"Bet with"m, sir," David challenged me. "It"s a straight tip from me, an" a regular cinch."
The whole situation was so gruesome and grotesque, and I had been swept into it so absurdly, that for the moment I did not know what to do or say.
"It"s good money," Davis urged. "I ain"t goin" to die. Look here, steward, how much you want to bet?"
"Five dollar, ten dollar, twenty dollar," the steward answered, with a shoulder-shrug that meant that the sum was immaterial.
"Very well then, steward. Mr. Pathurst covers your money, say for twenty. Is it a go, sir?"
"Why don"t you bet with him yourself?" I demanded.
"Sure I will, sir. Here, you steward, I bet you twenty even I don"t die."
The steward shook his head.
"I bet you twenty to ten," the sick man insisted. "What"s eatin" you, anyway?"
"You live, me lose, me pay you," the steward explained. "You die, I win, you dead; no pay me."
Still grinning and shaking his head, he went his way.
"Just the same, sir, it"ll be rich testimony," David chuckled. "An"
can"t you see the reporters eatin" it up?"
The Asiatic clique in the cook"s room has its suspicions about the death of Marinkovich, but will not voice them. Beyond shakings of heads and dark mutterings, I can get nothing out of Wada or the steward. When I talked with the sail-maker, he complained that his injured hand was hurting him and that he would be glad when he could get to the surgeons in Seattle. As for the murder, when pressed by me, he gave me to understand that it was no affair of the j.a.panese or Chinese on board, and that he was a j.a.panese.
But Louis, the Chinese half-caste with the Oxford accent, was more frank.
I caught him aft from the galley on a trip to the lazarette for provisions.
"We are of a different race, sir, from these men," he said; "and our safest policy is to leave them alone. We have talked it over, and we have nothing to say, sir, nothing whatever to say. Consider my position.
I work for"ard in the galley; I am in constant contact with the sailors; I even sleep in their section of the ship; and I am one man against many.
The only other countryman I have on board is the steward, and he sleeps aft. Your servant and the two sail-makers are j.a.panese. They are only remotely kin to us, though we"ve agreed to stand together and apart from whatever happens."
"There is Shorty," I said, remembering Mr. Pike"s diagnosis of his mixed nationality.
"But we do not recognize him, sir," Louis answered suavely. "He is Portuguese; he is Malay; he is j.a.panese, true; but he is a mongrel, sir, a mongrel and a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Also, he is a fool. And please, sir, remember that we are very few, and that our position compels us to neutrality."
"But your outlook is gloomy," I persisted. "How do you think it will end?"
"We shall arrive in Seattle most probably, some of us. But I can tell you this, sir: I have lived a long life on the sea, but I have never seen a crew like this. There are few sailors in it; there are bad men in it; and the rest are fools and worse. You will notice I mention no names, sir; but there are men on board whom I do not care to antagonize. I am just Louis, the cook. I do my work to the best of my ability, and that is all, sir."
"And will Charles Davis arrive in Seattle?" I asked, changing the topic in acknowledgment of his right to be reticent.
"No, I do not think so, sir," he answered, although his eyes thanked me for my courtesy. "The steward tells me you have bet that he will. I think, sir, it is a poor bet. We are about to go around the Horn. I have been around it many times. This is midwinter, and we are going from east to west. Davis" room will be awash for weeks. It will never be dry. A strong healthy man confined in it could well die of the hardship.
And Davis is far from well. In short, sir, I know his condition, and he is in a shocking state. Surgeons might prolong his life, but here in a wind-jammer it is shortened very rapidly. I have seen many men die at sea. I know, sir. Thank you, sir."
And the Eurasian Chinese-Englishman bowed himself away.
CHAPTER x.x.xII
Things are worse than I fancied. Here are two episodes within the last seventy-two hours. Mr. Mellaire, for instance, is going to pieces. He cannot stand the strain of being on the same vessel with the man who has sworn to avenge Captain Somers"s murder, especially when that man is the redoubtable Mr. Pike.
For several days Margaret and I have been remarking the second mate"s bloodshot eyes and pain-lined face and wondering if he were sick. And to- day the secret leaked out. Wada does not like Mr. Mellaire, and this morning, when he brought me breakfast, I saw by the wicked, gleeful gleam in his almond eyes that he was spilling over with some fresh, delectable ship"s gossip.
For several days, I learned, he and the steward have been solving a cabin mystery. A gallon can of wood alcohol, standing on a shelf in the after- room, had lost quite a portion of its contents. They compared notes and then made of themselves a Sherlock Holmes and a Doctor Watson. First, they gauged the daily diminution of alcohol. Next they gauged it several times daily, and learned that the diminution, whenever it occurred, was first apparent immediately after meal-time. This focussed their attention on two suspects--the second mate and the carpenter, who alone sat in the after-room. The rest was easy. Whenever Mr. Mellaire arrived ahead of the carpenter more alcohol was missing. When they arrived and departed together, the alcohol was undisturbed. The carpenter was never alone in the room. The syllogism was complete. And now the steward stores the alcohol under his bunk.
But wood alcohol is deadly poison. What a const.i.tution this man of fifty must have! Small wonder his eyes have been bloodshot. The great wonder is that the stuff did not destroy him.
I have not whispered a word of this to Margaret; nor shall I whisper it.
I should like to put Mr. Pike on his guard; and yet I know that the revealing of Mr. Mellaire"s ident.i.ty would precipitate another killing.
And still we drive south, close-hauled on the wind, toward the inhospitable tip of the continent. To-day we are south of a line drawn between the Straits of Magellan and the Falklands, and to-morrow, if the breeze holds, we shall pick up the coast of Tierra del Fuego close to the entrance of the Straits of Le Maire, through which Captain West intends to pa.s.s if the wind favours.
The other episode occurred last night. Mr. Pike says nothing, yet he knows the crew situation. I have been watching some time now, ever since the death of Marinkovich; and I am certain that Mr. Pike never ventures on the main deck after dark. Yet he holds his tongue, confides in no man, and plays out the bitter perilous game as a commonplace matter of course and all in the day"s work.
And now to the episode. Shortly after the close of the second dog-watch last evening I went for"ard to the chickens on the "midship-house on an errand for Margaret. I was to make sure that the steward had carried out her orders. The canvas covering to the big chicken coop had to be down, the ventilation insured, and the kerosene stove burning properly. When I had proved to my satisfaction the dependableness of the steward, and just as I was on the verge of returning to the p.o.o.p, I was drawn aside by the weird crying of penguins in the darkness and by the unmistakable noise of a whale blowing not far away.
I had climbed around the end of the port boat, and was standing there, quite hidden in the darkness, when I heard the unmistakable age-lag step of the mate proceed along the bridge from the p.o.o.p. It was a dim starry night, and the _Elsinore_, in the calm ocean under the lee of Tierra del Fuego, was slipping gently and prettily through the water at an eight- knot clip.
Mr. Pike paused at the for"ard end of the housetop and stood in a listening att.i.tude. From the main deck below, near Number Two hatch, across the mumbling of various voices, I could recognize Kid Twist, Nosey Murphy, and Bert Rhine--the three gangsters. But Steve Roberts, the cow- boy, was also there, as was Mr. Mellaire, both of whom belonged in the other watch and should have been turned in; for, at midnight, it would be their watch on deck. Especially wrong was Mr. Mellaire"s presence, holding social converse with members of the crew--a breach of ship ethics most grievous.
I have always been cursed with curiosity. Always have I wanted to know; and, on the _Elsinore_, I have already witnessed many a little scene that was a clean-cut dramatic gem. So I did not discover myself, but lurked behind the boat.
Five minutes pa.s.sed. Ten minutes pa.s.sed. The men still talked. I was tantalized by the crying of the penguins, and by the whale, evidently playful, which came so close that it spouted and splashed a biscuit-toss away. I saw Mr. Pike"s head turn at the sound; he glanced squarely in my direction, but did not see me. Then he returned to listening to the mumble of voices from beneath.
Now whether Mulligan Jacobs just happened along, or whether he was deliberately scouting, I do not know. I tell what occurred. Up-and-down the side of the "midship-house is a ladder. And up this ladder Mulligan Jacobs climbed so noiselessly that I was not aware of his presence until I heard Mr. Pike snarl:
"What the h.e.l.l you doin" here?"
Then I saw Mulligan Jacobs in the gloom, within two yards of the mate.
"What"s it to you?" Mulligan Jacobs snarled back. The voices below hushed. I knew every man stood there tense and listening. No; the philosophers have not yet explained Mulligan Jacobs. There is something more to him than the last word has said in any book. He stood there in the darkness, a fragile creature with curvature of the spine, facing alone the first mate, and he was not afraid.
Mr. Pike cursed him with fearful, unrepeatable words, and again demanded what he was doing there.
"I left me plug of tobacco here when I was coiling down last," said the little twisted man--no; he did not say it. He spat it out like so much venom.
"Get off of here, or I"ll throw you off, you and your tobacco," raged the mate.
Mulligan Jacobs lurched closer to Mr. Pike, and in the gloom and with the roll of the ship swayed in the other"s face.
"By G.o.d, Jacobs!" was all the mate could say.
"You old stiff," was all the terrible little cripple could retort.
Mr. Pike gripped him by the collar and swung him in the air.