Gordon took the canoe and went ashore to sleep after the work was
finished; the _Barang_ was the epitome of malodorous discomfort after
her submersion, and even the crew preferred to coil up on deck rather
than risk the dampness and possible intruding river life of the
forecastle. Little looked at the departing canoe with humorous envy in
his face, for he had not yet reached the point in sea-hardness where he
preferred an uncomfortable bunk on board the ship to a comfortable couch
ashore.
"Want to go with him?" queried Barry, shuddering himself at the prospect
of a steamy wet night to be followed by a chilly damp dawn without a dry
covering. "Call him back then."
"Not I!" retorted Little. "Think I'm no better a sailor than that, after
all I've learnt? Shame on you, Jack Barry! Me, I eat oakum and drink
tar, and if I can't sleep in water, I'll keep awake. Turn in, you poor
old fish. I'll keep watch."
Barry went into the deckhouse, grinning, and the watch was set, leaving
the brigantine to the silent night. Little curled up inside the
deckhouse also, but shivering at the touch of sodden couches, he
returned to the deck outside and fell to pacing back and forth in hope
of adding to the fatigue earned in the hold. Tired he was--even to
pain--but while his limbs would keep still when he lay down, his eyes
refused to close, and every tiny sound from nearby waters or distant
jungle hummed and burbled in his ears until his head was full of waking
thoughts that absolutely prohibited sleep.
He gave up the struggle after a short while and determined to remain
awake. The whimsical idea came to him that by so resolving he would
surely drop asleep. But with the resolve came a wider wakefulness; and
as the lagging moments crept by, he found a new interest in the vague
and shadowy outline of the _Padang_ at the wharf. The schooner was
deserted to the eye, even in daylight. Certainly there were a few men
aboard her, and a watchman never failed to oppose an attempt to mount
the gangway, but visible activity had been absent from her vicinity for
days. Now Little found himself watching her dark blurr with keen vision,
and the feeling stole upon him that she was full of men.
There were no audible voices to convince him. Rather it was an
indefinable murmur that rose from her decks, an aura of sound. Sight
gave him no corroboration, although he went aloft halfway to the main
crosstrees with the shrewd idea that by so doing he would secure a
downward sight that must surely reveal a gleam in the skylight if any of
her official crew were in the cabin.
He saw nothing, but Little was no longer a complete greenhorn. "Covered
the skylight up, of course!" he muttered, and watched the schooner
closer yet because of his decision.
At length, after an age of watching that made his eyes hot and weary, he
caught a swift, almost fanciful, yet undoubted flash of light at a
porthole in the quarter. It was the sort of flash that would be seen
through an imperfectly curtained porthole of a stateroom if the door
from the lighted saloon were quickly opened and shut.
"Cabin's occupied, that's sure!" decided Little and ran to wake Barry.
"Losing no time, are they?" muttered the skipper, waking in an instant
with all his senses alert. He concluded that Leyden's men had watched
the operation of raising the _Barang_, and everything was being held
ready for a dash down the river the moment the raised vessel swung aside
from the channel. Together the two friends peered at the schooner,
striving to distinguish more than bare hints of sound or sight; then
suddenly the hum ceased; not suddenly, either, but as if a crowd of men
walked away, chattering as they went, and gradually passed beyond
earshot.
"Say, Barry, isn't that a tiny streak o' light about where the forward
stateroom porthole should be?" whispered Little presently.
"I don't see it--wait, get my night glasses from the companionway." The
glasses rendered the schooner perfectly clear as to outline; they
revealed a ship deserted to all outward sign; but they also revealed a
slender streak of light where Little's keen eyes had detected it.
"You're right!" said Barry. "That's a light supposed to be covered by
the curtains, and badly done or purposely foozled. I'm going over to
look--see. Coming?"
"What d' ye suppose? Think Miss Sheldon may be there?"
"Just what I do think. And I'm going to find out. If she's there under
restraint, I'm going to haul her out if it busts all Vandersee's plans
higher than a kite. If she's there of her own free will, she can stay,
and I'll wish her good luck of her choice. Here, give me a hand with
this paint punt; it's the smallest thing that'll carry us."
A paint punt is a small, flat, square-ended raft with raised sides, used
for floating around a ship's water line to renew the boot-topping paint.
A single oar, used as a scull, a pair of oars, or a paddle, are all
equally capable of navigating such a craft; and Barry and Little shoved
off with a paddle apiece, sending the tiny float softly and easily
across the river. They entered the patch of shadow cast by the schooner
and dipped their paddles with greater caution. But no challenge greeted
them; they pulled up under the overhanging stern of the vessel itself
without obstruction.
And as they reached the side, the tiny streak of light above their
heads vanished,--not as if suddenly curtained, but as if utterly
extinguished.
"Here, look around for something to get up by," whispered Barry, hauling
the punt along the side by digging his fingers into the above-water
seams which the long sun-blistering had opened. The main rigging was the
first available means of access, and the skipper clambered nimbly into
the channels, making no more noise than a cat. He raised himself above
the rail and peered down upon dark, mysterious decks, untouched by a
single ray of relieving light. And his breath stopped painfully at the
shadowy sight that struck upon his senses out of the darkness: silent,
ghostlike shapes that moved as noiselessly as shadows themselves,
vanishing over the open main hatchway,--two score even as he watched.
And vague as it all was, he knew that they were no sailors, nor even
Mission natives; their headdress and crouching gait betrayed them as
natives from the interior.
Barry glared helplessly, fearing to move either way lest he make some
noise that should attract these jungle-men to his own disaster; and
again his popping eyes stretched wider, and all his muscles quivered,
for out of the schooner's main cabin, by way of the main-deck doors,
stepped a figure in white, a female figure, walking quickly across the
deck to the gangway.
"It's Natalie!" breathed Barry, bewildered. He watched the girl until
she topped the gangway and went down it, a vision of utter freedom and
ease of mind. He dropped silently into the punt and startled Little with
his news.
"Just visiting, hey?" remarked the salesman. "Seems to like his company,
anyway. Suppose we'd better leave her to her own affairs."
"I suppose so," growled Barry forlornly. "Let's shove in under the wharf
a minute, Little. I want to say something to her. She's going to the
post, apparently, and here it is long past midnight."
"Go ahead," grunted Little. "Barry, if we ever come across one single
man in this goose chase that isn't wrapped in mystery, I'll kiss him, by
Hokey!"
They drew the punt under the wharf well astern of the schooner,
wondering, with all those men on board, why the _Padang_ kept so
careless a watch. Barry climbed up a pile and walked swiftly in the
direction of the stockade, to intercept Natalie, and soon he saw a white
figure hurrying towards him. He stepped out with a greeting and an
excuse, and for the second time in ten minutes received a shock that
almost paralyzed speech.
The woman was not Natalie--it was Mrs. Goring--and her face showed
confusion at meeting him.
"I beg your pardon--I thought you were Miss Sheldon," stammered the
skipper, doffing his hat awkwardly.
"Did you really expect to meet Miss Sheldon at this hour of the night,
here?" she returned. Her tone was sharp.
"No, but I was near the schooner, and thought I saw her come ashore.
You know the last thing I heard of her was that she had vanished. It was
natural that I should want to see her, wasn't it?"
"Oh, forgive me, Captain," the woman cried, and she was again the cheery
friend. "I had forgotten that. Of course. Well, I'm sorry for your
disappointment. But shouldn't you be on board your ship, Captain? I
believe there is something about to move on that schooner."
It was perfectly plain that Mrs. Goring did not intend to be
communicative regarding her own errand or business with the schooner.
Barry felt that, and bit back the impatient speech that welled to his
lips. Whatever this woman turned out to be in the end, it was certain
that at present Barry was not in her complete confidence any more than
he was in Vandersee's; and after all, his own affairs were solely
concerned in his ship. But he knew, apparently, a detail that she did
not.
"Let 'em start something, Mrs. Goring," he replied sourly. "They can do
no more now than during the past week. My ship still lies across the
channel, even though she is raised. She stays there, at least until
ready to move in any direction."
"Oh, I wish I had known that an hour ago!" the woman cried. "Are you
sure?"
"I am her skipper and should be sure," he retorted and continued: "Well,
if you've left something undone, there's lots of time to repair the
omission. From what I can see you have undisputed entry to the
schooner. It's easy to go aboard again, isn't it?"
"Captain, you are very patient, but you have not yet learned to believe
in your friends," she replied very softly and with a world of
tenderness. "You are angry now, and really I can't blame you. But if it
will ease your mind and prevent you worrying continually, I can tell you
that Miss Sheldon is found--is not far away--and is safe. What I said
about knowing of your situation an hour ago simply concerned Natalie's
comfort, which might have been provided for more fully."
"Oh, I don't pretend any more to understand anything," Barry replied,
"so must accept what you say without question. I might ask how it
happens that you are so free of the _Padang_, but I won't. Live and
learn--wait and see! Good night, Mrs. Goring."
"Good night, Captain," she cried back at him, and so utterly relieved
was her tone that the skipper dropped down upon Little, swearing like a
half-smothered coal heaver with hot irritation.
"What's biting you now?" grinned Little.
"Shove off and shut up!" retorted Barry and dug his paddle furiously
into the river, careless of noise.
They reached the brigantine without having raised a sound from the
schooner; but they saw no more lights aboard her, and the chill dawn
broke and found all hands busy while yet the skipper wrestled with his
bewilderment. Little kept away from him, until they met while taking a
little food as the sun came up; then his bursting curiosity got the
better of his restraint.
"Don't be so darned grumpy, Barry," he protested. "Didn't I share the
trip? Ain't I entitled to know what happened?"
Barry grimly related his experience on the wharf, and as he spoke he
detected a light in Little's wide eyes that grew from astonishment at
his tale to unbelieving contempt for his own denseness. "What's the joke
now?" he demanded bearishly.
"Gee-hos-o'-phat!" gasped Little. "D' ye mean to say you didn't tumble
to it? Why, man alive, because you saw Mrs. Goring leaving the schooner
at midnight, when you expected to see Miss Sheldon, that don't prove
Miss Sheldon wasn't aboard there!"
"Hey, Rolfe!" the skipper roared, "keep an eye on that schooner and
hurry up with those leaks! Stand by until I get back!"
In a couple of minutes Barry was in the punt and well away from the
ship, paddling swiftly towards the wharf astern of the schooner. He tied
up his tiny craft, ran along to the _Padang's_ gangway, and mounted to
her deck with arms swinging and fists tight, determined to meet any
opposition with force.
And he found his entry ridiculously easy. A little brown man at the
gangway grating stared at him with faint interest; another little brown
man stepped aside for him at the main-deck doors to the cabin, and
neither of them showed either concern or hostility. For a moment this
very circumstance halted Barry, whose temper had not entirely burned up
his shrewdness. He made the rest of his way to the saloon with caution,
but without any more hesitation, and while his hand closed on the pistol
in his pocket he kept it there. He listened for pattering feet, or
closing doors; but no trap was sprung on him, and he entered the great
saloon and was brought to an abrupt stand at sight of Miss Sheldon
sitting calmly and comfortably at the table engaged on some trifle of
feminine sewing.
"Good morning, Captain," she said brightly, rising and extending her
hand. "This is an unexpected visit, isn't it?"
"I expect so," he returned, gazing hard into her smiling face. As her
smile grew brighter, his own face darkened, until she began to look
embarrassed at his boorish temper. "I want you to tell me, once for all,
Miss Sheldon, that you are here of your own choice and free will," he
blurted out. "If I'm uncivil or rude, excuse me. I can't feel any other
way until I know this. Ever since you were reported missing, I pictured
you in trouble, and I have been told not to worry about you. Do you
think I could avoid worrying?"
He met her eyes with a troubled stare, and he gulped at the expression
that had come into her face. She smiled at him still; and in the smile
was a depth of kindness and great pity that illy matched her words.
"Two days ago I should have cared little whether any one worried or not,
Captain," she said quietly. "Now I value your interest; yet I must tell
you that I am here entirely of my free will and remain here of my own
choice."
"And Leyden?" Barry choked it out.
"I have not seen him recently; but I hope to see him here very soon,
Captain." Again that wonderful pity glowed in Natalie's eyes and made
the puzzle more puzzling yet for Barry. Since he had first met her, he
had never seen anything so flattering to himself in her face as this;
yet it was utterly contrary to her expressed thoughts.
"And truly, I am glad to see you, Captain Barry," she added, "but for
your own safety and my own comfort I must beg of you not to remain here.
Every minute that you are away from your ship is vital to all of us."
"All of us? I dare say. But which of us?" he demanded. "I don't know a
thing about this muddle of motives, but I do know that my ship and
yourself are my two vital interests, Miss Sheldon. I will go immediately
if you will prove to me that you are really at liberty; that you are a
free agent and can leave this ship if you really want to. If that is so,
I have no further concern with your affairs."
The girl stepped out on deck without a word, but in her glorious eyes
beamed a light that Jack Barry would have given an eye to see with the
other. She walked down the gangway, turned to await him, then smiled
softly at him and said:
"There, Captain. Does that satisfy you? Let me tell you that I am
comfortable, quite safe, and wholly desirous of your good success and
happiness. Good-by now; I cannot keep you longer."
Jack Barry stumbled away towards the stockade like a man in a trance.
Here was mystery piled on mystery. Natalie Sheldon, at liberty on board
Leyden's schooner, happy and comfortable, yet being visited at midnight
by Mrs. Goring, friend of Leyden's fiercest foe, and wishing the
_Barang's_ skipper success and happiness!
Barry plunged straight along for the stockade gate.