Birds of Prey - Smith Wilbur (версия книг TXT) 📗

At the foot of the first flight of stairs Sir Francis Courtney was dragged out of the file by his gaolers and thrust into a small cell just large enough to hold one man. It was one in a row of half a dozen or so identical cells, whose doors were of solid timber studded with iron bolts and the tiny barred peep-hole in each was shuttered and closed. They had no sight of the other inmates. "Special quarters for you, Sir Pirate," the burly Dutch gaoler told him as he slammed the door on Sir Francis and turned the lock with a huge iron key from the bunch on his belt. "We are putting you in the Skellum's Den, with all the really bad ones, the murderers and rebels and robbers. You will feel at home here, of that I'm sure."

The rest of the prisoners were herded down to the next level of the dungeon. The sergeant gaoler unlocked the grille door at the end of the tunnel and they were shoved into a long narrow cell. Once the grille was locked behind them there was barely room for them all to stretch out on the thin layer of damp straw that covered the cobblestoned floor. A single latrine bucket stood in one corner, but murmurs of pleasure from all the men greeted the sight of the large water cistern beside the grille gate. At least this meant they were no longer on shipboard water rations.

There were four small windows set in the top of one wall and, once they had inspected their surroundings, Hal looked up at them. Aboli hoisted him onto his shoulders and he was able to reach one of these narrow openings. It was heavily barred, like the others, but Hal tried the gratings with his bare hands. They were set rock-firm, and he was forced to put out of his mind any notion of escaping this way.

Hanging on the grating, he drew himself up and peered through it. He found that his eyes were a foot or so above ground level, and from' there he had a view of part of the interior courtyard of the castle. He could see the entrance gateway and the grand portals of what he guessed must be the Company offices and the Governor's suite. To one side, through the gap where the walls had not yet been raised, he could see a portion of the cliffs of the table-topped mountain, and above them the sky. Against the cloudless blue sailed a flock of white gulls.

Hal lowered himself and pushed his way through the throng of seamen, stepping over the bodies of the sick and wounded. When he reached the grille he looked up the staircase but could not see the door to his father's cell. - "Father!" he called tentatively, expecting a rebuke from one of the gaolers, but when there was no response he raised his voice and shouted again.

"I hear you, Hal, his father called back.

"Do you have any orders for us, Father?"

"I expect they'll leave us in peace for a day or two, at least until they have convened a tribunal. We will have to wait it out. Tell the men to be of good heart."

At that a strange voice intervened, speaking in English but with an unfamiliar accent. "Are you the English pirates we have heard so much about?"

"We are honest sailors, falsely accused," Sir Francis shouted back. "Who and what are you?"

"I am your neighbour in the Skellum's Den, two cells down from you. I am condemned to die, as you are."

"We are not yet condemned," Sir Francis protested.

"It is only a matter of time. I hear from the gaolers, that you soon will be."

"What is your name?" Hal joined in the exchange. He was not interested in the stranger, but this conversation served to pass the time and divert them from their own predicament. "What is your crime?"

"I am Althuda, and my crime is that I strive to be free and to set other men free."

"Then we are brothers, Althuda, you and I and every man here. We all strive for freedom."

There was a ragged chorus of assent, and when it subsided Althuda spoke again. "I led a revolt of the Company slaves. Some were recaptured. Those Stadige Jan burned alive, but most of us escaped into the mountains. Many times they sent soldiers after us, but we fought and drove them off and they could not enslave us again." His was a vital young voice, proud and strong, and even before Hal had seen his face he found himself drawn to this Althuda.

"Then if you escaped, how is it that you are back here in the Skellurn's Den?" one of the English seamen wanted to know. They were all listening now. Althuda's story had moved even the most hardened of them.

"I came back to rescue somebody, another slave who was left behind," Althuda told them. "When I entered the colony again I was recognized and betrayed."

They were all silent for a space.

"A woman?" a voice asked. "You came back for a woman?" "Yes," said Althuda. "A woman."

"There is always an Eve in the midst of Eden to tempt us into folly, "one sang out and they all laughed.

Then somebody else asked, "Was she your sweetheart?" "No," Althuda answered. "I came back for my little sister."

Thirty guests sat down to the banquet that Governor Kleinhans gave to welcome his successor. All the most important men in the administration of the colony, together with their wives, were seated around the long board.

From the place of honour Petrus van de Velde gazed with delighted anticipation down the length of the rosewood table above which hung massive chandeliers, each burning fifty perfumed- candles. They lit the great hall as if it was day, and sparkled on the silverware and crystal glasses.

For months now, ever since sailing from the coast of Trincomalee, van de Velde had been forced to subsist on the swill and offal cooked on the galleon and then on the coarse fare that the English pirates had provided for him. Now his eyes shone and saliva flooded his mouth as he contemplated the culinary extravaganza spread before him. He reached for the tall glass in front of him, and took a mouthful of the rare wine from Champagne. The tiny seething bubbles tickled his palate and spurred his already unbridled appetite.