[Ill.u.s.tration: Slowly the man defined himself as a shape takes form in a fog.]
I don"t know why I tell you this; why I lay so much stress on the first weird impression I got of the forecastle. It means something to me now--in view of all that happened subsequently. Almost can I look back and see, in that moment of occultism, a warning, an enlightenment----But the point is, it meant something to me then. I stood there fascinated, unable to move, unable to speak.
Then the grotesque figure in the corner stirred.
"Well, mates," said the man, "believe or not believe, it"s in the book, and it stands to reason, too. We have gold mines here in Californy and Nevada and all them States; and we hear of gold mines in Mexico and Australia, too, but did you ever hear tell of gold mines in Europe? Tell me that! And where did the gold come from then, before they discovered America? Tell me that! Why they made it, just as the man that wrote this-here says, and you can kiss the Book on that."
"How about that place, Ophir, I read about?" asked a voice from the bunks.
The man shot a keen glance thither from beneath his brows.
"Know last year"s output from the mines of Ophir, Thrackles?" he inquired in silky tones.
"Why, no," stammered the man addressed as Thrackles.
"Well I do," pursued the man with the steel hook, "and it"s just the whole of nothing, and you can kiss the Book on that too! There ain"t any gold output, because there ain"t any mines, and there never have been.
They made their gold."
He tossed aside a book he had been holding in his left hand. I recognised the fat little paper duodecimo with amus.e.m.e.nt, and some wonder. The only other copy I had ever laid my eyes on is in the Astor Library. It is somewhat of a rarity, called _The Secret of Alchemy, or the Grand Doctrine of Trans.m.u.tation Fully Explained_, and was written by a Dr.
Edward Duvall,--a most extraordinary volume to have fallen into the hands of seamen.
I stepped forward, greeting and being greeted. Besides the man I have mentioned they were four. The cook was a bullet-headed squat negro with a broken nose. I believe he had a name,--Robinson, or something of that sort. He was to all of us, simply the n.i.g.g.e.r. Unlike most of his race, he was gloomy and taciturn.
Of the other two, a little white-faced, thin-chested youth named Pulz, and a villainous-looking Mexican called Perdosa, I shall have more to say later.
My arrival broke the talk on alchemy. It resumed its course in the direction of our voyage. Each discovered that the others knew nothing; and each blundered against the astounding fact of double wages.
"All I know is the pay"s good; and that"s enough," concluded Thrackles, from a bunk.
"The pay"s too good," growled Handy Solomon.
"This ain"t no job to go look at the "clipse of the moon, or the devil"s a preacher!"
"W"at you maik heem, den?" queried Perdosa.
"It"s treasure, of course," said Handy Solomon shortly.
"He, he, he!" laughed the negro, without mirth.
"What"s the matter with you, Doctor?" demanded Thrackles.
"Treasure!" repeated the n.i.g.g.e.r. "You see dat box he done carry so cairful? You see dat?"
A pause ensued. Somebody scratched a match and lit a pipe.
"No, I don"t see that!" broke out Thrackles finally, with some impatience. "I _sabe_ how a man goes after treasure with a box; but why should he take treasure away in a box? What do you think, Bucko?" he suddenly appealed to me.
I looked up from my investigation of the empty berths.
"I don"t think much about it," I replied, "except that by the look of the stores we"re due for more than Honolulu; and from the look of the light we"d better turn to on deck."
An embarra.s.sed pause fell.
"Who are you, anyway?" bluntly demanded the man with the steel hook.
"My name is Eagen," I replied; "I"ve the berth of mate. Which of these bunks are empty?"
They indicated what I desired with just a trace of sullenness. I understood well enough their resentment at having a ship"s officer quartered on them,--the forec"stle they considered as their only liberty when at sea, and my presence as a curtailment to the freedom of speech. I subsequently did my best to overcome this feeling, but never quite succeeded.
At my command the n.i.g.g.e.r went to his galley, I ascended to the deck. Dusk was falling, in the swift Californian fashion. Already the outlines of the wharf houses were growing indistinct, and the lights of the city were beginning to twinkle. Captain Selover came to my side and leaned over the rail, peering critically at the black water against the piles.
"She"s at the flood," he squeaked. "And here comes the Lucy Belle."
The tug took us in charge and puffed with us down the harbour and through the Golden Gate. We had sweated the canvas on her, even to the flying jib and a huge club topsail she sometimes carried at the main, for the afternoon trades had lost their strength. About midnight we drew up on the Farallones.
The schooner handled well. Our crew was divided into three watches--an unusual arrangement, but comfortable. Two men could sail her handily in most sorts of weather. Handy Solomon had the wheel. Otherwise the deck was empty. The man"s fantastic headgear, the fringe of his curling oily locks, the hawk outline of his face momentarily silhouetted against the phosph.o.r.escence astern as he glanced to windward, all lent him an appearance of another day. I could almost imagine I caught the gleam of silver-b.u.t.ted horse pistols and cutla.s.ses at his waist.
I brooded in wonder at what I had seen and how little I had explained.
The number of boats, sufficient for a craft of three times the tonnage; the capacity of the forec"stle with its eighteen bunks, enough for a pa.s.senger ship,--what did it mean? And this wild, unkempt, villainous crew with its master and his almost ridiculous contrast of neatness and filth;--did Dr. Schermerhorn realise to what he had trusted himself and his precious expedition, whatever it might be?
The lights of sh.o.r.e had sunk; the _Laughing La.s.s_ staggered and leaped joyously with the glory of the open sea. She seemed alone on the bosom of the ocean; and for the life of me I could not but feel that I was embarked on some desperate adventure. The notion was utterly illogical; that I knew well. In sober thought, I, a reporter, was shadowing a respectable and venerable scientist, who in turn was probably about to investigate at length some little-known deep-sea conditions or phenomena of an unexplored island. But that did not suffice to my imagination. The ship, its surroundings, its equipment, its crew--all read fantastic. So much the better story, I thought, shrugging my shoulders at last.
III
THE TWELVE REPEATING RIFLES
After my watch below the next morning I met Percy Darrow. In many ways he is, or was, the most extraordinary of my many acquaintances. During that first half hour"s chat with him I changed my mind at least a dozen times.
One moment I thought him clever, the next an utter a.s.s; now I found him frank, open, a good companion, eager to please,--and then a droop of his blond eyelashes, a lazy, impertinent drawl of his voice, a hint of half-bored condescension in his manner, convinced me that he was shy and affected. In a breath I appraised him as intellectual, a fool, a shallow mind, a deep schemer, an idler, and an enthusiast. One result of his spasmodic confidences was to throw a doubt upon their accuracy. This might be what he desired; or with equal probability it might be the chance reflection of a childish and aimless amiability.
He was tall and slender and pale, languid of movement, languid of eye, languid of speech. His eyes drooped, half-closed beneath blond brows; a long wiry hand lazily twisted a rather affected blond moustache, his voice drawled his speech in a manner either insufferably condescending and impertinent, or ineffably tired,--who could tell which?
I found him leaning against the taffrail, his languid graceful figure supported by his elbows, his chin propped against his hand. As I approached the binnacle, he raised his eyes and motioned me to him. The insolence of it was so superb that for a moment I was angry enough to ignore him. Then I reflected that I was here, not to stand on my personal dignity, but to get information. I joined him.
"You are the mate?" he drawled.
"Since I am on the quarter-deck," I snapped back at him.
He eyed me thoughtfully, while he rolled with one hand a corn-husk Mexican cigarette.
"Do you know where you are going?" he inquired at length.
"Depends on the moral character of my future actions," I rejoined tartly.
He allowed a smile to break and fade, then lighted his cigarette.