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Page 23
"Chris'en--George--King! Chris'en--George--King! Chris'en--George-
-King!" Here they are!
Who were they? The barbarous Pirates, scum of all nations, headed
by such men as the hideous little Portuguese monkey, and the one-
eyed English convict with the gash across his face, that ought to
have gashed his wicked head off? The worst men in the world picked
out from the worst, to do the cruellest and most atrocious deeds
that ever stained it? The howling, murdering, black-flag waving,
mad, and drunken crowd of devils that had overcome us by numbers and
by treachery? No. These were English men in English boats--good
blue-jackets and red-coats--marines that I knew myself, and sailors
that knew our seamen! At the helm of the first boat, Captain
Carton, eager and steady. At the helm of the second boat, Captain
Maryon, brave and bold. At the helm of the third boat, an old
seaman, with determination carved into his watchful face, like the
figure-head of a ship. Every man doubly and trebly armed from head
to foot. Every man lying-to at his work, with a will that had all
his heart and soul in it. Every man looking out for any trace of
friend or enemy, and burning to be the first to do good or avenge
evil. Every man with his face on fire when he saw me, his
countryman who had been taken prisoner, and hailed me with a cheer,
as Captain Carton's boat ran in and took me on board.
I reported, "All escaped, sir! All well, all safe, all here!"
God bless me--and God bless them--what a cheer! It turned me weak,
as I was passed on from hand to hand to the stern of the boat:
every hand patting me or grasping me in some way or other, in the
moment of my going by.
"Hold up, my brave fellow," says Captain Carton, clapping me on the
shoulder like a friend, and giving me a flask. "Put your lips to
that, and they'll be red again. Now, boys, give way!"
The banks flew by us as if the mightiest stream that ever ran was
with us; and so it was, I am sure, meaning the stream to those men's
ardour and spirit. The banks flew by us, and we came in sight of
the rafts--the banks flew by us, and we came alongside of the rafts-
-the banks stopped; and there was a tumult of laughing and crying,
and kissing and shaking of hands, and catching up of children and
setting of them down again, and a wild hurry of thankfulness and joy
that melted every one and softened all hearts.
I had taken notice, in Captain Carton's boat, that there was a
curious and quite new sort of fitting on board. It was a kind of a
little bower made of flowers, and it was set up behind the captain,
and betwixt him and the rudder. Not only was this arbour, so to
call it, neatly made of flowers, but it was ornamented in a singular
way. Some of the men had taken the ribbons and buckles off their
hats, and hung them among the flowers; others had made festoons and
streamers of their handkerchiefs, and hung them there; others had
intermixed such trifles as bits of glass and shining fragments of
lockets and tobacco-boxes with the flowers; so that altogether it
was a very bright and lively object in the sunshine. But why there,
or what for, I did not understand.
Now, as soon as the first bewilderment was over, Captain Carton gave
the order to land for the present. But this boat of his, with two
hands left in her, immediately put off again when the men were out
of her, and kept off, some yards from the shore. As she floated
there, with the two hands gently backing water to keep her from
going down the stream, this pretty little arbour attracted many
eyes. None of the boat's crew, however, had anything to say about
it, except that it was the captain's fancy.
The captain--with the women and children clustering round him, and
the men of all ranks grouped outside them, and all listening--stood
telling how the Expedition, deceived by its bad intelligence, had
chased the light Pirate boats all that fatal night, and had still
followed in their wake next day, and had never suspected until many
hours too late that the great Pirate body had drawn off in the
darkness when the chase began, and shot over to the Island. He
stood telling how the Expedition, supposing the whole array of armed
boats to be ahead of it, got tempted into shallows and went aground;
but not without having its revenge upon the two decoy-boats, both of
which it had come up with, overhand, and sent to the bottom with all
on board. He stood telling how the Expedition, fearing then that
the case stood as it did, got afloat again, by great exertion, after
the loss of four more tides, and returned to the Island, where they
found the sloop scuttled and the treasure gone. He stood telling
how my officer, Lieutenant Linderwood, was left upon the Island,
with as strong a force as could be got together hurriedly from the
mainland, and how the three boats we saw before us were manned and
armed and had come away, exploring the coast and inlets, in search
of any tidings of us. He stood telling all this, with his face to
the river; and, as he stood telling it, the little arbour of flowers
floated in the sunshine before all the faces there.
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