to squat up here any longer with my friends a-shootin' at me from below an' a lot of wild heathen creeping down on me from above to cut off my bloomin' head.""Same here!" chimed in Red Sanders.
Blanco looked toward Wison.For his own part the Negro would not have been averse to returning to the fold could the thing be accomplished without danger of reprisal on the part of Skipper Simms and Ward; but he knew the men so well that he feared to trust them even should they seemingly acquiesce to any such proposal.On the other hand, he reasoned, it would be as much to their advantage to have the deserters return to them as it would to the deserters themselves, for when they had heard the story told by Red Sanders and Wison of the murder of the others of the party they too would realize the necessity for maintaining the strength of the little company to its fullest.
"I don't see that we're goin' to gain nothin' by fightin'
'em," said Wison."There ain't nothin' in it any more nohow for nobody since the girl's gorn.Let's chuck it, an' see wot terms we can make with Squint Eye.""Well," grumbled the Negro, "I can't fight 'em alone; What yo doin' dere, Bony?"During the conversation Bony Sawyer had been busy with a stick and a piece of rag, and now as he turned toward his companions once more they saw that he had rigged a white flag of surrender.None interfered as he raised it above the edge of the breastwork.
Immediately there was a hail from below.It was Ward's voice.
"Surrenderin', eh? Comin' to your senses, are you?" he shouted.
Divine, feeling that immediate danger from bullets was past, raised his head above the edge of the earthwork.
"We have something to communicate, Mr.Ward," he called.
"Spit it out, then; I'm a-listenin'," called back the mate.
"Miss Harding, Mr.Theriere, Byrne, Miller, and Swenson have been captured and killed by native head-hunters," said Divine.
Ward's eyes went wide, and he blew out his cheeks in surprise.Then his face went black with an angry scowl.
"You see what you done now, you blitherin' fools, you!"he cried, "with your funny business? You gone an' killed the goose what laid the golden eggs.Thought you'd get it all, didn't you? and now nobody won't get nothin', unless it is the halter.Nice lot o' numbskulls you be, an' whimperin' 'round now expectin' of us to take you back--well, I reckon not, not on your measly lives," and with that he raised his revolver to fire again at Divine.
The society man toppled over backward into the pit behind the breastwork before Ward had a chance to pull the trigger.
"Hol' on there mate!" cried Bony Sawyer; "there ain't no call now fer gettin' excited.Wait until you hear all we gotta say.You can't blame us pore sailormen.It was this here fool dude and that scoundrel Theriere that put us up to it.They told us that you an' Skipper Simms was a-fixin' to doublecross us all an' leave us here to starve on this Gawd-forsaken islan'.Theriere said that he was with you when you planned it.That you wanted to git rid o' as many of us as you could so that you'd have more of the ransom to divide.So all we done was in self-defense, as it were.
"Why not let bygones be bygones, an' all of us join forces ag'in' these murderin' heathen? There won't be any too many of us at best--Red an' Wison seen more'n two thousan' of the man-eatin' devils.They're a-creepin' up on us from behin'
right this minute, an' you can lay to that; an' the chances are that they got some special kind o' route into that there cove, an' maybe they're a-watchin' of you right now!"Ward turned an apprehensive glance to either side.There was logic in Bony's proposal.They couldn't spare a man now.
Later he could punish the offenders at his leisure--when he didn't need them any further.
"Will you swear on the Book to do your duty by Skipper Simms an' me if we take you back?" asked Ward.
"You bet," answered Bony Sawyer.
The others nodded their heads, and Divine sprang up and started down toward Ward.
"Hol' on you!" commanded the mate."This here arrangement don' include you--it's jes' between Skipper Simms an'
his sailors.You're a rank outsider, an' you butts in an' starts a mutiny.Ef you come back you gotta stand trial fer that--see?""You better duck, mister," advised Red Sanders; "they'll hang you sure."Divine went white.To face trial before two such men as Simms and Ward meant death, of that he was positive.To flee into the forest meant death, almost equally certain, and much more horrible.The man went to his knees, lifting supplicating hands to the mate.
"For God's sake, Mr.Ward," he cried, "be merciful.I was led into this by Theriere.He lied to me just as he did to the men.You can't kill me--it would be murder--they'd hang you for it.""We'll hang for this muss you got us into anyway, if we're ever caught," growled the mate."Ef you hadn't a-carried the girl off to be murdered we might have had enough ransom money to have got clear some way, but now you gone and cooked the whole goose fer the lot of us.""You can collect ransom on me," cried Divine, clutching at a straw."I'll pay a hundred thousand myself the day you set me down in a civilized port, safe and free."Ward laughed in his face.
"You ain't got a cent, you four-flusher," he cried."Clinker put us next to that long before we sailed from Frisco.""Clinker lies," cried Divine."He doesn't know anything about it--I'm rich.""Wot's de use ob chewin' de rag 'bout all dis," cried Blanco, seeing where he might square himself with Ward and Simms easily."Does yo' take back all us sailormen, Mr.Ward, an' promise not t' punish none o' us, ef we swear to stick by yo' all in de future?""Yes," replied the mate.
Blanco took a step toward Divine.
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