MIGUEL TAKES CONTROL
A black cloud rolled from _Mossamedes'_ funnel and blew across her bows.
The beat of engines quickened and when the stern swung up their furious
racing shook the ship. Kit pictured Macallister, sternly calm, at the
throttle wheel. Much depended on his skill, for if he were slow when the
spinning screw came down and the runaway machinery resumed its load,
something must break. Kit, however, did not go to the engine-room. He
stood at the door of the pilot-house, inside which Miguel Saenz gripped
the slanted gratings with his bare feet. His face was wet by sweat and
his brown hand was clenched on the steam-steering wheel.
Although the muscular effort was not great, steering was hard.
_Mossamedes_ rode high above water and the gale pressed upon her side;
the combers lifted her, and screw and rudder could not get proper hold.
Sometimes she came up to windward and rolled until the white seas swept
her rail; sometimes she yawed to lee. Kit saw the bows circle and
pictured the compass spinning in its bowl.
So far, Miguel steered by compass. Don Erminio had changed his course
and headed obliquely for the shoals. It was not the course the gunboat's
captain would expect him to steer. Revillon, no doubt, imagined the line
along which _Mossamedes_ travelled inclined at a small angle out to sea,
in order to clear the hammered sands, and he could steam down from his
commanding position and cut her off. The line, however, really slanted
the other way. Dark clouds obscured the sky, the light was bad, and the
driving spray made accurate observation hard. Kit thought Don Erminio's
plan was good, but longed for dark.
Sometimes he saw the gunboat's masts, and sometimes, when a comber
lifted _Mossamedes_, he saw her hull. She was getting indistinct and
dusk was not far off. Kit imagined she flew some signals, but one need
not bother about the flags. Revillon could not launch a boat, and there
was not much use in shooting from a rolling platform at a mark that for
the most part could not be seen. Besides, Kit thought Revillon would not
use his guns. Commanding the faster vessel, his plan was to pin
_Mossamedes_ to the coast and when the gale blew out come on board and
search her. Then, if the cargo was not jettisoned, she might perhaps be
seized. Kit did not know much about international rules, but if he threw
the guns overboard, Revillon would after all win the game. Guns lying at
the bottom of the sea could not be landed in Africa.
Kit felt his youth and responsibility. Standing for his employer, he had
urged the captain to hold on to the cargo. Yusuf's treachery had made
him savage; he felt he had been cheated like a child, but this was not
all. Kit did not mean to let the cunning brute rob his master. He was
Wolf's man and his business was to guard his interests. Moreover, he was
moved unconsciously by inherited stubbornness. He had engaged to land
the guns and was going to do so.
In the meantime he thought his luck strange. Not long since he was a
humble shipping clerk, occupied by tame, conventional duties; now he was
a smuggler, breaking rules ambassadors and men like that had drawn. All
the same, in a way, the adventure was not romantic. There was no
shooting, and for the most part one could not see the pursuing ship.
Before long, Kit hoped, one could not see her at all. The risk was
rather from the sea than the gunboat. For all that, Kit knew two men
bore a heavy strain; Macallister on his reeling platform, guarding his
engines from sudden shock; and Miguel at the wheel. When Kit looked into
the pilot-house the quartermaster's pose was rigid, his mouth was hard,
and his eyes were fixed on the revolving compass. Steam pulled across
the rudder, but one must use nerve and sound judgment to hold
_Mossamedes_ straight.
By and by another man climbed the ladder and went into the pilot-house.
Miguel came out and joined the captain. He looked slack, as if he felt
the reaction now the strain was gone, and held on by the rails while he
looked about. Kit saw his cotton clothes were stained by sweat; the wind
blew the thin material against his skin. He wore a tight red knitted
cap, and the spray beat upon his face. The captain talked, and
gesticulated when the turmoil of the sea drowned his voice.
The light was going fast and the gunboat had melted into the gloom, but
her smoke rolled in a thick black trail across the water. It looked as
if she were steaming hard and Revillon did not try to hide his advance.
Kit wondered whether he imagined he had pinned _Mossamedes_ against the
shoals and meant to shorten the distance in order not to lose her in the
dark. _Mossamedes_ made no smoke; Macallister kept his fires thin and
clean and it was important that the gunboat's smoke was now on her
quarter. This indicated that Revillon did not know she had swung off a
few points and steered for the land.
Kit waited until the ship went up on a comber's back, and then looked
ahead. The sea was angrier. Some distance in front were broad white
belts where the rollers broke in savage turmoil. Between the belts Kit
thought he saw a gap, in which the seas were regular. In the distance a
brown haze indicated a dust storm raging about the point. One might find
some shelter behind the point, but not much.
High-water was near, and although on the open Atlantic coast the rise of
tide is not marked, the moon was new and one might perhaps expect an
extra fathom's depth. Then, if _Mossamedes_ could get across to the
pool, when the ebb began to run the sands would lie like a breakwater
between her and the sea. Kit rather doubted if she could get across. One
could see no marks, the captain durst not stop for proper soundings and
the hand-lead, used from a platform that constantly changed its level,
was not much guide.
All the same, it looked as if old Miguel meant to try. For a few moments
he stood with his eyes fixed ahead and his lean, upright figure at an
angle with the slanted bridge; then he turned and went into the
wheel-house. His slackness was gone, his movements were somehow
resolute. The other man came out of the house, and Kit saw Macallister
at the top of the ladder. Holding on by rails, the engineer looked
about.
"If Miguel's saint is watching now we'll no' be independent and refuse
his help." he said. "For a' that, there's a line in the _Vaya_ that
betther meets our bill----"
He misquoted from the sailing permit of the Spanish _correo_, but Kit
knew the line and, with the raging shoals ahead, owned its force. When
one fronted the fury of the sea, words like that meant much.
"The mill's good and running weel, but if Miguel's no' sure and steady,
there's no much use in my keeping steam," Macallister resumed. "The bit
spark o' human intelligence ootweighs a' the power that's bottled in my
furnaces. I dinna see what's to guide him, but maybe the old fella
thinks like a _baccalao_."
"_Baccalao_ is salt fish," said Kit.
"It was swimming before it was sautit," Macallister rejoined. "Then ye
dinna get fish in deep water; they seek their meat in the channels and
the tides that run across the sands. Weel, Miguel has his job. I'll away
to mine."
He went down the ladder, but Kit clung to the rails. He had not a job;
his part was played when he urged Don Erminio to steer for the land, and
now as he watched the white seas curl and break he knew his rashness.
The steamer's course was a zig-zag; with the savage wind on her quarter,
her bows swerved about. All Miguel could do was to let one divergence
balance the other. In front was an ominous white crescent, running back
into the dark, but broken by a gap in the middle. A man, strapped
outside the bridge, hove the lead, but this was an obvious formality,
because if he got shallow water _Mossamedes_ could not steam out. If
Miguel tried to bring her round, she would drive, broadside on, against
the hammered sands.
There was no smoke astern. Revillon, no doubt, had seen the surf and
hauled off, but _Mossamedes_ went inshore fast. The horns of the
crescent enclosed her and Kit no longer saw a gap. The sea was all a
white turmoil and furious combers rolled up astern. One felt them run
forward, as if they travelled up an inclined plane, and the ship rode
dizzily on their spouting crests. Then for a time Kit saw nothing. Foam
enveloped _Mossamedes_, her deck vanished, and he was beaten and
blinded. He could hold on, but this was all; the spray came over the
wheel-house like a cataract. Kit knew _Mossamedes_ was swinging round
because the wind now blew across the house.
The plunges got less violent and the spray was thinner. One saw the
iron bulwarks, and the winches in the forward well, about which an angry
flood washed. At the end of the bridge, Don Erminio's figure, looking
strangely slanted, cut the sky. _Mossamedes_ had run through the gap and
was in deeper water behind the sands. Yet the water was not all deep.
Another shoal occupied part of the basin and Kit tried to recapture its
bearings as he had noted them when he went fishing in the boat. He found
he could not. When the light was strong and the swell slow, one could
judge distance and know the depth by the changing colour and the
measured line of foam. Now there was nothing but foam that tossed in the
dark.
_Mossamedes_ forged ahead, and Kit wondered whether Don Erminio knew
where he went. On the whole, he thought the captain did not know;
sometimes one must blindly trust one's luck. She came round again,
lurched by the turmoil on a sand, and steamed head to wind. Then Miguel
came to the door of the wheel-house.
"We are arrived, senor!"
Don Erminio signed to the leadsman, who swung the plummet round his head
and let go.
"Good! We have water enough," said the captain, and rang the telegraph.
The reversed engines shook the ship and the anchor plunged. She stopped,
and but for the roar of the breakers all was quiet. Somehow Miguel had
brought her across the sands. When she dragged out her cable the guns
were hoisted up and put near the gangway, where, if needful, one could
heave the boxes overboard. Miguel cleared the cargo launch ready for
launching and they stripped the covers from a lifeboat.
Since they had brought their dangerous cargo to the spot agreed, Kit was
resolved it must be landed. To carry out Yusuf's orders was perhaps the
best plan to defeat his treachery, and Kit thought his doing so had a
touch of humour. He felt he would like to see Yusuf again, but he need
not bother much about Revillon. The Frenchman had chased _Mossamedes_
and lost her; if he returned at daybreak, he would not venture across
the sands. Anyhow, they could get rid of the evidence against them soon
after they saw the gunboat's smoke. All the same, Kit meant to land the
guns.
When all was ready he went to the engineers' mess-room and smoked. He
was highly strung and could not sleep, but to wait for daybreak was
hard. The gunboat might arrive and he doubted if the cargo launch could
cross the surf. One must run some risk, but he was not going to drown
his men. He heard the wind, although its roar was dulled by other
noises. Then _Mossamedes_ rolled, the water in her bilges splashed
about, chains clanged on deck, and one heard hammers and shovels in the
stokehold. Strange echoes rolled about the empty iron hull.
Now and then Don Erminio came down and talked about shooting rabbits;
sometimes Macallister pulled back the curtain, lighted his pipe, and
philosophised, but did not stop long. Barefooted firemen and sailors
flitted along the alleyway; it looked as if nobody could rest. At
length, when Kit's mouth was parched from smoking, he got up, shivered,
and turned off the light. A pale glimmer pierced the glass, and putting
on a thick jacket, he went on deck.
Day was breaking and it was cold. The wind was dropping, but the swell
ran high, and the sand blew from the point like a brown fog. Under the
fog were white lines of surf. By and by Don Erminio climbed the rigging
and Kit joined him where the steel shrouds got narrow. The mast swung,
carrying them with it in a reeling sweep, until they could have dropped
into the sea. In the meantime the light had got stronger and presently
Don Erminio gave the glasses to Kit. So far as one could see, nothing
broke the horizon.
"It is good," said Don Erminio. "The animal is gone. We will get to
work."