Latitude 19 degree Part 28

I felt kindly hands busied about me. It was so delightful that I lay there just to be taken care of. I felt the Captain unclasping those rusty catches and saying his "Suz! suz! suz!" over and over.

"Think o' bein' triced up and left for dead!" commented the Captain.

"'Tain't bad," I heard the Minion answer. "Pirates is fine."

"'Tain't bad, ain't it?" said the Skipper. "Why, boy, h.e.l.l's a garden party to it; that's what it is, a garden party, h.e.l.l is. Look there on the deck! See where those beasts were fightin' for the first bite of the Mate. Why in thunder don't this fellow come to?"

"Dead," said the Minion laconically. I promptly shuddered and opened my eyes. I did not say what every fainting or resuscitated man says when he first opens his eyes. Usually they ask, "Where am I?" I knew where I was, so I gasped, "Water!"

Upon this, action being easier and more agreeable than words to the Minion, he ran to the bowl and redeluged me with liquor.

"The lad," said I, partly raising myself on my elbow.

"Think he's dead, anyway. You come first, Jones. Now we'll try what we can do for him."

I heard them go to the niche next my own and work over the lad's ingenious contrivance.

"Hold him up!" I heard the Skipper say. "Push back! push back!" Then there was the sound of the working of tools, and finally I knew that they had released my companion. I was now sitting up, and watched all their motions. The Minion bent over young Trevelyan, pus.h.i.+ng the Skipper aside, who as promptly kicked him halfway across the cave.

"When I want your help, I'll ask for it," remarked the Skipper, which I thought rather ungrateful. "You don't know anything about this devilish contrivance."

The Minion, not at all abashed, nodded violently.

"How do you know?"

"Saw 'em."

"When?"

"Me and the lady."

So it was "the lady's" shriek that I had heard as they were riveting my cage to the top of the arch.

"What lady? My niece?"

The Minion nodded.

"Who brought her? You?"

The Minion nodded again.

"You fool!" roared the Skipper. "Get out of my sight! Do you know you've driven her raring, staring, stark mad?"

The Minion nodded again, as if such happenings were of daily occurrence.

I smiled placidly. I suppose the contented smile which settled over my features seemed somewhat conceited to the Skipper.

"Oh, you needn't grin, so mighty pleased and all," said the Skipper to me. "My niece never could bear to look at suffering. It wasn't you she was worrying about. It would be just the same about any one." I looked crestfallen probably, but I managed to gasp out a few words.

"How did you find me?" I said.

"Well, good Lord! don't wonder you ask. This young devil wouldn't have troubled himself to tell. My niece couldn't tell. She was stark, staring, raving mad! Crazy! Is now, for that matter! The Bo's'n has run away, the Lord knows where! He came tearin' into the cave, long before those devils left, a-shoutin', 'The serpent! the serpent!' Probably saw one. Queer man to stay in the woods." I thought that the solution of the Bo's'n's action lay in the fact that, like a historical gentleman named Hobson, the Bo's'n, as well as ourselves, had no choice.

The Minion had stolen near again, and was busy with the cage, and soon they rolled the young English lad out of his tomb and on to the dusty rock floor.

"You go and see how my niece is, do you hear? And see if you can get Lazy to come back for a minute with you."

The Minion sped away on mercury feet, and I crawled to the Skipper's a.s.sistance. Together we released the lad and made him comfortable. I will not weary you with details. Suffice it to say that, after we had given him some of the liquor, he sat up, dazed, it is true, but thankful. He did not speak, but I saw that his cheek was wet. He was little more than a child, and it would have taken a much stouter heart than his to suffer what he had suffered and make no sign. I arose unsteadily to my feet and tried to aid the lad; but the Skipper told me to go on ahead, saying that he would support young Trevelyan. As we dragged ourselves to the entrance of the chamber, we met the Minion coming in.

"How is she?" asked the Skipper anxiously. I was no less so. I gazed on him with bated breath.

"Dead----" drawled the boy.

The Skipper staggered against the wall of the cavern, throwing young Trevelyan to the floor.

"Faint," said the Minion, completing his sentence. I was weak, but I raised my foot and gave the young villain a vicious kick.

"Ain't to yet," added he, as he was propelled toward the opening.

"Hold your jaw!" roared the Skipper. And then to me: "I want to get back to her, Jones. Help me, if you can."

He then turned to the Minion. "You go back and put out that light, do you hear?" said he.

I have spent too long a time over these incidents, but it is no slight thing to have been to the gates of death in such company, and its dread experiences will remain with me while life shall last. I followed the Skipper and his young charge over and down the hill, and, finding the opening, I entered. It was early morning now, and I easily discovered the archway. It was black as ever inside, but I pushed through the pa.s.sage and, on entering our chamber, came face to face with the Bo's'n.

He started when he saw me.

"What about Miss Archer?" said I.

"Is it really you, sir?" asked the Bo's'n.

"Of course it is. Where is she?"

The Bo's'n nodded toward the pillars at the back of the cave, and then looked at me scrutinizingly.

"They didn't get you, then, did they, sir?"

"Yes, they got me fast enough," said I.

"Oh, the pirates! Yes, sir. But _they_ didn't get you. I mean the----"

The man fell a-trembling, his face turned ghastly pale.

"What under heaven do you mean, Bo's'n?" asked I.

"I can not talk of it," he said. "I saw them open that hole before they left. When you ran from the gallery, I ran, too, but my curiosity was too great for me, and I sneaked back to the gallery. I saw 'em bring you in, sir, and I'd have tried to rescue you, Mr. Jones, but suddenly I saw those----"

The man shook as if with an ague.

"You mean the tarantula and the----"