Chapter 11 The Black Swan by Rafael Sabatini
Ashore
Monsieur de Bernis surprised Captain Leach by following him almost immediately ashore. To the buccaneer's questions he rendered a ready account of his purpose.
'Since your timorous suspicions constrain Madame de Bernis to leave her quarters aboard, I will at least see that those prepared for her ashore are suitable. She is in delicate health.'
'I marvel, then, ye should ha' brought her roving wi' ye.'
De Bernis answered him impatiently. 'God mend your wit! I told you it was my intention to leave her in Guadeloupe, in her brother's care. Could I have left her in Jamaica, when I don't intend to return there?'
Leach perceived the reasonableness of this, and became amiable. Let de Bernis make what arrangements he accounted fit.
The Frenchman went amongst the men, and issued his orders. They were to build a log but at the southern extremity of the beach, where the reef began, placing it just within the shelter of the trees. In its neighbourhood they were to place a tent for Madame's brother and another for de Bernis' servant, Pierre. At that distance from the buccaneer encampment, with practically the whole length of that long beach between, Madame should be reasonably safe from disturbance.
Going to work with that speed which their numbers and experience made possible, all was ready before sunset. The timber, felled on the very edge of the jungle, made there an embayed clearing among the trees in which, by de Bernis' instructions, the hut was built. Thus it was screened from view except directly in front. The two small sailcloth tents were placed one on each horn of this little bay.
Some furniture brought from the ship: a table, four chairs, the day-bed from the poop, a tarred sheet to spread upon the ground, a couple of rugs wherewith partly to cover this, a slush-lamp to hang from the rafters that carried the palmetto thatch, and some other odds and ends by means of which the cabin's single room was rendered reasonably inhabitable.
Miss Priscilla, despite her anxieties, displayed pleased surprise when she stood there that evening, and expressed her gratitude to Monsieur de Bernis for the pains he had taken to ensure her comfort. The quarters provided for her were so much better than anything that she had expected.
Nor was de Bernis, it appeared, the only one solicitous for her. Soon after her arrival, Tom Leach came to assure himself that all that was possible had been done for her comfort. He had assumed an ingratiating manner; he was all apologies for any inconvenience she might suffer in this change of quarters, and all solicitude to reduce this as far as might be possible. He ordered various odds and ends to be brought from among the landed furniture of the Black Swan, and desired her to use all frankness in telling him of anything further that might be done for her well-being. He lingered on in amiable, jocular talk awhile with her and with de Bernis and the Major who were in attendance, and finally went off with smirking expressions of good-will.
De Bernis, who had remained impassive, looked at the Major whose bearing throughout had suggested that Tom Leach emitted an offensive smell.
'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes,' he murmured.
'Ye know I don't speak French,' said the Major irritably, and he wondered why Miss Priscilla laughed.
He wondered that she could laugh at all, whatever the occasion, considering their circumstances. Himself he could perceive in them only grounds for despair. This despair was rendered the more acute by that morning's revelation that de Bernis, upon whom alone he could base such slender hopes as might be entertained of an ultimate deliverance, was by no means on the perfectly harmonious terms with that other scoundrel Leach which seemed necessary if this hope was not to be entirely illusory.
But there were worse vexations in store for Major Sands. When they came to retire that night, after the supper cooked by Pierre and served to them in the hut, the Major standing with Monsieur de Bernis in the open under the stars before the tent which had been provided for him, was suddenly moved to ask him what provision he had made for sleeping-quarters for himself. There was a moment's pause before the Frenchman answered him.
'It follows naturally, sir, that I share those prepared for my wife.'
The Major made a gurgling noise in his throat, as he swung to confront the Frenchman squarely.
'What security do you imagine the lady would enjoy if it were shown that she is not my wife? You have eyes, I suppose; and you saw the way Tom Leach looked at her when he came smirking round her here this evening with his loathsome affability.'
The Major tugged at his neck-cloth. He felt as if he were choking.
'God's death!' he got out at last, in a voice thick with passion. 'And what, pray, is there to choose between Tom Leach and you?'
Monsieur de Bernis sucked in his breath quite audibly. His face showed white in the gloom. 'Runs your mind so?' he said at last. 'But what a poor, lame mind it is with which to run at conclusions! I wonder whither it will bear you in the end.' He uttered a short laugh. 'If I were what you are supposing, if my aims were such as you flatter me by deeming them, your carcase, my dear Bartholomew, would by now be feeding the crayfish in that lagoon. Let the thought give you assurance of my honesty. Good night!'
He was turning away when the Major caught him by the sleeve.
'I beg your pardon, de Bernis. Stab me! I should have seen that without being told.' Convinced by the other's clear argument, it was out of the depth of his relief that contrition rose. 'I've done you a monstrous wrong, damme! I admit it frankly.'
'Pshaw!' said de Bernis, and he moved off.
Miss Priscilla's hut had not been supplied with a door, this being deemed unnecessary. In its place, and to act as a curtain, Pierre had hung across the entrance a heavy rug which entirely screened the interior. From between the logs composing the walls the light was still gleaming when presently de Bernis approached it, having left his doublet with Pierre and carrying now a cloak and a pillow which his servant had given him.
He went down on one knee before the entrance, to dig a hole in the fine sand.
'Who is there?' came Priscilla's voice from beyond the curtaining rug.
'It is I,' de Bernis answered. 'You have no cause for alarm. I shall be on guard. Sleep in peace.'
There was no answer from within.
De Bernis completed his digging. Then, wrapping himself in the cloak, he lay down fitting his hip into the hole, and disposing himself to slumber.
In the distance, at the other end of the beach, the fires over which the buccaneers had done their cooking were dying down. The noise of their voices had ceased, and all was quiet in their encampment. The moon, almost a half-disc by now, came up and the lagoon became a quivering sheet of quicksilver. The silken rustle of the incoming tide as its wavelets broke upon the fine sand was presently the only sound upon the stillness of the night.
But all were not asleep. A corner of the curtain masking the entrance of the hut, in which the light had been extinguished, was slowly, noiselessly, raised, and the faint moonlight beat down upon the white face of Priscilla.
Cautiously she looked out, and almost at once her eyes fell upon the long dark form of Monsieur de Bernis, stretched there at her very feet, with the deep, regular breathing of sleep.
Not at once was her head withdrawn. For some moments it remained visible as she pondered this sleeper, who made of his body a barrier for her protection. Then, very quietly the curtain fell again, and within the hut Priscilla sought her couch, and delivered herself up to slumber in the peaceful conviction that she was well guarded.
She was guarded more completely even than she knew. For in his tent a dozen yards away, Major Sands, disdaining to use the hammock provided for him, lay prone upon the sand, his head in shadow, but near the entrance of the tent, whence, himself sleepless, he could watch the sleeping custodian of the lady whom he had chosen for his wife. From which it would seem that the conviction which momentarily had moved the Major into penitence had been thrust out by the doubts that will beset a man in his circumstances.
Next day the Major paid the price of that unnecessary pernoctation. The morning found him blear-eyed, morose, and sullen. In the afternoon, he slept, partly because he could no longer combat drowsiness, partly because he realized the necessity of fortifying himself against another night of vigilance.
But after a second night of it, with a still drowsier day to follow, and an aching head which the heat, suddenly grown intense, rendered almost intolerable, the Major realized that this state of things could not continue. Whatever the Frenchman might be, the honesty of his intentions towards Miss Priscilla might now be considered tested. Besides, when all was said, the Major was within easy call, less than a dozen yards away, and he could trust himself not to sleep through an outcry.
And now followed arduous days for the buccaneers, hard-driven by Leach to the work awaiting them upon the hull of the careened ship. But drive them as he might, the heat retarded the operations, and despite the many hands at his command, only a comparative few could be employed at once in the task of burning off the barnacles and weeds. From sunrise until a little before noon, the men worked willingly enough. But when they had dined, they insisted upon sleeping, and let Leach storm and rant as he chose, they would not raise a finger during those torrid afternoons in which the sun beat down so pitilessly, and never a breath of wind came to temper the appalling heat.
In this they received a measure of encouragement from the attitude adopted by de Bernis. He was going freely amongst them here ashore, as he had done aboard the Centaur. He would saunter over to the encampment during the afternoon idleness, to laugh and joke with them, to regale them with stories of past deeds upon the Main in which he had borne a part, and, more often now, to fire their fancy on the score of the Spanish gold to which he was to lead them.
It was well for him, perhaps, that Major Sands did not hear him then, or he would have borne reports to Priscilla which must have destroyed her growing trust and confidence in de Bernis.
He painted word pictures for the men calculated to fire the gross appetites which he knew to be theirs, appetites which soon now they would have the means to glut. He thrilled them with the anticipation of the coarse delights which so much wealth would buy. They listened avidly in lawless, lewd anticipations he excited, and laughed with the unholy glee of the monstrous wicked, lawless children that they were at heart. It might be cruel to toil in this furnace, but soon there would be a golden unguent for their blistered backs. And, after all, they could take things easily. There was plenty of time before them. The plate fleet would not be putting to sea for another three weeks or so, and here at the Albuquerques they were within little more than a day's sailing of the spot where it was to be intercepted.
In this manner de Bernis intoxicated them with the prospect of the wealth that would be coming to each of them, and kept it clearly before the eyes of their minds that it was he, and nobody but he, would lead them to it.
Tom Leach, coming to learn that it was largely as a result of the statements made by de Bernis that he found the men mutinously opposed to work during the heat of the day, came raging to him on the subject.
The Frenchman was not perturbed; he was airily platitudinous with proverbs about going surely by going slowly. He exasperated Leach by the opinion that there was plenty of time before them.
'Plenty o' time, ye daft loon? Time for what?'
'Before the plate fleet sails.'
'Damn the plate fleet!' swore Leach. 'Be that th' only fleet afloat? What of others as goes up and down the seas?'
'I see. You're afraid of being found here? Pshaw! You want to laugh, my friend. Be at ease. No ship is likely to come prowling into this cove.'
'Mebbe not. But if any did? What then, eh? Does thee think as I's comfortable here wi' ship high and dry, all helpless like? Plenty o' time, says you! Hell, man! I want to be on my keel again without no loss o' time. So I'll trouble thee not to go putting thee daft notions into folks' heads.'
De Bemis gave the required promise so as to pacify him. He gave it the more readily because the mischief was already done. Dilatoriness in that tropic heat accorded too well with the men's natural inclinations not to be indulged now that they had de Bernis' authoritative assertion that there was no need for any sweltering urgency.
Apart from that minor explosion from Leach, the first ten days on Maldita passed peacefully enough. By the end of that time, the burning and scraping on the hull was ended, and the carpenters could now get to work at caulking the seams, skilled labour this, which left the main body of the hands idle until they should presently come to the tarring and finally the greasing of the keel.
It was a time that naturally hung heavily upon the hands of Major Sands and Miss Priscilla, and more heavily perhaps on the soldier's than on the lady's. The Major, feeling the heat acutely as a result of his fleshly habit of body, waited in a condition of more or less complete inertness for the passage of time to bring him deliverance. The result of this was that his temper, naturally inclining to irascibility and querulousness, did not improve or dispose him to optimism concerning the future. Miss Priscilla, however, contrived to find for herself some occupation. She busied herself with Pierre in the preparation and cooking of food. She went out onto the reef with him, when he went fishing, and herself joined and found entertainment in the sport. Or she would go for excursions with him into the woods, in quest of yams and plantains, and once she crossed the island with him to its western side by a path which the half-caste had found over a long bald strip of ground reached within four or five hundred yards of the beach; a strip which thenceforward clove the dense jungle like an avenue, where only a thin layer of soil covered the rock, and, ascending towards the island's middle, sloped thence to the western shore, giving a backbone to Maldita.
Nor did she always take an escort on her excursions. In the early days on the island, she had wandered away by herself, climbing the reef and following the beach beyond it. Along this she had come upon a barrier of rock that rose like a wall some eight or nine feet high to bar her progress. Yet not to be so easily defeated, she had climbed the shallow bluff which rose here above the beach. From the summit, crowned with palms, with arnotto roses and scarlet hibiscus clustering about the boles, she had looked down into a little rockbound cove and a limpid, sheltered pool within the embrace of it.
She must have come at least a mile from the encampment. She was quite alone; none ever came this way; and there was no remotest danger of surprise. So she yielded to the cool invitation of that pool, descended from the bluff, shed her light clothing on the sand where an overhanging rock made a sheltering canopy, and dived into the crystalline depths.
She came forth not only refreshed and invigorated, but enheartened by the discovery she had made. Under the friendly rock where her clothing lay, a rock which whilst giving shade was itself still hot from the passage of the sun, she let her body dry in the warm air, then resumed her garments, and made her way back to the encampment. Daily thereafter in the middle of the morning she would disappear unostentatiously and alone. Making sure each time that she was not followed, she went to visit the bathing-pool of her discovery.
The disgruntled Major observing her comings and goings, or listening to her light chatter with Pierre when she was at work with him, or with de Bernis when he came to take his meals in the hut, marvelled that she could endure this state of things with so little apparent heaviness of heart. At moments he would ask himself whether such equanimity in adversity were not the result of an utter insensibility, an utter failure to apprehend the dangers by which she was surrounded and by which the Major was oppressed on her behalf. She could even laugh and at moments approach the borders of pertness with Tom Leach on those occasions, and they were none so rare, when he walked the length of the beach to pay them a visit.
If Monsieur de Bernis was not always there on these occasions, he had an uncanny trick of appearing suddenly amongst them, which the Major thought was just as well, for it saved him from the necessity of joining the conversation with that hawk-faced blackguard. He would sit sullenly by when Leach was with them, and if the pirate addressed him, as he occasionally did, the Major would answer gruffly in monosyllables, outraged in the soul of him that prudence should place him under the necessity of being even civil to such a scoundrel.
It was perhaps fortunate for him that Leach repaid contempt with contempt, regarding the Major as a negligible flabbiness without justification to existence save in the fact that he was brother to the delectable Madame de Bernis; though how this should happen, Leach could not begin to imagine. There was, he perceived, little resemblance to be traced between them. He startled them one day by saying so, adding, however, with heavy jocularity, that this was something for which the lady should daily give thanks to her Maker.
He made no attempt to dissemble his admiration for her, even when de Bernis was at hand. Nor did he confine himself to clumsy compliments. His attentions would take the shape now of a few bottles of Peruvian wine, now of a box of guava cheese, or of almonds preserved in sugar, or some other delicacy from the landed stores of the Black Swan.
To Major Sands these attentions were infuriating, but not so infuriating as the apparent complacency with which Priscilla received them; for he lacked the wit to perceive the prudence which dictated her attitude towards the pirate. As for Monsieur de Bernis, he would lounge there at his ease, in the main indifferent and languid, but ever and anon pointedly asserting his position as a husband, and sometimes interposing it suddenly as a barrier when Leach's attentions approached the borders of excessiveness.
And Leach, thus checked, would turn upon him with the beginnings of a snarl, like that of a dog which sees a bone being snatched away from it. But under the languid, narrowed eyes of the long, saturnine Frenchman, the snarl would become a smile, half-mocking, half-cringing.