While the events related in the preceding chapter were in progress, which gave advent to the new era, the manacled savages would have fared poorly but for the ever mindful benevolence of Padre Simon, who ministered to their relief after depositing with his traps his godsend, which he averred came from the source of their misfortunes. His arm warned him to be cautious in his approach to the old savage, but he could not refrain from the pitying exclamation “It’s a shame,” when he saw him bound to the links of the cable with its coils for his bed. Placing the food he had brought cautiously within reach, he left with intention of pleading for some aid in mitigation of their painful position, but the question of an equitable division of the gold trove diverted his thoughts. But after the ablutions of the succeeding morning, and Antonio’s improvement of the younger savage, his dereliction occurred to his thoughts under the stimulating inspiration of a somewhat copious oblation to memory, which served to render the sincerity of his repentant remorse heedless. Under the sacrificial impression he hastened forward to make amends for his forgetful inhumanity. Without observing the change already made for the ease of the savage, he attempted to place an oakum fender between his back and the cable. Exposing his arm the brute again seized it with a vicious energy that bespoke his determination of obtaining recompense for his morning’s aggravations. With the pain, caused by the working teeth of the savage, the padre’s terror of the deadly poison was revived, which caused him to cry for help in frenzied accents, alarming all on board. Again English Jack was the first to reach the struggling victim of misplaced pity. With a sailor’s promptness he forced his sheath knife between the back teeth of the cannibal with a delicacy peculiar to the tar when called upon to repel boarders; working the blade, with a prying motion, hither and thither with the edge directed toward the ear the backward capacity of the mouth was insensibly enlarged, which produced a diminution of muscular tenacity and consequent release of the padre’s arm. His release was not effected until the teeth of the savage had penetrated through his linen coat and sleeve of his shirt, inflicting bruised punctures beneath the skin sufficient for the absorption of virus. The general consternation was greatly increased by the exultant gleams darted from the eyes of the bleeding savage. Dr. Baāhar had just prescribed whiskey to be taken in copious draughts for _ad deliquium_ effect, which the padre, with a sense of relief, said he had premised, when the young savage attracted attention by pantomimic gesticulation, at the same time producing from his mouth a small sac of an acorn’s size and shape. From the pleased honesty of his expression and the scowls of the old savage, it was apparent that it contained an antidote for the poison. Aabrawa having caught some familiar words, he was soon able to add his assurance in verification of the boy’s ability to counteract the effects of the poison with a sure antidote. The padre with fear hesitatingly submitted his arm to the boy’s mouth, the old savage regarding the operation with looks that boded ill to the savior and saved if by accident they should come within his reach for injury. The padre, when impressed with the kindly intention of the boy, apostrophized the old wretch in this wise: “You ungrateful venomous old serpent, upon my conscience you ought to be made to crawl on your belly all the days of your life with a rattle tied to your—well if you haven’t a tail, you are a vile reptile all the same, and I don’t believe all the purgatories in creation can change you! Upon my soul, it’s a shame and an imposition for you to pretend to be a man with a soul to be saved!” Here the padre observing the smiles provoked by the earnestness of his address to an object as incapable of appreciating as he was of understanding the language in which the anathematizing sentence was couched, apologetically appealed to his auditors, “You know that what I have said is as true as there is a day of salvation for man to sin away.”