Robin, whose resentments were as fierce as his fidelity was strong, felt
in all the bitterness of his nature the indignity the Buccaneer had put
upon him, and stood panting to avenge the insult and injustice, yet
withheld from either word or deed by the presence of Barbara, who
remained in the same attitude, clinging to her father, unable, from
weakness, either to withdraw or to stand without assistance.
Springall, who did not love her so much as to prevent his being useful,
was the first to regain his self-possession; he brought in his cap some
water that was trickling down the rock, and threw it on her pallid
brow--while Zillah chafed her hands, and endeavoured to separate her
from her father. At last she spoke, and, though her voice was feeble as
the cry of infancy, the Buccaneer heard it, and withdrew his gaze from
the remains of his burning vessel to look on the living features of his
child.
"Father! you frighten me by those wild passions--and this wild place!
let us go from it, and be at peace; poor Robin is your true friend,
father. Be friends with him."
"You speak as a woman, a young weak woman, Barbara," replied the
Skipper, evincing his returning interest in present objects by passing
his arm round his daughter, so as to support her on his bosom. "Look
out, girl, and say what you see."
"Father, huge masses of burning wood, floating over the ocean, and borne
to other shores by the rising breeze."
"And know you what that burning wood was scarce a minute since?"
"Father--no."
"Those blazing masses were once the Fire-fly--my own ship--my own ship!"
"And Robin----?"
"Has been the means of its destruction."
"Has he?" Barbara paused after she had so exclaimed, and then, clasping
her hands, raised them upwards as she continued, "a blessing, a thousand
blessings on him! for what he does is ever good, and full of wisdom. Ah!
now I see it all: he destroyed the bad vessel that you, dear father,
might no more to sea; but stay on shore with us--with me, I would have
said--" she added, hiding, as she spoke, her face on her father's
shoulder.
Five or six of the crew had clambered up the cliff, and clustered round
their Skipper. Roupall, Springall, and the Jewess were close to Barbara,
and Robin stood exactly on the spot where Dalton's rage had left
him--one foot on the edge of the crumbling cliff, his long arms
enwreathing his chest.