The Third Officer: A Present-day Pirate Story Page 14

  CHAPTER XIII

  "Getting on with It"

  For some moments Burgoyne was completely dumbfounded. He could formno satisfactory reason for the Old Man's emphatic decision, unlessCaptain Blair was labouring under a delusion owing to a hithertounsuspected mental trouble.

  It seemed incredible that Alwyn's carefully-thought-out plans andcareful preparations (although the latter were only in the initialstages) should have been drastically turned down, especially as theyhad met with the approval and gained the co-operation of every othersurviving officer of the _Donibristle_.

  Burgoyne uttered no word of protest. It was not for him to reasonwhy--at least audibly. His sense of duty--impressed upon him from hisearly days of Osborne--had taught him to receive and carry out ordersunquestioningly. So he held his peace and waited.

  "I suppose you'd like my reasons for the decision, Mr. Burgoyne?"asked the Old Man.

  "I would, sir, if you have no objection."

  "Not in the least," rejoined the skipper. "The chief one is thatthere is no immediate necessity for you to take this step. As thingsgo we have nothing much to complain about." ("Exactly what MissVivian said," thought the Third Officer.) "It is reasonable to assumethat Porfirio cannot carry on for long, and release will comepossibly long before you could reach the Marshall Islands. It's atremendous voyage for an open boat, and the results gained, if any,would not justify the risk. Then, again, there's the question ofreprisals. The pirates would miss the boat and draw perfectly logicalconclusions. They would revenge themselves on those who would bestill in their power, even to the extent of committing cold-bloodedmurder. No doubt you think I'm a bit in a blue funk, but I have theadvantage of years, and that has taught me to look ahead and not waittill I see a rock under my bows. However, I don't want to moralize. Ihope you see my point?"

  "Yes, sir," replied Alwyn.

  "However," continued the Old Man briskly, "there's no reason why youshouldn't carry on with your preparations. If occasion should arisefor someone to leave the island in a hurry, it is as well to be readyfor the emergency. But, until occasion does arise, it is folly toprecipitate matters, and deliberately seek the path of a typhoon whenwe are bowling along before a steady breeze. By the by, what has thatwash-out Miles been doing?"

  "He was placed in Mr. Branscombe's party working on board the_Donibristle_, sir."

  "H'm. I'll tell Branscombe to keep a pretty sharp eye on him. CaptainDavis informs me that Miles seems rather fond of that ruffianStrogoff."

  "Is that so?" remarked Alwyn. "I was under the impression thatStrogoff was sent on board the _Malfilio_."

  "He was aboard the old _Donibristle_ yesterday, at any rate,"declared the skipper. "Miles knows about Miss Vivian, and, although Icannot say definitely, I think he's the sort of man who wouldn'thesitate to give the show away if he could make his own case good."

  The seriousness of Captain Blair's words took Burgoyne aback. TheThird Officer remembered that little incident of the chocolate. Itwas but a straw that showed the direction of the wind. Miles hadproved himself to be a man of no moral fibre. To what depths would hedescend to obtain consideration from the villainous Strogoff?

  "That is why you wanted the boat held in readiness, sir," he asked."To remove Miss Vivian from the island in the event of discovery?"

  "You've hit it, Mr. Burgoyne. The sooner the preparations arecompleted the better; but, of course, there may be no necessity forthem. I quite agree with you that Minalto is the right man for thejob, with you in charge of the boat."

  "And Colonel Vivian."

  "He won't be going," declared the skipper. "I pointed out to him thealmost unsurmountable disadvantages of having a cripple in the boat.His health, too, isn't at all good. He quite saw the force of mycontention."

  "We are speaking, sir, as if the lifeboat were already in ourpossession."

  "Aye," rejoined the Old Man. "It's a rough proposition, Mr. Burgoyne,but from what you've told me the task is not beyond your ingenuity."

  That night Burgoyne carefully revised the altered situation. Theperplexing factor in the case was the uncertainty of the time whenthe boat might be required. He could not completely grasp the meaningof Captain Blair's decision to refrain from action until Miss Vivianwas in immediate danger. It was obvious that the boat must be seized,taken to the western side of the harbour, and provisioned all withina few hours, and be out of sight before dawn. There wasn't thefaintest hope of being able to conceal the boat for several daysprior to the dash for freedom. The mere fact that the lifeboat hadbeen removed from the beach would be sufficient to put the pirates onthe qui vive.

  And, again, although a fair amount of provisions had been set asideto victual the boat, nothing had yet been done to hide them in thecave. Neither had any of the people in the secret been able to obtaina receptacle of any description to carry water, and fresh water wasindispensable for the voyage.

  Nor had the cave been explored. Branscombe had collected enough ropeto make a three-inch hawser of two hundred and fifty feet in length,more than sufficient to reach from the top of the cliff to the beach,but the actual descent had not yet been attempted.

  Clearly a stupendous task confronted Burgoyne. Much had beenaccomplished, but more remained to be done in secrecy and withdispatch.

  On the following morning Burgoyne rejoined his working-party.Fernando, the half-caste who had succeeded Black Strogoff asoverseer-in-chief to the prisoners, nodded and made some remark. Thewords being Spanish, Alwyn failed to understand them, but evidentlythey were of a complimentary nature.

  Before the working-party arrived upon the scene of operations, one ofthe men who had done a good deal of voyaging on the South Americancoast explained that Señor Fernando was delighted that Perez--Burgoyne's late opponent--had been vanquished. There was no lovelost between Fernando and the late leading gun-layer of the_Malfilio_.

  The work of unloading the _Donibristle's_ cargo had been completed,but most of her stores were taken on board the _Kittiwake_. It wasobviously the intention of the pirates to keep the latter vessel in aseaworthy condition, since she had not been stripped as in the caseof the other prizes. In addition, a wireless operator, a German witha knowledge of four or five languages, was constantly on duty onboard the _Kittiwake_. He merely "caught" and reported radios fromvessels within range of the apparatus, making no attempt to transmit,lest the source of origin might be located.

  Instead of being ordered to man the crane, Burgoyne's party weremarched through the tunnel down to the beach. Here they "stood easy",while a number of the _Malfilio's_ crew launched and loaded a boat,placing a number of explosive charges into the stern-sheets. Thepirates then pushed off and made for the _Donibristle_.

  Presently the reason for the unusual "stand easy" became apparent.Pablo Henriques, being unable to give intelligible orders in English,had reluctantly been compelled to bring Black Strogoff upon thescene.

  For the next three hours the captives were kept hard at it, layingout anchors in the centre of the deep channel, until a continuousline of warping buoys was laid from the _Donibristle's_ berth to theentrance to the enclosed harbour. It was heavy and exacting workhandling those anchors, weighing anything between five and ninehundredweight. A hitch in the operations, or the slightest lubberlywork, might easily result in the capsizing of one of the boats, andmore than likely the loss of several of her crew.

  This task completed, the men expected a respite. They got none.Instead, Black Strogoff ordered them to take other anchors and placethem on either side of the narrow channel turning southward betweenthe island and the long narrow mass of rock that protected theentrance to the harbour.

  Fortunately the water inside the lagoon was as smooth as a mill-pond,and by "knocking-off time" six pairs of anchors were in position,"backed" by pickets and crowbars. Each pair of anchors was connectedby cables, buoyed in the centre of the span.

  Still "in the dark" as to the reason for this strenuous labour,Burgoyne returned with his party to the compound. Three of the m
enwalked back with severe physical discomfort, apparently sufferingfrom what is popularly known as a stiff knee. Within five minutesafter they were dismissed they were all right again--and Burgoyne hadadded three useful crow-bars to the steadily accumulating stock.

  Literally speaking, Burgoyne had returned empty-handed.Metaphorically he had not; for, strapped to the small of his back wasa flat pulley of the "snatch-block" type, with a sheave capable oftaking a three-inch rope.

  All this was attended by great risk to the parties concerned.Although the systematic search to which the prisoners were at firstsubjected had been discontinued, the pirate guards occasionally wentto the length of ordering some of the captives aside; but fortunatelythe greatly desired articles were smuggled into the compound withoutdetection.

  During the day Captain Blair had not been idle. Although "fit forduty" he had remained in the compound with the idea of obtaining agreatly-needed water-barrel.

  Directly the working-parties had cleared off, the Old Man, armed withan axe that had been issued to the "galley", made his way to thespring that supplied the prisoners with fresh water. There was not alarge supply, although the flow was fairly constant, and in order toensure that a sufficient quantity should always be on hand, a largecask with the head knocked off had been sunk in the sand to catch thetrickle of water from the spring.

  Cautiously, so as not permanently to injure the cask, Captain Blairremoved three of the hoops and "started" some of the closely-fittingstaves. Then, wedging the openings with pebbles, he brought the"chine" back into position and replaced the chine-hoop. When the sandwas replaced around the barrel, it appeared to be intact thoughutterly leaky.

  His next step was to go to the wicket-gate and report the lack offresh water to Señor Fernando.

  The latter inspected the faulty cask, and by a smattering of English,aided by signs, told the skipper to get another cask from thecooperage.

  Delighted with the way in which his little "stunt" was panning out,Captain Blair ordered the steward and Twill to accompany him.Escorted by Fernando the three men passed through the wicket-gatewithout difficulty, and proceeded to the store where spare casks andbarricoes were kept.

  The door of the cooperage was open, as was the case with mostbuildings containing articles of bulk and of no great value, althougheverything was carefully locked after working hours. Fernando wassmoking the inevitable cigarette, and, since Ramon Porfirio'sinstructions against smoking in wooden buildings were very exact, heremained outside.

  It did not take the Old Man long to choose a suitable cask. Into ithe placed two barricoes, each capable of holding twelve gallons ofwater, and jammed them tightly against the bottom of the cask. Thehead of the latter was then deftly replaced and Captain Blair and histwo assistants rolled their prize into the open.

  With perspiration oozing from every pore, Barnes and Twill propelledthe cask to the gate of the compound. Here Fernando left them, andthe guard, taking it for granted that no search was necessary, sincethe prisoners were escorted, made no attempt to examine the seeminglyempty barrel.

  Under the lee of the cook-house the skipper removed the barricoes andcarried them into his quarters. An hour later the prisoner'swater-supply was again normal.

  But the Old Man's triumph was short-lived. The unexpected anddramatic appearance of the Chinese store-house man, Li Whong,accompanied by a couple of armed pirates, completely took the windout of his sails.

  In pidgin English Li forcibly demanded the return of the barricoes.Vainly Captain Blair tried to explain that he had taken thewater-barrels with the idea of saving numerous journeys to thespring.

  The Old Man had to surrender his hard won trophies, and received anadmonitory kick from the Chink into the bargain. No wonder, then, hewas "fed up to the back teeth" when Burgoyne returned.

  "Rough luck, sir," sympathized Alwyn. "Wonder how that Chink got windof it?"

  "Dashed if I know," replied Captain Blair. "It only shows we'll haveto be most careful. Do you think it safe to carry out yourinvestigations to-night?"

  "I think so, sir," said Burgoyne. "For one thing, there's no moon andthe tide's favourable."

  "The tide!" exclaimed the Old Man. "What's the tide got to do withit? There's always a beach above high-water mark down there."

  "Quite so, sir," agreed the Third Officer. "But I want to explore thewhole extent of the bay to see if there's a practicable means ofascent on the other side of the fence. As the tide's falling, I cankeep below high-water mark, and the flood tide will wipe out myfootprints."

  "That didn't occur to me," admitted Captain Blair. "Well, good luck,and may you fare better than I did."