THE MYSTERY OF THE PIRATE CRAFT.
“Let me talk, now!” exclaimed Bessie. “I was the first one to reach the
deck after you called us, Max.”
“All right. I’ve no objections. I feel like seven different kinds of a
jay, anyhow, when I tell this story; and, by the great boot in Chatham
Street, Nick, I’d willingly give up a million rather than go through with
it again! All the same, I want those race cups back again, if I can get
them.”
“So the pirate took them, did he? I thought he said it might be arranged
so that you could keep them?”
“Oh, he took them, all right; and he did offer to make an arrangement;
but I will tell you all about that when Bessie gets through.”
Nick turned so that he faced Miss Harlan.
“I was the first one to reach the deck,” she began, “and I saw a
distinguished-looking man seated in that chair where the count is
sitting. He wore a red mask over his face, as Max has described it, and
his costume was strikingly like a Romeo get-up, only it was red. My first
thought was that some of Max’s friends had discovered that we were at the
anchorage, and had come aboard to treat us to an impromptu fancy-dress
party. I really supposed that I would have known them, had they not been
masked, and regarded the whole thing as a joke, so I went toward them,
humming ‘Gaily the Troubadour.’ But when I drew nearer, so that I could
get a view of Max’s face, I was startled; he looked so savage, and he was
chewing away at his mustache, just as if he had not spent hours and hours
in training it ever since it sprouted.”
“That will do, Bessie. Just keep to your story, if you don’t mind,” said
Kane.
“Well,” she continued, “I saw then that something was the matter. My
first thought was that Max was annoyed because his friends had come; but
when he rose in his place, and, in an icy tone, said: ‘Miss Harlan, I
am compelled, much against my will, to introduce a gentleman thief to
you,’ I didn’t know what to say, or think. But before I could do either,
the pirate had turned toward Max, and I could see the flash of his eyes
through the holes in his mask, while he said icily:
“‘Mr. Kane, if I hear a repetition of your present offense, the
consequences to yourself and your ladies will be upon your own head! I
beg that you will present me properly, sir!’
“I was nonplused, Mr. Carter, and I could see that Max was swearing mad.
However, he did as he was told.
“‘This is Captain Sparkle, a pirate,’ he said. And then he called out to
my sister, who was just appearing, to go back and get his box of cigars
for him.
“I turned to the pirate then, and said: ‘You have selected a late hour to
make your call upon us, Captain Sparkle.’
“‘From necessity, believe me, madam,’ he replied, bowing.
“My sister and the count appeared at that moment, and Max introduced them
by saying, between his teeth:
“‘My wife, and Count Cadillac—Captain Sparkle.’ Cora had brought the
cigars with her, and Max lighted one of them. After that he seemed
better.”
“And had you not guessed the true significance of the presence of the man
in red?” asked Nick.
“No; I saw that something was wrong, but what it was or what it all
meant, I had no idea. The pirate, however, did not leave me long in
doubt.”
“No? What did he say, and do?”
“Let me speak, now,” interjected Kane’s wife.
“By Jove!” muttered Kane. “One would think this was a prize composition
tourney!”
“My first impression about the matter,” said Mrs. Kane, “was much the
same as Bessie’s. And I suppose the count’s was the same.”
“Yes,” replied the count. “Quite so.”
“However,” she continued, “as Bessie says, we were not long left in
doubt. Captain Sparkle, as he called himself, snapped his fingers,
and his men, whom I had noticed when I came out of the cabin, came
forward—or, rather, aft—at once, falling into line like trained soldiers.
“‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ said Captain Sparkle, then, ‘these are my
followers. We have come here on an important errand. We are, in a word,
collecting jewels, trinkets, money, and valuables of all kinds. In your
own world you would designate us as robbers, or, perhaps, by the term
which Mr. Kane has just now applied to me—pirates. I am about to send
several of my men below to obtain what you have there, and you will each
spare yourself unnecessary annoyance resulting from broken locks and
rumpled wearing apparel, if you will produce your keys, and give me such
directions as will aid us in our search.’
“It was quite a speech, Mr. Carter, and I think I have repeated it word
for word. I was amazed. I did not know what to think. I was frightened,
too; and then, for the first time, I saw that my husband was almost
beside himself with rage and chagrin. I knew then that the strangely
attired man had spoken the truth, and that they were robbers.
“I thought Bessie would faint.
“She uttered a cry, and came closer to me; and that act of hers led the
pirate to make another speech.
“‘I beg, ladies,’ he said, ‘that you will not be needlessly alarmed.
You are in no personal danger. You will not be molested in any way. You
have only to remain seated here in the chairs until we have finished
our business, when we will depart, as we came, in silence. And in the
meantime I will direct one of my men to act as steward, and to bring wine
to you. Now, if you please, the keys and the information I requested.’”
“Now wait, Cora,” said Kane. “It is my turn again.”
“Go on,” said Nick.
“The pirate left three of his men on deck to watch us while he took the
others below with him. Of course, that was after we had given up our
keys, and all the information he asked for about our valuables.
“The men he left to guard us were armed, too, this time. They each held
a revolver. I don’t know where they got them, for I had not seen them
before. Not one of them uttered a word, however. They simply stood there,
with their pistols in their hands, like so many wax figures. The count
spoke to them two or three times, but he got no reply at all.
“After a few minutes, one of the men who had gone below with the chief
came back with a tray. The scoundrel had opened the steward’s pantry and
helped himself; but he sent up a bottle of sherry, a bottle of whisky,
and a siphon of seltzer.”
“But he did not come himself, eh?” asked Nick.
“Not until he was through below. Then he appeared. But in the meantime
his men had come up, two by two, carrying stuff they had stolen; but they
covered everything with blankets or table linen, so I could not see a
thing they were taking away.
“Once, when two of them were carrying a particularly heavy bundle toward
the bow of the yacht, I half-rose from my chair, to observe them more
closely; but it was only to find that one of the rascals on guard over me
had thrust the muzzle of his revolver under my nose, so I resumed my seat
without a word.
“Well, after awhile, Carter, the pirate got all he could find, and he
came on deck himself. He came at once to where I was sitting, and said:
“‘Now, Mr. Kane, about that money, if you please. Where is it? I have
discovered considerably less than the sum you were good enough to
mention.’
“‘You haven’t discovered any that I mentioned,’ I replied to him.
“‘So I supposed. I will ask you to produce what you have about you.’
“But he did not take my watch, my cuff-buttons, or my stickpin, and,
although he relieved the count of his money, he left him his watch and
other things.
“And there was an odd thing about it all, too, Carter. He did not touch
with his own hands a thing we offered him. One of his men stepped forward
in each instance, to accept our offerings.
“But, after it was all over, after he had returned the keys, and thanked
each one of us for the use of them, the strangest thing of the whole
proceeding took place.
“You asked me, when we began, how the fellow got aboard, and I told you
that, to reply to that question, would be to get ahead of my story.”
“Yes,” said the detective.
“Well, until that moment, I myself had no idea how he had accomplished
it. I am not positive, even, that I had asked myself the question. So
many things had happened in such a short time, and my mind had been kept
so employed in thinking about the absurdity of the whole occurrence,
that the mere incident of how the pirate came aboard my yacht, or how he
intended to take his departure, when the moment arrived to do so, did not
present itself.”
“I can readily understand that.”
“But I was soon to discover.
“He returned the keys, and thanked us for our courtesy with the air of a
Chesterfield. Then, with a bow, which would have made Beau Brummel stare
with envy, he turned his back and walked to the bow of the yacht.
“Mind you, there had not been a sound during the entire proceeding which
would have called a single member of my crew to the deck, even had they
all been awake and listening, and to this moment, with the exception of
the one man who was captured by the pirates and bound and gagged near the
forecastle-hatch, not a man of my crew is aware of what happened.”
“Do you mean that you have managed to keep it a secret from all of them?”
“Yes, I do mean that. It is bad enough to have the members of my own
family know about it—it is bad enough to be compelled to tell you about
it—without living to the end of my days knowing that my men are quietly
laughing in their sleeves at me.”
“I am afraid that you are oversensitive about it, Kane.”
“Humph! Perhaps so; but I don’t like to be laughed at. And, more, I am
not one who is supposed to submit to such a proceeding without offering
the slightest resistance.”
“I know that.”
“And here I permitted that fellow to come aboard, to take me by surprise,
to compel me to call my wife and my guests to the deck, to give up my
keys and my money to him, and to do a hundred different things to assist
him in his robbery, and all that without one word of protest, and without
offering the slightest resistance; but I said that before.”
“He had the drop on you, Kane.”
“Had the drop on me? I should say he did! He had the drop on me, and
he had the sand all out of me, as well! That is what makes me so mad
whenever I think about it.”
“Well, about his manner of coming aboard and leaving the yacht. You
started to tell me about that?”
“When the pirate left us to walk forward, I noticed for the first time
that there was a craft of some kind lying across our bow. I could see the
two slender, tapering masts, but from where I was seated, here in this
chair, I could see nothing of the hull.”
“The _Goalong_ stands rather high out of the water. She has unusual
freeboard for a craft of her size. That fact might account for what you
tell me.”
“Sure! I understand that now. It did account for it—or, rather, it does
account for it, as you shall see.”
“Well, go on.”
“Captain Sparkle was the last one of his crew to leave the deck of the
yacht. He stood yonder in the bow until they had all disappeared. Then he
turned, and, after waving his hand at us, he also jumped from the deck of
the yacht and disappeared.”
“And then?” asked Nick.
“Why, then I could control myself no longer. I leaped to my feet and
started forward. I don’t know just what I intended to do, save that my
first thought was to dive below, get a gun of some sort, and take a shot
at something. But the count stopped that.”
“The count? How was that?”
“When I leaped from my chair, he grabbed me. I suppose I have to thank
him for it, and the ladies, also, for the pirate might have returned if I
had shot at him.”
“Well?”
“Then we stood right here, where we are now; the entire group; and we
watched that pirate sail away without offering a word or an act of
protest. Nick, did you ever see what is called a turtle-back craft on the
great lakes?”
“Often.”
“Well, if you should reduce the size of one of them to about seventy-five
or eighty feet, over all, and then run a bright nickel rail all the way
around her from end to end, it would give you a better idea of that
pirate craft than anything I can think of. And yet it is not a very
correct idea, either. You will have to eliminate the upper works of the
turtle-back, and also the funnel. Just bear in mind, will you, that the
thing was not in sight for more than two minutes, at the most, so I had
not much chance to take her measure.”
“Where did she go?”
“Go! She went like a shot out of a gun! She went like a bullet. And she
was just about the color of the water, so it was next to impossible to
see her after she was several hundred feet away, even in that bright
moonlight.”
“I can understand that.”
“I wish you could have seen her.”
“So do I. But suppose you describe her to us, without reference to
turtle-backs. Describe her just as you would if you had never seen a
turtle-back.”
“All right. She was, I should say, seventy-five or eighty feet, over all,
and from sixteen to twenty feet beam. I am guessing at it, of course.”
“Certainly.”
“She was long and narrow, and floated as if she was rather deep in the
water. She carried two masts, but I saw no sign of a sail upon her. There
was no funnel, and when she shot away from the bow of the yacht, her
motive power, whatever it was, made no noise whatever, so I presume she
was propelled by electricity.”
“Storage-battery power, eh?”
“Yes. Her deck was convex from end to end, and guarded, as I have already
said, by a nickel rail which ran her entire length. Away forward there
was a low turret, shaped like an old-fashioned poke bonnet, if the wearer
of the bonnet were looking aft. This was, no doubt, the wheel-house.
Amidships there was a second turret, shaped like an iron kettle, and
about six or eight feet in diameter. Aft there was another one, exactly
like it; and that is all.”
“Do you think she might have been a submarine?”
“No, I do not. I have thought of that, and studied over it. She did not
seem to me to be the proper model for a submarine; at least, she was not
at all the shape of the generally accepted pattern for that sort of a
craft.”
“Well, what did she suggest to you?”
“Something more in the line of a small torpedo-boat destroyer—long,
narrow, low in the water, swift, almost invisible by reason of her color,
and with her upper housings so arranged that if she should be awash in a
heavy sea she would be none the worse for it, because, with her turrets
closed and locked, not a drop of water could get inside the hull.”
“Where did she go?”
“Straight out into the Sound. I have told you that the tide had swung us
so our bow was pointing that way. The pirate crept in upon us while I was
sitting there aft, smoking and dreaming. He probably came in under very
little power, so that he was actually alongside before I could hear a
sound. I even doubt if I would have seen her if I had happened to look in
that direction. And now, Nick, you have got the whole story. What do you
think about it?”
“I haven’t heard the count’s version of the affair yet,” said the
detective, smiling.
“Mine?” replied the count, stroking his imperial, and showing his
splendid teeth. “I am afraid, Mr. Carter, that I can add very little to
what has already been said. At the present moment I can recall only one
detail which seems to have escaped the others.”
“And what is that, if you please?” asked the detective.
“I noticed merely that the pirate’s hair was very light in color—about
what you would select for your idea of a Norwegian viking; but I also
noticed that his eyes were very dark—black, I should say, although the
holes in his mask did not give much of an opportunity to view them. But,
if I am correct, the combination would suggest, would it not, that the
hair was a wig, and that his own natural crown was black?”
“Quite so,” said Nick.
“And now tell us what you think about it,” insisted Maxwell Kane.
“I think as you do,” replied the detective, smiling; “that you were
visited by a pirate, who has succeeded in injuring your feelings much
more than he did your purse. But now I want you to answer some questions
which occur to me; and after that—well, after that we’ll see what can be
done.”