Never before did I understand the pleasure of killing a man. Since then,it makes me shudder when I think of how so potent a passion, or so keena pleasure, can rest latent in the heart of a righteous man. It may havebeen that between the man and myself was all the antagonism that camefrom race, and fear, and wrongdoing; but the act of his killing was tome a joy unspeakable. It will rest with me as a wild pleasure till Idie.
I took all the arms he had about him, two revolvers and a knife; theywould give me fourteen more shots were I hard pressed. In any case theywere safer, so far as Marjory and I were concerned, in my hands thanin those of our enemies. I dragged the body of the negro into the cabinwith the other dead man; then I closed the door on them, and whenMarjory joined me, I locked the door of her cabin and took away the key.In case of suspicion this might give us a few minutes of extra time.
Marjory came with me up on deck; and as she caught sight of the open seathere was an unspeakable gladness on her face. We seized a favourableopportunity, when no one was looking, for all on deck were busy haulingup the treasure; and slipped behind the cask fastened to the mast. Therewe breathed freely. We both felt that should the worst come to theworst we could get away before any one could touch us. One rush to thebulwarks and over. They would never attempt to follow us, and there wasa chance of a swim to shore. I gave Marjory a belt with two revolvers.As she strapped it on she felt safer; I knew it by the way she drewherself up, and threw back her shoulders.
When the last of the bags which held the treasure came on board, the menwho had come with it closed in a ring around the mass as it lay on deck.They were all armed; I could see that they did not trust the sailors,for each moment some one's hand would go back to his gun. We heard oneof them ask as he looked round: "What has become of that damned nigger?He must take his share of work!" Marjory was very brave and very still;I could see that her nerve was coming back to her. After a littlewhispered conversation, the newcomers began to carry the bags down tothe cabin; it was slow work, for two always stood guard above, and tworemained down below evidently on similar duty. Discovery of the dead manmust come soon, so Marjory and I stole behind the foremast which waswell away from every one. She was first, and as she began to pass behindshe recoiled; she got the drop on some one in front of her. There was asmothered 'h-s-s-sh' and she lowered her weapon. Turning to me she saidin a faint whisper:
"It is the Spaniard; what is he doing here?" I whispered back:
"Be good to him. He is a noble fellow, and has behaved like a knight ofold!" I pressed forward and took his hand. "How did you get here?" Iasked. His answer was given in so faint a voice that I could see that hewas spent and tired, if not injured:
"I swam, too. When I saw their boat pull out of the northern channel, Imanaged to scramble down part of the cliff, and then jumped. FortunatelyI was not injured. It was a long, weary swim, and I thought I shouldnever be able to get through; but at last the current took me andcarried me to the ship. She was anchored with a hawser, not a cable.I managed to climb up it; and when I was on board I cut it nearlythrough."
Even as he spoke there was a queer lurch of the ship which lay sternforward, and a smothered ejaculation from all the seamen.
The hawser had parted and we were drifting before wind and tide. Then itwas that I felt we should give warning to the yacht and the battleship.I knew that they were not far off; had I not seen them in my vision,which had now been proven. Then it was also that the words of the youngAmerican came back to me: "Give us a light, if you have to fire the shipto get it."
All this time, from the moment when I had set foot on the whaler's decktill this instant, events had moved with inconceivable rapidity. Therehad been one silent, breathless rush; during which two lives had beentaken and Marjory set free. Only a few minutes had elapsed in all; andwhen I looked around under the altered conditions, things seemed to bealmost where they had been. It was like the picture in one's mind madeby a lightning flash; when the period of reception is less than the timeof the smallest action, and movement is lost in time. The fog belt wasthinning out, and there was in the night air a faint suggestion that onemight see, if there were anything to be seen.
The great Rock of Dunbuy towered up; I could just distinguish so much onthe land side. Whilst I was looking, there came a sudden light and thena whirr; high overhead through the sea fog we could see faintly thefiery trail of a rocket.
Instantly out at sea was an answer; a great ray of light shot upwards,and we could see its reflection in the sky. None of us said anything;but instinctively Marjory and I clasped hands. Then the light ray seemedto fall downward to the sea. But as it came down, the fog seemed togrow thicker and thicker till the light was lost in its density. Therewas stir of all on our ship. No loud word was spoken, but whispereddirections, given with smothered curses, flew. Each man of the crewseemed to run to his post, and with a screeching and straining the sailsrose. The vessel began to slip through the water with added speed. Now,if ever, was our time to warn our friends. The little rockets which Ihad brought had been sodden with water and were useless, and besides wehad no way of getting a light. The only way of warning was by sound, andthe only sound to carry was a pistol shot. For an instant I hesitated,for a shot meant a life if we should be pushed to it. But it must bedone; so signing to the others I ran aft and when close to the mastfired my revolver. Instantly around me was a chorus of curses. I bentdouble and ran back, seeing through the darkness vague forms rush towhere I had been. The fog was closing thicker around us; it seemed toboil over the bulwarks as we passed along. We had either passed intoanother belt of fog, or one was closing down upon us with the wind. Thesound of the pistol shot had evidently reached the war ship. She was faroff us, and the sounds came faintly over the waste of stormy sea; butthere was no mistaking the cheer followed by commands. These soundedfaint and hoarsely; a few words were spoken with a trumpet, and thencame the shrill whistle of the boatswain's pipe.
On our own deck was rushing to and fro, and frenzied labour everywhere.The first object was to get away from the searchlight; they would seekpresently, no doubt, for who had fired the betraying shot. If I couldhave known what to do, so as to stay our progress, there would have beenother shots; for now that we were moving through the water, every secondmight take us further from the shore and place us deeper in the toils ofour foes.
CHAPTER LII
THE SKARES
I whispered to Marjory and Don Bernardino:
"If they once get away we are lost! We must stop them at all hazards!"The Spaniard nodded and Marjory squeezed my hands; there was no needof speech. Then I fixed the order of battle. I was to fire first, thenthe Spaniard, then Marjory, each saving his fire till we knew whetheranother shot was required. This precaution was necessary, as we had noreserve ammunition. We took it for granted that the chambers of therevolvers were full; my one shot had been satisfactory in this respect.When the sails were set and we began rushing through the water I sawthat even at the risk of betraying ourselves to our enemies we must givewarning again, and so fired. There was an answering cheer from the_Keystone_ through the fog; and then a sudden rush forward of those onour own deck. When they were close to us, the seamen hung back; but themen of the gang kept on firing as they came. Fortunately we were in aline behind cover, for I could hear the 'ping' and the tearing wood asthe bullets struck the mast. I fired a shot just to show that we werearmed; and heard a sharp cry. Then they fell back. In a moment or twothey also had formed their plan of battle. These were men used to suchencounters; and as they knew that at such times a quick rush may meaneverything, they did not let the grass grow under their feet. I couldsee one of the seamen remonstrating with them, and hear the quick,angry tones of his voice, though I could not distinguish the words.
He pointed out into the fog, where now there was distinctly a luminouspatch of light: the searchlight was moving towards us. The _Keystone_was coming down on us.
The blackmailer shook off the seaman and, then gave some directions tohis comrades; they spread out right and left of us, and tried to findsome kind of cover. I lifted Marjory and put her standing on the barrelfastened behind the mast, for I thought that as the flash of my pistolhad come from the deck they would not expect any one to be raised sohigh. Don Bernardino and I curled down on the deck, and our opponentsbegan to fire. In the thickening fog, and with the motion of the shipwhich threw us all about like ninepins, their aim was vague; fortunatelyno one was hit. When I thought I had a chance I fired, but there wasno response; the Don got a shot and Marjory another, but there was nosound, save that of the bullets striking on wood or iron. Then Marjory,whose traditional instinct was coming into play, fired twice in rapidsuccession; there was a quick exclamation and then a flood of horribleprofanity, the man was only winged. Again and again they fired, and Iheard a groan behind me from the Don.
"What's that?" I whispered, not daring to stop or even to look back:
"My arm! Take my pistol, I cannot shoot with my left hand." I put myhand back, and he placed the revolver in it. I saw a dark form rushacross the deck and fired--and missed. I tried another shot; but theweapon only answered with a click; the chambers were exhausted. So Iused the other revolver. And so for a few minutes a furious fight wenton. Marjory seldom fired, she was holding herself in reserve; butbefore I knew what was happening my second revolver was empty. Ourantagonists were no chickens at their work; there was little to teachany of them in such a method of contest as this. Some one had evidentlybeen counting the shots, for he suddenly called out:
"Not yet boys! They've at least three shots still!" With a suddensimultaneous rush they ran back into shelter.
During this time we had been tearing through the water at our fullspeed. But behind us on the port quarter was the sound of a great shipsteaming on. The roar of the furnaces could be heard in the trumpetingof the funnels. The boatswain's whistles were piping, and there werevoices of command cutting hoarsely through the fog. The searchlight toowas at work; we could see its rays high up on the mist, though they didnot at the moment penetrate sufficiently to expose us to the lookout ofthe _Keystone_. Closer on our starboard quarter was another sound whichcame on the trailing wind, the rush of a small vessel running fast.We could hear down the wind the sharp 'slap slap' of the waves on thebows, and the roaring of the wind among the cordage. This must bethe _Sporran_ following us close with grim disregard of danger. Thecommander of the whaler, recognising the possibility of discovery, puthis helm hard to starboard. I could myself not see through the darkness;but the seaman did and took his chance of grounding in Cruden Bay. Whenwe had run in a little way the helm was jammed hard down again, andwe ran on the other tack; for the moment we were lost to both the warship and the yacht. Marjory looked at me appealingly and I nodded; thesituation was not one to be risked. She fired another shot from herpistol. There was an immediate reply from far out on our port side inthe shape of more directions spoken with the trumpet and answeringpiping from the boatswains. Several shots were fired towards us by thegang; they were manifestly on chance, for they went wildly wide of us.Then we could hear an angry remonstrance from the whaler captain, and athreat that if there were any more firing, he would down with his sailsand take chance of being captured. One of the gang answered him:
"That packet can't capture you within the three-mile limit; it's acruiser of Uncle Sam's and they won't risk having to lie up in harbourhere till the war is over." To which the other surlily replied:
"I wouldn't put money on it. Anyhow someone will! You keep quiet if youcan. There's enough against us already if we should be caught!" Thereply of the blackmailer was at least practical. I could not see what hedid, but I took it that he put his pistol to the captain's head as hesaid with a frightful oath:
"You'll go on as you arranged with me; or I'll blow your brains outwhere you stand. There's quite enough against any of us, you included;so your one chance anyhow is to get out of this hole. See?" The captainaccepted the position and gave his orders with a quiet delivery, to theeffect that we ran first shorewards and then to starboard again till wewere running back on our tracks like a hare.
Suddenly, however, this course was brought to an end by our almostrunning into a small vessel which as we passed I could see by its trimappearance was a yacht. We were so close for a few seconds, whilst weran across her stern, that I shouted out:
"All right, MacRae. All safe as yet. She's trying to run out to sea. Tryto tell the _Keystone_." The answer was a cheer from all aboard.
As our ship swept into the fog, several of our enemies ran at us. Ihanded Don Bernardino his own dagger and took the bowie knife myself.Then we stood ready in case our foes should get to close quarters.They got nearly up to us, firing as they came; but we were just thensheltering behind the mast and no injury was done. They hesitated tocome on, not seeing us; and we waited. As we stood with beating heartsthe ship began to come to starboard again. We must have been shelteredin some way, for we did not seem to feel either wind or tide so much asbefore. Suddenly one of the seamen said:
"Whist! I hear breakers!" The rest paused and listened, and the captaincalled out: