All through the day of January 18, although he could not know the true
significance of the date, Ray Folsom was restless. It was as if a germ
of excitement had wafted across the sea, as if trouble in New York were
breeding trouble in the Isle of Skye. Eve, too, appeared to feel a
subtle something.
After all, there was something more tangible that entered into the
business. Starbuck himself had been feverishly active, and late in the
afternoon Miss Dollis had surprised the prisoners by going out to the
Raven, where she remained.
There were other indications that something was about to happen. Grundy
and Mapes seemed more cheerful; Koli acted as if a strain had been
lifted.
All of which caused Ray to wonder and to fidget. The wireless operator
came ashore at the time of Miss Dollis’s departure, and with him
Starbuck held a long conference.
As night drew in, the latter manifested no signs of retiring as usual.
He drank far more than his wonted quantity at dinner. Koli and the two
men, Ray thought, had been indulging overmuch. It showed less on the
Jap, but his eyes were brighter and his movements more spasmodic.
Ray said to Eve: “Something is up. I feel it.”
And she replied: “So do I.”
And both of them were wide awake as possible when, about midnight, the
wireless took up its sputtering song. That was the message which Wilbur
Gaylord was to receive at eight o’clock, and which caused him to rush
into fresh activity as recorded above.
Starbuck, who had been glancing at his watch, now slumped into a chair
and stared moodily into the fire. Miss Gaylord yawned, said “Good night”
shortly, and slipped away to her room. But Ray knew, somehow, that she
was not sleepy.
He felt action in the air. He knew that he meant to do something, but
did not know just what. Koli padded along and locked Eve’s door, a
proceeding which had been omitted heretofore owing probably to the fact
that Miss Dollis had shared a small suite with the girl up to that time.
Grundy and Mapes slunk away to their quarters in the servants’ wing of
the castle, and Koli looked suggestively at Ray.
The latter, in turn, stared at Starbuck, who seemed half asleep with a
whisky and soda clutched in his right hand. Ray got the impression of a
player who has just won a hard game but who is weary to the point of
listlessness as a result.
He rose and sauntered off toward his bedroom, and close on his heels
came Koli.
At his bedroom door Ray paused, fumbled with the knob. The plan in his
mind was not half formed; in fact, he had no detailed plan. Nevertheless
he entertained a cocksure feeling that whatever he might do would be all
right.
Whereupon he suddenly whirled about, seized the astonished Koli by the
throat and shut off the Jap’s wind so swiftly and so completely that he
had no opportunity of defending himself and the hand that instinctively
moved toward his gun pocket never reached it.
Instead, Ray had the weapon out in a twinkling, and with it dealt the
luckless Koli a smart crack on the skull. The little man slumped without
a sound.
Hastily dragging him into his room, Ray bound him crudely but
effectively with a bed sheet and, elated with his start, stole back
toward the drawing-room where Starbuck lingered.
Slipping into the room with the swiftness of a cat, Ray jammed the gun
into the drowsing Starbuck’s ribs, with a rasping:
“Stick ’em up, damn you, quick!”
Starbuck’s eyes flew to Ray’s determined face, and his hands shot
heavenward.
Ray deftly frisked him. He wanted to laugh; the thing had been so easy.
With Starbuck’s gun in his coat pocket, he backed that reluctant
individual along the corridor until Eve’s chamber was reached. Turning
the key, Ray tapped gently.
As if expecting some such summons, Eve appeared instantly, fully
dressed. The shock of amazement at what she beheld passed swiftly, and
at Ray’s direction the girl bound their host’s hands securely behind his
back and mounted guard over him while Ray made his way to the servants’
wing.
Grundy and Mapes, well fuddled with the stout they had consumed, proved
easy victims, and ten minutes later, herded by the menacing guns in the
hands of Ray and Eve, they dragged their master and Koli into the wine
cellar, where they were securely locked while Ray, flushed with victory,
sought new fields to conquer.
At first he considered tackling the yacht, forcing Trumper to take them
to Glasgow. But sounder reason prevailed.
There was the wireless man and the Dollis woman and the skipper himself,
to say nothing of the two huskies who, although thoroughly cowed at the
moment, loomed as potential enemies, given half a chance. No. Instead,
he determined to reach the Isle of Skye, and from there summon aid.
The power tender was on the yacht, but there was a dory at the dock, and
into this the two prisoners forced their late guards.
“Make it snappy,” Ray ordered. “I want to get well away before
daylight.”
Thus, for close to three hours, he and Eve sat astern, gleefully
watching the disgruntled pair at the oars struggling with the sea. But
in the light of early morning they made port, turned their victims over
to an astounded constable, and prepared a sizzling cable which would
stir two hemispheres.