Humphrey was better. The whims and caprices of a sick man were giving
way to the return of health, and with this he began to chafe angrily.
He laughed bitterly and seated himself by the window to gaze out at the
dim arcade of forest, and wait till such time as he felt disposed to go
out, and then have a good wander about the ruins, and perhaps go down
that path where he had been arrested by the appearance of the captain.
He had no hope of encountering any of his crew, for, from what he could
gather, fully half the survivors, sick of the prisoner's life, had
joined the buccaneer crew, while the rest had been taken to some place
farther along the coast--where, he could not gather from Dinny, who had
been letting his tongue run and then suddenly stopped short. But all
the same he clung to the hope that in the captain's absence he might
discover something which would help him in his efforts to escape and
come back, if not as commander, at all events as guide to an expedition
that should root out this hornets'-nest.
Mid-day arrived, and he was looking forward to the coming of Dinny with
his meal, an important matter to a man with nothing to do, and only his
bitter thoughts for companions. The Irishman lightened his weary hours
too, and every time he came the captive felt some little hope of winning
him over to help him to escape.
"Ah, Dinny, my lad!" he said as he heard a step, and the hanging curtain
was drawn aside, "what is it to-day?"
"Fish, eggs, and fruit," said Bart, gruffly.
"Oh! it's you!" said Humphrey, bitterly. "Dinny away with that cursed
schooner!"
"Schooner's as fine a craft as ever sailed," growled Bart. "Orders to
answer no questions."
"You need not answer, my good fellow," said the prisoner, haughtily.
"That scoundrel of a buccaneer is away--I know that, and Dinny is with
him, or you would not be doing this."
Bart's heavy face lightened as he saw the bitterness of the prisoner's
manner when he spoke of the captain; but it grew sombre directly after,
as if he resented it; and spreading the meal upon a broad stone, covered
with a white cloth--a stone in front of the great idol, and probably
once used for human sacrifice--he sullenly left the place.
The prisoner sat for a few minutes by the window wondering whether Lady
Jenny was thinking about him, and sighed as he told himself that she was
pining for him as he pined for her. Then turning to the mid-day meal he
began with capital appetite, and not at all after the fashion of a man
in love, to discuss some very excellent fish, which was made more
enjoyable by a flask of fine wine.
"Yes," he said, half aloud, "I shall go just where I please."
He stopped and listened, for a voice certainly whispered from somewhere
close at hand the word "Kelly!"
"Yes! what is it? Who called?" said the prisoner, aloud.
There was a momentary silence, and then a peculiar whispering voice
said--
"Don't be frightened."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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