Prisoners of Chance

For a brief space there came no answer, although we were made aware of other movements more directly below us. Then some one answered: "The watch are all here on the forecastle, Señor. It must have been a loose block that rattled."

"Two of you jump into the foretop, and make all fast."

The steady tramping was resumed, while a moment later we became aware of the approach of men climbing through the darkness toward us. We were unable to perceive their shadows, yet their muttered conversation, as they lay out upon the yard, served to fix its actual position more clearly in my mind. I believed I knew where I had so grievously overshot the mark.

"Boca del Dragon!" grumbled one of the fellows hoarsely, seemingly in our very ears. "The Captain is as nervous over those cursed frog-eaters down between decks as if we were anchored off Paree."

"Think you that is the trouble, José?" returned the other in the sprightly voice of a younger man. "I tell thee, comrade, 'tis only that bloody demon of an O'Reilly he is fearful of. I have sailed with the 'old man' in many seas since first I left Sargon, and never expect to see him affrighted of any Johnny Frenchman. But I heard the Admiral say two days agone, as I hung over his boat in the main chains, that if the Captain lost so much as a single prisoner it should cost him his ship. That, I make it, comrade, is why he has n't taken so much as a glass of wine since first they were put aboard of us. Bastante! but he must have acquired a thirst by this time to make his temper red-hot."

The other laughed sourly.

"Poh! I know even a better reason for his going dry than that, Juan. He does n't have chance for a drink alongside of that gray-bellied French priest below. Caramba! it takes him to polish off the red liquor."

"How know you that?"

"Saint Christopher! how know I? Did I not just meet him at the main hatch so drunk he fell over the coamings. The sojer on guard set him up against the butt of the foremast to sober off in the night air."

I experienced difficulty in repressing a laugh at the words, but the two fellows were going down by this time, grumbling in their beards because they had discovered nothing wrong as reward for their trip aloft, so I contented myself by silently pressing my companion's arm, although doubtless he had comprehended no word of the conversation.

We rested there motionless, with no attempt at speech, for fully twenty minutes before I ventured to haul in the line which dangled downward from my hand. Everything remained quiet below, and, coiling it carefully over my arm, I noiselessly arose to my feet once more, poising myself to essay a second cast. As straight this time as an arrow from the taut string of a bow the noose sped silently away into the darkness. I felt a thrill of delight tingle through me as the end settled softly over the end of the vague, distant spar. I drew the cord taut and firm, not a sound breaking the intense stillness closing us in like a wall. A heavy wooden post, with a pulley attachment, stood behind where we rested, probably fitted there for hauling up heavy bales of cotton. Creeping back, I wound the slack of the rope about its base, drawing it as tight as possible, and then placed the end in the hands of the observant and wondering priest, who continued to creep after me like a shadow.