STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

AWAKENING.

How long Dutch had been asleep he could not tell, but he was dreaming of some fresh trouble. He was diving, and one of the sharks kept striking him blows on the helmet, the noise seeming to reverberate within his brain, when, making an effort, he dragged the helmet off so as to more clearly see his enemy, and strike at it with his knife, when he awoke to hear noises overhead, the beating of feet, and, as he leaped out of his cot, struggling, a horrible cry, and he stood paralysed as the next moment the cabin door was banged to, and sounds came as of ropes being piled upon it.

"In G.o.d's name, what does this mean?" said the doctor, who had leapt out of his berth, and was hastily dressing.

"Heaven only knows," replied Dutch. "But quick! Miss Studwick! My wife! Get to their cabin door. Indians, perhaps, from the sh.o.r.e--an attack--we must save them."

"Even at the expense of our lives," said the doctor in a low voice.

"Have you taken my revolver, or my gun?"

"No, no. Mine are gone, too," exclaimed Dutch. "Never mind, man, we have our hands: quick!"

They rushed out of the cabin, nearly oversetting Mr Parkley and the naturalist; but, paying no heed, Dutch rushed to the little cabin where his wife was clinging to Bessy Studwick, tried the door to find it fastened, and then with one kick sent it off its hinges.

"Hester!" he cried hoa.r.s.ely, "Hester!"

For answer she sprang to his neck, and clung there with a sigh of relief,--

"This way," he said, "into the main cabin. Thank heaven, you are safe."

"And you," she moaned, as she felt his strong arms round her; and catching one of his hands convulsively she pressed it upon her heart, while her lips sought for his in vain. "Dutch--Dutch--husband--call me wife once more."

"I'd give my life to do so, Hester," he whispered pa.s.sionately, the unknown peril of the night having broken down the icy barrier that had existed for so long.

"Dutch," she whispered back, "if truth to you deserves the right to be called your wife, you may speak the word."

"But it is no time to speak now," he exclaimed. "Some terrible calamity has befallen us."

"Yes, yes, it was what I feared," she moaned, clinging more tightly to him.

"You feared," he said. "But stop! Now in this time of peril, Hester, when in a few moments we may be separated for ever, tell me the truth; you were speaking to some man, and even to-night?"

"Yes, Dutch," she said.

"It was that mulatto?"

"Mulatto!" she said bitterly. "It was Senor Laure."

"Laure," he exclaimed. "Yes, I half suspected him, and you knew he was on board and did not warn us," he added, in a tone of disgust, as he tried to free himself from his wife's embrace.

"I could only warn you at the peril of your life, Dutch," she said. "He threatened me."

They were interrupted by the voice of the captain shouting for the door to be opened.

"Are you there, doctor?" said Dutch.

"Yes," was the reply.

"And Miss Studwick?"

"I am here," said Bessy, quietly. "Hester, give me your hand."

It was pitch dark, and they dared not light a lamp for fear of making marks of themselves for those on deck, especially as, in reply to the captain breaking the cabin skylight, a couple of pistol shots were fired down, fortunately without effect.

Just then Captain Studwick spoke.

"I cannot understand this," he said. "There must be some treachery somewhere, or we have been boarded in the night. It cannot be an Indian attack. Dutch Pugh, can Laure have overtaken us?"

"Overtaken us! Poor children that we were to try to fight him with brains," said Dutch bitterly; "he has never let us out of his sight."

"What!" cried Mr Parkley.

"He has been on board from the first with half-a-dozen picked men."

"And he was the mulatto?" cried Captain Studwick. "Curse the fellow!

Then we are indeed undone."

There was a few moments' silence, and then Captain Studwick spoke again.

"I always felt that there was something wrong--always. Bear me witness that I did, Pugh, and yet I could not tell what it was."

"You did," said Dutch, who was listening intently.

"But this is no time for talking," cried Mr Parkley excitedly. "The scoundrel! the villain! to outdo us like this; and at such a time, when we have just succeeded in getting the treasure. Only to think of it, we have been working like this for him."

"It has not come to that yet," said Dutch, quietly, and his voice sounded strangely in the dark. "We are fastened down here, of course, Studwick?"

"Yes, I have tried hard, but they have secured us," said the captain.

"How many are we here?" said Dutch.

"Don't talk like that, Mr Pugh," said Wilson, the naturalist. "You never mean to fight."

"Englishmen always mean to fight, Mr Wilson," said Dutch, sternly, "when there are women to protect."

"That was well said," exclaimed a voice from the far end of the little saloon. "I wish I was a strong, hearty man like you."

"I wish so too, my boy," said Captain Studwick between his teeth. "Poor lad, his soul is strong if his body is weak."

"Answer to your names, you who are here," said Dutch; and in return he repeated those of the captain, Mr Parkley, the doctor, naturalist, and John Studwick. "The ladies, I know, are here," he added.

"Would to heaven they were not!" muttered the doctor.

"There's more here nor you've called over," said a gruff voice.

"That's Rasp," cried Mr Parkley eagerly.