Swords From the Sea (38 page)

My head began to buzz all of a sudden and weakness came upon me so that I, Ivak the jighit, the outrider, the Tatar-chaser, the sotnik, gripped the saddle horn to keep from falling. Such a shame!

By and by the buzzing stopped and I looked around, seeing the sun peering over the horizon, and a black-browed Cossack lass staring at me from the back of a cow.

She was taking cattle to pasture, and by a line of great stones shaped like skulls along the highway I knew that one of the villages of my people lay half a verst away. My horse, a big black Turani that knew a thing or two, had slowed to a walk and its ears were pricked back as if asking why in the fiend's name I was rocking the saddle like a cradle.

The maid was round-eyed as if I were a ghost out of one of the old burial mounds that lie on the steppe under those great stones. God knows what people sleep in those mounds, but it is quite true that of nights they rise up and slip about-ghosts sure enough. To mend my dignity I called to her smartly and bade her be off to the village to round up a band of the galliards, the bravest fellows and the jighits, and send them after my tracks.

"Aye, Uncle," she responded, "but your scalp lock is running blood-"

"Little sparrow," I grunted, "what are a few drops of blood to a chap who rode from Petersburg in ten days? Nothing at all! I'll fetch you a bag of candy from Kherson if you stir your legs. Hold! Did an officer ride past in a blue coat on a roan with one white foreleg?"

"Aye, Uncle. Two gentlemen, they were, riding a musket shot apart. One was a foreigner, the other a Russian with a wig and a red face, taller than I am."

She sped away toward the village, her white legs flashing under her tunic, and I spurred up the Turani, cursing my broken head. By the girl's words I recognized the officer who had been riding before us all the way. Now he was behind John Paul, and we knew what sort of cock he was. The leader of the outlaws, the officer who had bribed the zamora keeper and hired the pirates. That's what!

We sped over the level trail like a hawk and presently two riders showed up, above the grass ahead. They pulled in when they heard the Turani and faced about.

Drawing their blades they took stand, stirrup to stirrup, closing the narrow way, and their horses were nearly blown. By their bearing they were outlaws of the band, and their jaws dropped when they saw my face. Afterward I remembered that they must have thought me dead, and when the big black rushed on them in the eye of the rising sun they believed a bloody specter had come up out of Father Dnieper to settle their hash.

I spurred on the Turani instead of pulling him in, and stood up in the saddle just as we came upon the two. By feinting a slash at one I made him throw up his saber to guard his head. Then, leaning down as the three ponies came together, I cut at the other's neck, getting home over his blade. His mount reared and shelled him out of the saddle like a pea out of a pod.

His mate had raked my shoulder blades with a slash that was too late to cut deep. Twisting the big black around, I crowded the outlaw as he was turning. He warded desperately with his sticker, leaning back to do so when he should have spurred his nag clear.

The shoulder of the Turani struck his pony and the man lost his stirrups, falling to earth like a clown. Such riders! I had not a moment to lose, and so kept the black dancing around the outlaw.

"Speak up, you dog!" I cried at him. "Where is your officer and the American?"

"Only a little span ahead, noble sir! Truly, it is all our officer's doing! He came to us with papers from the government, promising many things if we would rub out-Ai-a, spare a poor chap, noble lord!"

I hastened on, wasting no more time on the outlaw. And in no time at all I heard the music of steel kissing steel. Eh, a great fear came upon me that John Paul was being sliced by the leader of the dog company.

But when I rode up to them, only two men were to be seen where the trail dipped through a hollow. Two ponies were standing riderless, with heaving flanks and spraddled legs, foundered. And in a spot where the grass was short John Paul made play with his rapier, and his antagonist was Strelsky the ensign.

Swift hope flashed into Strelsky's red face as I trotted up, until he saw out of the corner of his eye that Ivak had come instead of his two murderers. John Paul motioned me away with his free hand and I drew rein to watch.

Strelslcy was the prettier sword of the two by odds. But the American had an arm like a wrestler and an eye like a wolf. He did not seem tired in the least. His brow was placid though his black eyes darted fire. Until I looked him over I had felt that it was folly to let him risk a stab when the Turani could have ridden Strelsky down.

By then the Russian knew that his men would not come up, and his face showed strain; moreover he kept trying to watch me, trusting in his greater skill to keep John Paul's blade in play. So it happened that the point of the American's rapier pricked his cheek and drew blood. It angered the ensign and he began to attack, making many feints that pulled John Paul's guard aside, but failing to get home. A second time his cheek was raked, a piece of flesh falling out.

Then Strelsky lunged fiercely at the throat and John Paul parried just in time, making a swift ripost that caught the Russian's blade under his. The American stiffened his wrist and Strelsky tried desperately to disengage, but suffered a deep cut over the eyes. Blood ran down into his eyes and he stood helpless.

John Paul stepped back and lowered his point, while the Russian cursed and gripped his sword, expecting to be spitted at once. His face was scarred for life, if he lived. This pleased me because Strelsky was not a fellow to love. He wore the uniform of the Empress, but he had given me an order that held treachery in it.

The American was a foreigner, yet, after the fight on the raft, my heart warmed to him. He could stand his ground and take blows, and he kept his hand up even though the Russians for some reason had schemed to take his life on the journey, though this he did not know as yet.

Some words he spoke to Strelsky, and the ensign answered slowly, clearing the blood out of his eyes as he did so. I caught the name Edwards and the words "the prince." Whatever passed between them, it enlightened John Paul, because he sheathed his rapier and looked at Strelsky as if a snake had come up out of the ground. I think the ensign told much truth, being fearful of his life. Then Paul Jones pointed out over the steppe and said in French:

"Va t'en!"

And Strelsky turned away, after dropping his sword. At the edge of the hollow he began to run, and though I called a barbed word after him he did not halt again. It angered me to see him go free even in such a state. But from this time forward John Paul took advice from no man. Indeed, how was Ito consult with him?

Why did I stand aside, to remain with him when Strelsky went off? An order had been given me and the order was to conduct John Paul safe into Kherson.

He looked me over and smiled approval, then said-

"Edwards?"

By signs I tried to make clear that the lieutenant was slightly wounded and in the hands of the outlaws. He seemed to understand, and thought for a while until there was a great pounding of hoofs and a dozen Cossack lads came up, reining in on top of us and staring at the admiral, who looked them over with interest.

Eh, I was glad to see them. The sight of several kites hovering over the tall grass where Strelsky had disappeared did not displease me, either. He was something like a vulture himself.

V

On land a coward can show you his heels, but on a ship even Satan himself cannot run away.

My brothers, have you ever called to you a borzoi, a wolfhound, keeping one hand behind your back the while? If the dog does not know you, he will not come. Not until he sees that the hand behind your back does not hold a stick.

Men are greater fools than dogs. They will go forward even when they see the stick that is going to beat their brains out. So it was with John Paul, and so it was with me.

For days after the duel I lay on my back in a hut of my village, while my head mended, the American having gone on to Kherson with my mates. Soon they came straggling back, very angry, some drunk and others bloody. Most of them did not return at all, having been impressed by the Russians, John Paul knowing nothing about it.

They talked with me, and other fellows came who had served in the fleet, bringing with them a Tatar hakim from over the border who brewed herbs that made a new man of me. The Russians' surgeons are good for nothing but to cut off limbs, and of what use to a man is a leg that has been cut off?

The men who returned from Kherson said that John Paul had been given a banquet by the field marshal in command of the army, but did not appear content. He had asked after old Ivak, which gratified me. My Cossacks said in the taverns of Kherson it was rumored that the admiral would never hoist his flag on the big ship-of-war that was called the flagship. This vessel was commanded by a Greek, Alexiano, who held the rank of brigadier.

Alexiano, they said, was a loud talker and a quiet doer. He held great feasts and many served him, lording it up and down the mouth of the Dnieper and carrying off whatever merchandise struck their fancy. So the Cossacks had formed patrols to check the raids of the seamen under Alexiano, and the Greek hung some of our boys for taking up arms against the Empress as he said.

The Turks, seeing the plundering and the lack of order in the fleet, were growing both covetous and bold. They had moved up the gulf to within two cannon shot of our fleet, which was unfit for battle. And rumors in the taverns said that John Paul meant to go out to the Vladimir, the flagship, and take command the next day, Alexiano notwithstanding.

The Greek would not kiss him on both cheeks you may be sure, because the coming of the American would mean the end of the secret pillaging and piracy of the men under Alexiano, in which pillaging he shared. My Cossacks said that John Paul had insisted on the punishment of the pirates who had attacked us, but no guard ship had gone up the Dnieper and no news of Edwards had come down.

"My children," I boasted, "when this American hoists his flag on the Vladimir he will make Alexiano pull at a rope, and the whole fleet will be whipped into shape. He is well fitted to command."

"Impossible, Uncle Ivak!" they said, several at once.

"How, impossible?"

"Because the man at the head of the fleet has sworn that he will not yield place to the American."

"Do you mean Alexiano, the pirate?"

"Not at all, Uncle. We mean the present commander, who is a Prussian prince and a very high officer."

I pricked up my ears as they explained how the Empress had appointed one of her favorites, the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, to command, not two years ago. Alexiano served only as chief of the Vladimir, but had charge of the fleet during the winter, while Nassau-Siegen was in Petersburg.

"Tell me," I demanded, "has this princeling a pock-marked face and full lips and eyes like a fish?"

"It is he! You have seen him, Uncle Ivak."

"Then saddle up the best horse in the village."

I rose up and pulled on my boots and coat, taking tobacco and a pipe from the nearest man and a sword from him who had the likeliest weapon. They protested, saying that they had never done me any ill.

"Would you have your kunak, your comrade, the first jighit of the village, ride to the fleet dressed like a Jew?"

Then they protested all the more, saying that Alexiano had heard of my deeds when I rubbed out half a dozen of the pirates, who were his men, on the Dnieper. He would string me up, they said, and they would not see their things again.

"Is this Prince Nassau-Siegen friendly with Alexiano?" I asked.

"As God lives, they are like two brothers! They share gold together, and they have not been parted since the Prussian rejoined the fleet, two days ago."

"Is Nassau-Siegen a good leader, liked by all the men?"

"Nay, Ivak. You have been away too long, wooing the Russian maids! Nassau-Siegen is a courtier, and, save for Alexiano's bands, the men of the fleet would not follow him if he had gold pieces sewn on his breeches. It is said that he pays gold to the Turks, to let the fleet sit in peace where it is. Meanwhile he crows like a cock, claiming honor for holding off the Turks."

By the time I had mounted and left the village behind, the last of the smoke that had hidden the fire I smelled in Petersburg had cleared away. I saw all things as they were. I saw a fleet that was only timber and cloth, unfit for battle; I saw two renegades at the head of it, enriching themselves by plunder and paying a part of the plunder to the accursed Moslems, while the Empress thought they were playing the part of valiant men in the face of the foe.

And I thought that such men would never let the American take over the command from them.

I meant to reach him and warn him, and perhaps take him back to the Cossack villages. Who knows?

Just a little I went out of my way to pass through the streets of Kherson, so winning my wager from Edwards, poor fellow. The horse was a good one and we left the shipyards behind us swiftly enough, coming at last to the salt-streaked shores of the gulf and the forest of masts that stood out on the gray water.

Among the soldiers and caravaneers of the alleys I asked for news of the American admiral, learning then that I was almost too late.

John Paul was on one of the jetties with another cavalier, making ready to put off in a barge to the Vladimir. I hurried along the waterfront, catching sight of the barge presently, and, giving my horse to the care of a Cossack who was fishing on the jetty, went out to greet my friend.

When he saw me his face lighted up and he said something to the other officer, who stared at me curiously. There we stood, with so much that should he said between us, and only one word that we both understood! I bowed several times, trying to think of some way to warn him. He ordered a valise to be carried into the barge and took farewell of the other officer, who was most polite.