The Pilot (36 page)

"Hand me the night-glass," said his commander, impatiently. "I can catch
them, as they are lifted into the streak. You are right, by every star
in our flag, Tom!—but there is only one man in her stern-sheets. By my
good eyes, I believe it is that accursed Pilot, sneaking from the land,
and leaving Griffith and Manual to die in English prisons. To shore with
you—beach her at once!"

The order was no sooner given than it was obeyed, and in less than two
minutes the impatient Barnstable, Dillon, and the cockswain, were
standing together on the sands.

The impression he had received, that his friends were abandoned to their
fate by the Pilot, urged the generous young seaman to hasten the
departure of his prisoner, as he was fearful every moment might
interpose some new obstacle to the success of his plans.

"Mr. Dillon," he said, the instant they were landed, "I exact no new
promise—your honor is already plighted—"

"If oaths can make it stronger," interrupted Dillon, "I will take them."

"Oaths cannot—the honor of a gentleman is, at all times, enough. I
shall send my cockswain with you to the abbey, and you will either
return with him, in person, within two hours, or give Mr. Griffith and
Captain Manual to his guidance. Proceed, sir, you are conditionally
free; there is an easy opening by which to ascend the cliffs."

Dillon once more thanked his generous captor, and then proceeded to
force his way up the rough eminence.

"Follow, and obey his instructions," said Barnstable to his cockswain,
aloud.

Tom, long accustomed to implicit obedience, handled his harpoon, and was
quietly following in the footsteps of his new leader, when he felt the
hand of the lieutenant on his shoulder.

"You saw where the brook emptied over the hillock of sand?" said
Barnstable, in an undertone.

Tom nodded assent.

"You will find us there riding without the surf—'Twill not do to trust
too much to an enemy."

The cockswain made a gesture of great significance with his weapon, that
was intended to indicate the danger their prisoner would incur should he
prove false; when, applying the wooden end of the harpoon to the rocks,
he ascended the ravine at a rate that soon brought him to the side of
his companion.

"Ay marry, let me have him to sit under;
He's like to be a cold soldier."
Falstaff
.

Barnstable lingered on the sands for a few minutes, until the footsteps
of Dillon and the cockswain were no longer audible, when he ordered his
men to launch their boat once more into the surf. While the seamen
pulled leisurely towards the place he had designated as the point where
he would await the return of Tom, the lieutenant first began to
entertain serious apprehensions concerning the good faith of his
prisoner. Now that Dillon was beyond his control, his imagination
presented, in very vivid colors, several little circumstances in the
other's conduct, which might readily excuse some doubts of his good
faith; and, by the time they had reached the place of rendezvous, and
had cast a light grapnel into the sea, his fears had rendered him
excessively uncomfortable. Leaving the lieutenant to his reflections on
this unpleasant subject, we shall follow Dillon and his fearless and
unsuspecting companion in their progress towards St. Ruth.

The mists to which Tom had alluded in his discussion with his commander
on the state of the weather appeared to be settling nearer to the earth,
and assuming more decidedly the appearance of a fog, hanging above them
in sluggish volumes, but little agitated by the air. The consequent
obscurity added deeply to the gloom of the night, and it would have been
difficult for one less acquainted than Dillon with the surrounding
localities to find the path which led to the dwelling of Colonel Howard.
After some little search, this desirable object was effected; and the
civilian led the way, with rapid strides, towards the abbey.

"Ay, ay!" said Tom, who followed his steps, and equaled his paces,
without any apparent effort, "you shore people have an easy way to find
your course and distance, when you get into the track. I was once left
by the craft I belonged to, in Boston, to find my way to Plymouth, which
is a matter of fifteen leagues, or thereaway; and so, finding nothing
was bound up the bay, after lying-by for a week, I concluded to haul
aboard my land tacks. I spent the better part of another week in a
search for some hooker, on board which I might work my passage across
the country, for money was as scarce then with old Tom Coffin as it is
now, and is likely to be, unless the fisheries get a good luff soon; but
it seems that nothing but your horse-flesh, and horned cattle, and
jackasses, are privileged to do the pulling and hauling in your shore-
hookers; and I was forced to pay a week's wages for a berth, besides
keeping a banyan on a mouthful of bread and cheese, from the time we
hove up in Boston, till we came to in Plymouth town."

"It was certainly an unreasonable exaction on the part of the wagoners,
from a man in your situation," said Dillon, in a friendly, soothing tone
of voice, that denoted a willingness to pursue the conversation.

"My situation was that of a cabin passenger," returned the cockswain;
"for there was but one hand forward, besides the cattle I mentioned—
that was he who steered—and an easy berth he had of it; for there his
course lay atween walls of stone and fences: and, as for his reckoning,
why, they had stuck up bits of stone on an end, with his day's work
footed up, ready to his hand, every half league or so. Besides, the
landmarks were so plenty, that a man with half an eye might steer her,
and no fear of getting to leeward,"

"You must have found yourself as it were in a new world," observed
Dillon.

"Why, to me it was pretty much the same as if I had been set afloat in a
strange country, though I may be said to be a native of those parts,
being born on the coast. I had often heard shoremen say, that there was
as much 'arth as water in the world, which I always set down as a rank
lie, for I've sailed with a flowing sheet months an-end without falling
in with as much land or rock as would answer a gull to lay its eggs on;
but I will own, that atween Boston and Plymouth, we were out of sight of
water for as much as two full watches!"

Dillon pursued this interesting subject with great diligence; and by the
time they reached the wall, which enclosed the large paddock that
surrounded the abbey, the cockswain was deeply involved in a discussion
of the comparative magnitude of the Atlantic Ocean and the continent of
America.

Avoiding the principal entrance to the building, through the great gates
which communicated with the court in front, Dillon followed the windings
of the wall until it led them to a wicket, which he knew was seldom
closed for the night until the hour for general rest had arrived. Their
way now lay in the rear of the principal edifice, and soon conducted
them to the confused pile which contained the offices. The cockswain
followed his companion with a confiding reliance on his knowledge and
good faith, that was somewhat increased by the freedom of communication
that had been maintained during their walk from the cliffs. He did not
perceive anything extraordinary in the other's stopping at the room,
which had been provided as a sort of barracks for the soldiers of
Captain Borroughcliffe. A conference which took place between Dillon and
the sergeant was soon ended, when the former beckoned to the cockswain
to follow, and taking a circuit round the whole of the offices, they
entered the abbey together, by the door through which the ladies had
issued when in quest of the three prisoners, as has been already
related.—After a turn or two among the narrow passages of that part of
the edifice, Tom, whose faith in the facilities of land navigation began
to be a little shaken, found himself following his guide through a long,
dark gallery, that was terminated at the end toward which they were
approaching, by a half-open door, that admitted a glimpse into a well-
lighted and comfortable apartment. To this door Dillon hastily advanced,
and, throwing it open, the cockswain enjoyed a full view of the very
scene that we described in introducing Colonel Howard to the
acquaintance of the reader, and under circumstances of great similitude.
The cheerful fire of coal, the strong and glaring lights, the tables of
polished mahogany, and the blushing fluids, were still the same in
appearance, while the only perceptible change was in the number of those
who partook of the cheer. The master of the mansion and Borroughcliffe
were seated opposite to each other, employed in discussing the events of
the day, and diligently pushing to and fro the glittering vessel, that
contained a portion of the generous liquor they both loved so well; a
task which each moment rendered lighter.

"If Kit would but return," exclaimed the veteran, whose back was to the
opening door, "bringing with, him his honest brows encircled, as they
will be or ought to be, with laurel, I should be the happiest old fool,
Borroughcliffe, in his majesty's realm of Great Britain!"

The captain, who felt the necessity for the unnatural restraint he had
imposed on his thirst to be removed by the capture of his enemies,
pointed towards the door with one hand, while he grasped the sparkling
reservoir of the "south side" with the other, and answered:

"Lo! the Cacique himself! his brow inviting the diadem—ha! who have we
in his highness' train? By the Lord, sir Cacique, if you travel with a
body-guard of such grenadiers, old Frederick of Prussia himself will
have occasion to envy you the corps! a clear six-footer in nature's
stockings! and the arms as unique as the armed!"

The colonel did not, however, attend to half of his companion's
exclamations, but turning, he beheld the individual he had so much
desired, and received him with a delight proportioned to the
unexpectedness of the pleasure. For several minutes, Dillon was
compelled to listen to the rapid questions of his venerable relative, to
all of which he answered with a prudent reserve, that might, in some
measure, have been governed by the presence of the cockswain. Tom stood
with infinite composure, leaning on his harpoon, and surveying, with a
countenance where wonder was singularly blended with contempt, the
furniture and arrangements of an apartment that was far more splendid
than any he had before seen. In the mean time, Borroughcliffe entirely
disregarded the private communications that passed between his host and
Dillon, which gradually became more deeply interesting, and finally drew
them to a distant corner of the apartment, but taking a most undue
advantage of the absence of the gentleman, who had so lately been his
boon companion, he swallowed one potation after another, as if a double
duty had devolved on him, in consequence of the desertion of the
veteran. Whenever his eye did wander from the ruby tints of his glass,
it was to survey with unrepressed admiration the inches of the
cockswain, about whose stature and frame there were numberless excellent
points to attract the gaze of a recruiting officer. From this double
pleasure, the captain was, however, at last summoned, to participate in
the councils of his friends.

Dillon was spared the disagreeable duty of repeating the artful tale he
had found it necessary to palm on the colonel, by the ardor of the
veteran himself, who executed the task in a manner that gave to the
treachery of his kinsman every appearance of a justifiable artifice and
of unshaken zeal in the cause of his prince. In substance, Tom was to be
detained as a prisoner, and the party of Barnstable were to be
entrapped, and of course to share a similar fate. The sunken eye of
Dillon cowered before the steady gaze which Borroughcliffe fastened on
him, as the latter listened to the plaudits the colonel lavished on his
cousin's ingenuity; but the hesitation that lingered in the soldier's
manner vanished when he turned to examine their unsuspecting prisoner,
who was continuing his survey of the apartment, while he innocently
imagined the consultations he witnessed were merely the proper and
preparatory steps to his admission into the presence of Mr. Griffith.

"Drill," said Borroughcliffe, aloud, "advance, and receive your orders."
The cockswain turned quickly at this sudden mandate, and, for the first
time, perceived that he had been followed into the gallery by the
orderly and two files of the recruits, armed. "Take this man to the
guard-room, and feed him, and see that he dies not of thirst."

There was nothing alarming in this order; and Tom was following the
soldiers, in obedience to a gesture from their captain, when their steps
were arrested in the gallery, by the cry of "Halt!"

"On recollection, Drill," said Borroughcliffe, in a tone from which all
dictatorial sounds were banished, "show the gentleman into my own room,
and see him properly supplied."

The orderly gave such an intimation of his comprehending the meaning of
his officer, as the latter was accustomed to receive, when
Borroughcliffe returned to his bottle, and the cockswain followed his
guide, with an alacrity and good will that were not a little increased
by the repeated mention of the cheer that awaited him.

Luckily for the impatience of Tom, the quarters of the captain were at
hand, and the promised entertainment by no means slow in making its
appearance. The former was an apartment that opened from a lesser
gallery, which communicated with the principal passage already
mentioned; and the latter was a bountiful but ungarnished supply of that
staple of the British Isles, called roast beef; of which the kitchen of
Colonel Howard was never without a due and loyal provision,—The
sergeant, who certainly understood one of the signs of his captain to
imply an attack on the citadel of the cockswain's brain, mingled, with
his own hands, a potation that he styled a rummer of grog, and which he
thought would have felled the animal itself that Tom was so diligently
masticating, had it been alive and in its vigor. Every calculation that
was made on the infirmity of the cockswain's intellect, under the
stimulus of Jamaica, was, however, futile. He swallowed glass after
glass, with prodigious relish, but, at the same time, with immovable
steadiness; and the eyes of the sergeant, who felt it incumbent to do
honor to his own cheer, were already glistening in his head, when,
happily for the credit of his heart, a tap at the door announced the
presence of his captain, and relieved him from the impending disgrace of
being drunk blind by a recruit.