A REINCARNATION
It was no time to waste any precious moments on ceremony; he must act,
and act immediately. There were on either side of the main door long
panels of glass. John Berwick made use of the stout stick, his only
weapon, which he had picked up from the midst of the copse, and broke
the long panel glass into smithereens.
Under ordinary conditions the noise would have been sufficient to
attract the attention of anyone in the banquet hall, in spite of the
heavy doors and their equally heavy hangings of cloth of purple, but at
this precise moment the parties therein were so intent on the tragedy
that was about to be consummated there, that they would not have been
diverted by even a much louder noise than that caused by the breaking of
that slender panel of glass.
John Berwick was of slight and wiry figure, and was able to shove his
way through, a feat that would have been impossible for Jim, even with
the most determined intentions in the world. Within a half minute
Berwick stood crouching in the hall, and then he crossed the space
swiftly, through the open door, the purple curtains parted, and there
advanced into the center of the banquet hall, the gray-clad figure
seemingly of the dead detective.
The deadly dagger which the Mexican Dwarf poised to transfix his victim
was never flung, but dropped with a metallic clatter from his palsied
hand. Even Jim was dazed for a few seconds by this strange apparition,
and then he could have given a yell of joy and of boundless relief. It
was one of the few dramatic moments of his life, which had been filled
with exciting incidents, which is an entirely different thing from being
dramatic.
The first look at John Berwick, wearing the detective's coat and hat,
the latter pulled well over his face, had appalled and paralyzed the
gang of dastards, who were about to execute cold-blooded murder, and as
he advanced upon them this fear was changed into frenzied panic.
Trampling over one another at once they fled by way of a door at the end
of the room, near where they were gathered. The supposed detective gave
up the pursuit after they were utterly routed, and returned to where Jim
stood bound.
"How did you ever think of it, old chap?" cried Jim, as soon as the rope
that bound him had been cut by his friend.
"It chanced that I was prepared," replied Berwick. "I heard that
horrible clatter in the house, and got in as quickly as I could."
"That clatter was Brian de Bois Guilbert tumbling downstairs," said Jim
gleefully.
"Eh?" questioned Berwick, his eyes opening wide as he gazed at Jim in
the dawning belief that the experience he had gone through had unsettled
his mind.
"Oh, I'm not crazy, Chief," exclaimed Jim. "I'll explain later; now for
getting the señorita out of the hands of these villains."
"She is here? Then I'm ready," rejoined Berwick, "but let's get a weapon
or two before we start. We may need them."
Jim had now regained the use of his stiffened muscles, and together the
two comrades went to the end of the long room.
"This is yours, Jim," he said, as he stooped and picked up the weapon
which the Mexican had dropped.
"Sure it is," replied James. "My friend, Manuel, was about to hand it to
me."
"It's poisoned, look out for it," said the engineer, as he handed the
blade to him gingerly.
"Here's a revolver," cried Jim, "that one of the gents dropped in his
hurry. Shy only one cartridge, too," he concluded, after a hasty
examination.
Thus equipped, they started on their quest, and though very inadequately
armed they both felt heartened by the presence of the other. It is a
desolate business, facing danger alone with no one to back you up, or
with whom you can take counsel. True comradeship is one of the best
things in the world.
The two friends move quickly across the floor, but, by comparison with
the danger that is approaching, they seem merely to crawl. You long to
shout a warning to them, do anything to urge them on. They reach the
door of the banquet hall, and then they are quick to act, and with good
reason.
"What durned son of thunder broke that thar glass?" There was no doubt
whose voice that was. It belonged to the redoubtable Captain Broome, and
to no other. It was his stopping to look at the broken glass that gave
the two comrades their chance.
"Busted in'ard," he commented shrewdly, and then his gray, red-rimmed
eye, with its gleam of steel, caught sight of Jim and the engineer, as
they came through the door of the banquet hall. With a roar of wrath he
was inside, followed by six of his sailors; then his humor changed as he
saw Jim looking down from the head of the stairs.
"Very good of you, Mr. Darlington, to visit me in my humble home; sorry
I wasn't here to welcome you," he remarked suavely.
"Oh, I've made myself quite at home, Captain," replied Jim. "Nice place
here; wouldn't you like to trade it for my fine sea-going yacht in the
harbor?"
The captain grew red in the face at this piece of persiflage, and under
the stress of excitement he swallowed his quid of tobacco and likewise
his wrath, at Jim's coolness.
"Waal, son, that's extra kind of you, ain't it, boys?" and he looked
over the hard beaten crew at his back.
A loud guffaw of derision greeted this remark, and it was Jim's turn to
feel like swallowing something, only it was not a quid of tobacco, for
that was a foreign substance he never indulged in, but he made another
bold move by way of reply.
"Well, Captain, as you won't consider a dicker with me, I've got a
friend with me who represents the United States government. Perhaps he
will buy your châlet here by the sea."
John Berwick, who had been standing in the shadow back of Jim, gave a
grunt of surprise at the audacity of this move, but he was game, and
stepped quietly into the limelight. Captain Broome stood for a moment in
open-jawed surprise, and then he dropped his byplay of grim politeness
with startling suddenness. A shot rang out, and a puff of smoke drifted
across the hall. The bullet zipped close to John Berwick's head.
"Don't fire yet," warned Jim; "come quick."
He led the way swiftly down the hall, determined to make one last effort
to save the señorita, though it would have been easy enough for him to
have saved himself and his comrade by dashing into the library, barring
the door, and climbing down by the way which he had come up, but to
Jim's credit, be it said, the thought of such escape never crossed his
mind.
As they ran, Jim had the presence of mind to swerve for a second and
grab the hound which he had killed a short time before and drag it out
so that it lay crossways of the hall; then on they dashed, while the
lumbering sailors, better for climbing masts than for sprinting, came
awkwardly on their trail.
The pursuers had only started on the level of the hall when a volley of
six shots flashed in sudden flame in the direction in which Jim and his
friend were running. Two came unpleasantly near, but this only added a
zest to the race, and Jim laughed with a snort of disdain.
"You fellows shoot like Chinamen," he yelled in derision, which remark
reached the ears of Captain Broome and his gang with forcible
distinctness. It served to blind them with fury, and the next moment the
captain fell forward over the dead hound, and three of his gallant
sailors sprawled over him, for which piece of awkwardness they were
berated and kicked and cuffed by their irate employer.
"What dumb fool left that hound there!" he yelled when he saw the
obstruction by the light of a full lantern that one of his men lit.
"He's been pizened."
"Cut in the neck, Cap'n, that's what killed the beastie."
It was only too true, as the old pirate saw, and he went into a fit of
rage that left him inarticulate; but from the way he shook both gnarled
fists in the direction in which Jim had fled, it was clear that he knew
who was responsible for the death of his hound, and who had placed it
where it was. With a sudden sense of superstition his memory went back
to the fate of his great gorilla of the cavern that once had guarded his
treasure in a cave in one of the islands off the coast of California. It
was this same big, humorous, blond-headed boy, who had several times
outwitted and beaten him, though not always, for the hard-bitten old
salt horse had now gotten his yacht back from Jim's grip, and, through
one of his agents, had a few days ago relieved him of his treasure. Now,
in spite of daring and long-headedness, the captain seemed likely to
defeat the youth's present intention of freeing the Señorita da Cordova
from his cold, calculating and cruel grip.
At least it was not certain that James Darlington was to win her
release; however, he had before fought against odds quite as desperate
and won. We shall see. However, there was no question as to the bitter
chagrin of Captain Bill Broome as he took up the broken pursuit.