Tim Severin - Sea Robber

He thought Dan must have ducked under the roof. He waited, but the Miskito was nowhere to be seen. Very cautiously, Hector lay forward on his stomach, eased his legs over the edge of the roof, slid himself backwards and dropped to the ground with a slight thud. Once more he held his breath, fearful that he’d woken someone in the house. Still there was no sign of Dan.

As he groped for his shoes, he saw a shadow coming towards him. He realized it was his friend, and he carried the bamboo ladder that Jezreel had been guarding.

The Miskito put his mouth close to Hector’s ear. ‘You need this,’ he whispered.

Hector was alarmed. ‘What about the others? If anything goes wrong, without the ladder they’ll be trapped,’ he hissed.

Dan gave a dismissive grunt. ‘Jezreel said you need the ladder more than they do. Now don’t waste any more time.’

Together they put the ladder into position against the rear wall and Hector clambered upwards. He eased the window fully open, his heart in his mouth. He was well aware of the extravagant risk he was taking. There was no way of knowing whose bedroom he was entering. It could be some stranger’s, or where the Governor’s children slept. Even if it was Maria’s room, she might be sharing it with another member of the Governor’s staff.

With excruciating care he eased himself into the darkened room and stood by the window waiting for his vision to adjust to the gloom. It was a bedroom – that was clear. Close beside him, where the light from the window was strongest, stood a small chair. Some garments lay across it. The farthest corners of the room were deep in shadow, so it was impossible to see what was in them. The middle of the room was dominated by a large, ghostly white shape reaching to the ceiling. It took Hector several moments to realize it was a net canopy to keep out insects. Whoever used the room was asleep inside. He could hear nothing, not even breathing.

For a long while the young man stood still, undecided. He didn’t know whether to tiptoe to the door, leave and attempt to find some clue as to which was Maria’s room, or just try and check who was sleeping under the canopy, without waking them.

He stood there, gripped with uncertainty, when a voice spoke softly and clearly from within the canopy.

‘Is that you, Hector?’

He felt as if the ground had dropped from beneath his feet and he was in mid-air. The air was sucked from his lungs. His throat went dry and, unable to speak, he went to her. The canopy was drawn aside and a woman’s shape sat up, dark hair loose and falling around her shoulders. Then Hector was on his knees, his arms around Maria.

For what seemed an age, neither of them spoke. He was dizzy with emotion. Then, very gently, she put her mouth close to his ear and whispered, ‘I knew you would come.’

Reluctantly, slowly, he eased his embrace. ‘I want you to leave with me,’ he murmured. It was a simple, brief statement. There was no time to say more.

She didn’t answer, but laid her hand on his arm and freed herself from his embrace. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and rose to her feet, and the canopy fell back in place as she walked swiftly to the other side of the room. Dimly Hector saw the lid of a chest lift, and then Maria was back beside him with a bundle in her arms and a dark hood tied around her hair. Only then did he realize that she’d been sleeping fully dressed.

‘Jacques and the others are waiting outside,’ he began, but Maria merely laid a finger on his lips to silence him, kissed him quickly on the cheek and was already on her way towards the open window.

In a daze, Hector followed her as she climbed over the windowsill and, without a moment’s hesitation, began to descend the ladder to where Dan was waiting.

Hector’s feet had scarcely touched the ground when Dan was already leading the way back to the outer wall, moving at a quick walk, the ladder balanced over one shoulder. With every step Hector expected to hear a shout behind him or the sound of a musket shot. But the entire Presidio was still quietly asleep. Everything was happening so fast that his mind could only concentrate on what was immediately in front of him. All that mattered now was to stay as close as possible to Maria, not to let her out of his sight. He took a deep breath and caught a faint waft of her perfume. He felt weak at the knees.

They reached the outer wall and turned to the right. Another couple of minutes of rapid walking and Hector saw ahead of him the unmistakable bulk of Jezreel lurking in the shadow of the walkway. Beside him were three more men. At the last moment Hector realized he hadn’t warned Maria about Ma’pang. It would be a shock for her to come face to face in the darkness with a huge, naked islander with sharpened teeth.

He needn’t have worried. As they joined the waiting men, the young woman nodded politely to the nude savage, then gave Jacques a quick embrace.

‘Good to see you again, Maria,’ whispered the Frenchman.

‘Hello, Jezreel,’ she said softly, laying a hand on the big man’s arm. ‘I’m glad to see you’re here as well.’

Something was wrong, Hector realized belatedly. There should have been at least three or four escaped hostages waiting to escape up the ladder. But there was only one additional figure. In the darkness it was difficult to make out his features, but he appeared to be an older man, small for a Chamorro and dressed in a smock. ‘Where are the others?’ he asked Ma’pang quietly.

‘We couldn’t find any others,’ the Chamorro replied. ‘Maybe the Spaniards took them north. Only Kepuha here.’

Hector felt a twinge of disappointment. He had found Maria, but the mission was only partly successful.

‘Did you search elsewhere?’ he asked.

Ma’pang shook his head. ‘Already we have stayed long enough. We must leave now.’

‘There is no one else held in that building,’ Jacques added from the shadows. ‘The other rooms are used as the armoury. That is why the windows are barred.’

‘Did you get inside?’ Dan enquired.

‘Of course,’ Jacques gave a quick grin. ‘I thought it might be the strongroom where the pay chest is kept. Tant pis, no such luck.’

‘Hector,’ said Dan, ‘I need another few minutes. You and Maria get out now. Ma’pang and his friend can go with you. I will need Jacques and Jezreel to stay behind with me. There is still something useful we can do.’

With Maria beside him, Hector did not feel like arguing. What mattered most to him at that moment was to make sure the woman he loved was clear of the fort. ‘Don’t be too long, Dan. Our luck can’t hold forever.’

He held the ladder steady with Jezreel, as Maria followed Ma’pang and the Chamorro hostage up its stubby rungs. Behind him he heard Dan say, ‘Jacques, show me the way to that armoury.’ When Hector next looked round, the two men had melted away into the darkness.

THE FIRST GLOW of dawn was seeping into the sky, turning the shadows from black to grey, as the raiders scrambled up the slope and regained the comparative safety of the hill above Aganah. They had succeeded in making their way back through the town undetected and were moving at a brisk pace, walking and jogging by intervals. Ma’pang was in the lead, with Kepuha, the rescued hostage, close behind him. As they reached the first bushes the old man paused long enough to strip off his smock of plaited palm leaf and hide it in the undergrowth. Now he was as naked as his fellow clansman. Hector, looking past Maria who was directly in front of him, could see Kepuha’s thin shanks and buttocks and bony shoulders moving steadily as he kept up the stride, his head of white hair bobbing at each step. Farther back in their little column Dan and Jacques each carried two Spanish muskets they had taken from the armoury, and Jezreel was draped with half a dozen bandoliers. The sack over the big man’s shoulder contained bullet moulds, half a pig of lead and several large cartridges of gunpowder, which had been intended for the fort’s cannon.