DESPITE the nerve and body-racking experiences of the day before,
Howard was up and on deck the next morning at the first peep of day,
straining his eyes for sight of Jackson and the Joyces.
The need for instant action was strong upon him. He did not doubt
that Forbes had sent the snake upon him, just as (judging from Mother
Joyce’s tale to Dorothy) he had before sent it against one of Prudence
Gallegher’s ill-fated husbands, and he only wondered that the doughty
captain had not followed up the attack.
“I suppose the fellow didn’t know how devilish near he came to
succeeding,” he muttered to himself grimly. “But he’ll bring his men
next time, and we must fight or get out of his reach in a hurry. If
Jackson and the others were only here!”
But neither Jackson nor the Joyces were there. Strain his eyes as he
might, Howard could see no moving figures anywhere on the wreck-pack,
and, with an anxious sigh, he turned away to inspect the scene of the
last night’s encounter.
Half submerged in the weed at the foot of the sloping deck he made out
the great body of the snake, terrible even in death, and shuddered as
he thought of what would inevitably have been his fate had Dorothy been
less courageous or the iron stanchions been less honestly wrought;
these last, bent almost double, gave mute but effective evidence of the
mighty power of the reptile.
Wishing to save Dorothy, as far as he could, from all reminders of the
contest, Howard lowered himself to the water’s edge and poked the snake
down beneath the weed; then he climbed back to the taffrail and again
searched the horizon for sight of Jackson.
This time his quest was successful. Approaching over the wreckage,
quite near at hand, were four figures. As they drew nearer he
recognized Jackson, the minister who had married him the day before,
Mother Joyce, and his jailer of the day before. Each of the men carried
several rifles over his shoulder, and was girt about with belts of
cartridges. Mother Joyce bore a less and indeterminable weight.
At Howard’s call, Dorothy came on deck to greet the newcomers. Rosy and
smiling, with head erect and sparkling eyes, she looked little like the
woebegone maiden who had answered Forbes’s call the day before.
Mother Joyce’s sharp eyes quickly spied the difference. “Holy mither!
What’s this?” she cried. “And was it you, miss, that didn’t want to
marry at all, at all? And was it you that was so sure that you and Mr.
Howard could niver be anything to each other? Faith, look at the bright
eyes and the blushing cheeks of her! Sure, Tim, man, it carries me
back forty years, so it does!” With a fond look she turned to the man
beside her.
“Thrue for you, Kathleen, darlint,” he replied. “The top of the mornin’
to you, ma’am, and may you live a million years and have a hundred----”
“Arrah! Be still with your foolishness, Tim. Sure, you make the young
lady blush.”
Meanwhile Jackson was explaining matters to Howard. He had, he said,
circled round to the other side of the village and lurked there for
several hours, waiting his chance. Then he had slipped up on the deck
and run directly into Mother Joyce, who promptly whisked him below.
“Cap’n Forbes’s big snake had got away, and he had gone after it,”
continued the policeman, “and----”
Howard held up his hand. “It won’t get away again,” he interjected. “It
came here.”
“Here?”
Howard nodded. “Yes, it came here,” he repeated. “Came here and
attacked me. It was a very intelligent snake--from Forbes’s standpoint.
It would have killed me, beyond a doubt, but for Miss Fair--but for my
wife. She shot it with your pistol, Jackson. But we haven’t time to
talk about it now,” he concluded with some impatience. “Go on with your
story.”
Jackson, however, had little more to tell. In Forbes’s absence, it
seems, he and the others had had no difficulty in getting at the rifles
and ammunition. Further, under Mother Joyce’s direction, he had broken
open the captain’s private storeroom and procured a compass, sextant,
and a chronometer, which Mother Joyce had declared would enable them to
navigate a boat as soon as they found one. “An’,” concluded Jackson, “I
think we’d better be findin’ it soon, for Gallegher has gotten out a
Gatling gun, and is making every preparation to do us up for fair.”
“I expected something of the sort,” said Howard, nodding. “We shall be
ready to leave the Queen the moment we have had breakfast. So, now, if
you’ll come below----”
At the breakfast-table Howard unfolded his plan.
“None of us want to fight if we can help it,” he declared. “We haven’t
anything to gain by it, and everything to lose. And we don’t want to
stay near here. From all I can learn, Forbes has destroyed all the
boats within fifty miles or so, and we must go at least that far away
to have any chance of finding one. Now, what I propose is this: We will
leave now in a few minutes, but instead of going north along the coast,
which is what Forbes will expect us to do, we will go east straight
into the pack, make a detour around the village, and come back to the
coast to the south. By this means I think we will outwit him, and
can make our preparations in peace. Without a compass, I might have
hesitated to go into the depths of the pack, but since Mother Joyce
has brought us one, we can afford to risk it. As there will probably
be nothing to eat there, we must take food and water enough to carry
us through. I have already made up three bundles of these, and it will
take only a few moments to prepare three more. Then we can be off.”
Ten minutes later the party left the Queen forever. Dorothy’s eyes were
streaming wet as she looked at the vessel for the last time.
“Frank! Frank!” she murmured. “We’ve been happy on her, after all.
Shall we be equally happy elsewhere? I--I would be glad to stay here
with you if-- Oh! I know it’s impossible, of course. We must go back to
the world and clear your name. Yes, we will! We must! God is good. I
have confidence in His justice. He would not have let me love you so
much if He didn’t mean to clear you.”
Hand in hand the two followed the others, already well ahead, plunging
straight into the wreck-pack. Howard drew a long breath when they were
well away without having seen any sign of Forbes or his companions.
Unfortunately, though he saw no one, he did not go unseen. As the
little party vanished among the tangle of masts and sails, a man rose
from behind a deckhouse, where he had been lurking, and peered after it
till certain of its course, then he set off for the village as fast as
he could go.