by Max Brand
“I was comin’ down out of the wheelhouse,” said the mate, “to get a bite of lunch — this bein’ a night watch — when I seen this little yellow rat sneakin’ down the deck like a thief. I didn’t think nothin’ much about it, supposin’ he’d just lifted some chow, maybe, and then I heard them explosions. They knocked me off my pins, but I scrambled over an’ collared this fellow. He showed he was guilty right off the bat by yellin’ for mercy.”
“Captain, captain!” screamed Kamasura. “Lies, lies-all lies. I go down the deck—”
The heavy hand of Eric Borgson smashed against Kamasura’s mouth. The Jap sagged back, was jerked upright, and the mate’s clubbed fist jarred home again.
“Lies, are they?” thundered Borgson. “I’ll teach you to say that word to Eric Borgson, ha!”
And he struck the half-conscious Jap again full in the face. There was
a slight commotion in the back of the gathering crowd of sailors.
Harrigan was urging forward, but he was caught by the iron hands of
McTee and held back.
“For the love of Mike,” moaned the Irishman softly, “let me at that swine of a mate!”
“Shut up!” cautioned McTee savagely, but in a whisper. “That’s the Jap who tried to knife you!”
“I will — I’ll shut up,” sighed Harrigan, panting, “but ah-h, to get in punchin’ distance of Borgson for one second!”
“What shall we do with him?” Borgson was asking.
“Captain!” begged the husky voice of Kamasura, fighting his way back to semi-consciousness.
“If he tries to speak again, smash his mouth in,” said Henshaw without raising his voice. “Tonight put him in irons. I’ll tend to him tomorrow. Go get the irons. Hovey, take Kamasura below.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” said Hovey, and caught the Jap by the arms behind.
That touch quieted Kamasura, and as he was led off, he began to whisper quickly.
The moment they were away from the crowd, Hovey said: “Say it slow — no, you don’t have to beg me to help you. I’ll do what I can. You know that. Now tell me what you saw.”
“Cap’n McTee — behind the wireless house — holding the hand of Harrigan.
They were talkin’ soft — like friends!”
“By God,” muttered Hovey fiercely, “an’ yet McTee told me he wanted Harrigan put out of the way. He’s double-crossin’ us. They’re teamin’ it together. What did they say?”
The Jap spat blood copiously before he could answer: “I could not hear.”
“You ain’t worth your salt,” responded Hovey.
“I cannot help — I am crush — I am defeat. Do not let them bring me before Henshaw. To look at him — it puts the cold in my heart. I cannot speak. I shall die — I—”
“Keep your head up,” said Hovey. “There’s nothing I can say that’ll help you — just now. Later on you’ll be able to deal with Henshaw and Borgson just the way they dealt with you. Does that help any?”
“Ah-h,” whispered the Jap and drew in his breath sharply with delight.
“I might start the boys — I might turn them loose on the ship,” went on Hovey, “but the time ain’t come yet for that. We’re too far from the coast. Whatever happens, Kamasura, can you promise me to keep your face shut about the mutiny?”
“Yes-s.”
“Even if they was to tie you up an’ feed you the lash? Henshaw’s equal to that.”
Kamasura stammered, hesitated.
“Don’t make no mistake,” said Hovey fiercely, “because we’ll be standin’ close, some of us, an’ the first tune you open your damned mouth, we’ll bash your head in. Get me?”
The entrance of Eric Borgson made it impossible for the Jap to answer with words, but his eyes were eloquent with promise. Hovey started back for the forecastle; he had much to say to the sailors, and thereafter life on the Heron would be equally dangerous for both Harrigan and McTee.
The two, in the meantime, were making their way aft shoulder to shoulder. When they reached the stretch of deck behind the wireless house, McTee said: “Harrigan, what’s it to be? Are you for fighting it out?”
“I’m with you in anything you say,” retorted the dauntless Irishman, and then with a changed voice, “but I’m feelin’ sort of sick inside, Angus. Did ye see that murtherin’ dog smash the mouth of that Jap when he hadn’t the strength to lift his head? Ah-h!”
“I’m sick, too,” said McTee, “but not because of the Jap. It’s something worse that bothers me.”
“What?”
“It’s the thought of White Henshaw, Dan. The brain of that old devil is going back on him. I think he loves death more than life. His memories of what he’s done put him in hell every minute he lives.”
“Go easy, McTee,” said Harrigan. “D’you mean to say that Henshaw blew up those boats — an’ his ship still in the middle of the Pacific?”
“I say nothing. All I know is that he talked damned queerly of how wonderful it would be if a ship in the middle of the sea put her nose under the waves and started for Davy Jones’s locker. Yes, if she went down with all hands — dived for the bottom, in fact.”
“What can we do?”
“I don’t know, but I’m beginning to think that this ship — and our lives — would be safer in the hands of Hovey and his gang of cutthroats than they will be under White Henshaw. Queer things are going to happen on the Heron, Harrigan, mark my word.”
“You think Henshaw blew up the boats so not one of the crew could escape?”
“It sounds too crazy to repeat.”
“McTee!”
“Yes, I’m thinking of her, too.”
“Between the mutiny and the crazy captain, Angus, it’ll take both of us to pull her through.”
“It will.”
“Then gimme your hand once more, cap’n. We’re in the trough of the sea once more, an’ God knows when we’ll reach dry land, but while we’re on the Heron, we’re brothers once more. For her sake I’ll forget I hate you till we’ve got the honest ground under our feet once more.”
“When the time comes,” said McTee, “it’ll be a wonderful fight.”
“It will,” agreed Harrigan fervently. “But first, McTee, we must let her know that we’re standin’ shoulder to shoulder to fight for her. Otherwise she won’t give us her trust.”
“You’re right again. We’ll go to her cabin now and tell her. But don’t give her a hint of all that we fear. She already knows about the mutiny — and she knows about your part in it.”
“You saw to that, McTee?” said Harrigan softly, as he pulled on his shirt.
“I did.”
“Ah-h, Angus, that fight’ll be even better than I was afther thinkin’.”
And they went forward, walking again shoulder to shoulder. It was Harrigan who stood in front at her door and knocked. She opened it wide, but at sight of him started to slam it again. He blocked it with his foot.
“I’ve not come for my own sake,” he said in a hard voice, “but the two of us have come together.”
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, and she made out the towering form of McTee. At that she opened the door, glancing curiously from one to the other. The eyes of Harrigan went from her face to McTee, and his eyes flamed.
“Speak up, McTee,” he said savagely. “Tell her you lied about me.”
The Scotchman glowered upon him.
“I’ll tell her what I’ve just found out,” he answered coldly, and turned to Kate. “We were mistaken in what we thought when we overheard Hovey talking with Harrigan. Dan was simply playing a part with them — he was trying to learn their plans so as to use them against the mutineers when the time came.”
There was a joyousness in her voice that cut McTee like a knife as she cried: “I knew! I knew! My instinct fought for you, Dan. I couldn’t believe what I heard!”
“What you both heard?” he said bitterly. “I remember now. It was when I talked with Hovey in front of this cabin?�
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“Ask no more questions,” said McTee. “I’m seeing red now.”
“Black! You see nothin’ but black, ye swine! The soot in your soul is a stain in your eyes, McTee.”
They turned toward the door, but she sprang before it and set her shoulders against the boards.
“Sit down — you too, Dan.”
They obeyed slowly, McTee taking the edge of the bunk and Harrigan lowering his bulk to the little campstool, which groaned beneath his weight. She sat on a chair between them, while she looked from face to face.
“When you came in you were friends,” she said, “and the only thing that could bring you to friendship was danger. There is danger. What?”
They exchanged glances of wonder at this shrewd interpretation.
“There is danger,” said McTee at length, “and it’s a danger which is something more than the mutiny, perhaps.”
“I will tell it,” said Harrigan.
He drew his chair closer to Kate and leaned over so that his face was near hers. She knew at once that he had forgotten all about the presence of McTee.
“Kate, I will not lie to ye, colleen” — here McTee set his teeth, but Harrigan went on— “I hate McTee, and it’s for your sake that I hate him. And it’s for your sake that I’m goin’ to forget it for a while. There’s throuble abroad — there’s a cloud over this ship an’ a curse on it—”
“What he means to say,” broke in McTee, and then he became aware that she had not heard him speak, and he saw her smiling as she drank in the musical brogue of the Irishman.
“A curse on it, acushla, an’ a promise av death that only two shtrong men can save you from — an’ McTee is shtrong — so I’ve put away desire av killin’ him till we get you safe an’ sound to the shore, colleen, acushla; but ye must trust in us, an’ follow us as ye love your life an’ as I love ye!”
She straightened in her chair and turned her eyes toward McTee.
“And you cannot tell me what the danger is?”
“We cannot,” he answered, “but you must pay no attention to anything that happens or to anything that is said to you by others. There are only two men on the Heron whom you can trust — and here we are. But there may be wild happenings on the Heron. Keep your courage and trust in Angus McTee and—”
“And Harrigan,” broke in the Irishman quickly, with a glare at the captain.
She reached an impulsive hand to both of them, and they met the clasp, keeping, as it were, one eye upon her and one eye of hate upon each other.
She said, and her voice was low and musical with exultation: “I’ve no care what happens. I know we shall pull through safely. The three of us — Dan, Angus — we lived through the storm when the Mary Rogers sank, we lived on the island and survived, we reached the Heron in safety, and as long as we stay together, we’d be safe if the whole world were against us. Don’t you feel it?”
She rose, and they stood up, towering above her, while she went on in a voice trembling somewhat: “But we must not be seen together if all these dangers threaten us; they must not know that the three of us are like one great heart.”
They stepped back, and McTee pulled open the door, but still she retained their hands, and now she raised them both to her lips with a gesture so swift that they could not resist it.
“Both of you,” she said; “God bless you both!”
CHAPTER 31
SHE RELEASED THEIR hands; the door closed upon them; they stood facing each other on the deck in the dark.
“McTee,” said Harrigan with deep emotion, “we’re swine. We were about to fight before — her.”
“Harrigan,” said McTee, “we are swine. But when the time comes, we’ll make up for it to her. If you hear a word in the forecastle, let me know about it; if I hear a word in the captain’s cabin, I’ll send for you. I may be wrong. Henshaw may be in his right senses. We’ll see. In the meantime there are just the two of us, Harrigan, and against us there’s a mutinous crew on one side and a mad captain, I think, on the other.”
“There’s no use in thinkin’,” said Harrigan; “when the time comes, we’ll fight. So long, Angus. When the trouble starts, our assemblin’ point is Kate.”
And he went forward to the forecastle. In the morning he discovered what he wanted to know. The men were aloof from him. He was conscious of eyes upon him whenever his back was turned, but while he faced them, no one would meet his glance.
In some way Hovey had learned that Harrigan was no longer to be trusted as a member of the mutineers, and he must have spread his tidings among the rest of the sailors. What he sensed in those covert glances, however, was not an immediate danger, but rather a waiting — an expectancy, and he deduced rightly that they would not attempt to lay a hand upon him until the mutiny was started. Then he would be reserved for some lingering death as a traitor doubly dyed.
While they were eating breakfast, Hovey came in late with the word that during the night someone had tampered with the dynamo, and the result was that the ship must complete her voyage without electric lights and — far more important — without the use of the wireless. Sam Hall started to blurt a comment on this, but a glance from Hovey silenced him. It was plain that the bos’n would risk no conversation from his blunt sailors while Harrigan was in earshot. The Irishman hurried through his breakfast and took his bucket and scrubbing brush toward the bridge, for he had many questions to ask McTee. He had scarcely left the forecastle when Hovey said to Garry Cochrane: “Watch the door. I’ve got something important to say.”
Cochrane took up the designated position, and Hovey went on: “Lads, I’ve bad news, bad and good news together. The boats are gone — though who the devil destroyed them we don’t know — and now the wireless is destroyed. The boats are a big loss, for now we’ll have to rig up some sort of a raft to make shore when we beach the Heron. The busting of the wireless almost balances that loss. Now we’re sure they can’t slip out any quick wireless call that would bring a dozen ships after us. Bad news and good news together; and here’s some more of the same kind.
“Henshaw has made up his mind to give Kamasura the whip. You know what that means? Well, I’ll tell you. It means that after the first dozen strokes — as Borgson will lay them on — Kamasura will break down and tell everything we don’t want him to say. Understand? With the cabin warned of what we’re going to do, what chance would we have to take them? So we’ll hang around close, lads, and the minute Kamasura opens his face to say the wrong thing, we’ll rush ’em — are you with me? And go for two men first — Black McTee and Harrigan. With them out of the way we’ll simply chew up the rest. Try to take the others alive, but don’t waste any time with McTee and the Irishman. You can lay to it before you start that they’ll never be taken till they’re dead.”
For some minutes he talked on, appointing to each man or group of men the work he would be expected to perform when Hovey gave the signal to attack, which would be one long blast on his whistle.
While they planned, Harrigan had reached the bridge and found McTee impatiently awaiting him.
“You’re late,” frowned the Scotchman. “What’s happened in the forecastle?”
“Black looks on all sides, and no talk,” said Harrigan.
“A falling barometer,” nodded McTee, “and things are just as bad in the cabin. You’ve heard about the wireless breaking?”
“I have. What does it mean?”
“It may have been done by the mutineers. I doubt it. But that isn’t all that’s happened. This is a pretty cool day for the tropics.”
Harrigan stared at him, baffled by the sudden change of the conversation.
“It is cool,” he assented.
“But in the fireroom it’s hotter than it’s been at any time since the Heron started on this trip. The second assistant came up to complain to Henshaw, and I heard them.
“‘There’s something wrong with the air shafts,’ he said to White
Henshaw.
“‘Look her
e,’ said Henshaw, ‘I’ve had enough grumbling from the fireroom. Put a fan in the air shaft, and don’t come up here again with any nonsense. D’you expect to find cool breezes in the South Seas? No, they’re hot as fire — hot as fire — hot as fire!’
“He repeated those words three times over in a way that made my flesh creep, and then he laughed. Even the second saw that something was wrong. He took a long look at Henshaw, and then he went out with his head down.”
“What did it all mean?” asked Harrigan.
“I don’t know. I don’t dare think what it means. But if my guess is right, then the Heron is a lot nearer hell than even you and I expected. Look, there goes Fritz Klopp, the first assistant engineer. I’ll wager he’s got another complaint about the heat in the fireroom.”
They watched Klopp go into the captain’s cabin, waited a moment, and then the door flew open and Klopp sprang out and fled aft like a man pursued. Henshaw came to the open door and peered after the engineer and laughed silently.
McTee muttered: “That’s the way the devil laughs when he watches the damned souls pass by.”
Here Henshaw glanced up and saw them watching him from the bridge. His face altered suddenly to a malevolence so terrible that both the men stepped back. Harrigan was trembling like a hysterical girl. He looked in the face of McTee and saw that the Scotchman had blanched. For a long moment they exchanged glances, and then McTee went down from the bridge and entered the cabin.
Henshaw was not there. He had evidently gone into the inner room, and McTee sat down to wait. The time had come for him to ask questions, and he was nerving himself for the ordeal. His plans were disturbed by a muffled sound from the inner cabin, a sound so unusual that McTee stiffened in his chair with horror and then rose slowly.