CHASING A MYSTERIOUS LIGHT
The commander of the revenue-cutter had received from his lieutenant a
detailed description of the sloop _Fancy_, together with what other
information that officer had gathered concerning her destination,
lading, and crew. As a result of this interview it was determined to
guard all passages leading to the upper Sound; and during the hours of
darkness the cutter's boats, under small sail, cruised back and forth
across the channels on either side of Vashon Island, one of which the
sloop must take. They showed no lights, and their occupants were not
allowed to converse in tones louder than a whisper. While half of each
crew got what sleep they might in the bottom of the boat, the others
were on watch and keenly alert. In the stern-sheets of each boat sat an
officer muffled in a heavy ulster as a protection against the chill
dampness of the night.
The night was nearly spent and dawn was at hand when the weary occupants
of one of these patrol-boats were aroused into activity by two bright
lights that flashed in quick succession for an instant well over on the
western side of their channel, which was the one known as Colvos
Passage.
"It is a signal," said the officer, as he headed his boat in that
direction. "Silence, men! Have your oars ready for a chase."
Shortly afterwards another light appeared on the water in the same
general direction, but farther down the channel. It showed steadily for
a minute, and was then lost to view, only to reappear a few moments
later. After that its continued appearance and disappearance proved most
puzzling, until the officer solved the problem to his own satisfaction
by saying:
"The careless rascals have come to anchor, and are sending their stuff
ashore in a small boat. That light is the lantern they are working by;
but I wouldn't have believed even they could be so reckless as to use
it. Douse that sail and unship the mast. So. Now, out oars! Give 'way!"
As the boat sprang forward under this new impulse, its oars, being
muffled in the row-locks, gave forth no sound save the rhythmic swish
with which they left the water at the end of each stroke.
The row was not a long one, and within five minutes the boat was close
to the mysterious light. No sound came from its vicinity, nor was there
any loom of masts or sails through the blackness. Were they close to it,
after all? Might it not be brighter than they thought, and still at a
distance from them? Its nature was such that the officer could not
determine even by standing up, and for a few moments he was greatly
puzzled. He could now see that the land was at a greater distance than a
smuggler would choose to cover with his small boats when he might just
as well run his craft much closer. What could it mean?
Suddenly he gave the orders: "'Way enough! In oars! Look sharp there
for'ard with your boat-hook!"
The next moment the twinkling light was alongside, and its mystery was
explained. It was an old lantern lashed to a bit of a board that was in
turn fastened across an empty half-barrel. A screen formed of a shingle
darkened one side of the lantern, so that, as the floating tub was
turned by wind or wave, the light alternately showed and disappeared at
irregular intervals.
That the lieutenant who was the victim of this simple ruse was angry
goes without saying. He was furious, and could he have captured its
author just then, that ingenious person might have met with rough usage.
But there seemed little chance of capturing him, for although the
officer felt certain that this tub had been launched from the very
smuggler he was after, he had no idea of where she now was, or of what
direction she had taken. All he knew was that somebody had warned her of
danger in that channel, and that she had cleverly given him the slip. He
could also imagine the "chaff" he would receive from his brother
officers on the cutter when they should learn of his mortifying
experience.
When, after cruising fruitlessly during the brief remainder of the
night, he returned to his ship and reported what had taken place, he was
chaffed, as he expected, but was enabled to bear this with equanimity,
for he had made a discovery. On the shingle that had shaded the old
lantern he found written in pencil as though for the passing of an idle
half-hour, and apparently by some one who wished to see how his name
would look if he were a foreigner:
"Philip Ryder, Mr. Philip Ryder, Monsieur Philippe Ryder, Signor Filipo
Ryder, Senor Felipe Ryder, and Herr Philip Ryder."
"It's the name of the young chap who led me such a chase in Victoria,
and finally gave me the information I wanted concerning the sloop
_Fancy_," said the lieutenant to his commanding officer, in reporting
this discovery.
"Which would seem to settle the identity of the sloop we are after, and
prove that she is now somewhere close at hand," replied the commander.
"Yes, sir; and it also discloses the identity of the young rascal who is
responsible for this trick, though from his looks I wouldn't have
believed him capable of it. He is the one I told you of who was so
scented with cologne as to be offensive. I remember well seeing the name
Philip Ryder on his dunnage-bag."
The sun was just rising, and at this moment a report was brought to the
cabin, from a masthead lookout, to the effect that a small sloop was
disappearing behind a point a few miles to the southward.
"It may be your boat, and it may be some other," said the commander to
the third lieutenant. "At any rate, it is our duty to look him up. So
you will please get under way again with the yawl, run down to that
point, and see what you can find. If you meet with your young friend
Ryder either afloat or ashore, don't fail to arrest and detain him as a
witness, for in any case his testimony will be most important."
The _Fancy_ had hauled out of her snug berth soon after sunset that same
night, and fanned along by a light breeze, held her course to the
southward. Both our lads were stationed forward to keep a sharp lookout,
though with a grim warning from Captain Duff that if either of them fell
overboard this time, he might as well make up his mind to swim ashore,
for the sloop would not be stopped to pick him up.
"Cheerful prospect for me," muttered Alaric. "Never mind, though, Mr.
Captain, I'm going to desert, as did the Phil Ryder of whom you seem so
fond. I am going to follow his example, too, in taking your first mate
with me."
As on the previous night, the lads found an opportunity to talk in low
tones; and filled with the idea of inducing Bonny to leave the sloop
with him, Alaric strove to convince him of the wickedness of smuggling.
"It is breaking a law of your country," he argued; "and any one who
breaks one law will be easily tempted to break another, until there's no
saying where he will end."
"If we didn't do it, some other fellows would," replied Bonny. "The
chinks are bound to travel, and folks are bound to have cheap dope."
"So _you_ are breaking the law to save some other fellow's conscience?"
"No, of course not. I'm doing it for the wages it pays."
"Which is as much as to say that you would break any law if you were
paid enough."
"I never saw such a fellow as you are for putting things in an
unpleasant way," retorted the young mate, a little testily. "Of course
there are plenty of laws I couldn't be hired to break. I wouldn't steal,
for instance, even if I were starving, nor commit a murder for all the
money in the world. But I'd like to know what's the harm in running a
cargo like ours? A few Chinamen more or less will never be noticed in a
big place like the United States. Besides, I think the law that says
they sha'n't come in is an unjust one, anyway. We haven't any more right
to keep Chinamen out of a free country than we have to keep out Italians
or anybody else."
"So you claim to be wiser than the men who make our laws, do you?" asked
Alaric.
Without answering this question, Bonny continued: "As for running in a
few pounds of dope, we don't rob anybody by doing that."
"How about robbing the government?"
"Oh, that don't count. What's a few dollars more or less to a government
as rich as ours?"
"Which is saying that while you wouldn't steal from any one person, you
don't consider it wicked to steal from sixty millions of people. Also,
that it is perfectly right to rob a government because it is rich.
Wouldn't it be just as right to rob Mr. Vanderbilt or Mr. Astor, or even
my--I mean any other millionaire? They are rich, and wouldn't feel the
loss."
"I never looked at it in that way," replied Bonny, thoughtfully.
"I thought not," rejoined Alaric. "And there are some other points about
this business that I don't believe you ever looked at, either. Did you
ever stop to think that every Chinaman you help over the line at once
sets to work to throw one of your own countrymen out of a job, and so
robs him of his living?"
"No; I can't say I ever did."
"Or did it ever occur to you that every cargo of opium you help to bring
into the country is going to carry sorrow and suffering, perhaps even
ruin, to hundreds of your own people?"
"I say, Rick Dale, it seems to me you know enough to be a lawyer. At any
rate, you know too much to be a sailor, and ought to be in some other
business."
"No, Bonny, I don't know half enough to be a sailor; but I do know too
much to be a smuggler, and I am going to get into some other business as
quick as I can. You are too, now that you have begun to think about it,
for you are too honest a fellow to hold your present position any longer
than you can help. By-the-way, what would happen if a cutter should get
after us to-night?"
"That depends," replied the first mate, sagely, glad to feel that there
were some legal questions concerning which he was wiser than his
companion. "They might fire on us, if we didn't stop quick enough to
suit 'em, and blow us out of the water. They might capture us, clap us
into irons, and put us into a dark lock-up on bread and water. The most
likely thing is that we would all be sent to the government prison on
McNeil's Island. From there the chinks would be hustled back to
Victoria, and the old man would get out on bond; but you and I would be
held as witnesses until a court was ready to condemn the vessel and
cargo. That would probably take some months, perhaps a year. Then the
case would be appealed, and we'd be kept in prison for another year or
so.
"And I suppose if we ever got out we would always be watched and
suspected," suggested Alaric, who had listened to all this with almost
as much dismay as though it were an actual sentence. "Well, I'll never
be caught, that's all. I'll drift away in the dinghy first." In saying
this the boy threatened to do the very most desperate thing he could
think of.
"I believe I'd go with you," said Bonny. "Now, though, I must go and get
ready our private signal, for we are getting close to the most dangerous
place."