CHAPTER XV
How Minalto Fared
Burgoyne and his companions were on the horns of a dilemma. If theypersisted in their attempt to regain their quarters they would almostcertainly be detected, while even if they succeeded they would beunable to return to the cliff. Minalto would have to be left to takehis chance, and the gaunt evidence of the night's work would be laidbare with the dawn. If they returned to the cliff there was thepossibility that they would have to hide all next day, and be facedwith the awkward problem of explaining their absence satisfactorily.
They chose the latter course, and upon returning to the scene of thelowering operations they flung themselves flat upon the turf, lesttheir silhouettes would betray them to the pirates stationed aboutthe camp and concealed in the bushes on the summit of ObservationHill.
There they lay, hardly daring to stir a limb and maintaining absolutesilence for the best part of an hour. Then the searchlight, which hadbeen playing continuously upon the island, was suddenly masked.Twenty minutes later Burgoyne cautiously raised his head and lookedseaward. A flickering white light informed him that the vessel wassteaming rapidly away.
"Hang on here," he whispered to his companions "I'm going to have alook round."
He was back in a quarter of an hour, with the report that he had seenthe pirate guard form up and march through the gate of the compound.
"That leaves us with a tolerably free hand," he added. "I was afraidthey'd muster all hands and call the roll. No sign of Minalto yet, Isuppose?"
"None," replied Withers, who had been holding on to the rope. "He's abit behind time. I hope nothing's gone wrong."
"So do I," agreed Alwyn fervently.
Slowly the minutes passed. Momentarily doubts grew in the minds ofthe three watchers. Even Alwyn's faith in Minalto's powers waswaning.
"I'll take on now," he remarked, relieving the Second Engineer at therope.
He had barely resumed his "trick" when the manila rope was almostjerked out of his hand. From the unseen depths below came threedecided tugs.
"He's back, lads," whispered Burgoyne joyously. "All together. Manthe rope--walk back."
It was no easy task to hoist the ponderous seaman, but at lengthJasper Minalto's head and shoulders appeared above the edge of thecliff. With no apparent effort he swung himself up by the projectingbeam and gained the summit. Slipping out of the bowline, he shookhimself like a Newfoundland dog, for water was dripping from hissaturated clothes.
"I've been there sartain sure," he announced coolly, "an' back agen,sir. If you'm your doubts, sir, there's my 'nitials scratched on terboat's back-board, fair an' legible-like s'long as you lookscarefully."
Burgoyne brought his hand down upon the seaman's shoulder.
"Splendid!" he exclaimed. "You must spin your yarn later, after we'vepacked up and stowed away the gear. There's not much time. But, inany case, Minalto, you've won your place in the boat."
"Thank'ee, sir," replied Jasper gratefully.
Grey dawn was showing over the eastern height of the island when thefour men returned to their huts. Burgoyne reported "all well" toCaptain Blair, who, declining to hear details, told the Third Officerto turn in.
"You can't work watch and watch for two successive days unless youhave a 'caulk'," he added. "It will be another hour and a quarterbefore the hands are turned out. Make the best of it."
But the Old Man was wrong in his estimate. No attempt was made tosummon the crews of the three captured ships to their forced labour.They were piped to breakfast and then allowed to "stand easy", whilearmed pirates patrolled the inner circle of huts in addition toaugmenting the guards in the two block-houses.
"Something's in the wind," declared Captain Blair. "The vessel thatused her searchlight last night is evidently beating up for theisland."
Soon there was no doubt on the point. From the compound the heightscommanding the harbour and eastern approach to the island wereplainly visible. Bodies of pirates were being rushed up to theconcealed gun emplacements, which they could reach without being seenfrom seaward. Others were hurrying towards the tunnel, with the ideaof manning the machine-guns that swept the entrance to the harbourand the only landing-place.
"The ball's about to commence," said Branscombe. "Wonder who'll openfire first?"
The prisoners listened in breathless suspense for the crash of theopening contest between the warship--or whatever she might be--andthe quick-firers comprising the principal defences of the island. Atintervals a powerful syren boomed out its raucous wail, demanding inMorse Code whether there were any people on the island.
Presently the sound came from the south'ard and then the west'ard,but no reply was sent from the pirates lying low on the apparentlyuninhabited island.
An hour later the captives caught sight of the trucks and aerials ofa two-masted vessel proceeding on an easterly course at a distance ofabout two miles north of the island. Then the two mastheads vanishedbehind the rising ground; but from the fact that the batteries werestill manned the _Donibristle's_ people drew what proved to be acorrect conclusion that the vessel had once more taken up a positionoff the eastern face of the secret base.
At noon, the prisoners still standing easy, Captain Blair called ameeting of officers to receive the reports of the investigatingparty.
It was Jasper Minalto's recital which created the greatest interest.After parting with Mr. Burgoyne on the shore, he said he swam to thereef, landing without difficulty on a flat expanse of coral. Althoughthe reef averaged twenty yards in width and the state of the tide wasalmost low-water, the breakers swept far across the coral barrierbefore they expended their strength. Had it been anything nearapproaching high-water progress along the reef would have beenextremely dangerous, if not impracticable.
But in present circumstances Minalto found the reef "fair going".There were several deep and narrow gulleys to be crossed, while therewas a strong tidal current setting out of the only possible boatchannel--not taking into consideration the ship passage--which was onthe extreme south-western part of the reef.
It required a strenuous effort to swim across the narrow gap, butMinalto expressed an opinion that at dead low-water, or thereabouts,there would be little or no current.
Off the south-eastern end of the island he found himself quite a milefrom shore, but on the eastern side the reef converged towards theisland. Nevertheless he had to swim a quarter of a mile, aided by theset of the current, to gain the long, narrow and lofty ledge of rockthat screened the harbour in which the _Malfilio_ and her prizes werelying.
Here the buoys laid down the previous day by the _Donibristle's_ crewhelped him considerably, since he was able to hang on to them andrest as he made his way up the narrow channel.
Swimming close to the rocks on the island side of the channel, hearrived at the entrance to the harbour, and was glad to find his feettouch bottom just within the southern spur of rock that practicallyenclosed the anchorage.
From that point he waded until he reached the sandy beach. Everythingwas quiet. Keeping close to the cliff he passed the boatsheds andalmost tripped over the chain securing the hauled-up boats.
Arriving at his goal, Minalto, as he told Burgoyne, scratched hisinitials upon the lifeboat's back-board. Then, having established hisclaim, he began to retrace his course.
At that moment he was considerably taken aback by seeing a lightflash across the sky. His first thought was that the pirates haddiscovered him, but upon second consideration he rightly concludedthat the flash came from a searchlight in the offing.
Before he had gone very far a faint light blinked from a pointhalf-way up the cliff and immediately above (so he judged) theentrance to the tunnel. It was promptly answered by a light from the_Malfilio_ and in a few minutes the crew of the pirate cruiser werestanding to their guns. From where Minalto stood he could see all thestarboard guns trained upon the entrance to the harbour, and ratherapprehensively he wondered what would happen to him if they openedfire when he was swimming through th
at narrow gap.
He remained for some minutes crouching against the cliff, until itoccurred to him that time and tide wait for no man, and that if hewere to return by the way he came he would have to hurry hismovements.
Minalto took the water as noiselessly as an otter. Swimmingdog-stroke in order to minimize the phosphorescent swirl of his wake,he kept close to the cliffs--so close, in fact, that once his rightknee came into sharp contact with a rock.
Then came the crucial point of his return journey--the passage of theharbour mouth. Dozens of pairs of eyes must, he knew, be peering inthat direction, but he reckoned on the possibility that while theywere looking for a large object, namely an armed boat from thewarship off the island, they would fail to detect a small one--thehead of the swimmer.
Unobserved he cleared the projecting headland, and working from buoyto buoy along the south approach channel until he came in view of thereef, gained a "kicking-off" position for the longest and moststrenuous of his many swims that night.
Although the sea was warm he was beginning to feel that"water-logged" sensation that results from keeping in too long.Alternately swimming on his breast and back he continued doggedly,knowing that if he rested he would be swept out of his course by thesteady indraught into the lagoon, for by this time the young floodwas making.
At length he gained the reef, rubbed his cramped limbs, and set offbriskly to the point nearest that part of the island whence he hadset out, and an hour and a half later he was being hauled up thecliff.
Jasper Minalto had told his story, without any embellishments, in thebroad, burring dialect of the West Country. But behind that simplenarrative his listeners detected a ring of indomitability that hadbrought the man safely through the grave perils by land and sea.
"That coral is most heavy on shoe leather," he remarked. "Fair cut topieces 'un is. But nex' time 'twill be only one way, like; seein' ashow us be a-comin' back wi' the boat."
"You think we'll be able to launch the lifeboat and get her roundwithout being spotted?" asked Captain Blair.
"We'd best wait till the _Malfilio's_ a-put to sea, sir," repliedMinalto. "There wur nobody on the beach as far as I could see, an' t'other craft wur quiet enow."
"It was the vessel in the offing that put the crew of the _Malfilio_on the qui vive, I fancy," observed Burgoyne. "We'll have to take theship into consideration, I'm afraid, sir. That is, if we are to takeadvantage of these moonless nights."
"We'll have to," decided the Old Man. "We've five clear days beforethe new moon grows sufficiently to cause trouble. Failing that itwill mean a fortnight's delay--and then it may be too late. And thenthere's the question of fresh water," he added, still smarting fromthe effect of his splendid failure. "That is the question."
"What's wrang wi' a bit o' canvas?" inquired Angus. "A pair o' canvastanks fitted 'tween thwarts'll just dae fine."
"A good idea, Mr. Angus," said the skipper. "We'll have to knock up acouple of canvas tanks. There's the question of evaporation andleakage by the boat heeling to be taken into account."
"And, perhaps, the water might be tainted by the canvas," addedAlwyn.
"Havers, mon!" ejaculated the First Engineer scornfully. "May yenever hae wurrse. Mony a day I've drunk bad water--an' bad whuskyforbye, an' I'll live to dae it again," he added with an air offinality. "We'll get on with it," decided Captain Blair. "After all,beggars can't be choosers. Any more points to raise? None. Very well,then; unless anything unforeseen takes place Mr. Burgoyne and Minaltowill bring the boat round to the west beach at----?"
"Three a.m. on Thursday," said Alwyn.
For the remainder of the day the captives' "stand easy" continued. Asfar as the men taking part in the previous night's work wereconcerned nothing could have been more welcome. It enabled them tomake up arrears from loss of sleep and strenuous activity.Nevertheless the additional length of line for the guide-rope wasforthcoming, the canvas water-tanks were sewn up and tested, and moreprovisions lowered and hidden in the cave.
There remained three clear days before the die was cast and themomentous step taken--unless events over which the late officers andcrew of the _Donibristle_ had no control should necessitate a hurriedchange of plans.
Just before sunset the guns' crews were withdrawn from theemplacements, and the guards stationed outside the huts were marchedout of the compound, so apparently Señor Ramon Porfirio wassatisfied that the vessel that had caused him great uneasiness hadreally taken her departure.