How Minalto Fared
Burgoyne and his companions were on the horns of a dilemma. If they
persisted in their attempt to regain their quarters they would almost
certainly be detected, while even if they succeeded they would be
unable to return to the cliff. Minalto would have to be left to take
his chance, and the gaunt evidence of the night's work would be laid
bare with the dawn. If they returned to the cliff there was the
possibility that they would have to hide all next day, and be faced
with the awkward problem of explaining their absence satisfactorily.
They chose the latter course, and upon returning to the scene of the
lowering operations they flung themselves flat upon the turf, lest
their silhouettes would betray them to the pirates stationed about
the camp and concealed in the bushes on the summit of Observation
Hill.
There they lay, hardly daring to stir a limb and maintaining absolute
silence for the best part of an hour. Then the searchlight, which had
been playing continuously upon the island, was suddenly masked.
Twenty minutes later Burgoyne cautiously raised his head and looked
seaward. A flickering white light informed him that the vessel was
steaming rapidly away.
"Hang on here," he whispered to his companions "I'm going to have a
look round."
He was back in a quarter of an hour, with the report that he had seen
the pirate guard form up and march through the gate of the compound.
"That leaves us with a tolerably free hand," he added. "I was afraid
they'd muster all hands and call the roll. No sign of Minalto yet, I
suppose?"
"None," replied Withers, who had been holding on to the rope. "He's a
bit behind time. I hope nothing's gone wrong."
"So do I," agreed Alwyn fervently.
Slowly the minutes passed. Momentarily doubts grew in the minds of
the three watchers. Even Alwyn's faith in Minalto's powers was
waning.
"I'll take on now," he remarked, relieving the Second Engineer at the
rope.
He had barely resumed his "trick" when the manila rope was almost
jerked out of his hand. From the unseen depths below came three
decided tugs.
"He's back, lads," whispered Burgoyne joyously. "All together. Man
the rope--walk back."
It was no easy task to hoist the ponderous seaman, but at length
Jasper Minalto's head and shoulders appeared above the edge of the
cliff. With no apparent effort he swung himself up by the projecting
beam and gained the summit. Slipping out of the bowline, he shook
himself like a Newfoundland dog, for water was dripping from his
saturated clothes.
"I've been there sartain sure," he announced coolly, "an' back agen,
sir. If you'm your doubts, sir, there's my 'nitials scratched on ter
boat's back-board, fair an' legible-like s'long as you looks
carefully."
Burgoyne brought his hand down upon the seaman's shoulder.
"Splendid!" he exclaimed. "You must spin your yarn later, after we've
packed up and stowed away the gear. There's not much time. But, in
any case, Minalto, you've won your place in the boat."
"Thank'ee, sir," replied Jasper gratefully.
Grey dawn was showing over the eastern height of the island when the
four men returned to their huts. Burgoyne reported "all well" to
Captain Blair, who, declining to hear details, told the Third Officer
to turn in.
"You can't work watch and watch for two successive days unless you
have a 'caulk'," he added. "It will be another hour and a quarter
before the hands are turned out. Make the best of it."
But the Old Man was wrong in his estimate. No attempt was made to
summon the crews of the three captured ships to their forced labour.
They were piped to breakfast and then allowed to "stand easy", while
armed pirates patrolled the inner circle of huts in addition to
augmenting the guards in the two block-houses.
"Something's in the wind," declared Captain Blair. "The vessel that
used her searchlight last night is evidently beating up for the
island."
Soon there was no doubt on the point. From the compound the heights
commanding the harbour and eastern approach to the island were
plainly visible. Bodies of pirates were being rushed up to the
concealed gun emplacements, which they could reach without being seen
from seaward. Others were hurrying towards the tunnel, with the idea
of manning the machine-guns that swept the entrance to the harbour
and the only landing-place.
"The ball's about to commence," said Branscombe. "Wonder who'll open
fire first?"
The prisoners listened in breathless suspense for the crash of the
opening contest between the warship--or whatever she might be--and
the quick-firers comprising the principal defences of the island. At
intervals a powerful syren boomed out its raucous wail, demanding in
Morse Code whether there were any people on the island.
Presently the sound came from the south'ard and then the west'ard,
but no reply was sent from the pirates lying low on the apparently
uninhabited island.
An hour later the captives caught sight of the trucks and aerials of
a two-masted vessel proceeding on an easterly course at a distance of
about two miles north of the island. Then the two mastheads vanished
behind the rising ground; but from the fact that the batteries were
still manned the _Donibristle's_ people drew what proved to be a
correct conclusion that the vessel had once more taken up a position
off the eastern face of the secret base.
At noon, the prisoners still standing easy, Captain Blair called a
meeting of officers to receive the reports of the investigating
party.
It was Jasper Minalto's recital which created the greatest interest.
After parting with Mr. Burgoyne on the shore, he said he swam to the
reef, landing without difficulty on a flat expanse of coral. Although
the reef averaged twenty yards in width and the state of the tide was
almost low-water, the breakers swept far across the coral barrier
before they expended their strength. Had it been anything near
approaching high-water progress along the reef would have been
extremely dangerous, if not impracticable.
But in present circumstances Minalto found the reef "fair going".
There were several deep and narrow gulleys to be crossed, while there
was a strong tidal current setting out of the only possible boat
channel--not taking into consideration the ship passage--which was on
the extreme south-western part of the reef.
It required a strenuous effort to swim across the narrow gap, but
Minalto expressed an opinion that at dead low-water, or thereabouts,
there would be little or no current.
Off the south-eastern end of the island he found himself quite a mile
from shore, but on the eastern side the reef converged towards the
island. Nevertheless he had to swim a quarter of a mile, aided by the
set of the current, to gain the long, narrow and lofty ledge of rock
that screened the harbour in which the _Malfilio_ and her prizes were
lying.
Here the buoys laid down the previous day by the _Donibristle's_ crew
helped him considerably, since he was able to hang on to them and
rest as he made his way up the narrow channel.
Swimming close to the rocks on the island side of the channel, he
arrived at the entrance to the harbour, and was glad to find his feet
touch bottom just within the southern spur of rock that practically
enclosed the anchorage.
From that point he waded until he reached the sandy beach. Everything
was quiet. Keeping close to the cliff he passed the boatsheds and
almost tripped over the chain securing the hauled-up boats.
Arriving at his goal, Minalto, as he told Burgoyne, scratched his
initials upon the lifeboat's back-board. Then, having established his
claim, he began to retrace his course.
At that moment he was considerably taken aback by seeing a light
flash across the sky. His first thought was that the pirates had
discovered him, but upon second consideration he rightly concluded
that the flash came from a searchlight in the offing.
Before he had gone very far a faint light blinked from a point
half-way up the cliff and immediately above (so he judged) the
entrance to the tunnel. It was promptly answered by a light from the
_Malfilio_ and in a few minutes the crew of the pirate cruiser were
standing to their guns. From where Minalto stood he could see all the
starboard guns trained upon the entrance to the harbour, and rather
apprehensively he wondered what would happen to him if they opened
fire when he was swimming through that narrow gap.
He remained for some minutes crouching against the cliff, until it
occurred to him that time and tide wait for no man, and that if he
were to return by the way he came he would have to hurry his
movements.
Minalto took the water as noiselessly as an otter. Swimming
dog-stroke in order to minimize the phosphorescent swirl of his wake,
he kept close to the cliffs--so close, in fact, that once his right
knee came into sharp contact with a rock.
Then came the crucial point of his return journey--the passage of the
harbour mouth. Dozens of pairs of eyes must, he knew, be peering in
that direction, but he reckoned on the possibility that while they
were looking for a large object, namely an armed boat from the
warship off the island, they would fail to detect a small one--the
head of the swimmer.
Unobserved he cleared the projecting headland, and working from buoy
to buoy along the south approach channel until he came in view of the
reef, gained a "kicking-off" position for the longest and most
strenuous of his many swims that night.
Although the sea was warm he was beginning to feel that
"water-logged" sensation that results from keeping in too long.
Alternately swimming on his breast and back he continued doggedly,
knowing that if he rested he would be swept out of his course by the
steady indraught into the lagoon, for by this time the young flood
was making.
At length he gained the reef, rubbed his cramped limbs, and set off
briskly to the point nearest that part of the island whence he had
set out, and an hour and a half later he was being hauled up the
cliff.
Jasper Minalto had told his story, without any embellishments, in the
broad, burring dialect of the West Country. But behind that simple
narrative his listeners detected a ring of indomitability that had
brought the man safely through the grave perils by land and sea.
"That coral is most heavy on shoe leather," he remarked. "Fair cut to
pieces 'un is. But nex' time 'twill be only one way, like; seein' as
how us be a-comin' back wi' the boat."
"You think we'll be able to launch the lifeboat and get her round
without being spotted?" asked Captain Blair.
"We'd best wait till the _Malfilio's_ a-put to sea, sir," replied
Minalto. "There wur nobody on the beach as far as I could see, an' t'
other craft wur quiet enow."
"It was the vessel in the offing that put the crew of the _Malfilio_
on the qui vive, I fancy," observed Burgoyne. "We'll have to take the
ship into consideration, I'm afraid, sir. That is, if we are to take
advantage of these moonless nights."
"We'll have to," decided the Old Man. "We've five clear days before
the new moon grows sufficiently to cause trouble. Failing that it
will mean a fortnight's delay--and then it may be too late. And then
there's the question of fresh water," he added, still smarting from
the effect of his splendid failure. "That is the question."
"What's wrang wi' a bit o' canvas?" inquired Angus. "A pair o' canvas
tanks fitted 'tween thwarts'll just dae fine."
"A good idea, Mr. Angus," said the skipper. "We'll have to knock up a
couple of canvas tanks. There's the question of evaporation and
leakage by the boat heeling to be taken into account."
"And, perhaps, the water might be tainted by the canvas," added
Alwyn.
"Havers, mon!" ejaculated the First Engineer scornfully. "May ye
never hae wurrse. Mony a day I've drunk bad water--an' bad whusky
forbye, an' I'll live to dae it again," he added with an air of
finality. "We'll get on with it," decided Captain Blair. "After all,
beggars can't be choosers. Any more points to raise? None. Very well,
then; unless anything unforeseen takes place Mr. Burgoyne and Minalto
will bring the boat round to the west beach at----?"
"Three a.m. on Thursday," said Alwyn.
For the remainder of the day the captives' "stand easy" continued. As
far as the men taking part in the previous night's work were
concerned nothing could have been more welcome. It enabled them to
make up arrears from loss of sleep and strenuous activity.
Nevertheless the additional length of line for the guide-rope was
forthcoming, the canvas water-tanks were sewn up and tested, and more
provisions lowered and hidden in the cave.
There remained three clear days before the die was cast and the
momentous step taken--unless events over which the late officers and
crew of the _Donibristle_ had no control should necessitate a hurried
change of plans.
Just before sunset the guns' crews were withdrawn from the
emplacements, and the guards stationed outside the huts were marched
out of the compound, so apparently Señor Ramon Porfirio was
satisfied that the vessel that had caused him great uneasiness had
really taken her departure.