Martin Conisby's Vengeance Part 3

Now in her hands she bore a pipkin brimful of goat's milk.

"I prithee, sir," said she softly, "tell now--shall there be room for me in your boat?"

"Never in this world!"

"You were wiser to seek my love than my hate--"

"I seek neither!"

"Being a fool, yes. But the sun is hot and you will be a thirsty fool--"

"Where learned you that evil song?"

"In Tortuga when I was a child. But come, drink, _amigo mio_, drink an you will--"

"Whence had you that gown?"

"Ah--ah, you love me better thus, yes? Why, 'tis a pretty gown truly, though out o' the fas.h.i.+on. But, will you not drink?"

Now, as I have told, I was parched with thirst and the spring some way off, so taking the pipkin I drained it at a draught and muttering my thanks, handed it back to her. Then I got me to my labour again, yet very conscious of her as she sat to watch, so that more than once I missed my stroke and my fingers seemed strangely awkward. And after she had sat thus silent a great while, she spoke:

"You be mighty diligent, and to no purpose."

"How mean you?"

"I mean this boat of yours shall never sail except I sail in her."

"Which is yet to prove!" said I, feeling the air exceeding close and stifling.

"Regard now, Master Innocence," said she, holding up one hand and ticking off these several items on her fingers as she spoke: "You have crossed me once. You have beat me once. You have refused me honourable fight. You have hurt me with vile club. And now you would leave me here alone to perish--"

"All true save the last," quoth I, finding my breath with strange difficulty, "for though alone you need not perish, for I will show you where--where you--shall find abundance--of food--and--" But here I stopped and gasped as an intolerable pain shot through me.

"Ah--ah!" said she, leaning forward to stare at me keen-eyed. "And doth it begin to work--yes? Doth it begin so soon?"

"Woman," I cried, as my pains increased, "what mean you now? Why d'ye stare on me so? G.o.d help me, what have you done--"

"The milk, fool!" said she, smiling.

"Ha--what devil's brew--poison--"

"I warned you but, being fool, you nothing heeded--no!"

Now hereupon I went aside and, dreading to die thus miserably, thrust a finger down my throat and was direly sick; thereafter, not abiding the sun's intolerable heat, I crawled into the shade of a rock and lay there as it were in a black mist and myself all clammy with a horrible, cold sweat.

And presently in my anguish, feeling a hand shake me, I lifted swooning eyes to find this woman bending above me.

"How now," said she, "wilt crave mercy of me and live?"

"Devil!" I gasped. "Let me die and be done with you!"

At this she laughed and stooped low and lower until her hair came upon my face and I might look into the glowing deeps of her eyes; and then her arms were about me, very strong and compelling.

"Look--look into my eyes, deep--deep!" she commanded. "Now--ha--speak me your name!"

"Martin," I gasped in my agony.

"Mar--tin," said she slowly. "I will call you Martino. Look now, Martino, have you not seen me long--long ere this?"

"No!" I groaned. "G.o.d forbid!"

"And yet we have met, Martino, in this world or another, or mayhap in the world of dreams. But we have met--somewhere, at some time, and in that time I grasped you thus in my arms and stared down thus into your eyes and in that hour I, having killed you, watched you die, and fain would have won you back to life and me, for you were a man,--ah, yes, a man in those dim days. But now--ah, bah! You are but poor fool cozened into swallowing a harmless drug; to-morrow you shall be your sluggish self. Now sleep, but know this--I may slay you whenso I will! Ah, ah--'tis better to win my love than my hate." So she loosed me and stood a while looking down on me, then motioned with imperious hand: "Sleep, fool--sleep!" she commanded and frowning, turned away. And as she went I heard her singing of that vile song again ere I sank into unconsciousness:

"There are two at the fore.

At the main hang three more Dead men that swing all of a row--"

CHAPTER IV

HOW I LABOURED TO MY SALVATION

I found myself still somewhat qualmish next morning but, none the less, got me to labour on the boat and, her damage being now made good on her larboard side, so far as her timbering went, I proceeded to make her seams as water-tight as I could. This I did by means of the fibre of those great nuts that grew plenteously here and there on the island, mixed with the gum of a certain tree in place of pitch, ramming my gummed fibre into every joint and crevice of the boat's structure so that what with this and the swelling of her timbers when launched I doubted not she would prove sufficiently staunch and seaworthy. She was a stout-built craft some sixteen feet in length; and indeed a poor enough thing she might have seemed to any but myself, her weather-beaten timbers shrunken and warped by the sun's immoderate heats, but to me she had become as it were a sign and symbol of freedom. She lay upon her starboard beam half full of sand, and it now became my object to turn her that I might come at this under side, wherefore I fell to work with mattock and spade to free her of the sand wherein (as I say) she lay half-buried. This done I hove and strained until the sweat poured from me yet found it impossible to move her, strive how I would. Hereupon, and after some painful thought, I took to digging away the sand, undermining her thus until she lay so nicely balanced it needed but a push and the c.u.mbrous structure, rolling gently over, lay in the necessary posture, viz: with her starboard beam accessible from gunwale to keel. And mightily heartened was I thus to discover her damage hereabouts so much less than I had dared hope.

So I got me to work with saw, hammer and rivets and wrought so diligently (staying but to s.n.a.t.c.h a mouthful of food) that as the sun westered, my boat was well-nigh finished. Straightening my aching back I stood to examine my handiwork and though of necessity somewhat rough yet was it strong and secure; and altogether a very excellent piece of work I thought it, and mightily yearned I for that hour when I should feel this little vessel, that had been nought but a shattered ruin, once more riding the seas in triumph.

But now and all at once, my soaring hopes were dashed, for though the boat might be seaworthy, here she lay, high and dry, a good twelve yards from the tide.

Now seeing I might not bring my boat to the sea, I began to scheme how best I should bring the sea to her. I was yet pondering this matter, chin in hand, when a shadow fell athwart me and starting, I glanced up to find this woman beside me, who, heeding me no whit, walks about and about the boat, viewing my work narrowly.

"If you can launch her she should sail well enough, going large and none so ill on a bowline, by her looks. 'Tis true scat-boat--yes. Are you a sailor--can ye navigate, ha?"

"Not I."

"'Tis very well, for I am, indeed, and can set ye course by dead reckoning an need be. Your work is likely enough, though had you b.u.t.ted your timbers it had been better--so and so!" And in this I saw she was right enough, and my work seemed more clumsy now than I had thought.

"I'm no s.h.i.+pwright," said I.

"And here's sure proof of it!" quoth she.

"Mayhap 'twill serve once her timbers be swelled."

"Aye, she may float, Martino, so long as the sea prove kind and the wind gentle; aye, she should carry us both over to the Main handsomely, yes--"

"Never!" quoth I, mighty determined.

"How then--will ye deny me yet, fool? Wherefore would ye leave me here, curst Englishman?"