CHAPTER IX
MONSIEUR PÉRIGORD again proffered me the use of his car for my return to the docks; but I was in a somewhat thoughtful mood and chose to walk. After I had left the stately home of my peculiar host and had time to recover from the almost hypnotic influence he had upon me, I rather regretted the impulse that had led me to agree in such an offhand manner to this extraordinary transaction. None knew better than I the difficulties of such a voyage as he proposed, and also that the odds against my ever landing that cargo of gold in France, and then personally conducting it to the French Treasury at Paris, were long. It did not seem fair that I should, in such a case as this, demand blind and unqualified obedience from my crew. It could not be generous to Jimmy Martin, for whom I had conceived such a great liking, and in the success of whose experiments I had become so profoundly interested, to ask him to jeopardize that floating laboratory where the result of his life's work was accumulated. Again, it seemed more than selfish to ask him to remove it and himself ashore in a foreign port so far from home.
I doubt if any one was ever more perplexed than I, as I sat for a time on a dock snubbing-post with folded arms, and stared out toward the Esperanza where she lay at anchor. Another steamer was entering port, her prow disturbing the still waters of the bay, and the voices aboard her sounding mellow and indistinct across the intervening space. About her was an air of fugitive haste, as if she had escaped from terrifying peril and was overjoyed to find refuge. A night bird, frightened by her hoarse whistle, flew through the skies with plaintive alarm. In the silence of the hour the very clang of her bells and the stopping of her engines, as she forged slowly ahead in her own momentum, sounded heavily. Then came the barking words of her boatswain and the strident rattle of her anchor chains through their channels as she "dropped her hook," Little and constantly diminishing waves raced ashore and lapped the piles beneath me with faint, caressing sounds. A watchman, carrying a useless lantern, came trudging down the wharf, talking to himself, voicing his speculations as to the newcomer's identity, and thus betraying the habit of one who spends much of his time alone. Aroused from my lethargy, I blew my whistle for a boat, and heard sounds of movement aboard the Esperanza as the men climbed overboard and took to the oars. I watched its progress, hailed, went down the weathered oak steps after it had touched, got into it, called "Give way," and leaned back still absorbed in my meditations.
Despite the lateness of the hour I was confident that Jimmy would be awake, so went direct to his cabin. In response to my knock he opened the door to a mere crack, until he identified me, and then threw it wide and invited me to enter. He bolted it carefully and then returned to his laboratory, where, as if careless of my presence, he continued the work upon which he had been engaged. He was wearing a heavy eye-shade, such as jewelers wear, and his face, silhouetted against the shaded light, was as strongly featured as that of a Sioux Indian's. He had apparently been in the act of completing something that looked to me like nothing more than an elliptic-shaped glass, or lens, and I waited for him to speak. It must have been fully ten minutes before, with a sigh, he laid it down, pushed the eye-shade to the top of his head, turned toward me, and asked: "Well, what is it?"
He lounged on his elbows with his back against the bench, as I told him of Monsieur Périgord's remarkable offer, and when I had concluded said without hesitancy: "Of course you are going to accept it! It sounds to me like a chance you can't afford to lose. That old chap is right; for if any man can get his swag across for him you are the one."
"I did accept," I admitted, "but somehow, thinking it over since then, it seems to me I was both hasty and selfish!"
"Selfish? What do you mean by that?"
"Why, just this: that it doesn't look decent to put your work into such risk."
He vented an almost scornful grunt, straightened up to his feet, turned back to his bench, picked up the piece of crystal on which he had been working, carefully rolled it in cotton, and placed it in a drawer, before he replied:
"Risks? I have been taking them all my life, and—" he grinned toward me—"particularly since I've been with you. One more trip won't hurt me!"
"But," I objected, "suppose they get us this time? What about your invention and all you have done, and all you have here in this room?"
For a little while he appeared to consider the situation, and I saw that his eyes now and then contemplated the different apparatus which he had gathered about him.
"I would hate to lose it," he said slowly, "but there is nothing in this world that can't be replaced. All this stuff that you see here is valuable; but the biggest value in this shop is here"—and he tapped his head suggestively—"right here in my memory. Good Lord, man! I can see every piece of it in my dreams when I try to sleep at night after a hard day's work. It's all there, although it might take years to get it out again. You have stuck by me through thick and thin, and if you think I'm not going to stick by you, you're badly mistaken."
"Then," I began, "it's only just to you that you get a pretty big share of the profit if we pull it off. And I propose—"
"Oh, never mind all that," he interrupted me; "we will count our chickens after they are hatched."
I went to bed considerably impressed with his faith in me, and having also eliminated one obstacle. It was with much confidence, therefore, that I called my crew together on the following morning, told them that I had agreed to a dangerous voyage into the war zone where the chances were ten to one against us, and asked no man to engage therein if he felt otherwise inclined. Perhaps the fact that I told them their premiums would be large in case of success had something to do with their enthusiastic approval; but I am convinced their loyalty to me was the greater reason.
Up to this period the German Government had pretended, at least, that it would respect the rights of unarmed neutral ships; but sinister tales were whispered afloat, and I resolved to procure suitable arms if possible, and, to avoid complications with the Venezuelan Government, get them secretly aboard. Farnes, through rather illicit methods, I fear, succeeded in purchasing one three-inch gun and an eighteen-pounder, high velocity, with fifty rounds of ammunition for each; but how to get them and their mountings aboard secretly, puzzled me.
"I can help on that too," Farnes declared. "I think I know a way. Did you notice a British tramp in the harbor? Well, her master, Captain Roberts, is a friend of mine. Perhaps you can get a chance to talk with him—say, down on the wharf this evening."
And I did. He was an elderly man of the old sailor type, and came directly to the point.
"Anything I can do to assist you, Captain Hale, I shall," he said. "In a way we are both doing something for the good of my country's cause. Of course you must get the guns aboard without any one knowing it, so you can at least have a chance to fight. I was chased by a U-boat about a hundred and fifty miles to the eastward. If he learns you are armed, he will sink without warning, and I am informed there are numerous German spies here who endeavor to keep their submarines informed as to sailings and cargoes. Yes, you would have a much better chance to fight for it if no one suspected that you were able to defend yourself."
Knowing what I did of German methods, I could but agree. It was his own suggestion that, inasmuch as he could trust every man of his all-British crew, he should take the gun-cases ostensibly to his own ship, and that night convey them to the Esperanza. It was also his suggestion that I could coast eastward when I cleared to a certain secluded cove and there mount them undisturbed. And so well did he subsequently carry out his voluntary service that it seemed an impossibility for any one to know of it.
The Esperanza's ostensible cargo of cocoa, rubber, and tropical products was already taken on and stowed. There remained nothing further to do but get aboard by night our real cargo of treasure. Gold is one of the most difficult commodities in the world to handle, because of its small bulk and concentrated weight. Any one who has ever assisted in transporting some five or six tons of it in small boxes that are back-breaking to. lift, knows that this is true. Moreover, I could not share this secret with either the broker or my newly made friend, Captain Roberts, without betrayal of one of those peculiar confidences which Monsieur Périgord had imposed upon me. Therefore I was compelled to conduct the job with my own men, unaided by any outside assistance, and if ever there was a tired crew it was mine when, in the darkness of the early morning hours, the last of the treasure was aboard. To guard against all chances I myself superintended its removal from the dock. A liberal bribe kept the night watchman at the farther end of the dock where he could not see too much, and I often wonder since what queer cargo he must have surmised we were taking aboard. Monsieur Périgord had made me promise that I would come to his residence and report to him the moment the task was consummated, regardless of the hour. I had cleared my ship in the late afternoon preceding and was determined to get away by dawn. Therefore I lost no time in hurrying through the quiet streets to the Frenchman's residence, where in person he admitted me. "Well, it is done," I said, "and so far, so good. We shall be off within an hour or so. Have you any further instructions to give me?"
"None whatever," he said; "I leave it entirely to your skill and tact. Please take this letter to the Minister of the Treasury, in France, and give it to him when you make your delivery. If, by any chance, that delivery is never made, destroy the letter, please, unopened."
Again I was almost overpowered by the responsibility of my task, but I was to a certain extent relieved by his next speech.
"During the last few days I have thought over what you said about insuring it and tried, notwithstanding the enormous premium, to place the insurance with the only reputable firm here. They would not gamble on it for any reasonable sum, and considering the exorbitant price I must pay, I did not close with them."
He must have seen the look of perturbation that came over my face when I realized that the secret might possibly leak out now that these people, whoever they were, had no incentive for keeping the news to themselves; for he added, as if he had read my mind, and was stilling my suspicions:
"Oh, you need not have the least fear of their laying my application before the public. They are men of honor. Do not be alarmed on that score. Nor must you, remembering that I am trusting entirely to your honesty, let it increase your anxieties; for if you do not succeed in your mission I shall grieve more over the loss of your life than for the loss of my treasure.
"But, monsieur," I blurted, "what desperate risks you are taking on my honesty! Why, you have left me in a position where, if I were a thief and made away with the entire consignment, scuttled the ship, and came back with a tale of shipwreck, you could have no recourse against me."
"Quite so," he said, quietly; and then, with that rare smile of his, "but you will not. Honest men don't do such things, and I have taken the utmost precautions to assure myself of your honesty. If the gold never reaches France I shall know that it has not been the fault of an officer and a gentleman, for such you are and such you will remain. Go now, and God bless you I I shall hope for your safe return, and if your mission is well done I do not think that, regardless of the stipulated sum which I am to pay you, you will lose much in the future for having befriended one who, while very helpless in his exile, has the means to reward those who serve him."
I looked back at the first turning in the graveled roadway which would hide the house from my sight. He was still standing in the open door, silhouetted against the light behind, and the silhouette strongly brought to me the certainty that he was but an old, infirm, and broken man, borne down by the burden of a great heart-hunger. I felt very sorry for him, and vowed that if skill and determination of mine could accomplish his object, they should be given to the utmost.
In my haste to get aboard the Esperanza I almost ran through the town and down the long dock, the sound of my footsteps reverberating from every side. My boat was awaiting where I had stationed it, and as I threaded my way through the huge, misshapen piles of freight with which the dock was cluttered, they seemed like the monstrous forms of strange animals, waiting to pounce up on me. I got into the boat and the men pulled away. Dawn was approaching with tropical swiftness as I looked back toward the dock from which I had embarked. Suddenly I saw something that made me shut my teeth in anger. A man had stepped out from behind one of those huge, ungainly piles of freight, and now stood clearly outlined as he rested his one arm on a post. The other arm was lashed and held up by a white sling round his neck. There could be no mistake. Mike Cochrane was there watching us off. For a moment I was sorry that I had not broken his neck instead of his elbow, for the sight of him on this night was in itself suggestive and menacing.