Brandon of the Engineers Part 46

"He will come," Don Sebastian rejoined with quiet confidence.

"Well, I guess he must know he's doing a dangerous thing."

"Senor Kenwardine does know, but he plays for high stakes and takes the risks of the game. If it had not been necessary, he would not have ventured on British soil, but since he was forced to go, he thought the boldest plan the safest. This is what one would expect, because the man is brave. He could not tell how far my suspicions went and how much Senor Brandon knew, but saw that he was watched and if he tried to hide his movements he would betray himself. It was wiser to act as if he had nothing to fear."

"As he was forced to go, his business must be important," d.i.c.k said thoughtfully. "This means he must be dealt with before he lands at Kingston. If we allowed him to meet his confederates there, the mischief would be done, and it might be too late afterwards to stop them carrying out their plans."

Don Sebastian gave him a quiet smile. "One might learn who his confederates are if he met them. It looks as if you would sooner deal with our friend on board."

"I would," d.i.c.k said steadily. "His plotting must be stopped, but I'm inclined to think I'd be content with that."

"And you?" the Spaniard asked, turning to Jake.

"I don't know that Kenwardine is in the worst of the plot. He was a friend of mine and it's your business to prove him guilty. I mean to reserve my opinion until you make your charges good."

"Very well," said Don Sebastian. "We'll be guided by what happens when we see him."

They let the matter drop, and half an hour later a white light and a green light crept out of the dark to seawards, and a faint throbbing grew into the measured beat of a steamer's screw. Then a low, shadowy hull, outlined by a glimmer of phosph.o.r.escence, came on towards the harbor mouth, and a rocket swept up in a fiery curve and burst, dropping colored lights. A harsh rattle of running chain broke out, the screw splashed noisily for a few moments and stopped, and a launch came swiftly down the harbor.

"The port doctor!" said d.i.c.k. "There's some cargo ready, and she won't sail for three or four hours. We had better wait until near the last moment before we go on board. If our man saw us, he'd take alarm and land."

Don Sebastian agreed, and they went back to the hotel, and stayed there until word was sent that the last boat was ready to leave the mole. They took their places with one or two more pa.s.sengers, and as they drew near the steamer d.i.c.k looked carefully about. Several sh.o.r.e boats were hanging on to the warp alongside and a cargo barge lay beside her quarter. It was obvious that she would not sail immediately, and if Kenwardine saw them come on board, he would have no trouble in leaving the vessel. If he landed, he would be in neutral territory, and their hold on him would be gone. To make things worse, a big electric lamp had been hung over the gangway so as to light the ladder.

d.i.c.k could not see Kenwardine among the pa.s.sengers on deck, and getting on board as quietly as possible, they went down the nearest companion stairs and along an alleyway to the purser's office. A number of rooms opened on to the pa.s.sage, and d.i.c.k had an uncomfortable feeling that chance might bring him face to face with Kenwardine. n.o.body met them, however, and they found the purser disengaged.

"If you have a pa.s.senger list handy, you might let me see it," d.i.c.k said as he took the tickets.

The purser gave him a list, and he noted Kenwardine's name near the bottom.

"We may as well be comfortable, although we're not going far," he resumed. "What berths have you left?"

"You can pick your place," said the purser. "We haven't many pa.s.sengers this trip, and there's n.o.body on the starboard alleyway. However, if you want a hot bath in the morning, you had better sleep to port. They've broken a pipe on the other side."

A bath is a luxury in the Caribbean, but white men who have lived any time in the tropics prefer it warm, and d.i.c.k saw why the pa.s.sengers had chosen the port alleyway. He decided to take the other, since Kenwardine would then be on the opposite side of the ship.

"We'll have the starboard rooms," he said. "One can go without a bath for once, and you'll no doubt reach Kingston to-morrow night."

"I expect so," agreed the purser. "Still, we mayn't be allowed to steam in until the next morning. They're taking rather troublesome precautions in the British ports since the commerce-raider got to work."

d.i.c.k signed to the others and crossed the after well towards the p.o.o.p in a curiously grim mood. He hated the subterfuge he had practised, and there was something very repugnant in this stealthy tracking down of his man, but the chase was nearly over and he meant to finish it. Defenseless merchant seamen could not be allowed to suffer for his squeamishness.

"Don Sebastian and I will wait in the second-cla.s.s smoking-room until she starts," he said to Jake. "I want you to lounge about the p.o.o.p deck and watch the gangway. Let us know at once if you see Kenwardine and it looks as if he means to go ash.o.r.e."

He disappeared with his companion, and Jake went up a ladder and sat down on the p.o.o.p, where he was some distance from the saloon pa.s.sengers.

Kenwardine was less likely to be alarmed at seeing him, but he did not like his part. The man had welcomed him to his house, and although he had lost some money there, Jake did not believe his host had meant to plunder him. After all, d.i.c.k and Don Sebastian might be mistaken, and he felt mean as he watched the gangway. A hint from him would enable Kenwardine to escape, and it was galling to feel that it must not be given. Indeed, as time went on, Jake began to wish that Kenwardine would learn that they were on board and take alarm. He was not sure he would warn d.i.c.k if the fellow tried to steal away.

In the meanwhile, the pumps on board a water-boat had stopped clanking and she was towed towards the harbor. The steamer's winches rattled as they hove up cargo from the barge, but Jake had seen that there was not much left and she would sail as soon as the last load was hoisted in.

Lighting a cigarette, he ran his eye along the saloon-deck. A few pa.s.sengers in white clothes walked up and down, and he studied their faces as they pa.s.sed the lights, but Kenwardine was not among them. A group leaned upon the rails in the shadow of a boat, and Jake felt angry because he could not see them well. The suspense was getting keen, and he wished Kenwardine would steal down the ladder and jump into a boat before he could give the alarm.

There was, however, no suspicious movement on the saloon-deck, and Jake, walking to the rail, saw the peons putting the last of the barge's cargo into the sling. It came up with a rattle of chain, and the barge sheered off. Somebody gave an order, and there was a bustle on deck. In another few minutes Kenwardine's last chance of escape would be gone, because a British ship is British territory, and her captain can enforce his country's laws.

Jake threw away his cigarette and took out another when the whistle blew and the windla.s.s began to clank. Although the anchor was coming up, two boats hung on to the foot of the ladder, and he could not be expected to see what was going on while he lighted his cigarette. Kenwardine was clever, and might have waited until the last moment before making his escape, with the object of leaving his pursuers on board, but if he did not go now it would be too late. The clank of the windla.s.s stopped, and Jake, dropping the match when the flame touched his fingers, looked up. A group of dark figures were busy on the forecastle, and he saw the captain on the bridge.

"All clear forward, sir!" a hoa.r.s.e voice cried, and somebody shouted: "Cast off the boats!"

Then there was a rattle of blocks as the ladder was hoisted in, and the deck quivered as the engines began to throb. Jake heard the screw slowly flounder round and the wash beneath the p.o.o.p as the steamer moved out to sea, but there was n.o.body except their colored crews on board the boats that dropped astern. Kenwardine had had his chance and lost it. He had been too bold and now must confront his enemies.

Jake went down the ladder and found d.i.c.k waiting at the door of the second-cla.s.s saloon.

"He's on board," he said. "I'm sorry he is. In fact, I'm not sure I'd have told you if he'd tried to light out at the last moment."

d.i.c.k gave him a dry smile. "I suspect that Don Sebastian didn't trust you altogether. He left me, and I shouldn't be surprised to learn that he had found a place where he could watch the gangway without being seen."

A few minutes later, the Spaniard crossed the after well. "Now," he said, "we must decide when we ought to have our interview with Senor Kenwardine, and I think we should put it off until just before we land."

"Why?" Jake asked. "It would be much pleasanter to get it over and have done with it."

"I think not," Don Sebastian answered quietly. "We do not know how Senor Kenwardine will meet the situation. He is a bold man, and it is possible that he will defy us."

"How can he defy you when he knows you can hand him over to the British authorities?"

"That might be necessary; but I am not sure it is the British authorities he fears the most."

"Then who is he afraid of?"

"His employers, I imagine," Don Sebastian answered with a curious smile.

"It is understood that they trust n.o.body and are not very gentle to those who do not serve them well. Senor Kenwardine knows enough about their plans to be dangerous, and it looks as if he might fail to carry their orders out. If we give him too long a warning, he may escape us after all."

"I don't see how he could escape. You have him corralled when he's under the British flag."

Don Sebastian shrugged as he indicated the steamer's low iron rail and the glimmer of foam in the dark below.

"There is one way! If he takes it, we shall learn no more than we know now."

He left them, and Jake looked at d.i.c.k. "It's unthinkable! I can't stand for it!"

"No," said d.i.c.k very quietly; "he mustn't be pushed too far. For all that, his friends can't be allowed to go on sinking British ships."

CHAPTER x.x.x

THE LAST ENCOUNTER

d.i.c.k awoke next morning with a feeling of nervous strain that got worse as the day wore on. By going down to the saloon immediately the breakfast-bell rang and making a hurried meal, he and his companions avoided meeting Kenwardine, and, after bribing a steward, were given lunch with the second-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers. Two difficulties were thus got over, but the time pa.s.sed heavily while they kept out of sight in quiet corners of the after well, and d.i.c.k found it a relief when a friendly engineer invited him below. Here he spent some hours, smoking and watching the machinery, while the fingers of the clock on the bulkhead crawled with painful slowness round the dial.

When he went up on deck the bold ridge of the Blue Mountains rose above the dazzling sea, but the lower slopes were veiled in haze and he could not tell how far the land was off. A mate informed him that they would have the coast close aboard at dusk, but did not think anybody would be allowed to land until the morning. Struck by a thought, d.i.c.k asked if any pa.s.senger boats were likely to be in port, and the mate replied that a Spanish liner would leave for Brazil soon after they arrived, but he knew of no vessel going north for the next few days. Then, after giving d.i.c.k some advice about the choice of a hotel, he went away.