There was a breathless silence; one might have heard a pin drop upon the
deck; the very air seemed to listen within the furled sails. Jeromio's
pistol fell from his grasp; he clasped his hands in agony, and falling
before the Buccaneer, upon his knees, uttered a brief prayer, for well
he knew that Dalton never recalled a doom, and he felt that all had been
discovered! In another instant a flash passed along the ship, and danced
in garish light over the quiet sea! The bullet shattered a brain ever
ready to plot, but never powerful to execute. With unmoved aspect Dalton
replaced the weapon, and planting his foot upon the prostrate dead, drew
another from his belt. Springall was still by his side, ready to live or
die with his commander.
"Come on! come on!" said Dalton, after surveying the small and trembling
band of mutineers, as a lion of the Afric deserts gazes upon a herd of
hounds by whom he is beset. "Come on!" and the sentence sounded like the
tolling of a death-bell over the waters, so firmly yet solemnly was it
pronounced, as if the hearts of a thousand men were in it. "Come on! Are
ye afraid? We are but two. Or are ye still men; and do ye think upon the
time when I led ye on to victory, when I divided the spoil of many lands
among ye? Ye are friends--countrymen of this--that was a man; yet if ye
will, ye shall judge between us. Did I deserve this treachery at his
hands? Can one of ye accuse me of injustice?"
A loud, a reiterated "No," answered this appeal, and the mutineers
rushed forward, not to seize on, but to lay down their weapons at the
feet of their captain.
"Take up your arms," said Dalton, after casting his eye over them, and
perceiving at a single glance that they had truly delivered them all.
"Take up your arms: ye were only beguiled; ye are too true to be really
treacherous."
This most wise compliment operated as oil on the tumultuous sea: the
ship-mob fancied they were acting according to the dictates of reason,
when they were really under the influence of fear, and then they aroused
the tranquillity of the night, shouting long and loudly for the
Fire-fly and the brave Buccaneer!
Although Jeromio had cunningly despatched several of Dalton's most
approved friends in the long-boat to the shore on some pretended
business, yet others had been secured below; and, when they were
liberated, they created great and noisy jubilee at what they jestingly
called "the Restoration." Springall had orders to distribute among them,
and without distinction, abundance of rum, while Dalton retired to his
cabin, still unmoved, to pen some despatches, which he deemed necessary
to send to the main land that night.