WE PLAN AN EXPEDITION
I had been thrown down the companion by an appalling crash and a sudden
lurch of the steamer as she careened to port. It seemed to me that the
bottom plates were being ripped out of her and she was settling on her
side with a succession of thumps which I took to be her last effort to
keep afloat. The sea was almost to the open ports on the port side; and,
as I tried to gain my feet on the tilted deck of the forecastle, I fell
against the outboards of the line of bunks.
"She's aground!" screamed Captain Riggs at me. "She's gone smash flat
into a bed of coral! See that green streak running away from us to
seaward? That's a reef running out from the mainland and we've piled up
on it, and if we don't slip off we're safe until it comes on to blow."
He ran to the starboard side and climbed the bunks to look through the
ports there.
"It's all around us! Hear her settling? She's making a bed for herself in
the coral-patch and she's not taking any more water. She's safe as a
church, Mr. Trenholm. If the tide don't lift her off enough to pull her
into deep water, or the current swing her, she'll hold until the sea
comes up; but she's pretty deep and lays steady. She'll break up right
here."
"That's small comfort for us," I said, nursing my bruises.
"They've gone in behind that point and made a landing," said Riggs, still
looking through the port. "We'll be out of here in jig-time now. Where be
my matches? Here! You and Rajah fish for water with these tins on a
string, and wet down all these rags. Pull all the water in here you can."
He lit the slush-lamp again, and I wondered what he was about. I was not
quite sure whether he knew of a way to get out of the forecastle, or had
lost his reason. He was all bustle and business in a minute.
"I thought we wanted to keep the water out," I remarked.
"Stow that talk and obey orders," said Riggs sharply, digging grease out
of the can of the lamp with his fingers and picking the wick to make it
burn better. "Look lively now with that water and I'll show you a trick
or two now that they've abandoned ship. I'll take a hand in this business
myself."
"What's the plan?" I asked.
"Burn the cussed scuttle off a mite at a time. Grease a bit of the board
and then hold the flame of the lamp on it, and, when it gets too lively,
heave some water on and put it out and begin again. Haul a couple of
barrels of water in here and spill it under the bunks so we can git at it
with the pans if the fire starts to git away from us. Clap on, man;
we need every minute now."
Rajah and I rigged them with strings and set to drawing water through the
port-holes on the port side, which was not a hard job, for the swells
came within a couple of feet of our hands as we held the tins outside. We
filled sea-chests, the rubber crowns of a couple of old sou'westers, and
dumped water through the slats of the tiers of bunks so that it lodged in
the angle between the side of the ship and the deck.
While we were at this task Riggs was up in the scuttle, and from time to
time we could hear the crackle of flames, and then the hissing of the
water as he extinguished the burning planks. The thick smoke came down
the companion and burned our eyes and nostrils as it escaped through the
ports.
Riggs came down every few minutes to get a supply of water. He was black
as a chimney-sweep, but he reported good progress and grinned at our
discomfort from the smoke and heat.
Finally we heard Riggs hammering at the charred board with the
belaying-pin.
"I've got it through!" he yelled to us from a smoking shower of black
fragments of the board, and I ran up to him and saw the sun through the
chains around the frame of the scuttle. The links were glowing with heat
and we dashed water on them. In a short time we had wrenched them apart
so Rajah could get through the strands. Then he threw off the bars of our
prison, and Riggs and I gained the hot plates of the sloping fore-deck,
crawling over the body of the dead Chinese, which we rolled into the
sea.
"They are clean gone," said Riggs, crawling up to the starboard side and
scanning the island and the channel. "They went in behind that point, and
it's a good chance they'll be back if they see she's still afloat."
"Let them come," I said. "Are there any more weapons in the ship?"
"I've got a few guns stowed where even Thirkle couldn't find 'em, or at
least Harris hid some away. Always afraid of mutiny, he was, and he got
one with a vengeance, poor chap. It's my ticket to a penny whistle we'll
find Thirkle and his men on the island."
"Then you'll go after them, captain?"
"Well, I'd rather guess so," he said vehemently. "I'm on fair ground now,
and if they don't come back to burn the ship I'm the man to hunt them out
of their holes ashore. But what I'm afraid of is they will hide the stuff
and make for the mainland, or put off to the north in the boats to see if
they can't be picked up by some steamer for the north coast.
"They'll report the _Kut Sang_ lost, and Thirkle'll figure on getting
back here before folks are suspicious. Of course the people who shipped
that gold may smell a rat and keep tab on him, but he'll see that he
gets clear. He'll report her foundered far from here--leave that to him.
I doubt if he'll quit this place as long as he sees a foot of the
_Kut Sang_ above water. Are you game to go after him, Mr. Trenholm?"
"I'm with you to the end of the whole game--I want to see it played out
now, win or lose."
"I knew you would. I suppose I've been a bit of an old woman, Mr.
Trenholm, but I never looked for the likes of what was aboard last night.
There I was, alone, you might say, blind as an owl on what was going on
around me, and when things began to go bad they had you mixed in it so I
took you for one of 'em. They had me flat aback for a time there--I
didn't know my own name from Sally Ann's black cat. It looked like the
whole ship was against me, and, when I saw Harris go, I was clean
out of soundings."
I told him that he had realized the danger better than I did, and that I
had not been hampered by the sense of responsibility or the possibility
of disgrace.
"Oh, I lost my wits for a time there, and we can't get away from it--I
was all fuddled, but I'll show ye I've got more fight in me than ye look
for, if ye'll see me through with it."
"All or nothing," I said. "We'll give him a gamble for the whole pot now,
and I think it's time they got a run for their money. In my way of
thinking they have had it too easy."
"That's business," said Riggs. "Doggone my cats, but we'll give 'em some
lead to go with the gold or my name ain't Riggs! We'll find out if this
Devil's Admiral, or Thirkle, or the Rev. Luther Meeker, or whatever he
calls himself, is so bad as he makes out to be--eh, Mr. Trenholm?"
We shook hands on the compact, lying there on the sizzling iron
deck-plates that reflected the rays of the sun in shimmering heat-waves,
making our exposed position intolerable after the thirst and smoke and
hunger we had endured in the forecastle.
"Then that's settled, Mr. Trenholm. Now we'll have to step careful until
I look up what's left of the weapons, and we can't know what traps
they've laid for us about here. Come on, and keep close."
We scrambled along the port side, taking care of our footing, for the
rail-chains were stripped off the stanchions, and with the deck at an
awkward angle there was danger of slipping into the water. Captain
Riggs led the way up the saloon-deck ladder and we entered the passage.
The captain and Rajah went to his cabin, the first door, and I ran aft to
my stateroom, hoping to find my pistols. The room was ransacked and my
bag empty and the pistols gone. Some of my garments were thrown into the
passage, and I got a duck suit, a pair of deck-shoes, and a cap.
"Here are my guns," said Riggs. "Had 'em stowed down back of the
chart-locker--three of 'em--and you'll find a canister of ammunition
for that big gun of yours in Mr. Harris's room. That gives us two guns
apiece, and I guess we can give 'em some lively times if we come across
their bows again."
We belted on the weapons and hurried into the saloon, which we found a
wreck. There were bundles of tinned meat on the table and a litter of
ropes and bits of canvas. Bottles of mineral water had been hurled at
the bulkheads and into the sideboard mirror. Curtains were torn down,
table-covers gone, and the pivot-chairs smashed and the fragments piled
in a corner, partly burned.
"They were going to fire her," said Riggs, "but that trouble with the
black gang and the loss of steam made 'em change their minds. They were
afraid the smoke would attract the attention of some passing ship. That's
once Thirkle made a mistake--we never would have got out of her if he
had left this fire going."
We gathered tins of biscuits and bottles of mineral water, and had a
feast out of what the pirates had discarded. Rajah had his kris in the
forecastle. While Captain Riggs and I enjoyed our cigars, Rajah went
out on an exploring trip through staterooms and galley and in the bridge
wheel-house.
"It's near noon now, Mr. Trenholm, and we ought to get away in an hour
or so. The boats they left are smashed, but I can rig a raft with
hatch-covers good enough to take us to the island.
"We'll take plenty of grub and water, and if they don't give us a fight
from shore before we land, we can cache our supplies and take our time
looking for that sweet gang. We'll keep out of sight as much as we can
before we leave, and we might wait until dark, but I'm for getting off in
jig-time, unless we see them coming back."
"I would like to see Thirkle and the others rowing out here," I said,
having a mental vision of an ambuscade for them as they drew alongside in
the boat.
"It's ten to one they will if they ain't too busy hiding the gold or
having a fight over it. All I'm afraid of is they'll get away from us in
their boats; but before they leave it's a sure thing they'll take a look
at the _Kut Sang_ to see if she's topside yet, and then come out to burn
her--which means stand by to repel boarders for us.
"Likely they've got their eyes on us now, or on the ship, but we'll keep
a sharp lookout, and if they come snooping back we'll blow 'em out of the
water. If Thirkle sees the steamer ye can leave it to him to come back
and see how we are and make a clean job of it. I'm not so sure he didn't
plan that, anyway. Devil of a fine joke we'll make of it for him, if he
does come out and thinks we're still cooped up in the fo'c'sle."
We set about the work of getting ready to leave the ship, keeping to the
starboard side, which was low in the water and away from the island.
Rajah was posted in the chart-room on the bridge with an old spy-glass
Riggs dug up, and the black boy kept steady watch on the island and the
channel, with an occasional turn to the open sea in the hope of raising
a vessel.
The chronometers were gone, along with the other navigating instruments,
the log-book, and manifests. The cabin clock was stopped at twelve, and
Captain Riggs's watch, which had hung over his bunk, was missing.
We found two dead Chinese in the galley, bullet-splintered woodwork,
dried blood, and empty shells and burned rice on the galley stove.
The ship's carpenter had barricaded himself in his workshop, a little
deck-house on the after-deck. The door was open, and we gathered that
he had deserted his stronghold when he heard the water rushing into the
hold, but whether he had been shot or drowned we had no way of knowing.
He had provided himself with a bucket of rice and bottles of water,
evidently with the intention of preparing for a siege. Spent cartridges
at the head of the stoke-hole ladder told of a desperate fight there,
probably before the attack on the bridge by the engineer and his men.
But we wasted no time over these signs of what had happened during the
night, simply observing them as we went over the vessel to see if any of
the crew were in hiding, and seeking such things as might be of use in
building the raft.
All the tools were carried forward, and I helped the captain get off the
hatch-covers of the forehold, and he nailed them together with planks
from the top of the cargo. In this way we made a rude catamaran some
twenty feet long and five feet wide. A plank was put on its edge all
around, making a low freeboard to hold our provisions and to serve as a
protection against bullets in case the pirates should fire upon us while
running ashore.
Life-lines were fastened to the sides, so we could take to the water in
an emergency, and, with our bodies partially submerged, use our pistols
to good advantage and offer poor targets. Captain Riggs seemed to foresee
every possible danger, and went about his preparations to meet the
pirates as calmly and methodically as if he were fitting out to go on a
picnic.
Thirkle had taken every precaution to make the _Kut Sang_ another mystery
of the sea, without so much as a life-buoy being found with her name on
it. We found the ring-buoys hacked to bits, especially that section of
them which had the steamer's name painted on the side. The name painted
on the two smashed boats had been ripped from their sterns, and
everything that would float was locked securely in cabins or made fast.
Captain Riggs fashioned a sail out of a tarpaulin, and stepped a mast
well forward, and with other things we took signal-pennants and a British
ensign, and from the foremast of the _Kut Sang_ he flew a signal of
distress and a message in the international code about pirates or some
such thing, so that, in case Thirkle should get away in the boat and be
picked up, he would have a great deal of difficulty in explaining about
himself if the same vessel should sight our coloured flags.
"Take a look and see that the boy ain't busy up there at a nap," said
Riggs, and I mounted to the bridge, keeping well covered and to the
seaward side of the chart-house. Rajah was wide awake, lying just inside
the coaming of the chart-room door, chewing contentedly at his _betel_,
and holding the spy-glass over the brass doorplate directed toward
the island. He grinned at me as I entered through the door on the port
side.
I took the glass and searched the horizon of the sea, but there was no
sign of a sail or a smear of smoke; neither could I find any trace of the
pirates on the island, which had a pile of volcanic rock rising out of
its northern end. I sought for some sign of human habitation on the
brown, bare hills of Luzon, baking in the sun, but that part of the coast
was a wilderness, desolate and forbidding.
The _Kut Sang_ was lying secure as if in a dock, sprawled out on the
coral floor of the sea like some dead thing, her stern completely under
water, and her port rail, almost to the break of the forecastle head, at
the crests of the gentle swells. The island gave us a lee from the strong
current, but at the first sign of heavy weather she would break up.
A school of small sharks scouted around her, and one big fellow, with his
fin out of water like a trysail, loafed at a distance, as if sure of his
prey. The combers purred on the shining stretches of beach, and the
ripples of the current whispered at the side of the vessel, and in the
peace that surrounded us Riggs's hammer made a terrific clatter.
"Keep a sharp lookout, Mr. Trenholm," he called up to me. "I've got a job
for'ard which must be attended to now, and I'll call for you in a bit of
a while."
He went down the forecastle ladder with his arms full of new canvas, and
by the time I had finished another cigar he was up again, beckoning to
us. I went below to him, and he took me into the forecastle, and I saw
what I knew to be the body of Harris sewed up and ready for burial.
"I know he'd want to go into the sea, rather than be buried ashore or be
left here, so I've done the best I could for him," said the captain.
"We'll take him along to deeper water, and, if you don't mind, we'll
drop him away from the cattle that have gone down hereabout, and nothing
will ever disturb him. I'll say some sort of a prayer."
We carried the body up and got the catamaran over the side and stowed
with food and water and cigars and such things as Riggs knew we would
need if we had to make a camp on the island.
I also wrote out a brief account of what had befallen us since leaving
Manila, closing with the explanation that we were going after the
pirates. We left this message between the covers of an old book, and
nailed to the saloon table, with chalk arrows drawn on the floor and
about the ship pointing toward it. There any person who should board the
vessel in our absence would find directions to come to our assistance.
But about the gold we said nothing, simply stating that there had been a
mutiny and that pirates had looted the ship, and offering a reward of ten
pounds to each man in the party who should come to our rescue, and a
thousand pounds, or five thousand dollars, in general to the man who
should direct the party to seek us--this to be claimed either by the
master of the vessel or the owners of the vessel which furnished the
expedition.
Before embarking we had a hasty meal and drank a toast to our success and
the confusion of the Devil's Admiral and his men. We looked to our
pistols and ammunition, and, thrilled with the prospect of battle, felt
better than we had since the death of Trego.
As the ship was listed over so far, we had little trouble in getting the
raft into the water. As it floated alongside I felt like giving a cheer,
but as Captain Riggs had done most of the work and had gone about his
tasks as dispassionately as if he were building a hencoop, I stifled my
emotions and held her off while Riggs stepped aboard.
We caught the breeze from the land as soon as we cleared the steamer, and
we rounded her bows and headed for the island, steering to pass the point
of rocks which jutted out from the island into the channel. Riggs said
that he would cut her in toward shore, or the coast of the mainland,
before reaching the point, unless the pirates showed themselves.
"We'll make a northing up the channel," he said, "If they think we are
getting away they may take after us in a boat, or fire from the shore;
but if we show we are going to land they will keep hidden and take us by
surprise. If we should head straight in now they would likely hide in the
brush and pot-shot us as we land when we are in the surf; but you watch
old Cap Riggs, and if we don't give this Devil's Admiral the fight of his
life before this little party is wiped out, I'll go back on the farm in
Maine. He can't come aboard me and perform like that without getting paid
for it--Bloody Thirkle, Devil's Admiral, nor nobody else. You watch my
smoke, young man."
The leg-o'-mutton sail pulled steadily and we slapped along through the
water at a merry pace, with the water bubbling at the lee rail and the
ripples frothing up through the seams in the planks. It was a wet craft,
but we were in our bare feet, with our trousers rolled up.
Rajah was in the bow with his _sarong_ twisted into a belt, and his black
shoulders and arms bare to the sun, his head swathed in a turban made
from a faded green port-curtain, giving him an outlandish aspect,
reminding me of a pilgrim returning from Mecca.
"We've got Johnny Sharkee for an escort," said Riggs, pointing aft, and I
saw the fin of the big man-eater cutting the water in our wake. "If he
don't sheer off by the time we are ready to make a landing, we may have
to give him a bullet or two, but I want to get in without any racket if I
can."
We were soon in deep water, and Riggs made fast his tiller while he read
a burial service out of a pocket-testament, and we dropped the body of
Harris over the side. It was a brief enough ceremony, and I was inclined
to believe that Captain Riggs made it altogether too much a matter of
little account, until I saw there was a tear in his eye, and he hastily
used the binoculars on the island.
"Put your helm to starboard," he directed. "I want to keep screened
behind the point and gradually work in toward shore. Then we'll make a
quick run for it in near the point, if they don't show by the time we
have the inlet on this side of the rocks abeam. They probably went around
the point, and we'll hunt for 'em on that side if we can make a safe
landing."
We slopped along for another while, and slowly worked in until we had the
beach less than five hundred yards away.
"Swing her for the open sea again," said Riggs. "I'll trim the sail, so
if they are watching us they'll think we are making a board to run out.
Keep low, all hands, and at the first shot drop to the deck and keep
covered, and we'll manoeuvre out of reach until dark. If they press us,
we'll let 'em get up close, so they'll think we have no weapons, and then
we'll open up on 'em at close range and settle it."
The raft went about clumsily on the other tack and heeled over so that
her port side was deep in the water, which afforded us good protection
from the island. We kept close watch on the edge of the jungle, but
nothing menaced us, although the tangle of brush and creepers might have
been full of men and we little the wiser.
"Over with the helm now, but not too quick, and hold her steady when she
stands for the land and don't get scared at a little surf. Keep her head
on until she grounds, and then take to the water and rush ashore with
some of the gear while I get the rigging down.
"See that you keep your pistols out of the water, and dump the gear in
the brush. Rajah will hold her steady while we lighten her a bit, and
then we'll drag her in with the swells."
The raft turned in a great circle and plunged for the rollers straight
before the breeze. The captain cut away the stays just before she struck
and we went into waist-deep water on a hard, sandy bottom. The heave of
the incoming swells threatened to break her open in the middle as she
swung broadside against the hard shingle.
We lost a few things which didn't matter much, but, as our matches and
biscuits and spare ammunition were sealed in oil cans, along with salt
and cigars, most of such stuff as broke loose floated ashore and we saved
it. Our chief difficulty was in saving the small casks of water and the
sack full of cooking utensils and camp tools.
I danced a lively jig as I ran into the burning sand, and Riggs had to
laugh at me as I retreated out of it and put on my shoes while standing
in the water, but he took the same precaution. When we had hidden our
stores just inside the fringe of the jungle, we sank the raft close under
the ledge of rocks by filling her with big stones; and, while we were
busy at this work, Rajah went up on the point and concealed himself among
the boulders in a position where he could get a view of the beach beyond.
We kept our pistols slung about our necks on shortened belts, and,
whenever the opportunity offered, watched the beach and jungle. We were
kept on the alert, for we could not shake off the disconcerting
feeling that we were being watched from the brush by the pirates, getting
ready to ambush us at their leisure the minute we relaxed our vigilance.
"Look at Rajah," I said to Riggs. "He looks like a big red and green and
black lizard crouched up there in the rocks."
"That black boy is a big help," said Riggs. "The lad has more savvy than
ye'd think. He seems to know just what to do in any emergency. And
fight! A mad Arab that I shipped in Aden made for me one day in the Red
Sea. I didn't mind the chap till he was 'most on me, and a bit more and
he'd had me. Rajah got him with the kris.
"Lucky for Thirkle the boy had lost it last night when they had me going
over the bows! He was after Thirkle then, when a sea come over and upset
him, and away went his knife and--"
A pebble hit the water near us, and we looked up to see Rajah wildly
waving his arms to us. He had spied something on the other side of the
point.