pete sulkily did as theydid, turned away, confident that Humpy Dee's threat would not be put inforce then; for a marine was standing sentry over them, till the men inirons were marched below, Pete finding that, as one on the sick-list, hewas free to go up or down when he liked.
During the next fortnight the man puzzled himself as to what was tobecome of them. He had seen others of his companions often enough,going about their duties; but every one turned from him with a scowl ofdislike, which showed that the charge Humpy had made had gone home, andthat all believed he had betrayed them.
The consequence was that he passed much of his time below decks, andpreferred to come up for his breath of fresh air after dark, passing histime beside Nic's hammock, thinking what he ought to do about him, andmaking up his mind what it was to be as soon as the poor fellow grewbetter and fully recovered his senses.
"I'll tell the doctor then," he said to himself. "There's no good intelling him now, for if I did they'd take him away and put him in acabin, where it would only be lonezome for him and for me too; and noone would wait on him better than I do."
But Nic did not get better, as Pete wished, nor yet as the doctoressayed to make him.
"It has got on his brain, poor fellow," said that gentleman one day,when the patient was able to walk about, apparently nearly well, but hismind quite vacant. He talked, but the past was quite a blank.
"But he'll get it off, won't he, zir?" said Pete, who felt the time tospeak had come.
"Some day, my lad. I dare say his memory will come back all of a suddenwhen he is stronger and better able to bear his trouble; so perhaps it'sall a blessing for him in disguise."
There was so much in this that Pete felt that it was not the time tospeak yet.
"What good can it do him till he can think?" he said to himself. "Itwill only be like me losing a mate as can be a bit o' comfort, now everyone's again' me. I mean to stick to him till he can speak out and tell'em as I didn't inform again' the others."
So Pete held his tongue, and being so much below, was almost forgotten,save by the men of the watches who had to bring the two sick men theirrations; and finally he left it till it was too late. For he awoke onemorning to find that they were in port in a strange land, and in thecourse of the morning the word was passed to him and his unfortunatecompanion to "tumble up."
"Here, master," he said to Nic; "you're to come up."
Nic made no objection, but suffered himself to be led on deck, where hestood, pale and thin, the wreck of his former self, blinking in theunwonted light, and trying to stare about him, but in a blank way,ending by feeling for and clinging to Pete's arm.
Very little time was afforded the latter for looking about, wonderingwhat was to happen next; all he saw on deck was a group of marines andabout a couple of dozen of the sailors doing something to one of theboats, while the officers were looking on.
The next minute his attention was taken by the beautiful countryspreading out beyond the shore, a quarter of a mile away across thesparkling waters of the harbour.
But there was something else to take his attention during the nextminute, for there was the clanking of irons, and he saw Humpy Dee andhis five companions marched up from below to be called to where he wasstanding with Nic.
The poachers looked repellent enough as they followed Humpy Dee'sexample, and scowled at the pair who had come up from the sick bay, andseemed to receive little sympathy from those who were looking on. Thenthere was an order given by one of the officers, and the crew of theboat climbed quickly in, while the marines came up behind the prisoners.
"They're going to take us ashore," thought Pete excitedly, and the ideahad hardly been grasped, before a couple of old hats were handed to himand his companion by the sergeant of marines.
"They're going to put uz with Humpy and that lot," said Pete to himselfexcitedly; "and I must speak now."
He spoke. It was hurriedly and blunderingly done, and the officer whomhe addressed looked at him frowningly.
"What!" he cried; "this man is not one of you--one of the gang takenthat night?"
"No, master; he's a gentleman, and took by mistake."
Humpy Dee's eyes flashed, and he burst into a coarse laugh.
&nb
sp; "Silence, you scoundrel!--How dare you?" cried the officer angrily.
"Couldn't help it, master," growled Humpy. "Make a horse laugh to hearsuch 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 gothurt. He's one of us. That Pete Burge peached on us, and brought thesailor 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'scompanions.
"Same as he does," cried the pressed men in chorus.
"And you?" cried the officer, turning to Nic. "Are you one of thisfellow's comrades?"
"No, master, he aren't," cried Pete; "he aren't, indeed. He's nought tome. He's--"
"Silence, sir!" roared the officer. "You, sir," he continued, turningto Nic, "speak out. Are you one of this fellow's comrades?"
Nic looked at him blankly, and there was silence on the deck, as thevarious 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 aword. 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 hisworst--every one else seemed strange; and without a word he smiled sadlyin Pete's face and took hold of his arm.
"That will do," said the officer, who had his orders to carry out. "Inwith them!"
The marines laid their hands on Nic's and Pete's shoulders, while thesergeant 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 goingto be took?"
The marine glanced swiftly aside to see if it was safe to answer, andthen whispered back:
"Off to the plantations, I s'pose. There, keep a good heart, lad. Itaren't for ever and a day."
The plantations--to work as a kind of white slave for some colonistfar-away.
Pete, in his ignorance, only grasped half the truth; but that half wasbad enough to make him sink down in the boat as it was lowered from thedavits, 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 witha splash; and, as the men gave way, Pete Burge darted a wild look abouthim, to find Humpy Dee just at his back, glaring malignantly, and as ifabout to speak, as he leaned forward.
But no word came, for the marine sergeant clapped a hand upon hisshoulder and thrust him back.
"All right," said Humpy Dee; "my time'll come bimeby. Better than beinga pressed man, after all."
Nic had been a long while in the darkness below deck, and his eyes werefeeble; but, as the boat glided on rapidly towards the shore, theybecame more accustomed to the light, and he gazed wonderingly about inhis confused state, seeing nothing of the trouble ahead, only the factthat he was approaching the far-stretching, sun-brightened shore.
Nic Revel: A White Slave's Adventures in Alligator Land Page 14
