A TELEGRAM FROM CAPTAIN HORN
It was early Tuesday morning, and Mrs. Cliff and Willy having just
finished their breakfast, were busily engaged in packing the two trunks
they proposed taking with them, and the elder lady was stating that
although she was perfectly willing to dress in the blue flannel suit
which had been ordered, she was not willing to wear a white cap,
although Willy urged that this was the proper thing, as they had been
told by the people where they had bought their yachting suits; and Mrs.
Cliff was still insisting that, although it would do very well for Willy
to wear a white cap, she would wear a hood,--the same kind of a hood
which she had worn on all her other voyages, which was more like a
bonnet and more suitable to her on that account than any other kind of
head covering, when Mr. Burke burst--actually burst--without knocking,
into the room. His silk hat was on the back of his head, and he wore no
overcoat.
"Mrs. Cliff," he exclaimed, "I've just seen Shirley! You remember
Shirley?"
"Indeed, I do," said Mrs. Cliff. "I remember him very well, and I always
thought him to be a remarkably nice man! But where did you see him, and
what in the world did he tell you to throw you into such a flurry?"
"He said a lot to me!" replied Burke. "And I'll try to make as straight
a tale of it as I can! You see, about a week ago Shirley got a
telegraphic message from Captain Horn--"
"Captain Horn!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff. "Where is he, and what did he
say?"
"He's in Mexico," said Burke; "and the telegram was as long as a
letter--that's one advantage in not being obliged to think of what
things cost,--and he told Shirley a lot--"
"How did they say they were?" asked Mrs. Cliff, eagerly. "Or did he say
anything about Mrs. Horn? Are they well?"
"Oh, I expect they're all right," said Burke; "but I don't think he
treated that subject. It was all about that gold, and the part of it
that was to go to Peru!
"When the business of dividing up the treasure was settled in London in
the way we know all about, word was sent to the Peruvian government to
tell them what had happened, and to see what they said about it. And
when they heard the news, they were a good deal more than satisfied,--as
they ought to have been, I'm sure,--and they made no bones about the
share we took. All they wanted was to have their part sent to them just
as soon as could be, and I don't wonder at it; for all those South
American countries are as poor as beggars, and if any one of them got a
sum of money like that, it could buy up all the others, if it felt like
spending the money in that way!
"Those Peruvians were in such a hurry to get the treasure that they
wouldn't agree to have the gold coined into money, or to be sent a part
at a time, or to take drafts for it; but they wanted it just as it was
as soon as they could get it, and, as it was their own, nobody could
hinder them from doing what they pleased with it. Shirley and I have
made up our minds that most likely the present government thought that
they wouldn't be in office when the money arrived if they didn't have it
on hand in pretty short order; and, of course, if they got their fingers
on that treasure, they could stay in power as long as they pleased.
"It is hard to believe that any government could be such fools,--for
they ordered it all shipped on an ordinary merchant vessel, an English
steamer, the _Dunkery Beacon_, which was pretty nigh ready to sail for
Lima. Now, any other government in this world would have sent a
man-of-war for that gold, or some sort of an armed vessel to convoy it,
but that wasn't the way with the Peruvians! They wanted their money, and
they wanted it by the first steamer which could be got ready to sail.
They weren't going to wait until they got one of their cruisers over to
England,--not they!
"The quickest way, of course, would have been to ship it to Aspinwall,
and then take it by rail to Panama, and from there ship it to Lima, but
I suppose they were afraid to do that. If that sort of freight had been
carried overland, they couldn't have hindered people from finding out
what it was, and pretty nearly everybody in Central America would have
turned train-robber. Anyway, the agents over there got the _Dunkery
Beacon_ to sail a little before her regular time.
"Now here comes the point! They actually shipped a hundred and sixty
million dollars' worth of pure gold on a merchant steamer that was going
on a regular voyage, and would actually touch at Jamaica and Rio Janeiro
on account of her other freight, instead of buying her outright, or
sending her on the straightest cruise she could make for Lima! Just
think of that! More than that, this business was so talked about by the
Peruvian agents, while they were trying to get the earliest steamer
possible for it, that it was heard of in a good many more ports than
one!
"Well, this steamer with all the gold on board sailed just as soon as it
could; and the very next day our London bankers got a telegram from
Paris from the head of a detective bureau there to tell them that no
less than three vessels were fitting out in the biggest kind of hurry to
go after that slow merchant steamer with the millions on board!"
Mrs. Cliff and Willy uttered a simultaneous cry of horror. "Do you mean
they're pirates, and are going to steal the gold?" cried Mrs. Cliff.
"Of course they are!" continued Burke. "And I don't wonder at it! Why, I
don't believe such a cargo of gold ever left a port since the beginning
of the world! For such a thing as that is enough to tempt anybody with
the smallest streak of rascal blood in him and who could get hold of a
ship!
"Well, these three vessels were fitting out hard as they could,--two in
France, at Toulon and Marseilles, and one in Genoa; and although the
detectives were almost positive what their business was, they were not
sure that they could get proof enough to stop them. If the _Dunkery
Beacon_ had been going on a straight voyage, even to Rio Janeiro, she
might have got away from them, but, you see, she was goin' to touch at
Jamaica!
"And now, now,--this very minute,--that slow old steamer and those three
pirates are on the Atlantic Ocean together! Why, it makes your blood
creep to think of it!"
"Indeed it does! It's awful!" cried Mrs. Cliff. "And what are the London
people going to do?"
"They're not going to do anything so far as I know!" said Burke. "If
they could get through with the red-tape business necessary to send any
sort of a cruiser or war-vessel after the _Dunkery Beacon_ to protect
her,--and I'm not sure that they could do it at all,--it would be a
precious long time before such a vessel would leave the English Channel!
But I don't think that they'll try anything of the sort; all I know is,
that the London people sent a cable message to Captain Horn. I suppose
that they thought he ought to know what was likely to happen,
considerin' that he was the head man in the whole business!"
"And what did the Captain do?" cried Mrs. Cliff. "What could he do?"
"I don't know," answered Burke. "I expect he did everything that could
be done in the way of sending messages; and among other things, he sent
that telegram, about a thousand words more or less, to Shirley. He might
have telegraphed to me, perhaps, but he didn't know my address, as I was
wandering around. But Shirley, you know, is a fixture in his
shipyard;--and so he sent it to him!"
"I haven't a doubt," said Mrs. Cliff, "that he would have telegraphed to
you if he had known where you were!"
"I hope so," said Burke. "And when he had told Shirley all that had
happened, he asked him to pull up stakes, and sail by the first steamer
he could catch for Jamaica. There was a chance that he might get there
before the _Dunkery Beacon_ arrived, or while she was in port, and then
he could tell everything to make her captain understand that he needn't
be afraid to lose anything on account of his ship stopping in Kingston
harbor until arrangements could be made for his carrying his gold in
safety to Lima. Captain Horn didn't think that the pirates would try to
do anything before the _Dunkery Beacon_ left Kingston. They would just
follow her until she got into the South Atlantic, and then board her,
most likely!
"Captain Horn said that he was going to Jamaica too, but as he didn't
know how soon he would be able to sail from Vera Cruz, he wanted Shirley
to go ahead without losing a minute. And then Shirley he telegraphed to
me up at Plainton,--thinking I was there and that I ought to know all
about it, and the women at my house took so long forwarding it that I
did not get it until yesterday evening, and then I rushed around to
where Shirley was staying, and got there just in time to catch him, for
the next steamer to Jamaica sailed early this morning. But he had plenty
of time to tell me everything.
"The minute he got the Captain's telegram, he just dropped everything
and started for New York. And I can tell you, Mrs. Cliff, I'd have done
the same, for I don't know what I wouldn't do to get the chance to see
Captain Horn again!"
"And you wanted to go with Mr. Shirley?" said Mrs. Cliff, with an eager
light in her eyes.
"Indeed I did!" said Burke. "But, of course, I wouldn't think of such a
thing as going off and leaving you here with that yacht on your hands,
and no knowing what you would do with the people on board, and
everything else! So I saw Shirley off about seven o'clock this morning,
and then I came to report to you."
"That was too much to expect, Mr. Burke," said Mrs. Cliff, "but it was
just like you, and I shall never forget it! But, now tell me one
thing,--is Mrs. Horn going to Jamaica with the Captain?"
"I don't know," said Burke, "but, of course, she must be--he wouldn't
leave her alone in Mexico!"
"Of course she is!" cried Mrs. Cliff. "And Mr. Shirley will see them!
And oh, Mr. Burke, why can't we see them? Of all things in the world I
want to see Edna, and the Captain too! And why can't we go straight to
Jamaica in the _Summer Shelter_ instead of going anywhere else? We may
get there before they all leave; don't you think we could do that?"
The eyes of Captain Burke fairly blazed. "Do it!" he cried, springing to
his feet. "I believe we can do it; at any rate we can try! The same to
you, madam, I would do anything in the world to see Captain Horn, and
nobody knows when we will have the chance! Well, madam, it's all the
plainest kind of sailing; we can get off at daylight to-morrow morning,
and if that yacht sails as they told me she sails, I believe we may
overhaul Shirley, and, perhaps, we will get to Kingston before any of
them! And now I've got to bounce around, for there's a good deal to be
done before night-fall!"
"But what about the Synod?" asked Willy Croup.
"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Mr. Burke, stopping suddenly on his way to
the door. "I forgot the Synod."
Mrs. Cliff hesitated for a moment. "I don't think it need make any
difference! It would be a great shame to disappoint all those good men;
why couldn't we take them along all the same? Their weight wouldn't make
the yacht go any slower, would it, Mr. Burke?"
"Not a bit of it!" said he. "But they may not want to go so far.
Besides, if we find the Captain at Kingston, we mayn't feel like going
back in a hurry. I'll tell you what we could do, Mrs. Cliff! We wouldn't
lose any time worth speaking of if we touched at Nassau,--that's in the
Bahamas, and a jolly place to go to. Then we might discharge our cargo
of ministers, and if you paid their board until the next steamer sailed
for New York, and their passage home, I should think they would be just
as well satisfied as if they came back with us!"
Mrs. Cliff reflected. "That's true!" said she, presently. "I can explain
the case to them, and I don't see why they should not be satisfied. And
as for me, nobody could be more willing than I am to give pleasure to
these ministers, but I don't believe that I could give up seeing Edna
and Captain Horn for the sake of any members of any Synod!"
"All right, madam!" cried the impatient Burke. "You settle the matter
with the parsons, and I haven't a doubt you can make it all right; and
I'll be off! Everything has got to be on board to-night. I'll come after
you early this evening." With this he departed.
When Mr. Burke had gone, Mrs. Cliff, very much excited by what she had
heard and by the thought of what she was going to do, told Willy that
she could go on with the packing while she herself went over to the
church in Brooklyn and explained matters to the members of the Synod who
intended to go with her, and give them a chance to decide whether or not
the plan proposed by Mr. Burke would suit them.
She carried out this intention and drove to Brooklyn in a carriage, but,
having been delayed by many things which Willy wanted to know about the
packing, and having forgotten in what street the church was situated,
she lost a good deal of time; and when she reached her destination she
found that the Synod had adjourned _sine die_.
Mrs. Cliff sighed. It was a great pity to have taken so much trouble,
especially when time was so precious, but she had done what she could.
It would be impossible for her to find the members in their temporary
places of abode, and the only thing she could do now was to tell them
the change in her plans when they came on board that evening, and then,
if they did not care to sail with her, they would have plenty of time to
go on shore again.