PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT
The pause was a long one before Barosa spoke again.
“Of course we have all studied the actual ground of which these are
the plans, but it was best that we should have them before us in
settling the final details. I was able to tell you three days ago the
arrangements for Dom Carlos’s private visit to the city to-morrow
evening, and this later information, coming straight from M. Volheno’s
office, confirms them. Dom Carlos will arrive at the little Eastern
landing-stage at a few minutes before eight, and will have with him
two companions--only two. And the news I have for you is that those
two companions are fast and firm adherents of the rightful king of
Portugal, His Majesty Dom Miguel.”
A murmur of surprise greeted this statement, and Barosa paused in
evident enjoyment of the effect his words had produced.
“They are Conte Carvalho Listoa and Colonel Antonio Castillo. You will
agree that I do not exaggerate when I say that that fact makes failure
impossible. He will be received by six officers of the 7th Battalion
of the Royal Guards----” and he gave a string of names which I do not
remember.
“These, as we know well, are also our staunch friends, pledged like
ourselves to give their lives for their rightful king. Dom Carlos will
thus be without a single supporter, and absolutely in our power. He
has, as you know, made use of the same landing-stage on the occasion
of former private visits to the city, and the arrangement has always
been that a carriage drew up close to the stage. That will not be
practicable to-morrow, although he does not know it. You will see two
thin red lines on the plans. Those indicate the lines of excavations,
which have been made for some supposed building and drainage
operations. I have been able to get that work started without creating
any suspicion as to the real object--which is to render it impossible
for a carriage to approach within fifty yards of the landing-stage.”
“Good,” exclaimed some one and the others murmured assent.
Barosa then explained the scheme in elaborate detail.
It was this. The king was to be met at the landing-stage and the
officers were to explain why the carriage was not in the usual place;
and that it was in waiting for him at a spot most easily reached
through the smaller of two sheds used for wharfage purposes. A door at
the back of this shed opened on to a narrow way between two buildings.
The officers were not to leave the shed, as it was deemed desirable
that they should not take any personal part in what followed. The two
friends of the king were to walk a few yards with him and then excuse
themselves on the plea that they had left something on the launch, but
if this proved impracticable, they were to drop behind.
From the door of the shed to the end of the passage was a distance of
some forty yards and a carriage was to be in full view; but this was to
be one provided by Barosa and intended for the escape of those in the
plot who would not be needed after the attempt had been carried out.
The king’s carriage, sent from the Palace, was to wait at a spot fifty
yards in the other direction.
Except the two servants with Barosa’s carriage, not a man was to show
himself in the path between the shed door and the carriage, lest the
king’s suspicions should be roused. The coachman was to signal with
his whip when the king appeared, and then to make it appear that the
horses were restive and to back them past the corner of the building on
the left hand of the narrow passage.
Round this corner the conspirators were to wait and when the king
reached it, a cloak was to be thrown over his head and he was to be
gagged and hurried through an adjoining shed to some water steps where
the launch would be waiting to rush him to the _Rampallo_, where a
cabin had been specially prepared for him. The yacht was to make
at full steam for Oporto, where he was to be delivered over to the
revolutionary party there and forced, under threat of assassination, to
abdicate in favour of Dom Miguel.
After Barosa had finished his explanation, a long discussion followed
on many of the details. The scheme was hailed with approval, but the
tone of the speakers convinced me that, while ready to take part in an
abduction plot, they were against assassination, and Barosa had to give
very specific assurances that nothing of the sort would be attempted.
Presently the talk turned upon the arrangements made to protect
themselves and their friends when the trouble came after the abduction;
and as it was not very material for me to learn that, I crept away
to the bow, lowered myself noiselessly into the water, flashed my
torchlamp as a signal to Burroughs, and struck out to meet him.
“You’ve given me the fright of my life, Ralph,” he said when I had
clambered into the _Firefly_. “I heard their launch come out, and saw a
light moving about the deck and didn’t know what the deuce to do.”
“It’s all right, Jack. Get back to the _Stella_. I’m cold to the bones,
but I’ve heard enough to keep my blood from stagnating.”
“Here’s my flask. Take a pull.”
I gulped down a couple of mouthfuls of whisky, and as soon as I was on
board and had had a hot bath, a vigorous towelling, and some grog, I
was ready to talk things over with him.
I told him everything I had overheard. “And now the question is what
I’m to do.”
“It’s as simple as falling off a tree. Slip off to the quay and bring
off a party of police and take ’em on the yacht.”
“Yes, and get the only woman in the world I care for arrested for
conspiracy in a plot to abduct the king.”
“You could make her safety a condition.”
“With whom? Who’s to assure me of that? It’s nearly midnight. Where do
you suppose these men would be by the time I had roused first Volheno
and then old Franco the Dictator, and argued the matter out. And if
they refused, where should I find myself? I can tell you. In gaol until
I opened my lips. I’m already half-suspect as it is. That saw won’t cut
any ice, Jack.”
“But you won’t let the thing go through, surely?”
“What’s the King of Portugal to me, and what do I care whether his
name’s Carlos or Miguel?”
“Well then, tell mademoiselle what’s going on and get her to make a
bolt of it on the _Stella_ to-morrow, and leave word behind you and
queer the plan that way.”
“There are several reasons against that, but one’s enough. She wouldn’t
leave her mother to bear the brunt of things, her brother’s up to the
eyes in it, and if she did bolt, she’d be under the charge all her life
long and her flight would be accepted as proof of guilt.”
“Well, I give it up then,” he exclaimed with a shrug.
“But I don’t. I can’t. I’ve got to queer the thing somehow and make
certain of mademoiselle’s safety. And I’ve got to do it off my own bat.
Wait a bit, wait a bit,” I exclaimed after some minutes’ thought.
“I’ve got an idea coming. By the lord-knows-who, I believe it would be
possible. Let’s go over that business again. He lands from the launch,
goes into the shed--there are two sheds, I remember--he goes out with
his two friends, the coachman sees him and under pretence of the horses
turning restive, backs the carriage past the corner, the two friends
turn back. I wonder if both sheds have doors at the back. I expect so.”
“Is that Greek you’re muttering?” broke in Burroughs.
“Stand up, Jack, let’s have a look at you.”
He got up and I laughed as I looked him over. “Wait a bit, take your
coat off,” and I plunged into my cabin and fished out a thick tweed
shooting coat and a soft felt hat. “Here, put these on, quick.”
He did so, muttering: “Is this a pantomime rehearsal?”
“By the lord Harry, it’ll do,” I cried excitedly, smacking my hands
together.
“What’ll do?”
“Wait, man, wait. It’s all coming up like a clear photo. How much
taller am I of us two? By George, two inches. That’s a heap; but
padding might take off some of it.”
“Perhaps you’d like to know how much thinner you are than I am next?”
he said with a grin.
“That’s just what I would,” I replied to his still greater surprise.
“Six inches, eh. That’s a lot.”
“And muscle too, not fat, mind that.”
“But I can get over that, easily enough.”
“When you’ve a minute to spare perhaps you’ll tell me why you take this
sudden interest in my anatomy?” he asked drily, as he threw off my
shooting coat and put on his jacket.
“I’m going to crown you and be your Majesty’s understudy at the same
time, King Jack Burroughs. You won’t have a long reign, my boy--only a
couple of minutes at most--that is if that second shed has the door I
believe it has.”
“You’ll soon be understudying in a strait jacket at this rate, Ralph.”
“It is a little mad, perhaps, but I’m going to do it. I intend you
to take the place of the king to-morrow evening long enough for this
coachman to mistake you for him. I shall then take your place, the
instant no one is looking, and I’m going to let these men abduct me.
It will be much easier for them than if they got hold of the genuine
article.”
“Wouldn’t it be much simpler and shorter to put a bullet in your head
yourself?” he asked grimly. “You’ll find one get there all right when
they know.”
“Not a bit of it. You forget the ‘divinity that doth hedge a king.’
These men are not assassins. They made that plain; nor are they
accustomed to handle kings every day. They’ll be so excited over the
business that they’ll be as nervous about ill-treating him as an old
maid about her lap dog. They’re officers, mind, and what we term
gentlemen; and they’ll be so scared to death lest the thing is going to
fail, that they won’t want me to have so much as a peep at their faces
until I’m safe on the _Rampallo_ and locked up in the cabin which, as I
heard, is already in readiness for my reception. If you turn the thing
over, you’ll see that if I had laid the plan myself, it could not have
suited me better;” and I ran over it again in detail.
“When we first leave the shed you’ll be king, and Bryant--I shall use
Bryant because he’s a cool hand--and I will be in attendance on your
Majesty. You’ll be recognized at once as the king--half Lisbon would
mistake you for him at close grips even, and these fellows will be
expecting you--we shall walk about ten yards and then stop while we are
supposed to be asking you to excuse us; and we shan’t move on until
the carriage has backed out of sight. I shall then take your place--I
shall pad myself out, you know, and make up--and shall walk on alone
straight into the trap.”
“But why you? I could put up a bigger fight than you.”
“There’s no fight to be put up at all, Jack.”
“You mean to let them carry you off to Oporto? You may find yourself in
a tighter corner there than you reckon.”
“But I’m not going to Oporto. It’s 180 miles or thereabouts and, with
an amateur crew, the _Rampallo_ under the best circumstances wouldn’t
make more than twelve to fifteen knots; the _Stella_ would steam round
her, and from the moment these beggars shove their yacht’s nose out of
the harbour, you’ll keep almost within hailing distance. That’s where I
want you. They’ll shut me into the cabin and as soon as it’s daylight
I’ll hang a handkerchief or a pillow-case or something out of the
porthole, and you’ll make trouble for my hosts.”
“Of course they’ll stop directly and say ‘thank you, sir,’ and go down
on their knees and ask me to come on board and kick ’em,” he gibed with
a heave of his big shoulders.
“It doesn’t matter what they say, it’s what you’ll do, Jack. Haven’t
we got a couple of guns? And couldn’t you give the thing a pretty loud
advertisement? And do you think they’ll relish to have you firing a
royal salute within a league or so of the shore? And can’t we get some
cartridges that aren’t blank in the city to-morrow? And would they
enjoy their breakfast nicely if you sent a shot into the _Rampallo’s_
hull? Or couldn’t the old man run the _Stella_ alongside in the old
grappling-iron style?”
“Piracy now, eh?”
“Yes, piracy, if it comes to it. But it won’t. What I’m after is this.
Sign on an extra crew to-morrow and get ’em on the _Stella_ quietly.
When you see my signal, sheer close up, fire a blank cartridge and
order them to stop. Get our men aboard somehow or anyhow; and then
we’ll send the _Rampallo_ off to sea with the whole of them in her as
prisoners and keep them away a week. By that time I shall have had time
to straighten things out in the city. And now I’ll tell you exactly
what we’ve got to do to-morrow;” and I went very carefully over the
whole ground, filling in the gaps and elaborating the details and
mapping out the whole of the day’s work before us.
As soon as the dawn broke, Burroughs and I steamed over to the Eastern
landing-stage and made a careful survey of the scene of operations.
There were half a dozen places where we could lie hidden in the larger
shed, and as I had hoped, it had an opening at the back, and the doors
were so close together that it would be difficult for any one at the
spot where the carriage was to remain to be certain which one a person
leaving either would use.
I explained everything as I had planned it; and as we ran back to
the _Stella_ to snatch three or four hours’ sleep, I arranged that
Burroughs should take Bryant down to the place during the day and
explain things to him.
As soon as we were up, the skipper was called to a consultation and his
work assigned to him. He was to engage the spare crew, buy some ball
cartridges and half a dozen pair of handcuffs, and lay in a store of
provisions to put on the _Rampallo_ sufficient for a week’s cruise, if
the scheme went right.
With Burroughs I went to my rooms and we explained Bryant’s part to him
and sent him off to get the necessary disguises--shooting rigs such as
were in common enough use, and three light dustcoats for us to wear
over the disguises in driving to the landing-stage. For me he was also
to get some padding to fill out my spare figure to something like the
proportions of His Majesty, and a quantity of small shot, intended
to increase my weight, lest my abductors should detect the deception
when they found I was two or three stone lighter than their august and
portly monarch ought to be.
The arrangements of these matters occupied nearly all the morning.
Next, I sent Burroughs to Miralda to tell her to find some means of
preventing Vasco from taking any part in the night’s work. If necessary
Burroughs was to frighten her into compliance, but not to say what was
actually on foot. If no other way could be found, Miralda was to drug
Vasco. But by fair means or foul, he must be prevented from leaving the
house, or his life would be in danger.
This was essential in view of the line I meant to take with Volheno and
the authorities in the event of success.