A FULL NIGHT
Boyle was very angry. It was a situation which demanded earnest words,
and they were forthcoming. Elsie understood them to mean that she need
not be in such a purple hurry to disappear into the darkness without
the least explanation; thereupon she bade Suarez back the canoe a
little.
“I am sorry it is necessary to steal away in this fashion,” she said,
and the coolness of her tone was highly exasperating to a man who could
no more detain her than he could move the _Kansas_ unaided. “I have a
plan which requires only a bit of good fortune to render it
practicable. I have two assistants—Suarez, whose aid I am compelling,
and Joey, who is quite eager. There is no use in risking any more
lives. If I do not return you may be sure the worst has happened.”
“But what is your plan?” roared Boyle. “It may be just sheer nonsense.
Tell me what it is, and I swear by the Nautical Almanac I shall not
prevent you from carrying it out if it has any reason behind it.”
“I am going to collect all the Indian canoes,” was the amazing answer.
“I know it can be done, from what Suarez has said. Once we have the
canoes in mid channel, we can set most of them adrift, and bring
Captain Courtenay and the others back to the ship in four or five which
we will tow to Guanaco Hill. And now, good-by again!”
“One moment, Miss Maxwell,” broke in Gray’s quiet voice from the upper
deck. “You can’t engineer that scheme with a one-man crew, and he sick
and unwilling. I am going with you. You must take me aboard, wet or
dry.”
“I am well armed, and shall admit of no interference,” she cried.
“I promise to obey orders.”
“If I wanted you, Mr. Gray, I should have sought your help.”
“It is one thing or the other—a wriggle down a rope or a high diving
act.”
“You have no right to impose such an alternative on me.”
“I hate it myself, and I can’t dive worth a cent. You will hear a
beastly flop when I strike the damp.”
“Mr. Boyle—I call on you to hold him.”
Boyle explained luridly that the American was doing a balancing act on
the rail eight feet above his head. Elsie, taking her eyes off Suarez
for an instant, discerned Gray’s figure silhouetted against the sky.
She yielded.
“There is a rope ladder fastened to the lowest rail, near where the
canoe was moored,” she said.
“Is there to be any catch-as-catch-can business, Boyle?” demanded Gray.
“No. All this is d—d unfair to me.”
“You have my sympathy, friend, but you can’t leave the ship. Now, Miss
Maxwell, come alongside. Boyle is going to be good. He doesn’t mean
half he says, anyhow.”
As the canoe slipped out of the dense gloom of the ship’s shadow, Elsie
heard the wrathful chief officer interviewing the Chilean sailors on
watch on the main deck fore and aft. That is to say, he stirred them up
from the bridge with a ritual laid down for such extreme cases. Not yet
had he realized the exceeding artifice which the girl displayed in
throwing him and all the others off their guard. She had maneuvered
Suarez into the canoe with the fierce and silent strategy of a Red
Indian.
The Argentine squatted on his knees in the bows, Gray placed himself
amidships, and Elsie sat aft, holding the revolver in her right hand
and the dog’s collar in her left. The American groped for and found a
paddle, which he plied vigorously.
“Guess you’d better discourse,” said he over his shoulder, when the
light craft was well clear of the ship.
“You understand Spanish, I think?”
“Yes.”
“Please tell Suarez to cease paddling and listen. Don’t move. I can
trust you, but I may have to shoot him.”
“Best hand me that pop-gun, Miss Maxwell. The gentleman in front seems
to have a wholesome respect for you already; anything you say goes,
where he is concerned. I am taking your word for it his name is Suarez,
but he looks, and smells, more like an Indian.”
“I forced him to dress in his discarded clothes. He may be able now to
scare any of the savages we come across. But why should I give you my
weapon, Mr. Gray?”
“Because I can hit most things I aim at, whereas you are more likely to
bore a hole through me as a preliminary. Moreover, you have the dog
with you, and even the wisest dog may bark at the wrong moment. You
must have both hands at liberty to choke his enthusiasm.”
“Do you pledge your word to go on with my scheme?”
“That is what I am here for.”
“Take the revolver, then.”
“Sure it’s loaded?”
“Quite sure. I have fifteen extra cartridges, but, as I have practised
refilling it in the dark, give it to me if you have occasion to empty
it.”
“You seem to have thought this thing out pretty fully?”
“I intend to succeed. Now, please, I must explain what I want Suarez to
do.”
Speaking in Spanish, slow and clear, while the canoe drifted steadily
up the bay with the rising tide, Elsie unfolded her project. Behind the
guardian cliff of Otter Creek a ridge of rocks created a small natural
harbor. It was the custom of the Alaculofs, when the weather was calm,
and they meant to use their craft at daybreak, to anchor most of their
vessels in this sheltered break-water. At other times the canoes were
drawn ashore, but she reasoned that such a precaution would not be
taken during the present excitement. That was the first part of her
program—to capture the entire fleet, including the life-boat. In any
event, she intended to go next to the hidden cleft at the foot of
Guanaco Hill, trusting to the dog’s sagacity to reveal the retreat
where she believed that her lover and many of his men were hidden. If a
squad of Indians mounted guard there, the reappearance of Suarez in his
war paint, backed by the alarm of a night attack from the sea, might
mystify the enemy sufficiently to permit of a landing, while the
frequent reports of the revolver would certainly lead to a counter
demonstration by Courtenay. Suarez was the only man on the _Kansas_ who
could act as guide, and the penalty of his refusal would be instant
death. She had provided a strong, sharp knife to cut the thongs which
fastened the canoes to their anchor-stones. For the rest, she trusted
to the darkness. It was her fixed resolve to succeed or die.
Gray listened to the girl’s cool statement with growing admiration. The
plan began to look feasible. It came within the bounds of reason. The
odds were against it, of course, but the law of probability is seldom
in favor of a forlorn hope. Suarez, too, making the best of a situation
which gave him no option, agreed that they had a fair chance if once
they got hold of the canoes. Nevertheless, he warned them that he knew
nothing of the surroundings of Guanaco Hill. He believed there were no
reefs on that side of the inlet, but he had never visited it. Their
greatest peril lay amid the almost impenetrable trees which grew down
to the water’s edge. On his advice, Gray unshipped the mast and threw
it overboard. Then silence became imperative. If aught were said, they
must speak in the merest whisper.
The canoe darted forward again with stealthy haste. The night was
clear, though dark. The stars helped them to distinguish the outlines
of the shore now coming rapidly nearer. As they crept round the
southern cheek of Point _Kansas_, the Argentine ceased paddling, and
placed a warning hand on Gray’s arm. The cliff was so high and steep
that its shadow plunged into deepest gloom the water at its base.
Suarez, however, had imbibed a good deal of savage lore during his
enforced residence on the island. He stretched well forward over the
bows, held a paddle as far in front as possible, and thus not only
guided the drifting canoe by an occasional dip of the blade, but
trusted to it for warning of any unseen rock.
There was a cold breeze on the surface of the bay, but the dog was the
only one who shivered, and his tremors arose from excitement. At last
they felt a slight bump. The Argentine had found the reef he was
searching for; by watching a star it was easy enough to follow the
southerly bend taken by the canoe in skirting this barrier, while their
ears caught the murmur of the swift current amid the numerous tiny
channels of the rocks. Suddenly this swirl and hum of fast-flowing
water ceased. Elsie and Gray became aware that Suarez was cautiously
drawing himself inboard again. Then his paddle dipped with a noiseless
stroke; the canoe was inside the Alaculof harbor.
The midnight blackness was now something that had a sense of actual
obstruction in it. It seemed that a hand put forth would encounter a
wall. The tide was here, but no perceptible current. For all they could
tell to the contrary, they might have been floating in Charon’s boat
across some Stygian pool.
For a minute or two, Elsie’s brave heart failed her. Here was a
difficulty which desperate courage could not surmount. There might be
dozens of canoes moored on all sides, but to discover them in this
pitch darkness was so obviously impossible that she almost made up her
mind to abandon this part of her enterprise. Yet the narrow-beamed
Fuegian craft she was in would hold only four more occupants, and that
with a certain risk and unwieldiness. She was as determined as ever to
cross the bay and endeavor to communicate with the imprisoned men. But
she recognized the absurdity of the thought that Courtenay and
Tollemache would consent to escape in the canoe and leave the others to
their fate, even if such a thing were practicable. Oddly enough, the
one person whose daring might reasonably be suspected, gave no signs of
the pangs of doubt. Suarez pushed forward resolutely. He knew what
Elsie had forgotten—that in each canoe used by the Indians there was a
carefully preserved fire, whose charcoal embers retained some heat and
glow all night. The first intimation of this fact was revealed by the
pungent fumes which environed them. Elsie could not help uttering a
little gasp of relief. There was a slight movement in front. Gray
leaned back and touched her hand.
“Suarez says,” he whispered, “that you are to be ready with your tow
ropes. As he secures each canoe he will pass it along to me. You will
be able to see its outlines by the dim glimmer of the fire. But how
will you manage about the dog? He may cause an alarm.”
Much to Joey’s disgust, he was forthwith muzzled with a piece of rope,
not that this device would stop him effectually from barking, but Elsie
thought he would so resent the indignity that he might pay less heed to
outer circumstances. She needed no warning that Indians were near. The
Argentine miner’s description of the community which dwelt on Otter
Creek made her understand that there were hundreds within hail.
A great joy leaped up in her when the first canoe came under her hand.
It was quite easy to manipulate the painter-rope. The stem had a
notched knob provided for this very purpose, and there was a stern-post
against which a steersman might press a paddle and thus swerve the
canoe in any direction. But it was slow work. The craft were moored
without any semblance of order, yet Suarez was forced to secure them in
a definite sequence, or a string of half-a-dozen would become
unmanageable.
When the second canoe was made fast Gray bent towards the girl once
more.
“I have been listening to the tick of my watch,” he breathed against
her ear. “I reckon it has taken ten minutes to collect two dug-outs.
Unless we mean to remain all night we must let up on the cutting adrift
proposition.”
“I agree,” she murmured. “But we must have two more.”
He told Suarez of the new development, which was essential, though it
added to the danger of the enterprise. By sheer good fortune, however,
they blundered against the life-boat. A dog barked, and Elsie had a
thrilling struggle with Joey, who was furious that this unlooked-for
insolence should go unanswered. The sleepless cur who yelped ashore
speedily subsided, but it appeared to be an age before Suarez moved
again. He knew, better than his companions, how ready the Indians were
to note such sentinel challenges. Had the alarm continued, the whole
village would have been aroused, and, if the attack on the canoes were
suspected, the water would swarm with vengeful savages.
Elsie found the painter of the life-boat coiled in its proper place.
Soon she experienced a steady pull on the rope. Her little fleet was in
motion. Gray began to help in the paddling. Ere long they came under
the influence of the tide, and she heard the ripple of the water
against the planks of the boat. Then Suarez called a halt and a parley.
It would be far better, he advised, to use the oars in the heavy boat
than attempt to tow it across the strong current from a canoe. They
would gain time and be safer. So they climbed into the life-boat, but
continued to tow the canoes.
And now they saw the mast-head light of the _Kansas_. Boyle had also
caused the side lights to be slung to davits, and the white, red, and
green lamps made a triangle in the obscurity, though its base seemed to
be strangely near sea level. Even a big vessel like the Kansas shrinks
to small proportions when she is a mile or more distant at night. She
becomes indivisible, a mere atom in the immensity of the black waters;
it demands an effort of the imagination to credit her with wide decks,
streets of cabins, and cavernous holds. In one respect the exhibition
of the port and starboard lights served them most excellently. Guanaco
Hill was directly astern of the ship; they had absolutely no trouble in
maintaining a straight line for their destination, all that was
necessary being to keep the mast-head light in the exact center of the
green and red points.
Suarez, somewhat weak from his knock on the head over night, was not
equal to the strain of continued exertion, so Elsie and Gray took two
oars each, and allowed their companion to rest. When, judging by the
surrounding hills, they were half way across the inlet, Gray stooped
low in the boat, struck a match, and looked at his watch. It was long
after one o’clock! There could be no doubt whatever that the dawn would
find them far from the ship, no matter how fortunate they might be in
their further adventures.
It was well for Elsie that she had learnt how to scull when in her
teens, and that her muscles were in fair condition owing to her skill
at tennis. Even so, she feared that she could never hold out against
the sustained stress of that pull across the bay. The heavy boat,
intended to be rowed by six men, had the added burthen of four canoes.
It was back-breaking work; but she neither faltered nor sighed until
Suarez said:
“Let me take your place now, señorita. In ten minutes we shall be at
the mouth of the creek, though heaven only knows how we shall find it.”
He did not exaggerate in thus expressing his fear. Time and again they
neared the shore, only to hear the tidal swell breaking heavily on the
rocks. The lights of the _Kansas_, fully three miles away, could only
tell them that they were in the neighborhood of the place where
Courtenay had last been seen in this identical boat. The least
divergence from the line given by the position of the ship meant a
difference of hundreds of yards at such a distance, and there was an
ominous lightening of the gloom, accompanied by a dimming of the stars,
when Gray hit on the idea that the powerful current had probably
carried them a good deal southward of the point they were aiming at. He
suggested that they should boldly pull a quarter of a mile or so
against the tide and then try their luck. Their progress, of course,
became slower than ever, and Elsie began to despair that they would
ever find the mouth of the stream which ran through the cleft in the
hill, when she suddenly saw the luminous crescents which heralded the
sunrise over the inner mountain range. They could not be visible unless
there was a break in the cliffs in that locality.
“Pull in now,” she whispered tensely, and, with a little further
effort, they found that the boat was traveling not against but with the
tide, which was flooding a small offshoot of the main estuary.
Precaution became not only useless but impossible. They were all worn
out. Nothing but the most inflexible determination on the part of Elsie
and Gray, eked out by a certain desponding fear of both of them felt by
Suarez, had sustained them thus far. They went on, and on; they swept
rapidly into the jaws of a precipitous defile, the lofty crests on
either hand coming momentarily nearer against the brightening sky. It
did not seem credible that this sheer cut through the heart of a
gigantic hill could continue for more than a few yards, nor that
anything save a bird could find foothold on its steep sides. Yet the
current flowed smoothly onwards, through a wealth of vegetation which
clung precariously to every ledge and natural escarpment.
Joey, embarrassed by his gag, nevertheless managed to emit a warning
growl. Then the boat crashed into a canoe, and a hoarse yell of alarm
came from beneath the lowermost trees, whose dense foliage flung a pall
over the water. Gray was seized with an inspiration. He grasped the
canoe as it bumped along the gunwale, and held it down on one side
until it filled and sank. He sent another, and yet a third, guzzling to
the bottom before the outburst of raucous cries from both banks showed
there were Indians here in some force.
Stones, too, began to hum around them; some struck the boat, but the
greater number whizzed unpleasantly close to the heads of the two men
and the girl, proving conclusively that they were visible to the unseen
enemy. Gray whipped forth the revolver and fired twice. The second time
a shriek of pain told that he had hit one of their assailants. The two
reports made a deafening din in that place of echoes. They appeared to
stir the Indians into a perfect frenzy, and it was evident, by the
sounds, that the islanders had not much liberty of movement on the
narrow strips of land they occupied on both sides of the gorge.
Elsie caught some significant splashing behind her.
“They are swimming towards the canoes,” she screamed.
Telling Suarez to pull for all he was worth, Gray, clambered to the
stern of the boat and emptied the revolver at what he took to be the
black heads of the swimmers.
“Quick! Load it again,” he said, and Elsie obeyed with a nimbleness and
certainty that were amazing.
The American fired three more shots before he was satisfied that the
canoes were untenanted and not cut adrift. They were now leaving the
pandemonium behind, and Elsie, bethinking herself of the dog, freed him
from that most objectionable muzzle. Joey forthwith awoke the welkin
with his uproar, but, although the girl strained her ears for some
answering hail, she could detect nothing beyond the bawling of Indians
at each other across the narrow creek, and the repeated echoes of the
dog’s barking.
About this time Gray began to suspect that the tide was bearing them
onward at a remarkable rate. In the somber depths of the cleft or cañon
it was difficult to discern stationary objects clearly enough to obtain
a means of estimating the pace of the stream. But the rapid dying down
of the hubbub among the savages gave him cause to think. He asked
Suarez to cease pulling. The canoes behind came crowding in on the more
solid boat, and an oar held out until it encountered some invisible
branch was rudely swept aside. In a word, they were being impelled
towards an unknown destination with the silence and gathering speed of
a mill-race.
An expert engineer, though his work may have little to do with sea or
river, cannot fail to accumulate a store of theoretical knowledge as to
the properties and limitations of water in motion. Gray knew that the
quickened impulse of the stream arose from the tidal force exerted in a
channel which gradually lessened its width. The boat was traveling at
sea level. Therefore, there could be neither rapids nor cataract in
front; but the steady rush of the current, now plainly audible, could
not be accounted for simply by the effort of the tide to gain a passage
through a mere by-way, as the boat was now nearly half a mile from the
estuary, and the velocity of the current was increasing each moment.
“We must endeavor to reach the bank and hold on to the branches of a
tree,” he shouted in Spanish. “Down with your heads until the boat
strikes, and then try to lay hold of something.”
There was no time for explanation. He seized an oar; a powerful stroke
swung the boat’s nose round. By chance, he used the starboard oar. All
unknowing he spun a coin for life or death, and life won. They crashed
through some drooping foliage and ran into a crumbling bank. Gray
unshipped the oar and jammed it straight down. It stuck between stones
at a depth of three feet, and the life-boat was held fast for the time.
The canoes hurtled against each other, but were swept aside instantly.
When the noise ceased, they plainly heard the swirl of the water. In
their new environment, it had the uncanny and sinister hiss of some
monstrous snake.
“Everybody happy?” Gray demanded coolly.
“I am clinging to a tree trunk,” answered Elsie.
“Bully for you. Make fast with a piece of rope. But be careful to
provide a slip-knot, in case we have to sheer off in a hurry. Can you
manage that?”
“Quite well.”
Elsie was fully aware that the leadership of the expedition had gone
from her. She was not sorry; it was in strong hands. Suarez, too,
secured a stout branch, and passed a rope around it.
“Now, silence! and listen!” said Gray.
They soon detected a curiously subdued clamor from the inner recesses
of the cleft. At first almost indistinguishable, it gradually assumed
the peculiar attribute of immense volumes of distant sound, and filled
the ear to the exclusion of all else. It was like nothing any of them
had heard before; now it recalled the roar of a mighty waterfall, and
again its strange melody brought memories of a river in flood. But the
dominant note was the grinding noise of innumerable mill-stones. It
cowed them all. Even the dog was afraid.
“Guess we tied up just in time,” exclaimed Gray, feeling the need of
speech. A little sob answered him. Elsie was beginning to admit the
sheer hopelessness of her undertaking.
“Now, cheer up, Miss Maxwell,” said he. “All the water that is going in
must come out by the same road. At the worst, we can skate back the way
we came and take our chance. But it will soon be broad daylight, and
I’ll answer for it that if Captain Courtenay is yet alive he is not
between us and the mouth of the inlet, or he would have contrived some
sort of racket to let us know his whereabouts. Now, I propose that our
friend in the bows be asked to shin up the cliff and prospect a bit. He
ought to know how to crawl through this undergrowth. Fifty feet higher
he will be able to see some distance.”
Elsie agreed miserably. She was crushed by the immensity of the
difficulties confronting them. Expedients which looked simple
beforehand were found lamentably deficient to cope with wild nature on
the stupendous scale of this gloomy land. Suarez, too, was very
reluctant to leave the boat, but the American adopted a short cut in
the argument, offering him the alternative of climbing ashore or of
being thrown overboard.
So the Argentine adopted the less hazardous method, and climbed to the
bank. A splash, and a scramble, and a slight exclamation from Elsie
told that the dog had followed. Soon the swish of leaves and the
crackling of rotten wood ceased. Suarez might be out of earshot or
merely hiding for a time, intending to return with news of an
impassable precipice. There was a crumb of comfort in the absence of
the terrier. Joey would either go on or come back to them at once.
Gray felt that the girl was too heart-broken to talk. He listened to
the rhythmical chorus of that witches’ cauldron in the heart of the
defile, and watched the gray light slowly etching a path through the
trees, until it touched the fast-running water with a shimmer of
silver.
Neither of them knew how long they remained there; at last, a straining
and creaking of the boat warned them that the water level was rising
and the ropes needed readjusting. It was now possible to see that Elsie
had made fast to a fallen tree; its branches were locked among the
gnarled roots of the lowermost growth above high-water mark. Already
there was a distinct lessening in the pace of the current, and Gray
fancied that the distant rumble was softer. It would not be many
minutes before the neighboring rocks were covered; high tide, he knew,
was at 3.15 A.M. He forebore to look at his watch, lest the girl should
note his action. That would imply the utter abandonment of hope.
It might be that his mind was too taken up with the weird influences of
the hour, or that Elsie’s senses were strung to a superhuman pitch. Be
that as it may, it was she who sprang to her feet all a-quiver with
agitation.
“Do you hear?” she whispered, and her hand clutched Gray’s shoulder
with an energy which set his heart beating high. He did not answer. He
had heard no unusual sound, but he was not without faith in her.
“There!” she panted again. “Some one is hailing. Some one cried
‘Elsie.’ I am sure of it.”
“Guess you’d better toot ‘Arthur’ on the off chance,” said Gray.
Almost the last thing she remembered was the sound of her own wild
scream. There came back to her a stronger shout, and the bark of a dog.
She had a blurred consciousness of a whole troupe of men scrambling
down the choked ravine, of glad questions and joyous answers, of a
delirious dog leaping on board and yelping staccato assurances that
everything was all right in a most wonderful world. Then she found
herself in Courtenay’s arms, and heard him say in a rapture of delight:
“I owe my life to you, dear heart. That is the wonder of it. No need to
tell me you ran away from the ship. I know. One kiss, Elsie; then full
speed ahead for the _Kansas_. By the Lord, to think of it! You here! At
the very gate of the Inferno! Well, one more kiss! Yes, it is I, none
other, and fit as a fiddle. Never got a scratch. There, now; I really
must see to the crew. We must be ready for the turn of the tide.”