The Pirate of the Mediterranean Part 35

"She is, she is!" exclaimed Fleetwood, in a voice of agitation, the colour rus.h.i.+ng to his face, and showing through the darkly-stained skin.

"Where is she, lady? Oh, tell me!"

Nina smiled.

"You have betrayed yourself, signor," she answered. "But you may confide in me--I will not injure you. I thought from the first, that you were not a common seaman, in spite of your costume. Such speak not with the accent you do. You take a great interest in this fair girl.

Confess it."

"I do, signora; and, moreover, I would risk everything to rescue her."

"I thought as much," returned Nina. "I may find means to serve you--and will do so. But remember, signor, that I may also some day call upon you to a.s.sist one who, although you may look upon him as an enemy, may demand your aid. Promise me that, should I ever require it, you will exert all your energies--you will strive to the utmost--you will even risk your life and safety, if I demand it of you, to serve him I will not now name. Say you will do this, and you enable me to do all you require. Otherwise, I cannot; for in aiding your wishes, I am disobeying his orders, and I cannot justify my conduct to myself."

"You must remember, signora, that a naval officer, and, I confess to you, that I am one, owes his first duty to his country; next that, gladly will I obey your wishes," returned Fleetwood. "If any one, in whom you take interest, is in difficulty, and I have the means to save him, I promise, faithfully, to do so. More, I cannot say. Will that satisfy you?"

"It does. Say, whence did you come--and whither were you bound, when you were driven on this coast. It may be necessary to show that I have not forgotten the most important part of the examination."

"We come from Malta and were bound for Smyrna, but were driven out of our course by a gale of wind, in which we lost our master and mate. Our vessel was wrecked, and becoming the purchasers of the mistico, we endeavoured to find our way home in her. None of us, however, understanding navigation, we were afraid to continue our voyage till we found some one to supply their place. This, lady, is the story we have to tell, to account for our appearance on the island; but, in one point, believe me, I do not deceive you, when I a.s.sure you, that we come not here to injure, in any way, the chief of this island."

"Enough, signor; I trust to you," replied Nina. "I will now have you and your companions conducted to the apartments prepared for you. There is but small habitable s.p.a.ce in the castle, extensive as it once was, and it would lead to suspicions were you to be better lodged."

She clapped her hands, and little Mila appeared, to conduct the strangers to the abode Nina had selected for them.

Left alone, she stood, for an instant, a picture of misery.

"Alas, alas!" she repeated to herself, "everything I hear and see convinces me that his course is one full of danger, if not, also, of crime. But I am acting for the best, and am gaining a power which may serve him at his utmost need. I am doing what is right."

Poor Nina, the idol she had set up was gradually changing his G.o.d-like radiance for a sombre hue, his heavenly countenance for one of dark malignity. So must all false idols change. The brighter and more beautiful they appear at first, the blacker and more hideous will they become.

The adventurers had retired to rest. Their couches were composed of heather, scattered along the sides of the room; but it was covered with thick cloths and rugs, and formed no contemptible resting-place; their drenched clothes had been well dried, and they had enjoyed a plentiful meal. Even Fleetwood had done justice to it; and the Maltese lad, who was no other than our friend Jack Raby, astonished little Mila by the prodigious extent of his mids.h.i.+pman's appet.i.te.

Another seeming Maltese was a person the reader is probably not prepared to meet. He was our friend Bowse, late master of the _Zodiac_, who, having been rescued from the fate which hung over him, had entreated Captain Fleetwood to be permitted to accompany him, and to share his dangers in recovering Miss Garden.

The Greek captain, Teodoro Va.s.silato, was the person who had acted as interpreter. He had once been taken prisoner by the pirates, and having a little private revenge of his own to satisfy, he had offered his services, which were too valuable to be refused.

The last person was really a Maltese seaman, long a faithful attendant on Fleetwood. He was to be put forward as the most prominent person, should any doubt arise as to their being really Maltese.

As the reader may have suspected, the s.h.i.+pwreck was the result of design rather than chance or mismanagement; and though they had long been waiting for a gale of wind, better to account for it, and as the most certain means of getting a footing on the island, they had scarcely bargained for one of such violence.

As, however, Captain Va.s.silato was confident of the spot, they resolved to stand on. They well knew the danger they were running--for they felt that it would be almost certain death, should the pirates discover them; but they had strung up their nerves for the work, and all were anxious to serve Captain Fleetwood, and to rescue Ada Garden from captivity.

Fleetwood had thrown himself on his couch, thinking of Ada, and pondering how he might beat obtain an interview with her, when the door slowly opened, and a dark figure entered, holding a light in his hand.

He attentively scrutinised the countenances of the sleepers, and then stopping before Fleetwood, he threw the light full on his face, so as to awaken him thoroughly, had he slept, and beckoned to him.

Fleetwood sprang to his feet.

"Follow me, signor," whispered the stranger, in Italian. "I have come to conduct you into the presence of one you have long wished to meet."

"To the English lady?" he asked, his voice trembling with agitation.

The stranger laid his finger on his lips as a signal of silence, and beckoned him to follow.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

After the _Ione_ had left Cephalonia, she commenced her intricate pa.s.sage among the innumerable isles and islets of the Grecian Archipelago, towards Lissa, in the neighbourhood of which his new friend Teodoro Va.s.silato, the captain of the _Ypsilante_, had appointed a rendezvous with Captain Fleetwood.

On first starting, they were favoured with a fair breeze; but no sooner did they get among the labyrinthine mazes of the islands, than a foul wind set in, and delayed them in a manner which sorely tried Fleetwood's impatient spirit. Any one who has cruised among those islands will know the difficulty of the navigation, and the necessity for constant watchfulness. Besides the thousand islands and islets, there are, in every direction, rocks of all sizes, some just below the water, others rising above it to various heights; and although there are no regular tides, there are powerful and very variable currents, and many a s.h.i.+p has been cast away in consequence of them--the master, by his calculations, fancying himself often well free of the danger, on which he has been in reality running headlong.

The _Ione_ had stood to the southward, and had tacked again to the northward, with the island of Milo blue and distant on her weather beam, when, just as the sun, in his full radiance of glory, was rising over the land, the look-out ahead hailed that there were breakers on the starboard bow.

"How far do you make them?" asked Linton, who was the officer of the watch, as he went forward to examine them himself with his telescope.

"By Jove! there is a ma.s.s of black rocks there; and I believe there is somebody waving to us on them," he exclaimed. "Here, Raby, take my gla.s.s, and see what you can make out."

"I can make it out clearly, sir," replied the mids.h.i.+pman. "There are a number of people on them, and they have a sheet or blanket, or something of that sort, made fast to a boathook or small spar, and they are waving it to attract our attention."

"They have been cast away, then, depend on it, and we must go and see what we can do for them," said Linton. "Run down and tell the captain; and, as you come back, rouse out the master, and ask him how close we may go to the rocks."

The captain and master, as well as all the officers, were soon on deck, and the brig was looking well up towards the rocks, within a few cables'

length of which, to leeward, the pilot said they might venture.

There was a good deal of sea running, for it had been blowing very hard the previous day; but the wind had gone down considerably, and Captain Fleetwood expressed his opinion that there would not be much difficulty in getting the people off the rocks, provided they could find an approach to them on the lee side; but on getting nearer, the rock appeared to be of so small an extent, that the waves curled round it, and made it almost as dangerous to near it on one side as on the other.

"I think that I can make out a part of the wreck jammed in between two rocks, just flush with the water," observed Saltwell, who had been examining the place with his gla.s.s. "An awkward place to get on."

"Faith, indeed, it is," said the master. "If we hadn't come up, and another gale of wind had come on, every one of those poor fellows would have been washed away."

"It is an ill wind that blows n.o.body good," remarked the purser, who was a bit of a moralist in a small way. "Now we have been complaining of a foul wind--and if we had had a fair one, we should have run past those rocks without ever seeing the people on them."

"No higher," exclaimed the gruff voice of the quarter-master, who was conning the s.h.i.+p. "Mind your helm, or you'll have her all aback."

"The wind is heading us," muttered the man at the wheel; "she's fallen off two points."

"Hands about s.h.i.+p," cried Captain Fleetwood. "We'll show the poor fellows we do not intend to give them the go-by. Helm's a-lee! Tacks and sheets! Main-topsail haul. Of all, haul."

And round came the brig, with her head to the eastward, or towards the island of Milo. She was at this time about two miles to the southward of the rock, and that the people on it might not suppose that she was about to pa.s.s them, Captain Fleetwood ordered a gun to be fired, to attract their attention, and to show them that they were seen. This appeared to have a great effect; for the officers observed them through their telescopes waving their signal-staffs round and round, as if to exhibit their delight.

"They seem as if they were all drunk on the rock there," said Linton.

"I never saw people make such strange antics."

"I fear it is more probable that they are mad," observed the captain.

"I have known many instances in which men have been thus afflicted, who having nothing to satisfy their hunger or thirst, have been tempted to drink salt water."

"It proves that they must have been a long time there. We must not keep on long on this tack, master, I suspect."

The _Ione_ was soon about again on the starboard tack, and away she flew, every instant nearing the rock. It soon became evident that Captain Fleetwood was right in his suspicions; for, as they drew closer, they could see that some of the unfortunate wretches had thrown off all their clothing, and were dancing, and leaping, and gesticulating furiously--now joining hands, and whirling round and round, as fast as the inequalities of the ground would allow them, then they would rush into the water, and then roll down and turn over and over, shrieking at the top of their voices. Some, again, were sitting crouching by themselves, moving and gibbering, and pointing with idiot glance at their companions, and then at the vessel. Two or three figures were seen stretched out by the side of the rock, apparently dead or dying.

In the centre and highest part of the rock, a tent was erected, and before it were several persons in a far calmer condition. Some were waving to the brig, others were on their knees, as if returning thanks to Heaven for their approaching deliverance, and two were stretched out on rude couches formed of sails, in front of the tent, too weak to stand up. At last the _Ione_ got under the lee of the rock, and hove to.

"We must take great care how we allow those poor fellows to get into the boats," said Captain Fleetwood. "I need not tell you how much I value every moment; at the same time, in pity for those poor wretches, we must endeavour to rescue them--I propose, therefore, to anchor the cutter at two cables' length from the rock, and to veer in the dinghy till she drops alongside them; we must then allow only two at a time to get into her, and then again haul her off. How many are there--do you count, Mr Linton."