CHAPTER 20
BOUND AND
DELIVERED
Moriancom pointed forward and a little to the right as he shouted
down to everyone below. More than a week
had passed with nothing to see but sea in every direction. So sighting land was a moment of great
excitement and rejoicing among the passengers.
Everyone rushed onto the deck and ran forward to try and see the land
for themselves. Everybody shouted with
joy as soon as they could view the land for themselves.
Everyone, that is, except Nephi and Hantuman. While the others were pointing and otherwise
distracted, Hantuman went over to Nephi and consulted with him. He wanted to tell Nephi what he thought would
happen next and to see if Nephi would agree with his plan of action.
Hantuman
reasoned, “Maneuvering the ship through the reefs to a safe harbor will be the
most difficult navigational challenge of the entire voyage. Tyreantum is smart enough to know that. I don’t expect him to attempt anything until
we actually approach the shore. It is
then that I expect him to try something.
I suggest we wait until we’ve passed the reef and are near to the shore
before we do something.”
“I
agree with you.” Nephi’s respect for
Hantuman had grown immensely during the voyage.
Not only was there no equal for his skills for navigating on the sea,
but his talent for knowing how to act in times of danger was a blessing.
“We
just don’t know when Tyreantum and his pals are going to cause trouble.” Hantuman continued to explore the
possibilities ahead of them. “We could
try to get away before they capture us.
Once the ship clears the reef, we could jump for the water and swim for
the shore. We might be able to get away
– if the waves don’t first smash us against the rocks, or if they don’t shoot
us with their arrows, and if there’s someplace we can hide, and if …”
“Well,
we could. But…” Nephi didn’t like those
prospects.
But
Hantuman reasoned further, “But I think we should let ourselves be captured so
it looks like they’ve surprised us. Just
like they’ve already planned it. That
way, they’ll be less likely to think that something is amiss. If we abandon ship on our own, that might
potentially provoke them to harm Lehi perhaps more than they have already. What do you think, Nephi? I don’t want to go against your inspired
judgment in this situation.”
Nephi knew he could place his trust in the
hand of the Lord. He said, “I agree with
you completely. As I have prayed about
what we should do, I felt the Spirit witness to me that the Lord will open the
way. Whatever happens will be according
to the will of the Lord. I am not afraid
to be a prisoner again, should it come to that.
The Spirit tells me that our work is not finished; therefore they can’t
harm us until our mission is completed.”
“Good.
So be it then.” Hantuman was of
the same mind as Nephi. “Tomorrow, I
will know exactly where we are and which land this is that Moriancom has
spotted. If it is the land that I think
it is, I know a good harbor where we will land the ship. Welcome back to the land northward,
Nephi. …Well, … maybe not so welcome
this time, is it?”
Hantuman skillfully maneuvered the ship toward a beautiful bay
surrounded by palm trees growing on a wide beach of clustered sand dunes. The day had been uneventful so far. Nephi and the other passengers stood on the
deck and watched as the ship made its way through a channel in the dangerous
reef. Moriancom, high up on the mast,
occasionally yelled down observations from his point of view that were most
helpful to Hantuman.
The calmer waters of the bay were now all that remained between
the ship and the shore.
This
was a time of excitement. The arrival of
a large ship always attracted a lot of attention, and a crowd of people gathered
on the shore. The crowd waved their arms
and shouted. The passengers on the ship
waved back and pointed to people that they thought they recognized. Someone ran along the beach waving a large
red flag.
Nephi was at the front of the ship carefully watching for
shallow water and any large, submerged rocks.
Hantuman was at the rudder. So they
did not notice Tyreantum, who was positioned at the rear of the ship, smile in
satisfaction. He had seen the signal.
Tyreantum unraveled a red flag of his own and circled it
over his head. He lowered the flag and
repeated the same circling motion once again.
The person on the shore also circled his flag over his head before
disappearing from sight. Tyreantum rolled up his flag and motioned to
another passenger with a wave of his hand.
The plan was in place.
Six canoes rapidly approached the ship. Each canoe was paddled by six strong men who
all wore an arm band of red cloth. The
canoes came up alongside the ship and the passengers lowered ropes for the men
to climb aboard. Passengers and men from
the canoes greeted each other with cheers and hand clasps as a cache of bows
and arrows was quickly passed through the crowd.
Tyreantum joined the reception party and stood in the
middle of the crowd. He unrolled his
flag and talked to the men with matching red arm bands. Several men armed with bows and arrows moved
away and strategically positioned themselves around Hantuman and Nephi.
The voyage successfully completed; Hantuman dropped the
anchor. And Tyreantum simultaneously
waved his flag!
The daring mutiny turned out to be rather
anticlimactic. Hantuman and Nephi didn’t
put up any resistance at all. They acted
as if taken totally by surprise. If the
men from the canoes anticipated a good struggle and fight, they were severely
disappointed by how easy it was for them to capture Hantuman and Nephi who
didn’t even yell or scream. On the other
hand, the men with red arm bands whooped and hollered as if they had defeated a
tremendous army.
At some point during all this shouting, Tyreantum barked
out an order, “Here, take these strong cords!
Tie them up! Don’t let them get
away! Take them…”
Tyreantum never finished his last command. Moriancom jumped from the mast high overhead
and landed squarely on top of Tyreantum.
Tyreantum was knocked over onto his back and lay sprawled out on the
deck, arms and legs flailing in the air.
He looked like an overturned turtle that is not able to get back on its
feet.
The men from the canoes were initially surprised to see
Tyreantum attacked. Then they all rushed
at Moriancom, hollering and shouting.
Moriancom lay on the deck, temporarily stunned after jumping from such a
great height. Fortunately for him,
Tyreantum’s soft body had cushioned the fall.
Moriancom struggled back to his feet and faced his
attackers as they closed in from all directions. He desperately kicked the first three men
away from him before a dozen more closed in.
The fight was over almost as fast as it began. Overpowered by several men on all sides,
Moriancom was soon subdued and held firmly with his arms twisted behind his
back. He was no longer able to resist.
Tyreantum
managed to slowly roll over and pushed himself into a kneeling position. With one hand, he reached for his feathered
head band which had been knocked completely off; with the other, he attempted
to comb his thin air back over the top of his head.
With
the assistance of a man with a red arm band, Tyreantum regained his feet.
“Well,
well, well. What have we here?” Tyreantum made a triumphal gesture with his
arm and pompously paraded to the front and center of the group of men. His hair remained out of place. “Seems like we got some excitement for
our prize after all. Good work,
men. We didn’t want this to happen too
easily, did we? You will all get your
rewards!”
Tyreantum hobbled over to Moriancom who was being
restrained by two men who held his arms tightly clamped behind his back. Tyreantum swore at Moriancom and spat in his
face.
“So,
it’s you that’s the traitor, eh? I
should have known. I thought I saw you
sneaking around by yourself one night. I
imagine you must think yourself pretty brave standing up and trying to protect your
older brothers. But you’re not! That was very stupid! You will be joining them in prison.”
Moriancom’s unexpected fight had taken everyone’s attention
away from Nephi and Hantuman. Tyreantum
strutted over to Hantuman and Nephi with the intention to mock them next. Instead, with fear in his voice, he roared
back to his men, “You fools! Get those
cords tied now!”
Nephi
and Hantuman were never fully bound.
Moriancom’s surprise assault had interrupted the process. Four men dashed up and finished binding the
legs and feet, and the arms and hands of Hantuman and Nephi with strong
cords. After they were tightly bound,
Nephi and Hantuman were thrown to the side of the deck where they lay on their
backs, side by side. Everybody stood by
and watched while the men did this to Nephi and Hantuman.
Everybody,
that is, but Moriancom. Moriancom
recognized a slight opportunity for him.
He decided to chance it.
Exerting all his strength with a quick move,
Moriancom somehow managed to untwist his right arm just enough so that the man
holding it lost his grip. He jerked his
right arm free and pivoted swiftly to his left to deliver an uppercut directly
to the jaw of the captor holding his left arm.
The sudden, unexpected blow to the jaw sent his captor
reeling backwards, freeing his left arm.
Twisting back to his right, Moriancom swung as hard as he could with his
left arm. His left fist landed squarely
in the face of the captor to his right.
He was free again!
Moriancom raced to the side of the ship. He grabbed a rope and pulled himself up on a
rail. He looked down to the water below. Waves churned the water into a white
whirlpool and crashed against the rocks along the shore.
Men from the canoes rushed after Moriancom shouting, “Stop
him! Get him!”
A
pursuer mounted the rail right behind Moriancom. “Oh no you don’t!” the man snarled. “You’re trapped now!”
Moriancom paused only briefly. He jumped for the water and disappeared under
the white foam.
Hantuman and Nephi could only watch helplessly as
Moriancom fled from their enemies. They
saw Moriancom make his jump, and he was gone.
They listened to the shouts of the men tell a story of deliverance.
“Where is he?
Do you see him?”
“No! Keep
looking.”
“He probably did us a favor by killing himself. The waves are really crashing against the
rocks over there! We’ll probably find
his body washed up on the shore.”
There was no more shouting among the
men for a long time --- only the pounding roar of one wave after another
smashing against the rocks.
“There he is! Look, over there! See, he’s right in front of the rocks!” The men started shouting again.
“You’re right. I see him too. And another big wave is about to hit.”
“Wow! That was a big one!”
“Now where is he?
Do you still see him?”
“No. That
must have done it. He’s been crushed or
drowned.”
“Oh yeah!
Look again! There he is crawling
on the beach.”
“I don’t believe it!
That huge wave actually carried him over the rocks and onto the beach!”
“Let’s try our arrows. They’ll stop him.”
“They all missed!
It’s too far.”
“Look, there he goes behind those dunes. He got away.”
Tyreantum was the last person to speak. “Well, well.
He was lucky this time! We’ll
catch up to him and get him next time, won’t we?”
Although they were unable to see beyond the deck
where they lay bound hand and foot, Nephi and Hantuman had a mental picture of
Moriancom’s escape. Despite their own
desperate situation, they were more worried about Moriancom than they were
about themselves. They rolled to their
sides to look at each other. Gratitude
that Moriancom was safe, at least temporarily, showed in their faces.
Nephi winked at
Hantuman to let him know that he was all right.
Reassured, Hantuman winked back.