Part 56 (1/2)
Seated with face towards the cuddy windows, Don Gregorio could see through them, and as the barque's bow rose on the swell, depressing her stern, he commanded a view of the sea outside.
There, upon its calm clear surface, he made out a dark object moving away. It was a boat filled with forms, the oar-blades rising and tailing in measured stroke, flas.h.i.+ng the phosph.o.r.escence on both sides.
No wonder at his earnest look--his gaze of concentrated anguis.h.!.+ That boat held all that was dear to him--bearing that all away, he knows not whither, to a fate he dare not reflect upon. He could trace the outlines of land beyond, and perceive that the boat was being rowed for it, the barque at the same time sailing seaward, each instant widening the distance between them. But for a long while he could distinguish the black speck with luminous jets on either side, as the oar-blades intermittently rose and fell, till at length, entering within the shadow of the land, he lost sight of it.
”Gone! all gone!” groaned the bereaved father, his beard drooping down to his breast, his countenance showing he has surrendered up his soul to despair! So, too, Lantanas.
Then both ceased struggling and shouting, alike convinced of the idleness of such demonstrations. The chief officer a mutineer, so must all the others; and all had forsaken the s.h.i.+p. No; not all! There is one remains true, and who is still on her--the black cook. They heard his voice, though not with any hope. It came from a distant part of the s.h.i.+p in cries betokening distress. They could expect no help from him.
He was either disabled, or, as themselves, fast bound.
Throughout the night they heard it; the intervals between becoming longer, the voice fainter, till he also, yielding to despair, was silent.
As the morning sun s.h.i.+nes in through the stern windows, Don Gregorio can see they are out of sight of land. Only sea and sky are visible to him; but neither to Lantanas, whose face is the other way; so fastened he cannot even turn his head.
The barque is scudding before a breeze, which bears her still farther into the great South Sea; on whose broad bosom she might beat for weeks, months--ay, till her timbers rot--without sighting s.h.i.+p, or being herself descried by human eye. Fearful thought--appalling prospect to those constrained to sit at her cabin-table!
With that before their minds, the morning light brings no joy. Instead, it but intensifies their misery. For they are now sure they have no chance of being rescued.
They sit haggard in their chairs--for no sleep has visited the eyes of either--like men who have been all night long engaged in a drunken debauch.
Alas! how different! The gla.s.ses of wine before them are no longer touched, nor the fruits tasted. Neither the bouquet of the one, nor the perfume of the other, has any charm for them now. Either is as much beyond their reach, as if a thousand miles off, instead of on a table between them!
Gazing in one another's faces, they at once fancy it a dream. They can scarcely bring themselves to realise such a situation! Who could! The rude intrusion of the ruffian crew--the rough handling they have had-- the breaking open of the lockers--and the boxes of gold borne off--all seem but the phantasmagoria of some horrible vision!
CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE.
PARt.i.tIONING THE SPOIL.
The same sun that s.h.i.+nes upon the abandoned barque lights up the men who abandoned her, still on that spot where they came ash.o.r.e. As the first rays fall over the cliff's crest, they show a cove of semicircular shape, backed by a beetling precipice. A ledge or d.y.k.e, sea-washed, and weed-covered, trends across its entrance, with a gate-like opening in the centre, through which, at high tide, the sea sweeps in, though never quite up to the base of the cliff. Between this and the strand lies the elevated platform already spoken of, accessible from above by a sloping ravine, the bed of a stream running only when it rains. As said, it is only an acre or so in extent, and occupying the inner concavity of the semicircle. The beach is not visible from it, this concealed by the dry reef which runs across it as the chord of an arc. Only a small portion of it can be seen through the portal which admits the tidal flow.
Beyond, stretches the open sea outside the surf, with the breakers more than a mile off.
Such is the topography of the place where the mutineers have made landing and pa.s.sed the night. When the day dawns, but little is there seen to betray their presence. Only a man seated upon a stone, nodding as if asleep, at intervals awakening with a start, and grasping at a gun between his legs; soon letting it go, and again giving way to slumber, the effects of that drunken debauch kept up to a late hour. He would be a poor sentinel were there need for vigilance.
Seemingly, there is none. No enemy is near--no human being in sight; the only animate objects some seabirds, that, winging their way along the face of the cliff, salute him with an occasional scream, as if incensed by his presence in a spot they deem sacred to themselves.
The sun fairly up, he rises to his feet, and walks towards the entrance of the larger cavern; then stopping in front of it, cries out:
”Inside there, s.h.i.+pmates! Sun's up--time to be stirring!”
Seeing him in motion, and hearing his hail, the gulls gather, and swoop around his head in continuous screaming. In larger numbers, and with cries more stridulent, as his comrades come forth out of the cave, one after another--yawning, and stretching their arms.
The first, looking seaward, proposes to refresh himself by a plunge in the surf; and for this purpose starts toward the beach. The others, taken with the idea, follow in twos and threes, till in a string all are _en route_ for the strand.
To reach this, it is necessary for them to pa.s.s through the gap in the transverse ledge; which the tide, now at ebb, enables them to do.
He who leads, having gone through it, on getting a view of the sh.o.r.e outside, suddenly stops; as he does so, sending back a shout. It is a cry of surprise, followed by the startling announcement:
”The boat's gone!”