"What next?" he muttered.
As if in answer, another flag fluttered up the _Nevski"s_ halliards.
"He will send a boat," interpreted Maclean.
A short period of fret and fume ensued, then a small steam launch rounded the _Nevski"s_ bows, and sped like a gray-hound across the intervening s.p.a.ce. The _Nevski_ now presented her broadside to the _Saigon_, and all of her six guns were trained upon the English steamer"s decks. The launch was crammed with men. Captain Brandon ordered a gangway to be lowered, and although the tars sprang to the task with great alacrity, it was hardly completed before the launch touched the _Saigon"s_ side. An officer, bedizened with gold lace, and accompanied by two glittering subordinates, climbed aboard, and Captain Brandon met him on the main deck. Hugh Maclean, from the bridge, watched them file into the captain"s cabin. Ten minutes later they emerged, and without waiting a moment the Russians hurried back into the launch. Captain Brandon"s face was purple. He hurriedly mounted to the bridge, and leaning over the rail cursed the departing launch at the top of his voice in five different languages.
"What"s the trouble, sir?" asked Maclean when his superior appeared at last to be exhausted.
"They want our coal. C----t them to ---- for all eternity," gasped the frenzied captain. "And they"ll blow us out of the water if we don"t follow them to Tramoieu."
"Where is that?"
"It"s a little island off the Cochin coast, a hundred miles from anywhere, with a harbor. By ---- they"ll smart for this!"
"Not they," said Maclean. "That is, if you obey. They"ll gut and scuttle the _Saigon_, and then kill every mother"s son of us. Dead men tell no tales. We"ll be posted at Lloyds as a storm loss."
"But what can we do?"
"Full speed ahead, and ram her while she"s picking up the launch! Chance the guns!"
"By ----! I"ll do it!" shrieked the captain, and he sprang to the signal-bell. But even as he grasped the lever with his hand, he paused.
"What now?" demanded the mate, his face tense with pa.s.sion. "Hurry"s the word, sir. Hurry!"
The captain, however, turned and looked him in the eye. "You"ve counseled me to murder--wholesale murder, Maclean. Avast there, man!
Keep your mouth shut. This is my bridge, and I"ll not hear another word from you."
The mate bit his lips and shrugged his shoulders. His eyes were blazing with contempt and rage, but he kept his self-control, and was rewarded by a dozen sympathetic glances from those of the crew grouped upon the deck who had heard the controversy. From that moment he was their idol.
The second mate, too, who was standing by the wheel, turned and nodded to him as he pa.s.sed.
The captain, who missed nothing of this by-play, felt himself to have been absolutely isolated. But he was a strong man, and he knew that he acted rightly. Five minutes later four thunderous reports rang out, and sh.e.l.ls splashed the sea on all sides of the _Saigon_. Then the machine-guns began to speak, and a perfect storm of bullets tore through the vessel"s rigging, some directed so low that they pierced the top rim of the funnel smoke-stack. The display lasted sixty seconds. When it was over, a very sheepish looking lot of men arose from the rec.u.mbent att.i.tudes they had a.s.sumed. Of the whole ship"s company on deck, Captain Brandon, Hugh Maclean, and the chief engineer had alone remained standing.
There was a new flag at the _Nevski"s_ truck. "Follow at full speed!" it commanded. The _Saigon_ instantly obeyed. Before night fell, the moon rose, three-quarters full. It lighted the procession into dawn. Sunrise brought them to a rock-bound coast, and so nicely had the _Nevski"s_ navigator steered, that the first headland circ.u.mvented made room for the revelation of a little bay. It was enclosed on three sides with gray hills, and across the mouth was stretched a broken line of hungry-looking surf-crowned reefs. The _Nevski_ steamed boldly through the first opening, and dropped her anchor in smooth water three-quarters of a mile beyond. The _Saigon_, currishly obedient to the Russian"s signals, followed suit, bringing up within a biscuit cast of her consort and captor. An hour later Hugh Maclean, the engineer, and the lesser officers and thirty-two men of the _Saigon"s_ company and some two score of Russian sailors were working like slaves transferring, under the supervision of a strong guard, the _Saigon"s_ coal and cargo into the _Nevski"s_ boats.
Captain Brandon was not among the toilers. He would have been, perhaps, but for the circ.u.mstance that he had permitted himself the liberty of striking a Russian officer in the face. A marine having retorted with the b.u.t.t end of a carbine, the Englishmen had helplessly watched their captain being carried off, bleeding and insensible, and dumped with a sickening thud into the Russian launch. The incident encouraged them so much that they worked without complaint throughout the day, and they did not even grumble at the rations which their taskmasters served out to them. Shortly before dusk the breeze that had been blowing died away, and the Russians took advantage of the calm to warp the vessels together. After that the business in hand proceeded at such a pace that by dawn the _Saigon_ was completely gutted, and she rode the water like a swan, the greater part of her bulk in air. The weary Englishmen were thereupon driven like sheep upon the _Nevski"s_ deck, and forced to descend the small after-hold, which was almost empty. The hatches were then fastened over them for their greater security, and they were left in darkness. But they were too worn out to care. Within five minutes every man of them was sleeping dreamlessly, lying listlessly stretched out upon the ship"s false bottom, excepting only Hugh Maclean. He was too tired to sleep. He was, therefore, the only one who heard an hour later the m.u.f.fled boom of a distant explosion and a faint cheer on deck.
"They have sunk the poor old _Saigon_," muttered Maclean. "There goes the last hope of my captaincy and Nellie Lane." He uttered a low groan, and covered his face with his grimy paws. Maclean was very much in love, but he was too young and of too strenuous a temperament to rest for long the victim of despair. Moreover, contempt for foreigners, particularly Russians, served him instead of a religion, when not ash.o.r.e, and he soon fell to wondering just where was the weak spot in his captor"s armor, and how he could find and put his finger on it. That there was a weak spot he did not doubt at all. He searched his pockets and found half a plug of tobacco, but not his meerschaum. A Russian sailor had confiscated that some hours before. Maclean consigned the thief to perdition, and with some trouble bit off a plug. Then he lay back to chew and think. "There"s only one thing to do," was the result of his reflections. "We"ll have to take this boat from the Russians somehow."
But exhausted nature would not be denied, and before he knew it Maclean was in the land of dreams. He was awakened by the noisy removal of a portion of the hatch. He looked up and saw the moon, also a couple of bearded faces looking down at him.
"Good Lord!" he groaned, "I"ve slept the day out."
"You hingry--men--like--eat?" observed a hoa.r.s.e voice. And Maclean saw an immense steaming pan descending toward him on a line. He caught it deftly. A can of water and a tin of biscuits followed. He was instantly surrounded by the _Saigon"s_ company, who attacked the contents of the pan like wolves. He seized a lump of fat meat from the mess, also a couple of biscuits, and retired apart. The darkness renewed itself a second later, and for some time the hold buzzed with the noise of crunching jaws and guttural exclamations.
Of a sudden someone near him struck a match, and Maclean looked over the flame into the eyes of Robert Sievers, the _Saigon"s_ chief engineer.
"h.e.l.lo, Mac," said Sievers.
"Good evening, Sievers," replied Maclean politely. "We"re still at anchor."
"I"ve remarked it. What do you suppose they intend to do with us?"
"Maroon us, likely, if we let them, on the island yonder."
"How can we prevent them? But I think not. It"s my belief this meat is poisoned!"
"Tastes vile enough," agreed Maclean, but he went on eating, and Robert Sievers, after a momentary hesitation, followed suit.
"We"re in the devil of a hole!" he muttered, his mouth full of biscuit.
Then he swore horribly, for the match had burned his fingers.
Maclean stood up. "Any of you men happen to have a bit of candle in your pockets?" he demanded.
Silence for a minute, then a Norwegian fireman spoke up. "Bout dree inches," he said.
"He eats "em," cried another voice, and a roar of laughter greeted the announcement.
"Pa.s.s it here," commanded Maclean.
Sievers struck another match, and presently the steady flame of a candle stump showed Maclean a picture such as Gustave Dore would have loved to paint. He glanced at the begrimed faces of the _Saigon"s_ wild and ghastly looking company, and beyond them for a moment, then stumbled over the coal, followed by Sievers, until he was brought up by the iron part.i.tion of the hold. He made, however, straight for the bulkhead, and stooping down, held the candle close to the line of bolts covering the propeller"s tunnel.
"By Jingo!" cried Sievers. "I see your game. Let me look, Maclean! This is my trade."
He bent forward, wrenched at a shoot-bolt, and with a cry of satisfaction threw back a plate. The _Saigon"s_ company crowded round the man-hole thus revealed, muttering with excitement.
"One moment, Sievers!" cried Maclean, for the engineer had one leg already in the tunnel. Then he turned to the men. "My lads," he said, "it"s a case of our lives or the Russians", for I firmly believe the accursed pirates mean to kill us. We must take this ship by hook or by crook, and I think I see the way to do it!" He concluded with some precise instructions, and a few savage sentences, in which he promised an unmentionable fate to the unfortunate who made a sound or failed to follow to the letter his instructions.
A second later, in a silence that could be felt, he blew out the light, and followed Sievers into the tunnel. A few cave-black yards, crawled painfully on hands and knees, slipping and slithering along the propeller shaft, brought the leaders to the edge of a wider s.p.a.ce.
Sievers struck a match, and a well-like, vertical opening was revealed.
High overhead towered and threatened an enormous steel crank. Before their feet lay a deep pool of slime. The heat was horrible.
"It should be hereabouts," whispered Sievers, and his fingers searched the wall. For a moment nothing could be heard but the deep breathing of the _Saigon"s_ company. Then came a slight but terrifying clang.
"I"ve got it!" whispered Sievers. "Are you ready?"
"Right!"
Maclean"s eyes were dazzled of a sudden with a hot flare of light, and the deafening thud of the condensers smote in his ears. He never quite coherently remembered that which immediately ensued, for something struck him on the head.
When he came to his full senses again he was lying on a grating beside the body of the Russian cleaner he had strangled. The _Saigon"s_ men were all around him. He arose, gasping for breath. Sievers thrust a bar into his hand and pointed to a line of ladders. Maclean nodded, crossed the grating, and began to climb. Sievers, armed with a hammer, followed at his heels.
There were three men in the engine-room, an engineer and two cleaners.
They took the climbers for stokers, and went on with their occupations.
Maclean sidled to the door across the grating and closed it in the twinkling of an eye. The engineer, who was reading a newspaper, heard the noise and looked up. Sievers struck him with the hammer and flew at one of the cleaners. Maclean rushed at the other with his spade. It was all over in a moment, and without any noise that the thudding of the donkey-engine did not drown. Maclean changed coats and caps with the insensible Russian engineer, while Sievers called the _Saigon"s_ men from below. He then strapped on the man"s dirk, and put his revolver in his pocket.
"What next?" asked Sievers.
Maclean glanced at the engine-room clock. The hands pointed to seven-fifteen. "Captain and officers are just about half through their dinner," he reflected.