Sackett's Land

us to his village.'

            'You are going?'

            'We came to trade. I gave him a gift, a trade knife. Sometimes a blade can open a door.'

            When darkness came and our smoke would not be visible, we built a fire in a hollow and baked some fish Sakim had caught. 'We will move,' I said, 'when we have eaten. We will find a new camp.'

            The night was a time of stillness. Frogs croaked, and several times we heard great roarings in the distance. 'Lions?' Rufisco asked.

            'Alligators,' Sakim said. 'I have heard them on the Nile. We must be careful, my friend. Do not step upon or over a log until you are sure it is a log, and watch the tail. They will try to break your legs or knock you into the water with their tails.'

            'It is very dark,' Rufisco said. 'Can we not rest before we move?'

            I was myself tired. 'Sakim? You will take the first watch? One hour only, then awaken Rufisco. One hour, and then awaken me. I will watch for an hour and then we will go. It will be a little rest for each.'

            It seemed no time until I was awakened, and when Rufisco lay asleep I sat and listened into the night. Behind me, stretching no man knew how far, a strange land. To right and left a lonely coast where likely lay only the wrecks of ships carried here by storms or currents in the sea.

            Soon we would move ... toward what? Would I die here and leave only my bones for legacy? Or would some strange destiny begin here, in this place, so the name of Sackett became one with this new, strange land?

            It was clouding over, and there was a hint of dampness on the wind. Rain? It would help us. It would conceal our movements, erase our tracks.

            I touched each upon each shoulder. 'Sakim! Rufisco! It is time.'

        Chapter 9

            The rain came with a rush of heavy drops, a scattering like thrown gravel. Then the massed downpour of the storm descended, pushing inward from the sea, an invader like us.

            Against the wind and rain we went upstream, up this nameless river, past timbered shores and swamp-like meadows. The wind held, and our sail moved us along, the driving rain offering some concealment.

            Huddling in our cloaks we watched the dim shores slip past, and then the wind slackened, our sail gave us scarcely any movement against the current, and we unshipped oars and pointed on an angle for the left bank.

            'How far would you say we've come?' I asked.

            Sakim shrugged. 'The current is strong. I doubt more than ten, twelve of your English miles.'

            Before us we saw a long rocky island, lying several lengths away from our gig. We steered closer, and finding an opening, steered in.

            Two of us scrambled ashore and hauled the boat up onto the sand. 'Only what we need,' I said. 'Let's be ready to shove off if trouble comes.'

            Under an overhang we built a small fire of driftwood and warmed our chilled hands.

            'We will cache a part of what we have,' I suggested, 'and then we will trade with Potaka's people. We will be fair.'

            'Is it fair,' Rufisco asked, 'to trade beads worth a few pennies for a fox skin worth as many guineas?'

            'Of course. Value is a matter of scarcity and need. The beads we have cost little in England because we have many, but here those beads are rare. Furs are cheap to them for the same reasons. We want their furs, they want our beads. So we strike a bargain.

            'They cannot sell a fox skin here for what it is worth in England because they are not in England. We will trade carefully, gather many furs, and then we will go back to the sea and wait for a ship, for Gosnold, Newport, Weymouth or any who come.'

            'Including Nick Bardle?'

            'Him we will try to avoid.'

            None of us could know for sure what lay before us. But each of us hoped to become rich. Sakim was a man long away from his home. Rufisco wished to go back in a blaze of glory, with fine clothes, excellent weapons, and a name of importance.

            There was a restlessness in me, an urge to be doing, and I knew it was not only myself who thought or felt in such a way. It was an urge to see, to know, to discover. A part of my age, of my time, it was in the blood of us all, I suspected, even of Rufisco, despite his claims to the contrary.

            I added a chunk of driftwood to the fire. The ashes at the edge of the fire were dry, white, powdery. I sifted them through my fingers.

            Night settled about us like a falling shroud. Night, and the rain, a soft,, steady rain now. Fortunately there was driftwood aplenty and I kept the fire small but warm.

            Sakim and Rufisco had fallen asleep. After a while I got up, looking carefully around in the dim light. This place was a good one, the overhangs offered shelter from wind and rain. After midnight the rain let up and I walked out on the sand and looked up at the rock under which we were sheltered. The forest came right up to the jumble of rocks, and there were great, gray giants of trees lying dead upon the rocks, blown down in some terrible storm, no doubt.

            I lay down and slept, awakening as I wished before it was light. All was still. There was no rain, but the clouds hung low. Taking up my sword and my own dagger which I had retrieved from the bales of goods, I sought a way to climb the rocks. At first I could find none, then I found a crack, an opening scarce wide enough for my body. Worming my way to the top I managed by a precarious foothold to climb a steep slanted rock up into the forest-a dark tangle of fallen trees, tangled brush, moss, and low-growing branches. There was no evidence that any man had ever come this way.

            For a long time I sat there on a log, studying the layout. It was such a tangle that it invited no exploration. Indians in search of game could find it in easier places than this.

            After a while I returned to the fire. The others were still asleep, so I added fuel to the glowing embers and continued to explore. High at the opposite corner of the beach from where I had first found my way up, I saw a dark hole under some fallen boulders. Stooping, I went inside. It was not a natural cave, just a space left under some slabs of rock. Yet it went deeply back, and after a few feet inside I could straighten up. Light came from small openings between boulders.

            Clambering up on one side, I found a good shelf, slanting back about fifteen feet.

            Here was what I had sought. A storage place for our surplus goods!

            When I returned to the fire, Rufisco was up. Not only up, but he had caught three good-sized fish which he was broiling over the coals.

            Sakim joined us at the fire, extending his hands to the flames. I told them what I had discovered, and when we had eaten our fish and a bit of biscuit, we moved our cargo ashore, holding out enough for an eighty- pound pack for each. Then we cached the remainder on the rock shelf in the cave.

            When we had finished, Rufisco spoke to me.

            'We have come with you, Barnabas,' he said, 'because we like you, and because anything was better than to live and die on Bardle's ship. But what is it you plan?'

            'Before Bardle waylaid me, I was to have come here with a ship captained by Brian Tempany,' I replied. 'He was to sail a few days after the Jolly Jack. His ship is the Tiger. She was a slower sailer than the Jack, and should be along the coast within the next few weeks. She will be trading with the Indians, and exploring. Her route was the same.

            'What I hope to do is make trade with the Eno Indians, take our furs and be back on the coast to meet the Tiger, should it come near. It is a chancy thing, as you can see, but if the Tiger does not come there will be others.'

            'And then.'

            'For a time I want to stay. If all goes well, I shall trade my share of the furs for more goods and remain here. After a year I will sail again to England.'

            Rufisco's smile was ironic. 'If you live.'