THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL.
When I opened my eyes again I found myself, to my intense astonishment, lying, fully dressed, in a comfortable hammock beneath a well-constructed awning. The canvas walls of my resting-place prevented me from seeing anything more of my surroundings than my toes, but when I lifted myself up and peered over the side, it was not the junk"s evil planks that I saw before me, but the deck of a handsome, well-appointed yacht. My hammock was seemingly swung amidships, and judging from the side upon which I looked--save the man at the wheel and a couple of hands polishing bra.s.swork forrard--I appeared to have the entire deck to myself. Whose boat was she? How had I come to be aboard her? And how long had I been there? But though I puzzled my brains for an answer to these questions I could find none. My memory refused to serve me, and so, feeling tired, I laid myself back again upon my pillow and once more closed my eyes.
I had scarcely done so before I heard a noise on the other side which caused me to look over again. How shall I describe what I saw there?
Three years have pa.s.sed since then, but I have the recollection of even the minutest detail connected with the picture that was before me at that moment just as plainly engraved upon my memory as if it had occurred but yesterday.
Seated in a long cane chair, one elbow balanced on the arm-rest and one tiny hand supporting her dimpled chin, was the most beautiful woman--and I say it advisedly, knowing it to be true--that I had ever or have ever beheld, or shall ever behold, in my life. Though she was seated, and for that reason I could not determine her exact height, I was convinced it was considerably above the average; her figure, as much as I could see of it, was beautifully moulded; her face was exquisitely shaped; her eyes were large, and of a deep sea-blue; while the wealth of rippling hair that crowned her head was of a natural golden hue, and enhanced rather than detracted from the softness of her delicate complexion. As if still further to add to her general fairness, she was dressed entirely in white, even to her deck shoes and the broad Panama hat upon her head. Only one thing marred the picture. By her side, presenting a fitting contrast to so much loveliness, crouched, his head resting between his forepaws, a ferocious white bulldog, who ever and anon looked up with big bloodshot eyes into her face as if to make quite sure that there was no one within reach whom she might wish him to destroy.
She was evidently absorbed in her own thoughts, and presently the hand that was hanging down beside the chair found the dog"s head, and began softly to stroke his tulip ears. Then her eyes looked up, caught mine, and seeing that I was no longer asleep she rose and came towards me.
"So you are awake at last, Dr. De Normanville?" she said with a smile.
And as I heard her it struck me that her voice was even more beautiful than all her other attributes put together. "You have had a long sleep. Twelve hours!"
"Twelve hours?" I cried in amazement, at the same time gazing at her with admiration only too plainly written on my face. "You don"t mean to say that I"ve been twelve hours asleep? I can hardly believe it.
Why it seems only a few minutes since we were aboard that rascally junk. And what has happened since then? Is this the vessel we left Hong Kong to meet?"
"Yes. This is the boat. We were just beginning to grow anxious about you when the junk was sighted. I am afraid, from your companion"s account, you must have had a desperate time on board her."
"I should not care to go through it again, certainly," I answered truthfully. "One such experience is enough to last a man a lifetime.
By the way, how is my companion? I hope he is none the worse for his adventures."
"You need have no fear on that score; he is accustomed to that sort of thing and thrives on it, as you may have noticed. He is below at present, but as soon as he comes on deck I will send him to you. Now you had better lie down again and try to get some more sleep. You must remember that your strength is of the utmost value to us."
"I don"t think I quite understand. But before we go any further will you tell me what yacht this is and to whom I am indebted for my rescue?"
"This yacht is called the _Lone Star_," she answered, "and I am the owner." As she said this she looked at me in rather a queer sort of a way, I thought. But I let it pa.s.s and asked another question.
"I am very much afraid you will think me pertinacious, but is it permissible for me to know your name?"
"You may certainly know it if you wish to!" she answered with a short and, I could not help thinking, rather bitter laugh; "But I don"t think you will be any too pleased when you hear it. My real name is Alie, but by the benighted inhabitants of this part of the globe I am called by another and more picturesque cognomen."
She stopped, and I almost caught my breath with excitement. A light was breaking upon me.
"And that is----" I said, trying in vain to keep my voice down to a steady level.
"The Beautiful White Devil," she answered, with another of her peculiar smiles, and then, calling her bulldog to her, she bowed to me, turned on her heel, and went slowly aft along the deck.
I laid myself back in my hammock, my heart--why, I could not say--beating like a piston-rod, and tried to think the situation out.
So my thoughtless wish was gratified after all: I had now seen the Beautiful White Devil face to face, and, what was more to the point, I was likely to be compelled to see more of her than I should consider necessary for my own amus.e.m.e.nt. Like the Sultan of Surabaya and Vesey of Hong Kong, I was now her prisoner. And by what a simple ruse I had been caught! By all that was reasonable in woman, however, what possible advantage could she hope to gain by abducting me? At the very most, I could not lay my hands on more than three thousand pounds, and what earthly use could that be to a woman who was known to deal in millions? But perhaps, I reflected, it was not money she was after; perhaps she had some other desperate game to play--some other move in that wonderful life of hers in which my science could be of use to her and the nature of which I could not be expected to fathom. Situated as I was, she could compel me to do her bidding if she pleased, or make it extremely awkward for me if I felt it my duty to refuse.
You will doubtless have noticed that I had quite abandoned the idea of the small-pox epidemic. The notion of that island with the raging pestilence probably only existed in the fertile brain of the man who had been sent to induce me to leave Hong Kong. But in that case--and here the original argument wheeled back upon me--what possible advantage could accrue to her through abducting me? There were hundreds of richer men in Hong Kong. Why had not one of them been chosen? But as the more I thought it out, the farther I seemed to be from getting at the truth of it, I gave the problem up and turned my thoughts in another direction.
As I did so I heard somebody coming along the deck. This time it was a man"s footstep, so I looked out to see who it might be. It was Walworth, the individual who had visited me in Hong Kong and enticed me away. He was dressed in European habiliments now, and carried a cigarette in his hand. Seeing that I was aware of his presence he came across to the hammock and held out his hand.
"Good morning, doctor!" he said cheerily enough. "I"m glad to see you"re better. All things considered you"ve had a nasty time of it since you said good-bye to the Victoria Hotel--haven"t you?"
"A pretty cheeky way of putting it, considering he was the cause of it all," I thought to myself. "However, I"ll give him a Roland for his Oliver! He shall not think I"m wanting in pluck."
"You have certainly contrived a good many stirring adventures for my entertainment, I must say," I answered aloud. "But will you tell me one thing? Why did you not let me know in Hong Kong who my hostess would turn out to be?"
"Because in that case you would probably have informed the police, and we should not then have been able to give ourselves the pleasure of your company and a.s.sistance."
"Well, all I can say is, I am sorry you didn"t try for higher game while you were about it. For even with that five hundred you gave me, your leader will only get a sop for her pains. You can"t force blood out of a stone, can you?"
He seated himself in the chair she had occupied, and lit a fresh cigarette. Having done so, he continued:
"I don"t know that I quite follow you!"
"Well, I don"t think I could make it much plainer without being absolutely rude. The long and the short of it is, Mr. Walworth, if it"s money you"re after--why not have gone in for a pigeon better worth plucking?"
"But then we"re not after the money, you see. Why should I have paid you that five hundred else? No! Dr. De Normanville, you need have no fear on that score--our motive was perfectly honest. We are on our way to the island now where the small-pox exists, and believe me, when your work is accomplished, you will be conveyed safely back to your hotel. I can"t say more than that. Play fair by us and we"ll play fair by you. In the meantime we shall hope to make your stay with us as pleasant as possible."
I breathed freely again. I was not abducted. I was only wanted in my professional capacity after all. Well, that was a relief. I was in a unique position, for it was evident I was not only to be permitted the opportunity of making the Beautiful White Devil"s acquaintance, but I was to be well paid for doing so. In the first freedom from anxiety I began to look forward with almost pleasure to what lay before me.
"Don"t you think you could get up for a little while?" Walworth said, when he had finished his smoke; "it would do you good. Let me help you."
With his a.s.sistance I scrambled out of the hammock into a cane chair alongside the companion hatch. I was still very weak, and incapable of much exertion. There could be no doubt that I had lost a good deal more blood than I had at first imagined.
Once seated in the chair I looked about me. I was now permitted a full and uninterrupted view of the vessel, and was able to make good use of my eyes. Roughly speaking, that is to say as far as I could tell, not being a nautical man, she must have been a topsail schooner of about three hundred tons burden, with auxiliary steaming power, for I could see the funnel, which was not in use just then, lying along the deck.
In what part of the world she had been built I could not tell; but wherever it was, she did credit to her designer, for her lines were perfection, and nothing short of it. If ever a boat were built for speed she was that one, and I said as much to my companion, who laughed.
"There can be no doubt about that," he answered. "But then, you see, no other boat but the fastest built would suit her ladyship. Believe me, there are times when even the _Lone Star_ is pretty well put to it to throw dust in her enemies" eyes. If you feel strong enough, shall we take a walk round and examine her?"
There was nothing I should have liked more, so, taking the arm he offered me, we set off. The first thing that attracted my attention was the spotless neatness and cleanliness prevailing. The decks, which were flush fore and aft, were as white as curds; the bra.s.ses on the wheel, capstans, masts, skylights, belaying pins, shone till you could see your face in them. Not a detail seemed to have been overlooked.
Even the great sheets of canvas, bellying into balloons above our heads, appeared at first sight to have been lately washed, while the very ropes were white and, when not in actual use, flemish-coiled upon the decks. She carried six boats, an unusually large number for a craft of her size; two were surf-boats, I found on inspection; two were uncollapsible lifeboats; one was an ordinary ship"s gig, while the other was a small steam launch of excellent build and workmanship.
For a craft of three hundred tons her spars were enormous: her topmast head must have been a hundred and fifty feet from her deck, if an inch, while from her rig forrard I could guess the amount of extra canvas she was capable of carrying. Walking to the side, I discovered that she was painted white, with a broad gold stripe a little above the water-line; below this she was sheathed with copper, which shone like gold whenever the water left it.
Inside the bulwarks, and reaching to within an inch of the scuppers, were some contrivances that caused me a considerable amount of curiosity. At first glance they looked like reversible shop shutters more than anything else, being about six feet long by three wide, and were attached to the rail of the bulwarks by enormous hinges. On my asking for what purpose they were intended, my guide again laughed, and said:
"You must not ask too many questions, my friend, for obvious reasons.
In this case, however, and since you have given your word not to tell what you may see, I will explain."
Detaching the catch of one, he lifted it from the deck and threw it over the side, where it hung, just reaching to the top of the copper below water.
"Do you grasp the idea?" he continued. "The next one fits into that, and the next one into that again, and so on all round the boat. You see, they can be attached in no time, and when they are once fixed, the shape of the masts altered, the funnel differently cased or done away with altogether, the character of her bows and stern changed beyond recognition by another appliance, she can be three different crafts inside of twenty-four hours."
This then accounted for the number of different vessels the Beautiful White Devil was supposed to possess. I began to understand the marvellous escapes more clearly now.
"And whose idea was this ingenious invention?" I ventured to ask.
"Like most of our things, her ladyship"s own," he replied. "And wonderfully successful it has proved."
"And shall I be presuming too much on your good nature if I seek to learn something of the lady herself?"
"Ah! I"m afraid there I cannot satisfy your curiosity," he answered, shaking his head. "We have strict instructions on that point, and there"s not a man aboard this ship who values his life so little as to dream of disobeying. One piece of advice I will give you, however, for the sake of what we went through together yesterday. Take care how you behave towards her. In spite of her quiet demeanour and frank, artless manner, she sees, takes in, and realises the motive and importance of everything you say or do. If you act fairly towards her, she will act fairly by you; but if you play her false you"re a dead man. Remember that. Now you must excuse me if I go to my duties. My absence in Hong Kong has delayed my work sadly. And there goes eight bells."
As the silvery voice of a bell chimed out from the fo"c"s"le, he left me and went below. Hardly knowing what to do with myself, I went back to my chair. A tall man with a gray beard close-cropped, sharp glittering eyes, and a not unhandsome face, marred, however, by what looked like a sabre cut extending from the left temple to his chin, resigned the deck to another officer and went below.