A SILENT ENEMY
Bilkins rushed into my room at daylight announcing perfect weather and
the _Orchid_ sailing some twelve miles astern of us. While dressing I
wondered how she could have fallen so far behind, but assumed that our
men on watch must finally have lost her. As this seemed to be a
reasonable explanation, since the later the night the more probability
of her company having settled down and become quiet, I dismissed these
speculations of no consequence for a feeling of thankfulness that she
had not escaped us.
Gates was on his way to call me when I came out, and one look at his
broad smile required no further augury of good news.
"We're arfter her hard, sir," he said, "and have been drawing up farst
this hour gone. We'll be in hailing distance in another two hours, or
less."
"There's a good wind?"
"Fair, sir. The mate, who's aloft, says that for some reason she's
hauled down everything but mains'l and jib, and carn't be making any
speed to speak of. Still, she's going along. We've quite some canvas
set. He says there was noise enough to follow till about five bells of
the morning watch; then she grew so still he wondered if she'd sunk.
You'd better have breakfast, sir, for we'll be on her, as I say, in two
hours or less."
This was Tommy's idea when I met him with Monsieur in the cabin, but
Tommy was always ready for breakfast. They had become reconciled--or,
perhaps, I ought to say the professor seemed to have forgiven both of us
handsomely. Gates sat down with us for there was much to talk about. In
fact, the professor, in his uncontrollable and passionate appetite for
grapefruit, had scarcely extruded a spray of its juice in our
direction--the usual evidence with us that breakfast had seriously
begun--when the question of how we should board the _Orchid_ was raised.
The old skipper listened to my plan, then to Tommy's, and after these he
turned to our little scientist, who waved a hand with no small degree of
impatience, saying:
"One is visionary, the other is crazy. One wants to blow her out of the
water--with what? The other wants to do something no one can
understand--and why? But they both agree upon killing everyone on board
except a privileged lady. It is school-boy tomfoolery!"
"Tomfoolery your grandmother," Tommy flared up. "What do you suggest
that's any better--the utopian scheme you sprung on us last night?"
"How do you know we have to board her?" Monsieur thrust half a biscuit
in his mouth and took a long drink of coffee. "I have been thinking
since; I have been on deck, and observed. There is wind, and we are
catching up. Off there," he pointed toward something the cabin walls
prevented us from seeing, "is land; low, gray-blue land. Now it can be
done with cattle, but can it be done with yachts?"
"Can what be done?" we asked.
"We shall sail out, head her back, and drive her into the land until she
sticks!"
Never having heard of such a silly idea I looked at Gates, who was
chuckling.
"Oh, it might be done, sir," he laughed, "if she stood close enough to
the islands. We might jockey her that way, foul her a bit, and make her
go aground--or fight. But, Lor' bless you, she's sailing straight west
across the Gulf, with nothing but a thousand miles of good water between
her and the mouth of the Rio Grande!"
"Get in front--butt her around," Monsieur cried. "If she does not like
it, then let her, as you suggest, fight!"
"Well, you've said something at last," Tommy grinned. "How about it,
Gates? And, by the way, what are those islands you spoke of? We're
looking for a certain
'----one of many, many islands
Set like emerald jewels in an ever changing sea.'"
Though with his sincerity there was also the bantering tone of the
unbeliever here.
"It's the Ponce de Leon Bay, sir, with the Ten Thousand Islands--and I'd
say there're all of ten thousand, or quite harf, anyway."
With his fork he quickly drew on the tablecloth a sketch of southwestern
Florida, outlining the waters northeast of Cape Sable and with little
jabs indicating the island area which extends up and down the coast, as
well as into Whitewater Bay. Gates was used to doing this kind of thing
and he did it well, with the result that we got a very clear idea of
what he meant. No one knew the exact number of islands, he said, because
they had never been charted. Government surveys had been considered
useless, in all probability; and, of private interests, there were none.
No boat, except perhaps at rare intervals a very small craft of
adventurous spirit, ever tried to enter--but, as to that, twenty small
boats might spend a month's playing in that maze and never meet. The
mainland, for many miles in all directions, was without habitation, and
these conditions had isolated this entire section as completely as
though it were in the heart of a South American jungle.
Difficult as it was to believe that on the "Playground Peninsula" of
eastern United States an unsurveyed primeval wilderness of perhaps three
thousand square miles had remained absolutely detached from inquisitive
civilization, I was soon to learn that Gates had not in any way
exaggerated. It was there; it is there today in the same unbroken
solitude, for any to see who will.
"Why didn't she duck in there and hide last night?" I asked, coming out
of the charmed spell his description had cast over me.
"She daren't, sir. Nothing but a dinghy, or the like of that, has ever
gone in very far. Leastwise, I don't think so. The islands are just a
lot of oyster-shell bars covered with sand and overgrown with red
mangrove trees. I've been told the channel between 'em sometimes isn't
more'n a foot deep; but in other places there may be good water. What I
mean to say is that they're not charted, and I doubt if any man living
could find his way through 'em the same way twice. They lay in a bunch
stretching about forty miles north and south, and maybe fifteen or
twenty through. Some are good sized--we'll say a mile long--but others
run down to the size of the _Whim_. Oh, he wouldn't dare to run in
there, sir! Now we might try to tease him close to 'em and crowd him
some way, as the professor says--or let him do the other thing!"
"That sounds like some plan," Tommy sprang to his feet. "We'll tease
him, all right, if we shoot fast enough!"
"But they must be let to begin that shooting first," Monsieur insisted.
"I'd like to know why?" Tommy turned to him.
"Why? What right have we to come and start such a business?"
"What right have we to crowd her out of the ocean?" Tommy answered with
another question. "What right have they to blow us up?--or steal a
girl?--or counterfeit our money?--or darn near shoot my finger off and
then laugh at me? To hell with rights! We've got more than that
scoundrel has, if we haven't any!"
Gates got up with an oath.
"Yes," he said, "and shoot out my searchlight! No, Professor, I'd say
the shooting's already begun. But they won't stand for too much fooling,
not if I know anything!"
"Oh, well," Monsieur sighed, "give me the gun."
"Give him Miss Nancy," Tommy laughed. "Now, fellows, suppose a couple of
us entrench on top of the cabin, to get the advantage of altitude--the
superiority of position, as it were--and command their decks!"
"You'll need a fair protection, sir, as they'll be shooting from the
portholes," Gates said. "And we carn't fire back at the portholes
because of the lady!"
"Righto! But the man at their wheel's our meat, and anyone else who
comes to take his place. Minus a steersman they're helpless; and then,
Gates, if we can run alongside and batten down (is that what you call
it?) their hatches, they're ours."
"Suppose they send the Princess out, herself, to steer?" Monsieur asked.
The suggestion gave me a turn.
"Still, they may not think of that," he continued, "and our two shooters
may command their decks quite easily. It is good. If a man comes out to
steer you will shoot him till he runs downstairs again, then we go
aboard and sail home. Yes, it is a good plan."
"Shoot him till he runs downstairs!" Tommy gasped. "What d'you think
we're going to do--just spank him with lead?"
"I'll say that professor is in a clarss by himself, sir," Gates turned
to me, chuckling.
The next half hour was a busy one. Our sailors, singing with happiness,
brought up from the cuddy rolls of extra sails that were lowered
overboard for a good wetting, then mauled into a neat rifle pit on the
cabin roof--as snug as I'd want anywhere, and quite able to stop
high-power bullets. Gates then showed another bit of generalship that
called anew for Monsieur's nods of approval. Since our own helmsman
would be as much exposed as the man on the _Orchid_--whom we intended to
"shoot until he ran downstairs"--the mate brought up some line, bent it
several times around the wheel drum, passed it through newly fastened
blocks, and let it run into the cockpit. By this arrangement he could
lie on the floor, as safe as you please, and steer according to orders
sung up by the old skipper who, stationed below with a shaving
mirror--suggesting a trench periscope--would take his bearings without
showing any portion of his face. It was a nice piece of work.
"One carn't be too cautious, sir," he explained. "Harf our chance of
coming out ahead is being ready beforehand, and harf our satisfaction is
to keep from having any burials at sea--which are gruesome things, any
way you take 'em, sir."
Bilkins had acted as armorer and laid out rifles, bandoliers bulging
with filled clips, and a few automatic revolvers; then in a low tone he
said to me:
"I'll never go back, sir, if anything happens to you today."
"Yes, you will," I replied, touched by his show of devotion. "You'll
have to tell them why it happened. But don't be a raincrow. We'll come
through."
Gates now sent the men to stations for we were within a half a mile of
the _Orchid_. Then Tommy stepped into our rifle pit and laid down. I
followed. Quietly each of us beat a crease in the soaked canvas through
which we could fire without showing too much head.
The mate, crouched below, tried his new steering device as Gates sang up
an order, and swore a jovial oath at the ease with which the _Whim_
responded. Within his reach was an automatic, and he looked the very
picture of contentment.
Along the side of my rifle barrel now resting in the crease I took a
good look at the _Orchid_ sailing with apparent unconcern but a short
way out from us, but I could picture the activity and hatred seething
below her deck. I wondered what Sylvia might be thinking about all this;
if she associated our pursuit by the slightest imaginative thread with a
fellow who impolitely stared at her in a Havana cafe, yet to whom she
had been willing to cry: "I am in danger!" Presumptuous fallacy! Then
other thoughts began to race through my brain. Now that we were face to
face with action, how were we going to come out? Had I a right to
imperil those who were sailing with me? Was it not my duty, even at this
eleventh hour, to order the _Whim_ back?
I turned to Tommy, saying:
"You didn't ship for this kind of thing, old man. If anything happens to
you I'll feel like the devil."
"So'll I," he grinned. "Don't bother about how you'll feel if anything
happens to _me_; keep those regrets for the moment a hot pill
investigates your own honorable insides, Mr. Jackass! I wouldn't miss
this party for a million dollar bill. Settle down, now. Gates is
pointing closer." Then, peeping along his rifle, he crooned one of our
regimental paraphrases: "Stick your head up, Fritzy-Fritz, while I plug
you in the gizzard," adding: "I don't see anyone at their wheel!"
I took another squint and, just as he had said, their deck was
deserted--not a man in sight.
"What d'you make of it?" I asked.
"Get down," he warned. "Don't forget that anyone who could center our
searchlight, as some crafty boy did last night, won't have much trouble
peeling a scalp at three hundred yards! They've probably made a steering
rig like ours, that's all. The first thing we know bally hell will spit
out of those portholes, if my guess counts! Beats a trench raid, doesn't
it, old man?"
"All hollow," I agreed. "We've got 'em this trip!"
"We have unless they carry a ten-pounder--in which case we'll take a
bath. Freeze close, buddie!"
Nearer and nearer we drew, but no bally hell came from her. She showed
absolutely no sign of anyone, not even a pile of canvas or a box that
might hide a sharp-shooter. That, then, was the old counterfeiter's
ruse: to tempt us into taking the initiative when, more than likely, he
was ready with the probable ten-pounder to sink us. Still, it felt
rather snug to be lying there elbow to elbow with Tommy.
Gates had steered so close by this time that any skipper on the other
yacht, not endowed with stupendous nerve, would certainly have gone
about; for we had maneuvered to get the right of way, and a collision
would have been entirely the _Orchid's_ fault. But no one ran out, nor
did her course change, and at the very last minute Gates called an order
that brought us off a few points.
We were now sailing parallel, not more than ten fathoms apart, and could
have thrown a biscuit on her deck. I glanced out the corner of my eye at
Tommy. His cheek rested snugly against the stock of his rifle and his
finger stroked the trigger, I thought affectionately.
Had either of us been more conversant with nautical matters we would
have noticed something that Gates now came crawling up to tell us. He
did this without being much exposed, by creeping along until abreast of
us and then projecting himself, headfirst or any other way, into our
midst. It was an active accomplishment for one of Gates's years.
"D'you see what they've done?" he excitedly asked. "That wheel, there,
is lashed over; they've paid out the mains'l enough to starboard, and
set the jib properly to port. That's why the fores'l isn't up!"
"What of it?"
"Why, sir, she'll sail that way all day in a wind like this, and nobody
have to touch her! They knew we'd be popping at their helmsman, and they
fixed it so we carn't! Now it's our turn to start something!"
"Then start it," Tommy said. "Run alongside and we'll climb over!"
"Mr. Thomas," he demurred, "that's rank piracy, unless we're the law. I
wouldn't say no, understand, if there warn't some other way. But if we
try it they'll have every right to shoot us down--which they can easy
do, being hid and ready!"
"You forget, Gates, they haven't a right on earth. They don't want to
face the law with the best justification ever known--they'd be mortally
afraid to!"
"Then they wouldn't be any less particular about shooting us," the old
skipper replied.
There was no denying that Tommy had impaled himself upon his own point;
not that he cared a hang whether they began shooting or not, but the
anxiety of Gates caused him to temporize, and he said:
"Bluff it! Sing across that we're the U. S. A. ordering 'em to stop. Say
it strong enough to make us believe it, too, Gates--so we'll feel
self-righteous when the scrap comes!"
Gates grinned and, cupping his hands, shouted:
"_Orchid_, ahoy! This yacht's chartered by the U. S. Secret Service, and
you're ordered to come about! Delay one minute and we blow you out of
the water!"
"Accomplished old liar," Tommy chuckled. "See anything?"
Gates, so earnest was he in this role of Uncle Sam, had his watch out,
marking off the seconds. When the sixtieth had ticked he called again,
in a more ferocious tone:
"Time's up, but I'll give you harf a minute longer! This is the larst
word!"
"Now," said Tommy, having waited the thirty seconds which brought no
response, "let's see you make good! Will you fire a torpedo, or one of
the fifteen-inch guns?"
But Gates was seeing no humor in the situation; neither was I; neither
was Tommy, if the truth were known. Our position was in a sense
desperate. We had bluffed and the bluff had been called. Five minutes
ago we might have turned back, but such a course now would make us
laughing-stocks even to ourselves. And there was Sylvia. What sort of a
quitter would she think me!
I saw that someone had to board that yacht, even though such a course,
almost to a certainty, meant a test of the professor's surgical skill--a
skill we knew he possessed along with his other attainments. But I could
not--I simply would not--risk any of our fellows on an undertaking so
hazardous. Conscious, however, of Tommy's utter pig-headedness I saw the
futility of merely asking him to stay behind; so my mind became
instantly made up and, turning to Gates, I sharply asked:
"Who commands here?"
"Why, I'm the captain, sir," he answered, surprised at my tone.
"But whose orders are absolute?"
"Yours, Mr. Jack, sir."
"Then take this man below and keep him there while you run your rail
alongside the _Orchid_. Nobody follows me until I call, or shoot. Be
lively, Captain!"
He looked his horror, but stiffly saluted, saying "Come" to Tommy who
had turned white with anger and murderously glared at me.
"Do you mean this dirty trick?" he asked, and I did not meet his eyes
when admitting it.
In a few minutes he and Gates were safely in the cabin--Gates having
dived nimbly out of our canvas fort; while Tommy, oozing rage, had
walked erect, shaking his fist at the _Orchid_ and calling me pretty
much every kind of a lizard that crawls the earth.
Perhaps the mad that this aroused was good for me. I had charged into an
enemy's face once or twice under a certain amount of unpleasant fire and
most uncomfortable sensations. A fellow's _savoir faire_ is far from
being faultless on such occasions, but if he's mad--damn mad--he gets
along rather well, and Tommy's insulting words turned the trick for me.
We had luffed a bit to let the _Orchid_ draw out ahead, and now all I
seemed to see was her slowly nearing rail; twenty feet away, fifteen,
ten. My rifle had been laid aside, and I felt to see that my automatic
was snugly nested in its holster. Five feet, four, three--we were about
to touch! With a bound I cleared my shelter just as the rails were
within spanning distance, and vaulted over.