Then Hands began to groan out in pain quite unable to withstand the incessant number of blows that landed hard on his face and abdomen especially his broken nose which started to bleed profusely as hot blows kept pounding on his face from different angles but the two spectators in the room did not dare intervene in the brutal brawl and just stood there motionless.
Donald kept pounding hard on him but unknown to him, the low but captivating moan of the young man underneath the chubby fellow, was heard by an important guest whose presence in the ship hasn't been felt ever since he boarded the ship from the sea port in England.
Master Smollet, a no nonsense man of strict character and of English roots, was a very much of a seaman himself like Captain Moldovan, having served his nation for nine years with the sea naval forces of his motherland and was privileged to partake in the penultimate stage of the neck to neck battle of religion against the French in his early years as an armed sailor with his crew mates who were well trained soldiers to overcome and withstand series of inevitable tempest at sea.
The frequent rise and fall of the unsteady tidal sea tempest which he had experienced all his life, every night he served as an armed sailor and every night he slept inside the English battleship amongst a four man squad like himself, was nothing compared to the painful tempest that left an everlasting mark in his life before joining the naval forces.
His father was from the middle class and a cotton farmer who got married to a woman of lowborn origin though she was fairly educated enough to own a tailor shop in the remote countryside of England. Tragedy struck twice very much early in his life when his mother died giving birth to him and soon lost his father when he turned eighteen plunging him into the haggard and wretched life as a street beggar in the dirty slums of London where he had deserted to from his work as a servant to an affluent land owner after earning little shillings that weren't sufficient to cater for himself and to feed his hungry stomach, the major reason why he had volunteered to join the second group of new recruits that were drafted into the army where he received a brief but stringent training to be enlisted into the naval troops.
That was fifty years ago and his fawn hair mixed with few noticeable strands of gray hair which he neatly tied into a ponytail, and his doggedness as well as his undeniable bravity amongst his comrades as a sea-warrior, had kept him going undaunted by any encounter with the opposition which earned him some reputable honor from his peers and accorded him notable ranks in the navy until he became a commander few years back.
He briefly left his papers lying next to an inked feather on his small bed in response to the attractive noise of someone groaning in pain mixed with mild sounds of punches raining down on hard on a solid mass which seems to him, to moan harshly each time he heard the punch from the next cell. He stealthily left his room to an unstable corridor leaving behind his blue frock coat hanging on a loop and his black hat hanging on top of it.
The hard bark of the ship gently swayed from left to right by the soft ebb, that rocked the narrow hallways within the ship but master Smollett was skillful enough to keep his balance in one of the corridors as he heads toward the direction of the noise that led him to the back of the ship. He surreptitiously walked with silent footsteps as he went past four more cubicles until he arrived at the open entrance of the store room.
Hands was at the brink of being beaten to pulp by the tempered fellow and had almost lost consciousness when he got there but he only took a peek inside the room without being spotted by Redruth and his sea-mate including oblivious brawler who was getting a bit tired beating up Hands since the fight had raged on for thirty minutes of nonstop struggle between the two unmatched contenders.
Smollet stood beside the open door and noticed that the young man underneath the plump man with a bulging stomach which protruded a little out of his tight sleeves shirt, was about to give up the ghost and promptly intervened as he gripped Donald's hand by the wrist, in mid air, preventing Donald from delivering a ghastly eight blow on his ensnared opponent.
Donald felt aghast with sheer surprise when his right fist which he lifted above his head failed to descend upon the bloody face of the underdog whom he had pinned to the ground with nowhere to run to.
At first, he wanted to yell at the intruder but the rigid look of Master Smollet instilled in him a deeper dread than what he had ever felt in his life. The horrified look of Master Smollett compelled Donald's voice shrink back inside his dry throat while Redruth and the other seaman were also frightened and gasped in astonishment to see the Master whom they except for Donald, knew to be the important guest that had boarded the ship alongside his four bodyguards.
"Let him go, now! ",
Smollet barked with an even sterner look at the fretful fellow who shuddered in fright before getting up from the Hands' body, in a way that made Redruth gazed at Master Smollet with awe and respectful dread. Hands coughed some little amount of red blood violently after he was freed, which dribbled out of his mouth to the ground and tried to lift his aching body from the ground but couldn't move his frail limbs to support his torso except for his head.
"Help him get up",
Redruth and the other seaman swiftly obeyed as though they have been bewitched by the Master's order and hauled the beaten fellow back up to his feet but Hands felt his legs numb and unable to hold his weight on the ground while Donald stared at them with guilty eyes and found it difficult to look at the Master who stood by the entrance, eye to eye.
At that moment, Captain Moldovan, followed by three other sailors including the cook, unexpectedly met the Master standing at the entrance of the storage room since they came to check why the men whom he and a few others had seen entering the cabin a while back after anchoring their ship at the coastal bay, haven't returned to the upper deck with the supplies as well as the baggages of everyone on board, so that they would begin to their descent from the ship, down the bridge to the harbor.
"Master Smollet, surprise to see you out of your room, how come you ain't in your chambers?",
"I heard some noises and came out of my room",
"I hope it wasn't some rats squeaking in my ship",
"Of course not",
A fat belly man called Cook cut in. "I haven't seen a single rat in here ever since this ship was built in Castile",
"Me neither",
Another lanky seaman commented as he stood beside Captain Moldovan who took notice of the chubby fellow inside the quasi granary except for the other two men tending to the bruises of the loser.
"Donald, what's going on?",
"Nothing, Captain",
Donald murmured trying to cover his misdeeds and shifted further away Moldovan who entered inside the room.
"We've been waiting for the bags to be gathered before we leave the ship",
"I—",
"Tell him the truth, boy!",
Master Smollet thundered with a loud voice which instilled more fright into Donald.
"Cool your rage, Master Smollet and allow him to speak up",
The Captain advised turning to his left side and saw Hands' bruised face, who was struggling to regain control of himself in the arms of Redruth and the seaman whom he recognized to be Adam. His visage suddenly turned horrid when he saw the despicable state of Hands and his speculation inevitably came true when he saw the Donald's pale countenance.
Lucky for the offender, the Captain had received orders from a white merchant residing in the inland of the area, for them to hasten their journey to his abode without any delay after hearing about their arrival from overseas and wouldn't want any unnecessary display of erupted fights amongst his crew to hinder their mission to go inland in order to see the affluent slave merchant.