"what part are you from?" asked jim barnes.
"illinois," said ellen maggs. "from elgin, where they make watches. were you ever there?"
"no closer than the outside of a watch," responded barnes. "but now i'm going there some day."
"why?"
"to see where you came from."
ellen maggs laughed a little and actually forgot to blush.
"do it again," said barnes.
"do what?"
"laugh that way. it's the prettiest thing i ever saw."
ellen blushed at that, then turned as nora sayers joined them.
"nora! mr. barnes comes from baltimore, too! he was born there!"
"good for him!" nora sayers laughed in her hearty, energetic fashion. "perhaps you know my father there, mr. barnes—the physician, doctor sayers?"
"don't know anybody there," admitted jim barnes. "i've been at sea ever since the war finished up, and before. but i'm going to settle down some day, across the bay from san francisco. ever been there, miss maggs?"
"only when i came out to china."
"well," said jim barnes, in his whimsical [transcriber's note: line of text missing from source book] all picked out! a fine little bungalow on one of the hills at sausalito, where you can see the ships all up and down the bay, and the campanile at berkeley clear across—
"have you got the girl picked out, too?" asked nora sayers amusedly.
"well," said jim barnes, in his whimsical way, "i didn't have up to a couple of weeks ago, but lately i've sort of got my mind made up. by the way, girls, you'd better get all ready. we're going to leave the ship in an hour or two."
"leave her?" they repeated as one, in dismayed accents. "how?"
"you'll see. i'll take the bridge when watches are changed at eight bells—eight o'clock. you come up to the bridge a little before then, and stick around. excuse me, now; i'll have to pack a few things myself."
barnes hurried away, leaving the two women at the rail.
dinner was over, a meal from which all three were glad to escape, coming out on deck to find the sun gone and the afterglow staining the horizon like old church windows. a tragic affair, that dinner! the captain was ill and did not appear; vanderhoof was on deck, more drunk than usual; the second engineer quarreled with the wireless cub, who lost his head in a fit of idiotic rage and had to be taken away and locked up, screaming curses. the chief engineer was also locked in his own cabin, enjoying a spell of "the horrors."
wishing vainly that he understood something about the wireless outfit, barnes sought his cabin and packed up the few belongings that he wished to take from the ship. while he was at this task, li fu knocked at the door and entered hurriedly.
"hello! what news? is it set for two bells?"
li fu assented. he was bursting with laughter over some joke of the cruel chinese variety, and barnes presently learned what it was. he was ordering li to warn abdullah of what was intended, with the intent to get the arab's family away safely, when the quartermaster exploded in a laugh and reported a conversation that he had overheard among some of the lascars.
it appeared that abdullah was as much in the plot as anyone, and was to receive as his booty the two white women. the assistant engineers had an eye on the same prey; while lim tock and gajah, the serang, were equally concerned. to the chinese, this was a huge jest all around, for it meant that the wolves would turn and rend each other.
"hell!" said jim barnes. "i hate to leave the kids here. but go ahead, now; and tell hi john to attend to the engines as soon as he goes off watch, then to get up to the bridge and stand by. have you got the boat ready?"
"aye, sir," assented li fu. "plenty wate'; eve'ything leady."
"on your way, then!"
barnes made his way to the bridge, where hi john and two lascars were in charge, and passed behind the chart-house unremarked. vanderhoof was not in evidence. aboard the sulu queen the clear night was already insufferably warm, for she was steaming with the wind.
passing to the centre starboard boat, barnes found the cover loosely in place. he put in his few effects, then gave his attention to the lines. like most old ships of a past generation, the steamer was equipped with clifford's lowering gear, the most beautiful boat-gear ever devised, in theory, permitting a boat to be lowered by slacking a single line. this was the boat carried for use in emergencies. it was not stowed in chocks but was swung out and left clear, secured by gripes to a toggle which could be slipped in ah instant.
"if we have luck she'll do," thought barnes, examining the lowering line. "the pendants are new line and not swelled; we ought to get down without spilling. hm! if anybody'd ever told me that i'd owe life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to this cursed ancient clifford gear, i'd have called him a liar! but wait. we're not off yet by a long shot."
true enough.
an automatic in either side pocket of his jacket, jim barnes took over the bridge from hi john as eight bells struck. then, dismay seized upon him. his own lack of foresight had brought on the crisis before he wanted or expected it! ellen maggs and nora sayers were on the bridge. they had brought some personal effects, each in a small grip; and from the look cast at them by the departing lascar wheelmen, barnes knew that suspicion was up.
two fresh lascars came to the wheel, with li fu. disregarding these, barnes made a slight gesture to hi john, who slipped out of sight instantly on his errand below. unless the engines were disabled, barnes knew that his preparations were of no avail. he greeted the two women with his usual air of cheerful assurance, however.
"all ready? fine! the two quartermasters are with us. come along, now, and climb into the boat—no time to lose, i assure you! in ten minutes this ship is going to be about the unhealthiest spot you ever heard of."
he led them around the chart-house toward the boat.
"but the captain!" protested nora sayers. "surely, if you know there will be some trouble, the other officers——"
"nix," said barnes. "good lord, girl! haven't you seen already what sort o' swine the others are? hear that so-called wireless officer scream? he's still off his head—and couldn't send a message if he were sane. and the old man's soggy with opium. here you are! step on this water breaker, and over into her; she's solid."
indeed, his words were given emphasis by the screaming of the wireless man, which had broken out anew down below. miss sayers stepped to the breaker, and barnes helped her up into the boat. then he turned, picked up ellen maggs bodily and lifted her over the edge, laughing as he did so.
"got your pistol? good. sit tight, and don't scream when things bust loose. see you later."
he left them hurriedly and returned to the wheel, fighting down his appalling helplessness to prevent what was going to happen. about the ship's officers he cared less than nothing; he was thinking now of the arab woman and her brown children below. abdullah might or might not protect them from the yellow fiends.
the tall figure of the serang rose at the starboard ladder. one glance from li fu told barnes that this was the end. the two lascars were here to finish the quartermaster, and gajah had come to attend to the second mate. the time was at hand.
barnes went to the door of the chart-house. a shot would do the business, but he wanted no shooting up here if possible.
"serang!" he exclaimed crisply. "step aft. something i want to show you."
that suited the malay, who loosened his kris in its sheath and followed. at the corner of the chart-house, barnes pointed across the deck, obscure in the starlight, to the boat.
"what's that?"
sincerely astonished, gajah peered at the boat, with the two women sitting in her. and as he stared, barnes let drive with the heavy barrel of his automatic, a full, fair blow across the skull. a grunt broke from the serang, who pitched sideways and flung out his arms. barnes caught him and lowered the bleeding form to the deck, then darted back to the chart-house.
just in time, too! for all his watchful care, li fu had been taken unawares, one of the lascars gripping him in both arms, the other with kris upraised for the blow. barnes was in upon them unseen, and struck down the man with the kris. the other lascar leaped away, gained the far door of the chart-house—and ran into the arms of hi john. something happened there. steel flashed and a man gasped; the lascar slipped to the deck quietly.
"you two men watch the ladders!" snapped barnes. "when you hear me call, come to the boat."
revolvers out, each quartermaster took one of the ladders. barnes turned and ran aft along the deck at top speed, disregarding the low call that the two women sent after him as he passed the boat. he was listening desperately for sounds from below. they came to him, came all in a jumble that his brain sorted out mechanically. first came a jarring wrench that shook the whole ship. then the engines stopped. whatever hi john had done, the work was effective. and at the same instant the night was split by a sudden cry.
"allah! allah——"
then the screaming of the wireless man was cut very short. an oath of desperation on his lips, jim barnes gained the small after ladder that led to the stern of the main deck. from below him burst a storm of cries; the shriek of a woman, the staccato yells of men, and a thin, shrill wail that maddened him. he dropped to the deck below, and found himself in the midst of an inferno, clearly illumined by the deck-lights.
abdullah lay across his water-pipe, stabbed in the back. nearby was his eldest child, also stabbed, and two lascars were fighting to take another child from the arms of its dying mother. barnes saw only this much, and then began to fire. he forgot everything but the horror in front of him, and only laughed when several of the lascars began to converge on him.
a shot rang out from one of the forward cabins. barnes, seizing the child, thrust aim up the ladder and then swung about to meet three lascars plunging at him. he shot the first and second, ducked the kris-swing of the third, then tripped the man and shot him as he fell. then he plunged for the nearest cabin, whence came screams.
just what happened next is something of which jim barnes never speaks. the orders of lim tock, to make a clean sweep of abdullah's family, were being followed to the letter. barnes was in the cabin for fully a minute—which, just then, was a very long space of time.
by the time he emerged, much had happened. there was a crashing and smashing from the length of the cabins as the doors were battered in. from the bridge, a spatter of revolver shots; and, from below, more shots followed by the wild scream of the old chief as he reached the deck—a scream of half rage, half agony. he died at the rail, trailing blood across the deck, in his fist a blood-spattered spanner. after him, the chinese stokers poured up to the deck and scattered for loot.
jim barnes came out of the cabin, thrusting a dead lascar ahead of him. about his neck clung one of abdullah's daughters, and under his left arm was another. from the passage leaped a stoker, whom barnes shot. then, at the ladder, he urged the two little girls upward to join their brother above.
a shot rang out at him, and the bullet slithered on the steel beside him. barnes paused to empty his automatics, then went up the ladder on the jump. at the top, he caught hold of the frightened children and rushed them along, shouting as he did so to the two quartermasters.
they, after shooting at the forms down below on the foredeck and in the well, joined him at the boat. barnes chucked in the three children and cast off the toggle.
"in with you, men, and lower away! i'll slide down the pendant. where's your pistol, ellen? hand it over—thanks. sit still, all of you! lower, li, lower! that's it——"
li fu slacked the lowering line about the cleat, and the boat fell away rapidly. barely in time, too; barnes perceived a rush of figures coming from the after ladder, and opened fire. they scattered.
there was a moment's breathing spell, while from fore and aft, alow and aloft, rose sing-song calls in cantonese and the harsher gutturals of the lascars. a rush was being planned from both sides.
barnes caught a soft call from below, and breathed a prayer of thanks. a number of figures showed at the corner of the chart-house. he emptied his pistol at these, then turned, caught one of the pendants hitched to the davit-head, and let himself go sliding down.
a burst of yells rang out from the bridge deck, but he was in the boat below ere any could reach the rail. the two quartermasters had already put out the oars, and barnes cast off the line and let the pendants unreeve as the roller whirled. the boat started away from the ship's side.
"here," came a voice, and barnes felt one of his own pistols shoved into his hand. "my clip fitted your automatic and——"
"good girl, ellen!" he cried out, and laughed as he fired at the rail above. a shot made answer, and a kris sang through the air to splash alongside—but the boat was clear. she drew away from the ship before the mutineers were sure just what had happened.
