Chapter Nine

 

AS SOON AS HECTOR HAD locked him in the prison hut, Adam tried to push on the door to try to figure out how it was locked, since he hadn’t noticed while he was being thrown inside. A gun was fired just outside the hut, and Hector shouted as he banged on the door and warned Adam, “I said to you nothing stupid. I was not joking with you, chico.”

Adam backed away from the door. He wouldn’t try that again. Anyway, he had found out what he wanted to know. By the way that the door gave a little bit but then held tight on one side, he figured there must be a padlock of some sort securing the entry.

He turned to the man who was chained to the wall and said, “You speak English?”

The prisoner, who looked gaunt and emaciated, shrugged. He apparently didn’t understand.

Adam walked along the perimeter of the room to see how well the hut was constructed. The log walls were full of gaps, but they were very strong, and they extended a good ways down into the ground. It occurred to him that even if he could come up with a way out of that prison, it’d be a huge risk, since he was in the middle of a dense forest and at this point had no idea how to get back to the city.

He needed time to think—and to pray for a miracle.

Not long after sunset Adam began to hear the sound of huge waves crashing against the shore. That means we’re near the ocean, he thought. He hadn’t realized that before, since the men had led him so far out of town and deep into the woods, but apparently they had wended their way in a more northerly direction as they were traveling. It had been hard to keep track of which way they were going, because the sun was so obscured by the trees. But then maybe that had been the whole point.

The floor was covered by woven grass mats. Adam wondered what the ground was like underneath them. I’m going to dig out of this thing, he thought. If I can make it to the ocean, I can find my way back to town.

He peeled back one of the mats closest to the wall and scraped at the damp, sandy ground with his hands. As he tried to dig, his mind started running fast. Little worries began nagging at him. This is almost too easy. They have to know I can dig right out of here. There could be somebody waiting to kill me as soon as I crawl out the other side.

In the end Adam didn’t care, though. He was doubtful of his captors’ ability to find the Gypsy to demand their ransom. In fact, he didn’t even know what kind of payment they were demanding even if they did find the ship, or if Captain Phillips would have that kind of money on board. Regardless, he wasn’t going to risk sticking around to find out what would happen if the transaction didn’t go through as planned. The last thing he wanted would be to end up chained to the wall like that other man—or worse, as Hector had threatened.

He started digging faster. When he came to some roots, he remembered the pocketknife he had in his boot. He pulled it out and cut at the roots, then used it to break up the ground. Before long he had a decent hole made, but he knew he’d need to do something with the dirt he’d displaced.

He lifted the floor mats to each side of the one he had been digging beneath and began to spread out the mound of dirt under them.

All of a sudden the man chained to the wall said, “¡Oye, tu!”

Adam turned to look at him. “What?”

“¡Idiota! ¿No piensas que yo ya habia tratado esa misma cosa?”

Adam just shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re saying, man. I’m sorry.”

The man pointed with his free arm to one of the mats on the floor near where he was chained to the wall.

“What is it?” said Adam.

He shouted something, then made a come-here motion to Adam and pointed angrily at the mat beside him. Adam covered the hole he was digging with a mat, then went over and lifted the mat the man was pointing at. There was evidence of a huge hole underneath that had been filled back in. Once the man was satisfied that Adam had seen the hole, he motioned to the chain that had him fastened to the wall. “¡Esto es lo que te pasará si te encuentran cavando!”

“Hmm.” Adam took stock of the situation. He figured out what the man was saying, or at least he got the gist. “Well, I’m not going to just sit here,” he told the man. “They’d probably chain me up anyway. Then I’ll be as bad off as you. Sorry, fella. I’ve at least got to try to get out of this place.”

The man stared at him blankly, then rolled his eyes.

Adam returned to the place where he had been digging and went back to work. Suddenly, he heard the lock rattle outside the door. He covered over the hole with the mat, then went over to a different wall, sat down, and rested his head on his arms, which were crossed on top of his knees as though he had been napping.

He popped his head up just long enough to motion “Shh!” to the other man, then put his head back down. Seconds later another man—one Adam hadn’t seen before—came through the door, tore half a loaf of bread into two pieces, and threw one piece at each of the prisoners.

“You got anything to wash this down with?” Adam asked sarcastically, knowing full well the man probably didn’t even understand what he was saying.

The man narrowed his eyes at him and then went back out and locked the door again.

Adam looked over at the other prisoner. “Now I see why you’re so skinny.” He got up from where he was sitting and gave his piece of bread to him. “Looks like you need it more than I do, fella. I’m getting out of here tonight.”

The prisoner looked surprised. He nodded his head and said, “Gracias. Que Dios te bendiga.”

Adam understood the gracias part, so he said, “You’re welcome.”

He continued digging, then spreading out the displaced dirt. He noticed the man reach into a bucket that was beside him with his hand and drink. He realized that it was a water bucket and not what he had previously assumed it to be. That made him wonder what the man did use as a privy. Then he decided it’d be better if he didn’t think too hard trying to figure that one out.

Every so often he’d creep around inside the building and peer through the cracks in the walls to see if he could determine what was happening outside. While there were a few lamps lit around the fortress, he didn’t see anyone out there. He was able to hear noise coming from the large building on the other side of the hut. He was guessing that must be some kind of common room. It sounded like there were a lot of men. Far more than he had noticed around the grounds earlier in the day.

Once he had dug down deep enough on his side of the wall so that he felt sure he’d be able to fit through, he decided to stop digging until everything was quiet in the camp. He knew he wouldn’t make a run for it while men were still awake and wandering around outside.

He decided to stop and rest awhile, and since his hands weren’t busy, his thoughts drifted back home . . . He wished he could be back at the Topsail Tavern. It was around this same time last year that Adam had left his home at the tavern to go work for Emmanuel, and now he wondered if he’d make it back.

He thought about his poor mother, and he was glad she had no way of knowing his circumstances right now. She nearly fell apart when he disappeared last year. He briefly contemplated how she’d handle it if the Gypsy arrived back in Beaufort and he wasn’t on it. It was an awful thought that he quickly pushed out of his mind. Plain and simple, he knew she’d never get over it. She never wanted him to go on that trip in the first place. In fact, she had burst into tears the day he told her that he was going.

Then he started thinking about Laney Martin. I’m gonna marry that girl eventually, he thought. He remembered the day he first went up and introduced himself to her at Rasquelle’s party. He didn’t think he’d actually have a chance with her, but he didn’t care. He had spotted the honey-blond, green-eyed beauty from across the lawn and knew he had to at least talk to her. It took his disappearance last year to get her to finally warm up to him. Since that time the two had become close friends—well, as much as any young man and young woman could be without tongues wagging relentlessly. He remembered how happy she was when she learned he had been rescued, and when she found out what he had uncovered, she actually called him her hero. Just knowing that she thought of him in that way made Adam feel confident—not that he ever needed help in that area. Thinking about her set his heart racing again, but right now he needed to focus on his current circumstances. It was time to get out of that hut and on his way back to the ship.

How cruel it would be if he never made it back to Beaufort. It wasn’t an option that he was willing to consider. He was about to check his pocket watch when he remembered that Hector had taken it from him. Eh . . . what difference does it make what time it is? he thought. He would just wait to start digging again when everything was quiet outside and he was sure that everyone—or most everyone—was asleep.