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they could. There were hard words on this side and hard words on that, and hands were clapped on knives for no cause at all.
They thought it queer, when in the grey morning they came sliding down to the ship, with a rattle of pebbles and loose earth,
that they found her so still, and only the cook on her deck, and himself in a cold sweat of fear. "I would have nought to do
with it," he cried, and being still mindful of his thirsty hours in bilboes, he shook in his shoes lest they fix upon him a share of
the blame for that which had occurred in their absence.
"With what and whom would st thou have nought to do?" the Old One demanded, and he showed a face that made the cook's
teeth rattle.
"With them -- they've gone."
"Who hath gone?"
"Will Canty and Joe Kirk. They took the shallop and bread and beer."
"It seems," said the Old One, and in a strangely quiet voice, "that the edge that is nicked is not Will Canty's. Is it thine, Jacob,
or mine?"
The cook thought that either he or the Old One had lost his wits, for he made no sense of the words; but Harry Malcolm and
Jacob knew what was meant, and Philip Marsham made a sharp guess at it.
CHAPTER XVI
The Harbour of Refuge
IT WAS UP anchor and away, for they needs must flee ere the hunters find them. They stood along the coast with a light
breeze in the early morning, when the sun was rising over the sea and tipping with gold the branches of the dark palms; but
the Rose of Devon was a hawk with clipped wings.
A company of twenty-nine or thirty men in a staunch ship with a goodly number of brass cannon and with powder and balls
in abundance (which provident merchants had bought to defend their venture against pi- rates!) might have done very well on
a merchant voyage or fishing. If there are not too many to share in the ad- venture, a man can earn his wages by the one; or if
he would go to the banks of Newfoundland or to Massachusetts Ray, his lay of a fishing voyage will doubtless bring him
enough golden chinks to drink in strong ale or sack the health of every fair maiden of Plymouth ere he must be off to fill his
pockets anew. Though the times be ever so hard, he is a feckless sailor who cannot earn in such a company the price of
drinking the three outs. But to work a ship and lay aboard a rich prize, with perhaps need to show heels to a King's cruiser or
to fight her, is quite another game; and the Old One and Harry Malcolm, who had their full share of the ill-temper that
prevailed throughout the ship, cursed their fortune, each in his own way, and wrangled together and quarrelled with the men.
And indeed, among all the men of the Rose of Devon there were only two or three who that morning remained unperturbed
by their misadventures of the night. One was Jacob, who sat in this corner or that and eyed all comers coldly and as if from a
distance. A second was Philip Marsham, who did not, like Jacob, appear to lose his warmer interest in the ship and her
company, but whose interest had been always less as for himself alone.
Meeting in groups of three or five, the men ripped out oaths and told of how one captain or another had once taken a ship or a
town with vast bloodshed and plunder, and thus they stormed about the deck at intervals until an hour after sunrise, when Phil
from the forecastle and Old Jacob from his corner under the quarter-deck, having observed them for some time putting their
heads together and conversing in undertones, heard them crying out, "Yea, yea! Go on, go on! We are all with you!" Four of
the men then started through the steerage room to the great cabin and the rest gathered in a sullen half circle just under the
quarter-deck.
Jacob raised his head and listened; his face was very thoughtful and his small mouth was puckered tight. At the sounds that
issued from the cabin, Phil himself drew nearer.
"Well,'' cried the Old One in a voice that seemed as full of wonder as of wrath--they heard him plainly -- "what in the Devil's
name mean ye by this?"
"We ha' lost a dozen men and our shallop by this foolish march, and from this rich town of which you have promised much
we have got only blows and balls for our labour." The speaker's voice was loud and harsh, and he larded his speech with such
oaths and obscene bywords as are not fit for printing. "We are of a mind to change captains. You shall go forward and Paul
Craig shall come aft. Speak up, Paul! Tell your tale of no marching to wear out a man's feet --"
There came a string of oaths in the Old One's voice and a wild stamping and crashing; then out they burst, jostling one
another in their haste, and after them the Old One with a clubbed musket.
He subdued his fury, when he faced the ring of sullen men, as if he had taken it with his hands and pushed it down. But they
feared him none the less, and perhaps the more. A man looking at him must perceive that his mind was keen and subtle,
which made his quietness, when he was angry, more terrible than a great show of wrath.
"I have sailed before with mad, fickle crews," said he; "yea, once with a crew so mad that it would send a gentleman post
unto the King with a petition of grievances because a King's ship had chased us from the South Foreland to the Lizard. But
never saw I a more mad crew than this, which is enough to give a man a grievous affliction of the colic and stone by the very
excess of its madness."
"As for madness," cried a man who stood at a safe distance behind the rest, "I charge thee with worse than madness. We have
lost two fights and many men and have got to show for it -- a kettle of fish."
Some laughed, but more muttered angrily.
"Why -- we have had our ill fortunes. But what gentlemen of the sea have not? Come, make an end of this talk. Come out,
you who spoke, and let us consider the matter. Nay~ He will not come, though by his speech he is a bold man?"
Again some of them laughed, but in a mean way, for he had cowed them by his show of violence and they feared more than
ever that subtle spirit which overleaped their understanding.
"Listen, then, my hearts of gold: we will come about and sail back. We will lie tonight by the very town that last night we
stormed. We will seek it out as a harbour of refuge. We will tell them a tale of meeting pirates who captured our shallop and
part of our men. We will give them such a story that they will think we have met the very men they themselves last night beat
off, and will welcome us with open arms to succour our distress. Who knows but that we can then take them by assault? Or if
for the time they are too strong for us, we will mark well the approaches and the defenses, and some night we will again come
back."
The idea caught their fancy, and though a few cried nay and whispered that it was the sheerest madness yet, more cried yea
and argued there was little risk, for if worst should come to worst, they could turn tail and run as run they had before.,9s they
talked, they forgot their many woes and whispered about that none but the Old One would ever think of such a scheme.
Harry Malcolm and the Old One went off by themselves and put their heads together and conversed secretly, and throughout
the ship there was a great buzz of voices. Only Jacob, who sat in his corner and watched now one and now another, and Philip
Marsham, who watched Jacob, kept silence amidst the hubble-bubble.
So they wore ship, and returning along the palm-grown shores, came again at the end of the afternoon into sight of the flat
mountain they had seen first by night; and though the wind fell away at times until the sails hung in listless folds, they
gathered speed with the evening breeze and came at nightfall into a fine landlocked harbour with the town at its head, where
there were lights shining from the houses and a ship still lying at anchor.
Upon their coming there was a great stir in the town. They saw lights moving and heard across the water voices calling; but
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