ABOARD "THE BRIGAND"
The Brigand, a black, schooner-rigged yacht of about 1800 tons, with
a yellow funnel amidships, and flying the red and blue burgee of the
Transatlantic Yacht Club, lay at anchor on the rolling blue swells
off the harbor of Assini in the early dawn of the day following the
treachery of Luther Barr. Her crew--for the most part a riff-raff
collection picked up in a hurry, for the old man had only made up
his mind to make his daring grab for the ivory at the last
minute--lolled about the decks idly. There was no one aboard to give
command, for Jack Halsey, the mate who had been in command since the
death of the captain had gone ashore the night before.
As old Barr had prophesied, the mate's love for strong liquor had
overcome him and he was now lying hopelessly intoxicated in a low
drinking den. The raw "trade gin" that he had drunk had rendered
him insensible and so he would remain for many hours to come.
Some sort of animation diffused itself among the crew as they saw a
low-laden launch headed toward them from the shore. In it were
seated Luther Barr and several negroes including the black captain.
"Here, you lazy loafers!" hailed Barr, who was evidently in a bad
temper and also in a furious hurry, as the launch ranged alongside,
"bear a hand here and rig a sling and get this stuff aboard."
The "stuff" referred to was the priceless collection of ivory which
lay higgeldy-piggeldy in the bottom of the launch just as it had
been thrown in by the negroes in Barr's pay. Anticipating that the
boys would put up a stiff fight for the ivory he had taken the
precaution to hire these ne'er-do-wells, who would do anything, from
cutting a throat to stealing a chicken, for pay. Barr had paid them
well and when he had arrived at the camp he had taken the precaution
to leave them down the river about half-a-mile while he went on
alone with the launch and her captain to see how the land lay. When
he realized that the boys were not fooled by his forged order from
Mr. Beasley he decided to use the chloroform he had bought for just
such an emergency, and then rousing his followers when the boys were
drugged it had not taken long with their united efforts to load the
ivory.
Urged on by Barr's promise of a large reward the captain of the
launch had spun his little vessel down the river at top speed and
thus had been able to make the coast in record time.
"Where in thunder is that mate Halsey?" roared Barr as he saw the
bos'n--a seedy-looking fellow from the London slums--taking charge
of the transfer of the ivory from the launch to the deck of the
Brigand.
"He went ashore last night," rejoined the other.
"And I suppose he is helplessly drunk now," raged Barr. "How in the
name of fortune are we going to get the yacht out of here?"
"Wait till he gets sober," was the bos'n's grunted reply as the men
hastily transferred the last of the precious freight of tusks to the
Brigand's deck.
Barr jumped to the accommodation ladder and was aboard in a second,
despite his apparent feebleness. His face was distorted with rage
and cupidity.
"We have got to get out of here at once--now do you understand?" he
roared, crazed with rage.
"I'll give a thousand dollars to the man that will get me out of
this harbor and well off to sea."
"If it comes to that I guess I can take a chance of navigating the
yacht even if I don't hold a master's ticket," replied the bos'n.
"But are you a navigator?" questioned Barr eagerly
"Well, Mr. Barr, I held a master's ticket once before drink got me
and I piled my ship on a reef," was the answer.
"You're good enough for me!" shouted Barr overjoyed, "and now we'll
up anchor and get away from this abominable coast."
He scanned the sky shoreward anxiously. He did not confide to his
new captain, however, the fact that at any moment he expected to see
swift vengeance in the shape of the Golden Eagle II pursuing him.
With the roustabout crew that had been shipped in New York from a
West Street boarding-master it took some time to get the anchor
broken out--the men going at their work sulkily. At last, however,
it was "up and down" as the sailors say, and Luther Barr himself
signaled on the engine-room telegraph "Full speed, ahead." The
engines of the yacht begin to revolve and the crafty old pillager
almost gave a cry of joy as he felt the vibration beneath his feet.
The Boy Aviators could not cross the Atlantic in the aeroplane and
there would not be a ship leaving the coast for a month.
Luther Barr chuckled.
He had beaten the boys at their own game.
By the time they arrived in New York the ivory would have been sold
in London and he would be traveling in Europe on his ill-earned
gains. That Beasley (his unsuspecting partner) would be ruined gave
the money-crazed old man no care at all.
But even as the launch cast loose from the moving yacht and headed
back to the shore--her occupants greedily fingering the bills Barr
had given them for their work--Barr, from his station on the bridge,
gave a start and an exclamation.
High in the air, and not more than ten miles inland, a black object
that looked like a huge bird, but which Barr knew in his guilty soul
was the Golden Eagle II, was rapidly winging its way toward them.
"More steam," he shouted down the tube to the engineer and the
yacht, a long creamy wave curving away from her sharp black bow,
began to move even faster.
"What are we making?" Barr asked eagerly of the late bos'n who,
binoculars in hand, was taking the ship out through the treacherous
harbor entrance as confidently as if he were once more a captain.
"Twelve knots," was the reply.
"We must do better," raged Barr.
"Impossible!" was the answer. "We are risking the yacht now. I am
not familiar with this harbor and there are shoals and reefs all
about us stretching many miles out to sea. At any moment, unless we
proceed cautiously, we may run aground. Five knots would suit me
better than twelve."
Barr chafed silently. The reply was unanswerable.
Better to go slow than to run the ship ashore. Suddenly he snatched
the binoculars from the man beside him and turned them on the
aeroplane. He almost uttered a cry of triumph as the craft swung
into his field of vision.
There was something the matter with her.
She was no longer rushing straight ahead.
As Luther Barr watched her he saw the great aircraft swoop in a huge
circle above the town and then settle down so swiftly that it looked
as if she must have been dashed to pieces. But the town was hidden
behind a point and he could not see it.
"I hope she has been dashed to pieces," he gritted between his teeth
savagely, "that would mean the saving of a lot of trouble for me."
But even as he prepared to put the binoculars back in the pocket
alongside the binnacle with an evil smile playing about his thin
lips, there came a startling shock.
Barr was almost thrown from his feet and only saved himself from
falling by grasping a stanchion. The ship quivered from stem to
stern as if she had been hit a staggering blow.
"We've struck a reef!" exclaimed the late bos'n.
"A reef!" yelled Barr, beside himself with fury.
"I told you we would if you insisted on keeping up such a speed,"
angrily replied the other.
Beside himself with rage Barr picked up a heavy belaying pin to
which, the signal halyards had been attached and struck the man
before him a terrible blow with it.
Fortunately for his intended victim--for Barr in his rage would not
have cared had he killed him--he ducked just in time and the blow
was a glancing one. The man came at him like a tiger, but Barr,
quick as a flash, slid his hand into his coat pocket.
"If you advance a step nearer I'll blow your brains out," he said
coldly.
There was a glitter in his eyes that showed he meant what he said
and with a muttered:
"I'll get even with you, Barr, as sure as my name is Al Davis," the
late captain of the Brigand left the bridge.
Barr's active mind was at work at once planning schemes to get the
ivory off immediately. Accustomed to crises of all kinds, the
recent scene with the man Davis hadn't even warmed his chilly blood.
Calling the engineer he ordered an immediate inspection to be made.
The result was discouraging. The Brigand lay with her bow hard and
fast on a low sunken reef and while there was no apparent leak the
chief engineer shook his head at the vessel's plight.
That there was grave danger was evidenced a short while after when
the fire-room force--which had been ordered to keep steam up in the
hope of backing the ship off later--came pouring on deck crying that
there was three feet of water in the fire-room.
"That settles it," said the chief. "We are on a doomed ship."
"The boats! The boats!" shouted the men.
"Stay where you are," bellowed Barr, mad with rage, "get that ivory
off first."
"To blazes with your ivory," shouted a grizzled old fireman, "do you
think we are going to perish aboard here for such an old skinflint
as you?"
"Why, if we had time we'd run you up at your own main-gaff you old
land-shark," shouted another.
"Come on! the boats--the boats!" they yelled.
Barr stood irresolute while they lowered the four boats that the
Brigand carried and piled into them. The shore was only a few miles
off and they would reach it in a few hours.
While Barr hesitated he felt the ship give a lurch. She was
settling!
That decided him.
Ivory or no ivory he feared such a death as he felt convinced would
come to any one unfortunate enough to be aboard the ship in a few
hours' time even more than he did the loss of the ivory.
"Hold on!" he shouted to the men in the boats, "I'm coming along."
"Not much you ain't," yelled Davis--the man he had dealt the blow
to, "you stay there and rot with your ivory--you old crook."
With mocking laughs the men pulled away and Luther Barr, master of
millions, was left alone on the sinking yacht.