by Ian Hay
CHAPTER IX
_LITERA SCRIPTA MANET_
"Mr. Marrable, did ever ye see a drookit craw?"
"No."
"Well, see me!" announced Mr. Goble complacently.
He crawled out of the engine-room companionway and sat down on the deck.Excessive spruceness had never been a foible of his, but now he was anunrecognisable mass of coal-dust, oil, and rust. He was dripping wet,for he had spent the last hour in an exhaustive examination of theOrinoco's waterlogged internal economy. The morning sun was warm, and hesteamed comfortably as he detailed the result of his investigations toHughie, who in some imperceptible but inevitable manner had takencommand of the tiny ship's company.
Shorn of technicalities and irrelevant excursions into the regions ofpawky philosophy, Mr. Goble's report came to this.
Mr. Angus had pumped out the after ballast-tank during the night,allowing the water, by means of a specially rigged return-pipe, to flowinto the bilges of the ship instead of escaping overboard. By thisdevice he had altered the Orinoco's centre of gravity in such a manneras to produce the afore-mentioned down-hill slant of her decks--acorroborative detail, as Pooh-Bah would have observed, which gave alittle much-needed artistic verisimilitude to the Bimbo Brothers' baldand unconvincing narrative of disaster. Incidentally he had flooded theforehold and engine-room with sufficient water to give those members ofthe ship's company who were not in their employer's confidence theimpression that she was sinking, and to furnish those who were with a_prima facie_ argument for deserting her.
But these thoughtful precautions, though sufficient to procure theabandonment of the Orinoco, were by no means sufficient to send her tothe bottom, a consummation to be achieved at any cost; for to leaveyour ship lying about in mid-ocean, to be picked up by the firstchance-comer, while you go hurrying home to extract a cheque from theinsurance company, savours of slipshod business methods; and Mr. NoddyKinahan was nothing if not thorough.
Now every steamer which plies under Lloyds' aegis is fitted, below thewater-line, with a set of what are called bilge-valves. Through these itis possible to expel any water which may have found its way into thebody of the vessel. As it is even more desirable to prevent the entranceof water into your ship than to assist its exit, these valves are ofa strictly "non-return" variety, and no amount of pressure fromthe outside should ever prevail upon them to play the part ofFacing-Both-Ways. The very life of the ship depends upon them; and theenterprising individual who tampers with their mechanism in such amanner as to convert what is meant to be an Emergency Exit into a sortof Early Door for the rolling deep, does so at the risk of coming intoimmediate and painful collision with the criminal laws of his country.
Mr. Angus, it appeared, had been employing some of his spare time duringthe voyage in reversing one of these bilge-valves, with such skill and_finesse_ that, as we have seen, one had only to give a turn to aworm-and-wheel gear in the engine-room to admit the Atlantic Ocean inlarge quantities.
"Oh, he has a heid on him, has Angus!" commented Mr. Goble withprofessional appreciation, "even when he's fou'. He made a rare job o't.But how he managed to contrive that imitation o' a collision, merelythrough some jookery-packery wi' the reverse-gear and throttle, wi'oottearin' the guts oot o' her, I div not ken. Man, it was a fair conjurin'trick! By rights the link motion should be twisted intil a watch-chainand the cross-heids jammit in the guides. But they're no. It's jistProvidence, I doot," he added rather apologetically, with the air of onewho should have thought of this sooner.
Then he uprose from his seat on an inverted bucket.
"Before I gang ben, sir," he concluded, "tae change ma feet and mabreeks, I'll tak' the liberty tae inquire of you what you propose taedae next. Maircy me! Yon's Walsh."
Two figures had appeared round the corner of the chart-house, theirpresence on the far side thereof having been advertised for some time bythe clanking of the deck-pumps. (Mr. Angus's precaution of blowing offsteam before leaving had put mechanical assistance in getting rid of thewater out of the question for the time being.)
"Yes, it's me," said Walsh, who, it will be remembered, was the secondengineer, to whom Hughie had recently been acting as deputy. "I shouldhave come on duty at eight bells to relieve Angus, but I slept rightthrough everything till Mr. Marrable found me in my bunk an hour or twoago. I expect they put something in my grog last night."
"It's quite a hobby of theirs," said Allerton drily. "Mr. Marrable, Ihave found something that may be useful to us."
He handed his superior officer a damp but undamaged little packet ofpapers.
"Where did you find them?" asked Hughie. "I thought I had gone throughKingdom's kit pretty thoroughly."
"They were sticking in the falls of the davits belonging to the boatKingdom went off in," replied Allerton. "I saw him hurrying along thedeck from his cabin just before his departure, carrying the log-book andsome papers and instruments. I expect he dropped these as he went overthe side."
"Sit down, everybody," said the commander, "we'll see this through. Itmay concern us all."
The packet contained two letters, together with some invoices and billsof lading referring chiefly to the Orinoco's cargo of astringent claret.
Hughie glanced through the letters. Then he re-read them with somedeliberation. Then he whistled low and expressively. Then he sat up andsighed, gently and contentedly.
"Mr. Noddy Kinahan," he said, "is shortly going to wish, with all hisbenevolent and philanthropic little heart, that he had never been born.And we are the people that are going to make him wish. Listen!"
He read the two letters aloud. They were brief, but explicit. Onecontained Kinahan's orders to Kingdom as to the disposal of the Orinoco.The other was a sort of invoice, or consignment note, relating to theperson of one Marrable, who had apparently been shipped on board thenight before the ship sailed. Each of these documents, it may be added,contained sufficient matter to ensure penal servitude for their author.
Hughie stopped reading, and there was a long and appreciative silence.Then Allerton said:--
"What beats me is to understand how Kinahan could have been such a mugas to commit these schemes to paper, and how Kingdom should have beensuch a fool as to want to keep them. _I'd_ have let them go down in theOrinoco."
"I expect one explanation covers both cases," said Hughie. "Kingdomprobably demanded his orders in black and white, as a guarantee that hewould get his money when he had done his job. Otherwise he had no claimon Kinahan for a penny, beyond his ordinary wage as skipper. Kinahanprobably agreed, stipulating that the letters should be handed back tohim when they squared accounts. It was a risky thing to do, but when twothieves can't trust each other, and go dropping about documentaryevidence to that effect--well, that's where poor but deserving peoplelike ourselves come in. No, I shouldn't think Kingdom _would_ want toleave these behind; and I opine that he's a pretty sick man by this timeif he has missed them."
He folded the letters up, and put them away carefully.
"Now, gentlemen," he said briskly, "I propose that we go below and seeif there is sufficient steam on the Orinoco to pump the rest of thewater out of her and get the propeller revolving again. We'll have todamp down most of the fires, because we can't run too many firemen, butI think we ought to knock four or five knots out of her in ordinaryweather. Luckily, seventy-five _per cent_ of the ship's company arecompetent engineers. After that we'll have some breakfast, and afterthat we'll make tracks for home. We'll work"--he smacked his lipscheerily, like an energetic pedagogue on the first morning of term--"inshifts of three. Two men will run the engine-room and stokehold, and thethird will take the wheel. The fourth can sleep. That will give us eacheighteen hours on and six hours off. I don't know where we are, and Ihave no means of finding out, as Captain Kingdom has walked off with thechart and most of the proper instruments. But we must be near land, orthey would not have taken to the boats yet. If we keep steaming steadilyeast (with a little north
in it), at about a hundred miles a day,--whichI fancy is about our limit,--we should knock up against something sooneror later. And when we do, we'll get hold of the proper authorities, andI venture to think that with the help of these two letters and thatdoctored bilge-valve down below we shall be able to prepare a welcomefor those three boat-loads of shipwrecked mariners, when they arrive,that will surprise them. Also, I fancy there will be pickings for you inthe way of salvage. What a game!" Hughie stood up, and inhaled a greatbreath. This was real life! "Are you _on_, boys?" he cried suddenly. "Isthe old Orinoco going to the bottom this journey?"
The crew rose at him and gave three cheers.
* * * * *
Later that afternoon, as the Orinoco pounded along at a strictlyprocessional pace through the ruffling waters,--the glass was fallingand a breeze getting up,--Deputy-Quartermaster Lionel HinchcliffeWelford-Welford Allerton, late scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge,sometime Assistant Deck-Hand in the mercantile marine, descried from hispost on the bridge a small moving object upon the starboard bow.
It was the Orinoco's whale-boat, which was proceeding under two lugsailson a course parallel with the steamer's.
Allerton, who in the excitement of salving the Orinoco had almostforgotten the existence of the gang of buccaneers who had scuttled her,excitedly rang the telegraph bell and summoned the rest of the ship'scompany to his side.
The emotions, however, aroused in the Orinoco by the sight of thewhale-boat were mild in comparison with those excited in the undutifulwhale-boat by the spectacle of her resuscitated parent. Mr. Angus, onbeholding the steamer, kept discreetly silent. He had given himself awayby seeing things which were not there once or twice in his life before.But Captain Kingdom turned a delicate apple-green.
"Look there!" he gasped, pointing.
"Yon bit cloud, ye mean?" said the cautious Angus.
"No, no, man--the Orinoco!" cried the frantic skipper.
"Oh--the shup! Aye, aye!" replied Mr. Angus, rather pleased thanotherwise.
"There's a crew on board her," continued Kingdom shakily. "And she's gotsteam on her, too!"
"Aye," said Mr. Angus. "I doot somebody will have closed yon sea-cockagain."
"Who can it be?" demanded the captain feverishly. "Surely we left no oneon board. I told Dingle to take that fellow Marrable in his boat."
"Perhaps," suggested Mr. Angus, "yin of the other boats cam' back."
Kingdom pointed impatiently to two small specks upon the horizon.
"They're there," he said.
"Maybe some liner has come across her and left a bit crew on board her,"continued the fertile Mr. Angus.
"If so, we'd have seen the liner," replied Kingdom irritably.
He took up his binoculars and began to scrutinise the Orinoco, which hadaltered her course a few points in their direction.
Mr. Angus had a fresh inspiration.
"Did ye mind tae wauken Walsh?" he whispered. "If not, ye ken he michtweel--"
The captain lowered his glasses, and nodded.
"He might be one," he agreed; "but there are four men on deck." Heraised his binoculars again. "Yes, there they are. Well, whoever theyare and whatever the game is, we must get on board again and do the jobproperly this time.--Hallo, one of them is running below!--Here he isagain!--He's carrying something--flags, I reckon. They're going tosignal us."
He was right. Up to the topmost summit of the Orinoco's grimy foremasttravelled a signal--a banner with a strange device indeed, but conveyinga perfectly intelligible message for all that. It consisted of thenether or unmentionable portion of a ragged suit of orange-and-redstriped pyjamas.
Having reached its destination, it inflated itself in the fresheningbreeze and streamed out, defiant and derisive, in the rays of thesetting sun; flinging to the fermenting couple in the whale-boat thesimple but comprehensive intimation--"Sold!"
Then, with one single joyous toot from her siren, the Orinoco alteredher course a couple of points and wallowed off in a north-easterlydirection, leaving the crew of the whale-boat to listen in admiringsilence to a sulphurous antistrophe in two dialects proceeding from thestern-sheets.
