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diff --git a/old/53179-0.txt b/old/53179-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 38568f7..0000000 --- a/old/53179-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6700 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Plunder, by H. De Vere Stacpoole - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Sea Plunder - -Author: H. De Vere Stacpoole - -Release Date: October 1, 2016 [EBook #53179] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA PLUNDER *** - - - - -Produced by Roger Frank, Craig Kirkwood, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - -Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end. - - * * * * * - -SEA PLUNDER - - * * * * * - -BY THE SAME AUTHOR - - THE GOLD TRAIL $1.30 net - THE PEARL FISHERS $1.30 net - POPPYLAND $2.00 net - THE NEW OPTIMISM $1.00 net - THE POEMS OF FRANÇOIS VILLON - TRANSLATED BY H. DE VERE STACPOOLE - BOARDS, $3.00 NET. HALF MOROCCO, $7.50 NET - -JOHN LANE CO., NEW YORK - - * * * * * - - - - -SEA PLUNDER - - - BY H. DE VERE STACPOOLE - - AUTHOR OF - “THE GOLD TRAIL,” “THE PEARL FISHERS,” - “THE PRESENTATION,” ETC. - - NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY - TORONTO: S. B. GUNDY: MCMXVII - - * * * * * - - COPYRIGHT, 1916, - BY STREET & SMITH - - COPYRIGHT, 1917, - BY JOHN LANE COMPANY - - Press of - J. J. Little & Ives Co. - New York, U. S. A. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PART I THE BUCCANEERS - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I THE CAPTAIN 9 - - II THE “PENGUIN” 27 - - III THE TOP SEAT AT THE TABLE 34 - - IV THE SAILING OF THE “PENGUIN” 42 - - V THE CABLE MESSAGE 52 - - VI THE CREW’S SHARE OF THE SPOILS 84 - - VII CHRISTOBAL 92 - - VIII SPRENGEL 99 - - IX THE “MINERVA” 115 - - X THE LAST OF THE “PENGUIN” 143 - - PART II THE “HEART OF IRELAND” - - I THE CAPTAIN GETS A SHIP 159 - - II THE “YAN-SHAN” 188 - - III A CARGO OF CHAMPAGNE 221 - - IV AVALON BAY 252 - - V THE BIG HAUL 283 - - * * * * * - -PART I THE BUCCANEERS - - * * * * * - -THE BUCCANEERS - - - - -I THE CAPTAIN - - -Captain Blood used to come down to McGinnis’ wharf every afternoon to -have a look round. The Captain was an Irishman of the black-haired, -grey-eyed type from the west coast--a relic of the wreck of the Spanish -Armada. - -The Spanish strain in the Celtic nature makes for volcanic -developments; and the Captain, from what we knew of him, formed no -exception to this rule. He was known as “The Captain” _tout court_ -all along the front at San Francisco, from the China docks to Meiggs’ -Wharf. He was a character. Scarcely forty years of age, he had done -most things that a man could possibly do in the way of sea-and-land -adventure. He had run guns in the Spanish-American War, dug for gold -at Klondike with the first batch of diggers, lost two fingers of his -left hand in a dust-up on the Chile coast, and two ships in a manner -considered dubious by the Board of Trade. But he never had lost a -friend, nor an enemy. Unlike most of his class, he had nothing of the -amphibian about him. Straight and well set up, he always managed to -keep a clean, well-groomed appearance even in the teeth of adversity. - -The Captain was seated to-day on a mooring bitt, watching the -freighters loading with grain and the tugs and Italian whitehalls -passing on the blue water of the bay. He was down on his luck, had been -for the last month, and was in a condition of humour with the world -that would have lent him to any job from piracy to the captaining of a -hay barge. - -Owners had fought shy of him ever since his last deep-sea adventure. -Capable and sober enough, he had earned a reputation for recklessness -that was a bar to employment as fatal as a reputation for drink. There -were no more Klondikes to be exploited, perfect peace reigned on the -west American seaboard from Vancouver to Wellington Island, piracy was -out of date, and every hay barge had its captain. - -There seemed no prospect before him but either to go into the fo’c’sle -or go on tramp, and as he sat on the mooring bitt, kicking his heels -and watching the shipping, he was trying to decide which of these two -prospects was the more hateful. - -He had arrived at no decision on this point when he saw a figure -approaching him. It was Billy Harman. - -“Why, there you are!” said Billy. “Just the man I wanted to see. I -looked into Sam Brown’s, and you weren’t there, and Sam said: ‘Try down -on the wharves; the Captain is sure to be down on the wharves on the -lookout for his ship.’” - -“I’ll teach him to talk about me and my affairs,” said Blood. “Well, -now you’ve found me, what have you got for me?” - -“A ship,” replied Harman. - -“Have you got it in your pocket?” said the Captain. “If so, produce it. -A ship! And since what day have you turned owner?” - -Mr. Harman produced a pipe and began to load it carefully and -meditatively. His manner could not have been more detached had the -Captain not been present. - -Then, having lit the pipe and taken a draw, he seemed to remember the -presence of the other. - -“Yes,” said he, “it’s a sure-enough job if you wish to take it. I’d -have had it myself, only I’m no hand at the deep-sea-cable business; -but when the thing was spoken of to me I said: ‘I’ve got the man you -want who can do any job in that way better’n any man in Frisco.’ You -see, I knew you’d served two years on the _Groper_.” - -“The _Grapnel_, you mean.” - -“It’s all the same; she were a cable ship, weren’t she? And I said: ‘If -he’ll go, I’ll go meself as second off’cer. I can do the navigatin’.’” - -“When the whisky bottle is out of sight,” put in Blood. - -“‘And what’s more,’ said I, ‘I’ll get you a crew that’s up to snuff and -won’t make no bother nor tell no yarns. You leave the job to me,’ said -I, ‘and if I can get the Captain to come along it’s fixed,’ I says.” - -“Now look here, Bill Harman,” said Blood, shifting his position on the -mooring bitt so as to get his informant face to face, “what are you -driving at? What do you mean, anyhow? Who’s the owner of the cable boat -that’s willing to ship you as first mate and me as skipper? Is this a -guy you are letting off on me, or is it delirium tremens? A cable boat! -Why, what cable company is going to fish round promiscuous and pick up -its officers from sweepings like you and me?” - -“This is no company,” replied Harman. “It’s a private venture.” - -“To lay or to mend?” - -“Well, if you ask me,” said Harman, “I’d say it was more like a -breaking job. If you ask me, I wouldn’t swear to it being an upside -business, but it’s a hundred dollars a month for the skipper and a -bonus of two thousand dollars if the job’s pulled off, and half that -for the mate.” - -The Captain whistled. - -The darkness in this business revealed by Billy Harman jumped up at -him; so did the two thousand dollars bonus and the hundred a month pay. - -“Who asked you to come into this?” said he. - -“A chap named Shiner,” replied Harman. - -“A Jew?” - -“A German. I don’t know whether he is a Jew or not, but he’s got the -splosh.” - -“Look here,” said the Captain, half resuming his place on the mooring -bitt with one leg dangling, “let’s come to common sense. To begin with, -you can’t run a cable boat with a skipper and a mate and even a couple -of engineers alone. You want an electrician. Where’s your electrician -to come from?” - -“You don’t want no electricians to cut cables with,” said Harman. - -“That’s true,” said the Captain, falling into meditation. - -“Yet, all the same,” went on Harman, “this chap Shiner said we would -want an electrician, and that he’d come as electrician himself. Says he -has a good knowledge of the work.” - -“Oh, he said that, did he?” - -“Yes, and I guess he told no lie. This chap Shiner is no bar bummer by -a long chalk. I reckon he’s all there.” - -The Captain made no reply. He was thinking. At first he had fancied -this to be a simple business; some rascal person or syndicate wishing -to cut a deep-sea cable and so interrupt communication between the -business centres. There were only two or three Pacific cables where -this piece of rascality could bring any fruitful results. That is to -say, there were only two or three cables the cutting of which would not -have been negatived by collateral cables or wireless, and the simple -cutting of those cables could not conceivably produce a financial -result worth the risk and the cost of an expedition. - -But this was evidently more than a simple cutting job, since the -presence of an electrician was required. - -“Look here,” said he, “where is this man Shiner to be seen?” - -“Why,” said Harman, “he’s to be seen easy enough in his office on -Market Street.” - -“Well, let’s go and have a look at him,” said the Captain, detaching -himself from the mooring bitt. “He’s worth investigating. Would he be -in now, think you?” - -“He might,” replied Harman. “Anyhow, we can try.” - -They walked away together. - -Harman, unlike Blood, was a typical sailor of the tramp school, a man -who knew more about steam winches and cargo handling than masts and -yards. He was all right to look at, a stocky man with a not unpleasant -face, a daring eye, and a fresh colour, but his certificates were not -to match. Drink had been this gentleman’s ruin. Had he been a lesser -man, drink would have crushed him down into the fo’c’sle. As it was, -he managed to get along somehow by his wits. He had not made a voyage -for two years now, but he had managed to make a living; he had been -endowed by nature with a mind active as a squirrel. He was in with a -number of men: ward politicians knew him as a useful man, and used him -occasionally. Crimps knew him, and tavern keepers. Had he been more of -a scamp and less of a dreamer, he might have risen high in life. His -dream was of a big fortune to be “got sudden and easy,” and this dream, -stimulated at times by alcohol, managed somehow to keep him poor. - -The public life of Frisco, like a rotten cheese, supports all sorts of -mites and maggots, and the wharf edge is of all cheese the most rotten -part. - -Harman could put his hand on men to vote at a city election, or men -to man a whaler; he was under political protection, he was in with -the port officers and the customs, and he could have been a very -considerable person despite his lack of education but for the drink. -Drink is fatal to successful scoundrelism, and the form in which it -afflicted Harman is the most fatal of all, for he was not a consistent -toper. He would go sober for months on end, and then, having made some -money and some success, he would “fly out.” - -Having reached Market Street, Harman led his companion into a big -building where an elevator whisked them up to the fifth floor. - -Here, at the end of a concrete passage, Harman pushed open a door -inscribed with the legend “The Wolff Syndicate,” and, entering an outer -office, inquired for Mr. Shiner. They were shown into a comfortably -furnished room where at a roll-top desk a young man was seated busily -at work with a stenographer at his side. He asked them to be seated, -finished the few words he had to dictate, and then, having dismissed -the stenographer, turned to Harman. - -Shiner, for it was he, was a very glossy individual, immaculately -dressed in a frock coat, broad-striped trousers, spats, and -patent-leather shoes. - -He did not look more than thirty--if that--he was good looking, and yet -a frankly ugly man would have produced a more pleasing impression on -the mind than Mr. Shiner. Despite his good looks, his youth, and his -manner, which was intended to please, there was something inexpressibly -hard and negative about this individual. - -The Captain felt it at once. “Now, there’s a chap that would do you in -and sit on your corpse and eat sandwiches,” said he to himself, “and -smile--wonder how Harman got a hold of a chap like that? But there’s -money here; the place smells of it, and the chap, too. Well, we’ll see.” - -“This is the Captain,” said Harman. “Captain Blood I spoke of to you. I -happened to meet him, and he’s come in to see you.” - -“Very glad to see you, Captain,” said Shiner, getting up and standing -with his back to the stove. “Has our friend Harman mentioned to you -anything of the business I spoke of to him?” - -“He told me it was cable work,” replied Blood cautiously. - -“Just so,” said Shiner. “I want a skipper for some work in connection -with deep-sea cables. You have experience, I suppose?” - -“Two years in the _Grapnel_,” replied Blood. - -“You were skipper?” - -“No; first officer.” - -“Had you much to do with the cable work?” - -“Everything, as far as handling the cable. You see, in some companies -and some boats they have a regular cable engineer, a chap who doesn’t -touch any work but cable work; in others, the chief officer does his -work and the cable work as well.” - -“I know,” replied Shiner, nodding his head as though he were well -acquainted with all the ins and outs of the business. “Well, in this -affair of ours the skipper would be skipper and cable engineer as well. -That would not interfere with his proper business, since once the -cable engineer is in charge, he is the virtual captain of the ship.” - -Blood nodded, wondering how this up-to-date-looking young business man -had gained so much knowledge about this special branch of seamanship. - -“Of course you have certificates,” went on Shiner. “You can show a -clean sheet for character and ability?” - -“Curse his impudence!” thought the Captain to himself; then, aloud: “A -clean sheet? No, can you?” - -Shiner, who had been standing on his toes and letting himself down on -his heels, puffing out his chest, shooting his cuffs, and otherwise -conducting himself like a man in power and on a pedestal, collapsed -at this dig. He flung his right elbow into the palm of his left hand, -pinched in his cheeks with his right thumb and forefinger, coughed, -frowned, and then said: - -“I can excuse a sailor for being short in his temper before a question -that would seem to imply incapacity. We will say no more on that point. -I take your word that you are an efficient navigator and a capable -cable engineer.” - -“You needn’t take anything of the sort,” said Blood. “I’m a bad -navigator, and, as for cable engineering, I can find a cable if I have -a chart of it and howk her out of the mud if I have a grapnel. I don’t -say that doesn’t want doing; still that’s my limit as a cable man. And -as to navigation, I can just carry on. I’ve lost two ships.” - -“The _Averna_ and the _Trojan_,” said Shiner. - -“Now, how in the nation did you know that?” cried the outraged Blood. - -“I know most things about most men in Frisco,” replied the subtle -Shiner. - -“Well, then, you’ll know my back,” replied Blood, rising from his -chair, “and you may think yourself lucky if you don’t know my boot!” He -turned to the door. - -“Captain! Captain!” cried Harman, springing up. “Don’t take on so for -nothing. The gentleman didn’t mean nothing. Don’t you, now, be a fool, -for it’s me you’ll put out of a job as well as yourself.” - -“What made him ask me those questions, then, and he knowing my record -all the time?” cried Blood, around whose body Harman had flung an arm. - -“He didn’t mean no _harm_; he didn’t mean no _harm_. Don’t you be -carrying on so for nothing; the gentleman didn’t mean no harm. Here, -now, sit you down; he didn’t mean no harm.” - -Harman was not an orator, but his profound common sense prevented him -from enlarging on the subject and trying to suggest innocent things -that Shiner might have meant. Blood was in a condition of mind to snap -at anything, but he sat down. - -Shiner had said not one word. - -“That’s right,” said Harman, in a soothing voice. “And now, Mr. Shiner, -if I’m not wrong, it was a hundred dollars a month you were offering -the Captain, with a bonus of a thousand when the job’s through. Maybe -I’m not mistaken in what I say.” - -“Not a bit,” said Shiner, speaking as calmly as though no unpleasant -incident had occurred. “Those are the terms, with an advance of a -hundred dollars should the Captain engage himself to us.” - -“What about the victuals,” said the Captain, seeming to forget his late -emotion, “and the drinks?” - -“The food will be good,” replied Shiner, “and the best guarantee of -that will be the fact that I go with you myself as electrician. I’m not -the man to condemn myself to bad food for the sake of a few dollars. -The food will be the best you have ever had on board ship, I suspect; -but there will be no drinks.” - -“No drinks?” - -“Not till we are paid off. This business wants cool hands. Tea, coffee, -mineral waters you will have as much as you want of; but not one drop -of alcohol. I am condemning myself as well as you, so there is no room -for grumbling.” - -Harman heaved a sigh like the sigh of a porpoise. Blood was silent for -a moment. Then he said: “Well, I don’t mind. I’m not set on alcohol. If -it’s to be a teetotal ship, maybe it’s all the better; but I reckon -you’ll pay wind money all the same.” - -“What’s this they allow?” asked Shiner, as though he had forgotten this -point. - -“A shilling a day on the English ships,” said the Captain, “for the -officers. Eighteen pence, some of the companies make it. I don’t know -what the skipper gets. I reckon double. I’ll take half a dollar a day. -That’s about fair.” - -“Very well,” said Shiner. “I meet you. Anything more?” - -“No,” said the Captain. “I guess that’s all.” - -“When can you start?” asked Shiner. - -“When you’re ready.” - -“Well, that will be about this day week.” - -“And the advance?” - -“I will pay you that to-morrow, when you have seen over the ship. It’s -just as well you should have a look at her first. Can you be here at -ten o’clock to-morrow morning?” - -“Yes, I can be here.” - -“Very well, then. You had better come, too, Mr. Harman. I will expect -you both at ten o’clock sharp. Good day to you.” - -They went out. - -Going down in the elevator, they said nothing. - -It will have been noticed that not one of the three men had made -any remark on the real nature of the forthcoming expedition. It was -admittedly dark. The amount of pay and the bonus were quite enough to -throw light on the edges of the affair. Blood did not want to explore -farther. It wasn’t the first dark job he’d been on, and the less he -knew the more easily could he swear to innocence in case of capture. - -Harman seemed of this way of thinking also, for, when they turned into -the street, all he said was: - -“Well, come and have a drink.” - -“I don’t mind,” said Blood. “I’m not a drinking man, as a rule; but -that chap has made me feel dry somehow or another.” - -He had taken a black dislike to Shiner. - - - - -II THE “PENGUIN” - - -Near the docks where the China boats come in, there lies an old wharf -gone pretty much to decay. Rafferty’s Wharf is the name it goes by. It -bears about the same relationship to the modern sea front that Monterey -bears to San Francisco, for its rotten piles, bored by sea weevils -and waving their weeds languidly to the green water that washes them, -were young in the days when grain went aboard ship by the sackful and -the tank ships of the Standard Oil Company were floating only in the -undreamed-of future. - -If you hunt for it, you will find it very difficult to discover; and if -you discover it, you will gain little by your discovery but melancholy. - -The great grain elevators pouring their rivers of wheat into the holds -of the great grain freighters overshadow it with their majesty, and go -as often as you will, there is never a decent, live ship moored to its -bitts. - -The cripples of the sea are brought here for a rest, or for sale, -before starting with a last kick of their propellers for the -breaking-up yards; and here, on this bright morning, when Mr. Shiner -and his two seafaring companions appeared on the scene, this veritable -cripple home only showed two inmates--a brig and a grey-painted, -single-funnelled steamship with rust runnings staining her paint, -verdigris on her brasswork, no boats at her davits, and a general air -of neglect, slovenliness, and disreputability beggaring description. - -The _Penguin_ had never been a beauty to look at, and she had always -been a beast to roll; even rolling plates, though they had improved her -a bit, had not cured her. She had only one good point--speed--and that -was an accident; she had not been built for speed; she had been built -to carry cable and to lay it and mend it; speed had come to her by that -law which rules that to every ship built comes some quality or defect -not reckoned for by the designer and builder. - -Shiner & Co., having hailed the watchmen, crossed the gangplank to the -desolate deck, the Captain with frank disapproval on his face, Harman -sniffing and trying to look cheerful at the same time, like a salesman -keeping a fair face above the rotten game he is offering for sale. - -“Great Neptune!” said the Captain, glancing around him. - -“She is a bit gone to neglect,” said Shiner, “but it’s all on the -surface. She’s as sound as a bell where it really matters.” - -“Them funnel guys,” said Harman. - -“Yes, they want tightening, and the want of boats doesn’t make her look -any better; but boats will be supplied according to regulation. You -won’t know her when I’ve had half a dozen fellows at her for a couple -of days. All that brasswork wants doing, and a lick of paint will liven -her up; but she’s not a yacht, anyhow, and a sound deck under one’s -feet is a long way better than a good appearance.” - -He followed the Captain, who had walked forward to the bow, where the -picking-up gear cumbered the deck. - -This consisted of a huge drum moved by cogwheels and worked through -the picking-up engine by steam from the main boilers. On it would be -wound the grapnel rope used for grappling for cable over the wheel let -into the bow just at the point where in ordinary ships the heel of the -bowsprit is grasped by the knightheads. - -The Captain inspected this machine with attention, pressing on the cogs -of the driving wheel with his thumb as though they were soft and he -wished to discover how much they would dent; then, standing off a bit, -he looked at it with his head on one side, as a knowing purchaser might -look at a horse. - -“Wants a drop of lubricating oil,” said Shiner tentatively. - -“Gallons,” replied the Captain. He turned to the picking-up engine and -pulled the lever over. This he did several times, releasing it and -then pulling it over again as if for the gloomy pleasure of feeling its -defects. - -“Well,” said Shiner, “what do you think of the gear and engine?” - -“Oh, they’ll work,” said the Captain, “but it will be a good job if -they don’t work off their bedplates.” - -“They’ll hold tight enough,” said Harman, pressing his foot on the -brake of the engine. “There’s nothing wrong with them on the inside. -Let’s have a look at the main.” - -They came aft past the electrical testing room, and passed down the -companionway to the engine room. - -Here things were brighter, the weather having worked no effect. - -“I have had them examined by an expert,” said Shiner. “He gave them an -A-1 certificate. And the boilers are sound; they have been scaled and -cleaned. Let’s go and look at the saloon.” - -They came on deck, and Shiner led the way down the companionway to the -saloon. - -It was a big place, with a table running down the middle capable of -seating twenty or thirty at a crush. Cabin doors opened on either -side of it; at the stern end it bayed out into a lounge and a couch -upholstered in red velvet; and at the end, by the door leading to the -companionway, was fixed a huge sideboard with a mirror backing. - -A faint air of old festivity and an odour of must and mildew lent their -melancholy to the dim, irreligious light streaming down through the -dirty skylight. - -The Captain sniffed. Then he peeped into the cabins on either side, -noticed the cockroaches that made hussar rushes for shelter, the fact -that the doors stuck in their jambs, that the bunks were destitute of -bedding, and the scuttles of the portholes sealed tight with verdigris. - -“You can have the starboard cabin by the door,” said Shiner. “I’ll take -the port. Or you can take the chart room; there’s a bunk there. Harman -can have any of the other cabins he likes. We’ll all mess here, and we -won’t grumble at being tightly packed.” - -“You’ll have decent bedding put in?” said the Captain. - -“That will be done, all right,” replied Shiner. “You need have no fear -at all that the appointments won’t be up to date. There won’t be frills -on the sheets, but there will be comfort.” - -“Well, comfort is all I ask,” replied the Captain. “And you propose to -put out this day week?” - -“This day week. May I take it, now, that everything is settled?” - -The Captain scratched his head for a moment, as if dislodging a last -objection. Then he said: - -“I’ll come.” - - - - -III THE TOP SEAT AT THE TABLE - - -It was on a Tuesday morning that they started. Blood came on board -at six, and found the majority of the crew already assembled under -Harman. They had come on board the night before, and, to use his own -expression, they were the roughest, toughest crowd he had ever seen -collected on one deck. - -He was just the man to handle them, and his first act was to boot a -fellow off the bridge steps where he had taken his perch, pipe in -mouth, and send him flying down the alleyway forward. Then, following -him, he began to talk to the hands, sending them flying this way and -that, some to clean brasswork and others to clear the raffle off the -decks. - -Down below, the boilers were beginning to rumble, and now appeared at -the engine-room hatch a new figure, with the air of a Scotch terrier -poking up its head to have a look round. - -It was MacBean, the chief, second, third, and fourth engineer in one. - -MacBean had the honest look of a Dandie Dinmont, and something of the -facial expression. He was an efficient engineer; he was on board the -_Penguin_ because he could not get another job, and that fact was -not a certificate of character. There was scarcely a soul on board -the _Penguin_, indeed, with the exception of Shiner, who would not -have been somewhere else but for circumstances over which they had no -control. - -The Captain gave MacBean good morning, had a moment’s talk with him, -and then went aft to see how things were going there. - -He found that a steward had been installed, and that he was in the act -of laying breakfast things at one end of the breakfast table. - -The Captain sent him up for his gear which was on deck, ordered him -to place it in the cabin which he had selected, and then proceeded to -change from the serge suit which he wore into an old uniform dating -from his last command in the Black Bird line. - -As he was finishing his toilet, he heard Shiner’s voice, and when he -came out of his cabin he found Shiner and Harman seated at table and -the steward serving breakfast. - -Shiner had gotten himself up for the sea. He looked as though he were -off for some cheap trip with a brass band in attendance. Very few -people can bear yachting rig, especially when it is brand-new; and -brass buttons with anchors on them are as trying to a man’s gentility -as mauve to a woman’s complexion. - -The Captain gave the others good morning. Two things gratified him: the -sight of the good breakfast spread upon the table, and the fact that -the chair at the head of the table was vacant and evidently reserved -for him. - -He was about to take his seat when Shiner stopped him. - -“Excuse me,” said he, “but that is Mr. Wolff’s place.” - -“Mr. Wolff’s place?” said Blood. “And who the deuce is Mr. Wolff?” - -“Our senior partner,” said Shiner. “I’m expecting him every minute.” - -Then it was that the Captain noticed a cover laid beside Harman and -evidently intended for him. - -The temper of the man was not intended by nature to take calmly an -incident like this. - -The steward was listening, too. - -“I’ll give you to understand right away and here, now,” said he, “that -I’m the skipper of this tub, and that this is my place at the table. -It’s as well to begin as we intend to go on. Steward, look alive there -with the coffee.” - -He took his seat at the head of the table, helped himself to eggs -and bacon, and turned his conversation on Harman. Shiner flushed, -hesitated, lost his balance, and subsided into his coffee cup. The -Captain at a stroke had taken his position among the after guard. Wolff -might own the ship, and Shiner, too, it did not matter in the least. -The Captain was boss, and would remain so. - -In a moment, when he had finished saying what he had to say to Harman, -he turned to the other. - -“Of course,” said he, “I can’t stop you bringing all the supercargoes -you like on board----” He stopped, told the steward to clear out of the -saloon, and then, when the man had disappeared, went on: “Considering -I’ve let myself in for this thing with my eyes shut, I’ve no right -to complain if you brought bears on board, to say nothing of wolves; -but I’d have taken it kinder if you had let me know right off at the -beginning that the whole firm was going on the cruise.” - -“Look here, Captain,” said Shiner, “you have spoken truth without -knowing it. Wolff is the whole firm practically. He’s the boss of this -business, to all intents and purposes; he’s the money behind it all, -and the brain, and he did not want to advertise the fact that he was -coming on board, I suppose, for he is a man pretty well known in the -States. Anyhow, there are the facts. Wolff is a man that _I_ don’t mind -playing second fiddle to; and if I don’t mind, I don’t see why you -should.” - -“Oh, don’t you?” said the Captain. “Well, I do. I’m captain of this -tub, and captain I’ll remain. I’m risking enough for a hundred dollars -a month and a bonus of a thousand if this piracy, whatever it is, of -yours, comes off, without losing my status quo as well.” - -“What’s that?” asked the illiterate Harman, who had laid down the knife -with which he had been eating so as to attend better to the dispute. - -“It’s what you’ll never have--the position of a master mariner and the -top seat at the table.” - -“What do you mean by that word ‘piracy’?” asked Shiner, with the air of -a woman whose reputation is attacked. “There is no such thing in this -business, and it would be a lot better for you to be more careful with -your words. Words are dangerous weapons when flung about like that.” - -“Well,” said the Captain, “call it what you like. I don’t know what it -is, but I’ve signed on, and I’m not the man to go back on my word; but, -as I just said, I don’t know what we are after, and I don’t much care, -as long as we steer clear of the gallows.” - -“Don’t be talking like that,” said Harman. “Mr. Shiner, here, ain’t -such a fool as to go within smellin’ distance of any hanging matter. -What we are after may be a bit off colour, but it’s a business venture -in the main. I’ve asked no questions, but Mr. Shiner has given me to -understand that it was business he was after, not anything that would -lay us by the heels, so to speak, in any killing matter.” - -“What we are after is perfectly plain,” said Shiner. “Killing! Who -talked of killing? This is, just as you say, a business matter, and -it’s no worse than what’s being done in Frisco every day, only it’s a -bit more adventurous.” - -The precious trio finished their breakfast without any more words, -and then went on deck. They had scarcely reached it when across the -gangplank came a stout, black-bearded individual followed by a couple -of wharf rats, one bearing luggage, the other two big cases. - -This was Wolff. - -Shiner introduced him to the Captain, and then Wolff, followed by the -luggage and the cases, disappeared below. - -“He’s not a good sailor,” said Shiner, “but he’ll be all right after a -day or two. Ah, here come the port authorities. I’ll have a talk with -them. You are all right for starting, I suppose?” - -“Yes,” said the Captain. “I’m ready to cast off when you are.” - -“Right!” said Shiner. - -He took the port officers down to the saloon, and when they came up -again they were all smoking half-dollar perfectos and the traces of -conviviality and good-fellowship were evident. - -“They’ve been having drinks,” said Harman to himself. “Wouldn’t wonder -if there was lush in those cases Wolff brought aboard. No tellin’.” - - - - -IV THE SAILING OF THE “PENGUIN” - - -It was noon when the hawsers were cast off and Captain Blood, in all -the glory of command, standing on the bridge, rang up the engines and -put the telegraph to half speed ahead. - -It was a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky, and scarcely a ripple -of breeze on the water. The breeze, just sufficient to shake the trade -flags of the shipping, brought with it the whistling of ferryboats, the -hammering of boiler iron from the shipyards, and a thousand voices from -the multitude of ships. - -They nearly scraped the stern wheel off a Stockton river boat, and -then, as if sheering off from the blasphemy of the Stocktonites, nosed -round and passed the buoy that marks the shoal water west of Hennessy’s -Wharf. Then down the bay they went with the sunlight on Alcatraz and -the Contre Costa shore, and away ahead the Golden Gate and a vision of -the blue Pacific. - -They passed Lime Point and took the middle channel, where the first -heave of the outer sea striding over the bar met them with a keener -touch of wind to back it. The Cliff House and Point Bonita fell astern, -and now, right ahead, the Farallons sketched themselves away across the -lonely blue of the sea. - -The _Penguin_, bow on to the swell, was behaving admirably, so well, -indeed, that Wolff, with a cigar in his mouth, had appeared on deck and -climbed onto the bridge. But now, clear of the land and with a shift -of helm, the beam sea produced its effect, and her rolling capacities -became evident. - -Wolff descended, leaving the bridge to its lawful occupants, and even -Shiner, who had taken his place on the after gratings with an account -book and stylograph pen, retired after a very little while. - -The _Penguin_ was built to hold a thousand miles of cable in her -fore end and after tanks, and, loaded like that, the effect of her -top-hamper in the way of picking-up gear, picking-up engine, derricks, -and buoys would be corrected. But she had no cable in her now, only -water ballast, and she rolled after her natural bent, and rolled and -rolled till cries of “Steward!” came faintly through the saloon hatch, -followed by other sounds and the clinking of basins. - -Blood walked the bridge with Harman, casting now and then an eye at the -compass card and the fellow at the wheel, and now and then an eye at -the forward deck lumbered with the gear and four or five new-painted -buoys, each numbered and each with a lamp socket. - -“They haven’t spared expense in fitting her out,” said Harman. - -“No, they haven’t,” replied the Captain. “And why? Simply because I’ve -been at Shiner all the past week with a rope’s end, so to say. I’m -blessed if the blighter didn’t want to economise on buoys! ‘Two will be -enough,’ says he; ‘it’s only a short job we are on, and they are three -hundred dollars apiece.’ He said that right to my face. ‘Well,’ said -I, ‘it’s none of my business, but if you want to drop the job, whatever -it is, in the middle, and run a thousand miles to the nearest port for -a ten-cent buoy, you’ll find your economy has been misplaced. You will -that.’ So he caved in on the buoys. Then we had an argument over the -grapnel rope. He wanted to take two miles of all hemp. I wanted five -miles of wire wove. I got it, but only after a mighty tough struggle. -The grapnels are good, but they went with the ship, and they’d been -properly laid up in paraffin; not a speck on them. Then the Kelvin -sounder was out of order. Yes, they’d have sailed with it like that -only for me, and it cost them something to have it put right.” - -“What I’m thinking,” said Harman, “is that this expedition is costing a -good deal of money.” - -“It’s costing all of five hundred dollars a day.” - -“What I’m thinking,” went on Harman, “is that the profits to come out -of whatever they are going to do must be huge, big profits to cover -the expenses, and I’ve taken notice that when chaps are ketched going -on the crooked where money is concerned, they always gets a bigger -doing from the law the bigger the money is. It’s this way: if a chap -nails a suit of clothes, or a ham, he don’t get as much as a chap that -nicks a motor boat, shall we say, and the chap that nicks a motor boat -don’t----” - -“Oh, shut up!” said the Captain. “We’re in for it, whatever it is, and -our only hope’s our innocence if we’re caught. We don’t know anything; -we are only obeying the orders of the owners. Not that that will have -much weight if we are caught, but we’re not going to be. I’ve a firm -belief in that slippery eel of a Shiner, much as I dislike him; and -this chap Wolff doesn’t seem a fool, either. They’re not the sort of -fellows to run their skins into much danger.” - -“What do you think it is?” asked Harman. - -“Think what is?” - -“This game of theirs.” - -“Well, I’ll tell you what I think. I think they are going to pick up a -cable, cut it, and tap it.” - -“Whatcha mean by tapping it?” - -“Sucking the news out of it. Or maybe they’re going to use it for -sending some lying message that’ll upset the stock markets, or grain -markets, or railway people. Lord bless you, there’s a hundred things to -be done if one has the business end of a real deep-sea cable with a big -city like Frisco or maybe Sydney at the other end.” - -“Well, maybe there is,” said Harman. “There’s a good many things to be -done in Frisco off the square, without a cable, and there’s no sayin’ -what mightn’t be done with one.” - -“I reckon you’re a judge of that,” laughed the Captain. - -“Oh, I’m pretty well up to the tricks of Frisco,” said the other -complacently. “But this is a new traverse, fooling folk from the middle -of the ocean, one might say. I reckon Wolff is a German, ain’t he?” - -“Yes, he’s a Dutchman, all right; so’s Shiner, I reckon. German Jew. It -lands me how those sort of chaps get on and make money, and the likes -of us has to take their orders and their leavings. I’d like to get even -with them once.” - -“Well, maybe you will,” said Harman. - -The Captain grunted. - -There was a fellow on board named Bowers. He had been given the post of -bos’n, and he knew something of navigation and could keep a watch on -the bridge. - -The Captain called for him now and gave the bridge over to him, as all -was plain sailing with the California coast away on the port quarter, -the Farallons on the starboard bow, and the whole blue Pacific Ocean -right ahead. - -He and Harman, leaving the bridge, sought the chart room and went in -there for a smoke. It was a pleasant place, full of light, and with a -couch running along one side. By the door stood a rack of rifles, eight -in number, and for every rifle a cutlass. - -Cable ships go armed. They never know, when they leave port to do a -job, what new job may not suddenly call them to the Patagonian beaches -or the fogs of the Yellow Sea. The rifles and cutlasses were part of -the fixtures belonging to the _Penguin_ and taken over by the new -owners, just as fixtures are taken over with a house. To use them for -their proper purpose could never have occurred to the minds of Shiner, -Wolff & Co. They were not men of violence. The strange thing, indeed, -about this expedition, organised and manned for lawless work on the -deep sea, was the fact that the chiefs were, to use Harman’s phrase, -“sure-enough city men,” and that they were even now down below dead -sick with the Pacific’s first fringe of swell. - -Harman took a rifle down and examined it, while Blood, extending his -leg on the couch, lit a pipe. - -“Say,” said Harman, “are you any good as a shot?” - -“Not with a thing like that,” replied the Captain. “I can hit a man -with a revolver at ten paces, and that’s all the good shooting I want. -Put that thing down and don’t be fooling with it.” - -“It’s not loaded,” replied Harman, who had opened the breech. - -“And it’s not likely to be,” replied the other, “for there’s no -ammunition on board and no need for it. If we’re caught, there must be -no fighting.” - -“Why, I thought you was a fighting man,” said Harman, putting the rifle -back. “You have the name for it.” - -“And so I am, when fighting is to be had on the square; but there’s -fighting and fighting. Can’t you see, if we were caught tinkering at -some cable we had no right to be meddling with, and if we were chased -by some gunboat, and if we were to fight and draw blood--can’t you see -we’d be hanged without benefit of clergy? No, I never fight against the -law. Never have and never will.” - -“Suppose a cruiser overhauled her when we was at work?” said Harman. - -“Well, what’s easier to say than that we were sent to mend? We are a -sure-enough cable ship, and how’s a cruiser to know whether the cable -we are fishing for or tinkering with isn’t broken? Oh, no; you may make -your mind easy on that. Our position is sound and safe, on the outside. -Inside it’s as rotten as punk.” - - - - -V THE CABLE MESSAGE - - -The _Penguin_, steering a sou-sou’westerly course, slipped day by -day into warmer and bluer seas. Wolff, recovering from his first -unpleasantness, appeared on deck, cigar in mouth; and Shiner, with -nothing better to do, would be seen lounging on the after gratings with -a novel in his hand. - -The Captain and Harman worked the ship, and had little to do with the -others, meeting them chiefly at table, where, needless to say, the -Captain took the head. Wolff had given him a chart of the Pacific -whereon was laid down the exact position of the cable they were going -to attend to. - -“This is the chart,” Wolff had said. “You will see, there is the cable. -It is plainly marked. I wish you to bring us to it about here.” He made -a pencil mark on the cable line. “And when you have brought us to that -point, then I will explain to you the object of this expedition.” - -“Right!” said the Captain. - -They were steering now for the cable line through days of sapphire and -nights wonderful with stars. Now and then they would raise an island, a -peak with a turban of clouds, or an atoll, just a green ring of palms -and breadfruits surrounded by a white ring of foam, and peak and atoll -would heave in sight and sink from sight with nothing to tell of the -legerdemain at work but the pounding of the screw and the throb of the -engines. - -Sometimes a sail would heave in sight, or the far-off smoke of a -steamer hold the imagination for an hour or two, and then be painted -out, leaving nothing but the sea, the sky, and the pearl-white trace of -cloud draping the skirts of the warm trade wind. - -There is no place in the world where grievances sprout so well and grow -so rapidly as on board ship. The Captain had a grievance. It had come -to his knowledge that Wolff had a private stock of Pilsener. Some had -come in the cases that the wharf rat had carried after him on board, -and there was more stowed away in some hole known only to Wolff and -Shiner. - -Those two worthies would forgather of a morning in Wolff’s cabin and -drink Pilsener and then heave the bottles out of the porthole. The -Captain had seen a Pilsener bottle going aft, bobbing and bowing to him -in the wake, and his fury was excessive and ill contained. - -Leaving aside the meanness of proclaiming the ship teetotal and then -smuggling drink aboard for private consumption, there was something of -cold-blooded inhospitality about the business that struck at the Irish -heart. - -He was very explicit about the matter to Harman: - -“Swine--they and their lager beer! You wait! I’ll pay them out.” - -“To think of them sitting there drinking, and we dry!” said the -simple-minded Harman. “That’s what gets me. We dry and them chaps -drinking. It makes me thirsty. I don’t care a dash about their sitting -there and drinking, but when I think of it it makes me thirsty. That’s -what gets me.” - -“Well, you’ll have to think of something else,” said the Captain. -“There’s no use in dwelling on things like that, and the voyage is not -for long.” - -“It’s long enough to be without a drink in,” said Harman. - -Harman, despite his up-to-dateness on San Francisco roguery, was a most -extraordinary child for all his manhood. The man part of him had grown -up and grown crooked; the child part of him had remained virginal. The -moment was everything to him. He could just read and write his name, -and sometimes, when he was off duty, you would see him spelling over a -San Francisco paper. Houses to let, governess wanted--it was all the -same to him. He only read the advertisement columns. They satisfied his -craving for literature, and he could understand them. The rest of the -paper, from the poetry corner to the foreign-news column, was arid -ground for him. - -Yet this same man had made money out of ward politics and in twenty -other ways in which one would have fancied education necessary to -success. - -They left Fanning and Christmas Island three hundred miles to -starboard, passed the equator, and, entering the great, empty space of -sea bounded by the Phœnix Islands on the north and the Penrhyns on the -southeast, headed toward the Navigators. - -One sweltering morning, the Captain, coming up to Wolff, who was seated -in his pajamas under the double awning that had been rigged up, said: - -“We’re just on the cable line.” - -Wolff rose up, called for the steward, and, having sent for his panama, -put it on and came up on the bridge. - -The sea was smooth, surface smooth, but underrun by the long, endless -swell of the Pacific. - -“This is the spot,” said the Captain, who had been poring over the -cable chart which he had brought up on the bridge. “And it’s pretty -deep. All a mile.” - -“Good!” said Wolff. “With this calm sea, we ought to work well and -quickly. We are in luck; and now, if you will come into the chart -house, we will talk for one moment.” - -They went into the chart house, and Wolff shut the door. - -“This is a purely business proposition,” began Wolff, “and I must tell -you, to begin with, that it is not a business which a man of a certain -type of mind would call on the square. But, my dear Captain, can you -show me any business proposition that is truly on the square? Not one. -I want the use of a cable, and I am going to take it for business -purposes. That is all there is to it, you understand.” - -“Look here,” said Blood, “this is all I know of the business. You want -me to fish this cable up?” - -“Precisely.” - -“Cut it?” - -“Just so.” - -“Connect both ends with the electrical testing room, and let you talk -through it and send messages through it from both or one of the cut -ends?” - -“That is exactly the position.” - -“Well, after that?” - -“After I have had my use of the cable, you can drop both ends -overboard. We will sail away, and no one the wiser. Of course, the -cable company will recognise that their cable is broken, and send a -ship to mend it; but we will be far away by that time.” - -“I see,” went on the Captain, “that it runs from the American coast -here to the Australian coast here, but I don’t know the name of the -company it belongs to; I don’t know what in the nation your game is. -I am as innocent as a baa lamb on the whole affair, and I simply obey -your orders, not knowing that you yourself may not own the cable and -that this mayn’t be a repairing job. If we are caught, will you bear me -out in that statement?--not that your evidence will be much good, I -expect, but, still, it’s better than nothing.” - -“If you obey our instructions,” said Wolff, “I will do as you say; and, -to prove that I am playing fair with you, I will even now give you a -detail of the commercial speculation that is behind all this business.” - -“I don’t want to hear it,” said the Captain. “I’d much sooner remain -innocent. I’m just an ordinary sailor signed on to do an ordinary job. -I’ll work freer in mind if I know nothing about the inside of the -affair; it’s black enough on the out.” - -“Well, we will leave it at that,” said Wolff, “and we will now set to -work, if you please.” - -They came on to the bridge, and the Captain gave orders for the main -engines to be stopped and the Kelvin sounder to be set to work. The -donkey man had been allotted to this job, and presently the furious, -sewing-machine whir of the sounder hauling up the lead came through the -silence that had supervened on the stopping of the engines, and the -result was shouted forward: “Eight hundred fathoms, coral rock.” - -Blood, on this result being given to him, left the bridge and came -down to the bow balks to superintend the lowering of the first buoy. -He had not only to act as cable engineer, but he had also to instruct -the hands in the details of this work absolutely new to them. A big, -red-painted buoy was swung up against the burning blue of the sky, a -rope with a mushroom anchor attached to it was fastened to the buoy; -then the anchor was cast overboard, taking the rope with it, and the -buoy, swung outboard, was dropped. It rode off, bobbing and ducking on -the swell, and the _Penguin_ steamed on to a point a mile ahead, where -another buoy was dropped in a precisely similar manner. - -The Captain had now his position and his marks laid down. Somewhere -between those two buoys lay the cable, like a black snake on the floor -of the sea, waiting to be grappled for. - -The grapnel rope was now lowered over the clanking drum of the -picking-up gear and the wheel in the bow. This business took half an -hour, and then the _Penguin_, going dead slow, began to steam back to -the first-mark buoy, dragging the grapnel after her across the floor of -the sea. - -Wolff and Shiner took a great deal of interest in this part of -the business. They stood at the bow watching the pointer of the -dynamometer, which gave the pull on the rope in hundredweights; every -lump of coral, every tuft of weed travelled over by the grapnel made -the pointer of the dynamometer jump and joggle; and at every jump the -idea “Cable!” would leap into the minds of the speculators and show -itself in their eyes. - -But the _Penguin_ passed from one mark buoy to the other without a show -of the real thing; and then she turned and steamed back on an equally -fruitless course. - -She was making ready for a third grapple when the bell went for dinner, -and Wolff, Shiner, and the Captain turned aft and went below to the -saloon. - -The Wolff gang were in a bad temper, and the meal had scarcely begun -when a discussion broke out. - -“It’s a funny thing,” said Shiner, “that we have not hit the thing yet.” - -“We have been twice over the ground,” said Wolff. - -“Sure you haven’t made a mistake in the spot, Captain?” said Shiner. - -The Captain put down the glass of mineral water he was raising to his -lips. - -“Why can’t you say what you mean?” said he. “Why can’t you ask me right -out if I haven’t muddled the navigation and missed the job? Well, I -haven’t. Is that plain? Some men may doubt their own work, and there -are some men who would be put off by suspicions flung at them and -would say, ‘Maybe I _am_ wrong,’ and pick up his buoys and move off to -another ground and make fools of themselves. I’m not that sort. Can’t -you see that a cable may be passed over by a grapnel half a dozen times -without the grapnel catching? It may be glued down with coral.” - -“Just so, just so!” said Shiner, anxious to pacify. “We never doubted -your capacity, Captain.” - -“Never, I’m sure,” said Wolff. - -The Captain, somewhat mollified, went on with his meal, and he was -raising the glass of mineral water for the second time to his lips when -the dead, slow tramp of the engines ceased. - -Immediately on their cessation, through the open skylight came the -clanking sound of the picking-up gear, and right on that came Harman’s -voice, roaring down the saloon companionway: “Below, there! We’ve got -the cable!” - -In a minute or less, Wolff, Shiner, and the Captain were in the bows; -the Captain on the bow balks, Shiner and Wolff on the deck. - -The great drum, rotating slowly, was hauling in the grapnel rope, -dripping and taut; the dynamometer registered a strain of seven tons, -and the strain was slowly increasing. - -Nothing else could give this result but cable. - -“Are you sure we have got it, Captain?” asked Wolff. - -The Captain looked down at him. - -“If that rope was to break under this strain,” said he, “it would -mushroom out like an open umbrella and cut you to pieces. Better get up -on the bridge. You’re safe there. Yes, I’m sure we’ve got cable, unless -we’ve grappled a dead whale.” - -Wolff and Shiner went up the ladder to the bridge, and the Captain, -relieved of their presence, continued his work. - -It was worth watching. - -He was a true-born cable man, and they are as rare as good violinists. -Knowing the depth, and the length of rope out, and its weight in sea -water, and the weight of the grapnel, he could tell approximately what -was going on down below; he knew that he was lifting heavier stuff than -ordinary cable, and the weight could only come from coral incrustations -on it. He knew that the cable must be glued down here and there, and -that haste would mean a break. Sometimes he stopped the picking-gear -altogether and trusted to the rise and fall of the ship on the swell to -break the thing gently up from its attachments. And still the grapnel -rope came in, dripping and endless, till at last the grapnel itself -appeared with what seemed the bight of a sea serpent gripped in its -unholy claws. - -The thing was crusted here and there with coral, it is true, but it -was comparatively new and sound, and a genuine, straight-going cable -man would have shuddered at the sacrilege that was going on. Even the -Captain felt qualms. To cut this thing was like murder; it would mean a -dead loss of ten or fifteen thousand dollars to the company that owned -it. An expedition would have to be fitted out to repair it, and if bad -weather were to come on, it might be three months before the repairs -were effected. - -The Captain thought of all this even as he was ordering the stoppers -to be got ready and the sling for the man who would do the cutting. He -drowned remorse in the recollection that the injury would be done to a -company, not to an individual. He would not have injured an individual -of his own free will for worlds, but he did not mind much injuring a -company. A company was a many-headed beast, and, in his experience, it -always dealt hardly with its employés. - -The cable was high out of the water now, in the form of an inverted -V, with the grapnel at the apex. He ordered each limb of the bight -to be secured with a stopper, and then, unable to trust any one else -with the delicate business, he himself descended in a sling to do the -cutting. Shouting his directions to the fellows who were lowering him, -he came just level with the grapnel and began the business with a file. -Halfway through, he ordered the grapnel to be eased away, finished the -business, and left the two cable ends hanging by the stoppers. - -Then he came aboard, and the starboard end of the cable was hauled in. -It did not take long to connect it up with the electrical testing room, -where Shiner was already installed before the mirror galvanometer. - -The end they had hauled on board was the American end; the testing-room -door was shut, the blinds of the windows drawn, for a subdued light is -necessary to the proper working of the mirror galvanometer; and Shiner -and Wolff were left alone with the American continent to work their -dark schemes. - -Said Harman, as he paced the deck with the Captain: - -“I wonder what those two guys are doin’ now? Carryin’ out some of their -malpraxises, no doubt. I ain’t a particular man, but this thing’s -beginnin’ to get on my spine. It didn’t seem much at the start, just -foolin’ with a cable; but now it seems somehow a durned sight worse, -now that the thing’s cut. I tell you, Cap, it went to my heart to see -it cut. I couldn’t ’a’ felt worse if it’d squealed and blood run out -of it. I guess I wouldn’t have joined the expedition if I hadn’t been -tempted. I remember my old mother warning me that if sinners tempted -me, not to consent.” - -“Confound you and your warnings!” said the Captain. “Who tempted me? -You, and no one else. But I’m not the man to go back on you and talk -about warnings. We’re in for it, and there’s no going back, and we -can’t do anything but pray that a cruiser doesn’t heave in sight before -we get away.” - -“Amen to that!” said Harman. - -They continued pacing the deck in silence, till suddenly the -testing-room opened and Wolff appeared. - -The black-bearded Wolff was ghastly white. He had the look of a man who -had received a blow in the stomach. He held up a finger to the Captain, -who came toward him. - -“Come in here,” said Wolff. - -Shiner was off his stool and sitting on the couch that ran along the -port side of the room. His hands were in his hair, and the dot of -the mirror galvanometer was spilling from side to side of the scale -unnoticed. Disaster was in the air. - -“What’s up?” asked the Captain. - -“Up!” cried Shiner, coming out of his lair as one might fancy a -cockatrice coming out of its hole. “Everything is up! Our speculation -is done for! War has been declared.” - -“War been declared? What war?” - -“England and Germany and France,” replied Shiner. - -“How did you hear it?” - -“How did I hear it? Why, the first message I tapped was a Press -Association special to Sydney. They began cursing me for having -been held up for half an hour while we were cutting the cable. They -thought we were Sydney. They don’t know the cable is cut yet. They’re -still jabbering. Anyhow, there it is--war! And war spells ruin to the -business we were on.” - -“We must cut losses,” said Wolff, who was walking up and down. “The -expedition is off. We must get to a Chile port at once--Valparaiso for -choice.” - -“And my bonus?” said the Captain. - -“I guess you may whistle for your bonus,” said Shiner. “Can’t you see -we are bust--B-U-S-T?” - -“But we can do one thing,” said Wolff. “We can hit the cursed English; -we can haul in twenty, forty miles of the cable and cut. The thing is -cut, in any case; but a long break like that will make it the worse for -them; then Sydney will have one cable the less to talk to her mother -with. Yes, we can do that.” - -“Curse them!” said Shiner. “Yes, we can do that.” - -“So my bonus is gone?” said the Captain. “Well, may I ask one question -of you: Who’s fighting who? Is it France and England against Germany?” - -“It is Germany against France and England,” said Wolff. - -“And you are Germans, and this is a German-owned vessel?” - -“Precisely,” said Wolff. “You have touched the matter on the head.” - -The Captain ruminated. - -Then, said he: “Well, gentlemen, this is a serious matter for me. -I lose my bonus, and I lose my pay, I expect; for if you are as -badly broke as you say, when you land at Valparaiso or some southern -port--and you daren’t go back to Frisco--there’ll be precious few dibs -to go round unless you manage to sell the old _Penguin_, which isn’t -very likely in war time. Well, gentlemen, I’ve thought of a plan by -which I may get my bonus, and my pay, too; and if you’ll come down to -the saloon with me, I’ll show you it.” - -“Why not tell us here?” said Shiner. - -“I cannot explain it here. Come down, gentlemen. When all’s said and -done, it won’t take a minute, and there’s a lot of importance attaching -to what I have to explain to you. It’s worth a minute.” - -He left the testing-room, and they followed him to the saloon. He led -the way into his cabin, and they followed him like lambs. He asked them -to be seated on the couch opposite the bunk; then he took the key from -the inside of the door and inserted it in the lock on the outside. - -“What are you doing that for?” said Shiner. - -“I’ll show you in one minute,” replied the Captain. - -He stepped swiftly out into the saloon, banged the door to, and locked -it. - -It was Shiner who woke to the situation first, and it was Shiner’s -voice that came now as he clung to the handle of the door and -punctuated his remarks with kicks on the paneling. - -The Captain waited a moment till the other gave pause. Then he said: - -“There’s no use in kicking and squealing. You’re prisoners of war, -that’s how you stand. The ship’s mine now, a lawful prize. What’s that -you say? An Irishman? Of course I’m an Irishman. What’s that you say? -I’m a traitor to my country? B’gosh, if you say that again, I’ll open -the door and give you a taste of my quality. Say it again, will you! -Say it again, will you!” - -He shook the door handle at each invitation, but Shiner was dumb. He -evidently had no desire to taste the Captain’s quality. It was Wolff’s -voice that came instead, muted and murmurous: - -“Make terms, make terms; there is no use in arguing. Make terms!” - -“You won’t make any terms with me,” said the Captain, “but you’ll be -treated well and transhipped as quick as possible.” - -“But, see here, Captain!” came Shiner’s voice. - -The Captain did not hear him; he had left the saloon, and next moment -was on deck. He was a man of swift decision, and he had fixed in his -mind that the first thing to be done was to make the crew his own, and -the next to dump the cable and be gone. He could not mend it. They had -no skilled artificer on board. To mend it, he would have to bring both -ends on board and connect them. If you have ever examined a deep-sea -cable, with its water coat of wire, its inner coat of rubber, and its -core, you will quite understand the complexity of the task. - -It was impossible, and he recognized the fact as he walked forward. - -Harman was standing by the dynamometer, waiting for orders, and the -bos’n near Harman. The Captain ordered the bos’n to pipe the whole -crew on deck, and presently, like a kicked beehive, the fo’c’sle gave -up its contents, the stokers off duty appeared, and even MacBean -himself rose like a seal from the engine-room hatch. - -“Boys,” said the Captain, addressing the dingy crowd, “is there ever a -German among you?” - -Dead silence for a moment, as though the hands were consulting their -own hearts, and then a voice from back near the starboard alleyway: -“No, there ain’t no Germans here.” - -“Sam’s a Dutchman,” came another voice, and then the voice of Sam, -protesting: “You lie! I vas a New Yorker.” - -“Shut your mouths!” said Blood. “I’m an Englishman, or pretty near the -same thing, and I’m captain of this hooker, which is owned by a German -firm. In other words, it is owned by Mr. Wolff and Mr. Shiner, who are -Germans. Well, my lads, news has just come over that cable we have -picked up that war has been declared between England and Germany, so -I have taken possession of the ship in the name of England, d’ye see? -Which means that there’s lots of prize money for all of us if we can -bring her safe into an English port.” - -He waited for a moment after this announcement, but not a sound came -from the crowd in front of them. It was filtering down through the -thickness of their intelligences. It was an entirely new proposition -that he had laid before them, and required time to find a response. -They knew--God help them!--as little as he did of the horrible problems -of international and maritime law that the _Penguin_ was about to wind -round herself as the silkworm winds a cocoon; but they knew the meaning -of the word “money,” and it didn’t matter to them a rap whether it -was prize money or not, as long as it could be changed for whisky and -tobacco. - -A little, wiry Nova Scotian was the first to respond. - -“Go to it!” cried he. “Here’s to England and a pocketful of money!” -He flung up his cap, and the action touched the rest off. They -cheered--Anglo-Saxons, Celts, Latins, and Slavs--for such was their -mixture. All joined in the shout. - -MacBean alone, cautious and cool, made any question. - -“Are you sure,” said he, when the shouting had ceased, “are you sure -we’re in the right of this? I’m as willin’ as ony man to fight for -England, but I’m no so sure about our poseetion as regards the ship.” - -“Well, you will be soon,” said Blood. “This is my position: I’m not -only going to take the ship, but I’m going to take anything German -I come across on the high seas. Away back in the American Spanish -War, I put out in a mud dredger from the Florida coast and took a -mail steamer. We pretended we were a dynamite boat. There were seven -thousand dollars in gold coin on board her, and we took it. Never mind -where it went to----” A wild yell from the crowd. “We took it just as -we are going to take any German money we come across. A chance like -this doesn’t come in most lifetimes, and I’m not going to lose it.” -Applause. - -MacBean went back to his engine room. - -“May I ax, Captain,” said one of the fellows, “what’s to become of the -owners?” - -“Meaning Mr. Wolff and Mr. Shiner?” replied the Captain. “Why, they -are prisoners of war, and they will be treated as such without a hair -of their heads being touched. But we can’t keep them on board. We’ll -land them somewhere, or put them on a German ship, if we find one. Now, -then, look lively and get the cable away. Mr. Harman, get it aft from -the testing-room, and then cast loose the stoppers; dump both ends.” - -He went on the bridge while Harman cast the cable loose; then he rang -up the engines, and, giving the fellow at the wheel a sou’westerly -course to steer by, put the engine telegraph to full speed ahead. - -He wanted to get away from that spot in a hurry. He had not yet fixed -on any point to make for--north, south, east, or west did not matter -for the moment to him. He wanted to be somewhere else and to put as -many long leagues as possible between the _Penguin_ and the scene of -her crime. - -Harman presently joined him on the bridge. - -Said Harman: “Well, this is a rum joke, ain’t it, Captain? ’Pears to me -it’s the rummest joke ever I seen. We’ve took the ship, and we’ve took -the owners--and how about our bonuses and pay?” - -“We’ll have to take the bonuses out of the first Dutchman we can -lay hands on,” said the Captain. “We’ll never get a cent from Wolff -and Shiner. Their game is up. If I can lay alongside of a German -trader--and there are plenty in these waters--I’ll take all she’s got.” - -“And suppose they show fight?” said Harman. - -“Traders don’t fight--we have eight rifles--without ammunition, but -that doesn’t matter, for we’d only be spoofing. The sight of the rifles -is enough. Still, I wouldn’t mind fighting if we have to.” - -“I heard a chap yarning once,” said Harman. “It was at a meetin’ a -fellow give me a ticket for, and this chap was sayin’ there was no -use in war; he was sayin’ no one was any the better off for war, and -all suchlike. Well, it ’pears to me it’s a durned good thing, for -you can go and rob the chaps that’s against you, and it’s all on the -square. I’ve all my life been wantin’ to rob people open,” continued -Mr. Harman, “not poor people, you understand, for there wouldn’t be no -fun in that, and, besides, they have nothing worth takin’--but rich -folk. Them’s the chaps. My idea would be to be goin’ round Nob Hill -with a hand barrow and collecting jewelry, or callin’ at the Bank of -California with a cart and a shovel. I never expected in my life I’d -have a chance like this.” - -“It’s not all too rosy,” said the Captain. “I’m not clear what a German -cruiser could do to us if they found us skinning a German ship. I’ve -heard that privateering is going to be allowed in the next war--which -is this--but then we haven’t a letter of marque.” - -“What’s that?” - -“A license to rob. But, license or no license, we can’t pick and -choose. We have to make good. We’re done out of our bonuses and our -salary. D’ye think I’m going back to Frisco as poor as I left it, and -maybe poorer? For I’ll tell you one thing, Billy Harman: What we’ve -done to that cable is a penitentiary job to start with, and if it -tricks America any over this war, supposing she takes a hand in it, it -may mean a hanging job.” - -“I wish you’d not go on talkin’ like that,” said Harman. “What on -earth’s the use of going on talkin’ like that? Who’s to catch us?” - -“I don’t know,” replied the Captain. “The only one thing I do know is -the bedrock fact that our position couldn’t be worse than it is, and -that we may as well play for as big a figure as possible. Between you -and me, it’s just this--piracy pure and simple; that’s our game, under -shelter of the pretence that we’re English and doing all in our power -to help our native land; then if we are caught by an English ship with -our holds full of boodle and our scuppers full of gold all we have to -say is: ‘Please, sir, we have been fighting the Germans for the good of -our native land.’” - -“And suppose we are caught by a German ship?” - -“Then it will be all the worse for us; but come along into the chart -room, for I have an idea, and I want your opinion on it.” - -They left the bridge, and went into the chart room, where the Captain, -having closed the door, brought out a chart of the Pacific, placed it -on the table, and sat down before it. - -“Here we are,” said he, making a pencil mark on the spot. “And here,” -making another mark, “lies Christobal.” - -“Why, Christoval Island lies in the Solomons,” said Harman. “I’ve been -there.” - -“I said Christobal, not Christoval. This is a German island, and a -pretty rich one, too. I know it, and cause I have to know it, for a -chap there named Sprengel let me down badly once over a deal. I hope -he’s there still. It’s a rich island, lots of copra and trade. I’m -going there.” - -“And what are you going to do there?” asked Harman. - -“Well, you see,” said the Captain, “the place is only just a trading -station; it’s not armed; there are only half a dozen whites, and--I’m -going to take it.” - -“Take it?” - -“Hoist the Union Jack there, scoop all the boodle I can find, up -anchor, and bunk for Valparaiso. That’s my idea.” - -“Lord, that would be lovely!” said Harman. “But suppose they show any -sort of fight?” - -“Not they. We’ll rig up a dummy gun, and we can arm a landing party -with these blessed old rifles and cutlasses there. But the dummy guns -will do them. You see, they won’t know what to make of the cut of the -_Penguin_. They’ll never have seen a cable ship, most likely. We’ll -tell them we are a volunteer cruiser. Good name, that.” - -A knock came to the door, and the bos’n appeared. - -“Please, Captain,” said that individual, “them guys you’ve locked up in -the after cabin are tryin’ to beat the door down and threat’nin’ to -fire the ship.” - -“I’ll come and attend to them,” said the Captain grimly. But first he -went on the bridge and gave the helmsman the course for Christobal. - - - - -VI THE CREW’S SHARE OF THE SPOILS - - -Next day they sighted a bark. She was English, and, to make up for his -disappointment, the Captain had the pleasure of giving her news of war, -and scaring her nearly to death with the false news of German cruisers -in the vicinity. - -The latter trick was played out of spite, owing to her refusal to -relieve him of Wolff and Shiner--still in durance vile. - -He had brought the _Penguin_ to within megaphone distance of the -bark--her name was the _Anne Page_--and when he made his request the -answer came roaring back, quite definite: - -“I won’t take no German prisoners. I’m full up with pigs and copra; -there ain’t standin’ room scarcely as it is, and we’re short of water -and grub.” - -“I’ll supply you,” cried the _Penguin_. “Lower a boat and you’ll have -what you want.” - -The _Anne Page_ seemed to meditate a moment, and then again came the -response like that of a deaf man who has failed to catch the meaning of -what is said to him: - -“I won’t take no German prisoners. There ain’t no room for them. Why -don’t you keep ’em yourself--you’re big enough?” - -On that the Captain gave his news of the German cruisers, and the _Anne -Page_ picked up her skirts and scuttled. - -But next day they had better luck. They picked up a real German -schooner, captained by a real Simon-pure German skipper, and eight of -the scallawags of the _Penguin_ had their first exercise under arms. - -The _Penguin_ carried a whaleboat for beach work--Wolff had strongly -resented the purchase of this boat, but the Captain had stood firm--and -into it were bundled Wolff and Shiner, eight malefactors armed with -cutlasses and rifles, followed by Blood himself. - -The schooner--the _Spreewald_ was her name--would have escaped, but -there was only a five-knot breeze blowing, and the _Penguin_ could make -ten. There was also the threat of ramming. She let herself be boarded, -received the declaration of war, and then submitted to be robbed. - -The whole thing was shameful, and painfully like robbing a child of the -milk it is carrying home. She was but a little ship, and the booty was -trifling, some five hundred dollars, some barrels of Bismarck herrings, -a dozen boxes of cigars, and a gold watch and chain. That is what -Blood took from her. But she relieved him of the presence of Wolff and -Shiner, and he reckoned that equal to a lot of plunder. - -When they steered off they got five miles away before the _Spreewald_ -had fully recovered her senses from the outrage and pulled herself -together. Then they saw her spreading her canvas and altering her -course. - -“She was bound for one of the English islands, I expect,” said Blood, -“and now she’s nosing off for some German port of call. Well, I guess -this is the first blood the English have drawn in these seas. I deserve -a bonus on that.” - -The money he had in his pocket, also the gold watch and chain; the -Bismarck herrings had gone to the lazaret, and the cigars to the saloon. - -He was turning with Harman to go down and enjoy one when a little man -with a red head came aft, touching his cap. - -“Please, sir,” said this individual, “I was sent by the crew to ax what -their share in the liftin’ is to be.” - -“Oh, you were, were you?” said the Captain. “And a very natural -question, too. I’ll go forward and have a talk with them.” - -He found the men clustered round the picking-up gear. - -“You sent to ask me what your share in the findings would be,” said -he, “so I thought I’d come and tell you by word of mouth. To begin -with, what do you think yourselves on board of--a pirate? You’ll just -understand one thing: this ship is acting on the square; it’s under -command of a Britisher--that’s me--and whatever we take rightfully -belongs to the British government. But I can promise you this: Your -money you signed on for will be paid when we reach Valparaiso, -one-third of all pickings will be divided among you, leaving two-thirds -for Mr. Harman and me; and, after we coal at Valparaiso, I intend -taking the hooker down to a port I know of and selling her. Half the -money she brings will be divided among her crew, the other half between -Mr. Harman and me.” - -“And the British government?” asked the bos’n. - -“I’ll settle with the British government,” replied the Captain, with a -wink. - -A roar of laughter went up. - -The idea of doing the Germans and the British government at the same -time appealed so much to these gentlemen that they forgot to consider -over the terms for the division of the spoil or dispute them. - -“And may I ax are we heading for Valparaiso now?” asked the red-headed -man. - -“No, we are not; we are heading for a little German island named -Christobal.” - -“And what are we goin’ to do there?” asked another of the crowd. - -“We are going to collect all the money we can find for the British -government.” - -Another howl of laughter. - -“And suppose, when we’re landed at this here island, a German ship -comes along and asks us what we are doing?” spoke up a grumbler. -“What’ll us say to that?” - -“Why, we’ll say we’re picking mushrooms,” replied the Captain. “Any -more inquiries? Well, then, you can get to work. See here! I want -half a dozen chaps to help me rig up a dummy gun on the bow balks. A -stovepipe is good, but we haven’t got one, so we must just use a big -spar sawed down. There’s a spare yard will do. I’ll go and speak to Mr. -Harman about it.” - -He turned off, and in the alleyway he met MacBean looking more serious -and like a Scotch terrier than ever--an Aberdeen. He had been -listening to every word. - -“Mon, mon,” said MacBean, “this is an awfu’ business. Fiddlin’ with the -cable was bad, but this is shoockin’, rank piracy, call it what names -you will, and that I did not sign for.” - -“What made you sign on at all?” cried the Captain, flashing out. - -“Drink,” replied Mac. “The same that made Harman and half the crew -sign on. Mon, this is an unholy ship, a drunk ship that has to keep -sober, goin’ about the ocean with hell in her heart; cable smashin’ and -pirating under the cover of a devastating war--and sober all the time.” - -“Jolly good job for you all you have to keep sober.” - -“I was not thinkin’ of the goodness or the badness of the job,” said -Mac. “It’s the heepocrisy gets me.” - -“Well, if the Germans don’t get you as well you’ll be lucky,” replied -the other, going aft. - -He found Harman in the saloon sampling the cigars, and he gave him a -sketch of what he had done and said to the crew. - -“A lick of grey paint and an artificial bore, which you can burn out -with a hot iron, and you can’t tell a spar end from the nose of a -four-inch gun,” said he in conclusion. - -“From the shore?” said Harman. - -“Just so,” replied the Captain. “You didn’t fancy I was going to invite -the blighters aboard to inspect our armaments, did you?” - - - - -VII CHRISTOBAL - - -Christobal Island lay two days’ steaming away. It was a tiny place set -all alone in the wastes of the sea. - -There was only one trading station there, and it was run by a German -on behalf of a German firm. This person’s name was Sprengel, and, to -use the words that Blood applied to him some years before the date of -this story, he had everything of the Red Indian about him except the -gentleman. - -Sprengel was a Prussian, close-clipped, clever, hard, and persistent -as the east wind that blows over East Prussia in the spring. He had -managed to keep other traders away from Christobal Island. Trade was -his god; he had one ideal only--money, and, with the Teutonic passion -for alien slang, he declared that in Christobal he was the only pebble -on the beach. - -The place, though German, was free to all men, absolutely free, yet -Sprengel kept it absolutely German. No one could compete with him. -Other traders had tried, but their business had wilted; antagonistic -influences had worked mysteriously against them. - -Blood had brought a cargo of trade here once for a friend. The friend, -Samson by name, had put his all into a little schooner and a cargo of -all sorts of “notions”--canned salmon, gin, tobacco, prints, knives, -et cetera. He had taken Blood along as skipper. Bad luck had followed -them to several islands, and here at Christobal had finished them. -Blood rightly had put down their failure to Sprengel, and the glorious -idea of getting even with Sprengel now haunted him so that he could not -sleep. - -His one dread was that Sprengel, having made his pile, might have gone -back to Bromberg to enjoy it. - -They had finished the “gun” next day, and mounted it on the bow, with -a tarpaulin over the breech as if to protect it from the weather, when -the Captain, who had been superintending the operations, coming aft, -discovered Harman emerging from the saloon companionway in a high state -of excitement. - -“I’ve found it,” said Harman. “I knew it was there. I guessed the swine -couldn’t have finished the lot, so I set up a hunt for it. Come you -down and see.” - -The Captain followed him below, and there, on the saloon table, he saw -standing three bottles of Pilsener. - -“Where did you get those?” said he. - -“Get them! I got them out of the locker in Wolff’s cabin; hid away -they were behind some old newspapers. I guessed the pair of those -chaps hadn’t finished all the lush, and I hunted and hunted--first -in Shiner’s locker, then under the mattress in his lower bunk. I -looked into Wolff’s locker twiced, and saw nothin’ but newspapers, and -still I kep’ on. I reckon I must have smelled the stuff to make me so -persistent. Anyhow, I lit on the idea that the stuff might be hid -behind the newspapers, and I went again, and there they were.” - -“Fetch some glasses,” said the Captain. - -Harman darted off, and returned with two glasses and a corkscrew. - -The Captain took the corkscrew, placed a bottle between his knees, and -was on the point of inserting the screw into the cork, when he paused, -stood up, and replaced the bottle and corkscrew on the table. - -“What’s the matter now?” asked Harman. - -“An idea has struck me,” replied the Captain. - -“What’s your idea?” - -“We mustn’t drink this stuff.” - -“Not drink it!” cried the outraged Harman. “And what on earth do you -want it for if we ain’t to drink it?” - -“Bait,” replied the other. - -“Bait?” - -“To catch Sprengel with. This is Lion brew Pilsener, and it’s a hundred -to one, if he’s still on the island, he hasn’t any of this stuff with -him. There’s no German born could withstand the temptation. It beats -sausages.” - -“Well,” said Harman, flying out like a child, “if I’d known you was -going to collar the stuff like that I’d have drunk it before I called -you. It ain’t fair. Here am I with my tongue hangin’ down to my heels -for a drink, and there’s the stuff and the glasses and all. I’m not -given to complain, but it’s too much. I’m speakin’ my mind now. It’s -too much!” - -“Can’t you understand that with this stuff I may be able to get the -blighter on board,” said the Captain, “and if I once get him on board -and down to this saloon the whole of the rest of the thing will be -easy. If we try to rush the place with him on shore there may be blood -spilled. With him a prisoner here there won’t be any resistance. - -“I’ll take him those three bottles as a present, and then invite him on -board with the promise of a case of it--d’ye see?” - -“I’ll tell you what,” said Harman. “I’ll split the difference with you. -Take him two bottles as a present, and we’ll drink the other.” - -The Captain considered on this a moment, and then, fearing mutiny as -well as having a thirst, he gave in. - -It was his first drink for a long time, and it was excellent beer; the -only drawback was the quantity. - -“What I can’t see,” said Harman, finishing his portion of the liquid, -“is what in the nation you want treatin’ the perisher to two bottles -of this stuff; two bottles is too little to take ashore with you as -a present, and it’s one too many if you’re just going to offer him a -drink after he’s caught.” - -The Captain joined issue, and the argument went on till thirst joined -with Harman, and the Captain gave in. The second bottle was opened. - -And now a strange thing happened. No sooner had the contents of the -second bottle vanished than the Captain himself prepared to finish the -business. - -It was the Irishman coming out. - -“There’s no use in one bottle,” said he, “and, for the matter of that, -I can get him aboard on the promise of beer. How’s he to know there is -none?” - -Harman actually protested--feebly enough, it is true--yet he protested, -holding out his glass at the same time. There was a Scotch strain in -Harman. - -When they had finished, they filled the bottles with water and recorked -them. - -“They’re just as good like that,” said the Captain, “for Sprengel.” - - - - -VIII SPRENGEL - - -At seven o’clock next morning Christobal showed up on the far horizon, -and by ten o’clock the _Penguin_ was heading for the anchorage, with -the Captain on the bridge and Harman beside him. - -It was a lovely island. - -A broken reef protected the beach from the full force of the sea, and -the cliffs showed green with foliage and flecked at one point by the -eternal smoke of a torrent. Beyond the beach a white frame house with -a veranda showed, and on either side native houses nestled among the -cocoanut trees and breadfruits. The faint wind blowing from landward -brought the perfume of vanilla and flowers, coloured birds flew in the -blue sky above the trees, while the tune of the blue sea beating on -the reef came like the song of sleep and summer. - -A sulphur-tinted butterfly flittered across the water on the wind, as -if to inspect the ship, and flittered away again. On the beach could be -seen several natives standing and watching their approach, motionless -and seemingly incurious. - -“It’s all deep water through the break and beyond,” said the Captain. -“We don’t want any pilot.” - -“There’s a chap come out on the veranda of the house,” said Harman. - -The Captain picked up the glass he had been using, and turned it on the -figure in the veranda. - -“That’s him,” said he. “That’s the chap right enough. Take a look.” - -Harman put the glass to his eye, and the veranda and the man leaped -within ten feet of him. - -The man was short, stout, bull-necked, bullet-headed, wearing a close, -clipped beard and with his hair cut to the bone. - -“He ain’t a beauty,” said Harman. “Look, he’s going into the house, and -here he comes out again.” - -Sprengel had brought out a pair of marine glasses and was observing the -ship through them. - -“Wonder if he recognises me,” said the Captain. - -Then he stood silent, whistling now and then, and now and then giving -an order to the fellow at the wheel. - -One of the hands was heaving the lead; his hard, thin voice came up to -the bridge in a snarl: - -“Mark four! Mark four! Quarter less four!” - -The Captain rang the engines to half speed, then to dead slow. The -_Penguin_ passed the opening in the reef. The water she rode on was -like blue satin billowed under by wind; then, in the glassy smooth -beyond, Harman, who was forward attending to the anchor, glancing over -the side, saw the coral floor beneath them clearly as though he were -looking at it through air. - -The Captain rang the engines off, the wheel flew to starboard, and the -rumble-tumble of the anchor chain through the hawse pipe came back in -moist echoes from the woods and cliffs. - -Then, the ship safely berthed, the Captain had time to turn his -attention to the shore. - -Sprengel had vanished into the house, and the few natives on the shore -were still standing about in attitudes of indifference. One had taken -his seat on the sand, and though there were several canoes on the beach -there was no evidence of any thought of launching them. - -“It’s a good job we scoffed that Pilsener,” said Harman, who had come -up on the bridge. “It wouldn’t have been no use for this chap. You -won’t get this chap on board without a windlass and a derrick. No, sir! -He’s one of the retirin’ kind. He won’t trade, and he won’t be civil. I -reckon you’d better get that spar gun trained on the beach and some of -our chaps ready for a landin’ with the rifles, scoop all the money and -valuables we can find, and cut stick.” - -“I’ve been thinking so myself,” said the Captain. “There’s no use -wasting time enticing this chap on board. Train the gun and get the -landing party ready with rifles and cutlasses.” - -He came down from the bridge, and went aft to his cabin to put on his -best coat. When he came up again the whaleboat was lowered and the -landing party getting into her. - -They certainly were a most terrific-looking lot, and when the boat’s -nose touched the sand and they scrambled out and lined up under -the direction of Harman, the natives looking on lost their look of -indifference, turned, and bolted for the woods. - -“They don’t like the look of us,” said the Captain. “Now then, you -chaps, no chasing them. You follow after me, and do what Mr. Harman -bids you. Let one man of you disobey orders and he’ll have to settle -with me.” - -He produced a navy revolver from his pocket. It was the only -serviceable weapon of the expedition, barring the cutlasses; they knew -it, and they knew him, and they followed like lambs as he walked toward -the house on whose veranda Sprengel had reappeared. - -Ten yards away he ordered the others to halt, and advanced alone, -putting the revolver back in his pocket. - -Sprengel was in pajamas, and he had been perspiring with the heat; he -was also in a bad temper and a bit frightened, all of which conditions -did not add to the beauty of his appearance. - -“Mr. Sprengel, I believe,” said the Captain, opening the business. - -“That is my name,” replied the other. “And who are you, may I ask, and -what is your ship doing here and these men?” - -“We will go into the house and talk,” said the Captain, “if you will -kindly lead the way. I am the Captain of a British auxiliary cruiser -come to have a few words with you.” - -He followed on the heels of Sprengel, who evidently had not recognised -him in the least, into a large, airy room floored with native matting -and furnished with American rockers, a bamboo couch, a table, and -island headdresses and spears for wall decorations. - -“You did not recognise me outside,” said the Captain. “Perhaps because -I had my hat on. Do you not recognise me now?” - -“Not from Adam,” replied Sprengel in a violent tone. “I only know that -you have landed on my beach with armed men and that you had but till -just now a pistol in your hand. Also, I recognise that your ship has a -gun trained on my house. Are you aware that this is a German island?” - -“That’s just the point, my dear man,” said the Captain, taking a seat -unasked. “Are you aware that England is at war with Germany?” - -“Eh, what!” said Sprengel, turning more fully on the other. “What you -say? England at war with Germany!” - -“England at war with Germany. Yes. That is what I said, and I have come -to take your island in the name of the British government.” - -Sprengel sat down in a chair and mopped himself. Sprengel had been -practically monarch of Christobal for a long time. - -And now the English had come. - -It was an eventuality he had always feared, always reckoned with. He -knew that war was in the air. He also knew international law, and he -was not so much put out as might have been expected. - -Indeed, he was frankly impudent. - -“Well, I did not make the war,” said he. “I am an honest trader -going about my business. If Christobal is English--well, it cannot -be helped--till we take it back from England. I claim the rights of -international law. My property is sacred.” - -“International law, what is that?” asked Blood. - -“Something you would not understand, but which your peddling government -fears _and_ respects. Something which they would like to put to one -side, _but_ which they cannot.” - -“Oh, can’t they? Do you mean to imply that your property can’t be -touched because of international law?” - -“Ab-so-_lu_tely.” - -“We’ll soon see about that,” said Blood, “for I’ve come to take -away every rag you’ve got and every penny. I’ll leave you, for you -ain’t very good, and you can keep the house and the good will of the -business, but I want your money.” - -He stood up. - -So did Sprengel. Say what we may about the Prussians, they are -certainly plucky enough. - -Threatened with spoliation, all the latent fury of the man flamed out -and centred on Blood. He stood for a moment visibly swelling; then he -charged. - -Had that charge gone home it would have been the worse for the -Captain. Instead of meeting it, however, he stepped aside; Sprengel -met the wall, nearly bringing the house down, and Harman, who had been -listening on the veranda, rushed in. - -He had brought some signal halyard line with an eye for eventualities, -and they bound the enemy without much trouble. - -“Listen to him!” said Harman. “Listen to him chatterin’ about outrages -to noncombatants. What are ye yourself but an outrage, you fat -Proosian! Capt’in, lend me your wipe.” - -The Captain handed over his handkerchief, and Harman, with suspicious -dexterity, rolled it into a gag. “That’ll stop your tongue,” said he. -“And now for the plunder.” - -They found the safe where the unfortunate Sprengel kept his money. -There were five thousand dollars there in silver and American gold -coin, and a bank book showing a huge balance at a Berlin bank. Also -securities for large amounts. They respected these, as they were -useless, and took only the coin. - -Then they went over the house and grounds adjoining, and the total loot -tabulated roughly ran to: - -The amount of coin already specified. - -Five thousand cigars. - -A suit of new pajamas and a safety razor in case. - -A case of Florida water, six bottles of eau de Cologne, all the native -headdresses adorning the sitting room. - -A live parrot in a cage, half a dozen chickens, and half a boatload of -vegetables. - -It was not much, but it was all that they could lay hands on. Harman -wanted to include a native girl who had come out from among the trees -with a basket of fruit on her head, not knowing what was going on, but -the Captain vetoed him. He only took the fruit. - -Then they pushed off, having first ungagged their victim, unbound him, -and locked him in the house. - -“And the funny thing is,” said the Captain when they had gained the -deck and the boat was being winched on board, “he never remembered me, -and he doesn’t know yet who I am.” - -“Why didn’t you tell him?” said Harman. - -“I thought of it, and then I held my tongue. There might be a chance of -him making mischief when the war is over if he knew my name.” - -“But how in the nation could he make mischief?” said the simple-minded -Harman. “Germany bust or England bust, it’s all the same. What you done -was in war time, and so doesn’t count.” - -“I’m not so sure of that,” said the Captain. “I am not at all too -sure of that. All that blab of Sprengel’s about the property of -nonbelligerents may have something in it. I’m not sure that it mayn’t. -It seems to me I’ve heard something about it before. Blast all -nonbelligerents; there’s always some thorn in the rose. - -“Then, leaving the question of nonbelligerents aside, we have to think -of our own position. We haven’t a letter of marque, we have no more -right to go hoofing about the seas gobbling German property than you -have to go down Broadway lifting folk’s watches.” - -“Well, what right have we to anything at all?” cut in the exasperated -Harman. “Accordin’ to you, we haven’t the right to breathe nor live.” - -“Well, it’s this way,” said Blood. “We have a perfect right to breathe -and live as long as we can keep our necks out of the noose.” - -“D’ye mean to say they’d hang us?” - -“It’s highly probable. The Germans would, anyhow.” - -Harman had been attending to the unloading of the boat all through this -talk. He now went and spat over the side, and then came back to his -companion. - -“That’s cheerful,” said he. - -“They might give you the choice of shooting instead of hanging,” -went on the Captain. “For myself, I prefer hanging, I think, if it’s -properly done.” - -“Oh, Lord, no!” said Harman. “I’ve seen three fellows hanged, and I’ve -swore I would never get hanged if I could help it. Give me shootin’, -but shootin’ or hangin’ there’s one thing fixed.” - -“And what’s that?” - -“We’ve got the boodle. I ain’t one of your clever chaps, and I’ve no -education to speak of, but I’ve noticed in life that the chaps who get -on are the chaps who get a thing fixed and stand on it, same as a chap -stands on a scaffolding and builds from it, same as a chap builds a -house and doesn’t care a durn for the future. - -“Now we’ve got the boodle fixed,” Mr. Harman went on, “there’s no use -in bothering whether we’re to be shot or die natural in our bunks. -We’ve gone a certain distance, and what I says is, now we’ve gone so -far let’s go the whole hog. Let’s rob every one we can lay hands on. -That’s my idea.” - -“Germans, you mean?” - -“I ain’t particular about Germans,” said Mr. Harman. “Anything with -money to it is good enough for me, but if it eases your mind we’ll call -’em Germans.” - -The Captain whistled for a moment over this broad plan. Then he went to -superintend the fellows who were making ready to get the anchor in. - -There were no capstan bars on board the _Penguin_; a steam winch did -the business. He gave the signal for steam to be turned on, and then -went up on the bridge. - -The rattle and rasp of the winch pawls and the links of the anchor -chain as it was hauled through the hawse pipe roused echoes from the -shore. The gulls fishing on the little harbour made by the protecting -reef rose, clamouring and beating their wings, and, as though the sound -of the anchor chain had managed to free Sprengel, he appeared, having -managed to work his way out of a window. - -He came running down to the beach, shaking his fist and shouting till -the Captain, more for the fun of the thing than any other reason, -picked up a rifle and aimed it at him. - -Then he turned and vanished into the woods. - -The slack of the anchor chain was now in, and now the anchor itself -left the water and was hoisted, dripping, to the catheads. The Captain -rang on the engines, and the _Penguin_ began to back out. She could -have turned, but it was easier to back her out, especially as the sea -was so smooth. - -Outside the reef, as she slued round, she let go her siren. - -Three times its echoes returned from the moist-throated woods and -cliffs; then, full speed ahead, she went toward the east. - - - - -IX THE “MINERVA” - - -Next morning early, Harman, standing on the bridge by the Captain, -pointed to a smudge on the eastern horizon. The smoke of a steamer. - -The Captain glanced at the spot indicated, shading his eyes with his -hand; then he took the glass from its sling. - -“I can’t make her clearly out,” said he. “The wind is covering her with -her own smoke.” - -“She’s maybe the mail boat that runs to Samoa,” said Harman, “or maybe -she’s just a tramp. What are you goin’ to do?” - -“How d’you mean?” - -“Well, I mean just that. Are we goin’ to let her slip through our -hands?” - -“Harman,” said the Captain, “when I signed on for this cruise I knew -I was going in for a shady job; still, there didn’t seem much to it, -anyway. I knew Shiner was going to tinker up a cable, and I judged he -was clever enough to pull the business through safely and give us all a -big profit. Well, that scheme is all gone, and now I’m a bloody pirate, -it seems. The war with Germany started me on the road, and there’s -no use in crying out and saying, or pretending, we’re privateers. We -aren’t; we’re pirates. That’s the long and the short of it. We aren’t -making war on Germany; we are just collecting dibbs for ourselves. I’m -not proud of it, not by a long way; but we’re in for it now and may as -well make the most of it. You ask me what I am going to do with this -vessel? Well, I’m going to go through her.” - -“Good!” said Harman. “I’m not one for runnin’ extra risks, but we’ve -risked so much already it’s a pity not to risk a bit more when we have -the chance. For it’s not once in a lifetime a chance comes to sailormen -like this.” - -“I don’t suppose it is,” said Blood. “It’s not every day that -chaps like Shiner and Wolff fit out a cable-cutting party and get -information of war right first thing through the cut cable. Ah, the -smoke’s clearing and her hull’s coming out; let’s see what she’s like.” - -He put the glass to his eye and examined the distant ship; then as he -looked he began to whistle. - -“Well,” said he, taking the glass from his eye, “I reckon we won’t go -through her--she’s a man-o’-war.” - -“Whatcha say!” cried Harman, seizing the glass. He looked. Then he said: - -“I reckon you’re right; she’s a fightin’ ship sure enough. I guess -we’ll let her go this time, our armaments bein’ so unequal; she’s -headin’ right for us, and if you ask for my advice I’d advise a shift -of helm.” - -“Yes,” said Blood, “and don’t you know that the first thing she’d do if -we shifted our helm without a reason would be to come smelling round -us? Don’t you know that a man-o’-war has no business to do at all but -to look after other folk’s businesses? She’s not due to time anywhere; -she’s got no cargo to deliver, no owners to grumble at her if she’s -a day late. No, her business is to keep her eye out on the watch for -shady people like you and me, and of course for the enemy if it’s war -time. No, I reckon we’ll keep straight on, but there’s one thing we’ll -do, and that is dismantle the spar gun. I reckon a dummy gun would be a -difficult thing to explain away, and that, backed by the faces of our -chaps and the fact that we haven’t a yard of cable in our tanks and no -log except the one I faked up and forgot to keep to date more’n a week -ago. Might get us into very serious trouble.” - -“Is she a Britisher, do you think?” asked Harman, still ogling the -approaching vessel through the glass. - -“We’ll soon see,” replied the Captain. - -He came down from the bridge, and hustled the fellows round, making -them remove the dummy gun and place it down below on the cable deck. - -Then he came back on to the bridge. - -The stranger had ceased firing up, and had cleared herself of -smoke. She was a cruiser right enough, one of the modern, swift, -small-tonnage cruisers that can yet sink you with a broadside or -cripple you most effectually with a bow chaser and from the distance of -four miles. - -Blood laughed as he looked at her. - -“I expect she can do her twenty-five knots,” said he. “Piracy! -Who could do anything with piracy these days between wireless and -things like that. Harman, I guess I’m sick of this business and the -uncertainty of it. I guess if this chap passes us and leaves us alone -I’ll make tracks for home--which means Frisco. We can get rid of the -_Penguin_ somehow or ’nother and crawl up home through Central America. -Crawl up home, those are my sentiments now, for I’ve got a feeling down -my spine that this chap is going to stop and speak to us.” - -“Why should she do that?” said Harman. “Wish you wouldn’t be _drawin’_ -bad luck by prophesying it. Why in the nation should she stop a -harmless cable ship?” - -“Well, if she’s a German she’d stop us to see if we are English, and -then sink us, and if she’s a Britisher she’d stop us to see if we were -German. I wouldn’t mind in either case only for the _Spreewald_ and -Christobal Island _and_ Wolff and Shiner. If the Germans were to take -us, and Wolff and Shiner were to get news of our capture they’d make -things pretty warm for us.” - -“Let’s hope she’s a Britisher,” said Harman. - -A mile off the stranger, who had obviously slackened speed, ported her -helm slightly to give the _Penguin_ a view of what she was saying. - -She was saying, in the language of coloured flags: - -“Lay to till I board you----” - -“She doesn’t ask to be invited,” said Blood. “Run up the Stars and -Stripes--thank God she’s English!--but then we’re German; at least -we’re owned by Wolff and Shiner, and _they’re_ German as sausages. Of -course, they may have become naturalised Americans, but a British ship -is not likely to go into the family history of Shiner or Wolff. Down -with you, Harman, anyway, and get the ship’s papers together and have -a box of cigars on the table for the chap that is sure to come aboard. -And mind, you know nothing; pretend to be a bit silly, though that -doesn’t need much pretence. Keep your mouth closed and refer everything -to me. I guess this situation will require some fancy work in the way -of lying.” - -“I’ll be mum,” said Harman. - -He slid down the bridge steps, and scuttered along the deck to the -saloon companionway, while Blood, alone in his glory on the bridge, and -trying to assume the dignity that he did not feel, gave his orders to -the crew. - -He rang the engines to half speed, and then to dead slow; then he rang -them off, and the _Penguin_, whose heart had stopped beating, one -might have fancied through fright, lay moving slightly to the swell -and waiting for the attentions of the _Minerva_, for that was the -stranger’s name. - -She formed a pretty picture across the blue water despite her ugly -colouring and her singular lines. One knows it to be bad taste to -praise enthusiastically the new engines of warfare on land or sea. All -the same, a twenty-five-knot cruiser, with her teeth showing, gives one -a picture of power and speed combined hard to beat in the present, and -perfectly unbeaten by the past. - -Blood was not thinking things like this. He was taking the measure of -the six-inch guns that seemed straining their long necks to get at -him; also of the little guns that showed their fangs at all sorts of -loopholes and unexpected places. He had never been so close up to the -business side of a warship in all his sea experience, and he noticed -everything with the freshness and the vividness and the deep, deep -interest that objects assume for us when they suddenly become bound up -with our most vital interests and our lives. - -I can fancy Charles the First quite disregarding Bishop Juxon, the -crowd, and all the great considerations that must have crowded about -the scaffold erected in Whitehall; disregarding all these while he -fixed his eyes on the axe with its handle of good English beachwood -and its blade of British iron. That axe spoke to him if anything ever -spoke to him, and it said, in words as well as deed: I am the symbol of -the British people. - -To Blood the _Minerva_ was saying the same thing. - -Blood was a Nationalist--when he had any politics at all--and -maintained a sentimental dislike for Britannia. He really did not -dislike her, but he fancied he did. In reality, he admired her. He -admired her as a lady whom, to use his own language, you may belt about -the head as much as you like, but who is sure to give you the knock-out -blow in the long, long end. - -The _Minerva_ was one of the things she hit people with, and the weapon -impressed him. The incongruity of the fact that he had been robbing -Germans in the name of England did not strike him at all. - -There are all sorts of subtleties in the Irish character that no -foreigner, be he Englishman or German or Frenchman or Scot or Welshman, -can understand. - -Blood, then, though he had been out of Ireland long enough to lose his -brogue almost entirely, though England had “betrayed his country in the -past,” and had never done much for him in the present would, had he -seen an English and a German ship in action, have joined in on the side -of England. He had often abused England, yet at a pinch he would have -fought for her. - -That is the Irish attitude, and it is unalterable. Ireland is, as a -matter of fact, bound to England in wedlock. John Bull married her -forcibly a great many years ago, and treated her cruelly bad after the -marriage. She is always flinging the fact at his head, and she will -go on doing so till doomsday, but she is his wife, and no matter what -she says she is always ready, at a pinch, to go for any stranger that -interferes with him. - -When Blood declared war against the Germans he did so in all good faith -as an ally of England. Cold reflection, however, told him that England -would certainly not recognise that alliance, nor would she recognise -the _Penguin_ as one of her fighting ships, official or unofficial, -that with her peculiar ideas as to the rights of belligerents and -nonbelligerents she might be as bad a party to be captured by as -Germany. - -He knew quite well now that between the _Spreewald_ affair and the -Sprengel business, to say nothing of the original cable-cutting -adventure, he would have an exceedingly bad time were this cruiser to -clap the shackles on him. - -He watched her now as she dropped a boat; then he leaned over and -shouted to Harman, who had come on deck again, to have the companionway -lowered. - -Then, as the boat came alongside, he came down from the bridge to meet -his fate. - -A young, fresh-looking individual came up the steps--a full lieutenant -by his stripes--saluted the quarter-deck in a perfunctory manner, -recognised Blood at once as the skipper, and addressed him without -ceremony. - -“What’s the name of your ship?” asked the lieutenant. - -“The _Penguin_,” replied Blood. - -“The deuce it is! Are you sure it’s not the _Sea Horse_?” - -“The which horse?” inquired Blood, whose temper was beginning to rise. - -It was his first experience of British navy ways with merchantmen, ways -which are usually decided and heralded by language which is usually -abrupt. - -“_Sea Horse_--_Sea Horse_--ah!” His eye had fallen on a life buoy -stamped with the word “Penguin.” “You _are_ the _Penguin_. You -will excuse me, but we were looking after something like you--a -fifteen-hundred-ton grey-painted boat. The _Sea Horse_. Tramp steamer -gone off her head and turned pirate, looted a German vessel under -pretence that war had broken out between England and Germany.” - -“Well, it wasn’t us,” laughed the Captain. “Couldn’t you see we were a -cable ship by the gear on deck?” - -“Yes, but the message came to us by wireless with bare details. What -was your last port?” - -“Christobal Island, quite close here--we have only left it a few hours, -and by the same token there was news there that war had broken out -between Germany and England.” - -“How did they get it?” - -“Well, the fellow there--Sprengel is his name--has a wireless -installation, and he picked up a message some days ago.” - -“He picked up a lie. It has been all over the Pacific, seems to me. -There’s been a sort of dust-up over a place called Agadir, but there’s -no small chance of war, worse luck. The business has been settled. We -had the news only yesterday.” - -No news could have been more dumfounding to the unfortunate Blood than -this. The cable message that had so upset Shiner and Wolff had been -some lying news-agency rumour. On the strength of it he had done all he -had done. More than that was the mystery of the _Sea Horse_. What on -earth did it mean? Had another ship gone pirating on the same rumour? - -He managed, however, to keep a cheerful countenance and even to speak. - -“Well,” said he, “I’m right glad to hear that. War may be all right for -you, but it’s no good to our business.” - -“No, I don’t suppose it is,” said the lieutenant. “Well, I suppose you -are all right, but just as a matter of form I’ll have a glance at your -log.” - -“Of course,” said Blood, with death in his heart. “If you’ll come down -to the saloon I’ll have the greatest pleasure in showing it to you.” - -The lieutenant followed him below. - -Harman had put out the log and the cigar box on the saloon table. The -lieutenant refused a cigar, but showed interest at the sight of the -log. He sat down and opened it. - -“Why, good heavens,” said he, “you haven’t been writing it up for days -and weeks! Where’s your first officer’s log?” - -“Harman doesn’t keep one,” said Blood, whose anger was beginning to -rise against the situation and his visitor. - -“Who’s Harman?” inquired the other, his eyes running over the entries. - -“My first officer.” - -“Oh, doesn’t he? H’m--h’m! Most extraordinary--what’s this? ‘Reached -the Spot.’ What spot?” - -“The spot on the cable we were due to work on.” - -“What cable?” - -“You must ask the owners that. It’s private business.” - -“Who are the owners?” - -“Shiner & Wolff.” - -“Where are they?” - -Blood did not know where the precious pair might be at that moment, but -he answered: - -“Frisco.” - -“Are they a cable company or simple cable repairers?” - -“Repairers, I think.” - -“Where are the rest of the ship’s papers?” - -Blood tramped off to his cabin, and returned with a bundle of all sorts -of documents. - -“Well,” said the lieutenant, “I can’t go through them now. I must get -back and report. I’ll take these with me for reference.” He bundled log -and papers together and put them under his arm. - -“Look here!” said Blood. “Are you taking those off the ship?” - -“Only for reference,” replied the other. “They will be quite safe, and -you can have them back when I have reported.” - -“Very well,” said Blood. - -“And now I’d just like to have a look round. Follow me, please.” - -This was a new departure. A command. Blood followed, sick at heart, but -cigar still in mouth. - -The lieutenant evidently knew all about cable ships. - -He stopped at the after-cable tank. - -“Cable tank--how much have you on board?” - -“Not an inch,” replied Blood. - -“H’m! But you want some spare cable for mending purposes.” - -“We used it all.” - -The officer passed on through the square where the forward cable tank -was situated, then down to the cable deck. - -Here the first thing he spotted was the infernal spar gun. - -He smelled round it, and inquired its use. - -“I don’t know,” said Blood. “It was on the ship when I joined--some -truck left over from the last voyage, I believe.” - -This suddenly recalled the inquisitor to something he had -forgotten--Blood’s Board of Trade certificates. - -Blood produced them, having to go back to his own cabin for them. They -told their tale of long unemployment. - -The lieutenant was a gentleman, and having glanced them over returned -them without comment. Then he left the ship with the log and the papers -under his arm, and was rowed back to the _Minerva_. - -“What’s up?” asked Harman. - -“We are,” said Blood. “There’s no war; the whole thing was a lying -rumour those two guys sucked in over the cable. There was a good -chance of war, but it was patched up, and it’s now peace, perfect -peace, with us perched on top of it like a pair of blame fools.” He -told the whole tale that we know. Then suddenly light broke upon him. - -“The _Sea Horse_,” said he. “I see the whole thing now--when we fired -those two blighters off the ship and shoved them on the _Spreewald_ -it was their interest not to give the show away. We were nose on to -the _Spreewald_, so she couldn’t see our name. Shiner and Wolff would -be the last men to give their own names, considering what they’d been -doing and the latitude they were found in. They’d be sure to pose as -innocents taken off some other ship by us. They’d fake up a yarn, and -they’d fake up a new name for the old _Penguin_.” - -They had gone on to the bridge again and they were talking like this -with an eye always upon the _Minerva_, that arbiter of their destinies. - -“That’s easy enough to understand,” said Harman. “What gets me is how -to understand our position. What the deuce did that scuffy want, -cartin’ off the log and the ship’s papers for? Ain’t there no law to -protect an innocent vessel bein’ manhandled by a durned British cruiser -in times of peace? What’s to become of peaceful tradin’ if such things -is allowed? Where’s the rights of neutrals if a monkey on a stick like -that blue-an’-gold outrage on the name of a sailor can walk on board -you an’ walk off with the log book in his pocket? That’s what I want to -know. I’m not a man that wants much in this here world. I only wants -justice.” - -“Faith, and I think you are going to get it,” said the Captain. “Bare -justice, as the little boy’s mother said when she let down his pants. -I’m not saying I didn’t do most of the inciting to the piracy and -plundering, but whether or no we are all in the soup, and the chap with -the ladle is fishing for us, and there’s no use in bothering or laying -blame--we’d have shared equally in the profits.” - -“Oh, I’m makin’ no remarks,” said Harman. “I’m not the man to fling -back at a pal, and I guess I can take the kicks just the same as the -ha’pence, but you’ve a better headpiece than me, and what I say is, -be on the lookout to get the weather gauge of these jokers so be it’s -possible. You can do it if any man can--get out of the soup and be a -pineapple.” - -“Give us a chance,” said the Captain. “I’m not going to haul my colours -down without a fight for it.” - -They stood watching the _Minerva_. Men were cleaning brasswork on board -of her, a squad of sailors were doing Swedish exercises; the ship’s -work was going on as unconcernedly as though she were lying in harbour, -and this vision of cold method and absolute indifference to all things -but duty and routine did not uplift the hearts of the gazers. - -“They’re stuffed with pride, those chaps,” said the single-minded -Harman. “They potter about and potter about the seas with their noses -in the air, lookin’ down at the likes of us who do all the work’s to be -done in the world. And what do they do? Nothin’! They never carry an -ounce of grain or a hoof or hide, or mend a cable or fetch a letter, -and they looks down on us that do as dirt. _You_ saw that josser in -the brass-bound coat and the way he come aboard--they’re all alike.” - -“She’s moving up to us,” said the Captain, suddenly changing his -position. “She’s going to speak us.” - -The _Minerva_, with a few languid flaps of her propeller, was indeed -moving up to them. When she came ranging alongside, within megaphone -distance, a thing--a midshipman, Blood said--speaking through a -megaphone nearly as big as itself addressed the _Penguin_. - -“Ship ahoy! You are to follow us down to Christobal Island.” - -“Good Lord!” said Harman. The Captain said nothing, merely raising his -hand to signify that he had understood. - -“What’s your speed?” came again the voice through the megaphone. - -The Captain seized the bridge megaphone. - -“Ten knots,” he answered. - -“Right!” came the reply. “Follow us at full speed.” - -The blue water creamed at the _Minerva’s_ forefoot as her speed -developed. She drew away rapidly, and the _Penguin_ slowly and sulkily -began to move, making a huge circle to starboard. - -When she got into line the _Minerva_ was a good two miles ahead. - -Said Harman, for the Captain was speechless: - -“I call this playing it pretty low down. _Jumping_ Jeehoshophat, but -we’ll be had before Sprengel! He won’t rub his hands--oh, no! I guess -he won’t rub his hands! And the old _Penguin_ is going as if she liked -it. Ain’t there no gunpowder aboard to blow a hole in her skin an’ sink -her? And that durned British cruiser as tight fixed to us as though she -was towing us with a forty-foot hawser. I reckon if I had some poison -I’d pour it out and drink it. I would that! I feel that way low down -I’d pour it out and drink it.” - -“Oh, _shut_ your head!” said the Captain. “You carry on like an old -woman with the stomach ache. We’re caught and we’re being lugged along -by the police officer, and there’s no use in clutching at the railings -or making a disturbance. The one good thing is that we haven’t any of -those chaps on board us, sitting with fixed bayonets on the saloon -hatch and we in the saloon. The first thing to be done is to steal as -much distance out of her as we can without her kicking.” - -He went to the engine-room speaking tube: - -“Below there, heave any muck you think likely to make smoke in the -furnaces; there’s a lot of old rubber and canvas waste on the cable -deck. I’ll tell Mr. Harman to have it sent down to you. I want to ’pear -as if we were doin’ more than our best--yes, we’re caught and bein’ led -to port, and we mean to have a try to get loose; keep a good head of -steam, and keep your eye on the engine-room telegraph. I’ll be altering -the speed now and then.” - -He sent Harman to do what he said; then he stood watching the distant -_Minerva_. She was now about two and a quarter miles ahead. The two -vessels were going at about equal speed, with the balance perhaps in -favour of the _Minerva_. He ordered the engines to half speed, and -kept them so for a couple of minutes, then put them on to full speed -again. The result of this proceeding was an almost imperceptible gain -on the part of the cruiser. - -In the next two hours, by the skilful use of this device, the distance -between the two ships was increased to at least three and a half -miles. Blood was content with that; so gradually had the increase -been made that the _Minerva_, suspecting nothing, stood it, but Blood -instinctively felt that she would not stand any more. The man had a -keen psychological sense. - -He was reckoning on a change of weather. - -The wind had fallen absolutely dead, and the heat was terrific, simply -because the air was charged with moisture. The captain knew these -latitudes. - -“I don’t see what you’re after,” said Harman, coming up on the bridge. -“What’s the good of stealin’ a few cable len’ths out of her? We can’t -get rid of her by day, for her guns can hit us at six miles, and if we -made a show to bolt she’d turn and be on us like a cat pouncin’. She -can do twenty-five knots to our twelve. Then at sundown she’s sure to -close with us and keep us tied tight to her tail.” - -“Maybe,” said the Captain. - -He said nothing more. - -An hour later he had his reward. - -The horizon to westward and beyond the _Minerva_ had become slightly -indistinct; the horizon to eastward and behind them was still brilliant -and hard. - -He knew what was happening. A slight change of temperature was stealing -from the west, precipitating the moisture as it came in the form of -haze. - -He put his hand on the lever of the telegraph and rang the engines off. - -Harman said nothing. He went to the side and spat into the sea. Then he -came back and stood watching. - -“There’s nothing like haze to knock gun firing on the head,” said the -Captain. - -Harman said nothing, but moistened his lips. A minute passed, and then -the _Minerva_, all at once, like a person showing the faintest sign of -indecision, showed the faintest change in definition. The faint haze -had touched her. - -At the same moment the Captain rang up the engines, and ordered the -helm to be put hard astarboard. The _Penguin_ forged ahead, and began -to turn. - -“They’re so busy cleaning brasswork and saluting each other that they -haven’t noticed Mr. Haze,” said the Captain. “They’re new to this -station and don’t know that Mr. Fog is sure coming on her heels. Ah, -she’s seen us, and she’s turning.” - -The _Minerva_, in fact, had also put her helm hard astarboard. - -She was making a half circle, and as small a half circle as she -possibly could, but the _Penguin_ had got a quarter circle start on -her, and while the _Minerva_ was still going about the _Penguin_ was -off. - -If hares ever chased ducks this business might be compared to a lame -duck being chased by a hare. The _Minerva_ could steam ten miles to -the _Penguin’s_ five and over; her guns even now could have sunk -the _Penguin_ with ease, though they might not have made very good -shooting, owing to the haze; that elusive, delusive haze. - -“Below there,” cried the Captain through the engine-room speaking tube. -“Shake yourself up, MacBean! Whack the engines up--give us fifteen or -burst! What’s the matter? We’re being chased by that British cruiser, -and it’s the penitentiary for the lot of us if we’re caught--that’s -all.” - -He turned, and at that moment the _Minerva_ spoke. - -A plume of smoke showed at her bow, there came a shrill, long-drawn -“whoo-oooo” like a hysterical woman “going off” somewhere in the sky, -then a jet of spume and a lather of foam in the sea two cable lengths -to port. - -It was a practice shell, and it left the water and made another plume a -mile and a half ahead and yet another a mile beyond that. - -It was her first and last useful word, for now the haze had her, -destroying her for war purposes as efficiently as a bursting shell in -her magazine. - -The haze had also taken the _Penguin_; everything seemed clear all -around, but all distant things had nearly vanished. - -Another shell came whooing and whining from the spectred _Minerva_ -before the white Pacific fog blotted her out. - -A faint wind was bringing it, less a wind than a travelling chillness, -a fall of temperature, moving from east to west. - -The Captain, having given his instructions to the helmsman, left the -bridge, and went down below. - - - - -X THE LAST OF THE “PENGUIN” - - -South of Chiloe Island, on the Chile coast, there lies a little harbour -which shall be nameless. - -Here, six days later, the _Penguin_ was hurriedly coaling--on the -_Spreewald’s_ dollars. - -It was at eight o’clock on a glorious and summerlike morning that she -put out of this place with her bunkers only half full, her stores just -rushed aboard cumbering the deck, and a man swung over the stern on a -board, painting her name out above the thunder and pow-wow of the screw. - -Blood would never have wasted paint and time in the attempt to alter -the name of his ship had it been the English he dreaded now. As a -matter of fact, word had come to the chief official at the little -nameless port above indicated that the Germans were out looking for a -fifteen-hundred-ton cable boat named the _Penguin_, grey-painted and -captained by a master mariner named Michael Blood. - -The bleating of the infernal _Spreewald_ had been heard all over the -Pacific. Sprengel’s bad language was following it. The _Minerva_ had -communicated by wireless with the German gunboat _Blitz_, lying at the -German island of Savaii, in the Navigators. The _Blitz_ had spoken to -the cruiser _Homburg_, lying at Tongatabu; from Tongatabu it had been -flashed to Fiji, and from there to Sydney. From Sydney it went to San -Francisco, reaching the City of the Golden Gate in time for the morning -newspapers; from there it passed in dots and dashes down the west -American seaboard to Valparaiso and Valdivia. - -Added to all the turmoil, the cable company whose cable had been broken -smelled the truth and were howling for the _Penguin’s_ blood. - -Marconi waves from Valparaiso had found the German cruiser squadron far -at sea, and they had started on the hunt. - -This was the news that had come to the chief official at the little -Chilean port, and which, being friendly toward Blood and unfriendly -toward Germany, he communicated to the former. There was also the -matter of a tip, which left the coffers of the _Penguin_ completely -empty after the account for coal, provisions, and harbour dues had also -been settled. - -“What’s the course?” asked Harman as the coast line faded behind them. - -“Straight out to sea,” replied Blood. “Due west till we cut the track -from Taliti to the Horn; then southeast for the Straits of Magellan. -Ramirez is going to fake them with the news that we have gone north.” - -“Why not go straight for the Straits down the coast instead of puttin’ -out like this?” - -“They’ll be hunting the coast; sure to send a ship south. They’ll never -think of us going west; the last thing they’d think of.” - -“Are you sure Ramirez is safe?” - -“Oh, he’s safe enough. He hates the Germans, and he has taken my money. -He’ll stick to his bargain. I wish we were as safe. Good Lord, every -cent gone and nothing to show for it but this old hooker which we can’t -sell, and the sure and certain prospect of the penitentiary if we don’t -work a miracle--and even then we are lost dogs. Frisco is closed to us. -We never can show our noses in Frisco again.” - -“I wouldn’t have come on this cruise if I’d known things was goin’ to -pan out like this,” said the ingenuous Harman. “No, indeedy! I’d have -stuck to somethin’ more honest. What I want to know is this: What’s the -use of war, anyway? When it has a chance of doin’ a man a good turn -the blighted thing holds off, whereas if you and me had been runnin’ -a peace concern it’s chances that it’d have come on. No, blamed if I -don’t turn a Methodis’ passon if I ever get out o’ this benighted job. -It’s crool hard to be choused like this by a cus’t underhand trick -served on one just as a chance turns up to make a bit. Why couldn’t -they have fought and been done with it? What’s the good of all them -guns and cannons, and all them ships? What in the nation’s the good of -them ships? Seems to me the only good of them is to go snuffin’ and -smellin’ round the seas, pokin’ their guns into other folk’s affairs -and spoilin’ their jobs. Well, there’s an end of it. I’m a peace party -man now and forever more. Blest if it ain’t enough to make a man turn a -Bible Christian!” - -“You’d better go and see to the stowing of the stores,” said the -Captain. “There’s no use in carrying on like that. I didn’t make war, -or else I guess I’d have made it more limber on its legs. Come! Hurry -up!” - -They stood two days to the west, and then they turned to the south -coast and made their dash for the Straits. - -The weather had changed. It was steadily blowing up from the westward. -The sea, under a dull sky, had turned to the colour of lead, and the -heavy swell told of what was coming. - -They had not sighted a ship since leaving the Chilean coast, but three -days after altering their course the smoke of a steamer appeared, blown -high by the wind and far to westward. The wind had scarcely increased -in force, but the sea was tremendous and spoke of what was coming. - -The Captain, on the bridge, stood with a glass to his eye, trying to -make out the stranger. He succeeded, and then, without comment, handed -the glass to Harman. - -Harman, steadying himself against the rolling and pitching of the ship, -looked. - -A waste of tempestuous water leaped at him through the glass, and then, -bursting a wave top to foam with her bows, grey as the seas she rode -came a ship of war. - -A cruiser, with guns nosing at the sky as if sniffing after the traces -of the _Penguin_. She was coming bow on, and now, falling a point or -two, her fore funnel seemed to broaden out and break up. It was the -three funnels showing, now _en masse_ and now individually. Then, as -she came to again, the three funnels became one. - -“She’s a three-funnel German,” said Harman, “and she has spotted us.” - -Even as he spoke the wind suddenly increased in violence. - -“I’m not bothering about her much,” said the Captain. “I’m bothering -about what’s in front of us.” - -“Whacher mean?” - -“Mean! Look at the sea and the stuff that’s coming. Could we put the -ship about in this sea? No, we couldn’t. You know very well the old -rolling log would turn turtle. Well, what’s before us? A lee shore. If -we don’t reach the opening of the Straits of Magellan before sundown -we’re dead men all. Germans! I wish I were safe in the hold of a good -German ship.” - -The truth of his words burst upon Harman. There are no lights at the -entrance of the Magellan Straits; the entrance is not broad; to hit it -in the darkness would be next door to impossible, and not to hit it -would be certain death. - -It was impossible to put the ship about. Harman’s extraordinary mind -did not seem much upset at the discovery. - -“D’ye think we’ll do it?” asked he. - -“I don’t know,” said the Captain. “We may and we mayn’t. You see, we -haven’t a patent log. I haven’t had a sight of the sun for two days. -I can’t figure things to a nicety. But if I had ten patent logs I -wouldn’t use them now. I’d be afraid to--what would be the good? Mac is -whacking up the engines for all they’re worth.” - -“Well, maybe we’ll do it,” said Harman, applying his eye again to the -glass. Then: “She’s going about.” - -The Captain took the glass. - -The cruiser was turning from her prey before it was too late. It was a -terrific spectacle, and once the Captain thought she was gone. The foam -was bursting as high as her fighting tops and the grey water pouring in -tons over her decks. - -Yet she did it, and the last Blood saw of her was the kick of her -propellers through sheets of foam. - -At four o’clock that day they knew that they could not do it. There -was no grog on board, so they were having a cup of tea in the saloon. -The Captain sat at the head of the table, before the tin teapot and a -plate of fancy biscuits. - -The Captain and Harman were the only two men on board with a knowledge -of what was coming. - -“Another lump of sugar in mine,” said Harman. “I don’t hold with tea; I -never did hold with tea. The only thing that can be said for it is it’s -a drink. And how some of them blighters ashore lives suckin’ it day and -night gets me.” - -He was drinking out of his saucer. - -“Oh, tea’s all right. I reckon tea’s all right,” said the Captain in an -absent-minded manner. - -“Maybe it is, but give me a hot whisky and you may take your tea to -them that like it,” replied Harman. - -He lit his pipe and went on deck. The Captain followed. They could not -keep away from the fascination up above. - -The bos’n was on the bridge, and they relieved him. - -Not a sign of land was in sight, and the sea was running higher than -ever. - -“You see,” said the Captain, “we can’t make it. It’ll be sundown in an -hour. We’ll strike the coast some time after dark, and God have mercy -on our souls.” - -“You ain’t tellin’ the hands?” said Harman. - -“No use tellin’ them. I told Mac, so that he might get the best out of -the engines.” - -“And there’s no bit of use gettin’ out life belts,” said Harman. “I -know this coast; rocks as big as churches an’ cliffs that nuthin’ but -flies could crawl up; and b’sides which if a chap found himself ashore -he’d either starve or be et by niggers. They’re the curiosest chaps, -those blighters down here. I guess the A’mighty spoiled them in the -bakin’ and shoved them down here by the Horn to hide them from sight. -Wonder what Wolff and Shiner is doin’ by this?” - -“God knows!” said the Captain. - -The darkness fell without a sight of the land, and, leaving the bos’n -on the bridge, they came down for a while to the engineroom for a warm. -Mac just inquired if there was any sight of land, and said nothing -more. - -The engines were no longer being pressed, and they smoked and watched -the projection and retraction of the piston rods, the revolution of -the cranks, and all the labours of this mighty organism so soon to be -pounded and ground to death on the hard rocks ahead. - -It was toward midnight that the coast spoke, so that all men could hear -on board the _Penguin_. - -Its voice came through the yelling blackness of the night like the roar -of a railway train in the distance. - -The crew were gathered aft and in the alleyways, for all forward of the -bridge the decks were swept. Harman and the Captain were on the bridge. - -Mac had the word to give her every ounce of steam he could get out of -the boilers, in the desperate idea that the harder she was pressed the -higher she might be driven on the rocks, and the tighter she might -stick. - -The roaring of the breakers seemed now all around them, and the Captain -and Harman were clinging to the bridge rails, bracing themselves -for the coming shock, when--just as a curtain is drawn aside in a -theatre--the rushing clouds drew away from the moon. - -The white, placid full moon whose light showed the foam-dashed coast to -either side of them, and right ahead clear water. - -They had struck the Magellan Straits by some miracle, just as the -bullet strikes the bull’s-eye of a target, and right to port they saw a -great white ghost rising in the moonlight and falling again to the sea. - -It was the foam breaking on the Westminster Hall. - -It was breaking three hundred feet high, and Harman, as he was hurled -along to the safety of the Straits, caught a glimpse of the great rock -itself after a wave had fallen from it, glistening in the moonlight -desolately, as slated roofs glisten after rain. - -That was a sight which no man, having once seen, could ever forget. - - * * * * * - -I met Blood last year. He was exceedingly prosperous, or seemed so. -He told me this story, and I have so mixed names and places that -he himself would scarcely recognise the chief actor, much less his -enemies. As to the fate of the _Penguin_, I could only get him to say -that she “went down” somewhere south of Rio, but that all hands were -saved. Harman, he said, had turned religious. - - * * * * * - -PART II THE “HEART OF IRELAND” - - * * * * * - -THE “HEART OF IRELAND” - - - - -I THE CAPTAIN GETS A SHIP - - -After the _Penguin_ job, Captain Blood and Billy Harman, that simple -sailorman, had come back to Frisco, the very port of all others one -might fancy they would have avoided, but Billy had been a power in -Frisco, and, reckoning on his power, he had taken the Captain back with -him. - -“There’s no call to be afraid,” said Billy; “there was more in that job -than the likes of us. Why, they’d pay us money to tuck us away. Whatser -use freezin’ round N’ York or Boston? There’s nothin’ to be done on the -Eastern side. Frisco’s warm.” - -“Damn warm!” put in the Captain. - -“Maybe; but there’s ropes there I can pull an’ make bells ring. Clancy -and Rafferty and all that crowd are with me, and we’ve done nothin’. -Why, we’re plaster saints to the chaps that are walkin’ round in Frisco -with cable watch chains across their weskits.” - -They came back, and Billy Harman proved to be right. No one molested -them. San Francisco was heaving in the throes of an election, and -people had no time to bother about such small fry as the Captain and -his companion, while, owing to the good offices of the Clancys and -Raffertys, Billy managed to pick up a little money here and there and -to assist his friend in doing likewise. - -Then things began to get slack, and to-day, as bright a morning as ever -broke on the Pacific coast, the Captain, down on his luck and without -even the price of a drink, was hanging about a wharf near the China -docks waiting for his companion. - -He took his seat on a mooring bitt, and, lighting a pipe, began to -review the situation. Gulls were flitting across the blue water, -whipped by the westerly wind blowing in from the Golden Gate, a Chinese -shrimp boat with huge lugsail bellying to the breeze was blundering -along for the upper bay, crossing the bows of a Stockton river boat -and threatening it with destruction; pleasure yachts, burly tugs, and -a great four-master just coming in with the salt of Cape Horn on her -sun-blistered sides--all these made a picture bright and moving as the -morning. - -It depressed the Captain. - -Business and pleasure have little appeal to a man who has no business -and no money for pleasure. We all have our haunting terrors, and -the Captain, who feared nothing in an ordinary way, had his. When -in extremely low water, he was always haunted by the dread of dying -without a penny in his pocket. To be found dead with empty pockets was -the last indignity. His Irish pride revolted at the thought, and he was -turning it over in his mind now as he sat watching the shipping. - -Then he caught a glimpse of a figure advancing toward him along the -quay side. - -It was Mr. Harman. - -“So there you are,” said he, as he drew up to the Captain. “I been -lookin’ for you all along the wharf.” - -“Any news?” asked the Captain. - -Mr. Harman took a pipe from his pocket, and explored the empty bowl -with his little finger; then, leaning against the mooring bitt, he cut -some tobacco up, filled the pipe, and lit it. Only when the pipe was -alight did he seem to hear the Captain’s question. - -“That depends,” said he. “I don’t know how you’re feelin’, but my -feelin’ is to get out of here, and get out quick.” - -“There’s not much news in that,” said Blood. “I’ve had it in my head -for days. What’s the use of talking? There’s only one way out of Frisco -for you or me, and that’s by way of a fo’c’s’le, and that’s a way I’m -not going to take.” - -“Maybe,” said Harman, “you’ll let me say my say before putting your -hoof in my mouth. News--I should think I had news. Now, by any chance -did you ever sight the Channel Islands down the coast there lying off -Santa Barbara? First you come to the San Lucas Islands, then you come -to Santa Catalina, a big brute of an island she is, same longitude as -Los Angeles; then away out from Santa Catalina you have San Nicolas.” - -“No, I’ve never struck them,” replied Blood. “What’s the matter with -them?” - -“The Chinese go there huntin’ for abalone shells,” went on Harman, -disregarding the question. “I’m aimin’ at a teeny yellow bit of an -island away to the north of the San Lucas, a place you could cover with -your hat, a place no one ever goes to.” - -“Well?” - -“Well, there’s twenty thousand dollars in gold coin lyin’ there ready -to be took away. Only this morning news came in that one of the -See-Yup-See liners--you know them rotten old tubs, China owned, out -of Canton, in the chow an’ coffin trade--well, one of them things is -gone ashore on San Juan, that’s the name of the island. Swept clean, -she was, and hove on the rocks, and every man drowned but two Chinee -who got away on a raf’. I had the news from Clancy. The wreck’s to -be sold, and Clancy says the opinion is she’s not worth two dollars, -seein’ the chances are the sea’s broke her up by this. Well, now look -here, I know San Juan, intimate, and I know a vessel, once ashore -there, won’t break up to the sea in a hurry by the nature of the coast. -There’s some coasts will spew a wreck off in ten minutes, and some’ll -stick to their goods till there’s nuthin’ left but the starnpost and -the ribs. It’s shelvin’ water there and rocks that hold like shark’s -teeth. The _Yan-Shan_--that’s her name--will hold till the last trumpet -if she’s hove up proper, which, by all accounts, she is, and there’s -twenty thousand dollars aboard her.” - -“Well?” said Blood. - -“Well, if we could crawl down there--you an’ me--we’d put our claws on -that twenty thousand.” - -“How in the nation are you going to rig out a wrecking expedition on -two cents, and suppose you could buy the wreck for two dollars--where’s -your two dollars?” - -“I’m not goin’ to buy no wrecks,” replied Harman, “nor fit out -no wreckin’ expeditions. What I want is something small and easy -handled--no steam, get her out and blow down on the northwest trades, -raise San Juan and the _Yan-Shan_, lift the dollars, and blow off with -them. Why, it’s as easy as walkin’ about in your slippers!” - -The Captain sighed. - -“As easy as getting into the penitentiary,” said he. “First of all, -you’d have to steal a boat, and Frisco is no port to steal boats in; -second, there’s such things as telegraphs and cables. You ought to -know that after the _Penguin_ job. Then if we were caught, as we would -be, you’d have the old _Penguin_ rising like a hurricane on us. She’s -forgotten now, I know, but once a chap gets in trouble everything -that’s forgotten wakes up and shouts.” - -“Maybe,” said Harman, “and maybe I’d be such a fool as to go stealin’ -boats. I’m not goin’ to steal no boats. But I’m goin’ to do this thing -_somehow_, and once I set my mind on a job I does it. You mark me. -I’m fair drove crazy to get out of here and be after somethin’ with -money on the end of it, and once I’m like that and sets my think tank -boilin’, there’s fish to fry. You leave it to me. I ain’t no fool to be -gettin’ into penitentiaries. Well, let’s get a move on; there’s nothin’ -like movin’ about to keep one’s ideas jumpin’.” - -They walked along the wharf, stepping over mooring hawsers, and pausing -now and then to inspect the shipping. There is no port in the world to -equal San Francisco in variety and charm. Here, above all other places, -the truth is borne in on one that trade, that much abused and seemingly -prosaic word, is in reality another name for romance. Here at Frisco -all the winds of the world blow in ships whose voyages are stories. -Freighters with China mud still clinging to their anchor flukes, junks -calling up the lights and gongs of the Canton River, schooners from -the islands, whalers from the sulphur-bottom grounds, grain ships from -half the world away, the spirit of trade hauls them all in through -the Golden Gate, and, over and beyond these, the bay itself has its -romance in the ships that never leave it--junks and shrimp boats, the -boats of Greek fishermen, yachts, and all sorts of steam craft engaged -on a hundred businesses from Suisun Bay to the Guadeloupe River. - -Wandering along, Blood and his companion came to Rafferty’s Wharf. -Rafferty’s Wharf is a bit of the past, a mooring place for old ships -condemned and waiting the breaking yards. It has escaped harbour boards -and fires and earthquakes, healthy trade never comes there, and very -strange deals have been completed in its dubious precincts over ships -passed as seaworthy yet held together, as Harman was explaining now to -Blood, “by the pitch in their seams mostly.” - -As they came along a man who was crossing the gangway from the tank saw -Harman and hailed him. - -“It’s Jack Bone,” said Harman to Blood. “Walk along and I’ll meet you -in a minute.” - -Blood did as he was directed, and Harman halted at the gangway. - -“You’re the man I want,” said Bone. “Who’s your friend?” - -“Oh, just a chap,” replied Harman. “What’s up now?” - -Bone took him by the arm, and led him along in an opposite direction -to that in which Blood was going. Bone was the landlord of the Fore -and Aft Tavern, half tavern, half sailors’ boarding house, situated -right on Rafferty’s Wharf and with a stairway down to the water from -the back premises. His face, to use Harman’s description of it, was one -grog blossom, and what he did not know of wicked wharfside ways could -scarcely be called knowledge. - -“Ginnell is layin’ about, lookin’ for two hands,” said Bone. “He’s due -out this evenin’, and it’s five dollars apiece for you if you can lay -your claws on what he wants. Whites, they must be whites; you know -Ginnell.” - -Harman did. - -Ginnell owned a fifty-foot schooner engaged sometimes in the -shark-fishing trade, sometimes in other businesses of a more shady -description. He had a Chinese crew, and, though the customhouse laws -of San Francisco demanded only one white officer on a Chinese-manned -boat, Ginnell always made a point of carrying two men of his own colour -with him. - -Being known as a hard man all along the wharfside, he sometimes found a -difficulty in supplying himself with hands. - -“Yes, I know Ginnell,” replied Harman. “Him and his old shark boat by -repitation. I’ve stood near the chap in bars now and again, but I don’t -call to mind speakin’ to him. His repitation is pretty noisy.” - -“Well, I can’t help that,” said Bone. “I didn’t make the chap nor his -repitation; if he had a better one, I guess ten dollars wouldn’t be -lyin’ your way.” - -“Nor twenty dollars yours,” laughed Harman. - -“That’s my business,” said Bone. “The question is, do you take on the -job? I’d do it all myself only there’s such a want of sailormen on the -front. It’s those durned Bands of Hope and Sailors’ Rests that sucks -’em in, fills ’em with bilge in the way of tracks and ginger beer, and -turns ’em out onfit for any job onless it’s got a silver-plated handle -to it. Mouth organs an’ the New Jerusalem is all they cares for onct -them wharf missionaries gets a holt on them. I tell you, Billy Harman, -if they don’t get up some by-law to stop these chaps propagatin’ -their gospels and spoilin’ trade, the likes of me and you will be -ruined--that’s a fac’. Well, what do you say?” - -All the time Mr. Bone was holding forth, Harman, who had struck an -idea, was deep in meditation. The question roused him. - -“If Ginnell wants two chaps,” said he, “I believe I can fit him with -them. Anyhow, where’s he to be found?” - -“He’ll be at my place at three o’clock,” said Bone, “and I’ve promised -to find the goods for him by that.” - -“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Harman, “I’ll find the chaps and have them -at your place haff past three or so; you can leave it safe in my hands.” - -“You speak as if you was certain.” - -“And certain I am. I’ve got the chaps you want.” - -“Now look here,” said Bone, “don’t you take on the job unless you’re -more than sure. Ginnell isn’t no boob to play up and down with; he’d -set in, mostlike, to wreck the bar if he thought I was playin’ cross -with him.” - -“Don’t fret,” said Harman. “I’ll be there, and now fork out a dollar -advance, for I’ll have some treatin’ to do.” - -Bone produced the money. It changed hands, and he departed, while -Harman pursued his way along the wharf toward his friend. - -Blood was sitting on an empty crate. - -“Well,” said he, as the other drew up, “what business?” - -Harman told every word of his conversation with Bone, and, without any -addition to it, waited for the other to speak. - -“Well, you’ve got the dollar,” said Blood at last, “and there’s some -satisfaction in that. I’m not the chap to take five cents off a chap -by false pretenses same’s you’ve done with Bone, but Bone’s not a man -by all accounts; he’s a crimp in man’s clothes, and if all the old -whalemen he’s filled with balloon juice and sent to perdition could -rise up and shout, I reckon his name’d be known in two hemispheres.” - -“I beg your pardon,” said Harman. “What was that you were saying about -false pretenses? I haven’t used no false pretenses. They ain’t things -I’m in the habit of usin’ between man and man.” - -“Well, what have you been using? You told me a moment ago you’d agreed -to furnish two hands to this chap’s order for five dollars apiece and a -dollar advance.” - -“So I have.” - -“And where’s your hands?” - -“I’ve got them.” - -“In your pocket?” - -“Oh, close up!” said Harman. “I never did see such a chap as you for -wearin’ blinkers; can’t you see the end of your nose in front of you? -Well, if you can’t, I can. However, I’ll tell you the whole of the -business later when I’ve turned it round some more in my head. What -I’m after now is grub. Here’s a dollar, and I’m off to Billy Sheehan’s; -you come along with me--a dollar’s enough for two--and you can raise -your objections after you’ve got a beefsteak inside of you. Maybe -you’ll see clearer then.” - -The Captain said no more, but followed Harman. Far better educated than -the latter, he had come to recognise that Harman, despite his real and -childlike simplicity in various ways, had a mind quicker than most -men’s. He would often have gone without a meal during that wandering -partnership which had lasted for nearly a year but for Harman’s -ingenuity and power of resource. - -At Sheehan’s they had good beefsteak and real coffee. - -“Now,” said Harman, when they had finished, “if you’re ready to listen -to reason, I’ll tell you the lay I’m on. Ginnell wants two hands. I’m -goin’ to offer myself for one, and you are goin’ to be the other.” - -“I beg your pardon,” said Blood. “You mean to say I’m to sign on in -that chap’s shark boat. Is that your meaning?” - -“I said nuthin’ about signin’ on in shark boats. I said we two has got -to get out of here in Ginnell’s tub. Once outside the Gate we’re all -right.” - -“I see,” said Blood. “We’re to scupper Ginnell and take the boat--and -how about the penitentiary?” - -“I’m blest if you haven’t got penitentiaries on the brain,” said -Harman. “If you leave this thing to me, I’ll fix it so that there’ll be -no penitentiaries in the business. Of course if we were to go into such -a fool’s job as you’re thinkin’ about, we’d lay ourselves under the -law right smart. No, the game I’m after is deeper than that, and it’s -Ginnell I’m goin’ to lay under the law. Now I’ve got to run about and -do things an’ see people. I’ll leave you here, and here’s a quarter, -and don’t you spend it till the time comes. Now you listen to me. Wait -about till haff past three, and at haff past three punctual you turn -into the Fore and Aft and walk up to the bar and lay your quarter down -and call for a drink. You’ll see me there, and if I nod to you, you -just nod to me. Then I’ll have a word in private with you.” - -“Is that all?” said the Captain. - -“That’s all for the present,” said Harman, rising up. “You’ll be there?” - -“Yes, I’ll be there,” said Blood, “though I’m blest if I can see your -meaning.” - -“You will soon,” replied the other, and, paying the score, off he went. - -He turned from the wharves up an alley, and then into a fairly -respectable street of small houses. Pausing before one of these, he -knocked at the door, which was opened almost immediately by a big, -blue-eyed, sun-burned, good-natured-looking man some thirty years of -age and attired as to the upper part of him in a blue woollen jersey. - -This was Captain Mike, of the Fish Patrol. - -“Billy Harman!” said Captain Mike. “Come in.” - -“No time,” said Harman. “I’ve just called to say a word. I wants you to -do me a favour.” - -“And what’s the favour?” asked the Captain. - -“Oh, nothin’ much. D’you know Ginnell?” - -“Pat Ginnell?” - -“That’s him.” - -“Well, I should think I did know the swab. Why, he’s in with all the -Greeks, and there’s not a dog’s trick played in the bay he hasn’t his -thumb in. Him and his old shark boat. Whatcher want me to do with him?” - -“Nothin’,” replied Harman, “and maybe a lot. I want you just to drop -into the Fore and Aft and sit and smoke your pipe at haff past three. -Then when I give you the wink you’ll pretend to fall asleep. I just -wants you as a witness.” - -“What’s the game?” asked Captain Mike. - -Harman told. - -Had you been watching the two men from a distance, you might have -fancied that there was a great joke between them from the laughter of -Captain Mike and the way in which Harman was slapping his thigh. Then -the door closed, and Harman went off, steering north through a maze of -streets till he reached his lodgings. - -Here he packed a few things in a bundle and had an interview with his -landlady, a motherly woman whose income was derived from a washtub and -two furnished bedrooms. - -Among the other belongings which he took with him was a box of quinine -tabloids. These he placed in the pocket of his coat, and, with the -bundle under his arm, departed. - -It was five minutes past three when he entered the dirty doggery -misnamed the Fore and Aft, and there before the bar behind which Bone -was serving drinks stood Ginnell. - -Pat Ginnell, to give him his full name, was an Irishman of the -sure-fwhat type, who might have been a bricklayer but for his decent -clothes and sea air and the big blue anchor tattooed on the back of his -left hand. There was no one else in the bar. - -“Here’s the gentleman,” said Bone, when he sighted Harman. “Up to time -and with the goods to deliver, I dare say. Harman, this is the Captain; -where’s the hands?” - -“Well,” said Harman, leaning his elbows on the bar, “I believe I’ve got -them. One of them’s meself.” - -“D’you mean to say you’re up to sign on with me?” asked Ginnell. - -“That’s my meanin’,” said Harman. - -Ginnell looked at Bone. Then he spoke. - -“It won’t do,” said he. “I know you be name, Mr. Harman; you’re in with -Clancy and that crowd, and my boat’s too rough for the likes of you.” - -“You needn’t fear about that,” said Harman. “I’ve done with Clancy. -What I’ve got to do is get out of Frisco and get out quick. The cops -are after me; there you have it. I’ve got to get out of here before -night--do you take me--and I’m so pressed to get out sudden I’ll take -your word for ten dollars a month without any signin’.” - -Ginnell’s brow cleared. - -“What are you havin’?” said he. - -“I’ll take a drink of whisky,” replied Harman. - -The bargain was concluded. - -“And how,” said Ginnell, “what about the other chap?” - -Harman wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. - -“I’ve made an arrangement with a chap to meet me here,” said he. “He’ll -be in in a minute.” - -“What’s he like?” asked Ginnell. - -“Like? Why, I’ll tell you what he’s like; he wouldn’t sign on in your -tub for a hundred dollars a month.” - -“Faith and you’re a nice sort of chap,” said Ginnell. “Is it playin’ -the fool with me you are?” - -By way of reply Harman took the box of quinine tabloids from his -pocket, opened it, showed the contents, and winked. - -Bone and Ginnell understood at once. - -“One of those in his drink will lay him out for an hour,” said Harman, -“without hurtin’ him. Put one in your weskit pocket, Bone--and how -about your boat?” - -“She’s down below at the stairs,” replied the landlord, putting the -tabloid in his waistcoat pocket. “I’ll go and call Jim to get her -ready--a moment, gentlemen.” He vanished into a back room, and they -heard him shouting orders to Jim; then he returned, and as he passed -behind the bar who should enter but Captain Mike! - -The Captain walked to the bar, called for a drink, and without as much -as a glance at the others took it to a seat in a far corner, where he -lit a pipe. Several wharf habitués loafed in, and soon the place became -hazy with tobacco smoke and horrible with the smell of rank cigars. - -“Well,” said Ginnell, “where’s your man? I’m thinkin’ he’s given you -the slip, and be the powers, Mr. Harman, if he has, it’ll be the worst -for you.” - -The brute in Ginnell spoke in his growl, and Harman was turning over in -his mind the fate of any unfortunate who had Ginnell for boss when the -swing door opened and Blood appeared. - -“That’s him,” said Harman. “You leave him to me.” - -Blood was not the sort of man to frequent a hole like the Fore and Aft, -and he frankly spat when he came in. He was in a temper, or rather the -beginning of a temper, and Harman seemed to have some difficulty in -soothing him. They had a confabulation together near the corner where -Captain Mike, his glass and pipe on the table before him, was sitting, -evidently asleep, and then Blood, seeming to agree with some matter -under discussion, allowed himself to be led to the bar. - -“This is me friend, Captain Ginnell,” said Harman. “Captain, this is me -friend, Michael Blood. Looking for a ship he is.” - -“I can’t offer him a ship,” said Ginnell, “but I can offer him a drink. -What are you takin’, sir?” - -Blood called for a whisky. - -The quinine tabloid popped into the bottom of the glass by Bone -dissolved almost immediately, nor did Blood show that he detected -the presence in his drink. He loathed quinine, and this forced dose -added to the flood of his steadily rising temper without, however, -interfering with his powers of self-control. - -He was a good actor, and the way he clutched at the bar ledge shortly -after he had finished his drink left nothing to be desired. - -“Let him lay down,” said Harman. - -“I can’t leave the bar,” said Bone, “but if the gentleman cares to lay -down in my back room he’s welcome.” - -Blood, allowing himself to be conducted to this resting place, Ginnell -followed without drawing the attention of the others in the bar. - -Arrived in the back room, Blood collapsed on an old couch by the -window, and, lying there with his eyes shut, he heard the rest. - -He heard the whispered consultation between Harman and the other, the -trapdoor being opened, Jim, the boatman, being called. And then he felt -a hand on his shoulder and Ginnell’s voice adjuring him to rouse up a -bit and come along for a sail. - -Helped on either side by the conspirators, he allowed himself to be led -to the trapdoor. - -“We’ll never get him down them steps,” said Harman, alluding to the -stairs leading down to where the boat was swaying on the green water -that was swishing and swashing against the rotten piles of the wharf. - -“This is the way it’s done,” said Ginnell, and, twitching Blood’s feet -from under him, he sent him down the stairway like a bag of meal to -where Jim was waiting to receive him. - - * * * * * - -At half past six o’clock that day the _Heart of Ireland_--that was the -name of Ginnell’s boat--passed the tumble of the bar and took the swell -of the Pacific like a duck. - -Ginnell, giving the wheel over to one of the Chinese crew, glanced -to windward, glanced back at the coast, where Tamalpais stood -cloud-wrapped and gilded by the evening sun, and then turned to the -companionway leading down to the hole of a cabin where they had -deposited their shanghaied man. - -“I’m goin’ to rouse that swab up,” he said; “he ought to be recovered -by this.” - -“Go easy with him,” said Harman. - -“I’ll be as gentle with him as a mother,” replied the skipper of the -_Heart of Ireland_, with a ferocious grin. - -Harman watched the unfortunate man descending. He had got shoulder deep -down the ladder when he suddenly vanished as if snatched below, and his -shout of astonishment and the crash of his fall came up simultaneously -to the listener at the hatch. - -Then came the sounds of the fight. Harman had seen Blood fighting once, -and he had no fear at all for him. If he feared for any one, it was -Ginnell, who was crying now for mercy and apparently receiving none. -Then of a sudden came silence, and Harman slipped down the ladder. - -Blood, during his incarceration, had ransacked the cabin and secured -the Captain’s revolver. He was seated now, revolver in hand, on -Ginnell’s chest, and Ginnell was lying on the cabin floor without a -kick or an ounce of fight in him. - -“You haven’t killed him?” asked Harman. - -“I don’t know,” replied Blood. “Speak up, you swab, and answer! Are you -dead or not?” - -“Faith, I don’t know,” groaned the unfortunate. “I’m near done. What -are you up to? What game is this you’re playin’ on me? Is it murder or -what?” - -“Let me talk to him,” said Harman. “Pat Ginnell, you’ve doped and -shanghaied a man--meanin’ my friend, Captain Blood--and I’ve got all -the evidence and witnesses. Captain Mike, of the Fish Patrol, is one; -he came to the Fore and Aft be request and saw the whole game. That -means the penitentiary for you if we split. You’ll say I provided the -dope. Who’s to prove it? When I told you the cops were after me I told -a lie. Who’s to prove it? I wanted you and your old tub, and I’ve got -’em. Say a word against me and see what Clancy will do to you. You -shanghaied me friend, and now you’re shanghaied yourself in your own -ship, and you’ll never dare to have the law on us because, d’you see, -we’ve got the law on you. The Captain there has got your revolver, the -coolies on deck don’t care, they never even turned a hair when they -heard you shoutin’. Now my question is, do you intend to take it quiet, -or would you sooner be hove overboard?” - -“Faith and there’s no use in kicking,” replied the owner of the _Heart -of Ireland_. “I gives in.” - -“Then up on your feet!” said Blood, rising and putting the revolver in -his pocket. “And up on deck with you! You’re one of the hands now, and -if you ever want to see Frisco again, you’ll take my orders and take -them smart. You’ll berth aft with us, but your rating is cabin boy, and -your pay. Up with you!” - -Ginnell went up the ladder, and the others followed. - -Ginnell showed to the light of day two black eyes and the marks on his -chin of the frightful uppercut that had closed the fight. - -He looked like a beaten dog as Blood called the crew, in order to pick -watches with Harman. - -“I take the chap that’s steering,” said Blood. - -“And I takes Pat Ginnell,” said Harman. - -They finished the business, and dismissed the hands, who seemed to see -nothing strange in the recent occurrence among the whites, and who -were thronging now to the fo’c’s’le for their supper, their faces all -wearing the same Chinese expression, the expression of men who know -everything, of men who know nothing. - -Then, having set a course for the San Lucas Islands, and while Ginnell -was washing himself below, Blood, with his companion, leaned on the -rail and looked at the far-away coast dying out in the dusk. - -“Seems strange it was only this mornin’ I projected gettin’ out like -this,” said Harman, “and here we are out, with twenty thousand dollars -ahead of us, if the _Yan-Shan_ hasn’t broke up, which she hasn’t. -’Pears to me it was worth a dose of quinine to do the job so neat with -no bones broke and no fear of the law at the end of it.” - -“Maybe,” said the Captain. - -He whistled softly to the accompaniment of the slashing of the bow -wash, looking over toward the almost vanished coast, above which, in -the pansy blue of the evening sky, stars were now showing like points -of silver. - - - - -II THE “YAN-SHAN” - - -I - -The _Heart of Ireland_ was spreading her wings to the northwest trades, -making a good seven knots with the coast of California a vague line on -the horizon to port and all the blue Pacific before her. - -Captain Blood was aft with his mate, leaning on the rail and -watching the foam boosting away from the stern and flowing off in -Parian-Marbaline lines on the swirl of the wake. Ginnell was forward on -the lookout, and one of the coolie crew was at the wheel. - -“I’m not given to meeting trouble halfway,” said Blood, shifting his -position and leaning with his left arm on the rail, “but it ’pears to -me Pat Ginnell is taking his set-down a mighty sight too easy. He’s got -something up his sleeve.” - -“So’ve we,” replied Harman. “What can he do? He laid out to shanghai -you, and, by gum, he did it. I don’t say I didn’t let him down crool, -playin’ into his hands and pretendin’ to help and gettin’ Captain Mike -as a witness, but the fac’ remains he got you aboard this hooker by -foul play, shanghaied you were, and then you turns the tables on him, -knocks the stuffin’ out of him, and turns him into a deck hand. How’s -he to complain? I’d start back to Frisco now and dare him to come -ashore with his complaints. We’ve got his ship--well, that’s his fault. -He’s no legs to stand on, that’s truth. - -“Leavin’ aside this little bisness, he’s known as a crook from Benicia -right to San José. The bay reeks with him and his doin’s; settin’ -Chinese sturgeon lines, Captain Mike said he was, and all but cocht, -smugglin’ and playin’ up to the Greeks, and worse. The bay side’s -hungry to catch him an’ stuff him in the penitentiary, and he hasn’t -no friends. I’m no saint, I owns it, but I’m a plaster Madonna to -Ginnell, and I’ve got friends, so have you. Well, what are you -bothering about?” - -“Oh, I’m not bothering about the law,” said Blood; “only about him. I’m -going to keep my eye open and not be put asleep by his quiet ways--and -I’d advise you to do the same.” - -“Trust me,” said Harman, “and more especial when we come to ’longsides -with the _Yan-Shan_.” - -Now the _Yan-Shan_ had started in life somewhere early in the nineties -as a twelve-hundred-ton cargo boat in the Bullmer line; she had been -christened the _Robert Bullmer_, and her first act when the dogshores -had been knocked away was a bull charge down the launching slip, -resulting in the bursting of a hawser, the washing over of a boat, and -the drowning of two innocent spectators; her next was an attempt to -butt the Eddystone over in a fog, and, being unbreakable, she might -have succeeded only that she was going dead slow. She drifted out of -the Bullmer line on the wash of a lawsuit owing to the ramming by her -of a Cape boat in Las Palmas harbour; engaged herself in the fruit -trade in the service of the Corona Capuella Syndicate, and got on to -the Swimmer Rocks with a cargo of Jamaica oranges, a broken screw -shaft, and a blown-off cylinder cover. The ruined cargo, salvage, -and tow ruined the syndicate, and the _Robert Bullmer_ found new -occupations till the See-Yup-See Company, of Canton, picked her up, -and, rechristening, used her for conveying coffins and coolies to the -American seaboard. They had sent her to Valdivia on some business, and -on the return from the southern port to Frisco she had, true to her -instincts and helped by a gale, run on San Juan, a scrap of an island -north of the Channel Islands off the California coast. Every soul had -been lost with the exception of two Chinese coolies, who, drifting on a -raft, had been picked up and brought to San Francisco. - -She had a general cargo and twenty thousand dollars in gold coin on -board, but the coolies had declared her to be a total wreck; said when -they had last sighted her she was going to pieces. - -That was the yarn Harman heard through Clancy, with the intimation -that the wreck was not worth two dollars, let alone the expenses of a -salvage ship. - -The story had eaten into Harman’s mind; he knew San Juan better -than any man in Frisco, and he considered that a ship once ashore -there would stick; then Ginnell turned up, and the luminous idea -of inducing Ginnell to shanghai Blood so that Blood might, with -his--Harman’s--assistance, shanghai Ginnell and use the _Heart of -Ireland_ for the picking of the _Yan-Shan’s_ pocket entered his mind. - -“It’s just when we come alongside the _Yan-Shan_ we may find our worse -bother,” said Blood. - -“Which way?” asked Harman. - -“Well, they’re pretty sure to send some sort of a wrecking expedition -to try and salve some of the cargo, let alone those dollars.” - -“See here,” said Harman, “I had the news from Clancy that morning, and -it had only just come to Frisco; it wasn’t an hour old. We put the cap -on Ginnell, and were out of the Golden Gate before sundown same day. -A wrecking ship would take all of two days to get her legs under her, -supposing any one bought the wreck, so we have two days’ start. We’ve -been makin’ seven knots and maybe a bit over; they won’t make more. So -we have two days to our good when we get there.” - -“They may start a steamer out on the job,” said Blood. - -“Well, now, there’s where my knowledge comes in,” said Harman. “There’s -only two salvage ships at present in Frisco, and rotten tubs they are. -One’s the _Maryland_. She’s most a divin’ and dredgin’ ship; ain’t no -good for this sort of work; sea-bottom scrapin’ is all she’s good for, -and little she makes at it. The other’s the _Port of Amsterdam_, owned -by Gunderman. She’s the ship they’d use. She’s got steam winches and -derricks ’nough to discharge the Ark, and stowage room to hold the -cargo down to the last flea, _but_ she’s no good for more than eight -knots; she steams like as if she’s a drogue behind her, because why? -She’s got beam engines--she’s that old, she’s got beam engines in her. -I’m not denyin’ there’s somethin’ to be said for them, but there you -are--there’s no speed in them.” - -“Well, beam engines or no beam engines, we’ll have a pretty rough -time if she comes down and catches us within a cable’s length of the -_Yan-Shan_,” said Blood. “However, there’s no use in fetching trouble. -Let’s go and have a look at the lazaret; I want to see how we stand for -grub.” - -Chopstick Charlie was the name Blood had christened the coolie who -acted as steward and cabin hand. He called him now, and out of the -opium-tinctured gloom of the fo’c’s’le Charlie appeared, received his -orders, and led them to the lazaret. - -None of the crew had shown the slightest emotion on seeing Blood take -over command of the schooner and Ginnell swabbing decks. The fight that -had made Blood master of the _Heart of Ireland_ and Ginnell’s revolver -had occurred in the cabin and out of sight of the coolies, but even -had it been conducted in full view of them it is doubtful whether they -would have shown any feeling or lifted a hand in the matter. - -As long as their little privileges were regarded, as long as opium -bubbled in the evening pipe, and pork, rice, and potatoes were served -out one white skipper was the same as another to them. - -The overhaul of the stores took half an hour, and was fairly -satisfactory. When they came on deck, Blood, telling Charlie to take -Ginnell’s place as look-out, called the latter down into the cabin. - -“We want to have a word with you,” said Blood, as Harman took his seat -on a bunk edge opposite him. “It’s time you knew our minds and what we -intend doing with the schooner and yourself.” - -“Faith,” said Ginnell, “I think it is.” - -“I’m glad you agree. Well, when you shanghaied me on board this old -shark boat of yours, there’s little doubt as to what you intended doing -with _me_. Harman will tell you, for we’ve talked on the matter.” - -“He’d ’a’ worked you crool hard, fed you crool bad, and landed you, -after a six months’ cruise, doped or drunk, with two cents in your -pocket and an affidavit up his sleeve that you’d tried to fire his -ship,” said Harman. “I know the swab.” - -Ginnell said nothing for a moment in answer to this soft impeachment; -he was cutting himself a chew of tobacco. Then at last he spoke. - -“I don’t want no certifikit of character from either the pair of you,” -said he. “You’ve boned me ship, and you’ve blacked me eye, and you’ve -near stove me ribs in sittin’ on me chest and wavin’ me revolver in me -face. What I wants to know is your game. Where’s your profits to come -from on this job?” - -“I’ll tell you,” replied Blood. “There’s a hooker called the _Yan-Shan_ -piled on the rocks down the coast, and we’re going to leave our cards -on her--savvy?” - -“O Lord!” said Ginnell. - -“What’s the matter now?” asked Harman. - -“What’s the matter, d’you say?” cried Ginnell. “Why, it’s the -_Yan-Shan_ I was after meself.” - -Blood stared at the owner of the _Heart of Ireland_ for a moment, then -he broke into a roar of laughter. - -“You don’t mean to say you bought the wreck?” he asked. - -“Not me,” replied Ginnell. “Sure, where d’you think I’d be findin’ the -money to buy wrecks with? I had news that mornin’ she was lyin’ there -derelick, and I was just slippin’ down the coast to have a look at her -when you two spoiled me lay by takin’ me ship.” - -It was now that Harman began to laugh. - -“Well, if that don’t beat all!” said he. “And maybe, since you were so -keen on havin’ a look at her, you’ve brought wreckin’ tools with you in -case they might come in handy?” - -“That’s as may be,” replied Ginnell. “What you have got to worry about -isn’t wreckin’ tools, but how to get rid of the boodle if it’s there. -Twenty thousand dollars, that’s the figure.” - -“So you know of the dollars,” said Blood. - -“Sure, what do you take me for?” asked Ginnell. “D’you think I’d have -bothered about the job only for the dollars? What’s the use of general -cargo to the like of me? Now what I’m thinkin’ is this, you want a -fence to help you to get rid of the stuff. Supposin’ you find it, how -are you to cart this stuff ashore and bank it? You’ll be had, sure, -but not if I’m at your back. Now, gents, I’m willin’ to wipe out all -differences and help in the salvin’ on shares, and I’ll make it easy -for you. You’ll each take seven thousand, and I’ll take the balance, -and I won’t charge nuthin’ for the loan you’ve took of the _Heart of -Ireland_. It’s a losin’ game for me, but it’s better than bein’ done -out entirely.” - -Blood looked at Harman, and Harman looked at Blood. Then telling -Ginnell that they would consider the matter, they went on deck to talk -it over. - -There was truth in what Ginnell said. They would want help in getting -the coin ashore in safety, and, unless they marooned or murdered -Ginnell, he, if left out, would always be a witness to make trouble. -Besides, though engaged on a somewhat shady business, neither Blood nor -Harman was a scoundrel. Ginnell up to this had been paid out in his -own coin, the slate was clean, and it pleased neither of them to take -profit from this blackguard beyond what they considered their due. - -It was just this touch of finer feeling that excluded them from the -category of rogues and made their persons worth considering and their -doings worth recounting. - -“We’ll give him what he asks,” said Blood, when the consultation was -over, “and, mind you, I don’t like giving it him one little bit, not -on account of the money, but because it seems to make us partners with -that swab. I tell you this, Billy Harman, I’d give half as much again -if an honest man was dealing with us in this matter instead of Pat -Ginnell.” - -“And what honest man would deal with us?” asked the ingenuous Harman. -“Lord! One might think the job we was on was tryin’ to sell a laundry. -It’s _safe_ enough, for who can say we didn’t hit the wreck cruisin’ -round promiscuous, but it won’t hold no frills in the way of honesty -and such. Down with you, and close the bargain with that chap and tip -him the wink that, though we’re mugs enough to give him six thousand -dollars for the loan of his old shark boat, we’re men enough to put a -pistol bullet in his gizzard if he tries any games with us. Down you -go.” - -Blood went. - - -II - -Next morning, an hour after sunrise, through the blaze of light -striking the Pacific across the far-off Californian coast, San Juan -showed like a flake of spar on the horizon to southward. - -The sea there was all of an impossible blueness, the Pacific blue -deepened by the Kuro Shiwo current, that mysterious river of the sea -which floods up the coast of Japan, crosses the Pacific toward Alaska, -and sweeps down the West American seaboard to fan out and lose itself -away down somewhere off Chile. - -Harman judged the island to be twenty miles away, and as they were -making six and a half knots, he reckoned to hit it in three hours if -the wind held. - -They went down and had breakfast, and after the meal Ginnell, going -to the locker where he had stowed the wrecking tools, fetched them -out and laid them on deck. There were two crowbars and a jimmy, not -to mention a flogging hammer, a rip saw, some monstrous big chisels, -and a shipwright’s mallet. They looked like a collection of burglar’s -implements from the land of Brobdignag. - -“There you are,” said Ginnell. “You never know what you may want on a -job like this, with bulkheads maybe to be cut through and chests broke -open. Get a spare sail, Misther Harman, and rowl the lot up in it so’s -they’ll be aisier for thransport.” - -He was excited, and the Irish in him came out when he was like that; -also, as the most knowledgable man in the business, he was taking the -lead. You never could have fancied, from his cheerful manner and his -appearance of boss, that Blood was the real master of the situation, -or that Blood, only a few days ago, had nearly pounded the life out -of him, captured his revolver, and taken possession of the _Heart of -Ireland_. - -The schooner carried a whaleboat, and this was now got in readiness for -lowering, with provisions and water for the landing party, and, when -that was done, the island, now only four miles distant, showed up fine, -a sheer splinter of volcanic rock standing up from the sea and creamed -about with foam. - -Not a sign of a wreck was to be seen, though Ginnell’s glasses were -powerful enough to show up every detail from the rock fissures to the -roosting gulls. - -Gloom fell upon the party, with the exception of Harman. - -“It’ll be on the other side if it’s there at all,” said he. “She’d -have been coming up from the s’uth’ard, and if the gale was behind -her, it would have taken her right on to the rocks; she couldn’t be -on this side, anyhow, because why? There’s nuthin’ to hold her. It’s -a mile-deep water off them cliffs, but on the other side it shoals -gradual from tide marks to ten-fathom water, which holds for a quarter -of a mile. Keep her as she is; you could scrape them cliffs with a -battleship without danger of groundin’.” - -After a minute or two, he took the wheel himself, and steered her, -while the fellows stood by the halyards, ready to let go at a moment’s -notice. - -It was an impressive place, this north side of the island of San Juan. -The heavy swell came up, smacking right on to the sheer cliff wall, -jetting green water and foam yards high to the snore and boom of caves -and cut-outs in the rock. Gulls haunted the place. The black petrel, -the Western gull, and the black-footed albatross all were to be found -here. Long lines of white gulls marked the cliff edges, and, far above, -in the dazzling azure of the sky, a Farallon cormorant circled like the -spirit of the place, challenging the newcomers with its cry. - -Harman shifted his helm, and the _Heart of Ireland_, with main boom -swinging to port, came gliding past the western rocks and opening the -sea to southward, where, far on the horizon, lovely in the morning -light like vast ships under press of sail, the San Lucas Islands lay -remote in the morning splendour. - -Away to port the line of the Californian coast showed beyond the heave -of the sea from Point Arguello to Point Concepcion, and to starboard -and west of the San Lucas a dot in the sun dazzle marked the peaks of -the island of San Nicolas. - -Then, as the _Heart of Ireland_ came round and the full view of the -south of San Juan burst upon them, the wreck piled on the rocks came in -sight, and anchored quarter of a mile off the shore--a Chinese junk! - -Harman swore. - -Ginnell, seizing his glasses, rushed forward and looked through them at -the wreck. - -“It’s swarmin’ with chows,” cried he, coming aft “They seem to have -only just landed be the look of them. Keep her as she goes, and be -ready with the anchor there forrard; we’ll scupper them yet. Mr. -Harman, be plazed to fetch up that lin’th of lead pipe you’ll find on -the cabin flure be the door. Capt’in, will you see with Charlie here to -the boat while I get the anchor ready for droppin’? Them coolies is all -thumbs.” - -He went forward, and the _Heart of Ireland_, with the wind spilling out -of her mainsail, came along over the heaving blue swell, satin-smooth -here in the shelter of the island. - -Truly the _Yun-Shan_, late _Robert Bullmer_, had made a masterpiece of -her last business. She had come stem on, lifted by the piling sea, and -had hit the rocks, smashing every bow plate from the keel to within a -yard or two of the gunwale, then a wave had taken her under the stern -and lifted her and flung her broadside on, just as she now lay, pinned -to her position by the rock horns that had gored her side, and showing -a space of her rust-red bottom to the sun. - -The water was squattering among the rocks right up to her, the -phosphor-bronze propeller showed a single blade cocked crookedly at the -end of the broken screw shaft; rudder there was none, the funnel was -gone, spar deck and bridge were in wreck and ruin, while the cowl of a -bent ventilator turned seaward seemed contemplating with a languid air -the beauty of the morning and the view of the far-distant San Lucas -Islands. - -The _Heart of Ireland_ picked up a berth inside the junk, and as the -rasp and rattle of the anchor chain came back in faint echoes from the -cliff, a gong on the junk woke to life and began to snarl and roar its -warning to the fellows on the wreck. - -“Down with the boat!” cried Ginnell. With the “lin’th of lead pipe,” a -most formidable weapon, sticking from his pocket, he ran to help with -the falls. The whaleboat smacked the water, the crew tumbled in, and -with Ginnell in the bow, it started for the shore. - -The gong had done its work. The fellows who had been crawling like ants -over the dead body of the _Yan-Shan_ came slithering down on ropes, -appeared running and stumbling over the rocks abaft the stern, some -hauling along sacks of loot, others brandishing sticks or bits of -timber, and all shouting and clamouring with a noise like gulls whose -nests are being raided. - -There was a small scrap of shingly beach off which the Chinamen’s scow -was lying anchored with a stone and with a China boy for anchor watch. -The whaleboat passed the scow, dashed nose end up the shelving beach, -and the next moment Ginnell and his lin’th of lead pipe was among the -Chinamen, while Blood, following him, was firing his revolver over -their heads. Harman, with a crowbar carried at the level, was aiming -straight at the belly of the biggest of the foe when they parted right -and left, dropping everything, beaten before they were touched, and -making for the water over the rocks. - -Swimming like rats, they made for the scow, scrambled on board her, -howked up the anchor stone, and shot out the oars. - -“They’re off for the junk,” cried Ginnell. “Faith, that was a clane bit -of work! Look at thim rowin’ as if the divil was after thim.” - -They were literally, and now on board the junk they were hauling the -boat in, shaking out the lateen sail, and dragging up the anchor as -though a hundred pair of hands were at work instead of twenty. - -Then as the huge sail bellied gently to the wind, and the junk broke -the violet breeze shadow beyond the calm of the sheltered water, a -voice came over the sea, a voice like the clamour of a hundred gulls, -thin, rending, fierce as the sound of tearing calico. - -“Shout away, me boys!” said Ginnell. “You’ve got the shout and we’ve -got the boodle, and good day to ye!” - - -III - -He turned with the others to examine the contents of the sacks -dropped by the vanquished ones and lying among the rocks. They were -old gunny bags, and they were stuffed with all sorts of rubbish and -valuables--musical instruments, bits of old metal, cabin curtains, and -even cans of bully beef; there was no sign of dollars. - -“The fools were so busy picking up everything they could find lying -about they hadn’t time to search for the real stuff,” said Blood. -“Didn’t know of it.” - -“Well,” said Ginnell, “stick the ould truck back in the bags with the -insthruments; we’ll sort it out when we get aboard, and fling the -rubbish over and keep what’s worth keepin’.” - -Helped by the coolies, they refilled the bags, and left them in -position for carrying off, and then, led by Ginnell, they made round -the stern of the wreck to the port side. - -Now on the sea side the _Yan-Shan_ presented a bad enough picture of -desolation and destruction, but here on the land side the sight was -terrific. - -The great yellow funnel had crashed over onto the rocks, and lay with -lengths of the guys still adhering to it; a quarter boat, with bottom -half out, had gone the way of the funnel; crabs were crawling over -all sorts of raffle--broken spars, canvas from the bridge screen, -and woodwork of the chart house, while all forward of amidships, the -plates, beaten and twisted and ripped apart, showed cargo, held, or -in the act of escaping. One big packing case, free of the ship, had -resolved itself into staves round its once contents, a piano that -appeared perfectly uninjured. - -A rope ladder hung from the bulwarks amidships, and up it Ginnell went -followed by the others, reaching a roofless passage that had once been -the port alleyway. - -Here on the slanting deck one got a full picture of the ruin that -had come on the ship. The masts were gone as well as the funnel, -boats, ventilators--with the exception of the twisted cowl looking -seaward--bridge, chart house, all had vanished wholly or in part, a -picture made more impressive by the calm blue sky overhead and the -brilliancy of the sunlight. - -The locking bars had been removed from the cover of the fore hatch, -and the hatch opened evidently by the Chinese in search of plunder. -Ginnell scarcely turned an eye on it before he made aft, followed by -the others, reached the saloon companionway, and dived down it. - -If the confusion on deck was bad, it was worse below. The cabin doors -on either side were either open or off their hinges, bunk bedding, -mattresses, an open and rifled valise, some women’s clothes, an empty -cigar box, and a cage with a dead canary in it lay on the floor. - -The place looked as if an army of pillagers had been at work for days, -and the sight struck a chill to the hearts of the beholders. - -“We’re dished,” said Ginnell. “Quick, boys, if the stuffs anywhere, -it’ll be in the old man’s cabin; there’s no mail room in a packet like -this. If it’s not there, we’re done.” - -They found the Captain’s cabin; they found his papers tossed about, his -cash box open and empty, and a strong box clamped to the deck by the -bunk in the same condition. They found, to complete the business, an -English sovereign on the floor in a corner. - -Ginnell sat down on the edge of the bunk. - -“They’ve got the dollars,” said he. “That’s why they legged it so -quick, and--we let them go. Twenty thousand dollars in gold coin, and -we let them go. Tear an ages! Afther them!” He sprang from the bunk, -and dashed through the saloon, followed by the others. On deck, they -strained their eyes seaward, toward a brown spot on the blue far, far -away to the sou’west. It was the junk making a soldier’s wind of it, -every inch of sail spread. Judging by the distance she had covered, she -must have been making at least eight knots, and the _Heart of Ireland_ -under similar wind conditions was incapable of more than seven. - -“No good chasing her,” said Blood. - -“Not a happorth,” replied Ginnell. Then the quarrel began. - -“If you hadn’t held us pokin’ over them old sacks on the rocks there, -we’d maybe have had a chance of overhaulin’ her,” said Ginnell. - -“Sacks!” cried Blood. “What are you talking about? It was you who -let them go, shouting good day to them and telling them we’d got the -boodle!” - -“Boodle!” cried Ginnell. “You’re a nice chap to talk about boodle. You -did me up an’ collared me boat, and now you’re let down proper, and -serve you right.” - -Blood was about to reply in kind, when the dispute was cut short by a -loud yell from the engine-room hatch. - -Harman, having satisfied himself with a glance that all was up with the -junk, had gone poking about, and entered the engine-room hatchway. He -now appeared, shouting like a maniac. - -“The dollars!” he cried. “Two dead chinkies an’ the dollars!” - -He vanished again with a shout. They rushed to the hatch, and there, -on the steel grating leading to the ladder, curled together like two -cats that had died in battle, lay the Chinamen. Harman, kneeling beside -them, his hands at work on the neck of a tied sack that clinked as he -shook it with the glorious, rich, mellow sound that gold in bulk and -gold in specie alone can give. - -The lanyard came away, and Harman, plunging his big hand in, produced -it filled with British sovereigns. - -Not one of them moved or said a word for a moment; then Ginnell -suddenly squatted down on the grating beside Harman, and, taking a -sovereign between finger and thumb gingerly, as though he feared it -might burn him, examined it with a laugh. Then he bit it, spun it in -the air, caught it in his left hand, and brought his great right palm -down on it with a bang. - -“Hids or tails!” cried Ginnell. “Hids I win, tails you lose!” He gave a -coarse laugh as he opened his palm where the coin lay tail up. - -“Hids it is,” he cried; then he tossed it back into the bag and rose to -his feet. - -“Come on, boys,” said he, “let’s bring the stuff down to the saloon and -count it.” - -“Better get it aboard,” said Blood. - -Harman looked up. The grin on his face stamped by the finding of the -gold was still there, and in the light coming through the hatch his -forehead showed, beaded with sweat. - -“I’m with Ginnell,” said he. “Let’s get down to the saloon for an -overhaul. I can’t wait whiles we row off to the schooner. I wants to -feel the stuff, and I wants to divide it right off and now. Boys, we’re -rich; we sure are. It’s the stroke of my life, and I can’t wait for no -rowin’ on board no schooners before we divide up.” - -“Come on, then,” said Blood. - -The sack was much bigger than its contents, so there was plenty of grip -for him as he seized one corner. Then, Harman grasping it by the neck, -they lugged it out and along the deck and down the saloon companionway, -Ginnell following. - -The Chinese had opened nearly all the cabin portholes for the sake of -light to assist them in their plundering, and now, as Blood and Harman -placed the sack on the slanting saloon table, the crying of gulls -came clearly and derisively from the cliffs outside, mixed with the -hush of the sea and the boost of the swell as it broke, creaming and -squattering amid the rocks. The lackadaisical ventilator cowl, which -took an occasional movement from stray puffs of air, added its voice -now and then, whining and complaining like some lost yet inconsiderable -soul. - -No other sound could be heard as the three men ranged themselves, -Ginnell on the starboard, and Blood and Harman on the port side of the -table. - -The swivel seats, though all aslant, were practicable, and Harman was -in the act of taking his place in the seat he had chosen when Ginnell -interposed. - -“One moment, Mr. Harman,” said the owner of the _Heart of Ireland_, -“I’ve a word to say to you and Mr. Blood--sure, I beg your pardon--I -mane Capt’in Blood.” - -“Well,” said Blood, grasping a chair back, “what have you to say?” - -“Only this,” replied Ginnell, with a grin. “I’ve got back me revolver.” - -Blood clapped his hand to his pocket. It was empty. - -“I picked your pocket of it,” said Ginnell, producing the weapon, “two -minits back. You fired three shots over the heads of them chows, and -there’s three ca’tridges left in her. I can hit a dollar at twinty long -paces. Move an inch, either the one or other of you, and I’ll lay your -brains on the table forenint you.” - -They did not move, for they knew that he was in earnest. They knew that -if they moved he would begin to shoot, and if he began to shoot, he -would finish the job, leave their corpses on the floor, and sail off -with the dollars and his Chinese crew in perfect safety. There were no -witnesses. - -“Now,” said Ginnell, “what the pair of you has to do is this: Misther -Harman, you’ll go into that cabin behind you, climb on the upper bunk, -stick your head through the porthole, and shout to the coolies down -below there with the boat to come up. It’ll take two men to get them -dollars on deck and down to the wather side. When you’ve done that, the -pair of you will walk into the ould man’s cabin an’ say your prayers, -thanking the saints you’ve got off so easy, whiles I puts the bolt on -you till the dollars are away. And remimber this, one word or kick -from you and I shoot; the Chinamen will never tell.” - -“See here!” said Harman. - -“One word!” shouted Ginnell, suddenly dropping the mask of urbanity and -leveling the pistol. - -It was as though the tiger cat in his grimy soul had suddenly burst -bonds and mastered him. His finger pressed on the trigger, and the -next moment Harman’s brains, or what he had of them, might have been -literally “forenint” him on the table, when suddenly, tremendous as -the last trumpet, paralyzing as the inrush of a body of armed men, -booing and bellowing back from the cliffs in a hundred echoes came a -voice--the blast of a ship’s siren: - -“Huroop! Hirrip! Hurop! Haar--haar--haar!” - -Ginnell’s arm fell. Harman, forgetting everything, turned, dashed into -the cabin behind him, climbed on the upper bunk, and stuck his head -through the porthole. - -Then he dashed back into the saloon. - -“It’s the _Port of Amsterdam_,” cried Harman. “It’s the salvage ship; -she’s there droppin’ her anchor. We’re done, we’re dished--and we -foolin’ like this and they crawlin’ up on us.” - -“And you said she’d only do eight knots!” cried Blood. - -Ginnell flung the revolver on the floor. Every trace of the recent -occurrence had vanished, and the three men thought no more of one -another than a man thinks of petty matters in the face of dissolution. -Gunderman was outside; that was enough for them. - -“Boys,” said Ginnell, “ain’t there no way out with them dollars? S’pose -we howk them ashore?” - -“Cliffs two hundred foot high!” said Harman. “Not a chanst. We’re -dished.” - -Said Blood: “There’s only one thing left. We’ll walk the dollars down -to the boat and row off with them. Of course we’ll be stopped, still -there’s the chance that Gunderman may be drunk or something. It’s one -chance in a hundred billion; it’s the only one.” - -But Gunderman was not drunk, nor were his boat party, and the -court-martial he held on the beach in broken English and with the -sack of coin beside him as chief witness would form a bright page of -literature had one time to record it. - -Ginnell, as owner of the _Heart of Ireland_, received the whole brunt -of the storm--there was no hearing for him when, true to himself, he -tried to cast the onus of the business on Blood and Harman. He was told -to get out and be thankful he was not brought back to Frisco in irons, -and he obeyed instructions, rowing off to the schooner, he and Harman -and Blood, a melancholy party with the exception of Blood, who was -talking to Harman with extreme animation on the subject of beam engines. - -On deck, it was Blood who gave orders for hauling up the anchor and -setting sail. He had recaptured the revolver. - - - - -III A CARGO OF CHAMPAGNE - - -I - -Billy Meersam, an old sailor friend in Frisco, told me this story as -I was sitting one day on Rafferty’s wharf, contemplating the green -water, and smoking. Billy chewed and spat between paragraphs. We were -discussing Captain Pat Ginnell and his ways; and Billy, who had served -his time on hard ships, and, as a young man, on the _Three Brothers_, -that tragedy of the sea which now lies a coal hulk in Gibraltar -harbour, had quite a lot to say on hazing captains in general and -Captain Pat Ginnell in particular. - -“I had one trip with him,” said Billy, “shark catchin’ down the coast -in that old dough dish of his, the _Heart of Ireland_. Treated me crool -bad, he did; crool bad he treated me from first to last; his beef was -as hard as his fist, and bud barley he served out for coffee. He was -known all along the shore side, but he got his gruel at last, and got -it good. Now, by any chance did you ever hear of a Captain Mike Blood -and his mate, Billy Harman? Knew the parties, did you? Well, now, I’ll -tell you. Blood it were put the hood on Ginnell. Ginnell laid out to -get the better of Blood, and Blood, he got the better of Ginnell. He -and Harman signed on for a cruise in the _Heart of Ireland_; then they -rose on Ginnell, and took the ship and made him deck hand. They did -that. They made a line for a wreck they knew of on a rock be name of -San Juan, off the San Lucas Islands, and the three of them were peeling -that wreck, and they were just gettin’ twenty thousand dollars in gold -coin off her, when the party who’d bought the wreck, and his name was -Gunderman, lit down on them and collared the boodle and kicked them -back into their schooner, givin’ them the choice of makin’ an offing -or takin’ a free voyage back to Frisco, with a front seat in the -penitentiary thrown in. - -“It was a crool setback for them, the dollars hot in their hands one -minit and took away the next, you may say, but they didn’t quarrel over -it; they set out on a new lay, and this is what happened with Cap’ -Ginnell.” - -But, with Mr. Meersam’s leave, I will take the story from his mouth -and tell it in my own way, with additions gathered from the chief -protagonists and from other sources. - -When the three adventurers, dismissed with a caution by Gunderman, got -sail on the _Heart of Ireland_, they steered a sou’westerly course, -till San Juan was a speck to northward and the San Lucas Islands were -riding high on the sea on the port quarter. - -Then Blood hove the schooner to for a council of war, and Ginnell, -though reduced again to deck hand, was called into it. - -“Well,” said Blood, “that’s over and done with, and there’s no use -calling names. Question is what we’re to do now. We’ve missed twenty -thousand dollars through fooling and delaying, and we’ve got to make -good somehow, even on something small. If I had ten cents in my -pocket, Pat Ginnell, I’d leave you and your old shark boat for the -nearest point of land and hoof it back to Frisco; but I haven’t--worse -luck.” - -“There’s no use in carryin’ on like that,” said Harman. “Frisco’s no -use to you or me, and your boots would be pretty well wore out before -you got there. What I say is this: We’ve got a schooner that’s rigged -out for shark fishin’. Well, let’s go on that lay; we’ll give Ginnell a -third share, and he’ll share with us in payin’ the coolies. Shark oil’s -fetchin’ big prices now in Frisco. It’s not twenty thousand dollars, -but it’s somethin’.” - -Ginnell, leaning against the after rail and cutting himself a fill of -tobacco, laughed in a mirthless way. Then he spoke: “Shark fishin’, -begob; well, there’s a word to be said be me on that. You two thought -yourselves mighty clever, collarin’ me boat and makin’ yourselves -masthers of it. I don’t say you didn’t thrump me ace, I don’t say -you didn’t work it so that I can’t have the law on you, but I’ll say -this, Misther Harman, if you want to go shark fishin’, you can work -the business yourself, and a nice hand you’ll make of it. Why, you -don’t know the grounds, let alone the work. A third share, and me the -rightful owner of this tub! I’ll see you ham-strung before I put a hand -to it.” - -“Then get forrard,” said Harman. “Don’t know the grounds? Maybe I don’t -know the grounds you used to work farther north, but I know every foot -of the grounds here-a-way, right from the big kelp beds to the coast. -Why, I been on the fish-commission ship and worked with ’em all through -this part, takin’ soundin’s and specimens--rock, weed, an’ fish. Know -the bottom here as well as I know the pa’m of me hand.” - -“Well, if you know it so well, you’ve no need of me. Lay her on the -grounds yourself,” said Ginnell. - -He went forward. - -“Black sullen,” said Harman, looking after him. “He ain’t no use to -lead or drive. Well, let’s get her before the wind an’ crowd down -closer to Santa Catalina. I’m not sayin’ this is a good shark ground, -the sea’s too much of a blame’ fish circus just here--but it’s better -than nothin’.” - -They got the _Heart_ before the wind, which had died down to a -three-knot breeze, Blood steering and Harman forward, on the lookout. - -Harman was right, the sea round these coasts is a fish circus, to give -it no better name. - -The San Lucas Islands and Santa Catalina seem the rendezvous of most -of the big fish inhabiting the Pacific. Beginning with San Miguel, the -islands run almost parallel to the California coast in a sou’westerly -direction, and, seen now from the schooner’s deck, they might have been -likened to vast ships under press of sail, so tall were they above the -sea shimmer and so white in the sunshine their fog-filled cañons. - -Away south, miles and miles away across the blue water, the peaks of -Santa Catalina Island showed a dream of vague rose and gold. - -It was for Santa Catalina that Harman was making now. - -To tell the whole truth, bravely as he had talked of his knowledge -of these waters, he was not at all sure in his mind as to their -shark-bearing capacity. He did not know that for a boat whose business -was shark-liver oil, this bit of sea was not the happiest hunting -ground. - -Nothing is more mysterious than the way fish make streets in the sea -and keep to them; make cities, so to say, and inhabit them at certain -seasons; make playgrounds, and play in them. - -Off the north of Santa Catalina Island you will find Yellow Fin. Cruise -down on the seaward side and you will find a spot where the Yellow Fin -vanish and the Yellow Tail take their place; farther south you strike -the street of the White Sea Bass, which opens on to Halibut Square, -which, in turn, gives upon a vast area, where the Black Sea Bass, the -Swordfish, the Albacore, and the Whitefish are at home. - -Steer round the south of the island and you hit the suburbs of the -great fish city of the Santa Catalina Channel. The Grouper Banks are -its purlieus, and the Sunfish keeps guard of its southern gate. You -pass Barracuda Street and Bonito Street, till the roar of the Sea Lions -from their rocks tells you that you are approaching the Washington -Square of undersea things--the great Tuna grounds. - -Skirting the Tuna grounds, and right down the Santa Catalina Channel, -runs a Broadway which is also a Wall Street, where much business is -done in the way of locomotion and destruction. Here are the Killer -Whales and the Sulphur-bottom Whales and the Grey Whales, and the -Porpoises, Dolphins, Skipjacks, and Sand Dabs. - -Sharks you will find nearly everywhere, _but_, and this was a fact -unknown to Harman, the sharks, as compared to the other big fish, are -few and far between. - -It was getting toward sundown, when the schooner, under a freshening -wind, came along the seaward side of Santa Catalina Island. The island -on this side shows two large bays, separated by a rounded promontory. -In the northernmost of these bays they dropped anchor close in shore, -in fifteen-fathom water. - - -II - -At dawn next morning they got the gear ready. The Chinese crew, during -the night, had caught a plentiful supply of fish for bait, and, as the -sun was looking over the coast hills, they hauled up the anchor and put -out for the kelp beds. - -There are two great kelp beds off the seaward coast of Santa Catalina, -an inner and an outer. Two great submarine forests more thickly -populated than any forest on land. This is the haunt of the Black Sea -Bass that run in weight up to four hundred pounds, the Ribbon Fish, -the Frogfish, and the Kelpfish, that builds its nest just as a bird -builds, crabs innumerable, and sea creatures that have never yet been -classified or counted. - -They tied up to the kelp, and the fishing began, while the sun blazed -stronger upon the water and the morning mists died out of the cañons of -the island. - -The shark hooks baited and lowered were relieved of their bait, but not -by sharks; all sorts of bait snatchers inhabit these waters, and they -were now simply chewing the fish off the big shark hooks. - -Getting on for eleven o’clock, Blood, who had been keeping a restless -eye seaward, left his line and went forward with Ginnell’s glass, which -he levelled at the horizon. - -A sail on the sea line to the northwest had attracted his attention -an hour ago, and the fact that it had scarcely altered its position, -although there was a six-knot breeze blowing, had roused his curiosity. - -“What is it?” asked Harman. - -“Schooner hove to,” said Blood. “No, b’gosh, she’s not; she’s -abandoned.” - -At the word “abandoned,” Ginnell, who had been fishing for want of -something better to do, raised his head like a bird of prey. - -He also left his line, and came forward. Blood handed him the glass. - -“Faith, you’re right,” said Ginnell; “she’s a derelick. Boys, up with -them tomfool shark lines; here’s a chanst of somethin’ decent.” - -For once Blood and Harman were completely with him; the lines were -hauled in, the kelp connections broken, mainsail and jib set, and in a -moment, as it were, the _Heart of Ireland_ was bounding on the swell, -topsail and foresail shaking out now and bellying against the blue -till she heeled almost gunwale under to the merry wind, boosting the -green water from her bow, and sending the foam flooding in sheets to -starboard. - -It was as though the thought of plunder had put new heart and life into -her, as it certainly had into her owner, Pat Ginnell. - -As they drew nearer, they saw the condition of the schooner more -clearly. Derelict and deserted, yet with mainsail set, she hung there, -clawing at the wind and thrashing about in the mad manner of a vessel -commanded only by her tiller. - -Now the mainsail would fill and burst out, the boom swaying over to the -rattle of block and cordage. For a moment she would give an exhibition -of just how a ship ought to sail herself, and then, with a shudder, -the air would spill from the sail, and, like a daft woman in a blowing -wind, she would reel about with swinging gaff and boom to the tune of -the straining rigging, the pitter-patter of the reef points, and the -whine of the rudder nearly torn from its pintles. - -A couple of cable lengths away the _Heart of Ireland_ hove to, the -whaleboat was lowered, and Blood, Ginnell, and Harman, leaving -Chopstick Charlie in charge of the _Heart_, started for the derelict. -They came round the stern of the stranger, and read her name, -_Tamalpais_, done in letters that had been white, but were now a dingy -yellow. - -Then they came along the port side and hooked on to the fore channels, -while Blood and the others scrambled on deck. - -The deck was clean as a ballroom floor and sparkling with salt from -the dried spray; there was no raffle or disorder of any sort. Every -boat was gone, and the falls, swinging at full length from the davits, -proclaimed the fact that the crew had left the vessel in an orderly -manner, though hurriedly enough, no doubt; had abandoned her, leaving -the falls swinging and the rudder playing loose and the winds to do -what they willed with her. - -There was no sign of fire, no disorder that spoke of mutiny, though in -cargo and with a low freeboard, she rode free of water, one could tell -that by the movement of her underfoot. Fire, leak, mutiny, those are -the three reasons for the abandonment of a ship at sea, and there was -no sign of any one of them. - -Blood led the way aft, the saloon hatch was open, and they came down -into the tiny saloon. The sunlight through the starboard portholes -was spilling about in water shimmers on the pitch-pine panelling; -everything was in order, and a meal was set out on the table, which -showed a Maconochie jam tin, some boiled pork, and a basket of bread; -plates were laid for two, and the plates had been used. - -“Beats all,” said Harman, looking round. “Boys, this is a find as good -as the dollars. Derelict and not a cat on board, and she’s all of -ninety tons. Then there’s the cargo. B’ Jiminy, but we’re in luck!” - -“Let’s roust out the cabins,” said Ginnell. - -They found the Captain’s cabin, easily marked by its size and its -furniture. - -Some oilskins and old clothes were hanging up by the bunk, a sea chest -stood open. It had evidently been rifled of its most precious contents; -there was nothing much left in it but some clothes, a pair of sea -boots, and some worthless odds and ends. In a locker they found the -ship’s papers. Blood plunged into these, and announced his discoveries -to the others, crowding behind him and peeping over his shoulders. - -“Captain Keene, master--bound from Frisco to Sydney with cargo of -champagne----. And what in thunder is she doing down here? Never -mind--we’re the finders.” He tossed the papers back in the locker and -turned to the others. “No sign of the log. Most likely he’s taken it -off with him. What I want to see now is the cargo. If it’s champagne, -and not bottled bilge water, we’re made. Come along, boys.” - -He led the way on deck, and between them they got the tarpaulin cover -off the cargo hatch, undid the locking bars, and opened the hatch. - -The cargo was perfectly stowed, the cases of California champagne -ranged side by side, within touching distance of the hatch opening, and -the brands on the boxes answering to the wording of the manifest. - -Before doing anything more, Blood got the sail off the schooner, and -then, having cast an eye round the horizon, more for weather than -shipping, he came to the hatch edge and took his seat, with his feet -dangling and his toes touching the cases. The others stood while he -talked to them. - -“There’s some chaps,” said Blood, “who’d be for running crooked on this -game, taking the schooner off to some easy port and selling her and the -cargo, but I’m not going to go in for any such mug’s business as that. -Frisco and salvage money is my idea.” - -“And what about the _Yan-Shan_?” asked Ginnell. “Frisco will be -reekin’ with the story of how Gunderman found us pickin’ her bones and -how he caught us with the dollars in our hands. Don’t you think the -underwriters will put that up against us? Maybe they won’t say we’ve -murdered the crew of this hooker for the sake of the salvage! Our -characters are none too bright to be goin’ about with schooners and -cargoes of fizz, askin’ for salvage money.” - -“_Your_ character ain’t,” said Harman. “Speak for yourself when you’re -talkin’ of characters, and leave us out. I’m with Blood. I’ve had -enough of this shady business, and I ain’t goin’ to run crooked no -more. Frisco and salvage moneys--my game, b’sides, you needn’t come -into Frisco harbour. Lend us a couple of your hands to take her in, -and we’ll do the business and share equal with you in the takin’s. I -ain’t a man to go back on a pal for a few dirty dollars, and my word’s -as good as my bond all along the water side with pals. I ain’t sayin’ -nothin’ about owners or companies; I say with pals, and you’ll find -your share banked for you in the Bank of California, safe as if you’d -put it there yourself.” - -Ginnell for a moment seemed about to dissent violently from this -proposition; then, of a sudden, he fell calm. - -“Well,” said he, “maybe I’m wrong and maybe you’re right, but I ain’t -goin’ to hang behind. If you’ve fixed on taking her into Frisco, I’ll -follow you in and help in the swearin’. You two chaps can navigate her -with a couple of the coolies I’ll lend you, and, mind you, it’s equal -shares I’m askin’.” - -“Right,” said Harman. “What do you say, Blood?” - -“I’m agreeable,” said Blood; “though it’s more than he deserves, -considering all things.” - -“Well, I’m not goin’ to put up no arguments,” said Ginnell. “I states -me terms, and, now that’s fixed, I proposes we takes stock of the -cargo. Rig a tackle and get one of them cases on deck and let’s see if -the manifest holds when the wrappin’s is off.” - -The others agreed. With the help of a couple of the Chinamen from the -boat alongside, they rigged a tackle and got out a case. Harman, poking -about, produced a chisel and mallet from the hole where the schooner’s -carpenter had kept his tools, a strip of boarding was removed from -the top of the case, and next moment a champagne bottle, in its straw -jacket, was in the hands of Ginnell. - -“Packed careful,” said he. - -He removed the jacket and the pink tissue paper from the bottle, whose -gold capsule glittered delightfully in the sunlight. - -Then he knocked the bottle’s head off, and the amber wine creamed out -over his hands and onto the deck. - -Harman ran to the galley and fetched a pannikin, and they sampled the -stuff, and then Blood, taking the half-empty bottle, threw it overboard. - -“We don’t want any drinking,” said he; “and we’ll have to account -for every bottle. Now, then, get the lid fixed again and the case -back in the hold, and let’s see what’s in the lazaret in the way of -provisions.” - -They got the case back, closed the hatch, and then started on an -inspection of the stores, finding plenty of stuff in the way of pork -and rice and flour, but no delicacies. There was not an ounce of tea or -coffee, no sugar, no tobacco. - -“They must have took it all with them when they made off,” said Harman. - -“That’s easy mended,” replied Ginnell. “We can get some stores from the -_Heart_; s’pose I go off to her and fetch what’s wanted and leave you -two chaps here?” - -“Not on your life,” said Blood; “we all stick together, Pat Ginnell, -and so there’ll be no monkey tricks played. That’s straight. Get your -fellers into the boat and let’s shove off, then Harman and I can come -back with the stores and the hands you can lend us to work her.” - -“Faith, you’re all suspicious,” said Ginnell, with a grin. “Well, over -with you, and we’ll all go back together. I’m gettin’ to feel as if I -was married to you two chaps. However, there’s no use in grumblin’.” - -“Not a bit,” said Blood. - -He followed Ginnell into the whaleboat, and, leaving the _Tamalpais_ to -rock alone on the swell, they made back for the _Heart of Ireland_. - -Now, Ginnell, although he had agreed to go back to Frisco, had no -inclination to do so, the fact of the matter being that the place had -become too hot for him. - -He had played with smuggling, and had been friendly with the Greeks of -the Upper Bay and the Chinese of Petaluma. He had fished with Chinese -sturgeon lines, foul inventions of Satan, as all Chinese sporting, -hunting, and fishing contraptions are, and had fallen foul of the -patrol men; he had lit his path with blazing drunks as with bonfires, -mishandled his fellow creatures, robbed them, cheated them, and lied to -them. He had talked big in bars, and the wharf side of San Francisco -was sick of him; so, if you understand the strength of the wharf-side -stomach, you can form some estimate of the character of Captain -Ginnell. He knew quite well the feeling of the harbour side against -him, and he knew quite well how that feeling would be inflated at the -sight of him coming back triumphant, with a salved schooner in tow. -Then there was Gunderman. He feared Gunderman more than he feared the -devil, and he feared the story that Gunderman would have to tell even -more than he feared Gunderman. - -No, he had done with Frisco; he never would go back there again; he -had done with the _Heart of Ireland_. He would strike out again in -life with a new name and a new schooner and a cargo of champagne, sell -schooner and cargo, and make another start with still another name. - -Revolving this decision in his mind, he winked at the backs of Blood -and Harman as they went up the little companion ladder before him and -gained the deck of the _Heart of Ireland_. - -Blood led the way down to the cabin. The lazaret was situated under the -cabin floor, and, while Harman opened it, Blood, with a pencil and a -bit of paper, figured out their requirements. - -“We want a couple of tins of coffee,” said he, “and half a dozen of -condensed milk--sugar, biscuits--tobacco--beef.” - -“It’s sorry I am I haven’t any cigars to offer you,” said Ginnell, with -a half laugh, “but there’s some tins of sardines; be sure an’ take the -sardines, Mr. Harman, for me heart wouldn’t be aisy if I didn’t think -you were well supplied with comforts.” - -“I can’t find any sardines,” said the delving Harman, “but here’s baccy -enough, and eight tins of beef will be more than enough to get us to -Frisco.” - -“Take a dozen,” said Ginnell; “there ain’t more than a dozen all told; -but, sure, I’ll manage to do without, and never grumble so long as -you’re well supplied.” - -Blood glanced at him with an angry spark in his eye. - -“We’ve no wish to crowd you, Pat Ginnell,” said he, “and what we take -we pay for, or we will pay for it when we get to port. You’ll please -remember you’re talking to an Irishman.” - -“Irishman!” cried Ginnell. “You’ll be plazed to remember I’m an -Irishman, too.” - -“Well I know it,” replied the other. - -This remark, for some unaccountable reason, seemed to incense Ginnell. -He clenched his fists, stuck out his jaw, glanced Blood up and down, -and then, as if remembering something, brought himself under control -with a mighty effort. - -“There’s no use in talk,” said he; “we’d better be gettin’ on with our -business. You’ll want somethin’ in the way of a sack to cart all that -stuff off to the schooner. I’ll fetch you one.” - -He turned to the companion ladder and climbed it in a leisurely -fashion. On deck he took a deep breath and stood for a moment scanning -the horizon from north to south. Then he turned and cast his eyes over -Santa Catalina and the distant coast line. - -Not a sail was visible, nor the faintest indication of smoke in all -that stainless blue, sweeping in a great arc from the northern to the -southern limits of visibility. - -No one was present to watch Ginnell and what he was about to do. No one -save God and the sea gulls--for Chinese don’t count. - -He stepped to the cabin hatch. - -“Misther Harman!” cried he. - -“Hello!” answered Harman, from below. “Whacher want?” - -“It’s about the Bank of California I want to speak to you,” replied -Ginnell. - -Harman’s round and astonished face appeared at the foot of the ladder. - -“Bank of California?” said he. “What the blazes do you mean, Pat -Ginnell?” - -“Why, you said you’d put me share of the salvage in the Bank of -California, didn’t you?” replied Ginnell. “Well, I just want to say I’m -agreeable to your proposal--and will you be plazed to give the manager -me love when you see him?” - -With that he shut the hatch, fastening it securely and prisoning the -two men below, whose voices came now bearing indications of language -enough, one might fancy, to lift the deck. He knew it would take them a -day’s hard work to break out, and maybe two. Bad as Ginnell might be, -he was not a murderer, and he reckoned their chances were excellent -considering the provisions and water they had, their own energies, -and the drift of the current, which would take them close up to Santa -Catalina. - -He also reckoned that they would give him no trouble in the way of -pursuit, for he had literally made them a present of the _Heart of -Ireland_. - -Having satisfied himself that they were well and securely held, he sent -the whaleboat off to the _Tamalpais_, laden with the crew’s belongings, -consisting of all sorts of quaint boxes and mats. This was managed in -one journey; the boat came back for him, and, in less than an hour from -the start of the business, he found himself standing on the deck of -the _Tamalpais_, all the crew transferred, the fellows hauling on the -halyards, Chopstick Charlie at the helm, and a good schooner, with a -cargo worth many thousands of dollars, underfoot. - -He turned to have a look at the compass and a word with the steersman -before going below. - -Down below he had a complete turnout of the Captain’s cabin, and found -the log for which Harman had hunted in vain; it had got down between -the bunk bedding and the panelling, and he brought it into the main -cabin, and there, seated at the table, he pored over it, breathing hard -and following the passages with his horny thumb. - -The thing had been faked most obviously, and the faking had begun -two days out from Frisco. A gale that had never blown had driven the -_Tamalpais_ out of her course, et cetera; and Ginnell, with the eye of -a sailor and with his knowledge of the condition of the _Tamalpais_ -when found, saw at once that there was something here darker even than -the darkness that Blood and Harman had perceived. Why had the log been -faked? Why had the schooner been abandoned? If it were a question of -insurance, Captain Keene would have scuttled her or fired her. - -Then, again, everything spoke of haste amounting to panic. Why should a -vessel, in perfect condition and in good weather, be deserted as though -some visible plague had suddenly appeared on board of her? - -Ginnell closed the book and tossed it back in the bunk. - -“What’s the meaning of it?” - -Unhappy man, he was soon to find out. - -At eight o’clock next morning, in perfect weather, Ginnell, standing -by the steersman and casting his eyes around, saw across the heaving -blueness of the sea a smudge of smoke on the western horizon. A few -minutes later, as the smoke cleared, he made out the form of the vessel -that had been firing up. - -Captain Keene had left an old pair of binoculars among the other truck -in his cabin. Ginnell went down and fetched them on deck, then he -looked. - -The stranger was a torpedo boat; she was making due south, and, like -all torpedo boats, she seemed in a hurry. - -Then, all at once, and even as he looked, her form began to alter, she -shortened mysteriously, and her two funnels became gradually one. - -She had altered her course; she had evidently sighted, and was making -direct for, the _Tamalpais_. Not exactly direct, perhaps, but directly -enough to make Ginnell’s lips dry as sandstone. - -“Bad cess to her,” said Ginnell to himself; “there’s no use in doin’ -anythin’ but pretendin’ to be deaf and dumb. And, sure, aren’t I an -honest trader, with all me credentials, Capt’in Keene, of Frisco, blown -out of me course, me mate washed overboard? Let her come.” - -She came without any letting. Shearing along through the water, -across which the hubbub of her engines could be distinctly heard, and -within signalling distance, now, she let fly a string of bunting to -the breeze, an order to heave to, which the _Tamalpais_, that honest -trader, disregarded. - -Then came a puff of white smoke, the boom of a gun, and a practice -shell that raised a plume of spray a cable length in front of the -schooner, and went off, making ducks and drakes for miles across the -blue sea. - -Ginnell rushed to the halyards himself. Chopstick Charlie, at the -wheel, required no orders, and the _Tamalpais_ came round, with all -her canvas spilling the wind and slatting, while the warship, stealing -along now with just a ripple at her stern, came gliding past the stem -of the schooner. - -They were taking her name, just as a policeman takes the number of a -motor car. - -It was a ghastly business. No cheery voice, with the inquiry: “What’s -your name and where are you bound for?” Just a silent inspection, and -then a dropped boat. - -Next moment a lieutenant of the American navy was coming over the side -of the _Tamalpais_, to be received by Ginnell. - -“Captain Keene?” asked the lieutenant. - -“That’s me name,” answered the unfortunate, who had determined on the -rôle of the blustering innocent; “and who are you, to be boardin’ me -like this and firing guns at me?” - -“Well, of all the----cheek!” said the other, with a laugh. “A nice -dance you’ve led us since we lost you in that fog.” - -“Which fog?” asked the astonished Ginnell. “Fog! It’s some other ship -you’re after, for I haven’t sighted a fog since leavin’ port.” - -“Oh, close up!” said the other. - -His men, who had come on board, were busy with the covering of the main -hatch, and he walked forward, to superintend. - -The hatch cover off, they rigged a tackle and hauled out a case of -champagne; four cases of champagne they brought on deck, and then, -attacking the next layer, they brought out a case of a different -description. It contained a machine gun. - -Under the champagne layer, the _Tamalpais_ was crammed right down to -the garboard strakes with contraband of war in the form of arms and -ammunition for the small South American republic that was just then -kicking up a dust around its murdered president. - -Ginnell saw his own position at a glance. The _Heart of Ireland_ given -away to Blood and Harman for the captaincy of a gun runner, and a -seized gun runner at that. - -He saw now why Keene and his crew had deserted in a hurry. Chased by -the warship, and running into a fog, they had slipped away in the -boats, making for the coast, while the pursuer had made a dead-west run -of it to clear herself of the dangerous coast waters and their rocks -and shoals. - -That was plain enough to Ginnell, but the prospect ahead of him was not -clear at all. - -He could never confess the truth about the _Heart of Ireland_, and, -when they took him back to Frisco, it would at once be discovered that -he was not Keene, but Ginnell. What would happen to him? - -What did happen to him? I don’t know. Billy Meersam could throw no -light on the matter. He said that he believed the thing was “hushed up -somehow or ’nother,” finishing with the opinion that a good many things -are hushed up somehow or ’nother in Frisco. - - - - -IV AVALON BAY - - -I - -Avalon Bay, on the east of Santa Catalina Island, clips between its -two horns a little seaside town unique of its kind. Billy Harman had -described it to Captain Blood as a place where you saw girls bathing in -Paris hats. However that may be, you see stranger things than this at -Avalon. - -It is the head centre of the big-game fisheries of the California -coast. Men come here from all parts of America and Europe to kill -tarpon and yellow-tail and black sea bass, to say nothing of shark, -which is reckoned now as a game fish. Trippers come from Los Angeles to -go round in glass-bottomed boats and inspect the sea gardens, and bank -presidents, Steel Trust men, and millionaires of every brand come for -their health. - -You will see monstrous shark gallowsed on the beach and -three-hundred-pound bass being photographed side by side with their -captors, and you will have the fact borne in on you that the biggest -fish that haunt the sea can be caught and held and brought to gaff with -a rod weighing only a few ounces and a twenty-strand line that a child -could snap. - -Every one talks fish at Avalon, from the boatmen who run the gasoline -launches to the latest-arrived man with a nerve breakdown who has come -from the wheat pit or Wall Street to rest himself by killing sharks or -fighting tuna, every one. Here you are estimated not by the size of -your bank balance, but by the size of your catch. Not by your social -position, but by your position in sport, and here the magic blue or red -button of the Tuna Club is a decoration more prized than any foreign -order done in diamonds. - -Colonel Culpepper and his daughter, Rose, were staying at Avalon just -at the time the _Yan-Shan_ business occurred on San Juan. The colonel -hailed from the Middle West and had a wide reputation on account of -his luck and his millions. Rose had a reputation of her own; she was -reckoned the prettiest girl wherever she went, and just now she was the -prettiest girl in Avalon. - -This morning, just after dawn, Miss Culpepper was standing on the -veranda of the Metropole Hotel, where the darkies were dusting mats and -putting the cane chairs in order. Avalon was still half in shadows, -but a gorgeous morning hinted of itself in the blue sky overhead and -the touch of dusk-blue sea visible from the veranda. The girl had come -down undecided as to whether she would go on the water or for a ramble -inland, but the peep of blue sea decided her. It was irresistible, and, -leaving the hotel, she came toward the beach. - -No one was out yet. In half an hour or less the place would be alive -with boatmen, but in this moment of enchantment not a soul was to be -seen either on the premises of the Tuna Club or on the little _plage_ -or on the shingle, where the small waves were breaking, crystal clear, -in the first rays of the sun. - -She came to a balk of timber lying close to the water’s edge, stood by -it for a moment, and then sat down, nursing her knees and contemplating -the scene before her--the sun-smitten sea looking fresh, as though this -were the first morning that had ever shone on the world, the white -gulls flying against the blue of the sky, the gasoline launches and -sailing boats anchored out from the shore and only waiting the boatmen, -the gaffers, the men with rods, and the resumption of the eternal -business--Fish. - -The sight of them raised no desire in the mind of the gazer; she was -tired of fish. A lover of the sea, a fearless sailor and able to handle -a boat as well as a man, she was still weary of the eternal subject -of weights and measures; she had lived in an atmosphere of fish for a -month, and, not being much of a fisherwoman, she was beginning to want -a change, or, at all events, some new excitement. She was to get it. - -A crunching of the shingle behind her made her turn. It was Aransas -Joe, the first boatman out that morning, moving like a seal to the sea -and laden with a huge can of bait, a spare spar, two sculls, and a gaff. - -Anything more unlovely than Aransas Joe in contrast with the fair -morning and the fresh figure of the girl, it would be hard to imagine. -Wall-eyed, weather-stained, fish-scaled, and moving like a plantigrade, -he was a living epitome of longshore life and an object lesson in what -it can do for a man. - -Joe never went fishing; the beach was his home, and sculling fishermen -to their yawls his business. The Culpeppers were well known to him. - -“Joe,” said the girl, “you’re just the person I want. Come and row me -out to our yawl.” - -“Where’s your gaffer an’ your engine man?” asked Joe. - -“I don’t want them. I can look after the engine myself. I’m not going -fishing.” - -“Not goin’ fishin’,” said Joe, putting down his can of bait and -shifting the spar to his left shoulder; “not goin’ fishin’! Then what -d’you want doin’ with the yawl?” - -“I want to go for a sail--I mean a spin. Go on, hurry up and get the -dinghy down.” - -Joe relieved himself of the spar, dropped the gaff by the bait tin, and -scratched his head. It was his method of thinking. - -Unable to scratch up any formulable objection to the idea of a person -taking a fishing yawl out for pleasure and not for fish, yet realising -the absurdity of it, he was dumb. Then, with the sculls under his arm, -he made for a dinghy beached near the water edge, threw the sculls in, -and dragged the little boat down till she was half afloat. The girl got -in, and he pushed off. - -The _Sunfish_ was the name of the Culpeppers’ yawl, a handy little -craft rigged with a Buffalo engine so fixed that one could attend to it -and steer at the same time. - -“Mind you, and keep clear of the kelp,” said Joe, as the girl stepped -from the dinghy to the larger craft, “if you don’t want your propeller -tangled up.” He helped her to haul the anchor in, got into the dinghy, -and shoved off. - -“I’ll be back about eight or nine,” she called after him. - -“I’ll be on the lookout for you,” replied he. - -Then Miss Culpepper found herself in the delightful position of being -absolutely alone and her own mistress, captain and crew of a craft that -moved at the turning of a lever, and able to go where she pleased. She -had often been out with her father, but never alone like this, and the -responsible-irresponsible sensation was a new delight in life which, -until now, she had never even imagined. - -She started the engine, and the _Sunfish_ began to glide ahead, -clearing the fleet of little boats anchored out and rocking them with -her wash; then, in a grand curve, she came round the south horn of -the bay opening the coast of the island and the southern sea blue as -lazulite and speckless to the far horizon. - -“This is good,” said Miss Culpepper to herself; “almost as good as -being a sea gull.” - -Sea gulls raced her, jeered at her, showed themselves to her, now -honey yellow against the sun, now snowflake white with the sun against -them, and then left her, quarrelling away down the wind in search of -something more profitable. - -She passed little bays where the sea sang on beaches of pebble, and -deep-cut cañons rose-tinted and showing the green of fern and the ash -green of snake cactus and prickly pear. Sea lions sunning themselves on -a rock held her eye for a moment, and then, rounding the south end of -the island, a puff of westerly wind all the way from China blew in her -face, and the vision of the great Pacific opened before her, with the -peaks of San Clemente showing on the horizon twenty-four miles away to -the southwest. - -Not a ship was to be seen, with the exception of a little schooner to -southward. She showed bare sticks, and Miss Culpepper, not knowing the -depth of the water just there, judged her to be at anchor. - -Here, clear of the island barrier, the vast and endless swell of the -Pacific made itself felt, lifting the _Sunfish_ with a buoyant and -balloonlike motion. Steering the swift-running boat across these gentle -vales and meadows of ocean was yet another delight, and the flying -fish, bright like frosted silver, with black, sightless eyes, chased -her now, flittering into the water ahead of the boat like shaftless -arrowheads shot after her by some invisible marksman. - -The great kelp beds oiled the sea to the northward, and, remembering -Joe’s advice, but not wishing to return yet a while, the girl shifted -the helm slightly, heading more for the southward and making a beam sea -of the swell. This brought the schooner in sight. - -It was now a little after seven, and the appetite that waits upon good -digestion, youth, and perfect health began to remind Miss Culpepper -of the breakfast room at the Metropole, the snow-white tables, the -attentive waiters. She glanced at her gold wrist watch, glanced round -at Santa Catalina, that seemed a tremendous distance away, and put the -helm hard astarboard. - -She had not noticed during the last half minute or so that the engine -seemed tired and irritable. The sudden shift of helm seemed to upset -its temper still more, and then, all of a sudden, its noise stopped and -the propeller ceased to revolve. - -Miss Culpepper, perhaps for the first time in her life, knew the -meaning of the word “silence.” The silence that spreads from the Horn -to the Yukon, from Mexico to Hongkong, held off up to this by the beat -of the propeller and the purr of the engine, closed in on her, broken -only by the faint ripple of the bow wash as the way fell off the boat. - -She guessed at once what was the matter, and confirmed her suspicions -by examining the gasoline gauge. The tank was empty. Aransas Joe, whose -duty it was, had forgotten to fill it up the night before. - -Of all breakdowns this was the worst, but she did not grumble; the -spirit that had raised Million Dollar Culpepper from nothing to -affluence was not wanting in his daughter. - -She said, “Bother!” glanced at Santa Catalina, glanced at the -schooner, and then, stepping the mast of the yawl, shook out her sail -to the wind. She was steering for the schooner. It was near, the island -was far, and she reckoned on getting something to eat to stay her on -the long sail back; also, somehow, the sudden longing for the sight of -a human face and the sound of a human voice in that awful loneliness -on whose fringe she had intruded had fallen upon her. There were sure -to be sailormen of some sort upon the schooner, and where there were -sailormen there was sure to be food of some sort. - -But there was no one to be seen upon the deck, and, as she drew closer, -the atmosphere of forsakenness around the little craft became ever -apparent. As she drew closer still she let go the sheet and furled the -sail. So cleverly had she judged the distance that the boat had just -way enough on to bring it rubbing against the schooner’s starboard -side. She had cast out the port fenders, and, standing at the bow with -the boat hook, she clutched onto the after channels, tied up, and then, -standing on the yawl’s gunwale, and, with an agility none the less -marked because nobody was looking, scrambled on board. She had not time -to more than glance at the empty and desolate deck, for scarcely had -her foot touched the planking when noises came from below. There were -people evidently in the cabin and they were shouting. - -Then she saw that the cabin hatch was closed, and, not pausing to -consider what she might be letting out, the girl mastered the working -of the hatch fastening, undid it, and stepped aside. - -The fore end of a sailorman emerged, a broad-faced, blue-eyed -individual blinking against the sunlight. He scrambled on deck, and was -followed by another, dark, better looking, and younger. - -Not a word did these people utter as they stood taking in everything -round them from the horizon to the girl. - -Then the first described brought his eyes to rest on the girl. - -“Well, I’m darned!” said he. - - -II - -Let me interpolate now Mr. Harman’s part of the story in his own words. - -“When Cap Ginnell bottled me and Blood in the cabin of the _Heart of -Ireland_,” said he, “we did a bit of shoutin’ and then fell quiet. -There ain’t no use in shoutin’ against a two-inch thick cabin hatch -overlaid with iron platin’. He’d made that hatch on purpose for the -bottling of parties; must have, by the way it worked and by the -armamints on it. - -“You may say we were mugs to let ourselves be bottled like that. We -were. Y’ see, we hadn’t thought it over. We hadn’t thought it would pay -Ginnell to abandon the _Heart_ for a derelick schooner better found and -up to her hatches with a cargo of champagne, or we wouldn’t have let -him fool us down into the cabin like we did and then clap the hatch -on us. Leavin’ alone the better exchange, we hadn’t thought it would -be nuts to him to do us in the eye. Mugs we were, and mugs we found -ourselves, sittin’ on the cabin table and listenin’ to the blighter -clearin’ the crew off. There weren’t no chance of any help from them. -Chows they were, carin’ for nothin’ s’long as their chests an’ opium -pipes was safe. - -“The skylight overhead was no use for more’n a cat to crawl through, if -it’d been open, which it wasn’t, more’n an inch, and fastened from the -deck side. Portholes! God bless you, them scuttles wasn’t big enough -for a cat’s face to fit in. - -“I says to Blood: ‘Listen to the blighters! Oh, say, can’t we do -nuthin’, sittin’ here on our beam ends? Ain’t you got nuthin’ in your -head? Ain’t you got a match in your pocket to fire the tub and be done -with it?’ - -“‘It’ll be lucky for us,’ says Blood, ‘if Cap Ginnell doesn’t fire her -before he leaves her.’ With that, I didn’t think anythin’ more about -matches. No, sir! For ha’f an hour after the last boatload of Chows -and their dunnage was off the ship and away I was sniffin’ like a dog -at the hatch cover for the smell of smoke, and prayin’ to the A’mighty -between sniffs. - -“After that we rousted round to see how we were fixed up for -provisions and water. We found grub enough for a month, and in one of -the bunks a breaker ha’f filled with water. Now that breaker must have -been put there for us by Ginnell before we left the _Heart_ to ’xamine -the derelick schooner. He must have fixed in his mind to do us in and -change ship right from the first. I remarks on this to Blood, and -then we starts a hunt for tools to cut our way out of there, findin’ -nuthin’ serviceable but cutlery ware an’ a corkscrew. Two prong forks -and knives wore thin with usin’ weren’t what we were searchin’ for; a -burglar’s jimmy, blastin’ powder, and a drill was more in our line, -but there weren’t any, so we just set to with the knives, cuttin’ and -scrubbin’ at the tender parts of the hatch, more like tryin’ to tickle -a girl with iron stays on her than any useful work, for the plates on -that hatch would ’a’ given sniff to the plates on a battleship, till -I give over and just sat down on the floor cursin’ Schwab and the -Steel Trusts and Carnegie and Ginnell and the chap that had forged -them plates from the tip of his hammer to the toe of his boots. ‘Oh, -why the blazes,’ says I, ‘weren’t we born rats! There’s some sense in -rats; rats would be out and on deck, while here’s two chaps with five -fingers on each fist and men’s brains in their heads bottled and done -for, scratchin’ like blind kittens shet up in a box, and all along of -puttin’ their trust in a swab they ought to have scragged when they had -the chanst.’ - -“‘Oh, shet your head!’ says Blood. - -“‘Shet yours,’ says I. ‘I’m speakin’ for both of us; it’s joining in -with that skrimshanker’s done us. Bad comp’ny, neither more nor neither -less, and I’m blowed if I don’t quit such and their likes and turn -Baptis’ minister if I ever lay leg ashore again.’ Yes, that’s what I -says to Cap Blood; I was that het up I laid for everythin’ in sight. -Then I goes on at him for the little we’d done, forgettin’ it was the -tools were at fault. ‘What’s the use,’ says I, ‘tinkerin’ away at that -hatch? You might as well be puttin’ a blister on a bald head, hopin’ to -raise hair. Here we are, and here we stick,’ I says, ‘till Providence -lets us out.’ - -“The words were scarce out of my head when he whips out Ginnell’s gun, -which he was carryin’ in his pocket and hadn’t remembered till then. I -thought he was goin’ to lay for me, till he points the mouth of it at -the hatch and lets blaze. There were three ca’tridges in the thing, and -he fires the three, and when I’d got back my hearing and the smoke had -cleared a bit there was the hatch starin’ at us unrattled, with three -spelters of lead markin’ it like beauty spots over the three dimples -left by the bullets. - -“All the same, the firin’ done us good--sort of cleared the air like -a thunder-storm--and I began to remember I’d got a mouth on me and a -pipe in my pocket. We lit up and sat down, him on the last step of the -companionway and me on the table side, and then we began to figure on -what hand Providence was like to take in the business. - -“I says to him: ‘There’s nothin’ _but_ Providence left, barrin’ them -old knives and that corkscrew, and they’re out of count. We’re driftin’ -on the _Kuro Shiwo_ current, aimin’ right for the Horn, you may say, -but there’s the kelp beds, and they’re pretty sure to hold us a bit. -They’re south of us, and Santa Catalina’s east of them, with lots of -fishin’ boats sure to be out, and it’s on the cards that some of them -jays will spot us. “Derelick” is writ all over us--bare sticks and -nothin’ on deck, and sluin’ about to the current like a drunk goin’ -home in the mornin’.’ - -“The Cap he cocks his eye up at the telltale compass fixed on the beam -overhead of him. It cheered him up a bit with its deviations, and he -allowed there might be somethin’ in the Providence business if the kelp -beds only held good. - -“‘Failin’ them,’ he says, ‘it’s the Horn and a clear sea all the way to -it, with the chance of bein’ passed be day or rammed at night by some -rotten freighter. I don’t know much about Providence,’ he says, ‘but if -you give me the choice between the two, I’ll take the kelp beds.’ - -“Blood hadn’t no more feelin’s for religion in him than a turkey. -He was a book-read man, and I’ve took notice that nothin’ shakes a -sailorman in his foundations s’ much as messin’ with books. - -“I don’t say my own religious feelin’s run equal, but they gets me by -the scruff after a jag and rubs me nose in it, and they lays for me -when I’m lonely, times, with no money or the chanst of it in sight; -times, they’ve near caught me and made good on the clutch, so’s that if -I’m not bangin’ a drum in the Sa’vation Army at this present minit it’s -only be the mercy of Providence. I’ve had close shaves, bein’ a man of -natural feelin’s, of all the traps laid for such, but Blood he held his -own course, and not bein’ able to see that the kelp beds might have -been put there by Providence to hold us a bit--which they were--and -give us a chanst of bein’ overhauled before makin’ a long board for the -Horn and sure damnation, I didn’t set out to ’lighten him. - -“Well, folks, that day passed somehow or nuther, us takin’ spells at -the hatch to put in the time. Blood he found a spare ca’tridge of -Ginnell’s, and the thought came to him to scrape a hole at the foot -of the hatch cover and use the ca’tridge for a blastin’ charge. The -corkscrew came in handy for this, and toward night he’d got the thing -fixed. ‘Now,’ says he, ‘you’ll see somethin’!’ And he up with the -revolver and hit the ca’tridge a belt with the butt end, and the durned -thing backfires and near blew his head off. - -“After that we lit the cabin lamp and had supper and went asleep, and -early next mornin’ I was woke by the noise of a boat comin’ alongside. -I sat up and shook Blood, and we listened. - -“Then we began to shout and bang on the hatch, and all at once the -fastening went, and all at once the sun blazed on us, and next minit -I was on deck, with Blood after me. Now what d’you think had let us -out? I’ll give you twenty shots and lay you a dollar you don’t hit the -bull’s-eye. A girl! That’s what had let us out. Dressed in white, she -were, with a panama on her head and a gold watch on her wrist and white -shoes on her feet and a smile on her face like the sun dazzle on water. -And pretty! Well, I guess I’m no beauty-show judge, and my eyes had -lit on nothin’ prettier than Ginnell since leavin’ Frisco, so I may -have been out of my reckonin’ on points of beauty, but she were pretty. -Lord love me, I never want to see nothin’ prettier! I let out an oath, -I was that shook up at the sight of her, and Blood he hit me a drive in -the back that nigh sent me into her arms, and then we settled down and -explained matters. - -“She was out from Avalon in a motor boat, and she’d run short of spirit -and sailed up to us, thinkin’ we were at anchor. Providence! I should -think so! Providence and the kelp beds, for only for them we’d have -been twenty miles to the s’uth’ard, driftin’ to Hades like hutched -badgers on a mill stream. We told her how Ginnell had fixed us, and she -told us how the gasoline had fixed her. ‘And now,’ says she, ‘will you -give me a biskit, for I’m hungry and I wants to get back to Avalon, -where my poppa is waitin’ for me, and he’ll be gettin’ narvous,’ she -says. - -“‘Lord love you,’ says I, ‘and how do you propose to get back?’ - -“For the wind had fallen a dead ca’m, and right to Catalina and over -to San Clemente the sea lay like plate glass, with the _Kuro Shiwo_ -flowin’ under like a blue satin snake. - -“She bit on her lip, but she was all sand, that girl--Culpepper were -her name--and not a word did she say for a minit. Then she says, aimin’ -to be cheerful: ‘Well, I suppose,’ says she, ‘we’ll just have to stay -at anchor here till they fetch me or the wind comes.’ - -“‘Anchor!’ said I. ‘Why, Lord bless you, there’s a mile-deep water -under us! We’re driftin’.’ - -“‘Driftin’!’ she cries. ‘And where are we driftin’ to?’ - -“That fetched me, and I was hangin’ in irons when Blood chipped in and -cheered her up with lies and told me to stay with her whiles he went -down below and got some breakfast ready, and then I was left alone with -her, trustin’ in Providence she wouldn’t ask no more questions as to -where we were driftin’ to. - -“She sat on the cargo hatch whiles I filled a pipe, lookin’ round about -her like a cat in a new house, and then she got mighty chummy. I don’t -know how she worked it, but in ten minits she’d got all about myself -out of me and all about Ginnell and Blood and the _Yan-Shan_ and the -dollars we’d missed; she’d learned that I never was married and who -was me father and why I went to sea at first start. Right down to the -colour of me first pair of pants she had it all out of me. She was a -sure-enough lady, but I reckon she missed her vocation in not bein’ -a bilge pump. Then she heaves a sigh at the sound of ham frying down -below, and hoped that breakfast was near ready, and right on her words -Blood hailed us from below. - -“He’d opened the skylight wide and knocked the stuffiness out of the -cabin, and down we sat at the table with fried ham and ship’s bread and -coffee before us. - -“I’d never set at table with the likes of her before, but if every real -lady’s cut on her bias, I wouldn’t mind settin’ at table with one -every day in me life. There was only two knives left whole after our -practice on the hatch with them. Blood and she had the whole ones, and -I made out with a stump, but she didn’t mind nor take notice. She was -talkin’ away all the time she was stuffin’ herself, pitchin’ into Cap -Ginnell just like one of us. Oh, I guess if she’d been a man she’d have -swore worth listenin’ to; she had the turn of the tongue for the work, -and what she said about Ginnell might have been said in chapel without -makin’ parties raise a hair, but I reckon it’d have raised blisters on -the soul of Pat Ginnell if he’d been by to hear and if he’d a soul to -blister, which he hasn’t.” - -Mr. Harman relit his pipe, and seemed for a moment absorbed in -contemplation of Miss Culpepper and her possibilities as a plain -speaker; then he resumed: - -“She made us tell her all over again about the _Yan-Shan_ business and -the dollars, and she allowed we were down on our luck, and she put -her finger on the spot. Said she: ‘You fell through by not goin’ on -treatin’ Ginnell as you begun treatin’ him. If he was bad enough to -be used that way, he wasn’t even good enough for you to make friends -with.’ Them wasn’t her words, but it was her meanin’. - -“Then we left her to make her t’ilet with Blood’s comb and brush, -tellin’ her she could have the cabin to herself as long as she was -aboard, and, ten minutes after, she was on deck again, bright as a new -pin, and scarce had she stuck her head into the sun than Blood, who was -aft, dealin’ with some old truck, shouts: ‘Here’s the wind!’ - -“It was coming up from s’uth’ard like a field of blue barley, and I -took the wheel, and Blood and her ran to the halyards. She hauled -like a good un, and the old _Heart_ sniffed and shook at the breeze, -and I tell you it livened me up again to feel the kick of the wheel. -We’d got the motor boat streamed astern on a line, and then I gave the -old _Heart_ the helm, and round she came, so that in a minit we were -headin’ for Santa Catalina hull down on the horizon and only her spars -showin’, so to speak. I thought that girl would ’a’ gone mad. Not at -the chanst of gettin’ back, but just from the pleasure of feelin’ -herself on a live ship and helpin’ to handle her. I let her have the -wheel, and she steered good, and all the time Santa Catalina was -liftin’, and now we could see with the glass that the water all round -the south end was thick with boats. - -“‘They’re huntin’ for me,’ said she. ‘I guess poppa is in one of them -boats,’ she says, ‘and won’t he be surprised when he finds I ain’t -drowned? Your fortunes is made,’ says she, ‘for pop owns the ha’f of -Minneapolis, and I guess he’ll give you ha’f of what he owns. _You_ -wait till you hear the yarn I’ll sling him----. Here they come!’ - -“They sighted us, and ha’f a hundred gasoline launches were nose end on -for us, fanning out like a regatta, and in the leadin’ launch sat an -old chap with white whiskers and a fifty-dollar panama on his head. - -“‘That’s pop,’ she said. - -“He were, and we hove to, whiles he came climbin’ on board like a -turtle, one leg over the bulwarks and one arm round her neck, and then -up went a hallelujah chorus from that crowd of craft round us, women -wavin’ handkerchiefs and blowin’ their noses and blubbing nuff to make -a camel sick. - -“Then he and she went down to the cabin to make explanashions, and the -parties in the boats tried to board us, till I threatened them with a -boat hook and made them fend off while we got way on the _Heart_. - -“When we were near into Avalon Bay, the Culps came on deck, and old man -Culpepper took off his hat to me and Blood and made us a speech, sayin’ -we’d lifted weights off his heart, and all such. - -“‘Never mind,’ says Blood, ‘we haven’t done nuthin’. Put it all down to -Providence,’ says he, ‘for if we saved her she saved us, and I ain’t -used to bein’ thanked for nothin’.’ - -“But, Lord bless you, you might as well have tried to stop the -Mississippi in flood as that old party when he’d got his thank gates -up. He said we were an honour to merchant seamen, which we weren’t, -and the great American nation--and Blood black Irish and me Welsh, with -an uncle that was a Dutchman--and then I’m blest if he didn’t burst -into po’try about the flag that waves over us all. - -“It began to look like ten thousand dollars in gold coin for each of -us, and more than like it when we’d dropped anchor in the bay and he -told us to come ashore with him. - -“Now I don’t know how longshore folk[1] have such sharp noses, but I do -know them longshore boatmen on Avalon Beach seemed to know by the cut -of the _Heart_ and us we weren’t no simple seamen, with flags wavin’ -over us and an honour to our what-you-call-it navy. They sniffed at us -by some instinct or other, more special a wall-eyed kangaroo by the -name of Aransas Jim, I think it were. - -“Said nothin’ much, seein’ old man Culp was disembarkin’ us with an arm -round each of our necks, so to say, but we took up their looks, and I’d -to lay pretty strong holts on myself or I’d have biffed the blighters, -lot o’ screw-neck mongrels, so’s their mothers wouldn’t have known -which was which when sortin’ the manglin’. - -“Now you listen to what happened then. Culp he took us up to a big -hotel, where niggers served us with a feed in a room by ourselves. -Champagne they give us, and all sorts of truck _I’d_ never set eyes on -before. And when it was over in came old man Culp with an envelope in -his hand, which he gives to Blood. - -“‘Just a few dollars for you and your mate,’ says he, ‘and you have my -regards always.’ - -“The girl she came in and near kissed us, and off we went with big -cigars in our mouths, feelin’ we were made men. The longshoremen were -still on the beach scratchin’ the fleas off themselves and talkin’, -I expec’, of the next millionaire they could rob by pretendin’ to be -fishermen. Blood he picked up a pebble on the shingle and put it in his -pocket, and when the longshore louts saw us comin’, smokin’ cigars -and walkin’ arrogant, they made sure old man Culp had given us ha’f a -million, and they looked it. All them noses of theirs weren’t turned up -just now. They saw dollars comin’ and hoped for a share. - -“‘Here, you chap,’ says Blood to Aransas Jim or Aransas Joe or -whichever was his name, ‘help us to push our boat off and I’ll make -it worth your while.’ The chap does, and wades after us, when we were -afloat, for his dues. He held out his hand, and Blood he clapped the -pebble into it, and off we shot with them helaballoing after us. - -“Much we cared. - -“On board the _Heart_, we tumbled down to the cabin to ’xamine our -luck. Blood takes the envelope from his pocket, slits it open, and -takes out a little check that was in it. How much for, d’you think? -Five thousand dollars? No, it weren’t. - -“Twenty dollars was writ on it. Twenty dollars, no cents. - -“‘Say, Blood,’ says I to him, ‘you’ve got the pebble this time.’ - -“Blood he folded the check up and lit his pipe with it. Then he says, -talkin’ in a satisfied manner ’s if to himself: - -“‘It were worth it.’ - -“That’s all he said. And, comin’ to think of it now meself, it were.” - -FOOTNOTE: - -[1] Allow me to assure the “longshore boatmen” on Avalon Beach that my -opinion of them is not that expressed hereafter by Mr. Harman.--AUTHOR. - - - - -V THE BIG HAUL - - -I - -Captain Michael Blood and Billy Harman, having received ten thousand -dollars for services rendered to Henry Clay Armbruster, and having -cashed the check, held a consultation as to what they should do with it. - -Harman was for filling up their schooner, the _Heart of Ireland_, with -trade and starting off for the islands in search of copra. Blood, tired -of the sea, for a while demurred. He said he wanted to enjoy life a bit. - -“And who’s to stop you?” replied the open-minded Harman. “A thousand -dollars is all we want for a bust, and a week to do it in. I’ve took -notice that the heart is mostly out of a bust by the end of a week, -after that it’s a fair wind and followin’ sea for the jimjams with -an empty hold when you fetches them. Let’s lay our plans and work -cautious, for, when all’s said and done, it’s no great shakes to wake -jailed with empty pockets, robbed of your boots by the bar drummers -you’ve been fillin’ with booze. - -“Booze ain’t no use,” continued Mr. Harman, finishing his glass--they -were celebrating the occasion in a bar near the China docks. “Look at -the chaps that sell it, and look at the chaps that swallow it--one lot -covered with di’monds and the other lot with their toes stickin’ out -of their boots. We’ve got to work cautious and keep takin’ soundings -all the time, for riches is rocks, as I heard a chap once sayin’ in a -temp’rance meetin’ on the Sand Lot. Twenty year ago it was, but the -sayin’ stuck in my head--have another?” - -They failed to “work cautious” that night. Flushed with prosperity -and unaccustomed drinks, they found themselves playing cards with -professional gamblers, who relieved them of five thousand dollars in an -hour and twenty-five minutes. - -“Riches is rocks.” There was never a truer saying; and next morning, -not being altogether fools, they determined to thank God the whole of -their little fortune was not gone and to set to work to retrieve their -losses. - -Now, it had become known all about the waterside that the _Heart of -Ireland_ was back. The fate of Ginnell, her original owner, who had -been jugged for gun running, was still fresh and pleasant in the mind -of the public; and the authorities, who boarded the _Heart_ on the -morning after the gambling adventures of Blood and Harman, would have -had a lot of things to say to those two had not Harman already made -things straight with the “Clancy crowd,” that amiable political ring -whose freemasonic friendship and protection was never invoked in vain -by even the least of its members. So it came about that after friendly -conversation and cigars the authorities rowed off, and scarcely had -they gone when a boat with a big, fat man in the stern came sculling up. - -“That’s Mike Rafferty,” said Harman to his companion. “He’s a cousin -of Ginnell’s. Now what in the nation does he want with us?” - -Rafferty hailed Harman by name and came aboard. Rafferty knew -everything about them, from the fact that they were flush of coin to -the fact that they were in a kind of lawful-unlawful possession of his -cousin’s schooner. - -He talked quite openly on these matters, but of the fate of his Cousin -Ginnell he said nothing, with the exception of a dark hint that wires -were being pulled in his favour. - -Harman was equally explicit. - -“He jugged us in the cabin of this ship,” said Harman, “and made off on -the derelick we struck down the coast there; he gave us a present of -her. That we stick to, and if I ever lay hands on Pat Ginnell I’ll give -him a present that’ll stick to him for the rest of his nacheral.” - -“Aisy, now,” said Rafferty; “don’t be losin’ your hair. I know the -swab, and, though I’m workin’ in his favour, bein’ cousins, I’ve me -own down on him. He sold me a pup over the last cargo of oil he brought -in, and if it wasn’t for the disgrace of the family I’d l’ave him -lie without raisin’ a finger to better him. What I’ve come about is -bizness. I hear you’ve been talkin’ of copra.” - -Harman had, in various bars, and he made no trouble about admitting the -soft impeachment. - -“Well,” said Rafferty, “it’s become a poor business, what with them -Germans and missionaries and such. You go to any of the islands with -trade, and see what you’ll get. I’ve worked the Pacific since I was -a boy the height of me knee, and I know it. There’s not an island, -nearly, I’m not acqueented with, not a reef, begob; you ask any one, -and they’ll tell you.” - -Harman knew this to be a fact. Rafferty, who was no good age, had been -engaged in blackbirding, in copra, in opium smuggling, in all the -in-and-out ways of life that the blue Pacific held or holds open to man. - -“Heave ahead,” said he. - -“Well,” said Rafferty, “this is me bizness with you. Pay me fifty -dollars down and ten per cent of the takin’s, and I’ll put you on to -an island where you’ll fill up with copra for a few old beads and -baccy pipes. It’s a vargin island out of trade tracks; you won’t find -any Dutchman there, and the Kanaka girls come dancin’ round you with -nuthin’ on them but flowers. You won’t find any Bibles nor crinolines -sp’ilin’ the people there. I marked it down last year when I was comin’ -up from south of the line, with a never-mind cargo. But I left the sea -last spring, as maybe you know, else I’d have taken a ship down there -meself. Fifty dollars down and ten per cint on the takin’s, and I’ll -put you on the spot.” - -Harman begged time to consider the matter, and Rafferty, after drinks -and conversation of a political nature, took his departure, leaving his -address behind. - -“Now, you see how crookedness don’t pay,” said Harman, as he watched -the boat row off. “Pat Ginnell was so good at bestin’ he bested his -own relations. I remember that bizness about the shark oil; Rafferty -was givin’ Ginnell his name over it in every bar in Frisco, and now -Rafferty’s spoilin’ to get his own back by usin’ the _Heart_. Funny -them Irish are, for he’s tryin’ with the other hand to get him clear -of jail for the sake of the family. Jail’s hell to an Irishman. I’ve -always took notice of that--no offence to you.” - -Blood looked away over the blue waters of the bay. “It is,” said he, -“and, bad as I hate Ginnell, if I could turn the lock to let him out, -I’d do it to-morrow--and scrag him the moment after. Jail’s not natural -to a man. If a man’s not fit to live loose, kill him, if you want to; -if you want to make him afraid of the law, cut the skin off him with a -cat-o’-nine-tails, but to stick him in a cage--and what’s jail but a -cage?--is to turn him into a brute beast. And it never betters him.” - -Harman concurred. Sailors have a way of getting at the truth of things -because they are always so close to them; and these two, discussing -penal matters on the deck of the _Heart of Ireland_, might have been -listened to with advantage by some of the law officers of the nations. - -Then they had drinks, and later in the day they called on Rafferty at -his office in Ginnis Street. - -They had come to the decision to take his offer. A soft island was well -worth paying for. Cayzer, the owner of the great Clan line of steamers, -made his fortune by knowing where to send his ships for cargo, and, -though Harman knew nothing of the owner of the Clan line, he was keenly -alive to the truth of this matter. - -“So you’ve come to agree with me,” said Rafferty. “Well, you won’t be -sorry. Now, how will you take it--fifty dollars down and a ten-per-cent -royalty to me on the takin’s, or would you sooner make a clean deal and -pay me a hundred and fifty down and no royalties? For between you and -me there’s a lot of sea chances to be taken and the old _Heart_ is not -as young as she used to be.” - -Blood and Harman took a walk outside to consult, and determined to -make a “clean deal.” - -“I don’t want to be payin’ no royalties,” said Harman; “let’s cut clear -of the chap and pay him a hundred down; he’ll take it.” - -He did, after an hour’s bargaining and wrangling and calling the saints -to observe how he was being cheated. - -Then, the hundred dollars haring been paid, he gave them the location -of the island on the chart which Harman had brought. - -To be almost precise, the island was situated in the great -quadrilateral of empty sea southwest of Honolulu, bounded by the -International Date Line to westward, latitude 10° north to southward, -longitude 165° to eastward, and the Tropic of Cancer to northward. - -Having paid a hundred dollars for the information, Blood and Harman -left Rafferty’s office and that very afternoon began to purchase the -trade for their new venture. - - -II - -A fortnight later, with a full Chinese crew and Harman at the helm, the -_Heart_ shook out her old sails, and, picking her anchor out of the -mud, lay over on a tack that would take her midway between Alcatras -and Bird Rock. It was a bright and lovely morning, with a west wind -blowing, and Harman whistled softly to himself as he shifted the helm -under Alcatras and the slatting sails filled on the tack for Black -Point. She was catching the full breath of the sea here and heeled with -the green water a foot from the starboard gunwale as she made the reach -for Lime Point, then on the port tack she felt the first Pacific sea, -taking the middle channel. - -After fighting the tumble of the thirty-six-foot water of the bar, -Harman, having set their course, relinquished the wheel to one of the -Chinamen and joined Blood. - -In buying the trade, they had received some tips from Rafferty. -“Now,” said that gentleman, “there’s no use in takin’ hats to Paris -or coals to Newcastle. If you’re going to trade with a place, you -must take the things that’s wanted there. I was sayin’ you could get -all the copra you wanted for baccy pipes and beads--that was only me -figure of speech. Them chaps on Matao--the name of the island--want -stuff different from that, I took note when I was there, thinkin’ -to trade some time with them. They’re no end keen on diggin’ the -land and growin’ things, and they traded me a lot of fish and shells -for a packet of onion seed. They want stuff that’s not grown there -natural--onions, potatoes, and garden seed in general. You might take -some spades and wheelbarras and not be amiss; and tinware, pots, and -pans, and so on.” - -Harman took this useful tip, and the _Heart_ was well provisioned -with things useful in the way of agriculture. He was talking now with -Blood on the stowage; the wheelbarrows were exercising his mind, for -there is nothing more awkward to stow, or, in its way, more likely to -be damaged, and they had seven of them. It was a feature of Harman’s -make-up that he sometimes didn’t begin to bother about things till it -was impossible to put them right, and Blood hinted so in plain language. - -“What’s the good of talkin’ about it now?” said he. “We worked the -thing out ashore, and what’s done is done. You got them cheap, and if -the Kanakas don’t take to them they’ll always fetch their price in any -port.” - -“That’s what’s bothering me,” said Harman; “for if the Kanakas don’t -want them and we fill up with copra, we’ll have to dump the durned -things, for we won’t have stowage room for them.” - -“Wait till we’ve got the copra,” replied Blood. - -Then they stood watching the Californian coast getting low down on the -port quarter and a big tank steamer pounding along half a mile away -making to enter the gates. - -“Wheelbarrows or no wheelbarrows, you may thank your God you’re not -second mate on _that_,” said Blood. - -Harman concurred. - - -III - -They had favourable winds to south of Bird Island, which is situated -north of Nilihau and Kaula in the Hawaiian group, then came a calm that -lasted three days, leaving the old _Heart_ groaning and whining to the -lift of the swell and the grumbling of Harman, hungry for copra. - -“There’s somethin’ about this tub that gets me,” said he. “Somethin’ -always happens just as we’re about to make good. I believe Pat -Ginnell’s put a curse on her.” - -“Oh, close up!” said Blood. “How about Armbruster? I reckon she’s lucky -enough; it’s the fools that are in her that have brought any bad luck -there’s been going.” - -“Well, we’ll see,” replied the other. - -As if to disprove his words, an hour later the wind came; and three -days later, nosing through the great desolation of blue water between -Sejetman Reef and Johnston Island, the _Heart of Ireland_ raised the -island. It was midday when the sea-birdlike cry of one of the Chinamen -on the lookout brought Blood and Harman tumbling up from the cabin. -Yes, it was the island, right enough, and Harman through his glass -could make out the tops of palm trees where the sea shimmered. - -He held the glass glued to his eye for a moment, and then handed it to -Harman. - -“I reckon,” said he, “the pa’ms is as plentiful there as the hairs on a -bald man’s head. Why, there ain’t any pa’ms!” - -Blood swore and closed the glass with a snap. - -Even at that distance the poverty of the place in copra shouted across -the sea, but it was not till they had drawn in within sound of the -reefs that the true desolation of this fortunate island became apparent. - -The place was horrible. A mile and a half, or maybe two miles, long by -a mile broad, protected by broken reefs, the island showed just one -grove of maybe a hundred trees; the rest was scrub vegetation and sea -birds. - -Strangest and perhaps most desolate of all the features was a line of -shanties, half protected by the trees, shanties that seemed gone to -decay. - -Then, as the _Heart_ hove to and lay sniffing at the place, appeared a -figure. A man was coming down the little strip of beach leading from -the shanties to the lagoon. - -“Look!” said Harman. “He’s pushin’ off to us in a boat. Say, Blood, -d’you see any naked Kanaka girls crowned with flowers waitin’ to dance -round us?” - -“Rafferty’s sold us a pup,” said Blood. - -“It’s easy to be seen. We’ll wait. Let’s see.” - -The boat, a small one, was clearing the reef, opening and making toward -them, the man sculling her looking over his shoulder now and then to -correct his course. - -Close up, she revealed herself as an old fishing dinghy, battered with -wear. - -Alongside, the man in her laid in his oars, caught the rope flung to -him by Harman, and made fast. - -He was a pale-faced, lantern-jawed, dyspeptic-looking person, and he -was chewing, for the first thing he did after scrambling on deck was -to spit overboard. The next was to ask a question. - -“What’s your name?” said he, saluting the afterguard with a nod, and -sweeping the deck with his eyes--eyes like the wine-coloured, large, -soulless eyes of a hare. - -“_Heart of Ireland_, out of Frisco--what’s yours?” replied Harman. - -“Gadgett,” replied the hare-eyed man. “I came out thinking maybe you -were bringing news of my schooner, the _Bertha Mason_. She’s overdue -from Sydney. I’m owner here. This island’s mine, leased from the -Australian government.” Then, with another look round the deck: “What -in the nation are you doing down here anyway?” - -“Makin’ fools of ourselves,” replied Harman, “unless we’ve mistook your -place for a big copra island that ought to lay in your position. You -haven’t heard tell of such an island hereabouts?” - -“Look at your charts,” said Gadgett. “This place is only marked on the -last British Admiralty charts. There’s nothing round here but water -from the Change Time Line to Johnston Island. You’ve come a thousand -miles out for copra.” - -“What’s your venture here, may I ask?” put in Blood. - -“Shell,” replied Gadgett, leaning now against the starboard rail and -cutting himself a new plug of tobacco. “I’ve been working this island -six years, and had her nearly stripped of shell last spring, but I’ve -hung on to clear the last of it. There isn’t much, but I thought I’d -take the last squeeze. My schooner is overdue, and when it comes I’m -going to clear out for good.” - -“Say,” said Harman, “did a chap called Rafferty call here last spring?” - -Gadgett turned his eyes to Harman. - -“Yes, a chap by that name was here in a schooner. I’ve forgot her name. -Blown out of his course by weather, he was, and called for water.” - -“Well, now, listen,” said Harman. Then he told the whole story we know. - -Gadgett was a good listener. You could feel him putting his hands -into the pockets of the yarn, so to speak, and weighing the contents, -nodding his head the while, but not saying a word. When it was -finished, he took from his pocket the knife with which he had cut the -tobacco, opened it, and began cutting gently at his left thumb nail. - -“Well,” said he, “it’s pretty clear you two gentlemen have been sold. -Brought wheelbarrows here and onion seed and pots and pans; might as -well have brought an empty hold for all the trade to be done in this -place, for when I’m gone, with the few Kanakas I have with me--they -are fishing over on the other side just now--there’ll be nobody here -but sea gulls. Rafferty--I see him clear--a big-featured man he was, a -questioning chap, too. Well, there’s no doubt about it; he slung you a -yarn. But what made him do it?” - -“What made him do it!” said Blood. “Why, to guy us all over Frisco and -to get right with us over a deal we had with a cousin of his by the -name of Pat Ginnell. I’m Irish myself, and I ought to have known how -they stick together. No matter, there’s no use in crying over spilt -milk. Can we come into your lagoon for a brush-up?” - -Gadgett assented. There was a broad fairway, and he steered the _Heart_ -himself, the boat following streamed on a line. When the anchor was -down, he asked them ashore, and as they were rowing across to the beach -said Gadgett: “Do you gentlemen know anything of oyster fishing--shell?” - -“No,” said Harman. - -“That’s a pity,” said Gadgett, “for if you’d been disposed and knew -the business you might have cared to stick here. I put down spat -this spring on the whole floor of this lagoon, and the place will be -thick with oysters by Christmas. I’d have sold you the remains of the -lease--over forty years to run--for a trifle. There’s money to be made -here--if you cared to take the thing on.” - -“No,” said Harman, rather shortly. “We’re not open to any trade of that -sort.” - -“Well, there was no harm in mentioning it,” said Gadgett. - -He took them up to the frame house in the cocoanut grove, where he -lived, and stood drinks. Then he showed them the godown where shell was -stored and the Kanakas’ shanties. - -Then Blood and Harman went off for a walk by themselves to explore the -horrible desolation of the place. - -Said Harman, when they were alone: “Skunk--he’s been tryin’ to do us, -him and his spat! I know all about oysters, shell and pearl. Why, -this place won’t be no use for another fifty years after the way he’s -scraped it. He looks on us as a pair of mugs, wanderin’ about with a -cargo of wheelbarrows--which we are. But we ain’t such mugs as to pay -him good money for lyin’ yarns.” - -They walked to the only eminence on the island, a rise of ground some -hundred feet above the sea level, and there they stood breathing the -sea air and watching the gulls and listening to the eternal song of -the surf on the reef. - -Then they came back to the beach and hailed the schooner for a boat, -which presently put off and took them on board. - -Once on deck, Mr. Harman made a dive below into the cabin, and Blood, -following him, found him in the act of uncorking a bottle of whisky. - -“I’m fair let down,” said Harman, mixing his drink. “It’s not Rafferty, -nor the dog’s trick he’s played us, nor the sight of this blasted place -that’s enough to give a dromedary the collywobbles. It’s that chap with -the yalla eyes. I heard him laffin’ to himself when he went into the -house, laffin’ at us. I’ve never been laffed at like that, but it’s not -so much that as the chap. He’s onnatural.” - -“I want to get back to Frisco and scrag Rafferty,” said Blood, taking -hold of the bottle. “That’s all _I_ want.” - -“You’ll have to scrag the whole of Frisco, then,” said Harman, “for the -place is rockin’ with laughter now, from the China docks to Meiggs’. -It’s the wheelbarrows that have done us; they’ll be had against us -everywhere, and not a bar you’ll go into but you’ll be asked: Is your -wheelbarrow outside? I don’t want to go back to Frisco, I tell you I -don’t. I want to get to some place where I can sit down and cuss quiet. -Lord, but that chap has had us lively!” - -There was no doubt of that fact. Rafferty, with that fatal sense of -humour for which he had a reputation of a sort, had well avenged his -kinsman, Ginnell, put a hundred dollars into his own pocket, and made -Blood and Harman forever ridiculous to a certain order of minds. And -his whole working material had been just the recollection of this -forsaken island--nothing more than that. - - -IV - -Gadgett’s schooner, the _Bertha Mason_, came into the lagoon that -night under a full moon lifting in the east. Blood and Harman had not -gone to bed, and they were treated to a lovely sight which left them -unimpressed. - -Nothing could be more perfect in the way of a sea picture than the -schooner fresh from the sea spilling her amber light on her water -shadows to the slatting of curves and the sounds of block and cordage, -moving like a vision with just way enough on her to take her to her -anchorage. - -Then the lagoon surface reeled to the splash of the anchor, the shore -echoes answered to the rumble-tum-tum-tum of the chain, and the _Bertha -Mason_ swung to her moorings, presenting her bow to the outward-going -current and her broadside to that of the _Heart_. - -“Blast the blighters!” said Harman. Then the two went below to their -bunks. - -Next morning there were salutations across the water from one schooner -to the other. The fellows on the _Bertha Mason_ were at work early -getting the shell on board, and the Chinese crew of the _Heart_ were -busy fishing. During the day there was little communication between the -two vessels, and at night there was no offer of the Bertha Masonites to -come aboard, yet it was their duty to pay first call as the _Heart_ -was a visitor. - -“They’re a stand-off lot,” said Harman. “They’re turnin’ up their -noses. I s’pose, because we have a crew of chinkies. Well, they can -keep to themselves, for all I care. When’re we goin’ to put out?” - -“I don’t want to leave before them,” said Blood. “Besides, there are -repairs to be done, and we want to fill up with water. They won’t keep -us long.” - -Harman said nothing. He wanted to be off, but he felt as Blood did; his -enmity against the Gadgett crowd made him want to hold on, pretending -to care nothing, and that enmity was increased next morning. The -_Bertha Mason_, dragging her anchor a bit on the strong incoming -current, came near to foul the _Heart_. Hartman used language to which -came a polite inquiry as to how he was off for wheelbarrows. - -“Gadgett’s told,” said he to Blood, after making suitable answer to -the query. “They’re laffin at us. The yarn will be all over Sydney -now; they’ll be tellin’ it in N’ York before they’ve done with it. -We’ll have to change our names and sink the _Heart_ to clear ourselves. -Well, I’m goin’ off fishin’. Gadgett said there was good fishin’ from -the rocks on the other side of the island. I can’t stick here doin’ -nuthin’. The deck’s burnin’ my feet.” - -He rowed ashore with lines and fish that the Chinese had caught for -bait. It was five o’clock in the evening, and the _Bertha Mason_, her -cargo stowed, was preparing to leave when he returned. - -Blood was down below when Harman came tumbling down the companionway. -He was flushed, and looked as though he had been drinking, though his -legs were steady enough, and there was no smell of alcohol. - -“Blood!” shouted Harman. “We’re made! Where’s your pocketbook? Gimme -it! Come on, haste yourself; come with me and try to look like a fool. -Gimme the pocketbook, I tell you, and don’t ask no questions; I’m fit -to burst, and there’s no time. They’re handlin’ the sails on that -bathtub. Up with you and after me!” - -He seized the pocketbook, which had fifteen hundred dollars in it, the -remains of their money, and rushed on deck, followed by Blood. - -The boat was still by the side, with two Chinamen in her. They got in -and rowed to the _Bertha Mason_. - -Next moment they were on the deck of the _Bertha_, facing Gadgett. - -“Mr. Gadgett,” said Harman, “when you talked of having put down oyster -spat in the lagoon, did you mean pearl-oyster spat?” - -“Of course,” said Gadgett, scenting vaguely what was coming. - -“And will them oysters have pearls in them by next Christmas?” - -“Of course they will,” replied the other. “Not every oyster, but most -of them will.” - -“You talked of selling the remains of the lease of the place,” said -Harman. “Well, we’ve come to buy. What would you want for it?” - -“Two thousand dollars,” said Gadgett. They went below to bargain, -and in five minutes, anxious to be done with the fools and get away, -Gadgett came down to five hundred dollars. - -He knew well that not only was the place stripped by him, but that -lately it had been giving out. Oysters are among the most mysterious -denizens of the sea, and shell lagoons “give out” for no known reason. -The oysters cease to breed--that is all. Gadgett would have sold the -remains of his lease for five dollars, for five cents, for a cent. He -would have given it away--to an enemy. - -He got five hundred dollars for it and reckoned that he had crowned his -luck. - -Harman went below and examined the lease. It included all rights on -the island above and underground, and all rights to sea approaches and -reefs. - -Gadgett had a government stamp for the new contract. He was a man who -always foresaw, and in five minutes Harman and Blood found themselves -in possession of Matao for a term of forty-four years, with an option -of renewal for another twenty years on a year’s notice. - -Then Harman, with this in his pocket, came on deck, followed by Blood, -and as they stood saying good-bye to Gadgett the fellow in command -began giving the order to handle the throat and peak halyards. - -As they rowed off, the jib was being set, and when they reached the -_Heart_, the sound of the windlass pawls reached them, and the rasp of -the anchor chain being hove short. - -“What is it?” said Blood, who knew Harman too well to doubt that they -had got the weather gauge on Gadgett. - -“Wait till they’ve cleared the lagoon--wait till they’ve cleared the -lagoon!” said the other. “I’m afraid of thinkin’ of it lest that chap -should smell the idea and come back and murder us. Oh, Lord, oh, Lord! -Will they never get out?” - -The anchor of the _Bertha Mason_ was now rising to the catheads; she -was moving. As she passed the reef opening, she ran up her flag and -dipped it, then the Pacific took her. - -“Come down below,” said Harman. - -Down below, not a word would he say till he had poured out two -whiskies, one for himself and one for Blood. - -Then he burst out: - -“It’s a guano island. Yesterday, when I went fishin’, I took notice -of signs, then I prospected. All the top part is one solid block of -guano--nuff to manure the continent of the States. That chap has been -sittin’ five years on millions of dollars and playin’ with oyster -shells. Oh, think of Rafferty--and the wheelbarrows! Think of his long, -yellow face when he knows!” - -“Are you sure?” said Blood. - -“Sure--why, I’ve a workin’ knowledge of guano. Sure--o’ course I’m -sure! Come ashore with me, and I’ll show you.” - -They went ashore, and before sunset Harman had demonstrated that even -on this side, where the deposit was thinnest, the store was vast. - -“Think of the size of the place,” said he, “and remember from this to -the other side it gets thicker. Fifty years won’t empty it.” - -The sea gulls of a thousand years had presented them with a fortune -beyond estimation, and Blood for the first time in his life saw himself -a rich man--honestly rich. - -Their joy was so great that the first thing they did on returning to -the _Heart_ was to fling the whisky bottle into the lagoon. - -“We don’t want any more of that hell stuff ever,” said Blood. “I want -to enjoy life, and that spoils everything.” - -“I’m with you,” said Harman, “not to say I’m goin’ to turn teetotal, -for I’ve took notice that them mugs gets so full of themselves -they haven’t cargo room for nuthin’ else. But I don’t want no more -drunks--not me.” - -During the next fortnight, with the help of the wheelbarrows and -agricultural implements, they took in a cargo of guano. Then they -sailed for Frisco. - -I never heard exactly the amount of money they made over their last sea -adventure, but I do know for a fact that Rafferty nearly died from -“mortification” and that Blood and Harman are exceedingly rich men. - -Blood turned gentleman and married; but Billy Harman is just the same, -preferring sailormen as company and taking voyages to his island to -sniff the source of his wealth and for the good of his health. - -Billy is the only man I have ever known unspoiled by money. - - * * * * * - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -The one footnote has been moved to the end of its chapter and relabeled. - -Punctuation has been made consistent. - -Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in -the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have -been corrected. - -The following change was made: - -p. 43: Sime changed to Lime (passed Lime Point) - -p. 292: Line changed to Lime (for Lime Point) - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Plunder, by H. 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