The day broke in a sulky grey, and there lay the _Nicobar_, in ten
fathoms, not a mile from the shore, her topmasts forlornly visible above
the boisterous water. The sea was rough all that day, but the snow had
ceased, and during the night the weather calmed considerably. Next day
Lloyd's agent was steaming about in a launch from Plymouth, and soon a
salvage company's tug came up and lay to by the emerging masts. There
was every chance of raising the ship as far as could be seen, and a
diver went down from the salvage tug to measure the breach made in the
_Nicobar's_ side, in order that the necessary oak planking or sheeting
might be got ready for covering the hole, preparatory to pumping and
raising. This was done in a very short time, and the necessary telegrams
having been sent, the tug remained in its place through the night, and
prepared for the sending down of several divers on the morrow to get
out the bullion as a commencement.
Just at this time Martin Hewitt happened to be engaged on a case of some
importance and delicacy on behalf of Lloyd's Committee, and was staying
for a few days at Plymouth. He heard the story of the wreck, of course,
and speaking casually with Lloyd's agent as to the salvage work just
beginning, he was told the name of the salvage company's representative
on the tug, Mr. Percy Merrick--a name he immediately recognised as that
of an old acquaintance of his own. So that on the day when the divers
were at work in the bullion-room of the sunken _Nicobar_, Hewitt gave
himself a holiday, and went aboard the tug about noon.
Here he found Merrick, a big, pleasant man of thirty-eight or so. He was
very glad to see Hewitt, but was a great deal puzzled as to the results
of the morning's work on the wreck. Two cases of gold bars were missing.
"There was L200,000 worth of bullion on board," he said, "that's plain
and certain. It was packed in forty cases, each of L5,000 value. But now
there are only thirty-eight cases! Two are gone clearly. I wonder what's
happened?"
"I suppose your men don't know anything about it?" asked Hewitt.
"No, they're all right. You see, it's impossible for them to bring
anything up without its being observed, especially as they have to be
unscrewed from their diving-dresses here on deck. Besides, bless you, I
was down with them."
"Oh! Do you dive yourself, then?"
"Well, I put the dress on sometimes, you know, for any such special
occasion as this. I went down this morning. There was no difficulty in
getting about on the vessel below, and I found the keys of the
bullion-room just where the captain said I would, in his cabin. But the
locks were useless, of course, after being a couple of days in salt
water. So we just burgled the door with crowbars, and then we saw that
we might have done it a bit more easily from outside. For that
coasting-steamer cut clean into the bunker next the bullion-room, and
ripped open the sheet of boiler-plate dividing them."
"The two missing cases couldn't have dropped out that way, of course?"
"Oh, no. We looked, of course, but it would have been impossible. The
vessel has a list the other way--to starboard--and the piled cases
didn't reach as high as the torn part. Well, as I said, we burgled the
door, and there they were, thirty-eight sealed bullion cases, neither
more nor less, and they're down below in the after-cabin at this moment.
Come and see."
Thirty-eight they were; pine cases bound with hoop-iron and sealed at
every joint, each case about eighteen inches by a foot, and six inches
deep. They were corded together, two and two, apparently for convenience
of transport.
"Did you cord them like this yourself?" asked Hewitt.
"No, that's how we found 'em. We just hooked 'em on a block and tackle,
the pair at a time, and they hauled 'em up here aboard the tug."
"What have you done about the missing two--anything?"
"Wired off to headquarters, of course, at once. And I've sent for
Captain Mackrie--he's still in the neighbourhood, I believe--and
Brasyer, the second officer, who had charge of the bullion-room. They
may possibly know something. Anyway, _one_ thing's plain. There were
forty cases at the beginning of the voyage, and now there are only
thirty-eight."
There was a pause; and then Merrick added, "By the bye, Hewitt, this is
rather your line, isn't it? You ought to look up these two cases."
Hewitt laughed. "All right," he said; "I'll begin this minute if you'll
commission me."
"Well," Merrick replied slowly, "of course I can't do that without
authority from headquarters. But if you've nothing to do for an hour or
so there is no harm in putting on your considering cap, is there?
Although, of course, there's nothing to go upon as yet. But you might
listen to what Mackrie and Brasyer have to say. Of course I don't know,
but as it's a L10,000 question probably it might pay you, and if you
_do_ see your way to anything I'd wire and get you commissioned at
once."
There was a tap at the door and Captain Mackrie entered. "Mr. Merrick?"
he said interrogatively, looking from one to another.
"That's myself, sir," answered Merrick.
"I'm Captain Mackrie, of the _Nicobar_. You sent for me, I believe.
Something wrong with the bullion I'm told, isn't it?"
Merrick explained matters fully. "I thought perhaps you might be able to
help us, Captain Mackrie. Perhaps I have been wrongly informed as to the
number of cases that should have been there?"
"No; there were forty right enough. I think though--perhaps I might be
able to give you a sort of hint."--and Captain Mackrie looked hard at
Hewitt.
"This is Mr. Hewitt, Captain Mackrie," Merrick interposed. "You may
speak as freely as you please before him. In fact, he's sort of working
on the business, so to speak."
"Well," Mackrie said, "if that's so, speaking between ourselves, I
should advise you to turn your attention to Brasyer. He was my second
officer, you know, and had charge of the stuff."
"Do you mean," Hewitt asked, "that Mr. Brasyer might give us some useful
information?"
Mackrie gave an ugly grin. "Very likely he might," he said, "if he were
fool enough. But I don't think you'd get much out of him direct. I meant
you might watch him."
"What, do you suppose he was concerned in any way with the disappearance
of this gold?"
"I should think--speaking, as I said before, in confidence and between
ourselves--that it's very likely indeed. I didn't like his manner all
through the voyage."
"Why?"
"Well, he was so eternally cracking on about his responsibility, and
pretending to suspect the stokers and the carpenter, and one person and
another, of trying to get at the bullion cases--that that alone was
almost enough to make one suspicious. He protested so much, you see. He
was so conscientious and diligent himself, and all the rest of it, and
everybody else was such a desperate thief, and he was so sure there
would be some of that bullion missing some day that--that--well, I don't
know if I express his manner clearly, but I tell you I didn't like it a
bit. But there was something more than that. He was eternally smelling
about the place, and peeping in at the steward's pantry--which adjoins
the bullion-room on one side, you know--and nosing about in the bunker
on the other side. And once I actually caught him fitting keys to the
padlocks--keys he'd borrowed from the carpenter's stores. And every time
his excuse was that he fancied he heard somebody else trying to get in
to the gold, or something of that sort; every time I caught him below on
the orlop deck that was his excuse--happened to have heard something or
suspected something or somebody every time. Whether or not I succeed in
conveying my impressions to you, gentlemen, I can assure you that I
regarded his whole manner and actions as very suspicious throughout the
voyage, and I made up my mind I wouldn't forget it if by chance anything
_did_ turn out wrong. Well, it has, and now I've told you what I've
observed. It's for you to see if it will lead you anywhere."
"Just so," Hewitt answered. "But let me fully understand, Captain
Mackrie. You say that Mr. Brasyer had charge of the bullion-room, but
that he was trying keys on it from the carpenter's stores. Where were
the legitimate keys then?"
"In my cabin. They were only handed out when I knew what they were
wanted for. There was a Chubb's lock between the two padlocks, but a
duplicate wouldn't have been hard for Brasyer to get. He could easily
have taken a wax impression of my key when he used it at the port where
we took the bullion aboard."
"Well, and suppose he had taken these boxes, where do you think he would
keep them?"
Mackrie shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Impossible to say," he
replied. "He might have hidden 'em somewhere on board, though I don't
think that's likely. He'd have had a deuce of a job to land them at
Plymouth, and would have had to leave them somewhere while he came on to
London. Bullion is always landed at Plymouth, you know, and if any were
found to be missing, then the ship would be overhauled at once, every
inch of her; so that he'd have to get his plunder ashore somehow before
the rest of the gold was unloaded--almost impossible. Of course, if he's
done that it's somewhere below there now, but that isn't likely. He'd be
much more likely to have 'dumped' it--dropped it overboard at some
well-known spot in a foreign port, where he could go later on and get
it. So that you've a deal of scope for search, you see. Anywhere under
water from here to Yokohama;" and Captain Mackrie laughed.
Soon afterward he left, and as he was leaving a man knocked at the cabin
door and looked in to say that Mr. Brasyer was on board. "You'll be able
to have a go at him now," said the captain. "Good-day."
"There's the steward of the _Nicobar_ there too, sir," said the man
after the captain had gone, "and the carpenter."
"Very well, we'll see Mr. Brasyer first," said Merrick, and the man
vanished. "It seems to have got about a bit," Merrick went on to Hewitt.
"I only sent for Brasyer, but as these others have come, perhaps they've
got something to tell us."
Brasyer made his appearance, overflowing with information. He required
little assurance to encourage him to speak openly before Hewitt, and he
said again all he had so often said before on board the _Nicobar_. The
bullion-room was a mere tin box, the whole thing was as easy to get at
as anything could be, he didn't wonder in the least at the loss--he had
prophesied it all along.
The men whose movements should be carefully watched, he said, were the
captain and the steward. "Nobody ever heard of a captain and a steward
being so thick together before," he said. "The steward's pantry was next
against the bullion-room, you know, with nothing but that wretched bit
of three-eighths boiler plate between. You wouldn't often expect to find
the captain down in the steward's pantry, would you, thick as they might
be. Well, that's where I used to find him, time and again. And the
steward kept boiler-makers' tools there! That I can swear to. And he's
been a boiler-maker, so that, likely as not, he could open a joint
somewhere and patch it up again neatly so that it wouldn't be noticed.
He was always messing about down there in his pantry, and once I
distinctly heard knocking there, and when I went down to see, whom
should I meet? Why, the skipper, coming away from the place himself, and
he bullyragged me for being there and sent me on deck. But before that
he bullyragged me because I had found out that there were other keys
knocking about the place that fitted the padlocks on the bullion-room
door. Why should he slang and threaten me for looking after these things
and keeping my eye on the bullion-room, as was my duty? But that was the
very thing that he didn't like. It was enough for him to see me anxious
about the gold to make him furious. Of course his character for meanness
and greed is known all through the company's service--he'll do anything
to make a bit."
"But have you any positive idea as to what has become of the gold?"
"Well," Brasyer replied, with a rather knowing air, "I don't think
they've dumped it."
"Do you mean you think it's still in the vessel--hidden somewhere?"
"No, I don't. I believe the captain and the steward took it ashore, one
case each, when we came off in the boats."
"But wouldn't that be noticed?"
"It needn't be, on a black night like that. You see, the parcels are not
so big--look at them, a foot by a foot and a half by six inches or so,
roughly. Easily slipped under a big coat or covered up with anything. Of
course they're a bit heavy--eighty or ninety pounds apiece
altogether--but that's not much for a strong man to carry--especially in
such a handy parcel, on a black night, with no end of confusion on. Now
you just look here--I'll tell you something. The skipper went ashore
last in a boat that was sent out by the coasting steamer that ran into
us. That ship's put into dock for repairs and her crew are mostly having
an easy time ashore. Now I haven't been asleep this last day or two, and
I had a sort of notion there might be some game of this sort on, because
when I left the ship that night I thought we might save a little at
least of the stuff, but the skipper wouldn't let me go near the
bullion-room, and that seemed odd. So I got hold of one of the boat's
crew that fetched the skipper ashore, and questioned him quietly--pumped
him, you know--and he assures me that the skipper _did_ have a rather
small, heavy sort of parcel with him. What do you think of that? Of
course, in the circumstances, the man couldn't remember any very
distinct particulars, but he thought it was a sort of square wooden case
about the size I've mentioned. But there's something more." Brasyer
lifted his fore-finger and then brought it down on the table before
him--"something more. I've made inquiries at the railway station and I
find that two heavy parcels were sent off yesterday to London--deal
boxes wrapped in brown paper, of just about the right size. And the
paper got torn before the things were sent off, and the clerk could see
that the boxes inside were fastened with hoop-iron--like those!" and the
second officer pointed triumphantly to the boxes piled at one side of
the cabin.
"Well done!" said Hewitt. "You're quite a smart detective. Did you find
out who brought the parcels, and who they were addressed to?"
"No, I couldn't get quite as far as that. Of course the clerk didn't
know the names of the senders, and not knowing me, wouldn't tell me
exactly where the parcels were going. But I got quite chummy with him
after a bit, and I'm going to meet him presently--he has the afternoon
off, and we're going for a stroll. I'll find something more, I'll bet
you!"
"Certainly," replied Hewitt, "find all you can--it may be very
important. If you get any valuable information you'll let us know at
once, of course. Anything else, now?"
"No, I don't think so; but I think what I've told you is pretty well
enough for the present, eh? I'll let you know some more soon."
Brasyer went, and Norton, the steward of the old ship, was brought into
the cabin. He was a sharp-eyed, rather cadaverous-looking man, and he
spoke with sepulchral hollowness. He had heard, he said, that there was
something wrong with the chests of bullion, and came on board to give
any information he could. It wasn't much, he went on to say, but the
smallest thing might help. If he might speak strictly confidentially he
would suggest that observation be kept on Wickens, the carpenter. He
(Norton) didn't want to be uncharitable, but his pantry happened to be
next the bullion-room, and he had heard Wickens at work for a very long
time just below--on the under side of the floor of the bullion-room, it
seemed to him, although, of course, he _might_ have been mistaken.
Still, it was very odd that the carpenter always seemed to have a job
just at that spot. More, it had been said--and he (Norton) believed it
to be true--that Wickens, the carpenter, had in his possession, and kept
among his stores, keys that fitted the padlocks on the bullion-room
door. That, it seemed to him, was a very suspicious circumstance. He
didn't know anything more definite, but offered his ideas for what they
were worth, and if his suspicions proved unfounded nobody would be more
pleased than himself. But--but--and the steward shook his head
doubtfully.
"Thank you, Mr. Norton," said Merrick, with a twinkle in his eye; "we
won't forget what you say. Of course, if the stuff is found in
consequence of any of your information, you won't lose by it."
The steward said he hoped not, and he wouldn't fail to keep his eye on
the carpenter. He had noticed Wickens was in the tug, and he trusted
that if they were going to question him they would do it cautiously, so
as not to put him on his guard. Merrick promised they would.
"By the bye, Mr. Norton," asked Hewitt, "supposing your suspicions to be
justified, what do you suppose the carpenter would do with the bullion?"
"Well, sir," replied Norton, "I don't think he'd keep it on the ship.
He'd probably dump it somewhere."
The steward left, and Merrick lay back in his chair and guffawed aloud.
"This grows farcical," he said, "simply farcical. What a happy family
they must have been aboard the _Nicobar_! And now here's the captain
watching the second officer, and the second officer watching the captain
and the steward, and the steward watching the carpenter! It's immense.
And now we're going to see the carpenter. Wonder whom _he_ suspects?"
Hewitt said nothing, but his eyes twinkled with intense merriment, and
presently the carpenter was brought into the cabin.
"Good-day to you, gentlemen," said the carpenter in a soft and
deferential voice, looking from one to the other. "Might I 'ave the
honour of addressin' the salvage gentlemen?"
"That's right," Merrick answered, motioning him to a seat. "This is the
salvage shop, Mr. Wickens. What can we do for you?"
The carpenter coughed gently behind his hand. "I took the liberty of
comin', gentlemen, consekins o' 'earin' as there was some bullion
missin'. P'raps I'm wrong."
"Not at all. We haven't found as much as we expected, and I suppose by
this time nearly everybody knows it. There are two cases wanting. You
can't tell us where they are, I suppose?"
"Well, sir, as to that--no. I fear I can't exactly go as far as that.
But if I am able to give vallable information as may lead to recovery of
same, I presoom I may without offence look for some reasonable small
recognition of my services?"
"Oh, yes," answered Merrick, "that'll be all right, I promise you. The
company will do the handsome thing, of course, and no doubt so will the
underwriters."
"Presoomin' I may take that as a promise--among gentlemen"--this with an
emphasis--"I'm willing to tell something."
"It's a promise, at any rate as far as the company's concerned,"
returned Merrick. "I'll see it's made worth your while--of course,
providing it leads to anything."
"Purvidin' that, sir, o' course. Well, gentlemen, my story ain't a long
one. All I've to say was what I 'eard on board, just before she went
down. The passengers was off, and the crew was gettin' into the other
boats when the skipper turns to the steward an' speaks to him
quiet-like, not observin', gentlemen, as I was agin 'is elbow, so for to
say. ''Ere, Norton,' 'e sez, or words to that effeck, 'why shouldn't we
try gettin' them things ashore with us--you know, the cases--eh? I've a
notion we're pretty close inshore,' 'e sez, 'and there's nothink of a
sea now. You take one, anyway, and I'll try the other,' 'e says, 'but
don't make a flourish.' Then he sez, louder, 'cos o' the steward goin'
off, 'They're the likeliest stuff, and at worst we can but drop 'em. But
look sharp,' 'e says. So then I gets into the nearest boat, and that's
all I 'eard."
"That was all?" asked Hewitt, watching the man's face sharply.
"All?" the carpenter answered with some surprise. "Yes, that was all;
but I think it's pretty well enough, don't you? It's plain enough what
was meant--him and the steward was to take two cases, one apiece, on the
quiet, and they was the likeliest stuff aboard, as he said himself. And
now there's two cases o' bullion missin'. Ain't that enough?"
The carpenter was not satisfied till an exact note had been made of the
captain's words. Then after Merrick's promise on behalf of the company
had been renewed, Wickens took himself off.
"Well," said Merrick, grinning across the table at Hewitt, "this is a
queer go, isn't it? What that man says makes the skipper's case look
pretty fishy, doesn't it? What he says, and what Brasyer says, taken
together, makes a pretty strong case--I should say makes the thing a
certainty. But what a business! It's likely to be a bit serious for some
one, but it's a rare joke in a way. Wonder if Brasyer will find out
anything more? Pity the skipper and steward didn't agree as to whom they
should pretend to suspect. _That's_ a mistake on their part."
"Not at all," Hewitt replied. "_If_ they are conspiring, and know what
they're about, they will avoid seeming to be both in a tale. The bullion
is in bars, I understand?"
"Yes, five bars in each case; weight, I believe, sixteen pounds to a
bar."
"Let me see," Hewitt went on, as he looked at his watch; "it is now
nearly two o'clock. I must think over these things if I am to do
anything in the case. In the meantime, if it could be managed, I should
like enormously to have a turn under water in a diving-dress. I have
always had a curiosity to see under the sea. Could it be managed now?"
"Well," Merrick responded, "there's not much fun in it, I can assure
you; and it's none the pleasanter in this weather. You'd better have a
try later in the year if you really want to--unless you think you can
learn anything about this business by smelling about on the _Nicobar_
down below?"
Hewitt raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips.
"I _might_ spot something," he said; "one never knows. And if I do
anything in a case I always make it a rule to see and hear everything
that can possibly be seen or heard, important or not. Clues lie where
least expected. But beyond that, probably I may never have another
chance of a little experience in a diving-dress. So if it can be managed
I'd be glad."
"Very well, you shall go, if you say so. And since it's your first
venture, I'll come down with you myself. The men are all ashore, I
think, or most of them. Come along."
Hewitt was put in woollens and then in india-rubbers. A leaden-soled
boot of twenty pounds' weight was strapped on each foot, and weights
were hung on his back and chest.
"That's the dress that Gullen usually has," Merrick remarked. "He's a
very smart fellow; we usually send him first to make measurements and
so on. An excellent man, but a bit too fond of the diver's lotion."
"What's that?" asked Hewitt.
"Oh, you shall try some if you like, afterwards. It's a bit too heavy
for me; rum and gin mixed, I think."
A red nightcap was placed on Martin Hewitt's head, and after that a
copper helmet, secured by a short turn in the segmental screw joint at
the neck. In the end he felt a vast difficulty in moving at all. Merrick
had been meantime invested with a similar rig-out, and then each was
provided with a communication cord and an incandescent electric lamp.
Finally, the front window was screwed on each helmet, and all was ready.
Merrick went first over the ladder at the side, and Hewitt with much
difficulty followed. As the water closed over his head, his sensations
altered considerably. There was less weight to carry; his arms in
particular felt light, though slow in motion. Down, down they went
slowly, and all round about it was fairly light, but once on the sunken
vessel and among the lower decks, the electric lamps were necessary
enough. Once or twice Merrick spoke, laying his helmet against Hewitt's
for the purpose, and instructing him to keep his air-pipe, life-line,
and lamp connection from fouling something at every step. Here and
there shadowy swimming shapes came out of the gloom, attracted by their
lamps, to dart into obscurity again with a twist of the tail. The fishes
were exploring the _Nicobar_. The hatchway of the lower deck was open,
and down this they passed to the orlop deck. A little way along this
they came to a door standing open, with a broken lock hanging to it. It
was the door of the bullion-room, which had been forced by the divers in
the morning.
Merrick indicated by signs how the cases had been found piled on the
floor. One of the sides of the room of thin steel was torn and thrust in
the length of its whole upper half, and when they backed out of the room
and passed the open door they stood in the great breach made by the bow
of the strange coasting vessel. Steel, iron, wood, and everything stood
in rents and splinters, and through the great gap they looked out into
the immeasurable ocean. Hewitt put up his hand and felt the edge of the
bullion-room partition where it had been torn. It was just such a tear
as might have been made in cardboard.
They regained the upper deck, and Hewitt, placing his helmet against his
companion's, told him that he meant to have a short walk on the ocean
bed. He took to the ladder again, where it lay over the side, and
Merrick followed him.
The bottom was of that tough, slimy sort of clay-rock that is found in
many places about our coasts, and was dotted here and there with lumps
of harder rock and clumps of curious weed. The two divers turned at the
bottom of the ladder, walked a few steps, and looked up at the great
hole in the _Nicobar's_ side. Seen from here it was a fearful chasm,
laying open hold, orlop, and lower deck.
Hewitt turned away, and began walking about. Once or twice he stood and
looked thoughtfully at the ground he stood on, which was fairly flat. He
turned over with his foot a whitish, clean-looking stone about as large
as a loaf. Then he wandered on slowly, once or twice stopping to examine
the rock beneath him, and presently stooped to look at another stone
nearly as large as the other, weedy on one side only, standing on the
edge of a cavity in the claystone. He pushed the stone into the hole,
which it filled, and then he stood up.