THE MIGHT OF NIPPON
Lund's face, on which the bruises were fast fading, changed purple-black
with rage. He whirled upon Sandy, gaping near, and ordered him to fetch
his binoculars. Through them he stared long at the smoke. Then he turned
to the girl and Rainey.
"Come down inter the cabin," he said. "We'll need all our wits."
"That's a gunboat patrol," he said. "Japanese, for a million! None other
this far west. An' it's damned funny it should come up right at this
minnit. We've made the trip on schedule time, an' here they show. But
we'll let that slide. We've got to think fast. They'll board us. They'll
overhaul us lookin' for seal pelts. At least, I hope so.
"We've got none. Our hunters an' our rifles an' shotguns'll prove our
claim to be pelagic sealers. We got to trust they believe us. If there
was a hide aboard or a club, or a sign of a dead seal on the beaches
they'd nail us. They may, ennyway, jest on suspicion.
"They run things out this way with a high hand. If they ever clap us in
prison it'll be where we can't let a peep out of us. A lot they worry
about our consuls. They's too many good sealers dropped out of sight in
one of their stinkin' jails to starve on millet an' dried, moldy fish. I
know what I'm talkin' about.
"It's lucky we didn't start mussin' up that beach. But they'll go over
everything. I know 'em. They claim to own the seas hereabouts, an'
they're cockier than ever, since the war. Rainey you got to git busy on
the log. If yore father didn't keep it up, Miss Peggy, so much the
better. If he has, you got to fake it someways, Rainey.
"I'm Simms, get me, until we're clear of 'em. An' you, Rainey, are Doc
Carlsen. Nothin' must show in the log about enny deaths."
"But why?" asked the girl. "Why do we have to masquerade? If we haven't
touched the seals?"
Lund barked at her:
"I gave you credit for sharper wits," he said. "We've got to have
everything so reg'lar they can't find an excuse for haulin' us in an'
settin' fire to the schooner. They'd do it in a jiffy. We got to show
'em our clearance papers, an' we've got to tally up all down the line.
Rainey ain't on the ship's books--Carlsen is. Lund ain't, but Simms is.
I'm Simms. An' you"--he stopped to grin at her--"you're my daughter.
I'll dissolve the relationship after a while, I'll promise you that. An'
I'll drill the men. They know what's ahead of 'em if the Japs git
suspicious.
"That ain't the worst of it! _They may know what we're after._ If they
do, we're goners. Ever occur to you, Rainey, that Tamada, who is a deep
one, may have tipped off the whole thing to his consul while the
schooner was at San Francisco? He was along the last trip. He'd know the
approximate position. Might have got the right figgers out o' the log,
him havin' the run of the cabin. A cable would do the rest. He'd git his
whack out of it, with the order of the Golden Chrysanthemum or some
jig-arig to boot, an' git even with the way he feels to'ard our outfit
for'ard, that ain't bin none too sweet to him."
The suggestion held a foundation of conviction for Rainey. He had
thought of the consul. He had always sensed depths in Tamada's reserve,
he remembered bits of his talk, the "certain circumstances" that he had
mentioned. It looked plausible. Lund rose.
"I'll fix Tamada," he said. But the girl stopped him.
"You don't _know_ that's true. Tamada has been wonderful--to me. What do
you intend to do with him?"
"I'll make up my mind between here and the galley," said Lund grimly.
"This is my third time of tackling this island, an' no Jap is goin' to
stand between me an' the gold, this trip. Why, even if he ain't blown on
us, he'll give the whole thing away. If he didn't want to they'd make
him come through if they laid their eyes on him. They've got more tricks
than a Chinese mandarin to make a man talk. Stands to reason he'll tell
'em. If he can talk when they git here," he added ominously, standing
half-way between the table and the door to the corridor, his hand
opening and closing suggestively. "The crew'd settle his hash if I
didn't. They ain't fools. They know what's ahead of 'em in Japan. You,
Rainey, git busy with that log. That gunboat'll have a boat alongside
this floe inside of ninety minnits."
But Peggy Simms was between him and the door.
"You shan't do it," she said, her eyes hard as flints, if Lund's were
like steel. "You don't know what he was to me when--when dad was buried.
Call him in and let him talk for himself or--or _I'll tell the Japanese
myself what we have come for!_"
Lund stood staring at her, his face hard, his beard thrust out like a
bush with the jut of his jaw. Still she faced him, resolute, barely up
to his shoulder, slim, defiant. Gradually his features crinkled into a
grin.
"I believe you would," he said at last. "An' I'd hate to fix you the way
I would Tamada. But, mind you, if I don't git a definite promise out of
him that rings true, I'll have to stow him somewheres, where they won't
find him. An' that won't be on board ship."
The girl's face softened.
"You said you played fair," she said with a sigh of relief. She stepped
to the door, opened it, and called for Tamada. The Japanese appeared
almost instantly. Lund closed the door behind him and locked it.
"You know there's a patrol comin' up, Tamada?" he asked. "A Jap patrol?"
"Yes."
"What do you intend tellin' 'em if they come on board?"
"Nothing, if I can help it. I think I can. I am not friendly with
Japanese government. It would be bad for me if they find me. One time I
belong Progressive Party in Japan. I make much talk. Too much. The
government say I am too progressive."
Rainey imagined he caught a glint of humor in Tamada's eyes as he made
his clipped syllables.
"So, I leave my country. Suppose I go on steamer I think that government
they stop me. I think even in California they may make trouble, if they
find me. So I go in _sampan_. Sometimes Japanese cross to California in
_sampan_."
"That's right," said Rainey. He had handled more than one story of
Japanese crews landing on some desolate portion of the coast to avoid
immigration laws and steamer fares. Generally they were rounded up after
their perilous, daring crossing of the Pacific. Tamada's story held the
elements of truth. Even Lund nodded in reserved affirmation.
"Also I ship on _Karluk_ as cook because of perhaps trouble if some one
know me in San Francisco. I think much better if they do not see me. I
have a plan. Also I want my share of gold. Suppose that gunboat find me,
find out about gold, they will not give me reward. You do not know
Japanese. They will put me in prison. It will be suggest to me, because
I am of _daimio_ blood"--Tamada drew himself up slightly as he claimed
his nobility--"that I make _hari-kari_. That I do not wish. I am
Progressive. I much rather cook on board _Karluk_ and get my share of
gold."
Lund surveyed him moodily, half convinced. The girl was all eager
approval.
"What is your plan, Tamada?"
"We're losin' time on that log," cut in Lund. "Git busy, Rainey. Look
among Carlsen's stuff. He may have kept one. Dope up one of 'em, an'
burn the other. Now then, Tamada, dope out yore scheme; it's got to be
a good one."
Both Lund and the girl were laughing when Rainey came out into the main
cabin again with the records. Tamada had disappeared.
"He's some fox," said Lund. "Miss Peggy, you better superintend the
theatricals. It's got to be done right. Rainey, not to interrupt you,
what do you know about enteric fever?"
"Nothing."
"Well, it's the same as typhoid. There'll be a surgeon aboard that
gunboat. You got to bluff him. Say little an' look wise as an' owl.
Don't let him mix in with yore patient."
"My patient?"
"Tamada! He's got enteric fever. If there's time he'll give you all the
dope."
"But I don't see how that--"
"You will see when you see Tamada," Lund grinned. "How about them logs?
Can you fix 'em?"
"I think so."
"Then hop to it. I'm goin' to wise up the men and arrange a reception
committee. Don't forgit yore name's Carlsen, an' mine's Simms."
Rainey wrote rapidly in his log, erasing, eliminating pages without
trace, imitating the skipper's phrasing. Fortunately Simms had made
scant entries at first and, later on, as the drug held him, none at all.
Carlsen had kept no record that he could find. The girl had gone forward
to aid with Tamada's plan which Lund had evidently accepted.
Before he had quite finished he heard the tramp of men on deck and the
blast of a steam whistle. He ended his task and went up to see the
gunboat, gray and menacing, its brasses glistening, men on her decks at
their tasks, oblivious of the schooner, and officers on her bridge
watching the progress of a launch toward the floe.
It made landing smartly, and a lieutenant, diminutive but highly
effective in appearance, led six men toward the _Karluk_. He wore a
sword and revolver; the men carried carbines. Their disciplined rank and
smartness, the waiting launch, the gunboat in the offing, were ominous
with the suggestion of power, the will to administer it. The officer in
command carried his chin at an arrogant tilt. Lund had rigged a gangway
and stood at the head of it, saluting the lieutenant as the latter
snappily answered the greeting.
Rainey found the girl and put a hurried question.
"What about Tamada? Where is he? What's the plan?"
She turned to him with eyes that danced with excitement.
"He's in the galley, Doctor Carlsen. But he isn't Tamada any more. He's
Jim Cuffee, nigger cook, sick with enteric fever, not to be disturbed."
Rainey stared. It was a clever device, if Tamada could carry it out, and
he bear his own part in the masquerade. The willingness of Tamada to
risk the disguise was assurance of his fidelity.
"Lund should have told me," he said. "I've got to change his name on
the papers. It won't take a minute though; he doesn't appear in the
log."
The Japanese officer wasted no time on deck. For precaution, Rainey made
his alteration in the skipper's cabin, leaving the log there on the
built-in desk.
"This is Lieutenant Ito, Doctor Carlsen," said Lund. "You want to see
our papers, Lieutenant?"
"My orders are to examine the schooner," said Ito, in English, even more
perfect than Tamada's. His face was officially severe, though his slant
eyes shifted constantly toward the girl. Evidently she was an unexpected
feature of the visit.
"I'll get the papers first," said Lund. "Doctor, you an' Peggy entertain
the lieutenant." Rainey set out some whisky, which the Japanese refused,
some cigars that he passed over with a motion of his hand. He sat down
stiffly and ran through the papers.
"We're pelagic, you know," said Lund. "We ain't trespassin' on purpose.
Didn't even know you owned the island."
"It is on our charts," said Ito crisply, as if that settled the right of
dominion. "How did you come here at all?"
"We was brought," said Lund. "Got froze in north o' Wrangell. Gale set
us west as we come out o' the Strait. We're bound for Corwin. Nothin'
contraband. All reg'lar. Six hunters, two damaged in the gale, though
the doc's fixed 'em up. Twelve seamen, one boy, an' a nigger cook who's
pizened himself with his own cookin'. Doc's bringin' him round, too,
though he don't deserve it. Want to make yore inspection? We're in no
hurry to git away until the ice melts. Take yore time."
The little, dapper officer with his keen, high-cheeked face, and his
shoe-brush hair, got up and bowed, with a side glance at Peggy Simms.
"It is not usual for young ladies to be so far north." His endeavor at
gallantry was obvious.
"I am with my father," said the girl, looking at Rainey, enjoying the
situation.
"Where I go she goes," said Lund. And looked in turn at her with relish
in his double suggestion. He, too, was playing the game, gambling,
believing in his luck, reckless, now he had set the board.
They passed through the corridor. Lund opened up the strong-room, and
then the galley. It was orderly, and there was a moaning figure in
Tamada's bunk, a tossing figure with a head bound in a red bandanna
above the black face and neck that showed above the blankets. The eyes
were closed. The black hands, showing lighter palms, plucked at the
coverings.
"Delirious," said Lund. "Serves him right. He's a rotten cook."
"Have you all the medicines you need?" asked Ito. "I can send our
surgeon."
"I can manage," returned Rainey, _alias_ Carlsen. "It's enteric. I've
reduced the fever."
They passed on through the hunters' quarters. The girl fell behind with
Rainey.
"A good make-up and a good actor," she whispered. "I helped him to be
sure he covered everything that would show. It was my idea about the
bandanna. Just what a sick negro might wear, and it hid his straight
hair."
The lieutenant appeared fairly satisfied, but requested that Lund go on
board his ship. He stayed there until sundown, returning in hilarious
mood.
"We've slipped it over on 'em this time," he said. "I left 'em aswim
with _sake_, an' bubblin' over with polite regrets. But they'll be back
in three weeks, they said, if the ice is open. An', if the luck holds,
we'll be out of it. I don't want them searchin' the ship ag'in." He
slapped Tamada on the back as he came to serve supper after Sandy had
laid the table.
"A reg'lar vodeville skit," he exclaimed. "You're some actor, Tamada!
But why didn't you say the island was down on their charts? They've even
got a name for it. Hiyama."
"It means hot mountain," said Tamada. "The government names many
islands."
"You can bet yore life they do," said Lund. "They're smart, but they
overlooked that beach an' they've given us three weeks to cash in."
Lund himself had imbibed enough of the _sake_ to make him loose of
tongue, added to his elation at the success he had achieved. The gunboat
was gone on its patrol, and he had a free hand. He half filled a glass
with whisky. "Here's to luck," he cried. And spilled a part of the
liquor on the floor before he set the glass to his lips.
"Here's to you, Doc," he added. "An' to Peggy!" He rolled eyes that were
a trifle bloodshot at the girl.
"Our relations have gone back as usual, Mr. Lund," she said quietly.
Lund glared at her half truculently.
"I'm agreeable," he said. "As a daughter, I disown you from now on, Miss
Peggy. Here's to ye, jest the same!"