Mr. Wicker's Window

by Carley Dawson

  CHAPTER 33

  The smoke of the guns of both ships so hung upon the air that Chriscounted on its heavy curtain to screen him from his enemies. He swamto the far side of the attacking vessel and there forced his magicknife for the second time against the side of the _Vulture_.

  He was treading water, holding to a rope that dangled over the side ofthe ship when, with no interior tremor of warning, a cut that healmost thought had penetrated to the bone lashed across his shouldersnarrowly missing his left ear. Without stopping to think Chris tookhalf a breath and submerged as deeply as he could go, hearing abovehim, even through the sounds of the battle and the wavering water, the"fleck!" of Claggett Chew's metal-tipped whip as it hit the waterwhere he had been only a second before. Chris would have dived underthe great barnacled hull of the _Vulture_ then and there, to come upon the other side, but good swimmer though he was, he was unsure thathe could hold even a full breath for so long a dive. Added to this, hehad had no time to do more than gasp a momentary breath of air, andeven as he rose to the surface with bursting lungs, he saw the figureof a man leap into the water from the side of the _Vulture_.

  Before the bubbles of the man's descent had had time to disappear, themost dreaded of all sights for a swimmer showed itself above thewater. It was the sinister triangle of a shark's-fin cutting thesurface of the sea as it advanced with terrifying speed to where Chrisgazed, almost paralyzed with horror.

  Thrusting the knife into the pouch at his neck, Chris took the shapeof a dolphin and plunged deeply, even as the infuriated shark wascarried over and beyond him by its own impetus before it could turn.But turn it did, with lightning speed, and Chris knew he had noprotection against that murderous underslung jaw racked above andbelow with deadly teeth.

  The shark, in one long powerful movement, had turned and gone underthe dolphin, which now raced upward from the dim, lightless depths ofthe sea to the surface where it hoped to escape. The shark turned onits back with a motion at once lazy and sickening in its assurance ofits prey. Its soft greenish-white belly glimmered slimily in the sea,its frightful jaws open as it came almost languidly up through thewater, certain of snapping its adversary in half.

  But in that one moment when it turned belly uppermost, its eyes wereunable to watch its goal, and in that moment the dolphin made adesperate leap from the water and a sea bird soared into the air.

  The sea bird had no more than wheeled to sight the shark below, when ascream from the air above it made it instantly drop and shift to oneside as a hawk, talons spread and eyes red with hatred, plunged downfrom a great height, its beak open to seize and to rend.

  The sea bird, veering away on the wind, became a fly, but the hawkinstantly vanished to be replaced by a bat, which darted after the flywith such velocity that it was the current of air from its wings thatdrove the fly closer to the pirate ship.

  With a despairing effort, the fly flew directly into the smoke of thebattle, and at that moment a mouse hid in a corner near an overturnedcask shaking in all its limbs, its pointed teeth chattering withfright. Finally regaining its breath, it ventured to look around thecorner. All seemed serene to the mouse, who saw no shadow of danger,although sounds of battle still ebbed and flowed on the deck below it,crisscrossed by shouts and orders, screams and groans, as the piratesand the sailors of the _Mirabelle_ doggedly fought on. The mousewished to retake its own shape and continue its work with the magicknife which had been interrupted, it thought, too soon to have doneany good. At last it decided to run along the deck near ClaggettChew's cabin. From there it hoped to reach the side of the shipnearest to the _Mirabelle_.

  As it slipped from its hiding place and began its run, it realized toolate its mistake, and panic almost overcame it. For a cat had beencrouched behind it and now gave a mighty pounce. One outstretched pawcame down on the mouse's tail, but the mouse wrenched it free anddesperate and panting, dashed into the first opening it saw.

  This proved to be no less than Claggett Chew's cabin, the door ofwhich had been left open so that Osterbridge Hawsey could watch thefight with the least possible discomfort. He sat, somnolent, in acomfortable chair, his long legs stretched out before him, smoking aclay pipe. His attention wandering, as it so often did, he failed tosee the mouse who ran under his legs into the shadow beneath them.The frantic mouse now determined, in the seconds left to it fordecision, to attempt a bold move. In a flash--in fact, as a black catwith angry yellow-slitted eyes put its head around the door jamb--ajade-green parakeet with red and yellow breast feathers hopped ontoOsterbridge Hawsey's ankle, and with a speed tempered by its mostengaging ways, sidled up Osterbridge Hawsey's outstretched leg.

  The yellow-eyed cat made a dash with both clawing paws outstretched tofall upon the bird, but the parakeet fluttered into the air out ofreach and came down higher up on Osterbridge Hawsey's knee.Osterbridge, startled from his daydream, shooed away the cat and gotup precipitously enough to give it a kick which sent it miaowling fromthe cabin. Osterbridge, vastly pleased to see his green parakeetagain, was wreathed in smiles.

  "Ah, now!" he exclaimed, holding out a condescending finger, "PetitMonsieur back again! How too simply enchanting! Just when poorOsterbridge was _so_ bored and had no one to talk to! Well, mypretty--" and both Osterbridge and the parakeet cocked their heads atone another--"and where have _you_ been, I wonder?"

  Osterbridge examined the little bird perched on his finger and hiseyes were thoughtful. "It is true, you have a tiny mark at the side ofyour jaw--if parakeets have jaws, my friend. But there is no suchthing as magic. Not the kind of magic whereby a human can be somethingelse!"

  He broke into peals of high laughter. "What a joke if it werepossible! Now what could _I_ be, eh?"

  He looked fondly at the bird and the bird looked back at him, daringto open its beak and emit a small but clear "Haw!"

  "Haw yourself!" returned Osterbridge in high good humor. He leanedback in his chair.

  "Now, all this is a most _engaging_ train of thought," he pursued. "IfI could change myself, _what_ should I be?"

  He fell to musing, and as he did so the dreaded shadow Chris hadanticipated fell across the doorway. A moment later Claggett Chew,limping from an old wound and a newly received bruise, stood in theentrance.

  Osterbridge Hawsey yawned. "Ah--there you are at last, Claggett," hesaid, "Battle all over? It still sounds _rather_ ferocious, to me. Butof course I am no expert. Heaven forbid!" Osterbridge ended, rollinghis eyes toward the ceiling with his vague smile.

  As Claggett Chew did not reply, Osterbridge looked back at him. Thepirate's eyes were fixed on the parakeet, and his twitching fingersplayed with the steel-tipped whip. Claggett Chew's voice when it camewas as sharp and as cold as a dagger in a dead man.

  "I will have that bird, Osterbridge," he said.

  Osterbridge's expression did not change but his eyes did, and theybecame almost as icy as Claggett Chew's.

  "Oh no, you will not, Claggett," he said, and his high-pitched voicemanaged to be saturated with sarcasm. "This is the one thing that iskeeping me from _unutterable_ boredom, while you go into yourinterminable fight." He paused to give Claggett Chew a cutting look."You know how I feel about piracy--too terribly degrading, though Ican see it has its excitement and rewards. But it _is_ unnecessary--"

  Claggett Chew's eyes had a way of not blinking. They held a crocodilefixity. His tone, when he spoke again, did not vary. "I am not atrader, Osterbridge. Nor shall I bandy words with you on this subject.Give me that bird, or I shall take it from you!"

  Osterbridge Hawsey rose with a slow grace from his chair, his handcurled gently but protectingly around his parakeet.

  "Claggett," he said in his thin voice that cut now with the unexpectedthinness of paper, "I am sorry to say such a thing to you, but yourfever during the weeks just past has undoubtedly altered your brain.You are a madman, Claggett." Osterbridge Hawsey removed himself withdeliberation from the proximity of the doorway, placing himself on theother side of the cabin table over which hung the
swinging lamp. Hedid not turn his back to Claggett Chew nor take his eyes from him.

  "Kindly leave the room, Claggett," he went on, in too quiet a voice tobe otherwise than poisonous, "until you are more yourself. Yourconduct and tone are unbecoming to a gentleman," Osterbridge said,with his head held high in disdainful dignity.

  They were an extraordinary sight. The shaven-headed, clay-faced piratelooming so high and so huge in the doorway that he filled italtogether, his clothes torn, filthy and stained from the battle andfrom careless weeks at sea. His companion was a travesty of hisonetime elegance, dirty lace ruffles spotted by forgotten meals, hisvelvet coat marked by chairbacks and soiled from months of constantwear, his hair unwashed and sleazily caught back, no longer curledwith a fine exactitude. Both men had been housed together for toolong. Long ago they had exhausted all topics of conversation, theirtwo difficult personalities had for months been festering, each at thesight of the other.

  Now Claggett Chew ground out between his clenched teeth: "You are afool, Osterbridge. Have always been one and will so remain. Do youdefy me and do not give up that bird, as hell is my witness I shallsnatch it from you with this whip, and nothing shall stop me!"

  Osterbridge reached behind him with his right hand, holding theparakeet in an increasingly uncomfortable and tightening grip in hisleft. On the wall behind him hung his rapier in its scabbard,delicately incised and showing the fine workmanship of its Frenchorigin. With a quick, deft movement, Osterbridge's fingers had foundthe hilt and drawn the rapier out, his face snarling, his eyesexpressionless. They were fixed on Claggett Chew who had not movedfrom where he leaned against the side of the doorway.

  Osterbridge Hawsey's voice was almost more frightening when he spokeagain than Claggett Chew's, as he slowly brought the rapier to hisside with quiet calculated gestures.

  "I have had enough of your ordering, Claggett. You may order yourscurvy men about as you wish--half-wits, rascals, thieves andmurderers who know no better than to do your bidding, knowing they maywell die by your hands as by some other. But you have met your match.I, Osterbridge Hawsey, shall not give in to a madman and a murderingpillager. How I ever came to join you or your pirates God alone knows,but you shall not govern me! Nor shall you have one object that is myown! _En garde!_" he cried, whisking out the rapier.

  As he did so--such is the force and training of habit--his left handautomatically came up in the first position of the fencer and theduelist, and as it came up and the fingers slackened about theparakeet, the long whip lashed out and curled around OsterbridgeHawsey's hand. The parakeet ducked into encircling fingers,Osterbridge Hawsey let out a piercing scream, more of rage than ofpain, and opened his hand. The parakeet, liberated, flew straight intothe face of the man with the whip, pecking at it with its sharp beak,scratching at it with his pin-like claws, and beating its wings insuch confusing fury that the pirate bobbed his head. At the same timethe big man stepped backward, throwing up his left arm in an attempteither to catch the bird or drive it off.

  But the bird's attack lasted for only a moment. Then, as ClaggettChew's fingers grasped at it, the parakeet was off over his shoulderand lost in the din and obscurity of the battle. Behind it it heardthe cries of hatred and rage as the pirate and Osterbridge Hawseyfaced one another in the cabin to fight with whip and sword amid thecrash of overturned tables and chairs and the splintering crack of thelamp and the windowpanes.