In Strange Company Part 25

"Buried the what?"

"The gold you obtained by your last legacy when you were in San Francisco."

"Sonny, they've been playing you again. What do you mean? I never had any legacy."

Thereupon I set to work and told him the story Juanita had told me. He laughed uproariously, then smacking me on the shoulder said--

"You just help me to get out of here, and you'll see what I'm worth. I promise you'll not find me ungrateful."

"Well, if I do get off," I answered, "I give you my word that I'll do my best for you."

We shook hands gravely upon it, and I continued--

"In what way do you propose to effect your escape? If we're going to make any plans, we'd better set to work upon them at once."

"Walk over here with me and I'll tell you all I think."

With that we began to pace the courtyard, and Veneda to propound his theory.

"Now," he said, "my idea is this. You see that further wall?"

I nodded. It was, as I have said before, a stone affair, perhaps thirty feet in height, surmounted by a bristling _cheval de frise_.

"Well, on the other side of it, as far as I can gather from the natives locked up in here, is a road, with a big paddy field on the other side of that again. At night, a sentry or patrol of some kind pa.s.ses round the entire building once every ten minutes, and naturally our attempt must be made between his visits."

"But how do you propose to get over it?" I asked, looking at the wall's apparently unscalable height.

"Very easily," my intrepid companion replied, "if you will only carry out my instructions to the letter."

"Let me hear what they are, and I'll do the best I can for you."

"Well, in the first place you will procure from one of the stores in the town, sixty feet of strong rope. With this carefully disguised you will wait till midnight; then you must engage a small kharti (native cab) with a good strong Malay boy driver, and proceed to the other side of this wall. When you get there, and only then, you will say to the boy--by the way, do you speak Malay?"

"No; unfortunately I don't."

"That's a pity, but it can't be helped."

He stopped and thought for a moment, then borrowing a pencil and a piece of paper, wrote something on it.

"There are two sentences," he said, and he repeated them once or twice to enable me to pick up the proper accent. "This one means, 'To the gaol'--that, 'You shall have ten guilders if you help me.' Say them over to me."

I repeated them till I was tired, and only then did he seem satisfied.

"I think he'll _sumjao_ you now," he said.

"And when I get here," I continued, "what am I to do?"

"Then you will uncoil the rope and throw one end over the wall, to the left, there. I will make it fast round my waist, and you and the boy must manage between you to pull me up to the top. It'll be a struggle, but you must do it somehow."

"And if the sentry should appear while we're at it, what then?"

"Well, in that case," he said with a laugh, "I'll leave it to your own instinct to know what to do with him; but I should suggest timing it so that you'll just miss him."

"And how are you going to manage to get into this courtyard after you've been locked up for the night?"

"Leave that to me, I'll work it. Perhaps I shan't go in at all."

"And when you're out, what are your plans?"

"Tanjong Priok, as slippery as the Malay can take us. Then we must get into the docks, borrow a boat, and set sail for the islands, to hide there till we can get on to Singapore or Ceylon. Batavia will be no sort of place for either of us after that. You'll stand by me, Ramsay?"

"I've given you my word," I said; "I can't say more than that, can I?"

"Not if you're the man I take you to be. Anyhow I'll trust you."

Just at that moment a stir was observable in the yard; the great gate at the end swung open, and a party of police entered. They came to where I stood, and signified that I should accompany them.

"Good luck," cried Veneda as I rose to go; "don't forget me."

I waved my hand to him and off we set. Once more our route lay in the direction of the consul's office, and arriving there, I was ushered into his presence forthwith. It seemed to me that on this occasion he regarded me in rather a somewhat different light.

"I suppose you're aware," he began, when the case was opened, "of the serious nature of the charge against you?"

I told him I was.

"Have you anything more to say on the subject?"

"Nothing, but that I am the victim of a villainous conspiracy," I answered. "I certainly did struggle with the man, and I don't deny that I hit him, but it was in purest self-defence. He was a noted bad character, and only came aboard at Thursday Island as a stowaway. On the occasion in question I had reprimanded him several times without any effect, and I was in the act of doing so again when he rushed at me. Had I not closed with him, he would have dashed my brains out with a belaying-pin. It was my fault that he died, but though I struck him, I had not the very faintest intention of killing him. I don't know who laid the charge against me, but that it was preferred simply to get me out of the way, I am as certain as that I stand before you now."

Thereupon, being permitted, I set to work and told him my story, just as I had told it to Veneda the preceding night. He listened with the utmost attention, and having asked me one or two questions, said--

"I am inclined to believe you. There is certainly something very underhand somewhere."

Stopping his examination, he wrote something on a sheet of paper, and ringing a bell, ordered that it should be despatched immediately. It was a telegram, I discovered later, to Thursday Island. Having done this, he recommenced his examination, and finally remarked--"I have sent for some information about you; until I receive it, you will be detained here."

Turning to the police, he said something in Dutch, whereupon I was marched into another room, and locked up. During the period of waiting my thoughts were none of the pleasantest. From a consideration of my own position, they wandered to the strange story Veneda had told me, and thence, by natural transition, to Juanita and her professed love for myself. From Juanita they pa.s.sed back, across what seemed a vast interval of years, to my first love Maud; and as I allowed my mind to dwell upon her sweet face, her ladylike manners, her gentle disposition, and her general refinement, a great home-sickness came upon me, and I resolved then and there, that if ever the opportunity offered, I would forsake my wandering life, and go back to England, like the prodigal son, never to leave it again so long as I should live.

While these thoughts were thronging my brain, I was again summoned into the consul's presence. This time he greeted me with a smile.

"Mr. Ramsay," he said, "I have been making inquiries in Thursday Island about you, and partly on their account, and partly in consideration of the fact that the _Mother of Pearl_ and all the witnesses against you have seen fit to decamp, goodness only knows where, I have decided to release you from custody, on the ground that there is not sufficient reliable evidence to warrant your detention. You may thank your stars that you have got off so easily, and I hope this will be a lesson to you to keep out of such company in the future."

I thanked him warmly for his action in the matter, and at the same time asked him if my bag had been taken away from the Hotel des Indes. It had, and he gave instructions to his clerk that it should be handed over to me. I was particularly anxious about this, for I had nearly forty pounds of the three hundred the Albino had given me in it, and I knew I should want all the money I could get to ensure success in the perilous enterprise which lay before me.

After answering the consul's inquiries as to what I intended to do with myself now that my ship had sailed without me, by saying that I had not yet made up my mind, I left his office, and departed in the direction of the town.

As we drove through it on the ill-starred day of our arrival, I had noticed some Stores, which I now thought would be likely to contain the article I required. I was right, and obtaining what I sought in the way of rope, I returned to my hotel, took a room, and composed myself to rest until it should be time to set off on the business of the night.

As darkness fell it began to rain, and continued to pour down until well after ten o'clock. Fortunately not a sign of the moon was to be seen; a thick pall of clouds obscured the entire sky. Having nothing to do, I sat and smoked in my verandah all the evening, and it was not until after eleven that I commenced any preparations for my departure. Then, stowing my money and what few little things I valued among my effects about my person, and carrying the big parcel of rope, wrapped up in as unsuspicious a manner as possible, under my arm, I closed my bedroom door, and pa.s.sed out across the garden into the streaming street.