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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9791.txt b/9791.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d62a8d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/9791.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8946 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Harrigan, by Max Brand + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Harrigan + +Author: Max Brand + +Posting Date: November 30, 2010 [EBook #9791] +Release Date: January, 2006 +First posted on October 17, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARRIGAN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Anuradha Valsa Raj, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + +HARRIGAN + +MAX BRAND + +1918 + +Also by Max Brand: BLACK JACK; TROUBLE KID; CLUNG; THUNDER MOON; +THE STINGAREE; RIPPON RIDES DOUBLE; ON THE TRAIL OF FOUR; +STEVE TRAIN'S ORDEAL; LARRAMEE'S RANCH; RIDE THE WILD TRAIL; +THE GUNS OF DORKING HOLLOW; TORTURE TRAIL; THE GENTLE GUNMAN; +THE GARDEN OF EDEN; GOLDEN LIGHTNING; THE STRANGER; MIGHTY LOBO + + + + + + + + +CHAPTER 1 + + +"That fellow with the red hair," said the police captain as he pointed. + +"I'll watch him," the sergeant answered. + +The captain had raided two opium dens the day before, and the pride of +accomplishment puffed his chest. He would have given advice to the +sheriff of Oahu that evening. + +He went on: "I can pick some men out of the crowd by the way they walk, +and others by their eyes. That fellow has it written all over him." + +The red-headed man came nearer through the crowd. Because of the +warmth, he had stuffed his soft hat into a back pocket, and now the +light from a window shone steadily on his hair and made a fire of it, a +danger signal. He encountered the searching glances of the two officers +and answered with cold, measuring eyes, like the gaze of a prize +fighter who waits for a blow. The sergeant turned to his superior with +a grunt. + +"You're right," he nodded. + +"Trail him," said the captain, "and take a man with you. If that fellow +gets into trouble, you may need help." + +He stepped into his automobile and the sergeant beckoned to a nearby +policeman. + +"Akana," he said, "we have a man-sized job tonight. Are you feeling +fit?" + +The Kanaka smiled without enthusiasm. + +"The man of the red hair?" + +The sergeant nodded, and Akana tightened his belt. He had eaten fish +baked in ti leaves that evening. + +He suggested: "Morley has little to do. His beat is quiet. Shall I tell +him to come with us?" + +"No," grinned the sergeant, and then looked up and watched the broad +shoulders of the red-haired man, who advanced through the crowd as the +prow of a ship lunges through the waves. "Go get Morley," he said +abruptly. + +But Harrigan went on his way without misgivings, not that he forgot the +policeman, but he was accustomed to stand under the suspicious eye of +the law. In all the course of his wanderings it had been upon him. His +coming was to the men in uniform like the sound of the battle trumpet +to the cavalry horse. This, however, was Harrigan's first night in +Honolulu, and there was much to see, much to do. He had rambled through +the streets; now he was headed for the Ivilei district. Instinct +brought him there, the still, small voice which had guided him from +trouble to trouble all his life. + +At a corner he stopped to watch a group of Kanakas who passed him, +wreathed with leis and thrumming their ukuleles. They sang in their +soft, many-voweled language and the sound was to Harrigan like the rush +and lapse of water on a beach, infinitely soothing and as lazy as the +atmosphere of Honolulu. All things are subdued in the strange city +where East and West meet in the middle of the Pacific. The gayest +crowds cannot quite disturb the brooding peace which is like the +promise of sleep and rest at sunset. It was not pleasing to Harrigan. +He frowned and drew a quick, impatient breath, muttering: "I'm not long +for this joint. I gotta be moving." + +He joined a crowd which eddied toward the center of Ivilei. In there it +was better. Negro soldiers, marines from the _Maryland_, Kanakas, +Chinamen, Japanese, Portuguese, Americans; a score of nationalities and +complexions rubbed shoulders as they wandered aimlessly among the many +bright-painted cottages. + +Yet even in that careless throng of pleasure-seekers no one rubbed +shoulders with Harrigan. The flame of his hair was like a red lamp +which warned them away. Or perhaps it was his eye, which seemed to +linger for a cold, incurious instant on every face that approached. He +picked out the prettiest of the girls who sat at the windows chatting +with all who passed. He did not have to shoulder to win a way through +the crowd of her admirers. + +She was a _hap haoli_, with the fine features of the Caucasian and the +black of hair and eye which shows the islander. A rounded elbow rested +on the sill of the window; her chin was cupped in her hand. + +"Send these away," said Harrigan, and leaned an elbow beside hers. + +"Oh," she murmured; then: "And if I send them away?" + +"I'll reward you." + +"Reward?" + +For answer he dragged a crimson carnation from the buttonhole of a tall +man who stood at his side. + +"What in hell--" began the victim, but Harrigan smiled and the other +drew slowly back through the crowd. + +"Now send them away." + +She looked at him an instant longer with a light coming slowly up +behind her eyes. Then she leaned out and waved to the chuckling +semicircle. + +"Run away for a while," she said; "I want to talk to my brother." + +She patted the thick red hair to emphasize the relationship, and the +little crowd departed, laughing uproariously. Harrigan slipped the +carnation into the jetty hair. His hand lingered a moment against the +soft masses, and she drew it down, grown suddenly serious. + +"There are three policemen in the shadow of that cottage over there. +They're watching you." + +"Ah-h!" + +The sound was so soft that it was almost a sigh, but she shivered +perceptibly. + +"What have you been doing?" + +He answered regretfully: "Nothing." + +"They're coming this way. The man who had the carnation is with them. +You better beat it." + +"Nope. I like it here." + +She shook her head, but the flame was blowing high now +in her eyes. A hand fell on Harrigan's shoulder. + +"Hey!" said the sergeant in a loud voice. + +Harrigan turned slowly and the sergeant's hand fell away. The man of +the carnation was far in the background. + +"Well?" + +"That flower. You can't get away with little tricks like that. You +better be starting on. Move along." + +Harrigan glanced slowly from face to face. The three policemen drew +closer together as if for mutual protection. + +"Please--honey!" urged the whisper of the girl. + +The hand of Harrigan resting on the window sill had gathered to a +hard-bunched fist, white at the knuckles, but he nodded across the open +space between the cottages. + +"If you're looking for work," he said, "seems as though you'd find a +handful over there." + +A clatter of sharp, quick voices rose from a group of Negro soldiers +gathering around a white man. No one could tell the cause of the +quarrel. It might have been anything from an oath to a blow. + +"Watch him," said Harrigan. "He looks like a man." He added +plaintively: "But looks are deceivin'." + +The center of the disturbance appeared to be a man indeed. He was even +taller than Harrigan and broader of shoulder, and, like the latter, +there was a suggestion of strength in him which could not be defined by +his size alone. At the distance they could guess his smile as he faced +the clamoring mob. + +"Break in there!" ordered the sergeant to his companions, and started +toward the angry circle. + +As he spoke, they heard one of the Negroes curse and the fist of the +tall man darted at the face of a soldier and drove him toppling back +among his comrades. They closed on the white man with a yell; a passing +group of their compatriots joined the affray; the whole mass surged in +around the tall fellow. Harrigan's head went back and his eyes half +closed like a critic listening to an exquisite symphony. + +"Ah-h!" he whispered to himself. "Watch him fight!" + +The policemen struck the outer edge of the circle with drawn clubs, but +there they stopped. They could not dent that compacted mass. The +soldiers struggled manfully, but they were held at bay. Harrigan could +see the heaving shoulders of the defender over the heads of the +assailants, and the crack of hard-driven fists. The attackers were +crushed together and had little room to swing their arms with full +force, while the big man stood with his back against the wall of the +cottage and made every smashing punch count. + +As if by common assent, the soldiers suddenly desisted and gave back +from this deadly fighter. His bellow of triumph rang over the clamor. +His hat was off; his long black hair stood straight up in the wind; and +he leaped after them with flailing arms. + +But now the police had managed to pry their way into the mass by dint +of indiscriminate battering. As the black-haired man came face to face +with the sergeant, the light gleamed on a high-swung club that thudded +home; and the big man dropped out of sight. He came up again almost at +once, but with men draped from every portion of his body. The soldiers +and police had joined forces, and once more a dozen men clutched him, +spilling over him like football players in a scrimmage. He was knocked +from his feet by the impact. + +"Coming!" shouted Harrigan. + +He raced with long strides, head lowered and back bowed until his long +arms nearly swept the ground. Gathering impetus at every stride, he +crushed into the floundering heap of arms and legs. The police sergeant +rose and whirled with lifted club. Harrigan grunted with joy as he dug +his left into the man's midsection. The sergeant collapsed upon the +ground, embracing his stomach with both arms. Harrigan jerked away the +upper layers of the attackers and dragged the black-haired man to his +feet. + +"Shoulder to shoulder!" thundered Harrigan, and smote Officer Akana +upon the point of the chin. + +The victory was not yet won. The black soldiers of Uncle Sam's regular +army need not take second place to any body of troops in the world. +These men had tasted their own blood and they came tearing in now for +revenge. + +Harrigan, standing full in front of the rescued man until the latter +should have recovered his breath, found food for both fists, and his +love of battle was fed. The other man had fought stiffly erect, +standing with feet braced to give the weight of his whole body to every +punch; Harrigan raged back and forth like a panther, avoiding blows by +the catlike agility of his movements, which left both hands free to +strike sledge-hammer blows. Presently he heard a chuckling at his side. +Out of the corner of his eye he saw the black-haired man come into the +battle, straight and stiff as before, with long arms shooting out like +pistons. + +It was a glorious sight. Something made Harrigan's heart big; rose and +swelled his throat; rose again and came as a wild yell upon his tongue. +The unfortunates who have faced Irish legions in battle know that yell. +The soldiers did not know it, and they held back for a moment. +Something else lowered their spirits still more. It was the clanging of +the police patrol as it swung to a halt and a body of reserves poured +out. + +"Here comes our finish!" panted Harrigan to his comrade in arms. "But +oh, man, I'm thinkin' it was swate while it lasted!" + +In his great moments the Irish brogue thronged thick upon his tongue. + +"Finish, hell!" grunted the other. "After me, lad!" + +And lowering his head like a bull, he drove forward against the crowd. +Harrigan caught the idea in a flash. He put his shoulder to the hip of +his friend. They became a flying wedge with the jabbing fists of the +black-haired man for a point--and they sank into the mass of soldiers +like a hot knife into butter, shearing them apart. + +There were few who wished more action, for the police reserves were +capturing man after man. One or two resisted, but a revolver fired +straight in the air put a sudden period to such thoughts. The crowd +scattered in all directions and Harrigan was taking to his heels among +the rest when an iron hand caught his shoulder and jerked him to a +halt. It was the black-haired man. + +"Easy," he cautioned. He pulled a cap out and settled it upon his head. +Harrigan followed suit with his soft hat. + +"Are you after givin' yourself away to the law?" he queried, +bewildered. + +"Steady, you fool," said the other; "they're only after the ones who +run away." + +An excited Kanaka confronted them with brandished club. + +"What's the cause of the disturbance, officer?" asked the big man. + +The policeman for answer waved them away and darted after a running +soldier. + +"I'll be damned!" murmured Harrigan, and his eyes dwelt on his +companion's face almost tenderly. + +They were at the edge of the crowd when a shrill voice called: "Those +two big men! Halt 'em! Stand!" + +Officer Akana ran through the crowd with his regulation Colt brandished +above his head. + +"The time's come!" said Harrigan's new friend, and broke into a run. + + + + +CHAPTER 2 + + +They were past the thick of the mob now and they dodged rapidly among +the cottages until the clamor of police fell away to a murmur behind +them, and they swung out onto the narrow, dark street which led back +toward the heart of Honolulu. For ten minutes they strode along without +a word. Under the light of a street lamp they stopped of one accord. + +"I'm McTee." + +"I'm Harrigan." + +The gripping of the hands was more than fellowship; it was like a test +of strength which left each uncertain of the other's resources. They +were exactly opposite types. McTee was long of face, with an arched, +cruel nose, gleaming eyes, heavy, straight brows which pointed up and +gave a touch of the Mephistophelian to his expression, a narrow, +jutting chin, and lips habitually compressed to a thin line. It was a +handsome face, in a way, but it showed such a brutal dominance that it +inspired fear first and admiration afterward. + +Such a man must command. He might be only the boss of a gang of +laborers, or he might be a financier, but never in any case an +underling. Altogether he combined physical and intellectual strength to +such a degree that both men and women would have stopped to look at +him, and once seen he would be remembered. + +On the other hand, in Harrigan one felt only force, not directed and +controlled as in McTee, but impulsive, irregular, irresponsible, +uncompassed. He carried a contradiction in his face. The heavy, +hard-cut jaw, the massive cheekbones, the stiff, straight upper lip +indicated merely brutal endurance and energy, but these qualities were +tempered by possibilities of tenderness about the lips and by the +singular lights forever changing in the blue eyes. He would be hard for +the shrewdest judge to understand, for the simple reason that he did +not know himself. + +In looking at McTee, one asked: "What is he?" In looking at Harrigan, +the question was: "What will he become?" + +"Stayin' in town long?" asked Harrigan, and his voice was a little +wistful. + +"I'm bound out tonight." + +"So long, then." + +"So long." + +They turned on their heels into opposite streets without further words, +with no thanks given for service rendered, with no exchange of +congratulations for the danger they had just escaped. That parting +proved them hardened knights of the road which leads across the world +and never turns back home. + +Harrigan strode on full of thought. His uncertain course brought him at +last to the waterfront, and he idled along the black, odorous docks +until he came to a pier where a ship was under steam, making ready to +put out to sea. The spur touched the heart of Harrigan. The urge never +failed to prick him when he heard the scream of a steamer's horn as it +put to sea. It brought the thoughts of far lands and distant cities. + +He strolled out to the pier and watched the last ropes cast loose. The +ship was not large, and even in the dark it seemed dingy and +dilapidated. He guessed that, big or small, this boat would carry her +crew to some distant quarter of the world, and therefore to a place to +be desired. + +A strong voice gave an order from the deck--a hard voice with a ring in +it like the striking of iron against iron. Harrigan glanced up with a +start of recognition, and by the light of a swinging lantern he saw +McTee. If he were in command, this ship was certainly going to a far +port. Black water showed between the dock and the ship. In a moment +more it would be beyond reach, and that thought decided Harrigan. He +made a few paces back, noted the aperture in the rail of the ship where +the gangplank was being drawn in, then ran at full speed and leaped +high in the air. + +The three sailors at the rail shouted their astonishment as Harrigan +struck the edge of the gangplank, reeled, and then pitched forward to +his knees. He rose and shook himself like a cat that has dropped from a +high fence to the ground. + +"What're you?" + +"I'm the extra hand." + +And Harrigan ran up the steps to the bridge. There he found McTee with +the first and second mates. + +"McTee," he said, "I came on your ship by chance an' saw you. If you +_can_ use an extra hand, let me stay. I'm footfree an' I need to be +movin' on." + +Even through the gloom he caught the glint of the Scotchman's eye. + +"Get off the bridge!" thundered McTee. + +"But I'm Harrigan, and--" + +McTee turned to his first and second mates. + +"Throw that man off the bridge!" he ordered. + +Harrigan didn't wait. He retreated down the steps to the deck and went +to the rail. A wide gap of swarthy water now extended between the ship +and the dock, but he placed his knee on the rail ready to dive. Then he +turned and stood with folded arms looking up to the bridge, for his +mind was dark with many doubts. He tapped a passing sailor on the +shoulder. + +"What sort of an old boy is the captain?" + +He made up his mind that according to the answer he would stay with the +ship or swim to the shore, but the sailor merely stared stupidly at him +for a moment and then grinned slowly. There might be malice, there +might be mere ridicule in that smile. He passed on before another +question could be asked. + +"Huh!" grunted Harrigan. "I stay!" + +He kept his eyes fixed on the bridge, remaining motionless at the rail +for an hour while the glow of Honolulu grew dimmer and dimmer past the +stern. There were lights in the after-cabin and he guessed that the +ship, in a small way, carried both freight and passengers. At last +McTee came down the steps to the deck and as he passed Harrigan +snapped: "Follow me." + +He led the way aft and up another flight of steps to the after-cabin, +unlocked a door, and showed Harrigan into the captain's room. Here he +took one chair and Harrigan dropped easily into another. + +"Now, what 'n hell was your line of thinkin', McTee," he began, "when +you told me to--" + +"Stand up!" said McTee. + +"What?" + +"Stand up!" + +Harrigan rose very slowly. His jaw was setting harder and harder, and +his face became grim. + +"Harrigan, you took a chance and came with me." + +"Yes." + +"I didn't ask you to come." + +"Sure you didn't, but if you think you can treat me like a swine and +get away with it--" + +It was wonderful to see the eyes of McTee grow small. They seemed to +retreat until they became points of light shining from the deep shadow +of his brow. They were met by the cold, incurious light of Harrigan's +stare. + +"You're a hard man, Harrigan." + +He made no answer, but listened to the deep thrum of the engines. It +seemed to him that the force which drove the ship was like a part of +McTee's will, a thing of steel. + +"And I'm a hard man, Harrigan. On this ship I'm king. There's no will +but my will; there's no right but my right; there's no law but my law. +Remember, on land we stood as equals. On this ship you stand and I +sit." + +The thin lips did not curve, and yet they seemed to be smiling cruelly, +and the eyes were probing deep, deep, deep into Harrigan's soul, +weighing, measuring, searching. + +"When we reach land," said Harrigan, "I got an idea I'll have to break +you." + +He raised his hands, which trembled with the restrained power of his +arms, and moved them as though slowly breaking a stick of wood. + +"I've broken men--like that," he finished. + +"When I'm through with you, Harrigan, you'll take water from a +Chinaman. You're the first man I've ever seen who could make me stop +and look twice. I need a fellow like you, but first I've got to make +you my man. The best colt in the world is no good until he learns to +take the whip without bucking. I'm going to get you used to the whip. +This is frank talk, eh? Well, I'm a frank man. You're in the harness +now, Harrigan; make up your mind: Will you pull or will you balk? Answer +me!" + +"I'll see you damned!" + +"Good. You've started to balk, so now you'll have to feel the whip." + +He pulled a cord, and while they waited, the relentless duel of the +eyes continued. A flash of instinct like a woman's intuition told +Harrigan what impulse was moving McTee. He knew it was the same thing +which makes the small schoolboy fight with the stranger; the same +curiosity as to the unknown power, the same relentless will to be +master, but now intensified a thousandfold in McTee, who looked for the +first time, perhaps, on a man who might be his master. Harrigan knew, +and smiled. He was confident. He half rejoiced in looking forward to +the long struggle. + +A knock came and the door opened. + +"Masters," said McTee to the boatswain, "we're three hands short." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Here are the three hands. Take them forward." + + + + +CHAPTER 3 + + +Masters looked at Harrigan, started to laugh, looked again, and then +silently held the door open. Harrigan stepped through it and followed +to the forecastle, a dingy retreat in the high bow of the ship. He had +to bend low to pass through the door, and inside he found that he could +not stand erect. It was his first experience of working aboard a ship, +and he expected to find a scrupulous neatness, and hammocks in place of +beds. Instead he looked on a double row of bunks heaped with swarthy +quilts, and the boatswain with a silent gesture indicated that one of +these belonged to Harrigan. He went to it without a word and sat down +cross-legged to survey his new quarters. It was more like the bunkhouse +of a western ranch than anything else he had been in, but all reduced +to a miniature, cramped and confined. + +Now his eyes grew accustomed to the dim, unpleasant light which came +from a single lantern hanging on the central post, and he began to make +out the faces of the sailors. An oily-skinned Greek squatted on the +bunk to his left. To his right was a Chinaman, marvelously emaciated; +his lips pulled back in a continual smile, meaningless, like the grin +of a corpse. + +Opposite was the inevitable Englishman, slender, good-looking, with +pale hair and bright, active eyes. Harrigan had traveled over half the +world and never failed to find at least one subject of John Bull in any +considerable group of men. This young fellow was talking with a giant +Negro, his neighbor. The black man chattered with enthusiasm while the +Englishman listened, nodding, intent. + +One thing at least was certain about this crew: the Negro, the +Chinaman, the Greek, even the Englishman, despite his slender build, +they were all hard, strong men. + +The cook brought out supper in buckets--stews, chunks of stale bread, +tea. As they ate, the sailors grew talkative. + +"Slide the slum this way," said the Englishman. + +The Negro pushed the bucket across the deck with his foot. + +"A hard trip," went on the first speaker. + +"All trips on the _Mary Rogers_ is hard," rumbled a voice. + +"Aye, but Black McTee is blacker'n ever today." + +"He belted the bos'n with a rope end," commented the Negro. + +"He ain't human. This is my last trip with him. How about you, John? +You got a lump on your jaw yet where he cracked you for breakin' that +truck." + +This was to the Chinaman, who answered in a soft guttural as if there +were bubbling oil in his throat: "Me sail two year Black McTee, an'--" + +To finish his speech he passed a tentative hand across his swollen jaw. + +"And you'll sail with him till you die, John," said the Englishman. +"When a man has had Black McTee for a boss, he'll want no other. He's +to other captains what whisky is to beer." + +The white teeth of the Negro showed. "Maybe Black McTee won't live +long," he suggested. + +There was a long silence. It lasted until the supper was finished. It +lasted until the men slid into their bunks. And Harrigan knew that +every man was repeating slowly to himself: "Maybe Black McTee won't +live long." + +"Not if this gang goes after him," muttered Harrigan, "and yet--" + +He remembered the fight in Ivilei and the heaving shoulders which +showed above the heads of the swarming soldiers. With that picture in +his mind he went to sleep. + +They were far out of sight of land in the morning and loafing south +before the trade wind, with a heavy ground swell kicking them along +from behind. Harrigan saw the _Mary Rogers_ plainly for the first time. +She was small, not more than fifteen hundred or two thousand tons, and +the dingiest, sootiest of all tramp freighters. He had little time to +make observations. + +In the first place all hands washed down the decks, some of the men in +rubber boots, the others barefooted, with their trousers rolled up +above the knees. Harrigan was one of this number. The cool water from +the hose swished pleasantly about his toes. He began to think better of +life at sea as the wind blew from his nostrils the musty odors of the +forecastle. Then the bos'n, with the suggestion of a grin in his eyes, +ordered him up to scrub the bridge. He climbed the steps with a bucket +in one hand and a brush in the other. There stood McTee leaning against +the wheelhouse and staring straight ahead across the bows. He seemed +quite oblivious of his presence until, having finished his job, +Harrigan started back down the steps. + +"D'you call this clean?" rumbled McTee. "All over again!" + +And Harrigan dropped to his knees without protest and commenced +scrubbing again. As he worked, he hummed a tune and saw the narrow jaw +of McTee jut out. Harrigan smiled. + +He had scarcely finished stowing his bucket and brush away when the +bos'n brought him word that he was wanted in the fireroom. Masters's +face was serious. + +"What's the main idea?" asked Harrigan. + +The bos'n cast a worried eye fore and aft. + +"Black McTee's breakin' you," he said; "you're getting the whip." + +"Well?" + +"God help you, that's all. Now get below." + +There was a certain fervency about this speech which impressed even +Harrigan. He brooded over it on his way to the fireroom. There he was +set to work passing coal. He had to stand in a narrow passage scarcely +wide enough for him to turn about in. On either side was a towering +black heap which slanted down to his feet. Midway between the piles was +the little door through which he shoveled the coal into the fireroom. + +All was stifling hot, with a breath of coal dust and smoke to choke the +lungs. Even the Greek firemen sweated and cursed, though they were used +to that environment. An ordinary man might have succumbed simply to +that fiery, foul atmosphere. It was like a glimpse of hell, dark, +hopeless. + +It was not the heat or the atmosphere which troubled Harrigan, but his +hands. His skin was puffed and soft from the scrubbing of the bridge. +Now as he grasped the rough wood of the short-handled scoop the +epidermis wore quickly and left his palms half raw. For a time he +managed to shift his grip, bringing new portions of his hands to bear +on the wood, but even this skin was worn away in time. When he finished +his shift, his hands were bleeding in places and raw in the palms. + +As he came on deck, he tied them up with bits of soft waste in lieu of +a bandage and made no complaint, yet his fingers were trembling when he +ate supper that night. He caught the eyes of the rest of the crew +studying him with a cold calculation. They were estimating the strength +of his endurance and he knew at once that they had been through the +same trial one by one until they were broken. + +He could see that they hated the captain and he wondered why they would +ship with him time and again. He watched their expressions when Black +McTee was mentioned, and then he understood. They were waiting for the +time when the captain should weaken. Then they would have their +revenge. + +The second day was a repetition of the first. He began with scrubbing +down the bridge. The suds, strong with lye, ate shrewdly at his raw +hands. Still he hummed as he worked and watched McTee's frown grow +dark. When he was ordered below to the fireroom, he wrapped his hands +in the soft waste again. That helped him for a time, but after the +first two hours the waste matted and grew hard with perspiration and +blood. He had to throw it away and take the shovel handle against his +bare skin. He told himself that it was only a matter of time before +calluses would form, but what chance was there for a formation of +calluses when the water and suds softened his hands every morning? + +On the third day he was a little more used to the torture. His hands +were hopelessly raw now, but still he made no complaint and stuck with +his task. That night he secured a rag and retreated to the stretch of +deck between the wheelhouse and the after-cabin, where he squatted +beside a bucket of water and washed his hands carefully. Both hands +were puffed and red; one of the creases in the left palm bled a steady +trickle. He washed them slowly, with infinite relish of the cool water, +until he felt that peculiar sensation which warns us that we are +watched by another eye. + +He looked up to see a young woman standing above him at the rail of the +after-cabin. She had been watching him by the light from the window of +the wheelhouse. + + + + +CHAPTER 4 + + +"Let me bandage your hands," she said. "I have some salve in my room." + +Her voice was a balm to the troubled heart of Harrigan. His knotted +forehead relaxed. + +"Are you coming up?" + +"Aye." + +He ran up the ladder and followed her to a cabin. She rummaged through +a suitcase and finally brought out a little tin box of salve and a roll +of gauze. As she stooped with her back to him, he saw that her hair was +red--not fiery red like his, but a deep dull bronze, with points of +gold where the light struck it. When she straightened and turned, her +eyes went wide, looking up to him, for he bulked huge in the tiny +cabin. + +"What a big fellow you are!" + +He did not answer for a moment; he was too busy watching her eyes, +which were sea-green, and strangely pleasant and restful. + +"Do you know me?" she asked with a slight frown. + +"'Scuse me," muttered Harrigan. "I thought at first I did." + +He abased his glance while she took one of his hands and turned it palm +up. + +"Ugh!" she muttered. "How did this happen?" + +"Work." + +"Do you mean to say they make you work with your hands in this +condition?" + +"Sure." + +"Poor fellow! That black captain!" + +Her voice had changed from a peculiarly soft, low accent to a shrill +tone that made Harrigan start. + +"Poor fellow!" she repeated. "Sit down." + +The campstool creaked under the burden of his weight. She pulled up the +chair in front of him and placed his left hand on her knees. + +"This is peroxide. Tell me if it hurts too much." + +She spilled some of the liquid across his palm; it frothed. + +"Ouch!" grunted Harrigan involuntarily. + +She caught his wrists with both hands. + +"Why, your whole arm is trembling! You must be in torture with this. +Have you made any complaint?" + +"No." + +She studied him for a moment, scenting a mystery somewhere and guessing +that he would not speak of it. And she asked no questions. She said not +a word and merely bowed her head and started to apply the salve with +delicate touches. For the result, a confession of all his troubles +tumbled up the big man's throat to his tongue. He had to set his teeth +to keep it back. + +She became aware of those cold, incurious eyes studying her face as she +wrapped the gauze bandage deftly around the injured palms. + +"Why do you watch me so closely?" + +It disarmed him. Those possibilities of tenderness came about his +stiff-set lips, and the girl wondered. + +"I was thinkin' about my home town." + +"Where is it?" + +He frowned and waved his hand in a sweep which included half the points +on the compass. + +"Back there." + +She waited, wrapping up the gauze bandage. + +"When I was a kid, I used to go down to the harbor an' watch the ships +comin' in an' goin' out," he went on cautiously. + +She nodded, and he resumed with more confidence: "I'd sit on the +pierhead an' watch the ships. I knew they was bringing the smell of far +lands in their holds." + +There was a little pause; then his head tilted back and he burst into +the soft, thick brogue: "Ah-h, I was afther bein' woild about the +schooners blowin' out to sea wid their sails shook out like clouds. An' +then I'd look down to the wather around the pier, an' it was green, +deep green, ah-h, the deep sea-green av it! An' I would look into it +an' dream. Whin I seen your eyes--" + +He stopped, grown cold as a man will when he feels that he has laid his +inner self indecently bare to the eye of the world. But she did not +stir; she did not smile. + +"I felt like a kid again," said Harrigan, recovering from the brogue. +"Like a kid sittin' on the pierhead an' watchin' the green water. Your +eyes are that green," he finished. + +Self-consciousness, the very thing which she had been trying to keep +the big sailor from, turned her blood to fire. She knew the quick color +was running from throat to cheek; she knew the cold, incurious eye +would note the change. He was so far aware of the alteration that he +rose and glanced at the door. + +"Good-by," she said, and then quite forgetting herself: "I shall ask +the captain to see that you are treated like a white man." + +"You will not!" + +"I beg your pardon?" she said, but the hint of insulted dignity was +lost on Harrigan. + +"You will not," he repeated. "It'd simply make him worse." + +She was glad of the chance to be angry; it would explain her +heightening color. + +"The captain must be an utter brute." + +"I figger he's nine tenths man, an' the other tenth devil, but there +ain't no human bein' can change any of them ten parts. Good-by. I'm +thankin' you. My name's Harrigan." + +She opened the door for him. + +"If you wish to have that dressing changed, ask for Miss Malone." + +"Ah-h!" said Harrigan. "Malone!" + +She explained coldly: "I'm Scotch, not Irish." + +"Scotch or Irish," said Harrigan, and his head tilted back as it always +did when he was excited. "You're afther bein' a real shport, Miss +Malone!" + +"Miss Malone," she repeated, closing the door after him, and vainly +attempting to imitate the thrill which he gave to the word. "What a +man!" + +She smiled for a moment into space and then pulled the cord for the +cabin boy. + + + + +CHAPTER 5 + + +The cabin boy did duty for all the dozen passengers, and therefore he +was slow in answering. When he appeared, she asked him to carry the +captain word that she wished to speak with him. He returned in a short +time to say that Captain McTee would talk with her now in his cabin. +She followed aft to the captain's room. He did not rise when she +entered, but turned in his chair and relinquished a long, black, +fragrant cigar. + +"Don't stop smoking," she said. "I want you in a pleasant mood to hear +what I have to say." + +Without reply he placed the cigar in his mouth and the bright black +eyes fastened upon her. That suddenly intent regard was startling, as +if he had leaned over and spoken a word in her ear. She shrugged her +shoulders as if trying to shake off a compelling hand and then settled +into a chair. + +"I've come to say something that's disagreeable for you to hear and for +me to speak." + +Still he would not talk. He was as silent as Harrigan. She clenched her +hands and drove bravely ahead. She told how she had called the +red-headed sailor up to the after-cabin and dressed his hurts, and she +described succinctly, but with rising anger the raw and swollen +condition of his fingers. The captain listened with apparent enjoyment; +she could not tell whether he was relishing her story or his slowly +puffed cigar. In the end she waited for his answer, but evidently none +was forthcoming. + +"Now," she said at last, "I know something about ships and sailors, and +I know that if this fellow was to appeal against you after you touch +port, a judge would weigh a single word of yours against a whole +sentence of Harrigan's. It would be a different matter if a +disinterested person pressed a charge of cruelty against you. I am such +a person; I would press such a charge; I have the money, the time, and +the inclination to do it." + +She read the slight hesitation in his manner, not as if he were +impressed by what she had to say, but as though he was questioning +himself as to whether he should give her any answer at all. It made her +wish fervently that she were a man--and a big one. He spoke then, as if +an illuminating thought had occurred to him. + +"You know Harrigan's record?" + +"No," she admitted grudgingly. + +McTee sighed as if with deep relief and leaned back in his chair. His +smile was sympathetic and it altered his face so marvelously that she +caught her breath. + +"Of course that explains it, Miss Malone. I don't doubt that he was +clever enough to make you think him abused." + +"He didn't say a word of accusation against anyone." + +"Naturally not. When a man is bad enough to seem honest--" + +He drew a long, slow puff on his cigar by way of finishing his sentence +and his eyes smiled kindly upon her. + +"I knew that he would do his worst to start mutiny among the crew; I +didn't think he could get as far as the passengers." + +Her confidence was shaken to the ground. Then a new suspicion came to +her. + +"If he is such a terrible character, why did you let him come aboard +your ship?" + +Instead of answering, he pulled a cord. The bos'n appeared in a moment. + +"Tell this lady how Harrigan came aboard," ordered the captain, and he +fastened a keen eye upon the bos'n. + +"Made it on the jump while we was pullin' out of dock," said the +sailor. "Just managed to get his feet on the gangplank--came within an +ace of falling into the sea." + +"That's all." + +The bos'n retreated and McTee turned back to Kate Malone. + +"He had asked me to sign him up for this trip," he explained. "If I'd +set him ashore, he'd probably have been in the police court the next +morning. So I let him stay. To be perfectly frank with you, I had a +vague hope that gratitude might make a decent sailor out of him for a +few days. But the very first night he started his work he began to talk +discontent among the men in the forecastle, and such fellows are always +ready to listen. Of course I could throw Harrigan in irons and feed him +on bread and water; my authority is absolute at sea. But I don't want +to do that if I can help it. Instead, I have been trying to discipline +him with hard work. He knows that he can come to me at any time and +speak three words which will release him from his troubles. But he +won't say them--yet!" + +"Really?" she breathed. + +She began to feel deeply honored that such a man as McTee would make so +long an explanation to her. + +"Shall I call him up here and ask him to say them now?" + +"Would you do that? Captain McTee, I'm afraid that I've been very +foolish to bother you in this matter, but--" + +He silenced her with a wave of the hand, and pulled the cord. + +"Bring up Harrigan," he said, when the bos'n appeared again. + +"I've considered myself a judge of human nature," she apologized, "but +I shall think a long time before I venture another decision." + +"You're wrong to feel that way. It would take a shrewd judge to see +through Harrigan unless his record were known." + +The door opened and the bos'n entered with Harrigan. He fixed his eyes +upon the captain without a glance for Kate Malone. + +"Harrigan," said McTee, "I've been telling Miss Malone that you can be +released from your trouble by saying half a dozen words to me. And you +know that you can. You will be treated better than anyone in the crew +if you will put your hand in mine and say: 'Captain McTee, I give you +my word of honor as a man to do my best to obey orders during the rest +of this trip and to hold no malice against you for anything that has +happened to me so far.' + +"For you see," he explained to the girl, "he probably thinks himself +aggrieved by my discipline. Will you say it, Harrigan?" + +Instead of answering, the cold eye of Harrigan turned on Kate. + +"I told you not to speak to the captain," he said. + +"Ah," said McTee, "you were clever enough for that?" + +"Do you say nothing, Harrigan?" she said incredulously. "Do you really +refuse to speak those words to the captain after he has been generous +enough to give you a last chance to make a man of yourself?" + +Harrigan turned pale as he glanced at the captain. Her scorn and +contempt gave a little metallic ring to her voice. + +"You need not be afraid. Captain McTee hasn't told me anything about +your record." + +Harrigan smiled, but in such a manner that she stepped back. "Easy," +said McTee, "you don't need to fear him in here. He knows that I'm his +master." + +"I'm glad you didn't tell me his record," she answered. + +"I can read it in his eyes." + +"Lady," said Harrigan, and his head tilted back till the cords stood +strongly out at the base of his throat, "I'm afther askin' your pardon +for thinkin' ye had ever a dr-rop av hot Irish blood in ye." + +"Take him below, bos'n," broke in McTee, "and put him in on the night +shift in the fireroom." + +No hours of Harrigan's life were bitterer than that night shift. The +bandages saved his hands from much of the torture of the shovel handle, +but there was deep night in his heart. Early in the morning one of the +firemen ran to the chief engineer's room and forced open the door. + +"The red-headed man, sir," he stammered breathlessly. + +The chief engineer awoke with a snarl. He had drunk much good Scotch +whisky that evening, and the smoke of it was still dry in his throat +and cloudy in his brain. + +"And what the hell is wrong with the red-headed man now?" he roared. +"Ain't he doin' two men's work still?" + +"Two? He's doin' ten men's work with his hands rolled in cloth and the +blood soakin' through, an' he sings like a devil while he works. He's +gone crazy, sir." + +"Naw, he ain't," growled the chief; "that'll come later. Black McTee is +breakin' him an' he'll be broke before he goes off his nut. Now get to +hell out of here. I ain't slept a wink for ten days." + +The fireman went back to his work muttering, and Harrigan sang the rest +of the night. + + + + +CHAPTER 6 + + +In the morning there was the usual task of scrubbing down the bridge. +The suds soaked through the bandages at once and burned his hands like +fire. He tore away the cloths and kept at his task, for he knew that if +he refused to continue, he became by that act of disobedience a +mutineer. + +The fourth day was a long nightmare, but at the end of it Harrigan was +still at his post. That night the pain kept him awake. For forty-eight +hours he had not closed his eyes. The next morning, as he prepared his +bucket of suds and looked down at his blood-caked hands, the thought of +surrender rose strongly for the first time. Two things fought against +it: his fierce pride and a certain awe which he had noted as it grew +from day to day in the eyes of the rest of the crew. They were +following the silent battle between the great Irishman and the captain +with a profound, an almost uncanny interest. + +As he scrubbed the bridge that morning, McTee, as always, stood staring +out across the bows, impassive, self-contained as a general overlooking +a field of battle. And the temptation to surrender swelled up in the +throat of Harrigan like the desire for speech in a child. He kept his +teeth hard together and prayed for endurance. Only five days, and it +might be weeks before they made a port. Even then the captain might put +him in irons rather than risk his escape. + +"Harrigan," said McTee suddenly. "Don't keep it up. You're bound to +break. Speak those words now that I told you to say and you're a free +man." + +Harrigan looked up and the words formed at the base of his tongue. +Harrigan looked down and saw his crimson hands. The words fell back +like dust on his heart. + +"Take you for my master an' swear to forget what you've done?" he said, +and his voice was hardly more than a whisper. "McTee, if I promised you +that I'd perjure blacker 'n hell an' kill you someday when your back +was turned. As it is, I'll kill you while we're standin' face to face." + +McTee laughed, low, deep, and his eyes were half closed as if he heard +pleasant music. Harrigan grinned up at him. + +"I'll kill you with my bare hands. There's no gun or knife could do +justice to what's inside of me." + +His head tilted back and his whisper went thick like that of a +drunkard: "Ah-h, McTee, look at the hands, look at the hands! They're +red now for a sign av the blood av ye that'll someday be on 'em!" + +And he picked up his bucket and brush and went down the deck. The laugh +of McTee followed him. + +Having framed the wish in words, it was never absent from Harrigan's +mind now. It made that day easier for him. He stopped singing. He +needed all his brain energy to think of how he should kill McTee. + +It was this hungry desire which sustained him during the days which +followed. The rest of the crew began to sense the mighty emotion which +consumed Harrigan. When they saw both him and McTee on the deck, their +eyes traveled from one to the other making comparisons, for they felt +that these men would one day meet hand to hand. They could not stay +apart any more than the iron can keep from the magnet. + +Finally Harrigan knew that they were nearing the end of their long +journey. The port was only a few days distant, for they were far in the +south seas and they began to pass islands, and sometimes caught sight +of green patches of water. Those were the coral reefs, the terror of +all navigators, for they grow and change from year to year. To a +light-draught ship like the _Mary Rogers_ these seas were comparatively +safe, but not altogether. Even small sailing craft had come to grief in +those regions. + +Yet the islands, the reefs, the keen sun, the soft winds, the singing +of the sailors, all these things came dimly to Harrigan, for he knew +that his powers of resistance were almost worn away. His face was a +mask of tragedy, and his body was as lean as a starved wolf in winter. +His will to live, his will to hate, alone remained. + +Each morning it was harder for him to leave the bridge without speaking +those words to the captain. He rehearsed them every day and vowed they +would never pass his lips. And every day he knew that his vow was +weaker. When he was about to give in, he chanced to see McTee and Kate +Malone laughing together on the promenade. + +It was McTee who saw Harrigan first and pointed him out to Kate. She +leaned against the rail and peered down at him, shuddering at the sight +of his drawn face and shadowed eyes. Then she turned with a little +shrug of repulsion. + +McTee must have made some humorous comment, for she turned to glance +down at Harrigan again and this time she laughed. Blind rage made the +blood of the Irishman hot. That gave him his last strength, but even +this ran out. Finally he knew that the next day was his last, and when +that day came, he counted the hours. They passed heavy-footed, as time +goes for one condemned to die. And then he sat cross-legged on his bunk +and waited. + +The giant Negro came, bringing word that the bos'n wanted him to scrub +down the bridge. He remained with his head bowed, unhearing. The bos'n +himself came, cursing. He called to Harrigan, and getting no answer +shook him by the shoulder. He put his hand under Harrigan's chin and +raised the listless head. It rolled heavily back and the dull eyes +stared up at him. + +"God!" said the bos'n, and started back. + +The head remained where he had placed it, the eyes staring straight up +at the ceiling. + +"God!" whispered the bos'n again, and ran from the forecastle. + +In time--it seemed hours--Harrigan heard many voices approaching. +McTee's bass was not among them, but he knew that McTee was coming, and +Harrigan wondered whether he would have the strength to refuse to obey +and accept the fate of the mutineer; or whether terror would overwhelm +him and he would drop to his knees and beg for mercy. He had once seen +a sight as horrible. The voices swept closer. McTee was bringing all +the available crew to watch the surrender, and Harrigan prayed with all +his soul to a nameless deity for strength. + +Something stopped in the Irishman. It was not his heart, but something +as vital. The very movement of the earth seemed to be suspended when +the great form blocked the door to the forecastle and the ringing voice +called: "Harrigan!" + +At the summons Harrigan's jaw fell loosely like that of an exhausted +distance-runner, and long-suppressed words grew achingly large in his +throat. + +"I've had enough!" he groaned. + +"Harrigan!" thundered the captain, and Harrigan knew that his attempted +speech had been merely a silent wish. + +"God help me!" he whispered hoarsely, and in response to that brief +prayer a warm pulse of strength flooded through him. He sprang to his +feet. + +"I refuse to work!" he cried, and this time the sound echoed back +against his ears. + +There was a long pause. + +"Mutiny!" said McTee at last, and his voice was harsh with the +knowledge of his failure. "Bring him outside in the open. I'll deal +with him!" + +He retreated from the door, but before any of the sailors could go in +to fulfill the order, Harrigan walked of his own accord out onto the +deck. The wind on his face was sweet and keen; the vapors blew from +eyes and brain. He was himself again, weaker, but himself. He saw the +circle of wondering, awe-stricken faces; he saw McTee standing with +folded arms. + + + + +CHAPTER 7 + + +"Mutiny on the high seas," the captain was saying, "is as bad as murder +on dry land. I could swing you by the neck from the mast for this, +Harrigan, and every court would uphold me. Or I can throw you into the +irons and leave your trial until we touch port. But--stand back!" + +At the wave of his hand the circle spread. McTee stepped close to +Harrigan. + +"I could do all that I've said, but why should I waste you on a prison +when there's a chance that I can use for myself? Harrigan, will you +stand up to me, man to man, and fist to fist, fighting fair and square +without advantage, and then if I thrash you, will you be my man? If I +beat you, will you swear to follow me, to do my bidding? Harrigan, if I +have you to work for me--I'll be king of the south seas!" + +"Man to man--fair and square?" repeated Harrigan vaguely. "I'm weak. +You've had me in hell an' sweated me thin, McTee. If I was my old self, +I'd jump at the chance." + +"Then it's irons for you and ten years for mutiny when we reach port." + +"Ah-h, damn your heart!" + +"But if I beat you, you'll be a lord of men, Harrigan, with only one +king over you--McTee! You'll live on the fat of the land and the +plunder of the high seas if you serve McTee." + +"What oath could I swear that you'd believe?" + +"Your hand in mind for a pledge--I ask no more." + +He held out his hand. The lean, strong fingers fascinated Harrigan. + +"I'd rather take your throat than your hand, McTee--an' mebbe I +will--an' mebbe I will!" + +He caught the hand in his own cracked, stained, black palm. The smile +of McTee was like the smile of Satan when he watched Adam driven from +the Eden. + +"Strip to the waist," he said, and turned on the crew. + +"You know me, lads. I've tried to break Harrigan, but I've only bent +him, and now he's going to stand up to me man to man, and if he wins, +he's free to do as he likes and never lift a hand till we reach port. +Aye, lick your chops, you dogs. There's none of you had the heart to +try what Harrigan is going to try." + +If they did not actually lick their chops, there was hunger in their +eyes and a strange wistfulness as they watched Harrigan strip off his +shirt, but when they saw the wasted arms, lean, with the muscles +defined and corded as if by famine, their faces went blank again. For +they glanced in turn at the vast torso of McTee. When he moved his +arms, his smooth shoulders rippled in significant spots--the spots +where the driving muscles lay. But Harrigan saw nothing save the throat +of which he had dreamed. + +"This is to the finish?" said McTee. + +"Aye." + +"And no quarter?" + +Harrigan grinned, and slipped out to the middle of the deck. Both of +them kicked off their shoes. Even in their bare feet it would be +difficult to keep upright, for the _Mary Rogers_ was rollicking through +a choppy sea. Harrigan sensed the crew standing in a loose circle with +the hunger of the wolf pack in winter stamped in their eyes. + +McTee stood with his feet braced strongly, his hands poised. But +Harrigan stole about him with a gliding, unequal step. He did not seem +preparing to strike with his hands, which hung low, but rather like one +who would leap at the throat with his teeth. The ship heaved and +Harrigan sprang and his fists cracked--one, two. He leaped out again +under the captain's clubbed hands. Two spots of red glowed on McTee's +ribs and the wolf pack moistened their lips. + +"Come again, Harrigan, for I've smelled the meat, not tasted it." + +"It tastes red--like this." + +And feinting at McTee's body, he suddenly straightened and smashed both +hands against the captain's mouth. McTee's head jarred back under the +impact. The wolf pack murmured. The captain made a long step, waited +until Harrigan had leaped back to the side of the deck to avoid the +plunge, and then, as the deck heaved up to give added impetus to his +lunge, he rushed. The angle of the deck kept the Irishman from taking +advantage of his agility. He could not escape. One pile-driver hand +cracked against his forehead--another thudded on his ribs. He leaped +through a shower of blows and clinched. + +He was crushed against the rail. He was shaken by a quick succession of +short arm punches. But anything was preferable to another of those +long, driving blows. He clung until his head cleared. Then he shook +himself loose and dropped, as if dazed, to one knee. McTee's bellow of +triumph filled his ears. The captain bore down on him with outstretched +hands to grapple at his throat, but at the right instant Harrigan rose +and lurched out with stiff arm. The punch drove home to the face with a +shock that jarred Harrigan to his feet and jerked McTee back as if +drawn by a hand. Before he recovered his balance, Harrigan planted half +a dozen punches, but though they shook the captain, they did not send +him down, and Harrigan groaned. + +McTee bellowed again. It was not pain. It was not mere rage. It was a +battle cry, and with it he rushed Harrigan. They raged back and forth +across the deck, and the wolf pack drew close, cursing beneath their +breath. They had looked for a quick end to the struggle, but now they +saw that the fighters were mated. The greater strength was McTee's; the +greater purpose was Harrigan's. McTee fought to crush and conquer; +Harrigan fought to kill. + +The blows of the captain flung Harrigan here and there, yet he came +back to meet the attack, slinking with sure, catlike steps. The heel +and pitch of the deck sometimes staggered the captain, but Harrigan +seemed to know beforehand what would happen, and he leaped in at every +opening with blows that cut the skin. + +His own flesh was bruised. He bled from mouth and nose, but what was +any other pain compared with the torture of his clenched fists? It made +his arms numb to the elbow and sent currents of fire through his veins. +His eyes kept on the thick throat of McTee. Though he was knocked +reeling and half senseless, his stare never changed, and the wolf pack, +with their heads jutting forward with eagerness watched, waited. The +"Ha!" of McTee rang with the strength of five throats. The "Wah-h!" of +Harrigan purred like a furious panther's snarl. + +Then as the frenzy left Harrigan and the numbness departed from his +arms, he knew that he was growing weaker and weaker. In McTee's eyes he +saw the growing light of victory, the confidence. His own wild hunger +for blood grew apace with his desperation. He flung himself forward in +a last effort. + +A ponderous fist cracked home between his eyes, fairly lifting him from +his feet and hurling him against the base of the wheelhouse. Then a +forearm shot under his shoulder and a hand fastened on the back of his +neck in an incomplete half-Nelson. As McTee applied the pressure, +Harrigan felt his vertebral column give under the tremendous strain. He +struggled furiously but could not break the grip. Far away, like the +storm wind in the forest, he heard the moan of the wolf pack. + +"Give in! Give in!" panted McTee. + +"Ah-h!" snarled Harrigan. + +He felt the deck swing and jerked his legs high in the air. He could +not have broken that grip of his own strength, but the sway of the deck +gave his movement a mighty leverage. The hand slipped from his neck, +scraping skin away, as if a red-hot iron had been drawn across the +flesh. But he was half loosed, and that twist of his body sent them +both rolling one over the other to the scuppers of the ship--and it was +McTee who crashed against the rail, receiving the blow on the back of +his head. His eyes went dull; the red hands of Harrigan fastened on his +throat. + +"God!" screamed McTee, and gripped Harrigan's wrists, but the Irishman +heaved him up and beat his head against the deck. + +McTee's jaws fell open, and a bloody froth bubbled to his +lips; his eyes thrust out hideously. + +"Ah-h!" snarled Harrigan, and shifted his grip lower, his thumbs +digging relentlessly into the great throat. This time the giant limbs +of the captain relaxed as if in sleep. Then through the fierce singing +in his ears the Irishman heard a yell. He turned his head. The wolf +pack saw their prey pulled down at last. They ran now to join the kill, +not men, but raging devils. Harrigan sprang to his feet, catching up a +marlinspike, and whirled it above his head. + +"Back!" he shouted. + +They shrank back, growling one to the other savagely, irresolute. There +came a moan at Harrigan's feet. He leaned over and lifted the bulk of +the captain's inert body. As if through a haze he saw the chief +engineer and the two mates running toward him and caught the glitter of +a revolver in the hands of the first officer. The Irishman's battered +lips stretched to a shapeless grin. + +"Help me to the captain's cabin," he said. "He's afther bein' sick." + + + + +CHAPTER 8 + + +And the four of them went aft carrying McTee's body. On the promenade +they passed Kate Malone. She shrank against the rail, her eyes blank +and her face white. + +"He's dead!" she cried. + +"He's just beginnin' to live," said Harrigan. + +The captain was muttering faintly as they laid him on the bunk in his +room. "Now get out," commanded Harrigan. "I will be alone with him when +he wakes up. I have something to whisper in his ear." + +"Is it safe?" said the first mate to the chief engineer, gesturing with +his weapon. + +Harrigan snatched it away and waved it like a club above his head. + +"Get out, or I'll bash your skull in." + +His face was hideous, cut and blood-stained, starved with the long +hunger and lighted with the victory. They slunk from the cabin, backing +out as if they expected him to rush them. Harrigan locked the door and +started to tend the captain. He washed McTee to the waist, cleansed the +cut places carefully, and covered them with narrow strips of adhesive +tape which he found in a small medicine chest. As the heavier breathing +of the captain indicated that he was about to recover his senses, +Harrigan performed the same services for himself. It was slow work, for +now that the stimulus of action was gone, his weakness grew on him in +recurrent waves. Finally a sound made him turn to see McTee propping +himself up on the bunk with one elbow; his eyes, unconfused and steady, +looked brightly out at Harrigan. + +"You beat me?" + +"It was the swing of the deck that rolled you over and broke your grip. +I've stayed to tell you that." + +"Chances or no chances, you beat me." + +"Man, you'd have busted my back if it hadn't been for that buck of the +ship. When your hand came away, it took the skin with it." + +"And that's why you didn't finish me?" + +"Aye." + +"You'll never have the chance again." + +"I want no chances; I want no help except my own strength as it was +before you withered me with your hellfire." + +"When we stand up again, I'll kill you, Harrigan." + +"When we stand up again, I'll break you, Black McTee--like a rotten +stick." + +"Lie down here," said the captain, rising quickly. "You're sick." + +He forced Harrigan onto the bunk and stretched him out at full length. +The Irishman clenched his hands and fought against the sleep which +crept over his senses. + +"There's fire in my brain," muttered Harrigan, "an' it's trying to burn +its way out." + +McTee dipped a towel in cool water. + +"I kept the rest of them away," went on the Irishman. "When you woke +up, I wanted you to hear why I didn't finish you." + +He raised his shaking hands and gripped at the air. + +"Ah-h! When me ould silf is back, I'll shtand up to ye. Tis a promise, +McTee. Black McTee, Black McTee--I'll make ye Red McTee--red as the +palms av me hands." + +McTee tied the cold, wet towel around Harrigan's forehead. + +"I'll kill you by inches, Harrigan. You'll read hell in my eyes before +your end. Drink this!" + +He raised Harrigan's almost lifeless head and forced the neck of a +whisky bottle between his teeth. + +"Ah-h!" said Harrigan, blinking and coughing after the strong liquor +had burned its way down his throat. "The feel av your throat under me +thumbs was sweeter than the touch av a colleen's hand, McTee! I'm dead +for shlape!" + +And instantly his eyes closed; his breathing was deep and sonorous. The +captain watched him for a long moment, then sat down and laying a hand +on the sleeping man's wrist, he counted the pulse carefully. It was +irregular and feeble. + +"Time is all he needs," muttered McTee to himself, and he sat staring +before him, dreaming. "A fool can live well," he was thinking, "but it +takes a great man to die well. Harrigan will make a fine death." In the +meantime the big Irishman slept heavily, and Black McTee tended him +well, keeping the towel cool and wet about his forehead. The pulse was +gaining rapidly in strength and regularity; sleep seemed to act upon +Harrigan as food acts upon a starved man. At times he smiled, and McTee +could guess at the dream which caused it. He was dreaming of killing +McTee, and McTee sat by and understood, and smiled with deep content. +He, also, was tasting his thoughts of the battle-to-be when, without +any warning rap, the door swung open and the burly form of Bos'n +Masters appeared. + +"The first mate--" he began. + +"Did you knock?" + +"I've got no time to waste, the first mate--" + +McTee rose. In the frank, bold eyes of the bos'n he read the open +revolt, and understood. He had been beaten in open battle; his crew +felt that they were liberated by the victory of their champion. + +"Who told you to enter without knocking?" he broke +in. + +"I don't need telling," said the dauntless bos'n. "The first mate's +drunk an'--" + +The heavy fist of McTee landed on Masters's mouth and hurled him in a +heap into the corner of the cabin. The captain seized him by the nape +of the neck and jerked him back to his feet, blinking and gasping, +thoroughly subdued. + +"Get out and come in as you should." + +The bos'n fled. A moment later a timid knock came at the door and McTee +bade him enter. He stepped in, cap in hand, his eyes on the floor. + +"The first mate's drunk, sir, an' runnin' amuck with the ship. He's at +the wheel an' he won't leave it. We've nearly scraped one reef already. +You know this ain't any open sea, sir. There's green water everywhere." + +"Go up and give the fool my orders. Tell the second officer to take the +wheel." + +The bos'n retreated, but he returned within a few moments. + +"He won't leave the wheel," he reported. "He said you could take your +orders to the devil, sir." + +"I'll tie him to the deck and skin him alive," said McTee calmly. "Stay +here and watch Harrigan while I--" + +He was jerked from his feet and hurled across the room, crashing +against the cabin wall. When his senses returned, he was sitting on the +floor staring stupidly into the white face of the bos'n, who was in a +similar posture. Harrigan, who had been flung from the bunk, staggered +to his feet. + +"What the deuce is up?" asked the Irishman. + +A chorus of piercing yells rose in answer from the deck outside. + +"The end of the _Mary Rogers_," said McTee. "Stay with me, Harrigan." + +He caught the latter by the arm and dragged him out onto the deck. The +hull of the ship at the bow must have been literally ripped away by the +impact against the reef; already the deck sloped sharply to the bows. + +McTee raised a voice that rang like a trumpet over the clamor as he +gave his orders to clear away the boats. If he had been a moment +earlier, he might have succeeded in getting at least one of them safely +launched, but now the _Mary Rogers_ was settling to her doom with a +speed which made the crew senseless with terror. A half-gale which +promised to swell soon into a veritable hurricane seemed to be lifting +the freighter by the heel and driving her nose into the sea. The quick +settling twilight of the tropics made the waters doubly cold and dark. + +Not till the bows of the _Mary Rogers_ were deep below the waves and +her propeller humming loudly in the air did the captain desist from his +efforts to bring order out of the panic of the crew. Half a dozen men, +with the Chinaman at their head, had cut one boat from its davits, but +plunging into it before it fairly struck the water, they tipped it far +to one side. It filled instantly and sank, leaving its occupants +struggling on the surface. The Chinaman, who apparently could not swim, +gave up the struggle at once. He threw his clutching hands high above +his head and went down; his scream was the first death cry of the wreck +of the _Mary Rogers_. + +McTee, with Harrigan at his heels, rushed for the second lifeboat. +Under the directions of the captain, pointed and emphasized by blows of +his fist, the boat was swung safely from the davits and lowered to the +sea. The instant that it rode the waves, bouncing up and down on the +choppy surface, the crew began leaping in, the drunken mate being the +first overside. + +The lifeboat was loaded from stem to stern, and only Harrigan, McTee, +and half a dozen more remained on the ship when the boat swung a dozen +feet away from the _Mary Rogers_ and with the next wave was picked up +and smashed against the freighter. Its side went in like a matchbox +pressed by a strong thumb, and it zigzagged quickly below the surface. +The yells of the swimmers rose in a long wail. McTee caught Harrigan by +the shoulder and shouted in his ear: "Stay close and do what I do." + +"Miss Malone!" yelled Harrigan in answer, and pointed. + +She stood by the after-cabin, clinging to the rail with one hand while +she attempted to adjust a life preserver with the other. The _Mary +Rogers_ lurched forward, a long slide that buried half of the ship +under the sea. A giant wave towered above the side and licked the +wheelhouse away. + +"Let her go!" roared McTee. "Save ourselves and let her +go." + +It was a matter of seconds now before the last of the _Mary Rogers_ +should disappear. They clambered up to the after-cabin. + +"For the love av God, McTee, she's a woman!" + + +The Irishman struggled up the deck toward the girl, but the captain +caught him and held him fast. + +"There's one chance," shouted Black McTee, and he pointed to the litter +of the wrecked wheelhouse which tossed on the waves. "Overboard and +make for a big timber." + +But the eyes of Harrigan held on the form of the girl. They could only +make out the shadow of her form with her hair blowing wildly on the +wind. Then as swift as the sway of a bird's wing, a mass of black water +tossed over the side of the _Mary Rogers_. When it was gone, the +shadowy figure of the girl had disappeared with it. + +"Now!" thundered McTee. + +"Aye," said Harrigan. + + + + +CHAPTER 9 + + +They climbed the rail. Plainly Harrigan had made them delay too long, +for now they had not time to swim beyond the reach of the swirl that +would form when the ship went down. The _Mary Rogers_ lurched to her +grave as they sprang from the rail. A wave caught them and washed them +beyond the grip of the whirlpool; another wave swung them back, and the +waters sucked them down. Such was the force of that downward pull that +it seemed to Harrigan as if a weight were attached to either foot. He +drew a great, gasping breath before his head went under and then struck +out with all his might. + +When his lungs seemed bursting with the labor, he whirled to the +surface again and drew another gasping breath. The storm had torn a +rift in the clouds and through it looked the moon as if some god were +peering through the curtain of mist to watch the havoc he was working. +By this light Harrigan saw that he was being drawn down in a narrowing +circle. Straight before him loomed a black fragment of the wreckage. He +tried to swing to one side, but the current of the water bore him on. +He received a heavy blow on the head and his senses went out like a +snuffed light. + +When consciousness returned, there was a sharp pain in both head and +right shoulder, for it was on his shoulder that McTee had fastened his +grip. The captain sprawled on a great timber, clutching it with both +legs and one arm. With the free hand he held Harrigan. All this the +Irishman saw by the haggard moonlight. Then they were pitched high up +on the crest of a wave. As Harrigan grappled the timber with arms and +legs, it turned over and over and then pitched down through empty +space. The wind had literally cut away the top of the wave. He went +down, submerged, and then rose to a giddy height again. As he caught a +great breath of air, he saw that McTee was no longer on the timber. + +A shout reached him, the sound being cut off in the middle by the noise +of the wind and waves. He saw McTee a dozen feet away, swimming +furiously. He came almost close enough to touch the timber with his +hands, and then a twist of the wave separated them. Harrigan worked +down the timber until he reached the end of the stanchion which was +nearest Black McTee. All that time the captain was struggling, but +could not draw closer. The wood was drifting before the wind faster +than he could swim. + +When he reached the end of the timber, Harrigan wound his long arms +tightly around it and let his legs draw out on the water. McTee, seeing +the purpose of the maneuver, redoubled his efforts. On a wave crest the +storm swept Harrigan still farther away; then they dropped into a +hollow and instantly he felt a mighty grip fall on his ankle. They +pitched up again with the surge of a wave so sharp and sudden that what +with his own weight and the tugging burden of McTee behind him, +Harrigan felt as if his arms would be torn from their sockets. He kept +his hold by a mighty effort, and the tremendous grip of McTee held fast +on his ankle until they dropped once more into a hollow. Then the +captain jerked himself hand over hand up the body of Harrigan until he +reached the timber. They lay panting and exhausted on the stanchion, +embracing it with arms and legs. + +Sometimes the wind sent the timber with its human freight lunging +through a towering wave; and several times the force of the storm +caught them and whirled them over and over. When they rose to a wave +crest, they struggled bitterly for life; when they fell into the +trough, they drew long breaths and freshened their holds. + +Save once when Harrigan reached out his hand and set it upon that of +Black McTee. The captain met the grip, and by the wild moonlight they +stared into each other's faces. That handshake almost cost them their +lives, for the next moment the full breath of the storm caught them and +wrenched furiously at their bodies. Yet neither of them regretted the +handclasp, for all its cost. If they died now, it would be as brothers. +They had at least escaped from the greatest of all horrors, a lonely +death. + +It seemed as if the storm acknowledged the strength of their +determination. It fell away as suddenly as it had risen. A heavy ground +swell still ran, but without the wind to roughen the surface and +sharpen the crests, the big timber rode safely through the sea. The +storm clouds were dropping back in a widening circle beneath the moon +when, as they heaved up on the top of a wave, Harrigan suddenly pointed +straight ahead and shouted hoarsely. On the horizon squatted a black +shadow, darker than any cloud. + +All night they watched the shadow grow, and when the morning came and +the tropic dawn stepped suddenly up from the east, the light glinted on +the unmistakable green of verdure. + +With the help of the steady wind they drifted slowly closer and closer +to the island. By noon they abandoned the timber and started swimming, +but the submerged beach went out far more gradually than they had +expected. The last hundred yards they walked arm in arm, floundering +through the gentle surf. + +Then they stumbled up the beach, reeling with weariness, and sprawled +out in the shade of a palm tree. They were asleep almost before they +struck the sand. + +It was late afternoon when they woke, ravenously hungry, their throats +burning with thirst. For food McTee climbed a coconut palm and knocked +down some of the fruit. They split the gourds open on a rock, drank the +liquor, and ate heartily of the meat. That quelled their appetites, but +the sweet liquor only partially appeased their thirst, and they started +to search the island for a spring. First they went to the center of the +place to a small hill, and from the top of this they surveyed their +domain. The island was not more than a thousand yards in width and +three or four miles in length. Nowhere was there any sign of even a +hut. + +"Well?" queried Harrigan, seeing McTee frown. + +"We can live here," explained the captain, "but God knows how long it +will be before we sight a ship. Our only hope is for some tramp +freighter that's trying to find a short cut through the reefs. Even if +we sight a tramp, how'll we signal her?" + +"With a fire." + +"Aye, if one passes at night. We could stack up wood on the top of this +hill. The island isn't charted. If a skipper saw a light, he might take +a chance and send a boat. But how could we kindle a fire?" + +They went slowly down the hill, their heads bent. At the base, as if +placed in their path to cheer them in this moment of gloom, they found +a spring. It ran a dozen feet and disappeared into a crevice. They +cupped the water in their hands and drank long and deep. When they +stood up again, McTee dropped a hand on Harrigan's shoulder. He said: +"You've cause enough for hating me." + +"Pal," said Harrigan, "you're nine parts devil, but the part of you +that's a man makes up for all the rest." + +McTee brooded: "Now we're standing on the rim of the world, and we've +got to be brother to each other. But what if we get off the +island--there's small chance of it, but what if we should? Would we +remember then how we took hands in the trough of the sea?" + +Harrigan raised his hand. + +"So help me God--" he began. + +"Wait!" broke in McTee. "Don't say it. Suppose we get off the island, +and when we reach port find one thing which we both want. What then?" + +Harrigan remembered a word from the Bible. + +"I'll never covet one of your belongin's, McTee, an' I'll never cross +your wishes." + +"Your hair is red, Harrigan, and mine is black; your eye is blue and +mine is black. We were made to want the same thing in different ways. +I've never met my mate before. I can stand it here on the rim of the +world--but in the world itself--what then, Harrigan?" + +They stepped apart, and the glance of the black eye crossed that of the +cold blue. + +"Ah-h, McTee, are ye dark inside and out? Is the black av your eye the +same as the soot in your heart?" + +"Harrigan, you were born to fight and forget; I was born to fight and +remember. Well, I take no oath, but here's my hand. It's better than +the oath of most men." + +"A strange fist," grinned Harrigan; "soft in the palm and hard over the +knuckles--like mine." + +They went down the hill toward the beach, Harrigan singing and McTee +silent, with downward head. On the beach they started for some rocks +which shelved out into the water, for it was possible that they might +find some sort of shellfish on the rocks below the surface of the +water. Before they reached the place, however, McTee stopped and +pointed out across the waves. Some object tossed slowly up and down a +short distance from the beach. + +"From the wreck," said McTee. "I didn't think it would drift quite as +fast as this." + +They waded out to examine; the water was not over their waists when +they reached it. They found a whole section from the side of the +wheelhouse, the timbers intact. + +_On it lay Kate Malone, unconscious._ + +Manifestly she never could have kept on the big fragment during the +night of the storm had it not been for a piece of stout twine with +which she had tied her left wrist to a projecting bolt. She had wrapped +the cord many times, but despite this it had worn away her skin and +sunk deep in the flesh of her arm. Half her clothes were torn away as +she had been thrown about on the boards. Whether from exhaustion or the +pain of her cut wrist, she had fainted and evidently lain in this +position for several hours; one side of her face was burned pink by the +heat of the sun. + +They dragged the float in, and McTee knelt beside the girl and pressed +an ear against her breast. + +"Living!" he announced. "Now we're three on the rim of the world." + +"Which makes a crowd," grinned Harrigan. + + + + +CHAPTER 10 + + +They started working eagerly to revive her. While McTee bathed her face +and throat with handfuls of the sea water, Harrigan worked to liberate +her from the twine. It was not easy. The twine was wet, and the knot +held fast. Finally he gnawed it in two with his teeth. McTee, at the +same time, elicited a faint moan. Her wrist was bruised and swollen +rather than dangerously cut. Harrigan stuffed the twine into his hip +pocket; then the two Adams carried their Eve to the shade of a tree and +watched the color come back to her face by slow degrees. + +The wind now increased suddenly as it had done on the evening of the +wreck. It rose even as the day darkened, and in a moment it was rushing +through the trees screaming in a constantly rising crescendo. The rain +was coming, and against that tropical squall shelter was necessary. + +The two men ran down the beach and returned dragging the ponderous +section of the wheelhouse. They leaned the frame against two trunks at +the same instant that the first big drops of rain rattled against it. +Overhead they were quite securely protected by the dense and +interweaving foliage of the two trees, but still the wind whistled in +at either side and over and under the frame of boards. Of one accord +they dropped beside their patient. + +She was trembling violently; they heard the light, continuous +chattering of her teeth. After her many hours under the merciless sun, +this sudden change of temperature might bring on the fever against +which they could not fight. They stripped off their shirts and wound +them carefully around her shivering body. McTee lifted her in his arms +and sat down with his back to the wind. Harrigan took a place beside +him, and they caught her close. They seemed to be striving by the force +of their will to drive the heat from their own blood into her trembling +body. But still she moaned in her delirium, and the shivering would not +stop. + +Then the great idea came to Harrigan. He rose without a word and ran +out into the rain to a fallen tree which must have been blown down +years before, for now the trunk and the splintered stump were rotten to +the core. He had noticed it that day. There was only a rim of firm wood +left of the wreck. The stump gave readily enough under his pull. He +ripped away long strips of the casing, bark and wood, and carried it +back to the shelter. He made a second trip to secure a great armful of +the powder-dry time-rotted core of the stump. + +His third expedition carried him a little farther afield to a small +sapling which he could barely make out through the night. He bent down +the top of the little tree and snapped off about five feet of its +length. This in turn he brought to the shelter. He stopped short here, +frozen with amazement. The girl was raving in her delirium, and to +soothe her, McTee was singing to her horrible sailor chanteys, pieced +out with improvised and foolish words. + +Harrigan listened only while his astonishment kept him helpless; then +he took up his work. He first stripped away the twigs from his sapling +top. Then he tied the twine firmly at either end of the stick, leaving +the string loose. Next he fumbled among the mass of rubbish he had +brought in from the rotten trunk and broke off a chunk of hard wood +several inches in length. By rubbing this against the fragment of the +wheelhouse, he managed to reduce one end of the little stick to a rough +point. + +He took the largest slab of the rim wood from the stump and knelt upon +it to hold it firm. On this wood he rested his peg, which was wrapped +in several folds of the twine and pressed down by the second fragment +of wood. When he moved the long stick back and forth, the peg revolved +at a tremendous rate of speed, its partially sharpened end digging into +the wood on which it rested. It is a method of starting a fire which +was once familiarly used by Indians. + +For half an hour Harrigan sweated and groaned uselessly over his labor. +Once he smelled a taint of smoke and shouted his triumph, but the peg +slipped and the work was undone. He started all over again after a +short rest and the peg creaked against the slab of wood with the speed +of its rotation--a small sound of protest drowned by the bellowing of +the storm and the ringing songs of McTee. Now the smoke rose again and +this time the peg kept firm. The smoke grew pungent; there was a spark, +then a glow, and it spread and widened among the powdery, rotten wood +which Harrigan had heaped around his rotating peg. + +He tossed the peg and bow aside and blew softly and steadily on the +glowing point. It spread still more and now a small tongue of flame +rose and flickered. Instantly Harrigan laid small bits of wood +criss-cross on the pile of tinder. The flame licked at them +tentatively, recoiled, rose again and caught hold. The fire was well +started. + +With gusts of wind fanning it roughly, the flame rose fast. Harrigan +made other journeys to the rotten stump and wrenched away great chunks +of bark and wood. He came back and piled them on the fire. It towered +high, the upper tongues twisting among the branches of the tree. They +laid Kate Malone between the windbreak and the fire. In a short time +her trembling ceased; she turned her face to the blaze and slept. + +They watched her with jealous care all night. In lieu of a pillow they +heaped some of the wood dust from the stump beneath her head. When +their large hands hovered over her to straighten the clothes which the +wind fluttered, she seemed marvelously delicate and fragile. It was +astonishing that so fragile a creature should have lived through the +buffeting of the sea. + +Toward morning the storm fell at a breath and the rain died away. They +agreed that it might be safe to leave her alone while they ventured out +to look for food, and at the first hint of light they started out, one +to the north, and one to the south. Harrigan started at an easy run. He +felt a joyous exultation like that of a boy eager for play. He tried to +find shellfish first, but without success. His search carried him far +down the beach to a group of big rocks rolling out to sea. On the +leeward side of these rocks, in little hollows of the stone, he found a +quantity of the eggs of some seafowl. They were quite large, the shells +a dirty, faint blue and apparently very thick. He collected all he +could carry and started back. + +As he approached the shelter, he heard voices and stopped short with a +sudden pang; McTee had returned first and awakened the girl. Harrigan +sighed. He knew now how he had wanted to watch her eyes open for the +first time, the cool sea-green eyes lighted by bewilderment, surprise, +and joy. All that delight had been McTee's. It was that dark, handsome +face she had seen leaning over her when she awoke. He was firmly +implanted in her mind by this time as her savior. She opened her eyes, +hungered, and she had seen McTee bringing food. Harrigan drew a long +breath and went on slowly with lowered head. + +They sat cross-legged, facing each other. The captain was showing Kate +his prizes, which seemed to consist of a quantity of shellfish. She +clapped her hands at something McTee said, and her laughter, +wonderfully clear, reminded Harrigan of the chiming of faraway church +bells. Blind anger suddenly possessed him as he stood by the fire +glowering down at them. + + + + +CHAPTER 11 + + +"Eggs! How perfectly wonderful, Mr. Harrigan! And I'm starved!" + +She looked up to him, radiant with delight; but the triumphant eye of +Harrigan fell not upon her but on McTee, who had suddenly grown +pensive. + +"But how can we cook them? There's nothing to boil water in--and no pan +for frying them," ventured McTee. + +"Roast 'em," said Harrigan scornfully. "Like this." + +He wrapped several eggs in wet clay and placed them in the glowing +ashes of the fire which had now burned low. + +"While they're cooking," said McTee, "I'm going off. I've an idea." + +Harrigan watched him with a shade of suspicion while he retreated. He +turned his head to find Kate studying him gravely. + +"Before you came, Mr. Harrigan--" + +"My name's Dan. That'll save time." + +"While you were gone," she went on, thanking him with a smile, "Captain +McTee told me a great many things about you." + +Harrigan stirred uneasily. + +"Among other things, that you had no such record as he hinted at while +we were on the _Mary Rogers_. So I have to ask you to forgive me--" + +The blue eyes grew bright as he watched her. + +"I've forgotten all that, for the sea washed it away from my mind." + +"Really?" + +"As clean as the wind has washed the sky." + +Not a cloud stained the broad expanse from horizon to horizon. + +"That's a beautiful way to put it. Now that we are here on the island, +we begin all over again and forget what happened on the ship?" + +"Aye, all of it." + +"Shake on it." + +He took her hand, but so gingerly that she laughed. + +"We have to be careful of you," he explained seriously. "Here we are, +as McTee puts it, on the rim of the world, two men an' one woman. If +something happens to one of us, a third of our population's gone." + +"A third of our population! Then I'm very important?" + +"You are." + +He was so serious that it disconcerted her. It suddenly became +impossible for her to meet his eyes, they burned so bright, so eager, +with something like a threat in them. She hailed the returning figure +of McTee with relief. + +He came bearing a large gourd, and he knelt before Kate so that she +might look into it. She cried out at what she saw, for he had washed +the inside of the gourd and filled it with cool water from the spring. + +"Look!" said she to Harrigan. "It's water--and my throat is fairly +burning." + +"Humph," growled Harrigan, and he avoided the eye of McTee. + +The gourd was too heavy and clumsy for her to handle. The captain had +to raise and tip it so that she might drink, and as she drank, her eyes +went up to his with gratitude. + +Harrigan set his teeth and commenced raking the roasted eggs from the +hot ashes. When her thirst was quenched, she looked in amazement at +Harrigan; even his back showed anger. In some mysterious manner it was +plain that she had displeased the big Irishman. + +He turned now and offered her an egg, after removing the clay mold. But +when she thanked him with the most flattering of smiles, she became +aware that McTee in turn was vexed, while the Irishman seemed perfectly +happy again. + +"Have an egg, McTee," he offered, and rolled a couple toward the big +captain. + +"I will not. I never had a taste for eggs." + +"Why, captain," murmured Kate, "you can't live on shellfish?" + +"Humph! Can't I? Very nutritious, Kate, and very healthful. Have to be +careful what you eat in this climate. Those eggs, for instance. Can you +tell, Harrigan, whether or not they're fresh?" + +Harrigan, his mouth full of egg, paused and glared at the captain. + +"For the captain of a ship, McTee," he said coldly, "your head is +packed with fool ideas. Eat your fish an' don't spoil the appetites of +others." + +He turned to Kate. + +"These eggs are new-laid--they're--they're not more than twenty-four +hours old." + +His glance dared McTee to doubt the statement. The captain accepted the +challenge. + +"I suppose you watched 'em being laid, Harrigan?" + +Harrigan sneered. + +"I can tell by the taste partly and partly"--here he cracked the shell +of another egg and, stripping it off, held up the little white oval to +the light--"and partly by the color. It's dead white, isn't it?" + +"Yes." + +"That shows it's fresh. If there was a bit of blue in it, it'd be +stale." + +McTee breathed hard. + +"You win," he said. "You ought to be on the stage, Harrigan." + +But Harrigan was deep in another egg. Kate watched the two with covert +glances, amazed, wondering. They had saved each other from death at +sea, and now they were quarreling bitterly over the qualities of eggs. + +And not eggs alone, for McTee, not to be outdone in courtesy, passed a +handful of his shellfish to Harrigan. The Irishman regarded the fish +and then McTee with cold disgust. + +"D'you really think I'm crazy enough to eat one of these?" he queried. + +Black McTee was black indeed as he glowered at the big Irishman. + +"Open up; let's hear what you got to say about these shellfish," he +demanded. + +Harrigan announced laconically: "Scurvy." + +"What?" This from Kate and McTee at one breath. + +"Sure. There ain't any salt in 'em. No salt is as bad as too much salt. +A friend of mine was once in a place where he couldn't get any salt +food, an' he ate a lot of these shellfish. What was the result? Scurvy! +He hasn't a tooth in his head today. An' he's only thirty." + +"Why didn't you tell me?" cried Kate indignantly, and she laid a +tentative finger against her white teeth, as if expecting to find them +loose. + +"I didn't want to hurt McTee's feelin's. Besides, maybe a few of them +won't hurt you--much!" + +McTee suddenly burst into laughter, but there was little mirth in the +sound. + +"Maybe you know these are the great blue clams that are famous for +their salt." + +"Really?" said Kate, greatly relieved. + +"Yes," went on McTee, his eyes wandering slightly. "This species of +clam has an unusual organ by which it extracts some of the salt from +the sea water while taking its food. Look here!" + +He held up a shell and indicated a blue-green spot on the inside. + +"You see that color? That's what gives these clams their name and this +is also the place where the salt deposit forms. This clam has a high +percentage of salt--more than any other." + +Harrigan, sending a bitter side glance at McTee, rose to bring some +more wood, for it was imperative that they should keep the fire burning +always. + +"I'm so glad," said Kate, "that we have both the eggs and the clams to +rely on. At least they will keep us from starving in this terrible +place." + +"H'm. I'm not so sure about the eggs." + +He eyed them with a watering mouth, for his raging hunger had not been +in the least appeased by the shellfish. + +"But I'll try one just to keep you company." + +He peeled away the shell and swallowed the egg hastily, lest Harrigan, +returning, should see that he had changed his mind. + +"Maybe the eggs are all right," he admitted as soon as he could speak, +and he picked up another, "but between you and me, I'll confess that I +shall not pay much attention to what Harrigan has to say. He's never +been to sea before. You can't expect a landlubber to understand all the +conditions of a life like this." + +But a new thought which was gradually forming in her brain made Kate +reserve judgment. Harrigan came back and placed a few more sticks of +wood on the fire. + +"I can't understand," said Kate, "how you could make a fire without a +sign of a match." + +"That's simple," said McTee easily. "When a man has traveled about as +much as I have, he has to pick up all sorts of unusual ways of doing +things. The way we made that fire was to--" + +"The way _we_ made it?" interjected Harrigan with bitter emphasis. + +Kate frowned as she glanced from one to the other. There was the same +deep hostility in their eyes which she had noticed when they faced each +other in the captain's cabin aboard the _Mary Rogers_. + +"An' why were ye sittin' prayin' for fire with the gir-rl thremblin' +and freezin' to death in yer ar-rms if ye knew so well how to be makin' +one?" + +"Hush--Dan," said Kate; for the fire of anger blew high. + +McTee started. + +"You know each other pretty well, eh?" + +"Tut, tut!" said Harrigan airily. "You can't expect a slip of a girl to +be calling a black man like _you_ by the front name?" + +McTee moistened his white lips. He rose. + +"I'm going for a walk--I always do after eating." + +And he strode off down the beach. Harrigan instantly secured a handful +of the shellfish. + +"Speakin' of salt," he said apologetically, "I'll have to try a couple +of these to be sure that the captain's right. I can tell by a taste or +two." + +He pried open one of the shells and ate the contents hastily, keeping +one eye askance against the return of McTee. + +"Maybe he's right about these shellfish," he pronounced judicially, +"but it's a hard thing an' a dangerous thing to take the word of a man +like McTee--he's that hasty. We must go easy on believin' what he says, +Kate." + + + + +CHAPTER 12 + + +Then understanding flooded Kate's mind like waves of light in a dark +room. She tilted back her head and laughed, laughed heartily, laughed +till the tears brimmed her eyes. The gloomy scowl of Harrigan stopped +her at last. As her mirth died out, the tall form of McTee appeared +suddenly before them with his arms crossed. Where they touched his +breast, the muscles spread out to a giant size. He was turned toward +her, but the gleam of his eye fell full upon Harrigan. + +"I suppose," said McTee, and his teeth clicked after each word like the +bolt of a rifle shot home, "I suppose that you were laughing at me?" + +The Irishman rose and faced the Scotchman, his head thrust forward and +a devil in his eyes. + +"An' what if we were, Misther McTee?" he purred. "An' what if we +wer-r-re, I'm askin'?" + +Kate leaped to her feet and sprang between them. + +"Is there anything we can do," she broke in hurriedly, "to get away +from the island?" + +"A raft?" suggested Harrigan. + +McTee smiled his contempt. + +"A raft? And how would you cut down the trees to make it?" + +"Burn 'em down with a circle of fire at the bottom." + +"And then set green logs afloat? And how fasten 'em together, even +supposing we could burn them down and drag them to the water? No, +there's no way of getting off the island unless a boat passes and +catches a glimpse of our fire." + +"Then we'll have to move this fire to the top of the hill," said +Harrigan. + +"Suppose we go now and look over the hill and see what dry wood is near +it," said McTee. + +"Good." + +Something in their eagerness had a meaning for Kate. + +"Would you both leave me?" she reproached them. + +"It was McTee suggested it," said Harrigan. + +McTee favored his comrade with a glance that would have made any other +man give ground. It merely made Harrigan grin. + +"We'll draw straws for who goes and who stays," said McTee. + +Kate picked up two bits of wood. + +"The short one stays," she said. + +"Draw," said Harrigan in a low voice. + +"I was taught manners young," said McTee. "After you." + +They exchanged glares again. The whole sense of her power over these +giants came home to her as she watched them fighting their duel of the +eyes. + +"You suggested it," she said to McTee. + +He stepped forward with an expression as grim as that of a prize +fighter facing an antagonist of unknown prowess. Once and again his +hand hovered above the sticks before he drew. + +"You've chosen the walk to the hill," she said, and showed the shorter +stick. "Do you mind?" + +"No," mocked Harrigan, "he always walks after meals." + +Their eyes dwelt almost fondly upon each other. They were both men +after the other's heart. Then the Scotchman turned and strode away. + +Kate watched Harrigan suspiciously, but his eyes, following McTee, were +gentle and dreamy. + +"Ah," he murmured, "there's a jewel of a man." + +"Do you like him so much?" + +"Do I like him? Me dear, I love the man; I'll break his head with more +joy than a shtarvin' man cracks a nut!" + +He recovered himself instantly. + +"I didn't mean that--I--" + +"Dan, you and McTee have planned to fight!" + +He growled: "If a man told me that, I'd say he was a liar." + +"Yes; but you won't lie to a girl, Harrigan." + +She rose and faced him, reaching up to lay her hands on his thick +shoulders. + +"Will you give me your promise as an honest man to try to avoid a fight +with him?" + +For she saw death in it if they met alone; certainly death for one, and +perhaps for both. + +"Kate, would you ask a tree to promise to avoid the lightning?" + +She caught a little breath through set teeth in her angry impatience, +then: "Dan, you're like a naughty boy. Can't you be reasonable?" + +Despite her wrath, she noticed a quick change in his face. The blue of +his eyes was no longer cold and incurious, but lighted, warm, and +marvelously deep. + +And she said rapidly, making her voice cold to quell the uneasy, rising +fire behind his eyes: "If you have made McTee angry, aren't you man +enough to smooth things over--to ask his pardon?" + +He answered vaguely: "Beg his pardon?" + +"Why is that so impossible? For my sake, Dan!" + +The light went out of his face as if a candle had been snuffed. + +"For you, Kate?" + +Then she understood her power fully for the first time, and found the +thing which she must do. + +"For me. I--I--" + +She let her head droop, and then glanced up as if beseeching him to ask +no questions. + +"Look me square in the eye--so!" + +He caught her beneath the chin with a grip that threatened a bruise, +and his eyes burned down upon her. + +"Are ye playin' with me, Kate? Are ye tryin' to torment me, or do ye +really care for McTee?" + +She tried with all her might, but could not answer. The rumble and ring +of his voice brought her heart to her throat. + +"You're tremblin'," said Harrigan, and he released her. "So it's all +true. McTee!" + +He turned on his heel like a soldier, lest she should mark the change +of his expression; but she must have noticed something, for she called: +"Harrigan--Dan!" + +He stopped, but would not face her. + +"You have your hands clenched. Are you going out to hunt for McTee in +that black mood?" + +"Kate," said Harrigan, "by my honor I'm swearin' he's as safe in my +hands as a child." + + + + +CHAPTER 13 + + +Harrigan strode off through the trees. To loosen the tight, aching +muscles of his throat he began to sing--old Irish songs with a wail and +a swing to them. He had taken no certain direction, for he only wished +to be alone and far away from the other two; but after a time he +realized that he was on the side of the central hill to which McTee had +gone to look for the dry wood. Above all things in the world he wished +to avoid the Scotchman now, and as soon as he became conscious of his +whereabouts, he veered sharply to the right. He had scarcely walked a +minute in the new direction before he met McTee. The latter had seen +him first, and now stood with braced feet in his position of battle, +rolling the sleeves of his shirt away from his forearms. Harrigan +stepped behind a tree. + +"Come out," roared McTee. "I've seen you. Don't try to sneak behind and +take me from the back." + +With an exceeding bitterness of heart, Harrigan stepped into view +again. + +"You look sick," went on McTee. "If you knew what would happen when we +met, why did you come? If you fear me, go back and hug the skirts of +the girl. She'll take pity on you, Harrigan." + +The Irishman groaned. "Think your thoughts an' say your say, McTee. I +can't lay a hand on you today." + +The latter stepped close, stupefied with wonder. + +"Do I hear you right? Are you taking water, Harrigan?" + +Harrigan bowed his head, praying mutely for strength to endure. + +"Don't say it!" pleaded McTee. "I've hunted the world and worn the +roads bare looking for one man who could stand up to me--and now that +I've found him, he turns yellow inside!" + +And he looked upon the Irishman with a sick horror, as if the big +fellow were turning into a reptile before his eyes. On the face of +Harrigan there was an expression like that of the starving man whom the +fear of poison induces to push away food. + +"There's no word I can speak to you, McTee. You could never understand. +Go back to the girl. Maybe she'll explain." + +"The girl?" + +At the wild hope in that voice Harrigan shuddered, and he could not +look up. + +"Harrigan, what do you mean?" + +"Don't ask me. Leave me alone, McTee." + +"Here's a mystery," said the Scotchman, "and our little party is +postponed. The date is changed, that's all. Remember!" + +He stepped off through the trees in the direction of the shelter on the +beach, leaving Harrigan to throw himself upon the ground in a paroxysm +of shame and hate. + +But McTee, with hope to spur him on--a vague hope; a thought half +formed and therefore doubly delightful--went with great strides until +he came to Kate where she sat tending the fire. He broke at once into +the heart of his question. + +"I met Harrigan. He's changed. Something has happened. Tell me what it +is. He says you know." + +He crouched close to her, intent and eager, his eyes ready to read a +thousand meanings into the very lowering of her lashes; but she let her +glance rove past him. + +"Well?" he asked impatiently. + +"It is hard to speak of it." + +Cold doubt fell upon the captain; he moistened his lips before he +spoke. + +"Hit straight from the shoulder. There's something between you and the +Irishman?" + +She dropped a hand over his mighty fist. + +"After all, you are our only friend, Angus. Why shouldn't you know?" + +He stood up and made a few paces to and fro, his hands locked behind +him and his leonine head fallen low. + +"Yes, why shouldn't you tell me! I think I understand already." + +All desire to laugh went from her, and deep fear took its place; her +eyes were held fascinated upon his interlaced fingers, white under +their own terrific pressure; yet she understood that she must go on. If +she failed, this mighty force would be turned against Harrigan; and +Harrigan, not less grim in battle, as she could guess, would be turned +against him. + +She said quickly, to conceal her fear: "I thought there was some +trouble between you and Dan. I asked him to promise that he would not +fight with you. But I don't need to ask you to promise not to fight +with him, for now that you know--" + +He leaped up and beat his hands together over his head. + +"And that was why! I taunted him and all the time he was laughing to +himself!" + +He stopped and then whispered to himself: "Still, it's only postponed. +The tune will come! The time will come!" + +She understood the promise. + +"Angus! What are you saying?" + +He said quietly: "Harrigan's safe from me while you care for him. Do +you think I'm fool enough to make a martyr of him? Not I! But when we +get back to the world--" + +He finished the sentence by slowly flexing his fingers. + +"I love you, Kate, and until the strength goes out of my hands, I'll +still love you. I want you; and what I want I get. You'll hate me for +it, eh?" + +He went off without waiting for an answer, stumbling as he walked like +one who was dazed. Her strength held with her until he was out of sight +among the trees, but then she sank to the ground, panting. Sooner or +later they were sure to discover her ruse, and the moment one of them +learned that she did not love the other, they would rush into battle. +She only prayed that the discovery would not come till they were safely +off the island. Once back in the world the strong arm of the law might +suffice to keep them apart. + +The falling of the fire roused her at last and she set about gathering +wood to keep it alive. It was the Irishman who returned first. He waved +her to the shade of the shelter and finished collecting the wood. + + + + +CHAPTER 14 + + +Afterward he inquired, frowning: "Where's McTee? I met him an' he +started back to find you." + +"He's gone off with his thoughts, Dan." + +Harrigan sighed, looking up to the stainless blue of the sky: "Aye, +that's the way of the Scotch. When they're happy in love, they go off +by themselves an' brood like a dog that's thinking of a fight. But were +I he, I'd never be leavin' your side, colleen." + +His head tilted back in the way she had come to know, and she waited +for the soft dialect: "I'd be singin' songs av love an' war-r-r, an' +braggin' me hear-rt out, an' talkin' av the sea-green av your eyes, +colleen. Look at him now!" + +For the great form of McTee left the circle of the trees and approached +them. + +"He's got his head down between his shoulders like a whipped cur. He's +broodin', an' his soul is thick in a fog." + +"Dan, I trust you to cheer him up; but you'll not speak of me?" + +"Not I. He's a proud man, Black McTee, an' he'd be angered to the core +of him if he thought you'd talked about him an' his love to Harrigan. +Whisht, Kate, I'll handle him like fire! + +"The wood," he began, as McTee came in. "Did you find it on top of the +hill, lad?" + +McTee rumbled after a pause, and without looking at Harrigan: "There's +plenty of it there. I made a little heap of the driest on the crown of +the hill." + +"Then the next thing is to move our fire up there." + +"Move our fire?" cried Kate. "How can you carry the fire?" + +"Easy. Take two pieces of burnin' wood an' walk along holdin' them +close together. That way they burn each other an' the flame keeps +goin'. Watch!" + +He selected two good-sized brands from the fire and raised them, +holding one in either hand and keeping the ignited portions of the +sticks together. McTee looked from Kate to Harrigan. + +"Sit down and talk to Kate. I'll carry the sticks; I know where the +pile of timber is." + +Harrigan made a significant and covert nod and winked at McTee with +infinite understanding. + +"Stay here yourself, lad. I wouldn't be robbing you----" + +Kate coughed for warning, and he broke off sharply. + +"You've made one trip to the hill. This is my turn. Besides, you +wouldn't know how to keep the stick burnin'. I've done it before." + +McTee stared, agape with astonishment. The meaning of that wink still +puzzled his brain. He turned to Kate for explanation, and she beckoned +him to stay. When Harrigan disappeared, he said: "What's the meaning? +Doesn't Harrigan want to be with you?" + +She allowed her eyes to wander dreamily after Harrigan. + +"Don't you see? He's like a big boy. He's overflowing with happiness +and he has to go off to play by himself." + +McTee watched her with deep suspicion. + +"It's queer," he pondered. "I know the Irish like a book, and when +they're in love, they're always singing and shouting and raising the +devil. It looked to me as if Harrigan was making himself be cheerful." + +He went on: "I'll take him aside and tell him that I understand. +Otherwise he'll think he's fooling me." + +"Please! You won't do that? Angus, you know how proud he is! He will be +furious if he finds out that I've spoken to you about--about--our love. +Won't you wait until he tells you of his own accord?" + +He ground his teeth in an ugly fury. + +"You understand? If I find you've been playing with me, it'll mean +death for Harrigan, and worse than that for you?" + +She made her glance sad and gentle. + +"Will you never trust me, Angus?" + +He answered, with a sort of wonder at himself: "Since I was a child, +you are the first person in the world who has had the right to call me +by my first name." + +"Not a single woman?" and she shivered. + +"Not one." + +She pondered: "No love, no friendship, not even pity to bring you close +to a single human being all your life?" + +"No child has ever come near me, for I've never had room for pity. No +man has been my friend, for I've spent my time fighting them and +breaking them. And I've despised women too much to love them." + +The tears rose to her eyes as she spoke: "I pity you from the bottom of +my soul!" + +"Pity? Me? By God, Kate, you'll teach me to hate you!" + +"I can't help it. Why, if you have never loved, you have never lived!" + +"You talk like a girl in a Sunday school! Ha, have I never lived? Men +were made strong so that a stronger man should be their master; and +women--" + +"And women, Angus?" + +"All women are fools; one woman is divine!" + +The yearning of his eyes gave a bitter meaning to his words, and she +was shaken like a leaf blown here and there by contrary winds. +Unheeded, the sudden tropic night swooped upon them like the shadow of +a giant bird, and as the dark increased, they saw the glimmering of the +fire upon the hill. She rose, and he followed her until they reached +the upward slope. + +Then he said: "You will want to be alone with him for a time. Can you +find the rest of the way?" + +"Yes. You'll come soon?" + +"I'll come soon, but I have to be by myself for a while. I may hate you +for it afterward, but now I'm weak and soft inside--like a child--and I +only wish for your happiness." + +"God bless you, Angus!" + +"God help me," he answered harshly, and stepped into the blank night of +the shadow of the trees. + +Harrigan shook his head in wonder when he saw her coming alone. He had +built up the fire and heaped fresh fuel in towering piles nearby. The +flames shot up twenty and thirty feet, making a wide signal across the +sea. + +"He's gone off by himself again?" questioned the Irishman. + +She complained: "I can't understand him. Will he be always like this? +What shall I do, Dan?" + +He met her appeal with a smile, but the blue eyes went cold at once and +he sighed. It would never do to have the two sitting silent beside that +fire. The brooding of McTee would excite no suspicions in the mind of +Harrigan, but the quiet of the Irishman would be sure to excite the +suspicions of the other. + +"Will you do something for me, Dan?" + +He looked up with a whimsical yearning. + +"Teach McTee manners? Aye, with all me heart!" + +She laughed: "No; but cheer him up. You said that if you were in his +place, you'd be singing all the time." + +"And I would." + +"Then sing for me--for Angus and me--tonight when we're sitting by the +fire. He's fallen into a brooding melancholy, and I can't altogether +trust him. Can you understand?" + +"And I'm to do the cheering up?" + +"You won't fail me?" + +He turned and occupied himself for a moment by hurling great armfuls of +wood upon the fire. The flames burst up with showering sparks, roaring +and leaping. Then, as if inspired by the sight, he came to her with his +head tilting back in the way he had. + +"I'll do it--I'll sing my heart out for you." + +As McTee came up, the three sat down; a strange group, for the two men +stared fixedly before them at the fire, conscientiously avoiding any +movement of the eyes toward Kate and the other; and she sat between +them, watching each of them covertly and humming all the while as if +from happiness. Each of them thought the humming a love song meant for +the ears of the other. Finally McTee turned and stared curiously, first +at Kate and then at Harrigan. Manifestly he could not understand either +their silence or their aloofness. It was for the Scotchman that she +would have to play her role; Harrigan was blind. The Irishman also, as +if he felt the eyes of McTee, turned his head. Kate nodded +significantly and moved closer to him. + +Obedient to his promise, he turned away again and raised his head to +sing. Alternate light and shadow swept across his face and made fire +and dark in his hair as the wind tossed the flame back and forth. At +the other side of her McTee rested upon one elbow. Whenever she turned +her head, she caught the steel-cold glitter of his eyes. + +The first note from Harrigan's lips was low and faltering and off key; +she trembled lest McTee should understand, but the Scotchman attributed +the emotion to another cause. As his singing continued, moreover, it +increased in power and steadiness. One thing, however, she had not +counted on, and that was the emotion of Harrigan. Every one of his +songs carried on the theme of love in a greater or less degree, and now +his own singing swept him beyond the bounds of caution; he turned +directly to Kate and sang for her alone "Kathleen Mavourneen." There +was love and farewell at once in his singing, there was yearning and +despair. + +She knew that a crisis had come, and that McTee was pressed to the +limits of his endurance. The game had gone too far, and yet she dared +not appear indifferent to the singing. That would have been too direct +a betrayal, so she sat with her head back and a smile on her lips. + +There was a groan and a stifled curse. McTee rose; the song died in the +throat of Harrigan. + + + + +CHAPTER 15 + + +"Is this what you feared?" said the Scotchman. "Is this what you wanted +protection against? No; you're in league together to torture me, and +all this time you've been laughing up your sleeves at my expense!" + +"At your expense?" growled Harrigan, rising in turn. "Is it at your +expense that I've been sittin' here breakin' me heart with singin' love +tunes for you an' the girl?" + +She sprang up in an agony of fear. + +"Go! Go!" she begged of McTee. "If you doubt me, go, and when you come +back calm, I will explain." + +He brushed her to one side and made a step toward Harrigan. + +"Love songs for _me?_" he repeated incredulously. + +"Aye, love songs for you. Ye black swine, ye could not be happy till I +was brought in to be the piper while you an' Kate danced!" + +"While I and Kate danced?" thundered McTee. "My God, man--" + +He broke off short, and a cruel light of understanding was in his eyes. + +"Harrigan," he said quietly, "did Kate tell you she loved me?" + +"Ye fool! Why else am I sittin' here singin' for your sake? Would I not +rather be amusin' myself by takin' the hollow of your throat under my +thumbs--so?" + +McTee laughed softly, and Kate could not meet his eye. + +"Well?" he said. + +"Yes, I lied to you." + +She turned to Harrigan: "And to you. Don't you see? I found you on the +verge of a fight, and I knew that in it you would both be killed. What +else could I do? I hoped that for my sake you would spare each other. +Was it wrong of me, Dan? Angus, will you forgive me?" + +Harrigan raised his arms high above his head and stretched like one +from whose wrists the manacles have been unlocked after a long +imprisonment. + +"McTee, are ye ready? There's a weight gone off my +soul!" + +"Harrigan, I've been a driver of men, but this girl has put me under +the whip. When I'm through with you, I'm coming back to her." + +"It'll be your ghost that returns." + +Kate hesitated one instant as if to judge which was the greatest force +toward evil. Then she dropped to her knees and caught the hands of +McTee, those strong, cruel hands. + +"If you will not fight, I'll--I'll be kind to you, I'll be everything +you ask of me--" + +"You're pleading for him?" + +"No, no! For him and for you; for your two souls!" + +"Bah! Mine was lost long ago, and I'll answer that there's a claim on +Harrigan filed away in hell. He's too strong to have lived clean." + +"Angus, we're all alone here--on the rim of the world, you've said--and +in places like this the eye of God is on you." + +He laughed brutally: "If He sees me, He'll look the other way." + +"Have done with the chatter," broke in Harrigan. "Ah-h, McTee, I see +where my hands'll fit on your throat." + +"Come," McTee answered without raising his voice; "there's a corner of +the beach where a current stands in close by the shore. You've been a +traveling man, Harrigan. When I've killed you, I'll throw your body +into the sea, and the tide will take you out to see the rest of the +world." + +"Come," said Harrigan; "I'd as soon finish you there as here, and when +you're dead, I'll sit you up against a tree and come down every day to +watch you rot." + +The girl fell to the ground between them with her face buried in her +arms, silent. The two men lowered their eyes for a moment upon her, and +then turned and walked down the hill, going shoulder to shoulder like +friends. So they came out upon the beach and walked along it until they +reached the point of which McTee had spoken. + +It was a level, hard-packed stretch of sand which offered firm footing +and no rocks over which one of the fighters might stumble at a critical +moment. + +"Tis a lovely spot," sighed Harrigan. "Captain, you're a jewel of a man +to have thought of it." + +"Aye, this is no deck at sea that can heave and twist and spoil my +work." + +"It is not; and the palms of my hands are almost healed. Had you +thought of that, captain?" + +"As you lie choking, Harrigan, think of the girl. The minute I've +heaved you into the sea, I go back to her." + +The hard breathing of the Irishman filled up the interval. + +"I see one thing clear. It's that I'll have to kill you slow. A man +like you, McTee, ought to taste his death a while before it comes. Come +to me ar-rms, captain, I've a little secret to whisper in your ear. +Whisht! 'Twill not be long in the tellin'!" + +McTee replied with a snarl, and the two commenced to circle slowly, +drawing nearer at every step. On the very edge of leaping forward, +Harrigan was astonished to see McTee straighten from his crouch and +point out to sea. + +"The eye of God!" muttered the Scotchman. "She was right!" + +Harrigan jumped back lest this should prove a maneuver to place him off +his guard, and then looked in the indicated direction. It was true; a +point of light, a white eye, peered at them from far across the water. +Then the shout of McTee rang joyously: "A ship!" + +"The fire!" answered Harrigan, and pointed back to the hill, for Kate +had allowed the flames to fall in their absence. + +All thought of the battle left them. They started back on the run to +build high their signal light, and when they came to the top of the +hill, they found Kate lying as they had left her. She started to her +knees at the sound of their footsteps and stretched out her arms to +them. + +"God has sent you back to me!" + +"A ship!" thundered McTee for answer, and he flung a great armful of +wood upon the blaze. It rose with a rush, leaping and crackling, but +all three kept at their work until the pile of wood was higher than +their heads. Only when the supply of dry fuel was exhausted did they +pause to look out to sea. In place of the one eye of white there were +three lights, one of white, one of red, and one of green--the lights of +a ship running in toward land. + +In a moment the moon slipped up above the eastern waters, and right +across that broad white circle moved a ship with the smoke streaming +back from her funnel. Unquestionably the captain had seen the signal +fire and understood its meaning. + +They waited until the red light became fairly stationary, showing that +the steamer had been laid-to. Then they ran for the beach and took up +their position on the line between the glow of their fire and the +position of the ship, guessing that in this way they would be on the +spot where the ship's boat would be most likely to touch the shore. + +"McTee," said Harrigan, "it may be half an hour before that boat +reaches the beach. Is there any reason why both of us should go aboard +it?" + +"Harrigan, there is none! Stand up to me." + +"If you do this," broke in Kate, "I will bring the sailors who come +ashore to the spot where the dead man lies, and I'll tell how he died." + +They looked at her, knowing that she could be trusted to fulfill that +threat. The moon lay on the beauty of her face; never had she seemed so +desirable. They looked to each other, and each seemed doubly hateful to +the other. + +"Kate, dear," said Harrigan hastily, "I see the boat come tossin' there +over the water. Speak out like a brave girl. Neither of us will leave +the other in peace as long as we have a hope of you. Choose between us +before we put a foot in that boat, and if you choose McTee, I'll give +you God's blessin' an' say no more nor ever raise my hand against ye. +McTee, will ye do the like?" + +"For the sake of the day of the fight and the wreck I will. If she +chooses you now, I'll raise no hand against you." + +A shout came faintly across the rush and ripple of the breakers. + +"Speak out," said Harrigan. + +"Hallo!" she screamed in answer to the hail from the boat, and then +turning to them: "I choose neither of you!" + +"McTee," growled Harrigan, "I'm thinkin' we've both been fools." + +"Think what you will, I'll have her; and if you cross me again, I'll +finish you, Harrigan." + +"McTee, ten of your like couldn't finish me. But look! There's the girl +wadin' out to the boat. Let's steady her through the waves." + +They ran out and, catching her beneath the shoulders, bore her safe and +high through the small rollers. When they were waist-deep, the boat +swung near. A lantern was raised by the man in the bows, and under that +light they saw the four men at the oars, now backing water to keep +their boat from washing to the beach. The sailors cheered as the two +men swung Kate over the gunwale and then clambered in after her. The +man at the bows all this time had kept his lantern high above his head +with a rigid arm, and now he bellowed: "Black McTee!" + +"Right!" said McTee. "And you?" + +"Salvain--put back for the ship, lads--Pietro Salvain. D'you mean to +say you've forgotten me?" + +"Shanghai!" said McTee, as light broke on his memory. "What a night +that was." + +"But you--" + +"The _Mary Rogers_ took a header for Davy Jones's locker; first mate +drunk and ran her on a reef; all hands went under except the three of +us; we drifted to this island." + +"Black McTee shipwrecked! By God, if we get to port with our old tramp, +I'll get a farm and stick to dry land." + +"Your ship?" + +"The _Heron_, four thousand tons, White Henshaw, skipper." + +"White Henshaw?" cried McTee in almost reverent tones. + +"The same. Old White still sticks to his wheel. He's as hard a man as +you, McTee, in his own way." + +They were pulling close to the freighter by this time, and Salvain gave +quick orders to lay the boat alongside. In another moment they stood on +the deck, where a tall man in white clothes advanced to meet them. + +"Good fishing, sir," said Salvain. "We've picked up three shipwrecked +people, with Angus McTee among them." + +"Black McTee!" cried the other, and even in the dim light he picked out +the towering form of the Scotchman. + +"It took a wreck to bring us together, Captain Henshaw," said McTee, +"but here we are, I've combed the South Seas for ten years for the sake +of meeting you." + +"H-m!" grunted Henshaw. "We'll drink on the strength of that. Come into +the cabin." + +They trooped after him, Salvain and the three rescued, and stood in the +roomy cabin, the captain and the first mate dapper and cool in their +white uniforms, the other three marvelously ragged. Barefooted, their +hair falling in jags across their foreheads, their muscles bulging +through the rents in their shirts, McTee and Harrigan looked battered +but triumphant. Kate Malone might have been the prize which they had +safely carried away. She was even more ragged than her companions, and +now she withdrew into a shadowy corner of the cabin and shook the long, +loose masses of her hair about her shoulders. + + + + +CHAPTER 16 + + +The dark eye of Pietro Salvain was quick to note her condition. He was +a rather small, lean-faced man with the skin drawn so tightly across +his high cheekbones that it glistened. He was emaciated; his energy +consumed him as hunger consumes other men. + +"There is a berth for me below," he said to Kate. "You must take my +room. And I have a cap, some silk shirts, a loose coat which you might +wear--so?" + +"This is Miss Malone, Salvain," said McTee before she could answer. + +"You are very kind, Mr. Salvain," she said. + +He smiled and bowed very low, and then opened the door for her; but all +the while his glance was upon McTee, who stared at him so significantly +that before following Kate through the door, Salvain shrugged his +shoulders and made a gesture of resignation. + +The captain turned to Harrigan. Henshaw was very old. He was always so +erect and carried his chin so high that the loose skin of his throat +hung in two sharp ridges. In spite of the tight-lipped mouth, the +beaklike nose, and the small, gleaming eyes, there was something about +his face which intensified his age. Perhaps it was the yellow skin, dry +as the parchment from an Egyptian tomb and criss-crossed by a myriad +little wrinkles. + +"And you, sir?" he said to the Irishman. + +"One of my crew," broke in McTee carelessly. "He'll be quite contented +in the forecastle. Eh, Harrigan?" + +"Quite," said Harrigan, and his glance acknowledged the state of war. + +"Then if you'll go forward, Harrigan," said the captain, and his voice +was dry and dead as his skin--"if you'll go forward and report to the +bos'n, he'll see that you have a bunk." + +"Thank you, sir," murmured Harrigan, and slipped from the room on his +bare feet. + +"That man," stated Henshaw, "is as strong as you are, McTee, and yet +they call you the huskiest sailor of the South Seas." + +"He is almost as strong," answered McTee with a certain emphasis. + +Something like a smile appeared in the eyes of Henshaw, but did not +disturb the fixed lines of his mouth. For a moment Henshaw and McTee +measured each other. + +The Scotchman spoke first: "Captain, you're as keen as the stories they +tell of you." + +"And you're as hard, McTee." + +The latter waved the somewhat dubious compliment away. + +"I was breaking that fellow, and he held out longer than any man I've +ever handled. The shipwreck interrupted me, or I would have finished +what I started." + +"You'd like to have me finish what you began?" + +"You read my mind." + +"Discipline is a great thing." + +"Absolutely necessary at sea." + +Henshaw answered coldly: "There's no need for us to act the hypocrite, +eh?" + +McTee hesitated, and then grinned: "Not a bit. I know what you did +twenty years ago in the Solomons." + +"And I know the story of you and the pearl divers." + +"That's enough." + +"Quite." + +"And Harrigan?" + +"As a favor to you, McTee, I'll break him. Maybe you'll be interested +in my methods." + +"Try mine first. I made him scrub down the bridge with suds every +morning, and while his hands were puffed and soft, I sent him down to +the fireroom to pass coal." + +"He'll kill you someday." + +"If he can." + +They smiled strangely at each other. + +A knock came at the door, and Salvain entered, radiant. + +"She is divine!" he cried. "Her hair is old copper with golden lights. +McTee, if she is yours, you have found another Venus!" + +"If she is not mine," answered McTee, "at least she belongs to no other +man." + +Salvain studied him, first with eagerness, then with doubt, and last of +all with despair. + +"If any other man said that I would question it--so!--with my life. But +McTee? No, I love life too well!" + +"Now," Henshaw said to Salvain, "Captain McTee and I have business to +talk." + +"Aye, sir," said Salvain. + +"One minute, Salvain," broke in McTee. "I haven't thanked you in the +girl's name for taking care of Miss Malone." + +The first mate paused at the door. + +"I begin to wonder, captain," he answered, "whether or not you have the +right to thank me in her name!" + +He disappeared through the door without waiting for an answer. + +"Salvain has forgotten me," muttered McTee, balling his fist, "but I'll +freshen his memory." + +He flushed as he became aware of the cold eye of Henshaw upon him. + +"Even Samson fell," said the old man. "But she hasn't cut your hair +yet, McTee?" + +"What the devil do you mean?" + +Henshaw silently poured another drink and passed it to the Scotchman. +The latter gripped the glass hard and tossed off the drink with a +single gesture. At once his eyes came back to Henshaw's face with the +fierce question. He was astonished to note kindliness in the answering +gaze. + +Old Henshaw said gently: "Tut, tut! You're a proper man, McTee, and a +proper man has always the thought of some woman tucked away in his +heart. Look at me! For almost sixty years I've been the King of the +South Seas!" + +At the thought of his glories his face altered, as soldiers change when +they receive the order to charge. + +"You're a rare man and a bold man, McTee, but you'll never be what +White Henshaw has been--the Shark of the Sea! Ha! Yet think of it! Ten +years ago, after all my harvesting of the sea, I had not a dollar to +show for it! Why? Because I was working for no woman. But here I am +sailing home from my last voyage--rich! And why? Because for ten years +I've been working for a woman. For ourselves we make and we spend. But +for a woman we make and we save. Aye!" + +"For a woman?" repeated McTee, wondering. "Do you mean to say--" + +"Tut, man, it's my granddaughter. Look!" + +Perhaps the whisky had loosened the old man's tongue; perhaps these +confidences were merely a tribute to the name and fame of McTee; but +whatever was the reason, McTee knew he was hearing things which had +never been spoken before. Now Henshaw produced a leather wallet from +which he selected two pictures, and handed one to the Scotchman. It +showed a little girl of some ten years with her hair braided down her +back. McTee looked his question. + +"That picture was sent to me by my son ten years ago." + +It showed the effect of time and rough usage. The edges of the cheap +portrait were yellow and cracked. + +"He was worthless, that son of mine. So I shut him out of my mind until +I got a letter saying he was about to die and giving his daughter into +my hands. That picture was in the letter. Ah, McTee, how I pored over +it! For, you see, I saw the face of my wife in the face of the little +girl, Beatrice. She had come back to life in the second generation. I +suppose that happens sometimes. + +"I made up my mind that night to make a fortune for little Beatrice. +First I sold my name and honor to get a half share and captaincy of a +small tramp freighter. Then I went to the Solomon Islands. You know +what I did there? Yes, the South Seas rang with it. It was brutal, but +it brought me money. + +"I sent enough of that money to the States to keep the girl in luxury. +The rest of it I put back into my trading ventures. I got a larger +boat. I did unheard-of things; and everything I touched turned into +gold. All into gold! + +"From time to time I got letters from Beatrice. First they were careful +scrawls which said nothing. Then the handwriting grew more fluent. It +alarmed me to notice the growth of her mind; I was afraid that when I +finally saw her, she would see in me only a barbarian. So I educated +myself in odd hours. I've read a book while a hurricane was standing my +ship on her beam ends." + +McTee, leaning forward with a frown of almost painful interest, +understood. He saw it in the wild light of the old man's eyes; a +species of insanity, this love of the old man for the child he had +never seen. + +"Notice my language now? Never a taint of the beach lingo in it. I +rubbed all that out. Aye, McTee, it took me ten years to educate myself +for that girl's sake. In the meantime, I made money, as I've said. Ten +years of that! + +"Beatrice was in college, and six months ago I got the word that she +had graduated. A month later I heard that she was going into a decline. +It was nothing very serious, but the doctors feared for the strength of +her lungs. It made me glad. Now I knew that she would need me. An old +man is like a woman, McTee; he needs to have things dependent on him. + +"I turned everything I had into cash. I did it so hurriedly that I must +have lost close to twenty per cent on the forced sales. What did I +care? I had enough, and I made myself into a grandfather who could meet +Beatrice's educated friends on their own level. + +"I kept this old ship, the _Heron_, out of the list of my boats. I am +going back to Beatrice with gold in my hands and gold in my brain! All +for her. But is she not worth it? Look!" + +He thrust the second portrait into McTee's hands. It showed a rather +thin-faced girl with abnormally large eyes and a rather pathetic smile. +It was an appealing face rather than a pretty one. + +"Beautiful!" said McTee with forced enthusiasm. + +"Yes, beautiful! A little pinched, perhaps, but she'll fill out as she +grows older. And those are her grandmother's eyes! Aye!" + +He took the photograph and touched it lightly. + +His voice grew lower, and the roughness was plainly a tremolo now: "The +doctors say she's sick, a little sick, quite sick, in fact. Twice every +day I make them send me wireless reports of her condition. One day it's +better--one day it's worse." + +He began to walk the cabin, his step marvelously elastic and nervous +for so aged a man. + +"Is it not well, McTee? Let her be at death's door! I shall come to her +bedside with gold in either hand and raise her up to life! She shall +owe everything to me! Will that not make her love me? Will it?" + +He grasped McTee's shoulder tightly. + +"I'm not a pretty lad to look at, eh, lad?" + +McTee poured himself a drink hastily, and drained the glass before he +answered. + +"A pretty man? Nonsense, Henshaw! A little weather-beaten, but a tight +craft at that; she'll worship the ground you walk! Character, Henshaw, +that's what these new American girls want to see in a man!" + +Henshaw sighed with deep relief. + +"Ah-h, McTee, you comfort me more than a drink on a stormy night! For +reward, you shall see what I'm bringing back to her. Come!" + +He rose and led McTee into his bedroom, for two cabins were retained +for the captain's use. Filling one corner of the room was a huge safe +almost as tall as a man. + +He squatted before the safe and commenced to work the combination with +a swift sureness which told McTee at once that the old buccaneer came +here many times a day to gloat over his treasure. At length the door of +the safe fell open. Inside was a great mass of little canvas bags. +McTee was panting as if he had run a great distance at full speed. + +"Take one." + +The Scotchman raised one of the bags and shook it. A musical clinking +sounded. + +"Forty pounds of gold coin," said Henshaw, "and about ten thousand +dollars in all. There are eighty-five of those bags, and every one +holds the same amount. Also--" + +He opened a little drawer at the top of the safe and took from it a +chamois bag. When he untied it, McTee looked within and saw a quantity +of pearls. He took out a small handful. They were chosen jewels, +flawless, glowing. His hand seemed to overflow with white fire. He +dropped them back in the bag, letting each pearl run over the end of +his fingers. Henshaw restored the bag and locked the safe. Then the two +men stared at each other. They had been opposite types the moment +before, but now their lips parted in the same thirsty eagerness. + +"If she were dead," said McTee almost reverently, "the sight of that +would bring her back to life." + +"McTee, you're a worthy lad. They've told me lies about you. Indeed it +would bring her back to life! It must be so! And yet--" Sudden +melancholy fell on him as they returned to the other room and sat down. +"Yet I think night and day of what an old devil of a black magician +told me in the Solomon Islands. He said I and my gold should burn +together. I laughed at him and told him I could not die on dry land. He +said I would not, but that I should burn at sea! Think of that, McTee! +Suppose I should be robbed of the sight of my girl and of my gold at +the same time!" + +McTee started to say something cheerful, but his voice died away to a +mutter. Henshaw was staring at the wall with visionary eyes filled with +horror and despair. + +"Lad, do you think ghosts have power?" + +"Henshaw, you've drunk a bit too much!" + +"If they have no power, I'm safe. I fear no living man!" He added +softly: "No man but myself!" + +"I'm tired out," said McTee suddenly. "Where shall I bunk, captain?" + +"Here! Here in this room! Take that couch in the corner over there. It +has a good set of springs. With gold in my hands. Here are some +blankets. With gold in my hands and my brain. Though you don't need +much covering in this latitude. I would raise her from the grave." + +He went about, interspersing his remarks to McTee with half-audible +murmurs addressed to his own ears. + +"Is this," thought McTee, "the Shark of the South Seas?" + +A knock came and the door opened. A fat sailor in an oilskin hat stood +at the entrance. + +"The cook ain't put out no lunch for the night watches, sir," he +whined. + +Henshaw had stood with his back turned as the door opened. He turned +now slowly toward the open door. McTee could not see his face nor guess +at its expression, but the moment the big sailor caught a glimpse of +his skipper's countenance, he blanched and jumped back into the night, +slamming the door behind him. That sight recalled something to McTee. + +"One thing more, captain," he said. "What of Harrigan? Do we break him +between us?" + +"Aye, in your own way!" + +"Good! Then start him scrubbing the bridge and send him down to the +fireroom afterwards, eh?" + +"It's done. Why do you hate him, McTee? Is it the girl?" + +"No; the color of his hair. Good night." + + + + +CHAPTER 17 + + +Long before this, Harrigan had reported to the bos'n, burly Jerry +Hovey, and had been assigned to a bunk into which he fairly dived and +fell asleep in the posture in which he landed. In the morning he +tumbled out with the other men and became the object of a crossfire of +questions from the curious sailors who wanted to know all the details +of the wreck of the _Mary Rogers_ and the life on the island. He was +saved from answering nine-tenths of the chatter by a signal from the +bos'n, who beckoned Harrigan to a stool a little apart from the rest of +the crew. Jerry Hovey was a cheery fellow of considerable bulk, with an +habitual smile. That smile went out, however, when he talked with +Harrigan, and the Irishman became conscious of a pair of steady, alert +gray eyes. + +"Look here," said Hovey, and he talked out of the corner of his mouth +with a skill which would have become an old convict of many terms, +"I've had it put to me straight that you're a hard one. Is that the +right dope?" + +Harrigan smiled. + +"Because if it is," said Hovey, "we're the best gang at bustin' up +these hard guys that ever walked the deck of a ship. If you try any +side steps and fancy ducking of your work, there'll be a disciplinin' +comin' your way at a gallop. Are you wise?" + +Harrigan still smiled, but the coldness of his eye made the bos'n +thoughtful. He was not one, however, to be easily cowed. Now he balled +his fist and smote it against the palm of his other hand with a slap +that resounded. + +"On my own hook," he stated, "I can sling my mitts with the best of +them, an' I'm always lookin' for work in that line. Now I'm sayin' all +this in private, sonny, to let you know that Black McTee has wised up +the skipper about you, and I'm keepin' a weather eye open. If you make +one funny move, I'll be on your back." + +"All right, Jerry." + +"Don't call me Jerry, you swab! I'm the bos'n." + +"Look me in the eye, Jerry Hovey, me dear. If you so much as bat the +lashes av wan eye in lookin' at me, I'll bust ye in two pieces like a +sea biscuit, Jerry, an' I'll eat the biggest half an' throw the rest +into the sea. Ar-r-re ye wise?" + +Now, Jerry Hovey was a very big man, and he had thrashed men of larger +bulk than Harrigan. But there was something about the Irishman's +thickness of shoulder and length of arm that gave him pause. So first +of all Jerry grew very thoughtful indeed, and then his habitual smile +returned. Nevertheless, Harrigan did not forget those gray, alert eyes. + +The bos'n went on in a gentler voice: "I was tryin' you out, Harrigan. +I'll lay to it that the cap'n has the wrong idea about you. But will +you tell me why he's ridin' you?" + +"Sure. It's Black McTee. Before the _Mary Rogers_ went down, McTee was +tryin' to break me. I guess he's asked this White Henshaw to try a +hand. What have they got lined up for me?" + +"You're to scrub down the bridge an' while your hands are still soft +you go down to the fireroom an' pass coal. It'll tear your hands off, +that work." + +Harrigan was gray, but he answered. "That's an old story. McTee worked +me like that all the time." + +"An' you didn't break?" gasped Hovey. + +Harrigan grinned, but his smile stopped when he noticed a certain +calculation in the face of the bos'n. + +"Mate," said Hovey, "I guess you're about ripe for something I'm goin' +to say to you one of these days. Now go up to the bridge an' scrub it +down." + +With the prospect of the long torture before him once more, Harrigan in +a daze picked up the bucket of suds to which he was pointed and went +with his brush toward the bridge. Through the mist which enveloped his +brain broke wild thoughts--to steal upon McTee at the first meeting and +hurl his hated body overboard. Yet even in his bewildered condition he +realized what such an act would mean. Murder on land is bad enough, but +murder at sea is doubly damned by the law. It was in the power of White +Henshaw to hang him up to the mast. + +Revolving these dismal prospects with downward head, he climbed from +the waist of the ship to the cabin promenade, and there a voice hailed +him, and he turned to see Kate Malone approaching. She was all in +white--cap, canvas shoes, silk shirt absurdly lose at the throat, and +linen coat with the sleeves turned far back so that her hands would not +be enveloped. The duck trousers were also taken up several reefs. + +"Good morning," she said, and held out her hand. + +He watched her smile wistfully, and then made a little gesture with his +own hands, one burdened with the scrubbing brush and the other with the +bucket. + +"What does it mean?" + +"Hell," said Harrigan. + +"Explain." + +"It's McTee again, damn his eyes!" + +"Do you mean to say they've started to treat you as they did on the +_Mary Rogers_? The scrubbing and then the work in the fireroom?" + +"Right." + +She stamped her foot in impotent fury. + +"What manner of man is he, Dan? He's not all brute; why does he treat +you like this?" + +The Irishman smiled. + +She cried with increasing anger: "What can I do?" + +"Make your skin yellow an' your hair gray an' walk with no spring in +your step. He wants to break me now because of you." + +There was moist pity in her eyes, yet they gleamed with excitement at +the thought of this battle of the Titans for her sake. + +"I will go to him," she said after a moment, "and tell him that you +mean nothing to me. Then he will stop." + +The cold, incurious eyes studied her without passion, and once more he +smiled. + +"He'll not stop. Whether you like me or not, Kate, doesn't count. One +of us'll go down, an' you'll be for the one that's left. He knows it--I +know it." + +"Harrigan!" called the voice of McTee from the bridge, and the tall +Scotchman lifted his cap to Kate. + +"I'm the slave," said Harrigan, "and there's the whip. Good-by." + +She stamped her foot with an almost childish fury, saying: "Someday he +shall regret this brutal tyranny. Good-by, Dan, and good luck!" + +She took his hand in both of hers, but her eyes held spitefully upon +the bridge, as if she hoped that McTee would witness the handshake; the +captain, however, had turned his back upon them. + +Dan muttered to himself as he climbed the bridge: "Did she do that to +anger McTee or to please me?" And the thought so occupied his mind that +he paid no attention to the Scotchman when he reached the bridge. He +merely dropped to his knees and commenced scrubbing. McTee, in the +meanwhile, loitered about the bridge as if on his own ship. In due time +Harrigan drew near, the suds swishing under his brush. The Irishman, +remembering suddenly, commenced to hum a tune. + +"The old grind, eh, Harrigan?" said McTee. + +The Irishman, humming idly still, looked up, calmly surveyed the +captain, and then went on as if he had heard merely empty wind instead +of words. + +"After the scrubbing brush the shovel," went on McTee, but still +Harrigan paid no attention. He rose when his task was completed and +made his eyes gentle as if with pity while he gazed upon McTee. + +"I'm sorry for you, McTee; you've made a hard fight; it's strange +you've got no ghost of a chance of winnin'." + +"What d'you mean?" + +"Couldn't you hear her when she talked to me?" + +"I could not." + +"Couldn't you see her face? It was written there as plain as print." + +McTee cleared his throat. + +"What was written there?" + +"The thing you want to see. When she took my hand in both of hers--" + +"Hell!" + +"Ah-h, man, it was wonderful! The scrubbing brush an' the shovel--they +mean nothin' to me now." + +"Harrigan, you're lying." + +The latter dropped his scrubbing brush into the bucket of suds and +stood with arms akimbo studying the captain. + +"For a smart man, McTee, you've been a fool. I could of gone down on me +knees an' begged to do what you've done. Don't you see? You've thrown +her with her will or against it into me arms. I'm poor Harrigan, brave +and downtrodden; you're Black McTee once more, the tyrant. She looks +sick at the mention of your name." + +"I never dreamed you'd go whining to her. I thought you were a man; +you're only a spineless dog, Harrigan!" + +"Am I that? She pities me, McTee, an' from pity it's only one step to +something bigger. Can you trust me to lead her that one step? You can!" + +"If I went to her and told her how you boasted of having won her?" + +"She wouldn't believe what you said about me if you swore it with both +hands on the Bible. Be wise, McTee. Give up the game. You've lost her, +me boy! For every day that I work in the fireroom I'll come to her an' +show her the palms of me bleedin' hands an' mention your name. An' for +every day I work in the hole the hate of you will burn blacker into her +heart." + +"I'd rather have her hate than her pity." + +"You'll have both; her hate for torturin' Harrigan; her pity for +lettin' the devil in you get the best of the man. You're done for, +McTee." + +Each one of the short phrases was like a whip flicked across the face +of McTee, but he would not wince. + +"You've said enough. Now get down to the fireroom. I've had Henshaw +prepare the chief engineer for your coming." + +Harrigan turned. + +"Wait! Remember when you're in hell that the old compact still holds. +Your hand in mine and a promise to be my man will end the war." + +Only the low laughter of the Irishman answered as he made his way down +to the deck. + + + + +CHAPTER 18 + + +"There's times for truth an' there's times for lying," murmured +Harrigan, as he stowed away the bucket and brush and started down for +the fireroom, "an' this was one of the times for lyin'. He's sick for +the love of her, an' he's hatin' the thought of Harrigan." + +So he was humming a rollicking tune when he reached the fireroom. It +was stifling hot, to be sure, but it was twice as large as that of the +Mary Rogers. The firemen were all glistening with sweat. One of them, +larger than the rest and with a bristling, shoebrush mustache like a +sign of authority, said to the newcomer: "You're Harrigan?" + +He nodded. + +"The chief wants to see you, boss, before you start swingin' the +shovel." + +"Where's the chief's cabin?" + +"Take him up, Alex," directed the big fireman, and Harrigan followed +one of the men up the narrow ladder and then aft. He was grateful for +this light respite from the heat of the hole, but his joy faded when +the man opened a door and he stood at last before the chief, Douglas +Campbell, who looked up at the burly Irishman in a long silence. + +The scion of the ancient and glorious clan of the Campbells had fallen +far indeed. His face was a brilliant red, and the nose, comically +swollen at the end, was crossed with many blue veins. Like Milton's +_Satan_, however, he retained some traces of his original brightness. +Harrigan knew at once that the chief engineer was fully worthy of +joining those rulers of the south seas and harriers of weaker men, +McTee and White Henshaw. + +"Stand straight and look me in the eye," said Campbell, and in his +voice was a slight "bur-r-r" of the Scotch accent. + +Harrigan jerked back his shoulders and stood like a soldier at +attention. + +"A drinkin' man," he was saying to himself, "may be hard an' fallen +low, but he's sure to have a heart." + +"So you're the mutineer, my fine buck?" + +Harrigan hesitated, and this seemed to infuriate Campbell, who banged a +brawny fist on a table and thundered: "Answer me, or I'll skin your +worthless carcass!" + +The cold, blue eyes of Harrigan did not falter. They studied the face +of the Campbell as a fighter gauges his opponent. + +"If I say 'yes,'" he responded at length, "it's as good as puttin' +myself in chains; if I say 'no,' you'll be thinkin' I'm givin' in, you +an' McTee, damn his eyes!" + +Campbell grew still redder. + +"You damn him, do you? McTee is Scotch; he's a gentleman too good to be +named by swine!" + +The irrepressible Harrigan replied: "He's enough to make swine speak!" + +Amazement and then a gleam of laughter shone in the eyes of the chief +engineer. He was seized, apparently, by a fit of violent coughing and +had to turn away, hiding his face with his hand. When he faced the +Irishman again, his jaw was set hard, but his eyes were moist. + +"Look me in the eye, laddie. Men say a good many things about me; they +call me a slave driver and worse. Why? Because when I say 'move,' my +men have to jump. I've asked you a question, and I'm going to get an +answer. Are you a mutineer or not?" + +"I will not pleasure McTee by sayin' I'm not!" + +The ponderous hand rose over the table, but it was checked before it +fell. + +"What the devil has McTee to do with this?" he bellowed. + +"He's the one that sent me here." Harrigan was thinking fast as he went +on: "And you're going to keep me here for the sake of McTee." + +Campbell changed from red to purple and exploded: "I'll keep no man +here to please another; not White Henshaw himself. He rules on deck, +and I rule below. D'you hear? Tell me you're a liar! Speak up!" + +"You're a liar," said Harrigan instantly. + +The engineer's mouth opened and closed twice while he stared at +Harrigan. + +"Get out!" he shouted, springing to his feet. "I'll have you boxed up +and sweated; I'll have you pounded to a pulp! Wait! Stay here! I'll +bring in some men!" + +Harrigan was desperate. He knew that what he had said was equivalent to +a mutiny. He threw caution to the wind. Campbell had rung a bell. + +"Bring your men an' be damned!" he answered; and now his head tilted +back and he set his shoulders to the wall. "I'll be afther lickin' your +whole crew! A man do ye call yourself? Ah-h, ye're not fit to be +lickin' the boots ay a man! Slave driver? No, ye're an overseer, an' +Henshaw kicks you an' you pass the kick along. But lay a hand on +Harrigan, an' he'll tear the rotten head off your shoulders!" + +The door flew open, and the second assistant engineer, a burly man, +with two or three others, appeared at the entrance, drawn by the +furious clamor of the bell. + +"What--" began the second assistant, and then stopped as he caught +sight of Harrigan against the wall with his hands poised, ready for the +first attack. + +"Who called you?" roared Campbell. + +"Your bell--" began the assistant. + +"You lie! Get out! I was telling a joke to my old friend Harrigan. +Maybe I leaned back against the bell. Shake hands with Harrigan. I've +known him for years." + +Incredulous, Harrigan lowered his clenched fist and relaxed it to meet +the hesitant hand of the assistant. + +"Now be off," growled the chief, and the others fled. + +As the door closed, Harrigan turned in stupid amazement upon the +Scotchman. The latter had dropped into his chair again and now looked +at Harrigan with twinkling eyes. + +"You'd have fought 'em all, eh, lad?" + +He burst into heavy laughter. + +"Ah, the blue devil that came in your eyes! Why did I not let them have +one whirl at you? Ha, ha, ha!" + +"Wake me up," muttered Harrigan. "I'm dreamin'!" + +"There's a thick lie in my throat," said Campbell. "I must wash it out +and leave a truth there!" + +He opened a small cupboard, exposing a formidable array of black and +green bottles. One of the black he pulled down, as well as two small +glasses, which he filled to the brim. + +"To your bonny blue eyes, lad!" he said, and raised a glass. "Here's an +end to the mutiny--and a drop to our old friendship!" + +Harrigan, still with clouded mind, raised the glass and drank. It was a +fine sherry wine. + +"How old would you say that wine was?" queried the Scotchman with +exaggerated carelessness. + +The carelessness did not deceive Harrigan. His mind went blanker still, +for he knew little about good wines. + +"Well?" asked the engineer. + +"H-m!" muttered Harrigan, and racked his brain to remember the ages at +which a good vintage becomes a rare old wine. "About thirty-five +years." + +"By the Lord!" cried Campbell. "It never fails--a strong man knows his +liquor like a book! You're almost right. Add three years and you have +it! Thirty-eight years in sunshine and shadow!" + +He leaned back and gazed dreamily up to the ceiling. + +"Think of it," he went on in a reverent murmur. "Men have been born and +grown strong and then started toward the shady side of life since this +wine was put in the bottle. For thirty-eight years it has been +gathering and saving its perfume--draw a breath of it now, lad!--and +when I uncork the bottle, all the odor blows out to me at once." + +"True," said Harrigan, nodding sagely. "I've thought the same thing, +but never found the words for it, chief." + +"Have you?" asked Campbell eagerly. "Sit down, lad; sit down! Well, +well! Good wine was put on earth for a blessing, but men have misused +it, Harrigan--but hear me preaching when I ought to be praying!" + +"Prayin'?" repeated the diplomatic Harrigan. "No, no, man! Maybe you've +drunk a good store of liquor, but it shines through you. It puts a +flush on your face like a sun shinin' through a cloud. You'd hearten +any man on a dark day!" + +He could not resist the play on the words, and a shadow crossed the +face of the engineer. + +"Harrigan," he growled, "there's a double meaning in what you say, but +I'll not think of it. You're no fool, lad, but do not vex me. But say +your say. I suppose I'm red enough to be seen by my own light on a dark +night. What does Bobbie say? + +"Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us +To see oursels as others see us! + +"Well, well! I forgave you for the sake of Bobbie! Do you know his +rhymes, lad?" + +A light shone in the eye of Harrigan. He began to sing softly in his +musical, deep voice: "Ye banks and braes of bonny Doon--" + +"No, no, man!" cried Campbell, raising his hand in horror at the sound +of the false accent. "It should go like this!" + +He pulled a guitar out of a case and commenced to strum lightly on it, +while he rendered the old song in a voice roughened by ill usage but +still strong and true. A knock at the door interrupted him at the +climax of his song, and he glared toward the unseen and rash intruder. + +"What will ye hae?" he roared, continuing the dialect which the song +had freshened on his tongue. + +"The shift in the fireroom is short-handed," said the voice. "That +fellow Harrigan has not shown up. Shall we search for him?" + +"Search for the de'il!" thundered Campbell. "Harrigan is doing a fine +piece of work for me; shall I let him go to the fireroom to swing a +shovel?" + +"The captain's orders, sir," persisted the voice rashly. + +Campbell leaped for the door and jerked it open a few inches. + +"Be off!" he cried; "or I'll set you passin' coal yourself, my fine +lad! What? Will ye be asking questions? Is there no discipline? Mutiny, +mutiny--that's what this is!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" murmured a rapidly retreating voice. + +Campbell closed and locked the door and turned back to Harrigan with a +grin. + +"The world's a wide place," he said, "but there's few enough in it who +know our Bobbie, God bless him! When I've found one, shall I let him go +down to the fireroom? Ha! Now tell me what's wrong between you and +McTee." + +"I will not talk," said Harrigan with another bold stroke of diplomacy, +"till I hear the rest of that song. The true Scotch comes hard on my +tongue, but I'll learn it." + +"You will, laddie, for your heart's right. Man, man, I'm nothing now, +but you should have heard me sing in the old days--" + +"When we were in Glasgow," grinned Harrigan. + +"In Glasgow," repeated Campbell, and then lifted his head and finished +the song. "Now for the story, laddie." + +Harrigan started, as though recalled from a dream built up by the +music. Then he told briefly the tale of the tyranny aboard the _Mary +Rogers_, now apparently to be repeated. + +"So I thought," he concluded, "that it was to be the old story over +again--look at my hands!" + +He held them out. The palms were still red and deeply scarred. Campbell +said nothing, but his jaw set savagely. + +"I thought it was to be this all over again," went on Harrigan, "till I +met you, chief. But with you for a friend I'll weather the storm. +McTee's a hard man, but when Scot meets Scot--I'll bet on the +Campbells." + +"Would you bet on me against Black McTee?" queried the engineer, deeply +moved. "Well, lad, McTee's a dour man, but dour or not he shall not run +the engine room of the _Heron_." + +And he banged on the table for emphasis. + +"Scrub down the bridge every morning, as they tell you, but when they +send you below to pass the coal, come and report to me first. I'll have +work for you to do--chiefly practicing the right accent for Bobbie's +songs. Is not that a man's work?" + + + + +CHAPTER 19 + + +To make good this promise, Campbell straightway sang for Harrigan's +delectation two or three more of his favorite selections. It was +evening, and the shift in the fireroom was ended before Harrigan left +the engineer's room. On his way to the deck he passed the tired firemen +from the hole of the ship. They stared at the Irishman with wide eyes, +for it was known that he had been in the chief engineer's room for +several hours; they looked upon him as one who has been in hell and has +escaped from thence to the upper air. + +He was, in fact, a marked man when he reached the forecastle. Rumor +travels through a ship's crew and it was already known that Black McTee +hated the Irishman and that White Henshaw had commenced to persecute +him in a new and terrible manner. + +This would have been sufficient tragedy to burden the shoulders of any +one man, however strong, and when to this was added the fact that he +had been kept by the grim chief engineer for several hours in the +chief's own room, and finally considering that this man had passed +through a shipwreck, one of three lone survivors, it is easy to +understand why the sailors gave him ample elbow room. + +It was evidently expected that he would break out into a torrent of +abuse, and when he, perceiving this, remained silent, their awe +increased. All through supper he was aware of their wondering glances; +above all he felt the gray, steady eyes of Jerry Hovey, the bos'n, yet +he ate without speaking, replying to their tentative questions with +grunts. Before the meal was finished and the pipes and cigarettes +lighted, he was a made man. Persevering in his role, as soon as he had +eaten he went out on deck and sat down in the corner between the rail +and the forecastle upon a coil of rope. + +As deep as the blue sea in the evening light was the peace which lay on +the soul of Harrigan, for the day had brought two great victories, one +over McTee and the other over the chief engineer. It was not a stolid +content, for he knew the danger of the implacable hate of McTee, but +with the aid of Campbell he felt that he would have a fighting chance +at least to survive, and that was all he asked. + +So he sat on the coil of rope leaning against the rail, and looked +ahead. It was almost completely dark when a hand fell on his shoulder +and he looked up into the steady, gray-blue eyes of the bos'n. + +"I promised to talk to you tonight," said that worthy, and sat down +uninvited on a neighboring coil of rope. + +He waited for a response. As a rule, sailors are glad to curry favor +with the bos'n. Harrigan, however, sat without speaking, staring +through the gloom. + +"Well?" said Hovey at length. "You're a silent man, Harrigan." + +There was no response. + +"All right; I like a silent man. In a way of speakin', I need 'em like +you! If you say little to me, you're likely to say little to others. + +"I don't talk much myself," went on Hovey, "until I know my man. I +ain't seen much of you, but I guess I figure you straight." + +He grew suddenly cautious, cunning, and the steady, gray-blue eyes +reminded Harrigan of a cat when she crouches for hours watching the +rathole. + +"You ain't got much reason for standing in with White Henshaw?" he +purred. + +"H'm," grunted the Irishman, and waited. + +"Sure, you ain't," went on Hovey soothingly, "because McTee has raised +hell between you. They say McTee tried his damnedest to break you?" + +The last question was put in a different manner; it came suddenly like +a surprise blow in the dark. + +"Well?" queried Harrigan. "What of it?" + +"He tried all the way from Honolulu?" + +"He did." + +"Did he try his fists?" + +"He did." + +Jerry Hovey cursed with excitement. + +"And?" + +"I carried him to his cabin afterward," said Harrigan truthfully. + +"Would you take on McTee again? Black McTee?" + +"If I had to. Why?" + +"Oh, nothin'. But McTee has started White Henshaw on your trail. Maybe +you know what Henshaw is? The whole South Seas know him!" + +"Well?" + +"You'll have a sweet hell of a time before this boat touches port, +Harrigan." + +"I'll weather it." + +"Yes, this trip, but what about the next? If Henshaw is breakin' a man, +he keeps him on the ship till the man gives in or dies. I know! +Henshaw'll get so much against you that he could soak you for ten years +in the courts by the time we touch port. Then he'll offer to let you +off from the courts if you'll ship with him again, and then the old +game will start all over again. You may last one trip--other men +have--one or two--but no one has ever lasted out three or four +shippings under White Henshaw. It can't be done!" + +He paused to let this vital point sink home. Only the same dull silence +came in reply, and this continued taciturnity seemed to irritate Hovey. +When he spoke again, his voice was cold and sharp. + +"He's got you trapped, Harrigan. You're a strong man, but you'll never +get his rope off your neck. He'll either hang you with it or else tie +you hand and foot an' make you his slave. I _know!_" + +There was a bitter emphasis on the last word that left no doubt as to +his meaning, and Harrigan understood now the light of that steady, +gray-blue eye which made the habitual smile of good nature meaningless. + +"Ten years ago I shipped with White Henshaw. Ten years ago I didn't +have a crooked thought or a mean one in my brain. Today there's hell +inside me, understand? Hell!" He paused, breathing hard. + +"There's others on this ship that have been through the same grind, +some of them longer than me. There's others that ain't here, but that +ain't forgotten, because me an' some of the rest, we seen them dyin' on +their feet. Maybe they ain't dropped into the sea, but they're just the +same, or worse. You'll find 'em loafin' along the beaches. They take +water from the natives, they do." + +He went on in a hoarse whisper: "On this ship I've seen 'em busted. An' +Henshaw has done the bustin'. This is a coffin ship, Harrigan, an' +Henshaw he's the undertaker. He don't bring 'em to Davy Jones's +locker--he does worse--he brings 'em to hell on earth, a hell so bad +that when they go below, they don't notice no difference. Harrigan, me +an' a few of the rest, we know what's been done, an' some of us have +thought wouldn't it be a sort of joke, maybe, if sometime what Henshaw +has done to others was done to himself, what?" + +The sweat was standing out on Harrigan's face wet and cold. It seemed +to him that through the darkness he could make out whole troops of +those broken men littering the decks. He peered through the dark at the +bos'n, and made out the hint of the gray-blue eyes watching him again +as the cat watches the mousehole, and the heart of Harrigan ached. + +"Hovey, are you bound for the loincloth an' the beaches, like the +rest?" + +"No, because I've sold my soul to White Henshaw; but you're bound +there, Harrigan, because you can never sell your soul. I looked in your +eyes and seen it written there like it was in a book." + +He gripped the Irishman by the shoulder. + +"There's some say this is the last voyage of White Henshaw, but me an' +some of the rest, we know different. He can't leave the sea, which +means that he won't take us out of hell. Now, talk straight. You stood +up to McTee; would you stand up to Henshaw?" + +Harrigan muttered after a moment of thought: "I suppose this is mutiny, +bos'n?" + +"Aye, but I'm safe in talkin' it. White Henshaw trusts me, he does, +because I've sold my soul to him. If you was to go an' tell him what +I've said, he'd laugh at you an' say you was tryin' to incite +discontent. What's it goin' to be, Harrigan? Will you join me an' the +rest who can set you free an' make a man of you, or will you stay by +McTee and White Henshaw and that devil Campbell?" + +"How could you set me free?" + +"One move--altogether--in the night--we'd have the ship for our own, +an' we could beach her and take to the shore at any place we pleased." + +Harrigan repeated: "One move--altogether--in the night! I don't like +it, bos'n. I'll stand up to my man foot to foot an' hand to hand, but +for strikin' at him in the dark--I can't do it." + +He caught the sound of Hovey's gritting teeth. + +"Think it over," persisted the bos'n. "We need you, Harrigan, but if +you don't join, we'll help McTee and Henshaw and Campbell to make life +hell for you." + +"I've thought it over. I don't like the game. This mutiny at +night--it's like hittin' a man who's down." + +"That's final?" + +"It is." + +"Then God help you, Harrigan, for you ain't the man I took you for." + + + + +CHAPTER 20 + + +He rose and left Harrigan to the dark, which now lay so thick over the +sea that he could only dimly make out the black, wallowing length of +the ship. After a time, he went into the dingy forecastle and stretched +out on his bunk. Some of the sailors were already in bed, propping +their heads up with brawny, tattooed arms while they smoked their +pipes. For a time Harrigan pondered the mutiny, glancing at the stolid +faces of the smokers and trying to picture them in action when they +would steal through the night barefooted across the deck--some of them +with bludgeons, others with knives, and all with a thirst for murder. + +Sleep began to overcome him, and he fought vainly against it. In a +choppy sea the bows of a ship make the worst possible bed, for they +toss up and down with sickening rapidity and jar quickly from side to +side; but when a vessel is plowing through a long-running ground swell, +the bows of the ship move with a sway more soothing than the swing of a +hammock in a wind. Under these circumstances Harrigan was lulled to +sleep. + +He woke at length with a consciousness, not of a light shining in his +face, but of one that had just been flashed across his eyes. Then a +guarded voice said: "He's dead to the world; he won't hear nothin'." + +Peering cautiously up from under the shelter of his eyelashes, he made +out a bulky figure leaning above him. + +"Sure he's dead to the world," said a more distant voice. "After the +day he must have put in with Campbell, he won't wake up till he's +dragged out. I know!" + +"Lift his foot and let it drop," advised another. "If you can do that +to a man without waking him, you know he's not going to be waked up by +any talkin'." + +Harrigan's foot was immediately raised and dropped. He merely sighed as +if in sleep, and continued to breathe heavily, regularly. After a +moment he was conscious that the form above him had disappeared. Then +very slowly he turned his head and raised his eyelids merely enough to +peer through the lashes. The sailors sat cross-legged in a loose circle +on the floor of the forecastle. At the four corners of the group sat +four significant figures. They were like the posts of the prize ring +supporting the rope; that is to say, the less important sailors who sat +between them. Each of the four was a man of mark. + +Facing Harrigan were Jacob Flint and Sam Hall. The former was a little +man, who might have lived unnoticed forever had it not been for a +terrible scar which deformed his face. It was a cut received in a knife +fight at a Chinese port. The white, gleaming line ran from the top of +his temple, across the side of his right eye, and down to the +cheekbone. The eye was blind as a result of the wound, but in healing +the cut had drawn the skin so that the lids of the eye were pulled awry +in a perpetual, villainous squint. It was said that before this wound +Flint had been merely an ordinary sailor, but that afterward he was +inspired to live up to the terror of his deformed face. + +Sam Hall, the "corner post," at Flint's right, was a type of blond +stupidity, huge of body, with a bull throat and a round, featureless +face. You looked in vain to find anything significant in this fellow +beyond his physical strength, until your glance lingered on his eyes. +They were pale blue, expressionless, but they hinted at possibilities +of berserker rage. + +The other two, whose backs were toward Harrigan, were Garry Cochrane +and Jim Kyle. The latter might have stood for a portrait of a pirate of +the eighteenth century, with a drooping, red mustache and bristling +beard. The reputation of this monster, however, was far less terrible +than that of any of the other three, certainly far less than Garry +Cochrane. This was a lean fellow with bright black eyes, glittering +like a suspicious wolf's. + +Between these corner posts sat the less distinguished sailors. They +might have been notable cutthroats in any other assemblage of +hard-living men, but here they granted precedence willingly to the four +more notable heroes. + +Around the circle walked Jerry Hovey like a shepherd about his flock. +It was apparent that they all held him in high favor. His chief claim +to distinction, or perhaps his only one, was that he had served as +bos'n for ten years under White Henshaw; but this record was enough to +win the respect of even Garry Cochrane. + +It was Jim Kyle who had peered into the face of Harrigan, for now he +was pushing to one side the lantern he had used and settling back into +his place in the circle. He gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. + +"How'd you happen to miss out with the Irishman, Jerry?" + +"Talk low or you may wake him," warned Hovey. "I lost him because the +fool ain't sailed long enough to know White Henshaw. He has an idea +that mutiny at night is like hittin' a man when he's down--as if there +was any other way of hittin' Henshaw an' gettin' away with it!" + +The chuckle of the sailors was like the rumble of the machinery below, +blended and lost with that sound. + +"So he's out--an' you know what that means," went on Hovey. + +A light came into the pale eyes of Sam Hall, and his thick lips pulled +back in a grin. + +"Aye," he growled, "we do! He's a strong man, but"--and here he raised +his vast arms and stretched them--"I'll tend to Harrigan!" + +The voice of the bos'n was sharp: "None o' that! Wait till I give +orders, Sam, before you raise a hand. We're too far from the coast. Let +old Henshaw bring us close inshore, an' then we'll turn loose." + +"What I don't see," said one of the sailors, "is how we make out for +hard cash after we hit the coast. We beach the Heron--all right; but +then we're turned loose in the woods without a cent." + +"You're a fool," said Garry Cochrane. "We loot the ship before we +abandon her. There'll be money somewhere." + +"Aye," said Hovey, "there's money. That's what I got you together for +tonight. There's money, and more of it than you ever dreamed of." + +He waited for his words to take effect in the brains of the men, +running his glance around the circle, and a light flashed in response +to each eye as it met his. + +He continued: "White Henshaw cashed in every cent of his property +before he sailed in the _Heron_. I know, because he used me for some of +his errands. And I know that he had a big safe put into his cabin. For +ten years everything that White Henshaw has looked at turned into gold. +I know! All that gold he's got in that safe--you can lay to that." + +He turned to the sailor who had first raised the question: "Money? +You'll have your share of the loot--if you can carry it!" + +They drew in their breath as if they were drinking. + +Hovey continued: "Now, lads, I know you're gettin' excited and +impatient. That's why I've got you together. You've got to wait. And +until I give the word, you've got to keep your eyes on the deck an' run +every time one of the mates of White Henshaw--damn his heart!--gives +the word. Why? Because one wrong word--one queer look--will tip off the +skipper that something's wrong, and once he gets suspicious, you can +lay to it that he'll find out what we're plannin'. I _know!_" + +There was a grim significance in that repeated phrase, "I _know_," for +it hinted at a knowledge more complete and evil than falls to the share +of the ordinary mortal. + +"Lads, keep your eyes on the deck and play the game until I give the +word! If the wind of this comes to the captain, it's overboard for +Jerry Hovey. I'd rather give myself to the sharks than to White +Henshaw. That's all. + +"Now, lads, it's come to the point where we've got to know what we'll +do. There's two ways. One is to crowd all them what ain't in the mutiny +into one cabin an' keep 'em there till we beach the boat." + +"So that they can get out and tell the land sharks what we've done?" +suggested Garry Cochrane in disgust. + +"Garry," said Hovey with deep feeling, "you're a lad after my heart. +And you're right. If one of them lives, he'll be enough to put a halter +around the necks of each of us. We couldn't get away. If we're once +described, there ain't no way we could dodge the law." + +He grinned sardonically as he looked about the circle: "There's +something about us, lads, that makes us different from other men." + +The sailors glanced appreciatively at the scarred countenances of their +fellows and laughed hoarsely. + +"So the second way is the only way," went on Hovey, seeing that he had +scored his point. "The rest of the crew that ain't with us has got to +go under. Are you with me?" + +"Aye," croaked the chorus, and every man looked down at the floor. Each +one had picked out the man he hated the most, and was preparing the +manner of the killing. + +"Good," said Hovey; "and now that we've agreed on that, we've got to +choose--" + +He stopped, going rigid and blank of face. He had seen the open, +chilling blue eye of Harrigan, who, drawn on into forgetfulness, had +lain for some time on his bunk watching the scene without caution. + + + + +CHAPTER 21 + + +"He's heard!" stammered Hovey, pointing. "Guard the door! Get him!" + +"Bash in his head an' overboard with the lubber!" growled Sam Hall. + +Not one of the others spoke; their actions were the more significant. +Some leaped to the door and barred the exit. + +Others started for Harrigan. The latter leaped off his bunk and, +sweeping up a short-legged, heavy stool, sprang back against the wall. +This he held poised, ready to drive it at the first man who approached. +Their semicircle grew compact before him, but still they hesitated, for +the man who made the first move would die. + +"You fools!" said Harrigan, brandishing his stool. "Keep off!" + +He was thinking desperately, quickly. + +"Harrigan," said Hovey, edging his way to the front of the sailors, +"you heard!" + +"I did!" + +They growled, infuriated. His death was certain now, but they kept back +for another moment, astonished that this man would sign his own +sentence of doom. From marlinspikes to pocketknives, every man held +some sort of a weapon. Garry Cochrane, flattening himself against the +wall at one side, edged inch by inch toward Harrigan. + +"I heard it all," said the Irishman, "and until the last word I thought +you were a lot of bluffin' cowards." + +"You had your chance, Harrigan," said Hovey, "an' you turned me down. +Now you get what's due you." + +The sailors crouched a little as if at a command to leap forward in the +attack. Cochrane was perilously near. + +"If I get my due," said Harrigan coolly, "you'll go down on your knees. +Stand back, Cochrane, or I'll brain ye! You'll go down on your knees +an' thank God that I'm with ye!" + +"Stand fast, Garry!" ordered Hovey. "What do you mean, Harrigan?" + +The Irishman laughed. Every son of Erin is an actor, and now Harrigan's +laughter rang true. + +"What should I mean except what I said?" he answered. + +"He's tryin' to save his head," broke in Kyle, "but with the fear of +death lookin' him in the eye, any man would join us. Finish him, lads." + +"You fool!" said Harrigan authoritatively. "Don't talk so loud, or +you'll have White Henshaw down on our heads. Maybe he's heard that bull +voice of yours already!" + +It was a master stroke. The mention of the terrible skipper and the +skillful insinuation that he was one of them, made them straighten and +stare at him. + +"Go guard the door," said Hovey to one of his sailors, "an' see that +none of the mates is near. Now, Harrigan, what d'you mean? You'd hear +no word of mutiny when I talked to you. Speak for your life now, +because we're hard to convince." + +"We can't be convinced," said Garry Cochrane, "but maybe it'll be fun +to hear him talk before we dump him overboard." + +Instead of answering the speaker, Harrigan looked upon Hovey with a +cold eye of scorn. + +He said: "I changed my mind. I'm _not_ one of you. I thought the bos'n +was a real captain for the gang, but I'll not follow a dog that lets +every one of his pack yelp." + +"I'm a dog, am I?" snarled Hovey furiously. "I'll teach you what I am, +Harrigan. An' you, Cochrane, keep your face shut. I'll learn you who's +boss of this little crew!" + +"If you're half the man you seem," went on Harrigan, "this game looks +good to me." + +"You lie," said the bos'n. "You turned me down cold when I talked to +you." + +"You fool, that was because you said no word outright of wipin' out the +officers an' takin' control of the ship. You sneaked up to me in the +dark; you felt me out before you said a word; you were like a cat +watchin' a rathole. Am I a rat? Am I a sneak? Do I have to be whispered +to? No, I'm Harrigan, an' anyone who wants to talk to me has got to +speak out like a man!" + +The very impudence of his speech held them in check for another +precious moment. He whirled the heavy stool. + +"If you wanted me, why didn't you come an' say: 'Harrigan, I know you. +You hate Henshaw an' McTee an' the rest. We're goin' to wipe 'em out +an' beach the ship. Are you with us?' Why, then I'd of shook hands with +you, and that would end it. But when you come whisperin' and +insinuatin', sayin' nothin' straight from the shoulder, how'd I know +you weren't sent by Henshaw to feel me out, eh? How do any of you know +the bos'n ain't feelin' you out for the skipper he's sailed with ten +years?" + +The circle shifted, loosened; half the men were facing Hovey with +suspicious eyes. They had not thought of this greater danger, and the +bos'n was desperate in the crisis. + +"Boys," he pleaded, "are you goin' to let one stranger ball up our +game? Are you goin' to start doubtin' me on his say-so?" + +The men glanced from him to Harrigan. Plainly they were deep in doubt, +and the Irishman made his second masterful move. He stepped forward, +dropping his stool with a crash to the floor, and clapped a hand upon +Hovey's shoulder. + +"I spoke too quick," he said frankly, "but you got me mad, bos'n. I +know you're straight, an' I'm with you, for one. A man Harrigan will +toiler ought to be good enough for the rest, eh?" + +Jerry Hovey wiped his gleaming forehead. The kingdom of his ambition +was rebuilt by this speech. + +"Sit down, boys," he ordered. "The last man in the forecastle is with +us now. We're solid. Sit down and we'll plan our game." + +The plan, as it developed after the circle re-formed, was a simple one. +They were to wait until the ship was within two or three days' voyage +from the coast of Central America--their destination--and then they +would act. They had secured to their side the firemen and the first +assistant engineer. That meant that they could run the ship safely with +the bos'n, who understood navigation, at the wheel. They would select a +night, and then, on the command of Hovey, the men would take the arms +which they had prepared. + +One of the Japanese cabin boys, Kamasura, was a member of the plot. He +would furnish butcherknives and cleavers from the kitchen. Besides +this, there were various implements which could be used as bludgeons; +and finally there were the pocketknives with which every sailor is +always equipped, generally stout, long-bladed instruments. The +advantage of firearms was with the officers of the ship, but apparently +there were no rifles and probably very few revolvers aboard. Against +powder and lead they would have the advantage of a surprise attack. + +First, Sam Hall and Kyle were to go down to the hole of the ship and +lead the firemen in their attack upon the oilers and wipers, most of +whom had not been approachable with the plan of mutiny because they +were newly signed on the ship. In this part of the campaign the most +important feature would be the capturing of Campbell, who would be +reserved for a finely drawn-out, tortured death. The firemen had +insisted upon this. + +In the meantime Hovey with Flint and the rest would attack the cabins +of Henshaw, McTee, and the mates. Here they depended chiefly upon the +effect of the surprise. If it were possible, Henshaw also was to be +taken alive and reserved for a long death like Campbell. This done, +they would lead the ship to an uninhabited part of the shore, beach +her, and scatter over the mainland, each with his share of the booty. + +Harrigan forced himself to take an active part in the discussion of the +plans. Several features were his own suggestion, among others the idea +of presenting a petition for better food to Henshaw, and beating him +down while he was reading it; but all the time that the Irishman spoke, +he was thinking of Kate. + +When the crew turned into their bunks at last, he went over a thousand +schemes in his head. In the first place he might go to Henshaw at once +and warn him of the coming danger, but he remembered what the bos'n had +said--in such a case he would not be believed, and both the crew and +the commander would be against him. + +Finally it seemed to him that the best thing was to wait until the +critical moment had arrived. He could warn the captain just in time--or +if absolutely necessary he could warn McTee, who would certainly +believe him. In the meantime there were possibilities that the mutiny +would come to nothing through internal dissension among the crew. In +any case he must play a detestable part, acting as a spy upon the crew +and pretending enthusiasm for the mutiny. + +With that shame like a taste of soot in his throat, he climbed to the +bridge the next morning with his bucket of suds and his brush, and +there as usual he found McTee, cool and clean in the white outfit of +Henshaw. At sight of the Scotchman he remembered at once that he must +pretend the double exhaustion which comes of pain and hard labor. +Therefore he thrust out his lower jaw and favored McTee with a glare of +hate. He was repaid by the glow of content which showed in the +captain's face. + +"And the hole of the _Heron_," he said, speaking softly lest his voice +should carry to the man in the wheelhouse, "is it cooler than the +fireroom of the _Mary Rogers?_" + +Harrigan glanced up, glowering. + +"Damn you, McTee!" + +"The palms of your hands, lad, are they raw? Is the lye of the suds +cool to them?" + +Another black glance came in reply and McTee leaned back against the +rail, tapping one contented toe against the floor. + +"It was a fine tale you told me yesterday, Harrigan," he said at +length, "but afterward I saw Kate, and she was never kinder. I spoke of +you, and we laughed together about it. She said you were like a horse +that's too proud--you need the whip!" + +Harrigan was in doubt, but he concealed his trouble with a mighty +effort and smiled. + +"That's a weak lie, Angus. When I was a boy of ten, I would of hung me +head for shame if I could not have made a better lie. Shall I tell you +what really happened when you met Kate? You came up smilin' an' +grinnin' like a baboon, an' she passed you by with a look that went +through you as if you were just a cloud on the edge of the sky. Am I +right, McTee?" + +"You've seen her, and she's told you this," exclaimed the captain. + +Harrigan chuckled his triumph and went on with the scrubbing of the +bridge. + +"No, Angus, me dear, I've not seen her, but when two souls are as close +as hers and mine--well, cap'n, I leave it to you!" + +McTee ground his teeth with rage and turned his back on the worker for +a moment until he could master the contorted muscles of his face. + +"Tut, McTee," went on the Irishman, "you've but felt the tickle of the +spur; when I drive it in, you'll yell like a whipped kid. Always you +play into me hands, McTee. Now when you see Kate, you'll feel me grin +in the background mockin' ye, eh?" + +The banter gave the captain a shrewd inspiration. He leaned, and +catching one of Harrigan's hands with a quick movement, turned it palm +up. It was as he suspected; the palm, though red from the effect of the +strong suds and still scarcely healed after the torment of the _Mary +Rogers_, was nevertheless manifestly unharmed by the labor which it was +supposed Harrigan had performed the day before. The hand was wrenched +away and a balled fist held under McTee's nose. + +"If you're curious, Angus, look at me knuckles, not me palm. It's the +knuckles you'll feel the most, cap'n." + + + + +CHAPTER 22 + + +But McTee, deep in thought, was walking from the bridge. He went +straight to the hole of the ship and questioned some of the firemen, +and they told him that Harrigan had done no work passing coal the day +before; Campbell, it appeared, had taken him for some special job. With +this tidings the Scotchman hastened back to Henshaw. + +"The game's slipping through our hands, captain," he said. + +"Harrigan?" queried Henshaw. + +"Aye. He didn't pass a shovelful of coal in the hole yesterday." + +"Tut, tut," answered the other with a wave of the hand. "I sent orders +to Campbell, and told him what sort of a man he could expect to find in +Harrigan." + +"I've just talked to the firemen. They say that Harrigan didn't handle +a single pound of coal. That ought to be final." + +Henshaw went black. + +"It may be so. I've given more rope to old Campbell than to any man +that ever sailed the seas with White Henshaw, and it may be he's using +the rope now to hang himself. We'll find out, McTee; we'll find out! +Where's Harrigan now?" + +"Gone below a while ago after he finished scrubbing down the bridge." + +"We'll speak with Douglas. Come along, McTee. There's nothing like +discipline on the high seas." + +He went below, murmuring to himself, with McTee close behind him. +Strange sounds were coming from the room of the chief engineer, sounds +which seemed much like the strumming of a guitar. + +"He's playing his songs," grinned Henshaw, and he chuckled noiselessly. +"Listen! We'll give him something to sing about--and it'll be in +another key. Ha-ha!" + +He tasted the results of his disciplining already, but just as he +placed his hand on the knob of the door, another sound checked him and +made him turn with a puzzled frown toward McTee. It was a ringing +baritone voice which rose in an Irish love song. + +"What the devil--" began Henshaw. + +"You're right," nodded McTee. "It's the devil--Harrigan. Open the +door!" + +The captain flung it open, and they discovered the two worthies seated +at ease with a black bottle and two glasses at hand. Campbell, in the +manner of a musical critic of some skill, leaned back in a chair with +his brawny arms folded behind his head and his eyes half closed. +Harrigan, tilted back in a chair, rested his feet on the edge of a +small table and swept the guitar which lay on his lap. In the midst of +a high note he saw the ominous pair standing in the door, and the music +died abruptly on his lips. + +He rose to his feet and nudged Campbell at the same time. The latter +opened his eyes and, glimpsing the unwelcome visitors, sprang up, +gasping, stammering. + +"What? Come in! Don't be standing there, Cap'n Henshaw. Come in and sit +down!" + +In spite of his bluster his red face was growing blotched with patches +of gray. Harrigan, less moved than any of the others, calmly replaced +the guitar in its green cloth case. + +"I sent this fellow down to be put at hard work," said Henshaw, and +waited. + +It was obvious to Harrigan that the chief engineer was in mortal fear. +He himself felt strangely ill at ease as he looked at White Henshaw +with his skin yellow as Egyptian papyrus from a tomb. + +"Just a minute, captain," began the engineer. "You sent Harrigan down +to the hole because he's considered a hard man to handle, eh?" + +Henshaw waited for a fuller explanation; he seemed to be enjoying the +distress of Campbell. + +"Just so," went on the Scotchman, "but there are two ways of handling a +difficult sailor. One is by using the club and the other by using +kindness. The club has been tried and hasn't worked very well with +Harrigan. I decided to take a hand with kindness. The results have been +excellent. I was just about--" + +His voice died away, for McTee was chuckling in a deep bass rumble, and +Henshaw was smiling in a way that boded no good. + +The captain broke in coldly: "I've heard enough of your explanation, +Campbell. Send Harrigan down to the hole at once. We'll work him a +double shift today, for a starter." + +Campbell was trembling like a self-conscious girl, for he was drawn +between shame and dread of the captain. + +"Look!" he cried, and taking the hand of Harrigan, he turned it palm +up. "This chap has been brutally treated. He's been at work that fairly +tore the skin from the palms of his hands. One hour's work with a +shovel, captain, would make Harrigan useless at any sort of a job for a +month." + +"Which goes to show," said McTee, "that you don't know Harrigan." + +"I've heard what you have to say," said Henshaw. "I sent him down to +work in the hole; I come down and find him singing in your room. I +expect you to have him passing coal inside of fifteen minutes, +Campbell." + +Harrigan started for the door, feeling that the game had been played +out, and glad of even this small respite of a day or more from the +labor of the shovel. Before he left the room, however, the voice of +Campbell halted him. + +"Wait! Stay here! You'll do what I tell you, Harrigan. I'm the boss +belowdecks." + +It was a declaration of war, and what it cost Campbell no one could +ever tell. He stood swaying slightly from side to side, while he glared +at Henshaw. + +"You're drunk," remarked the captain coldly. "I'll give you half an +hour, Campbell, to come to your senses--but after that--" + +"Damn you and your time! I want no tune! I say the lad has been put +through hell and shan't go back to it, do you hear me?" + +Henshaw was controlling himself carefully, or else he wished to draw +out the engineer. + +He said: "You know the record of Harrigan?" + +"What record? The one McTee told you? Would you believe what Black +McTee says of a man he tried to break and couldn't?" + +"My friend McTee is out of the matter. All that you have to do with is +my order. You've heard that order, Campbell!" + +"I'll see you in hell before I send him to the hole." + +Henshaw waited another moment, quietly enjoying the wild excitement of +the engineer like the Spanish gentleman who sits in safety in the +gallery and watches the baiting of the bull in the arena below. + +"I shall send that order to you in writing. If you refuse to obey then, +I shall act!" + +He turned on his heel; McTee stayed a moment to smile upon Harrigan, +and then followed. As the door closed, Harrigan turned to Campbell and +found him sitting, shuddering, with his face buried in his hands. He +touched the Scotchman on the shoulder. + +"You've done your part, chief. I won't let you do any more. I'm +starting now for the hole." + +"What?" bellowed Campbell. "Am I no longer the boss of my engine room? +You'll sit here till I tell you to move! Damn Henshaw and his written +orders!" + +"If you refuse to obey a written order, he can take your license away +from you in any marine court." + +"Let it go." + +"Ah-h, chief, ye're afther bein' a thrue man an' a bould one, but I'd +rather stay the rest av me life in the hole than let ye ruin yourself +for me. Whisht, man, I'm goin'! Think no more av it!" + +Campbell's eyes grew moist with the temptation, but then the fighting +blood of his clan ran hot through his veins. + +"Sit down," he commanded. "Sit down and wait till the order comes. It's +a fine thing to be chief engineer, but it's a better thing to be a man. +What does Bobbie say?" + +And he quoted in a ringing voice: "A man's a man for a' that!" +Afterward they sat in silence that grew more tense as the minutes +passed, but it seemed that Henshaw, with demoniac cunning, had decided +to prolong the agony by delaying his written order and the consequent +decision of the engineer. And Harrigan, watching the suffused face of +Campbell, knew that the time had come when his will would not suffice +to make him follow the dictates of his conscience. + +All of which Henshaw knew perfectly well as he sat in his cabin filling +the glass of McTee with choice Scotch. + +They sat for an hour or more, chatting, and McTee drew a picture of the +pair waiting below in silent dread--a picture so vivid that Henshaw +laughed in his breathless way. In time, however, he decided that they +had delayed long enough, and took up pen and paper to write the order +which was to convince the dauntless Campbell that even he was a slave. +As he did so, Sloan, the wireless operator, appeared at the door, +saying: "The report has come, sir." + + + + +CHAPTER 23 + + +He held a little folded paper in his hand. At sight of it Henshaw +turned in his chair and faced Sloan with a wistful glance. + +"Good?" + +"Not very, sir." + +Henshaw rose slowly and frowned like the king on the messenger who +bears tidings of the lost battie. + +"Then very bad?" + +"I'm afraid so." + +"Very well. Let me have the message. You may go." + +He took the slip of paper cautiously, as if it were dangerous in +itself, and then called back the operator as the latter reached the +door. + +"Come back a minute. Sloan, you're a good boy--a very good boy. +Faithful, intelligent; you know your business. H-m! Here--here's a five +spot"--he slipped the money into Sloan's hand--"and you shall have more +when we touch port. Now this message, my lad--you couldn't have made +any mistake in receiving it? You couldn't have twisted any of the words +a little?" + +"No mistake, I'm sure, sir. It was repeated twice." + +"That makes it certain, then--certain," muttered Henshaw. "That is all, +Sloan." + +As the latter left the cabin, the old captain went back to his chair +and sat with the paper resting upon his knee, as if a little delay +might change its import. + +"I am growing old, McTee," he said at last, apologetically, "and age +affects the eyes first of all. Suppose you take this message, eh? And +read it through to me--slowly--I hate fast reading, McTee." + +The big Scotchman took the slip of paper and read with a long pause +between each word: + +_Beatrice--failing--rapidly--hemorrhage--this--morning--very--weak._ + +The paper was snatched from his hand, and Henshaw repeated the words +over and over to himself: "Weak--failing--hemorrhage--the fools! A +little bleeding at the nose they call a hemorrhage!" + +McTee broke in: "A good many doctors are apt to make a case seem more +serious than it is. They get more credit that way for the cure, eh?" + +"God bless you, lad! Aye, they're a lot of damnable curs! Burning at +sea--death by fire at sea! He was right! The old devil was right! Look, +McTee! I'm safe on my ship; I'm rich; but still I'm burning to death in +the middle of the ocean." + +He shook the Scotchman by his massive shoulder. + +"Go get Sloan--bring him here!" + +McTee rose. + +"No! Don't let me lay eyes on him--he brought me this! Go yourself +and carry him a message to send. The doctors are letting her die; +they think she has no money. Send them this message: + +"_Save Beatrice at all costs. Call in the greatest doctors. I will pay +all bills ten times over._ + +"Quick! Why are you waiting here? You fool! Run! Minutes mean life or +death to her!" + +McTee hastened back to the wireless house in the after-part of the +ship. To Sloan he gave the message, even exaggerating it somewhat. +After it was sent, he said: "Look here, my boy, do you realize that +it's dangerous to bring the captain messages like that last one you +carried to him?" + +"Do I know it? I should say I do! Once the old boy jumped at me like +a tiger because I carried in a bad report." + +"Could you make up a false message?" + +"It's against the law, sir." + +"It's not against the law to keep a man from going crazy." + +"Crazy?" + +"I mean what I say. Henshaw is balancing on the ragged edge of +insanity. Mark my words! If the news comes of his granddaughter's +death, he'll fall on the other side. Why can't you give him some hope +in the meantime? Suppose you work up something this afternoon like +this: 'Beatrice rallying rapidly. Doctor's much more hopeful.' What do +you say?" + +"Crazy!" repeated the wireless operator, fascinated. "If the old man +loses his reason, we're all in danger." + +"He's on the verge of it. I know something of this subject. I've +studied it a lot. A common sign is when one fancy occupies a man's +brain. Henshaw has two of them. One is what an old soothsayer told him: +that he would die by fire at sea; the other is his love for this girl. +Between the two, he's in bad shape. Remember that he's an old man." + +"You're right, sir; and I'll do it. It may not be legal, but we can't +stop for law in a case like this." + +McTee nodded and went back to Henshaw, whom he found walking the cabin +with a step surprisingly elastic and quick. + +"Go back and send another message," he called. "I made a mistake. I +didn't send one that was strong enough. They may not understand. What I +should have said was--" + +"I made it twice as strong as the way you put it," said McTee; and he +repeated his phrasing of the message with some exaggeration. + +The lean hand of the captain wrung his. + +"You're a good lad, McTee--a fine fellow. Stand by me. You'd never +guess how my brain is on fire; the old devil of a soothsayer was right. +But that message you sent will bring those deadheaded doctors to life. +Ah, McTee, if I were only there for a minute in spirit, I could restore +her to life--yes, one minute!" + +"Of course you could. But in the meantime, for a change of thought, +suppose you finish that order you were about to write out and send to +Campbell." + +"What order?" + +"About Harrigan." + +"Who the devil is Harrigan?" + +McTee drew a deep breath and answered quietly: "The man you ordered to +work in the hole. Here's the paper and your pen." + +He placed them in the hands of the captain, but the latter held them +idly. + +"It's the frail ones who are carried off by the white plague. Am I +right?" + +"No, you're wrong. The frail ones sometimes have a better chance than +the husky people. Look at the number of athletes who are carried away +by it!" + +"God bless you, McTee!" + +"The strength that counts is the strength of spirit, and this girl has +your own fighting spirit." + +"Do you think so?" + +"Yes; I saw it in her eyes." + +Henshaw shook his head sadly. + +"No; they're the eyes of her grandmother, and she had no fighting +spirit. I think I married her more for pity than for love. Her +grandmother died by that same disease, McTee." + +The latter gave up the struggle and spent an hour soothing the excited +old man. When he managed to escape, he went up and down the deck +breathing deeply of the fresh air. For the moment Harrigan was safe, +but it would not be long before he would force Henshaw to deliver the +order. Into this reverie broke the voice of Jerry Hovey. + +"Beg your pardon, Captain McTee." + +The Scotchman turned to the bos'n with the smile still softening his +stern lips. + +"Well?" he asked good-naturedly. + +"Let me have half a dozen words, sir." + +"A thousand, bos'n. What is it?" + +Now, Hovey remembered what Harrigan had said about coming straight to +the point, and he appreciated the value of the advice. Particularly in +speaking to a man like McTee, for he recognized in the Scotchman some +of the same strong, blunt characteristics of Harrigan. + +"Every man who's sailed the South Seas knows Captain McTee," he began. + +"None of that, lad. If you know me, you also know that I'm called Black +McTee--and for a reason." + +"More than that, sir, we know that whatever men say of you, your word +has always been good." + +"Well?" + +"I'm going to ask you to give me your word that what I have to say, if +it doesn't please you, will go out one ear as fast as it goes in the +other." + +"You have my word." + +"And maybe your hand, sir?" + +McTee, stirred by curiosity, shook hands. + +Hovey began: "Some of us have sailed a long time and never got much in +the pocket to show for it." + +"Yes, that's true of me." + +"But there's none of us would turn our backs on the long green?" + +McTee grinned. + +"Well, sir, I have a little plan. Suppose you knew an old man--a man so +old, sir, that he was sure to die in a year or so. And suppose he had +one heir--a girl who was about to die--" + +"Mutiny, bos'n," said McTee coldly. + +But the eye of Hovey was fully as cold; he knew his man. + +"Well?" he queried. + +"Talk ahead. I've given you my word to keep quiet." + +"Suppose this old man had a lot of money. Would it be any crime--any +great crime to slip a little of that long green into our pockets?" + +Two pictures were in McTee's mind--one of the safe piled full of gold, +and the other of the half-crazed old skipper with his dying +granddaughter. After all, it was only a matter of months before Henshaw +would be dead, for certainly he would not long survive the death of +Beatrice. Even a small portion of that hoard would enable him to leave +the sea--to woo Kate as she must be wooed before he could win her. +Golden would be the veil with which he could blind her eyes to the +memory of Harrigan after he had removed the Irishman from his path. + +"Very well, bos'n. I understand what you mean. I've seen the inside of +that safe in the cabin. Now I come straight to the point. Why do you +talk with me?" + +"Because I need a man like you." + +"To lead the mutiny?" + +"Tell me first, are you with us?" + +"Who are us?" + +"You'll have to speak first." + +"I'm with you." + +"Now I'll tell you. The whole forecastle is hungry for the end of White +Henshaw. Your share of the money is whatever you want to make it. You +can have all my part; what I want is the sight of Henshaw crawlin' at +our feet." + +"You're a good deal of a man, Hovey. Henshaw has put you in his school, +and now you're about to graduate, eh? But why do you want me? What +brought you to me?" + +"I thought I didn't need you a while ago; now I have to have somebody +stronger than I am. I was the king of the bunch yesterday; but the last +man we took into our plan proved to be stronger than I am." + +"Who?" + +"Harrigan." + +McTee straightened slowly and his eyes brightened. Hovey went on: +"Before he'd been with us ten minutes, the rest of the men in the +forecastle were looking up to him. He has the reputation. He won it by +facing you and Henshaw at the same time. Now the lads listen to me, but +they keep their eyes on Harrigan. I know what that means. That's why I +come here and offer the leadership to you." + +McTee was thinking rapidly. + +"A plan like this is fire, bos'n, and I have an idea I might burn my +fingers unless you have enough of the crew with you. If you have +Harrigan, it certainly means that you have a majority of the rest." + +Hovey grinned: "Aye, you know Harrigan." + +The insinuation made McTee hot, but he went on seriously: "If you could +make me sure that you have Harrigan, I'd be one of you." + +"What proof do you want?" + +"None will do except the word out of his own mouth. Listen! Along about +four bells this afternoon I'll find some way of sending Miss Malone out +of her cabin. Then I'll go in there and wait. Bring Harrigan close to +that door at that tune and make him talk about the mutiny. Can you do +it?" + +"But why the room of the girl?" + +"You're stupid, Hovey. Because if you talked outside of the cabin where +I sleep--that being the office of Henshaw--he'd hear you as well as I +would." + +"Then I'll bring him to the door of the girl's cabin. At four bells?" + +"Right." + +"After that we'll talk over the details, sir?" + +"We will. And keep away from me, Hovey. If Henshaw sees me talking with +members of his crew, he might begin to think--and any of his thinking +is dangerous for the other fellow." + +The bos'n touched his cap. + +"Aye, aye, sir. You can begin hearin' the chink of the money, and I +begin to see White Henshaw eatin' dirt. With Black McTee--excusin' the +name, sir--to lead us, there ain't nothin' can stop us." + + + + +CHAPTER 24 + + +He went off toward the forecastle hitching at his trousers and +whistling an old English song of the Spanish Main. As for Black McTee, +he remained staring after Hovey with a rising thought of perjury. The +loot of the _Heron_ was a deep temptation, and his pledged word to the +bos'n was a strong bond, for as Hovey had said, the honor of Black +McTee, in spite of his other failings, was respected throughout the +South Seas. For one purpose, however, he would have sacrificed all +hopes of plunder and a thousand plighted words, and that purpose was +the undoing of Harrigan in the eyes of Kate. + +She had grown into a necessity to him. Though were she twice as +beautiful, he would never have paid her the dangerous honor of a second +glance under ordinary conditions, but their life together on the island +and his rivalry with Harrigan for her sake had made her infinitely dear +to him. + +Seeing the opportunity to destroy all her respect for Harrigan, he +schemed instantly to betray his word to Hovey. Like Harrigan earlier in +the day, he had no purpose to reveal the planned mutiny at once. The +Irishman waited because he did not know to whom he could confide the +dangerous information; McTee delayed in the hope of nipping +insurrection in the bud at the very instant when it was about to +flower. It would be far more spectacular. Moreover, he saw in this a +manner of enlisting Kate on his side. + +Shortly before four bells in the afternoon he went to her cabin and +knocked at the door. When she opened it to him, she stood with one hand +upon the knob, blocking the way and waiting silently for an explanation +of his coming. That quiet coldness banished from his mind the speech +which he had prepared. + +He said at last: "Kate, I want you to talk with me for a few minutes." + +She considered him seriously--without fear, but with such a deep +distrust that he was startled. He had not dreamed that matters had +progressed as far as that. At length she stepped back, and without a +word beckoned him to come inside. He entered and then his eyes raised +and met her glance with such a deep, still yearning that she was +startled. No woman can see the revelation of a man's love without being +moved to the heart. + +She said: "You are in trouble, Angus?" + +The hunger of his eyes came full in her face. + +"Aye, trouble." + +"And you have come to me--" she asked; and before she could finish her +sentence, McTee broke in, pleadingly: + +"For help." + +He saw her lips part, her eyes brighten; he knew it was his despair +which was winning her. + +"Tell me!" And she made a little gesture with both hands toward him. + +"I have seen it for days. I have lost all hope of you, Kate." + +Her glance wandered slightly, and his hope increased. + +"Because of Harrigan," he said. + +She was remembering what Harrigan had said: "How to stop McTee? Make +yourself old and your skin yellow, and your hair gray, and take the +spring out of your step." + +"Why do you keep the whip over him, Angus? He has saved your life, and +you his. Why will you not treat him as one strong and generous man +would treat another?" + +"Because I love you, Kate." + +"Angus, would you stop if you knew I loved him?" + +"Is that a fair question, Kate? Even if you said you loved him, I could +not stop, because I would have to do my best to save you from +yourself." + +She looked her query silently. + +"He is not worthy of you, Kate. Because he seems generous and simple, +do not be deceived. He is capable of things which even Black McTee +would turn from. I know it, for I know his type. But I, Kate--your head +is turned; do you hear me?" + +She rose and cried: "Why have you both thought from the first that I +must choose between you? Are there no other men in the whole world?" + +He answered doggedly: "You will never find another who will love you as +we do. To one of us you must finally belong." + +"And that is why you go ahead with your schemes to torture Harrigan, +certain that when he is finished I will be helpless?" + +"No, I am certain of nothing. But I am absolutely sure that Harrigan +stands between you and me, and I will have him done for." + +"Let me think, Angus. You have pulled my old world about my ears, and +now I am trying to build another kingdom where force is the only god. +Can there be such a place?" + +Four bells sounded. He wondered if Hovey would bring Harrigan at the +time they had agreed upon. And she stood with her hands pressed against +her eyes, trembling. + +"In one thing at least you spoke the truth, Angus. There are only two +men left for me in the world. I must choose between you and Harrigan." + +"Until that time comes, I must fight for you, Kate, in the only way I +know how to fight--with both my hands, trying to kill the things that +stand between us--Hush!" + +For he heard the rumble of two deep voices near the door. + + + + +CHAPTER 25 + + +Kate and McTee both stood frozen with attention, for one of the voices +was Harrigan's, saying: "And why the devil have you brought me away up +here, bos'n?" + +"Because we have to watch sharp, Harrigan. There are some of the lads +we can't trust too far, and they mustn't overhear us when we talk." + +"Why, Hovey, they can hear us inside the cabin." + +"She cannot. This is the girl's cabin, and I saw her go out a while +ago." + +"Well, then, what is it you want to know?" + +"I'll tell you, man to man. When you said you were with us last night, +I've been thinking you might have said it for fear of the lads." + +"Hovey, you're thick in the head. Didn't you hear me talk?" + +"I did, and I may be thick in the head, but I can't rest easy till you +give me your hand and tell me you're playin' straight with us. You were +backward at first, Harrigan." + +There was an instant of pause, and then Harrigan answered: "I can't +take your hand, Hovey." + +McTee set his teeth. To have his plans upset when all so far had gone +with perfect smoothness was maddening. + +"Why not?" asked Hovey sharply. + +"It's just a queer hunch I've always had. I don't like the idea of +takin' any oath. I'm a man of action, Hovey. When the night comes, give +me a club, and you'll see where I stand!" + +There was a subdued, purring danger in his voice which made Kate +tremble. Evidently it convinced Hovey. + +"I guess you're right, Harrigan. I don't want to doubt you; God knows +we got a need for men like you when the time comes. The other lads +think there'll be nothin' to it, but I know Henshaw--I _know_!" + +"It'll be a hard nut to crack. I don't make any mistake about that," +said Harrigan; "but if we work cool and with a rush, we'll sweep them +off their feet." + +"Now you're talkin'," said Hovey. "Speed is the thing we want most. +Speed, and no quarter." + +"You'll need no urging for that. The boys are all set to kill. Have the +officers many revolvers?" + +"Not many. Salvain has one, and so has Henshaw. I don't think the rest +pack any. Harrigan, I've got a weight off my mind, knowing that you're +sure with us. And you'll get any share of the loot you want to name." + +There was another brief pause. + +"I'm easy satisfied," said Harrigan. "What I want is that the girl who +has this cabin--Kate Malone--should be handled with gloves." + +"Ah, there speaks the Irish!" + +"I want the care of her to fall to my hands." + +"Aye, you could have ten like her, as far as I'm concerned." + +"Then I'm your man, Hovey. There comes one of the mates. Let's move +on." + +"Right-o, lad." + +Their voices retreated, and after a time McTee looked down at Kate. She +was dazed, as if someone had struck her in the face. + +"What does it mean, Angus?" + +"Wasn't it plain? Mutiny!" + +She struck her hand sharply across her forehead with a little moan. + +"I warned you, Kate, that he was capable of anything, but I never +dreamed of a proof coming as quickly as this." + +"I can't believe it; I won't believe it." + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"Why should I blame him?" he said. "He sees a way to get you. I could +almost sink as low as that myself--but not quite--not quite! I know +something of mutinies at sea. Have you noticed the fellows who are in +this crew?" + +"I don't know--yes--I'm too sick to remember a single face except one +scar-faced man." + +"On the whole they're the roughest lot I've ever seen cooped up +together. If they should be turned loose, they would make a shambles of +this ship--a red shambles, Kate!" + +There was not a trace of color in her face. She watched him with a +horrified fascination. + +"Of course," he went on easily, "I'll be the first one to go down. +Harrigan would see to that. Well, it would be a worthwhile fight--while +I lasted!" + +"It can never take place!" she said desperately. "You are forewarned. +Tell Captain Henshaw at once, and--" + +He raised his hand solemnly. + +"You must not do that, Kate. You must promise me not to speak a word on +the subject until I have given you leave." + +"I will promise you anything--but why not speak of it at once? I feel +as if we were standing over a--a magazine of powder!" + +"We are--only worse. But it would be madness to warn Henshaw now. He is +unnerved--almost insane. His granddaughter, for whom he had made all +his fortune and to whom he is going in the States--" + +"Yes, Salvain told me. She is dying; it is pitiful, Angus, but--" + +"He must not be told. He would start with the hand of iron, and the +first act of violence which he committed would be the touch of fire +which would set off this powder magazine. No, we must wait. Perhaps in +a little time I may be able to win over one of the mutineers and from +him learn all their plans, and then turn the tables on them. But I must +first know all the men who are concerned in the uprising. When we _do_ +move--shall I spare Harrigan, Kate?" + +He tried to ask it frankly, but a devil of malice was in his eyes. + +"I don't know--I can't think! Angus, what did Dan mean?" + +"I warned you of what he was capable," he said. + +She caught his hands, stammering: "You are all that is left to me. You +will stand between me and danger, Angus? You will protect me? But wait! +I could go to Harrigan. I _know_ that if I plead with him, I can win +him away from the mutineers!" + +"Kate, you are hysterical! Don't you see that a man who is capable of +planning a wholesale murder in the night would be quite able to lie to +you? No, no! Whatever you do, you must promise me not to speak a word +of this to anyone, most of all, to Harrigan." + +"I will promise anything--I will do anything. It all rests with you, +Angus." + +"And when we strike at the mutineers--if Harrigan falls, will you +absolve me of his death, Kate?" + +She was terribly moved, standing stiff and straight and helpless like a +child about to be punished. + +"Angus, for the sake of pity, do not ask me." + +"I must know." + +"Angus," came her broken voice, "I _cannot_ give up my faith in him." + +His face grew as dark as night, but he laid a gentle hand on her +shoulder and said: "Your mind is distraught. You shall have time to +think this over; but remember, Kate, we must fight fire with fire, and +the time has come when you must choose between us." + +And then, very wisely, he slipped from the room. + + + + +CHAPTER 26 + + +On the promenade outside he met Sloan, the wireless operator, on his +way to Captain Henshaw's cabin with a slip of paper in his hand. Sloan +winked at him broadly. + +"The good news has come, sir," he grinned. "Take a look at this!" + +And McTee eagerly read the typewritten slip. + +_Beatrice is rallying. Doctors have decided effusion of blood was not +hemorrhage. Opinion now very hopeful._ + +"Will that bring the old boy around for a while?" asked Sloan. + +"He'll slip you a twenty on the strength of that and give you a drink +as well," said McTee. + +They reached the cabin and entered together to find that White Henshaw +lay on the couch in the corner. His physical strength was apparently +exhausted, and one long, lean arm dangled to the floor. At sight of the +dreaded wireless operator with the message in his hand, his yellow face +turned from yellow to pale ivory. He rose and supported himself with +one hand against the wall, scowling as if he dared them to notice his +weakness. + +"Good news!" called Sloan cheerily, and extended the paper. + +The captain snatched the paper, his eyes were positively wolfish while +he devoured the message. + +"Sloan--good lad," he stammered. "Stay by your instrument every minute, +my boy. Before night we'll have word that she's past all danger." + +Sloan touched his cap and withdrew. + +"Good news!" said McTee amiably. "I'm mighty glad to hear it, captain." + +The old man fell back into a chair, holding the precious piece of paper +with its written lie in both trembling hands. + +"Good news," he croaked. "Aye, McTee. You were right, lad! Those damned +doctors don't know their business. They're making the case out bad so +they'll get more credit for the cure. See how they're fooling with me-- +and me with my heart on fire in the middle of the sea!" + +His eyes wandered strangely in the midst of his exultation. + +"That would be a strange death, eh, McTee--to burn in the middle of the +sea with a ship full of gold?" + +The Scotchman shuddered. + +"Forget that, man. You're not going to burn at sea. You're going to +reach port with all your gold and you're going to stand beside Beatrice +and say--" + +Henshaw broke in: "And say, 'Beatrice, I've come to make you happy. +We'll leave this country where the fogs are so thick and the sun never +shines, and we'll go south, far south, where there's summer all the +year.' That's what I'll say!" + +"Right," nodded McTee. "If her lungs are weak, that's the place to take +her." + +Henshaw jerked erect in his chair. "Weak lungs? Who said she had weak +lungs? McTee, you're a fool! A little cold on the chest, that's all +that's the matter with the girl! The doctors have made the sickness-- +they and their rotten medicines! And now they're making sport out of +White Henshaw. I'll skin them alive, I will!" + +McTee lighted a cigar and nodded judiciously as he puffed it. + +"Very good idea, Henshaw. If you want me to, I'll go along and help you +out." + +"You're a brick, McTee. Maybe I'll need you. Getting old; not what I +used to be." + +"I see you're not," said McTee boldly. + +Henshaw scowled: "What do you mean?" + +"That affair of Harrigan. He's still going scot-free, you know." + +"Right! McTee, I'm getting feeble-minded, but I'll make up for lost +time." + +He caught up pen and paper, while McTee drew a long breath of relief. A +moment later he was astonished to note that the captain had not written +a single letter. + +"I'd forgotten," murmured Henshaw. "When I started to write that order +this morning--just as I was putting pen to paper--in came Sloan with +the message from the doctors saying that Beatrice was in a critical +situation. It may be, captain, that this message is bad luck for me, +eh?" + +"Nonsense," said McTee easily, gripping his hand with rage, while he +fought to control his voice. "You mustn't let superstitions run away +with you." + +"So! So!" frowned Henshaw. "You're a young man to give me advice, +McTee. I've followed superstitions all my life. I tell you there's +something in those star-gazing devils of the South Seas. They know +things that aren't in the books." + +"What about the old fool who prophesied that you'd die by fire at sea?" + +Henshaw shivered, and his eyes narrowed as he stared at McTee. + +"How do you know he's an old fool, eh? We haven't reached port yet--not +by a long sight!" + +"Well," said McTee, with a carefully assumed carelessness, "this ship +belongs to you--you're the skipper; but on a boat I was captain of, no +damned engineer would pull my beard and tell me to rightabout. They +never got away with a line of chatter like that when Black McTee was +speaking to them. Never!" + +At this comparison the face of Henshaw grew marvelously evil. + +"McTee," he said, "men step lively when you speak to them--but they +jump out of their skins when they hear White Henshaw's voice." + +"That's what I've heard," said the other dauntlessly, "but d'you think +Campbell ever would have taken this chance if he didn't know you're not +what you used to be?" + +For reply Henshaw set his teeth and dipped the pen into the ink. As he +poised it above the paper, Sloan appeared at the door calling: "One +minute, captain!" + +The captain turned livid and rose slowly, crumpling the paper as he did +so and letting it drop to the floor. + +"Out with it!" he muttered in a hoarse whisper. "She's worse again! +Damn you, McTee, I told you this message was bad luck!" + +The wireless operator was much puzzled and glance from the Scotchman +to his skipper. + +"I only wanted to know, sir, if you wish to send an answer +to this last wireless. Any congratulations?" + +"No--get out!" + +And as Sloan fled from the door with a wondering side glance at McTee, +Henshaw sank back into his chair, picked up the paper on which he was +about to write, and tore it into small bits. Not until this task was +finished was he able to speak to McTee. + +"D'you see now? Is there nothing in my superstitions? Why, sir, just +holding that pen over this piece of damnable paper brought Sloan on +the run to my door. If I'd written a single word, he'd of had a message +from the doctors saying that Beatrice was dying. I know!" + +"You really think," began McTee, and some of his furious impatience +crept into his voice--"you really think that writing on that piece of +paper with your pen would have brought in Sloan with a wireless message +from the mainland?" + +Henshaw shook his head slowly. + +"There's no use trying to explain these things," he said, "but +sometimes, McTee, there's a small voice that comes up inside of me and +tells me what to do and what not to do. When I first saw the picture of +Beatrice--that one where she's just a slip of a child--there was a +voice that said: 'Here's the spirit of your dead wife come back to +life. You must work for her and cherish her.' So I've done it. And +because I started to do it, the voice never left me. It warned me when +to put to sea and when to stay in port. It gave me a hint when to buy +and when to sell, and the result is that I'm rich--rich--rich. Gold in +my hand and gold in my brain, McTee!" + +The Scotchman began to feel more and more that old age or his monomania +had shaken White Henshaw's reason, but he said bitterly: "And I +suppose, if that voice never fails you and if these South Seas natives +can read the future, that you are bound to burn at sea?" + +"Damn you!" said Henshaw, terribly moved. "What devil keeps putting +that in your brain? Isn't it in mine all the day and all the night? +Don't I see hellfire in the dark? Don't I see the same flames, blue and +thin, dancing in the light of the sun at midday? Is the thing ever out +of my mind? Were you put on this ship to keep dinning the idea into my +ears? If there's something more than the life on earth, then there must +be a hell--and if there's a hell, then it's real hellfire that I see!" + +He paused and pointed a gaunt, trembling arm at McTee: + +"D'you understand? The men I've killed before they died--they send +their spirits here to walk beside me. They wait in the dark--and they +whisper in my ear!" + +McTee swallowed hard and commenced to edge toward the door. + +"Farley is always hanging around--Farley, as I saw him on the beach +that last time in his loincloth, with his pig eyes; sometimes he seems +to be begging me to take pity on him; sometimes he seems to be laughing +at me. And he's always got his hand outstretched. And Collins comes +stroking his beard in the way he had, and he keeps his hand stretched +out to me. What do they want? Alms! Alms! Alms! They want my soul for +alms to take it below and burn it in the hellfire--the thin, blue +flames!" + +He stopped in the midst of his ravings and drew himself erect, a smile +of infinite cruelty on his lips. + +"Let them all come with their damned, empty palms! They're ghosts, and +they cannot stop me so long as I follow the small voice that's inside +of me. They can't stop me, and I'll win back to Beatrice. There I'm +safe--safe! Her hands are thin and light and cool and as fragrant as +flowers. She'll lay them on my eyelids and I'll go to sleep! And the +ghosts will close their empty hands. Ha! McTee, d'you know aught of the +power of a woman's love?" + +He stepped close to the burly Scotchman. + +"Keep off," growled McTee. "I want none of you! There's poison in your +touch!" + +He raised his hand like a guard, but two lean, thin hands, +incredibly strong, closed on his wrists. + +"A woman's love," went on the old buccaneer of the South Seas, "is +stronger than armor plate to save the man she cares for. You can't see +it; you could never see it! But I tell you there are times when the +ghosts have come close to me, and then sometimes I've seen the shadows +of thin, small hands come in front of me and push them back. The hands +of Beatrice push them back, and they're helpless to harm me!" + + + + +CHAPTER 27 + + +But McTee wrenched his arms away and fled out on the deck. He blundered +into Jerry Hovey, who started back at sight of him. + +"What's happened, sir?" asked the bos'n. "Been seein' ghosts?" + +"Damn you," growled McTee, "I had a nap and a bad dream--a hell of a +nightmare." + +"You look it! You heard what Harrigan said? Does that sound as if I had +enough backing?" + +"If the rest of them are as strong for it as Harrigan, it does." + +"As strong for it as Harrigan? Between you and me--just a whisper in +your ear--I don't think Harrigan is half as strong for it as he talks. +I don't trust him, somehow." + +"No?" + +"Look here," said the bos'n cautiously. "We hear there was once some +trouble between you and Harrigan?" + +"Well?" + +"Would you waste much tune if somethin' was to happen to him--say in +the middle of the night, silent and unexpected?" + +"I would not! Take him by the foot and heave him into the sea. Very +good idea, Hovey. Is he getting the eyes of the lads too much?" + +Hovey fenced: "He's a landlubber, and he don't understand sea things. +He's better out of the way." + +"How'll you do it?" asked McTee softly. "Speak out, Hovey. Would you +try your own hand on Harrigan?" + +"Not me! I know a better way. There's one that's in the mutiny who has +a hand as strong as mine--almost--and a foot as silent as the paw of a +cat. I'll give him the tip." + +"And now for the details of the attack," said McTee, anxious not to lay +too much stress upon the destruction of Harrigan. + +"Here it is," answered Hovey, and entered into an elaborate description +of all their plans. McTee listened with faraway eyes. He heard the +words, but he was thinking of the death of Harrigan. + +That invincible Irishman, after his talk with Hovey in front of the +cabin of Kate, returned to the cool room of the chief engineer. The +worthy Campbell, in wait for the ultimatum of White Henshaw, had been +fortifying himself steadily with liquor, and by the middle of the +afternoon he had reached a state in which he had no care for +consequences; he would have defied all the powers upon earth and beyond +it. + +The next morning, as he went up to his usual task of scrubbing the +bridge, Harrigan thought he perceived a possible reason why his +persecution was being neglected. It was the picture of McTee and Kate +Malone leaning at the rail. McTee was content. There was no doubt of +that. He leaned above Kate and talked seriously down into her face. +Harrigan was mightily tempted to turn about and climb to the bridge +from the other side of the deck, but he made himself march on and begin +whistling a tune. + +McTee raised his head instantly, and, staring at the Irishman, he +murmured a word to Kate, and she turned and regarded Harrigan with an +almost painful curiosity. He was about to swagger past her when she +shook off the detaining hand of McTee and ran to the Irishman. + +"Dan," she said eagerly, and laid a hand on his arm. + +"Come back, Kate," growled McTee. "You've promised me not to speak--" + +"Did you promise him not to speak with me again?" broke in Harrigan. + +"I only meant--" she began. + +"It's little I care what you meant," said the Irishman coldly, and he +shook off her hand. "Go play with McTee. I want none of ye! After I've +slaved for ye an' saved ye from God knows what, ye dare to turn and +make them eyes cold and distant when ye look at me? Ah-h, get back to +McTee! I'm through with ye!" + +She only insisted the more: "I _will_ speak to you, Dan!" + +"Come away, Kate," urged McTee, grinding his teeth. "Doesn't this prove +what I told you?" + +"I don't care what it proves," she said hotly. "Dan, I've been thinking +grisly things of you. I simply can't believe them now that I look you +in the face." + +"Whisht!" said Harrigan, and his face was black. "Have you the right to +doubt me?" + +She answered sadly: "I have, Dan." + +The Irishman turned slowly away and started up for the bridge without +answer. As he went, he groaned beneath his breath: "Ochone! Ochone! +She's heard!" + +He could not dream how she knew of the mutiny, but if it was carried +through, he was damned in her eyes forever. What she guessed McTee must +know. What McTee knew must be familiar to White Henshaw, yet Henshaw +could not know, for if he did, the ring-leaders would be instantly +clapped into irons. Once or twice he looked down from his work to Kate +and McTee. They still leaned at the rail, talking seriously. + +And McTee was saying: "I have learned what I want to know. Every detail +of the plot is in my hands. Now I am going to the cabin of White +Henshaw and tell him everything. It's the simplest way. And you've +started a suspicion in the mind of Harrigan. He'll spread the word to +the rest of the mutineers, and they'll be on their watch against us." + +She made a little gesture of appeal. "I couldn't help speaking to him, +Angus. Suspecting him of such a thing is like--is like suspecting +myself!" + +"Let it go. It's done. Now I'm going up to see White Henshaw. The old +man will be crazy when he hears it." + +He found the captain giving some orders to Salvain, and waited until +they were alone. Then he said: "There are about ten of us against the +rest of the crew of the ship. Can we hold them in case of a mutiny?" + +He had planned this laconic statement carefully, expecting to see +Henshaw turn pale and stammer in terror. Instead, the captain regarded +McTee with quietly contemplative eyes. + +"So," he murmured, "you've heard of the mutiny?" + +The tables were completely turned on the Scotchman. He gasped: "You +have known all the time?" + +"Certainly," said Henshaw; "I even know every word that Hovey said to +you." + +McTee turned crimson. + +"I have eyes that see everything on the ship," went on Henshaw, as if +he wished to cover the embarrassment of the Scotchman, "and I have ears +which hear everything. I have lines of information tangled through the +forecastle. I can almost guess what they are about to think, let alone +what they will speak or do. The blockheads are always planning a +mutiny, though I confess none of them have ever taken the proportions +of this one. However, this will go the way of the rest." + +"The way of the rest?" queried McTee almost stupidly. + +"Yes. They plan to hold their action till we're close to the land. +About that time I'll call up one or two of the ring-leaders and tell +them just what they have planned to do. That'll make them think I have +unknown means of meeting the mutiny. It will die." + +McTee sat down, loosened his shirt at the throat, and gaped upon +Henshaw as a child might gape upon a magician. + +"I don't blame you for taking a day to think over the temptation," +smiled the old buccaneer. "The gold I showed you would have tempted any +man. But I'm glad you came to me. I expected you last night. It took +you a little longer to settle the details in your mind, eh?" + +"Henshaw, I feel like a yellow dog!" + +"Come! Come! You're a man after my own heart. You took the temptation +in your hand--you looked it over--and then you turned away from it. +Well, and suppose the mutiny should actually come to the breaking +point; they would be right in thinking I have means of fighting them. I +have no firearms on the ship; they know that. They don't know that I +have these." + +He went into the next room and returned carrying a heavy box. This he +placed on the desk and took a small, heavy ball of metal from it. + +"A bomb?" queried McTee. + +"It is. The moment a group gathers, one of these tossed among them will +end the mutiny the moment it begins." + +McTee handed back the bomb in silence. There was something about this +cold-blooded way of speaking of death which was not cruelty--it was +something greater--it was an absolute disregard of life. + +"Of course," said Henshaw, as he came back from depositing the box in +the next room, "there are only half a dozen of those bombs, but that +will be enough. The explosion of a couple of them would just about +wreck the deck. However, the mutiny will never reach the point of +action. I'll see to that. What always ties the hands of the crew is +that it lacks real leaders. Hovey, for instance, will turn to water +when I say three words about the mutiny to him." + +"But Harrigan," said McTee quietly, "will not." + +"The Irishman!" Henshaw muttered. "I forgot. McTee, I'm getting old!" + +"Only careless," answered the other, "but it's a bad thing to be +careless where Harrigan is concerned. A man like that, Henshaw, could +lead your mutineers, and lead them well. Hovey told me that every one +of the crew looks up to the Irishman." + +"He's got to be crippled--or put out of the way," stated Henshaw +calmly. "I was a fool. I forgot about Harrigan." + +"It may be," said McTee, "that he'll be put out of the way tonight." + +"McTee, I begin to see that you have brains." + +The latter waved the sinister compliment aside. + +"Suppose the little--er--experiment fails? Doesn't it occur to you that +that message might be written out and sent to Campbell?" + +The captain changed color, and his eyes shifted. + +"I've told you--" he began. + +"Nonsense," said McTee. "I'll write the thing, if you want, and all +you'll have to do is to sign it." + +"Would that make any difference?" asked Henshaw wistfully. + +"Of course," said McTee. "Here we go. You've got to do something to +tame Harrigan, captain, or there'll be the deuce to pay." + +And as he spoke, he picked up pen and paper and began to write, Henshaw +in the meantime walking to the door in an agony of apprehension as if +he expected to see the dreaded figure of Sloan appear. McTee wrote: + +_From Captain Henshaw to Chief Engineer Douglas Campbell + +Sir: + +On the receipt of this order, you will at once place Daniel Harrigan at +work passing coal, beginning this day with a double shift, and +continuing hereafter one shift a day. + +(Signed)_ + +"Here you are, captain," he called, and Henshaw turned reluctantly from +the door and sat down at the table. + +"Bad luck's in it," he muttered, "but something has to be done-- +something has to be done!" + +He wrote: "Captain Hensh--" but at this point the voice of Sloan spoke +from the open door. + +"A message, captain." + +With a choked cry Henshaw whirled and rose, supporting himself against +the edge of the table with both trembling hands. His accusing eyes were +on McTee. + +"Sloan!" he called in his hoarse whisper at last, but still +his damning gaze held hard upon McTee. + +The wireless operator advanced a step at a time into the room, placed +the written message on the edge of the table, and then sprang back as +if in mortal fear. Henshaw, still keeping his glance upon the Scotchman +with a terrible earnestness, picked up the sheet of paper on which he +had been signing his name, and tore it slowly, methodically, into small +strips. As the last of the small fragments fluttered to the floor, his +hand went out to the message Sloan had brought and drew it to his side. +He waved his arm in a sweeping gesture that commanded the other two +from his presence, and they slipped from the cabin without a word. + + + + +CHAPTER 28 + + +"She's dead?" McTee asked softly when they stood on the promenade +outside. + +"She is. She must have been dying at about the time I brought in that +other message--the one you told me to bring." + +They avoided each other's eyes. Inside the cabin they heard a faint +sound like paper crumpled up. Then they caught a moan from the room--a +soft sound such as the wind makes when it hums around the corners of a +tall building. + +They were silent for a time, listening with painful intentness. Not +another murmur came from the cabin. Sloan wiped his wet forehead and +whispered shakily: "I wouldn't mind it so much if he'd curse and rave. +But to sit like that, not making a sound--it ain't natural, Captain +McTee." + +"Hush, you fool," said McTee. "White Henshaw is alone with his dead. +And it's me that he blames for it. I brought him the bad luck." + +Sloan shuddered. + +"Then I wouldn't have your name for ten thousand dollars, sir." + +"If there's bad luck," said McTee solemnly, for every sailor has some +superstitious belief, "it's on the entire ship--on every one of the +crew as well as on me. We'll have to pay for this--all of us--and pay +high. We're apt to _feel_ it before long. And I've got to go back to +that cabin after a while!" + +He spoke it as another man might say: "And an hour from now I have to +face the firing squad." + +But when he returned to the cabin, he heard no outburst of reproaches +from White Henshaw. The door to Henshaw's bedroom was closed, and McTee +could hear the captain stirring about in it, working at some nameless +task over which he hummed continually, now and then breaking into +little snatches of song. McTee was stupefied. He tried to explain to +himself by imagining that Henshaw was one of those hard-headed men who +live for the present and never waste time thinking of the past. He had +made many plans for his granddaughter. Now she was dead, and he +dismissed her from his mind. + +This explanation might be the truth, but nevertheless the steady +humming wore on McTee's nerves until finally he knocked on the door of +the inner cabin. It was dusk by this time, and when Henshaw opened the +door, he was carrying a lantern. + +"You!" he muttered. "Well, captain?" + +"You seem busy," said McTee uneasily, shifting under the steady light +from the lantern. "I thought I might be able to help you." + +"At the work I'm doing no man can help," answered Henshaw. + +"What work?" + +"I'm calculating profit and loss." + +"On your cargo?" + +"Cargo? Yes, yes! Profit and loss on this cargo." + +And he broke into a harsh laugh. Obviously Henshaw was lying, yet the +Scotchman went on with the conversation, eager to draw out some hidden +meaning. + +"It's an odd idea of yours, this, to bring a shipment of wheat from the +south seas to Central America." + +"Aye, the first time it's ever been done. This wheat came all the way +from Australia and the United States, and now it's going back again. +I'll tell you why. Wheat is scarce for export even in the States just +now, so I'm taking a gambling chance on getting this to port before the +first quantities come from the north. If I get in in time, I'll clean +up--big." + +"I understand," said McTee. + +The captain raised his lantern again and shone it in the eyes of McTee. + +"Do you understand?" he queried. "Do you?" + +And he broke again into the harsh laughter. McTee started back with a +scowl. + +"What's the mystery, captain? What's the secret you're laughing about?" + +Again Henshaw chuckled. + +"You're a curious man, McTee. Well, well! What am I laughing about? +Money always makes me want to laugh, and now I'm laughing about money. +Do you understand that? No, you don't. Perhaps you will before long. +Patience, my friend!" + +For some reason the blood of McTee grew cold and colder as he listened. +His original suspicion of insanity grew weaker. He was being mocked, +and the mad do not mock. + +"So tonight is the last night of Harrigan, eh?" said Henshaw suddenly. + +"In the name of God," said McTee, deeply shaken, "why do you speak of +that? Yes, tonight he dies!" + +"Alone!" said Henshaw in a changed voice. "He dies alone! It must be a +grim thing to die alone at sea--to slip into the black water--to drink +the salt--a little struggle--and then the light goes out. So!" + +He shivered and folded his arms. He seemed to be embracing himself to +find warmth. + +"But to die in the middle of the ocean with many men around you," he +went on, speaking half to himself, "that would not be so bad. What do +you say, McTee?" + +But McTee was not in a mood for speaking. He only stared, fascinated +and dumb. Henshaw continued: "In the middle of night, with the engines +thrumming, and the lights burning in every port, suppose a ship should +put her nose under the surface and dive for the bottom! The men are +singing in the forecastle, and suddenly their song goes out. The +captain is in the wheelhouse. He is dreaming of his home town, maybe, +when he sees the black waters rising over the prow. He thinks it is a +dream and rubs his eyes. Before he can look again, the waves are upon +him. There is no alarm; the wireless, perhaps, is broken; the boats, +perhaps, are useless; and so the brave ship dives down to Davy Jones's +locker with all on board, and the next minute the waves wash over the +spot and rub out all memory of those who died there. Well, well, McTee, +there's a way of dying that would please White Henshaw more than a +death in a bed at a home port, with the landsharks sitting round your +bed grinning and nodding out your minutes of life. Ha?" + +But Black McTee, like a frightened child caught in a dark room, turned +and fled in shameless fear into the deep night. Not till he was far aft +did he stop in a quiet place to think of Harrigan dying alone, choking +in the black water. + +But Harrigan was far from fear. He lay on the deck above the +forecastle, cradled by the swing of the bows. He shook away the lurking +horror of the mutiny and gave himself up to peace. + +In the midst of his sleep he dreamed of lying in a pitch-dark room and +staring up at a brilliant point of light, like a dark lantern partially +unshuttered. And suddenly Harrigan woke, and looking up, he caught a +flashing point of light directly above his eyes. In another moment he +was aware of the dark figure of a man crouched beside him, and then he +knew that the light which glittered over his head was the shimmer of +the stars against a steel blade. + +The knife, as he stared, jerked up and then down with a sweep; Harrigan +shot up his hand to meet the blow, and his grip fastened on a wrist. +Wrenching on that wrist, he jerked himself to his knees, and the knife +clattered on the deck, but at the same instant the other man--a dim +figure which he could barely make out in the thick night--rushed on +him, a shoulder struck against his chest, and he was thrown sprawling +on the deck, sliding with the toss of the deck underneath the rail. He +would have fallen overboard had he not kept his grip on that wrist, and +as he reached the perilous edge, the other man jerked back to free his +arm. + +He succeeded, but the effort checked the slide of Harrigan's great +body, and the next instant the Irishman was on his feet. He drove at +the elusive figure with his balled fist, but the other ducked beneath +the blow and fled down the ladder. Harrigan stopped only long enough to +sweep up the fallen knife before he followed, but when he reached the +edge of the deck, the waist of the ship extending back to the main +cabin was empty. The man, whoever he was, must have fled into the +forecastle. + +Harrigan knew that if one of the sailors had dared to attack him, he +must be suspected, and if he was suspected by one, that one would +poison the minds of a dozen others in a short time. It was even +possible that someone in authority had given orders for his death. With +this in mind he climbed down the ladder and opened the door of the +forecastle. He found the sailors sitting in a loose circle on the floor +rolling battered dice out of a time-blackened leather box. + +Harrigan sat down on the edge of his bunk, produced the captured knife, +and commenced to sharpen it slowly, without ostentation, on the sole of +his shoe. It was already of a razor keenness. It was a carving knife +evidently stolen from the galley of the ship; it had been ground so +often that the steel which remained was thin and narrow. A sharp blow +with that knife would drive it to the handle through human flesh. As he +passed it slowly back and forth across his shoe, Harrigan watched the +faces of the others with a side glance. + +One or two looked up frankly and nodded approval when they saw his +occupation. The others, however, kept at their game, and of these the +only one to pay no attention to his presence was Jerry Hovey. It +convinced Harrigan at once that the bos'n had given orders for his +death. It might have been the bos'n himself who had made the attempt +just a moment before and had retreated to the forecastle. + +On the other hand, the bos'n seemed to be breathing regularly, and the +man with whom he had fought would not be able to keep his chest from +heaving a little after that violent effort. It was more probable that +one of the men who lay in their bunks had made the attempt, but it +would be useless to examine them. Then his glance fell on Kamasura, the +cabin boy. + +The little, flat-faced Jap was a favorite with Jerry Hovey, and he was +permitted to come forward whenever he pleased to the forecastle. He now +sat on a box against a wall, watching the dice game with his slant +eyes. Once or twice he met the searching scrutiny of Harrigan with a +calm glance, and when it was repeated for the third time, nodded and +grinned in the most friendly manner. + +Harrigan was about to dismiss his suspicion from his mind, when he +noticed that the Jap's arms were folded and the hands thrust up the +opposite sleeves, concealing both wrists. Harrigan considered a moment, +and then stooped over and commenced to unlace his boots. When the first +one was unloosened, he kicked it off, but with such careless vigor that +it skidded far across the floor and smashed against the box on which +Kamasura sat. The little Oriental leaped to his feet and caught up the +shoe. As he did so, Harrigan's watchful eye saw a bright-red spot on +the Jap's wrist. That was where the grip of his fingers had lain when +they struggled on the deck above. + +"'Scuse me, Kamasura," he called cheerily, and raised his hand to +betoken that the boot had come from him. + +There was a flash of teeth and a glint of almond eyes as the Jap +grinned in answer and the boot was tossed back. Harrigan caught it, but +his eye was not on the shoe. He was staring covertly at Jerry Hovey, +and now he saw the gray-blue eyes of the bos'n flash up and glance with +a singular meaning at Kamasura. If he had heard every detail of the +plot, Harrigan could not have understood more fully. Thereafter, every +moment he spent on the _Heron_ would be full of danger, but apparently +Hovey had confided his hatred of the Irishman to Kamasura alone. If +Hovey had spoken to the rest of the forecastle, those blunt sailors +would have showed their feelings by some scowling side glance at +Harrigan. It flashed across his mind that the reason Hovey wished him +out of the way was because he feared him. + + + + +CHAPTER 29 + + +He slipped onto his bunk and lay with his hands folded under his head, +thinking; for between the danger from the leader of the mutiny and the +danger from McTee and Henshaw, he was utterly confused. He made out the +voices of the two gamblers, Hall and Cochrane. + +"Three deuces to beat," said Hall. + +"I'd beat three fives to get Van Roos," answered Cochrane. + +Jan Van Roos was the second mate, a genial Dutchman with rosy cheeks +and a hearty laugh for all occasions; but he was an excellent sailor +and a strict disciplinarian. Therefore he had won the hatred of the +crew. The entire group of mutineers had shaken dice to have the +disposing of the mate in case he was captured alive. Now the dice +rattled and clicked on the deck as Cochrane made his cast. + +"Forty-three!" called Cochrane. "Now watch the fours." + +He swept up the other three dice and made his second cast. Another four +rolled upon the deck. He had won Van Roos, to dispose of him as he saw +fit. Harrigan heard the rumble of Sam Hall's cursing. + +"Easy, lad," said Cochrane soothingly. "We'll work on Van Roos +together, and if we don't sweat every ounce of blubber out of his fat +carcass, my name is not Garry." + +There was a sharp knock at the door of the forecastle, and a moment +later Shida, the other Japanese cabin boy, entered and came directly to +the bunk of Harrigan. + +He whispered in the ear of the Irishman: "Meester Harrigan, get up. +Cap'n McTee, he want." + +"Where is he?" growled Harrigan. + +"I show." + +Harrigan slipped on his shoes and followed Shida aft, wondering. The +little, quick-footed Jap brought him back of the wheelhouse and then +disappeared. Leaning against the rail was McTee, unaware of their +coming and peering out at the wake of the ship. + +As the Heron's stern dipped to a trough of a wave that towered blackly +into the night, the outlines of McTee's form were blurred, but the next +moment he was tossed up against the very heart of the starry sky. With +that peculiar mixture of fear and thrilling exultation which he always +felt when he came into the presence of the captain, Harrigan drew +close. Perhaps the sailor had chosen this heaving afterdeck as the +place for their final death struggle, ending when one of them was +hurled into the black ocean. + +It was this thought which gave the ring to his voice when he called, +"I've come, McTee!" + +The captain whirled, bracing himself against the rail with both hands, +as though prepared to meet an attempt to thrust him overboard. Then-- +and Harrigan thought his ears deceived him as he listened--McTee said +with a great, outgoing breath: "Thank God!" + +He explained: "Come closer; talk soft! Harrigan, guard yourself +tonight. There'll be an attempt at your life!" + +"Another?" queried Harrigan. + +"They've tackled you already?" + +Harrigan took out the knife and waved it in the faint starlight. + +"They did," he said jauntily, "and they left this behind them as a +token." + +"Listen," said McTee; "it's not for nothing that men call me Black, but +all evening I've been remembering the time when we took hands in the +trough of the sea. I've thought of that, Harrigan, and it made me weak +inside--" + +He paused, but Harrigan would not speak. + +"Because I planned your death tonight, Dan." + +"Angus, the steel ain't been sharpened that can kill me." + +"Don't be too confident. Get every word I say. I'm washing my soul out +for you. It's Hovey and the little Jap, Kamasura, that you'll have to +guard against." + +"I know 'em both." + +"D'you mean to say--" + +"No, I didn't make 'em confess, but I saw 'em lookin' at each other. +What made you hitch up with swine like them? Was it because of--her?" + +"Yes." + +"Then I forgive you for it. Angus, I got a sort of a desire to shake +hands with you. There's nothin' but swine an' snakes aboard the Heron. +I'd like to feel the grip of a man's hand." + +They fumbled in the dark and then their hands met. They retained that +grasp till the ship sank twice to the deep shadow of the trough and +swung up again to the crest. + +"There's no peace between us till she's out of the way," muttered +Harrigan at last. "What d'you say, Angus?" + +"Harrigan, there are times when you're a poet. Strip!" + +The Irishman was tearing off his shirt, when three crashing, rattling +explosions sent a shudder through the Heron, and his arms dropped +nervelessly. + +"Where was it?" gasped Harrigan. + +"Forward," answered McTee. + +"Kate!" they cried in the same breath, and rushed for the main cabin. + + + + +CHAPTER 30 + + +The decks were already thick with half-dressed sailors. Here and there +lanterns gleamed, and what they showed was the three lifeboats of the +Heron--two on one side of the cabin and one on the other--blown into +matchwood. Only shapeless fragments and bundles of kindling wood +dangled from the davits. Captain Henshaw, cool and calm in his white +clothes, stood with folded arms examining the wreckage on one side. + +The sailors from the forecastle went here and there, muttering, +growling surlily; for a shrewd blow had been struck at their plan of +mutiny, the last item of which was to abandon the Heron off a deserted +coast and then row ashore in the lifeboats. Over their clamor and +cursing broke two voices, one accusing in a deep bass and the other +protesting innocence in a harsh treble. It was the third mate, Eric +Borgson, who approached carrying little Kamasura under his arm like a +bundle. + +"Here's the little devil who done the work," he snarled, and flung +Kamasura at the feet of White Henshaw. + +The Japanese are a brave people, but in that dreadful presence Kamasura +made no effort to regain his feet, but remained on his knees, groveling +and clinging to the hands of the captain, while he shrieked out an +explanation. To remove his hands from those clinging fingers, Henshaw +simply raised his foot, laid it against the breast of the Jap, and +thrust out. The kick sent Kamasura rolling head over heels till he +crashed against the rail. He lay partially stunned by the impact, and +Eric Borgson, bellowing his enjoyment of this pleasant jest, collared +poor Kamasura and dragged him back before White Henshaw. The Jap was +now inarticulate with terror and pain. + +"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?" + +"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 here,' 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. + +Tiptoe he stole across the floor and laid a hand lightly on the knob of +the door of the captain's private room. It turned easily without any +creak, and the door opened a few inches. There sat Henshaw with his +back to McTee, leaning over a table. Gold pieces were spilled loosely +across the surface of the wood--possibly the contents of three or four +of those small canvas bags--and Henshaw leaned forward with his +forehead resting upon the glittering yellow coins and one hand +clutching a quantity of them. His other hand held a photograph of the +dead Beatrice. The sound continued. It was the low sobbing of the +captain, a hoarse and horrible murmur. + +McTee closed the door and went back onto the deck, for he suddenly +understood the futility of questions. Harrigan, in the meantime, had +waited for the return of McTee, and when the latter did not come, the +Irishman lingered on the bridge for an hour or more, pottering about +with his brush in a pretense of finishing up a perfect job. His +attention was drawn then by a gathering crowd and bustle in the waist +of the ship between the wheelhouse and the forecastle. The entire crew +of the _Heron_ seemed to be mustering, with the exception of those +needed to keep the engines running. They stood in a circle, leaving the +cover of the hatch clear. + +He hurried down to witness the ceremony, and as he reached the waist, +he saw Henshaw take up his position with folded arms in the very center +of the hatch. A moment later Kamasura was led up by Eric Borgson and +Jan Van Roos. + +The two mates, under the direction of Henshaw, lashed the Japanese face +down upon the hatch, pulling his arms and legs taut with ropes that +fastened to the bolts on all sides of the hatch cover. + +When he was securely tied, Kamasura was stripped to the waist, and then +Harrigan saw Borgson, grinning evilly, step up with a long whip in his +hand. It was a blacksnake, heavily loaded and stiff at the butt and +tapering gradually to a slender, supple, snakelike body, with a thin, +sinister lash. Borgson whirled the whip around his head to get its +balance. Henshaw stepped back, still with folded arms. + +"This fellow Kamasura," he announced to the crew, "has blown up the +boats of the _Heron_. There's no doubt of it. Borgson caught him almost +in the act. I could do worse things than this to Kamasura, but I've +decided to flog him until he confesses." + +There was not a word of answer from the crew; they waited, hushed, +ominous. A whisper sounded in the ear of Harrigan, who stood with +gritting teeth and clenched hands. + +It was McTee who murmured: "Hold onto yourself, Harrigan. Our time +hasn't come." + +"I'll hold onto myself all right," said Harrigan, "but look at the +crew." + +In fact, there was something more deadly than any snarling of a crowd +in this unnatural silence of many men. Also they were not looking at +Kamasura; they were staring, every man, at the bos'n, who stood with +his whistle hanging from a cord around his neck. + +"Begin!" said Henshaw. + +The blacksnake whistled around the head of the third mate and there was +a long scream from Kamasura--but the blacksnake only cracked loudly in +the air. Borgson laughed with a hideous delight. Harrigan, sickly +white, bowed his head. Again the blacksnake whirled and again it +cracked, but this time on naked flesh, and the scream of Kamasura was +like the cut of a knife. + +Again, again, and again the blacksnake fell, and now Kamasura twisted +his head toward the captain and cried in a voice made thin by pain and +rage at once: "I confess! Captain, let me speak!" + +At a gesture from Henshaw, the third mate reluctantly stepped back, +drawing the lash of the blacksnake slowly through his hands with a +caressing touch. Van Roos, the color completely gone from his usually +blooming cheeks, cut the ropes, and Kamasura rose, facing the captain. +He extended a naked, trembling arm toward Hovey. + +"Mutiny!" he yelled. "The whole crew--the whole forecastle--mutiny, +Cap'n Henshaw! I know--" + +The piercing whistle of the bos'n cut into his speech, and the crew +rolled forward over the hatch with a single shout that might have come +from one throat except for its shrill volume. + + + + +CHAPTER 32 + + +"It's come!" cried Harrigan to McTee. "Kate!" + +But even as he whirled, two sailors leaped on him from behind and bore +him to the deck. At the same time a gun flashed in the hand of Henshaw, +and he fired twice into the onrushing host. Two men crumpled up on deck +and the others gave back a little--they were glad to turn to the easier +prey of Van Roos and Borgson, who were instantly overpowered, while +Henshaw, with brandished revolver, made his way toward the main cabin. + +The second and smaller rush of the mutineers had been toward Harrigan +and McTee, where the two men stood together. Harrigan, taken from +behind, went down at once and then grappled with his assailants before +they could use their knives. McTee stood over the struggling three and +smote right and left among the mutineers. A knife caught his shirt at +the shoulder and ripped it to the waist; a club whizzed past his head, +but his great fists smashed home on face and head and sent men +staggering and sprawling back. The confusion gave him an instant of +freedom in a small circle, and he leaned and caught one of Harrigan's +assailants by the heels. It was a little man, a withered fellow +scarcely five feet tall and literally dried up by the tropic heat. He +was wrenched from his hold, heaved into the air, and then whirled about +the head of McTee like a mighty bludgeon. As the sailors rushed again, +that living club smashed against them and flung them back. Even to the +herculean strength of McTee it was a prodigious feat, but the danger +gave him for the moment the power of a madman. Twice he swung the +shrieking little sailor, and twice that body smashed back the attack, +while Harrigan leaped to his feet in time to knock down a man who +sprang at McTee from behind with a brandished knife. + +All this had occurred in the space of half a dozen seconds; the first +rush of the mutineers was spent; before they could lunge forward again, +McTee flung the half-lifeless body of his human weapon into the midst +of the crowd and, turning with Harrigan at his shoulder, they sprang up +the ladder to the main cabin door. + +Hovey was screaming commands over the din; the crowd rushed after the +fugitives. + +Harrigan shouted at McTee: "Get Kate! Take her aft to the wireless +house! I'll hold 'em here a minute and then join you!" + +McTee nodded and tore down the deck toward Kate's cabin, while Harrigan +pulled the knife of Kamasura from his trousers and thrust it in the +face of the first man up the ladder. The blade slashed him from nose to +cheekbone, and he toppled back with a yell, bearing with him in the +fall the two men immediately below. Harrigan glanced across to the +other ladder on the farther side of the deck, and saw Kate and McTee +running aft. He turned and raced after them. + +The wireless house was their one hope. There the sea would be at their +backs, and the only approach for the mutineers in their rush would be +up the ladders reaching from the deck below; the main cabin, on the +other hand, had half a dozen places from which it could be assailed. +This had been instantly seen by the other officers, and when Harrigan +reached the ladder to the deck at the other end of the cabin, he saw +Salvain standing in front of the wireless house, Kate and McTee in the +act of climbing the steps from the waist, and White Henshaw, with his +hair blowing, following hard in their tracks. + +Harrigan reached the waist at a leap, and in another moment joined the +survivors in the shelter of the wireless house--Kate, McTee, Henshaw, +Salvain, and Sloan, a party of six. They were safe for the moment, for +the mutineers would certainly never venture an attack against the +wheelhouse, where they could be beaten from the ladders by the +defendants, but they were safe without food, without water. + +Then, as they stared hopelessly across the waist, they saw three men +led across the rear promenade of the main cabin. Their hands were tied +behind them, and they were kicked forward by the mutineers, first Jacob +Van Roos--they could note his pallor even at that distance--then Eric +Borgson, scowling and defiant, and dragged along by the men of the +forecastle; and last came Douglas Campbell, surrounded by the firemen. +Finally, Jerry Hovey shouted across the waist: + +"Black McTee! Oh, Black McTee!" + +The Scotchman raised his hand as a token that he heard. + +"You're done for, McTee, you and all the rest. You're bound to starve, +and when you're weak, we'll come and carry you forward, and you'll die +by inches as the other three are going to die; but if you want to +live--you and the girl and all of you, give us White Henshaw to treat +as he ought to be treated. Give us him, an' the rest of you'll be +saved. If you won't trust us, we'll bring you food and water enough to +keep you alive till we reach shore. Give us Henshaw and--" + +He broke off, for he heard the harsh, ringing laughter of White +Henshaw. The captain held up his revolver. + +"No use, Hovey," he called. "I fired five shots, but I saved one for +myself. Ha, ha, ha!" And his mirthless cackle broke out once more. + +"Look!" cried Kate, and pointed at the captain. + +Down the left side of Henshaw, bright against the white of his coat, +was a rapidly growing stain of red. They could see the small slit in +the cloth where a knife thrust had entered his side, but the old +buccaneer would give no sign of his injury. He waved his gun toward +Kate as she advanced an impulsive step toward him. + +"Keep back!" he commanded. "Woman and man, I trust none of you. Give me +distance or I'll use this bullet on the first of you and give what's +left of me to the sea." + +"By the Lord, he's wounded!" cried Harrigan. "Steady, old heart of oak, +you've nothing to fear from us. Hovey! Oh-h, Hovey, we'll see you +damned before we give up the captain!" + +The bos'n, choking with his fury, shook his clenched fist at them and +disappeared into the cabin. + +"Now lie down," said McTee to the captain, "and we'll fix you up. Are +you badly hurt?" + +"Enough to finish me," said Henshaw calmly, "but keep off! I'll have +none of you! None of your tricks!" + +His old body was trembling with the pain of his wound, but the hand +which held the gun leveled on McTee was as steady as a rock. Kate +pushed McTee aside and turned a glance of scorn on the others. + +"You'd let him die among you--for fear of an old man and his wretched +revolver?" + +She faced Henshaw. + +"Go into the wireless house, Captain Henshaw, and I will go in alone +with you. If you don't trust me, you can keep your revolver at my +breast while I dress your wound--but see!--you will bleed to death in a +short time!" + +He laughed again, saying: "Girl, there's nothing between heaven and +hell that can make me die by anything but fire--fire at sea--blue +fire." + +She whitened at sight of his frenzied, yellow face, and then she saw +Harrigan slipping around to take the captain from the rear. He saw the +shadow of the Irishman just too late, and whirled with a curse at the +same time that Harrigan's iron hand seized the gun. For an instant he +struggled, but those mighty arms gathered him as easily as a woman +lifts a stubborn child, and he was carried into the wireless house and +placed on Sloan's bunk. As soon as he discovered that he was helpless +in their hands, he ceased struggling and lay without a motion while +they tore away his coat and shirt and Kate started to dress the deep, +ugly wound. + +She had scarcely finished when a shout, or rather a scream, from fifty +throats brought them running out of the wireless house. Again and again +that cry was repeated from the main cabin, and they could not tell +whether it was despair or agony that inspired it. + +Neither of these emotions caused it. All that time Hovey had been +kneeling in front of the captain's safe working at the combination, for +he had seen Henshaw open it several times and thought that he could +imitate the captain's motions. But he failed. Around him packed the +sailors in both cabins, a serried mass of intent faces and burning +eyes. But at last Hovey stood up and announced his failure--he could +not work the combination. Then came that yell which those in the +wireless house heard, a cry of mingled rage and disappointment. Gold in +untold quantities was here just within their reach--and yet just beyond +it. A few inches of steel kept the gold safe. + +Men beat it with their bare hands in a senseless fury, till Garry +Cochrane slipped through the dense mass of sailors. + +"I know something about locks. What do I get, lads, if I open this +one?" + +"Five shares!" + +"Ten shares!" + +"Ten shares!" nodded Cochrane. "Good! Now keep still. I need quiet." + +They were mute; not a breath was drawn; they scarcely dared move their +eyes lest he should be disturbed. Cochrane touched the lock lightly and +then rubbed his fingertips vigorously back and forth on the carpet-- +anything to stimulate those fine nerves which are as valuable to some +criminals as eyes are to normal people. + +With ear pressed close to the combination, he turned it slowly, by +delicate degrees, waiting for the telltale click. They saw him set his +teeth and grow eager as a hound on a scent of blood; they saw the +fingers move rapidly and nervously, and then came a click which was +audible through the entire room, and the door of the safe swung open. +Still no one stirred, no one breathed. He took out a small canvas bag, +he untied the top, he spilled the contents out, and then they saw +bright gold, gold which inspires, and gold which destroys, gold the +tempter and the murderer. + +A wild scramble followed. They swept the gold up in handfuls and tossed +it into the air, laughing like madmen as the light gleamed on the +yellow surfaces. And at length when they were wearied of touching it +and caressing it, Hovey apportioned the spoils: to Cochrane, by common +assent, the ten shares, a fortune; to Sam Hall, Kyle, and Flint, two +shares each, for they had been leaders in the fight; to himself ten +shares, also by universal voice, and to each of the others, forty in +all, his portion. + +There was no fighting or complaint over the division of the spoils. +What difference did a few hundred pieces here or there matter? Gold in +floods, gold in oceans, was before them, and each man gathered his own +share close. + +But where there is gold there is death. One of the firemen said in the +ear of Hovey: "The second assistant--Fritz Klopp--he is dying." + +It was upon Klopp that they depended for the running of the Heron. +Hovey merely laughed: "Carry him in here. He'll come to life when he +sees this!" + +They had left Klopp lying on the deck. He had been one of the first to +leap at White Henshaw, and a bullet from the captain's revolver had +torn its way through his lungs; his eyes were glazing fast when two of +the firemen carried him into the outer cabin of White Henshaw and +placed him in an armchair beside the desk. + +"How are you, Klopp?" asked Hovey. + +"I am dying," answered the engineer, and a faint pink froth bubbled to +his lips as he spoke. + +Hovey merely laughed; he spilled Klopp's share of the gold across the +surface of the table, a gleaming pile. + +"How are you, Klopp?" he repeated. + +"I will live," croaked the dying man, and instantly his clutches were +among the hundreds of coins, and his red mouth grinned with a ghastly +joy. He had forgotten death. + +"You will live!" rumbled Sam Hall. "A man would be a fool to die when +there's so much money in sight. Where's your hurt?" + +"I have no hurt," whispered Klopp hoarsely, "but I'm on fire inside. +Water! Something to drink!" + +"Something to drink, but not water," responded Hovey. "Hey, Kamasura! +Drink! Whisky!" + +Instantly Kamasura, who had evidently anticipated the order, came +staggering into the room with a literal armful of bottles. Hovey +himself brought a glass and placed it in the hand of Klopp and filled +it to the brim. + +"Drink!" shouted Hovey, and sprang upon a chair so that all might see +him. "Drink to Fritz Klopp! White Henshaw potted him, but he laughs at +death, and he'll bring the old _Heron_ to shore. Here's to Fritz +Klopp!" + +Many a glass was raised high. They drank with a shout of applause to +Fritz Klopp, who sat without stirring his glass, one hand upon it, and +the other buried among the heaps of gold, his head resting against the +back of the chair, and his red mouth still ajar in that horrible grin. + +"What ye laughin' at?" yelled Sam Hall in his ear. "Are ye drunk at the +sight of the money, man?" + +There was no answer. Hall caught him by the shoulder to rouse him, but +Klopp's head merely sagged far to one side, though his glazed eyes +still seemed to be fixed upward upon the same spot on the ceiling at +which he had been staring before. + +"What is it?" cried one or two. "What does he see?" + +"Death, you fools!" answered Hovey. "And how the devil will we bring +the _Heron_ to land without an engineer?" + + + + +CHAPTER 33 + + +"Make Campbell run the ship," said Cochrane. + +"You can't _make_ a Scotchman do anything." + +"Persuade him, then," went on Cochrane. "He'd sell his soul for a drink +of that whisky. But if you can't persuade him, I'd trust to those +fellows to make him do what you want." + +And he pointed to the firemen. + +"I'll let 'em play their little game till they're tired of it," +answered Hovey, "an' then we'll bring up Campbell an' try what we can +do with him." + +The "little game" had now become a wild debauch. Except for the few +unfortunates who had been detailed by Hovey to guard the prisoners and +see that the fugitives in the wireless house made no attempt to rush +the main cabin as a forlorn hope, every man of the crew was gathered in +the captain's cabins or on the deck nearby. The fireroom was deserted; +the engines stopped; the _Heron_ floated idly on the swell of the sea; +but heedless of this the mutineers celebrated their victory. + +They divided their attention between drinking and gambling. They seemed +feverishly eager to throw away their piles of gold. Some of them +flipped coins at ten dollars a throw. Others tossed dice. One group of +four sat around a greasy pack of cards betting on which man would draw +the first jack. + +Those who lost did not envy the winners. They looked about; gold was on +all sides, heaps of it; if their hands were empty, their eyes were +rich. Sam Hall lost his entire share within an hour, betting +recklessly. He approached a gigantic fireman who squatted by the wall +with a canvas bag clutched in one hand and a broken bottle in the +other. The whisky had run out on the floor, but the fellow was too far +gone to know the difference, and from time to time he raised the empty +bottle to his lips. + +"Money gone," said Hall. "Gimme!" And he held out his hand. + +The fireman, with a vast grin, delved his hand into the bag and brought +it forth loaded with gold, which Hall took without a word and returned +to his game of rolling dice, one throw at five hundred dollars a throw. +In ten minutes he went back to the fireman with a double handful of +corns. + +"Principal an' interest," grunted the big sailor, and dumped his gold +into the canvas bag which, filled to overflowing, spilled a dozen coins +upon the floor. + +The fireman, with a groan of dull content, slipped prone on the floor +and was instantly asleep, embracing the canvas bag in both arms. Every +man in the crew was in a somewhat similar condition, saving Hovey, with +his gray-blue, steady eyes, and Cochrane, with his glittering, shifty +black. These two watched the rest descend toward swinish +unconsciousness; they saw, and waited coolly, and now and then glanced +at each other with faint smiles of understanding. + +Somewhere in the waist of the ship Jacob Flint was singing shrill songs +of infinite profanity, but otherwise there was no sound on the _Heron_ +as the sun went down, and all night long the old freighter wallowed +sluggishly up and down on the waves, as if she waited for dawn before +resuming her journey toward the shore. + +There was a wisdom, however, in Hovey's laxness of discipline during +the first day of his mastery. The next morning the men slept late, +sprawling about the deck, and Hovey and Cochrane first roused ominous +Jacob Flint and Sam Hall and Kyle. With this nucleus of five mighty +men, men to be feared on land or sea, Hovey started to rouse the rest +of the mutineers. They woke cursing and sad of stomach and head, and to +the first orders they responded with cursing; the reply was a +sledge-hammer blow from the fist of Hall or Kyle, and while the man lay +on the deck, it was explained curtly and forcibly to him that while the +_Heron_ was at sea, he would have to obey Bos'n Hovey; but as soon as +the ship reached land, each man could be his own master. + +First of all the firemen were commanded to the hole to get up steam, +but when this was done, it was found that there was some minor trouble +with the machinery. An engineer was needed; Hovey, with Cochrane, Flint +and Hall beside him, sent for Campbell, and retired to the cabin to +await his coming. + +There sat the body of Fritz Klopp as it had remained ever since the +beginning of the revels the day before, grinning up at the ceiling. +Hall and Flint raised the body, and the clutching fingers were found to +be frozen by death immovably around a whole handful of gold. As Hall +suggested, this would serve as lead to take him to the bottom of the +sea. The others applauded the thought, and with his hand still full of +gold, they carried Fritz Klopp to the rail and dumped him into the +water. + +As they re-entered the cabin, Campbell was kicked in from the opposite +door. His hands were manacled behind him, and the force of the kick, +together with a sway of the ship, threw him off his balance. He crashed +on his face at the feet of Hovey. The bos'n grew positively pale with +pleasure. He selected a cigar from an open box on the table and lighted +it leisurely. + +At last he ordered: "Pick him up." + +The chief engineer was jerked to his feet and stood with a trickle of +blood running down from his split lip. His face was rather purple than +red, and the dark pouches underneath his eyes told the horror of the +night he had passed. Nevertheless, the eyes themselves were bright. + +Far away, half heard, and drowned by any noise near at hand, was a +sound of singing. It was Black McTee in the wireless house, half +maddened by thirst and hunger and despair, and singing in defiance +songs of bonny Scotland. + +"There's been trouble aboard, chief," he said, "but now trouble's over. +All over! We want you to take charge of the engines again and bring us +to shore." + +Campbell waited, not as if he had not heard. In spite of himself, Hovey +stirred a trifle and grew uneasy. From a corner of the room he picked +up a canvas bag and dropped it with a melodious jingling on the table +in front of the engineer. + +"This is your share," he said. + +Campbell smiled faintly. + +"And this," said Hovey, with a glance at his companions. + +The smile had not altered on the lips of the Scotchman. + +"With this money," said Hovey, forcing himself to remain calm, "you can +retire from active work. You can get yourself a little place on the +coast somewhere"--he had heard Campbell name some of his dreams--"and +have a little cellar full of the right stuff, and have your friends run +out to see you now an' then, an' talk over things that're goin' on at +sea--where you ain't." + +Here he placed a third bag of money on the table. + +"You could do all that and more, chief--a lot more--with this money." + +Hovey cut the lace which tied the mouth of one of the bags; he poured +the gleaming contents across the table. + +"Well?" he asked softly. + +"Damn you!" whispered Campbell, and then, "You fool, am I not Scotch?" + +"At least," went on the bos'n easily, "think it over, chief, and while +you're thinkin', what d'you say to a drop of the real stuff?" + +Campbell had not tasted either food or liquid since early the day +before, and his eyes were moist as they stared at the two bottles. + +"Set his hands free," said Hovey, "so that the chief can drink. We +ain't half-bad fellers, Campbell; but we've got good cause for raisin' +the hell you've seen on the _Heron._" + +While he spoke, the arms of Campbell were set free, and glasses were +shoved toward him, one full of Scotch and the other of seltzer. The +mutineers were already raising their drinks for a toast when Campbell +took his with a violently trembling hand. But as he lifted the liquor, +he was fully conscious for the first time of a singing which had been +faint in the air for some time, the songs of Black McTee in the +wireless house, and now the big-throated Scotchman swung into a new +air, plaintive and rapid in cadence, a death song and a war song at +once, the speech of Bruce before Bannockburn, as Burns conceived it. +Loud and true rang the voice of Black McTee, breaker of men: + + "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled, + Scots wham Bruce hae aften led, + Welcome to your gory bed, + Or to victory!" + +And the hand of Campbell checked on its way to his lips. "We're lookin' +in your eyes, chief," said Hovey. And the song broke in: + +"Wha would be a traitor slave, +Let him turn and flee!" + +Campbell was staring at the wall like one who sees a +vision but cannot make out its meaning. + +The voice of Black McTee swelled high and strong: + + "Wha for Scotland's king and law + Freedom's sword will strongly draw, + Freemen stand and freemen fa', + Let him on wi' me!" + +And the glass dropped from the lips of the Scotchman. It crashed +against the hard floor. Broad Scotch was on his tongue. + +"I canna drink wi' murderers!" he cried. + +"Damn you!" said Hovey, and drove his fist into Campbell's face, +hurling him to the deck. + +The manacles were clapped on his wrists again; he was dragged once more +to his feet. + +"Take him out," said Hovey to the grinning sailors who had lingered in +the door. "Take him back to the waist of the ship before the wireless +house. Wait for me there. And see that Van Roos and Borgson are brought +there also." + + + + +CHAPTER 34 + + +As Campbell was dragged away, the bos'n said to his companions: "Now, +lads, you see where Campbell stands!" + +They growled for answer. + +"But I'll get him!" went on Hovey. "I'm going to kill Van Roos and +Borgson by inches before his eyes. And when he sees 'em die--they'll +have to die, anyway, before we reach shore--Campbell will be water in +our hands. He'll see 'em die, an' them in the wireless house will see +'em die. Their throats are thick with thirst by now. We'll show 'em +water an' food, an' offer it to 'em if they'll give up Henshaw. If they +won't, we'll show 'em how we'll kill 'em when they're too weak to +resist. They'll see a sample in Van Roos and Borgson. Every yell they +let out'll be an argument for us. We'll have Henshaw before the day's +done." + +Sam Hall pushed his thick fingers slowly through his hair, stupefied by +this careful cruelty, and even the one eye of Jacob Flint grew dim, but +Garry Cochrane slapped the bos'n on the shoulder heartily. + +"Jerry," he said, "you got the makin's of a great man. Let's go start +the fun." + +On the way aft they passed the firemen sprawling on the shady side of +the deck. They stumbled to their feet at sight of Hovey, and swore +volubly that the hole of the ship was too hot for a man to live in it +five minutes. Hovey passed them without a word. He had to tend to +Campbell now, and without an engineer it was useless to work men in the +fireroom. + +First of all he had two buckets of water carried aft and placed just +below the edge of the raised deck which supported the wireless house. +There were dippers floating invitingly on the surface of the water in +each bucket. Then from the galley of the ship Kamasura and Shida, the +cabin boys, brought out steaming meats and cut loaves of bread and +displayed the feast near the buckets of water. Upon this outlay gazed +the famine-stricken fugitives, Sloan, McTee and Harrigan; Kate did not +see, for she was caring for the sick captain. Hovey advanced and made a +speech. + +"We're actin' generous and open to you," he began. "We're offerin' you +food an' water--all you want--in exchange for White Henshaw. He sold +his soul to hell long ago, an' we've come to claim payment. It's +overdue, that's what it is!" + +"Aye, aye!" came a chorus of yells from the sailors. "White Henshaw's +overdue." + +"Look at this here water," went on Hovey, with a tempting wave of his +hand. "Why not take this up an' help yourselves--after you've given us +Henshaw?" + +Sloan crowded in between Harrigan and McTee; his voice was a slavering +murmur: "For pity's sake, boys, what we going to do?" + +Harrigan and the big Scot exchanged glances. Faintly and slowly they +smiled. There was a profound mutual understanding in that smile. + +"I'm dying," went on Sloan eagerly and still in that slavering voice. +"I'm burnin' up inside. For God's sake let 'em take him and finish him +off!" + +And always as he spoke his quick eyes went back and forth from face to +face. They had neither eye nor voice for him. They turned their +attention back to Hovey, who now spoke again hastily. + +"But if you don't give us Henshaw, we'll take him, anyway. In one more +day--or maybe two at the most--we'll come an' get you--understand? An' +what we'll do to you when we get you will be this!" + +He gestured over his shoulder. Eric Borgson was being led out on the +deck by some of the crew. + +"Look him over, Cap'n McTee. He's a big man, an' we're goin' to kill +him by inches. So we're goin' to finish Van Roos--the same way. Speak +out, lads; d'you want to die like these two are goin' to die, or will +you turn over Henshaw--who needs killin'?" + +McTee smiled benevolently down upon the upturned, furious faces of the +mutineers, and muttered: "Harrigan, I could drink blood." + +"An' lick your lips afther it," groaned the Irishman softly. "An' so +could I, Angus! They're startin' their devil work. Let's go inside. I +can't be standing the sight of it, McTee." + +"Go inside an' let 'em rush the wireless house?" said McTee +incredulously. "No, lad. We _got_ to stay an' watch. Besides, maybe +this is the way we'll all die--after we're too weak to fight 'em. And +I'm rather curious to learn just how I'll die; I've always been!" + +They were binding Borgson face down on the hatch. + +"Look," said Harrigan. "Maybe it ain't goin' to be so bad as we +thought. They're just goin' to lick Borgson the way he licked the Jap." + +"They'll do more," replied McTee, shaking his head. "Henshaw and +Borgson and Van Roos have really put those wild men through hell, and +now they're going to get it back with interest." + +In the meantime little Kamasura stepped out from the crowd. He was +naked to the waist, for the raw incisions which the lash had left would +not bear the weight of clothes. He carried the blacksnake in his hands, +drawing it caressingly through his hands as Borgson had done. Now the +tying of Borgson was completed, and the sailors spread back in a loose +circle to watch their entertainment. + +The Japanese took his distance carefully, shifting repeatedly a matter +of inches to make sure that no stroke would be wasted. Then he whirled +the blacksnake over his head. They could see Borgson wince as the lash +sang above him, and the muscles of his bare back flexed and stood up in +knots that glistened under the sunlight. But the stroke did not fall. +Kamasura had learned the lesson of creating suspense from the very man +he was now about to torture. Harrigan bowed his head in his hands. + +"I can't look, McTee," he muttered. "I'm sick inside--sick--sick!" + +The last words came in a growl from the hollow of his throat. The +blacksnake whirled through the air again and fell with a sharp slap +like two broad hands clapped together, but Borgson did not cry out. His +body writhed mutely, and down his back appeared a red mark. The whip +whirled again and fell, this time bringing a stifled curse for a +response. Once more it whirled, and this time merely cracked in the +air. Again and again an idle snap in the air. Broken by that grim +suspense, Borgson yelled in terror. + +Kamasura laughed and glanced at the circle of sailors like a ringmaster +in a circus in search of applause. The whip now whirled rapidly over +his head and fell again and again, and every stroke brought a fresh and +louder scream from the mate. Another sound, rhythmic and barbarous, +punctuated those shrieks of anguish. It was the singing of Kamasura, +who as he wielded the lash remembered a chant of his native land and +shouted it now in time with the blows of the blacksnake. + +On the upper deck Sloan lay prone on his face, sobbing with terror; +Harrigan kept his face hid and clutched at his head with both hands; +McTee stared straight down upon the scene of the torture with burning +eyes. Inside the wheelhouse Kate crouched beside the bunk on which +Henshaw was stretched, staring straight above his head. The fever had +deprived him of the last of his senses. + +"Your hands!" he muttered at length. + +She placed them upon his forehead. She had done that repeatedly during +the past day, and each time the effect had been marvelously soothing to +the old man. Now at the touch he drew a deep breath of relief. + +"Even in hell," he whispered at length--"even in hell you come to me, +Beatrice! I knew you would!" + +He caught her hands at the wrists; his fingers, despite his fever, were +deadly cold, and a chill ate into her blood. + +"I hear them yelling--the souls of the damned," he said quietly. "You +can't hear it?" + +"No, no!" she said. "I cannot hear!" + +"Of course not," he went on with the same lack of emotion; "for, you +see, you've come from heaven, and the coolness of heaven is in your +hands, Beatrice. Put them against my temples, so! For every bit of the +love I have given you you are permitted to repay me with coolness-- +coolness and comfort in hell!" + +Suddenly he broke into exultant laughter, a sound more terrible than +the wild wails from the deck. + +"See!" he said, and his eyes twinkled as he stretched out a gaunt arm +toward a corner of the room. "There's Johnny Carson lying naked on a +bed of blue fire. Ha, ha, ha! Have you been waiting long for me to +come, lad?" + +She shut out the hungry, hideous light of his eyes with the palms of +her hands. Now the screaming on the deck ceased abruptly. + +"Beatrice!" he cried with a sudden terror. + +"Yes," answered Kate. + +"Ah," he said, and patted her hands endearingly. "When the silence +came, I feared maybe you were leaving me. You won't do that?" + +"No. I'll stay." + +"So! Then I'll sleep. But waken me when they begin yelling again. They +thought I'd come down to the same hell I sent them to, and that they'd +watch me burn. But I fooled 'em, Beatrice, by loving you. You're the +chip of wood that keeps me afloat--afloat--afloat--" + +And he drifted into sleep, while she leaned against the bunk, almost +unconscious from fear and exhaustion. + + + + +CHAPTER 35 + + +Kamasura, in nowise loath to bring his work to an end, stood back and +laid on the whip with redoubled vigor. The lash spatted sharply against +the raw and bleeding flesh. The screams sank into moans, and the moans +in turn declined to a mere horrible gasping of the breath. Even this +ceased at length, and the quivering of the body stopped. Kamasura +leaned over and slipped his hand under the body in the region of the +heart. When he straightened up again, he made a gesture of finality +with his crimsoned hands. The mate was dead. + +They cut his body loose at once and pitched him over the rail, then +turned their attention to Van Roos. Sam Hall was the inspired man this +time, and according to his directions they lashed the body of the big +mate on the same blood-spotted hatch cover where Borgson had lain a +moment before, but this time the victim was placed upon his back. Hall +himself attended to the tying of Van Roos's head, and he performed his +work so ably that the mate could not change his position in the least +particle. He was literally swathed in ropes; so much so, in fact, that +it was difficult to see how he could be tormented. Sam Hall, however, +insisted that this was what he wanted, and the crew consented to let +him do his work. + +"You've heard something, an' you've seen something," said Hovey at this +juncture to Campbell; "but what you've seen and heard isn't nothin' to +what'll happen to you unless you start handling the engines of the +_Heron_. Why, Campbell, I'm goin' to give you to the firemen!" + +"Hovey," answered the engineer calmly, "the only place I'd run this +ship would be down to hell--your home port. That's final!" + +The bos'n was white with rage. + +"I'd like to tear your heart out an' feed it to the fish," he said, +stepping close to Campbell, and then, remembering himself, he moved +back and grinned: "But the men will find something better to do with +you." + +He crossed the deck and held up a bucket of water toward Harrigan and +McTee. He raised a dipperful and allowed it to splash back in the +bucket. + +"Well?" asked Hovey. + +They merely stared at him as if they had not heard him speak. + +"All right," said Hovey, quite unmoved, "there's plenty of time for you +to make up your minds. But if you wait too long--well, we'll come and +get him. And the girl, too!" + +He laughed and turned away. + +"I thought," muttered McTee, "that we could end it by simply dying--but +I forgot the girl." + +"The girl," answered Harrigan, "and--and them! She's got to die before +we're too far gone. You'll do that to save her from--them?" + +McTee moistened his parched lips before he could speak. + +"One of us has to do it, but it can't be me, Harrigan." + +"Nor me, Angus. We'll wait till tonight. Maybe a ship'll pass and see +us lyin' like a derelict and put a boat aboard, eh?" + +"But if no ship comes, then we'll draw straws, eh?" + +"Yes." + +Two sharp, sudden cries now called their attention back to the waist of +the ship to the blood-stained hatch cover where Van Roos lay. + +Sam Hall had approached the big mate with a knife in his hand. He +kneeled beside the prostrate body and fumbled at the face an instant. +No one had been able to make out the significance of his act. Then the +knife gleamed, and twice he plucked with one hand and cut with the +knife. The two sharp cries answered him. Then he rose; two little +trickles of blood ran down the face of the mate. + +"Well?" asked Jacob Flint. "When does the game begin?" + +"The game is just started," said Hall, "an' the sun will do the rest. +I've cut off his eyelids!" + +They stared a moment in amazement, and then an understanding broke on +them. Every tribe of savages in the world has been accredited with this +ingenious torture which blinded their victim and usually drove him mad. +The sun was now climbing the sky rapidly, and already fell on the face +of the mate. The tropic sun which scorches and burns the toughest of +skins was now directed full on the pupils of his eyes. + +The sailors sought comfortable positions and waited for a long +exhibition of pain, but they were mistaken. The torture acted far more +quickly than even the whip. There was no outcry. Not once during his +struggles did Van Roos make a sound from his throat, save for a quick, +heavy panting. Perhaps by contrast with the yells of Borgson, which +were still in the ears of the men, this silence was more horrible than +the most throat-filling shrieks. They could see Van Roos twisting his +head ceaselessly and vainly to escape that blinding light. His ruddy +face became swollen like the features of a drowned man. And that was +all that happened--only that, and the panting, the quick, choppy +panting like a running man. Finally one of the sailors rose with a +mallet in his hand. + +"Where you goin'?" asked Hall ominously. + +"Going to finish him." + +Hall caught the fellow's arm. + +"Listen!" he whispered, and such was the silence that the hoarse +whisper was audible all over the deck. "Don't you hear?" + +And with one hand he kept beat for the quick breaths of the tortured +man. At that moment there was a long sigh, and the breathing stopped. +Hall strode angrily forward to his victim, but when he reached the +hatch, Van Roos was dead. A blood vessel must have burst in his brain, +and death was as instantaneous as though a bullet had struck him. So +they cut him free, and his body followed that of Borgson over the rail. +Then the eyes of the mutineers turned aft toward the wireless house, +and then back upon Campbell. Six victims remained. One of the firemen +slipped close to Hovey on naked feet. He did not speak, but his long, +thin arm pointed toward the engineer. + +"Not yet," said Hovey, "not yet! Tomorrow if he doesn't give in, we'll +turn you loose on him." + +The fireman grinned and went back on noiseless feet to his companions +to spread the good tidings. Hovey approached the wireless house. + +"We've got one show left to offer, but we're savin' it till tomorrow," +he said. "So brace up, hearties, and keep cheer. You'll see Campbell go +a way worse than either of these tomorrow." + +"Wait," called Harrigan, suddenly roused. "D'you mean to say that you'd +try your hellwork on a kind man like Campbell?" + +"A kind man like Campbell?" echoed Hovey, and then laughed. "A kind +man?" + +And he retreated with no other answer, and left the fugitives aft to +the merciless, sweltering heat of the sun. By the time the sun went +down, they were so fevered by the need of water that they had not the +strength to bless the cool falling of the dark; they still carried the +fire of the sunlight in their blood. + + + + +CHAPTER 36 + + +"This man Campbell," said Harrigan, "he's a true man, McTee, and he +stood up to White Henshaw for my sake--for the sake of me and his +Bobbie Burns. They plan to take him to hell tomorrow, Angus, and I've +an idea that there's one chance in the thousand that I could steal in +on the dogs tonight and bring him back with me." + +"Can they do anything worse to him than they're doing to us?" + +"Maybe not, but my heart would lie easier, McTee. I'll wait for the +fever o' the sun to go out of me head an' for the crew to get drunk an' +a little drunker." + +So they waited while the noise of the nightly carousal waxed high and +higher, and then died away by slow degrees. At length Harrigan stood +up, gripped the hand of McTee in silent farewell, heard a whispered +"Good luck!" and slipped noiselessly down the ladder and started across +the deck in the shadow of the rail. From any portion of the main cabin +eyes might be watching him; there was only the one chance in ten that +the lookout whom Hovey had certainly stationed would not perceive him +as he crept along under the shadow. Accordingly he went blindly +forward. + +If the lookout saw him, at least there was no outcry, no general alarm. +He stood flat against the wall of the main cabin at length and +rehearsed a plan, listening the while to the lapping of the waves +against the side of the ship. Then he stole step by step up the ladder +to the upper deck. His head was already above the ladder when he heard +the light padding of a bare foot and saw a figure around the corner of +the cabin. + +Harrigan ducked out of sight and clung to the iron rounds ready to leap +up and strike if the sailor should descend the ladder, though in that +case the alarm would be given and his errand spoiled; but the sailor +was apparently the lookout set there by Hovey. He stayed at the head of +the ladder a moment, humming to himself, and then turned and walked on +his beat to the other side of the ship. Harrigan slipped onto the deck +and ran noiselessly to the side of the cabin. Here he flattened himself +against the wall until the sentinel had again made the turn of his +beat, and as the latter moved dimly out of sight through the darkness, +the Irishman stole down the deck toward the forward cabins. + +The first two windows showed dark and empty; if there were anyone +inside, he must be asleep in the drunken torpor into which most of the +crew seemed to have fallen. The door of the third room, formerly +occupied by the second mate, stood ajar, and here by the dull light of +an oil lantern, he saw Campbell tied hand and foot to a chair. He was +placed close to a little table whereon sat a bottle of whisky, a siphon +of seltzer, a tall glass, meat, bread, water--everything, in fact, with +which the senses of the starving man could be tormented. And near him, +sitting with elbows spread out on the edge of the table, was one of the +firemen, grinning continually as if he had just heard some monstrous +joke. The expression of Campbell was just as fixed, for his small eyes +shifted eagerly, swiftly, from the food to the water, and back again. + +The fireman--the same tall, gaunt fellow who had demanded that Hovey +turn over Campbell to him and his companions that day--now leaned +forward and raised a dipper of water from a bucket which sat on the +floor, and allowed it to trickle back, splashing with what seemed to +Harrigan the sweetest music in the world. Hovey must have taught him +that trick, and its effect upon Campbell was worse than the beating of +the whips. The fireman let his head roll loosely back as he laughed, +and while his head was still back and his eyes squinting shut in the +ecstasy of his delight, Harrigan leaped from the shadow of the door and +struck at the throat--at the great Adam's apple which shook with the +laughter. The blow must have nearly broken the man's neck. His head +jerked forward with a whistling gasp of breath, and as he reached for +the knife on the table, Harrigan struck again, this time just behind +the ear. The man slid from his chair to the floor and lay in a queer +heap--as if all the bones in his body were broken. + +"Harrigan! Harrigan! Harrigan!" Campbell was whispering over and over, +but still his eyes held like those of a starved wolf on the food. The +moment his ropes were cut, he buried his teeth in the great chunk of +roasted meat. + +Harrigan jerked him away and held him by main force. + +"Be a man!" he whispered. "We've got to take this food and this water +back to the wireless house--if we can get there with it. Take hold of +yourself, Campbell!" + +The engineer nodded. Voices came close down the deck; instantly +Harrigan jerked up the glass globe which protected the lantern's flame +and blew out the light. They crouched shoulder to shoulder. + +"I thought he was in here," said a voice at the door. + +"He was," answered Hovey's voice, "but I guess they took him below-- +they said it was too cool for him up there. Ha, ha, ha!" + +Their steps disappeared down the deck. After that Harrigan dared not +show a light in the cabin window. He and Campbell located the meat and +bread, which were given into the engineer's keeping, while Harrigan +took the bucket of water. They slipped out onto the deck and hurried +aft, keeping close to the side of the cabin, for the starlight would +show their figures to any watchful eyes. At the rear edge of the cabin +Harrigan halted Campbell and whispered: "There's a guard here. I got +past him in the dark, but two of us loaded down like this can never go +unseen down that ladder. We've got to get rid of him." + +And he pulled out the knife which he had kept with him ever since the +outbreak of the mutiny. They waited without daring to draw breath until +the sailor came padding by with his naked feet. Harrigan crept out +behind him, and when the sailor turned at the rail, the Irishman leaped +in and struck, not with the blade, but with the haft of the knife; he +could not kill from behind. + +If it had been a solid blow, the sailor would have crumpled silently as +the fireman had done a few moments before, but the impact glanced and +merely cut his scalp as it knocked him down. He fell with a shout which +was instantly answered from the front of the ship. + +"Down the ladder! Run for it!" cried Harrigan to Campbell, and as the +engineer clambered down, he stood guard above. + +The sailor leaped up from the deck and lunged with a knife gleaming in +his hand, but Harrigan slashed him across the arm, and he fled howling +into the dark. Before Hovey and his men could reach the spot, Harrigan +had climbed down the ladder with his precious bucket and was fleeing +aft to the wireless house. + +As he reached it, lights were showing from the main cabin, and there +were choruses of yells announcing the discovery that Campbell was +missed. But Harrigan and the rest of the fugitives scarcely heard the +sounds. The Irishman was busy measuring as carefully as he could in the +dark dippers of water which the others drank. + +There was no sleep that night, partly from fear lest the infuriated +mutineers should at last attempt to rush the wireless house, partly +because they ate sparingly but long of the meat which Harrigan carved +for them, and the bread, and partly also because of a singular odor +which they had not noticed when they were tortured by thirst and +hunger, and which now they observed for the first time. It was +peculiarly pungent and heavy with a sickening suggestion of sweetness +about it. None of them could describe it, saving Harrigan, who had been +much in the country and likened the odor to the smell of an old straw +stack which lay molding and rotting. + +It seemed to increase--that smell--during the night, probably because +their strength was returning and all their senses grew more acute. It +was a torrid night, without moon, so that the blanket of dark pressed +the heat down upon them and seemed to stifle the very breath. + +With the coming of the first light of the dawn they noticed a peculiar +phenomenon. Perhaps it was because of the evaporation of water under +the fire of the sun, but the _Heron_ seemed to be surrounded with a +white vapor which rose shimmering in the slant rays of the morning. But +even when the sun had risen well up in the sky, the vapor was still +visible, clinging like a wraith about the ship. They wondered idly upon +it, and wondered still more at the heat, which was now intense. They +were interrupted in their conjectures by the call of Kate summoning +them to the wireless house where Henshaw lay apparently at the last +gasp. + +He had altered marvelously in the past two days. That resemblance which +he had always had to a mummy was now oddly intensified, for the cheeks +were fallen, the neck withered to scarcely half its former size, the +eyes sunk in purple hollows. He murmured without ceasing, his voice now +rising hardly above a low whisper. Kate sat beside him, passing her +hands slowly over his temples, for he complained of a fire rising +within his brain. + +His complaints died away under her touches, and he said at last, calmly +but very, very faintly: "Beatrice, there is one thing I have not yet +told you." + +"Yes?" she asked gently, though she averted her eyes, for all the long +hours he had filled with the stories of his crimes upon earth were +poured into the ear of the spirit of his Beatrice, as he thought. One +last and crowning atrocity was yet to be told. + +"I have left out the greatest thing of all." + +He paused to smile at the memory. + +"You remember Samson's death, Beatrice? And how he pulled the house +down on the shoulders of his enemies?" + +"Yes." + +"That was a wonderful way to die--wonderful! But I, Beatrice, look at +me, child!--I have surpassed Samson! Listen! You will wonder and you +will admire when you hear it! When I got the word that you were dead, I +knew two things: first, that the prophecy of my death at sea would come +true, and secondly that my gold must perish with me. You will never +guess how long I pondered over a way to destroy my gold before I died! +You will think I could have simply thrown it into the sea? Yes, but the +ship was filled with men ready to mutiny, and they were hungry for my +wealth. They would never have allowed me to destroy that gold! So I +thought of a way--ah, it was an inspiration!--by which I could destroy +my body, my wealth, and the lives of all the mutineers at once. Like +Samson, I would pull the house on the heads of my enemies. Ha, ha, ha!" + +His laughter was rather a grimace than a sound. + +He went on: "See how cunningly, how carefully I worked! First I blew up +the three lifeboats so that there would be no escape for the crew. Then +I tampered with the dynamo so that it burned out, and they could not +send out a wireless call for help. That touch was the best of all. +Well, well! Then I went down into the hold, deep down, and I started a +fire in the cargo. And then--" + +"Oh, my God!" stammered Sloan. + +The others were white, but they gestured at Sloan to silence him. The +whisper continued: "And then I knew that they were done for. The wheat +would not break into a sudden flame, but it would smolder and glow and +spread from hour to hour and from day to day. The crew would know +nothing of it for a long time. But when they guessed at what was +happening, they would open the hatches to fight the fire with water. +Then what would happen? Ah, my dear, there was the crowning touch; for +when they opened the hatches, the current of air would feed the fire +and the ship would be instantly in flames. And so they would burn like +dogs with water, water all around them, and no boats to put off in--no +boats. Ha, ha, ha!" + +He choked with his laughter and gasped for breath. + +"If it were possible for a bodiless spirit to perish, I should think +that I am dying twice, Beatrice. The air is thick--this air of hell!" + +He broke off short in his whispering and raised himself suddenly to an +elbow. With the coming of death his voice grew strong and rang clearly: +"They are in the corners--they are coming closer! Beatrice! Brush them +away with your fingers as cold as snow. Beatrice, oh, my dear!" + +And he was dead as he fell back on the bunk. + +Sloan was already on the deck outside the wireless house, shrieking +with all the power of his lungs: "Fire! Fire! The wheat in the hold!" + + + + +CHAPTER 37 + + +And as Harrigan and McTee, followed by Kate and Campbell, ran out to +the open air, they saw the crowd of the mutineers surge across the +waist toward Sloan with upturned faces, wondering, and ready for +terror. Hovey broke through their midst. + +"Hovey!" shouted McTee. "Look at the mist over the sides! Draw a +breath; smell of it! It is fire! Henshaw has set fire in the hold!" + +It was plain to every brain in the instant. To every man came the +thought of the complaints of the firemen concerning the heat in the +hold of the _Heron_; the noxious odor like musty straw; the warmth, the +deadly warmth of the decks. A volcano smoldered beneath them, and the +mist was the sign of the coming outbreak of flames. And the mutineers +stood mute, gaping at one another, looking for some hope, some comfort, +and finding the same question repeated in every eye. McTee climbed down +the ladder to the waist, followed by the rest of the fugitives. Ten +minutes before they would have been torn to pieces by the wolf pack. +Now no man had a thought for anything save his own death. + +"Hovey," ordered McTee in his voice of thunder, "tell these fellows +they must obey my voice from now on." + +They roared, snatching at this ghost of a hope: "We will! We'll follow +Black McTee! Hovey has brought us to hell!" + +In a moment everyone was in frantic motion. Campbell started for the +engine room to see what had caused the stopping of the ship. McTee +himself, followed by Harrigan and the stokers, went down to the +fireroom. It was fiery hot there, indeed. When the Scotchman swung down +the ladder into the hole, it was like a blast from a furnace, and the +air was foul with the nauseating odor of the smoldering wheat. The men +gasped and struggled for breath, and yet they began to work without +complaint. + +All hands set to. The fires were shaken down and started afresh; the +coal shoveled out from the bunkers. Then a fireman collapsed without a +cry of warning. They carried him out to the upper air, and brought down +two of the sailors to take his place. And the sailors went without a +murmur. They were fighting for the one chance in ten thousand, the +chance of bringing the ship to shore before the fire burst out in flame +which would lick the _Heron_ from one end to the other within an hour. + +McTee went up to the bridge to take the bearings and lay the course. By +the time his reckonings were completed, steam was up; Campbell had +remedied the trouble in the engine room; the propeller began to turn, +and a yell went up from the ship and tingled to heaven. When McTee came +down from the bridge to the waist, leaving Hovey at the wheel, a dozen +of the tars gathered about the new skipper, weeping and shouting, for +in their eyes he was the deliverer, it was he who was giving them the +fighting chance to live. + +And how they fought! There was something awe-inspiring and almost +beyond the human in the fury with which they labored. It was in the +fireroom that their chief difficulty lay. The fireroom of a large +steamer is a veritable furnace, and when to this heat was added that +from the hold of the ship, it was truly a miracle that any living thing +could exist there. + +But Harrigan was in charge. When men wilted and pitched to their faces +on the sooty, dusty floor, he trussed them under one arm and bore them +up to the air. Then he went back and drove them on again. Before the +end of that day, however, with the coast still a full thirty-hour run +ahead of them, it became literally impossible to continue longer in the +fireroom. But Harrigan would not leave. He had a hose introduced into +the hold. The men worked absolutely naked with a stream of water +playing on them. Now and again when one of them collapsed, Harrigan +snatched the fire bar or the shovel from the hands of the worker and +labored furiously until another substitute was found. + +The necessity of his presence was amply demonstrated that night. The +Irishman was too exhausted to continue another minute, and the men +helped him to the deck and sluiced buckets of salt water over his +great, trembling body. To keep the men at work, Campbell went down in +the hole. + +They had to carry him up in half an hour. Then McTee tried his hand. He +stood the heat as well as Harrigan, but he could not inspire such +daredevil enthusiasm in the men. They missed the raucous, cheery voice +of Harrigan; they missed the inspiring sight of that flame-red hair; +and they missed above all his peculiar driving force. In other words, +when Harrigan came among them, they felt _hope_, and when a man has +hope, he will work on in the face of death. + +And at last McTee came up and begged Harrigan to go back. He went, and +found an empty fireroom and dying fires. He ran back to the deck, and +at his shout the dead veritably rose to life. Men staggered to their +feet to follow him below. Every man on the ship took his turn. Hovey +came down and passed coal; McTee came down and wielded the fire bar, +doing the labor of three men while he could endure. + +And the _Heron_ drove on toward the shore. The morning passed; the +afternoon wore away. It was a matter of hours now before the shore +would be in sight, and McTee spread this news among the crew. He sent +little Kamasura and Shida, the cabin boys, running here and there +saying to every man they passed: "Four hours! Four hours! Four hours!" +And then: "Three hours! Three hours! Three hours!" + +And the crew swallowed whisky neat and returned to the fireroom. + +At sunset, dim as a shadow, a thing to be guessed at rather than known, +the man on the bridge sighted land. The word spread like lightning. The +staggering workers in the fireroom heard and joined the cheer which +Harrigan started. Then the catastrophe came. + +A torch of red fire licked up the stern of the ship; the flames had +eaten their way out to the open air! + +It was the quick action of McTee which kept the panic from spreading to +the hold of the ship at once and bringing up every one of the workers +from the fireroom. He gathered the sailors on deck who had strength +enough left to walk, and they made a line and attacked the flames with +buckets of water. There was, of course, no possibility of quelling the +fire at its source, for by this time the hold of the ship where the +wheat was stowed must have been one glowing mass of smoldering matter. +Yet they were able, for a time, to keep the course of the fire from +spreading over the decks of the ship. + +With this work fairly started, McTee ran back to the forward cabin and +upper deck of the _Heron_ and set several men to tear down some of the +framework, sufficient at least to build enough rafts to maintain the +crew in the water. So the three sections of the work went on--the +firefighting, the lifesaving, and the driving of the ship. McTee on +deck managed two ends of it; Harrigan in the fireroom handled the most +desperate responsibility. It seemed as if these two men by their naked +will power were lifting the lives of the crew away from the touch of +death and hurling the ship toward the shore. + +And now for an hour, for two hours, that ghastly labor continued. The +entire stern of the _Heron_ was a sheet of flames when the last workers +staggered up from the fireroom, their skin seared and blistered by the +terrific heat. Last of all came Harrigan, raving and cursing and +imploring the men to return to their work. As he staggered up the deck, +reeling and sobbing hoarsely, Kate Malone ran to him. She pointed out +across the waters ahead of the ship. There rose the black shadow of the +shore and under it a thin line of white--the breakers! + +Now by McTee's direction the rafts were hoisted and dragged over the +side of the ship, while one frail line of men remained to struggle +against the encroaching flames. + +They were licking into the waist of the _Heron_, and the wireless house +was a mass of red; White Henshaw was burning at sea, and the prophecy +was fulfilled. + +The last of the rafts were hoisted overboard and half a dozen men +tumbled into each. When the rest of the crew were overboard, McTee, +Kate, and Harrigan, lingering behind by mutual consent, took one raft +to themselves. All about them tossed the other rafts, and not one man +of all the crowd had thought of the golden treasure which they were +abandoning with the _Heron_. Each might be carrying a few gold pieces, +but the wealth of White Henshaw would go back into the sea from which +it came. + +They had not abandoned the flaming ship too soon. A fresh breeze was +sweeping from the ocean onto the shore, and red tongues licked about +the main cabin and darted like reaching hands into the heart of the +sky. By these flashes they could make out the struggling rafts where +the sailors cheered and yelled in the triumph of their escape. But +McTee set about erecting a jury sail. + +He wrenched off two strips of board from their raft and across these he +and Harrigan affixed their shirts. The same wind which had lashed the +fires forward on the _Heron_ now hurried the fugitives toward the +shore. They had a serious purpose in outstripping the rest of the +rafts, because when the mutineers reached the shore, the mood of +gratitude which they held for Harrigan and McTee was sure to change, +for these two men could submit enough evidence to hang them in any +country in the world. + +Looking back, the _Heron_ was a belching volcano, which suddenly lifted +in the center with the sound of a dozen siege guns in volleyed unison, +and a column of fire vaulted high into the heavens. Before they reached +the tossing heart of the breakers, the _Heron_ was dwindling and +sliding, fragment by fragment into the sea. + +Through those breakers the last light from the ship helped them, and +the wind tugging at their little jury sail aided to drive them on until +they could swing off the raft and walk toward the beach, carrying Kate +between them. On the safe, dry sands they turned, and as they looked +back, the Heron slid forward into the ocean and quenched her fires with +a hiss that was like a far-heard whisper of the sea. + + + + +CHAPTER 38 + + +Meanwhile the shouts of the mutineers rang louder and louder as their +rafts edged in toward the land, so the three turned again and made +directly inland. A hundred yards from the edge of the water they were +in a dense jungle such as only exists in a Central American swamp +region, but they waded and splashed on, and clambered over rotten +stumps, slick with wet moss, and stepped on fragments of wood that +crumbled under their feet. And all the time they kept the girl between +them, lifting her clear of the noisome water as much as possible. + +The shouting of the mutineers, however, urged them on, and from the +sound of the voices there was no doubt that Hovey and his men were +combing the marsh for the fugitives. Torches had been made by the +sailors, and behind them, now and then, they caught a glimpse of a +winking eye of light. This drove them on, and just when the shouts of +the mutineers began to die away, the marsh ended as abruptly as it had +begun, and they started to climb a slope where the thicket changed to +an almost open wood. The rise was not long, for after some hours of +weary trudging, they reached a road. + +Down this they straggled with stumbling feet. They had not spoken for +nearly two hours, as though they wished to save even the breath of +speech for some trial which might still await them. Kate was half +unconscious with fatigue, and McTee on her left and Harrigan on her +right carried most of her weight. + +In this manner they came in sight of a light which developed into a +low-roofed, broad house with a hospitable veranda stretching about it. +They made directly for it, traversing a level field until they came to +the door. McTee supported Kate while Harrigan knocked. There was +silence within the house, and then a whisper, a stir, the padding of a +slippered foot, and the door was jerked open. A tall man with a narrow, +pointed beard appeared. He held a lantern in one hand and a pistol in +the other; for those were troubled times in that republic. The light +fell full on the haggard face of Kate, and the man started back. + +"Enter, my children," he said in Spanish, and tossing his weapon onto a +little hall table, he held out his hand to them. + +With a great voice he brought his family and servants about them in a +few seconds. To a wide-eyed girl with a frightened voice, he gave the +care of Kate, and the two went off together. The master of the house +himself attended to the needs of Harrigan and McTee. + +There were few questions asked. This was a question of dire need, and +the Spanish-American loves to show his hospitality. Talking was for the +morning. In the meantime his guests would require what? Perhaps sleep? +Perhaps a bath first? They answered him with one voice, for they both +spoke a little Spanish, picked up in their wanderings. Sleep! + +The next day they woke about noon to find clothes laid out for them, +the immaculate white clothes which the tropics require. They were led +to a high-ceilinged bathroom cool with glazed, white bricks which lined +it, where the two servants poured over them bucket after bucket of cold +water, and the grime of the voyage and the labors in the fireroom and +the mighty weariness of their muscles disappeared little by little in +slow degrees. Then a shave, then the white clothes, and they were ready +for presentation to Senor Jose, Barrydos y Maria y Leon and his family. + +And here was a time of many words indeed. It was McTee who told the +story of the wreck, and even with his broken Spanish the tale was so +vivid that Senor Jose was forced to rise and walk up and down the room, +calling out upon a hundred various saints. In the end it was clear in +his eyes that he had to deal with two heroes. As such they could have +lived with him as honored guests forever. + +Then Kate came into the room with the daughter of the house. She wore a +green dress of some light material which fluttered into folds at every +move. The Spaniard straightened up from his chair. The two big men +followed suit, staring wide-eyed upon her. It seemed as if some miracle +had been worked in her, for they looked in vain for any traces of her +helpless weariness of the night before. + +There was a color in her cheeks and her eyes were bright and quiet. To +Senor Jose Barrydos y Maria y Leon she gave both her hands, and he +bowed over them and kissed them both. His courtliness made Harrigan and +McTee exchange a glance, perhaps of envy and perhaps of disquiet, for +she accepted this profound courtesy with an ease as if she had been +accustomed to nothing else all her life. + +But what a smile there was for each of them afterward! It left them +speechless, so that they glowered upon each other and were glad of the +soft flow of Senor Jose's words as he led them in to the breakfast +table. + +And when the meal had progressed a little and some of the edge of the +novelty of the situation and story had worn away, the Spaniard said: +"But is it not true? Strange news floats in the air this week." + +"What news?" asked Harrigan. "Our wireless was out of commission for +days." + +"True! Then you must learn from me?" + +He drew a breath and stiffened in his chair, then with a gesture of +apology and a smile he added: "Why should I hunt for pompous words? I +can tell you in one phrase: the world is at war, gentlemen!" + +They merely gaped upon him. + +"German troops have entered Belgium; France, England, and Russia are at +war with Germany and Austria!" + +He waited for the astonishment to die away in their eyes. + +Kate was shaking her head. "It is impossible," she said. "There may be +a disturbance, but the world is past the time of great wars. Men are +now too civilized, and--" + +Here she stopped, for her eyes fell on the faces of Harrigan and McTee. +Civilized? No; she had seen enough to know that civilization strikes no +deeper in human nature than clothes go to change the man. + +"Civilized?" Don Jose had taken her up. "Ah, madam, already wild tales +reach us of the Germans in Belgium." + +"But there was a treaty," she cried, "and the greatest nations in the +world have guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium. Germany herself--" + +"True!" said Jose; "but it is because of the violation of Belgian +neutrality, among other things, that England has entered the war, it is +said." + +"Ah-h!" said Harrigan, lapsing suddenly from Spanish into his Irish +brogue. "Thrue for ye, man! John Bull will take the Kaiser by the +throat. In time of peace, why, to hell with England, say I, like all +good Irishmen; but in time av war-r, it's shoulder to shoulder, John +Bull an' Paddy, say I, an' we'll lick the wor-r-rld!" + +And McTee broke in savagely. "You forget the Scotch. Without the +Scotch, England and Ireland--what could they do? Nothing!" + +"Could they not?" said Harrigan, with rising temper. "I tell ye, ye +black Highlander, that wan Irishman--" + +"Hush," said Kate earnestly; for the Spaniard was staring at them in +amaze. "It is a world war, and no time for jealousy. England--Scotland +--Ireland--and America, too, in time--we will all be fighting for one +purpose. And when the last test comes, the United States--" + +She stopped with a gesture of pride, and Harrigan said with deep +feeling: "Aye, they're a hard lot, the Yankees. But as for the Scotch," +he went on in a murmur which only McTee could hear--"as for the Scotch, +I wouldn't be wipin' my feet on 'em, when it comes to the fightin'. +D'ye hear me, McTee?" + +"And understand," said McTee, smiling broadly, so that none of the rest +might understand; "our time is close at hand, Harrigan. We're on dry +land." + +"We are--thank God," answered Harrigan, "but play the game, McTee, till +the girl is cared for." + +In the meantime Senor Jose had explained to Kate the nearness of the +city--El Ciudad Grande--for she had been asking many urgent questions. +The upshot of their conversation was that their host offered to take +them immediately into the town, where they could find accommodation at +the one hotel--if they refused his further hospitality. So in half an +hour Senor Jose's carriage of state was harnessed and the four +journeyed into El Ciudad Grande. + +Senor Jose went with them to explain to the hotel owner that these were +his guests--his dear friends--his friends of many years' standing--in +fact, his relatives in close blood. In short, he recommended the party +to the special care of the hotelkeeper. Business called the hospitable +Spaniard away. He refused to accept any consideration for the clothes +which he donated to the party, and McTee jingled a handful of Henshaw's +gold in vain. Senor Jose must depart, but he would return the next day. +So the three stood alone together at last. Harrigan was the first to +speak. + +"I've an engagement. I'm afther havin' some important business on hand, +Kate, colleen, so I'll be steppin' out." And he turned to go. + +"Wait," she called. "I know what your engagements are when the Irish +comes so thick on your tongue, Dan. You were about to have an +engagement also, Angus?" + +McTee glowered on Harrigan for having so clumsily betrayed them. + +"You are like children," she said softly, "and you let me read your +minds." + +She bowed her head in long thought. + +Then: "Didn't we pass the sign of the British consul down the street +over that little building?" + +"Yes," said McTee, wondering, and again she was lost in thought. + +Then she raised her head and stepped close to them with that smile, +half whimsical and half sad. + +"I'm going to ask you to let me be alone for a time--for a long time. +It will be sunset in five hours. Will you let me have that long to do +some hard thinking? And will you promise me during that time that you +will not fly at each other's throats the moment you are out of my +sight? For what I will have to say at sunset I know will make a great +deal of difference in your attitude to each other." + +"I'll promise," said Harrigan suddenly. "I've waited so long--I can +stand five hours more." + +"I'll promise," said McTee; but he scowled upon the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER 39 + + +They left her and walked from the hotel. At the door Harrigan turned +fiercely upon the Scotchman. + +"Do what ye please for the five hours, McTee, but give me the room I +need for breathin'. D'ye hear? Otherwise I'll be forgettin' me +promises." + +"Do I hear ye?" answered McTee, snarling. "Aye, growl while you may. +I'll stop that throat of yours for good--tonight." + +He turned on his heel, and the two men separated. Harrigan struck with +a long swing out over a road which led into the rolling fields near the +little town. He walked rapidly, and his thoughts kept pace, for he was +counting his chances to win Kate as a miser counts his hoard of gold. +Two pictures weighed large in his mind. One was of Kate at ease in the +home of the Spaniard. Such ease would never be his; she came from +another social world--a higher sphere. The second picture was of McTee +climbing down from the wireless house and calmly assuming command of +the mutineers in the crisis. Such a maneuver would never have occurred +to the Irishman, and it was only through that maneuver that the ship +had been brought to shore, for nothing save the iron will of McTee +could have directed the mutineers. + +When the sun hung low, he turned and strode back toward the village, +and despair trailed him like his shadow. + +He began to see clearly now what he had always feared. She loved +McTee--McTee, who spoke clear, pure English, when he chose, and who +could talk of many things. She loved McTee, but she dared not avow that +love for fear of infuriating Harrigan and thereby risking the life of +the Scotchman. It grew plainer and plainer. With the thought of Kate +came another, far different, and yet blending one with another. When he +reached the village, it was still a short time before sunset. He went +straight to the British consulate and entered, for he had reached the +solution of his puzzle. + +"My name's Harrigan," he said to the little man with the sideburns and +the studious eyes, "and I've come to know if the old country has sent +for volunteers. I want to go over." + +"The old country," said the consul, "has called for volunteers, and I +have discovered a means of sending our boys across the water; but"--and +here he examined Harrigan shrewdly--"but it's an easy thing to take an +Irish name. How am I to know you're not a German, my friend? I've never +seen you before." + +Harrigan swelled. + +"A German? Me?" he muttered, and then, his head tilted back: "Ye little +wan-eyed, lantern-jawed, flat-headed block, is it me--is it Harrigan ye +call a German? Shtep out from behind the desk an' let me see av you're +a man!" + +Strangely enough, the consul did not seem irritated by this outburst. +He was, in fact, smiling. Then his hand went out to the Irishman. + +"Mr. Harrigan," he said, "I'm honored by knowing you." + +Harrigan stared and accepted the hand with caution; there was still +battle in his eyes. + +"And can you send me over?" he asked doubtfully. + +"I can. As I said before, we've raised a small fund for just this +purpose." + +He drew out a piece of paper and commenced taking down the particulars +of Harrigan's name and birth and other details. Then a short +typewritten note signed by the consul ended the interview. He gave +Harrigan directions about how he could reach a shipping agent on the +eastern coast, handed over the note, and the Irishman stepped out of +the little office already on his way to the world war. He took no +pleasure in his resolution, but wandered slowly back toward the hotel +with downward head. He would speak a curt farewell and step out of the +lives of the two. It would be very simple unless McTee showed some +exultation, but if he did--Here Harrigan refused to think further. + +It was well after sunset when he crossed the veranda, and at the door +he found McTee striding up and down. + +"Harrigan," said McTee. + +"Well?", growled Harrigan. + +"Stand over here close to me, and keep your face shut while I'm +speaking. It won't take me long." + +The words were insulting enough, but the voice which spoke them was +sadly subdued. + +"Listen," said McTee. "What I've got to say is harder for me to do than +anything I've ever done in my life. So don't make me repeat anything. +Harrigan, I've tried to beat you by fair means or foul ever since we +met--ever since you saved my hide in the Ivilei district of Honolulu. +I've tried to get you down, and I've failed. I fought you"--here he +ground his teeth in agony--"and you beat me." + +"It was the bucking of the deck that beat you," put in Harrigan. + +"Shut up till I'm through or I'll wring your neck and break your back! +I've failed to down you, Harrigan. You beat me on the Mary Rogers. You +made a fool of me on the island. And on the Heron--" + +He paused again, breathing hard. + +"On the _Heron_, it was you who brought us food and water when we were +dying. And afterward, when Henshaw died, I jumped out before the +mutineers and took command of them because I thought I could win back +in Kate's mind any ground which I'd lost before. I paraded the deck +before her eyes; I gave commands; I was the man of the hour; I was +driving the _Heron_ to the shore in spite of the fire." + +"You were," admitted Harrigan sadly. "It was a great work you did, +McTee. It was that which won her--" + +"But even when I was in command, you proved yourself the better man, +Harrigan." + +The Irishman leaned back against the wall, gasping, weak with +astonishment. + +McTee went on: "I paraded the deck; I made a play to make her admire +me, and for a while I succeeded, until the time came when you were +carried up to the deck too weak to keep the men at work in the +fireroom. Ah, Harrigan, that was a great moment to me. I said to Kate: +'Harrigan has done well, but of course he can't control men--his mind +is too simple.'" + +"Did you say that?" murmured Harrigan, and hatred made his voice soft, +almost reverent. + +"I did, and I went on: 'I suppose I'll have to go down there and drive +the lads back to their work.' So down I went, but you know what +happened. They wouldn't work for me. They stood around looking stupid +at me and left me alone in the fireroom, and I had to come back on +deck, in the sight of Kate, and rouse you out of your sleep and beg you +to go back and try to make the lads keep at their work. And you got up +to your knees, struggling to get back your consciousness! And you +staggered to your feet, and you called to the firemen who lay senseless +and sick on the deck around you--sick for sleep--and when they heard +you call, they got up, groaning, and they reeled after you back to +their work in the fireroom, and some of them dragged themselves along +on their hands and knees. Oh, God!" + +He struck his clenched fist across his eyes. + +"And all the time I was watching the awe and the wonder come up like a +fire in the eyes of Kate, while she looked after you." + +Harrigan watched him with the same stupid amazement. + +"Harrigan," said McTee at last, "you've won her. When I walked out by +myself today, I saw that I was the only obstacle between her and her +happiness. She doesn't dare tell you she loves you, for fear that I'll +try to kill you. So I've decided to step out from between--I _have_ +stepped out! I'm going back to Scotland and get into the war. If I have +fighting enough, I can forget the girl, maybe, and you! I've talked to +the British consul already, and he's given me a note that will take me +over the water. So, Harrigan, I've merely come to say good-by to you-- +and you can say good-by for me to Kate." + +"Wait," said Harrigan. "There are a good many kinds of fools, but a +Scotch fool is the worst of all. Take that paper out of your pocket and +tear it up. Ah-h, McTee, ye blind man! Can't ye see that gir-rl's been +eatin' out her hear-rt for the love av ye, damn your eyes? Can't ye see +that the only thing that keeps her from throwin' her ar-rms around your +neck is the fear of Harrigan? Look!" + +He pulled out the note which the consul had given him. + +"I've got the same thing you have. I'm going to go over the water. I +tell you, I've seen her eyes whin she looked at ye, McTee, an' that's +how I know she loves ye. Tear up your paper! A blight on ye! May ye +have long life and make the girl happy--an' rot in hell after!" + +"By God," said McTee, "we've both been thinking the same thing at the +same time. And maybe we're both wrong. Kate said she had something to +say to us. Let's see her first and hear her speak." + +"It'll break my heart to hear her confess she loves ye, McTee--but I'll +go!" + +They went to the sleepy clerk behind the desk and asked him to send up +word to Miss Malone that they wished to see her. + +"Ah, Miss Malone," said the clerk, nodding, "before she left--" + +"Left?" echoed the two giants in voices of thunder. + +"She gave me this note to deliver to you." + +And he passed them the envelope. Each of them placed a hand upon it and +stared stupidly at the other. + +"Open it!" said Harrigan hoarsely. + +"I'm troubled with my old failing--a weakness of the eyes," said McTee. +"Open it yourself." + +Harrigan opened it at last and drew out the paper within. They stood +under a light, shoulder to shoulder, and read with difficulty, for the +hand of Harrigan which held the paper shook. + +Dear lads, dear Dan and Angus: + +As soon as you left me, I went to the British consul, and from him I +learned the shortest way of cutting across country to the railroad. By +the time you read this, I am on the train and speeding north to the +States. + +I have known for a long time that the only thing which keeps you from +being fast friends is the love which each of you says he has for me. So +I have decided to step from between you, for there is nothing on earth +so glorious as the deep friendship of one strong man for another. + +I fear you may try to follow me, but I warn you that it would be +useless. I have taken a course of training, and I am qualified as a +nurse. The Red Cross of America will soon be sending units across the +water to care for the wounded of the Allies. I shall go with one of the +first units. You might be able to trace me to the States, but you will +never be able to trace me overseas. This is good-by. + +It is hard to say it in writing. I want to take your hands and tell you +how much you mean to me. But I could not wait to do that. For your own +sakes I have to flee from you both. + +Now that I have said good-by, it is easier to add another thing. I care +for both of you more than for any man I have ever known, but one of you +I love with all my soul. Even now I dare not say which, for it might +make enmity and jealousy between you, and enmity between such men as +you means only one thing--death. + +I have tried to find courage to stand before you and say which of you I +love, but I cannot. At the last moment I grow weak at the thought of +the battle which would follow. My only resort is to resign him I care +for beyond all friends, and him I love beyond all other men. + +I know that when I am gone, you will become fast friends, and together +you will be kings of men. And in time--for a man's life is filled with +actions which rub out all memories--you will forget that you loved me, +I know; but perhaps you will not forget that because I resigned you +both, I built a foundation of rock for your friendship. + +You will be happy, you will be strong, you will be true to one another. +And for that I am glad. But to you whom I love: Oh, my dear, it is +breaking my heart to leave you! + +Kate + +One hand of each was on the paper as they lowered it and stared into +each other's face, with a black doubt, and a wild hope. Then of one +accord they raised the paper and read it through again. + +"And to think," muttered Harrigan at last, "that I should have ruined +her happiness. I could tear my heart out, McTee!" + +"Harrigan," said the big Scotchman solemnly, "it is you she means. See! +She cried over the paper while she was writing. No woman could weep for +Black McTee!" + +"And no woman could write like that to Harrigan. Angus, you can keep +the knowledge that she loves you, but let me keep the letter. Ah-h, +McTee, I'll be afther keepin' it forninst me heart!" + +"Let's go outside," said McTee. "There is no air in this room." + +They went out into the black night, and as they walked, each kept his +hand upon the letter, so that it seemed to be a power which tied them +together. + +"Angus," said Harrigan after a time, "we'll be fightin' for the letter +soon. Why should we? I know every line of it by heart." + +"I know every word," answered McTee. + +"I've a thought," said Harrigan. "In the ould days, whin a great man +died, they used to burn his body. An' now I'm feelin' as if somethin' +had died in me--the hope av winnin' Kate, McTee. So let's burn her +letter between us, eh?" + +"Harrigan," said McTee with heartfelt emotion, "that thought is well +worthy of you!" + +They knelt on the little spot. They placed the paper between them. Each +scratched a match and lighted one side of the paper; the flames rose +and met in the middle of the letter. Yet they did not watch the +progress of the fire; by the sudden flare of light they gazed steadily +into each other's face, straining their eyes as the light died away as +though each had discovered in the other something new and strange. When +they looked down, the paper was merely a dim, red glow which passed +away as quickly as a flush dies from the face, and the wind carried +away the frail ashes. Then they rose and walked shoulder to shoulder on +and into the night. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Harrigan, by Max Brand + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARRIGAN *** + +***** This file should be named 9791.txt or 9791.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/7/9/9791/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Anuradha Valsa Raj, and Project Gutenberg + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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