and is in reality neither more nor less than a gun-running expedition in
aid of the Cuban revolutionaries. And the yacht is really not mine, but
belongs to a certain very wealthy Cuban gentleman who, being, like most
Cubans, utterly sick of the Spanish misgovernment of the island, has
thrown in his lot with the patriots, and has had the craft specially
built for their service. But, recognising that to declare his ownership
of her would at once arouse the suspicion of the Spaniards, and attract
a tremendous amount of unwelcome attention to her, he has persuaded me
to assume the apparent ownership of the vessel, and to undertake a trip
to the West Indies in her, ostensibly for my health, but actually to run
into the island a consignment of arms and ammunition, and otherwise to
assist the patriots in every possible way."
"I see," observed Milsom thoughtfully. "That means, of course, that I
should really be in the service of the Cuban gentleman, instead of in
yours. That makes a very important difference, Jack, for, you see, I
shall have to look to him, instead of to you, for my pay; and smuggling
contraband of war is a very different matter from navigating a
gentleman's private yacht, and is work for which I shall expect to be
well paid."
"Then am I to understand that you regard thirty pounds per month as
insufficient?" demanded Jack.
"Not at all, my dear boy," answered Milsom quickly, "do not
misunderstand me; I am quite content with the pay, but as the service is
one that I can see with half an eye will involve a good deal of risk, I
want to be quite certain of getting it. Now, is your friend to be
absolutely depended upon in that respect? You see, if this insurrection
should fail--as it probably will--your friend may be killed, or
imprisoned, and all his property confiscated; and then I may whistle for
my money."
"I think not," said Jack. "For my friend has left the management of
everything in my hands, and I will see that you are all right. But I am
very glad that you have raised the point; for it has enabled me to see
that the proper thing will be to deposit a sufficient sum in an English
bank to cover the pay of all hands for a period of--well, say twelve
months. What do you say to that?"
"I say," answered Milsom, "that it will be quite the proper thing to do,
and will smooth away a very serious difficulty. But, Jack, my boy, has
it occurred to you that you will be running a good many quite
unnecessary risks by mixing yourself up in this affair? For you must
remember that we may be compelled to fight, before all is done; while,
if we are captured, it may mean years of imprisonment in a Spanish penal
settlement, which will be no joke, I can assure you, my lad!"
"Ah!" answered Jack. "To be quite frank, I had not thought of the last
contingency you mention. But `in for a penny, in for a pound'; I'll
take the risk, and trust to my usual good luck to keep me out of a
Spanish prison. The fact is, Phil, that I am fairly aching for a bit of
adventure, and I simply must have it."
"Very well," said Milsom grimly; "I think you have hit upon a most
excellent scheme for getting it! My advice to you, Jack, is to leave
the whole thing severely alone; but, whether you do or not, I am in it,
so please give me your orders. And, mind you, Jack, I take them from
you, and from nobody else."
"Very well," said Jack. "It may be necessary for you to modify that
resolution later on, but let that pass; at present, at all events, you
will receive all instructions from me, and regard me as the owner of the
vessel. Now the first thing to be done is to secure a good crew; and,
as I have told you precisely the kind of work that will have to be done,
I shall look to you to provide the right sort of officers and men. I
suppose you will have to give them a hint that they will be required to
do something more than mere everyday yachting work--and you must arrange
their pay accordingly; but, while doing this, you must be careful not to
let out the true secret, or it will not remain such for very long. And
you need not trouble to provide the engine-room staff; I think I can
manage that part of the business myself."
"I see," answered Milsom. "You wish me to engage merely the officers,
seamen, and stewards? Very well. How many guns will she carry?"
"Guns?" echoed Jack. "By Jove, I had not thought of that! Will she
need any guns?"
"She certainly will, if she is to be as useful as she ought to be,"
answered Milsom.
"Um!" said Jack; "that complicates matters a bit, doesn't it? I am
afraid that I must refer that point to Senor Montijo, the actual owner.
What sort of armament would you recommend for such a craft, Phil?"
"Oh! not a very heavy one," answered Milsom; "probably four 12-pounders,
of the latest pattern, and a couple of Maxims would be sufficient."
Jack made a note of these particulars for reference to Senor Montijo,
and then said:
"Now, is there anything else that you can think of, Phil?"
"Nothing except an outfit of small arms--rifles, revolvers, and
cutlasses, you know, for the crew," answered Milsom. "If anything else
should occur to me I will write and mention it."
"Very well; pray do so," said Jack. "Now, I think that is all for the
present. Pick a first-class, thoroughly reliable crew, Phil. I give
you a week in which to look for them, by which time I expect the boat
will be ready to receive them. Then you can bring them all north with
you, and we will ship them in the proper orthodox style. Now, good-bye;
and good luck to you in your search!"
CHAPTER THREE.
THE S.Y. THETIS, R.T.Y.C.
The next day was spent by Jack, at Mr Nisbett's invitation, in
visiting, in the company of that gentleman, the establishments of
certain manufacturers of firearms, where he very carefully inspected and
tested the several weapons submitted to him for approval; finally
selecting a six-shot magazine rifle, which was not only a most excellent
weapon in all other respects, but one especially commending itself to
him on account of the simplicity of its mechanism, which he believed
would prove to be a very strong point in its favour when put into the
hands of such comparatively unintelligent persons as he strongly
suspected the rank and file of the Cuban insurgents would prove to be.
He also decided upon an exceedingly useful pattern of sword-bayonet to
go with the rifle, and also a six-shot revolver of an especially
efficient character; and there and then gave the order--through Mr
Nisbett--for as large a number of these weapons, together with
ammunition for the same, as he believed the yacht could conveniently
stow away. This done, he returned to his hotel, reaching it just in
good time for dinner; and devoted the evening to the concoction of a
letter to Senor Montijo, at Lucerne, reporting all that he had thus far
done, also referring to Don Hermoso the important question of the
yacht's armament, and somewhat laboriously transcribing the said letter
into cipher.
Jack's business in London was now done; on the following morning,
therefore, he took train back to Newcastle. He called upon Mr Murdock,
his partner, in the evening, explaining the arrangement which he had
made to pay a visit to Cuba, including the rather singular proposal of
Senor Montijo to which he had consented, as to the apparent ownership of
the new yacht; and listened patiently but unconvinced to all Murdock's
arguments against what the canny Northumbrian unhesitatingly denounced
as an utterly hare-brained scheme. The next two days he devoted to the
task of putting all his affairs in order, lest anything serious should
happen to him during the progress of his adventure; and on the third day
Nisbett presented himself, with his consulting naval architect, to
witness the final trials of the yacht before accepting her, on behalf of
Senor Montijo, from the builders. These trials were of a most searching
and exhaustive character, lasting over a full week, at the end of which
came the coal-consumption test, consisting of a non-stop run northward
at full speed, through the Pentland Firth, round Cape Wrath; then
southward outside the Hebrides and past the west coast of Ireland,
thence from Mizen Head across to Land's End; up the English Channel and
the North Sea, to her starting-point. The run down past the west coast
of Ireland, and part of the way up the Channel, was accomplished in the
face of a stiff south-westerly gale and through a very heavy sea, in
which the little craft behaved magnificently, the entire trial, from
first to last, being of the most thoroughly satisfactory character, and
evoking the unmeasured admiration of the naval architect under whose
strict supervision it was performed. Jack was on board throughout the
trial, as the representative of the builders, and his experience of the
behaviour of the boat was such as to fill him with enthusiasm and
delight at the prospect of the coming trip. The contract was certified
as having been faithfully and satisfactorily completed, the final
instalment of the contract price was paid, and Nisbett, on behalf of
Senor Montijo, took over the vessel from the builders, at once
transferring the ownership of her to Jack. Meanwhile a letter had
arrived from Senor Montijo, authorising the arming of the ship in
accordance with Milsom's suggestion, and the _Thetis_, as she had been
named, was once more laid alongside the wharf to receive certain extra
fittings which were required to admit of the prompt mounting of her
artillery when occasion should seem to so require.
In the meantime Jack had written to Milsom, extending the time allowed
the latter in which to pick up a suitable crew, and at the same time
suggesting that Perkins and the rest of the crew of the _Lalage_ should
be afforded an opportunity to join the _Thetis_, should they care to do
so, subject, of course, to Milsom's approval of them; and by the time
that the extra fittings were in place, and the little ship drydocked and
repainted outside, the Navy man had come north with his retinue, and the
hands were duly shipped, Jack having, with the assistance of the
superintendent of his fitting-shops, meanwhile selected a first-rate
engine-room staff and stokehold crew.
The completing of all these arrangements carried the time on to the last
week of July; and on the 28th day of that month the _Thetis_ steamed
down the Tyne on her way to Cowes, Jack having decided to give as much
vraisemblance as possible to his apparent ownership of the vessel, and
to the pretence that he was yachting for health's sake, by putting in
the month of August in the Solent, during which the order for arms,
ammunition, etcetera, would be in process of execution. Although Jack
was not a racing man--the _Lalage_ being of altogether too ancient a
type to pose as a racer--he was by no means unknown in the yachting
world, and he found a host of acquaintances ready and willing to welcome
his appearance in Cowes Roads, especially coming as he did in such a
fine, handsome little ship as the _Thetis_; and for the first fortnight
of the racing the new steamer, with her burgee and blue ensign, was a
quite conspicuous object as, with large parties of friends, both male
and female, on board, she followed the racers up and down the sparkling
waters of the Solent. Jack was precisely of that light-hearted, joyous
temperament which can find unalloyed pleasure amid such surroundings,
and he threw himself heart and soul into the daily gaieties with an
abandon that was sufficient, one would have thought, to have utterly
destroyed all possible suspicion as to the existence of ulterior
motives. Yet, happening to be ashore one afternoon with a party of
friends, he was startled, as they walked down the High Street at Cowes,
to see coming toward him a man whom he believed he had met somewhere
before. The individual did not appear to be taking very particular
notice of anything just at the moment, seeming indeed to be sunk deep in
thought; but when he was about ten yards from Jack's party he suddenly
looked up and found the young man's eyes fixed enquiringly upon him.
For an instant he stopped dead, and an expression of mingled annoyance
and fear flashed into his eyes; then he turned quickly and sprang, as if
affrighted, into the door of a shop opposite which he had paused. But
in that instant Jack remembered him; he was "Mr Mackintosh, of
Inveraray!"
"Now what, in the name of fortune, is that chap doing down here?"
wondered Singleton. "Is it accident and coincidence only, or has he
discovered something, and come down here to watch my doings and those of
the yacht? That is a very difficult question to answer, for one meets
all sorts of people at Cowes during August; yet that fellow does not
look as though he knew enough about yachts to have been attracted here
by the racing. And he was evidently desirous of avoiding recognition by
me, or why did he bolt into that shop as he did? I am prepared to swear
that he did not want to buy anything; he had not the remotest intention
of entering the place until he saw me. Of course that may have been
because of the scare I gave him that night at the Cecil--or, on the
other hand, it may have been because he did not wish me to know that he
was anywhere near me. Anyhow, it does not matter, for my doings down
here have been absolutely innocent, and such as to disarm even the
suspicion of a suspicious Spanish spy; and in any case he cannot very
well follow me wherever I go. Perhaps before the month is out his
suspicions--if he has any--will be laid at rest, since I am just now
doing absolutely nothing to foster or strengthen them, and he will come
to the conclusion that there is no need to watch me. But I am very glad
that the idea occurred to me of never running the boat at a higher speed
than fourteen knots while we have been down here; there is nothing to be
gained by giving away her real speed, and--who knows?--a little harmless
deception in that matter may one day stand us in good stead."
Thenceforward, whenever Jack had occasion to go ashore, he always kept a
particularly smart lookout for "Mr Mackintosh"; but he saw him no more
during the remainder of his stay in the Solent. Yet a few days later an
incident occurred which, although unmarked by any pronounced
significance, rather tended to impress upon Jack the conviction that
somebody was evincing a certain amount of interest in the speed
qualifications of the _Thetis_, although it was quite possible that he
might have been mistaken. This incident took the form of a somewhat
sudden proposal to get up a race for steam-yachts round the island, for
a cup of the value of fifty guineas. Such a proposal was a little
remarkable, from the fact that steam-yacht racing is a form of sport
that is very rarely indulged in by Englishmen, at least in English
waters; yet everything must necessarily have a beginning, and there was
no especial reason why steam-yacht racing should not be one of those
things, particularly as the idea appeared to be received with some
enthusiasm by certain owners of such craft. When the matter was first
mentioned to Singleton, and it was suggested that he should enter the
_Thetis_ for the race, he evinced a disposition to regard the proposal
with coldness, as he had already arrived at the conclusion that it might
be unwise to reveal the boat's actual capabilities; but his attitude was
so strongly denounced as unsportsmanlike, and he found himself subjected
to such urgent solicitations--not to say pressure--that he quickly grew
suspicious, and mentioned the matter to Milsom. Milsom, in turn, after
considering the matter for a little, suggested that the chief engineer
of the boat should be consulted, with the result that it was ultimately
decided to enter the _Thetis_ for the race, Macintyre undertaking that
while the yacht should present to onlookers every appearance of being
pushed to the utmost--plenty of steam blowing off, and so on--her speed
should not be permitted to exceed fifteen knots, and only be allowed to
reach that at brief intervals during the race. With this understanding
Jack agreed to enter, and the race duly came off in splendid weather,
and was pronounced to be a brilliant success, the _Thetis_ coming in
third, but losing the race by only eight seconds on her time allowance.
Nobody was perhaps better pleased at the result than Jack, for the new
boat made a brave show and apparently struggled gamely throughout the
race to win the prize, the "white feather" showing from first to last on
the top of her waste pipe, and a thin but continuous film of light-brown
smoke issuing from her funnel from start to finish. If anyone happened
to have taken the trouble to get up the race with the express object of
ascertaining the best speed of the _Thetis_, they knew it now; it was
fourteen knots, rising to nearly fifteen for a few minutes occasionally
when the conditions were especially favourable!
With the approach of the end of the month the yachts began to thin out
more and more perceptibly every day, the racers going westward and the
cruisers following them; the steam-yachts hanging on to accompany the
Channel Match to Weymouth. The _Thetis_ was one of these; and Jack
allowed it to be pretty generally understood that after the Weymouth
regatta was over he intended to run north for a month or so, visiting
the Baltic, and perhaps proceeding as far east as Cronstadt. But
yachtsmen are among the most capricious of men--some of them never know
from one moment to another what they really intend to do; thus it is,
after all, not very surprising that when the _Thetis_ arrived off the
mouth of the Tyne Jack Singleton should suddenly give orders for her
nose to be turned shoreward, and that, an hour or two later, she should
glide gently up alongside and make fast to the private wharf of
Singleton, Murdock, and Company. What is surprising is that, when she
was seen approaching, some fifty of Singleton, Murdock, and Company's
most trusty hands received sudden notice that they were required for an
all-night job; and that at dawn the next morning the _Thetis_ drew a
full foot more water than she had done when she ran alongside the wharf
some twelve hours earlier, although in the interim she had not taken an
ounce of coal into her bunkers.
It so happened that Mr Murdock was absent on important business when
the _Thetis_ arrived alongside the wharf, and he did not return to
Newcastle until nearly midnight, when he, of course, made the best of
his way to his own house. But he was at the works betimes next morning,
and, knowing that the yacht was expected, he took the wharf on his way
to the office, with the object of ascertaining whether she had arrived.
The sight of her lying alongside in all her bravery of white enamel
paint, gilt mouldings, and polished brasswork caused him to heave a
great sigh of relief; and he joyously hurried forward to greet Jack,
whom he saw standing on the wharf engaged in earnest conversation with
the yard foreman.
"Good-morning, Singleton!--Morning, Price!" he exclaimed as he
approached the two. "Well, Jack," he continued, "so you arrived up to
time, eh? And by the look of the boat I should say that you've got the
stuff on board; is that so? Ah! that's all right; I am precious glad to
hear it, I can tell you, for to have those cases accumulating here day
after day has been a source of great anxiety to me."
"Sorry!" remarked Jack cheerfully. "But why should they worry you, old
chap? Everything is securely packed in air-tight, zinc-lined cases, so
that there was really no very serious cause for anxiety or fear, even of
an explosion. Such a thing could not possibly happen except by the
downright deliberate act of some evil--disposed individual; and I don't
think--"
"Precisely," interrupted Murdock; "that was just what was worrying me--
at least, it was one of the things that was worrying me. Not on account
of our own people, mind you; I believe them to be loyal and trustworthy
to a man. But I cannot help thinking that some hint of your expedition
must have leaked out, for we have never had so many strangers about the
place since I have been in the business as we have had during the last
fortnight, while those cases have been arriving. We have simply been
overwhelmed with business enquiries of every description--enquiries as
to our facilities for the execution of repairs; enquiries as to the
quickest time in which we could build and deliver new ships; enquiries
respecting new engines and machinery of every conceivable kind, not one
of which will probably come to anything. And the thing that troubled me
most was that every one of these people wanted to be shown over the
place from end to end, in order that they might judge for themselves, as
they explained, whether our works were sufficiently extensive and up-to-
date to enable us to execute the particular kind of work that they
wanted done: and every mother's son of them gravitated, sooner or later,
to the spot where those precious cases of yours were stacked, and seemed
profoundly interested in them; while one chap, who was undoubtedly a
foreigner, had the impudence to insinuate that the marks and addresses
on the cases, indicating that they were sugar machinery for Mauritius,
were bogus! I sent him to the rightabout pretty quickly, I can tell
you. Why, what the dickens are you laughing at, man? It is no laughing
matter, I give you my word!"
For Jack had burst into a fit of hearty laughter at Murdock's righteous
indignation.
"No, no; of course not, old chap," answered Jack, manfully struggling to
suppress his mirth; "awfully annoying it must have been, I'm sure.
Well, is that all?"
"No," answered Murdock indignantly, "it is not; nor is it the worst.
Only the day before yesterday we had a man poking about here who said he
was from the Admiralty. He wanted nothing in particular for the moment,
he said, but was simply making a tour of the principal shipyards of the
country, with the view of ascertaining what were the facilities of each
for the execution of Admiralty work. He, too, was vastly interested in
those precious cases of yours, so much so, indeed, that I should not
have been at all surprised if he had asked to have the whole lot of them
opened! Oh, yes! of course I know he could not have gone to such a
length as that without assigning some good and sufficient reason; but I
tell you, Jack, that we are playing a dangerous game, and I will not be
a party to a repetition of it. A pretty mess we should be in if the
British Government were to discover that we are aiding and abetting
insurgents in arms against the authority of a friendly Power! Why, it
would mean nothing short of ruin--absolute ruin--to us!"
"Yes, you are quite right, old chap, it would," agreed Jack soberly;
"and if Senor Montijo wants to ship any more stuff after this, it must
not be through this yard. But it is all aboard and out of sight now,
and we leave for--um--Mauritius, shall we say?--this afternoon; so there
is no need for you to worry any further about it."
"Well, to be perfectly candid with you, Jack," said Murdock, "I shall
not be at all sorry to see the _Thetis_ safely away from this and on her
way down the river, for I shall not be quite comfortable and easy in my
mind until I do. And you will have to be very careful what you are
about, my boy; `there is no smoke without fire', and all this fuss and
prying about of which I have been telling you means something, you may
depend. It would not very greatly surprise me if you discover that you
are being followed and watched."
"We must take our chance of that," laughed Jack. "Not that I am very
greatly afraid. The fact is, Murdock, that you are constitutionally a
nervous man, and you have worried yourself into a perfect state of scare
over this business. But never mind, your anxiety will soon be over now,
for here comes our coal, if I am not mistaken; and I promise you that we
will be off the moment that we have taken our last sack on board. But I
will run into the office and say good-bye before I go."