The Air Pirate Part 16

"I think not on our first night. But they sing very well. As a foreigner I am interested in all English customs; may I take a peep?..."

He had gone to the communicating door as he spoke, and pulling aside a red curtain which covered the upper half of gla.s.s, he looked through. I did the same.

The long room was full of people and tobacco smoke. With a single exception, that of Mr. Vargus, they were all quite young men, ranging, I should say, from three-and-twenty to thirty. Most of them were dressed in old tweed suits, but the material and cut told their own tale, and spoke of the "right" kind of tailor. At first glance they might have been a collection of naval officers or senior undergraduates, but only at first glance. My eyes roved from face to face, and on each I saw the loss of innocence and honour. Some were cunning; others had a brutality in ill accord with their youth, and there was a hard bravado in the eyes of all. It was sickening. One felt that one had suddenly looked upon something that should remain hidden. In that haze of smoke lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and evil in the universe.

I almost wanted to spit upon the floor, in an uncontrollable gesture of repudiation. As I turned, I saw the landlord looking at me.

"A promising lot of young devils," said I.

"You do see it too, zur?" he replied, and then Danjuro touched my arm, and I turned to look again. A man, without a hat, had just entered the room from the outside. He sat in a chair which he had obviously occupied before, for he was in naval uniform, and his cap was lying there. He was a big, foolish-looking fellow, far gone in drink, but despite that his face was the only wholesome one there.

"Who is that?" I whispered to Trewh.e.l.la, as Mr. Vargus poured a generous allowance of rum into the new-comer's gla.s.s.

"That's Billy Pengelly, our coastguard. The gentlemen do make a lot of him, and he's none the better for't, for Billy's one as likes his drop.

Still, he goes and sleeps it off, and he belong to be strong as a bull.

And in these lone parts there's not often anyone to see if he's on the watch or not."

A tall boy with a banjo took up his instrument and tw.a.n.ged the chords.

"Now, gentlemen!" he shouted in a clear fresh tenor, "a chorus!" And without further preliminary he dashed into nothing less than the "Pirate's Chanty" from "Treasure Island":

"_Fifteen men on the dead man's chest!

Yo, ho! and a bottle of rum!_"

The inn rocked with the volume of sound. I stood there fascinated, with a sort of horror. The thing--knowing what I knew--was so daring and grim that, more than anything else, it showed me with whom we had to deal.

The application was lost upon Danjuro, but I told him what it meant in French, and he nodded with contracted eyes.

"_Drink, and the devil had done for the rest, Yo, ho! and a bottle of rum!_"

One would have thought that the room could not contain the noise, and that the very windows must be shattered, and in the very middle of it I heard something else--the urgent, throbbing sound of an engine.

Danjuro heard it as soon as I did. "Motor-bicycle," he whispered.

The sound grew insistent. Whoever was coming rode h.e.l.l for leather and with the exhaust open. Then there was a succession of reports, a grinding noise, and the door of the bar was flung suddenly open.

A tall man in goggles and overalls covered with dust walked in. As he did so, the pirate chant stopped with dramatic suddenness, and the singers jumped to their feet. Then he removed his gla.s.ses and his cap.

It was Major Helzephron.

They cl.u.s.tered round him thickly, and to each one he said a quiet word.

In every case, when this happened, the man spoken to nodded and vanished into the night. I could hear them running outside the inn. Lastly, Helzephron took Vargus by the arm, and they also pa.s.sed out. I could see the man more plainly than ever before. There was a great bruise round about the left eye, and the face was pale. But it blazed with will and purpose, and the cruel mouth was set in a malicious and abominable smile.

"_The wolves are hunting to-night!_" Danjuro said to me two minutes later in my bedroom, and once again his face was like a demon of Old j.a.pan. "Helzephron will not appear at the police court to-morrow. He has arranged it somehow, and, after all, it is a trivial affair. He has ridden down from London during the day."

"You mean that there is going to be a raid to-night?"

"I feel sure of it. Why else should Helzephron rush from London? And you observed the manner of his confederates. Don't you see this--with all his cunning precautions the pirate is far too clever not to know that his career must be a short one. He cannot hope to remain concealed for any great length of time. His object is to obtain an immense fortune _quickly_. Already I calculate he has stolen jewels and money to the value of two hundred thousand pounds. A few more such coups and he can disband his crew and disappear for ever. Speed is the essence of his plan."

"But we must do something, we must stop it...."

"Our opportunity for action is improved, Sir John. In the first place, you must take steps to concentrate a fleet of patrol ships in this neighbourhood."

"The car is here. I can write official telegrams in code to Plymouth and London. Within an hour the hinterland and the sea from here to Scilly can be covered with a swarm of ships. St. Ives is only six miles away."

"Write the dispatches at once. I will call Thumbwood, who must take them in, together with an official note from you to the postmaster."

I unlocked my portfolio and wrote the wires. There should be such an invasion of the air to-night as Far West Cornwall had never known!

Thumbwood appeared, I gave him full instructions, and heard the Rolls-Royce start below.

"And now, our part!" I said to Danjuro.

"If we are right in our conjecture, the pirates will shortly leave Tregeraint on their expedition. How they will join the airship or where we don't know. But we may safely a.s.sume that the house will be left in charge of one or at most two men. The others will all be wanted to man the ship; it is a simple calculation. Here is your chance. You must get inside Tregeraint, obtain conclusive evidence, and if the poor lady is there alive, bring her away in safety. Perhaps to-night the Pirate Ship will make its last cruise! Our presence here, our ident.i.ty, is quite unsuspected. A concentration of hostile airships in this neighbourhood is the last thing Helzephron will expect to-night."

"And you, my friend?"

"I would that I could come with you, for you go in danger of your life, but, as I see it, my work should be different. Someone, in view of its escape, _must_ solve the mystery of the Pirate Ship itself. I have a theory already; I must put it to proof. There are boats in the cove below--I see that the moon is rising, I know what I must do. But, even so, I will come with you, Sir John, if you say so."

I shook my head. "No, I will go alone. It is my job."

Then Danjuro did a strange thing. He took my hand, bowed over it and kissed it! "You also are of the Samurai!" he said.

In a minute more he carried in a heavy bag from his own bedroom, and produced from it a miscellany of objects.

"Here is a twelve-shot automatic, with a dozen cartridge clips," he said. "You know all about the working of it? I thought so. This pair of wire-cutters you will need for the barbed fence. These two keys with adjustable wards--you turn the milled screw at the end to adjust them--will open any ordinary lock. Here also is an extremely powerful steel lever, with a wedge end. In the hands of, a strong man like yourself it will wrench open most windows or doors."

G.o.d knows there was no lightness in my heart, but in the usual English way at serious moments, I laughed.

"The Complete Burglar!" I said.

Danjuro looked at me with a glance as cold as ice.

"I am in most deadly earnest, Sir John. You know what my experience has been. Well, I say deliberately that I have never been in such peril as you are going into."

"I meant nothing. And what is this?" I had taken up a little leather tube with a lens at one end.

"A powerful electric torch. But it is more than that. You can instantly reverse it in your hand, and if you press this stud, the plated bottom flies open, and by means of a spring an ounce of cayenne pepper is projected for several yards. It will stop anyone and operates instantaneously. A little thing I invented and have found most useful.

These handcuffs are of papier mache and weigh practically nothing. They are from j.a.pan and tough as the hardest steel. You may require them. And I never go on an expedition without this tiny bottle of chloroform and pad. You can stow everything about you with ease, and the combined weight is as nothing."

I did so, and it was as he said. Then a thought struck me.

"Armed and prepared like this, I feel certain that I shall get in. But there are two Tibetan mastiffs let loose in the grounds at night. I can shoot them, but the noise of the report ..."