Black Bartlemys Treasure | Page 4

backs and adding greatly to our torments thereby, waking the
pain of old stripes and lending an added sting to new.
Ever and anon would come the sharp crack of the drivers' whips
followed by the squealing cry of quivering flesh (a cry wherein was
none of the human) the which, dying to a whine, was lost in the stir and
bustle of the great galleass. But ever and always, beneath the hoarse
voices of the mariners, beneath the clash of armour and tramp of feet,

beneath the creak and rumble of the long oars, came yet another sound,
rising and falling yet never ceasing, a dull, low sound the like of which
you shall sometimes hear among trees when the wind is high--the deep,
sobbing moan that was the voice of our anguish as we poor wretches
urged the great "Esmeralda" galleass upon her course.
The oar whereto I was chained along with my three bench-mates had at
some time been badly sprung, so that the armourers had made shift to
strengthen it with a stout iron fillet some six inches wide. Now it so
happened that my grasp came upon this fillet, and, with every stroke of
the oar, day after day, week in and week out, it had become my wont to
rub the links of my chain to and fro across this iron band, whereby they
had become very smooth and shining.
The words of my prayer were yet upon my lips, when, chancing to look
upon one of these links, I beheld that which set my heart a- leaping and
my riotous blood a-tingle to my fingers' ends; yet 'twas a very small
thing, no more than a mark that showed upon the polished surface of
the link, a line not so thick as a hair and not to be noticed without close
looking; but when I bore upon the link this hair-line grew and widened,
it needed but a sudden wrench and I should be free. This threw me into
such a rapturous transport that I had much ado to contain myself,
howbeit after some while I lifted my eyes to the heaven all flushed and
rosy with the young day, for it seemed that God had indeed heard my
prayer.
Presently, along the gangway amidships, comes none other than that
accursed Portugal, Pedro the whip-master, who, espying the drooping
form of the Frenchman beside me, forthwith falls a- cursing in his vile
tongue and gives a prodigious flourish with his whip. Now by reason of
much practice they do become very expert with these same whips,
insomuch that they shall (with a certain cunning flick of the lash) gash
you a man as it were with a knife, the like of which none may bear and
not cry out for the exceeding pain of it. "Ha, thou lazy dog!" cries he,
"Think ye to snore and take your ease whiles Pedro is aboard?" And
with the word the long lash hissed and cracked upon the Frenchman's
naked back like a pistol-shot.

And lo! he (that meseemed was dead) stirred. I felt the scarred body
leap and quiver, the swooning eyes opened, rolling dim and sightless
and the pallid face was twisted in sharp anguish; but, even as I watched,
the lines of agony were smoothed away, into the wild eyes came a
wondrous light, and uttering a great, glad cry he sank forward across
the oar-shaft and hung there. Hereupon this accursed Pedro betook him
to his whip, smiting right heartily, but, seeing the Frenchman stirred not
and perceiving, moreover, the blood to come but slow and in no great
quantity, he presently desisted and bade us cease rowing one and all.
This sudden respite from labour served but to teach me how stiff and
painful were my limbs, more especially my left wrist and ankle where
the fetters had worn great sores.
The wind was fallen light and there rose that hot, sickening reek, that
suffocating stench that is like unto nothing on earth save one of these
floating hells, and the which, if a man hath but smelled it once, he shall
nevermore forget.
After some while, back cometh Pedro with certain of the armourers,
and (having by divers methods learned the Frenchman was in sooth
dead) they struck off his fetters, hand and leg, in the doing of which
they must needs free me also (since we were chained together, he and I)
and, binding a great shot to his feet, made ready to heave him
overboard.
And now, seeing no man heeded me, I snapped asunder the cracked
link and was free, save for the heavy chain that cumbered my leg.
Stooping, I lifted this chain and crouched to spring for the bulwark; but
now (even in this moment), remembering all