Fire Cloud; Or, The Mysterious Cave. A Story of Indians and Pirates.

by Samuel Fletcher

  CHAPTER IV.

  Yes, the pirate and his crew were now seated round the table for thepurpose as he said, of making a night of it. And a set of more perfectdevils could hardly be found upon the face of the earth.

  And yet there was nothing about them so far as outward appearance wasconcerned, that would lead you to suppose them to be the horriblewretches that they really were.

  With the exception of Jones Bradley, there was not one among them whohad not been guilty of almost every crime to be found on the calenderof human depravity.

  For some time very little was said by any of the party, but after awhile as their blood warmed under the influence of the hot liquor,their tongues loosened, and they became more talkative. And to hearthem, you would think that a worthier set of men were no where to befound.

  Not that they pretended to any extraordinary degree of virtue, butthen they had as much as anyone else. And he who pretended to anymore, was either a hypocrite or a fool.

  To be sure, they robbed, and murdered, and so did every one else, orwould if they found it to their interest to do so.

  "Hallo! Tim," shouted one of the men to another who sat at theopposite side of the table; "where is that new song that you learnedthe other day?"

  "I've got it here," replied the person referred to, putting his fingeron his forehead.

  "Out with it, then."

  "Let's have it," said the other.

  The request being backed by the others Tim complied as follows.

  THE BUCCANEER.

  Fill up the bowl, Through heart and soul, Let the red wine circle free, Here's health and cheer, To the Buccaneer, The monarch of the sea!

  The king may pride, In his empire wide, A robber like us is he, With iron hand, He robs on land, As we rob on the sea.

  The priest in his gown, Upon us may frown, The merchant our foe may be, Let the judge in his wig, And the lawyer look big, They're robbers as well as we!

  Then fill up the bowl, Through heart and through soul, Let the red wine circle free, Drink health and cheer, To the Buccaneer. He's monarch of the sea.

  "I like that song," said one of the men, whose long sober face andsolemn, drawling voice had gained for him among his companions thetitle of Parson. "I like that song; it has the ring of the true metal,and speaks my sentiments exactly. It's as good as a sermon, and betterthan some sermons I've heard."

  "It preaches the doctrine I've always preached, and that is that thewhole world is filled with creatures who live by preying upon eachother, and of all the animals that infest the earth, man is the worstand cruelest."

  "What! Parson!" said one of the men, "you don't mean to say that thewhole world's nothing but a set of thieves and murderers!"

  "Yes; I do," said the parson; "or something just as bad."

  "I'd like to know how you make that out," put in Jones Bradley. "I hada good old mother once, and a father now dead and gone. I own I'm badenough myself, but no argument of yours parson, or any body else's canmake me believe that they were thieves and murderers."

  "I don't mean to be personal," said the parson, "your father andmother may have been angels for all I know, but I'll undertake to showthat all the rest of the world, lawyers, doctors and all, are a set ofthieves and murderers, or something just as bad."

  "Well Parson, s'pose you put the stopper on there," shouted one of themen; "if you can sing a song, or spin a yarn, it's all right; but thisain't a church, and we don't want to listen to one of your long-windedsermons tonight."

  "Amen!" came from the voices of nearly all present.

  The Parson thus rebuked, was fain to hold his peace for the rest ofthe evening.

  After a pause of a few moments, one of the men reminded Captain Flint,that he had promised to inform them how he came to adopt theirhonorable calling as a profession.

  "Well," said the captain, "I suppose I might as well do it now, as atany other time; and if no one else has anything better to offer, I'llcommence; and to begin at the beginning, I was born in London. Aboutmy schooling and bringing up, I haven't much to say, as an account ofit would only be a bore.

  "My father was a merchant and although I suppose one ought not tospeak disrespectfully of one's father, he was, I must say, asgripping, and tight-fisted a man as ever walked the earth.

  "I once heard a man say, he would part with anything he had on earthfor money, but his wife. My father, I believe, would have not onlyparted with his wife and children for money, but himself too, if hehad thought he should profit by the bargain.

  "As might be expected, the first thing he tried to impress on theminds of his children was the necessity of getting money.

  "To be sure, he did not tell us to steal, as the word is generallyunderstood; for he wanted us to keep clear of the clutches of the law.Could we only succeed in doing this, it mattered little to him, howthe desired object was secured.

  "He found in me an easy convert to his doctrine, so far as the gettingof money was concerned; but in the propriety of hoarding the money ashe did when it was obtained, I had no faith.

  "The best use I thought that money could be put too, was to spend it.

  "Here my father and I were at swords' points, and had it not been thatnotwithstanding this failing, as he called it, I had become useful tohim in his business, he would have banished me long before I took intomy head to be beforehand with him, and become a voluntary exile fromthe parental roof.

  "The way of it was this. As I have intimated, according to my father'snotions all the wealth in the world was common property, and every onewas entitled to all he could lay his hands on.

  "Now, believing in this doctrine, it occurred to me that my father hadmore money than he could ever possibly make use of, and that if Icould possess a portion of it without exposing myself to any greatdanger, I should only be carrying out his own doctrine.

  "Acting upon this thought, I set about helping myself as opportunityoffered, sometimes by false entries, and in various ways that I neednot explain.

  "This game I carried on for some time, but I knew that it would notlast forever. I should be found out at last, and I must be out of theway before the crash came.

  "Luckily a chance of escape presented itself.

  "My father, in connection with two or three other merchants, chartereda vessel to trade among the West India islands.

  "I managed to get myself appointed supercargo. I should now be out ofthe way when the discovery of the frauds which I had been practicing Iknew must be made.

  "As I had no intention of ever returning, my mind was perfectly atease on this score.

  "We found ready sale for our cargo, and made a good thing of it.

  "As I have said, when I left home, it was with the intention of neverreturning, though what I should do while abroad I had not decided, butas soon as the cargo was disposed of, my mind was made up.

  "I determined to turn pirate!

  "I had observed on our outward passage, that our vessel, which was abark of about two hundred tons burden, was a very fast sailor, andwith a little fitting up, could be made just the craft we wanted forour purpose.

  "During the voyage, I had sounded the hands in regard to my intentionof becoming a Buccaneer. I found them all ready to join me exceptingthe first mate and the steward or cook, rather, a negro whose views Iknew too well beforehand, to consult on the matter.

  "As I knew that the ordinary crew of the vessel would not besufficient for our purpose, I engaged several resolute fellows to joinus, whom I prevailed on the captain to take on board as passengers.

  "When we had been about a week out at sea and all our plans werecompleted, we quietly made prisoners of the captain and first mate,put them in the jolly boat with provisions to last them for severaldays, and sent them adrift. The cook, with his son, a little boy,would have gone with them, but thinking that they might be useful tous, we concluded to keep them on board.

  "Wh
at became of the captain and mate afterwards, we never heard.

  "We now put in to port on one of the islands where we knew we could doit in safety, and fitted our vessel up for the purpose we intended touse her.

  "This was soon done, and we commenced operations.

  "The game was abundant, and our success far exceeded our most sanguineexpectations.

  "There would be no use undertaking to tell the number of vessels,French, English, Spanish and Dutch, that we captured and sunk, or ofthe poor devils we sent to a watery grave.

  "But luck which had favored us so long, at last turned against as.

  "The different governments became alarmed for the safety of theircommerce in the seas which we frequented, and several expeditions werefitted out for our special benefit.

  "For a while we only laughed at all this, for we had escaped so manytimes, that we began to think we were under the protection of oldNeptune himself. But early one morning the man on the look-outreported a sail a short distance to the leeward, which seemed tryingto get away from us.

  "It was a small vessel, or brig, but as the weather was rather hazy,her character in other respects he could not make out.

  "We thought, however, that it was a small trading vessel, which havingdiscovered us, and suspecting our character, was trying to reach portbefore we could overtake her.

  "Acting under this impression, we made all sail for her.

  "As the strange vessel did not make very great headway, an hour'ssailing brought as near enough to give us a pretty good view of her,yet we could not exactly make out her character, yet we thought thatshe had a rather suspicious look. And still she appeared rather like atraveling vessel, though if so, she could not have much cargo onboard, and as the seemed built for speed, we wondered why she did notmake better headway.

  "But we were not long left in doubt in regard to her real character,for all at once her port-holes which had been purposely concealed wereunmasked, and we received a broadside from her just as we were aboutto send her a messenger from our long tom.

  "This broadside, although doing us little other damage, so cut ourrigging as to render our escape now impossible if such had been ourintention. So after returning the salute we had received, in ashandsome a manner as we could, I gave orders to bear down upon theenemy's ship, which I was glad to see had been considerably disabledby our shot. But as she had greatly the advantage of us in the weightof material, our only hope was in boarding her, and fighting it outhand to hand on her own deck.

  "The rigging of the two vessels was soon so entangled as to make itimpossible to separate them.

  "In spite of all the efforts of the crew of the enemy's vessel tooppose us we were soon upon her deck. We found she was a Spanishbrigantine sent out purposely to capture us.

  "Her apparent efforts to get away from us had been only a ruse to drawus on, so as to get us into a position from which there could be noescape.

  "I have been in a good many fights, but never before one like that.

  "As we expected no quarter, we gave none. The crew of the Spanishvessel rather outnumbered us, but not so greatly as to make thecontest very unequal. And in our case desperation supplied the placeof numbers.

  "The deck was soon slippery with gore, and there were but few left tofight on either side. The captain of the Spanish vessel was one of thefirst killed. Some were shot down, some were hurled over the deck inthe sea, some had their skulls broken with boarding pikes, and therewas not a man left alive of the Spanish crew; and of ours, I at firstthought that I was the only survivor, when the negro cook who had beenforgotten all the while, came up from the cabin of our brig, bearingin his arms his little son, of course unharmed, but nearly frightenedto death. Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that withthe exception of a few slight scratches, I escaped without a wound.

  "To my horror I now discovered that both vessels were fast sinking.But the cook set me at my ease on that score, by informing me thatthere was one small boat that had not been injured. Into this weimmediately got, after having secured the small supply of provisionsand water within our reach, which from the condition the vessels were,was very small.

  "We had barely got clear of the sinking vessels, when they both wentdown, leaving us alone upon the wide ocean without compass or chart;not a sail in sight, and many a long, long league from the nearestcoast.

  "For more than a week we were tossing about on the waves withoutdiscovering a vessel. At last I saw that our provisions were nearlygone. We had been on short allowance from the first. At the rate theywere going, they would not last more than two days longer. What was tobe done? Self preservation, they say is the first law of human nature;to preserve my own life, I must sacrifice my companions. The momentthe thought struck me it was acted upon.

  "Sam, the black cook, was sitting a straddle the bow of the boat; witha push I sent him into the sea. I was going to send his boy after him,but the child clung to my legs in terror, and just at that moment asail hove in sight and I changed my purpose.

  "Such a groan of horror as the father gave on striking the water Inever heard before, and trust I shall never hear again."

  "At that instant the whole party sprang to their feet as if started bya shock of electricity, while most fearful groan resounded through thecavern, repeated by a thousand echos, each repetition growing fainter,and fainter until seeming to lose itself in the distance.

  "That's it, that's it," said the captain, only louder, and if anythingmore horrible.

  "But what does all this mean?" he demanded of Lightfoot, who hadjoined the astonished group.

  "Don't know," said the woman.

  "Where's Black Bill?" next demanded the captain.

  "Here I is," said the boy crawling out from a recess in the wall inwhich he slept.

  "Was that you, Bill?" demanded his master.

  "No; dis is me," innocently replied the darkey.

  "Do you know what that noise was?" asked the captain.

  "S'pose 'twas de debble comin' after massa," said the boy.

  "What do you mean, you wooley-headed imp," said the captain; "don'tyou know that the devil likes his own color best? Away to bed, away,you rascal!"

  "Well, boys," said Flint, addressing the men and trying to appear veryindifferent, "we have allowed ourselves to be alarmed by a trifle thatcan be easily enough accounted for.

  "These rocks, as you see, are full of cracks and crevices; there maybe other caverns under, or about as, for all we know. The windentering these, has no doubt caused the noise we have beard, and whichto our imaginations, somewhat heated by the liquor we have beendrinking, has converted into the terrible groan which has so startledus, and now that we know what it is, I may as well finish my story.

  "As I was saying, a sail hove in sight. It was a vessel bound to thisport. I and the boy were taken on board and arrived here in safety.

  "This boy, whether from love or fear, I can hardly say, has clung tome ever since.

  "I have tried to shake him off several times, but it was no use, healways returns.

  "The first business I engaged in on arriving here, was to trade withthe Indians; when having discovered this cave, it struck me that itwould make a fine storehouse for persons engaged in our line ofbusiness. Acting upon this hint, I fitted it up as you see.

  "With a few gold pieces which I had secured in my belt I bought ourlittle schooner. From that time to the present, my history it as wellknown to you as to myself. And now my long yarn is finished, let us goon with our sport."

  But to recall the hilarity of spirits with which the entertainment hadcommenced, was no easy matter.

  Whether the captain's explanation of the strange noise wassatisfactory to himself or not, it was by no means so to the men.

  Every attempt at singing, or story telling failed. The only thing thatseemed to meet with any favor was the hot punch, and this for the mostpart, was drank in silence.

  After a while they slunk away from the table one by one, and fellasleep in some remote
corner of the cave, or rolled over where theysat, and were soon oblivious to everything around them.

  The only wakeful one among them was the captain himself, who had drankbut little.

  He sat by the table alone. He started up! Could he have dozed and beendreaming? but surely he heard that groan again!

  In a more suppressed voice than before, and not repeated so manytimes, but the same horrid groan; he could not be mistaken, he hadnever heard anything else like it. The matter must be looked into.