evasive answer, smiling at my compliment to his strong physique.
"I was something of an athlete in my younger days," he finally
admitted, "and you must not think that because of my profession I live
a sedentary life. I work very hard among my parishioners, and play golf
a great deal. Of course, you, as a seaman, would hardly appreciate the
mysteries of this manly game."
"I confess that it seems rather tame," I admitted; "seems like a poor
sort of 'shinny' we used to play in America when I was a lad."
"My wife plays it also, and she is very strong and agile from the
exercise," said Mr. Jackson; "I hope you will meet her next month when
I return, as she will probably go to London with me."
I expressed pleasure at the thought, and noticed that Doctor Jackson
was really quite a good-looking man, and there was no reason in the
world why he should not possess a very pretty wife.
His clean-shaven face, lined, it is true, as though he had spent much
time at physical exertion of the heavier sort, was handsome enough. A
large, high nose, not badly shaped, set in between two steel-blue eyes,
wide apart, and his mouth, although thin-lipped and hard-looking, was
not ugly, and his teeth were large, even, and snow-white.
Altogether he was a man of strength and character from his appearance,
and I remembered him for his kindness--and cigars.
Three weeks later, upon the return voyage, he came aboard and told me
he would bring his wife aboard the next morning, and was just then
seeing to his room, which was amidships, and upon the lower or main
deck, just above the express room and over the steel safe.
He asked me if I thought the noise from below would disturb them, his
wife being a nervous woman and irritable. I knew no sounds of any
consequence would penetrate the deck, which was steel, and assured him
that the voyage would be most pleasant, as the time of year was fine
upon the western ocean.
The next day I was too busy to notice the couple, but when we were at
sea and had made our departure, allowing me to go below to dinner, I
found that Doctor Jackson and his wife were seated at my table about
midway down the row of seats.
The minister nodded to me, and his wife smiled pleasantly. Her back
was to the ports, and the light was bad, but I saw that she was about
thirty, and very masculine in her appearance.
She had a very good complexion, rosy and healthy, but her face had a
peculiar hardness, a settling about the corners of the mouth that boded
ill for any one who crossed her temper. I made up my mind to feel sorry
for the doctor. Her voice I could hear very indistinctly, but it had a
sort of hardness, a suppressed tone of assumed smoothness which I did
not like.
At eight bells that night when the day's work allowed me to get my time
below, I met them as I left the bridge. The doctor introduced me to
the lady, who stood tall and commanding in the darkness. She murmured
something indefinite, but acknowledged me without offering her hand.
I believed this coldness was more cultivated than natural, but, as I
had learned since being in express ships that ladies did, or did not
shake hands, according to their training, I passed it up for what it
was worth.
Doctor Jackson seemed a bit annoyed at the strained feeling, but I saw
no reason why a woman, a wife of a minister, should find much in common
with a seaman, even if he did happen to be the chief mate of the liner.
Our ways would naturally be different. Her topics of conversation would
not fit in with mine, and I was mortally afraid of offending her by
some sailor's slip in my tongue.
I really was glad when they left me to go to my room, and I hoped that
I would not have to entertain them any more than the rules of the
liner's etiquette called for.
* * * * *
The next day the doctor informed me that his wife had succumbed to the
rigors of the sea and the motion had made her deathly ill. I saw her no
more, and it was the fifth day out when the steward came to my room at
night and asked to speak to me privately.
"The couple in Room Sixty-two will not allow their bed to be made up
nor any one to enter. Doctor Jackson said to see you and it would be
all right; but you know, sir, it's against the rules not to allow
inspection. If you will attend to the matter, it will take the weight
off the old man--he tried to enter, but he was told he could not, owing
to the lady's indisposition."
"Aw, they're all right," I said. "Tell the captain I know the old
sky-pilot well, and that he's a minister who has been across twice
before with us. I'll go down there myself to-morrow and inspect. Give
the doctor my compliments and tell him I'm sorry the rules make the
inspection necessary."
"There's a strong smell of whisky, alcohol, sir, all the time, coming
from the room--don't know what it can be, but I'm afraid of fire. It's
probably some of those patent traveling stoves they use for heating
certain medicines or something."
"Well, cut it out--I'll go down in the morning--that's all," I said,
and then I turned in and forgot all about the incident.
The next day when I went below, I found the doctor and his wife waiting
for me. The lady had her face wrapped up in towels, and the doctor was
reading, sitting near the bed, which was a brass one, bolted to the
deck.
I excused myself, and was just on the point of leaving when I noticed
the smell of alcohol. It was mixed with one similar to the heated odor
of a red-hot stovepipe, burning metal.
"Have any trouble with the lights?" I asked.
"Oh, no, everything is all right--one of the electrics broke and made a
little smell--no, all is as comfortable as one could wish, thank you,"
said the doctor.
"I suppose you'll go the route all the way up?" I asked.
"No, we'll transship at Queenstown--there's a yacht waiting for me
there, and we'll take her for the rest of the way to the African coast,
by way of Gibraltar. You might help us with our luggage to-morrow--our
little trunk is very heavy, you see." And he tried to raise one end of
a small steamer trunk that was allowed in the room.
"Oh, that will be all right--the steward will fix you up--I'll see you
before you go," I said, turning away.
"I hope so," returned the doctor, with a most peculiar intonation in
his voice that made me look at him. But he was now turning the leaves
of the book again, and a moan from the bed made me hesitate no longer.
I left them, and sent word to the head steward to see to my friends
getting ashore in the morning.
As we entered the Channel, the passengers who were to go ashore came on
deck. Doctor Jackson and his wife appeared at the gangway, and waited
quietly for the boat.
The lady was now wrapped up in shawls, and her face was heavily veiled.
The clergyman himself seemed a bit nervous, but they finally went over
the side with their luggage all right.
What he had told about that steamer trunk was no joke. Two assistant
stewards could hardly lift it.
Bound with iron and stoutly strapped, it seemed as though it would
burst of its own weight before it was placed in the lugger that
would take it ashore or rather to the small schooner that lay a few
miles distant and which the doctor had pointed out as the vessel he
had chartered as a yacht to take them on their summer cruise to the
beautiful Mediterranean.
I waved my hand, and then went below to turn in, for the last night is
always a bad one for the chief mate when making the land.
"Bang, bang, bang," came blows upon my door, followed by a yell from
without. I expected to find the ship in collision, and leaped from my
bunk half asleep. The express messenger stood without, accompanied by
four assistants and the steward, the purser, and the second officer.
"Safe blown, sir!" yelled the messenger. "It's bloomin' well half
empty, sir! Nearly a quarter of a million gone. Party from above--you
knew them, the steward says!"
I ran with them to Room Sixty-two, and burst in where the captain stood
gazing at a hole in the deck. He turned to me, but said nothing. The
rug which had been placed over the opening was thrown aside, and there
lay a hole eighteen inches wide right in the floor.
Upon the sides the charred wood told of some fierce heat to which it
had been exposed. The heavy steel plate beneath had been melted and
burned as if the blast of a volcano had seared it.
Ragged-edged, melted, and bent lay the plate, and beneath it again
lay the hole in the express safe right in the treasure room beneath.
Down and through all led the seared hole. Some mighty heat had melted,
burned, and blown away the plates of hard steel.
I leaned over, and gazed down into the room where the gold had been
packed in the short, stout boxes of the bank. It was scattered about,
thrown all around in confusion as though the robbers had at last given
up all hope of getting more out.
They had taken all that two men could lift or carry for a few rods,
stopping only at the limit of their endurance; and, though the amount
was not so large as the express messenger had at first stated, it ran
well over one hundred thousand dollars.
* * * * *
For a moment I stood staring from the hole to Captain Hall and back,
too amazed to speak, while the old man looked at me keenly.
"Nice little job," he commented dryly.
"The doctor and his wife--do you think?" I asked. I was beginning to
see light.
"Wife, thunder! That was a young man of tremendous strength," snarled
the express messenger. "Look how he used that electric burner--look how
he bent and tore at the plate--he was a giant--had the current on his
hot chisel all day--that's the smell you noticed. Probably the two
most expert safe-crackers alive, and our outfit gave them the chance
to work the hot knife, burn their way in where they never could have
blown. They connected with the light--got current enough to work with,
and covered up with the rug----"
"Well, we won't waste time seeing how it was done; we'll get a move
after them", said the old man. "Jump on deck, and blow the siren--blow
the alarm for fire, police--set the signals----"
I was gone before he had finished, and by the time the uproar was well
under way I had time to gaze toward the little schooner the doctor had
marked out as his yacht.
She was still lying at anchor, but beyond her and about five miles
distant lay a fishing schooner with very tall spars and a very able
look. She was hoisting her foresail, and I could just make out that she
was getting under way at once.
I waited no longer. Jumping to the upper deck, I yelled for the crew
of the first cutter, boat number one, and gave the signal for her men.
They came scrambling as to the drill, and as they came I yelled to
young Smith, the third officer, to get arms and join me.
He dashed into his room, and came back with a heavy revolver. The
express messenger came up while we were lowering away, and handed me
another.
"We'll go with you," he said.
"No! No use loading her down with men," I replied; "we want to get some
speed on her--row six oars double banked, and that'll fill her up--you
can come, you, Smith, and myself--it won't take a ship's crew to get
them--lower away," I called, and the boat dropped.
We followed, and in less time than it takes to tell it we were going
through the sea at seven knots an hour with the best-drilled boat in
the ship. Three men aft armed, and that was all.
It was a bright summer morning, with almost no wind, and I was certain
that we would soon overhaul the runaways. The schooner lifted her
anchor, and stood out to the westward and southward, and soon appeared
to be making good headway.
"By Jupiter, she's got a motor in her!" said Smith.
She was going ahead, almost straight in the eye of the wind, just close
enough to keep her sails full, and she was moving a good five knots.
She was a good four miles distant, and we would have to do some fine
rowing to catch her.
I looked my men over, and wondered if they could stand it. They pulled
steadily, and the boat went along swiftly, but even a heavy ship with
an engine has a distinct advantage over oars.
The schooner's motor was but an auxiliary, to be sure, but five or six
knots under motor was something desperate to catch by rowing when we
were so far astern.
At the end of another mile I was getting anxious. Our bearings were not
changed to any extent, and the third officer looked askance at me.
"Give it to her, bullies--there's a hundred apiece if we get them," I
said, and swung my body with the stroke of the oars. This had an effect
upon the men. A hundred dollars was more than three months' pay.
They put their weight upon the ash, and the boat fairly lifted under
the strain. The sweat began to pour down their faces, and the wind died
away, until the swell ran oily and smooth.
"Give it to her," I cried again, as we gained a little.
The two men at the bow oar swung mightily upon it. There was a sharp
crack. The bow oar snapped off at the rowlock, and the boat eased up
her speed, leaving two good men idle.
"Great snakes!" howled Smith, and the express messenger looked at me in
despair.
"We can't catch her now," he muttered.
I knew it was true. We were now dropping back, and I kept on only
because I felt that it would not do to give up. I scanned the sea for
signs of a boat.
There were some fishing to the northward, and it was our only chance. I
swung her around toward them.
"We've got to try for one--maybe there's one with a good motor in her,"
I said. In a quarter of an hour we were up to one boat, and saw she was
not fit. We swept past without slowing up.
"Any boat about here with a strong motor?" I asked, as we came close.
A fisherman waved his hand to the northward.
"Boat up there--_Seawave_--she's fast; what's the matter?" he replied.
But we were gone without further words, and soon came to the boat. She
was long and narrow, built like a seiner, only not so heavy. Two men
sat in her with lines out I hailed them as we came up.
"Want to catch that schooner out there," I yelled, pointing to the
vessel. "Give you a hundred dollars if you land us alongside--quick."
"Got the money?" asked the man who appeared to own her.
We came alongside without delay, and I felt rather foolish for a
moment. But the express messenger had the cash with him. He handed it
over without a word, and the fisherman turned quickly to his engine.
The other man pulled up the anchor at once, and in half a minute we
were under way, with the motor roaring out its glad sound in a series
of rapid shots that were like the discharges of a rapid-fire gun.
"Take the boat and follow," I called to the men, and then Smith, the
messenger, and myself were away in the wake of the schooner that was
now a good five miles off and going steadily seaward. It would be a
chase for fair.
"Can you make it?" I asked the owner, who sat in his oilskins at the
engine.
"Sure t'ing we make 'em--'bout two, three hours, if the gas holds out."
We were now going along at eight knots and running steadily. After
all, there's nothing like machinery to get things done.
"This is something like," said Smith. "There'll be some shooting inside
of an hour if the signs hold."
The messenger said nothing. The men of the boat had not asked a
question. They had taken us at our word, and were doing what they could
to put us alongside.
Perhaps it would be different when we came to close quarters. We had
better tell them what our errand was before they stopped the motor
at the beginning of hostilities. They might take us for what we were
after--burglars, and spoil our chance to make a catch.
We drew near the schooner after two hours' chase. The land was lost
astern, and we had run fully fifteen miles off shore.
The breeze began to freshen, but not enough to give the schooner her
full, or even half, speed. She plugged along steadily at about five
knots, and we drew up close enough to see a man at the wheel and no one
else on deck.
Smith and the messenger told our skipper how matters stood, and the
fisherman seemed to hardly relish the game after he knew it. There was
certain to be trouble.
"Schooner ahoy!" I yelled, as we drew near enough to hail.
The man at the wheel paid no attention until I had repeated it several
times. Then he turned and asked us what we wished in no pleasant tone.
"You stop your engine and let us board," I yelled. "You have two
robbers aboard, and we want them in the name of the law."
"Who are you?" asked the man, spitting over the rail. "Go away--I don't
know you."
"Run alongside--we'll jump her," I said to the skipper. The messenger,
Smith, and myself drew our revolvers, and stood ready as the small
craft came up to the main channels. The schooner kept right along. We
sprang aboard without meeting resistance, and gained the deck.
"Where're your passengers? Don't fool with us," I snapped. "There's an
old man and a young one dressed as a woman."
"Oh, Doctor Jackson and the young feller--they're down below--asleep.
What do you want with them?"
* * * * *
We wasted no time talking. All three jumped down the companionway and
into the little cabin. Doctor Jackson was in a bunk, apparently fast
asleep, and a young man, whom I instantly recognized as the "wife," lay
reclining upon a transom.
"Well, what's the row--what's up?" asked the young fellow, rising at
the sight of three armed men.
"We want you--you know what for," said the messenger quietly. "Don't
make any trouble--we won't stand it--come right along back with us, you
and the other fellow there."
The doctor awoke, and sat up, seemingly amazed. He expostulated, was
dumfounded at the charge, couldn't understand it--we must all be
crazy. Two men came from forward and joined our group. It was all
hands, just three men and two passengers--five in all to work the ship.
"Stop the engine," I ordered, "and either come with us or turn the
schooner back, and we'll go with you."
They turned her around, and stood back toward the shore. On the way,
while one of us stood guard over the two, the rest searched the
schooner for the treasure, for the trunk. There was not a sign of gold
anywhere aboard her.
We took turns, but found nothing, leaving not a bolt hole unsearched.
It was disheartening, and looked like we had lost, after all.
"Well, what do you make of it?" I asked the messenger.
"Looks like they got us right, after all," he said; "we haven't the
slightest clew to the money, and won't get it after they once get in to
the police. They'll buy their way out, for there's not the slightest
evidence they did the job, although I know it was them as well as they
themselves."
"Plant it, you think?"
"Sure as death, they dropped it somewhere, and they only know just
where. They'll take a chance at going up for a spell, doing their bit,
and then getting the cache. It's on the course out somewhere, but just
where who knows? We're out of sight of land now, and it'll take a
wizard to locate it on the schooner's course."
"That's right enough," I asserted, "but how about trying them for a
confession?"
"Go ahead," he replied gloomily.
I put it right up to the doctor. I promised him complete immunity if he
would just tell where they had dropped that four hundred and odd pounds
of gold.
The pair simply grinned in amusement. It seemed to tickle them
immensely.
"And so you'd be a party to a felony?" asked the doctor, with great
regret in his tone. "I didn't think that of you, captain--you surely
disappoint me greatly. Now, if I knew where the gold lay, I should
tell you at once, but warn you not to touch it, for I don't believe in
mixing up with things of this sort. The men you are after must surely
have taken the stuff on the previous voyage--or some other time----"
"All right," I interrupted, "if you want it that way, you'll get it. We
have enough evidence to send you up for twenty years at least--direct
evidence."
"I hate to hear you take on in this terrible manner, my dear captain,
but I don't see what I can do about it. What makes you think I had
anything to do with that gold?"
It was of no use. They would not talk about it. I began to study the
schooner's course and try to figure out where in that vast area of
sea they could have let the stuff go overboard with the certainty of
getting hold of it again.
In a short time we met our own boat being rowed rapidly after us, and
then we took her in tow and dismissed our motor boat, which had been
dragging along at the main channels. The men had earned their hundred,
and they departed, highly pleased at their luck, which represented more
than a month's profits fishing.
As our boat came alongside, we were hailed joyfully by Jim Sanders, the
coxswain, during my absence, and he held up a long line, at the end of
which was fastened a small buoy. The other we saw was fast to the small
trunk.
"We found it all right", said Jim. "We was rowing along fast after
you, an' suddenly my eye catches sight o' this here float. I grabs it,
and up comes that trunk fast to the other end in about ten fathoms of
water. That trunk is sure some heavy, and I reckon it's got the stuff
in it."
"Very good, very good indeed," cried the messenger. "Now things look
better."
"Yes," said the third officer, "this is what we are looking for--no
mistake."
"Hoist it right on deck," I said, and a line was passed to it. It was
all two men could do to get it aboard. When it was safe on the deck, I
went below and saw the doctor.
"We have the trunk with the gold all safe--now, what have you to say?"
I said.
"Indeed?" asked the doctor, in surprise.
"Not really, say not so," remarked the younger man, in mock alarm.
"Why, then you seem to have what you've been after, what you are
looking for. If that is all, you better let us turn the ship about
and continue our journey. Why didn't you say you were looking for that
trunk?"
A yell from the deck told me something was not right. I came up the
companion, and looked out, holding my pistol ready for trouble. The
messenger was standing at the side of the trunk. So also was Smith.
Two men had just opened it, and had dumped a lot of old iron and bolts
onto the deck, where they lay in a pile of rusty, wet junk.
* * * * *
For a moment I gazed in amazement at the littered deck. Then I smiled.
"Do you suppose we could have made a mistake by any possible means?" I
asked the express messenger.
"Not by any chance, not a chance. This is a plant--why should they sink
this trunk with a line and buoy to it? It proves beyond all doubt they
have got the stuff somewhere. They dropped it, hoping we would stop and
haul it up, and they'd gain just so much time by the device."
"Then where in Davy Jones is the swag? Where could they have hidden it?"
"That's for us to find out--I don't know."
As we came in, a dozen boats came to meet us. The police took charge,
and the two prisoners were ironed and taken ashore. The schooner was
put in charge of detectives, and no one allowed aboard her.
We went back to the ship in our boat, and reported the capture of the
men, but the loss of the money. Whereat Captain Hall was so angry that
he would not speak to me that day. I felt that I had done what I could
and that I was not at fault.
I could do no less--nor no more, for that matter. I went below, and the
ship went on to her dock, the passengers were sent ashore, and the dull
routine of the lay-up began.
I had some time now to myself, and studied the situation carefully.
It would be a month before the trial, and we would have made another
voyage before then. I was served, however, with a subpoena to appear
as a principal witness, and I put the paper away and took up the study
of the case with vigor.
The three men aboard the schooner who had acted as crew were not in the
game. That was evident, for they proved to be just plain fishermen who
had chartered their craft to the doctor upon an agreement made on his
former voyage. He had planned the coup, and made the vessel ready for
the getaway. That was certain. The men were discharged.
Every portion of the schooner capable of hiding a gold piece was
thoroughly probed. Even her masts were bored at intervals, and she was
hauled out and her keel searched for a hollow that might contain the
treasure. Everything that men could do was apparently done. But not a
sign of gold.
The two men, the doctor and his accomplice, were sent to trial, and had
the best lawyer in England to defend them, a man who did not work for
small amounts. I noted that fact and waited.
They were sent up for two years each solely on the circumstantial
evidence that they had occupied the room above the safe on that voyage
and that if any one had committed the theft upon a former voyage it
must necessarily have been discovered, as the safe was thoroughly
cleaned and refilled with a new cargo of gold for that single trip.