A High Wind in Jamaica - Richard Hughes [27]
Just as the darkness closed in, the last of the pirates returned to their ship. Not a sound was to be heard of the children: but Marpole guessed that they had been taken there too.
Before releasing his crew he lit a lantern and began a sort of inventory of what was gone. It was heart-breaking enough: besides the cargo, all his spare sails, cordage, provisions, guns, paint, powder: all his wearing apparel, and that of his mate: all nautical instruments gone, cabin stores--the saloon in fact gutted of everything, not even a knife or spoon left, tea or sugar, nor a second shirt to his back left. Only the children's luggage was left untouched: and the turtles. Their melancholy sighing was the sole sound to be heard.
But it was almost as heart-breaking to see what the pirates had _left_: anything damaged, such worn-out and useless gear as he had been only waiting for some "storm" to wash overboard--not one of these eyesores was missing.
What, in Heaven's name, was the use of an insurance policy? He began to collect the rubbish himself and dump it over the side.
But Captain Jonsen saw him:
"Hi!" he shouted: "You dirty svindler! I will write to Lloyds and expose you! Twill write myself!" He was horribly shocked at the other's dishonesty.
So Marpole had to give it up, for the time at any rate: took a spike and broke open the fo'c'sle: and as well as the sailors found Margaret's brown nurse. She had hidden there the whole day: probably from motives of fright.
III
You would have thought that supper on the schooner that night would have been a hilarious affair. But, somehow, it was manqué.
A prize of such value had naturally put the crew in the best of humors: and a meal which consisted mainly of crystallized fruit, followed as an afterthought by bread and chopped onions served in one enormous communal bowl, eaten on the open deck under the stars, after bed-time, should have done the same by the children. But nevertheless both parties were seized by a sudden, overpowering, and most unexpected fit of shyness. Consequently no state banquet was ever so formal, or so boring.
I suppose it was the lack of a common language which first generated the infection. The Spanish sailors, used enough to this difficulty, grinned, pointed, and bobbed: but the children retired into a display of good manners which it would certainly have surprised their parents to see. Whereon the sailors became equally formal: and one poor monkeyfied little fellow who by nature belched continually was so be-nudged and be-winked by his companions, and so covered in confusion of his own accord, that presently he went away to eat by himself. Even then, so silent was this revel, he could still he heard faintly belching, half the ship's length away.
Perhaps it would have gone better if the captain and mate had been there, with their English. But they were too busy, looking over the personal belongings they had brought from the barque, sorting out by the light of a lantern anything too easily identifiable and reluctantly committing it to the sea.
It was at the loud splashes made by a couple of empty trunks, stamped in large letters JAS. MARPOLE, that a roar of unassumed indignation arose from the neighboring barque. The two paused in their work, astonished: why should a crew already spoiled of all they possessed take it so hardly when one heaved a couple of old worthless trunks in the sea?
It was inexplicable.
They continued their task, taking no further notice of the _Clorinda_.
Once supper was over, the social situation became even more awkward. The children stood about, not knowing what to do with their hands, or even their legs: unable to talk to their hosts, and feeling it would be rude to talk to each other, wishing badly that it was time to leave. If only it had been light they could have been happy enough exploring: but in the darkness there was nothing to do, nothing whatever.
The sailors soon found occupations of their own: and the captain and mate, as I have said, were already busy.
Once the sorting was over, however, there