Fire Mountain Part 34

"If the young lady will be of a kindness," he said, "she will perhaps write the directions down on the paper. Then we shall compare it with dear Mr. Blake's directions. Yes, please?"

Ruth took the proffered articles and, without hesitation, scribbled a couple of lines. Ichi recovered the book.

"Ah--so!" he exclaimed, after glancing at the writing. "Now, Mr.

Blake, will you be of such a kindness? I make the comparing. Yes, please?"

Martin spoke, also without hesitation. His memory was exceptional, and he had read often and attentively John Winters' code writing.

"South end beach--in elephant head--four starboard--windy cave--two port--aloft--north corner dry cave," Martin rattled off.

"Ah! So, it is of a correctness!" sang out Ichi with more feeling than Martin had yet seen him exhibit. He waved the book at Carew. "They speak the same. And observe, captain, here is our error so great. It says 'aloft.' We searched with much diligence all about, and beneath.

But we did not search overhead--so missed the cave of dryness. But now, ah!"

The little wretch almost danced for happiness.

Carew accepted the intelligence with calmness. It was apparent to Martin that Carew had spoken true words to Ruth--the man was more interested in the girl than in the treasure.

"Well, you had better go ash.o.r.e after the stuff," he said to Ichi.

"Take a full boat's crew, and Blake, here--yes, be sure and take Blake with you. I'll remain aboard--s.n.a.t.c.h forty winks, if I can, for I'll get no rest tonight if we pull out of this hole. You may return to your grandfather, Ruth!"

Ruth stood up. She half turned, as if to step for the door of Captain Dabney's room, then, swift as a flash, she darted to Martin's side and threw her arms about him. Her cool cheek pressed against his for an instant, and she breathed swift words in his ear.

"Courage, dear. There is a plan----"

Carew, with a snarled oath, placed his hand upon her shoulder, and drew her away with some violence, though he lifted his hand immediately.

"Nothing like that!" he admonished her. "By Heaven! I'll not stand by and watch you cuddling that cub! Get back to your room--go!"

Ruth threw a beaming, hope-filled glance to Martin. Then Captain Dabney's door closed behind her.

CHAPTER XVIII

THROUGH THE ELEPHANT'S HEAD

The j.a.panese gentleman might ramble at length in his speech, but he proved himself to be direct and speedy enough in action. Martin found that Dr. Ichi was disposed to hurry. No sooner had Ruth disappeared within the captain's room than he commenced to act upon Carew's orders.

A volley of staccato j.a.panese relieved the grim Moto of his sinister attendance upon Martin and sent him scurrying forward to the deck, to Martin's vast satisfaction.

Next, he held a low-voiced consultation with Carew, who had stretched himself out upon the divan at the after end of the room. This talk was inaudible to Martin, but at its conclusion Carew said:

"Very well. If you find you need a.s.sistance, signal off and I'll send another boat. And if you are going to take Moto with you, have Asoki send a hand aft to stand guard in the cabin while I sleep. Best to keep an eye on the girl."

Ichi turned to Martin.

"So we have made prepare," he stated.

He drew a revolver from his hip-pocket, examined it ostentatiously, and placed it carefully in a side coat-pocket. Martin, regarding the weapon with covetous eyes, recognized it as one of the ship's arms.

"Now, my dear Mr. Blake, you will be of such kindness to go before me to the deck? Yes, please?"

Martin arose promptly and started for the alley-way leading to the main deck. In his mind mingled triumph and trepidation--triumph because he knew that Ichi's expedition to the sh.o.r.e would lessen the number of the crew holding the ship and thereby aid the boatswain's plan for delivery which he was sure was maturing in the darkness of the hold; trepidation because despite his resolution to fort.i.tude he was more than a little uneasy concerning his own future. If he went ash.o.r.e with Ichi, would he live to return? Had Carew given orders as to his disposition? He had intercepted glances filled with a smoldering hate, during that whispered conversation a moment since.

Martin had a feeling that he was the object of that discussion, there at the other end of the cabin. Was Carew whispering murderous orders into Ichi's ready ear? The man was smarting under Ruth's scorn. What more natural to Carew's pitiless nature than to sop his mad jealousy with his rival's death?

The j.a.panese gentleman, cruel and vindictive beneath his surface suavity, would, Martin felt, be pleased to put a period to his existence. Was it merely to cow him that Ichi so carefully examined his gun? Or was it to have cruel sport with him, as Ichi had attempted to have with the boatswain?

"Whatever way," ran Martin's thought, "my job is to get as many of these yellow imps ash.o.r.e as is possible, and hold them there as long as I can, so that the bosun, leading his outbreak, will have a chance of success. What if Ichi does let daylight through me? It is for Ruth!"

Closely followed by Ichi, Martin traversed the pa.s.sage and stepped out on deck, and found himself bathed with the sunlight of a bright, calm morning. At Ichi's word, he paused outside the door.

Ichi continued across the deck and spoke to a man who was shouting over the rail to a boat crew overside. Martin recognized the man; he was the same bow-legged, muscular little j.a.p who had acted as his guide that night in the Black Cruiser. He wore an air of authority; Martin concluded he was the mate of Carew's yellow following, perhaps the fellow, Asoki, Wild Bob had mentioned.

The mate turned from Ichi and hallooed forward. A man who was sitting on the sunny deck, abaft the galley, arose and came aft in obedience to the hail. Martin saw the fellow carried one of the _Coha.s.set's_ rifles. He paused while Ichi gave him some terse directions, then he pa.s.sed Martin and entered the cabin. Ichi and Asoki then proceeded to inspect the boat overside.

Martin's eager eyes ranged about the decks. What he saw did not encourage his hopes. For just before him, on the main hatch, sat two impa.s.sive yellow men, one with a rifle across his knees, the other holding a shotgun. Forward, the galley blocked his view of the fore-hatch; but an armed man leaned against the rail at the break of the forecastle. So he knew that both hatches were well guarded from the deck.

The two men on the main hatch were of alert and efficient appearance; and Martin knew that Carew's men, being seal-hunters, must be experienced and expert shots. Martin regarded them gloomily. What chance for a successful rising in the face of these armed watch-dogs?

The lads would be slaughtered, even though their numbers were even.

The j.a.ps before him were dressed in clothes he recognized as belonging to his shipmates. He concluded that the invaders were already domiciled in the forecastle; probably a half of them were even then occupying the imprisoned men's bunks. Even so, the few armed men on deck would be more than a match for the boatswain.

If he only knew what time the boatswain would make his attempt! It was ten in the morning now--he had noticed the cabin clock--and the boatswain might wait till night, not knowing of the sh.o.r.e expedition.

How long could he manage to hold the party ash.o.r.e? If there only was some other, safer plan! Plan! What was it Ruth tried to tell him?

Had she also a plan?

Such were Martin's troubled thoughts during the moment of his leisure.

They were black bodings, and they almost killed the cheerful spark that had been born in his heart during the tilt of wits in the cabin. The menacing peace of the deck occupied all his mind. He barely noticed the mountain looming blackly beyond the ship's bows, and on either side.

Smoke was pouring out of the galley smoke-stack. The rattle of pots against iron came to his ears. Yip was preparing another meal; the j.a.ps, Martin reflected, were not denying their stomachs. Probably making up for the enforced starvation they had lately suffered.

He wondered if the men imprisoned in the hold had been given food, or whether they were being starved, like the boatswain, because of Dr.

Ichi's whim. Beneath the j.a.panese gentleman's velvet exterior existed a merciless humor. He delighted in cruelty, and Martin sensed that, for some reason, he bore a sly and implacable hatred toward the entire company of the _Coha.s.set_.

Martin wondered just what position Ichi filled in Carew's following.

In the cabin, his manner toward Carew had been of a man toward an equal, rather than a subordinate to a leader. Martin wondered if the yellow crew were at bottom Carew's men or Ichi's. They jumped to Ichi's orders; there, at the rail, Carew's mate was actually fawning upon Ichi's words. Ichi was plainly the owners' man.

Yip stuck his head out of the galley door, looked aft, and then withdrew from sight. Immediately after there issued from the galley the shrill caterwauling of a Chinese song, and a renewed rattle of pots.

Martin listened resentfully. Charley Bo Yip's cheerful acceptance of change of masters angered him. He had been quite friendly with Yip during the pa.s.sage, and he knew the Chinaman was a veteran of the Chinese revolution and a professed enemy of all j.a.panese. Yet here he was working for these same j.a.panese, apparently content with events, and serenely indifferent to the fate of his shipmates. During the scene in the cabin, Martin had divined from Ichi's bearing toward Yip that the thugs from the _Dawn_ regarded the Chinaman--or rather, disregarded him--contemptuously, as one of a despised and slavish race, born to serve obediently and menially. Which he was, thought Martin disgustedly.

During this short period of his musing, Martin's eyes were not idle.

He suddenly was aware of the cause for Ichi's delay.

From the recesses forward appeared Moto and another man, coming aft.

Moto carried a lantern in each hand, and the fellow who followed him bore a watch-tackle on his shoulder. As they pa.s.sed the galley, Yip's song ceased, and the Chinaman also stepped out on deck and ambled aft.