Donland The King's Man by Perry Comer

Author:Perry Comer [Comer, Perry]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: paccom
Published: 2021-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

They paddled for two hours under a blazing sun before reaching the island. Fishermen stared after them, but none came near. They didn’t bother to drag the raft from the surf to the beach. It had served its purpose.

All four of them lay back on the sand and rested. Each had blisters and splinters in their hands, even though they had cut the sleeves from two of their old coats and wrapped the paddles. Tired, exhausted, and hungry, they rose and started up the beach. There were no huts within sight.

“We are to walk,” Donland announced. The sun overhead bore down but thankfully each had retained a hat except for Honest who wrapped a portion of a torn shirt around his head.

“Honest, you and Simon go north along the beach and see if you can find a track. David and I will go south.”

“Aye,” Honest answered and started off up the beach through the soft, hot sand.

“Do you think we will be pursued?” David asked as they wound their way up a dune to survey what lay inland.

“Aye, of that I am certain,” Donland answered. “Herrick and his like will not be safe until we are dead. They’ll not know if we found anything or not, but they can’t chance our remaining alive. We have seen the wreck and as navy men recognized the damage wrought by balls. We can testify that the Phoenix was sunk after being attacked. What the survivor said was true, and that man named Herrick was most likely the attacker. For no other reason than to save his own skin, he has to see us dead.”

There was nothing inland except sand and scrub brush.

David stopped and wiped his brow. “How much further do we go?”

“Let’s turn back. Honest and Simon surely have found a track.”

They trudged along in silence for several minutes. The pistols and the valise were like leaden weights.

David asked, “How are we to escape? I can’t imagine there being anything but fishing boats on this island.”

“There will be a trader. Some vessel must call,” Donland answered. “When it does, we will book passage.”

“Have you money?” David asked.

“Aye, more than enough to get us to England. We may have lost some of our dunnage, but I’ve my purse and there is more available to us. What we have to do, as quickly as possible, is to get off the island and on our way to Madagascar. We’ll have assistance there.”

David exclaimed, “There’s Simon! Honest must be at a track!”

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