The Pirate Story Megapack. R.M. Ballantyne

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СКАЧАТЬ on him, finger on trigger, a look of deviltry on his face that showed that firing would be a delight. Lynda spoke close to Jim’s ear.

      “Don’t, please. We need you. It was nothing.”

      “You heard me, Stevens,” roared Swenson. “You obey orders or, by God, you won’t be able to hear ’em! Now, about these pearls?”

      “They are back of the washstand,” said Kitty. “The panel moves. The hot-water pipes are not practical. One of them…”

      Swenson rapped on the mahogany panel while Stevens, subdued, held a gun in one hand, a torch in the other. Jim contemplated a rush, a grab for the gun, but he was weak with the blow Swenson had given him. If he failed it might be the finish for all of them, for there were Swenson’s men on deck, with his own traitors. Mist gathered in front of him from faintness that he fought off valiantly.

      Swenson impatiently smashed in the panel after his test had shown a hollow space back of it. The plumbing was disclosed, two pipes leading to the faucets, the one to the left connected with the impractical hot-water system.

      “Those joints screw up and down, then a section of the pipe comes loose,” said Kitty in a hard little voice. “The pipe is plugged. If father did not take the pearls with him they will be there.”

      Swenson manipulated the joints. As he shifted the lower one a section of the pipe came out in his hands, an ideal hiding place. Even in systematically wrecking the vessel it would never be suspected but torn away with the other fittings. The top of the pipe was closed by a tightly fitting cork. Swenson dug this out with his knife. Cotton packing followed. Precaution had been planned to prevent a rattle of any kind. The end of the section was closed by metal. Swenson tilted the pipe, shook it, examined it by the light of the torch and flung it down with a volley of imprecations.

      “Tricked, by God!” he wound up, glaring at Kitty.

      “I have not tricked you,” she said calmly and Jim could see conviction register on Hellfire’s inflamed face as he stared at her. “That is the hiding-place. I am sure father would never have disclosed it. I am sure he would have kept it secret. If the pearls are gone it is because he himself removed them.” And her voice proclaimed the joy she felt at this evidence of her belief that her father had mastered his situation and escaped from it with the gems.

      “If he’s on this island,” said Swenson, gritting his teeth, “I’ll find him, dead or alive, and I’ll get those pearls if I have to go to hell after them. One thing you can be sure of,” he went on, “none of you’ll leave this ship until I’ve combed this island and the other one. If I get the pearls I may leave you a boat. Your schooner’s at the bottom of the lagoon by now. Or I may not. You can stay here and play you’re married. Don’t try to leave this ship until I come back. I’m leaving guards. And I’ll see that you get some grub. Come on, Stevens.”

      “She may have lied to you about the hiding-place.”

      “You’re nothing short of a damned idiot, Stevens, at this sort of thing. You boast you know women, an’ don’t know that she told the truth. You haven’t trailed with her kind. Would a man have two hideouts like that? You told me the truth—on your honor?”

      “On my honor,” said Kitty.

      “That’s something you may not understand, never havin’ had any of your own,” sneered Swenson at Stevens. “But it’s good enough for me. Whiting got clear somehow. You saw that skeleton alongside. I’m saying he got clear and we’ll find what’s left of him somewhere about. In a cave, likely. Where he is, the pearls are. Come on.”

      “I’m not going on such a fool’s errand.”

      “Then stay behind and be damned to you! Glad you brought some kanakas with you from Suva, Lyman. They are goin’ to come in mighty handy for me, choppin’ bush. You four have got the run below of this hulk. Hatches will be guarded and so will the skylight. If you try any funny stuff it’ll be boarded over.”

      “What about my men?” demanded Jim. “You said they were not all traitors.”

      “One of ’em’s got a busted head. Another one, a wild Irishman, had to be choked before he quit. Your mate’s thrown in with us. Your engineer was put out of business with a broken arm. The steward and the squareheads have been my men for two weeks or more. As to the other man you left aboard, Cheng was going to give him a chance, but I heard a shot or two fired; mebbe you did. I don’t much imagine you’ll see him again. I’ll send the cripples below for you to take care of.”

      He stamped out of the stateroom into the main cabin with Stevens, and up the companionway to the deck. Stevens lingered to give a look malicious and evil before he disappeared.

      “You’re hurt badly.” Kitty had come to Jim’s side. There was a break in her voice that acted upon him as an elixir.

      “I’m all right,” he managed to say, but the girl had touched his head and found blood. She went back into the stateroom and ripped at the sheets but they shredded under her hands. With a shrug of petulance she closed the door behind her and came out in a moment with some strips of sheer linen. This she bound about Jim’s head despite his protest.

      “The others will need it more than I do,” he said.

      “I don’t agree with you,” Kitty answered almost sharply. “We’ll attend to them as soon as they let us have them.”

      “Here they come now,” said Newton. The companionway opened and their wounded men were delivered to them, roughly and gruffly, Neilson and Vogt acting as two of the bearers. Sanders had a broken arm from manhandling. Walker was insensible, with a skull that seemed as if it might be fractured. Moore, too, was unconscious. He had put up a notable fight, it seemed. His clothes were torn to rags, his face a mass of contusions; his neck showed black bruises and his naked torso was smeared with blood. Jim was hard put to it to keep his hands off Neilson and Vogt, whose sullen pose was not proof against the steady look of disdain the two women bestowed upon them. Stevens lolled in the entrance, gun in hand.

      “You’ll get fed tonight,” he said. “Sorry you’ve lost your cook. Treat me right and I’ll reciprocate. The skipper’s by way of being a woman-hater. I’m not. You may see me later. He won’t have any women aboard ship. That’s where I differ from him, if they’re reasonably attractive. It would be a shame to leave you ladies on the island and tha’s what the skipper intends to do for his own protection. Think it over.”

      His eyes bulged and he pressed trigger as Jim leaped for him, stumbling backward up the ladder as he saw his shot had missed. Jim caught him by the ankle, but two of Swenson’s men had flung themselves upon him, for his own safety, since Stevens dared not fire again for fear of hitting them. Instead, Stevens scuttled up the companionway through the hatch and the two flung Jim to the floor where he lay panting. The rest left, and the companion hatch was closed. The evil face of Stevens looked down through the skylight. They heard him give orders to shoot on suspicion.

      “You make a move that looks phony,” he shouted down, “and we’ll finish you. Meantime, starve and be damned to you!”

      The shifting sunlight showed that soon they would be again in comparative darkness. The ports were undoubtedly crusted tight; leaves masked them. The only light would be what filtered down through the natural shaft and the skylight. Their schooner—if they could believe Swenson and the shots they had heard—was sunk. Wood was killed. Three, aside from Jim, were badly injured. Sanders and Walker needed medical treatment. Their chief jailer was a cruel СКАЧАТЬ