he. "The man was without doubt a Spanish spy. Had he been a genuine
Cuban patriot, as he represented himself to be, he would have known that
it would only have been necessary to present himself to the local agent
of the Junta, with the proofs of his identity, when he could easily have
obtained a passage across to Cuba. But the incident is only one more
proof, if such were needed, that our party and the yacht have somehow
incurred the very gravest suspicion of the Spaniards, and that we are
being most jealously watched. I fear that Carlos and I are chiefly
responsible for this; indeed, the agent here did not scruple to say that
we--Carlos and I--committed a very great tactical blunder in coming out
here in the yacht. He asserts that we ought to have come out in the
ordinary way by mail steamer, and that in such a case little or no
suspicion would have attached to the yacht; but that certain news
transmitted from Europe, coupled with the fact of our presence on board,
has convinced the authorities that the yacht is in these waters for the
purpose of running a cargo of contraband into the island. Of course we
have our spies, as the Spaniards have theirs, and one of our most trusty
investigators reported to-day, while I was with the agent, that it is
undoubtedly the intention of the Spanish authorities that their torpedo
boat shall accompany the _Thetis_, so long as she remains in Cuban
waters."
"Phew! that sounds awkward," remarked Milsom. "Does anybody know what
her speed is?"
Nobody did, it appeared; whereupon Milsom undertook to ascertain whether
the custom-house officer possessed the knowledge, and, if so, to extract
it from him. Accordingly, when, a little later, the saloon party
adjourned to the deck for the enjoyment of their post-prandial cigars,
the skipper sauntered away forward and up on the top of the deck-house,
where Perkins and the officer were sitting yarning together, and joined
them. He sat chatting with them for nearly an hour, and then, upon the
pretext that he had forgotten to speak to Mr Singleton about the
arrangements for coaling the ship, rose and joined the trio who were
sitting aft near the stern grating.
"Well," said Jack, "have you been able to learn anything, Phil?"
"Yes," answered Milsom; "and what I have learned is not very comforting.
That torpedo boat, it appears, is practically a new craft, and she has
a sea speed of twenty-five knots, which is one knot better than our
best; so how we are going to dodge her is more than I at present know.
The three gunboats we need not trouble about, for the two-masted craft
are only capable of sixteen knots, while the three-masted boat--the
_Destructor_--can do about seventeen, at a pinch, though she is said to
have been at one time capable of twenty-two and a half. Neither need we
trouble about the cruisers, for the faster of them--the _Lepanto_--is
only capable of twenty and a half knots when she is clean, and I am told
that at present she is dreadfully foul."
"Still, it appears to me that the torpedo boat is, apart from the rest,
more than we shall be able to manage," remarked Don Hermoso. "If she
persists in dogging our heels we shall not have a ghost of a chance of
landing our cargo anywhere."
"No," said Jack. "But she will not dog our heels, Don Hermoso; don't
you trouble. This is where my submarine comes in, and is going to
score, if I am not mistaken. Macintyre and I will be able to doctor
that torpedo boat so that she will not trouble us. We will just go down
in the submarine and remove the nut that secures her propeller to its
shaft, and when she begins to move, her propeller will drop off; and
before it can be replaced we will have our cargo ashore, and be in a
position to laugh at her."
"But how will you manage that, Jack, in the presence of all these
ships?" demanded Milsom. "You could not possibly do what you suggest
without being seen. Besides, there is the custom-house officer to be
reckoned with; and I really do not believe that the man is to be trusted
with your secret."
"We shall have to do the job at night-time--the night before we leave
here for Cuba," said Jack. "And, as to the custom-house officer, we
must trust that he will sleep too soundly to hear anything."
"Leave him to me," said Don Hermoso. "I am a bit of a chemist, in my
way, and I will concoct a liquid a few drops of which in his grog the
last thing at night will cause him to sleep soundly all night, and awake
none the worse in the morning."
"That will get us over one difficulty," said Jack, "and I have just
thought of a plan that will get us over another--that of getting the
submarine into the water unobserved. It strikes me that we can do all
that is necessary without using the submarine at all. That torpedo boat
is, as you may observe, lying quite close to the shore, so close,
indeed, that there cannot be much more than two feet of water under her
keel. Consequently Macintyre and I have only to don our special diving
dresses--which, as I think I have explained to you, need no air-pipe or
anything of that sort--go down over the side of the yacht, and make our
way to our prey under water. With a little management we could even do
the trick in broad daylight, and nobody be any the wiser!"
"Excellent!" exclaimed Milsom enthusiastically. "We will have the
lighters alongside to coal us to-morrow; and before they come along we
will hang tarpaulins all round the ship to keep the paint clean. Then,
while everybody is busy coaling, you and Macintyre can watch your
opportunity and slip over the side through the ash port. Gad! won't
those fellows be wrathy when their propeller parts company! They will
no doubt suspect us, but they cannot possibly prove anything."
On the following morning, immediately after breakfast, Milsom went
ashore and made arrangements for the immediate coaling of the yacht; and
while he was absent, Jack and Macintyre, the chief engineer, got out the
diving dresses and thoroughly overhauled them, charged the air cylinders
with densely-compressed air, and collected such tools as they expected
to require for their job. By the time that this had been done, Milsom
was back aboard the yacht, having made all his arrangements, including
one which was of considerable assistance to Jack and Macintyre. This
consisted of an arrangement to take the yacht directly alongside the
coal hulk, instead of coaling from lighters, and the advantage to the
conspirators arose from the fact that the particular hulk from which the
_Thetis_ was to coal lay within a short hundred yards of the spot where
the Spanish torpedo boat rode at anchor. Then a number of tarpaulins
were got up on deck and hung over the ship's sides, fore and aft,
covering the hull from the bulwark rail right down to the surface of the
water, to protect the white paint from defilement by flying coal dust;
and, this having been done, the yacht was taken alongside the coal hulk,
and the process of coaling the vessel at once began under the joint
supervision of Milsom and the second engineer, the skipper being
especially particular in the arranging of the fenders between the hulls
of the two craft. So fastidiously careful was he, indeed, in this
matter, that he finally caused two booms to be rigged out, one forward
and one aft, to bear the yacht off from the side of the hulk, with the
result that there was a clear space of fully two feet between the sides
of the two craft. And, to facilitate as much as possible the process of
coaling, Milsom caused a broad gangway, nearly six feet wide, to be
rigged between the two vessels, so that the porters might pass to and
fro freely without obstructing each other. And, singularly enough, this
gangway happened to be rigged exactly over the ash port, which was thus
quite effectually concealed from the view of even the most prying eyes.
And there undoubtedly were several pairs of eyes very curiously and
intently watching everything that was happening aboard the English
yacht, not the least intent among them being those of the custom-house
officer, who planted himself upon the bridge of the _Thetis_, fully
determined that nothing great or small should be passed from the yacht
to the coal hulk without his full knowledge and consent. Thus, thanks
to the exceeding care with which Milsom had made his dispositions,
Jack--who, with the two Montijos, was supposed to be down below--and
Macintyre, fully equipped in their diving dresses, and with their tools
slung to their belts, had not the slightest difficulty in leaving the
yacht unobserved, and descending to the bottom of the harbour by way of
a diving ladder.
The water being shallow and tolerably clear, and the sun high enough in
the heavens to throw a strong light down into it, the two adventurers
were able to see well enough to be able to pass from the yacht to the
torpedo boat without any other guide than that of their unaided
eyesight; and within ten minutes the pair found themselves beneath the
bottom of their quarry, the keel of which was, as Jack had anticipated,
within about three feet of the ground. The boat, they found, was driven
by a single propeller protected by a skeleton frame forming the boat's
keel and sternpost, and to climb into this frame occupied Macintyre less
than a minute, helped as he was by Jack. Macintyre's first act was to
subject the propeller nut to a very careful examination, after which he
fixed a big spanner in position and threw his whole weight upon it,
assisted by Jack, who was pulling at a rope attached to the extreme end
of the spanner handle. The nut, however, was rusted on so effectually
as to be immovable, so Macintyre climbed down and, by means of a slate
and a piece of chalk, consulted Jack as to what was best to be done to
overcome the difficulty. Looking up, and studying the structure of the
boat's stern intently, Jack saw that by steadying themselves by the
rudder chains they could both climb up and stand upon the arm of the
spanner, when, by bracing their shoulders against the boat's overhanging
stern, they could bring the whole of their united strength to bear, and
thus possibly start the nut. By means of a diagram and a few words
chalked upon the slate Macintyre was soon made to comprehend what Jack
meant, and then they both climbed up and, with considerable difficulty,
arranged themselves in the required position. Then, bracing their
shoulders against the vessel's hull, the two men thrust with all their
might, with the result that the nut suddenly started, and the spanner
fell off, dropping to the bottom of the harbour and leaving the two
operators hanging by the rudder chains. The drop from thence to the
sand, however, was not above six feet--a mere trifle in water--so they
let go, recovered the spanner, and got to work again. Once started, the
nut gave them very little further difficulty, and ten minutes later it
was off and safely buried out of sight in the sand. The propeller,
however, still remained on the shaft, and might quite possibly continue
to remain there for a time, even should the boat get under way; but the
moment that she stopped her engines after once getting under way, or if
she should happen to attempt to go astern, the propeller would at once
slip off and be lost. Three-quarters of an hour from the moment of
leaving the yacht, Jack and Macintyre were safely on board her again,
with their task accomplished, much to the satisfaction of the party.
It was well on toward lunch-time ere the yacht's bunkers were full and
she was able to haul off from the coal hulk, and the greater part of the
afternoon was occupied by the crew in washing down the decks and paint
work, cleaning up generally, polishing brasswork, and restoring the
little vessel to her normal state of immaculate neatness; during which
Jack and the two Montijos took a final run ashore, for it had been
decided that, failing the occurrence of anything to cause an alteration
of their plans, they would leave for Cuba on the following day.
No attempt was made to preserve secrecy as to the yacht's movements;
nor, on the other hand, were the preparations for her departure
ostentatiously displayed. Soon after eight o'clock in the morning a
thin film of smoke was seen to issue from the vessel's funnel, gradually
increasing in density, and it became quite apparent to all who chose to
interest themselves in the matter that the _Thetis_ was getting up steam
in readiness to take her departure. And that she intended to leave
almost immediately was further indicated by the arrival alongside her of
a boat containing fresh water, and other boats containing fresh meat,
vegetables, fruit, and supplies generally. But there were no signs of
hurry on board the vessel: everything was done openly and leisurely, as
is the way of people who are taking their pleasure; and it was not until
nearly five o'clock in the afternoon that the boats were hoisted to the
davits, and a thin jet of steam spouting from the bows of the vessel
proclaimed that her crew were getting her anchor. And when at length
Perkins, the chief mate, standing in the bows of the vessel,
vociferously announced that the anchor was aweigh, there was no sign of
haste or anxiety in the slow, leisurely movement of the yacht as she
swept round in a wide circle from the spot where she had lain at anchor,
and headed seaward by way of the West Channel, dipping her ensign to the
men-o'-war in the roadstead as she went, while her crew catted and
fished the anchor on its appearance above the surface. Then, and not
until then, did the _Thetis_ quicken, until she was running at a speed
of about fourteen knots.
The yacht had been under way about half an hour when Jack, who with the
two Montijos and Milsom was on the top of the deck-house, diligently
watching the roadstead which they had just left, exclaimed: "Here she
comes!" and the Spanish torpedo boat was seen coming along astern, with
a dense cloud of black smoke pouring from her funnels, and the water
playing like a fountain about her sharp stem as she swept after the
_Thetis_ at full speed. Milsom looked at her long and earnestly through
his binoculars; then he turned to Jack and, with a frown wrinkling his
brow, said:
"By the look of that boat, and the pace at which she is coming through
the water, it appears to me, young man, that something has gone very
seriously wrong with the little job that you undertook to do yesterday.
Are you quite sure that you removed the nut?"
"Absolutely certain," answered Jack cheerfully.
"Then how do you account for the fact that she has not yet dropped her
propeller?" demanded Milsom.
"Easily enough," answered Jack. "She got under way, like ourselves, by
steaming ahead and sweeping round in a wide circle. So long as her
engines continue to turn ahead, her propeller will probably retain its
position on the shaft, kept there by the pressure of the water on its
blades; but the moment that she eases down, it will probably drop off,
or, if not then, it certainly will at the instant when her engines are
stopped. Don't be alarmed, Phil; you have only to cause her to stop her
engines, and you will see what will happen."
"Then," said Milsom, as he laid his hand upon the bridge telegraph and
signalled "Full speed ahead", "we will entice her a bit farther out to
sea before we do anything more. If she runs out of sight of the
anchorage before breaking down we shall get a nice little start, and
shall probably not be interfered with for the rest of the trip. Ah,
there is the edge of the bank ahead of us!" as a line of demarcation
between the pale, greenish-blue water over the reef and the deep-blue
water beyond it became visible. "Let her go off to due south," to the
quartermaster at the wheel; "we'll try to persuade them that we are
bound for Havana!"
"A stern chase is a long chase", especially when one craft has five or
six miles start of the other, and the pursuing craft has only a single
knot's--or perhaps not quite so much as that--advantage in speed; it was
consequently not until the brief dusk was deepening into darkness, and
the great mellow stars were leaping into view in the rapidly deepening
azure of the sky, that, the _Thetis_ being by that time about midway
between Key West and Havana, Milsom rang down to the engine-room for
half speed, and allowed the torpedo boat to range up abreast of the
yacht. This she did at a distance of about a quarter of a mile, without
making any attempt to speak to or interfere with the English vessel,
merely slowing down to regulate her pace to that of the yacht. Then
Milsom spoke down through the voice tube, ordering the engines to be
first stopped, and then to go slowly, but at a gradually increasing
speed, astern, by which means he quite expected to induce the commander
of the torpedo boat to stop. The result was everything that could have
been desired, for as soon as the Spaniard realised that he was running
ahead of the yacht in the most unaccountable way, he stopped his engines
and waited patiently for the other vessel to overtake him, his propeller
doubtless slipping off the tail-shaft and going to the bottom at the
instant of the stopping of the engines. But while the torpedo boat,
deprived of the drag of her propeller, continued to forge strongly ahead
under the impetus of her own momentum, the _Thetis_ was even more
rapidly widening the distance between herself and the torpedo boat by
going full speed astern, until, when the two craft were separated by
some three miles of heaving water, the perplexed and astounded Spanish
lieutenant, still ignorant of what had happened, made up his mind to go
back to see what the English ship was about, and, ordering his helm to
be put hard over, rang down to his engine-room for "full speed ahead".
Then the furious racing of his engines, as steam was admitted into the
cylinders, revealed the ghastly truth that he had lost his propeller and
was absolutely helpless, with the nearest land fully forty miles away.
He rushed from the bridge down into the tiny engine-room, to consult
with and explosively reprimand the engineers for permitting such a
mishap to occur; and at length, when his vexation had worked itself off,
returned to the deck and gave orders for signals of distress to be made,
by means of rockets, to the English yacht. But by that time the
_Thetis_ had vanished in the darkness; nor did she re-appear, although
the unfortunate lieutenant expended his entire stock of rockets in a
vain attempt to attract her attention.
CHAPTER FIVE.
HIS SPANISH MAJESTY'S GUNBOAT TIBURON.
Meanwhile the saloon party on board the _Thetis_, having comfortably
bestowed themselves in capacious basket chairs under the awning on the
top of the deck-house when the yacht got under way, watched with mingled
interest and amusement the strenuous pursuit of their own vessel by the
Spanish torpedo boat; and when at length Milsom gave the order for the
yacht's engines to be first stopped and then sent astern, they with one
accord rose to their feet and brought their glasses to bear upon the
torpedo boat, intent upon seeing what would next happen. For although
darkness had by this time fallen, the night was beautifully fine and
clear, and the mellow lustre of the innumerable stars shed a soft light
upon the scene that enabled the watchers, with the aid of their powerful
night glasses, to perceive with very tolerable distinctness whatever
might happen within so short a distance as a quarter of a mile, or even
twice as far. Presently Jack spoke.
"She has stopped, I think," he said; "at all events I can no longer
distinguish the phosphorescent wake made by her propeller; and if that
is the case we shall have no more trouble from her. Of course it would
have been easy enough for us to have made this pursuit impossible, by
removing her propeller when we were working at it yesterday; but the
thought occurred to me that, had we done so, the removal might have been
discovered, and in that case it is quite possible that suspicion, even
though of a very vague and doubtful character, might have fastened upon
us, with the result that at some future time, when it may be vitally
important for us to repeat the trick, such precautions might be taken as
would render its repetition impossible. As it is, the craft has been
under steam for a couple of hours, during which, to all appearance,
nothing was wrong with her. I do not think, therefore, that anyone is
in the least likely to connect us with the mishap."
"No," agreed Milsom, "the thing was most excellently done, Jack, it
could not possibly have been better managed; and the mishap will wear
the aspect of an ordinary accident of the sea. You have a longer head
upon you than I can boast, my lad; I should never have thought as far
ahead as you did. But I think we are far enough away from that boat now
to allow of our resuming our voyage." And he signalled to the engine-
room, first to "Stop", and then to go "Full speed ahead."
"Port your helm, Quartermaster," he said to the helmsman, "until she
heads due north, and then give her a very small touch of starboard
helm--just enough to enable us to make a wide circle round that torpedo
boat out yonder--until her head works round to south-west by west, when
you can steady her at that. That course," he explained to his
companions, "ought to run us within sight of the light on Jutias about
three bells in the middle watch."
"And when do you suppose we shall reach our destination, Captain?" asked
Don Hermoso.
"The Laguna de Cortes? Oh! about breakfast-time to-morrow morning, if
we keep the boat running at full speed, and do not meet with any
interruption on the way," answered Milsom.
"Hillo!" exclaimed Jack; "see that rocket, Phil? It looks as though it
might have been sent up by the torpedo boat. She will be somewhere out
in that direction, won't she?"
"Ay, there or thereabout," answered Milsom, glancing into the compass
bowl to get the bearing of the rocket. "That means that they've just
discovered the loss of their propeller, and are in trouble about it."
"I hope that the crew of the boat are in no danger," exclaimed Don
Hermoso anxiously. "I have no wish that they should come to harm--"
"No need to worry yourself about that, Senor," answered Milsom. "The
weather is fine, and the boat, no doubt, sound enough. The worst that
is likely to happen to them is that they will have to stay where they
are until something comes along and tows them into Havana."
At this moment the dinner gong sounded, and the little party retired
below.
When Jack went up on deck next morning, as the ship's bell was striking
eight, he saw that the yacht was running along, with her head to the
eastward, within about half a mile of some low land, dotted with trees,
which stretched ahead and astern of her for several miles on their port
hand, terminating at each extremity in a low headland. Inland, at a
distance of about twenty-five miles, rose a long range of hills, or low
mountains, which appeared to rise to a height of something between two
thousand and three thousand feet.
"Good-morning, Jack!" cheerily exclaimed the skipper, as Singleton ran
up the ladder on to the top of the deck-house. "Glorious morning, isn't
it? But it is going to be roasting hot a little later on; the sun has a
sting already, in spite of this piping easterly breeze."
"Yes," agreed Jack. "And if it is hot here, what must it be ashore?
But where are we now, Skipper?"
"Pretty close to our destination, I'm thankful to say," answered Milsom.
"That point astern is Cape Corrientes, the point ahead is Mangle Point,
four miles beyond which is Cape Frances, where we shall run in upon the
Bank, or shoal, which extends eastward for something like one hundred
and sixty miles to the end of the Jardinillos. Those hills, inland
there, are called the Organ Mountains; though, to my mind, the name is
much too grandiloquent for such insignificant elevations. I hope that
pilot chap who is to take us into the lagoon will be keeping a bright
lookout for us; I have just been having a squint at the chart, and I
tell you, Jack, that I don't half like the idea of taking this little
beauty in over that precious Bank, where it would be the easiest thing
in the world to rip the bottom out of her on some unsuspected upstanding
coral snag. I mean to go dead slow all the while that we are on that
Bank, I can tell you, although I happen to know the greater part of it
as well as I know my own back garden. And it is perhaps because I know
it so well that I like it so little. Ah!"--as the yacht swung round the
point which she had been approaching, and opened out for another about
four miles farther on--"there is Cape Frances; and there is the Bank
showing up plainly enough. That is it, where the colour of the water
changes from dark blue to almost white. And now it is time for us to
hoist the signal by which the pilot is to identify us. Mr Perkins,
have the goodness to bend on Y and run it up to the fore truck, if you
please."