Commodore Junk Part 50

"Is this Captain Humphrey Armstrong, the brave commander sent to exterminate me and mine, stooping to make a miserable excuse--to tell a lie!"

"A lie!" cried Humphrey, fiercely, as he took a step in advance.

"Yes, a lie!" said the buccaneer, without moving a muscle. "You were trying to find some way by which you could escape."

"Well," cried Humphrey, pa.s.sionately, "I am a prisoner. I have refused to give my parole; I was trying to find some way of escape."

"That is more like you," said the buccaneer, quietly. "Why? What do you require? Are you not well treated by my men?"

"You ask me why," cried Humphrey--"me, whom you have defeated-- disgraced, and whom you hold here a prisoner. You ask me why!"

"Yes. I whom you would have taken, and, if I had not died sword in hand, have hung at your yard-arm, and then gibbeted at the nearest port as a scarecrow."

He was silent, and the buccaneer went on--

"I have looked back, and I cannot see you placing a cabin at my disposal, seeing me nursed back from the brink of death, treated as a man would treat his wounded brother."

"No," cried Humphrey, quickly; "and why have you done all this when it would have been kinder to have slain me on that wretched day?"

"Why have I done this!" said the buccaneer, with the colour deepening in his swarthy face. "Ah, why have I done this! Perhaps," he continued bitterly, "because I said to myself: 'This is a brave, true, English gentleman;' and I find instead a man who does not hesitate to lie to screen his paltry effort to escape."

Humphrey made a menacing gesture; but the buccaneer did not stir.

"Look here, sir," he continued. "I am in this place more powerful among my people than the king you serve. You smile; but you will find that it is true."

"If I am not killed, sir, trying to make some effort to escape."

"Escape!" cried the buccaneer, with his face lighting up. "Man, you have been warned before that you cannot escape. The forest beyond where we stand is one dense thicket through which no man can pa.s.s unless he cut his way inch by inch. It is one vast solitude, standing as it has stood since the world was made."

"Bah!" cried Humphrey, scornfully. "A determined man could make his way."

"How far!" cried the buccaneer. "A mile--two miles--and then, what is there?--starvation, fever, and death--lest in that vast wilderness.

Even the Indians cannot penetrate those woods and mountains. Will you not take my word!"

"Would you take mine," said Humphrey, scornfully, "if our places were changed! I shall escape."

The buccaneer smiled.

"You have an easy master, captain," he said, quietly; "but I would like to see you wear your chains more easily. Humphrey Armstrong, you cannot escape. There is only one way from this place, and that is by the sea, and there is no need to guard that. Look here," he cried, laying his hand upon the prisoner's arm, "you have been planning this for days and days. You have lain out yonder upon that stone by the old palace, calculating how you could creep away; and you found your opportunity to-day, when you said to yourself, 'These people are all asleep now, and I will find my way round to where my men are prisoners.'"

As he spoke Humphrey changed colour and winced, for the buccaneer seemed to have read his every thought.

"And then you came upon this path through the forest, and you felt that this was the way to freedom."

"Are you a devil?" cried Humphrey, excitedly.

"Perhaps," was the mocking reply. "Perhaps only the great b.u.t.terfly you watched before you started, as it lazily winged its way among the broken stones."

Humphrey uttered an exclamation, and gazed wildly in the dark, mocking eyes.

"Never mind what I am, captain, but pray understand this--you cannot escape from here. When you think you are most alone, there are eyes upon you which see your every act, and your movements are all known."

"I will not believe it," cried Humphrey, angrily.

"Then disbelieve it; but it is true. I tell you there is no escape, man. You may get away a few miles perhaps, but every step you take bristles with the threatenings of death. So be warned, and bear your fate patiently. Wait! Grow strong once more."

"And then!" cried Humphrey, excitedly. "What then?"

"Ah, yes," said the buccaneer, who a.s.sumed not to have heard his words, "you are still weak. That flush in your face is the flush of fever, and you are low and excited."

"Dog! You are mocking me!" cried Humphrey, furiously, for he felt the truth of every word that had been said, and his impotence maddened him.

"Dog!" cried the buccaneer as furiously.

"Yes; wretched cut-throat--murderer," cried Humphrey--"miserable wretch, whom I could strangle where you stand!"

The buccaneer turned of a sallow pallor, his brow knit, his eyes flashed, and his chest heaved, as he stood glaring at Humphrey; but the sudden storm of pa.s.sion pa.s.sed away, and with a smile of pity he said softly--

"You call names like a petulant boy. Come, I am not angry with you, let us go back to your room. The heat of this place is too much for you, and to-morrow you will be down with fever."

"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Humphrey, angrily.

"It is true," said the buccaneer. "Come."

"There's something behind all this," cried the young man, excitedly.

"We are alone here. I am the stronger; and, in spite of your boasting, there is no one here to help. You shall speak out, and tell me what this means."

His gesture was threatening now; but the buccaneer did not stir.

"I am not alone," he said, quietly. "I never am without someone to protect me. But there, you shall be answered. Why have I had you tended as I have? Well, suppose I have said to myself, 'Here is a brave man who should be one of us.'"

"One of you!" cried Humphrey, with a scornful laugh.

"Suppose," continued the buccaneer, with his nether lip quivering slightly, "I had said to myself, 'You are alone here. Your men obey you, but you have no friends among them--no companions whom you can trust. Why not make this man your friend?'"

Humphrey smiled, and the buccaneer's lip twitched slightly as he continued--

"You are fevered and disappointed now, and I shall not heed your words.

I tell you once for all that you must accept your fate here as others have accepted theirs. I need not tell you that for one to escape from here would be to bring ruin upon all. Hence every one is his brother's guardian; and the Indians for hundreds of miles around, at first our enemies till they felt my power, are now my faithful friends."

Humphrey laughed mockingly.

"You laugh, sir. Well it is the laugh of ignorance, as you will find.

It is no idle boast when I say that I am king here over my people, and the tribes to north and south."

"The Indians too?" said Humphrey.

"Yes, the Indians too, as you found to your cost."