THE ABDUCTION OF BESSIE HARLAN.
From the deck of the _Goalong_, Bessie Harlan watched the maneuvering of
the pirate craft with an intensity which amounted almost to fascination.
It had not occurred to her thus far to feel personal fear. She remembered
another occasion when she had met the pirate, and she recalled that she
had been treated with the utmost consideration at that time, and now it
did not occur to her that the rover of the sea would visit personal harm
upon any of them.
She supposed that he intended merely to rob, and she did not know that,
once having fired a gun from his deck, and thereby actually menacing
another vessel on the high seas, he was just as amenable to capital
punishment for his crime as if he had murdered the entire crew of the
_Goalong_ in cold blood.
Her ideas concerning his really harmless intention, so far as physical
violence was concerned, seemed to be supported by the fact that after
those six shots, some of which had found their way aboard Kane’s yacht,
he did not again resort to his gun.
It was plain, however, that he had discovered that Kane did not mean to
stop until he was compelled to do so; and that the rover had figured out
a way to force him to stop his engines became more and more apparent as
the moments passed.
It was a pretty sight, too, which Bessie Harlan and the others were
watching. The long, low, narrow hull of the _Shadow_, funnelless, and
with no deck housings of any kind save the sunbonnet-shaped turret
forward, and the larger one amidships, from which the gun had been fired;
and with the two masts, devoid of spars and sails, shining like silver
and pointing like fingers into the air, had more the appearance of a
living monster of the deep, to her eyes, than the look of a modern vessel.
The _Shadow_ had been approaching the _Goalong_ from a direction
which was a few points off the starboard bow, but now she had altered
her course so that it somewhat resembled the shape of an inverted
interrogation point, and which, if pursued, would eventually swing her
around so that she would come up in a parallel course with the yacht, and
on the starboard side of her.
She would be running in the same direction, also, and as she was much
fleeter than the _Goalong_, she would then have no difficulty in
maintaining her position alongside and performing one of the acts which
the skipper, Manning, had suggested—that is, either her men would board
the yacht or they would pour in upon her the contents of that deadly
machine gun.
And now, as the _Shadow_ came about, a rod shot up from the interior
of one of the steel masts, and from it there presently floated out to
the breeze a blood-red flag; and at the same moment, from the amidships
turret, a figure came out on the convex, turtle-back deck and stood there
with folded arms, facing the yacht.
There was no mark of any kind upon the red field of the flag, and it was
not more red than the costume of the pirate himself, who seemed to have
taken the pattern of his costume from the tragedy of “Hamlet.”
A mask of the same color as his costume covered his face, and his left
hand rested upon the gold-mounted hilt of a rapier at his side. And he
stood there, calmly watching the yacht, which, although it was struggling
through the water at its utmost speed, might as well have stopped its
engines and waited, for the _Shadow_ was overhauling her as swiftly and
as surely as a greyhound would have overtaken a terrier.
Closer and closer the pirate craft approached, until not more than a
hundred feet separated the two vessels; and then her engines slowed down
until the two were running along side by side, and so near together that
conversation might easily be carried on from one deck to the other. It
was then that Maxwell Kane slowly and deliberately raised the revolver he
held in his hand, and was taking careful aim at the pirate chief, when
the quiet voice of Bessie Harlan murmured in his ear:
“Don’t shoot, Max. Wait.” she said.
But instead of desisting, Kane pulled the trigger.
The explosion followed and the bullet was sped on its way; but if those
on the deck of the yacht had expected to see the pirate pitch forward to
his own deck, shot through the heart, they were disappointed. He did not
move from the position he had occupied ever since he made his appearance,
save that he removed his plumed hat mockingly from his head and made
a sweeping gesture with it toward the man who had fired. And then he
called out to him.
“Don’t do that again,” he commanded coolly, “unless you wish me to riddle
you with bullets, regardless of those who are standing beside you. Put
down your weapon, Mr. Kane, and command all others there to do the same.
Then order your engines stopped. If you do not, I will disable you.”
“You had better obey him,” said the skipper, in a low tone. “He means
what he says. This is no child’s play, Mr. Kane.”
“I am beginning to realize that fact,” replied Kane.
“Shall I give the order to stop her, sir?”
“Yes; there is no use in risking the lives of everybody aboard. The
fellow is a pirate, all right.”
“And he is also the Count of Cadillac,” murmured Bessie. “I remember his
voice.”
“I have had no doubt of that from the first moment we discovered the
_Shadow_,” replied Kane, with a grimace.
The bell in the engine-room rang at that moment, and the engines of
the _Goalong_ were slowed down. Then another bell, and they stopped
altogether; and, although there was no sound of a bell from the pirate
craft, she kept pace with the yacht in coming to a stop, so that after
a moment they were forging ahead, side by side, with only their natural
momentum to give them steerage way.
And after a moment this was also lost, and the two vessels were rolling
almost side by side on the gentle rise and fall of the dead swell of the
ocean. Then, as if by prearrangement, rather than as the result of an
order just given, half a score of men suddenly appeared on the deck of
the rover, beside their chief.
Either they knew exactly what they were expected to do, or their orders
were already given them, for they took their places along the rail of the
_Shadow_ with the precision of automatons and waited.
A group of them went forward, another group aft, and a third remained
almost amidships, near their chief. In the possession of each group there
were two stout lines with grappling-irons attached to them, and Kane and
his party, on the deck of the yacht, could see that the men stood ready
to heave them when the proper moment should arrive.
It was then that Kane’s skipper, Manning, shook his head doubtfully.
“The _Shadow_ is a much heavier craft than we are, Mr. Kane,” he said.
“If they make fast to us with this dead swell a-running under us, and
heaving our bows into the air with every rise, she’ll swamp us in no
time; but——”
He paused in his pessimistic prognostication, for at that moment the
grappling-irons were thrown aboard. They caught, too, as if they had been
cast by well-practised hands, and then, as the men of the _Shadow_ made
fast their own ends of the lines, power was given her and she forged
ahead until, with the lines drawn taut, the two vessels were brought as
safely side by side as if the act had been performed on the bosom of a
mill-pond.
And from that moment, too, the wheel of the _Shadow_ was kept moving,
so that the yacht to which she had made fast was towed slowly through
the water, and in that way the bows of the two vessels were kept headed
toward the swell with sufficient steerageway to keep them so.
“That pirate feller is a sailor, all right,” muttered Manning. “I
couldn’t have done any better myself.”
In the meantime, the slack of the lines had been taken up, and now they
were lashed firmly into place, so that the _Shadow_ and the _Goalong_
were held together exactly as if they had been one vessel. All this time
the pirate chief had retained his position near the turret, with his arms
folded across his breast; but now he took a few steps aft, until he was
directly abreast of the group on the deck of the yacht, and then he swept
them another bow.
“Ladies,” he said, ignoring Kane, “I have been lying on and off in the
harbor of Hamilton for something more than a week in order, ultimately,
to enjoy the pleasure of this moment. I regret that I cannot be assured
that it is mutual.”
“What the devil do you want, and what have you stopped us for on the high
seas?” demanded Kane angrily.
The rover turned his eyes, which shone like sparks of fire through the
holes in the mask which concealed his face toward Kane. Then he made a
gesture which his men evidently understood, for in an instant more Kane
discovered that three wicked-looking rifles were aimed at his breast, and
that behind each one of them was a masked figure in red.
“Mr. Kane,” said the pirate coolly, “you are not expected to speak at
all, unless it is in reply to a question addressed to you. My men have
orders to fire and to kill you if you do not obey. I trust you will have
sense enough to remain uninjured, since silence on your part is all that
is necessary in order to do so.”
Kane ground his teeth together in a rage; but he knew that the pirate had
uttered no idle threat, and that it was useless to do other than to obey
him.
“And shall I be shot, also, if I speak?” demanded Bessie boldly.
“You, Miss Harlan? I shoot you? Let me assure you that you are as safe
from harm at this moment as if you were in the boudoir of your own home,
surrounded by all your faithful attendants.”
“Humph!” said Bessie. “That may be true, but it doesn’t appear so. Are
you not Count Cadillac?”
The pirate shrugged his shoulders, and they thought he laughed a little.
“Just now,” he replied, “I call myself the modern Red Rover—but I do that
merely for the want of a better title. Captain Sparkle, who formerly
commanded this vessel, is, unfortunately for him, detained elsewhere, and
I have assumed his place. Perhaps it is not too much for me to admit that
I was only known to you as Count Cadillac. Does that fact reassure you,
Miss Harlan?”
“On the contrary, it fills me with dread.”
“Indeed! Why so?”
“Because I cannot understand how a man who possesses so many of the
prerogatives of a gentleman as you do, can descend to such a vulgar
calling as you have adopted.”
The pirate shrugged his shoulders again.
“It may be,” he said slowly, “that I will be able to make that plain to
you—later.”
Bessie tossed her head, and was on the point of turning away, when the
voice of the pirate arrested her.
“Wait!” he said sternly. “Remain where you are, Miss Harlan.”
She wheeled and faced him, with flaming cheeks and blazing eyes.
“Do you dare!” she began, and paused.
The pirate had made another gesture, which his men seemed to understand,
and in obedience to it several of them stepped aboard the yacht, while
the others drew up in line along the rail of the _Shadow_ and leveled
their rifles at the entire party, which included, as may now be readily
understood, the crew of the yacht, as well as her owner and guests.
“Mrs. Harlan,” said the pirate coldly, then, addressing the mother of the
two young women, “you will oblige me if you will go to your cabin. Not a
man of my crew shall touch you if you obey, but if you refuse you will be
taken there. Thank you. That is the better way.”
He turned then a little, and added:
“Now, Mrs. Kane, I will ask you to follow your mother. You, Mr. Kane,
will follow the two ladies. No resistance, if you please, and no
questions. Mr. Manning, follow your master.”
The pirate chief watched the four persons until they disappeared inside
the cabin, and then with a bound he leaped aboard the yacht and paused
within three paces of where Bessie Harlan stood. She was turning away to
follow in the footsteps of her mother and sister when the pirate suddenly
appeared in front of her, barring her way.
“Your way lies yonder, Miss Harlan,” he said quietly, pointing with one
hand toward the deck of his own vessel.
Bessie started back in terror, and then she would have darted past him,
and so sought to escape; but, with a quick bound, he was beside her, and
in another instant she was lifted from her feet and carried, bodily,
aboard the _Shadow_.