The Voodoo Gold Trail Part 15

"Of course," said Ray. "And I'm a mind reader, too."

"You, a mind reader!" said Norris. "And do you mean to say you can tell what I'm thinking?"

"Sure," said Ray. "You're thinking--a--you're thinking that I don't know what you're thinking."

And he had to dodge Norris's moccasin.

We were now keeping pretty much in that other schooner's wake. It gave us much satisfaction to find that the _Pearl_ had superiority in speed, at least in a moderate breeze.

The _Orion_ apparently had on all her sail; we were obliged to shorten sail a bit, to avoid overhauling the other. The waning moon came out of the horizon an hour before daybreak.

It was then we began to draw off a little, for we now had but one purpose--to keep an unwavering eye on the _Orion_. That vessel, it became plain, had come to have its single aim--to shake the _Pearl_ from her trail. And now day after day, and night after night, the contest was on. The _Orion_ at first put on every effort to outsail us; that was vain. Then she sought to hang us on dangerous shoals; but Captain Marat's charts told him where they lay. The _Orion_ tried at night, by sudden changes in her course, to lose us in the dark. But sundown always found us clinging to her ap.r.o.n strings, and a sharp eye on every shift of her.

A week pa.s.sed thus, and then the island of--well, suffice it to say it was an important island of the West Indies--This island hove in sight.

The _Orion_ made straight in, the _Pearl_ at her heels. The frowning guns of a fort guarded the harbor and city, which lay on the west coast.

At ten of the morning the two schooners came to anchor. The _Pearl_ chose a berth less than a hundred fathoms from the other. And it was little thought that these ships would go out of that harbor with rather a different distribution of pa.s.sengers than that with which they went in.

CHAPTER XI

AT HIDE AND SEEK WITH THE ENEMY

The white buildings of that city, with the green mountain background, and the white beach, overhung with its graceful palms, presented a pleasing picture. I remember I thought what a place this would be to spend a peaceful holiday; to fish, to hunt, to feast on the luscious fruits, and explore those forests of mountain and valley, and the wonders of the caves. If only we had never come up with that fiend, Duran.

When Captain Marat had seen to it that all was snug, and the awning stretched, he turned his eyes toward the _Orion_, who likewise had stowed her cloth under gaskets.

"I did not think that Duran would come in to thees place," he said.

"He tried to shake us off his tail by running fast," said Ray; "and he tried to sc.r.a.pe us off on reefs; and now I guess he's come in here to try to crawl through some hole that'll be too small for us."

"Well, that skunk is here to try some devilment, that's sure," observed Norris.

We kept a sharp eye on the _Orion_. Within the hour we saw a small boat from the city boarding her. In twenty minutes that boat came to the _Pearl_. The port doctor came over the rail. He was a Spaniard, but with a good command of English. He asked the usual questions of Captain Marat.

"Well," he said, when he had his answers, "I am afraid we'll have to hold you in quarantine. I learn there is yellow fever in the port from which you came."

"I believe there is some mistake," said Marat, "we heard of no yellow fever there."

"Pardon me," I interposed, "but did you get your information from the _Orion_?"

"Yes," admitted the doctor, "from Monsieur Duran."

"And is the _Orion_ to be quarantined?" I asked.

"No," he said, "the _Orion_ has not been in that port for months. The outbreak of yellow fever is less than three weeks old. Duran was hailed by a ship that gave him the news."

"We know," I told him, "that that man Duran was in the port on the day preceding that on which we sailed."

There was a dubious look in the official's face. And now he had come to dividing his attention between myself and a steamer that was just moving in. He put his binoculars to his eyes. Some moments he looked, and then he turned to us.

"Wait," he said. "There is a steamer from your port. I shall be back presently."

With that he got over the rail and went off in his boat to the steamer.

"Now then," said Norris, when he was gone, "there's that skunk's trick."

"But it's a monkey trick," said Ray. "He ought to know we'd have our story to tell."

"Maybe," suggested Julian, "he thought his wines--and maybe some gold--would give greater weight to his story."

I, too, had got the smell of liquor from the doctor's breath. It was quite probable Duran had been making very friendly with this official.

"Perhaps Duran counted on our going outside the harbor rather than be delayed in quarantine," said Robert.

"Yes, and that would suit him ver' well," said Marat. "He could then try and slip by in thee dark."

The doctor came back, as he had promised. And he spoke us without again coming aboard.

"That was some mistake about the yellow fever," he said. "You will be free to go ash.o.r.e."

"Well, and what will our voodoo priest try next?" said Grant Norris.

"Next, he'll have us arrested, for disturbing the peace," said Julian.

"His peace of mind," added Ray.

Our discussion became serious now. The more Duran sought to shake us, the more important that we observe his every movement.

That he would be going ash.o.r.e into the city was reasonably certain. If we were to see what he did there, it might be well to precede him, and lie in wait. Grant Norris, Robert Murtry, and Julian Lamartine, were selected for this expedition. Julian, like Jean Marat, had a fair command of the Spanish, which was the language of this port.

The three were in the small boat, ready to push off, when I recollected the bit of paper in my pocket, on which I had copied the addresses from Duran's book in the old ruin. There was among them an address in this port. I had out the paper, and called out the name to Julian, Paul Marcel was the name.

We saw the boat of our friends go among the wharves. It was not long till--"There he goes now!" cried Ray, and we saw a small boat moving sh.o.r.eward from the schooner _Orion_.

The moon, approaching its first quarter, set at ten that night, and our three had not returned from the city. The anchor-light on the _Orion_ was all we could see of her.

It was near midnight when I heard the dip of oars approaching, and directly Norris, Julian, and Robert climbed over the rail.

"It was a tame party we had," grumbled Norris. "Our friend Duran is back on his schooner."

"But the address was right," said Robert.

"Yes," offered Julian, "Duran spent most of his time at the home of a Monsieur Paul Marcel; and when he came out on the verandah to go, I heard him appoint to come back tomorrow. And they talked of some kind of party for tomorrow night."