THE LAST OF THE PHANTOM
The letter promised to pay Kimpton twenty dollars a day for his
services; and perhaps this was the strongest reason why he wished to
see his employer. Captain Brisbane went up to the pilot-house again to
finish his nap, leaving Louis and the cook on the forward deck.
Bickling had certainly been faithful to his present employer, if his
other recruit had not; and Louis wondered that he had mustered up pluck
enough to resist the wishes of his late companion after he had resorted
to violence. The cook’s heart was in the right place; but he had not
force of character enough to be a whole man.
The forenoon passed away, and Louis continued to be very nervous and
uneasy. In spite of the injunction of Captain Ringgold, he was disposed
to take the boat and make a visit to the Maud. But there were still
four men left on board of her, and they were at liberty. If he put
himself within reach of Scoble, he would be made a prisoner, and his
power to do anything for his guardian-mother would have passed away.
Louis had been several times to a point on the steamer where he could
see the man on watch at the door of the wounded prisoner. He had
stretched himself on the deck, in the narrow gangway that was between
the rail and the house on deck. Undoubtedly Kimpton was the most
disappointed and disheartened man on board of the Phantom, for he
had utterly failed in his mission near the young millionaire. Louis
knew nothing more of him than the letter had revealed; but he looked
upon him as a desperately bad character, in short, just such a man as
Scoble himself. He had pluck enough for any person; but pluck may be
manifested in a bad cause as well as a good one.
Louis not only watched the man at the door of the desperado, but he
kept an eye up the bay in the direction where the Maud lay at her
moorings. Whether Scoble heard the noise made by the cook when he was
attacked or not, he must be aware of the presence of the Phantom at
the inlet. He must realize that his project of getting off unseen to
Bermuda had failed. He could not know, but he might well suspect, that
this steamer was there to intercept him.
Scoble was not likely to remain where he was for many days without
attempting to do something to effect his escape from the bay. Judging
from what Captain Brisbane said, it would be high tide at noon and at
midnight, or nearly at these times; and it was hardly probable that the
Maud could get to sea at any other hours of the day.
While Louis was uneasily walking about the deck, fretting at his own
inactivity while his mother was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy,
he was startled by the violent yelling on the part of the watch at the
door of Kimpton. This man had appeared to be asleep most of the time;
but as he lay across the doorway so that the prisoner could not escape,
Louis did not care to disturb the captain with a report of his neglect
of duty.
“Fire! Fire! Fire!” shouted the man at the top of his lungs.
“Where is the fire?” demanded Louis, startled at the cry.
“Down below,” replied the deck hand. “The deck is so hot you can’t bear
your hand on it!”
Louis found it very warm under his feet, and he remained in that part
of the vessel only long enough to satisfy himself that the door of the
wounded man’s stateroom was still locked. While the man on watch ran
forward to alarm the ship’s company, Louis followed the narrow gangway
to the stern, and then to the other side of the craft. He had hardly
reached the after part when he made a discovery which appeared to
explain the meaning of the fire in the hold of the Phantom.
The steamer was headed to the west, just as she had come in; and though
Louis was not aware of the fact, the anchor had been dropped, and the
fresh breeze kept the vessel headed in the direction of the point. The
boat, after the prisoner had been put on board, had been made fast at
the stern.
The boat was not where it had been secured, but Louis discovered it
half-way to the shore on the north side, with Kimpton in it, sculling
with all his might for the shore. He was using his left hand only; but
he was so well skilled in the use of the oar in this manner that he
was making rapid progress through the water.
[Illustration: “WITH THE GLASS IN HIS HAND, HE CLIMBED THE HIGHEST
PINE-TREE HE COULD FIND.” Page 225.]
By this time the watch had roused the ship’s company, and the voice of
Captain Brisbane was heard as he gave his orders for extinguishing the
fire. The deck was so hot under Louis’s feet that it made him step very
lively, and he jumped upon the rail to escape the heat. Just then he
observed that the door of the captain’s stateroom, occupying the after
part of the deck-house, was wide open. Rushing into this room, he saw
a door leading into the room where Kimpton had been confined. The lock
was secured to the outside of the door, and the prisoner had removed it
by taking out the screws with his knife or some other implement in his
possession.
The fire was just breaking through the deck in the wounded man’s room,
and Louis could remain there but a moment; but he had seen enough
to satisfy himself in what manner the prisoner had made his escape.
From the captain’s room the incendiary had probably passed through
the engine-room, where the engineer was sound asleep on the sofa, and
descended to the fire room, making his way aft to some place where he
found combustibles suited to his purpose.
As soon as he had finished his survey, Louis hastened forward to
assist, if he could, in putting out the fire. The steam pump had been
put in condition to be operated, and already was pouring water into
the hold, but in a place, Louis thought, where it would accomplish but
little in subduing the flames. He informed the captain that the fire
was coming up through the deck farther aft. At this moment the fireman
who had been sent below to start up the fires which had been banked in
the morning, came up, and declared that the heat and smoke had driven
him on deck. The hose was then carried farther aft; but the flames had
taken full possession of both staterooms.
It began to look like a hopeless case, for the water poured in upon the
fire seemed to have no appreciable effect. Those who were not at work
with the steam pump worked with buckets, and Louis labored as earnestly
as any of the hands. The flames were confined to the after part of the
steamer, and it was now too hot for any one to remain there.
“Stand by your engine, Mr. Waters!” shouted the captain, as he rushed
to the bow of the steamer, where he cast off the cable, and let it run
overboard.
“All right, Captain Brisbane,” replied the engineer, who was on duty at
the machine, attending to the steam pump. “I am not sure that the screw
will work, for something may have been burned away along the shaft.”
“Start her forward!” shouted the captain, as he ran up the ladder to
the pilot-house.
As soon as he had the wheel in his hands he rang one bell on the gong.
The engineer started the machine, and ascertained at once that the
screw was still in condition to work. The Phantom, with the flames
pouring out abaft the engine-room, went ahead, and the captain headed
her for the shore on the north side of the inlet, for that was the
nearest land. It was not more than a quarter of a mile distant. The
speed bell followed the stroke on the gong a moment later, and the
vessel went ahead as rapidly as her low pressure of steam would permit.
The steam pump was still at work, and the fires had been replenished by
the firemen before they had been driven from their post. Louis judged
that Captain Brisbane had given up the battle with the fire, and had
no hope of saving her. When the young millionaire found he could be
of no further service on the main deck, he joined the captain in the
pilot-house.
“This is a bad job for me,” said Captain Brisbane, when Louis had taken
his place opposite him at the wheel, where he could look through the
window at the shore. “The Phantom is insured, but my loss will be large
for me.”
“I am exceedingly sorry for it, captain,” replied Louis, whose first
impulse was to make it good to him; but he was not confident that Uncle
Moses would indorse his liberality, and he said nothing about it.
“I don’t see how the fire got such a start upon us,” added the captain.
“We had a large supply of light wood for kindling the fires abaft the
bunkers; but it was a good distance from the furnaces, and the fires
were banked.”
“Didn’t you see that man in a boat about a quarter of an hour ago?”
asked Louis, surprised that the captain had not yet ascertained the
origin of the fire.
Kimpton had reached the shore and disappeared. Louis had not been able
to observe his movements while he was at work on the main deck, and
did not know what had become of him. He had had time enough to reach
the shore, which was covered with stunted pines and firs, which were
sufficient to conceal him from observation.
“I haven’t noticed any boat; I was too busy with the fire to look
to the right or the left after I was roused from my sleep,” replied
Captain Brisbane to his passenger’s question. “What boat do you mean?”
“The first thing I saw after I got to the stern of the steamer was a
boat with a man in it, sculling with all his might with his left hand;
and that man was the prisoner whose wound you dressed this forenoon,”
added Louis, telling the whole story at once.
“Then the fire was set by that man,” said the captain, grinding his
teeth and shaking his head. “I should like to get hold of him again,
and I would not wait for judge or jury!”
Louis explained in what manner Kimpton had escaped from his room, and
how he supposed he had started the fire. Then he took the spy-glass
from the brackets, and directed it to the shore. He could see the boat,
but the man was not in sight.
“What time is it now, Captain Brisbane?” he asked.
“Just noon,” replied the captain, glancing at the clock on the after
bulkhead.
“At what time will the tide be up?”
“About half-past twelve.”
The Phantom was approaching the shore at full speed, and the captain
gave no further attention to his passenger. In a few minutes more the
forefoot ploughed into the sand, and the steamer stopped short in
a position where those on board could jump upon the dry land. The
violent hissing of the steam indicated that the engineer was still at
his post, hot as it was there. He had stopped the machine, and provided
against a possible explosion of the boiler.
For the next hour all hands were kept busy in saving their own effects
and such of the steamer’s as were movable. Louis had landed, taking his
valise, overcoat, the compass, and spy-glass from the pilot-house with
him. With the glass in his hand, he climbed the highest pine-tree he
could find, hoping that he might be able to discover the Maud at her
moorings; but he failed to make her out.
Then he directed his glass to the other side of the bay. An inward
trend of the shore-line enabled him to see across the water the
extremity of a projecting point of land on the peninsula where he
had landed. On this point was a man seated on the sand, apparently
very busy about something. This person must be Kimpton, for there was
not a house or a hut within some miles of the spot, and the nearest
life-saving station was south of the inlet. He had made good use of his
legs after he landed, and Louis wondered what he was doing.
He was not obliged to wait long for a solution of the problem,
for Kimpton hoisted a white cloth on a pole, and began to wave it
violently. A few moments later Louis discovered a schooner under full
sail, standing towards the inlet. The vessel was the Maud.