Part 28 (2/2)
The boat was not fifty yards off: but fast travelling over the pebbles was iroes were on the beach, and the storreat quartz pebbles whistled round their heads
”Come on, Frank! for life's sake! Men, to the rescue! Ah! as that?”
The dull crash of a pebble against Frank's fair head! Drooping like Hyacinthus beneath the blow of the quoit, he sank on Aed blindly on,--hiain
”Fire, men! Give it the black villains!”
The arquebuses crackled from the boat in front What were those dull thuds which answered from behind? Echoes? No Over his head the caliver-balls went screeching The governors' guard have turned out, followed the over the negroes' heads, as the savages rush down upon the hapless brothers
If, as all say, there are h in reaching that boat's bow? Alas! the negroes are there as soon as he, and the guard, having left their calivers, are close behind them, sword in hand Amyas is up to his knees in water--battered with stones--blinded with blood The boat is swaying off and on against the steep pebble-bank: he clutches at it----rises half-choked ater: but Frank is still in his arms Another heavy blow--a confused roar of shouts, shots, curses--a confused lish, foa in the stern-sheets of the boat; stiff, weak, half blind with blood He looks up; the ht overhead: but they are away fro white before the land-breeze, high above the boat's side The boat see instead of six! And what is this lying heavy across his chest? He pushes, and is answered by a groan He puts his hand down to rise, and is answered by another groan
”What's this?”
”All that are left of us,” says Simon Evans of Clovelly
”All?” The bottom of the boat seemed paved with hu to rise ”And where--where is Frank? Frank!”
”Mr Frank!” cries Evans There is no answer
”Dead?” shrieks A fro face
”Where is he? Why don't you speak, forward there?”
”Because we have naught to say, sir,” answers Evans, almost surlily
Frank was not there
”Put the boat about! To the shore!” roars Ae for yourself, sir!”
The waves are leaping fierce and high before a furious land-breeze Return is impossible
”Cowards! villains! traitors! hounds! to have left hih,” says Si et there Isn't it enough to bring us out to death (as you knew yourself, sir, for you're prudent enough) to please that poor young gentleman's fancy about a wench; but you must call coward an honest ht, and not a one of us but has his wound to show?”
Amyas was silent; the rebuke was just
”I tell you, sir, if we've hove a stone out of this boat since we got off, we've hove two hundredweight, and, if the Lord had not fought for us, she'd have been beat to noggin-staves there on the beach”
”How did I coed you in out of five feet water, and then thrust the boat off, and had his brains beat out for reward All were knocked down but us two So help ht that you had hove Mr Frank on board just as you were knocked down, and saw Willia senseless in the bottom of the boat There was no explanation After all, none was needed
”And I have three wounds from stones, and this h his shoulder Now, sir, be ards?”
”You have done your duty,” said Amyas, and sank down in the boat, and cried as if his heart would break; and then sprang up, and, wounded as he was, took the oar from Evans's hands With weary work they made the shi+p, but so exhausted that another boat had to be lowered to get theiven, it was hardly safe to reuh anchor and stand off and on till ; for Ah he had no hope (how could he have?) that Frank ht still be alive And perhaps it ell for the did not find them at anchor close to the town
However that may be, so ended that fatal venture of mistaken chivalry
CHAPTER XX
SPANISH BLOODHOUNDS AND ENGLISH MASTIFFS
”Full seven long hours in all rew, That they could fight no more And then upon dead horses Full savorly they fed, And drank the puddle water, They could no better get
”When they had fed so freely They kneeled on the ground, And gave God thanks devoutly for The favor they had found; Then beating up their colors, The fight they did renew; And turning to the Spaniards, A thousand hby 1586
When the sun leaped up the next ht flashed suddenly into the tropic day, A the deck, with dishevelled hair and torn clothes, his eyes red with rage and weeping, his heart full--how can I describe it? Picture it to yourselves, picture it to yourselves, you who have ever lost a brother; and you who have not, thank God that you know nothing of his agony Full of iered up and down, as the shi+p thrashed close-hauled through the rolling seas He would go back and burn the villa He would take Guayra, and have the life of every man in it in return for his brother's ”We can do it, lads!” he shouted ”If Drake took Nombre de Dios, we can take La Guayra” And every voice shouted, ”Yes”
”We will have it, Amyas, and have Frank too, yet,” cried Cary; but Amyas shook his head He knew, and knew not why he knew, that all the ports in New Spain would never restore to hied And look there! There is the first crop of our vengeance And he pointed toward the shore, where between them and the now distant peaks of the Silla, three sails appeared, not five miles to ard
”There are the Spanish bloodhounds on our heels, the same shi+ps whichyesterday off Guayra Back, lads, and welcome them, if they were a dozen”
There was aheart sank for athree shi+ps at once, it ed into silence by the cheer which rose from all the older men, and by Salvation Yeo's stentorian voice
”If there were a dozen, the Lord is with us, who has said, 'One of you shall chase a thousand' Clear away, lads, and see the glory of the Lord this day”
”Amen!” cried Cary; and the shi+p was kept still closer to the wind
Aer felt his wounds, or his great sorrow; even Frank's last angel's look grew dimmer every moment as he bustled about the deck; and ere a quarter of an hour had passed, his voice cried firmly and cheerfully as of old-- ”Now, my masters, let us serve God, and then to breakfast, and after that clear for action”
Jack Briht at sea, and his honest voice trembled, as, in the Prayer for all Conditions of Men (in spite of Amyas's despair), he added, ”and especially for our dear brother Mr Francis Leigh, perhaps captive a the idolaters;” and so they rose
”Now, then,” said A, a Dutchlishman full, and a Spaniard when the devil is in hiood cause are a match for the devil,” said Cary ”Come down, captain; you must eat too”
Amyas shook his head, took the tiller froo below and fill himself Will Cary went down, and returned in five reat jack of ale, coaxed them down Amyas's throat, as a nurse does with a child, and then scuttled below again with tears hopping down his face
Arown seven years older in the last night A terrible set calm was on him Woe to the man who came across him that day!
”There are three of theain ”A big shi+p forward, and two galleys astern of her The big shi+p may keep; she is a race shi+p, and if we can but recover the wind of her, ill see whether our height is not a ive her the slip, and take the galleys first”
”I thank the Lord,” said Yeo, ”who has given so wise a heart to so young a general; a very David and Daniel, saving his presence, lads; and if any dare not follow him, let him be as the men of Meroz and of Succoth Amen! Silas Staveley, s monkey; why is he not down at the powder- roounnery, as one who kne to do it, and had the hly, and the most terrible faith that it was God's work