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Page 25
Sergeant Drooce had fallen from a high fever into a low one. Tom
Packer--the only man who could have pulled the Sergeant through it--
kept hospital aboard the old raft, and Mrs. Belltott, as brisk as
ever again (but the spirit of that little woman, when things tried
it, was not equal to appearances), was head-nurse under his
directions. Before we got down to the Mosquito coast, the joke had
been made by one of our men, that we should see her gazetted Mrs.
Tom Packer, vice Belltott exchanged.
When we reached the coast, we got native boats as substitutes for
the rafts; and we rowed along under the land; and in that beautiful
climate, and upon that beautiful water, the blooming days were like
enchantment. Ah! They were running away, faster than any sea or
river, and there was no tide to bring them back. We were coming
very near the settlement where the people of Silver-Store were to be
left, and from which we Marines were under orders to return to
Belize.
Captain Carton had, in the boat by him, a curious long-barrelled
Spanish gun, and he had said to Miss Maryon one day that it was the
best of guns, and had turned his head to me, and said:
"Gill Davis, load her fresh with a couple of slugs, against a chance
of showing how good she is."
So, I had discharged the gun over the sea, and had loaded her,
according to orders, and there it had lain at the Captain's feet,
convenient to the Captain's hand.
The last day but one of our journey was an uncommonly hot day. We
started very early; but, there was no cool air on the sea as the day
got on, and by noon the heat was really hard to bear, considering
that there were women and children to bear it. Now, we happened to
open, just at that time, a very pleasant little cove or bay, where
there was a deep shade from a great growth of trees. Now, the
Captain, therefore, made the signal to the other boats to follow him
in and lie by a while.
The men who were off duty went ashore, and lay down, but were
ordered, for caution's sake, not to stray, and to keep within view.
The others rested on their oars, and dozed. Awnings had been made
of one thing and another, in all the boats, and the passengers found
it cooler to be under them in the shade, when there was room enough,
than to be in the thick woods. So, the passengers were all afloat,
and mostly sleeping. I kept my post behind Miss Maryon, and she was
on Captain Carton's right in the boat, and Mrs. Fisher sat on her
right again. The Captain had Mrs. Fisher's daughter on his knee.
He and the two ladies were talking about the Pirates, and were
talking softly; partly, because people do talk softly under such
indolent circumstances, and partly because the little girl had gone
off asleep.
I think I have before given it out for my Lady to write down, that
Captain Carton had a fine bright eye of his own. All at once, he
darted me a side look, as much as to say, "Steady--don't take on--I
see something!"--and gave the child into her mother's arms. That
eye of his was so easy to understand, that I obeyed it by not so
much as looking either to the right or to the left out of a corner
of my own, or changing my attitude the least trifle. The Captain
went on talking in the same mild and easy way; but began--with his
arms resting across his knees, and his head a little hanging
forward, as if the heat were rather too much for him--began to play
with the Spanish gun.
"They had laid their plans, you see," says the Captain, taking up
the Spanish gun across his knees, and looking, lazily, at the
inlaying on the stock, "with a great deal of art; and the corrupt or
blundering local authorities were so easily deceived;" he ran his
left hand idly along the barrel, but I saw, with my breath held,
that he covered the action of cocking the gun with his right--"so
easily deceived, that they summoned us out to come into the trap.
But my intention as to future operations--" In a flash the Spanish
gun was at his bright eye, and he fired.
All started up; innumerable echoes repeated the sound of the
discharge; a cloud of bright-coloured birds flew out of the woods
screaming; a handful of leaves were scattered in the place where the
shot had struck; a crackling of branches was heard; and some lithe
but heavy creature sprang into the air, and fell forward, head down,
over the muddy bank.
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