"Adam?" he exclaimed, at last, "Lord love me, I ... I'd never ha' known thee!"
"Don Luiz," said Adam, rising, "I have the honour to make known my good and dear friend, Sir George D'Arcy ... George, I present Don Luiz Alphonso y Valdez." Sir George, arm a-flourish, bowed with an extreme of ceremony: Don Luiz, opening his fine, dark eyes very wide, leapt afoot to do likewise, gasping:
"Honoured, sir!"
"Don Luiz, the same, I vow!" answered Sir George, smiling. "You behold me, sir, but lately from a rowing-bench aboard the Santa Barbara galleasse——"
"George—ho, George!" bellowed a familiar voice, and in upon them strode Sir Benjamin who, besides dirt with shag of hair and whisker, wore nothing save a breech-clout yet who (having boomed astonished curses at Adam's changed appearance), being now presented to the young Spaniard, instantly bowed, flourished, bounced and made great play with his legs which, no longer chubby, showed lean and corded with hairy brawn.
"'S blood, sir, a joy!" he exclaimed. "Let me rot and perish, sir, if 'tisn't purest joy ... to play hosts to grandee o' Spain in Spanish seas aboard Spanish ship, with Spanish wine, and ourselves but late all foul and filthy, bleeding and bloody slaves aboard a Spanish accursed galley. I say, sir, you are and shall be our right honoured guest or may I burn, choke and perish! And now, Adam, where is the wine, prithee? Can't we find ever a bottle, or say two wherein to pledge this our worthy gentleman don?"
Adam rang the silver bell beside him, whereat the quick, soft-footed Jimbo appeared bearing three bottles on tray of massy silver.
So they bowed all three and drank to Don Luiz whose pale cheek flushed as he bowed and drank to them. And thus they continued to drink, more especially Sir Benjamin, who called toast after toast, until Adam left them and came to his own cabin, or rather this spacious apartment of luxurious comfort chosen for him it seemed by his zealous servant Jimbo, and which must have been designed for a lord high Admiral at the very least. Now among its many furnishings was a richly inlaid writing standish with silver fittings, sheaf of quill pens and shelf of books above. Choosing from these a book of many pages and heavily bound, that he thought must be the ship's log book, Adam selected one of the pens and began writing, as follows:
"On board the Santissima Trinidad
this third day of May and year of Grace
1640
"In this night of May begins for me a new life. For here sit I, Adam Penfeather, aboard this rich and glorious ship, within a splendid cabin, clad in Spanish magnificence of dress that by good hap and because I am grown somewhat and fuller of body, do fit me very well. And now all my thought is this, viz.: How best to rule this wild company, these poor, fierce, brutalized creatures, to lift them up and back again to manhood and this best of all manhood as I do think, namely English sailormen. Whether to attempt this by suasion of prayer and exhortation or by method less kindly. Memo. To-morrow early, must order all firearms to be shifted abaft, and stored beneath the coach where they shall be ever to hand and under my own eye. As regards these poor men, am now resolved on prayer and exhortation with show of instant and extremest ferocity whensoever needful. And now before sleep will forth on deck to know all well and the watch alert."
This night, instead of straw and stone floor, Adam lay between fragrant sheets on bedstead richly carved and gilded; but what with all this unwonted comfort, splendour, and events of this most fateful day, sleep he could not, and therefore summoned Jimbo, who came instantly, though stifling vast yawn behind huge, black hand.
"Jimbo," said he, motioning the black giant to be seated nearby and who goggled but obeyed, "where is my boy, Smidge, my small seadog?"
"He am berry bountifully asleep, sah, in de li'l cubby next door 'longside, Cap'n Adam, sah."
"Why then let him be. To-morrow you shall set him a bed in the corner yonder."
"Yessah, berry good, sah."
"To-morrow also, first thing, you will look out clothes for Sir George and Sir Benjamin as you did for me."
"Hain't no manner of need, sah, berry good clo'es in ebery cabin abaft heah, great plenty clo'es, sah, and all berry splendorious!"
"Good! Now another thing, Jimbo, these long years of trouble and suffering have shown you for a man brave in hardship and faithful to me, therefore I shall double your share of all profits."
"Do-double him, sah?" stammered Jimbo, with great show of teeth. "Oh, Cap'n! Oho, Cap'n Adam, you is a berry elegant, noble, Christian gemman. Amen and de Lord bress yo' eyes an' limbs, now and ever more, Cap'n!"
"You will be chief steward aboard this ship, Jimbo, and my fighting man ashore."
"Yassah, yassah! I don' lak fighting, but when I has to fight I fights berry hearty, sir."
"What o' the man I had to stab to-night?"
"Berry sore and groansome, sah, and mighty curseful! Him called Tom Ash and rowed next to me in de galley."
"Howbeit, Jimbo, I took care to bleed him only, through th' upper arm, he shall do well enough till morning. Now hearkee, I mind you were familiar with all the slaves, Jimbo."
"Yessah, I knows 'em ebery one, and friends wid ebery one as be friends wi' me till I quarrels and then I hain't."
"Well now, Jimbo, I want you to tell them, each and every one of them, that Captain Adam Penfeather is a man very fierce, very cruel, quick to shoot or hang any rogue disobeying orders or fighting with his fellow. I want you to terrify 'em beyond my need of killing any one of 'em. Now is this well understood, Jimbo?"
"Yessah, it berry sho'ly am. I'll tell em as yo' am de bloodiest, cruellest, frociousest Cap'n that ebber commanded any ship in de Main."
"Why then, good night, Jimbo!"
"Thankee, sah, and de same to yo' and many ob dem wid de berry sweetliest ob sweet dreams, sah."
CHAPTER XXVIII
TELLS HOW ADAM SET ABOUT TRANSFORMING SLAVES INTO MEN
Going on deck next morning Adam beheld a resplendent gentleman, enjoying the early sun, who, turning in leisured promenade, disclosed the lean features of this new Sir Benjamin and he, catching sight of Adam in his rich attire, glanced down at his own splendour and laughed, sweeping off feathered hat with courtly bow, saying:
"Lo, Adam, rigged forth like lordly don I feel but the more English, and shall never believe how that yesterday I was miserable slave—until I see my poor, scarred back,—if I ever do. And yet, Adam my hearty, let me die but I must needs confess and solemnly protest that our bitter hardships and privations ha' their uses."
"Why so I think," nodded Adam, "they should make us something wiser."
"True enough, Adam, and besides they ha' given me a new palate for wine, a boy's joyous, indiscriminate appetite for my food and made better man o' me than ever I was afore. Aha,—look now yonder where George struts in his like-stole finery!"
"Ay, faith!" laughed Sir George. "And see again down yonder on the half-deck our naked rogues o' yesterday, their wondrous transfiguration!" And he gestured where divers of the men were parading themselves or mocking each other in their new fashion of garb and wide Spanish breeches with coloured hosen.
It was this same morning, after breakfast, that by sound of trumpet and drum, all men were summoned aft where Adam, standing above them on the wide quarterdeck, thus addressed them:
"Let all men hearken now. We have been brothers in our sorrows and pain, let us be brothers still, true to each other, obedient to our duty and faithful to our God, the Almighty Father of us all that by His mercy hath delivered us from slavery. But to do this, ye must be men. Ay, and men ye shall be, clean outside and in, and this either by your own will or my contrivance. Ye that were poor slaves cringing to the lash, brute beasts lusting for vengeance, shall be men again to respect yourselves and each other. And the first means is to be clean o' body,—so, every man o' ye every day shall sluice himself down or be soused overboard from the lee yardarm. This is an order! Moreover, ye be for the most part, English sailormen, than whom there are none better men in this whole, wide world, so be ye thankful therefore to the God that made ye so and, remembering how He hath brought us out of great tribulation, pain o' body and anguish o' soul, let us praise and give Him humble thanks all our days. To the which end, shall be prayers at morn and evening daily by beat o' drum. And this is another order! Lastly, ye men of my command, remember this,—he that proves worthy shall have honour and reward, he that is proven rogue shall lie i' the bilboes or swing at yardarm. Remember, lastly, that ye are all, each and every, sons o' the Lord that made ye. And so—dismiss!"