THE BARBARY COAST
A coincidence got me aboard her. I"ll tell you how it was. One evening late I was just coming out of a dark alley on the Barbary Coast, San Francisco. You know--the water front, where you can hear more tongues than at Port Said, see stranger sights, and meet adventure with the joyous certainty of mediaeval times. I"d been down there hunting up a man reported, by a wharf-rat of my acquaintance, to have just returned from a two years" whaling voyage. He"d been "shanghaied" aboard, and as a matter of fact, was worth nearly a million dollars. Landed in the city without a cent, could get n.o.body to believe him, nor trust him to the extent of a telegram East. Wharf-rat laughed at his yarn; but I believe it was true.
Good copy anyway----
Just at the turn of the alley I nearly b.u.mped into two men. On the Barbary Coast you don"t pa.s.s men in narrow places until you have reconnoitered a little. I pulled up, thanking fortune that they had not seen me. The first words were uttered in a voice I knew well.
You"ve all heard of Dr. Karl Augustus Schermerhorn. He did some big things, and had in mind still bigger. I"d met him some time before in connection with his telepathy and wireless waves theory. It was picturesque stuff for my purpose, but wasn"t in it with what the old fellow had really done. He showed me--well, that doesn"t matter. The point is, that good, staid, self-centred, or rather science-centred, Dr.
Schermerhorn was standing at midnight in a dark alley on the Barbary Coast in San Francisco talking to an individual whose facial outline at least was not ornamental.
My curiosity, or professional instinct, whichever you please, was all aroused. I flattened myself against the wall.
The first remark I lost. The reply came to me in a shrill falsetto. So grotesque was the effect of this treble from a bulk so squat and broad and hairy as the silhouette before me that I almost laughed aloud.
"I guess you"ve made no mistake on that. I"m her master, and her owner too."
"Well, I haf been told you might rent her," said the Doctor.
"Rent her!" mimicked the falsetto. "Well, that--h.e.l.l, yes, I"ll _rent_ her!" he laughed again.
"Doch recht." The Doctor was plainly at the end of his practical resources.
After waiting a moment for something more definite, the falsetto inquired rather drily:
"How long? What to? What for? Who are you, anyway?"
"I am Dr. Schermerhorn," the latter answered.
"Seen pieces about you in the papers."
"How many men haf you in the crew?"
"Me and the mate and the cook and four hands."
"And you could go--soon?"
"Soon as you want--_if_ I go."
"I wish to leaf to-morrow."
"If I can get the crew together, I might make it. But say, let"s not hang out here in this run of darkness. Come over to the grog shop yonder where we can sit down."
To my relief, for my curiosity was fully aroused--Dr. Schermerhorn"s movements are usually productive--this proposal was vetoed.
"No, no!" cried the Doctor, with some haste, "this iss well! Somebody might oferhear."
The huge figure stirred into an att.i.tude of close attention. After a pause the falsetto asked deliberately:
"Where we goin"?"
"I brefer not to say."
"H"m! How long a cruise?"
"I want to rent your schooner and your crew as-long-as I-please-to remain."
"H"m! How long"s that likely to be?"
"Maybe a few months; maybe seferal years."
"H"m! Unknown port; unknown cruise. See here, anything crooked in this?"
"No, no! Not at all! It iss simply business of my own."
"Not that I care," commented the other easily, "only risks is worth paying for."
"There shall not be risk."
"Pearls likely?" hazarded the other, without much heed to the a.s.surance.
"Them j.a.p gunboats is getting pretty hard to dodge of late years.
However, I"ve dodged "em before."
"Now as to pay--how mooch iss your boat worth?"
I could almost follow the man"s thoughts as he pondered how much he dared ask.
"Well, you see, for a proposition like that--don"t know where we"re going, when we"re going to get back,--and them gunboats--how would a hundred and twenty-five a month strike you?"
"Double it up. I want you to do a.s.s I say, and I will also give your crew double wages. Bud I want goot men, who will stay, and who will keep the mouth shut."
"Gosh all fish-hooks! They"d go to h.e.l.l with you for that!"
"Now you can get all you want of Adams & Marsh. Tell them it iss for me, Brovisions for three years, anyhow. Be ready to sail to-morrow."
"Tide turns at eight in the evening."
"I will send some effects in the morning."
The master hesitated.
"That"s all right, Doctor, but how do I know it"s all right? Maybe by morning you"ll change your mind."
"That cannot be. My plans are all----"
"It"s the usual thing to pay something----"
"Ach, but yes. I haf forgot. Darrow told me. I will make you a check. Let us go to the table of which you spoke."
They moved away, still talking. I did not dare follow them into the light, for I feared that the Doctor would recognise me. I"d have given my eye teeth, though, to have gathered the name of the schooner, or that of her master. As it was, I hung around until the two had emerged from the corner saloon. They paused outside, still talking earnestly. I ventured a hasty interview with the bar-keeper.