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diff --git a/old/55183-0.txt b/old/55183-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c3e0b66..0000000 --- a/old/55183-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,10176 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Satan, by Henry 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 -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Satan - A Romance of the Bahamas - -Author: Henry De Vere Stacpoole - -Release Date: July 23, 2017 [eBook #55183] -[Most recently updated: March 5, 2023] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Produced by Roger Frank, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) -Revised by Richard Tonsing. - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SATAN *** - - - - - SATAN - - A Romance of the Bahamas - - - _By_ - H: DE VERE STACPOOLE - - AUTHOR OF “THE BLUE LAGOON,” “THE BEACH - OF DREAMS,” ETC. - - - [Illustration] - - - NEW YORK - ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY - 1921 - - - - - Copyright, 1920, by - ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. - - - _Printed in the - United States of America_ - - - Published, · 1921 - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PART I - - CHAPTER PAGE - I PALM ISLAND 1 - - II A FLOATING CARAVAN 6 - - III BREAKFAST 16 - - IV PAP’S SUIT 23 - - V THE PORTMANTEAU 34 - - VI SKELTON SAILS 58 - - VII CARQUINEZ 68 - - VIII JUDE OVERDOES IT 79 - - IX THE “JUAN” SAILS 96 - - X CUSS WORDS 107 - - XI THE COMING OF CLEARY 116 - - XII AN HONEST MAN 123 - - XIII PROBLEMS 130 - - XIV HANTS AND OTHER THINGS 136 - - XV UNDER WAY 144 - - XVI THE STEERSMAN 150 - - - PART II - - XVII LONE REEF 157 - - XVIII THE WRECK 169 - - XIX MUTINY 174 - - XX THE SANDSPIT 183 - - XXI DISHED 193 - - XXII THE CRABS 199 - - XXIII THE RETURN 206 - - XXIV A BOTTLE OF RUM 215 - - XXV THEY FIRE THE FUSE 220 - - XXVI THE CARGO 226 - - XXVII CROCKERY WARE 232 - - XXVIII TIDE AND CURRENT 238 - - XXIX SATAN IN PARADISE 243 - - XXX A SECRET OF THE SAND 253 - - XXXI THE GO-ASHORE HAT 259 - - XXXII CLEARY! 267 - - XXXIII THE FIGHT 272 - - XXXIV “I’LL TAK!” 280 - - - PART III - - XXXV THE VANISHED LIGHT 285 - - XXXVI THE WEDDING PRESENT 295 - - - - -PART I - - - - -SATAN - - - - -CHAPTER I - -PALM ISLAND - - -The sky from sea-line to sea-line was crusted with stars, a triumphant, -cloudless, tropic night-sky beneath which the _Dryad_ rode at her -anchor, lifting lazily to the swell flowing up from beyond the great -Bahama bank. - -She was Skelton’s boat, a six-hundred-tonner, turbine engined, rigged -with everything new in the way of sea valves and patent gadgets, and -she had anchored at sundown off Palm Island, a tiny spot, gull haunted, -and due west of Andros. - -Skelton was a Christchurch man, Bobby Ratcliffe a Brazenose, and Bobby, -tonight, as he leaned on the starboard rail smoking and listening to -the wash of the waves on the island beach, was thinking of Skelton, -who was down below writing up his diary. Before coming on this “winter -cruise to the West Indies in my yacht” Bobby did not know that Skelton -kept a diary, that Skelton was so awfully Anglican, so precise, so -stuffed with the convenances, that he dined in dress clothes even in -a hurricane, that he had a very nasty, naggling temper, that he had -prayers every Sunday morning in the cabin which the chief steward, -the under stewards, and the officers off watch were expected to -attend—also Bobby. Two other men were booked for the cruise, but they -cried off at the last moment. If they had come, things might have been -different. As it was, Bobby, to use his own language, was pretty much -fed up. - -Skelton was a right good sort, but he was not the man with whom to -share loneliness, and Bobby, who had plenty of money of his own, was -thinking how jolly this winter cruise would have been if he had only -taken it on board a passenger liner, with girls and deck quoits and -cards in the evening, instead of Skelton. - -Bobby was only twenty-two, a good-looking clean youth, well-balanced -enough, but desirous of fun. Oxford had not spoiled him a bit. He had -no “manner,”—just his own naturalness,—and he had shocked Skelton at -Barbados by getting a great negro washing woman on board (she had come -alongside in a blue boat) and giving her rum, for the fun of the thing. -“Debauching a native woman with alcohol!” Skelton had called it. - -Skelton vetoed shark fishing. It messed his decks. He was like an old -woman about his decks. “I tell you what you ought to do, Skelly,” Bobby -had said. “You ought to start a blessed laundry!” They had nearly -quarreled at Guadeloupe over sharks. - -And again at St. Pierre, where, lying off the ruins of the town, -Skelton had likened it to Gomorrah, declaring it had been destroyed -because of the wickedness of its inhabitants. - -“And how about the ships in the bay?” had asked Bobby. “What had they -to do with the business? Why weren’t they given notice to quit?” - -“We won’t argue on the matter,” replied Skelton. - -And there was still two months of this blessed cruise to be worked out! - -He was thinking of this when Skelton came on deck, his white -shirt-front shining in the starlight. He was in an amiable mood tonight -and, ranging up beside Bobby, he spoke about the beauty of the stars. - -It was chiefly on Bobby’s initiative that they had dropped the anchor -so that they might prospect the island on the morrow, and as they -smoked and talked the conversation passed from stars to desert islands, -and from desert islands to the old Spaniards of the West Indies, -bucaneers, filibusters, pirates, and Brethren of the Coast. - -Perhaps it was the starlight, or the tepid wind blowing up from the -straits of Florida, or the distant starlit palms of Palm Island that -set Skelton off and touched a vein in his nature hitherto unsuspected: -whatever it was, he warmed to his subject and for the first time on the -voyage became interesting. He could talk! Nombre de Dios, Carthagena, -and Porto Bello,—he touched them alive again, set the old plate-ships -sailing and the pirates overhauling them, sacked cathedrals of gold and -jewels, showed Bobby Tortuga, the great rendezvous of the bucaneers and -the Spaniards attacking it, men marooned on desolate places like Palm -Island, treasure buried—and then all of a sudden closed up and became -uninteresting again. The remnants of the boy in him had spoken, the -old pirate that lives in most men’s hearts had shown his head. Perhaps -he was ashamed of his warmth and enthusiasm over these old romantic -things—who knows? At all events, he retired into himself and then went -below to find a book he was reading, leaving the deck to Bobby and the -anchor watch. - -Then the moon began to rise from beyond the Bahamas, a vast, full moon, -with the sea seeming to cling to her lower limb as she freed herself. -Dusky, at first, she paled as she rose, and now, in her light, the -palms of the island and the coral beach showed clear. - -Palm Island is a scrub of cactus and bay cedar bushes, half a mile long -and quarter of a mile broad, with not more than forty trees. Crabs and -turtles and gulls are its only visitors, and desolation sits there -visible and naked. But in the moonlight, on a night like this and seen -from the sea, it is fairyland—storyland. - -Ratcliffe, his mind full of pirates and bucaneers, Spaniards and -plate-ships, found himself wondering if men had ever been marooned -here, if Morgan and Van Horn and all that crowd had ever had dealings -on that beach, and what the moon could tell about it all if she could -remember and speak. He was thinking this when the creak of block and -cordage struck his ear, and past the stern of the _Dryad_ came gliding -the fore canvas of a small vessel, a thing that seemed no larger than a -fishing boat. - -She had been creeping in from the sea unnoticed by them as they talked. -Skelton had gone below without sighting her, and she was so close that -the slap of her bow-wash came clearly as she passed. - -He watched her gliding shoreward like a phantom, and then across the -water came a voice, shrill as the voice of a bird: - -“Seven fathom!” - -And on top of that another voice: - -“Let go!” - -The rumble—tumble—tumble—of an anchor chain followed, and then the -silence of the night closed in, broken only by the far-off wash of the -waves on the beach. - -This ghost of the sea fascinated Ratcliffe. He could see her now riding -at anchor against the palms and bay cedars of the island. - -She was shedding her canvas; and now a glow-worm spark, golden in the -silver of the moonlight, climbed up and became stationary but for the -lift and fall of the swell as she rode at her moorings. It was her -anchor light. - -He listened for voices. None came. Then he saw a lantern being carried -along her deck. It vanished, probably through a hatch. - -Then he went below, and, dropping asleep the instant he turned in, -dreamt that he was marooned on Palm Island with Skelton, and Skelton -was trying to hang him on a palm tree for a pirate, and the gulls -were shouting “Seven fathom!—seven fathom—seven fathom!” Then came -oblivion and the sleep of youth that defies dreams. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -A FLOATING CARAVAN - - -Next morning, an hour after sunrise, Ratcliffe came on deck in his -pajamas,—gorgeous blue and crimson striped pajamas,—a sight for the -gods. - -The sky was cloudless. The wind of the night before had fallen to a -tepid breathing scarcely sufficient to stir the flag at the jackstaff, -and from all that world of new-born blue and mirror-calm sea there came -not a sound but the sound of the gulls crying and quarreling about the -reef spurs of the island. - -Amid the glory of light and color and against the palms and white beach -lay the ghost of the night before, a frowzy-looking yawl-rigged boat of -fifty feet or so, a true hobo of the sea, with wear and weather written -all over her and an indescribable something that marked her down even -to Ratcliffe as disreputable. - -Simmons, the second officer, was on deck. - -“She must have come in last night,” said Simmons. “Some sea scraper or -another working between the islands—Spanish most likely.” - -“No, she’s not Spanish,” said Ratcliffe. “I saw her come in and I heard -them shouting the soundings in English—look! there’s a chap fishing -from her.” - -The flash of a fish being hauled on board had caught his eye and fired -his passion for sport. They had done no fishing from the _Dryad_. - -He borrowed the dinghy from Simmons and, just as he was, put off. - -“Ask them to sell some of their fish, if they’ve any to spare,” cried -Simmons as the dinghy got away. - -“Ay, ay!” replied Ratcliffe. - -The sea blaze almost blinded him as he rowed with the gulls flying -round and shouting at him. As he drew up to the yawl the fisherman -lugged another fish on board. The fisherman was a boy, a dirty-faced -boy, in a guernsey, and as the dinghy came alongside he stared at the -pajama-clad one as at an apparition. - -“Hullo, there!” cried Ratcliffe, clawing on with the boathook. - -“Hullo, yourself!” replied the other. - -“Any fish for sale?” - -“Any what?” - -“Fish.” - -The boy disappeared. Then came his voice, evidently shouting down a -hatch. - -“Satan, below there!” - -“Hullo!” - -“Here’s the funniest guy come alongside wants to know if we’ve got fish -to sell him. Show a leg!” - -“One minute,” replied the second voice. - -The boy reappeared at the rail in the burning sunlight. “The cap will -be up in a minute,” said he. “What in the nation are you got up like -that for?” - -“What?” - -“Them things.” - -Ratcliffe laughed. - -“I forgot I was in my pajamas. I must apologize.” - -“What’s pajamas?” - -“My sleeping suit.” - -“You sleep in them things?” - -“Of course.” - -“Well, I’m damned!” said the boy. Then he gave a sudden yell of -laughter and vanished, sitting down on the deck evidently, while -another form appeared at the rail, a lantern-jawed, long-haired, -youthful figure, rubbing the sleep out of its eyes. It stared at the -occupant of the dinghy, then it opened its mouth and uttered one word: - -“Moses!” - -“He sleeps in them things!” came a half-strangled voice from the deck. -“Satan, hold me up, I’m dyin’!” - -“Shut your beastly head!” said Satan. Then to Ratcliffe, “Don’t be -minding Jude,—Jude’s cracked,—but you sure are gotten up—Say, you -from that hooker over there?” - -“Yes.” - -“What are you?” - -“Nothing.” - -Another explosion from the deck, stifled by a kick from Satan. - -“But what are you doing here, anyway?” - -Ratcliffe explained, Satan leaning comfortably on the rail and -listening. - -“A yacht—well, we’re the _Sarah Tyler_. Pap and me and Jude used to -run the boat. He died last fall. Tyler was his name, and Satan Tyler’s -mine. He said I yelled like Satan when a pup and he put the name on -me—Say, that’s a dandy boat. I’m wanting a boat like that. Will you -trade?” - -“She’s not mine.” - -“That don’t matter,” said Tyler with a laugh. “But I forgot: you aren’t -in our way of business.” - -“What’s your way of business?” - -“Lord! Shut up, Satan!” came the voice from the deck. - -“Well, Pap was one thing or another; but we’re respectable, ain’t we, -Jude?” - -“Passons to what Pap was,” agreed the voice in a quieter tone, and it -came to Ratcliffe that the figure of Jude remained invisible, being -ashamed to show itself after having guyed him. - -“We’re out of Havana, and we scratch round and make a living,” went on -Tyler, “and the boat being ours we make out. There’s lots to be had on -these seas for the looking.” - -“Do you work the boat alone?” - -“Well, we had a nigger to help since Pap died. He skipped at Pine -Island a fortnight ago. Since then we’ve made out. Jude’s worth a man -and don’t drink—” - -“Who says I don’t drink?” Two grimy hands seized the rail and the body -and face of Jude raised themselves. Then the whole apparition hung, -resting midriff high across the rail, just balanced, so that a tip -from behind would have sent it over. - -“Who says I don’t drink? How about Havana Harbor last trip?” - -“They gave her rum,” said Satan gloomily, “gave her rum in a doggery -down by the waterside—curse the swabs! I laid two of them flat and -then got her aboard.” - -“Her!” said Ratcliffe. - -“Blind, wasn’t I?” cut in Jude hurriedly. - -“Blind you were,” said Tyler. - -Jude grinned. Ratcliffe thought he had never met with a stranger couple -than these two, especially Jude. Hanging on with the boathook, he -contemplated the dirty, daring face whose fine, gray, long-lashed eyes -were the best features. - -“How old are you?” asked he, addressing it. - -“Hundred an’ one,” said Jude. “Ask me another.” - -“She’s fifteen and a bit,” said Tyler, “and as strong as a grown man.” - -“I thought she was a boy,” said Ratcliffe. - -“So I am,” said Jude. “Girls is trash. I’m not never goin’ to be a -girl. Girls is snots!” - -As if to prove her boyhood, she hung over the rail so that he feared -any moment she might tumble. - -“She’s a girl, right enough,” said Tyler as if they were discussing an -animal, “but God help the skirts she ever gets into!” - -“I’d pull them over me head and run down the street if anyone ever -stuck skirts on me,” said Jude. “I’d as soon go about in them pajamas -of yours.” - -Ratcliffe was silent for a moment. It amazed him the familiarity that -had suddenly sprung up between himself and these two. - -“Won’t you come aboard and have a look around?” asked Tyler, as though -suddenly stricken with the sense of his own inhospitality. - -“But the boat?” - -“Stream her on a line—over with a line, Jude!” - -A line came smack into the dinghy, and Ratcliffe tied it to the painter -ring. Next moment he was on board, and the dinghy, taking the current, -drifted astern. - -No sooner had his feet touched the deck of the _Sarah Tyler_ than he -felt himself encircled by a charm. It seemed to him that he had never -been on board a real ship before this. The _Dryad_ was a structure -of steel and iron, safe and sure as a railway train, a conveyance, a -mechanism made to pound along against wind and sea; as different from -this as an aëroplane from a bird. - -This little deck, these high bulwarks, spars, and weather-worn -canvas,—all them collectively were the real thing. Daring and distance -and freedom and the power to wander at will, the inconsequence of the -gulls,—all these were hinted at here. Old man Tyler had built the -boat, but the sea had worked on her and made her what she was, a thing -part of the sea as a puffin. - -Frowzy looking at a distance, on deck the _Sarah Tyler_ showed no sign -of disorder. The old planking was scrubbed clean and the brass of the -little wheel shone. There was no raffle about, nothing to cumber the -deck but a boat,—the funniest-looking boat in the world. - -“Canvas built,” said Tyler, laying his hand on her; “Pap’s invention; -no more weight than an umbrella. No, she ain’t a collapsible: just -canvas and hickory and cane. That’s another of Pap’s dodges over -there, that sea anchor, and there’s ’nother, that jigger for raising -the mudhook. Takes a bit of time, but half a man could work it, and I -reckon it would raise a battleship. There’s the spare, same as the one -that’s in the mud—ever see an anchor like that before? Pap’s. It’s a -patent, but he was done over the patentin’ of it by a shark in Boston.” - -“He must have been a clever man,” said Ratcliffe. - -“He was,” said Tyler. “Come below.” - -The cabin of the _Sarah Tyler_ showed a table in the middle, a hanging -bunch of bananas, seats upholstered in some sort of leather, a telltale -compass fixed in the ceiling, racks for guns and nautical instruments, -and a bookcase holding a couple of dozen books. A sleeping cabin -guarded by a curtain opened aft. Nailed to the bulkhead by the bookcase -was an old photograph in a frame, the photograph of a man with a -goatee beard, shaggy eyebrows, and a face that seemed stamped out of -determination—or obstinacy. - -“That’s him,” said Jude. - -“Your father?” - -“Yep.” - -“It was took after Mother bolted,” said Tyler. - -“She took off with a long-shore Baptis’ minister,” said Jude. “Said -she couldn’t stand Pap’s unbelievin’ ways.” - -“He made her work for him in a laundry,” said Tyler. - -“It was at Pensacola, up the gulf, and a year after, when we fetched up -there again, she came aboard and died. Pap went for the Baptis’ man.” - -“He wasn’t any more use for a Baptis’ minister when Pap had done with -him,” said Jude. “That’s his books—Pap’s. There’s dead loads more in -the spare bunk in there.” - -Ratcliffe looked at the books. Old man Tyler’s mentality interested him -almost as much as the history of the Tyler family,—“Ben Hur,” Paine’s -“Age of Reason” and “Rights of Man,” Browne’s “Popular Mechanics,” -“The Mechanism of the Watch,” “Martin Chuzzlewit,” and some moderns, -including an American edition of “Jude the Obscure.” - -“Some of those came off a wreck he had the pickin’s of,” said Tyler, “a -thousand-tonner that went ashore off Cat Island.” - -“That was before Jude was born,” said Ratcliffe. - -“Lord! how do you know that?” said Jude. - -Ratcliffe laughed and pointed to the book. “It’s the name on that -book,” said he. “I didn’t know: I just guessed.” - -“I reckon you’re right,” said Tyler, opening a locker and fetching out -cups and saucers and plates and dumping them on the table. “Not that -it matters much where it come from, but you’ve got eyes in your head, -that’s sure. Say, you’ll stay to breakfast, now you’re aboard?” - -“I’d like to,” said Ratcliffe, “but I ought to be getting back: they -won’t know what’s become of me. And besides I’m in these.” - -“That’s easy fixed,” said Tyler. “Jude, tumble up and take the boat -over to the hooker and say the gentleman is stayin’ to breakfast an’ll -be back directly after. I’ll fix him for clothes.” - -Jude vanished, and Tyler, going into the after-cabin, rousted out an -old white drill suit of “Pap’s” and a pair of No. 9 canvas shoes. - -“They’re new washed since he wore them,” said Tyler. “Slip ’em on -over your what’s his names and come along and lend me a hand in the -galley—can you cook?” - -“You bet!” said Ratcliffe. - -Eased in his mind as to the _Dryad_, the boy in him rose to this little -adventure, delightful after weeks of routine and twenty years of -ordered life and high respectability. He had caravaned, yachted in a -small way, fancied that he had at all events touched the fringe of the -Free Life—he had never been near it. These sea gipsies in their grubby -old boat were It! A grim suspicion that these remains of the Tyler -family sailed sometimes pretty close to the law and that their sea -pickings were, to put it mildly, various did not detract in the least -from their charm. He guessed instinctively they were not rogues of a -bad sort. The lantern-jawed Satan had not the face of a saint. There -were indications in it indeed of the possibility of a devilish temper -no less than a desperate daring, but not a trace of meanness. Jude was -astonishingly and patently honest, while old man Tyler, whose presence -seemed still to linger on in this floating caravan, had evident titles, -of a sort, to respect. - -He was helping to fry fish over the oil-stove in the little galley when -Jude returned with the information, delivered through the shouting of -the frying pan, that everything was all right, and the message had been -delivered to a “guy” in a white coat who was hanging his fat head over -the starboard rail of the _Dryad_; that he had told her to mind his -paint; that she had told him not to drop his teeth overboard, and he -had “sassed” her back; that the _Dryad_ was a dandy ship, but would be -a lot dandier if she were hove up on some beach convenient for pickin’ -her. - -Then she started to make the coffee over an auxiliary stove, mixing her -industry with criticisms of the cookery and instructions as to how fish -should be fried. - -“Jude does the cookin’ mostly,” said Tyler, “and we’d have hot rolls -only we were under sail last night and she hadn’t time to set the -dough. We’ll have to make out with ship’s bread.” - -Considering the condition of Jude’s grubby hands, Ratcliffe wasn’t -sorry. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -BREAKFAST - - -The amount of food those two put away was a revelation to Ratcliffe, -and from start to finish of the meal they never stopped talking. -One being silent, the other took up the ball. They had cottoned to -Ratcliffe, evidently from the very first moment, for, at the very first -moment, Tyler had been communicative about himself and his ship and his -way of life. An ordinary ship’s officer coming alongside would have got -fish at a price if he had been civil or a fish flung at his head if he -had given “sass”: Ratcliffe got friendship. - -It was maybe his youth and the fact that all young people are -Freemasons that did the business; the humor of the gorgeous pajamas may -have helped. Anyhow, the fact remained. He had secured something that -knowledge or position or fortune could not have bought,—the good will -and conversation of this pair, the history of the Tylers, and more than -a hint of their life on these seas. They had four thousand dollars in -the bank at Havana left by Pap, not to be touched unless the _Sarah -Tyler_ came to smash. They had no house rent or rates; no expenses but -harbor dues, food, oil, and tobacco, and not much expense for food—at -least just at present. - -Tyler winked across the table at Jude and Jude grinned. - -“Shut your head,” said Jude, “and don’t be givin’ shows away!” then -suddenly to Ratcliffe, “We’ve got a cache.” - -“Who’s giving shows away now?” asked Tyler. - -“Oh, he won’t split,” said Jude. - -“It’s on the island here,” said Tyler, “near a ton of stuff, canned. A -brig went ashore south of Mariguana. We picked up the crew and heard -their yarn and got the location. Then a big freighter came along and -took the men off us. The wreck was only a hundred and fifty miles from -our position, and we reckoned the salvage men wouldn’t be on the spot -for a fortnight or more and something was due to us for savin’ that -crew; so we lit out for the wreck. We had four days’ work on her. She -was straddled on a reef with twenty fathoms under her counter and a -flat calm, all but a breathin’ of wind. We made fast to her, same as if -she’d been a wharf. We had the nigger then to help, and we took enough -grub to last us two years an’ fourteen boxes of Havana cigars and a -live cat that was most a skeleton.” - -“She croaked,” put in Jude. “Satan fed her half a can of beef cut -small, and then she scoffed half a bucket of water—that bust her.” - -“We wouldn’t have been so free in taking the things but for the lie -of the hooker on the reef and the weather that was sure coming,” said -Tyler. “We knew all about the weather and the chances. And we didn’t -cast off from that hooker an hour too soon! We were ridin’ out that -gale three days, and when we passed the reef again making west the brig -was gone.” - -“And you cached the stuff here?” - -“Yep.” - -“But we hadn’t to make no cache hole,” put in Jude. “Pap had one here. -It’s among the bushes—and he didn’t make it, neither.” - -“It’s all coral rock a foot under the bushes,” said Tyler, “and there’s -a hole you drop down six foot, that leads to a cave as cool as a -refrigerator; so the goods would keep to the last trumpet. The old -Spaniards must have cut it to hide their stuff in. Pap dropped on it -by chance. Said they’d used it for hidin’ gold and such. Not that he -believed in the buried treasure business—sunk ships is different.” - -Jude, who was hacking open a can of peaches, suddenly made an awful -face at Satan. It had the effect of cutting him short. Ratcliffe -refused the peaches. He sat watching this pair of cormorants and -thinking that the cache must be pretty big if it held two years’ -provisions for them. - -Then suddenly he said so, laughing and without giving the least -offense. Tyler explained that the cache was not their only larder: -there were fish and turtle and turtle eggs, birds sometimes, fruit to -be had for next to nothing, often for nothing. The only expense was -for tobacco, and he had not paid ten cents for tobacco since last fall -and wouldn’t want to for a year to come; clothes, and they didn’t want -much clothes, Jude did the mending and patching; paint, and the _Sarah -Tyler_ had ways and means of getting paint and all such, spars and so -on. He gave a wonderful instance: - -Before Christmas last they had chummed up with a big yacht on the -Florida coast near Cedar Cays. Thelusson was the owner, a man from New -York. He took a fancy to the _Sarah_ and her way of life, and he and -his crew helped to careen her in a lagoon back of the reefs, cleaned -her copper (she was dead foul with barnacles and weeds), gave her a -new main boom and foresail and some spare canvas, and all for nix. He -had no paint, or he would have painted her. He drank champagne by the -bucket, and he wanted to quit the yacht and go for a cruise with them, -only his missus who was on board wouldn’t let him. - -Ratcliffe thought he could visualize Thelusson. - -“She was a mutt,” put in Jude, “with a voice like a muskeeter.” - -“She wanted to ’dopt Jude and stick a skirt on her,” said Tyler. - -“Handed me out a lot of sick stuff about sayin’ prayers and such,” -hurriedly cut in Jude. - -“And put the nightcap on it by kissin’ her,” finished Tyler. - -Jude’s face blazed red like a peony. - -“If you chaps have had enough, I’m goin’ to clear,” said Jude. - -“Right!” said Satan, rising, and she cleared, vanishing with the -swiftness of a rabbit up the companionway. - -Tyler fetched out a box of cigars. They were Ramon Alones. - -“She won’t speak to me now for half a day,” said Tyler. “If you want -to guy Jude, tell her she’s a girl. I wouldn’t a told you, only you’re -not in our way of life and so can’t make trouble. No one knows. There’s -not a man in any of the ports knows: she goes as me brother. But the -Thelusson woman spotted her on sight—Come on deck.” - -Jude was emptying a bucket of refuse overboard, then she vanished into -the galley, and Ratcliffe, well fed, lazy, and smoking his cigar, -leaned for a moment over the rail before taking his departure, talking -to Tyler. - -To starboard lay Palm Island, with the sea quietly creaming on the -coral beach and the palms stirring to the morning wind, to port the -white _Dryad_ riding to her anchor on the near-shore blue, and beyond -the _Dryad_ the violet of the great depths spreading to the far -horizon, beyond which lay Andros, and the islands, reefs, and banks -from Great Abeco to Rum Cay. Not a sail on all that sea, nor a stain on -all that splendor: nothing but the gulls wheeling and crying over the -reefs to southward. - -But Satan’s mind as he leaned beside Ratcliffe was not engaged by the -beauty of the morning or the charm of the view. Satan was a dealer with -the sea and the things that came out of the sea or were even to be met -with floating on the waves. Ratcliffe was one of these things. - -“You’ve never had no call to work?” said Satan tentatively. “You’ve -lots of money, I s’pect, and can take things easy.” - -“Yes, I suppose so.” - -“Like fishin’?” - -“You bet!” - -“Well, if you ever wants to see good fishin’ and more than ordinary -folk see of the islands here, drop me a word to Havana. Kellerman, -marine store dealer, Havana, will get me. He’s a pal of mine. I fetch -up in Havana every six months or so—and there’s more than fishin’—” - -Tyler stopped short, then he spat overboard and began to fill his pipe. -He had no use for cigars—much. - -“How do you mean more than fishing?” - -“Well, I don’t know. We’re underhanded a bit for any big job and I -wouldn’t trust most men. They don’t grow trustable parties in Havana, -nor the coast towns—not much. I’ve taken a likin’ to you somehow -or ’nother, and if ever we come together again I’ll tell you maybe -somethin’ that’s in my mind. You see, between Pap and me and the old -_Sarah_, we’ve seen close on thirty years of these waters right from -Caicos to N’y’Orleans and down to Trinidad. Turtle egg huntin’ and -fishin’ and tradin’, there’s not a reef or cay we don’t know. The old -_Sarah_ could find her way round blind. Put her before the wind with -the wheel half a spoke weather helm and leave her, and she’d sniff the -reefs on her own.” - -“You were saying about something more than fishing,” persisted -Ratcliffe, whose curiosity had been, somehow, aroused. - -“I was,” said Tyler; “but I’m not free to speak about private affairs -without Jude, and there’s no use in tacklin’ her when she’s snorty. -Listen to that!” - -Sounds were coming from the galley as of a person banging pots and pans -about. - -Tyler chuckled. - -“It’s always the same when her dander is up,—she starts cleanin’ and -dustin’ and makin’ hell of the place. Mother was the same. I reckon -a woman can’t help bein’ a woman, not if she had a hundred pair of -breeches on.” - -“Well,” said Ratcliffe, “I’d like to come for a cruise, and I will some -day, I hope. Maybe I’ll see you on the island later. I was intending -going ashore today to have a look round: that’s why we anchored here.” - -“Maybe I’ll see you ashore then,” said Tyler, “but if I’m not there, -mind and say nothin’ of the cache.” - -“Right!” - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -PAP’S SUIT - - -Jude, having been fetched out of the galley, the canvas boat was got -overboard. - -Ratcliffe had offered to shed Pap’s suit and return in his pajamas as -he had come, but Tyler vetoed the idea. The far-seeing Satan, who had -snaffled a careen and clean up, not to speak of a main boom and spare -canvas, out of Thelusson, had an object in view. - -“It’s no trouble,” said he. “You take the dinghy, and we’ll take the -boat and fetch the duds back. It’s late in the mornin’ for you to be -boarding your ship in them colored things.” - -One of the big fish caught that morning was dropped into the boat as a -“present for the yacht,” and they started. - -The accommodation ladder was down and Simmons and a quartermaster -received Ratcliffe. As he went up the side he heard Tyler shouting to -Simmons something about the fish. There was no sign of Skelton on deck, -for which he was thankful, then he dived below to change. - -Now “Pap’s” suit had been constructed for a man of over six feet and -broad in proportion and a man, moreover, who liked his clothes loose -and easy. On Ratcliffe they recalled the vesture of Dr. Jekyll on Mr. -Hyde. The saloon door was closed. He opened it, and found himself face -to face with Skelton, who was sitting at one end of the saloon table -reading from a book, while Strangways the captain, Norton the first -officer, Prosser the steward, and sundry others ranged according to -their degree sat at attention. - -It was Sunday morning. He had forgotten that fact, and there was no -drawing back. He reached his cabin, mumbling apologies to the dead -silence which seemed crystallized round Skelton, closed the door, and -stuffed his head among the pillows of his bunk to stifle his laughter, -then he undressed and dressed. - -As he dressed he could hear through the open port the voice of Tyler -from alongside. The voice was pitched in a conversational key; it was -saying something about a lick of white paint. He was talking evidently -to Simmons. - -Then, fully dressed, with the bundle of clothes and the canvas shoes -under his arm, Ratcliffe peeped into the saloon. The service was over -and the saloon was empty. He reached the deck. It was deserted save for -a few hands forward and Simmons. - -Then he came down the accommodation ladder to the stage, and handed the -clothes over to Satan. - -A drum of white paint and a coil of spare rope were in the boat close -to Jude, and Satan was saying to Simmons something about a spare ax. - -“Well, if you haven’t got one, there’s no more to be said,” finished -Satan; then to Ratcliffe, “See you ashore, maybe.” - -Jude grinned kindly, and they pushed off, the boat a strake lower in -the water with their loot. - -The fat-faced Simmons watched them with the appearance of a man just -released from mesmerism. - -“That chap would talk the hat off one’s head,” said he. “I’ll have h—l -to pay with Norton over that paint; most likely I’ll have to put my -hand in my own pocket for it. But he’s a decent chap, that fellow, but -sharp—the way he landed me with that fish for a bait!” - -“He’s all there,” said Ratcliffe. - -“So’s the boy,” said Simmons. “Come alongside after you’d gone, to -say you were staying to breakfast with them. Told him to mind and not -damage the paint. Let out like a bargee at me—and Sir William Skelton -listening!” - -“Where’s Sir William now, Simmons? He wasn’t in the saloon when I’d -finished dressing.” - -“I expect he’s in his cabin,” said Simmons. - -Ratcliffe got a book and, taking his seat under the double awning -sheltering the quarterdeck, tried to read. He had chosen a History -of the West Indies, the same book most likely from which Skelton had -“cadged” his information of the night before. The printed page was -dull, however, compared to the spoken word, and he found himself -wondering how it was that Skelly could have warmed him up so to all -this stuff and yet be such an angular stick-in-the-mud in ordinary -life. What made him such a superior person? What made him at thirty -look forty, sometimes fifty, and what made him, Ratcliffe, fear Skelly -sometimes, just as a schoolboy fears a master? - -He guessed he was in for a wigging now for cutting breakfast and -appearing like a guy before the officers, and he knew instinctively the -form the wigging would take,—a chilly manner and studious avoidance -of the subject, that would be all,—Christchurch on a wet Sunday -for forty-eight hours, with the Oxford voice and the Oxford manner -accentuated and thrown in. - -At this moment Sir William Skelton, Bart., came on deck,—a tall, thin -man, clean shaved, like a serious-minded butler in a yachting suit of -immaculate white drill. His breeding lay chiefly in his eyes: they -were half-veiled by heavy lids. He had an open mother-of-pearl-handled -penknife in his hand. - -Free of the saloon hatch and not seeing Ratcliffe, he stopped dead like -a pointer before game and called out “Quartermaster!” - -A quartermaster came running aft. - -Some raffle had been left on the scupper by the companionway, a fathom -or so of old rope rejected by Tyler as not being the quality he was -“wantin’.” - -He ordered it to be taken forward, then he saw Ratcliffe and nodded. - -“’Morning,” said Skelton. - -He walked to the rail and stood with his hand on it for a moment, -looking at the island and the _Sarah Tyler_. - -Jude and Satan were at work on something aft. In a minute it became -apparent what they were doing. They were rigging an awning in imitation -of the _Dryad’s_, an impudent affair made out of old canvas brown with -weather and patched from wear. - -It was like seeing a beggar woman raising a parasol. - -Skelton sniffed; then he turned and, leaning with his back against -the bulwarks, began attending to his left little fingernail with the -penknife. - -“Ratcliffe,” said Skelton suddenly and apparently addressing his little -finger, “I _wish_ you wouldn’t!” He spoke mildly, in a vaguely pained -voice. It was as though Ratcliffe had acted in some way like a bounder; -more, and, wonderfully, he actually made Ratcliffe feel as though he -had acted in some way like a bounder. He was Ratcliffe’s host; that -gave an extra weight to the words. The whole thing was horrible. - -“Wouldn’t what?” said Ratcliffe. - -Skelton had been rather hit in his proprieties by a man going off his -boat in pajamas and remaining away to breakfast on board a thing like -the _Sarah Tyler_ in his pajamas; but the real cause of offense was -“Pap’s” suit suddenly appearing at Sunday morning prayers. The chief -steward had grinned. - -Skelton, though a good sailor, an excellent shipmaster, and as brave as -a man need be, was a highly nervous individual. A general service on -deck for the whole crew was beyond him: he compromised by conducting a -short service in the saloon. Even that was a tax on him. The entrance -of Ratcliffe in that extraordinary get-up had joggled his nervous -system. - -“If you can’t understand, I can’t explain,” said Skelton. “If our -cases had been reversed, I should have apologized. However, it doesn’t -matter.” - -“Look here, Skelly!” said Ratcliffe. “I’m most awfully sorry if I have -jumped on your corns, and I’ll apologize as much as you want, but the -fact of the matter is we don’t seem to hit it off exactly, do we? You -are the best of good people, but we have different temperaments. If -those other fellows had come along on the cruise, it would have mixed -matters more. We want to be mixed up in a big party more, you and I, if -we want to get on together.” - -“I told you before we started I disliked crowds,” said Skelton, “and -that only Satherthwaite and Magnus were coming. Then, when they failed, -you said it didn’t matter, that we should be freer and more comfortable -alone.” - -“I know,” said Ratcliffe. “It was my mistake, and besides I didn’t want -to put you off the cruise.” - -“Oh, you would not have put me off. I should have started alone. I am -dependent on no one for society.” - -“I believe you would have been happier alone.” - -“Perhaps,” said Skelton with tight lips. - -“Well then, shove me ashore, somewhere.” - -“That is talking nonsense!” said Skelton. - -Ratcliffe had risen and was leaning over the rail beside the other. His -eyes were fixed on the _Sarah Tyler_, the disreputable _Sarah_, and as -he looked at her Jude and Satan suddenly seemed to him real live free -human beings and Skelton as being not entirely alive nor, for all his -wealth, free. - -It was Skelton who gave the Tylers a nimbus, extra color, fascination, -especially Jude. There was a lot of fascination about Jude, even -without the background of Skelton. - -“It’s not talking nonsense a bit,” said he, “and, if you can trundle -along the rest of the cruise alone, I’ll drop you here.” - -“Drop you on this island?” - -“No—I’d like to go for a cruise with those chaps—I mean that chap in -the mud barge over there. He asked me, any time I wanted to.” - -“Are you in earnest?” - -“Of course I am. It would be no end of a picnic, and I want to shove -round these seas. I can get a boat back from Havana.” - -Skelton felt that this was the washerwoman of Barbados over -again,—irresponsibility—bad form. He was, under his courteousness as -a host, heartily sick of Ratcliffe and his ways and outlook. A solitary -by inclination, he would not at all have objected to finishing this -cruise by himself. All the same, he strongly objected to the idea just -put before him. - -What made him object? Was he insulted that the _Dryad_ should be turned -down in favor of the frowzy, disreputable-looking _Sarah Tyler_, that -the companionship of the Tylerites should be preferred to his? Did -some vague instinct tell him they were the better people to be with -if one wanted to have a good time? Was high conventionality outraged -as though, walking down Piccadilly with Ratcliffe, the latter were to -seize the arm of a dustman? - -Who knows? But he bitterly and strongly objected. And how and in what -words did he show his objection and anger? - -“Then go, my dear fellow, go!” said he as though with all the good will -in the world. - -“Right!” said Ratcliffe. “But are you sure you don’t mind?” - -“Mind! Why should I mind?” - -“One portmanteau full of stuff will do me,” said Ratcliffe, “and I have -nearly a hundred and fifty in ready money and a letter of credit on -the Lyonnaise at Havana for five hundred. I’ll trundle my stuff over -if you’ll lend me a boat, and be back for luncheon. You’ll be off this -evening, I suppose, and I can stay aboard here till you get the anchor -up. It’s possible I might pick you up at Havana on the way back; but -don’t worry about that. Of course all this depends on whether that -fellow will take me. I’ll take the portmanteau with me and ask.” - -He did not in the least see what was going on in Skelton’s mind. - -“You will take your things with you in a boat, and if this—gentleman -refuses to take you, what then?” - -“I’ll come back.” - -“Now I want to be quite clear with you, Ratcliffe,” said Skelton. -“If you leave my ship like that—for nothing—at a whim and for -disreputable chance acquaintances—absolute scowbankers—the worst -sort—I want to be clear with you—quite, absolutely definite—I must -ask you not to come back!” - -“Well, I’m hanged!” said Ratcliffe, suddenly blazing out. “First -you say go and then you say don’t! Of course that’s enough: you’ve -practically fired me off your boat.” - -“Do not twist my words,” said the other. “That is a subtle form of -prevarication I can’t stand.” - -“I think we had better stop this,” said Ratcliffe. “I’m going! If I -don’t see you again. I’ll say goodby.” - -“And please understand,” said the other, who was rather white about the -mouth, “please understand—” - -“Oh, I know,” said Ratcliffe. “Goodby!” - -He dived below to the saloon and rang for his bedroom steward. - -Burning with anger and irritation and a feeling that he had been sat -upon by Skelton, snubbed, sneered at, and altogether outrageously -used, he could not trust himself to do his own packing. He sat on his -bunkside while the steward stuffed a portmanteau with necessaries, and -as he sat the thought came to him of what would happen were Tyler to -refuse to take him. He would have to take refuge on Palm Island. It was -a comic opera sort of idea; yet, such was the state of his mind, he -actually entertained it. - -Skelton was no longer “Skelly,” but “that beast Skelton.” Then he -tipped the steward and the chief steward, telling them that he was -going for a cruise in that “yawl over there.” On deck he met Norton -and Simmons and told them the same tale. Skelton had vanished to his -cabin. He told the first and second officers that he had said goodby to -his host and asked for a boat to be lowered. - -“I’ll pick you up most likely at Havana,” said he to gloze the matter -over. “I expect I’ll have a good time, but rather rough. I want to do -some fishing.” - -The whole thing seemed like a dream and not a particularly pleasant -one. Embarked on this business now, he almost wished himself done with -it. The yacht was comfortable, the cooking splendid; to satisfy any -want, one had only to touch a bell. There were no bells on board the -_Sarah Tyler_. A lavatory and a sort of bathroom invented by “Pap” were -the only conveniences, and the bath was impracticable. It was “Pap’s” -only failure, for the sea-cock connecting it with the outer ocean was -so arranged or constituted that as likely as not it would let in the -Caribbean before you could “stop it off.” - -If Skelton now, at the last moment, had asked Ratcliffe to come down -and have an interview, things might have been smoothed over, but -Skelton was not the sort of man to make advances; neither, in his way, -was Ratcliffe. - -Meanwhile, Simmons was directing the lowering of a boat. The -companionway was still down. The luggage was put in, and Simmons, -seated by Ratcliffe in the stern seats, took the yoke lines. Not a sign -of Skelton, not even a face at a porthole! - -“Give way!” shouted Simmons. - -As they drew up to the _Sarah Tyler_, Ratcliffe saw Satan leaning over -the rail and watching them. Jude was nowhere visible. - -“Hullo!” said Ratcliffe as they came alongside. “I’ve come back.” - -“I was half-expectin’ you,” said Satan with a grin. - -“Will you take me for that cruise right off?” - -“Sure! That your dunnage?” - -“Yes.” - -Satan stepped to the cabin companionway and shouted down it. - -“Jude!” - -“Hullo!” came Jude’s voice. - -“He’s come back!” - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE PORTMANTEAU - - -As Jude came on deck the portmanteau was being hoisted on board. -Ratcliffe passed down a five-pound note to the boat’s crew, and then -stood, waving to Simmons as the boat put away. Then, turning to -Satan, he tried to discuss terms, but was instantly silenced by Jude -and Satan. They would hear nothing of money. Used to sea changes and -strange happenings, they seemed to think nothing of the business, and -after the first words fell to talking together. - -The trend of their talk induced in Ratcliffe a vaguely uncanny feeling. -It was as though they had already discussed his coming on board and -the storage of himself and his baggage, as though they had known by -instinct that he would return. The size of the portmanteau affected -Jude. - -“You can’t keep that,” said Jude, giving the portmanteau a slight kick. -“It’s a long sight too big. Say, what have you got in it?” - -“Clothes.” - -“Pajamas?” - -“Yes, and lots of other things.” - -Jude tilted back the old panama she was wearing and took her seat -on the portmanteau. Her feet were bare, and she twisted her toes in -thought as she sat for a moment turning matters over in her mind. - -“You can stick the things in the spare locker,” said she at last. “You -gonna have a gay old time if you keep this in the cabin, tumblin’ over -it. Better empty her here an’ cart the stuff below.” - -“Right!” said Ratcliffe. “But what shall I do with the portmanteau when -it’s empty?” - -“Heave her overboard,” said Jude. - -“Shut your head!” said Tyler, suddenly cutting in. “What you talkin’ -about? Heave yourself overboard!” Then to Ratcliffe, “She’s right, all -the same; there’s no room for luggage. If you’ll help Jude to get the -things below, I’ll look after the trunk. When you’ve done with the -cruise you can get a bag to hold your things.” - -Ratcliffe opened the portmanteau. The steward of the _Dryad_ was an -expert: in a past existence he had probably been a pack rat. In any -given space he could have tucked away half as much again as any other -ordinary mortal. But he certainly had no imagination, or perhaps he had -been too busy to cast his eye overboard and see the manner of craft -Ratcliffe was joining, and Ratcliffe had been far too much exercised in -his mind about Skelton to notice what was being packed. - -Jude on her knees helped. - -“What’s this?” asked Jude, coming on a black satin lining. - -“Confound the fool!” said Ratcliffe. “He needn’t have packed that: it’s -a dinner jacket.” - -“Mean to say you sit down to your dinner in a jacket?” Jade choked -and snorted while Ratcliffe hurriedly, on his knees, hauled out the -trousers and waistcoats that went with the garments. - -“That’s the lining—it’s worn the other way about—I know it’s -tomfoolery. Stick ’em all in one bundle—Lord! look at the shirts he’s -packed!” - -“They’ve got tucks in them,” said Jude, looking at the pleated fronts. - -“I know. They go with that tomfool dinner suit. You can’t knock sense -into the head of a bedroom steward. Come along and let’s get them down -below.” - -While they were carting the stuff down, Satan on the hatch cover -cut himself a chew of tobacco (he sometimes chewed) and, with his -lantern jaws working regularly like the jaws of a cow chewing the cud, -contemplated the steadily emptying portmanteau. - -He had a plan about that portmanteau, a plan to turn it to profit. -Satan’s plans generally had profit for their object. He had taken -a genuine liking for Ratcliffe; but it was a curious thing with -Satan that even his likings generally helped him along toward -profit,—perhaps because they were the outcome of a keen intelligence -that had been sharpened by knocking about among rascals, beachcombers, -wharf rats, as well as honest folk. - -When Ratcliffe had fetched down the last load and come up again, he -found Satan and the portmanteau gone. - -The canvas boat had not been brought on board, but streamed astern -on a line. He looked over the side. Satan was in the boat with the -portmanteau and in the act of pushing off. - -“I’m takin’ her back to the yacht,” said Satan. - -Ratcliffe nodded. - -At that moment Jude came on deck blinking and hitching up her trousers. -She had washed her face and made herself a bit more tidy,—perhaps -because she had remembered it was Sunday or perhaps because company had -come on board. She had evidently put her whole head into the water. -It was dripping, and as she stood with the old panama in her hand -and her cropped hair drying in the sun Ratcliffe observed her anew -and thought that he had never seen a more likable figure. Jude would -never be pretty, but she was better than pretty,—healthy, honest -and capable, trusting and fearless, easily reflecting laughter, and -with a trace of the irresponsibility of youth. It was a face entirely -original and distinctive. Dirty, it was the face of a larrikin; -washed, a face such as I have attempted to describe; and the eyes were -extraordinary,—liquid-gray, with a look of distance, when she was -serious, a look acquired perhaps from life among vast sea spaces. - -“Where’s Satan?” asked Jude. - -Ratcliffe pointed. - -Jude, shading her eyes, looked. Then she laughed. - -“Thought he was up to somethin’,” said she. “He’s gone to kid that -officer man out of some more truck.” - -In a flash Ratcliffe saw the reason of Satan’s activities, and in -another flash he saw again, or seemed to see, in Satan and Jude a -pair of gipsies of the sea. A gipsies’ caravan camped close to a -neat villa,—that was the relationship between the _Sarah Tyler_ and -the _Dryad_,—and Satan was the caravan man gone round to the villa’s -back door to return an empty portmanteau and blarney the servants out -of scraps and old odds and ends not wanted, maybe to commandeer a -chicken or nick a doormat—heaven only knew! He remembered the fancy -Satan had taken to the dinghy. And he, Ratcliffe, had thrown in his -lot with these people! Fishing cruise! Rubbish! Gipsy patter, sea -thimblerigging, wreck-picking, and maybe petty larceny from Guadaloupe -to dry Tortugas,—that was what he had signed on for. Why, the _Sarah -Tyler_, could she have been hauled into any law court, would have -stood convicted on her very appearance! Jude was honest enough in her -way; but her way was Satan’s way, and she had owned up with steadfast, -honest eyes to the plundering of a brig and the caching of the plunder. -They were “passons to what Pap had been,” but they were his offspring, -and the law to them was no doubt what it had been to him,—a something -to be avoided or outwitted, like a dangerous animal. - -All these thoughts running through his head did not disturb him in the -least. Far from that! The reckless in him had expanded since he had cut -the cable connecting him with the _Dryad_, and not for worlds would -he have changed the _Sarah_ into a vessel of more conventional form, -or altered Satan from whatever he might be into a figure of definite -respectability. - -He reckoned that if Satan broke the law he would be clever enough to -avoid the consequences. His tongue alone would get him out of most -fixes, and just this touch of gipsiness in the business gave a new -flavor to life,—the flavor boys seek when they raid orchards and -hen-roosts and go pirating with corked faces and lath swords. - -“He’s goin’ aboard her,” said Jude. - -The portmanteau had been taken up by one of the crew, and now Satan, -evidently at the invitation of one of the white-clad figures leaning -over the rail of the _Dryad_, was going up the accommodation ladder, -leaving the boat to wash about in the blue water by the stage. - -Ratcliffe guessed that one of the white-clad figures was Skelton and -that it was on Skelton’s invitation he had gone on board. He felt -vaguely uneasy. What did Skelton mean by that? Was he up to any dodge -to “crab” the cruise? - -However, he had no time to bother over this, for Jude, who had him now -to herself without fear of interruption, had opened her batteries. - -“Say,” said Jude, hanging over the rail where the awning cast its -shadow, speaking without looking at him and spitting into the water, -“what are you when you’re ashore, anyway?” - -“I’m one of the idle rich,” said Ratcliffe, lighting his pipe. - -“Well, you won’t be idle aboard here,” said Jude definitely. “What was -your dad? Was your dad an idle rich?” - -“No, he was a ship owner.” - -“How many ships did he own?” - -“About forty.” - -“What sort?” - -“Steamers.” - -“What sizes?” - -“Oh, anything from two to five thousand tons.” - -She turned to see if he were guying her. - -“There was another man in the business,” said Ratcliffe, “a partner; -Ratcliffe & Holt was the same of the firm. The governor died intestate.” - -“Somethin’ wrong with his inside?” - -“No, he died of a stroke; he was found in his office chair dead; he -died at his work.” - -“Did they get the chap that did him in?” asked Jude. - -“No, it wasn’t a man that struck him; it was apoplexy, a disease, and -dying without a will, all his money was divided up between my two -brothers and me.” - -“How much did you get?” - -“Over a hundred thousand.” - -“Dollars?” - -“No, pounds—four hundred thousand dollars.” - -“Got ’em still?” - -“Yes.” - -“In the bank?” - -“Some; the rest is invested.” - -She seemed to lose interest in the money business and hung for a moment -over the rail, whistling almost noiselessly between her teeth and -kicking up a bare heel. Then she said: - -“Who’s the chap you were sailin’ with?” - -“Skelton is his name.” - -“He owns that hooker?” - -“Yes.” - -“Well,” said Jude suddenly, as if waking from a reverie, “this won’t -boil potatoes—I’ve got to get dinner ready. Come ’long and help if -you’re willin’.” - -There was half a sack of potatoes in the galley. She set the stove -going, and then, on her knees before the open sack, she sent him to -fetch half a bucket of water from overboard. He found the bucket with a -rope attached, brought the water, and filled the potato kettle, then he -brought more water for the washing of the potatoes. - -She did the washing squatting on her heels before the bucket. - -“Where did you get them from?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“Get which?” - -“The potatoes.” - -“Bought them,” said Jude; then, as though suddenly smitten by -rectitude, “No, we didn’t, nuther: we kidooled them out of a fruiter.” - -“What’s a fruiter?” - -“Fruit steamer. Satan fixed her.” - -“How did he fix her?” - -“Well,” said Jude, “it’s no harm to hold up a packet if you don’t throw -her off her course—much. It’s the owners pays, and they can stand the -racket. The crew likes it, and if there’s passengers aboard they just -love it.” - -“Do you mean to say you hold up steamers?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“Yep.” - -“But how do you do it?” - -“Oh, it’s only now and then. What’s easier than to lay in her course -with the flag half-mast? Then she heaves to.” - -“And you board her and ask for potatoes, or whatever you want?” - -“Not much!” said Jude. “They’d boot you off the ship. Water’s what you -ask for, pretendin’ you’re dying of thirst; then you drink till you’re -near bustin’ and fill the breaker you’ve brought with you. It’s all -on the square. Satan would never hold a ship unless he had some fish -to offer them for whatever he wants,—potatoes or fruit or tobacco. -He’s got the fish in the boat and hands it up. They’re always glad of -fresh fish and they offer to buy it; but he won’t take money, but says, -‘If you’ve got a few potatoes handy, I don’t mind takin’ them for the -fish.’ Sometimes it’s fruit he wants, or other things. Then you push -off—and if it’s a passenger packet the passengers, thinkin’ they’ve -saved you from dyin’ of thirst, line up and cheer. It’s no end of fun.” - -“What flag do you sail under?” - -“’Murrican, what else? You see,” went on Jude as she put the potatoes -into the kettle, “fish costs nothing to us and they’re mighty glad of -it, but I reckon they’d bat our heads off if they knew about the dyin’ -of thirst business.” - -“But suppose you struck the same ship twice?” - -“It’s not a job one does every day,” said Jude, with a trace of -contempt in her tone, “and Satan don’t wear blinkers, and it’s not a -job you could do at all if you didn’t know the lie of the fishin’ -banks by where the ship tracks run. I reckon you’ve got to learn -something about things.” - -“I reckon I have,” said Ratcliffe, laughing, “and I bet you’ll teach -me!” - -“Well, shy that over to begin with,” said Jude, giving him the pail of -dirty water. - -He flung the water over the side, and as he did so he took a glance at -the _Dryad_. Satan was in the boat just pushing off. When he returned -to the galley with the news, Jude was preparing to fry fish: not the -early morning fish, but some caught just before Ratcliffe had come on -board. - -Then he went to the rail again just as Satan was coming alongside. - -Satan had a cargo of sorts. His insatiable appetite for canvas and rope -was evidenced by the bundle in the stern, and there were parcels. The -return of the empty portmanteau had not been waste labor. - -“That’s coffee,” said he to Ratcliffe, handing up the goods. “We were -runnin’ short. And here’s biscuits—catch a holt—and here’s some -fancy muck in cans and c’ndensed milk—I told the chap our cow died -yesterday. ‘Take everything you want,’ says he. ‘Don’t mind me—I’m -only the owner.’ Offered me the mainsail as I was putting off an’ -told me to come back for the dinghy. I’d told him I was sweet on -her—full of fun he was—and maybe I will. Claw hold of this bundle -of matches—they’re a livin’ Godsend—and here’s a case of canned -t’marters—and that’s all.” - -Skelton’s irony was evidently quite lost on Satan, or put down to his -“fun,” but Ratcliffe could appreciate it, and the fact that its real -target was himself. - -The canned t’marters appeared with the food at dinner, and during the -meal more of Skelton came out. He had offered Satan vinous liquors, -hoping, so Ratcliffe dimly suspected, to send him back a trouble to -the _Sarah Tyler_ and an object lesson on the keeping of disreputable -company; but the wily Satan had no use for liquor. He was on the water -wagon. - -“I leave all them sorts of things to Jude,” said he, with a grin. He -was referring to Jude’s boasted drunk at Havana, and Ratcliffe, who was -placed opposite to the pair of them, across the table, saw Jude’s chin -project. Why she should boast of a thing one moment and fire up at the -mention of it at another was beyond him. - -For a moment it seemed as if she were going to empty the dish of -tomatoes over Satan, but she held herself in, all but her tongue. - -“You’d have been doin’ better work on board here, mendin’ the gooseneck -of that spare gaff, than wangling old canvas an’ rope out of that man,” -said she. “We’re full up of old truck that’s no more use to us than -Solomon’s aunt. It’s in the family, I suppose, seein’ what Granf’er -was—” - -“Oh, put a potato in your mouth!” said Satan. - -“He used to peddle truck on the Canada border,” said she to -Ratcliffe,—“hams—” - -“Close up!” said Satan. - -“—made out o’ birchwood, and wooden nutmegs—” - -“That was Pap’s joke,” said Satan. “And another word out of you and -I’ll turn you over me knee and take down your—” - -“Then what do you want flingin’ old things in my face?” cried Jude, -wabbling between anger and tears. “Some day I’ll take me hook, same as -mother did.” - -“There’s not a Baptis’ minister would look at you,” said Satan, winking -at Ratcliffe. - -“Damn Baptis’ ministers! You may work your old hooker yourself. I’ll -skip! Two thousand of them dollars is mine, and next time we touch -Havana I’ll skip!” - -“And where’ll you skip to?” - -“I’ll start a la’ndry.” - -“Then you’ll have to black your face and wear a turban, same as the -others—and marry a nigger. I can see you comin’ off for the ship’s -washin’.” - -Jude began to laugh in a crazy sort of way, then all at once she -sobered down and went on with her dinner. One could never tell how her -anger would end,—in tears, laughter of a wild sort, or just nothing. - -Not another word was said about the family history of the Tylers, at -least at that meal, and after it was over Jude made Ratcliffe help to -wash up the plates and things in the galley. - -“Satan’s Cap,” said Jude. “He never helps in the washin’ or swillin’. -Not cold water!—land’s sake! where did you learn washin’ up?—hot! -I’ve left some in that billy on the stove.” - -She had taken off her old coat and rolled her guernsey sleeves up to -the shoulders nearly, and it came to Ratcliffe as he helped that, -without a word of remonstrance, naturally, and as a part adapts itself -to the economy of a whole, he had sunk into the position of kitchen -maid and general help to the Tyler family, taken the place of the -nigger that had skipped; furthermore that Satan was less a person -than a subtle influence. Satan seemed to obtain his ends more by -wishing than by willing. He wanted an extra hand, and he had somehow -put the spell of his wish on him, Ratcliffe. He had wished a drum of -paint out of Simmons—and look at Skelton, the cynical and superior -Skelton, sending off doles of coffee and “t’marters” to the dingy and -disreputable _Sarah Tyler_, offering his mainsail to the rapacious -Satan as a gibe! What had he been but a marionette dancing on the -string of Satan’s wish? - -Only for Jude and the _Sarah_ and the queer new sense of freedom from -all the associations he had ever known, only for something likable -about Satan, the something that gave him power to wheedle things out -of people and bend them to his wishes, Ratcliffe might have reacted -against the Tyler hypnotism. As it was, the whole business seemed as -jolly as a pantomime, as exciting as a new form of novel in which the -folk were real and himself a character. - -Leaving Satan and the old _Sarah_ aside, and the extraordinary -fascination of spars, sails, narrow deck, and close sea, catching one’s -own fish, cooking one’s own food, and dickering with winds, waves, -reefs, and lee shores for a living,—leaving all these aside, Jude -alone would have held him; for Jude gave him what he possessed when -he was nine,—the power of playing again, of seeing everything new and -fresh. Washing up dishes with Jude was a game. To the whole-souled -Jude all this business was a game,—hauling on the halyards, fishing, -cooking, hanging on to the beard of a storm by the sea anchor, wreck -picking and so on,—and she had infected him. Already they were good -companions and, when together, of the same age, about nine—though she -was fifteen and he over twenty. - -“Stick them on that shelf,” said Jude. “Oh, -Lord!—butter-fingers!—lemme! That’s the gadget to keep them from -shiftin’ if the ship rolls. Now stick the knives in that locker. You -don’t mind my tellin’ you, do you?” - -“Not a bit.” - -“Well, that’s all.” - -They found Satan under the awning, attending to the gooseneck of the -spare gaff. - -Jude sat down on the deck clasping her knees, criticized Satan’s -handiwork, received instructions to hold her tongue, and then -collapsed, lying on her back with knees up and the back of her hand -across her eyes. She could sleep at any odd moment. - -The horizon had vanished in haze, the crying of the gulls had died -down, and the washing of the lazy swell on the island beach sounded -like a lullaby. - -A trace of smoke was rising from the yellow funnel of the _Dryad_ as -she lay like a white painted ship on a blue painted ocean. They were -firing up. - -“How about getting ashore?” asked Ratcliffe. “I want to see that cache -of yours. Care to come?” - -“I’d just as soon leave it till they’re away,” said Satan, jerking his -hand toward the _Dryad_. “There’s no tellin’, they might be spottin’ us -on the location with a glass, and they’ll be off tonight—so the chap -told me. You leave it to me and I’ll show you a cache better nor that -in a day or two.” - -“Shut up, Satan!” came a drowsy voice from the deck. - -“Shut up yourself!” said Satan. “I’m not talkin’ of what you mean: I’m -talkin’ of the abalone reef—lyin’ there like a lazy dog and lippin’ -your betters!” - -“Where’s me betters?” cried Jude, sitting bang-up suddenly, like the -corpse in “Thou art the man.” - -“I’m your betters.” - -“You!” - -“Me!” - -Jude broke into a cracked laugh. - -“Listen to him talkin’!” cried she to the universe in general. “Ain’t -fit to bile potatoes!” She was on her feet, and he was after her with a -rope’s end, dodging her round the mast. “Touch me and I’ll tell him!” A -flick of the rope’s end caught her, and next moment she was clinging to -Ratcliffe and using him as her shield. “It’s an old ship sunk south o’ -Rum Key!” cried Jude. “South o’ Rum Key! I told you I’d tell him if you -touched me.” - -Satan dropped the rope and resumed the gooseneck business. - -“Now you’ve done it!” said he. - -“Told you I would,” said Jude. She sat down on the deck again as -though nothing had happened and nursed her knees. - -“You needn’t mind me,” said Ratcliffe. “I won’t tell.” - -“Oh, it’s not that,” said Satan, “but Pap was mighty particular about -keepin’ close. He located that hooker only three months before the -fever took him—and he didn’t come on it by chance nuther. And now -Jude’s given the show away!” - -“I told you I’d tell him,” said Jude broodily. - -“Told me you’d tell him! Why, ever since last fall you’ve been at me -to keep my tongue in my head about it, and then you bring it out bing, -first thing, yourself! That’s a woman all over.” - -“Who are you callin’ a woman?” - -“Me aunt. Shut your head and give over handlin’ that ball of yarn, -clutch hold of the gaff and keep it steady while I fix this ring on -her!” - -He worked away in silence while Ratcliffe sat watching, vaguely -intrigued by what had just passed. It was less the words than the place -and circumstance,—the little deck of the _Sarah Tyler_, the blue lazy -sea, the voice of the surf on Palm Island, the figure of Jude and -Satan. He had seen Rum Cay: They had passed it in a pink and pearly -dawn. The steward had called him up to look at it. South of that lonely -and fascinating place old man Tyler had located a sunk ship. What sort -of ship he knew instinctively and that the Tylers were not the people -to halloo over nothing. The gulls did not know these seas better than -they. He said nothing, however. It was Satan who spoke next. - -“Pap had reckoned to lay for it this spring,” said Satan, “but the -fever took him. Then we were underhanded. Jude and me can make out to -work the boat and get a livin’, but we’re too underhanded for a big -job. Why, takin’ that truck off the brig I told you about near laid us -out, and we had the nigger to help and she was hove up so that it was -like takin’ cargo off a wharfside.” - -“Look here,” said Ratcliffe, “I’ll help if you care to go for it. I -don’t want any share: just the fun. What’s in her?” - -“Well,” said Satan in a half-hearted way, “maybe we’ll have a look at -her; but it’s a job that wants more than three by rights. Pap was three -men in himself; he’d a done it. It’s a dynamite job. She’s got to be -blasted open.” - -“I’ve heard stories about buried treasure in these seas—” began -Ratcliffe. Jude turned her head. - -“That’s bilge,” said she. - -“Yarns,” said Satan. “Pap used to turn any man down that talked of -stuff bein’ buried. First he said that chaps didn’t bury stuff, second -if they did you couldn’t find it, what with earthquakes and sand -siftin’ and such, and third that never an ounce of silver, or gold for -the matter of that, has ever been dug up by the tomfools huntin’ for -it. Havana is full of tall stories of buried treasure—chaps make a -livin’ sellin’ locations and faked charts and the like of that. It’s a -Spanish game, and it takes good American money every year. You see, Pap -was a book-readin’ man,—taught himself to read, too, and didn’t start -the job till he was near forty,—so he had a head on him, but somehow -or ’nother he never made the money he ought. If he’d stuck in towns and -places, he’d have been a Rock’feller; but he liked beatin’ about free, -said God’s good air was better than dollars. But it stuck in him that -he hadn’t made out, somehow. Then he turned into unbelievin’ ways, Said -he was a soci—what was it, Jude?” - -“Somethin’ or ’nother,” said Jude. - -“Socialist?” suggested Ratcliffe. - -“That’s it! Said the time was coming when all the guys that were down -under would be on top of the chaps that were on top, and that there’d -be such a hell of a rough house money’d be no use anyway; said the -time was comin’ when eggs would be a dollar apiece and no dollars to -buy them with, and me and Jude would be safest without money gettin’ -our livin’ out of the sea. He was a proper dirge when he got on that -tack. But all the same it stuck in him that he wasn’t on top, and one -night when he was in Diegos’ saloon he heard three Spanish chaps layin’ -their heads together. He knew the lingo well enough to make out their -meanin’. They were in the bar. Pap wasn’t on the water wagon, but he -was no boozer. He was sittin’ there that night just dead beat, as any -man might be after the day’s work he’d done, runnin’ the customs—” - -“Luff!” said Jude in a warning voice. - -“Oh, close your head! Think I am talkin’ to a customs officer? He don’t -care.” - -“Not a bit,” said Ratcliffe. “Heave ahead.” - -“Well, he was sittin’ with his eyes shut, and he heard these guys -colludin’ together. He didn’t get more than half they said, but he -got enough to make him want to hear more. Then they quit the bar and -went into a back room with their lemon juice and cigarettes. Ten -minutes after hell broke loose in that back room, and when Pap and the -bartender got the door open there was the chaps, one on the floor shot -through the head and the other two near done in. Two of them had set -on the guy that was dead; but they hadn’t knocked him out before he -began to shoot, and he’d pretty well riddled them with a Colt automatic -pistol—” - -“Them’s the things!” said Jude. “I’m savin’ up to buy one of them -things on my own—twenty-five dollars—” - -“Shut your head! Then they must have knocked it out of his hand and -used the last shot on him.” - -“His brains were all over the floor,” said Jude with relish. “Pap said -they looked like white of egg beat up and enough to fill a puddin’ -basin.” - -“Pap spotted somethin’ else on the floor,” went on Satan, “a piece of -paper folded double. He put it in his pocket while the fellers were -bein’ lifted to the hospital, where they died that same night. He was -on the square all right, takin’ that paper, and I’ll tell you why. Six -months before that we’d spotted a wreck comin’ up from Guadaloupe. -She’s so placed—as maybe you’ll see yourself one day—that a hundred -ships might have passed her without spottin’ her, and bein’ out of -trade tracks made her all the safer. These guys had been talkin’ about -a wreck before they left the bar for the back room, and he reckoned it -was our find they were onto. The piece of paper made him sure of that, -and, takin’ it with the talk he’d heard, he reckoned he had got the -biggest thing that ever humped itself in these waters. He said there -was a hundred thousand dollars aboard her.” - -It was a fascinating story, yet it seemed to Ratcliffe that Satan -showed little enthusiasm over the business. - -“You don’t seem very keen about it,” said he. - -“Well,” said Satan, “it seems a bit too big, and that’s the truth. The -hooker’s there right enough, but I don’t seem to see all that stuff -aboard of her.” - -“It’s there right enough,” said Jude. - -“Then there’s the getting of it,” went on Satan. “That’s a tough job to -tackle. Months of work, no pay, and the chance of bein’ let down at the -end of it.” - -“Satan’d sooner be grubbin’ round after abalones,” said Jude. “Bone -lazy, that’s what he is! I know the stuff’s there, and I’m goin’ to get -it if I have to dig it out myself.” - -“Well, off with you then,” said the other, “and a good riddance you’d -be!” Then to Ratcliffe, “We’ll run you down there some day and you can -see for yourself. If you’ve any money to burn, you might like to put -it in the spec’. We’d want extra help. Jude’s talkin’ through her hat. -We can’t tackle that business alone, even Pap saw that—though he was -mighty set on doin’ it single-handed. And that’s where the bother -comes in, for the island where she’s lyin’ is Spanish, and the Dagoes -would claim what we got if they knew.” - -“We’d have to get half a dozen men and give them a share,” said -Ratcliffe. “That would make them hold their tongues; but I see an awful -lot of difficulties. Suppose you got the stuff, how are you to get rid -of it?” - -“We’d have to get it down to a Brazil port,” said Satan, “or run it -into Caracas. That’s handier. Them Venezuelans are the handiest chaps -when it comes to loose dealin’.” - -“For the matter of that,” said Ratcliffe, “one could run it straight -to England. There are lots of places there where we could get it -ashore—but we’ve got to get it first.” - -“That’s so,” said Satan. “Look! She’s puttin’ a boat off.” He pointed -to the _Dryad_. - -A quarter-boat had been lowered and was pulling away from the yacht. -As she drew closer Ratcliffe saw that the man in the sternsheets, -steering, was Skelton,—Skelton coming either to make trouble or to -make friends. - -The oars rose up and fell with a crash as the bow oar hooked on to the -dingy old _Sarah_. - -“Hulloo!” said Ratcliffe. - -“Hulloo!” said Skelton. - -“Won’t you come on board?” - -“No, thank you.” A sniff from Jude. “I just came over to say that we -are starting.” - -Ratcliffe saw that he wanted to say a lot, but was tongue-tied before -the boat’s crew and the Tylers. - -“Better come on board,” said he, “and have a chat in the cabin before -you’re off.” - -Skelton hesitated a moment, then he came. He gave Satan a nod, utterly -ignored Jude, and, followed by Ratcliffe, passed below. Downstairs his -manner changed. Standing and refusing a seat, as though fearing to -contaminate his lily-white ducks, he began to speak as if addressing -the portrait of old man Tyler. - -“I can’t believe you absolutely mean to do this,” said he. “I can -understand a moment’s temper, but—but—this is a joke carried too far.” - -“My dear Skelton,” said the other, “what’s the good? I have the -greatest respect for you, but we are dead opposites in temperament and -we make each other unhappy. What’s the good of carrying it on? It’s not -as if you minded being alone. You like being alone, and I like this old -tub and her crew. Well, let’s each carry out our likings. I’m as happy -as anything here.” - -“I’m not thinking of your happiness, but of the position. You were a -guest on my yacht, and you leave me like this—I need not embroider on -the bare fact.” - -“Do you want me to go back?” - -“Not in the least,” said Skelton. “You are a free agent, I hope.” - -Ratcliffe’s blood was beginning to rise in temperature. He knew quite -well Skelton wanted him to go back, but was too proud to say so, and he -knew quite well that Skelton wanted him back, not for any love of him, -but simply because the _position_ was irregular and people, if they -heard of all this, might talk; also it might seem queer to the yacht’s -crew. - -“Well, then, if you don’t specially want me back, I’ll stay,” said he. - -“Very well,” said Skelton, “as you please. I wash my hands of the -affair, and if you come to grief it is your own lookout. I will have -the remainder of your baggage forwarded home to you when I reach -England.” - -“I’ll maybe see you at Havana when this cruise is over,” said Ratcliffe -vaguely. - -“I doubt it,” said Skelton. “It is quite possible I may not call -there.” He turned and began to climb the companionway. On deck he -nodded frigidly to Satan and got over the side. - -Satan, leaning across the rail, looked down. - -“How about that mains’l?” asked Satan jocularly. - -“I’m afraid I have no more spare canvas available,” said Skelton, with -a veiled dig at the rapacity of the lantern-jawed one, “or provisions. -Anything else I shall be delighted to let you have.” - -“Well, then,” said Satan, “you might send us a loan of the dinghy. -We’re short of boats.” - -“You shall have her,” said Skelton with a glance at Ratcliffe, who was -also leaning over, as though to say, “This is the sort of man you have -thrown your lot in with!” - -The boat pushed off. - -“Goodby!” cried Ratcliffe, half laughing, half angry, with Satan, but -quite unable to veto the promised gift. - -“’By,” replied the other, raising a hand. - -Jude, who had said not one word, suddenly began to giggle. - -“What’s wrong with you?” asked Satan. - -“I dunno,” replied Jude, “but there’s somethin’ about that guy that -makes me want to laugh.” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -SKELTON SAILS - - -The breeze had risen with the declining sun and the water round the -_Dryad_ looked like a spread of smashed sapphires. - -They watched Skelton getting on board, and then they saw the dinghy -lowered and the quarter-boat taking her in tow. In five minutes, like -a white duckling behind a moor-hen, she was streaming on a line behind -the _Sarah_ and the quarter-boat was pulling back for the yacht. - -Satan had got his wish, and Ratcliffe was feeling just as Skelton -wanted him to feel, under a compliment and rather a beast. Then they -saw the boat taken on board and the hands laying aloft and the canvas -shaking out to the favoring breeze. - -“He’ll have the wind right aft, and that’ll save his coal,” said Satan. -“I reckon if his engines give out he wouldn’t bother much, with all -that canvas to carry him.” - -“They’re handlin’ it smart,” said Jude. “There’s the anchor goin’ up.” - -The flurried sound of the steam winch raising the anchor came across -the water, then it ceased, and Jude, running to the flag locker, -fetched out a dingy old American flag, bent it on, and ran it up, -dipping it as the _Dryad_ began to move. - -She returned the compliment, gliding away with the bow-wash beginning -to show and the wake creaming behind her. As she passed the southern -reefs and shifted her helm, squaring her yards to the following wind, -a blast from her siren raised a blanket of shouting gulls. Then the -island cut her off and the sea lay desolate. - -The sense of his loneliness came on Ratcliffe, sudden as the clap of a -door. He had cut the painter with civilization. The deck of the _Sarah -Tyler_ seemed smaller than ever, Jude and Satan more irresponsible and -unaccountable, and his own daring a new thing, somewhat dubious. He had -renounced services and delicacies and surety of passage and safety, -letters and newspapers, everything he had known! The shock scarcely -lasted a minute, and then, with the breeze across the pansy-blue -evening sea, came blowing the wind of Adventure and Freedom. - -Then in a moment some spirit explained to him what life really -meant,—life as the Argonauts knew it, as the gulls know it, freedom -in the intense and living moment, without a thought of yesterday, with -scarcely a care for the morrow. - -He took his seat in an old chair that Satan had placed under the rag of -awning and lit his pipe. That delightful smoke seemed the culmination -of everything in these first moments in this new world. As he smoked he -watched the Tylers, who were so busy with their own affairs that they -seemed to have forgotten him. They had hauled the dinghy alongside, -then they got into her and were lost to sight; but he could hear their -voices, Jude’s shrill with pleasure and excitement. - -“My! Ain’t she a beauty? Ain’t she a dinky boat? My! look at -the _cus_hions!” A laugh. “For the love of Mike look at the -cushions—_cus_hions in a boat! Heave ’em on deck!” The cushions came -flying over the rail, together with the voice of Satan, evidently -bending. - -“Leave them alone or I’ll bat y’ with the bailer! Well, let them lay -on deck if they’re there. She’s a duck, new built too,—teak, copper -fastenin’s, all the best that money could buy. Stop rockin’ her and -over you get after the cushions.” - -Jude came clambering on board, beaming in the sunset, then she got -one of the boat’s cushions and took her seat on it on the deck beside -Ratcliffe. - -“I reckon old Popplecock’s as soft as his cushions, to be wangled out -of a boat like that,” said Jude, examining the sole of her bare right -foot for a fancied splinter. “Satan said he was goin’ to try it on him -when you were down below with him. Didn’t believe he’d do it. That chap -looked as stiff as his own mainmast—but there’s no tellin’—Say, I -heard what you said to him when you were down below.” - -“Oh, did you?” - -“I wasn’t listenin’: I just heard through the skylight. I heard you -sayin’ you liked us and the old _Sarah_ better’n him and his boat—what -makes likin’s?” - -“I don’t know.” - -“Nuther do I; but we took to you right off, same as you to us. Ever -done abalone fishin’?” - -“No.” - -“Well, I reckon you won’t want to do it again, once you’ve tried. -There’ll be a big low tide tomorrow after sun-up, and you’ll have a -chance of seein’ what it is. Finished your pipe? Well, come along and -help us to get supper.” - -For all the work Ratcliffe did, she might have got the supper herself. -He was mostly in the way; but it was the companionship that helped. -Brothers aren’t much good as companions. Ratcliffe was a new thing, -absolutely new, from his striped pajamas and dandy clothes to his -condition of mind, just as she was a new thing to Ratcliffe. Never did -two beings come together so well or create more rapidly a little world -of mutual interests out of the little things of life, or a weaker being -dominate more completely the stronger. - -“Can you make bread?” asked Jude after he had filled the tin kettle -for her. “Well, you’ll have to learn. That’s the bakin’ powder in that -big tin, and the flour’s in the starboard locker—What’re you doin’ -with the tin? Land’s sake! You don’t think I’m goin’ to make bread for -supper, same as you make tea? Where was you born?” - -“Hampshire.” - -“I thought it was somewhere like that,” said Jude. - -She instructed him in the primitive method of bread making as conducted -on board the _Sarah Tyler_, finishing up with the information that -hardtack would be their portion at supper that night and breakfast -next morning, as she was “up to the gunnel” in other business. Among -the other things was having to put a patch on her trousers: not the -ones she was wearing, which were her next best, but her worst. The old -guernsey she was wearing was her second best. Coats! Oh, coats were -good enough on Sunday or for going ashore in, but no use much in a -ship, except an oilskin for dirty weather. Boots the same; stockings -the same. You had to wear boots, of course, over rocks and through -stuff like that over there on the island. - -“Them pajamas” would be bully things to wear by day, only they’d -frighten the fish. As for sleeping in such things, she’d just as soon -seek the arms of Morpheus in a top hat. Why didn’t he wear a nighty -like her and Satan? Pap’s eyes would have bugged out had he seen those -things. He was “awful old fashioned,”—used to make her and Satan -put cotton between their teeth every night. They did it still. She -exhibited a set of dazzling white teeth to prove the fact. You just -pulled a cotton thread between them, and then they never went rotten. -Also he made them brush their teeth every morning. Folks that didn’t do -that got toothache. - -“Kettle’s boilin’,” suddenly finished Jude. “Now start in an’ let’s -see you make the tea—said you could do it. There’s the can. Ain’t -you goin’ to heat the pot first? How’re you to heat it? Let me have a -hold. Now fling the water out. A spoonful a head and one for the pot -and another one for Satan,—he likes it strong,—and if you’ll take it -along to the cabin without spillin’ it I’ll be after you in a minute -with the plates and things.” - -Satan, who never put his hand to menial work, maintaining, without -the least offense, his position as captain and owner, came down to -supper, flushed with the good qualities of the dinghy. He had taken -her for a row—and it was like hearing a man talking of a stroll with -a sweetheart—if men ever talk of such things. Before going on deck -to smoke he pointed out Ratcliffe’s quarters for the night. He was to -have Pap’s cabin, the space divided off with a curtain. Jude and he -always slept in hammocks swung in the “saloon.” Before going on deck he -fetched an old canister out of a locker and, emptying some dried herbs -into a saucer, set fire to them and left them smoldering on the table. -It was to keep the mosquitoes away. Pap had got the receipt from a -Seminole Indian up near Cedar Cays. It was patent stuff. Not a mosquito -would come when there was a sniff of it in the air. - -Then, just as the moon was rising, and after the things were washed up, -they sat on deck, smoking, listening to the waves on the beach, and -watching fish jumping in the track of the moon. They talked of fish, -and to Ratcliffe’s mind two things became apparent,—Satan’s profound, -awful knowledge of the sea and all that lived therein, and his absolute -indifference to sport. Satan fished for food. Tarpon and tarpon -fishermen filled him with disgust and disdain. You can’t eat tarpon, -and the guys that came from New York and such places and spent their -days fighting tarpon with a ten-ounce rod and a twenty-one-thread line -seemed to him bereft of reason. - -Jude, sitting on the deck and mending her pants by the light of the -moon, concurred. - -“But it’s the fun of the thing,” said Ratcliffe; “it’s the matching of -one’s skill and strength against the fish.” He talked of the joys of -salmon fishing. - -“What bait do you use for them?” asked Satan. - -“Flies.” - -Jude shrieked. - -“Not live flies,” he explained: “imitation ones.” He tried to describe -artificial fly-making and finished with a sense of failure as of one -who had entered the lists in defense of a niggling form of business -that had yet a touch of humor in it. - -Then, as they talked, suddenly through the night came a sound like the -boom of a big gun. Ratcliffe nearly dropped his pipe. - -“That’s a fish,” said Satan. - -“Sea bat,” said Jude indifferently. - -“That noise?” - -“Sea bat jumping. There they go again. Must be a circus of them playin’ -about beyond the reefs,—big flat fish, weigh all of a ton.” - -“Tails as long as themselves and eyes like dinner plates,” said Jude, -“mushy brutes. Tow a ship after them if they foul the anchor—won’t -they, Satan?” - -“They’re loudenin’,” said Satan. “They’ll be comin’ this way with the -current. Come forward and have a look.” - -Leaning over the rail, they watched the moon-shot water. The sounds had -ceased. - -“They’ve stopped playin’,” said Satan, as though he knew exactly what -they were doing. - -“It’s too shallow for them here,” said Jude. - -“Shallow! It’s fifty foot of water and a sandy bottom. What are you -talkin’ about? Told you.” - -The depths of the sea suddenly became lit. Down below vast forms came -drifting like the mainsails of ships ablaze with phosphorescent light, -drifting and turning over as they drifted like gargantuan leaves blown -by the wind. The whiplike tails could be seen as streaks of flame. -Glimpses of devilish faces and lambent eyes showed as they turned, the -fins waving like frills of fire. - -Then they were gone. - -The Tylers showed little concern over the marvelous sight; allowing, -however, that it was the biggest school of “bats” they had ever struck; -but to Ratcliffe it was as though the sea had disclosed a peep of its -true heart and real mystery. - -Then they went to rest, and as he lay in Pap’s cabin, listening to the -occasional trickle of the water against the planking and the groan of -the rudder moved by the lilt of the swell, it seemed to him that daring -in its everyday and cold-blooded form could not have carried a man -much further than it had carried him. The sea bats had underscored the -business as far as the mystery of the ocean and danger of cruising in -such a small boat were concerned; the hardness of Pap’s bunk bedding -told of comforts renounced; while the morals of the Tylers, though -good enough no doubt, had, as disclosed in their conversation, a -touch of the free lance and a threat of port authority troubles and -differences of opinion with the customs. Absolute respect for the -rights of man, partial respect for the rights of shipping companies and -steamer lines, no respect at all for governments and customs,—that -was an outline of the Tyler morality. What had made him renounce -the _Dryad_ for the _Sarah?_ What, lying in his hard bunk, made him -contented with the exchange? The love of adventure and the craving for -something new contributed, no doubt, but the main reason he felt to be -the Tylers,—Satan with his strange mentality and queer methods; Jude, -unlike any other being he had ever met. - -Then, as he lay considering all this, came muted voices from the -“saloon.” Satan’s voice: - -“Have you put the cotton between your teeth?” - -Then Jude’s, drowsily: - -“Naw—leave a body alone!” - -“Get out o’ your hammock, you lazy dog, an’ fix your teeth or I’ll let -you down by the head!” - -Then Jude’s voice, dolorous and muffled, “Shut up or you’ll be wakin’ -him! Cuss my teeth—cayn’t find the cotton! Wakin’ a body up like that! -Tell you I’m _lookin’_ for it—got it—” - -A long silence, during which Ratcliffe dropped off, to be awakened an -hour later by the lamentations of Jude and the sounds of Satan prodding -her out of a nightmare,—a gastric nightmare, in which it appeared to -her troubled soul that she _had_ to fry a sea bat, _totum terres atque -rotundum_, in the small galley frying pan for breakfast. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -CARQUINEZ - - -The tide had begun to draw out with the setting stars, and the tune of -the waters on the beach had sunk to the merest thread of sound. - -Then, through the silence from the far reefs to southward, came the -single, lamentable cry of a gull; then a chorus, and away against the -vague blue of the east, here and there, like leaves blown about a dimly -lit window showed the wings of the birds already putting out to sea for -the fishing. - -Ratcliffe was awakened by Jude calling on him to “show a leg.” - -“Satan’s on deck,” said Jude, “and if you believe in washin’ he’ll give -you a swill with a bucket. Hurry up and come down again, for I want a -swill myself. Swim? Not on your life! Sharks, that’s why.” - -The voice came from a hammock which he had blundered against in the -semidarkness. Then on deck after his swill, drying himself with an old -towel provided by Satan, he stood for a moment watching the sun break -up through the water and the great sea flashing to life and the white -gulls flying. - -The island was sending a faint breeze to them, a tepid breeze flavored -with earth and cactus and bay cedar scents, perfumes that mixed with -the tang of the ocean and the tar-oakum scents of the _Sarah Tyler_. - -And all these scents and sounds and sights, from the sun flash on the -sea to the trembling palm fronds on the shore, seemed like a great -bouquet presented by youth and morning. - -Oh, the splendor of being alive, free, happy, without a single care, -and the deck of the wandering _Sarah_ under foot! - -From below through the skylight came a sleep-heavy voice. - -“Ain’t you done yet?” - -“Coming,” said Ratcliffe. - -He dived into his pajamas and came below. - -“Get into your cabin an’ shut the door,” commanded the yawning voice -from the hammock. - -“There’s no door.” - -“Well, draw the curtain. Oh, Lord! what’s the good o’ gettin’ up? I’m -near dead asleep!” - -Then the voice of Satan descending the companion ladder. - -“Ain’t you up? Well, you wait one minute!” - -A thump on the floor, a scurry up the companion ladder, and then -shuddery lamentations and the sounds of swilling from the deck above, -mixed with the admonitions of Satan from below. - -“Oh, my! ain’t it cold? Oh, my! ain’t it frizzin’?” - -“Get on, you mad turkle! You ain’t washin’, you’re splashing the water -on the deck. Slush it over you.” - -“I’m slushing it.” - -“Think I don’t know? Why, you ain’t gasped yet! Give a gasp, or I’ll be -up to you with a rope-end! That’s more like it.” - -It was! - -The sun was high when Ratcliffe got on deck, and a light, steady breeze -was blowing up from the straits of Florida; the gulls looked like -snowflakes blowing round the far reefs and against the morning blue of -the sea. - -Jude had put the kettle on. She had dressed on deck, having carried her -“togs” with her, and she was now preparing a line for fishing, and, as -she bent over it, appeared Satan,—Satan rising from the cabin hatch -with a toothbrush in his hand. - -“You’ve forgot your teeth,” said Satan. - -“No, I haven’t,” said Jude. “I’ve been fillin’ the kettle—I’ll fix -them when I’ve done with the fishin’.” - -“Fishin’ will wait.” He fetched a pannikin of water. “You’re more -trouble than a dozen. What’d Pap say if he saw you?” - -“I’ll fix them when I’ve done with the fishin’.” - -“You’ll fix them now!” - -“No. I won’t!” - -Satan put down the pannikin and the brush. She evaded him like a flash -and skimmed up the mast to the crosstrees. - -Scarcely had she got up than she came sliding down, seized the -toothbrush and pannikin, and began to brush her teeth over the scupper -with a fire speed and fury that seemed born of dementia. - -“Sardines comin’,” explained Jude between mouthfuls. “Look alive and -get a bucket!” - -Ratcliffe looked over the sea, where her birdlike sight had spotted -the sardine shoal being driven like a gray cloud under the water -by pursuing fish. A fringe of dancing silver showed the leaping -sardines, and the great fish driving the shoal broke up now and then in -sword-flashes. - -They were coming from south to north, and the left wing of the shoal -would pass the island beach by a cable length. - -While Satan stood by with a bucket at the end of a rope, Ratcliffe hung -over the side watching. - -The driven sardines had no eyes for the _Sarah_. They struck her like -the blow of a great silvery hand, boiled around her, and passed. The -army of pursuit followed, passed and vanished, leaving the water clear -and Satan with a dipped up bucket full of quivering silver. - -The Tylers, absolutely blind to the wonder of the business, fried the -sardines just as they were, tossed out of the blue sea into the frying -pan, and, breakfast over, Satan and Ratcliffe took the dinghy to hunt -for abalones on the uncovered reef. - -The reefs to southward formed two spurs divided by a creek of blue -water, and having got the dinghy into this creek Ratcliffe tended the -boat while Satan hunted for the abalones. - -Satan in search of pearls was a sight. Heart, soul, and mind bound -up in the business, like a dog hunting for truffles, every find was -announced by a yell or a whoop, like the whoop of a Red Indian. - -Ratcliffe could see squiggly-wiggly cuttlefish tendrils running up -Satan’s arms as he delved in some of the rock-clefts, and Satan -disengaging them and flinging the “mushy brutes” away. The big abalones -were nearly always deep down under the rock ledges and had to be -chiseled off, wallowing in the water. At these times Ratcliffe might -have fancied the vanished one lost or drowned, but for the profane -language that rose and floated away on the breeze. - -All the same, it was dull work for the boat tender. Having nothing else -to think of, he thought of Jude. Her figure chased away dullness. - -A man in the bright and early morning is quite a different person -from the same man at noon, and coming across Jude after a long course -of Skelton was like stepping from a gray afternoon to dawn. Was it -possible that Skelton and Jude were vertebrates of the same species? - -Then there was what women would have called the pity of it. Ratcliffe -did not deal much with the conventions as a rule; still, he could -not but perceive that all life has an aim and ending, and that the -end of an old sailor was not what life and the fitness of things had -destined for Jude. What would she grow up into? He thought of all the -girls he had ever known. There was not one so jolly as Jude; still, -it was terrible, somehow, monstrous. He remembered her threat to pull -her skirts over her head and run down the street if skirts were ever -imposed upon her. Her contempt for the feminine rose up before him, and -against all that her housewifely instincts and the fact that, despite -Satan’s rope-end and mock bluster, she ruled the _Sarah Tyler_ just as -a woman rules a house. - -Still, it was deplorable. Looking away into distance, what would become -of her? - -Vague and fatherly ideas of getting her away from this life and having -her brought up properly and educated came to him, only to be dispelled -by Jude. Imagine Jude in a girls’ school, at a tea party! - -He was aroused from these meditations by Satan,—Satan with an armful -of abalones, Satan scratched and bleeding and soused in sea water, but -triumphant. - -He reckoned they were the biggest “fish” ever got on these reefs. There -were a dozen and six all told, and when they were collected and put on -board the dinghy put back. - -Coming round the western spur of the reef, they found that Jude had -left the _Sarah_—a high crime—and rowed herself ashore. - -The canvas boat was on the beach, and away amid the bay cedars and -cactus toward the trees could be seen the head and shoulders of the -deserter moving about. She seemed in search of something. - -“God love me!” cried Satan. - -He beached the dinghy, helped Ratcliffe to run her up, and then -started, followed by the other, running and shouting as he ran. - -“Hi! chucklehead! Whatcha leave the ship for? Didn’t I tell you to -stand by her? Whatcha huntin’ for—turkles’ eggs?” - -“What you done with your eyes?” retorted the other. “Cayn’t you see?” - -Instantly, and by her tone and by some sixth sense, Satan was appeased. -He seemed suddenly to scent danger. He saw the work she had been on, -camouflaging the cache more effectively. He cast his glance over the -island, the western sea, turned, and then stood stock-still, shading -his eyes. - -Away beyond the _Sarah Tyler_ across the purple blue stood a sail. The -land wind had died off, and the stranger was bringing the sea wind with -her. A small topsail schooner she showed now, with all sail set, making -dead for the island. - -“That’s him,” said Satan. - -“Spotted him half an hour ago,” said Jude. “He was steering -nor’-nor’west and shifted his helm when he saw us.” - -The bay cedar bushes sighed suddenly to the new-risen wind, and as -Ratcliffe glanced about him the feeling of the desolation of the place -where he stood came to him strong,—strong in the scent of cactus and -herbage, the tune of the water on the beach, and the rustle of the wind -in the bushes. - -“He’s been huntin’ for us,” said Satan, “curse him!” - -“Who is he?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“Friend of Pap’s, he was—” - -“Pretended to be,” put in Jude. - -“Spanish,” continued Satan, “and ever since Pap gave out he’s been -pretty much on our heels. Jude and me worked the thing out and we came -to conclude he’d scented, somehow, from Pap, about the hooker I spoke -of.” - -“The wreck?’ - -“Yep. Pap was keen on gettin’ extra money into the business of salvin’ -her, and I b’lieve he sounded Carquinez,—that’s his name,—and how -much he let out takin’ his soundin’s the Lord only knows! Cark’s in the -tobacco line. Does a bit of everythin’,—has a shop in the Calle Pedro -in Havana and a gamblin’ joint on the front, owns ships. That’s one of -them, and Matt Sellers runs her for him. He don’t trouble handlin’ her: -sits in the cabin all day smokin’ cigarettes.” - -“He’s been after us ever since Pap died,” said Jude, “on and off.” - -“It was one of his men got Jude in that doggery down by the wharf and -filled her up with rum,” said Satan, turning the brim of his panama -down. “Remember I told you—and what she let out the Lord only knows!” - -“I didn’t let out nothin’,” said Jude; “only that we were goin’ east -this trip, I owns to that.” - -“Well, there’s the result of your jaw,” said Satan. “East was good -enough for Cark: he’d hunt hell for a red cent. And don’t you be sayin’ -you didn’t let out nothin’. Why, I heard you jawin’ about all the money -you had when I come in and collared you! Cark believes Pap found that -stuff and cached it—that’s what he believes, or my name’s not Tyler.” - -“Well, let’s get aboard,” said Jude. “If they see us squatting about -here, they’ll maybe think the stuff’s hid here.” - -“They’ve seen us by this, though it’s too far for them to make out who -we are,” said Satan, pushing his panama farther forward to hide his -face. He led the way to where the boats were on the sand, and they -reëmbarked. - -The abalones were got on board, and then they stood watching the -approach of the stranger. - -The white had gone out of her sails. Close in now, they showed dingy -and patched. She had a low freeboard. Then, as she dropped anchor and -swung to her moorings broadside on to the _Sarah_, the rake of her -masts became apparent, and her whole disreputableness spoke aloud. - -Ratcliffe felt like a man who, having got into pleasant low company, -suddenly finds himself drawn into unpleasant low company. - -The _Tylers_ and the old _Sarah_ were all right, but this new crowd -and that ratty old schooner he felt to be all wrong. And the newcomer -somehow did not add honesty or moral stability to the appearance of the -_Sarah_, nor did the half-disclosed character and activities of Cark -shed luster on old man Tyler or his present representatives. - -However, he had gone into this business open-eyed, and it was not for -him to grumble at the friends or relationships of his hosts; besides he -had trust in Satan and the wit of Satan to preserve them from the law. - -Satan had covered the heap of abalones with some sailcloth, and he was -standing now working his lantern jaws on a bit of chewing gum, his eyes -fixed on the stranger as though she were made of glass and he could -see Carquinez sitting smoking his cigarettes in the cabin. - -“They haven’t shown a sign,” said Jude. - -“They’re bluffin’ us to believe they haven’t spotted who we are,” said -Satan. “Cark doesn’t want us to twig he’s been lookin’ for us.” - -“Well,” said Jude, “let’s get the mudhook up and put out right away. -They won’t have the face to chase us.” - -“Yes,” said Satan, “and leave them to hunt the island and find the -cache! They’d lift the stuff to the last tin of beef. They’ve seen us -ashore among the bushes. You shouldn’t have gone ashore.” - -“I went to see we hadn’t left no traces.” - -“Traces be damned! Cark wants no traces. Once he starts to hunt, he’ll -turn the durned island upside down and shake it. He’ll say to himself, -‘What were they doin’ here, anyway; what were they pokin’ about them -bushes for?’ No, we’ve got to sit here till he goes, and that’ll be -this time next year, maybe.” - -“What’s the name of his schooner?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“The _Juan Bango_,” replied Satan, “named after the tobacco company -people. Look, they’re gettin’ a boat off. That’s Sellers, and he’s -comin’ aboard.” - -Then he collapsed, squatting under the bulwarks. “Guy them,” said he to -Jude. “Tell them I’m down with smallpox: that’ll make them shove.” - -“Leave ’em to me,” said Jude. - -It was Matt Sellers right enough, a big wheezy man suggestive of -Tammany Hall, but a sure-enough sailor in practice. “The biggest -blackguard on the coast” was his subsidiary title. He was the henchman -of Carquinez. His career was not without interest and romance of a -sort. It was he who had bought, with the money of Carquinez, the bones -of the _Isidore_, wrecked against the sheer cliffs by the black strand -of Martinique. Ten thousand dollars in gold coin she had on board her, -and he salved them. That was a straight job, and a wonderful bit of -work, taking it all together. It was a curiosity, too, because it was -straight. - -The crooked jobs of Matt Sellers would have filled a book. - -Like old man Tyler, Sellers had no use for people who talked of buried -treasure, he knew the Caribbean and the gulf too well. - -If he was keen on the wreck business, then it was because he had -excellent reasons for his keenness. - -As the boat drew near, Ratcliffe noticed the villainous-looking crew, -Spaniards, some of them with red handkerchiefs tied round their heads. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -JUDE OVERDOES IT - - -“Hullo, Kid!” cried Sellers as the boat came alongside the _Sarah_. - -“Hullo, yourself,” replied Jude. “Where’ve you blown in from?” - -“What’s become of Satan? Ain’t he aboard?” asked Sellers, ignoring the -question. - -“Satan’s dead,” said Jude. - -“Satan’s which?” - -“Died of the smallpox.” - -“Well, I’m d—d!” said Sellers, casting his eyes over the _Sarah_ and -then resting them on Ratcliffe. “When was it?” - -“A week ago.” - -Sellers gave a word to the bow oar and the boat pushed off a bit, the -fellows hanging on their oars. - -“I thought I saw three of you on deck,” he shouted. - -“The other chap’s gone below,” replied Jude. - -The boat of the _Juan_ hung for a moment as if in meditation. She made -a striking picture, the blue water paling to green under her and the -sun-blaze on the red topknots of the oarsmen. - -Then without a word more she turned back to the _Juan_. - -Satan in the scupper seemed preparing to have a fit. - -“What’s the matter now?” asked Jude. - -“What’s the matter? What did you say I was dead for? Didn’t I tell you -to say I was down with smallpox?” - -“Well, what’s the difference?” - -“Why, you mutt, wouldn’t you have been snivelin’ and cryin’ if I was -dead? And you handed that yam out to him as ca’m as if you were talking -of a tomcat! I didn’t believe you myself.” - -“Why, I told him you was dead a week,” cried Jude. “D’you think I’d be -snivelin’ and cryin’ a week if you was dead? Lord! what you do think of -yourself!” - -Satan did not reply. He was thinking that he had made a false move and -that Jude had put the cap on the business. Cark would be certain now -that there was something hidden on the island. - -Satan was on the horns of a dilemma. One horn was the cache of -provisions containing a couple of thousand dollars’ worth of stuff, the -other horn was the old wreck that might contain nothing. - -To hang on here was useless, for Cark would hang on too. Even if Cark -went away, he would be sure to come back to hunt. - -He sat with his back to the bulwarks, chewing and thinking. Then, -heedless whether he was seen or not from the _Juan Bango_, he rose -to his feet and leaned with his back against the rail He had come to -a decision. Jude, watching him, said nothing, and Ratcliffe waited -without a word. This little sea comedy interested him intensely, and -all the more for its setting of loneliness and its background of blue -sea and quarreling gulls. - -It was to Ratcliffe that Satan spoke first “Look here!” said Satan. -“You’re standin’ out of this, aren’t you?” - -“Which—the wreck business?” - -“Yep. You’re not keen upon puttin’ money into it and havin’ a share?” - -“Oh, no. If you wanted me to, I’d be glad enough; but if you’d rather I -stood out, I’ll do so. I’m not keen about money, anyway; only I’d like -to see the fun.” - -“You’ll see fun enough,” said Satan. “I’m goin’ to drag Cark in. First -of all, if I don’t, he’ll keep hangin’ round here and sniff the cache; -second, he’ll work the job for us with his crew.” - -“He’ll gobble every cent,” said Jude. - -“Which way?” asked Satan. “We’ll give him half shares, and well split -on him if he doesn’t play fair. If we found stuff there, and once it -was known, d’you think we’d be let keep it? We’ve got to get help, and -isn’t he as good as another? If there’s no stuff there, he’ll have all -his work for nothing.” - -“The thing I can’t make out,” said Ratcliffe, “is the way he started -out from Havana to find you. How did he ever expect to come across you?” - -“Well, it’s this way,” said Satan. “Bein’ in with Pap, he knew the -lines we worked on; f’rinstance, he knew we worked this place for -abalones. If he hadn’t sighted us here; he’d have tried Little Pine -Island, which is lonesomer than this place. You see he’s got it in his -noddle, as far as I can make out, that Pap lifted the stuff and cached -it, and Pine Island or here would have been the likeliest places. He -reckoned when we put out of Havana this time we were out to lift it -for good. Well, he’ll do the liftin’ if it’s to be done. Come on, I’m -going over to see him right off. Jude, you stick here and clean up them -abalones.” - -He got into the dinghy, followed by Ratcliffe, and they pushed off. - -As they drew closer the _Juan Bango_ showed up more distinctly for what -she was. - -One of the old schooners that used to run in the carrying trade between -Havana and the Gulf ports, she had fallen from commercial honesty; -anyhow in appearance, perhaps because Carquinez did not bother about -appearance. You could not have damaged his paint if you had tried,—it -was sun-blistered and gone green,—but his copper showed sharp and -clear through the amazing brilliance of the water, without trace of -weeds or barnacles. - -Sellers was hanging over the rail as they came alongside. - -If he felt surprise at this resurrection, he did not show it much. - -“Hullo, Satan!” cried Sellers. “Thought you was dead.” - -“Cark on board?” asked Satan without wasting time on explanations. - -“He’s down below,” said Sellers, accepting the attitude of the other. -“Who’s your friend?” - -“Oh, just a gentleman that’s come along for a cruise,” said Satan. “So -you’ve found me!” - -“Seems so,” said Sellers; “but tie up and come aboard.” - -Satan tied the painter to a channel plate and got over the side, -followed by Ratcliffe. - -The deck of the _Juan_ sagged, and plank and dowel were -indistinguishable one from the other by reason of dirt. Forward some -of the crew were scraping a spare boom, and others collected round the -foc’sle head were smoking cigarettes. The wind had died out into a warm -breathing, setting aft and bringing with it a faint odor like the smell -of acetylene. It was garlic. - -From the foc’sle came the muffled thrumming of a guitar. - -It was Ratcliffe’s first experience with a Spaniard. He followed Satan, -who followed Sellers down a steep companionway and then into a cabin -where a great shaft of sunlight from the skylight above struck down -through a haze of cigarette smoke. - -The place was paneled with bird’s-eye maple; the seats were upholstered -in thick ribbed silk, worn and stained; the carpet was of the best, but -threadbare in spots and burnt with cigar droppings; the metal fittings -far too good for a trading schooner of the _Juan_ type. - -Everywhere lay evidence of splendor that had seen better days. - -All these fittings had, in fact, been torn out of a yacht bought by -Carquinez for an old song, and at the end of the saloon table, going -over some papers with a cigarette in his mouth, sat Carquinez himself, -a figure to give one pause. - -The whole of the left side of this gentleman’s face was covered by a -green patch. It was said that he had no left side to his face, that it -had been eaten away by disease, and that, were he to unveil himself, -the sight would frighten the beholder. However that may have been, what -remained visible was enough to frighten any honest man with eyes to -behold the nose of a vulture above the peaked chin of a money changer. - -“Hullo, Cark!” said Satan. - -“Come in,” said Cark. - -“Bring yourselves to an anchor,” said Sellers, pointing out two of the -fixed seats on each side of the table and taking another close to the -owner of the _Juan_. “What’ll you have?” - -“Oh, I don’t know,” said Satan. “Something soft will suit us, and long.” - -Carquinez raised a bird-shrill voice: - -“Antonio!” - -“Si, Sigñor,” came a response from outside, and on the voice a dusky -form at the cabin door. - -“Bring me two Zin and Zinzibeers for these two zentlemen, please.” - -“No gin!” cried Satan, Ratcliffe concurring. “Ginger beer will do.” - -“Zinzibeers,” said Carquinez. - -It was nearly all that he said at this interview, the trusty Sellers -doing the talking. - -Said Sellers to Satan, “Well, it’s funny us hittin’ on you like this, -durned funny! We’d been down to Acklin looking up a location Cark was -keen about, and comin’ back I shifted the helm, seein’ you lying here -and not recognizin’ the old _Sarah_. I thought it was Gundyman’s boat.” - -Said Satan, taking up the drink just presented by Antonio, “Here’s our -respects to you both. Thought I was Gundyman, did you? Well, I spotted -you on sight. Didn’t want to see you neither. This gentleman will tell -you I was squattin’ in the scuppers while Jude was handing you that lie -about the smallpox.” - -“Oh, was you?” said Sellers with an open and hearty laugh. - -“I was so. Let’s cut pretendin’ and play on the square—are you -willin’?” - -“None better.” - -“Well, I’ll put my cards out. You and Cark here have been after me -pretty near since last fall; reason why, that wreck Pap told Cark of.” - -“W’ich was that?” - -“I said let’s cut pretendin’ and play fair,” said Satan sternly. - -Cark wilted and raised his fingers in deprecation, and Sellers cut in. - -“Yes, we’ll play fair. There was talk of a wreck between your dad and -us, and I’m not denying we had an eye after it. You see I’m open and -honest with you. Heave ahead.” - -“I’m comin’ to the point,” said Satan, “and the point is you and Cark -between you have got it in your heads that you’ve only to follow me, -find out where she’s located, and claim shares for not tellin’.” - -“Heave ahead,” said Sellers. - -“Well, you’ve got it wrong,” went on Satan. “You may follow me till the -old _Juan_ rots to pieces and you’ll never know, not if I don’t want -you to know—got that clear?” - -“Clear as day,” said Sellers. - -“Well, then, here’s something else. If that wreck is what she’s taken -to be, it’s more than one man’s job to shift the boodle and bank it. -I’ve got to have help, and if we can arrange a deal I’d just as soon -have you two in the show as anyone else.” - -“Now you’re talking,” said Sellers. - -Carquinez said nothing, but his hand shook, and Ratcliffe, watching -him, received a shock. A wreath of cigarette smoke was stealing out -from beneath the patch on his cheek! He wished the conference over and -himself back on board the healthy _Sarah_. It came to him all at once -that he had been drawn into a web of which Carquinez was the spider. -Satan, too, and Jude had been drawn in. He could do nothing, however, -at least for the moment, but watch and wait, and Satan’s face was worth -watching as that wily diplomatist sat facing Sellers. - -“Not that I don’t believe you’d kidoodle me over the business if you -had a chance,” continued Satan. “You would, sure; but you see I’ve got -the weather gauge of you, knowing what I do of you, and that’s more’n -I’d have with strangers.” - -“Sure,” said Sellers. - -“Well, then,” said Satan, “we’ve got that far, and it comes to terms. -What’s your share to be for helpin’ to collar the stuff and dispose of -it in Havana?” - -“Two dollars out of every three that we make,” said Sellers promptly. -“There’s the salving, you can’t do that alone, or your dad would have -done it prompt; then there’s the cashing of it, you’re lost men if you -try that job on by yourselves. Why, there’s not another man in Havana -could do it only Cark, and even he couldn’t bring the stuff into Havana -Harbor! It’ll have to be landed back of the island, north of Santiago. -Lord knows what he’ll have to pay!” - -Satan cogitated for a moment. - -“I’ll meet you,” said he at last. “I’m not set on big money. Anything -more?” - -“No, that’s all,” said Sellers. - -Carquinez nodded approval, and lighting another cigarette leaned back -in his chair. - -“And what’s this gentleman doing in the business?” asked Sellers, -referring to Ratcliffe. - -“Oh, he’s standing out,” said Satan. “He’s just on a cruise with us.” - -“Yes, I’m standing out,” said Ratcliffe. “I’m in it only for the fun of -the thing, though I’m willing to help.” - -“Well, I reckon you’ll have fun enough,” said Sellers, “if we get foul -of the customs, or if some other hooker comes poking along while we’re -salving. You’re British, aren’t you?” - -“I am.” - -“I thought so. Come out for a spree?” - -“You may put it like that.” - -“Did you by any chance come off a big white yacht that went west -yesterday?” - -“Yes, I did. What made you guess that?” - -“Well,” said Sellers, “it’s easy to be seen you aren’t one of us, and -your clothes give you away. It’s easy to be seen you haven’t been -dough-dishing long in the old _Sarah_. I didn’t get your name.” - -“Ratcliffe.” - -“No trade or business?” - -“None. My father was Ratcliffe the shipowner, Holt & Ratcliffe.” - -“Lord—love—a—duck!” said Sellers. “You’re not wanting for money, -I reckon. Well, this gets me, it do indeed! Holt & Ratcliffe—should -think I _did_ know them!” - -“Antonio!” suddenly piped Carquinez. - -“Si, Señor.” Antonio appeared. - -“Pedro Murias,” said Carquinez. - -Antonio vanished, and reappeared with a box of cigars, colossal cigars, -worth twenty-five guineas a hundred in the London market. They were -placed on the table and pushed toward Ratcliffe. - -Satan grinned. - -“Well,” said he, “we’ve fixed things so far,—two out of every three -dollars to you and no deductions.” - -“That’s it,” said Sellers. - -“And now we’ve fixed terms,” said Satan, “I want to know all about this -hooker.” - -“Which was you meaning?” asked Sellers. - -“The wreck.” - -“Listen to him!” cried Sellers. “Mean to say you don’t know all about -her?” - -“N’more than Adam. I’ve heard from Pap she was called the _Nombre de -Dios_, and was full of gold plate got from churches; but that’s not -much more than a name and a yarn. I’ve never banked much on the yarn. -Seems too much of the New Jerusalem touch about it for me.” - -“Well, maybe you’re wrong,” said Sellers. - -“Spit it out,” said Satan. “Tell us what you know about her. You’ve got -the contrac’; give us the news.” - -“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Sellers. “She weren’t no ship with gold -plates,—your dad got that wrong,—she was a big Spanish ship out of -Vera Cruz making for Spain. She had a cargo of timber, some of them -heavy foreign timbers that don’t float. She’d got aboard her, besides -the timber, more’n a million dollars’ worth of gold,—Mexican gold most -of it, Spanish coin some of it. Lopez was the name of the skipper, and -he laid to bank that gold for himself. He’d been forty years in these -seas and knew every key and sandbank same as the insides of his own -pockets. - -“Him and the mate were the only men in the know about that gold beside -a supercargo by name of Perez. - -“Well, he colluded together with them two guys to sink the hooker in -six fathom water out of trade tracks, give out that she’d sunk in a -gale, and come back in a year or two and collar the boodle. They had -her bored and plugged for the game, and when they got her to the -location they pulled out the plugs, and she went down without a sneeze, -natural as a dyin’ Christian. - -“They got the boats away in order, and the crew was got off to a man; -but that crew never got ashore. Maybe it was something wrong with the -grub or the water, there’s no saying, but they never got ashore to turn -witness. But the grub and water was all right in the dinghy. Them three -guys had taken the dinghy, and they were picked up and landed somewhere -on the gulf, fat and well.” - -All through Sellers’ recitation Carquinez had sat nodding his head. -He glanced now at Satan and Ratcliffe as if measuring its effect upon -them, then he half closed his eyes again and retired into himself like -a tortoise. - -“They slung their yarn,” went on Sellers, “and made all good, and it -was only left for them to wait awhile and hire or steal a likely boat -to pick up the stuff, when the yellow fever took the supercargo and the -mate, leaving Lopez to fish for himself. - -“He got back to Havana, which was his natural home, and there he put -up with his son, who was a trader in tobacco, got a bit of a factory -not bigger than a henh’us, and turned out a brand of cigars made out of -leavin’s and brown paper mostly. - -“He put the son wise about the wreck; but he wouldn’t give the location -away till it was time to go and pick up the stuff, which wouldn’t be -for a year yet. - -“Then he up and died, and the son started to hunt for the chart and -couldn’t find it. The old guy had given him everything but the chart -with the location marked on it. It wasn’t a proper chart, neither: just -a piece of paper with the thing done rough, but giving the bearings. -And it was never found—not by the son. The grandson found it—and -where do you think? Pasted into the lining of an old hat. That wasn’t -so long ago, neither, and what do you think that fool of a grandson -did? Well, I’ll tell you what he did. First of all he comes to Cark -here, and tries to get him onto the job on a ten per cent basis, Cark -to risk his money and repitation for a lousy ten per cent on what might -be only the bones of an old ship. He let out her name and history and -everything but the location. - -“Cark wasn’t having any on those terms,—was you, Cark?—and he told -the chap to go to Medicine Hat and pick bilberries. The chap goes off, -and what does he do but tries to get up a syndicate between himself and -two yeggmen without a keel to their names! Perrira was the name of one, -and da Silva was the name of the other, and they held a board meeting -in Diego’s saloon one night and shot holes in one another in the back -parlor. - -“Silva and Perrira had fixed it to lay the grandson out and collar the -chart for themselves, and they’d have done it, only he wasn’t backward -with the shooting. Your dad was in the bar that night, and he twigged -something from what they let drop before they went to the back parlor -to hold their meeting. Then when the shooting began he was first into -the room, and collared the chart, which was lying on the floor. He was -always quick on the uptake, was your dad. Being a knowledgeable man, -he reckoned Cark was the only chap in Havana to help him take the stuff -and clear it. He knew the stuff was there by what he’d heard going on -in the bar before the three chaps had left it for the back room, but -before he could conclude business with Cark he up and died.” - -Cark nodded. - -“That was so,” said he. - -“Well,” said Satan, “we’ve got the whole yarn now, and I’m wishing -to be done with the business. I’m pretty near sick of you two guys -trailing after me, and I’ll hand you out my belief for what it’s worth. -It don’t seem natural to me to find gold in a hooker like that, just -for the picking up, and I’d sell any man my chances for a thousand -dollars. I’ve no knowledge of what’s there. I’m just talkin’ out of -my head. You know what I am, I make my livin’, and I’m content to run -small. It’s maybe that that puts me against big ventures. Anyhow, we’ve -got to push this thing through, we’ve made the contrac’. I don’t want -it written down and signed, seein’ that the law couldn’t help me. I’m -only sayin’ that if you play me crooked I’ll split. Got that in your -heads?” - -The high contracting parties on the other side nodded assent. - -“That bein’ settled,” said Satan, “here’s the chart.” - -He produced a metal tobacco box and took from it a folded piece of -paper, which he laid on the table before Sellers. - -The effect was magical. - -Carquinez sprang from his chair like a young man, came behind Sellers, -and, bending over his shoulder, looked. Ratcliffe, though out of the -business, was as excited as the others. Satan alone was calm. - -He had been carrying the thing about so long that it had probably lost -its freshness of interest. - -Sellers, without speaking, stared at the chart before him. - -Rum Cay was shown, and then, southwest of Rum Cay, a line of reef -marked “Lone Reef,” and in red ink, connected to the reef by a red -line, the name “Nombre de Dios” could be made out, the “Dios” very -indistinct at the frayed edge of the paper. In the top right hand -corner the latitude and longitude were written, but so faintly that it -would have required close study in a strong light to make the figures -out. - -Nobody bothered about them. Lone Reef was on all the charts, and the -name was enough. - -“I’ve been by there,” said Sellers at last, “and I’ve never seen signs -of a wreck.” - -“You wouldn’t,” said Satan. “She lies flush with the coral in a crik -between two arms of reef, not a stump of a mast on her. The hull of -that reef must have raised itself since she was sunk, for the water in -the crik doesn’t cover her at high tide and low tides it’s pretty near -empty. But she’s been under right enough, years ago, for the decks are -coraled over, hatches and all, and the stuff’s turned to iron cement -with the sun and weather. We’ve got to dynamite her open.” - -“Sure,” said Sellers; then, after a moment’s pause, “It’ll be a big -job, if it’s what you say. I had it in my mind that she was a diving -job in shallow water—never thought of the blasted coral.” - -Carquinez said nothing. He withdrew to his seat at the end of the -table and lit another cigarette. To Ratcliffe the silence of Carquinez -approached the weird. The way Sellers, without consulting him, did all -the talking seemed uncanny as though the pair were telepathic. - -One thing certain was gradually being borne in upon him,—they were a -most atrocious pair of rogues, and the marvel to him was the simplicity -of Satan in having any dealings at all with them. They would surely -swindle him, take what precautions he might. They would never give -him a third share of any treasure. They would, most likely, murder -him before he could split on them, if treasure were found. Of this -Ratcliffe felt certain. He tried to telegraph a warning across the -table, but Satan seemed blind to winks and frowns. - -“Well, it’s there,” said Satan, “near a foot thick. You’ve got to drill -it, and stick dynamite cartridges in the drill-holes and fire them. Got -any dynamite aboard?” - -“Not an ounce.” - -“We might make out with blasting powder.” - -“Yes, if we’d got it,” said Sellers. “There ain’t no use worrying, -we’ve got to shin out of this back to Havana and get the explosives. -Question is who’ll go for them, us or you?” - -“Not me,” said Satan, “not if she was to lie there till the last -trumpet. We’re underhanded, for one thing, and, f’r another, I’m -gettin’ little enough out of the job as it stands without fetchin’ and -carryin’ for you.” - -“Then we’ll go,” said Sellers. “’Twon’t take us more than a week to get -there and back. Give us ten days, counting accidents, and we’ll pick -you up here.” - -“Why not at the reef?” asked Satan. - -“Don’t matter,” said Sellers. “Here or there, it’s all the same to us; -ain’t it, Cark?” - -Cark nodded assent, and Satan, recapturing the chart, folded it up and -put it back into the tobacco box. - -“Right!” said he, placing the box into his pocket. “Here you’ll find -us.” - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE “JUAN” SAILS - - -They rose from the conference table, and Carquinez stood holding his -coat together with a veined and knotted hand while the visitors were -making their adieux. - -“You haven’t a few feet of galvanized wire aboard?” asked Satan as he -passed out, following Sellers. - -“Come on deck,” said Sellers. - -On deck he stood listening, while the other passed from galvanized -wire to the question of spare ring-bolts and other trifles he stood -desperately in need of. Like a hypnotized fowl in the hands of Satan, -he made scarcely any resistance. - -He had no ring-bolts, but the galvanized wire was forthcoming, also -a little barrel for use as a buoy, some Burgundy pitch, an old -paintbrush, a small can of turpentine, and a couple of pounds of twine. - -A small boat-anchor that had raised Satan’s desires brought the séance -to a conclusion and broke the spell that seemed to lie on Sellers. - -Blessed if Satan wouldn’t be asking for his back teeth yet! What did he -take the _Juan_ for, a marine store? What would he want next, Carquinez? - -They rowed off with the spoil, Sellers leaning on the rail and -lovingly pressing on them the acceptance of other trifles, including a -guitar. - -Alongside the _Sarah_ they found Jude waiting to receive them. -She had been cleaning up the abalones, was dissatisfied with the -result,—quarter of a matchbox full of seed pearls,—and said so. - -When her eye lighted on the stuff in the boat that Satan had wangled -out of Sellers, she laughed in a dreary fashion. - -“What you laughin’ at?” demanded Satan. - -“Nothing,” said Jude. - -She sat down on an upturned keg while they brought the truck on board. -Then, nursing her knee and wiggling her bare toes to the warmth of the -sun, she sat without a word, waiting for explanations. - -It seemed to Ratcliffe all at once that a critic had come on the scene. -He had forgotten Jude in relation to the deal over the wreck, and he -was wondering now how she would take it. The female does not always -see eye to eye with the male, as many a business man has discovered on -revealing a transaction to the wife of his bosom. - -Leaning against the rail, he filled his pipe and awaited the -revelation with interest; but Satan, the revealer, seemed in no hurry -for the business. He was bustling about disposing of the new-gotten -“stores,”—the turpentine and pitch forward in the hole where paints -were kept, the galvanized wire in a locker, and the little barrel -behind the canvas boat. - -Then he came aft again and, lighting a pipe, stood beside Ratcliffe. - -“Well, what you been doing, anyway?” asked Jude, suddenly opening her -batteries. - -“Doing—which?” asked Satan. “Oh, you mean with Cark. Well, I’ve -settled things with him, fixed it up so’s he’s goin’ to help.” - -“Which way?” asked Jude. - -“Why, to get the stuff, if it’s there—what else? He’s our only chance -of doing the thing proper.” - -“What’s he askin’?” said Jude. - -“You mean terms?” - -“Yep.” - -“Well, it’s this way: He’ll have to do the wreckin’ business, and then -if the stuff’s got he’ll have to run it ashore, and after that he’ll -have to get rid of it. I’m givin’ him two dollars out of every three.” - -“Oh, Lord!” said Jude. - -“What’s the matter with you?” - -“Why didn’t you give him the lot?” - -“Now look you here!” cried Satan. “I don’t want no sass! Who’s runnin’ -this show, you or me? How do you know what I’ve got up my sleeve? -Have you ever known me done on a deal yet? Now you take my orders -where Cark’s concerned and take them smart, with no questions! If you -don’t—well, then, trade with him yourself, take charge of the _Sarah_ -and run her yourself! Lippin’ your betters!” - -Jude took off her old hat and looked into it as if for inspiration; -then she clapped it on her head again, drew up both feet, clasped her -arms round her knees, and sat on the keg-top speechless and brooding, -her eyes fixed on the _Juan_. - -Satan turned and went below. - -“Jude,” said Ratcliffe. - -“What you want?” said Jude, without shifting her gaze. - -“Suppose you had all the money off that old wreck, if the money is -there, what would you do with it?” - -“What’s the good of askin’ me things like that?” said Jude. “I’d -precious soon do something with it!” - -“No, you wouldn’t. You’d put it in the bank, and then your trouble -would begin.” - -“Which way?” - -“Well, you’d have it in the bank or invested and it would bring you -in, say, twenty thousand dollars a year; well, you couldn’t spend that -on the dock-side, could you? You wouldn’t be able to spend it at all -unless you gave up the _Sarah_ and lived ashore in a fine house with a -carriage and horses and servants, and to do that you’d have to become -a lady—or gentleman,” hastily put in Ratcliffe, the figure on the keg -suddenly threatening to turn on him. “You’d have to do that, and you’d -have to do more than that: you’d have to learn all sorts of things.” - -“Which sort?” - -“Oh, lots. Can you write, Jude?” - -“You bet!” - -“Told me the other day you couldn’t.” - -“Well, I’ve most forgot. Pap started to learn me, then he said he -reckoned I was more cut out for makin’ puddin’s, but he learned me to -write my name.” - -“Well, if you ever grow rich, you’ll have to do a lot more than write -your name.” - -“Which way?” - -“You’ll have to write checks and letters, and, what’s more, you’ll have -to be able to read them.” - -“Well, I reckon,” said the philosophical Jude, “it’ll be time enough -to bother about that when I’m rich—and seems to me I’ll never be rich -with them two diddling Satan same as they’ve done.” - -“Oh, yes, you will; you are going to be rich some day, as rich as I am. -I’m a fortune teller. Show us your hand.” - -Jude held out a hand, and Ratcliffe examined the palm where the lines -were few but straight and clear cut. It was a beautiful little hand, -despite the hard work it had done, full of character and vigor, and -expressing kindliness and honesty and capability. - -Ratcliffe had an instinct for hands. A hand could attract or repulse -him just as powerfully as a face; more so, perhaps, for a hand never -lies. - -“Oh, yes,” said he, “you are going to be rich, you can’t escape it, and -you are going to learn reading and writing and arithmetic, and you are -going to live to be a hundred.” - -“Cut me throat first!” said Jude. “Heave ahead.” - -“And you are going to England some day, and you’ll turn into a -Britisher.” - -“Damned if I do! Satan!” - -“Hullo!” came a faint voice from below. - -“Rat says I’m goin’ to turn into a Britisher.” - -“They wouldn’t own you. Quit foolin’ and get the dinner ready.” - -Jude uncurled herself, came down from the keg with a thud, ran to the -open skylight, and was about to reply in kind, when her eye caught -sight of something that brought her to a halt. - -They were handling the canvas on the _Juan_. - -“Cark’s off!” cried she. - -Satan came on deck. Across the blue blaze of the sea they could hear -now the clank of the windlass pawls,—the _Juan’s_ anchor was coming up. - -“I thought Sellers would have come on board before they started,” said -Ratcliffe. “They’re in a big hurry, aren’t they?” - -“You bet,” said Satan with a grin. “He’ll crack on everything to get to -Havana for that dynamite; won’t stop to eat their dinners till they’re -back,—that’s what they’d have us believe—swabs!” - -“Why, don’t you think they are going to Havana?” - -“Oh, they’re _goin’_ to Havana right enough,” said Satan. “You watch -and you’ll see them headin’ that way. Look! she’s fillin’ to the wind.” - -The anchor was home now, and they watched the sails filling as she -headed on the same course the _Dryad_ had taken. She dipped her flag, -and they returned the compliment; then she drew past the southern -reefs, the hull vanished, and nothing remained but the topsails far -against the western blue. - -Ten minutes later, down below at dinner, Jude, who had said no word -about the departure of the _Juan_, but seemed to have been thinking a -lot, suddenly spoke. - -“You never told me that chap was going to Havana for dynamite,” said -Jude. “What for—to bust the wreck open?” - -“That’s it,” replied Satan. “Did you think he wanted it to eat?” - -“There’s no knowing what a feller may swallow, seeing you’ve swallowed -that yarn,” said Jude. “He’s gone to Havana to sell us, that’s my -’pinion.” - -“Which way?” - -“Lord! there’s many a way of sellin’ fools.” - -Ratcliffe felt that the truth was with Jude, he felt an uneasy -conviction that they had been done. The hurried departure of Carquinez -seemed to put a seal on the business. He looked at Satan expecting an -explosion; but Satan was quite calm and helping himself to canned ox -tongue. - -“Seein’ I have the chart,” said he, “where’s the sellin’ to come in?” - -“But you’ve give him the location,” said Jude. “You said yourself that -the place was fixed on every chart and a chap had only to have Lone -Reef in his head to put his claws on the wreck.” - -“That’s so,” said Satan; “but the location is no use without the chart.” - -“What are you gettin’ at?” - -“I’m tryin’ to get at your intellects. How often have you seen that -chart?” - -“Dozens of times.” - -“Ever noticed anything queer about it? Not you! Giving sass to your -betters is your lay in life instead of usin’ your eyes.” He pushed his -plate away, produced the tobacco box, and, taking the chart from it, -laid it on the table. - -Jude got up and came behind him to look, while Ratcliffe leaned forward. - -“There’s the chart,” said Satan. “There’s the reef, and there’s the -name of the hooker pointin’ at the reef, and there’s the latitude and -longitude wrote up in the corner. Plain, ain’t it?” - -“That’s plain enough,” said Ratcliffe. - -Jude, munching a biscuit, concurred. - -“Plain enough, ain’t it?” went on Satan. “Give a man the name of Lone -Reef, and with any old Admiralty chart he’ll get there, and he has -only to land on the reef to find the hooker stuck there in that crik -between them two arms. Jude has seen her, and I’ve walked over her and -’xamined her, and she’d have been broke open maybe by this, only chaps -don’t land on reefs like that, not unless a storm lands them. We struck -it huntin’ for abalones. Plain enough, ain’t it? Well, I tell you the -whole business is no use to any man who hasn’t that chart in his hand -and who can’t read what’s written on it secret. Here you are! Take a -good long look, and I’ll give you ten dollars if you spot what I mean. -It’s as clear as simple.” - -Ratcliffe spread the thing before him on the table. - -“I can’t see anything in it,” said he at last, “except what’s written -plain enough. There’s Rum Cay, there’s the reef, the name of the wreck -with a pointer to the reef, and the latitude and longitude up in the -corner. No, I can’t see anything but that: it all seems plain as a -pikestaff. I take an interest in cryptograms, too.” - -“What’s that?” - -“Cryptograms? Hidden writing.” - -“Well, that’s what’s before you,” said Satan. “Pap never twigged it, -nor any of the crowd that had the handlin’ of it. It’s only a month ago -I spotted it.” - -“You never said a word to me,” cut in Jude. - -“Get back to your place and don’t be chewin’ in my ear,” said Satan, -reaching for the chart and pocketing it again. “Tell you? Likely! Why, -if I had, you’d have let it out, same as you did the lie of the reef -to Rat here the other day. Get on with your dinner! Why haven’t we any -potatoes?” - -“No time to boil them,” said Jude, “cleanin’ up your mushy abalones.” - -“No time, and you yarnin’ and havin’ your future told! I heard you.” - -“My fault,” said Ratcliffe. “I began the business.” - -“Not you,” said Satan. “I heard her start in on it, sayin’ what she’d -do with a fortune if she had it and finishin’ up by mistrustin’ me.” - -“Lord love you for a liar! I only said them two guys had done you in -over the wreck,” cried Jude. “Don’t be stickin’ words in my mouth.” - -“How was it you came to spot the cryptogram?” asked Ratcliffe, eager to -cut the dissension short. - -“The which?” asked Satan. “Oh, ay—well, it come natural for me to -say to myself, ‘Here’s a thing that’s been hid up and kept secret, yet -it’s all wrote out as plain as my palm.’ I said to myself, ‘It’s too -blame simple! A man who knows where money is hid doesn’t write the -location on a bit of paper, to be lost, maybe, and picked up by God -knows who. Why, drop that chart in the streets of Havana, and the first -chap with any knowledge in his head that picks it up will turn it into -dollars right off. It’s a sure bait for fools, anyhow, and a wreckin’ -expedition would be out before the end of the week. They’d only have to -look up any chart that’s been printed the last hundred years to find -Lone Reef as easy as the Swimmer Rocks.’ Then I said to myself, ‘What -in the nation did the guy want makin’ a chart at all for? Why couldn’t -he have written on a piece of paper, “The Nombre de Dios lies on Lone -Reef, sou’west of Rum Cay”? That’s all the chart says, and yet he must -go and make drawin’s; must have taken him an hour’s pen scraping to -make that chart.’ Puttin’ the two things together, I says to myself, -‘The feller concerned must have been a fool in two ways if this thing’s -genuine,—a fool to leave the fac’s as plain as an ad for liver pills, -and a fool to waste his time drawin’ his advertisement instead of -writin’ it,’ but I reckoned he was no fool. Dad was always quotin’ some -damn ass who said the world was most made up of fools. Well, in my -’xperience that don’t hold. Maybe in Europe it does, but not in Havana -and the Gulf ports, anyway. So I says to myself, ‘Let’s try and see -what the guy was drivin’ at.’” - -“And you won’t tell us how you did it?” - -“I’d just as soon not.” - -“Why?” - -“Because,” said Satan, “I may be wrong; though I’m pretty sure I’m -right—and I b’lieve in a shut head.” - -“You opened your head to Cark, anyhow,” said Jude. - -“I’ll tell you once and I won’t tell you twice, if I have any more -chat out of you, I’ll lay into you with a slipper! O’ course I opened -my head to him! Did you want him hanging round here and sniffin’ out -the cache? Haven’t we got rid of him? I don’t want any more talkin’. -I’ve my plan laid out and you’ve get to take my orders right from now -without questions!” He turned to Ratcliffe. “You don’t mind helpin’ to -work the boat, leavin’ sailing directions to me?” - -“Not I,” said Ratcliffe. “I’m quite content to help and look on, -leaving things to you. What’s your first move?” - -“I’m goin’ to clear out of this tomorrow.” - -“Why, I thought you was going to wait for Cark to come back,” said Jude. - -“Never you mind what you thought. I’m goin’ to clear out of this -tomorrow. Meantime, I want more stuff from the cache, and you’d better -take the dinghy and get it right off. I want provisions for a month for -the three of us.” - - - - -CHAPTER X - -CUSS WORDS - - -When they had washed up and put the plates in their rack, Jude -commandeered Ratcliffe to help with the dinghy. Satan, having given -his orders, had retired into himself and the business of patching an -old sail. He was seated at the work under the awning, and he seemed -scarcely to notice the others as they got the boat away. - -“Satan’s got something up his sleeve,” said Jude as they pulled for the -beach. “I reckon he’s laying low to get the better of Cark.” - -“Well, if you ask me,” said Ratcliffe, “I think he has got the better -of him in some way or another. I don’t know how, and I don’t want to. -I’d sooner wait and see. It’s as interesting as a game of chess.” - -“What’s that?” - -“Chess—oh, it’s a game. I’ll show you some day. Don’t you ever play -games, Jude?” - -“You bet! Why, I won five dollars day before we put out buckin’ against -the red at Chinese Charlie’s—y’know Havana? Well, it’s on the Calle -sin Pedro. They play faro, but mostly r’lette.” - -“Oh, I didn’t mean that sort of games.” - -“Which sort did you mean?” asked Jude, as the nose of the boat beached -on the sand and they scrambled out. “Did you mean whisky drinkin’ and -cuttin’ and carryin’ on?” - -“Oh, Lord, no! I meant games, just ordinary games.” - -Jude, the boat well beached, sat down on the blazing sands. It was -two hours past noon, and the heat of the day had lifted under the -freshening wind from the east, the tide was on the turn, and the -far-off lamentations of the gulls around the southern reef-spurs came -mixed with the fall of the waves,—waves scarcely a foot high, crystal -clear, less waves than giant ripples. - -Beyond the _Sarah Tyler_ and her reflection on the water lay the -violet-colored sea, infinity, and the blue of sky, broken only by a -gull, spar white in the dazzle. - -Ratcliffe sat down beside his companion. Jude, like any old salt, had -her moments of dead laziness. Active as a kitten as a rule, she would -suddenly knock off, when the fancy took her, “let go all holts,” to use -Satan’s expression, and laze. You couldn’t kick her out of it, Satan -said. - -She had brought an old pair of boots for going through the bay cedar -bushes. It wasn’t good to walk among the bushes unshod: there were -tarantulas there, and scorpions, to say nothing of stump cacti. The -boots were lying beside her on the sand, to be put on only at the last -moment. - -“What you mean by ordinary games?” asked Jude suddenly, finishing the -inspection of a new variety of soft-shell crab she had just caught and -flinging it into the sea. - -“Oh, the games people play,” said Ratcliffe, who had almost forgotten -what they had been talking about. He tried to explain, and found it -singularly hard, especially when cross-examined. - -Jude did not seem able to understand grown men and women spending half -a day “knockin’ a ball about.” - -“I used to play ma’bles with Dutch Mike’s kids when we were at -Pensacola,” said she. “Mike ran a whisky joint, and the kids were -pretty ornery. When we’d done playin’ marbles they’d have a cussin’ -bee.” - -“What on earth’s that?” - -“Well, you’ve heard of a spellin’ bee—you get a prize for spellin’ the -best. Well, a cussin’ bee you start cussin’ each other, and the one -that cusses hardest gets the prize. Pap never knew till one day he let -into me with a strap for somethin’ or ’nother and I let fly at him. -Then he found it was Mike’s children who’d been learnin’ me, and he had -a dust-up with Mike on the wharf, and left him limpin’ for the rest of -his natural. Did you cuss when you was young?” - -“No,” said Ratcliffe. “I learned that later.” - -“’R you any good at it?” - -“Upon my word, I don’t know.” - -“Have a try,” said Jude, losing her languor. “Clench your fists to -it and have a go at me, and then I’ll have a go at you—there’s no -one listenin’. Pretend you’re the skipper and I’m a hand that’s been -haulin’ on the wrong rope.” - -“No,” said Ratcliffe. “I’m no use at it, and it’s not a nice game, -anyway. I’d sooner play at something else.” - -Jude sniffed. She evidently felt snubbed. “I’m not a baby to be playing -games,” said she. “You can go and play by yourself if you want to.” - -She collapsed on her back with her knees up and her old hat covering -her face; then from under the hat: - -“You’ll hear all the swearin’ you want to in a minute from the old -hooker.” - -“You mean Satan?” - -“Yep, the minute he turns his eye ashore and sees us lazin’ here -instead of workin’.” - -“Then, come on.” - -“Not me,” said Jude, “not till Satan begins. I’m too comfortable. I -been working hard all the morning while you two was aboard the _Juan_ -clackin’ with Sellers and havin’ drinks, I bet. I’m going to rest -myself—what did you have?” - -“Ginger beer and a cigar.” - -“Did you take notice of Cark’s face?” - -“Rather!” - -“They say he hasn’t any one side to his face where the patch is. I’d -like to see him with the patch off, wouldn’t you?” - -“Lord, no! I saw quite enough of him with it on. Come, get up, and -let’s get to work.” - -“I’m not goin’ to work no more,” mumbled Jude drowsily. “I’m dead sick -of fetchin’ and carryin’. Let Satan go and fetch and carry for himself. -I’m going to stick here.” - -“On the island?” - -“Yep.” - -“And give up Satan and the _Sarah_?” - -“Yep.” - -“But what will you do for a living?” - -“Start a la’ndry.” - -“But there’s no one here to give you any washing to do.” - -“Then I’ll have all the easier time.” - -“That’s true. It’s a bright idea, and I’ll stay with you and carry the -laundry basket.” - -“No, you won’t! I’ll stick here alone.” - -Suddenly, across the water from the _Sarah_ and shattering this -fantasy, came a voice. It was Satan’s voice, distant and borne on the -breeze. Ratcliffe thought he could make out the words “lazy dog.” - -He got up. Jude with the old panama over her face had stiffened out as -if dead. He tried to turn her over with his foot. Then he felt half -frightened. Had the sun got to her head, and was all that nonsense talk -delirium? - -He knelt down beside her and shook her. - -“Jude, what’s the matter with you?” - -No reply. - -He took the panama from the face. The eyes were closed and the features -were in repose. - -Now, really alarmed, he jumped up, ran down to the boat, seized the -baling tin, and filled it with sea water. He had never seen a case of -sunstroke, but he had heard cold water on the head was a remedy. - -As he turned back with the tin the corpse was sitting up putting on its -boots. - -“What’re you doing with that baling tin?” said Jude. - -“I’ll jolly soon show you!” said he, making toward her. “Shamming dead!” - -But before he could reach her she was gone among the bushes, one boot -on, the other off. Then, flinging the baling tin away, he joined her, -helped her on with the boot, and they started. Jude, as if to make up, -put her hand into his in a trusting and loving manner. She swung his -hand as they walked. Then, near their destination, she flung it away -and made off, hunting like a dog among the bushes till she found what -she was in search of,—a long, knotted rope. - -“What’s that for?” asked he. - -“You wait and see,” replied Jude. “Here’s the cache. Mind where you’re -walkin’ or you’ll be into it.” - -The cache was well hidden among the bay cedars. The opening, eight feet -long by six broad, was covered over with short poles spread with cut -branches gone withered with the sun. When they had got the covering -off, Jude tied one end of the rope to a tree close by and dropped the -other end into the cache. She swung herself down by it, and Ratcliffe -followed. - -From the floor of this place a step, two feet high, gave entrance to -the cave. - -“You see,” said Jude. “It may rain till it’s black, but it never floods -the cave. The water drains off before it can rise the height of the -step.” - -There were a candle and some matches inside the cave entrance. She lit -the candle and led the way. - -Ratcliffe was astounded, less by the size of the place, than the stacks -of goods,—canned peaches, condensed milk, corned beef, tomatoes, ox -tongues, Heinz’s pickles, Nabisco wafers. The old brig, making for some -gulf port, must have been a floating Italian warehouse as far as cargo -was concerned. - -“I don’t wonder at Satan not wanting Sellers and Carquinez to spot all -this,” said he. “Why, there must be five hundred pounds’ worth of stuff -here. Aren’t you afraid that nigger who skipped from you at Pine Island -may split?” - -“Sakes, no! He was too much afeared of Satan. Satan was always -threatening to skin him. Besides, he doesn’t know. We told him this -place was Turtle Island, and that’s a hundred and fifty miles to -s’uth’ard. You trust Satan to keep a thing dark. Here, catch hold of -the candle while I collect.” - -There were two sacks folded up on the floor. She started collecting -things, and when the sacks were half-filled Jude, clambering out of the -pit, hauled them up by the rope. - -“Anything more?” asked he, from below. - -“I reckon that will be enough,” said Jude, looking down at him. “It’ll -take us all our time to carry them to the boat, and if Satan ain’t -satisfied he can come and fetch some more himself.” - -“Then drop the rope; I want to get out.” - -Jude, kneeling at the cache edge, lowered the rope gingerly. He reached -up, and was just about to seize the loose end when it eluded him. - -“Why don’t you catch hold?” asked Jude. - -“I can’t. How could I when you pulled it up again. Go on, drop it and -don’t play the fool.” - -“Who’s playin’ the fool?” - -“You are.” - -The rope, instead of descending again, was hauled right out of the -cache. Then a face appeared, looking down and framed against the sky. -He had forgotten the snub he had given her on the beach, but she hadn’t. - -“D’y’r’member what you said down there on the beach?” asked Jude. - -“No, what about?” - -“Cussin’.” - -“Oh, yes.” - -“Said I wanted you to play games that wasn’t nice.” - -“I never said any such thing.” - -“Didn’t yer? Well, whether you did or you didn’t, you’ve got to swear -before I let you out.” - -“Well, then I’ll stay in. Go on, Jude, don’t be silly. It’s cold down -here.” - -The rope came down, and he was just seizing the end when it was whipped -out of his hand. - -“Damn!” said Ratcliffe wholeheartedly. - -“Now you’re talkin’,” said Jude. - -Like a boy fishing for polliwogs, she lowered the rope again and -snatched it up suddenly, bringing with it another oath. - -But the third time he was too quick for her. Then as he came swarming -up with skinned knuckles and rage in his heart, she bolted. He chased -her, dodging here and there among the bushes, then he chased her round -a tree, caught her, and, in his anger and irritation somehow, kissed -her. - -The perfectly amazing smack on the face that followed was revelation; -it also knocked him off his balance so that he sat down as though cut -off at the knees. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE COMING OF CLEARY - - -She stood for a moment, frightened at her handiwork. - -Then, as he pulled himself together, she drew away a step. - -“What ails you?” asked she. - -Ratcliffe, sitting up with his hand to the top of his head, groaned. - -She drew a step closer. Then she saw that he was laughing, and drew a -step back. - -“Get up, and don’t be fooling,” said she. - -“Fooling! And who started it?” asked he. - -Jude made no reply. She turned and went off to the cache, lugged the -sacks a bit more away from the opening, and started to put the poles -across. When he joined her on the work she wouldn’t speak. She was -evidently mortally offended. - -He knew at once and by some fine instinct what was the matter with her. -He had trod on her dignity, like the Thelusson woman,—treated her like -a child, that is to say like a girl, for the two things were synonymous -with Jude, who seemed to have no more idea of the realities of sex than -a pumpkin. - -When she did speak at last, it was to give jeering orders. - -“Lord! Did you never have to use your hands? Which way is that to be -sticking the poles? Why, it’d take twenty dozen to cover it the way -you’re doing! Leave a foot and a half between them.” - -“Right,” said Ratcliffe humbly. - -“I didn’t say two foot.” - -“Sorry.” - -“Now the branches an’ stuff.” - -She had reserved one of the poles, for what reason soon became apparent. - -Each sack was too heavy to be carried by one person, so she slung one -to the middle of the pole, and they started for the beach, Caleb and -Joshua fashion, Ratcliffe in front. - -It was horrible work. They had to keep step, which was difficult; owing -to the bushes, the going was bad. The sack kept slipping toward Jude, -owing to the inequality of their heights, and the pressure of the pole -on his shoulder was galling; also the wind had changed and was coming -from the direction of the gulf, warm and moist like the breath from a -great mouth. - -When they reached the beach he sat down. Unused to hard work and -unused to the climate, he was sweating and exhausted. Jude looked -comparatively cool and fresh. - -“Now then, Lazybones!” said Jude. Then she collapsed also, sitting down -with her knees up and her arms round them. - -She seemed to have forgotten the sack, Ratcliffe, everything, as she -sat whistling dreamily between her teeth and staring across the water -toward the _Sarah_. - -She had kicked off her boots, and her toes were playing with the sand. -Uncramped by boots, her feet were as expressive as her hands. - -“You’ll hear Satan begin to holler in a minute,” said Jude. - -“Let him,” said the other, “I’m not going to stir another foot till -I’ve rested myself.” - -“Oh, he won’t holler at you. It’s me he’ll go for; you’re the -first-class passenger.” - -“No, I’m not: I’m one of the crew.” - -Jude laughed in a mirthless manner. - -“Well, I reckon myself one, anyhow,” said he. “I wouldn’t have come on -board unless I was to help in working the boat.” - -“Oh, Satan won’t mind you helpin’ to work her,” replied she; “but he -didn’t bring you aboard for that.” - -“I know—and it was awfully decent of him. He just thought I’d like the -cruise.” - -Jude sniffed. - -“I reckon you don’t know Satan,” said she. - -“How?” - -“Satan never does nothing for nothing.” - -“Well, what did he bring me aboard for?” - -“Lord knows,” said Jude; “but he’s got something up his sleeve, sure. -Mind you, Satan’s as straight as they make them unless he’s dealin’ -with law chaps and such, and you’d be safe with him if you was blind -and dumb and covered with diamonds only waitin’ to be picked off you. -You see, you’re straight, and anyone that’s straight with Satan he’s -straight with them. It’s different with lawyers, or guys like Cark and -Sellers, who’d beat their own gran’mothers out of their store teeth. -All the same, you look out with Satan. He’s got some plan about you, -sure.” - -“What sort of plan is it, do you think, Jude?” - -“Lord knows. Nothing to harm you, anyway; maybe it’s to go shares in -some deal—I dunno.” - -“Well, I’m up for any deal he likes to propose that would benefit -him—as much money as he wants.” - -“Satan’s not set on money,” said Jude, “not in a big way. I reckon -he’s something like Pap. Pap would take no end of trouble making a few -dollars, but he was never really set on bein’ rich. I reckon he took up -that old wreck business more for the fun of the thing than the dollars. -He used to say great riches was only trouble to a man, an’ that he only -wanted God’s good air and ’nough to live on.” - -“Well, maybe he was right,” said Ratcliffe. - -“I reckon Satan cottoned to you because he thought you was honest,” -said Jude. - -“Well, I hope I am.” - -“He said to me, right off, after you’d gone back to the yacht, ‘I -reckon that feller’s honest,’ he said.” - -Ratcliffe laughed. - -“You see,” went on Jude, “you don’t pick up honest parties round these -parts, not by the bushel. You might rake Havana with a fine-tooth comb -lookin’ for fellers that wouldn’t do you, but you wouldn’t find none. -It’s the same all round the gulf, from N’Orleans to Campêche; you can’t -stick your nose in anywhere without being stung—if you’re a softy.” - -“So he liked me because he thought I was straight. What did you like me -for, Jude?” - -“Lord! if you don’t fancy yourself! Who told you I liked you?” - -“You did last night. You said you and Satan took to me right off.” - -“Oh, did I? Well, maybe it was them pajamas—Hullo!” The shrill notes -of a bo’sn’s whistle came over the water. She sprang to her feet. - -Satan’s form appeared at the rail of the _Sarah_. He was making -movements with his arms as though signaling, and Jude flung up an arm -in answer. - -Then, shading her eyes, she looked seaward. - -“What’s up?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“Come on!” said Jude. - -She seized the sack, called on him to help her, and between them they -ran it down to the water’s edge. Then they got the dinghy afloat, the -sack on board, and started. - -“What’s up?” again asked Ratcliffe, as they rowed. - -“Sail,” said Jude. - -He had seen nothing, perhaps because of the sun-dazzle on the water or -because he had not looked in the right direction. The sensitiveness -of the Tylers to the approach of strangers and their hawklike vision -struck him as belonging almost to the uncanny. - -Satan had rigged a tackle, and without a word uttered the sack was got -aboard and below. Then and not till then did Satan speak. - -“It’s Cleary,” said he. - -Jude took the old glass he had been using, and examined the stranger, -then she handed it to Ratcliffe. He turned it on the fleck of sail -which sprang gigantic into the form of a big fore-and-aft-rigged boat, -beating up for the island, the late afternoon sunlight flashing back -from the foam at the forefoot and her foam-wet bows. - -“Who is Cleary?” asked he, handing back the glass. - -“Cark’s partner,” said Satan, “sort of half and half partner. They’re -always bestin’ one another. Cleary is by way of bein’ a ship breaker -and dealer in odds and ends; owns a couple of ratty old schooners -besides that old ketch. Wonder what he’s doin’ down here? Curse him!” - -“He’s after Cark, most likely,” said Jude. “Maybe he’s got a smell of -the wreck.” - -“Maybe,” replied Satan. “He’s always spyin’ on Cark. There’s nothin’ -much that Cleary don’t know, and if he got wind that Cark’s on a likely -job he’d put out after him.” - -It seemed to Ratcliffe all at once that the old wreck lying on that -unseen reef might have been likened to a carcass in the desert, and -that he was watching the gathering of the vultures to a feast. - -First Carquinez, now Cleary—how many more would come circling out of -the blue? - -He said so, and Satan concurred. - -“It’s got out somehow or ’nother,” said Satan, “and Lord only knows -there may be half a dozen others on the hunt. You see, the very fac’ -of Cark’s puttin’ to sea himself would give suspicions to half Havana; -but Cleary is the only man beside Cark that knows my ports of call. He -knows I come here for abalones, and he knows I hunt round Pine Island, -not to say other places.” - -Satan fell into meditation for a moment. Then he resumed: - -“That’s what the cuss has been doin’. He’s been on the hunt for me, -same as Cark was, only for different reasons. Now you wait and see. -Jude!” - -“Hullo,” said Jude. - -“Did you cover the cache proper?” - -“You bet; but there’s a sack of stuff we didn’t manage to bring off. -It’s among the bushes.” - -“It’ll have to lay there.” - -“What’s the name of Cleary’s boat?” asked Ratcliffe as he watched the -approaching ketch. - -“The _Natchez_,” said Satan, “an old cod boat, built at Marthas -Vineyard. Lord! ain’t they crackin’ on! Cleary’s in a hurry. There’s no -denyin’ that.” - -He whistled contentedly as he leaned on the rail, and Ratcliffe, -watching his hatchet-sharp profile, wondered what was coming next. -Of one thing he was beginning to feel certain,—Cleary, Carquinez, -Sellers, and anything else that might come out of Havana on the long -trail for plunder would find a match in Satan. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -AN HONEST MAN - - -The ketch carried on, heading straight for the _Sarah_; then, spilling -the wind from her sails, she came round, presenting a full view of her -dirty old hull and dropping her anchor two cable lengths away. - -Almost on the last rasp of the anchor chain she dropped a boat, which -shoved off for the _Sarah_. - -“That’s Cleary,” said Satan, shading his eyes. - -It was, and as Cleary came on board, leg over rail, saluting Satan -with the affability of old acquaintanceship and the quarterdeck with -a squirt of tobacco juice, Ratcliffe fell to wondering what sort of -place Havana might be and what else it might give up in the way of -detrimentals. - -Carquinez was bad and Sellers was bad, but Cleary was—Cleary. Against -the gold and blue of afternoon, the sight of this faded man, who -looked as though he had seen better days, who suggested a broken-down -schoolmaster, with a slungshot in his pocket, struck Ratcliffe with -astonishment and depression. It was as though the dazzling air had -suddenly split to disclose a London slum. - -“Hullo! Hullo!” said Cleary. “Thought I recognized the old hooker. What -you doin’ down here away?” - -Jude made a dive for the galley, and Ratcliffe could hear her choking. -The sound banished the feeling of depression and repulsion created by -the newcomer and brightened him somehow. - -Here was the comic man of the pantomime come aboard. - -“What am I doin’?” said Satan. “I’m fishin’ for chair-backs. What are -you doin’ yourself?” - -Cleary turned, spat his quid overboard, and then, leaning on the rail, -looking seaward, with his back to the others, and, just as easy as -though he were aboard his own ship, laughed. - -“Fishin’ for chair-backs!” Then, sluing his head half round, “How’s the -abalone fishin’ gone?” - -“Jude!” cried Satan. - -“Hullo!” - -“Bring up them pearls!” - -Cleary turned, and, leaning with his back against the rail, began to -fill an old pipe in a languid and leisurely manner. Then, when the -pearls were produced, he turned them from the matchbox into the palm of -his hand. - -“How much?” asked Cleary. - -“Forty dollars,” said Satan. - -“Forty which?” - -“Dollars.” - -“Ain’t worth forty cents.” - -“Well, who’s askin’ you to deal?” - -Cleary carefully poured the pearls into the matchbox, closed it, and -put it in his pocket. - -Satan did not seem to mind. - -“Jude!” said Satan. - -“What?” - -“Bring up them cigars!” - -“Who’s the gentleman?” asked Cleary. - -“Gentleman came aboard for a cruise off a yacht. You needn’t mind him; -he’s only out for pleasure.” - -Cleary nodded to Ratcliffe, who nodded in return. Then things hung -for a moment till Jude appeared with the cigar-box, and the newcomer, -having tapped the tobacco out of his pipe, chose a cigar, lit it and, -leaning with his back against the rail and his thumbs in the armholes -of his old waistcoat, blew clouds. He seemed for a moment far away in -thought, and Ratcliffe, watching him and Satan,—Jude having vanished -again, attacked with another fit of choking,—puzzled his head in -vain to find out the inner meaning of what was going on. The wretched -pearls were scarcely worth five dollars, he had heard Satan say so, and -Cleary, evidently an expert, was not the man to pay eight times their -worth, nor was Satan the man to allow the other to pocket them. - -Then suddenly Cleary spoke. - -“Cark’s a clever man, don’t you think?” - -“Well, seein’ he’s your partner, you’re a better judge than me,” -replied Satan. - -“Well, maybe that’s so,” said Cleary. “Partners we were, and partners -we are till I ketch him and bust him.” - -“Why, what’s he been doin’ to you?” - -“Now, I’ll tell you,” said Cleary. “I’m an honest man. I don’t say in -trade I’m not above shavin’ the barber, but between man an’ man I’m -honest, and I’m goin’ to tell you straight out Cark and me has been -layin’ for you ever since your dad was fool enough to give Cark the -tip about that treasure business. I wasn’t keen on it, same as he -was. I allowed there might be somethin’ in it—but that don’t matter. -What gets my monkey is Cark he gets fearful thick with Sellers, then -he cools off on the business of the treasure gettin’, and a matter of -two weeks ago he rigs up a job for me to see after at Pensacola that’d -have taken me two months and more. I says to myself, ‘There’s somethin’ -in this.’ Says nothin’ to Cark. Off I goes, taking the old _Natchez_. -Hadn’t reached the latitood of Key West when back I puts, and finds -Cark gone with the _Juan_ and Sellers. - -“Then I knew he’s started to hunt for you again, leavin’ me in the -lonely cold. He’s been huntin’ you ever since last fall, that’s -straight; but he’d never let me down before. He’d always told me the -results. I tell you he’s huntin’ for you now, and the surprisin’ thing -is he hasn’t found you, knowing as he does this is one of your grounds.” - -“How do you know he hasn’t found me?” - -“What you mean?” - -“Why, he was here this morning and off not four hours ago.” - -“Christopher!” - -“Him and Sellers.” - -“Holy Mike!” - -“You was comin’ up from West, you ought to have sighted him.” - -“Sighted nothin’ but a tank, and her nearly hull down.” - -“Well, if you’d been here a few hours earlier, you’d have smelt the old -_Juan_ as well as sightin’ her.” - -“Was he here on business?” - -“He was,—he was after that wreck Pap told him of. You just told me -he’s been after me since last fall spyin’ on me. I know it, and I’m -pretty sick of the business. B’sides, he’s as good to help in it as -anyone else; so I’ve made a contrac’ with him.” - -“_Sufferin_’ Moses!—a contrac’ with Cark!” Cleary stood for a moment -as though absorbing this news, then he laughed, the funniest laugh -Ratcliffe had ever heard,—it was like the whinny of a pony. He saw -Jude’s head at the cabin hatch, and the head suddenly duck and vanish, -as though her body had been doubled up. - -“A contrac’ with Cark!” - -“Well, what are you laughin’ at?” - -“Nothin’. May I ask what terms?” - -“We go shares.” - -“In the pickin’s?” - -“What else?” - -“Have you give him the location?” - -“I have.” - -“You’ve give him the location and let him slip his cable—him and -Sellers?” - -“What odds? It’ll take a month to bust her open and hunt for the -stuff. I’ll be after him tomorrow.” - -Cleary crossed his arms and stood with the half cigar stuck in the -corner of his mouth and pointing skyward, his eyes fixed on the deck -and his left eye half closed. - -Jude’s face had reappeared at the cabin hatch, and the grin on it -spread to Ratcliffe’s. - -Satan alone was unmoved, half-sitting on the keg and cutting up some -tobacco. - -“Well,” said Cleary at last, “you’ve made your bargain, there’s no -gettin’ round that. _I’m_ not wishin’ to poke my nose in your business, -nor to ask what your share is to be, but I’m partners with Cark, and -you see how he’s let me down—cayn’t you give me a lead?” - -“Which way?” - -“Give me a lead to the location. It won’t make a cent difference to -you.” - -“How’s that?” - -“Clear enough, I don’t want none of your share. Cark’s the man I want -to tap, having a right to, being partners.” - -Satan seemed to turn this matter over in his mind for a moment. Then he -said, “Suppose we come back to them pearls?” - -“Right,” said Cleary in a lively voice. “What’s this you was askin’, -forty? Well, forty you shall have.” - -He produced an old brown pocketbook, counted out four ten-dollar notes, -and handed them over. - -Satan examined each note, back and front, folded them, and placed them -into his pocket. - -“Now,” said Cleary, “out with the lead!” - -“You’ll have it tomorrow,” said Satan. “I’m pickin’ up my anchor -tomorrow mornin’. You’ve only to follow me.” - -“I’d rayther have the indications on paper.” - -“Maybe you would, but you won’t. I’ve made my bargain with Cark, and -there’s nothin’ in the contrac’ about givin’ the location away to third -parties. I can’t help you followin’ me.” - -“I take you,” said Cleary. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -PROBLEMS - - -The sun was nearly touching the horizon when he dropped into his boat -and rowed off. - -“Look here!” said Ratcliffe. “Are you in earnest with that chap?” - -“I sure am,” said Satan. - -“Going to take him down to Lone Reef?” - -“Yep.” - -“But how about Carquinez? We had got to wait for him here till he gets -back from Havana with the dynamite.” - -“Yes,” said Satan, “we’d got to wait here one week, or maybe ten days -allowin’ for weather—where was you born?” - -“How?” - -“Cark’s tried to sell me a pup, that’s how! He’s gone to no Havana: -he’s crackin’ on for the wreck with every stitch he can carry. Reckons -to bust her open and scoop the boodle while we’re layin’ here rubbin’ -our noses and waitin’ for him. Mind you,” said Satan, “I may be wrong, -but that’s my ’pinion.” - -“But he sailed off toward Havana.” - -“Lord! Hasn’t he a rudder?” - -“All the same, would it pay him?” - -“How?” - -“Well, if he played a dirty trick on you like that, wouldn’t he be -afraid you’d split?” - -“Who to?” - -“To the authorities at Cuba.” - -“D’you remember Sellers talkin’ about landin’ the stuff,” asked Satan, -“sayin’ they’d have to take it round to Santiago way? They thought I -was drinkin’ all that in. If there were any dollars in the business, -d’you think they’d touch Cuba? Not they! They’d either cache the stuff -or run it to some likely port. I was laughin’ in my hat all the time. -Now you may think me a suspicious cuss. I’m not; but a feller has to -run by compass in this world or go off his course, and my compass in -this turnout is Cark. I say he’s gone down to Lone Reef and given me -the left leg over the business, and my compass is the fac’ that he -can’t run straight. Not if he tried to, he couldn’t run straight; nor -could Sellers nor Cleary. If them fellers were straight, I’d match -them and give them a fair deal. As it is, they’re like a lot of blind -bally-hoolies playin’ blindman’s buff, runnin’ round and round, with me -in the middle, tryin’ to kidoodle me and bein’ kidoodled themselves. -Forty dollars for them rotten pearls, and all sorts of fixin’s out of -Sellers—_and I haven’t done with them yet_!” - -It had seemed to Ratcliffe, on board the _Juan_, that Carquinez was -the spider of the web of this business. It seemed to him now that the -spider was Satan. - -He began to wonder was there any wreck at all, was the treasure -story a myth. The idea of these rogues being incited to dreams of -fortune so that they might be plundered of pots of paint and cans of -turpentine and a few dollars appealed to him immensely. He remembered -Thelusson and Skelton, he remembered Jude’s yarn about fruit steamers -being held up, he remembered Carquinez and Sellers, and he had just -seen Cleary; and of a sudden Satan’s ocean-wide activities appeared -before him in nightmare contrast with their microscopic results. Great -steamers stopped for a bunch of bananas, yachts lying idle to careen -the _Sarah_, ships sailing from Havana to hunt for buried treasure—but -in reality to supply the wandering _Sarah_ with cans of turpentine and -a few dollars! Was there any treasure, or was the whole thing a Tyler -fake invented by Pap and handed to his family as an heirloom? He could -not resist the question. - -“That chart you showed us,” said he,—“is there anything really in it?” - -Satan took him at once. - -“The chart’s all right,” said he, “for them that can read it. If you -mean is it _genuine_, I reckon it is—for them that can read it. -We’ll see some day if I’m right or wrong; but, honest truth, I’m not -botherin’ much about it,—the chances are so big, as I told you before, -against treasure huntin’, and even if we strike it what’s the use of -barrels of gold to a feller like me? If you ask me, I’m botherin’ more -about the kid than huntin’ for money.” - -“You mean?” - -“Jude. Suppose I was to get a bash on the head from one of them cusses, -or drop to the smallpox, same as I pretended to Sellers, what’d become -of the kid?” - -The sound of the “kid” frying fish for supper came mixed with the -question. - -“I know,” said Ratcliffe, “that’s a problem that must often occur to -you, I should think.” - -“You’ve seen the sort of crowd Havana’s made of,” went on Satan. “It’s -hard to tell which is worse, the Yanks or the Spaniards, and there’s -not a seaport that’s not the same, and when I think of me lyin’ dead -and her driftin’ loose, it gets my goat. It’d be different if she was a -boy.” - -“Besides that,” said the other, “she can’t go on always as she is now.” - -“How’d you mean?” - -“Well, dressed as she is now. She’ll grow up.” - -“Sure,” said Satan. - -“She’ll have to dress differently some day.” - -“Meanin’ skirts?” - -“Yes.” - -Satan laughed a hollow laugh. The idea seemed so futile that he did not -dwell upon it, or seemed not to. - -“Have you any female relations yourself?” asked he. - -“Lots,” replied Ratcliffe, calling up in memory his cousins and aunts, -females of the highest upper-middle-class respectability, and vaguely -wondering what they would think of Jude could they see her. - -“The bother is,” said Satan, “she don’t take to women folk; always was -against them, and that Thelusson woman put the cap on the business, -kissin’ her and handin’ out slop talk. Well, I don’t know. I reckon -she’ll have to go on bein’ what she is till somethin’ happens; but it -would have been a lot handier if she’d been born a boy.” - -He turned and went below. - -The sun had sunk beyond Palm Island, and a violet dusk, forerunner of -the dark, was spreading through the sky. Over beyond the _Natchez_ the -sea for a moment became hard looking as a floor of beryl, then vague. - -Ratcliffe, lingering for a moment watching this transformation scene, -found himself thinking of Jude and her problem. The Tylers had taken an -extraordinarily firm hold upon him. He knew them more intimately than -he knew his own relations, or fancied so. It seemed to him that he had -known them for years. - -When this cruise was over and he packed up his traps and left them, he -would probably never see them again. Jude and Satan would go their way -and he would go his way—and what would happen to Jude? Suppose Satan -were to die, get knocked on the head or “fall to the smallpox”? The -thought hurt him almost as much as it hurt Satan; for Jude had, somehow -or another, captured his mind and touched his heart, and her youth and -absolute irresponsibility before the major facts of life had infected -him in the most extraordinary manner. - -Over there on the island, engaged in the serious matter of provisioning -the _Sarah_, they had been carrying on like children. He had not -thought of it then; now, reflecting sanely, it rose before him together -with the rest of this strange cruise, and for a moment the whole -business seemed mad, absolutely mad. The supersane figure of Skelton -rose up before him, and beyond Skelton, Oxford, the calm, sane -English country, where the Tylers would have been impossible, the hard -bourgeois conventions of the upper-upper-middle classes, those uncles, -cousins, and aunts to whom Class was as holy as Sunday and to whom Jude -would be absolutely invisible as she was. - -He was engaged in these reflections when a voice broke the stillness -of the evening, a half-tired, half-cantankerous voice, the voice of an -overworked housekeeper who had been frying fish while others have been -idling. - -“_Ain’t_ you comin’ to help me?” inquired the voice. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -HANTS AND OTHER THINGS - - -Down below, at supper, the injured housekeeper was still in evidence -and rose to a charge that the fish was over-fried. Satan was the accuser. - -The defendant, “het up” and flushed, replied in the language of the sea: - -“Go’n fry your head! Clackin’ on deck and leavin’ me to do the -work—the pair of you! It’s all men’s good for.” - -“Why, I thought you was a man!” said Satan. “You cut and carry on like -a man; scratch you and your tongue goes both ends like a woman. Start -you on a job, and you sit down to it before it’s half done. I saw you -lazin’ on the beach, and now look where we are,—there’s a sack of -stuff not brought off and how are we to bring it with Cleary messin’ -round?” - -“It wasn’t my fault,” said Jude. Then she checked herself and her eyes -met Ratcliffe’s. - -“It was my fault,” said he. “I got tired.” - -Jude looked at him. This defense of her, trifling though it was, -seemed to make a new relationship between them. It seemed to her that -Ratcliffe had suddenly become different. She could not tell what the -difference was or how it had come about in the least, or why she -half-resented his shielding her, even in this small matter; then her -eyes fell away and rested on the table before her. - -“It wasn’t,” said she. “It was my fault I was foolin’ when I ought to -have been workin’, and now the stuff is lyin’ there—” She choked, and -then to the horror of Satan she pushed her plate away and broke into -tears, hiding her face on her folded arms. Then, before the astonished -ones could speak, she rose and dashed out of the cabin. - -“Land’s sake!” cried Satan. “What ails her? Cryin’! She’s never done -that before—and all over that rotten sack—why, let it lay there, cuss -the thing!” - -He went on with his supper in an irritable manner. - -“She’s overtired, maybe,” said Ratcliffe. “Wait and I’ll fetch her -back.” - -He left the cabin and came on deck. - -The moon had not risen yet, and the riding light, which had been run up -before supper, showed yellow against the stars. - -Not a sign of Jude. - -He went forward. There she was, huddled up in the bows. - -“Jude!” - -The bundle sniffed. - -“Come on down to supper. Satan’s not angry.” - -“Who the”—sniff—“cares whether’es angry or not? You lea’ me alone!” - -“But what are you crying about?” - -“_Ain’t_ cryin’!” - -“Well, what are you lying on the deck for?” - -“’Cause I choose.” - -“Come on down and help to clear the things away.” - -“Clear them yourself!” - -He bent down and tried to take her arm. She shook him off, rose -suddenly like a released spring, ran to the side where the dinghy was -moored, and got over the rail. - -He looked over. She was in the boat unfastening the painter. - -“Where on earth are you going?” - -“Ashore.” - -She pushed off. - -Ratcliffe came down to the cabin. - -“She’s gone ashore.” - -“She’s gone for that sack,” said Satan unconcernedly. “Reckons to get -it off before moon rise, I expect.” - -“But it’s too heavy for one.” - -“She’ll do it. You’ve put her monkey up makin’ her confess it was her -fault. She’s never done that before in all her born life. She’s just -natural proud and she’d as soon cut her tongue out as give in she was -in the wrong. You’ve made her do more’n I’ve ever made her do, and how -you’ve done it—well, search me. - -“You aren’t gettin’ on with your supper,” said Satan after a pause. - -“Oh, I’ve had enough. I was wondering if she has her boots for going -through that bush stuff.” - -“She’s got them all right. They were in the dinghy: she didn’t bring -them aboard. You’re worryin’ a lot about the kid.” - -“Well, maybe. She’s the jolliest kid I ever struck, and I don’t want -any harm to come to her; the pluckiest, too. There’s not many people -would go off alone in the dark like that in a place like this.” - -“Lord bless your soul!” said Satan. “That’s nothin’, no more than -walkin’ down the street to Jude. Do you think sailin’ these seas is all -fair-weather work? Why, we’ve been rubbin’ our noses in _des_truction -since she was born. She don’t know what fear is.” - -“I could tell that from her face.” - -“It’s her face that’s troublin’ me,” said Satan. “Pass me the water -pitcher, will you? She’s begun to take after mother. A few months ago -she was the homeliest little pup ever littered; but she’s beginnin’ to -pick up in looks, and if she takes after her mother’s side in looks and -ways—Lord save us!” - -“Was your mother good looking?” - -“Well,” said Satan, “I don’t know what you call good looks. Pap said -she was a nacheral calamity; that was after she’d bolted with the -Baptis’ man. It wasn’t the looks so much as the somethin’ about her -that’d make a blind man rubber after her if she passed him in the -street, that’s what Pap said. He never said no prayers, but when he was -talkin’ of Jude I’ve heard him say time and again, ‘Thank the Lord she -don’t take after her mother!’ and now it’s comin’ out, same as the ace -of spades a shark has hid up his sleeve—and what’s comin’ after, Lord -only knows.” - -“How do you mean?” - -“Well, I scarce know myself, but Pap said those sort of women couldn’t -help bein’ nacheral calamities, attractin’ chaps and turnin’ the world -upside down. He said a man, once they’d got the clutch on him, was no -more use than a hypnotized fowl, whatever that is. You’ve heard what -Jude said about skirts—well, I’m thinkin’ that’s all baby talk, an’ -it’s my ’pinion when she gets her nacheral sailing orders she’ll be -into skirts some day, same as a dude takes to water, and hypnotizing -chaps, same as her mother before her.” - -“I wouldn’t be surprised,” said Ratcliffe; “but I don’t think she’ll be -a natural calamity. I think, from what I have seen of her, that she has -a fine character, honest as the day, good as gold.” - -“Maybe,” said Satan; “but you never know what a woman is, seems to me, -till she’s been rubbed against a man. Those were Pap’s words and he’d -got a headpiece on him. Well, I reckon time will tell.” - -They went on deck. - -The moon had not risen yet, and the island lay like a humped shadow -in the starlight. To seaward the anchor light of the _Natchez_ showed -a yellow point, and from the beach came the lullaby of little waves -falling on the sand. - -“Now if it wasn’t these days,” said Satan, “I’d be in two minds about -putting out straight now, rather than lyin’ all night by that feller -Cleary.” - -“What do you mean by these days?” - -“Well, in the old throat-cuttin’ days I reckon Cleary would have gone -through us, sunk the old _Sarah_, and taken me aboard his hooker with a -gun at my head to make me show him the way to the wreck; but things is -different now. Fellers are afraid of the law. Cark’s mortally afraid of -the law, so’s Cleary.” - -“What time do you start tomorrow?” - -“After sun-up, if the wind holds.” - -“It will be a joke if we find Carquinez at the reef. What will he say, -do you think?” - -“Cark? Oh, he’ll not mind. There ain’t no shame in Cark. He’ll have -broke his contrac’ by not goin’ to Havana, he’ll stand proved to the -eyes as a damn cheat. He won’t mind: the contrac’ not bein’ regular, -the law can’t have him.” - -“I expect Cleary will go for him.” - -“Maybe,” said Satan. “Then we’ll have some fun. There’s Jude.” - -Something like a swimming water rat was breaking the star shimmer on -the sea. It was the dinghy. - -Jude was sculling it from behind, noiselessly. It came alongside to -starboard like a ghost, and with it came Jude’s voice calling for the -tackle. Then the sack came aboard and after it Jude. - -“Well, you’ve done it smart,” said Satan, “and no mistake. Now off down -with you and have your supper. We’ve got to start bright and early in -the morning.” - -Jude said nothing. Her anger and irritability seemed to have departed. -She kicked off her boots, hitched up her trousers, and started down -below. - -“She never keeps a grudge up,” said Satan. - -Away in the middle of the night Ratcliffe was awakened by a stifled -scream, the voice of Satan promptly following. - -“Wake up! What ails you?” - -“For the Land’s sake, where am I?” - -“In your hammock. What’re you dreamin’ of?” - -“Gee-owsts.” - -“Hants, you mean.” - -“Black faces they had, and they was chasin’ me round and round them -trees.” - -“That’s what comes of stuffin’ yourself and goin’ to bed on top of it. -Get off your back and onto your side. Wakin’ a body up like that! What -was they like?” - -“The hants?” - -“Yep.” - -“I can’t be talkin’ for fear of wakin’ him up.” - -“He’s asleep. I hear him snorin’. What was they like?” - -“They’d black faces and tails like cows—an’ I’d rather not be talkin’ -of them.” - -“Wonder what it means dreamin’ of them things?” - -“Nothin’ good—bad weather, most like.” - -“Glass is steady.” - -“Well, maybe we’ll bust on a reef or somethin’.” - -“Oh, shet your head!” - -“Shet yours. I’m wantin’ to get asleep.” - -Silence. - -Ratcliffe could hear the water outside tickling the ribs of the -old _Sarah_. A bigger swell was running, and she rose to it with -balloon-like buoyancy. A score of little voices from the trickle and -slap of the sea against the timbers to the click of the rudder chain -marked her movements. - -The idea of the ghosts chasing Jude round the dream tree reminded him -of how he had chased her round the real tree and kissed her—kissed her -out of irritation. - -Something in his half-asleep state told him he had been a fool to do -that. It was all done in play, just as a little boy might kiss a little -girl; but he was not a little boy. What had prompted him? - -Then as he lay dissolving into slumber the groaning timbers of the -_Sarah_ said something that sounded like “nacheral calamity,” and then, -the door of sleep flung wide, he was walking on a blazing beach with -Cleary. - -The _Natchez_ and the _Juan_ were at anchor out on the blue dream -sea, a great wreck was heaved up on the sands, and when they reached -it Cleary tapped on the timbers and said something about a “nacheral -calamity,” and at the words a porthole opened and Jude’s fresh young -face appeared laughing, framed by the timbers of the wreck. - -It seemed to him the most delightful vision—then it popped in and the -porthole closed and Carquinez came riding up on a horse, saying he was -going to “bu’st” the wreck open with dynamite to get at the treasure. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -UNDER WAY - - -He was routed out before dawn by Satan. The cabin lamp was lit, the -table spread, and Jude was bringing in coffee. She seemed in a bad -temper, and as he huddled himself into his clothes he could hear her: - -“Knockin’ myself about in the dark! That old slush lamp in the galley -don’t burn worth a cent. What you want haulin’ out this hour for?” - -And to her Satan: - -“Wind will be up with the sun—where’s them biscuits? We’ve got to get -the dinghy aboard yet, and all that raffle forward stowed, and it’ll be -light enough in another ten minutes.” - -“Where’s Rat?” - -“He’s comin’.” - -He sat down to table opposite Jude. She scarcely gave him good morning. -The face that had looked so well framed by the porthole of the dream -ship was cross, almost sullen. He thought for a moment that her -ill-temper was directed toward Satan as well as himself; then, in some -subtle way, he knew it wasn’t. Early rising may have helped; but he was -the cause. What had he done? He could not think. - -He remembered how she had acted when he had stood up for her the night -before. It was just the same this morning. - -Satan said the coffee was burnt,—tasted like bud barley, and ought to -be slung in the slush tub. Ratcliffe stood up for the coffee, but was -cut short by Jude. - -“I reckon it’s beastly,” said Jude; “but I haven’t more’n two hands -to be gettin’ the things on the table and the coffee boiled—and some -folks snoring in their bunks!” - -“Shet up!” said Satan, ruffled at this wanton attack on the guest “And -talkin’ of snorin’, I reckon you can give any man points and beat him, -once you lay down to it. Why, you shake the ship so that I’ve woke often -of nights thinkin’ we’d got adrift and was dudderin’ over sandbanks.” - -“Lord love you for a liar!” was all Jude said. She refused help in -clearing away the things, joining them on deck a few minutes later, -just as day was coming into the eastern sky. - -The problem of how to get the dinghy aboard had not occurred to -Ratcliffe till now. The _Sarah Tyler_ possessed no davits, and though -the old canvas boat was easy to handle as an umbrella, the sturdy -little dinghy was a different matter. - -Standing in the half-dark with a faint wind bringing the smell of -the early morning sea, sharp as the smell of a new-drawn sword, he -questioned Satan on the subject. - -“Get her aboard?” said Satan. “Oh, I’ll durn soon get her aboard. -Davits! God love you! what do you want them things for?” - -“Except for hoistin’ fools off the ship?” said the voice of Jude from -the darkness. “_Air_ you goin’ to get a move on? You’ve got the old -awning to take in and stow. Maybe you’ve forgotten it.” - -They got the awning down and stowed, and then, against a train of fire -crawling on the eastern sea-line and in a light that made the world -like the vestibule of Fairyland, Satan set to on the problem of the -dinghy. He had no doubt half a dozen dodges for the purpose. The one he -employed was simply to unshackle the main halyards and fix them to the -ring-bolt on the bow. - -As they hauled on the tackle, and as if in answer to the creak of block -and shrill chantey started by Satan, the races of the gulls blazed -out. The deep-sea fishing gulls had long since started for sea; but -the shore gulls, as though waiting for a convoy to follow, were round -the stern of the _Sarah_. Then, the dinghy secured, the throat and -peak halyards were manned, and the mainsail rose slatting against the -splendor of the morning. - -The sun was over the sea-line now, the wind rising to meet him, and -to starboard the fresh blue sea flooding against the wind showed the -_Natchez_, her canvas rising and the fellows swarming at the ropes. - -Satan had unlashed the wheel and was standing by it, now that the -mainsail was set, shouting directions to his crew; and to Ratcliffe, -as he labored with Jude getting the foresail and jib on her, the truth -came in a flash that this was the real thing. The lazy peace of the -last couple of days had broken all at once. Activity, Adventure, -and Danger seemed suddenly to have boarded the old _Sarah Tyler_ and -delivered her as a prey to enormous and unknown forces. - -He had never recognized till now the potential energy of canvas. The -mainsail seemed horribly vast, out of all proportion to the hull; the -slatting of the jib as they raised it spoke of an energy new born, -viewless, and seeming to have little relationship to the warm and -benign breeze. - -But he had no time to think. The anchor was still to be had in, and -as he helped with Jude at the windlass—Pap’s patent that would have -raised a battleship—the threshing of the canvas with all sheets slack -and the voice of Satan came urging speed. - -Then, when the old killick was aboard and the sails trimmed, came -Peace. With the wind on the starboard beam and the canvas hard against -the blue the _Sarah_ settled down to her work, Palm Island fading to -westward, and to sou’west the _Natchez_ with all sail set in pursuit. - -Jude’s bad temper seemed to have blown away on the wind, the surly look -had gone from her face, and as she stood for a moment by Ratcliffe, -looking over the weather rail, her mind seemed entirely occupied by -Cleary. - -“He’s blowing along,” said Jude; “but he’s feeling our pace. Not more -than holding his own—and he had the cheek to tell me once his old tub -could sail circles round the _Sarah_!” - -Satan at the wheel cocked his eye over his shoulder at the _Natchez_, -spat, and refixed his gaze on the binnacle. - -“Where’s your eyes?” asked Satan. - -“In my head,” replied Jude. “What you gettin’ at?” - -“He’s overhaulin’ us. Wonder he ain’t aboard! Time you was gettin’ that -anchor up and handlin’ the jib.” - -Ratcliffe was about to share the blame when, remembering the incident -of the coffee, he checked himself and held his peace. - -Satan was right. The _Natchez_ had the pace of the _Sarah_, at least -under present wind conditions and under plain sail. The two boats had -evidently never been matched before, and the gloom of the Tylers might -have been gaged by their silence. Satan did not want to run away from -Cleary; but he had promised him a “lead,” and this impudent display -of the better sailing qualities of the _Natchez_ was like a derisive -underscore to the promise. - -Cleary, in this matter at least, was a very unwise man. He should have -checked the speed of his boat by mishandling her or even trailing a -drogher. Instead of that he held on, determined, evidently, to take the -shine out of the _Sarah_ and pour derision on the head of Satan. - -Ratcliffe, little as he knew of boat-craft, felt the situation. Being -wise, he said nothing. - -Suddenly Jude spoke. - -“It’s her beams helping her. Try her on a wind and we’d knock flinders -out of her. Lord! to think of being beat by that old cod boat! Say, -cayn’t we do nothin’, crack on a balloon jib or somethin’?” - -Satan laughed a mirthless laugh. - -“S’much as to tell the cuss we’re beat. Don’t you think Cleary’s got no -balloon jibs up his sleeve? Hain’t you no sense?” - -They held on, the _Natchez_ steadily overhauling them till she was dead -level half a mile away and drawing ahead. - -Then, having demonstrated her superiority, she began to reduce sail so -as to give the _Sarah_ the lead. - -Jude turned away and leaned with her back against the rail; then Satan -told her to take the wheel and went below for a “wash.” - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE STEERSMAN - - -Ratcliffe, taking his seat on the bottom of the dinghy, watched her as -she steered, the old panama on the back of her head and her eyes roving -from the binnacle to the luff of the mainsail. The following wind blew -warm, and the gentle creak of a block, the slash of the bow-wash, and -the occasional click of the rudder chain were the only sounds in all -the blue world ringing them. - -A mile or more behind them the _Natchez_ showed, a triangle of pearl, -Palm Island had vanished, and nothing remained in all the wheel of sea -but a trace of smoke to the southward,—the smoke of some freighter -hull down on the horizon. - -The sturdy little figure at the wheel seemed to have forgotten his -existence. He was wondering whether the grudge was still being kept up -against him, and what it was all about, and whether this indifference -was real or assumed, when a voice made him start: - -“Say! Have you swallowed your tongue?” - -“No, but I didn’t like to speak to you.” - -“What for?” - -“Well, I’ve heard you mustn’t speak to the man at the wheel.” - -“Who stuffed you with that yarn?” - -“Oh, I’ve seen it stuck up on steamboats, and besides I thought you -were in a temper with me.” - -“Which way?” - -“Well, you said davits were only good for hoisting fools off a ship.” - -“So they are.” - -“I thought you meant me.” - -“Thought you was a fool, did you?” - -“Then last night you got in a wax—Jude.” - -“Yep.” - -“Nothing—only—we don’t want to quarrel—and we haven’t been the same -since last night, somehow.” - -“Which way?” - -“Oh, I don’t know. You wouldn’t let me help to clear the things this -morning.” - -“Wouldn’t I? Well, you can help to steer the ship now. Kin you steer?” - -“Only a boat.” - -“Well, it’s easy learnt, and you’re not much use aboard unless you can -take your hand at the wheel.” - -He said nothing for a minute, admiring the way she had steered clear of -the subject he had started on. - -“I don’t mind,” said he at last. “I’ll learn some time—you can teach -me.” - -Jude let her eyes rest on him. Then suddenly, and with the vehemence -and force of a Methodist preacher driving home a point from the pulpit, -she spoke: - -“_Air_ you stuck to the bottom of that dinghy with cobbler’s wax?” - -He laughed and stood up. - -“That’s right,” said Jude. “Now come’n take the wheel. Some time’s no -time! You’ve got to learn to handle her now if you want to. Go behind -me and look over my shoulder—that’s right.” - -He stood behind her, wondering what the next command would be. It came -almost at once. - -“Stick your eye on the compass card.” - -“Right.” - -“S’long as the pointer’s like that she’s on her course. Now I’ll let -her off a spoke or two—keep your eye on the card.” - -The pointer altered its indication, and the mainsail seemed suddenly -attacked by the ague. - -“Now she’s on her course again,” said Jude, altering the wheel. “Take -hold of her. I’ll stand by to give you a hand if you want it.” - -He took the spokes she had been holding as she relinquished them, and -the first sensation that came to him was the feeling that he had taken -hold of something alive, something alive and sensitive as a hare. -The wheel seemed to have a motive power and will of its own, and the -infernal compass card to take affront at the least movement of the helm. - -Jude rested her hand on his left hand to show him how and give him -confidence, and at the touch of her firm little hand the stage-fright -that comes to every steersman when he first takes the wheel left him. - -In five minutes he had got the hang of the thing, or thought so. - -“Can you run her alone?” asked Jude. - -“Rather! It’s as simple as simple.” - -“Right,” said Jude. - -She drew off and took her seat on the dinghy. - -“Easy, ain’t it?” - -“Easy as pie.” - -The wind freshened a bit, and the _Sarah_, heeling slightly, took -matters in her own hand for a moment and fell off her course. He put -the wheel over too much, and like a frightened horse she went plunging -away in the opposite direction, the wind spilling from her sails and -the main boom threatening to swing to port. - -In a moment Jude was beside him, her hands on the spokes, and the -_Sarah_ on her course again. - -A voice came from below, where Satan, like a sensitive plant, had -evidently felt the alteration in their course. - -“What the —— are you doin’ up there?” - -“Learning Rat to steer,” cried Jude. - -Ratcliffe, himself again, retaking the wheel, turned to her. - -“For God’s sake,” said he, “don’t call me that!” - -“Which?” - -“Rat.” - -“For the land’s sake what’s the matter with it?” - -“It’s a beastly name. If you want something short, call me what -everyone else calls me.” - -“What’s that?” - -“Bobby.” - -“You’re lettin’ her off again,” said Jude. “Starboard—that’s it. Here’s -Satan: he’ll go on learnin’ you. I’m goin’ below for a wash.” - - - - -PART II - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -LONE REEF - - -It was the morning of the third day out, somewhere about four o’clock. -The moon had set, and the _Sarah_ was lifting against a gentle head -sea, boosting the foam from her bows under the light of a million stars. - -Satan was at the wheel, Jude below in her hammock, and Ratcliffe at -the weather rail, close to Satan. He was leaning over watching the -water,—gouts and lines of star-shot foam, planes of ebony blackness, -and now and then, deep down, the bloom of phosphorus like the life in -the heart of a black opal. - -“What time do you reckon we’ll strike the reef?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“We’re right on to it now,” replied Satan, “and if it wasn’t more’n a -five-knot breeze I’d heave her to.” - -“You aren’t afraid of running on it?” - -“Lord, no! There’s no smell of it yet.” - -“You mean to say you could smell it?” - -“Waal,” said Satan, “I don’t know if it’s rightly smell or hearin’ or -what, but I’d know it, even with the wind as she is. I reckon it’s -maybe the water. Shoal water smells different from deep, and it’s shoal -water right up from four miles to Lone. Feels different too.” - -“How do you mean?” - -“More choppy—I dunno—different. Jude would tell you the same. Pap had -the sense of it too. Western ocean folks can smell ice miles off when -the bergs are cruisin’ about. I reckon it’s the same thing— There’s -the sun.” - -Right ahead, as if touched by a wizard, the stars had faded above -the sea-line, the sky over there looked sick, a stain on the velvety -splendor of the night. - -A great gull passed the _Sarah_, flying topmast high, and now far -off and as though coming through a pinhole could be heard a creaky -lamentable sound,—the crying of gulls. - -“I’ve got the smell of her now,” said Satan. “Them gulls you’re hearin’ -aren’t all of them from Lone. There’s a big spit to east’ard, and -they’ll be comin’ up against the wind. Say, will you take a bet?” - -“What sort?” - -“I’ll bet you even dollars Cleary hasn’t held on same as we’ve done the -last six hours. He was droppin’ astern a long way last time I sighted -him. He’ll have seen the reef on the chart right ahead of him, and his -navigation is no account: hasn’t no sea sense. He’ll be hove to singin’ -‘Lead, kindly light’ and listenin’ for the breakers—What you say?” - -“I’d rather bet on the _Sarah_.” - -“Maybe you’re right,” said Satan. - -The head sails showed hard now against the east, and almost before -one could turn and look again the blaze had come above a band of -opal-tinted mist which passed and vanished, leaving on the horizon a -train of fire pale as guinea gold. - -In that moment, far ahead and as if suddenly sketched by a pencil -against the eastern light, they saw the naked spars of a vessel -anchored in the dawn. - -“That’s Cark,” said Satan. “Told you we’d find him here—damn swab!” - -“Well, I couldn’t have believed it,” said Ratcliffe. He remembered the -sailing of the _Juan_, presumably for Havana, and though he had sized -up Sellers and Carquinez for what they were worth, still, the evidence -of their duplicity, here before his eyes, came as a shock. - -In a moment it was blotted out by the sun, washed away in the blazing, -seething ocean of light that sprang on them as if to the blast of a -trumpet. - -Satan swung his head over his shoulders. Ratcliffe followed his gaze. -The sea to westward was empty, not a sign of a sail. - -“Cleary’s gone,” said Ratcliffe. - -“Oh, he’ll be nosin’ along soon,” said Satan. “He’s sure to come close -enough to see Cark’s topmasts, and then he’ll pounce.” - -He put the helm over, and the _Sarah_ payed off to the north so as to -round the northern spur of the reef. - -“That’s the wreck,” said Satan, “that line like a lump of rock.” - -Ratcliffe, shading his eyes, could now see the reef, long and -foam-flecked, stretching from north to south, the line of rock -absolutely unsuggestive of a wreck, beyond the reef the _Juan’s_ masts -and spars, and about the reef-spurs the gulls flitting and wheeling; -but, despite the movement of the gulls and the splendor of the morning, -the place struck him as the most desolate he had ever seen. - -“Nothing stirring,” said Satan, as they rounded the north spur and the -boom came over. “Them lowsy Spaniards are all in their bunks. Rap on -the deck for Jude. Hi, Jude, y’lazy dog, show a leg! What you doin’!” - -“Comin’,” cried a voice, followed by the sounds of thrashing about and -inquiries of the Lord to know where her clothes were. - -Then at the hatch appeared a face blind with sleep. She ran with -Ratcliffe to get the lashings off the anchor, helped to let go the -halyards, and as the anchor fell and the _Sarah_ swung to her moorings -a couple of cable lengths from and outside the _Juan_, down she sat on -the deck like a person collapsing under a heavy load. - -The sight of the _Juan_ did not seem to move her at all. Like a -dormouse suddenly electrified into life and movement, the stimulus -withdrawn, the mechanism ceased to act. She yawned, turned on her side, -and hid her face in the crook of her arm as if to shut out the sun. -Satan, whistling between his teeth, stood with his hands on the rail -looking at the _Juan_. - -“They’re wakin’ up,” said he. - -A fellow with a red handkerchief round his head had appeared on deck. -He came and looked over the side at the _Sarah_, then vanished. - -“Gone to wake Cark out of his beauty sleep,” said Satan. “Look! There’s -two more of them movin’ about like sick flies. Will you look at the -way they’ve stowed them sails?—and they’ve got her a sight too close -to the reef. Get a Western Ocean sea suddenly runnin’ and the anchor to -drag, where’d they be?” - -He turned and contemplated the prostrate figure of Jude. - -“There’s another sleepin’ beauty,” said he. “Ought a be married to -Cark. Well they’d look in the same hammock with Sellers fannin’ the -flies off them!” - -The figure on the deck turned on its back, stretched out its arms, -yawned, and then sat up holding its knees. - -Youth may sneer at Age; but, anyhow, Age knows nothing of the weariness -of Youth, of a morning. - -Satan, satisfied with the semi-resurrection, dropped below, and -promptly the figure fell on its back again with arms outspread. - -“Get up!” said Ratcliffe. - -“I’m getting— Say!” - -“Yes.” - -“I—ow—yow—ain’t it awful bein’ tired?” - -“You’ll be all right when you’re on your feet. Get up!” - -“I’m getting— Say, d’you know where the fishing lines are? Starboard -locker. Fetch’m up, an’ that chunk of grouper I kep’ for bait—in the -tub.” - -“Right.” - -When he returned on deck she was drying her head in the sun, having -soused it in a bucket of water. - -Then they dropped a line. - -Away through the diamond-clear water, thirty feet down, they could see -the slack of the anchor chain like a conger on the coral and sponge. - -A nurse shark passed like a grisly ghost, then a shoal of sardines, -then a young whip ray not bigger than a soup plate, then a mangrove -schnapper that nosed the bait, swallowed it, and was hauled on board. - -“He’ll be enough,” said Jude. “You clean him while I get the frying pan -ready. Hullo! blest if Cark’s not putting off a boat!” - -A boat had been dropped on the starboard side of the _Juan_ and was -rounding her stern. - -“That’s Sellers,” said Jude, shading her eyes. “Satan! Below there!” - -“Hullo!” - -“Sellers is coming off.” - -“I’ll be up in a minute.” - -The boat came alongside, just as it had come at Palm Island,—same -boat, same crew, Sellers just the same. - -“Hullo, Kid!” cried Sellers. - -“Hullo yourself! Thought you was gone to Havana.” - -“Thought you was to wait for us at Pa’m Island,” said Sellers. “Hullo, -Satan, that you? How about your contrac’ with us?” - -Satan, who had just come on deck, leaned over the rail and contemplated -Sellers. Then he spoke. - -“God A’mighty!” said Satan. He stared at Sellers for a moment as one -might stare at a prodigy. Then he broke out: - -“Contrac’! Holy George! _What_ you say, contrac’? You daar to hook -onto my channel plates, and I’ll buzz this fish at y’r head! Shove off! -What are you doin’ here, anyway? Why aren’t you at Havana gettin’ the -dynamite?” - -“Why ain’t you waitin’ for us at Pa’m Island?” logically responded -Sellers. “If you want to know why we’re here. I’ll tell you. It was a -bet I had with Cark.” - -“Which way?” - -“I bet him you’d never wait for us at Pa’m Island, but’d light out for -here to raise the stuff if we went foolin’ off to Havana. Seems I was -right, don’t it?” - -The impudence of this made Ratcliffe gasp, but left Satan quite unmoved. - -“S’pose we quit lyin’,” said he. - -“I’m willin’ to follow soot,” replied Sellers. - -“Well, then,” said Satan, “follow soot off to the wreck an’ get your -workin’ party onto the business like hot nails. I’ll be over to help -you soon’s we’ve had breakfast. You’ve no time to waste.” - -“How’s that?” - -“Cleary’s after you.” - -This news seemed to take the wind out of Sellers. He sat for a moment -without speaking. - -“How do you know that?” asked he at length. - -“He put into Palm Island not more’n four hours after you’d gone; said -you and Cark had tricked him and he was after your blood. I told him -that wasn’t no concern of mine. He asked me had I seen you.” - -“What did you say?” - -“The truth. Think I’d perjure me soul lyin’ for the likes of you and -Cark? Told him I was goin’ to join you.” - -“_Sufferin’_ Moses! You’ve put your hoof in it this time! Go on and -don’t stand waggin’ your tail! What’d he say?” - -“Nothin’, didn’t say nothin’, but when I put out he put out after me.” - -“Followed you?” - -“Yep. I only lost him last night; but it’s ten to one he’ll drop on us. -He’ll be bustin’ everywhere round here.” - -“He will,” said Sellers, “and then it’s half shares he’ll be wantin’, -not to mention Cark’s liver. I’m sweatin’! Cark’s let that chap down -cruel. I owns it. Did it against my advice. Did he have many with him?” - -“Reckon so. The old _Natchez_ was full as a beehive with the -toughest-lookin’ crowd.” - -The sight of Sellers’ face at this announcement set Jude off. She -seized the fish and started off to the galley with it, while Sellers, -having communed with himself for a moment, spoke: - -“Crooked’s a bad course to run,” said this moralist. “I’ve always told -Cark so. I told you we’d no dynamite aboard,—neither we had,—but -there’s a keg of powder in the hold, and Cark reckoned to sample the -goods without your help. There, it’s out! You’d have had your share -as long as I’d a leg to stand on, honest you would, s’far as I was -concerned, and that’s all I have to say pers’nally on the matter. What -I’m gettin’ at is this: If Cleary turns up, there’ll be hell of a -rough house. Will you stand for us if there’s fightin’ to be done?” - -“That depends,” said Satan. - -“Which way?” - -“I’m not trustin’ you no more, not without the coin in my hand. Cark’s -got to plank down something on account, if it’s no more’n a thousand -dollars. If he don’t, I’ll put out for Havana and blow the gaff. You’ve -overhauled the wreck?” - -“Yep.” - -“Well, you can judge what the chances are. You hop back lively as a -flea and tell Cark what I’m sayin’. Gold coin and right into my fist -this mornin’, or I’ll give the show away. It’s his own doin’. If he’d -played straight with me, I’d have trusted him. Seein’ he’s played -crooked, he’ll have to pay. One thousand dollars, or I go back to -Havana and you’ll have a t’pedoboat on top of you, to say nothin’ of -Cleary!” - -“I’ll tell him,” said Sellers. “Come over to the reef soon as you’re -ready and I’ll give you word of what he says. I reckon it’ll be all -right. One thousand dollars?” - -“Gold coin, and tell him it’ll be double after eleven o’clock.” - -“Oh, he won’t kick,” said Sellers. - -The boat shoved away. - -Ratcliffe remembered what Satan had said about the chart and the hidden -writing in it and the high probability that the bones of the _Nombre -de Dios_ were lying elsewhere than here. More than ever did it seem to -him that Satan was the spider of this web,—not a malignant spider, -for the flies he was catching in the form of Carquinez and Sellers, -and possibly Cleary, were the weavers of the web, in which they seemed -tangling themselves. Satan only fell in with circumstance and took toll. - -“Look here!” said he. “Suppose Carquinez pays you a thousand dollars’ -advance, and suppose you don’t find any treasure, will you pay him -back?” - -“Why should I pay him back?” asked Satan. “I’ve given him the location, -and that’s worth a thousand anyway.” - -“But you said there was nothing on the chart, that it was a fake.” - -“Lord! I said no such thing. I said that in my ’pinion the stuff wasn’t -here; but I may be wrong. There’s Jude hollering for us to come to -breakfast. Come along down and I’ll show you my meanin’.” - -He scarcely spoke during the meal, and when it was over he took the -tobacco box from his pocket and opened the chart on the table. - -“Now,” said Satan, “I’ll show you what I mean by sayin’ the stuff may -be here, but it’s a big sight larger maybe it isn’t. Don’t crowd me. -Stand behind me on either side and keep your eyes on the chart. Well, -now, there’s Lone Reef with the creek marked and the name of her, and -there’s Rum Cay to the left, and there’s the latitude and longitude -wrote up—all plain, isn’t it?” - -“Yes.” - -“Well, seein’ Rum Cay is given, and seein’ Lone Reef is down on all -the charts and as well known as Cuba to any sailor man, what did the -man want stickin’ the latitude and longitude down for? The chart’s -not a sailin’ chart. A blind monkey wouldn’t use it nor bother about -examinin’ the latitude and longitude wrote on it. He’d just say, ‘Lone -Reef is the place I want to get to,’ and he’d get there with the -ordinary ship’s chart.” - -“Yes.” - -“Well,” said Satan, “in my opinion the chap that sank the _Nombre de -Dios_ knew of the old wreck lyin’ over there on Lone Reef and used it -as a blind, for the latitude and longitude wrote there so faint that -no man would bother to try to read it isn’t the latitude and longitude -of Lone Reef; it’s a hundred and ten mile out. It’s the latitude and -longitude of Cormorant Cay, a blasted sandbank down to s’uthard, all -shoals and gulls, and that’s where the _Nombre de Dios_ lies, in my -’pinion.” - -Ratcliffe whistled. - -“Of course I may be wrong,” said Satan, “there’s no knowin’.” - -“I see what you mean,” said Ratcliffe. “This chap reckoned that anyone -finding or stealing the chart would take the latitude and longitude -written there for granted as the latitude and longitude of Lone Reef, -and not bother to examine the figures and verify them; having no cause, -indeed, to do so, seeing Lone Reef is so well known and on all the -charts.” - -“That’s how it seems to me,” said Satan. “I’m not sayin’ I’m right, but -that’s how it seems to me, and if he figured that no one would trouble -about readin’ and verifyin’ the latitude and longitude as given there -he was right. Pap didn’t, and it was only by chance I did, a month -ago.” - -“Have you seen Cormorant Cay?” - -“Lord, yes! It’s a lagoon sandspit, and the hooker may be in the lagoon -for all I know, or under the sand for all I know, or I may be wrong all -through and that may be her on the reef over there. Well, we’ve got to -see; but it seems to me I’m pretty safe anyway, if I can touch Cark for -that thousand.” - -So thought Ratcliffe. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -THE WRECK - - -After breakfast, leaving Jude to keep ship, they got the dinghy -overboard and rowed for the reef. Here to eastward the landing was made -easy by a scrap of beach a hundred yards long, where the boat of the -_Natchez_ was lying, having landed Sellers and his working party. - -Satan, scrambling, led the way over the rocks to the central creek -between the two reef arms, where, ponded round with water, lay the -wreck. - -The reef, seen from the deck of the _Sarah_, showed little sign of a -wreck. One had to land on it to discover that the long hogback of rock -rising from the creek had structure. There was not even the indication -of where a mast had been, bowsprit there was none, stem and stern were -almost indistinguishable; yet, standing there, with the gulls flying -round him and the lonely tune of the sea in his ears, Ratcliffe knew -that the thing he was gazing upon was a ship. Structure speaks! You can -destroy it, but can scarcely disguise it. - -Between the right arm of the reef and the starboard bow of the hulk a -ridge of rock gave access to the deck, and as the others crossed over -he took his seat to rest for a moment and contemplate the thing before -him. - -To see the Sphinx properly, one should visit it alone, and so with the -great wreck of the _Nombre de Dios_,—if that were its name,—crouching -here, camouflaged with rock-growth and weed, swollen, sinister in the -blazing sunlight, and sung to by the chime and gurgle of the sea. - -Sunk in shallow water,—so the tale ran,—raised by that alteration in -level constantly in progress among the reefs and islands, freighted -with treasure, and guilty of the death of many a man—well, the tale -here rang true. On board the _Sarah_ one might doubt, but here, even in -face of that chart which seemed faked, one believed,—mainly, perhaps, -because one wanted to believe. - -Here, sitting on the reef, one became part of the story, just as when -the lights of the theater are lowered one becomes part of the play. -The flower-blue sky, the sapphire sea, the tepid wind, the shouting -gulls, all became confederates. One saw, in the far past, the _Nombre -de Dios_ setting sail,—the tragic figure of Lopez on her quarterdeck; -the sinking of her in shallow, reef-strewn water; the escape in the -boats; men dying of starvation; the lapse of years; Lopez dying with -her secret still hidden; and Lone Reef rising still higher out of the -sea to expose more fully the murdered ship. - -The reef had always been here, for it was down in the oldest charts. -Had it really risen? Was that chart, as Satan supposed, a lie? - -According to Sellers’ story, the _Nombre de Dios_ had been sunk in -six-fathom water, thirty-six-foot. Well, if that was so, Satan was -right, for the highest point of the reef was only six feet above water, -and when she was sunk the reef would have been thirty feet under water -and so uncharted. - -There was the chance that Lopez might have sailed her into the creek, -deeper in those days, and that the creek bottom might have raised -itself to its present level, the reef remaining the same. This seemed -unlikely. - -And yet the decks must have been under water once, to account for the -old coral deposits. - -It was low tide in the creek now: high-tide mark was six feet below the -deck level. He tried to calculate how far she must have been lifted, -gave up the attempt, and, rising, crossed by the rock bridge to her -deck. - -This bridge of rock was another factor in the insoluble problem. It -seemed placed there by some marine architect without reason, built up -out of huge fragments as if from some fallen peak or spire. - -“Step careful!” shouted Satan. - -The warning came just in time, for the deck was slippery as ice in -patches where a thin moss had grown,—a gray, greasy moss, treacherous -as Death, and covering the droppings of innumerable sea birds. - -He made his way aft, where Sellers was standing with Satan and the -half-dozen Spaniards that formed the working party. Drills and picks -lay about, and marks showed where work had been started the day before. - -“It’s a foot thick,” said Sellers, “whatever it is, and harder than -cement. Rock!—this ain’t coral rock, not such as I’ve ever seen. -Harveyized steel’s more like it, and after that there’s the deck -planking to be got through.” - -“Well,” said Satan, “I told you it was a dynamite job, and if you’d -played fair and got the stuff we’d have been a long sight nearer the -end of the business, even if we started a week later. But there’s no -use in talkin’ now, and there’s no use in messin’ about pickin’ holes -here and there. Your job is to make a hole big enough to sink that -barrel of powder of yours—take me? Sink it half deep and then lay a -fuse and fire the whole lot at once and risk chances. It’s ten to one -you’ll split the deck right open at one go. As for sinkin’ little holes -and usin’ small charges, you’ll be ten years on the job.” - -Sellers rose up and wiped his brow and cast his eyes over the sea to -westward, evidently with Cleary in his mind. - -“Well, I’m not sure you aren’t right,” said he. “I’ll fix it that way; -but it’ll be a long job with the tools we have.” - -“Maybe,” said Satan. “And now to the question of them dollars.” - -“Oh, them—I’ve spoke to Cark, and he’s agreeable.” - -“Oh, is he? Well, then. I’ll go right aboard with you now while he’s -warm and get them dollars into my hand. Set your men at work and you -come along with me.” - -Sellers hung fire for a moment, then he agreed, gave the working party -their directions, and led the way off the deck across the rock bridge. - -He pushed off with Satan in the boat of the _Juan_. Satan asked -Ratcliffe to take the dinghy back to the _Sarah_. - -“You won’t want to be hangin’ about the reef,” said Satan; “you’ll be -more comfortable aboard ship. And tell Jude to be sure and wash that -old jumper I left on the rail. She’s forgot it, for there it’s hangin’ -still.” - -“Right,” said Ratcliffe. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -MUTINY - - -As he sculled up alongside the _Sarah_ there was no sign of Jude. He -tied up the boat and came over the rail. - -“Jude, where are you?” - -“What you want?” came a surly voice from below. She was in the -“saloon,” for he could hear her moving about. - -“You.” - -“Well, you kin go on wantin’. I’m sick!” - -“What on earth’s the matter with you?” - -Pause—then the voice came again mixed with sounds as of plates being -put away. - -“I’m sick of the hull of this crowd—washing up and cooking and you two -playin’ about!” - -“Come up on deck.” - -“Sha’n’t! I’m going to scatter—soon’s I’ve finished clearing away. -Life of a dog!” indistinct grumbles tailing away into silence. - -He lit a pipe and waited. - -Presently the companionway creaked and a head appeared at the cabin -hatch. He said nothing while the whole body emerged, stood erect on the -deck, and shaded its eyes toward the _Juan_. Then, still speechless, -it leaned on the rail, looking toward the reef and apparently lost in -thought. - -The sleeves of the guernsey were rolled up to mid-arm, ill temper -seemed to have vanished and to have been replaced by sudden laziness, -and as she lolled, kicking up a bare heel, she whistled. - -She seemed utterly unconscious of his presence—or pretending to be. -Then her eyes fell to the water alongside and the dinghy. The whistling -ceased and her face turned to him. - -“Say,” said Jude, “where did you learn to tie up boats?” - -He came beside her. - -“What’s the matter?” - -“Nothing at present, but give her half an hour and she’d work herself -free of that tomfool knot.” - -“I’ll go down and retie it.” - -“No use in troubling, I’m going off in her in a minute, and she’ll hang -there till I’m ready.” - -“Where are you going?” - -“Never _you_ mind! You’ve been playing about on the reef, and you’ve -got to stick here now and boil the potatoes! Me alone here all the -morning!” - -“Why, I wasn’t more than an hour on the reef—and I never knew you -wanted to go. If I had, I shouldn’t have gone, honestly I shouldn’t.” - -Jude contemplated him a moment with a more friendly face. - -“Well,” said she, “I’m going, anyhow.” - -“But where to?” - -“Gulls-nesting.” - -“On the reef?” - -“Lord, no! To the spit away there to east’ard. You can’t see it: it’s -near seven mile away.” - -“But you can’t row there alone.” - -“Can’t I? You bet I can, there and back by sundown!” - -“But what will Satan say?” - -Jude laughed. “He’ll be wild—that’s what I want to make him. I’ll -learn him! Him and his jumpers!” - -She took the jumper off the rail, rolled it up and threw it on the -deck, then she dived below and reappeared with a water jar and some -provisions done up in a bundle. She had evidently been making her -preparations. - -“Look here!” said Ratcliffe. “If you’re going, I’ll go too.” - -“No, you won’t!” said Jude. “You’ve got to stick here and look after -the ship—and see how you like it.” - -“Not I—I couldn’t face Satan; besides, if you want to make him wild -really, hell be twice as wild if we both go; besides, I’m sick of the -ship. Come on: I’ve never been gulls-nesting.” - -Jude, evidently weakening, put down her bundle. - -“Well, there ain’t enough grub for two,” she complained. “I reckon -there’s enough water, though.” - -“Well, get some more grub.” - -She cast her eyes about in indecision, now at Ratcliffe, now at the -_Juan_, then, with one of those sudden changes so indicative of her, -she made up her mind and dived below. - -Five minutes later she reappeared with another small bundle. - -Ratcliffe, during her absence, had torn the back off an old letter. He -had a pencil in his pocket, and, scrawling “gone gulls-nesting on the -sandspit” on the paper, stuck the missive to the mast with his penknife. - -Then, bundling the food and the water jar into the dinghy, they started. - -He took the sculls at first, Jude steering, her eyes fixed ahead under -the shade of her old panama. She could tell exactly the spot where -the spit lay. She could not see it, but she could see in the sky now -and then over there a faint trace like a haze of smoke that formed, -vanished and reformed,—gulls. - -Occasionally she looked back where the deserted _Sarah Tyler_ lay, -with the _Juan_ seeming now close beside her and the reef behind them. -Smaller and smaller they grew and more vast the ocean, an infinity of -blazing lazulite, without horizon, silent, but sonorous with light. - -The current was with them. - -Satan had made a small mast and lug sail for the dinghy. That was the -job he had been engaged on while Jude and Ratcliffe had landed on Palm -Island to get provisions from the cache. He had worked with all the -care of a fond mother making a garment for a beloved child. The little -mast, scraped and varnished, the sail made of an extra special bit of -stuff wheedled from Thelusson, were in the boat, and, a breeze now -springing up from the sou’west, Jude gave orders to step the mast. Then -she took the sheet, he slipped from his seat to the bottom of the boat, -and the dinghy, bending to the three-knot breeze, lifted to the gentle -swell. - -A great herring hog passed them, plunging like a dolphin, and a -flying fish with blind, staring eyes missed the sail by a hand’s -breadth and flickered into the sea ahead; then a strange-looking gull -swooped toward them from nowhere, hung for a moment with domed wings, -honey-colored against the sun, and passed with a cry into the great -silence, a silence broken only by the slap and tinkle of the water -against the planking. - -Ratcliffe lit his pipe. Jude, steering, seemed to have forgotten her -last trace of grudge against him, forgotten Satan and the jumper and -the fact that she had been left to her lonesome while they had been -playing on the reef and her desire to cut the whole show and start a -“la’ndry.” She seemed just now a different person, companionable and -friendly and sane, as though the cooking and cleaning and the worries -and troubles of the _Sarah_ had been lifted like a dish-cover from her -prisoned soul. - -It was the first time they had been really alone together, and the -companionship that springs from loneliness helped. - -The gull reminded her of gulls she had seen on the Louisiana coast -where the cypress swamps come down to meet the sea and you could hear -“the bullfrogs shoutin’ all night, ‘Paddy got drunk, Paddy got drunk, -Paddy got drunk,’ and the other chaps answering up, ‘Bottle of rum, -bottle of rum, bottle of rum,’ and the ’gaters would come alongside -grinding against the planking sniffing for bits—ever seen a ’gater?” - -“Only stuffed.” - -“Which way?” - -“Oh, in museums and places.” - -“What’s them?” asked Jude. - -“Oh, places where they keep stuffed birds and animals.” - -“Git a bit more to sta’board to trim the boat; _sta_’board I said, not -port! And what in the nation do they want keeping them things for?” - -“Jude,” said he lazily. - -“What?” - -“This is the jolliest time I ever spent. I’ve never felt free before -till just now. I’d like to go sailing round and round the world in this -little dinghy and forget civilization. That’s the place where they keep -stuffed birds to look at, and stuffed animals in museums, and where the -men and women are stuffed idiots. Do you remember the morning I came on -board the _Sarah_ first?” - -“Them pajamas!” - -“Yes, them pajamas. Only for them you wouldn’t have laughed at me, and -if you hadn’t laughed at me I shouldn’t have come aboard, perhaps.” - -“Oh, yes, you would.” - -“Why?” - -“Satan wanted you.” - -“Oh, did he? Bless Satan!—he made me young again.” - -“Lord! you ain’t so old as all that.” - -“I’m over twenty-one—and you’re only—” - -“Raisin’ sixteen,” said Jude, with steady eyes fixed ahead where the -gulls above the spit were now well visible. - -He refilled and lit his pipe, bending under the gunnel. - -“You’re mighty fond of that old pipe,” said Jude. - -“Have a whiff?” - -“Not me! I had half a cigar once; Dirk Peterson dared me. It was one -of them wheelings, black, slick-lookin’ cigars. He and me an’ anuther -boy’d gone to look at the nigger girls bathin’ and clod them—” - -“Where on earth was that?” - -“Vera Cruz.” - -“Oh, and who was Dirk Peterson?” - -“Son of an old feller that run a dridger in the harbor, Yankee, -half-Dutch, hadn’t only one eye, and wasn’t more’n eleven, biggest liar -from here to C’necticut. His face was all chawed up, and he said he’d -got it like that and lost his eye fightin’ with a tiger. Confl’ent -smallpox was what had done him, so Pap said; but the boys believed him -till that day I was telling you of, he fetched out a half cigar he’d -stole or picked up somewhere and a box of waxios and dared me smoke -her—and I lit her up, like a durned fool!” - -“What happened then?” - -“Oh, lots of things,” said Jude. “First of all the harbor begun -spinnin’, and then it went on till two tides more I’d have been inside -out, when Dirk shouts to some chaps to come an’ look at Jonah tryin’ to -bring up the whale. That got my goat, and I laid for him by the foot -and brought him down and near beat the head off him. Then I got sick on -him again, and he run home to his mother, with all the fellers after -him wantin’ to know about that tiger.” - -“He couldn’t fight?” - -“N’more than a jewfish.” - -“Have you had many fights with boys?” - -“Not me—not with Satan handy to do the fighting. I’d only to say to -one, ‘You touch me and I’ll put Satan on you,’ and he’d shrivel.” - -“Well, I shouldn’t care to tackle Satan myself,” admitted Ratcliffe. -“And Sellers seemed to think a lot of him that way, for I heard him -asking if he’d stand by if Cleary showed fight.” - -“Garn!” said Jude. “Cleary—he’s no good; Sellers is no good, neither. -There’s not a man in these seas nowadays that’s got the fight of a -tomcat in him. That’s what Pap used to say. He was great on old times, -and used to string off yarns about the pirates and the high doin’s -there used to be, and he said we were nothing but a lot of scowbankers -now—and that’s the truth! If Cleary comes up with Cark, they’ll be -shaking hands and kissing one another, feeling in each other’s pockets -all the time to see if they can’t steal five cents. In the old days -they’d have been cutting each other’s throats.” - -“Would you like to be a pirate, Jude?” - -“You bet!” - -“Murdering people?” - -“Oh, ask me another.” - -“How’d you like to kiss Cark?” - -“How’d you? Hear the gulls!” - -The crying of the gulls above the spit was coming up against the wind, -a lamentable sound across the lone blue sea. - -“We’re not more’n a mile away,” said the steersman. “You can get a -sight of the spit if you raise yourself. That’s it, the white line -runnin’ north and south; but the gulls don’t seem to be as many as they -used to be a year ago. It’s a bit early for the full laying season, but -there’s sure to be turkles’ eggs. Better get your shoes and stockin’s -off and roll up your pants, for it’s shallow beaching and we’ll have to -run her up.” - -“Won’t you take down the sail and row her in?” - -“Not me. There’s no sea on and I’ll run her up as she is.” - -They held on, the gulls shouting over them now, and the sigh of the -sandspit, fuming to the lazy sea, in their ears. It was full tide, and -as the keel touched the sand, letting the sheet go and the sail to flog -in the wind, they tumbled over and dragged the little boat high and dry. - -Then Jude took down the sail. - -“You aren’t hungry yet?” said Jude. - -“No; are you?” - -“Well, I can wait. Well leave the grub and the water jar in the boat -and cover them with the sail,—keep the sun off. Lend’s a hand.” - -They covered the provisions, hauled the boat up another foot or two to -make sure, and, that done, Ratcliffe looked around him. - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -THE SANDSPIT - - -That was one of the strangest moments in his life. He had never seen -anything comparable to this long white street of sand curbed with -emerald waves, leading nowhere, lost, useless, desolate, brilliant with -a brilliance that hit the heart as well as the eye, flown over by the -white gulls. - -The sands fizzed to the sea wind, and away to north and south they -trembled and waved in the heat; but the curious thing was the fact -that, despite their loneliness, one did not feel alone. The place -seemed populous, filled with a crowd that for a moment had made itself -invisible. Perhaps it was the riot of color and the brilliance of -light: the effect remained. - -Jude, looking round, seemed preoccupied about something. It was the -absence of gulls. - -“Last time I was here,” said Jude, “it was all over gulls’ nests, right -here in the middle. Now they seem to have gone off to the ends. Wonder -what’s come to them?” - -“Maybe it’s too early for them.” - -“It’s a bit early, but not much: there’s always early breeders. No, -they’ve just took their hook—gulls are like that. We’ll have to go -and hunt at the ends. You go north and I’ll go south.” - -“Well,” said he, “it’s an awfully long way. Suppose we have something -to eat first?” - -“I don’t mind,” said Jude. - -They got the provisions and water jar from the boat and sat down on the -sands. It was past noon and cooler, for the breeze had livened up, the -outgoing tide was leaving a strip of wet sand glittering like a golden -sword, and the fume of beach filled the air resonant with the gentle -rhythm of the waves. - -They ate, leaning on their sides like old Athenians. They had no cup; -so they took it in turns to drink from the water jar. Then he lit a -pipe. - -“This is jolly,” said he. - -“Ain’t bad,” said Jude. - -She made a pillow of sand for her head, and then, on her back with her -head on the pillow, lay like a starfish, spread-eagled, her hat over -her eyes. - -He followed suit. - -“How about those gulls’ nests?” he asked. - -“Which ones?” evaded Jude. - -“The ones you were going to hunt for?” - -“Oh, them? Well, I reckon there’s dead loads of time.” - -“Lots—listen to the sand!” - -“It’s the wind blowing it.” - -“I know. All the same this is a rum place. Do you know when we landed -here, just now, the first thing that struck me?” - -“Naw.” - -“Well, I felt as if the place was full of people.” - -“Which way?” - -“Oh, I don’t know; people I couldn’t see, ghosts.” - -“Hants?” - -“Yes.” - -“What made y’ think that?” - -“Oh, I don’t know. Somehow it reminded me of a story I’d once read.” - -“What was the story?” - -“About a beach over in the Pacific where wizards used to go and pick up -shells.” - -“What’s them?” - -“Chaps that work magic and sell themselves to the devil. They can make -themselves invisible so’s you can’t see them, and they used to come -to the beach and pick up shells, and then turn the shells into silver -dollars. You couldn’t see them, but you could hear them rustling about, -like that sand, and talking to one another, and now and then you’d see -a little fire blaze up.” - -Jude, interested, rolled over, rested her chin in her palms, and kicked -a bare heel to the sun. - -“I reckon you’re not far wrong,” said Jude. - -“How?” - -“Well, I’ve felt the same way here myself, as if there was hants about -and if you’d turn your head sharp you’d see someone behind you. Now -you’ve talked of it. I’ll be always thinking it if I come here again. -Wish you’d kept your head shut.” - -She sat up and looked about her. - -“Sorry,” said Ratcliffe, raising himself on his arm; “but if you come -again I’ll come with you, and that’ll keep the hants off—unless I’m -gone.” - -“How d’you mean?” - -“Well, when this cruise is over I’ll have to leave you both and go -home. I don’t want to go.” - -Jude said nothing. Staring over the sea under the brim of her hat, she -did not seem to have heard him. - -“I’d much sooner stick on here with you and Satan. What’s that thing -floating out there?” - -“Turkle,” said Jude. “Look, he’s doing a dive!” - -He sat up beside her. - -“So he has. Well, he’s gone.” He sat with his knees up, looking over -the sea. - -Alone here with Jude she seemed a different person from what she had -been aboard the _Sarah_. The strange antagonism she had suddenly -exhibited, and a trace of which had remained up till this morning, -seemed to have utterly vanished. Perhaps it was the “hants,” or the -loneliness, or a combination of both, but she seemed subdued. - -“Well, I don’t see what you want going for if you don’t want to,” -suddenly said Jude, drawing up her knees and crossing them with her -hands. - -“Oh, bother!” said he. “Don’t let’s think of it; besides, we’ll fix up -something. I don’t want to go. I’ve never had such a jolly time in my -life, and I’m not going to lose sight of you and Satan—unless you want -to.” - -“Lord! I don’t want to.” - -“Well, that’s all right We’ll stick together, somehow, and let the old -world go hang, and we’ll go hunting abalones and fishing—let’s make -plans.” - -His arm somehow slipped round her waist, half automatically, just as -one puts one’s hand on a person’s shoulder. When he realized what he -had done, he realized, at the same time, that she did not seem to mind; -more than that, she reciprocated in a way by letting her shoulder rest -more comfortably against his. It was companionship, pure and simple, -and her mind seemed far away, wrapped in the sun-blaze as with a -garment, and wandering—who knows where? - -“Heave ahead,” said Jude drowsily. “What’s your plans?” - -“Plans—oh, I’ve lots. Let’s go round the world in the old _Sarah_—get -a couple more hands.” - -“Where’d you stick them?” - -“Well, you’ve got a foc’s’le.” - -“Not big enough for a tomcat. The nigger filled it. He said he reckoned -he’d got to stick his head through the hatch to breathe.” - -“Well, we’ll get rid of the _Sarah_ and get a bigger boat.” - -“Lord! Don’t you never let Satan hear you say that: she’s his skin!” - -“We’ll do without extra hands, then, and work her, the three of us. I -can steer all right now.” - -“Kin you?” - -“You know jolly well I can!” - -“What’s the points of the compass? Run ’em off.” - -“North—nor’-nor’east, nor’east—um—” - -Jude chuckled subduedly. - -“Heave ahead!” - -“I’ve forgotten.” - -“Never knew.” - -“Well, maybe.” - -The confiding shoulder rested more heavily against him as against a -cushion and she began to hum a tune. She seemed to have forgotten -the points of the compass, him, everything, just as a child suddenly -forgets everything in day-dream land. - -The absolute contentment of doing nothing, resting, listening to the -waves, had fallen upon him too, with a something else, a sort of -mesmerism born of his companion, the strangest feeling as though Jude -were a part of himself, as though he had put his arm round his own -waist and a new self,—a much pleasanter self than the old one, less -stiff, more human, and somehow more alive. - -The metronomic rhythm of the little waves falling on the sand seemed -to mix his thoughts together and blur them; but he saw Skelton, -Sir William Skelton, Bart., he saw a girl he, Ratcliffe, had been -engaged to, he saw all sorts of men and all sorts of women, everyone -he had ever known, it seemed to him, in a nebulous cluster, and they -all seemed, somehow, not quite alive,—not dead, but sleeping in -the trance we call civilization, their days ordered by the beat of -a metronome,—get up—wash—dress—eat—work or play—eat—work or -play—eat—work or play—bed—sleep—get up—wash—dress etc.,—all the -figures moving like one, their very laughter and tears ordered except -when they got drunk or went mad. - -It seemed to him that vivid life was not so much a question of vitality -as of freedom. - -Was that the secret Satan had discovered,—Satan, who had no hankering -after great riches, but was free as a gull? Satan and Jude were -gulls,—seagulls, untamable as seagulls and as far from civilization! -It was as though his arm were round a bird,—quiescent by some miracle -and allowing him to handle it, and imparting to him, somehow, the -knowledge of its vitality,—the vitality of freedom. - -“What I like about the old _Sarah_,” said he, “is the way she just pots -about—with nothing to do.” - -“Nothing to do!” - -“Well, you and Satan can take things easy.” - -“Oh, can we? That’s news—what d’you call easy?” - -“You have no fixed work, you can knock off when you like, you haven’t -to carry cargo, or be bothered with owners, or be up to time. You are -as free as the gulls.” - -Jude took his hand and removed his arm from around her waist just -as one removes a belt. She wanted to shift her position. She seemed -to have lost interest in the conversation. Sand had got between her -toes, and she removed it, running her finger between them. She had -no handkerchief,—never used one or needed to use one: the perfectly -healthy animal never does. - -Then, crossing her legs like a tailor and squatting in front of him, -she dived into the right hand pocket of her trousers and produced a -dollar, a slick, evil, suspicious-looking dollar. She seemed utterly -to have forgotten the gulls’-nesting business and how the time was -running on, and having little passion for the business he was content -not to remind her. - -“I’ll match you for dollars,” said Jude. She was no longer the person -of a moment ago. She was the harbor larrikin, the clodder of bathing -nigger girls, a person to be avoided by pious boys with possessions in -the form of money or land. - -The coin spun in the air. - -“Tails is the bird,” cried Jude. - -“Heads, then.” - -“Tails! Y’owe me a dollar.” - -It spun again. - -“Heads! We’re quits. Heads again, heads—oh, hell!—what you want -sticking to heads for? That’s two dollars I owe you. Tails—scrumps! -that’s three! Tails again, that’s four. What you want sticking to tails -for? Why don’t you wabble about an’ give a body a chance? Heads—holy -Mike! What’s wrong with the durned thing? Five dollars gone on a bang!” - -“We’re not playing right,” said he. “We should call alternately.” - -“What’s that?” - -“One after the other.” - -“I’m not going to play any more,” said Jude. “I’m broke. The bank’s -bust and I kin’t pay you, not till I get to Havana—unless I play you -double or quits. You call; I’ll toss.” - -“Heads.” - -She sent the coin six feet high and it fell on the sand—heads! - -“That settles it,” said Jude. “Ten dollars I owe you. You’ll have -to wait till we get to Havana, for if Satan knew I was tossing for -coins he’d sculp me. I can get some money out of the bank at Havana, -pretending it’s for something else. I haven’t a cent, an’ this old -dollar’s no use: it’s a dud.” - -“You don’t owe me anything,” said Ratcliffe. “We were only tossing for -fun.” The words were no sooner out of his mouth than he regretted them. - -Jude flushed red under her freckles and sunburn. - -“I’m not taking your money, thank you,” said she; then breaking out, -“What the blizzard d’you think we’ve been playing at, and what you take -me for? S’posin’ I’d won, you’d a paid, wouldn’t you?” - -“I didn’t mean anything,” said he. - -“Y’shouldn’t have said it, then,” said she. - -“Well, I’m sorry—I take it back.” - -She played with the dud dollar for a moment, tossing it, and catching -it; then she put it into her pocket, uncrossed her legs, and lay flat; -her chin resting on the back of her hands. - -Her hat was off, lying beside her, and the quarrel with him was -evidently over; she seemed plunged in reverie. Then he noticed that the -eyes, upturned under their lashes, were steadfastly looking at him. -Instantly they fell, and her position altered so that her face was -hidden on her arm. - -He lit his pipe and smoked for a moment in silence. - -“Jude!” - -No answer. - -“What’s the matter with you?” - -Silence. He remembered how she had shammed dead on Palm Island, put -down his pipe, and crawled toward the corpse. It was rigid, and to -revive it he began to pour sand on its head. - -“Quit fooling,” grumbled a voice; then, as if the sand had suddenly -revived memory and galvanized her to life, she scrambled to her feet. - -“Them eggs—and the sun’s getting down and we fooling about!” She -picked up her hat. “I’ll take this end and you go t’other.” - -“But I haven’t anything to gather them in.” - -“Gather them in your hat, and keep a lookout for quicksan’s. If you get -into one, holler and throw yourself on your back. But you’ll easy tell -them—they look different from the or’nary sands.” - -“How?” - -“I dunno; just different. If you see the sand in front of you looking -different, keep clear of it.” - -Off she went. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -DISHED - - -He struck to the north. Over there in the north the sea was of a violet -blue accentuated by the white blaze of the sands. - -The sands, once one got moving on them, were full of interest, -strewn along the sea-edge with all sorts of prizes,—colored shells, -cuttlefish bones, extraordinary seaweeds, bits of wreckage; a few yards -out a nautilus fleet was steering, with tiny sails set to the wind, the -oldest ships that ever floated on the sea, unspoiled by storm and time, -just as they were launched in the morning of the world. He watched them -for awhile, forgetful of gulls’ eggs, or quicksands, or the sun, now -sensibly declining. - -If ever things had purpose, these had. They were going somewhere, -bound on some business, keeping formation, and possessed of charts and -compasses and barometers as surely as of sails. They made him think of -God, and then they made him think of Satan,—Satan, whose sea sense -served him better than all precise knowledge. - -Then he remembered Jude and glanced back. Away, far away to the south, -he saw her. The sands dipped and rose there, and sometimes she was -invisible and his heart thumped to the idea that a quicksand had taken -her, then she reappeared and he went on, and, ever as he went, he -seemed walking deeper into loneliness, peopled with viewless things and -half-heard voices. - -Sometimes a chiming sound like the shattered and mingled voices of -distant bells filled the air,—it was the singing of the sands. He had -not noticed it in company with Jude, but here alone he noticed it. -Sometimes laughter, far away in the distance, came distinct, human, -and startling,—it was the calling of a laughing gull,—and always, -penetrating all other sounds with the subtlety of osmosis, the silky, -sinister whisper of the wind playing with the sand-grains. He went on. -Something nearly tripped him. It was a great spar, half sanded over, -the relic of some ship that had come to grief, maybe, on the spit. - -The sight of this spar touched everything with a new and momentary -color. “Gascoign, the Sandal Wood Trader,” and other old stories he had -read in his boyhood came back to him half-remembered, and with them -came a whiff from a world he had half-forgotten,—a breath of the air -we breathe at fifteen. - -He saw to his satisfaction that the gulls were beyond his reach, a -broad channel of water cutting the spit in two right ahead. He took his -seat on the spar for a moment to rest and look about, and as he sat the -gulls, wheeling and crying, kept up around him the elusive atmosphere -of storyland. - -All the money in the world could not have brought him that! Nor -could he have found it had he landed here from a yacht with grown-up -companions. - -He fell to thinking what an extraordinarily lucky person he was, and -to plume himself on his instinctive wisdom in dropping Skelton and -civilization for Jude and Satan, who had led him into a world of -things he had never seen, things he had never imagined, things he had -half-forgotten. - -Carquinez alone was a revelation, to say nothing of Sellers and Cleary. -There was only one cloud, smaller than a man’s hand; but there!—where -was it to end? It was all very well talking to Jude about sailing round -the world: you can’t sail out of Time, and the time would come—the -time would come— - -Jude was winding threads round him as a silkworm winds a cocoon,—tiny -threads but deathly strong. It was almost as though she were becoming -part of himself,—part of himself and part the sun and freedom and blue -sea. She seemed half built up of those things and to have the power -to make him one with them. Well, there was no use in bothering. So he -said to himself, and as he said it the cloud no larger than a man’s -hand swelled and twisted and rolled across the sandspit before him, -resolving itself into a troupe of female relations, male relations, -friends,—people as remote from Satan and Jude as parrots from -seagulls, caged parrots content in the great gilded cage of convention. - -What would they say about Jude? He had an instinctive knowledge of what -Jude would say about them, if they ever met, which seemed impossible. - -Then came the weird recollection that they had, in a way, actually met. -She had met Skelton, the high priest of the whole crowd, Sir William -Skelton, Bart. Old Popplecock was the label she had affixed to him, and -it somehow stuck and fitted. What label would she affix to his aunts, -his two maiden mid-Victorian aunts, should she ever meet them? - -A faint halloo from the south sent aunts and all other considerations -flying. He turned. Jude, far away on the sands, was coming toward the -dinghy. She was carrying something and running as if pursued; then he -saw her trip and fall. - -She was on her feet in a second, and the thing pursuing her had -evidently given up the hunt, for she stood examining something she had -picked up from the ground, and seemed regardless of everything else. - -He waited for her by the boat, and as she came up he guessed the -tragedy. She had been carrying a hatful of birds’ eggs and had smashed -than when she fell. The hat was eloquent. - -“Smashed them every one,” said Jude, wading out and beginning to wash -the hat. “All your fault!” - -“My fault! For heaven’s sake how?” - -“Stuffing me up with them yarns.” - -“What yarns?” - -“Hants.” - -“Was that what made you run?” - -“Who was running?” - -“You were.” - -“Oh, was I? Reckon you’d have run too.” - -“Did you see anything?” - -“Yep.” - -“What was it?” - -“You never mind.” - -She was evidently in a vile, bad temper; so he took his seat on the -sand waiting for her to cool. Then, hat in hand, she came and sat -close beside him, more out of a desire for company than friendship, he -imagined; then, placing the hat to dry, she began examining the sole of -her right foot, spreading the toes apart and brushing off the sand. - -“Well, I’m awfully sorry,” said he at length. “But tell us—what was it -you saw, really?” - -“A wuzzard.” - -“What was it like?” - -“Nothin’,” then suddenly, and as if unburdening her soul, “I hadn’t -more’n got the last of the eggs when I turned and saw him walking on -the sands,—little old man with a glass under his arm, dressed queer -in a long coat, an’ a hat on his head like an I dunno what. I wasn’t -afraid, thought he was real, and he stuck the glass to his eye ’sif he -was looking out for a ship.” - -“Yes.” - -“Then he went out—puff—like the sniff of a candle—hu—hu—” She -clung to him. - -“It was all my fault,” said he, “talking that nonsense. Don’t think of -it: it was only an optical illusion.” - -“He didn’t cast a shadow—I remember now.” - -“That proves it. I’ve often heard cases like that. Sir Walter Scott saw -a man like that once, and he knew it was only an illusion. He had some -wine handy and he drank a glass of it, and the thing disappeared.” - -“I reckon I’d have drunk a barrel of rum if I’d had one handy,” said -Jude, drawing away a bit. “Let’s get off. Lord! Look at the sun—it’s -half down. Come’n help with the boat.” - -They got up, and taking the dinghy by the gunnels began to haul her to -the water. They had not got her more than a couple of yards when Jude -straightened up as though remembering something and clapped her hand to -her head. - -“We’re dished!” said Jude. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - -THE CRABS - - -“How do you mean?” said he. - -She explained. It was like her to forget and spend the precious time -lazing and playing about with “wuzzards.” The sun was taking his plunge -into the sea, darkness was upon them, and she could not find her way -back in the dark. Moon or starlight would be of no use. The thriddy -spars of the _Sarah_ and _Juan_, invisible from the sandspit even in -daylight, would be picked up only several miles out. She could not -steer by the stars, and there was a great sweep of current setting -sou’east which might take them to Timbuktu. Satan would have done -the business right enough blindfolded; but she was a night-funk, she -confessed it. Night put her all abroad and mixed up everything in her -mind so that front seemed back and west seemed east, besides filling -the world with “hants.” She had “near died” of fright fetching that -sack from the cache the other night. - -All this in a lugubrious voice not far from tears, as they stood facing -each other, and lit by the remorselessly setting sun. - -“All right,” said Ratcliffe. “Cheer up. We’ll just have to stick here -till daybreak. We have some grub left and lots of water. No use -pulling the boat farther down. But I expect Satan will be in a stew.” - -“I reckon he’ll know,” said Jude. “The weather’s all right. He’d scent -if we were in any trouble, and he’d borrow Cark’s boat to hunt for us.” - -“How do you mean ’scent’?” - -“He’d smell trouble; he’s awful sharp.” - -“Sort of telepathy.” - -“Which?” - -“Mind reading.” - -“I dunno, but I reckon he’s not worrying, and if he was he’d be -alongside here pronto.” - -Her face was like a buttercup in the extraordinary light of that -sunset. The whole sky was buttercup color; the great sea was seething -round the great sun, now half-gone, churning and washing round him, a -blazing globe sinking in boiling gold. - -Golden gulls, golden sky, golden sea,—all fading at last, the purple -of night breaking through, rushing dark from the west across the sea. - -The shipwrecked mariners lost their golden faces and hands, and, -as they sat down with their backs to the dinghy and the remains of -the “grub” between them, laughing gulls, passing like ghosts in the -twilight, hailed them, while the stars broke out to look above the -darkness and the tepid wind. - -There is nothing like eating to keep up the spirits. Jude got less -doleful. In the stir of mind caused by the new circumstances she had -clean forgotten the “hants,” nor did she remember them for a moment -now, as she chatted away in an uplift of spirits caused by the food -and the recognition that to be downcast was futile. - -“I sure am a mutt!” said Jude. “Reckon I was born on a Friday—they say -mugs are all born on a Friday. We should a been off two hours before -sundown, and there I was talking and listening to your yarns, and here -we are on the beach—oh, mommer!” Then after a long pause: - -“What’s them stars, do you reckon?” - -“Suns.” - -“Gar’n!” - -“It’s so.” - -“Say!” - -“Yes.” - -“Did you notice anything looking north before sundown, or were you -asleep sitting on that spar?” - -“I did see something over there; looked like the ghost of a cloud.” - -“That was Rum Cay, and a sure sign the weather’s going to hold. It -lifts itself into the sky like that, evening times; you can see it from -Lone Reef too.” - -“I wish I had known that and I should have looked at it more -particularly. I was thinking.” - -“What was you thinking about?” - -He laughed. “My people.” - -“Which people?” - -“My relations.” - -“What made you think of them for?” - -“You.” - -“Me?” - -“Yes, I was wondering what you’d think of them if you saw them, -especially my aunts.” - -“Well, you take the bun,” said Jude, “you sitting there thinking of -your aunts and me running with them eggs!” She stopped of a sudden; her -memory had suddenly conjured up the “wuzzard.” - -“That cuss!” said Jude. - -“Which?” - -“The one I saw.” She wriggled close to him till their sides touched. -“S’posin’?” - -“Yes?” - -“S’posin’ he was to take it into his head to do a walk along here?” - -“Don’t you bother about him,” said Ratcliffe. “I’d kick him into the -sea—besides, he was only an optical illusion. It was my stupid talk -did it.” - -“I’m not bothering,” said Jude, “only it’s a durned long time till -morning. N’matter,” she rested her hand on his shoulder in all the -familiarity of companionship; then she shifted her hand from his left -to his right shoulder so that her arm was across his back, and then she -fell silent and he felt something poking into his left shoulder—it was -her nose! She had evidently under his protection forgotten “hants” and -“wuzzards,” forgotten him, even, for she was humming a sort of tune -under her breath. - -He knew exactly her mental condition,—mind wandering,—and it -was a strange feeling to be cuddled like that by a person who had -half-forgotten his existence, except as a protection against fears, -especially when he remembered her recent antagonism that had developed -so mysteriously and as mysteriously vanished. He slipped his left arm -round her to make her more comfortable. Then her nose gave place to her -cheek against his shoulder and she yawned. He could feel her ribs under -her guernsey and the beat of her heart just beneath the gentle swell of -her breast. He remembered her coat, which was in the dinghy. She had -thrown it in as an after-thought in case of a change of weather, but -had never worn it. - -“Hadn’t you better put on your coat?” asked he. - -“Lord! I don’t want no coat.” - -“But the night air.” - -“Nothing wrong with it. It’s a Gulf wind an’ as hot as a blanket—ain’t -you warm enough?” - -“Lots.” - -“Ever slept out before?” - -“Only in a tent—have you?” - -“Which?” - -“Slept out before?” - -“Heaps o’ times. But I wouldn’t sleep out in a full moon.” - -“Why?” - -“’Cause I don’t want to wake up with my face twisted to one side like -a flat fish—mean to say you don’t know?—either that or a chap goes -loony. But there’s no fear tonight; it’s only a half-moon. The only -thing I’m frightened of is crabs. We’ve gotta keep our eyes skinned for -crabs. This mayn’t be a crab spit; then again, there’s no knowing but -it may.” - -“What on earth is a crab spit?” - -Jude raised her face from his shoulder and sat up a bit straighter as -though the question had roused her. - -“Place where crabs come, hun’erds of millions of them, same as Crab -Cay. There’s crabs everywhere of course, but not in shiploads same as -Crab Cay. Three men were drifted ashore there once, and after sundown -up came the crabs and fought them all night, and there was nothing but -their skeletons left in the morning. We’d better take it turn about to -keep watch.” - -She released herself from his arm and scrambling about in the starlight -on her hands and knees began to make a sand pillow. - -“There you are!” said she. “Stick your head on it; I’ll take first -watch. You be port watch, and I’ll be sta’board.” - -“No, you won’t! I will. I’m not a bit sleepy.” - -“Neither’m I. Stick your head on it. You’ve gotta turn in or you’ll be -no use tomorrow.” - -He did as he was bid, and Jude took her place sitting on the sand close -to him. - -“Give us a call if anything happens,” said he. - -“You bet!” replied Jude. - -Then he closed his eyes. A moment before and he had been leagues away -from sleep, but with the compulsory closing of his eyes a drowsiness -began to steal on him. The wind had died to nothing and in the dead -silence of the night the sound of the waves on the mile and a half of -spit came loud and low, rhythmical, mesmeric. It was as though the -tide of sleep were rising to drift him off. - -Now, suddenly, he was walking in the blazing sunlight on the spit, and -toward him was walking the “wuzzard,”—a little old man in a cocked -hat with a spyglass under his arm, who vanished, giving place to Jude, -carrying a hatful of gulls’ eggs. - -Then Skelton landed from somewhere, and Jude, turning, was calling him -a “pesky brute.” - -The words broke the dream, and he opened his eyes. The moon had just -risen, touching the spit, and in her light, seated on the sand propped -up on its stilts, a spirit crab, white as snow with ruby eyes, was -staring at Jude. - -Drugged with weariness and ozone, he closed his eyes for one moment, -determined to rise up and drive the thing away in one moment. When he -opened his eyes again the sun was rising. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - -THE RETURN - - -The gulls were mewing and calling and flying above him in the blue. -He was lying on his back, his left arm out, and Jude’s head on his -shoulder. - -She had snuggled up beside him for company, and then, regardless of -spirit crabs, “hants,” and the possibility of crustaceans landing in -shiploads to devour them, had fallen asleep. Her arm was flung over -his chest. It was the embrace of a tired child, delightful to wake up -to as the freshness of the air and the new life of the world and the -innocence of the flower-blue sky, delightful as her breath, sweet and -warm against his cheek. As he moved she stirred, grumbled something -under her breath, shifted her head so that his arm was released, and -turned on her other side, with her right arm flung out on the sand. - -He stood up. The tide was in and the dinghy only waiting to be -launched. Not a sail or speck upon the sea. - -Rum Cay had prophesied right,—the fine weather held,—but the water -was nearly gone, and the “grub” was finished. There was no breakfast -till they boarded the _Sarah_ again. - -He turned to where the starboard watch was lying, clinging still to -Morpheus, and stirred it gently with his foot. Jude moved, turned, -grumbled to herself, and then, as if electrified, sat up digging her -fists into her eyes and yawning. Then she sat gazing at the sea as if -stunned. - -“Come on,” said Ratcliffe, “we’ve got to be starting. All the grub’s -gone and nearly all the water. How did you sleep?” - -“Oh, Lord!” said Jude. “I’ve been chasin’ round the hull night with a -hatful of eggs. I’m near dead beat. Which way’s the wind? Sou’east. -Must a changed in the night. It’ll take us back in two ticks.” - -She collapsed again comfortably. - -“Remember,” said he, “the current is against us.” - -“Oh, it ain’t no distance,” said Jude, “and a few minutes more or less -don’t count. Wonder what Satan’s doing?” - -Knowing that it was hopeless to bother till the spirit moved her, he -sat down on the sand beside her and began picking up little shells and -casting them into the sea. - -“Goodness knows!” said he. “I’m wondering what he’ll say when we get -back.” - -“He’ll start jawing,” said Jude dreamily and fatefully and with her -eyes closed. “I can hear him as if I was listening. He’ll say, ‘What -you mean leaving the ship, and where’s your eggs?’ No use telling him -they’re broke. Lord! I’m sick of it all! I’m just going to lay here and -die.” - -He began to drop shells on her chest. - -“Quit foolin’.” - -“Then get up and come on. Let’s get it over. It’s like having a tooth -pulled,—the sooner over the better.” - -“Did y’ever have a tooth pulled?” - -“Yes.” - -“What’s it like?” - -“Beastly for a moment, but it’s soon over.” - -“Did y’spit blood?” - -“Rather! Come on.” - -“I’m coming in a minute.” - -Then suddenly she sat up, put on her hat, scrambled to her feet, took a -glance round the sea, and made for the dinghy. - -“Shove in the water jar,” said Jude. He put the jar in, seized the -opposite gunnel, and ran her down. - -In a minute they were afloat, the sail spread to the wind, Jude -steering and holding the sheet. Gulls chased them out, and the beam -wind meeting tide and current sent boosts of spray on board. It was a -rougher passage coming than going, and a more silent one. Ratcliffe, -squatting in the bottom of the boat, had little else to do than smoke -and watch Jude. Jude, engaged with her own thoughts, and with her eyes -keened for the indications of Lone Reef, seemed absolutely to have -forgotten him. - -There was no indication of the companion who had slept with her arm -round him, who had sat almost lovingly, half-forgetfully, with her arm -across his shoulder and his arm round her waist. - -It came to him suddenly and with a curious pang that Jude would never -be more than that,—a warm companion if cast alone together, just as -she might be with Satan, or any stranger her fancy approved of. - -Instinctively he felt that there was a barrier,—a curious barrier, he -seemed to have broken through that night he took her part, and when, -for the first time in her life, she had confessed herself at fault; -a barrier, that had, however, mended itself. It was as though he had -injured her independence. Yet Satan was injuring her independence all -day long with his orders and what not. Ay, but Satan was her brother, -almost part of herself. She would not have banged Satan on the head for -kissing her. - -He gave up thinking, watching her and how well she handled the boat. -The crying of the gulls round the spit had died down; nothing remained -but the voice of the sea, silent as dumb death from the blue horizon to -the planking of the dinghy when it spoke. - -“That’s her!” suddenly said Jude. - -“What?” - -“Lone—I kin see the spars of the _Juan_ an’ the _Sarah_. Rubber and -you’ll see them too.” - -He turned with his elbow resting on the thwart and picked out the spars -on the sea-line. - -“And the _Natchez_,” said Jude. “Look, close up to the _Juan_. Cleary’s -put in and we not there! I’d forgot Cleary; didn’t believe he’d pick up -the place so soon. There he is. Oh, hell!” - -“No matter,” said Ratcliffe; “it can’t be helped.” - -“Cuss them gulls! If they’d stuck to their laying places, we’d have got -the eggs soon’s we’d landed and been back last night. Wonder what’s -been going on?” - -“Well,” said he, “Satan’s all right. Cleary has no grudge against him. -If there has been any bother, it has been between Cleary and Sellers.” - -“Maybe,” said Jude. - -An hour later they were so close up that they could see the reef-line -and the line of the wreck with fellows working on it. Whatever had -happened, business was going on as usual. - -The three vessels, anchored and swinging to the tide, looked peaceful -enough, and as they drew up to the _Sarah_, Satan, who had just -appeared on deck, came and stood by the starboard rail watching them. - -They fastened up, preparing for an explosion. None came. - -“Couldn’t get back last night,” said Jude as they came on board. “Left -it till sundown, and then I was afeard of the current.” - -“Afeard of the dark,” said Satan. “I reckoned that’d be so—whar’s your -eggs?” - -“Gone phut. Smashed the lot. Wasn’t more than a hatful. Them rotten -gulls had given up nesting, all but at the ends—and say, Satan, I saw -a wuzzard! I was carrying the eggs when I saw him, and then I ran and -smashed the lot.” - -“A which?” - -“A hant—little old chap walking on the sands. D’you remember the -figurehead on that old bark they broke up last year at Havana,—man -with a glass under his arm and the other arm wavin’ his hat? That was -him plain as my eye. He up with his glass and I let one yelp. Rat’ll -tell you: he saw me running.” - -“Oh, git along—git along, you and your hants! I’d been countin’ on -them eggs, and here you come back like a one-eyed skite with your yarns -about hants. Why, you ought a had a boatful! Didn’t you see no turkles’ -eggs?” - -“Nope.” - -“Well, come along down if you want some grub. I sighted you more’n an -hour ago, and there’s coffee waitin’. D’ye see that?” He pointed to a -new-washed jumper drying in the blazing sun on the rail. - -“Well, I was het up,” said Jude, “or I’d have la’ndered it before I -started.” - -“Come along down,” said Satan. - -It came to Ratcliffe that the quietude of Satan over the business came -less from natural good temper than some other reason. The desertion of -the _Sarah_ was mutiny and a rank crime. Satan had been left with his -food to cook and his jumper to wash, his sister had been off with an -almost stranger for a whole night—yet he was not displeased. - -If Jude had done the business alone, she most surely would have been -carpeted. It was evidently his—Ratcliffe’s—participation in it that -fended off trouble and turned wrath into complacence. Why? - -Was it because he was a guest? Not a bit! Satan, had he been angry, -would not have bothered about that. He followed down below, and there, -over the breakfast table, the Cleary business was cleared up. - -“He dropped in last night,” said Satan, “an hour before sundown, -and the anchor hadn’t more than clawed the mud before he was aboard -the _Juan_. I expected the shootin’ to begin; but there weren’t no -fireworks, and after dark I lit out for the _Juan_ in the c’lapsible -and tied up and boarded her. All the men were in the foc’sle, eating -onions and playin’ tunes on guitars,—no anchor watch,—and the Cleary -crowd down in the saloon as friendly as pie, Cark ladling the liquor -and Cleary suckin’ it down, cigars as big as your leg in their faces, -and Cleary with his thumbs in the armhulls of his vest leanin’ back -laughin’. That’s how I found them.” - -“I told you,” said Jude to Ratcliffe, “they’d be kissing each other -and—” - -“Suppose you shet your head!” said Satan. “I’m tellin’ you—there they -were sittin’ all colludin’ together thick as thick, and I sat for an -hour with them and then lit out. Sweet as sugar they were; but I tell -you this, I’m as frightened as hell.” - -“How’s thet?” - -“Cleary. Y’see Cark and Sellers aren’t much by themselves, but Cleary -is the snake’s tooth an’ poison bug of that combination, now that he’s -joined in with Cark again. Cleary’s Irish gone bad on the father’s -side and drunk Welsh on the mother’s: I had his pedigree from Pap. Pap -said he was a sure-enough thoroughbred of a hellhound, and he reckoned -the roof of his mouth was black right down to the heart of him. Well, -I’ve had forty dollars from Cleary for them rotten pearls and one -thousand dollars from Cark on account of takin’s. Now you see how I am, -supposin’ the wreck turns out a dud. D’you mean to say they won’t go -for me to get their money back? Supposin’ the gold is there. D’you mean -to say they won’t chouse me out of my share?” - -“What are you going to do?” - -“I worked the hull thing out last night before I boarded them. Seeing -there was no fighting, I concluded they’d joined up an’ become friends; -then I made my plans, I didn’t put out no anchor light. - -“Sellers, when I was leaving the _Juan_, said, ‘Whar’s your light?’ - -“‘Run short of oil,’ says I. ‘Kin you let me have some?’ He thought I -was tryin’ to wangle oil out of him, and he closed; said he was run -short himself.” - -“What was your meaning in not putting out a light?” asked Jude. - -“Maybe you’ll find out,” said Satan, “if you keep your eyes skinned -and stop askin’ questions. Well, that’s where we are. They’ll have the -barrel of gunpowder fixed by tomorrow to blow the deck off her, and as -soon as they put a light to it we’ll know. It’s blastin’ powder and -ought to split the deck to flinders if they fix it proper. I don’t -b’lieve it’s coral coverin’ that deck, I b’lieve it’s old petrifacted -guano, if you ask me; anyhow, it’s hard enough.” - -“By Jove!” said Ratcliffe. “If that’s so, it bears out my theory. I -came to the conclusion that the old hooker had never been under water -according to that yarn Lopez slung; yet I couldn’t account for the -coral deposits. I believe you’re right. I believe the real wreck -is lying at that place you said that’s given in the latitude and -longitude. Well, see here, why not get the anchor up and light out -right now for the other place. They wouldn’t follow.” - -“Wouldn’t they?” said Satan. “The _Natchez_ would be after us like a -cat pouncin’. No, I’d rather stick, if it’s all the same to you, and -see the fireworks. After that leave ’em to me. There aren’t many’s got -the better of me when my dander’s up. Now then, Jude, if you’ve done -stuffin’ yourself, maybe you’ll lend a hand on deck. There’s swabbin’ -to be done.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - -A BOTTLE OF RUM - - -Ratcliffe helped in the swabbing and polishing. No housekeeper ever -exercised more meticulous care in this respect than Satan. He was a -fanatic where cleanliness was concerned, and polish,—witness the -brasswork of the wheel, the binnacle and skylight,—even paint and -varnish were minor gods compared with Brasso! - -Meanwhile, as the Sarahites worked, the _Natchez_ and _Juan_, lying in -cynical and sinister neglect and dirt, showed little signs of life. The -working party on the reef seemed busy enough; but the ships, save for -a few hands lounging at the rails or squatting about the foc’sle head, -might have been deserted. - -About ten o’clock a boat put off from the _Natchez_. Cleary was in the -sternsheets, and as she came alongside he hailed the _Sarah_. - -Satan came to the rail. - -“Sellers’s going to bust her open today,” said Cleary. “Just had word -from him.” - -“I thought he wouldn’t be ready till tomorrow,” said Satan. - -“Just had word the hole’s near deep enough and the star cuttin’s from -it. He’s got the powder off and reckons to fire it at noon. Wants you -to come an’ help.” - -“Oh, does he?” - -“He’s a bit bothered about the fuse, not havin’ done much of that sort -of work, and he reckons you’re an ingenious cuss an’ll be able to put -him wise.” - -“Oh, does he? Well, I’ll be there.” - -Cleary came over the rail. - -“No spittin’!” cried Satan. - -Cleary, averting his head in time to send the squirt of tobacco juice -overside instead of on the deck, looked around. - -He nodded at Ratcliffe, disregarded Jude, and fixed his eye on the -blazing binnacle and the glittering rods of the skylight. - -“Dandy ship,” said he. “Whaar you goin’ to take the prize?” - -“Where your old tub’d be skeered to show her nose. How’s the potato -crop gettin’ along?” - -Cleary turned his quid over and allowed his eyes to travel about the -deck. - -“Waal,” said he, speaking with point and consideration, “some likes one -thing and some likes another, but I never did see that fandanglin’ with -frills an’ brasswork an’ sich lends anythin’ to the _sailin’_ qualities -of a ship.” - -Jude, raising herself up from flemish coiling a rope, blazed out: - -“Maybe it don’t to an old cod boat blowin’ along with her own smell,” -began Jude. - -“Shet up!” said Satan. Then to Cleary, “Have a drink?” - -“I’m willin’,” said Cleary, “but thought you was a dry ship.” - -Satan winked, slipped below, and returned with a bottle of rum, a -glass, and a water jar. There were three or four bottles of rum on -board. Satan said he kept the stuff for “rubbing his corns”; he never -drank it. There were also a revolver and a rifle on board. He never -fired them: lethal weapons have their time and place. - -Satan, having placed the bottle and jar on the deck, produced another -glass from his pocket, filled out a four-finger peg for Cleary and -another for himself. - -“Here’s luck,” said Cleary. - -“Here’s luck—no _spittin’_!” - -They drained glasses. - -“Holy Mike!” cried Cleary, his eyes bulging and his face injected. -“What sorter bug-water’s this?” - -“British Navy; thirty over proof.” - -Cleary, with one eye shut, seemed turning over in his mind the -activities going on in his stomach and on the whole approving. - -“Well,” said he, “I’ve drunk wasp brandy and one or two nigger -dopes—they don’t get near it, not in knots. A man’d want to be a -centipede to carry a bottle of that stuff, I reckon. N’more, thanky. -Well, I’m off, and I’ll fly a flag when Cark gives the signal he’s got -the stuff ready for the fuse.” - -Off he went. - -“For the land’s sake, Satan! what made you swallow that stuff for?” -said Jude. - -Satan took his seat on the skylight edge, then he gulped, then he -hiccupped. - -“Get your hind legs under you and cart the bottle and the glasses down -below,” said Satan. “Strewth!—gimme the water jar till I flood my -hold.” - -He drank till Ratcliffe thought he would never stop, then he went to -the port rail and canceled matters. - -“It’s Demerara Black John,” said he apologetically to Ratcliffe as he -turned, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Some likes it, but -I’ve no holdin’ with drink.” - -Ratcliffe was about to ask why he had swallowed it, but he checked -himself. Jude, who had just appeared again, put the question. - -“What in the nation made you drink that snake-juice?” asked Jude. - -Satan took a glance at the sun, at the reef, and at the _Juan_. - -“Now then,” said he, “finish up clarin’ away that raffle and get the -dinner ready; I’ve no time to be talkin’.” - -He set to sand and canvassing the rail he had been working on when -Cleary appeared, Jude and Ratcliffe took up their jobs, and the -ordinary life of the _Sarah_ resumed as though the rum incident had -never been. - -All the same, work could not prevent Ratcliffe from pondering the dark -problem of Satan and his doings. - -Why had he not put out an anchor light last night? Why had he pretended -to Sellers that he was short of oil? Why had he swallowed a glass of -rum only to unswallow it again? - -Then in the monotony of work his mind passed from these considerations -to a state of pleasant expectancy. What would they find in the wreck, -and the explosion of the barrel of powder, how would it come off? - -He felt as pleased as a boy about to fire a brass cannon and not sure -whether it will burst or not. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV - -THEY FIRE THE FUSE - - -Satan used a modification of the deck bear for cleaning his decks; that -is to say, a box filled with stones having a rough mat nailed under it. -The deck having been sprinkled with sand, the bear had to be pulled -backward and forward after the fashion of a carpet sweeper. This was -Ratcliffe’s job, and he was not sorry when it was over. - -Dinner was served at eight bells, and getting along toward one o’clock -the _Natchez_ and _Juan_ were flying all sorts of flags on the tepid -breeze as a signal, evidently, that it was time to get to business. - -Ratcliffe made out the red and white flag indicating H, the triangular -blue with the white ball, the red cross on a white ground, and the -white with the blue square,—H. D. V. S. - -“What are they trying to say?” he asked. - -“Oh, them flags,” replied Satan. “_They’re_ not tryin’ to say anythin’, -only flyin’ to show time’s up. Cark hasn’t got a full set of the -c’mercial code; wouldn’t know how to use them, neither. Now if you’re -ready we’ll put off. Jude will stick here to keep ship.” - -Jude protested. - -“Why, you’ll see the blow-up from here a durned sight better than from -the boat,” said Satan. - -“I want to see her innards when the deck’s off,” said Jude. - -“Why, Lord bless me! you’ll have days to see them in,” said Satan, “and -there’s no knowin’ what may happen when the blow-up comes, what with -flyin’ timbers and muck. I’ll come back and bring you off when the -powder’s fired. I can’t say fairer than that.” - -They got into the dinghy and shoved off, Jude watching them. - -Sellers was waiting for them on the reef, and Cleary. Their boats were -on the strip of beach surrounded by the crews, and a couple of fellows -on the wreck were putting the last touches to the preparation of the -charge. Sellers was holding what seemed a length of thick white cord in -his hand. - -“Here’s the fuse,” said he. “I had it left over with the barrel from -that last wrecking business we did in the fall. It’s a five-minutes’ -fuse.” - -“Oh, is it?” said Satan, handling the thing. “And where’s your -guarantee? S’posin’ it only takes a minute? And five minutes is none -too much for the man that fires it to get clear of the reef and put -out.” - -“That’s true,” said Sellers, “and one of you will have to do the firin’ -business, seein’ I’m lame.” - -“What’s lamed you?” - -“Fell on the deck this mornin’ over a slush tub one of them damn dagoes -left lyin’ in the dark. Near put my knee out.” - -“Then Cleary will do the trick,” said Satan. - -Cleary laughed. “Not me! I’m not lame, but it ain’t my job. Runnin’ -over rocks don’t suit me, and I reckon the man that lays a light to -that thing will want to be a boundin’ kangaroo.” - -“Instead of a damned ass like y’self,” said Satan. “Come on. I’ll light -it, I’m not afeard.” - -They clambered over the rocks, crossed the rock bridge, and gained the -wreck. - -The little barrel had been well and truly laid, the top almost flush -with the level of the stuff covering the deck. - -“We got right through the deck plankin’,” said Sellers, “or to a -crossbeam. Wood’s most dry-rotted, and it’ll be a nacheral mercy if the -powder don’t blow the whole coffee shop to blazes right down to the -reef. Here’s the hole for the fuse.” - -While they were examining the fuse-hole, Ratcliffe took notice of the -cuts radiating starlike from the charge-hole that had been made in the -deck-casing. When he turned again, Satan, with the aid of Sellers, had -fixed the fuse. The Spanish sailors who had been at work had taken -their departure and were already down by the boats, leaving only four -men on the wreck,—Satan, Sellers, Cleary and himself. - -Satan rose up, clapped the knees of his trousers as if to knock dust -off them, and produced a yellow box of Swedish matches from his pocket. - -“Look here!” said Ratcliffe. “It’s not fair. Let’s draw lots who’ll -fire the thing.” - -“Not me,” said Satan. “I wouldn’t trust one of them two with a box of -matches, let alone a dollar. Now then, scatter for the boats!” - -Then to Ratcliffe, as Sellers and Cleary made off, “Stand by ready to -shove the dinghy off when you see me coming.” - -“All right,” said the other; “but I’ll stick by you if you like.” - -“I reckon two don’t run quicker than one,” said Satan. “Off with you, -and, if I’m blown to blazes, look after the kid.” - -When Ratcliffe reached the strip of beach the boats of the _Juan_ and -_Natchez_ had shoved off. He could see the figure of Carquinez at the -after rail of the _Juan_ and Jude watching from the _Sarah_. He pulled -the dinghy down a bit more to the water and then, turning, looked at -the wreck. - -Satan was standing against the skyline, now he was down on his knees, -and now he was up again. The fuse had evidently been fired, but he did -not move; stood evidently looking to see that it was burning properly, -and then moved off, walking, not running, and not even hurrying himself. - -Then he came clambering over the rocks, reached the dinghy, and they -pushed off. - -“Well, you are a cool chap,” said Ratcliffe. “I’d have run.” - -“And broke your leg, maybe. There’s no danger unless a spark got at the -powder. The durned thing was sparkin’ and spittin’ like all possessed -when I left it. I reckon that’s why Sellers got cold feet. We’re out -far enough now.” He ceased rowing, and they hung drifting. - -Ratcliffe looked round. The other boats were much farther out. The -tepid wind had almost died off, so that the flags on the _Juan_ and -_Natchez_ hung in wisps. They could hear the wash of the water on the -reef and the occasional lamentation of a gull. No other sound broke the -silence of the blue and gorgeous afternoon. - -“Seems like as if everything was listenin’, don’t it?” said Satan, -wiping his forehead. “The bust ought to have come by this. Wonder if -the durned thing has fizzled out?” - -A gull made derisive answer and across the satin smooth swell a hail -came from the _Juan_. - -“That’s Cark,” said Satan, “makin’ kind inquiries, blister him!” - -“There she goes!” cried Ratcliffe. - -A jet of flame and a column of smoke sprang from the reef, followed by -a clap of thunder that could have been heard at Rum Cay. - -Flying filth and deck planking filled the air, and on top of all came -the yelling of a thousand gulls. - -The dinghy jumped as though from the blow of a great fist—then -silence, and over the reef a filthy dun-colored cloud of smoke curling -upward like a djin. - -Satan seized the sculls and headed for the beach. The boats of the -_Juan_ and _Natchez_, already under way, were rowing as if for a -wager, but the dinghy had the lead. They beached her, hauled her up -a foot, and started over the rocks, running this time, heedless of -broken limbs, Satan leading like the bounding kangaroo of Cleary’s and -whooping as he went. - -The rock bridge was still intact, but nearly the whole of the after -part of the deck was gone. - -“Go careful!” cried Satan. He got down on hands and knees and, -crawling, followed by Ratcliffe, leaned over the break and looked. - -Ratcliffe cried out in horror. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI - -THE CARGO - - -In that vast and gloomy interior the great beams showed like the ribs -of some eviscerated monster and the honest light of day fell sick upon -the cargo,—a cargo of skulls, ribs, vertebræ, and entire skeletons, -piled high, as though five hundred men had struggled aft for exit in -one mad rush and died heaped one upon the other like refuse. A charnel, -limy smell rose, poisoning the air. - -“Good God!” said Ratcliffe. - -“Slaver,” said Satan. “What did I tell you? _Nombre de Dios_ be -sugared! She’s an old slaver, wrecked with the men under hatches. -Here’s Sellers!” - -Sellers, panting, his face all mottled, and followed by Cleary, had -gained the deck. - -“Boys, what is it?” cried Sellers. - -“Gold!” cried Satan. “Go careful, for the hull deck’s sprung. Get on -your hands and knees. Gold bars an’ di’monds—we’re all rich men!” - -The pair of scoundrels, crawling like crabs, stuck their heads over the -break. - -“Oh, hell!” said Sellers. - -“Slaver,” said Satan. - -Cleary spat. He was the first to laugh. - -“This is putting it over on Cark, ain’t it?” said Cleary. “How many -dollars d’you think it’s cost our firm to blow the lid off this -damned scrofagus, to say nothin’ of the time? And he packed me off to -Pensacola to get me out of the way! Oh, send for him to have a look!” - -“No use sendin’, he’s comin’,” said Satan, pointing to where the gig of -the _Juan_ was approaching the beach. - -Carquinez crossed the rock bridge and advanced along the deck, -clutching his old coat together and making birdlike noises. When he -reached the break, crouching like the others, he looked over. - -The sight below did not seem to horrify him. - -“Slaver,” said Satan for the third time, turning his head for a moment -from the objects that seemed to fascinate him. - -“Pst, pst, pst!” said Carquinez. “Vel, I reckon dat is so.” - -“No gold ship,” said Sellers. - -“Maybe there was gold in the after-cabin,” suddenly broke in Cleary, -“and the niggers broke through the bulkhead and are on top of it.” - -“Where’s your bulkheads?” asked Sellers. “There was no after-cabin to -the hooker. It was all one cattle boat below, with niggers for cattle.” - -“That is so,” said Carquinez. - -The old gentleman seemed taking his setback extraordinarily well; so, -too, seemed Sellers and Cleary. They were evidently used to reverses in -business, and treasure hunting was wildcat anyway, a thousand to one -against the chance of a colossal fortune. - -“That is so,” said Carquinez. Then he proceeded to demonstrate what the -hold of a slaver was like,—men lying side by side and sometimes on top -of one another. There was no after-cabin, indeed nothing, no latrines, -no means of washing, nothing: just one vast sty without straw even for -the human beasts to lie on. - -The officers and crew slept in deckhouses; sometimes the crew had -nothing to shelter them, sleeping on the bare decks. - -Carquinez knew it all. His grandfather had been in the business, and he -mentioned the fact with a sort of pride. - -Then he drew back from the break like a reptile balked and retreating; -rose to his feet, and stood contemplating the sea. - -Satan rose also, as did Ratcliffe. - -“I’m off,” said Satan. “This boneyard don’t please me any. Say, what -you goin’ to do?” - -“Von moment,” said Cark. - -“Which?” asked Satan. - -“Cark means how about the contrac’?” said Sellers. - -“Which way?” - -“Lord! Why, we’re left, left with a cargo of skelentons, and you—why, -you’ve got a thousand dollars in your pocket.” - -“There was nothin’ in the contrac’ about handin’ them back,” said -Satan; “b’sides the contrac’s bust. That thousand dollars was on -account of findin’s. Is it my fault the findin’s is skelentons? But, -see here, you give’s a few hours to turn the thing over, and come -aboard the _Sarah_ gettin’ along sundown, and we’ll have a clack. We’re -all in the soup, seems to me, and I’m not wishin’ to be hard on you.” - -“We’ll drop aboard,” said Sellers. - -Cleary said nothing. - -After his outburst of laughter he had remained dumb. - -“Well, I’m off,” said Satan. “I want a drink and that’s the truth. The -smell of them skelentons’s enough to start a Baptis’ minister on the -booze.” Then he turned to Carquinez. “What did I tell you, sittin’ -in your cabin? Told you I didn’t bank on this business, maybe you’ll -remember that. Blast treasure liftin’! Leavin’ salvage aside, have -you ever seen an ounce of gold raised in all these years? There was a -hundred million lyin’ off Dry Tortugas—did they ever get it? How many -ships has been down to Trinidad huntin’ for the pirates’ gold? Knight -was the last man there—a lot he made of it! It’s only the chaps that -sell locations to mugs that make money over this business, it’s my -b’lief. Well, see you aboard later on.” - -Off he went, Ratcliffe following. - -As they came alongside the _Sarah_, Jude was hanging over the rail. - -“What’s the luck?” cried Jude as they came aboard. - -“Skelentons,” said Satan, “shipload of skulls an’ cross-bones. Slaver, -that’s what she was; dead men’s bones, that’s your treasure.” - -“Lord! And I’ve never seen them!” - -“Well, there’s nothin’ much to see,” said Satan, with the irritating -nonchalance of the one who has seen the show; “ain’t worth the trouble -of lookin’.” - -“I want to see them skelentons,” said Jude. - -“Tell you they ain’t wuth lookin’ at!” - -“I want to see them—” - -“Oh, well then, tumble into the boat, tumble into the boat, and I’ll -row you over.” - -Ratcliffe watched while the dinghy passed over to the reef. He saw Jude -on the wreck, kneeling and poring over the cargo, held, evidently, by -the fascination that lies for youth in the horrible. - -Then they returned, and Satan ordered the dinghy to be taken on board. - -“Are you going to put out now?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“Put out!” said Satan, with a grin. “Why, I’ve asked those fellers to -come aboard gettin’ on for sundown, and whether or no if I raised a -foot of chain they’d be on me with the first click of the windlass. -I tell you we’re in a tight place! Cleary said nothin’, you noticed -that, but he’s goin’ to have his forty dollars back if he knows how, -and Sellers is the same,—he wants his thousand. We’re held for one -thousand and forty dollars, and we’re not strong enough to fight them.” - -“Well, see here,” said the peacemaker. “Pay them. I’ll stand the -racket. It’s only a little over two hundred pounds, and I’ll give you a -check.” - -“You don’t get me,” said Satan. “It’s not the dollars I’m thinkin’ of -so much as the game. Cark played me a low-down trick lightin’ out for -here to scoop the boodle, and Cleary laughed at me with his old cod -boat outsailin’ us. They’ve got to pay. B’sides, if I was to hand over -that money, I’d never be able to show my nose again in Havana.” - -“How so?” - -“Why, them two would put the laugh on me, and it’d be ‘what price -skelentons’ wherever I went, see? I’d be the mug then. They’re the mugs -now, seem’ they’ve paid a thousand and forty for what they’ve got.” - -“I see. But considering that they’ll be after you if you move, and that -we’re not strong enough to fight them, what’s to be done?” - -“Well,” said Satan, “when they come aboard it’ll be either to get the -dollars back or fight. You’ve noticed I asked them to come, seein’ -they’d have come whether I asked them or not. Well, if I can foozle -them into hanging on for their answer till tomorrow, I’ll give them the -slip tonight. Moon’s not up till late.” - -“But they’ll hear you getting the anchor up and handling the sails!” - -“Not with an ear trumpet,” said Satan, “if I can only foozle them into -waitin’ till tomorrow. Now then, Jude, lend a hand with the dinghy.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII - -CROCKERY WARE - - -An hour before sunset, Jude, on the lookout, gave the alarm. “Sellers’s -getting ready to come off,” she cried. - -Satan’s head appeared at the cabin hatch. - -“Sure?” - -“The boat’s alongside the _Juan_ full of dagoes, and Sellers and -Cleary’s gettin’ in.” - -“Where did you stick that bottle of nose-paint?” - -“Starboard forward locker.” - -“One minute.” - -In a minute the head reappeared and an arm holding the rum bottle. - -“Now, mind you, I’m drunk,” said Satan, “fightin’ drunk, not to be -disturbed on no account. They can call again tomorrow morning.” - -He smashed the rum bottle on the deck. - -“Leave the pieces lyin’.” He vanished. - -Jude looked at Ratcliffe and grinned. - -“Rub your nose and pretend to be cryin’,” came a voice from below. - -“What for should I be cryin’?” answered Jude. - -“God A’mighty! I’ll show you if I get on deck! Ain’t I drunk and -cuttin’ up? What else would you be doin’? _I’ll_ larn you!” - -A smash of crockery came from below that made the housekeeper spring to -the cabin skylight. - -“Quit foolin’,” cried she. “I’m willin’ to rub the damn nose off my -head, but stop smashin’ the plates—what have you broke?” - -Another plate went. - -“I’m rubbin’.” - -“Here they are!” cried Ratcliffe. - -Jude’s nose did not seem to want any rubbing, nor her face. Descended -from generations of crockery worshipers and careful housewives, -instinctively hating Cleary, Sellers, Cark, and all their belongings, -feeling with perfect illogic that they had been done out of the -treasure by the “skelentons” somehow through Cark, she was convincing. -Satan with rare art had worked her up to the part. She was not crying: -her mind was raging above tears. - -“Hullo, Kid!” cried Sellers, as the boat ground alongside and a filthy -ruffian with a handkerchief twisted round his head clawed on with a -boathook. “What’s the matter, Kid? What’s up with you? Where’s Satan?” - -“Who’re you kiddin’?” cried Jude, as Sellers came aboard, followed by -Cleary. “Where the hull are your fenders? Comin’ cuttin’ the paint off, -you and your skullintons! Where’s Satan? He’s down below drunk as Billy -be damn and cuttin’ the lights out of the ship.” - -“He’s been at the eyewash I was tellin’ you of,” said Cleary. “Look, -he’s broke a bottle of it. Lord! don’t the place stink?” - -“Well, drunk or sober, he’s got to bail up,” said Sellers. “It’s my -belief he’s been spoofin’ us all along.” - -“Spoofin’ who?” cried Jude. - -“Cark an’ me.” - -“Cark an’ you—that old leather face an’ _you_! Satan been spoofin’ -you—pair of yeggmen! Satan’s straight, the on’y straight man in -Havana! Get off this ship! Come in the mornin’ if you want to try an’ -rob him. Off with you now!” - -“Why,” cried Sellers, half laughing, half angry, “what’s the matter -with the kid? What’s gingerin’ you up?” - -The answer came from another smashed plate below. - -Jude made one spring for a deck-mop standing handy, twirled it so that -the water sprayed from it in a rainbow, and brought it to the charge. - -Cleary slipped over the rail. - -“Off with you!” cried Jude. - -“Put down that mop!” cried Sellers, now suddenly furious. “Put down -that mop, you braying little bitch! Go’n get inter your petticoats! You -ain’t a boy! I never b’lieved it, not for the last six months, an’ now -I know. You’ve give yourself away proper. Why, look at you, as round as -a tub—you’re a wumman!” - -Ratcliffe looked on horrified. Jude, flushed and bright-eyed, had -somehow revealed her sex. In her excitement she looked for a moment -almost beautiful. Her tongue had done the rest. The smashing of the -plates had brought the woman out of her as a conjurer brings a rabbit -out of a hat. - -“Put down that mop!” - -Jude from rose color had turned awfully white; then with the élan and -dash of a gamecock she charged. The wet swab hit the ruffian full in -his flat face, and he fell on the deck with a bang. - -In a second he was up and scrambling over the rail. Again she charged, -the swab meeting him this time full on his stem and sending him over -into the boat like a bag of oats. - -A slush tub, fortunately half-full, and marked by her prescient mind, -was her next weapon. The contents caught Cleary full in the face, and -as the boat made off, the oars, all at sixes and sevens, wildly rowing, -she pursued it with the battery of her tongue till it was out of range. -Then she broke down and cried, sniffed, with her arm hiding her face, -and then flushed, like a thing of shame dived below. - -Ratcliffe knew. - -Her sex proclaimed aloud by the shameless Sellers was as a garment -stripped off her publicly. On the very first day Satan had stated her -case and she didn’t mind, though he, Ratcliffe, had been a stranger; -but it was different now, somehow. It was as if the end of her boyhood -had come. Sellers would no doubt proclaim the fact in Havana. - -He heard voices from below. - -“I don’t care if I’d killed him! Wish’t I had! Lea’ me alone—for two -cents I’d go drown myself! Look at them plates! You’ve broke the two -blue pattern ones an’ the chaney one with the bird on it, the best we -had, an’ not a cracked one touched! Hain’t you no sense?” - -“Never you mind; I’ll get you some more.” - -“I’m not wanting more. Them plates were mother’s—much you care! I’ve -gone as careful as walking on eggs with them, and now they’re broke -an’ the old Delf’ ones left. If you must be breaking and cutting -up, couldn’t you a broke the cracked ones? An’ where’s the sense in -breaking them anyhow?” - -“Waal, I reckoned it’d liven you up hearin’ the crockery goin’.” - -“Liven me up! Makes me believe you _have_ been getting at the rum to -hear you talk. Where’s the sense in all your doings,—ship stinking of -drink and all the crockery broke, and what’s the use?” - -“I’ll show you after dark. I tell you I want to get away from those -thugs, and if I hadn’t headed them off pretendin’ to be drunk they’d -have gone through me.” - -“Well, they’ll go through you right enough tomorrow morning.” - -“No, they won’t.” - -“Which way?” - -“I’ll be gone.” - -“Gone! Why, first click of the windlass and they’ll be aboard us.” - -“You leave it to me.” - -“Well, I wish we’d have went before you broke them plates.” - -“Oh, cuss the plates!” - -“Easy to say that. It makes me just nacheral wild to see that old Delf’ -plate starin’ me in the face, round and sound, and the blue pattern -ones gone.” - -Silence for a moment, at the end of which Satan’s head and bust -appeared at the cabin hatch. - -He winked at Ratcliffe, and pointed backward with his thumb and down -below, as if indicating the domestic trouble. - -“There’s no sign of them swabs comin’ off again?” asked he. - -“No,” said Ratcliffe. “They seem to have had enough of it.” - -The rum bottle had broken fairly in two without splinters. - -“You might heave the bottle over, like a good one,” said Satan. “I -can’t show on deck for fear of those shrimps seein’ me. It’ll be dark -in an hour, and then I’ll be up. You can wait for your supper till we -get away?” - -“Oh, yes,” said Ratcliffe; “I’m in no hurry.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII - -TIDE AND CURRENT - - -He lit a pipe. Having disposed of the fragments of the bottle, he got -the mop and a bucket of water and swabbed the rum-stained deck. Then he -took his seat forward and watched the sunset. - -The great sun, half-shorn of his beams and bulging broad as Jupiter, -lolled above the reef in a sky of laburnum gold fading to aquamarine. -Gulls, dark as withered leaves, blew about him, and shifting here and -there to north and south became gulls of gold, while the wind blowing -up from the gulf and the westward running current, meeting the last of -the flood, broke the sea surface into a million tiny dancing waves, -momentary mirrors dazzling the eye with shattered light. - -Lone Reef seemed well named. Dawn or sunset or the blaze of full day -could not take from its desolation, and this evening the sinister line -of the wreck dominated everything, turning the blaze of sunset to the -light of a funeral pyre. - -The _Sarah_, moving to the swell, creaked and whimpered, and now and -then from below he could hear voices,—Jude’s voice and the voice of -Satan. Beyond that came the murmur of the reef and the clang of the -gulls, and now and again a snatch of Spanish song from the _Juan_. - -Then the sun passed below the reef, the tide began to draw out, and -the _Sarah_, swinging to it, brought to his view the _Juan_ and the -_Natchez_, ships of dusk in a world of dusk powdered with star dust. -Presently a light was run up on the _Natchez_, then the _Juan_ put up -her riding light, then Satan appeared, a dusky form, rising from the -cabin hatch and followed by Jude. - -They came forward. Jude squatted on the deck, and Satan drew close to -Ratcliffe. - -“Now, if them skunks had any sense in their skulls, they’d stick out -a guard boat,” said Satan; “but I’ve fair put the hood on them, I -b’lieve, and they’ve never saw what I was after, pretendin’ I had no -oil for an anchor light. Why, they are only fit to be put out to nuss! -Half an hour more and we’ll be off.” - -“How are you going to do it?” - -“Knock the shackle off the anchor chain an’ let her drift. Tide an’ -current is runnin’ four knots.” - -“But even without the anchor light they’ll be able to see us by the -stars.” - -“Lord bless you! at this distance they won’t be able to see mor’n a -glimpse of us. We’ll go so gradual they won’t notice. If they keep -a lookout at all,—which they won’t, ten to one,—he’ll see us by -believin’ we’re there.” - -“Lord! I’d love to see their faces in the morning!” murmured Jude. - -“But won’t they go for you when we get back to Havana?” asked -Ratcliffe. - -“Not they,” said Satan. “They’ll say nothin’, seein’ as how they’re -done and the laugh’s against them. Why, Cark will respect me more for -this job than if I’d run straight with him over the biggest deal. If -it’d been the other way about and he’d pulled the dollars off me, I’d -have been nowhere with him. Mind you out here, if I was to stick here -till tomorrow, they’d be aboard and maybe manhandling us if I didn’t -bail up; but back in Havana the thing will be closed and the accounts -wrote off.” - -The sound of a guitar came through the dusk, crossing the warm wind, -the lazy, languorous wind of a perfect summer’s night. Seville, which -he had never seen, rose before Ratcliffe, firefly-haunted orange -groves, lovely women all skewered together by the remembered words of a -ribald song. - - “When I was a student at Cadiz!” - -“There goes old Catguts,” said Satan. “He’s the band aboard the -_Juan_,—Antonio, Alonzo, Alphonso—damn his name!” - -“It ain’t,” said Jude. “It’s that old copper-patch Cleary’s got with -him. I’ve heard him in harbor. I gave him a plug of tobacco once for -getting me some bait, and he showed me the thing. It’s got a crack -in it or suthin’, and makes a noise like a skeeter in a jug,—kind -a fizzin’ noise between the plonks. He’s got an ulster on his leg -so’s you can see the bone. He took off the rags an’ showed me—he’s a -Portugee.” - -“Well, it’s time to get busy,” said Satan. “Here, h’ist yourself and -lend a hand!” - -Ratcliffe got more forward while they knocked the shackle off the -chain. There came a splash. Then the meeting resumed. - -“If they heard that splash,” said Satan, “they’d put it down to a fish -jumpin’. Now you watch them lights.” - -Ratcliffe watched the amber lights of the _Natchez_ and _Juan_. They -did not seem to alter position in the least. In the first of the -starlight and the last of the dusk the spars and hulls of the two -vessels could just be made out. - -Then presently he saw that the lights had drawn a bit more aft and -seemed closer together. The feel of the _Sarah_ was different too, she -moved more freely to the swell. - -The sound of the guitar seemed slightly fainter. - -Now and then the beguiling sea would give the _Sarah_ a little slap, no -louder than the slap of a girl’s hand, on the low planking as if joking -with her over some secret shared in common. - -Yes, the sound of the guitar was fainter, much fainter, and the -spars and hulls of the vessels now invisible as though they had been -dissolved in the gloom. - -The anchor lights alone marked their places. - -“We’re all right now,” said Satan; “but I’ll give them another five -minutes. Got the matches for the binnacle light?” - -“Yes,” said Jude. - -Five minutes passed, then they got the canvas on her, and Satan, at -the wheel, taking his bearings from the far-off lights of the betrayed -ones, turned the spokes. - -“Where are you going to sail for?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“Cormorant Cay,” said Satan. “I’ve a fancy to look at that place.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX - -SATAN IN PARADISE - - -He had divided Ratcliffe and Jude into watches, port and starboard. - -Jude turned in first, relieving him somewhere about two in the morning. -At six, when Ratcliffe turned out and came on deck, he found Satan at -the wheel, relinquished by Jude, and day pursuing the Sarah across a -wrinkled sea of tourmaline and hinted blue. Away ahead somewhere to the -south lay Cormorant Cay, the true tomb, if the chart indications were -correct, of the _Nombre de Dios_. - -A strong sailing wind was blowing, and Satan gave their speed at seven -knots. He refused to hand over the wheel. - -“I’ve had a snooze on deck,” said he, “while the kid took charge. We’re -nearly sixty miles south of Lone, and if this wind holds will be on to -Cormorant somewhere about eight bells.” - -“Not a sign of those chaps,” said Ratcliffe, looking back over the sea, -clear of Cleary and Sellers and their dirty crowd. - -“Naw; they’ll be just about rousin’ up now and rubbin’ their eyes.” - -“You don’t think they’ll try to follow us?” - -“Not likely, I don’t think. They’re wastin’ time and money if they -cruise after us. Cark’s got his business in Havana to attend to, and -Cleary’s the same. What’s gettin’ me is the fac’ that Sellers has -spotted the kid for what she is. It’ll be all over Havana, and she -knows it.” - -“Well, it had to come out some time.” - -“Maybe.” - -“Look here, Satan!” said Ratcliffe. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the -girl and what’s to become of her. She can’t go on as she is. We must -fix up something.” - -“That’s easy said.” - -“Well, I’ve grown fonder of her than any person I’ve ever met, that’s -the truth. There’s no one like her; she’s gold right through.” - -“She ain’t bad.” - -“This sort of thing was all right when she was a child,” went on -Ratcliffe; “but she’s growing out of that. Why, even in the little time -since I’ve come aboard, she seems different, somehow.” - -“Well, if you ask me,” said Satan, “you seem to have made a change in -her. She’s brightened up, somehow, has more sass in her. Y’see, when -we were cruisin’ round since Pap died, me, she, and the nigger, there -wasn’t much company, and she was gettin’ a bit down-hearted. Then, when -you came aboard, she picked up. She hadn’t laughed for weeks till she -saw you in that pajama rig; then she chummed onto you.” - -“She did.” - -“Liked you from the first minute she saw you. There’s no two ways -about Jude,—it’s either like or the other thing, right off.” - -“Well, I’m pretty much the same—and I don’t want to lose sight of -her—or you.” - -“How’d you mean?” - -“Oh, just that. I’m bothering about when this cruise is over. That’s -bothering me a lot. Well, we’ll leave it at that for the present.” - -Satan turned his lantern face to starboard for half a moment to -expectorate right over the starboard rail—maybe also to hide a grin. - -“I reckon it’ll come all right somehow,” said he. “We ain’t much in -the world, but we’re straight. Reckon you’re straight too. That’s all -I want. That feller Thelusson, y’remember I told you he wanted to come -for a cruise with us. Well, he was straight enough s’far as dollars -went, but I wouldn’t have had him on this ship, not if he’d paid me -a dollar a minute and a bonus for every knot we made—not with Jude -aboard—Here’s the wheel for a sec’, if you’ll take it whiles I get -some coffee ready.” - -Toward noon a wreath of gulls in the sky showed Cormorant. - -Jude was at the wheel, Satan forward on the lookout. - -Twenty minutes later Satan came running aft, fetched the old glass out -of its sling, and went forward with it. - -“There’s a hooker on the sands!” cried he. “Looks like a small fruiter -or suthin’ hove up.” - -Ratcliffe, standing beside him, could see nothing,—the sand, owing -to their low level, was invisible from the deck of the _Sarah_,—then, -straining his eyes, he made out a speck on the sea-line. - -“Mast’s gone,” said Satan, “white painted, not more’n fifty ton, and -she’s layin’ in the lagoon. She must have come in over the sand where -it narrows to the westward. There’s a pinch of sand there that’s near -under water at flood, and the seas come right over it in an east’ard -gale.” - -He handed the glass to Ratcliffe. - -“Funny,” said Ratcliffe, “if you were right about the _Nombre de Dios_ -being sunk here and we come to have a look for her and find another -wreck.” - -“Well, I don’t take no shares in the _Nombre de Dios_,” said Satan. -“I ran here more for somewhere to run to than with any thought of the -_Nombre_. She’s a hundred foot under the sand if she’s here at all; but -it’s luck all the same. There’ll be pickin’s. There was a big blow two -weeks ago from the east,—that’s what’s done her,—and the salvage men -won’t be here yet, if they ever come.” - -He stuck the glass to his eye. - -“She’s a yacht, that’s what she is, one of them small cruisers, not -more’n fifty or sixty, and her fittin’s will just do for us, if she’s -not been stripped. There’s all sorts of folks come from New York and -Philadelphia and N’ y’Orleans, cruisin’ about these seas in tubs like -that,—fishin’ mostly.” - -The _Sarah_ held on, almost due south, with the daring of a sea-bird, -Satan giving directions to the steersman and seeming absolutely -regardless of the death and dangers around them,—reefs that they -shaved, rocks that waved fathom-long ribbons of fuci a few feet under -water,—he avoided them all. - -South, east, and west Cormorant Cay is devoid of danger. Only here to -the north do the reefs and rocks show, and it is just here that the -only entrance to the lagoon lies. - -The place consists really of two sandspits widely separated to the -north so as to form a pondlike harbor running from five to ten fathoms -deep. Farther south the sandspits join so as to form a wide street, -like the spit to eastward of Lone Reef. - -They held on. The sound of the gentle surf on the sands came now, and a -full view of the lagoon water reflecting the sun-blaze like a mirror. - -On the still lagoon, with strange stereoscopic effect seen between the -two sand-arms holding off the wrinkled sea, lay the craft, floating on -an even keel, and showing a stump of mainmast against the skyline. From -her lines she had been a yacht. - -“Why, Go’ bless my soul, she’s anchored!” cried Satan. “Derelic’ and -anchored. The people must have got away in a boat or suthin’. There’s -not a sign of them. Port—hard—port—as you were—steady—so!” - -He ran to let go the halyards. - -Another anchor had been bent on to some spare chain. It was heaved -over, and the _Sarah_ came up to it, swinging less than fifty yards -from the stranger. She was a picture, a forty-ton fishing yawl, white -painted, gracile as a fish, dismasted, abandoned, and swinging to a -taut anchor chain; beyond her and the emerald of the lagoon lay the -great stretch of sands, running due south, blanketing to the heat and -showing ponds of aquamarine and storms of gulls. - -The anchor down, Satan stood with his eyes fixed on his prey; Jude -too. They seemed considering her as a butcher might consider a carcass -before he cut it up. - -“Aren’t you going to board her?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“Have you ever seen a dead b’ar?” asked Satan. “Sometimes a b’ar isn’t -as dead as he looks, and sometimes a derelic’ isn’t as empty as it -looks. It’s a common thing for men on the Florida coast to hide in a -driftin’ canoe and rise up and laugh at them that come out to collect -it. I can’t make out that anchor chain bein’ down, and I’ll just give -them one hour whiles we have dinner.” - -When they came on deck again after the meal, they dropped the dinghy, -and the three of them put off for the derelict. - -She must have been dismasted outside the sands, for not a spar lay in -the water alongside,—dismasted and driven over by a big wave, her crew -clinging to her. On the bow was her name, _Haliotis_. They tied up and -scrambled on board. The deck ran flush fore and aft. The wheel looked -all right, but was jammed and immovable; the binnacle glass was smashed. - -Satan stood, whistling and looking about him. Then he dived below, -followed by the others. The cabin had been left in good order. It was a -bit over-gilded and decorated for a plain man’s taste, but everything -was of the best, and a hanging lamp of solid brass still swung over -the center-table. The walls were of bird’s-eye maple, the cushions of -the best blue cloth, and the fittings of the tiny sleeping cabins to -match. - -There was plenty of stuff lying about,—books, clothes, boots. The -people had evidently put off in a hurry, not caring much what they took -as long as they got away. Perhaps they had taken advantage of a passing -steamer. - -Ratcliffe picked up a book, a volume of O. Henry. There was a name in -it,—J. Seligmann. - -Jude, delving in the starboard after-cabin, came out holding up -something. It was a pair of boots, women’s, patent leather with white -suede tops and heels three inches high. - -“Look at them things!” said Jude with a burst of suppressed laughter. - -“A girl’s boots,” said Ratcliffe. “Try them on, Jude.” - -“If I wore them things,” said Jude, “I’d have to walk on my hands. -There’s dead loads more of stuff, and the place smells as if a polecat -had been living there.” - -Ratcliffe stuck his head into the little cabin. It reeked of California -poppy as though a bottle of it had been upset, California poppy and -cosmetic scents. Clothes were lying about in disorder; a woman’s white -yachting cap, deck shoes, lingerie, bursting like froth out of a cabin -trunk, gave added touch to the hysterical distraction of the scene. - -One could see her, the woman, rushing about saving or collecting her -valuables, leaving everything else, and calling on the gods to witness -that she would never set foot again on another small yacht for a -pleasure cruise among the islands. - -Jude picked out a frilled garment from the lingerie box, looked at -it, rolled it up, and cast it with a chuckle into the bunk, then she -reached up and opened the little port. - -Ratcliffe left her pursuing her investigations, attracted by the whoops -of Satan, who seemed pursuing things about the deck. - -Satan, with his hair wild and his eyes ablaze, had rapidly sampled his -treasure. Everything he wanted had been left. Had he found the _Nombre -de Dios_ with gold to her hatches, it is doubtful if his excitement -would have been so intense. - -“Look at that!” cried he, pointing to the mast winch. “Wantin’ -it—should think I had been! Come along and see!” He led the way -to a heap of raffle and broken spars forward. “Look at them gaff -jaws, galvanized an’ covered with hide, and me with old wooden ones -creakin’ like an old shoe! There’s a mainsheet buffer too! Camper -Nicholson’s—rubber—cringles—come along to the sail room!” - -They went to the sail room, then to the galley,—everywhere finds, -glorious finds, with this rough sum total: - -In the sail room, sixty fathoms of new manila rope, an eighty-foot -otter trawl, harpoons and grains and a seine net, a trysail, square -sails, two jibs; in the galley, cooking gear, an Atkey cooking stove -to burn coal or coke; in addition to all this some splendid blocks -with patent sheaves with ball bearings which run so much better than -dummies, a lower mainsheet block and two quarter-blocks, fathoms of -galvanized chain, and two Nicholson’s patent anchors. Other things -included lamps, a pair of binoculars, a sextant and a chronometer, -charts, and lastly, glorious but useless, in a little engine room -the auxiliary, a 13–15 horse-power petrol-paraffin Kelvin engine, -two-cylinder, with the shaft running out through the quarter, and a -spare Bergius propeller, which shuts up and opens out automatically -when in motion. - -When they came on deck again after a rapid glance at these things a -brain-wave came to Ratcliffe. - -“Look here!” said he. “Why not tow her back to Havana and claim -salvage? She’s worth a lot and she’s derelict.” - -“Not me,” said Satan. “Have you ever claimed salvage? First there’s -the tow, and we’re underhanded. Then there’s the lawyers. What’s to -stop this Seligmann whoever he is poppin’ up an’ swearin’ against me. -He’d say he left her with the anchor down in harbor; it amounts to -that, though she’s derelic’ right enough. Not me! I’ll take what I want -without no lawyers to help me. She’s my meat, by all the laws of the -sea, and that’s the end of it.” - -Appeared Jude from the cabin hatch, carrying as a trophy a go-ashore -hat she had unearthed from somewhere, a crushed-strawberry-colored -straw hat—or was it a bonnet? It had long strings and a rose stuck on -one side of it. - -“Look what that catawampus has left behind her!” cried Jude. - -“Quit your foolin’,” cried Satan, “and come along and lend a hand. -Here, h’ist these things into the dinghy!” - -Jude flung the hat down the open skylight, and the rank burglary of the -_Haliotis_ began. - - - - -CHAPTER XXX - -A SECRET OF THE SAND - - -It seemed to Ratcliffe in the days that followed that he had never -known what work meant before. That he, a wealthy and respected member -of the British upper, upper-middle classes, an ex-Christ Churchman, and -a member of Boodles, was assisting Satan Tyler in “tearing the tripes” -out of another man’s yacht, also occurred to him sometimes as a fact, a -distorted sort of fact, blurred and dimmed by the blazing and brilliant -atmosphere in which they were working, the absolute and shocking -loneliness that hemmed them in, Satan’s personality, and Jude’s -companionship. - -By all the laws of the sea, according to Satan, these things were the -property of the first finder. That was all very well according to -Satan, and indeed according to what seemed common-sense; still, sea -law was for all he could tell not quite the same thing as the laws of -the sea, according to Satan. Though belonging to a great ship-owning -family, he knew nothing of the rights of the matter; but the business -they were engaged on seemed to him sometimes, when he cared to -think, most tremendously like larceny,—larceny excused by a lot of -considerations and made picturesque by environment; still, a business -that in the unpicturesque surroundings of the London Sessions would -undoubtedly have appealed to a judge in the voice of Larceny. - -Sometimes he imagined a warship, one of those prying, officious little -cruisers that do police work, closing up with the cay and sending a -boat into the lagoon. - -Sometimes he fell to wondering what Seligmann was like,—an American -surely, one of the Gulf haunters, belonging, most probably, to one of -the numerous clubs on the Florida coast, and Mrs. Seligmann—or was it -Miss—or not even that? - -One thing was certain, Seligmann was rich. They were not robbing a poor -man. - -At the end of the third day Jude gave out, not from weariness, but from -distaste. - -“Lord! haven’t you had enough of this old truck?” said Jude. “I don’t -feel’s if I ever wanted to see a len’th of rope nor a cringle again.” - -Ratcliffe felt pretty much the same. - -“I’ll finish the business myself,” said Satan. “You can knock off if -you like. Go’n hunt for turkles’ eggs.” - -“I’m going,” said Jude. - -“I’ll come along, too,” said Ratcliffe. - -Satan ferried them over to the sands. It was about two hours before -sundown, and an easterly breeze was blowing fresh and cool, shivering -up the lagoon water and whispering among the sand-grains. - -Jude walked despondently as they trudged along close to the sea edge -and discovering nothing. - -“D’you know,” said Ratcliffe, “we’ve never even started to hunt for a -sign of the _Nombre de Dios_? I wonder if she’s sunk, really, anywhere -near here?” - -“I dunno,” said Jude; “don’t care, nuther. Satan’s so full of his pesky -old fittings he’s no time to think of anything else.” - -“Cheer up, Jude.” - -“I’m all right.” - -“No, you’re not. What’s wrong?” - -“Lots of things.” - -“When we get back to Havana—” began Ratcliffe. She cut him short. - -“I don’t want to go back to Havana,” said she. “Ain’t going.” - -She sat down on the sands plump, nursed her knees, and stared over the -sea, casting her hat beside her. He stood for a moment, then he sat -down. He knew at once, knew what had been working in her mind for days. - -“You’re bothering about what Sellers said, dirty scoundrel! I’d have -punched his head, only the whole thing happened so quick and you landed -him with that mop—don’t worry.” - -No reply. - -“What’s the good?” went on Ratcliffe; then cautiously and feeling that -he was treading on dangerous ground, “See here, there’s no harm in -being a girl, no more than there is in being a man.” - -No reply. - -A laughing gull passed and jeered at them. Jude followed it with her -eyes. She seemed almost unconscious of his presence and not to have -heard his words. He watched her profile against the sky, noticed the -eyelashes which seemed longer and more curved up than ever, the nice -shape of the head, free of the old panama. - -Then she turned, leaned on her elbow, and looked up at him—then she -looked down. - -“What made you think I was botherin’ about Sellers?” asked Jude. - -“I don’t know,” said Ratcliffe, “I just thought it. I’ve been thinking -a lot about you—I care for you a lot, that’s about it.” - -She looked up at him again, full in the eyes, and with a new expression -he had never seen before, a puzzled, half-startled look, like that of a -person suddenly awakened in strange surroundings. - -Then her eyes fell away from him. - -She took a handful of sand and let the grains fall between her fingers. - -“Just that,” said Ratcliffe. - -She was still playing with the sand, letting it fall between her -fingers carefully as though trying to count the grains. Then she threw -the stuff away, brushed the palm of her hand clean, and sat up. Drawing -a little closer to her, he put his hand round her waist, just as he had -done when they were on the sandspit, and just as on the sandspit, she -let it rest there—for a moment. Then, with a queer little laugh, she -removed the hand and struggled to her feet. - -He rose up and they went on, without a word. Then presently they -began to talk about indifferent matters almost as though nothing had -occurred. - -They found a nest of turtles’ eggs, and Jude marked it; farther along -they came upon something strange, a sort of platform half-covered with -sand. Jude said it was the foretop of a ship sunk and sanded over. - -“It’s the _Nombre de Dios_, maybe,” said Ratcliffe. - -“Maybe,” said Jude. “It’s the foretop of an old ship, anyhow. See, -where the mast’s broke off—she’s thirty or forty foot under that.” - -“Not much good to us, even if she is the _Nombre de Dios_.” - -“Not much.” - -The gulls seemed to agree, and the little waves, falling crystal clear -on the beach. - -It was near the end of the spit just here, and the sands shelved out, -losing themselves in the immeasurable loneliness of the sea stretching -to Mariguana and the Caicos and the northern shoulder of South America. - -Jude, on her knees with a bit of driftwood, was scraping away the sand -from the edge of the sunk foretop, when something caught her eye. - -A turtle had landed where they had marked the eggs. It was so far away -that it did not look bigger than a threepenny bit. - -She flung the bit of driftwood away, rose to her feet, and started -running, taking the extreme sea-edge where the sand was hard. Ratcliffe -followed. They were half a minute too late, the turtle turning back to -the sea and leaving them spent and laughing. She got down on her knees -and hived the eggs in her hat still laughing. He helped, filling his -hat and his pockets, and then they started for the lagoon edge, Jude -suddenly in the wildest spirits. He had never seen her in such high, -good spirits. When they got aboard it was just the same. Even Satan’s -maniacal passion for old junk, expressed at supper in the determination -to spend two more days picking and scraping at the _Haliotis_, did not -depress her, it only made her laugh. - -“You’ll be cryin’ before you’ve done if you go on laughin’ like that,” -said Satan. “What’s possessed you eh?” - -Sure enough she was. The words acted like a pin on a bubble. - -She flushed, pushed her plate away, half rose, and then sat down again. - -“You’re always going on at me! Whatch’a want me to do? If I’m crying, -I ought to be laughin’, an’ if I’m laughin’ I ought to be crying! I’ll -laugh as much as I want—” - -Then, logically, she broke into violent tears, rose, and ran on deck. - -“What the hell-nation’s the matter with her?” asked Satan. - -“I don’t know,” replied Ratcliffe. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXI - -THE GO-ASHORE HAT - - -He had time to think over the matter as he lay in his bunk that night. - -He fell to wondering, among other things, what the spell was that drew -him toward Jude and held him. - -Was it the indefinable attractive quality that had made her mother a -“nacheral calamity” where men were concerned, or just the power of -youth? Scarcely the latter. He had met lots of youth in his time, and -it had not attracted him much; besides, when you have only to look into -the looking-glass to see youth, it is at a discount. - -Puzzling over the matter, he came to the bedrock fact that Jude, in -some extraordinary way, had the power to make him feel more alive than -he had ever felt before. - -Leaving other things aside, there were an honesty, faithfulness, and -simplicity about Jude that removed her from the category of bifurcated -beings and raised her to the level of a dog. - -Instinct told him that this compound quality was worth more than all -the gold lying under the hatches of the _Nombre de Dios_, more than -all the diamonds in the Rand, when combined with that other quality -speaking in her level gaze,—steadfastness, the something that would -make her keep the wheel in all weathers. - -But these excellencies would have been nothing without the -impossibilities with which they were allied,—social and conventual -impossibilities. The one reacted on the other, making an irresistible -whole combined with the something else that was Jude. - -He remembered the queer little laugh with which she had freed herself -from his hand round her waist—then he fell asleep and dreamt that he -and Jude and a lot of larrikins were lying in wait by a harbor blue as -the sea off Jamaica, to clod bathing nigger girls; then he was chasing -Jude round and round a tree, only to catch her and find that she was -Carquinez. - -When he got on deck next morning he found the ship deserted. The others -were away on the sandbank, and he amused himself by fishing till they -returned. - -Jude showed no traces of the tears of the last night, and Satan was -elated. He had been examining the wreck-wood, and his experienced eye -backed the declaration of Jude. It was the foretop of a ship, right -enough, and, a hundred to one, so he declared, the foretop of the -_Nombre_. - -Ratcliffe, wondering vaguely why he seemed so pleased over the find, -considering the sand conditions, asked him the chances of raising her. -Then said Satan, seeming to turn his gaze inward upon his awful and -profound knowledge of the sea and its ways: - -“If you was to get all the dridgers from H’vana to Pensacola and -dridged till your eyes bugged out o’ your head an’ your tongue hanged -down to your heels, you wouldn’t clear her—siltin’—but she’s a sure -enough mug trap.” - -“How do you mean?” - -“Why, with that story and that chart an’ that old foretop, I could set -half Havana diggin’ like dogs for a bone, to say nothin’ of private -parties an’ syndikits an’ such things—maybe I will, too, some day.” - -They put out after breakfast for the _Haliotis_ and another load of -“old junk.” Satan rowed back with it, leaving Jude and Ratcliffe on -board,—Ratcliffe collecting things forward, and Jude grubbing about in -the saloon. - -Having collected the odds and ends in a heap, he turned his eyes to the -_Sarah_. Satan, having tied up the dinghy, was busy transhipping his -plunder. Then the beauty of the morning sea flooding into the lagoon, -held him for a moment. He followed the gulls in their flight, noted -the sudden break from emerald to ultramarine deepening to purple, -and beyond the reefs the sudden glitter of a leaping fish. Then he -remembered Jude down below. - -He came to the companionway and down the stairs. - -The cabin was brilliant with sunlight, with water reflections through -the open portholes playing on the ceiling and polished maple and -venesta of the walls. Across a pile of truck and bunk bedding heaped on -the table he caught a glimpse of the upper part of Jude. - -Jude, fancying herself entirely alone, and yielding to some prompting -or other, had picked up the despised go-ashore hat and put it on; -she was looking at herself in the mirror fixed to the after bulkhead. -She was looking at herself with her head now straight and now tilted -slightly to one side; then the head turned, but she did not see -Ratcliffe: her eyes were still fixed on the hat, she was looking at it -sidewise. - -All her unconscious movements might have been those of a lady in a -milliner’s shop trying on a hat in a critical spirit. - -She had not heard him coming down the companionway, owing to the fact -that he was in his bare feet, and she did not hear him go up again. - -On deck he took his seat on an old box upended close to the -mainmast stump, and considered the thing he had just witnessed in a -philosophical spirit. - -It was like seeing a chrysalis crack and a butterfly’s wing protruding. - -If Jude had not been admiring herself in that hat, then sight was a -liar and its evidence worthless. But Jude was as honest as the day. -She had greeted the thing with derision, brought it on deck to show -as an object of mirth, and flung it down the skylight opening with -contempt—yesterday morning. - -What had happened since then to make her consider the thing at all, let -alone wear it before a looking-glass? - -Had she put it on in derision and to see what a guy she looked? Not a -bit! She had made friends with that hat! Those few movements of the -head spoke of consideration not derision, in a language old as the -earliest feather headdress and more universal than Esperanto. - -Then he remembered last evening on the sandspit and her sudden passage -from despondency to high spirits; he remembered her queer little laugh -as she removed his hand from round her waist,—had that been the sound -of the rift coming in the chrysalis casing? - -For a moment he almost yielded to the desire to go below and see if the -butterfly had really arrived. Then he checked himself. There was time, -plenty of time; besides, Satan was putting off again in the dinghy for -another load. - -Satan, over this business, like a man in drink or a lunatic, had his -hot fits and cold fits. A hot fit had suddenly come on him. - -The petrol-paraffin engine had begun suddenly to shout to him that -it must be taken. A glorious idea, too, had evolved itself in his -brain,—why not fit it to the _Sarah_; not there in the lagoon, -of course, but in some port? All that was required would be some -structural alterations and a shaft-hole in the quarter; he reckoned the -fitting would cost under three hundred dollars. - -He didn’t want the thing, really,—masts and sails were good enough for -his pottering-about work,—it was the passion of a woman for jewelry. -The _Sarah_ would be a nobbier boat with an auxiliary,—sea swank, -purely, exhibiting the only apparent weak spot in his character. - -That spare Bergius propeller had begun revolving in his mind days -ago,—“thrud—thrud—thrud! See me drive the _Sarah_, see me drive the -_Sarah_!” He had examined the propeller already attached and found the -blades all broken. The shaft was intact, and, beaching the _Haliotis_ -stern on in that quiet lagoon, it would have been possible to fit on -the spare one and take her off unmasted, as she was under her own -motive power. - -He had a vague notion of the structure of engines and Yankee ingenuity -enough to have driven her, but the fact of her anchor being down, as -before stated, and the fact that he had already “torn the tripes” out -of her plundered the sail room and the store room, removed brasswork -that would have taken weeks to replace, and generally left her like a -scooped cheese, prevented an idea of salvage. - -Taking the _Haliotis_ into port he would have to declare her like a -box of cigars,—a box of cigars belonging to another man and half the -cigars gone. - -Coming over the rail, Ratcliffe saw the new light in his eye and -wondered what it portended. - -“I’ve been thinkin’,” said Satan, taking his stand by the mast stump -and surveying the heap of stuff collected by the other, “I’ve been -thinkin’ it’s tomfoolery to leave that engine.” - -Jude, brought up by the sound of the dinghy coming alongside, appeared -at the saloon companionway. She wore no hat. - -“Good Lord!” said Ratcliffe, aghast. “You don’t mean to say—but it’s -impossible. We haven’t the means to take it.” - -“There’s enough of the mast left to rig a tackle to,” said Satan, “and -that hatch leads right down to the engine place. The heavy fittin’s are -easy raised from the bed-plates, and they’re not too heavy to go in -the dinghy. We can tow her with the c’lapsible.” - -“But what can you do with the thing?” - -“Fit her to the _Sarah_, of course.” - -“Here, in the lagoon?” asked the horrified Ratcliffe. - -“Well, I wouldn’t mind if I had the hands and the tools for the job,” -replied Satan. “Naw, it’s beyont me. I’ll have to take her to a port to -have it done,—not Havana, neither: there’s too many eyes in Havana and -people that know my business. Vera Cruz is the place. I know a Spanish -yard there’ll do the job.” - -“The year after next,” put in Jude, “supposing you do manage to get -it aboard, you know what the dagoes are, and you’ll knock the inside -of the _Sarah_ to flinders. She won’t be the same boat with that old -traction injin in her—I wish we’d never struck this cay!” - -She sat down on the combing of the skylight and folded her hands. -Ratcliffe had never seen her do that before. He stood torn between two -things,—the desire to please Satan and the desire to please Jude. -Pulling on the side of Jude there was also the sure foreknowledge of -the heavy work that would be required. That did not frighten him; but -it did seem to him that they had done enough and ought to be satisfied. -It was like burglars going for the kitchen boiler after having removed -the plate, furniture, and very bed-linen of a house. - -All the same he could not but admire Satan. Time was pressing, it was -quite possible that a salvage boat might poke her nose into the lagoon -at any moment. Satan knew this as well as he, yet it did not move him. - -“It’s not a dago yard,” said Satan, evading the traction engine dig, -“it’s French, and I’ve been wanting an auxiliary for years. Pap was -with me, only he was awful slow over business, and here’s one for nix. -I’m goin’ down to have a look at her.” - -He dived below. - -Jude sat brooding. - -“Never mind,” said Ratcliffe. “It’s not a big engine, and he and I will -be able to do it with a tackle. I’m not going to let him put you to -work on it.” - -“I’m not bothering about that,” said Jude fatefully. “It’s when it’s -fixed up I’m thinking of.” - -“How?” - -“He’ll make me drive the durned thing.” - -“No, he won’t.” - -“What’s to stop him?” - -“Oh, lots of things—leave it to me.” - -He was cut short by Satan’s voice calling him to come below. Down below -he had to follow all sorts of details pointed out, details proving the -desirability of the prize and the miraculous ease of its removal. - -Then they came on deck and put off for dinner. But Satan was never -destined to lift that engine. Fate had fixed it to its bed-plates more -securely than screws and nuts could hold it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXII - -CLEARY! - - -Dinner was over and Jude had run up on deck. Suddenly her voice came -down through the open skylight. - -“Below there! Cleary’s coming!” - -Satan jumped from his place like a man shot. Next moment he was on -deck. Jude pointed and handed him the binoculars she had been using. - -“That’s them!” said Satan, after a long look. “Cuss the swabs!” - -He handed the glasses to Ratcliffe. - -Away to the north two sails cut the sea-line. With the aid of the -glasses two vessels leaped into view,—a topsail schooner and a smaller -vessel of fore-and-aft rig. Even with the glasses he could not have -been sure that these were the _Natchez_ and the _Juan_ like a pair of -evil dogs hunting in company; but Satan was sure, so was Jude. - -“They’re coming dead for the cay,” said Jude. Satan said nothing. - -He had been filling his pipe when the hail came, he lit it now, walked -to the starboard rail to be alone, and stood with his eyes fixed on the -_Haliotis_. - -The position was as bad as could be. First of all, these ruffians would -be sure to make him bail up even more than he had had out of them; -secondly, they would have the laugh at him and post him as a mug all -over Havana; thirdly, they would give him away about the _Haliotis_, if -they discovered how he had plundered her. - -Having smoked for a moment in silence, he turned to his companions. - -It was a boast of Satan’s that he had never lost a spar, a fact partly -due to luck, partly to his foreseeing eye; like a good general, he had -plans for all eventualities. - -“They won’t be in the lagoon for a couple of hours,” said he, “with -this wind and all. Come on aboard the old tub.” - -“What are you going to do?” asked Jude. “Sink her at her moorings?” - -“No time; besides, they’d see her on the lagoon floor. It’s up anchor -and let her drift on the sands.” - -“What’s the good of that?” - -“Oh, Lord! Don’t stand jibberin’! I’ve got my plan. Into the dinghy -with you!” - -They rowed over to the _Haliotis_. - -The one thing that Satan had not coveted was, mercifully, the winch; -it was of the type of the West Country winch, and not a spot on Pap’s -patent, at least in Satan’s eyes. - -They set to, got the anchor in, secured it, and rowed back to the -_Sarah_. Then they watched the _Haliotis_ drift. The tide was going -out. She was close to the eastern arm of the spit, and that arm had a -bead in it toward the narrowing entry. - -Satan reckoned she would take the sand a hundred yards or so from the -entry, and he reckoned right. - -But they had no time to watch her. The deck of the _Sarah_ was lumbered -with stuff that had to be stowed out of sight. It took an hour before -everything was shipshape and snug, and by that time the oncomers were -close in, their sails big bellied with the wind, beating up for the -entrance. - -They came through, the _Juan_ leading, the _Natchez_ some two cable -lengths behind; then, with canvas threshing and the gulls yelling -round them, they dropped their anchors, the _Juan_ to starboard of the -_Sarah_ and the _Natchez_ farther up the lagoon. Ratcliffe had expected -demonstrations of hostility: there were none. - -They could see Sellers directing the fellows forward, and they could -make out Cleary on the deck of the _Natchez_. Then they saw Sellers -drop below, and through the binoculars they could see Cleary as though -he were only a few yards off,—he was smoking and giving orders to the -hands. Then he came and spat over the rail and stood looking toward the -_Sarah_ with his eyes shaded; having finished this inspection, he too -dropped below. - -“I’d a sight sooner they’d shook their fists at us,” said Satan. “They -know they’ve got us, sure.” - -Then Sellers reappeared on the deck, and the _Juan_ dropped a boat. - -“Here he is,” said Jude, “and whether he’s got us or whether he -hasn’t, he ain’t coming aboard this ship!” - -She ran forward and fetched the mop from the hole where it was stowed. - -“Let up!” said Satan. “I don’t want no fightin’: I tell you, I’ve got a -plan; I don’t want no mops in it.” - -“He ain’t coming aboard,” said Jude. - -As the boat of the _Juan_ came alongside, Sellers, in the sternsheets, -raised his hand in a lordly fashion and slightly, as befitted a -superior taking notice of an inferior. - -“Hullo, Satan!” cried Sellers as the bow oar hooked on. - -“Hullo, yourself!” replied Satan. “What you doin’ down here away?” - -“Tell you when I get aboard,” said Sellers. “Why, there’s the kid! -Hullo, Kid!” - -“Claws off!” cried Jude. “You try to come aboard and I’ll land you with -this mop! You can talk from the boat.” - -Sellers sat down again in the sternsheets. - -“She won’t let you aboard,” said Satan, speaking as though Jude were -not present. “You shouldn’t have sassed her the way you did over there -at Lone.” - -“I’m sure I beg your pardon,” said Sellers. “I’m trooly sorry to have -trod on a female’s sussuptibilities; but what I’m wishin’ to say is -this, and it’s as easy said from here as on deck: You’ve got to come -aboard the _Juan_, you and that thousand dollars you’ve had from Cark, -to say nothin’ of the coin you’ve had from Cleary, an’ be tried by C’t -Martial, an’ take your sentence. If you don’t, I’ll board you, me -and Cleary, an’ go through your ship, an’ fling the lot of you in the -lagoon—d’you take me? I’m not funnin’.” - -“I’ll come,” said Satan. “I want to have a talk with Cark anyhow.” - -“And he wants to have a talk with you.” - -“Right. Off you go, and I’ll follow.” - -“Swab!” said Jude, “are you going to pay them that thousand dollars -back? I’d sooner chuck it in the lagoon!” - -“I’d pay a thousand dollars to see Cark done in the eye,” replied -Satan. “Where’s the damage? I’ve hived more than two thousand dollars’ -worth of stuff off that blistered derelic’. You leave them cusses to -me.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIII - -THE FIGHT - - -As they watched Sellers pulling back they saw the _Juan_ drop a boat. - -“Hullo!” said Satan. - -He put the glass to his eye. - -“Cark’s coming off. He’s in the sternsheets, him and his patch—what’s -up now?” - -The two boats approached one another, and then hung together, evidently -in consultation. Then the oars took the water and they approached the -_Sarah_, Sellers leading. Satan, who had found a piece of chewing gum -in his pocket, put it into his mouth and began to chew, leisurely, like -a cow on her cud, while he watched the approaching boats. - -“What you want?” shouted Satan when they were in speaking distance. - -“Cark says you’re to come aboard right now,” replied Sellers. “You’ve -played him one trick, and he don’t want you to play him another.” - -“Oh, don’t he?” - -“No, he don’t.” - -Satan spat into the water alongside and leaned comfortably on the rail. -Carquinez was as close to the _Sarah_ as Sellers, yet he spoke no -word, leaving his deputy to do the talking, and contenting himself with -making occasional birdlike noises. - -“Well,” said Satan, ruffled, for all his appearances of calm, “you can -tell him I’ll come when I want to, and that won’t be before tomorrow -morning, for his damn cheek! Ahoy there, Cark! Ain’t you got a tongue -in your head?” - -“He’s like a blessed canary bird,” cut in Jude. “Hi, there, Sellers! -what you done with the cage?” - -“Is that your ultermatum?” demanded Sellers, ignoring Jude and -addressing Satan. - -“My which matum?” - -“Is that all you gotta say?” - -“Oh, Lord, no!” said Satan. - -“Well, then, out with it!” - -Ratcliffe had never seen Satan “het up” till now, as, straightening -himself and gripping the rail, he let out: - -“Gotta say? Why, if I’m sayin’ from now to the end o’ next week, I -couldn’t say the beginnin’ of my opinion of you, right from the truck -of Cleary’s old cod boat to the keel o’ that old disgrace you ripped -of her guts when she was a yacht—you an’ your crew of cockroaches an’ -dagoes—right from the soles of Cleary’s flat feet to the end of your -bottle nose—you and your ultermatum! - -“That’s all. I haven’t time to be wastin’ on you. I’ll come if I have a -mind to and when I want, without waitin’ for your orders—now scatter -yourselves!” - -“Right,” said Sellers. - -He gave an order to the boat’s crew, and the boat turned, and, followed -by Carquinez, made back to the _Juan_. - -Satan, his hand on the rail, watched them, still chewing. - -Not a word spoke he, the bulge in his cheek steadfast against the -skyline and his eyes fixed on the boats. - -Then he suddenly turned. - -“Them thugs will try to board us now,” said Satan. “We’ve gotta fight. -There’s Cleary puttin’ off, and we’ll have the whole Noah’s ark on us -in two ticks. We’ve gotta get the ammunition ready.” - -“There are guns down below,” said Ratcliffe. - -“Guns!” said Satan. “God bless you, we don’t want no guns! Cark’s too -frightened of the law to let any of his men use knives or pistols. -Jude, where’s that tub of stinkin’ bait—you haven’t hove it over, have -you?” - -“Nope.” - -“Cart it along. Rat; fetch up them five bottles of whisky,—they’re -better’n bumshells,—and there’s an old fryin’ pan in the galley with a -hole in it. Fetch it with the rest. There’s nothin’ like a fryin’ pan -for beltin’ people—you can’t miss. What you gettin’ at Jude?” - -“The mop,” said Jude. “I don’t want nothing better for sweepin’ up -rubbish!” - -“Well, maybe; but they’ll fight better’n you think. Lord! if I only had -a roll of barb wire! Here they come! Hurry up, Rat!” - -The three boats, Sellers and Cleary leading, were in motion and making -for the _Juan_. - -“We’ve only two to reckon with,” said Satan, as Ratcliffe arrived, -Jude helping him up with the ammunition. “Cark won’t join in: he’s too -frightened of his skin. Now then, ready with your weapons!” - -He was right. Cark’s boat, half a cable length away, backed water while -the redoubtable Cleary and Sellers rushed like hawks on the prey, -aiming to board the _Sarah_ to starboard, Cleary forward, Sellers aft. - -But the men at the oars were not used to this sort of work. In their -enthusiasm and despite the curses of their captains, they held on too -long, nearly smashed the boat’s bows against the side of the _Sarah_, -and fell into wild confusion trying to get their oars in under the -bombardment from the deck. Over the clamor of the gulls rose the shrill -curses and shouts of the dagoes, the whooping of Satan, the smashing of -bottles, while over all the perfume of bad fish and poisonous whisky -rose like the fume of the fight; but the attackers held, held by teeth -and claws and boathooks, while the wily Carquinez, on the fringe of the -fight, voiceful for once, standing up and clutching his coat together, -shouted directions—unheeded as unheard. - -Twice Sellers was almost on board, and twice Jude’s mop sent him head -over heels back; but now Cleary had made good forward, backed by two of -his crew, and while Jude, rushing to Ratcliffe’s aid, drove him back -with the mop in the pit of his stomach, Sellers, eyes shut, head down, -and fighting Satan like a mad bull, gained the deck, gripped Satan, -slipped, fell, and rolled with him in the scuppers. Three dagoes had -followed Sellers and flung themselves like dogs on the stragglers; -but now Jude and Ratcliffe, free for a moment, flung themselves on the -dagoes, broke the fight, freed Satan, and sent the whole lot bundling -over, Sellers and all—only to find that Cleary had made good again, -and after Cleary half his boat’s crew. - -Led by Satan, who had seized the frying pan, the defenders hurled -themselves on Cleary. - -Satan was right, you can’t miss with a frying pan. Cleary went down -before it. Ratcliffe, using only his fists, had floored the biggest -of the dagoes, and the rest were crowding back helter skelter, when a -shout from Sellers, who had regained the deck, brought the battle to a -pause. - -“Stop fightin’, you damn fools!” cried Sellers. - -“Lord! Look!” cried Jude. - -The port side of the _Sarah_ was turned to the entrance of the lagoon, -and into the lagoon was gliding a long, lean destroyer, shearing the -blue-green water from her fore foot. - -Being to starboard, the attackers had not seen her, and the men on deck -had been too busy. - -Carquinez alone had sighted her. The effect was magical. Peace fell -like a suddenly dropped dish-cover, and over the rail came Carquinez -and half a dozen more Spaniards from the boats. - -“Now we’re done!” said Sellers. “She’s a Britisher, and this damn -sandbank’s British and we’ll be had to the Bahamas Courts o’ Inquiry -and Lord knows what all. Referred to Havana for inquiries. They’ve -seen us at it, no use in denyin’ it. Look at them cusses’ bloody noses -and Cleary flattened out. Kick him alive, some of you fools! Here they -come!” - -The destroyer had cast anchor and dropped a boat. With the terrible -precision of a hawk or a warship closing on its prey, she was on to the -_Sarah_. A blue and gold man held the yoke lines, and the oars of the -rowers rowed like one. - -“Look at that image on the sternsheets,” said Sellers. - -“Leave him to me,” said Satan. - -“What’s your game?” - -“Shut your head! Here he is!” - -The boat came alongside. The oars rising like one, fell with a crash, -the bow oar hooked on, and over the rail came a sublieutenant of the -British Navy, smooth of face and neat as though just taken from a -bandbox. - -“What the devil are you fellows up to, fighting here?” asked the -sublieutenant. - -Satan broke into a laugh. - -“We’re movie men,” said Satan. - -“You’re what?” - -“Movin’ pictures.” - -“Oh—cinematograph?” - -“That’s it.” - -Ratcliffe, fired with admiration for this Satanic move, joined in -laughing. - -“Did you think we were fighting, really? Well, that’s funny. What’s the -name of your ship?” - -“The _Albatross_,” replied the sublieutenant, completely and roundly -taken in. “You’re English, aren’t you?” - -“Yes, I’m English. Joined the show some time ago.” - -“What’s that hooker on the sand over there?” - -“Oh, that’s part of our show. Boat supposed to have been wrecked—these -chaps are pirates.” - -“Jolly good make-up!” said the other, surveying the pirates and taking -in Cark, also Cleary, who, resuscitated in time, was leaning over the -rail chewing and spitting into the water. - -The awful question, “Where’s your camera?” never came. If it had, Satan -would no doubt have met it; but the sublieutenant was new to this sort -of business and not on the hunt for evidence. The thing was palpable -and plain. No complaint came from the attacked, and attacked and -attackers were all seemingly friends. The words “cinematograph company” -covered the situation completely. - -He gave a few words of information about the _Albatross_. She had put -in for a small repair and would be off again tomorrow morning. Then he -dropped into his boat and the incident was closed. - -“Now, you cusses,” said Satan, “see where you have landed yourselves! -Where’d you have been only for me?” - -“Well, I don’t deny you slipped the hood over that Britisher pretty -smart,” said Sellers. - -Cleary turned his head and looked at Sellers. “_You_ don’t deny! Why, -you bloody barnacle scraper, I told you to hold off from the business! -Satan, I forgive you that clap on the head. Lord love me! I’ll never -carry a derringer again. Give me a fryin’ pan, that’s the weppin; you -can’t dodge it no more than you can dodge a thunderstorm.” - -“Well,” said Satan, “fryin’ pan back the lot of you, and I’ll be on -board the _Juan_ inside half an hour and settle my business with you. -If Cark had kept his mouth shut instead of givin’ me orders, we’d have -finished it by now and no heads broke.” - -“We’ll be waiting for you,” said Sellers. - -They tumbled into the boats and rowed off. - -“They never drew a knife,” said Ratcliffe. - -“Oh, Cark took their knives from them,” said Satan. “He didn’t want no -blood spillin’ and trouble,—too much afraid of the law.” - -Jude, who had collapsed sitting-wise on the deck, began to laugh -hysterically. - -“What are you laughin’ at?” demanded Satan. - -“I dunno,” said Jude. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXIV - -“I’LL TAK!” - - -Ten minutes later Satan and Ratcliffe boarded the _Juan_. Cleary was -already on board, down in the cabin with the others; Cark and a bottle -of gin were presiding at one end of the table. Satan, with a nod to the -company, came to the table and took his seat; motioning Ratcliffe to -take the seat opposite to him. - -It was like a meeting of a board of directors, and the table just held -the six comfortably. - -What followed struck the unaccustomed Ratcliffe with astonishment,—the -amiability of it,—it might have been a card party, with Satan the -loser—momentarily. - -“Well, gentlemen,” said Satan, “what’s to pay?” - -There were extra glasses on the table and a box of cigars. The cigars -were pushed along by Sellers as he spoke. - -“There’s Cark’s loss of time,” said Sellers, “not to say mine and -Cleary’s. We tried for you round Rum Cay when you gave us the slip, and -then there was the run down here. A thousand dollars to us that means, -and five hundred to Cleary.” - -“Makin’ it two thousand five hundred and forty,” said Satan. “I’m -agreeable—and the derelic’ is mine.” - -“Which derelic’?” asked Sellers innocently. - -Satan, absolutely disdaining to reply, lit a cigar. - -“She’s worth all ten thousand dollars,” said he, “and what’s the -salvage on that?” - -“Y’mean that old dismasted catboat stuck on the sand there?” said -Cleary. “Not worth five—b’sides she’s our meat.” - -Satan dropped Sellers and turned to Carquinez. “You’ll maybe explain,” -said he. “You know the rights of the law. If you try to collar that -hooker, I’ll come in with first claim, and here’s a gentleman will back -me in law expenses. You know him,—Mr. Ratcliffe, Holt & Ratcliffe.” - -“I’ll back you,” said Ratcliffe. - -“And it seems to me law is not your lay, Cark,” went on Satan. “We came -in here yesterday and boarded and claimed that hooker, and I was fixing -the tackle for towing when you blew along. The thing’s as clear as -paint. She’s ours for salvage, and you’re not in it.” - -“Look here!” began Sellers violently—then he closed up: Cark had given -him a kick under the table. Then there was silence for a moment, during -which these two scoundrels seemed to brood together telepathically. - -Then Cark spoke, addressing Satan. - -“Will you take the air on deck for wan moment with your friend?” said -Cark. - -“Sure,” said Satan. - -A few minutes later they were called down again. - -“See here,” said Sellers, acting as spokesman for the others, “we -don’t want to bear hard on you, but we’ve been at a big loss over this -business.” - -“And who let you in for it?” asked Satan. “Haven’t you been chasin’ me -since last fall over the _Nombre_? Was it my fault she weren’t there?” - -“Well, anyhow we’re losers. But I’m coming to the derelic’. You’ll -never be able to do the tow with the _Sarah_—why, the _Sarah_ ain’t -bigger than her, and you’re underhanded anyhow.” - -“That’s so,” said Satan. - -“Well, what I propose is this,” said Sellers. “We’ll drop claims for -the run down here and only ask a thousand and forty of you, and you -drop claims on the derelic’.” - -Satan laughed. - -“Maybe you don’t know she’s got an auxiliary in her worth four thousand -dollars if it’s worth a cent. She’s broke her propeller, but she’s got -a spare one on board, and if I knew anythin’ of injins I’d drive her -back on her own power. No, I sticks to the derelic’ if that’s the best -you can offer and here’s your dollars—though I’ll have to give you my -check for the extra money.” - -He produced a bundle; then, with his hand on it: - -“If you choose to take the derelic’ for what she’s worth and call it -quits. I’ll trade, one or the other. I’m not set on that tow. But there -you are; you know the chances.” - -“I’ll tak!” suddenly broke in Carquinez, and the business was ended. - - - - -PART III - - - - -CHAPTER XXXV - -THE VANISHED LIGHT - - -A week later, toward sundown, the _Sarah_ came up the half-mile channel -and dropped her hook in Havana Harbor close to the old anchorage of the -_Maine_. A Royal Mail boat passing out gave her the kick of its wash -as she settled down to her moorings, a customs boat dropped alongside, -and the customs men, hailing Satan as a friend and brother, came aboard -and transacted business with him in the cabin. The wind blew warm, -bringing scents and sounds across the vast harbor, fluttering the flags -of the shipping, and Ratcliffe, standing at the rail, dazzled by the -brilliance of the scene before him, knew that his cruise was over. - -It was like coming to the end of a book,—a volume suddenly handed to -him by Fate to read, and of which he was condemned to write the sequel. - -He remembered the morning at Palm Island when he boarded the _Sarah_ -first, and the picture was still fresh in his mind of the _Haliotis_ -as they had left her in the lagoon at Cormorant, Sellers and Cleary -and their men swarming about her and tinkering her up. They intended -to ship the spare propeller and bring her along under her own motive -power to the nearest port, Nassau in the Bahamas. - -They had been so busy with the engines and the hull that they had never -noticed how completely she had been stripped. They were unconscious of -the fact that she had been left with her anchor down—unfortunates! He -could still see them like ants laboring in the sun, at the task set to -them by the grimly humorous Satan. - -Satan had won the game they had forced on him, holding, as he did, a -thousand and forty dollars, the “tripes” of the _Haliotis_, and the -secret of the mug trap, to be disposed of, perhaps, later on for a -consideration. Satan would, no doubt, set other unfortunates digging -for the _Nombre_ just as he had set Cleary and Sellers tinkering and -towing at the _Haliotis_, just as he had held up freighters for a bunch -of bananas, just as he had made Thelusson and his crew careen and -scrape the _Sarah_, just as he had made Ratcliffe an accomplice in his -plans and a handy man to help him in his works; yet the funny thing -about the scamp was the fact that he was absolutely dependable, when -not dealing with companies or governments or derelicts. Ratcliffe would -have trusted him with his last penny. - -Dependable if you took hold of him by his handle and not by his cutting -edge! Trustable if you trusted him! - -Then Jude came up in her harbor rig; that is to say, boots and a coat. - -“Satan’s clacking away with the customs an’ the port doctor man,” said -Jude. “You can’t see across the cabin with the smoke, and I had to -change my rig in the galley.” - -“You going ashore?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“No,” said Jude, “Satan’s going. I’ve got to keep ship. You going with -him?” - -“I suppose so.” - -Appeared Satan, followed by the port men, who tumbled into the boat and -rowed off. - -“Goin’ ashore?” asked Satan. “Well, I’ll row you to the wharf after -I’ve had a bite of supper. Jude’ll bring the boat back, and we can get -a shore boat off for half a dollar.” - -Half an hour later, just as the electrics were springing alive and the -anchor lights of the shipping marking the dusk blue sky, they started. -They stood on the wharf steps for a moment watching Jude row off, then -they turned to the town. - -Havana smells different from any other seaport. She smells of rum and -garlic and dirt and cigars and the earth of Cuba, which is different -from the earth anywhere else. The harbor and the town exchange -bouquets; the negroes help; Spanish cigarettes, Florida water and -decaying vegetables lend a hand. Satan led the way. He knew the place -as well as the inside of his pocket, and as he trudged along beside -Ratcliffe under the electrics across plazas, or through short-cut -cut-throat-looking byways, he pointed out the notable features of the -place,—Dutch Pete’s, the Alvarez factory, the great opera house, the -Calle Commacio, the cathedral. - -They passed Florion’s with its marble tables, drinkers, and domino -players, and Satan suddenly hove to. - -“Where d’you want to go now?” said Satan. “D’you want drinks?” - -“No, I don’t want drinks,” said Ratcliffe. “Come over here.” - -A blazing cinema palace shone across the way, and they entered, -Ratcliffe paying. - -The place was in black darkness. A cowboy shooting up a bar was on the -screen, and a man with an electric torch led them to their seats. - -Then they sat watching the pictures, Satan criticizing the actors -sometimes, and in a loud voice and not always favorably. The cowboy -shot himself off the screen, the lights flared up for half a minute, -went out, and the pictures resumed. - -Ratcliffe felt a nudge, and in the darkness Satan’s voice, muted now, -came in his ear. - -“Say,” whispered Satan, “did you see him?” - -“Who?” - -“The man that dropped you at Pa’m Island.” - -“Skelton!” - -“That’s him. He’s sittin’ right a front of you.” - -“Are you sure?” - -“Sure as sure.” - -Skelton here! But where, then, was the _Dryad_? Had he wrecked her, or -what? - -The words of Satan seemed to alter everything, from the music to the -picture of John Bunny on the screen. - -The darkness, filled with native Havana scents, became tinged with the -atmosphere of British Respectability. Skelton at the pictures! Why, he -ought to have been at the opera or one of the theaters or walking on -the _alameda_ digesting his dinner and thinking of Tariff Reform or -Anglicanism. It seemed impossible; yet when the light flared up again -there was Skelton, sure enough, sitting with another man, and now he -was rising, evidently tired of the show, and passing out, followed by -his friend, grave as though he had been attending his mother’s funeral -instead of the marriage of John Bunny to Flora Finch in a Pullman car -with negro accompaniments. - -He wore evening clothes, covered by a light overcoat. Ratcliffe rose -and, followed by Satan, pursued him, touching him on the shoulder -outside and in the full blaze of the lamps. - -“Good God!” said Skelton. “Ratcliffe!” - -“Just got in,” said Ratcliffe. “Had a ripping time. Where’s the -_Dryad_?” - -“Up at the wharf, coaling,” replied Skelton, absorbing Ratcliffe’s -rough and ready garb, the cloth cap he was wearing, and Satan. “I’m -staying at the Matanzas; but I go aboard tomorrow morning, and we’re -off in the evening. What have you been doing with yourself?” - -“Oh, having no end of fun. We found an old treasure ship and blew her -up and found she was full of skulls and bones. You know Satan?” - -Skelton, who had ignored Satan, acknowledged his existence by a little -nod. - -“Who’s your friend?” asked Ratcliffe, glancing at Skelton’s companion, -who had removed himself a few paces. - -“Ponsonby—diplomatic service. See here, come on board to lunch -tomorrow—one-fifteen.” - -“Right.” - -“I have some gear of yours.” - -“Right. I’ll see about it.” - -“’Night.” - -“’Night.” - -Off he went. - -They had seen enough of the pictures, and having no inclination for -cafés or taverns or gambling shops they made back toward the wharves, -Satan walking in profound silence, Ratcliffe thinking. - -The whole evening he had been followed by a miserable sort of -half-depression. It had attached itself to him first on the deck of -the _Sarah_, born of his return to civilization; it had managed to -decolorize the past few weeks and demagnetize Jude. - -His conscious mind had never quite gauged the hold that Jude had -managed to get upon him, and this subconscious devil, rising at the -touch of civilization, like a gas bubble from his conventional past, -had burst, with spoiling effect, robbing the _Sarah_ of her romance and -sea-charm and the past few weeks of their brightness. Jude had dimmed -with everything else, become part and parcel of what seemed an illusion. - -It was while sitting at the pictures, in black darkness, with knowledge -of Skelton’s presence, that the atmosphere began to clear, the waves to -beat again on Cormorant Cay, the gulls to fly and call—and Jude come -back to life. - -He heard again that queer little laugh of hers as she removed his hand. -He felt again the warm body that had rested confidingly against him -away there on the sandspit. - -And then she was out on the black harbor alone in the _Sarah_, while he -and Satan were watching the pictures! Suppose some lumbering sailing -craft being towed to her moorings or some incoming mailboat were to -smash into the _Sarah_—and they were to row off and find nothing—no -Jude? - -The thought almost made him rise from his seat to leave the place. But -he could not explain to Satan; so he sat on till the lights flared out. -And all the time, mocking the pictures on the screen, came pictures of -Jude, all sunlit, real, fresh as herself! - -Then, as they pursued their way to the wharf after leaving Skelton, -the impatience increased; the darkness of the night, the blaze of -the town, the gay life of the streets, and the revelry of the cafés -seemed sinister and banded in a conspiracy against him and the lonely -little figure of Jude. The indifference of Skelton, the way he had gone -hurriedly off, the way he had ignored Satan, were part of the business, -blended with the blazing cafés, the moving crowd of Chinks, colored -men, Spaniards, and Americans, the brilliance and gaiety without heart, -that seemed like a barrier between him and the humble little _Sarah_ -and Jude away out there in the darkness alone—waiting for him! It came -to him that Jude was the one sole thing he wanted in the cruel, odd, -electric-lit world—and he had left her! - -They passed through narrow streets like the streets in an evil dream -and blazing streets hideous with noise. Then at last they reached the -wharf with its amber lights spilling on the black waving water. Satan -hired a boat, and they put off, two dagoes rowing and Satan at the -yoke lines. - -The _Sarah_ was anchored a mile out, and the vast three-mile harbor, -vague in the starlight and circled by the hills, seemed to Ratcliffe -more immense than when seen by daylight. - -Lights, lights everywhere,—scattered lights of shipping, some near, -some far away, gem-crusted bulks that were great liners at anchor, -songs and voices, and the creak of the oars in the rowlocks! Then a -sudden green, red, and white light ahead and a fussy and furious little -tug that nearly ran them down and left them rocking in her wash. - -“Scowbankers!” said Satan. Then: “I can’t make out the light of the -_Sarah_, nohow.” - -A clutch came to Ratcliffe’s heart, the clutch of something cold and -malign which had seemed following him ever since Skelton’s presence had -made itself felt like an evil omen. - -They were so far out now that the sounds of the town and wharves had -died to nothing; but still the creak of the oars in the rowlocks kept -on. Then came Satan’s voice: - -“That’s her, over beyond them three lights on the starboard bow.” - -Ratcliffe breathed again, and his heart leaped in him as he picked out -the light. - -Satan altered their course. - -“Are you sure?” asked Ratcliffe. - -“Sure.” - -“You gave me the devil of a fright.” - -“Which way?” - -“I thought she might have been run down by some ship coming in—or -something.” - -“Oh, she’s well out of the track,” said Satan. - -“All the same, I didn’t feel easy.” - -Then they hung silent, Ratcliffe’s eyes on the light and his hand in -his pocket feeling for dollars to pay the boatmen. - -“What’s there to pay?” asked he. - -“A dollar, seeing there’s two of them,” replied Satan. “_Sarah_ ahoy!” - -“Ahoy!” came Jude’s voice, and a lantern swung over the side. - -Satan bundled on board, and Ratcliffe crammed five dollars into the -hand of the stern oar; then he followed, and the fellows pushed off. - -“Took it without fightin’!” said Satan. “Lord’s sake, what’s come to -them?” Then he bundled below to make some coffee. - -Jude snuffed the lantern out. - -She was moving away from the side and away from Ratcliffe, when he -caught hold of her round the body. She did not resist him. He held her -close to his heart. - -“Jude!” - -“What is it?” asked Jude, with a sudden catch in her breath and -speaking in a whisper. “Whacha want?” - -Then his lips met hers, full. - -Five minutes later Satan, making his coffee over the Primus stove of -the _Haliotis_, heard a struggling sound, mixed with stifled laughter, -and Ratcliffe appeared at the cabin door. He was dragging Jude in; she -was half-resisting, and her face was hid in the crook of her arm. - -“Satan,” said Ratcliffe, “I’m going to marry Jude.” - -“God help you!” said Satan. - - - - -CHAPTER XXXVI - -THE WEDDING PRESENT - - -“I’m going to marry Jude!” - -The fantastic fact embodied in those words appeared to him folly only -next day at one o’clock, with the sky to northward breathing hot on -Havana Harbor like the mouth of a blue oven, flags fluttering to the -wind, the drum and fife band of an American training ship coming over -the water, and the _Dryad_ being towed to her moorings half a mile -shoreward. - -The blushing bride-to-be of last night, hiding her nose on Ratcliffe’s -shoulder, as they sat together on the couch before Satan, while he -taunted her with the fact that now she’d have to get into skirts, had -turned back into Jude. - -She was busy getting the dinghy ready to row her fiancé off to the -_Dryad_. - -She was over the side in her, busy and humming a tune as she worked, -baling out water, fixing the cushions, and so on, while Satan watched -her in a brooding manner over the rail. - -A ghastly fear was working in the heart of Satan, the fear that Skelton -might want the dinghy returned. - -“Now, mind you,” said Satan, “and bring the boat back. I’d sooner lose -me head than that boat. If you come back without her, I’ll chuck you in -the harbor! I’m talking straight.” - -Ratcliffe, who had just come on deck dressed for the occasion, came to -the rail. Jude looked up at him and laughed. - -He had seen her laughing before, he had seen her surly, meditative, -brooding, weeping, flushed with anger, grumbling; but he had never seen -her with a look like this,—happy. - -Since last night something had come into her eyes that made her, when -her eyes met his, beautiful. It was as though a lamp had been suddenly -lit inside her, and the magical thing was the knowledge that he himself -was the lamplighter. - -He had created this new something that spoke to him right out, right to -his heart, right to his soul! - -He got into the dinghy, nodded to Satan, and they started, Jude at the -sculls, her trousers rolled half-way up to the knees and her old panama -on the back of her head. - -“Go slow,” said he, “there’s lots of time.” Then, when they were out of -hearing and he was alone with her at last: - -“Jude!” - -“What?” - -“D’you remember yesterday you asked me if I was going away, now the -anchor was down?” - -“Yes.” - -“What would you have done if I had?” - -“I’d a drowned myself in the harbor,” said Jude without a moment’s -hesitation. “What’s the good of asking?” - -“When did you begin to care for me a bit?” - -“D’you remember the sandspit?” asked Jude. “I dunno—maybe it was -beyond then—remember the cache?” - -“When I chased you round the tree and—” - -Jude screwed up her lips. - -“You gave me an awful bang on the head.” - -“You frightened the gizzard out of me,” said Jude, “and I wasn’t the -same after—that night.” - -“I remember, I heard you telling Satan that hants were chasing you.” - -“You were the hants.” - -“But you didn’t care for me then. Remember you said derricks were only -good for hoisting fools off ships with.” - -“I reckon it was a sort of caring turned inside out,” said Jude. She -turned her head to see if they were making for the _Dryad_. - -“You’re letting her off her course,” said she, “unless you’re making -for that brig.” - -“I’d just as soon make for her as anywhere else,” said he, altering the -course, “unless it was the sandspit—Jude!” - -“Yep.” - -“Imagine if we were alone on the sandspit, you and I, just as we were -that day, instead of in this rotten old harbor—let’s go there!” - -“I’m willing.” - -“When?” - -“Soon’s you like.” - -“We can get a tent and grub, and Satan can take us there and come back -for us. Damn! here’s the _Dryad_!” - -The first officer of the _Dryad_ was leaning over the rail watching -them. The stage was down, and Jude brought the dinghy alongside. - -Then on the stage he watched her rowing off. He waved his hand to her, -and she replied. - -Then, when he reached the deck, he found Skelton also at the rail. - -“’Morning,” said Ratcliffe. “That’s Satan’s sister.” - -“Which?” asked Skelton. “That—er—person in the boat?” - -“Yes. But you saw her on deck down at Palm Island, didn’t you?” - -“I had forgotten,” said Skelton, dismissing the subject. - -There were no guests. Ponsonby was to have come, but he was indisposed; -yet the luncheon was just as formal an affair as though a dozen had -been present instead of two. - -Half-way through the meal, however, Ratcliffe’s spirits began to -brighten under the influence of Perrier Jouet and the harlequin thought -that began to dance in his head, “I am going for a honeymoon to the -sandspit with Jude!” - -He laughed occasionally at nothing in particular, and Skelton thought -his manner strange, heady, queer, and began to thank his stars that -Ponsonby was indisposed. He noticed also that Ratcliffe’s hands, -despite scrubbing, bore the evidence of hard work not dissociated with -tar. There was also something queer about his hair. - -There was! Satan had barbarized it down at Cormorant with the pair of -scissors he used on Jude. - -Skelton, in asking Ratcliffe on board to luncheon, had considered -himself a most forgiving individual. Leaving aside their little quarrel -at Palm Island, remained the fact that Ratcliffe had left his ship, -deserted him for the company of those Yankee “scowbankers,” and, to -make matters worse, Ratcliffe seemed to have enjoyed the exchange. - -Now, in closer company with the delinquent, he was beginning to regret -his forgiveness. “The man had deteriorated!” - -As a result of this impression his manner had stiffened; he felt -irritated and bored. - -The steward had withdrawn, having placed the dessert on the table, -and Skelton was in the act of carving a pineapple in the only way a -pineapple ought to be carved,—that is to say by tearing it into pieces -with two forks,—when Ratcliffe, who had been staring at the fruit as -though hypnotized, suddenly broke into a chuckle of laughter. - -The pineapple, connecting itself, maybe, with canned pineapples robbed -from the store room of the _Haliotis_, had suddenly brought up the -vision of Satan. - -Satan in a new guise—Satan as a matchmaker! - -All sorts of things, some almost half-forgotten, rushed together to -clothe Satan in this new garment. He remembered Satan’s solicitude for -Jude’s future, Satan’s complacency when he and Jude had gone off to the -sandspit together, his conversations about Jude, the complete absence -of surprise with which he had taken the business of last night,—a -hundred things, and all pointing in the same direction and to the fact -that Satan had wished the business, just as he had wished the dinghy -away from Skelton, just as he had wished Ratcliffe on board of the -_Sarah Tyler_. - -He, Ratcliffe, was part of the sea-pickings of this gipsy, part and -parcel with bunches of bananas, pots of paint, sailcloth, mainsheet -buffers, cringles, and so on! He was annexed to fit Jude just as the -mast winch of the _Haliotis_ was annexed to fit the _Sarah_! - -Jude herself had declared that Satan had brought him on board because -he “wanted him.” - -Skelton paused in his operation on the pineapple and stared at the -other. - -“I beg your pardon,” said Ratcliffe, “but something has just struck me -so horribly funny I couldn’t help laughing—anyhow, the joke is against -myself. Look here, Skelton, I want to tell you something—I’m—m—going -to marry a girl.” - -“Indeed—but what is there horribly funny about that?” - -“Nothing—it’s not that, it’s something else; but let’s start with -that. I’m going to marry that girl who rowed me over here today, -Satan’s sister.” - -Skelton laid down his fork. All his starch had vanished. Surprised -out of his life, he seemed suddenly to grow younger and more natural -looking. - -“Good God!” said Skelton, staring at the other. “You don’t mean—” - -“I do. I don’t know why I am telling you, but there it is. You can’t -understand in the least—couldn’t hope to make you.” - -Now Skelton with his starch off and in an emergency was a sound man, -with a heart as good as any ordinary mortal’s. - -He had an eye that no little detail ever escaped. He had seen Jude -at Palm Island, he had heard her speak, he had seen her half an hour -ago, and Ratcliffe’s manner left him in no doubt as to his absolute -earnestness. - -The man was about to commit suicide, social suicide. He had seen men do -the same thing often in different ways. - -He pushed the pineapple away and rose from the table. - -“Come into the smoke room,” said he. - -In the smoke room he rang for coffee. Not a word about Jude. Dead -silence. - -Then, when the coffee was brought and the door closed, he turned to the -other. - -“Ratcliffe, you can’t do this thing. I know. Let me speak for a moment. -You are your own master, free to do as you choose; but I must speak. I -like you. Our temperaments are dead different, and we don’t make good -companions; but you have many sterling qualities, and I don’t want to -see you come a mucker. You can do a thing like this in two minutes; but -two hundred years won’t get you out of it, once it’s done. (Take sugar -in your coffee? Yes, I remember.) See here! I had a young brother once -who was going to do just the same,—absolutely ruin himself. I managed -to stop it, saved his future and his name.” - -He picked a cigar out of a box and, coming to a dead stop in his -remarks, cut the end off. - -“My dear fellow,” said Ratcliffe, before he could continue, “I know -absolutely and exactly how you feel on the subject and what you would -say. I’ve felt it myself and said it to myself. - -“I began to get fond of her almost from the first. If you’d been in my -shoes, you would have been just the same. No one could help getting -fond of her. Then after awhile I found how I was drifting, and I said -to myself, ‘It’s absurd!’ I pictured all my female relations and so -forth and my position in the wonderful thing you call Society.” - -“Don’t sneer at Society,” said Skelton gravely. “That’s the easiest -sort of cant that ever folly put into a man’s mouth. Go on.” - -“You’re right,” said Ratcliffe. “All the same Society galls one at -times when the thought of it comes up against something alive and fresh -and free from snobbery like Jude. Well, things went on and on. I hadn’t -much time for thinking, underhanded as we were; and that was the fatal -thing, for I absorbed her without thinking,—not her face or body, but -her character. You know that, underhanded and close together on a tub -like the _Sarah_, character is the thing that shows and counts, and -at every hand’s turn hers showed up and got a tighter grip on me. It -wasn’t a character all jam, either, but it was a thing to count on and -real as the sea—you can’t understand.” - -“I can,” said Skelton, humoring the other, “a fine character.” - -“Oh, Lord, no!” said Ratcliffe. “Don’t get away with things. _Real_, -that’s the word!” - -“But, my dear man—” - -“I know what you are going to say. She can’t speak King’s -English—well, I’m going to teach her. She’s dressed like that—well, -I’m going to dress her properly after awhile.” - -Skelton suddenly showed a flash of irritation. - -“Come up to the point,” said he. “Are you, after what I’ve said, still -fixed in your purpose? Are you going to marry her?” - -“As soon as ever I can get a priest off to the old _Sarah_,” replied -Ratcliffe. - -“That is your last word?” - -“Yes.” - -“Very well,” said Skelton. His manner changed. He had done what he -could: it was useless. Ratcliffe was no relation of his, and now, -contemplating the thing with as much detachment as though it were a -losing horse race or boxing encounter on which he had no bet, he lit -the cigar, which he had been holding unlighted in his fingers, and -became almost amiable. - -“Very well,” said he, “go ahead. After all, it’s not my affair; but -I’ll be interested to know how you get on. By the way, I have some gear -of yours on board.” - -“Take it back, will you, like a good chap,” said the other, “and leave -it with the yacht people at Southampton? I’ll pick it up there when I -return.” - -“You are coming back?” - -“Oh, rather; but not for a year or so, maybe. I’ve a lot to do, and -when you see us next maybe you’ll agree—” He stopped short and relit -his cigar, and they hung silent, each engaged in his own thoughts. - -Now; on the warm sea-scented air entering through the open ports, came -a voice. - -It was the voice of the second officer, addressing someone overside. - -“Hi, there! Bring her round to the quarter-boat davits; she’s to come -aboard.” - -“That’s the dinghy,” said Skelton. “I told them to bring her aboard. -I’ll send you back in the pinnace.” - -Again came the voice. - -“Hi, there! Are you deaf? Bring her round to the quarter-boat davits; -she’s to come aboard.” - -Then Jude’s fresh young voice: - -“Gar’n! She’s ours; old Popplecock gave her to Satan. Whacha talking -about?” - -“Very well,” came the other’s. “You wait till Sir William comes on -deck.” - -Skelton with a grim smile turned to the door. He pointed to the clock -on the bulkhead. - -“I’m going on deck,” said he. “See that clock—promise me to stick here -for two minutes by it and think right over the matter for the last -time. Don’t let anything I have said weigh with you.” - -He went on deck and, keeping clear of the rail, entered into -conversation with the first officer. - -Three minutes passed, and Ratcliffe’s head appeared at the saloon hatch. - -“Going?” said Skelton. - -“Yes,” said Ratcliffe. - -“Right! You can keep the dinghy—it’s a wedding present. Luck!” - -“Same to you!” said Ratcliffe. - -He gripped the other’s hand, and the grip was returned. The two men had -never been so close to each other before, never would be again. - - * * * * * - -Two hours later the _Dryad_, queening it over the satin smooth harbor, -dipped her flag to the humble little _Sarah_, and the _Sarah_ dipped -her flag to the _Dryad_, and someone in the Wedding Present lying -alongside the _Sarah_ waved a hat. - -Skelton, at the after rail, fixed his binoculars on the hat-waver. It -was Satan. - - -THE END - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - - -Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant -preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. - -Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced -quotation marks retained. - -Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of -inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed. - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SATAN *** - -***** This file should be named 55183-0.txt or 55183-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/3/4/55183/ - -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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