to the Far Blue Mountains (1976) (13 page)

"I am."

"Vhere is it you go?"

"To Virginia, but Newfoundland is a step upon the way. We thank you."

"Somevon looks for you?"

"Aye, mayhap a Queen's ship, but if you do not wish to risk it, we will find another way, or buy our own boat and sail it together."

Thorvald chuckled. "You'll find that hard, very hard! And cold, too." He smiled wryly. "If a Queen's ship will follow vhere ve go, she may have you, und velcome."

The hills were green and lovely around the Bay of Glandore, and the crumbling ruin of Castle Donovan looked wild and strange among the thick-standing trees above the bay. We went ashore in the skiff, and at a place to which Owain took us, I bought some provisions.

Curiously, I glanced around the old building. It was a combination warehouse and shop, a place I suspected where a goodly portion of the merchandise had been smuggled. We bought what we needed, including some additional stores for the ship, and then returned to our boat.

It was no great craft, at all, but built somewhat on the lines of a Norwegian bojort with a square topsail above the spritsail, a lateen mizzen and a small spritsail under the bowsprit. It was called the Snarri, and I liked the look and the feel of her. She was steered with a whipstaff, which gave the man at the helm a chance to observe the sails.

There was a small cabin aft and a section was curtained off for Lila.

The sky was gray when we left the emerald-green harbor of Glandore behind and sailed past the islands into open sea. Standing amidships I looked back at Ireland. Would I ever again see the isles of Britain?

The wind blew smartly from the south, yet Thorvald crowded on what sail we had to make good time toward Iceland. A sound of distant thunder with far-off streaks of lightning warned us what trouble lay ahead, but Thorvald had grown up on a ship's deck, and the man on the whipstaff was a burly fellow of forty years or more, who looked the Viking he was.

Shortly before noon I relieved the helmsmen, and Thorvald stood by, keeping a close eye upon me for he was no man to trust his ship to an unknown. But I was a fair hand from the boating down off the fens. After a bit he no longer watched so closely, trusting my hand and judgment.

Most of the time, Lila stayed below. When the weather was mild enough and the ship steady, she cooked with supplies from the stores, always warm, nourishing food.

Thorvald looked at her and shook his head. "You spoil us all, Lila. It is not good for sailor to expect too much!"

He wasted no time, but laid a course for the northwest, pulling steadily away from any area where a search might be directed, steering toward the cold northern waters.

At midnight I awakened and came on deck to stand beside Thorvald. "If you wish to sleep," I said, "you can leave her to me."

"I am tired," he said simply. "The course is northwest-by-north."

He went below, and I was alone with the man on the whip-staff, whose face I could not see under his cowling.

The wind had grown colder with the days, and when at last the mountains of Iceland loomed ahead we gathered amidship to look at land again, and Thorvald took us easily into a small cove where lay his home.

Three days we lay in port, and then once more set sail. Now the wind was steady but cold. And on the night watch it grew suddenly colder. Wary of some change, I awakened Thorvald.

He came on deck, sniffed to smell the wind, waited a bit, and then said, "Ice!"

We changed course toward the south. Suddenly I saw something white and glistening in the water. It was ice. Soon we saw several patches of broken ice and then, looming, a huge berg.

We passed her, several hundred yards off, a vast white tower pointing an icy finger at the clouds.

The days passed swiftly. It was a gray and overcast day when we sighted the birds of Witless Bay, and turned north along the coast, for we'd made our landfall a bit to the south of our port.

We moved into St. John's harbor and dropped our anchor there. Many boats were about, Portuguese, Basque, and Icelandic fishermen, and some others, just as obviously pirates. The pirates loved the rugged bays and small harbors of the island. They liked to recruit seamen there, for the Newfoundlanders were hardy men, skilled in all the work of ships and the sea, welcome aboard any ship, but doubly so aboard pirate craft for whom speed and seamanship were a prime requirement.

"Ve'll go no further here," Thorvald said. "Ve sell vhat ve have brought and ve load fish for home."

"I wish I could tempt you. I've traded for furs along that coast." I indicated where the large land might lie beyond the island. "There's a fortune to be had for the taking."

Thorvald shook his head, although his eyes held on the western horizon.

"Think, man," I suggested, "you could take back as much in one voyage as in four."

He shook his head again. "I vill find a boat for you," he said, "I know all here, und they know me."

It was a bold island to which we had come, and there were bold men about, ships fitting for the sea. And boats came in to dry their fish or to replenish supplies for another spell upon the dark water.

An eagerness was upon me now. I had come far upon my way, and I thought only of Abigail and our ship and my friends. Always the blue mountains hung like a mist at the back of my dreams, and there was no challenge that called to me as they did.

We went ashore and moved among the fishermen, Thorvald, Lila, and I, buying what things we needed, for it was a goodly port of supply.

Suddenly a huge man stood before me. He was bigger than I by breadth and height.

A strong man he looked, and certainly he felt himself so.

"The wench, there," he gestured at Lila. "Fifty English pounds for her!"

"She's a free woman," I said.

"Bah!" he sneered. "What woman is free when money is offered? I want her! A hundred pounds, then!" His eyes bulged a little as he leaned toward me. His face was red with drinking.

"No," I said. "Now stand aside."

"Stand aside!" he shouted. "You say that to me?"

He was a big man and drinking. A dangerous man, I thought, and I was of no mind to fight with him then. I was impatient to be off to the south, hungry for a ship to take me there, and irritated by this great oaf who stood there, breathing his foulness upon me.

He reached for his sword, so I dropped one hand to stay the drawing of it, and with the fist of the other I smashed him in the wind.

It hit him hard and his breath left him with a gasp. But knowing a hurt man is not a whipped man, I spread my legs and swung both fists to his jaw.

Both landed ... and as I have said, I am strong as two men ... or three.

He sat down hard in the mud, blood streaming from his smashed nose and mouth. He was stunned by my blows. So I walked by him and went on. Thorvald stared at me.

"There is power in you," he said. "But do you know who he is?"

"No."

"Nor I ... but he comes from yon ship," he pointed to a Dutch fluyt that lay in the land-locked harbor, "and he is a pirate."

"No matter," I said, but I lied. For suddenly there was a great envy upon me.

The fluyt was a neat, compact, and handsome vessel, every line of her speaking of speed and good handling.

"He comes," Lila said quietly.

Turning, I saw the big man had gained his feet. A half dozen were gathered about him, all looking toward me. He pointed, then took a step toward me but staggered and almost fell again.

A lean-faced man with dark, pleasant eyes stepped up to us. "Yon's a quarrelsome, trouble-making man. We'll be well rid of him when he goes."

"Is that truly his ship?" I asked.

"It is."

"And is he truly a pirate?"

"He is ... and fresh from robbing good fishermen upon the Banks, and making ready to sail for the Antilles when he is finished with his drinking."

"I am Barnabas Sackett," I said, "from England, and this is my good friend Thorvald."

"I know him," the lean man said. "You travel in good company."

Now the pirate's men were approaching.

"I will stand with you," said Thorvald.

"Lila," I said, "when this is over we must move your goods. Now we shall have a ship."

"A ship?"

"Aye."

They were coming up to me now, rough-looking men, at least two of them rascals.

They started to draw their swords, but I lifted a hand.

"If you draw on me, it will be mutiny. When did a good crew mutiny against their captain?"

"Captain!" They stared at me, startled.

"Had you rather sail with that great, drunken booby yonder?" I gestured at him.

"If you like him, keep him. I want no part of him. But if you sail with me there'll be no brawling ashore."

"Why should we sail with you? Do you have a ship?"

"The fluyt," I said, "is now my ship. I say we leave him to his drink and go aboard of her and make ready for the sea. If he is no better a master than he is a fighter, she'll need work."

One of the men, who appeared to be a fisherman, laughed. "He has courage, this one!"

"If I go aboard," I said, "you'll obey me."

They knew not what to think of me, looking from me to Lila and then to Thorvald.

"Come!" I said abruptly. "That one is finished. You can see it for yourself.

He'll lead you to your death, or capture and a Spanish prison."

"And where would you take us?"

"To rich prizes, and an even division all around with no giant share for the master. And then I'll go ashore in Virginia and the fluyt is yours."

Oh, I had properly guessed my men! I was not speaking into the wind, for they were men who appreciated courage and little else. They wanted profit, but it was the game, too, and they had just seen their master put down in the mud by a man a third smaller, and easily at that.

Some of whatever fear they had felt of him had gone with his fall. Now he fell again, and had stumbled up again, whether from drink or the effects of my blow I neither knew nor cared. He was hauling at his sword hilt.

To be a leader of pirates demanded not only courage but gall, the daring to challenge anything, and these were the men for it.

"He will kill you," one of them said. "He comes now."

He was coming, with a naked blade, but I waited, barehanded, measuring his movements. There was ugliness in him, and fury. He would be rash and overly confident, because I stood with no weapon in my hand.

My father had little to leave me in goods of this world, but he had what he had learned of men and weapons, of horses and women and ships and towns. He taught me well, and I knew what I could do.

"He means to kill you," Thorvald warned. "Do not mistake him. He will be quick."

They drew a little aside, knowing this was between us, for this is the way of men. One fights one's battles alone, not asking mercy nor expecting help.

The giant lifted the point of his sword toward my belly, and he was steadier than I had expected. My blows had jolted some of the drunkenness from him, but I knew the memory of it was in his muscles yet.

His was a flat, single-edged blade, the cutting edge down. His grip would be strong upon the sword, his concentration hard upon it. He was thinking now of what he would do to me. He was already tasting his revenge for the blows I had struck him.

Suddenly, he lunged. It was perfect-the move, the lunge. How many times had I done this in practice?

With a quick slap of my palm I knocked the blade over, out of line with my body.

Then I took a quick step in with my left foot, my right leg hooked behind his, and my right hand smashed up, the butt of my palm under his chin.

His head snapped back and my leg tripped him. He half-turned and fell again into the mud, his grip loosening on the sword. As he hit the mud I kicked it from his hand, then took it up. He lay staring ... shocked ... expecting death.

I broke the blade over my knee and threw the pieces to the earth.

"Come, Lila," I said, "we will go to our ship."

Chapter
11

"You are a bold man," Lila said. "I begin to see what she sees in you."

The closer we came to the fluyt the better I liked her-a neat three-master with nice lines. Yet when we went up the ladder to board, I was shocked.

Her decks were dirty and she looked unkempt and down-at-heel, certainly no proper look for a trim Dutch vessel. Several hands were loitering about and one man stood upon the quarter-deck staring down at me and at Lila.

"Who be you?" he demanded.

"Your new master," I told him, mounting the ladder to stand facing him. "Your former master and I had a bit of a difficulty, and those who were ashore decided they'd prefer me as master."

"They did, did they?" He scowled at me. "They said naught to me!"

I smiled at him. "There's the ship's boat alongside. Go ashore and talk to your former master, if you like."