"Captain Black presents his compliments to Mr. Mark Strong, whom he had the pleasure of receiving last night, and regrets the reception which was offered to him. Captain Black hopes that it will be his privilege to receive Mr. Strong on his yacht _La France_, now lying over against the American vessel _Portland_, in Dieppe harbour, at 11 to-night, and to extend to him hospitality worthy of him and his host."
Now, that was a curious thing indeed. Not only did it appear that my pretence of being Hall"s partner in trade was completely unmasked by this man of the Rue Joubert; but he had my name--and, by his tone in writing, it was clear that he knew my position, and the fact that I was no trader at all. Whether such knowledge was good for me, I could not then say; but I made up my mind to act with cunning, and to shield Hall in so far as was possible.
"Did your master tell you to wait for any answer?" I asked suddenly, as the seaman brought his right eye from the direction of the ceiling and fixed it upon me; and he said--
"Is it for the likes of me to be advisin" yer honor? "Sure," says he, "if the gentleman has the moind to wroite he"ll wroite, if he has the moind to come aboard me--meanin" his yacht--he"ll come aboard; and we"ll be swimming in liquor together as gents should. And if so be as the gentleman" (which is yer honor), says he, "will condescend to wipe his fate on me cabin shates, let him be aboard at Dieppe afore seven bells," says he, "and we"ll shame the ould divil with a keg, and heave at daybreak"--which is yer honor"s pleasure, or otherwise, as it"s me juty to larn!"
It needed no very clever penetration on my part to read danger in every line of this invitation--not only danger to myself, who had been dragged by the heels into the business, but danger to Hall, whose disguise could scarce be preserved when mine was unmasked. And yet he had left Paris, and even then, perhaps, was in the power of the man Black and his crew! What I could do to help him, I could not think; but I determined if possible to glean something from the palpably cunning rogue who had come on the errand.
"I"ll give you the answer to this in a minute," said I; "meanwhile, have a little whisky? A seaman like yourself doesn"t thrive on cold water, does he?"
"Which is philosophy, yer honor--for could wather never warmed any man yet--me respects to the young lady"--here he looked deep into his gla.s.s, adding slowly, and as if there was credit to him in the recollection, "Oi was priest"s boy in Tipperary, bedad"--and he drank the half of a stiff gla.s.s at a draught.
"Do you find this good weather in the Channel?" I inquired suddenly, looking hard at him over the table.
He made circles with his gla.s.s, and turned his eyes upon Mary, before he answered; and when he did, his voice died away like the fall of a gale which is tired. "Noice weather, did ye say--by the houly saints, it depends."
"On what?" I asked, driving the question home.
"On yer company," said he, returning my gaze, "and yer sowl."
"That"s curious!"
"Yes, if ye have one to lose, and put anny price on it."
His meaning was too clear.
"Tell your master, with my compliments," I responded, "that I will come another time--I have business in Paris to-day!"
He still looked at me earnestly, and when he spoke again his voice had a fatherly ring. "If I make bold, it"s yer honor"s forgiveness I ask--but, if it was me that was in Paris I"d stay there," and putting his gla.s.s down quickly, he rolled to the door, fingered his hat there for one moment, put it on awry, and with the oft-repeated statement, "Oi was priest"s boy in Tipperary, bedad," he swayed out of the room.
When he was gone, the others, who had not spoken, turned to me, their eyes asking for an explanation.
"One of Hall"s friends," I said, trying to look unconcerned, "the mate on the yacht _La France_--the vessel he joins to-day."
Roderick tapped the table with his fingers; Mary was very white, I thought.
"He knows a queer company," I added, with a grim attempt at jocularity, "they"re almost as rough as he is."
"Do you still mean to sail to-night?" asked Roderick.
"I must; I have made a promise to reach Plymouth without a moment"s delay."
"Then I sail with you," said he, being very wide-awake.
"Oh, but you can"t leave Paris; you promised Mary!"
"Yes, and I release him at once," interrupted Mary, the colour coming and going in her pretty cheeks, "I shall sail from Calais to-night with you and Roderick."
"It"s very kind of you--but--you see----"
"That we mean to come," added Roderick quickly. "Go and pack your things, Mary; I have something to say to Mark."
We were alone, he and I, but there was between us the first shadow that had come upon our friendship.
"Well," said he, "how much am I to know?"
"What you choose to learn, and as much as your eyes teach you--it"s a promise, and I"ve given my word on it."
"I was sure of it. But I don"t like it, all the same--I distrust that fool, who seems to me a perfect madman. He"ll drag you into some mess, if you"ll let him. I suppose there"s no danger yet, or you wouldn"t let Mary come!"
"There can be no risk now, be quite sure of that--we are going for a three days" cruise in the Channel, that is all."
"All you care to tell me--well, I can"t ask more; what time do you start?"
"By the club train. I have two hours" work to do yet, but I will meet you at the station, if you"ll bring my bag----"
"Of course--and I can rest for an hour. That always does me good in the morning."
I left him so, being myself hara.s.sed by many thoughts. The talk with Black"s man did not leave me any longer in doubt that Hall had gone to great risk in setting out with the ruffian"s crew; and I resolved that if by any chance it could be done, I would yet call him back to Paris.
For this I went at once to the office of the Police, and laid as much of the case before one of the heads as I thought needful to my purpose.
He laughed at me; the yacht _La France_ was known to him as the property of an eccentric American millionaire, and he could not conceive that anyone might be in danger aboard her. As there was no hope from him, I took a fiacre and drove to the Emba.s.sy, where one of the clerks heard my whole story; and while inwardly laughing at my fears, as I could see, promised to telegraph to a friend in Calais, and get my message delivered.
I had done all in my power, and I returned to the Hotel Scribe; but the others had left for the station. Thither I followed them, instructing a servant to come to me at the Gare du Nord if any telegram should be sent; and so reached the train, and the saloon. It was not, however, until the very moment of our departure that a messenger raced to our carriage, and thrust a paper at me; and then I knew that my warning had come too late. The paper said: "_La France_ has sailed, and your friend with her."
CHAPTER IV.
A STRANGE SIGHT ON THE SEA.
It was on the morning of the second day; three bells in the watch; the wind playing fickle from east by south, and the sea agold with the light of an August sun. Two points west of north to starboard I saw the chalky cliffs of the Isle of Wight faint through the haze, but away ahead the Channel opened out as an unbroken sea. The yacht lay without life in her sails, the flow of the swell beating lazily upon her, and the great mainsail rocking on the boom. We had been out twenty-four hours, and had not made a couple of hundred miles. The delay angered every man aboard the _Celsis_, since every man aboard knew that it was a matter of concern to me to overtake the American yacht, _La France_, and that a life might go with long-continued failure.
As the bells were struck, and Piping Jack, our boatswain--they called him Piping Jack because he had a sweetheart in every port from Plymouth to Aberdeen, and wept every time we put to sea--piped down to breakfast, my captain betrayed his irritation by an angry sentence. He was not given to words, was Captain York, and the men knew him as "The Silent Skipper"; but twenty-four hours without wind enough to "blow a bug," as he put it, was too much for any man"s temper.
"I tell you what, sir," he said, sweeping the horizon with his gla.s.s for the tenth time in ten minutes, "this American of yours has taken the breeze in his pocket, and may it blow him to----I beg your pardon, I did not see that the young lady had joined us."
But Mary was there, fresh as a rose dipped in dew, and as Roderick followed her up the companion ladder, we held a consultation, the fifth since we left Calais.
"It"s my opinion," said Roderick, "that if those men of yours had not been ash.o.r.e on leave, York, and we could have sailed at midnight, we should have done the business and been in Paris again by this time."
"It"s my opinion, sir, that your opinion is not worth a c.o.c.kroach,"
cried the captain quite testily; "the men have nothing to do with it.
Look above; if you"ll show me how to move this ship without a hatful of wind, I"ll do it, sir," and he strutted off to breakfast, leaving us with Dan, the forward look-out.
Dan was a grand old seaman, and there wasn"t one of us who didn"t appeal to him in our difficulties.