EXIT RAWLINGS AND THE GREEK.
At daylight one morning, a week after leaving Bouka Island, the
_Mahina_ was lying becalmed off Nitendi, one of the islands of the
Santa Cruz group, and just as Barry came on deck for his coffee the
look-out called to Barradas--
"Sail ho, sir, right astern!"
Barry ran aloft, and there six or seven miles astern was a
schooner-rigged steamer. Barradas, who had followed him, knew her at
once.
"That's the _Reynard_, sir--one of the Sydney squadron patrolling the
New Hebrides. I've seen her pretty often, and know her well."
"Ah, we're in luck, Manuel. There's a chance now of getting rid of our
prisoners--for a time at least. She's steaming this way, and will be
up to us in another hour. Get the whaleboat ready and hoist our
colours."
There was no need for the _Mahina_ to signal that she desired to
communicate with the warship, for the latter steamed steadily along
till she was abreast of the brig, and then stopped her engines and
waited for Barry to come aboard.
In a few minutes the master of the _Mahina_ was on the quarter-deck of
the _Reynard_ talking to her commander, a clean-shaven,
youthful-looking officer.
"Come below, Mr. Barry, and tell me your story in detail," he said
politely. "I will do all I can to assist you, if it was only for the
pleasure of hearing that that scoundrel, Billy Chase, is no longer in
the land of the living. And I must compliment you upon your
good-nature and sound judgment in carrying back his natives to Bouka.
I wish there were more trading captains like you in the distressful
South Seas."
Lieutenant-Commander Martyn listened with intense interest to Barry's
strange story, from the time he came on board the _Mahina_ in Sydney
Harbour till the _Reynard_ was sighted.
"It is a perfect romance," he declared, "and you'll be quite a famous
man in the history of the South Seas. Now as to your prisoners. As
you have made the request I'll take them from you. My orders from the
Admiral are to follow out the High Commissioner's instructions 'to
maintain order and arrest all suspicious persons within the
jurisdiction of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific,' and
these two fellows you have on board your vessel certainly come within
the category of 'suspicious persons'--to put it mildly. I am bound to
Noumea, New Caledonia, and from there I can send them on to Sydney or
Fiji for the trial--wish I could dispose of them both in the good
old-fashioned style, by dangling them from the end of the yard-arm.
Now as to this other man, Barradas. He seems to have made all the
amends possible in his power, but nevertheless he certainly was their
accomplice in the piracy of the vessel. This may mean from two to five
years' imprisonment for him--unless," he added carelessly, "he runs
away before you get to Sydney."
Barry rose, when the commander bade him be seated again. "Don't go
just yet, Mr. Barry. Take another whiskey-and-soda with me, and then
I'll go aboard your ship, take over the custody of those two anointed
scoundrels, and"--here he smiled--"ask to be introduced to the heroine
of your strange tale."
He touched the bell on the table and gave the necessary orders to the
sentry, and in a few seconds the boatswain's whistle called away one of
the boats which, with the commander and a junior lieutenant, left the
_Reynard_, together with Barry, who was in his own boat, but went
alongside the _Mahina_ first so as to receive the naval officer with
all due ceremony.
Stepping on the deck, Commander Martyn returned Barry's salute in the
usual naval manner--as if he had never before seen him in his life--and
asked to see the ship's papers. He was conducted to the cabin, and the
ship's papers and all other necessary documents bearing upon John
Tracey's rights of possession of Arrecifos laid before him for
examination.
"Everything is quite right, Mr. Barry," he said formally. "Now please
hand over your prisoners to Lieutenant Jenkins, who will take them away
immediately."
Then the coxswain of the man-of-war's boat and two bluejackets entered
the sail-room, and Rawlings and the Greek were brought out, handcuffed,
and helped down over the side into the boat. Neither of them looked at
Barry, nor he at them, until their backs were turned to him. Not once
during the voyage had he spoken to them, and now, though he did not
know it, he saw them for the last time.
"Now, Mr. Barry----" and the naval officer turned to him with a smile.
The captain of the _Mahina_ tapped at Mrs. Tracey's cabin door.
"Captain Martyn, of the _Reynard_, would like to be introduced to you,
Mrs. Tracey," he said.
The door opened at once and Alice Tracey met the officer with
outstretched hand. "And I am very pleased indeed," she said with a
bright smile as Martyn bent low over her hand. He had no idea that he
would see so beautiful a woman in the cabin of a South Sea trading
vessel.
"Yours is indeed a strange, sad story, Mrs. Tracey," he said as he sat
down beside her, "and the master of this vessel" (Barry had discreetly
gone on deck) "seems to have acted in an exceedingly brave manner
throughout. He looks--and of course he is--a very plucky fellow and a
perfect type of the British seaman."
"He is indeed! He is like my poor husband"--her voice trembled--"who
was also a perfect type of an English sailor."
The commander of the _Reynard_ and Mrs. Tracey remained chatting
together for nearly a quarter of an hour; he, delighted to meet an
educated and refined white woman under such strange circumstances, and
she listening with a secret pleasure to his praises of "Mr."
Barry--for, like all naval officers, Commander Martyn could not address
or speak of a merchant skipper as "captain."
Then "Mr." Barry came down and he and the naval officer and Mrs. Tracey
drank a glass of champagne together, and exchanged various promises to
meet again when the _Reynard_ came to Sydney at the end of her cruise.
"This meeting with you, Mrs. Tracey, is the only pleasurable incident
of a detestable cruise, I can assure you," said Martyn as he bade her
farewell; "the _Reynard_ is a beast of a ship and we are employed on
beastly work; in fact I'm nothing better than a London sergeant of
police detailed off for duty to watch 'the criminal classes' in
Southwark or the Borough Road. Wish to goodness, however, that I was
there now instead of stewing in these wretched islands--chasing slavers
we can never catch and assailed by the Australian newspapers as 'lazy,
la-de-da "haw-haws."' Wish I had one of those newspaper fellows on
board the _Reynard_ to show him how the much-maligned naval officer
doing patrol work in the South Seas manages to live and keep his men
from rank mutiny. Now, good-bye once more. Hope we'll all meet in
Sydney soon."
Shaking hands with Mrs. Tracey, he and Barry went on deck and took a
few turns together.
"She's a sweet little woman, Mr. Barry," said the naval officer
impulsively; "her soft, velvety eyes are like those of a girl I know in
the old country--near Swanage way. You're not a married man, are you?"
"No," replied Barry, with a laugh; "but I hope to be within a week or
so after this little brig drops her mud-hook in Sydney harbour."
"Ah! I thought so! And you deserve her! By Jove, you do! It's the
'brave knight and the beauteous woman' story over again, with the South
Seas for a setting. And she _is_ a beautiful woman! Good luck to you
both! Wish I could come to the wedding; but as I can't you must just
accept my best wishes and all that sort of thing, you know. And now
I'll have something to write about to the little girl in Dorset.
Good-bye, here's my boat alongside."
He grasped Barry's hand vigorously, and with his sword clattering on
deck and nodding a good-bye to Barradas and Joe, who stood at the
gang-way, he descended the ladder and jumped into the _Reynard's_ boat,
which at once pushed off.
A quarter of an hour later Barry and Mrs. Tracey stood watching the
gunboat as with the black smoke pouring from her long, yellow funnel
she cut through the glassy water on her way to Noumea. Long before
noon only a faint line of smoke on the southern sea-rim was visible.
* * * * * *
That night as the brig was moving quietly through the water, and
Barradas had just relieved Joe (who was now second mate), the captain
came and stood beside him, and began to speak to him in low but earnest
tones. The Spaniard listened intently, but shook his head every now
and then in dissent.
"I won't do anything like that, Captain Barry! I won't run away like a
coward. I am a Catholic and have vowed to the Holy Virgin and the
blessed Saints that I shall lead a better life. And I cannot begin
that better life by avoiding the punishment that I should endure. No,
sir, I will stick to the ship and be a man, and not a coward."
"Barradas," said Barry earnestly, placing his hand on the Spaniard's
shoulder, "think again. Whatever harm you have done to Mrs. Tracey has
been amply atoned for. The law may recognise that, or it may not. The
captain of the man-of-war himself thinks that it would be as well for
you to leave the ship before we get to Sydney. And remember that I and
Mrs. Tracey, who are your sincere friends, will have to appear against
you. This would be distressing to us both, Manuel."
"I am prepared to suffer for what I have done, captain," answered the
Spaniard quietly, "and when I come out of prison I shall come to you
and Mrs. Tracey and ask you to forget that I was Manuel Barradas, the
fellow-criminal of Rawlings and the Greek, and ask you to only remember
that I have tried to undo some of the wrong I have done."
"As you please, Manuel. But in me you will ever have a firm friend,
even though you will force me to be an accuser."