"Well, sor, I did go on; and there stood Black Mazzard wid the two biggest pishtols we have on the primises, wan in each hand and the other shtuck in his belt. 'Kim another shtep,' he says, 'and I'll blow the place about your heads!' Och, and I looked up thin to ask a blessing on meself before I wint up in such a hurry that I hadn't time to confess; and bedad there was the owld gintleman expanding his mouth into the widest grin I iver saw in me life!"
"And the Commodore, what did he do?" cried Humphrey, impatiently.
"What did he do?"
"Yes--draw his men off?"
"Faix, he drew Black Mazzard's blood off, for he wint shtraight at him, knocking one pishtol up in the air wid his hand as he did so. I niver saw annything so nate in me life, sor. I told ye he'd got his best sword on--the sharp one."
"Yes, yes!"
"Well, sor, he seemed just to lift it up and howld it forninst him, as I'm howlding this knife--so; and it wint right through Black Mazzard; just bechuckst his shoulder and his neck; and as he pulls it out he takes him by the collar and drags him down upon his knees.
"'Come out, ye mad-brained idiots!' he shouts at the lads inside--'come out, or I'll fire the powdher meself!'
"Bedad, sor, ye might have heard a pin dhrop if there'd bin wan there, but there wasn't; and we heard Black Mazzard's pishtol dhrop instead-- the big one being on the pavemint, where it went off bang and shot a corner off a big shtone. But nobody came from inside the magazine, and the owld gintleman grinned more and more, and seemed to rowl his oies; and I belave he wanted to hear the owld place go up. And there you could hear thim inside buzzing about like my mother's bees in the sthraw hive, when ye give it a larrup on the top wid a shtick."
Dinny gave his head a nod, and went on. "That roused up the Captain, and he roars out--'Here, Dinny--Dick--Bart,' he says, 'go in and fetch out these idiots.' And I shpat in me fist, and ran in wid the other two. 'Now, Dinny, my lad,' I says to meself, 'if ye're blown up it'll be bad for ye, but ye'll be blown up towards heaven, and that's a dale better than being blown down.' And avore I knew where I was, I was right in among the lads, about foive-and-twenty of them; and then talk about a foight, sor! Ah, musha, it was awful!"
"Did they make such a desperate defence!"
"Deshperate, sor! Oh, that don't describe it! Bedad, I nivver saw anything like it in me loife!"
"Were there many killed? Were you wounded!"
"Killed! Wounded! Did ye iver see a flock o' sheep when a big dog goes at 'em, sor?"
"Often, in Devon."
"Ah, then it's the same as it would be in Oireland. Bedad, sor, the name of the captain, and seeing Black Mazzard tuk, was enough. They all walked out and pitched their swords and pishtols down, in a hape before the shkipper and then stands in a row like sodgers; sure and it's meself that had some of the drilling of them.
"'Come here, Bart,' says the shkipper then; and as Bart goes up, the captain gives Black Mazzard a shove like and throws him down. 'Here,'
he says, 'put your foot on this dog's throat.' Bart had it there before ye knew where ye were, and thin if the skipper didn't go right up to the row of min and walks slowly along 'em, looking 'em wan by wan in the face wid his dark oi, sor. And he made 'em turn white and shiver, he did, sor, till he'd looked 'em all down, and then he shteps out, little shtiff fellow as he is, and he says:
"'You fools, to be led away by a thing like that! How shall I punish 'em, Dinny?' he says, turning to me.
"'Sure, captain,' I says, 'they are all shtanding nate and handy, and if ye give me word, I'll shtand at wan ind and send a bullet through the lot, and there'll be no waste.'
"'Pah!' he says, 'I don't make war on the lads who've fought by my side.
Go back to your quarthers,' he says, 'and if ye turn again me once more I'll give ye such a punishment as ye disarve. You shall have your Captain Mazzard.'
"'D'ye hear that, ye divils?' I says, for I couldn't stop meself, sor; and they give three cheers for the captain and wint off to quarthers; and that was all."
"But Mazzard--what of him!"
"Oh, he's putt away in as nice and plisant a place as a gintleman could wish to have, sor. It's cool, and undherground, and the only way to it is down through a hole in a stone like Father O'Grady's well, and Bart fades him wid food at the ind of a long shtick. He's safe enough now.
But sure and the best thing for everyone would be for him to doi by accident through Bart forgetting to take him his mate."
"Starve him to death?" cried Humphrey.
"Faix, no, not a bit of it, sor. He's a bad one anny way, and if he died like a sparrow in a cage, sure it would be a blessing for all of us."
"And the widow Greenheys, Dinny!"
"Whisht! be aisy, sor, wid a lady's name."
"Dinny," cried Humphrey sternly, "how long are you going to play fast and loose with me!"
"'An' is it me ye mane?' Sure I couldn't do it, sor."
"Dinny, now is the time to escape, now that Mistress Greenheys is safe from the persecution of that scoundrel."
"Oh, whisht, sor! whisht! Sure and I've grown shtrong again, and ye want to timpt me from the ways of vartue."
"Nonsense, man! Your plan--the explosion!"
"Oh, faix! It was only me fun. I couldn't do such a thing."
"Do you want that man to escape or be set free, and lay claim again to that poor little woman?"
"Oh, the poor little crathur! no."
"Then help me to escape."
"Sure and ye're good friends wid the shkipper and don't want to go, sor."
"I must and will escape, Dinny, and you shall help me for Mistress Greenheys' sake."
"Ah, and it's touching me on me soft place ye are," said Dinny pitifully.
"For her sake, I tell you, and you shall be happy with her at home."
"Sure an' I haven't got an 'at home,'" said Dinny.
"Then, as I promised you, I'll make you one. Come, save her from that scoundrel."
"Faix, an' he is a blagguard anny way."
"Who is?" said a deep voice.
"Yerself for wan," said Dinny. "Sure, and Black Mazzard another; and I'm telling the captain here that he needn't grumble and call himself a prishner, for he's rowling in comfort; while as to Black Mazzard, ah, he should see his cell!"
Bart scowled and stopped till Dinny had finished and gone, leaving the prisoner alone with his thoughts, which were of liberty.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.