THE "VITTORIO" FROM GENOA
When Captain Horn on the _Monterey_ perceived that one of the vessels he
had sighted was steaming northward with the apparent intention of
meeting him, his anxieties greatly increased. He could think of no
righteous reason why that vessel should come to meet him. He had made
out that this vessel with the two others had been lying to. Why should
it not wait for him if it wished to speak with him? The course of this
stranger looked like mischief of some sort, and the Captain could think
of no other probable mischief than that which had been practised upon
the _Dunkery Beacon_.
The steamer which he now commanded carried a treasure far more valuable
than that which lay in the hold of the _Dunkery_, and if she had been a
swifter vessel he would have turned and headed away for safety at the
top of her speed. But he did not believe she could outsail the steamer
which was now approaching, and safety by flight was not to be
considered.
There was another reason which determined him not to change his course.
The observers on the _Monterey_ had now decided that the small vessel to
the westward of the _Dunkery Beacon_ was very like a yacht, and the
Captain thought that if there was to be trouble of any sort, he would
like to be as near Shirley and Burke as possible. Why that rapidly
approaching steamer should desire to board him as the _Dunkery Beacon_
had been boarded he could not imagine, unless it was supposed that he
carried part of the treasure, but he did not waste any time on
conjectures. It was not likely that this steamer carried a cannon, and
if she intended to attack the _Monterey_, it must be by boarding her;
probably by the same stratagem which had been practised before.
But Captain Horn determined that no man upon any mission whatever should
put his foot upon the deck of the _Monterey_ if he could prevent it.
Since he had taken on board Captain Hagar and his men, he had an
extraordinarily large crew, and on the number of his men he depended for
defence, for it was impossible to arm them as well as the attacking
party would probably be armed, if there should be an attacking party.
Captain Horn now went to Edna and told her of the approaching danger,
and for the second time in his life he gave her a pistol and requested
her to use it in any way she thought proper if the need should come. He
asked her to stay for the present in the cabin with her maid, promising
to come to her again very shortly.
Then he called all the available men together, and addressed them very
briefly. It was not necessary to tell the crew of the _Dunkery Beacon_
what dangers might befall them if the pirates should come upon them a
second time, and the men he had brought with him from Vera Cruz now knew
all about the previous affair, and that it would probably be necessary
for them to stand up boldly for their own defence.
The Captain told his men that the only thing to be done was to keep the
fellows on that approaching steamer from boarding the _Monterey_ whether
they tried to do so by what might look like fair means or by foul means.
All the firearms of every kind which could be collected were distributed
around among those who it was thought could best use them, while the
rest of the men were armed with belaying pins, handspikes, hatchets,
axes, or anything with which a blow could be struck, and they were
ranged along the bulwarks on each side of the ship from bow to stern.
The other steamer was now near enough for her name, _Vittorio_, to be
read upon her bow. This and her build made the captain quite sure that
she was from the Mediterranean, and without doubt one of the pirates of
whom he had heard. He could see heads all along her rail, and he thought
it possible that she might not care to practise any trick upon him, but
might intend a bold and undisguised attack. She had made no signal, she
carried no colors or flag of any kind, and he thought it not unlikely
that when she should be near enough, she would begin operations by a
volley of rifle shots from her deck. To provide against this danger he
made most of his men crouch down behind the bulwarks, and ordered all
the others to be ready to screen themselves. A demand to lie to, and a
sharp fusillade might be enough to insure the immediate submission of an
ordinary merchantman, but Captain Horn did not consider the _Monterey_ a
vessel of this sort.
He now ran down to Edna, and was met by her at the cabin door. She had
had ideas very like his own. "I shouldn't wonder if they would fire upon
us," she said, her face very pale; "and I want you to remember that you
are most likely the tallest man on board. No matter what happens, you
must take care of yourself,--you must never forget that!"
"I will take care of you," he said, with his arms about her, "and I will
not forget myself. And now keep close, and watch sharply. I don't
believe they can ever board us,--we're too many for them!"
The instant the Captain had gone, Edna called Maka and Cheditafa, the
two elderly negroes who were the devoted adherents of herself and her
husband. "I want you to watch the Captain all the time," she said. "If
the people on that ship fire guns, you pull him back if he shows
himself. If any one comes near him to harm him, use your hatchets; never
let him out of your sight, follow him close, keep all danger from him."
The negroes answered in the African tongue. They were too much excited
to use English, but she knew what they meant, and trusted them. To Mok,
the other negro, she gave no orders. Even now he could speak but little
English, and he was in the party simply because her brother Ralph--whose
servant Mok had been--had earnestly desired her to take care of him
until he should want him again, for this coal-black and agile native of
Africa was not a creature who could be left to take care of himself.
The _Vittorio_, which was now not more than a quarter of a mile away,
and which had slightly changed her course, so that she was apparently
intending to pass the _Monterey_, and continue northward contented with
an observation of the larger vessel, was a very dangerous pirate ship,
far more so than the one which had captured the _Dunkery Beacon_. She
was not more dangerous because she was larger or swifter, or carried a
more numerous or better-armed crew, but for the reason that she had on
board a certain Mr. Banker who had once belonged to a famous band of
desperadoes, called the "Rackbirds," well-known along the Pacific coast
of South America. He had escaped destruction when the rest of his band
were drowned in a raging torrent, and he had made himself extremely
obnoxious and even dangerous to Mrs. Horn and to Captain Horn when they
were in Paris at a very critical time of their fortunes.
This ex-Rackbird Banker had had but a very cloudy understanding of the
state of affairs when he was endeavoring to blackmail Mrs. Horn, and
making stupid charges against her husband. He knew that the three
negroes he had met in Paris in the service of Mrs. Horn had once been
his own slaves, held not by any right of law, but by brutal force, and
he knew that the people with whom they were then travelling must have
been in some way connected with his old comrades, the Rackbirds. He had
made bold attempts to turn this scanty knowledge to his own benefit, but
had mournfully failed.
In the course of time, however, he had come to know everything. The news
of Captain Horn's great discovery of treasure on the coast of Peru had
gone forth to the public, and Banker's soul had writhed in disappointed
rage as he thought that he and his fellows had lived and rioted like
fools for months, and months, and months, but a short distance from all
these vast hoards of gold. This knowledge almost maddened him as he
brooded over it by night and by day. When he had been set free from the
French prison to which his knavery had consigned him, Banker gave
himself up body and soul to the consideration of the treasure which
Captain Horn had brought to France from Peru. He considered it from
every possible point of view, and when at last he heard of the final
disposition which it had been determined to make of the gold, he
considered it from the point of his own cupidity and innate rascality.
He it was who devised the plan of sending out a swift steamer to
overhaul the merchantman which was to carry the gold to Peru, and who,
after consultation with the many miscreants whom he was obliged to take
into his confidence and to depend upon for assistance, decided that it
would be well to fit out two ships, so that if one should fail in her
errand, the other might succeed. The steamers from Genoa and Toulon were
fitted out and manned under the direction of Banker, but with the one
which sailed from Marseilles he had nothing to do. This expedition was
organized by men who had quarrelled with him and his associates, and it
was through the dissension of the opposing parties in this intended
piracy that the detectives came to know of it.
Banker had sailed from Genoa, but the Toulon vessel had got ahead of
him. It had sighted the _Dunkery Beacon_ before she reached Kingston; it
had cruised in the Caribbean Sea until she came sailing down towards
Tobago Island; it had followed her out into the Atlantic, and when the
proper time came it had taken her--hull, engine, gold, and everything
which belonged to her, except her captain and her crew, and had steamed
away with her.
Banker did not command the _Vittorio_, for he was not a seaman, but he
commanded her captain, and through him everybody on board. He directed
her course and her policy. He was her leading spirit and her blackest
devil.
It had been no part of Banker's intentions to cruise about the South
Atlantic and search for a steamer with black and white stripes running
up and down her funnel. His plan of action was to be the same as that of
the other pirate, and the _Vittorio_ therefore steamed for Kingston as
soon as she could manage to clear from Genoa. His calculations were very
good ones, but there was a flaw in them, for he did not know that the
_Dunkery Beacon_ sailed three days before her regular time.
Consequently, the _Vittorio_ was the last of the four steamers which
reached Jamaica on business connected with the Incas' treasure.
The _Vittorio_ did not go into Kingston Harbor, but Banker got himself
put on shore and visited the town. There he not only discovered that the
_Dunkery Beacon_ had sailed, that an American yacht had sailed after
her, but that a steamer from Vera Cruz, commanded by Captain Horn, now
well known as the discoverer of the wonderful treasure, had touched
here, expecting to find the _Dunkery Beacon_ in port, and had then,
scarcely twelve hours before, cleared for Jamaica.
The American yacht was a mystery to Banker. It might be a pirate from
the United States for all he knew, but he was very certain that Captain
Horn had not left Kingston for any reason except to accompany and
protect the _Dunkery Beacon_. If a steamer commanded by this man, whom
Banker now hated more than he hated anybody else in the world, should
fall in and keep company with the steamer which was conveying the
treasure to Peru, it might be a very hard piece of work for him or his
partner in command of the vessel from Toulon to get possession of that
treasure, no matter what means they might employ, but all Banker could
do was to swear at his arch-enemy and his bad luck, and to get away
south with all speed possible. If he could do nothing, he might hear of
something. He would never give up until he was positive there was no
chance for him.
So he took the course that the _Dunkery Beacon_ must have taken, and
sailed down the coast under full head of steam. When at last he
discovered the flag of his private consort hoisted over the steamer
which carried the golden prize, and had gone on board the _Dunkery
Beacon_ and had heard everything, his Satanic delight blazed high and
wild. He cared nothing for the yacht which hung upon the heels of the
captured steamer,--it would not be difficult to dispose of that
vessel,--but his turbulent ecstasies were a little dampened by the
discovery of a large steamer bearing down from the north. This he
instantly suspected to be the _Monterey_, which must have taken a more
westerly course than that which he had followed, and which he had
therefore passed without sighting.
The ex-Rackbird did not hesitate a moment as to what ought to be done.
That everlastingly condemned meddler, Horn, must never be allowed to put
his oar into this business. If he were not content with the gold which
he had for himself, he should curse the day that he had tried to keep
other people from getting the gold that they wanted for themselves. No
matter what had to be done, he must never reach the _Dunkery Beacon_--he
must never know what had happened to her. Here was a piece of work for
the _Vittorio_ to attend to without the loss of a minute.
When Banker gave orders to head for the approaching steamer he
immediately began to make ready for an attack upon her, and, as this was
to be a battle between merchant ships, neither of them provided with any
of the ordinary engines of naval warfare, his plan was of a
straightforward, old-fashioned kind. He would run his ship alongside the
other; he would make fast, and then his men, each one with a cutlass and
a pistol, should swarm over the side of the larger vessel and cut down
and fire until the beastly hounds were all dead or on their knees. If he
caught sight of Captain Horn,--and he was sure he would recognize him,
for such a fellow would be sure to push himself forward no matter what
was going on,--he would take his business into his own hands. He would
give no signal, no warning. If they wanted to know what he came for,
they would soon find out.
Before he left Genoa he had thought that it was possible that he might
make this sort of an attack upon the _Dunkery Beacon_, and he had
therefore provided for it. He had shipped a number of grappling-irons
with long chains attached which were run through ring-bolts on his deck.
With these and other appliances for making fast to a vessel alongside,
Banker was sure he could stick to an enemy or a prize as long as he
wanted to lie by her.
Everything was now made ready for the proposed attack, and all along the
starboard side of the _Vittorio_ mattresses were hung in order to break
the force of the shock when the two vessels should come together. Every
man who could be spared was ordered on deck, and fully armed. The men
who were to make fast to the other steamer were posted in their proper
places, and the rest of his miscreants were given the very simple orders
to get on board the _Monterey_ the best way they could and as soon as
they could, and to cut down or shoot every man they met without asking
questions or saying a word. Whether or not it would be necessary to
dispose of all the crew which Captain Horn might have on board, Banker
had not determined. But of one thing he was certain: he would leave no
one on board of her to work her to the nearest port and give news of
what had happened. One mistake of that kind was enough to make, and his
stupid partner, who had commanded the vessel from Toulon, had made it.