for one moment, as the men closed in on him, howard struggled with a furious desire to wrest a cutlass from one of them, and with it exact terms from the others. the odds, though great, were not necessarily overwhelming, and victory would mean much. had he stood on equal terms before the law, he would have risked everything in an immediate fight.
but he did not stand even. against him as a convict fighting for freedom, forbes could throw the entire population of his colony; even jackson might join in the unequal odds. the result of a struggle on that basis must be inevitable; dorothy would lose her only defender. later, when the time came, if it did come, to shift the fight to the defense of womanhood, he would have a better cause and might win allies. so he surrendered.
[136]“take him to the chester,” ordered forbes, “and lock him up. give him anything he wants to make him comfortable, and see after his meals. if he makes any trouble, put him in irons. off with you.”
sick at heart, howard marched away between his captors. the way led to the edge of the wide platform that constituted the village, down a gang-plank, and away for some distance across the wrecks. finally it led through a rent in the side of a big iron steamer, and up to what had evidently once been the captain’s cabin. into this he was thrust.
gallegher paused, with his hand on the lock. “you heard what the cap’n said,” he growled. “you behave yourself and nobody’ll hurt you. and, remember, there ain’t a mite of use tryin’ to escape, because there ain’t nowhere to escape to.”
the door slammed and howard was left to his own reflections.
his first act was, of course, to inspect[137] his prison. it was not uncomfortable. large, airy, and well furnished, it had evidently been selected because all its sides were of iron, three of them being formed by the sides of the vessel, and the fourth by one of her bulkheads. numerous port-holes admitted air and light, but were too small for a man’s body to pass through them. a skylight overhead had been closed with heavy timbers. altogether it was a strong place.
before he had had much more than time enough to familiarize himself with his surroundings, the key grated in the lock, and one of his captors entered with a tray, which he placed on a table built around the mizzenmast of the ship.
“here’s your dinner, sor,” he announced.
howard came over and sat down. as he did so, his eyes fell on some curious-looking mechanism which the man had pushed aside in making room for the tray. a question sprang to his lips, but[138] he choked it back as the other bent suddenly forward.
“i heard of what you said to bill and joe, sor,” he breathed. “is it true that you could get away from here if you had the chance, sor?”
“true? of course it’s true. give me a boat, two or three men, and a compass, and i’d start away at an hour’s notice. i wonder that you men don’t see that.”
“and will you take me and kathleen with you when you go, sor? kathleen’s my wife—joyce they call her, sor, though its nather chick nor child we’re after having, sor.”
“i’ll take anybody. but i’ve got to be free in order to prepare——”
“whist! that’ll be all right, sor. kape a stiff upper lip and everything will come right. the young lady and you have friends here, sor. i don’t dare to stop now, but it’s back again i’ll be later on.”
howard made no effort to detain the[139] man. he was in a fever of impatience to examine the instruments on the table, and the moment he heard the key turn in the lock, he pushed aside his dinner and began to finger them.
“it isn’t possible,” he muttered. “it isn’t possible! forbes would know better. but, by george, he doesn’t. it’s true! it’s true! he’s locked me up with a wireless outfit. if it’s only in working order.” he pressed the key and a rumble and a crash gave answer. “it is! it is!” he exulted. “by heaven! it is!”
“now to raise somebody before forbes finds me out,” he continued. “if the wireless only sent as silently as it received, it would be all right. but—well! maybe no one will notice. it’s pretty noisy here! anyhow, there’s nothing to do but try.”
he placed his finger on the key. “let’s see!” he soliloquized. “the naval station at guantanamo is nearest, but i don’t know its call. i’ll have to try c q d—the emergency signal.”
[140]again and again he pressed the key, and again and again the apparatus roared, sending the cry for help broadcast over the sea. no interruption came. the village was some distance away, and the noise passed unheard or unheeded. “c q d! c q d!” he called.
at last the answer came, faint but distinct, whispering in through the microphone on his head. “hello! hello! hello!” it sounded. “who’s this?”
“survivor of the wrecked steamer queen, now on board an unknown steamer in the middle of the sargasso sea. is this guantanamo?”
sharply the answer came: “yes. what did you say? survivors of the queen? good heavens, you were given up for lost. how many are you?”
“three! miss fairfax—”
“great scott! colonel fairfax has been wild. who else?”
“police officer jackson!”
“yes.”
[141]“and frank howard.”
“what! the murderer?”
“no. the convict. this is he talking.”
“oh! beg pardon! didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. where did you say you were?”
“we drifted into the sargasso sea on the queen, and brought up finally against the wreck-pack in the middle. then we changed to another ship. it’s a long story. you’d better note it down carefully. i may be cut off any minute.”
“oh! i’ll note it down all right. go ahead. but first about the others on the queen. two boats got to port all right. how about the third?”
“capsized! all lost except miss fairfax, who was washed back to the queen, and pulled aboard by jackson and howard, who had been left there by accident. now listen. this is urgent. we are in great danger here, and need aid at the first possible moment——”
[142]“in danger? what’s the matter?”
“listen, and i’ll tell you.”
hurriedly, but concisely, howard narrated their adventures, describing the wreck-pack and its queer colony, and pointing out the danger to which miss fairfax was subjected. toward the end of the story, guantanamo evidently became restless, for he broke in.
“say!” he clicked, disgustedly. “do you expect me to believe all that?”
“surely. why not?”
“because it’s nonsense. say, friend, you are wasted at sea. you ought to be a new york yellow-journal reporter. now, who the devil are you, really?”
“i’ve told you.”
“you’ve told me a pack of lies—begging your pardon. i’d got into a pretty fix if i reported this nonsense; now, wouldn’t i?”
“you’ll get into a worse one if you don’t. for god’s sake, man, don’t be a skeptical fool. as i’ve told you, i’m a[143] prisoner, and am only able to talk to you because this man forbes apparently knows nothing of the wireless. my jail may be changed any minute, and i may never get another chance. this thing is very serious. there are about twenty-five people hopelessly confined here on these wrecks, and aid should be sent them at once.”
“bah! you mean to tell me that people have been living there for years and years, and nobody has ever found it out?”
“lots of people have found it out, but nobody has ever gone back to tell. if you never heard of the wreck-pack, ask any old sailor, and he’ll tell you of it—though he’s never seen it or known any one who has. why shouldn’t there be people on it?”
“well, suppose there are. how can we help you?”
“a ship can get to us if it tries hard enough. the weed can be cut through,[144] though with difficulty. a sort of steam-saw projecting over the bow will do the work. the propeller will have to be screened to prevent fouling. perhaps a paddle-wheel steamer would get along best. when it is once in, it should skirt the edge of the wreckage till it finds us. the latitude and longitude i have given you are only approximate. t have no proper instruments.”
“who shall i notify?”
“notify colonel fairfax, first of all. this forbes may keep his threat and marry miss fairfax by force, or he may not. he shall not if i can help it. but i’m a prisoner and helpless just at present, though i have made at least one friend and hope for some others. anyway, colonel fairfax will want to rescue his daughter. then notify the government; there must be ships at guantanamo now that could start for here very soon. then notify the newspapers; if no one else will help us, they will. notify[145] anybody and everybody you like. stop! somebody’s coming. keep out till i call you again.”
it was only the irishman who came to take away the tray. he must have heard the rumbling of the wireless, for only a deaf man could have failed to do so, but he asked no questions about it, though he looked sharply at the instruments that howard had thrust aside.
howard in fact gave him little chance, plying him with questions as to forbes’s probable course of action. after he had gone, howard talked with guantanamo until late in the night.
the next morning the man came again. “can you foight, sor?” he demanded.
“fighting is my trade, joyce. why?”
“well, sor, the captain’s going to marry the young lady at four o’clock the day, unless somebody stops him. and the only way to stop him is to foight him. it’s a big man an’ a bad man he is, sor. are ye game for it?”
[146]howard smiled. “oh! yes. i’m game,” he declared.
“then i’ll get ye out in good time. tare and ’oun’s, but it’ll be a grand foight entoirely.”
