CHAPTER XIII
WE PLAN AN EXPEDITION
I had been thrown down the companion by an appalling crash and a suddenlurch of the steamer as she careened to port. It seemed to me that thebottom plates were being ripped out of her and she was settling on herside with a succession of thumps which I took to be her last effort tokeep afloat. The sea was almost to the open ports on the port side; and,as I tried to gain my feet on the tilted deck of the forecastle, I fellagainst the outboards of the line of bunks.
"She's aground!" screamed Captain Riggs at me. "She's gone smash flatinto a bed of coral! See that green streak running away from us toseaward? That's a reef running out from the mainland and we've piled upon it, and if we don't slip off we're safe until it comes on to blow."
He ran to the starboard side and climbed the bunks to look through theports there.
"It's all around us! Hear her settling? She's making a bed for herself inthe coral-patch and she's not taking any more water. She's safe as achurch, Mr. Trenholm. If the tide don't lift her off enough to pull herinto deep water, or the current swing her, she'll hold until the seacomes up; but she's pretty deep and lays steady. She'll break up righthere."
"That's small comfort for us," I said, nursing my bruises.
"They've gone in behind that point and made a landing," said Riggs, stilllooking through the port. "We'll be out of here in jig-time now. Where bemy matches? Here! You and Rajah fish for water with these tins on astring, and wet down all these rags. Pull all the water in here you can."
He lit the slush-lamp again, and I wondered what he was about. I was notquite sure whether he knew of a way to get out of the forecastle, or hadlost his reason. He was all bustle and business in a minute.
"I thought we wanted to keep the water out," I remarked.
"Stow that talk and obey orders," said Riggs sharply, digging grease outof the can of the lamp with his fingers and picking the wick to make itburn better. "Look lively now with that water and I'll show you a trickor two now that they've abandoned ship. I'll take a hand in this businessmyself."
"What's the plan?" I asked.
"Burn the cussed scuttle off a mite at a time. Grease a bit of the boardand then hold the flame of the lamp on it, and, when it gets too lively,heave some water on and put it out and begin again. Haul a couple ofbarrels of water in here and spill it under the bunks so we can git at itwith the pans if the fire starts to git away from us. Clap on, man;we need every minute now."
Rajah and I rigged them with strings and set to drawing water through theport-holes on the port side, which was not a hard job, for the swellscame within a couple of feet of our hands as we held the tins outside. Wefilled sea-chests, the rubber crowns of a couple of old sou'westers, anddumped water through the slats of the tiers of bunks so that it lodged inthe angle between the side of the ship and the deck.
While we were at this task Riggs was up in the scuttle, and from time totime we could hear the crackle of flames, and then the hissing of thewater as he extinguished the burning planks. The thick smoke came downthe companion and burned our eyes and nostrils as it escaped through theports.
Riggs came down every few minutes to get a supply of water. He was blackas a chimney-sweep, but he reported good progress and grinned at ourdiscomfort from the smoke and heat.
Finally we heard Riggs hammering at the charred board with thebelaying-pin.
"I've got it through!" he yelled to us from a smoking shower of blackfragments of the board, and I ran up to him and saw the sun through thechains around the frame of the scuttle. The links were glowing with heatand we dashed water on them. In a short time we had wrenched them apartso Rajah could get through the strands. Then he threw off the bars of ourprison, and Riggs and I gained the hot plates of the sloping fore-deck,crawling over the body of the dead Chinese, which we rolled into thesea.
"They are clean gone," said Riggs, crawling up to the starboard side andscanning the island and the channel. "They went in behind that point, andit's a good chance they'll be back if they see she's still afloat."
"Let them come," I said. "Are there any more weapons in the ship?"
"I've got a few guns stowed where even Thirkle couldn't find 'em, or atleast Harris hid some away. Always afraid of mutiny, he was, and he gotone with a vengeance, poor chap. It's my ticket to a penny whistle we'llfind Thirkle and his men on the island."
"Then you'll go after them, captain?"
"Well, I'd rather guess so," he said vehemently. "I'm on fair ground now,and if they don't come back to burn the ship I'm the man to hunt them outof their holes ashore. But what I'm afraid of is they will hide the stuffand make for the mainland, or put off to the north in the boats to see ifthey can't be picked up by some steamer for the north coast.
"They'll report the _Kut Sang_ lost, and Thirkle'll figure on gettingback here before folks are suspicious. Of course the people who shippedthat gold may smell a rat and keep tab on him, but he'll see that hegets clear. He'll report her foundered far from here--leave that to him.I doubt if he'll quit this place as long as he sees a foot of the_Kut Sang_ above water. Are you game to go after him, Mr. Trenholm?"
"I'm with you to the end of the whole game--I want to see it played outnow, win or lose."
"I knew you would. I suppose I've been a bit of an old woman, Mr.Trenholm, but I never looked for the likes of what was aboard last night.There I was, alone, you might say, blind as an owl on what was going onaround me, and when things began to go bad they had you mixed in it so Itook you for one of 'em. They had me flat aback for a time there--Ididn't know my own name from Sally Ann's black cat. It looked like thewhole ship was against me, and, when I saw Harris go, I was cleanout of soundings."
I told him that he had realized the danger better than I did, and that Ihad not been hampered by the sense of responsibility or the possibilityof disgrace.
"Oh, I lost my wits for a time there, and we can't get away from it--Iwas all fuddled, but I'll show ye I've got more fight in me than ye lookfor, if ye'll see me through with it."
"All or nothing," I said. "We'll give him a gamble for the whole pot now,and I think it's time they got a run for their money. In my way ofthinking they have had it too easy."
"That's business," said Riggs. "Doggone my cats, but we'll give 'em somelead to go with the gold or my name ain't Riggs! We'll find out if thisDevil's Admiral, or Thirkle, or the Rev. Luther Meeker, or whatever hecalls himself, is so bad as he makes out to be--eh, Mr. Trenholm?"
We shook hands on the compact, lying there on the sizzling irondeck-plates that reflected the rays of the sun in shimmering heat-waves,making our exposed position intolerable after the thirst and smoke andhunger we had endured in the forecastle.
"Then that's settled, Mr. Trenholm. Now we'll have to step careful untilI look up what's left of the weapons, and we can't know what trapsthey've laid for us about here. Come on, and keep close."
We scrambled along the port side, taking care of our footing, for therail-chains were stripped off the stanchions, and with the deck at anawkward angle there was danger of slipping into the water. CaptainRiggs led the way up the saloon-deck ladder and we entered the passage.
The captain and Rajah went to his cabin, the first door, and I ran aft tomy stateroom, hoping to find my pistols. The room was ransacked and mybag empty and the pistols gone. Some of my garments were thrown into thepassage, and I got a duck suit, a pair of deck-shoes, and a cap.
"Here are my guns," said Riggs. "Had 'em stowed down back of thechart-locker--three of 'em--and you'll find a canister of ammunitionfor that big gun of yours in Mr. Harris's room. That gives us two gunsapiece, and I guess we can give 'em some lively times if we come acrosstheir bows again."
We belted on the weapons and hurried into the saloon, which we found awreck. There were bundles of tinned meat on the table and a litter ofropes and bits of canvas. Bottles of mineral water had been hurled atthe bulkheads and into the sideboard mirror. Curtains were torn down,table-covers gone, and the pivot-chai
rs smashed and the fragments piledin a corner, partly burned.
"They were going to fire her," said Riggs, "but that trouble with theblack gang and the loss of steam made 'em change their minds. They wereafraid the smoke would attract the attention of some passing ship. That'sonce Thirkle made a mistake--we never would have got out of her if hehad left this fire going."
We gathered tins of biscuits and bottles of mineral water, and had afeast out of what the pirates had discarded. Rajah had his kris in theforecastle. While Captain Riggs and I enjoyed our cigars, Rajah wentout on an exploring trip through staterooms and galley and in the bridgewheel-house.
"It's near noon now, Mr. Trenholm, and we ought to get away in an houror so. The boats they left are smashed, but I can rig a raft withhatch-covers good enough to take us to the island.
"We'll take plenty of grub and water, and if they don't give us a fightfrom shore before we land, we can cache our supplies and take our timelooking for that sweet gang. We'll keep out of sight as much as we canbefore we leave, and we might wait until dark, but I'm for getting off injig-time, unless we see them coming back."
"I would like to see Thirkle and the others rowing out here," I said,having a mental vision of an ambuscade for them as they drew alongside inthe boat.
"It's ten to one they will if they ain't too busy hiding the gold orhaving a fight over it. All I'm afraid of is they'll get away from us intheir boats; but before they leave it's a sure thing they'll take a lookat the _Kut Sang_ to see if she's topside yet, and then come out to burnher--which means stand by to repel boarders for us.
"Likely they've got their eyes on us now, or on the ship, but we'll keepa sharp lookout, and if they come snooping back we'll blow 'em out of thewater. If Thirkle sees the steamer ye can leave it to him to come backand see how we are and make a clean job of it. I'm not so sure he didn'tplan that, anyway. Devil of a fine joke we'll make of it for him, if hedoes come out and thinks we're still cooped up in the fo'c'sle."
We set about the work of getting ready to leave the ship, keeping to thestarboard side, which was low in the water and away from the island.Rajah was posted in the chart-room on the bridge with an old spy-glassRiggs dug up, and the black boy kept steady watch on the island and thechannel, with an occasional turn to the open sea in the hope of raisinga vessel.
The chronometers were gone, along with the other navigating instruments,the log-book, and manifests. The cabin clock was stopped at twelve, andCaptain Riggs's watch, which had hung over his bunk, was missing.
We found two dead Chinese in the galley, bullet-splintered woodwork,dried blood, and empty shells and burned rice on the galley stove.The ship's carpenter had barricaded himself in his workshop, a littledeck-house on the after-deck. The door was open, and we gathered thathe had deserted his stronghold when he heard the water rushing into thehold, but whether he had been shot or drowned we had no way of knowing.
He had provided himself with a bucket of rice and bottles of water,evidently with the intention of preparing for a siege. Spent cartridgesat the head of the stoke-hole ladder told of a desperate fight there,probably before the attack on the bridge by the engineer and his men.
But we wasted no time over these signs of what had happened during thenight, simply observing them as we went over the vessel to see if any ofthe crew were in hiding, and seeking such things as might be of use inbuilding the raft.
All the tools were carried forward, and I helped the captain get off thehatch-covers of the forehold, and he nailed them together with planksfrom the top of the cargo. In this way we made a rude catamaran sometwenty feet long and five feet wide. A plank was put on its edge allaround, making a low freeboard to hold our provisions and to serve as aprotection against bullets in case the pirates should fire upon us whilerunning ashore.
Life-lines were fastened to the sides, so we could take to the water inan emergency, and, with our bodies partially submerged, use our pistolsto good advantage and offer poor targets. Captain Riggs seemed to foreseeevery possible danger, and went about his preparations to meet thepirates as calmly and methodically as if he were fitting out to go on apicnic.
Thirkle had taken every precaution to make the _Kut Sang_ another mysteryof the sea, without so much as a life-buoy being found with her name onit. We found the ring-buoys hacked to bits, especially that section ofthem which had the steamer's name painted on the side. The name paintedon the two smashed boats had been ripped from their sterns, andeverything that would float was locked securely in cabins or made fast.
Captain Riggs fashioned a sail out of a tarpaulin, and stepped a mastwell forward, and with other things we took signal-pennants and a Britishensign, and from the foremast of the _Kut Sang_ he flew a signal ofdistress and a message in the international code about pirates or somesuch thing, so that, in case Thirkle should get away in the boat and bepicked up, he would have a great deal of difficulty in explaining abouthimself if the same vessel should sight our coloured flags.
"Take a look and see that the boy ain't busy up there at a nap," saidRiggs, and I mounted to the bridge, keeping well covered and to theseaward side of the chart-house. Rajah was wide awake, lying just insidethe coaming of the chart-room door, chewing contentedly at his _betel_,and holding the spy-glass over the brass doorplate directed towardthe island. He grinned at me as I entered through the door on the portside.
I took the glass and searched the horizon of the sea, but there was nosign of a sail or a smear of smoke; neither could I find any trace of thepirates on the island, which had a pile of volcanic rock rising out ofits northern end. I sought for some sign of human habitation on thebrown, bare hills of Luzon, baking in the sun, but that part of the coastwas a wilderness, desolate and forbidding.
The _Kut Sang_ was lying secure as if in a dock, sprawled out on thecoral floor of the sea like some dead thing, her stern completely underwater, and her port rail, almost to the break of the forecastle head, atthe crests of the gentle swells. The island gave us a lee from the strongcurrent, but at the first sign of heavy weather she would break up.
A school of small sharks scouted around her, and one big fellow, with hisfin out of water like a trysail, loafed at a distance, as if sure of hisprey. The combers purred on the shining stretches of beach, and theripples of the current whispered at the side of the vessel, and in thepeace that surrounded us Riggs's hammer made a terrific clatter.
"Keep a sharp lookout, Mr. Trenholm," he called up to me. "I've got a jobfor'ard which must be attended to now, and I'll call for you in a bit ofa while."
He went down the forecastle ladder with his arms full of new canvas, andby the time I had finished another cigar he was up again, beckoning tous. I went below to him, and he took me into the forecastle, and I sawwhat I knew to be the body of Harris sewed up and ready for burial.
"I know he'd want to go into the sea, rather than be buried ashore or beleft here, so I've done the best I could for him," said the captain."We'll take him along to deeper water, and, if you don't mind, we'lldrop him away from the cattle that have gone down hereabout, and nothingwill ever disturb him. I'll say some sort of a prayer."
We carried the body up and got the catamaran over the side and stowedwith food and water and cigars and such things as Riggs knew we wouldneed if we had to make a camp on the island.
I also wrote out a brief account of what had befallen us since leavingManila, closing with the explanation that we were going after thepirates. We left this message between the covers of an old book, andnailed to the saloon table, with chalk arrows drawn on the floor andabout the ship pointing toward it. There any person who should board thevessel in our absence would find directions to come to our assistance.
But about the gold we said nothing, simply stating that there had been amutiny and that pirates had looted the ship, and offering a reward of tenpounds to each man in the party who should come to our rescue, and athousand pounds, or five thousand dollars, in general to the man whoshould direct the party to seek us--this to be claimed either by
themaster of the vessel or the owners of the vessel which furnished theexpedition.
Before embarking we had a hasty meal and drank a toast to our success andthe confusion of the Devil's Admiral and his men. We looked to ourpistols and ammunition, and, thrilled with the prospect of battle, feltbetter than we had since the death of Trego.
As the ship was listed over so far, we had little trouble in getting theraft into the water. As it floated alongside I felt like giving a cheer,but as Captain Riggs had done most of the work and had gone about histasks as dispassionately as if he were building a hencoop, I stifled myemotions and held her off while Riggs stepped aboard.
We caught the breeze from the land as soon as we cleared the steamer, andwe rounded her bows and headed for the island, steering to pass the pointof rocks which jutted out from the island into the channel. Riggs saidthat he would cut her in toward shore, or the coast of the mainland,before reaching the point, unless the pirates showed themselves.
"We'll make a northing up the channel," he said, "If they think we aregetting away they may take after us in a boat, or fire from the shore;but if we show we are going to land they will keep hidden and take us bysurprise. If we should head straight in now they would likely hide in thebrush and pot-shot us as we land when we are in the surf; but you watchold Cap Riggs, and if we don't give this Devil's Admiral the fight of hislife before this little party is wiped out, I'll go back on the farm inMaine. He can't come aboard me and perform like that without getting paidfor it--Bloody Thirkle, Devil's Admiral, nor nobody else. You watch mysmoke, young man."
The leg-o'-mutton sail pulled steadily and we slapped along through thewater at a merry pace, with the water bubbling at the lee rail and theripples frothing up through the seams in the planks. It was a wet craft,but we were in our bare feet, with our trousers rolled up.
Rajah was in the bow with his _sarong_ twisted into a belt, and his blackshoulders and arms bare to the sun, his head swathed in a turban madefrom a faded green port-curtain, giving him an outlandish aspect,reminding me of a pilgrim returning from Mecca.
"We've got Johnny Sharkee for an escort," said Riggs, pointing aft, and Isaw the fin of the big man-eater cutting the water in our wake. "If hedon't sheer off by the time we are ready to make a landing, we may haveto give him a bullet or two, but I want to get in without any racket if Ican."
We were soon in deep water, and Riggs made fast his tiller while he reada burial service out of a pocket-testament, and we dropped the body ofHarris over the side. It was a brief enough ceremony, and I was inclinedto believe that Captain Riggs made it altogether too much a matter oflittle account, until I saw there was a tear in his eye, and he hastilyused the binoculars on the island.
"Put your helm to starboard," he directed. "I want to keep screenedbehind the point and gradually work in toward shore. Then we'll make aquick run for it in near the point, if they don't show by the time wehave the inlet on this side of the rocks abeam. They probably went aroundthe point, and we'll hunt for 'em on that side if we can make a safelanding."
We slopped along for another while, and slowly worked in until we had thebeach less than five hundred yards away.
"Swing her for the open sea again," said Riggs. "I'll trim the sail, soif they are watching us they'll think we are making a board to run out.Keep low, all hands, and at the first shot drop to the deck and keepcovered, and we'll manoeuvre out of reach until dark. If they press us,we'll let 'em get up close, so they'll think we have no weapons, and thenwe'll open up on 'em at close range and settle it."
The raft went about clumsily on the other tack and heeled over so thather port side was deep in the water, which afforded us good protectionfrom the island. We kept close watch on the edge of the jungle, butnothing menaced us, although the tangle of brush and creepers might havebeen full of men and we little the wiser.
"Over with the helm now, but not too quick, and hold her steady when shestands for the land and don't get scared at a little surf. Keep her headon until she grounds, and then take to the water and rush ashore withsome of the gear while I get the rigging down.
"See that you keep your pistols out of the water, and dump the gear inthe brush. Rajah will hold her steady while we lighten her a bit, andthen we'll drag her in with the swells."
The raft turned in a great circle and plunged for the rollers straightbefore the breeze. The captain cut away the stays just before she struckand we went into waist-deep water on a hard, sandy bottom. The heave ofthe incoming swells threatened to break her open in the middle as sheswung broadside against the hard shingle.
We lost a few things which didn't matter much, but, as our matches andbiscuits and spare ammunition were sealed in oil cans, along with saltand cigars, most of such stuff as broke loose floated ashore and we savedit. Our chief difficulty was in saving the small casks of water and thesack full of cooking utensils and camp tools.
I danced a lively jig as I ran into the burning sand, and Riggs had tolaugh at me as I retreated out of it and put on my shoes while standingin the water, but he took the same precaution. When we had hidden ourstores just inside the fringe of the jungle, we sank the raft close underthe ledge of rocks by filling her with big stones; and, while we werebusy at this work, Rajah went up on the point and concealed himself amongthe boulders in a position where he could get a view of the beach beyond.
We kept our pistols slung about our necks on shortened belts, and,whenever the opportunity offered, watched the beach and jungle. We werekept on the alert, for we could not shake off the disconcertingfeeling that we were being watched from the brush by the pirates, gettingready to ambush us at their leisure the minute we relaxed our vigilance.
"Look at Rajah," I said to Riggs. "He looks like a big red and green andblack lizard crouched up there in the rocks."
"That black boy is a big help," said Riggs. "The lad has more savvy thanye'd think. He seems to know just what to do in any emergency. Andfight! A mad Arab that I shipped in Aden made for me one day in the RedSea. I didn't mind the chap till he was 'most on me, and a bit more andhe'd had me. Rajah got him with the kris.
"Lucky for Thirkle the boy had lost it last night when they had me goingover the bows! He was after Thirkle then, when a sea come over and upsethim, and away went his knife and--"
A pebble hit the water near us, and we looked up to see Rajah wildlywaving his arms to us. He had spied something on the other side of thepoint.