Part 25 (1/2)
”'Tis an extraordinary tale, Mr. Lennox.”
”But a true one, Captain Whyte.”
”I meant no insinuation that it wasn't. Extraordinary things happen in the world, and have been happening in these seas, ever since Columbus first came into them.”
”Still mine is such an unusual story that it needs proof, and I give it.
Did you not last autumn pretend that yours was a merchant s.h.i.+p, have a sailor play the violin on deck while others danced about, and lure under your guns a pirate with the black flag at her masthead?”
Captain Whyte stared in astonishment.
”How do you know that?” he exclaimed.
”Did you not shatter the pirate s.h.i.+p with your broadsides but lose her afterwards in a great storm that came up suddenly?”
”Aye, so I did, and I've been looking for her many a time since then.”
”You'll never find her, Captain. Your guns were aimed well enough, and they took the life out of her. She couldn't weather the storm. Of all the people who were aboard her then I'm the only survivor. Her captain escaped with me to this island, but he died of wounds and I buried him.
I can show you his grave.”
”How do I know that you, too, are not one of the pirates?”
”By taking me back on your s.h.i.+p to the colonies, and proving my tale. If you don't find that every word I tell you is true you can hang me to your own yardarm.”
Captain Whyte laughed. It was a fair and frank offer, but he was a reader of men, and he felt quite sure that the strange youth was telling the absolute truth.
”He's given me, sir, quite correct accounts of events that happened in the colonies last year,” said Lanham. ”He was at Ticonderoga and his narrative of the battle agrees fully with the accounts that we received.”
And just at that moment coincidence stretched out her long arm again, as she does so often.
”I had a cousin at Ticonderoga,” said Captain Whyte. ”A splendid young fellow, name of Grosvenor. I've seen a letter from him in which he says 'twas a terrible fight, but that we threw away our chances before we went upon the field.”
”Grosvenor! Grosvenor!” exclaimed Robert eagerly. ”Why, I knew him! He was a friend of mine! We were in the forest together, in combat and escape. His first name was Alfred. Did he say nothing in his letter of Robert Lennox?”
”Of course he did! I was so much interested in you that I paid little attention to your name, and it glided past me as if I'd not heard it. He told of a friend of his, name of yours, who had been lost, murdered they all believed by some spy.”
”And did he say nothing also of Tayoga, a wonderful Onondaga Indian, and of David Willet, a great hunter?”
”Aye, so he did. I recall those names too. Said the Indian was the most marvelous trailer the world had ever known, could trace the flight of a bird through the air, and a lot more that must have been pure romance.”
”It's all true! every word of it. I'll see that you meet Tayoga, and then you'll believe, and you must know Willet, too, one of the grandest men that ever lived, soul of honor, true as steel, all those things.”
”I believe you! Every word you say! But I can't keep you talking here with the water dripping from you. We really couldn't question your truth, either, after you'd saved our s.h.i.+p and all our lives. I see you have a naval uniform of ours. Well, we'll give you a dry one in its place. See that the best the _Hawk_ has is his, Lanham.”
Robert was taken to a small cabin that was vacant and he exchanged into dry clothing. He went back a little later to the captain's room with Lanham, where they insisted upon his taking refreshment, and then Captain Whyte sent him to bed.
”I've a million questions to ask you, Mr. Lennox,” he said, ”but I won't ask 'em until to-morrow. You must sleep.”
Robert's manner had been calm, but he found when he lay down that he was surcharged with excitement. It was inside him and wanted to get it out, but he kept it bottled up, and after an hour spent in quieting his nerves he fell asleep. When he awoke, dressed and went on deck, all trace of the storm had gone. The _Hawk_ swung quietly at anchor and to him she seemed the very finest s.h.i.+p that had ever sailed on any sea from the day of the galley to the day of the three-decker. He noticed with pleasure how trim everything was, how clean was the wood, how polished the bra.s.s, and how the flag of Britain snapped in the breeze overhead.
He noticed too the eighteen pounders and he knew these were what had done the business for the slaver and pirate. Lanham gave him a hearty welcome.
”It's half way to noon,” he said, ”and you slept long and well, as you had a right to do, after saving His Majesty's twenty-two gun sloop, _Hawk_, from the rocks. We had a boat's crew ash.o.r.e this morning, not because we doubted your word, but to see that everything was trim and snug on your island, and they found your house. On my word, quite a little castle, and well furnished. We didn't disturb a thing. It's yours, you know.”