Chapter XLIII
Tyler looked down at his worn boots, there had been silence when his voice had stopped for a moment.
The fire crackled. He could feel its warmth. It was hard to believe that he was safe here at Trimley, and the fire Lola had insisted on lighting while they waited for David was a real fire, and that it burned so close to him.
He lifted his eyes from the boots that had carried him across England from Cornwall, and alone down the curving lane to Trimley, lying there secure under its slate roofs and its beechwood trees. He knew Cosmos was standing behind his chair, and Cosmos moved around and put a footstool in front of Tyler. Gratefully, Tyler lifted his feet onto it.
"Thank you, Cosmos," he said.
Cosmos stayed at his side. Across from him, David sat forward in his chair; beside David sat his wife.
"Go on, Tyler," David said.
Tyler continued where he had left off. It was not hard to remember.
"The Captain and I veered the mains'l," he said. "We shot past the Cape, and within six hours we were twenty-five leagues in the Straits. We spooned before the seas, without an inch of sail; it was hell dark, sir, but the Captain—he knew those waters like the back of his hand. He went below, then, and told me to call him in thirty minutes." He stopped. "I asked him—I didn't truly ask—I said, 'Captain?' And he said, Tyler, call me in thirty minutes.' So I left him, Master David. I left him, and when I went back—I couldn't rouse him. He was asleep, I thought—and then I knew, when he didn't answer me right away. You know how he was aboard ship, awake in a second. I knew, then."
Tyler took a deep, unsteady breath. He looked at Lola; her dark eyes were luminous and full of compassion as they rested on David,
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and then on Tyler. He remembered her first words to him, "You shall stay with us always, Tyler. You will get well!"
Then Tyler remembered Cosmos, standing alongside him. He looked up at Cosmos' face, and he spoke directly to him.
"Captain missed you," he said. "He said he'd bring you a wife back with him, too."
Cosmos said unsteadily, "I get you more wine."
"I can't drink much yet," Tyler said.
Cosmos picked up the wine decanter anyway. It was the ship's decanter that Cavendish had used on his first voyage. Cosmos held it up. "You buried him?" he asked. "Where, Tyler? On the land?"
Tyler shook his head. "We buried him in the South Atlantic," he said, and through his mind went the scene of that day, with the great ocean swelling beneath the bows, and the gauntness of the land near, warning men of the might of the seas and nature. Tyler remembered the scene well; the bareheaded men, woollen caps in hand, the figure of John Davis, lean, with lined face, his voice rising above the sound of wind and water and creaking ropes and spars and canvas.
"We used the Lord's Prayer because it was what Captain always used. And," Tyler said, his eyes looking past the fire into the past of a year ago, "Davis made a prayer. He said, 'Oh, God, with whose power the mightiest things around men are matters of no moment, I most humbly beseech Thee that this intolerable burden may through the blood of Jesus Christ be taken from us and end our days with speed, or—' " Tyler held out his hands and his tone rose strong—" 'or show us some merciful sign of Thv love and preservation.' "
Tyler said simply, "The prayer was answered, Master David. The next day we sighted some unknown islands.* The Captain would have liked that. They saved us. Weeks later we put into Port Desire.
"After a month," he went on, more quickly now, "we had a goodly store of penguins; we'd eaten their eggs and the smelts we caught. We had plenty of fresh water and dried penguin. But—although it was all right for a while—the penguins weren't dried enough, I guess. They got worms in them. Those worms—you've never seen the like
* The Desire was the first ship ever to touch at or put into the Falkland Islands.
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of, Master David. They grew and grew and ate everything; they bored into the wood; they were an inch long and they ate our clothes, our boots, hats, shirts; there was nothing they didn't devour except iron, and they crawled over us at night and they bit, badly. They—"
Again Tyler stopped. Lola's face was white with horror, and Tyler hesitated.
"We had thrown the penguins overboard, but the worms kept growing mightily." Tyler moistened his lips and continued, again quickly. "We had sixteen men left. Only five could move. We put into a few ports, to get food and water, but we were so weak, we didn't dare much with the Spanish and the Indians. So we set sail again. Later, even I could not heave out or take in a sail; nobody could. So our tops and sprit were all torn to pieces by the wind, and Captain Davis and I took turns at the helm. Captain Davis said we were lost wanderers on the sea, and it was only by the Grace of God we fetched Bearhaven in Ireland on the eleventh of this month."
David said, low, "Go on, Tyler."
"We ran the ship on shore. The Irish helped us take in the sails, and moor the Desire and float her again. It cost Captain Davis ten pounds. Then, in five days, when we could walk, we took passage to England in a fisher boat, to Padstowe in Cornwall. Then I came here, to Trimley."
David stood up. "You need rest, Tyler. You need long days of rest, and good food. I've sent word to Pretty; he'll want to see you. And Moon. We'll fetch the Desire—" He broke off. "Excuse me, Tyler," he said, and he went to the door. He opened the door and left them. He held in his hand the letter Tyler had brought. "I want to read this," he said.
Tyler pushed aside the footstool. Cosmos moved it out of his way. Slowly Tyler rose; he walked over to the window, and he looked out at the green country.
"It's June," he said.
Cosmos moved over to the window, too. His long eyes were on the figure of Kate in green riding dress. "They haven't told her yet," he said. "I will tell her, and you, too."
Tyler said, "Not now, Cosmos. Let her go now." He watched the two, Tony de Dasi, the Filipino, and Kate, as they rode down the curving lane he had walked up just an hour ago. "Let them go now," he said, and added, "Tony has grown."
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Cosmos nodded, his eyes still on the receding figure of Kate. Then he heard something. He said, ''Come here with me, Tyler. Come here a minute."
He went to the door. In the hall he paused, and looked toward the stairway. Tyler looked too.
"Ahoy, Tina," he said.
Tina came down the last steps. Tight in her hand was the small hand of a three-year-old girl. The child saw Cosmos, and without a word she let go Tina's hand and took hold of Cosmos' outstretched fingers. Her level gaze was on the stranger.
"I don't know you," she said.
Tyler dropped down to one knee. The clear blue eyes studied him.
"I knew you when you were a baby," Tyler said. "You're Bess."
"Bess Cavendish," she corrected.
Along the stair wall were two portraits. She pointed to them. "That is my mother. And that is my father. Captain Cavendish."
"I know," Tyler said. He stood up, a bit unsteadily.
Again the blue eyes studied him. Then they looked at Cosmos, and back to Tyler again. She held out her hand. "Would you like to walk with Cosmos and me?"
Tyler nodded. Her hand was very small in his. "I would, Mistress Bess," he said, and the three of them went slowly to the door and down the shallow steps, into the garden.
End of book