This time the party did not stop at the stakes, but proceeded directly to the royal hut on the opposite side from the jail. To the old Captain, who regarded them as sullenly from his stake as did the chieftains from their councils, Ebenezer called, "Never fear, old man, we shan't betray you. 'Tis all of us or none."
"In a pig's arse," muttered Bertrand beside him, and McEvoy added flatly, "Ye may stake your own fortunes where ye please, but not McEvoy's. If he dies on my account I'll mourn him sorely, but if I die on his I'll hate his guts." As for the Captain himself, either he did not hear the poet's encouragement, or was too unhinged by fear to comprehend it, or simply discounted it, for his expression remained unchanged.
At the entrance to the royal hut Bandy Lou said with his great smile, "We stop here. You go there," and pointed to the hide-flap doorway. The prisoners hesitated, each reluctant to take the initiative, and then Ebenezer, his jaw clenched tight, pushed the flap aside and led them in.
Except for its size and the more numerous hides which served as rugs and wall-hangings alike, Chicamec's palace was little different from his jail. Along the rear wall stood a line of guards, spears in hand. A small fire burned in a circle of rocks in the center of the floor; behind it, tight-lipped and evil-eyed, sat the wrinkled king himself, flanked by his two unsmiling confederates. The Englishmen faced them uneasily, uncertain whether to sit or remain standing, bow or stand still, speak or be silent. In the absence of Bandy Lou, Ebenezer looked to Quassapelagh for instructions, but it was Drepacca who addressed them, apparently having added a fluency in English to the catalogue of his assets.
"It is the wish of Drepacca," he declared sternly, "that the four white men go free; or that, if one must die, it be the old man; or that, if only one may live, it be one of the two who saved Drepacca's life."
McEvoy scowled; Ebenezer and Bertrand avoided each other's eyes.
"It is the wish of Quassapelagh," Drepacca resumed, "that the old man and the red-haired singer die, and you twain be spared; or that, if only one may live, it be the tall one who still wears the Ring of Brotherhood."
"I say!" McEvoy protested; Bertrand's face fell. A guard lowered his spear to the ready, and the Irishman said no more.
"It is the wish of Chicamec," continued the African king, "that every man of white skin on the face of the earth be deprived of his privy member and put to spear. But he allows the tall one is a brother of Quassapelagh and must be spared." He looked at Bertrand, and though neither his tone nor his expression lost its sternness, he said, "I regret that you have lost Quassapelagh's ring, and that I once knelt to you as a god instead of making you my brother in the manner of my people. But I have told Chicamec that you and the tall one saved my life, and that who kills you must kill Drepacca first. Chicamec has made no answer to this, and so you will go free — mind you do not smile, or he will guess my words and strike you dead at any cost."
To McEvoy he said, "You are my friend and the friend of Bandalu, and I would not see you die. But the anger of Chicamec is great, and he grants brotherhood only to those who have saved the life of one of us. You must bid your friends farewell."
"Nay, 'sheart!" McEvoy cried; the guard moved closer, and Chicamec's eyes grew dark. "What I mean," McEvoy continued in a calmer voice, "if thou'rt such a friend as ye claim, and have such a gang as Bandy Lou says ye have behind ye, why is't ye let this bloody old flitch be judge and jury? Turn us all loose, and be damned to him!"
Quassapelagh, whose frown had deepened at the Irishman's choice of words, spoke up in reply. "Quassapelagh and Drepacca are strong, but our strength is not on the island of Chicamec. If the Ahatchwhoops fight the people of Drepacca, our cause will lose a mighty ally and a mighty king. Chicamec will not make war to kill brothers of Drepacca and Quassapelagh, but to kill any other white man, Chicamec will make war. You must die."
"Then so must I!" Ebenezer said suddenly. His brow furrowed and unfurrowed at a great rate, his hands twitched about, and his nose was a thing alive. Quassapelagh and Drepacca turned to him with surprise; Bertrand and McEvoy with incredulity. "Either the four of us will go free, or the four of us will die!" declared the poet. "It is my fault these men are here, and I shan't permit myself to be saved without all three of them." He looked accusingly at Drepacca. "Perhaps Drepacca doth not defend his own, but Eben Cooke doth, friends or no."
"I beg my brother to think again," Quassapelagh said, maintaining his stern composure for Chicamec's benefit. "If I must, I shall strike you senseless to spare your life."
But Ebenezer had apparently foreseen this possibility. "Not a bit of't," he replied at once, his voice exhilarated by the rashness of his move. "Not a bit of't, dear Quassapelagh; the moment you say even one of us must die I'll leap and throttle Chicamec yonder, and his bullies will spear me like a pincushion. Nay, don't warn 'em off, or I'll spring this instant."
"I'faith, Eben!" cried McEvoy. "Save yourself; there's naught else for't!"
"Our friend speaks wisely as well as generously," Drepacca added. "Do not throw four lives away instead of two."
"Say no more on't!" Ebenezer ordered briskly. His face was flushed and his voice uneven, and his heart pounded hot blood through his limbs. "Will ye spare your brother's people or put him to the spear? Yea me or nay me, and have done with't!" He swayed on his feet, arms swinging free, as if ready to make good his threat. Chicamec's glance sent two guards closer with upraised spears. Drepacca and Quassapelagh exchanged flickers of their eyes.
"No answer, brothers?" The poet's voice grew shrill. "Adieu, then, Brother Quassapelagh! Good luck to you, and bad luck to your murtherous schemes! Adieu, Brother Drepacca, adieu, adieu! 'Tis a pity you ne'er met my friend Henry Burlingame: you twain would get on famously!"
He went so far as actually to cock his muscles for the leap across the fire, and paused only because Chicamec caught up the name Henry Burlingame and unleashed a torrent of interrogation at Quassapelagh, in which the name was repeated several times.
"Wait, brother!" Quassapelagh called sharply, and attended the rest of his elder colleague's excited query while Ebenezer, the moment of his courage past, reeled and sweated in his stance.
"The Tayac Chicamec believes you spoke a certain name just then, and would have you speak it another time."