Wild Norene by Johnston McCulley
Page 8
the contraband first?”
SEVEN days passed, with the steam
The captain whirled upon him.
schooner Amingo wallowing on toward the
“Who said anything about
south, and the Mexican gunboat following,
contraband?” he demanded.
dropping behind by day, creeping up by
“Why pretend with me?” asked
night, always watching, ready for any Connor. “I was just wondering if we were emergency, ready to match wit against near the end of the trip.”
Captain Bill Adams’s strategy.
“You are near the end of your trip!”
The pursuing craft had thrown out
the captain snarled. “Ready for the firing
her true colors, and now and then by party?”
looking through a glass one could see the
“I was beginning to believe you’d
sun reflected from her guns.
changed your plans.”
The
Amingo now was off the
“Well, I haven’t. You insulted my
Mexican coast, and Connor knew that the
niece—you’ll pay for it!”
end of the voyage was near. Times without
“Why not leave it to her?” asked
number he had passed or met Norene Connor.
Adams, but always he had merely saluted
“I gave you your chance. You
her courteously and passed on.
haven’t tamed her, have you? And you’ll
She had grown to be great friends
never get back to a United States port to
with Sally Wood, and with Sally Wood
say Cap’n Bill Adams weakened. You’ll
Connor talked a great deal now and then.
never tell about this voyage! Maybe I’ve
These conversations were but half
been a bit friendly with you now and then,
sweet to Sally. She was a woman who
and maybe it was because you amused me.
could read the heart of such a man as Jack
But don’t think I’ve altered my original
Connor. And she read that she had his
program.”
respect, but not his affection; that all that
“Oh, very well!”
was reserved for Wild Norene.
“You take it calmly enough.”
Guerrero, now that they were
“Why not?” demanded Connor.
approaching the end of the voyage, became
“You’re a man of your word, aren’t you?”
nervous and looked continually over the
“I
am.”
stern at the pursuing gunboat. He held long
“Very well. You’ve promised to
conferences with Captain Adams, at which
keep your hands off me during the voyage.
the skipper repeatedly requested him to And I’m going to take advantage of that attend to his own business; that he had
and tell you just what I think of you.”
promised to land the arms and ammunition,
The captain sneered in his face.
and that they would be landed.
“Go
ahead!”
On a certain afternoon the captain
“I’m not going to tell you that
mounted to the bridge during Connor’s you’re a cruel, masterful terror, because watch and looked long at the vessel behind.
you’d like that—you’re vain! I’m going to
Wild Norene
31
tell you that you’re an ordinary, plain right now, to tame you!”
fool!”
For a moment they glared at each
Captain Bill’s fists doubled other. For a moment Connor thought the instantly.
captain would break his word and strike.
“Remember your given word!”
But Captain Bill Adams only
warned Connor. “You’re ready to send me
laughed evilly, and started to turn away.
to prison or death on some trumped-up
“One moment!” Connor stopped
charge because I didn’t accomplish a task
him. “I have guessed that you’re going to
you made impossible. And I didn’t try. I
try to land that cargo under the nose of the
tell you again I love Norene. I told you I’d
gunboat that’s been hanging on like a dog.
win her. I still think I’ll do it. But I’ll not
Have you stopped to think of the
even attempt it now when she will think I
consequences?”
am making the effort merely to escape
“I’ll take care of the
punishment from you. I’ve done nothing to
consequences!”
make you seek vengeance on me—”
“There are women aboard—your
“Nothing, eh? Calling my girl an
niece and another. There may be a fight.
unmentionable woman, saying she was a fit
These women will be in danger. They’ll be
subject for barroom gossip, declaring to the
in danger of wounds or death, and of a
world you could tame her—nothing?”
Mexican prison and Mexican jailers. I
“I’ve explained that. I’m sorry I did
guess you know what that means.”
it. I know her now, you see. I’d marry her
“Well?”
if she’d have me and go back and tell every
“Land the women first. Run ahead
one in Astoria I’d done it, and beat half to
to Mazatlan and land ’em, then run out
death the man that dared make a remark
again and land your contraband. You can
about it, either in a barroom or in a church.
dodge the gunboat tonight. But don’t put
That’s where I stand.
the women in danger.”
“You shanghaied me and made me
The captain walked up close to him
mate of your law-breaking craft against my
again, but Connor did not retreat.
will. You placed me in a position where I
“I’ll land that cargo when and
was subjected to insult. You let Norene
where I please,” he said. “And you needn’t
believe things that were not true. You fear for the women. You’d best fear for haven’t been fair. You’re not only a fool,
yourself!”
but you’re a coward!
“Then you’d risk Norene’s life and
“Strike me now, break your word,
happiness for the sake of aiding a handful
and make yourself out a liar as well!
of ragged, ignorant fools fight against their
“That’s about all I have to say to
own government—for the little money the
you. I’m your mate until the climax, Cap’n
junta pays you?”
Bill Adams. But from now on I fight—you
Connor had raised his voice and his
understand?—I fight for myself and for words carried far. From below came a snarl Norene! And you’ll find that a Connor can
of rage, a cry of fright.
fight, curse you!”
Captain Adams and his mate looked
“Bah! Fight—and be cursed down—to see Senor Guerrero standing yourself!”
there talking to Norene.
“I’m not trying to tame Wild
Sudden hatred had flamed in the
Norene, Cap’n Bill! But I’m starting in,
senor’s eyes.
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32
“Ragged, ignorant fools!” he cried.
machinery that was to go back in the
“You call them that? They walk through
mines.”
jungles with naked, bleeding feet, they die
“I—I know I did, Norene.”
because of exposure and poisonous snakes,
“And now—guns!”
they are shot down like dogs when found,
“Run on to your cabin, Norene, and
they starve, they die of thirst, they let let us talk this thing out.”
themselves be strung up and riddled by
“No!” she cried, looking up at him.
bullets—and you call them ragged, “You—you lied to me?”
ignorant fools! They fight for what your
“Now,
Norene—”
country boasts every man has there—the
“You lied to me?”
right to live and be free.
“Don’t you understand, girl? It
“You Americans! Three months wasn’t necessary for you to know.”
ago I was coming into New York on a
“But you’re breaking the law!”
steamer from France. I saw a poor Italian
“It isn’t a fair law, girl. Why should
weep for joy when he saw your Statue of
it be against the law to carry guns and
Liberty. God pity him—and the thousands
cartridges to people who want to fight?”
like him!”
“Because,” she said, “unscrupulous
The senor’s words choked in his
men always would be starting trouble,
throat. It seemed to be genuine emotion
getting poor downtrodden men to fight for
depicted in his face.
liberty when really they would be fighting
“Ragged, ignorant fools!” he cried
to help rich men seize property. The law
again. “And how could we make the fight
would not have stood this long, uncle,
without breaking laws? My government is
unless it had been a good law. And all
strong enough to keep from us that with
nations would not have adopted it unless it
which to fight. We can’t fight with the
was good. You don’t know what you do.
ballot, for that is denied us. And if we use
“You’re making it possible for men
guns, we must smuggle them.
to shoot one another, you’re helping create
“Your country—your liberty-loving
widows and orphans—and you’re breaking
country—denies us the right to buy guns
the law!”
there for shipment. But we buy them. And
“Liberty cannot be gained except
if it wasn’t for a few fearless men like
blood be shed,” said Senor Guerrero.
Cap’n Bill Adams, who isn’t afraid to carry
Norene looked at him in scorn.
them and land them, we’d have no chance
“I begin to understand,” she said.
to fight at all!”
“You have mentioned to me that you and
“Run your guns, curse you!” cried
your friends own oil-fields and mines, and
Connor, thoroughly angry. “I’m not talking
that you could make more money if the
of that! I’m talking of making women run
government favored you more. You are
the risk—”
trying to establish a government more to
Too late he remembered that your liking, I suppose.”
Norene was standing there below beside
The banner of guilt showed in
Senor Guerrero.
Guerrero’s face. Norene’s lips curled as she
“What does it mean?” she asked
looked at him.
wonderingly. “Uncle, you told me you
“But I am speaking to my uncle,”
were going to stop along the coast before
she went on, looking up at the bridge again.
we got to Mazatlan, to land some “Why have you deceived me, uncle?”
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33
“It wasn’t any of your business, knew what you were doing and agreed with girl,” he said brutally. “Women shouldn’t
you in it; that I was lawless—not a good
bother their heads about business.”
woman, but a thing to be spoken of in
“You should have told me. You’d
scorn?”
no right to do such things when I was on
“Don’t, girl—you don’t
the schooner, to make me a party to them-”
understand—”
Captain Adams’s anger had been
“I do understand! And I don’t
growing steadily, and now it flamed forth.
blame Jack Connor for what he said, nor
That it was directed against his niece for where he said it! You left me open to happened because the last words addressed
the insult—you, my uncle! I blame you!”
to him had been spoken by her.
“Girl—girl! Maybe I made a
“No right!” he exclaimed. “I’ve mistake—”
been a good uncle, haven’t I? I’ve tried to
“I’ve loved you and trusted you,”
raise you right. You’ve had everything she went on. “I knew you were a hard man, money could buy. It cost more to have you
and gloried in your reputation as such,
with me instead of putting you ashore, but I
because I thought you were honest and fair.
did it because I wanted to be sure you’d be
I knew you were clean compared to other
protected. I’ve run guns before with you
men of the sea, and I thought—I thought
aboard. You’ve spent a lot of the money I
my Uncle Bill was the soul of honor.
got for doing it. It’s legitimate, whether the
“And now you’re breaking the laws
government thinks so or not. And I’ll of two nations. A gunboat follows, continue to do it, and no Mexican gunboat
watching you as a thief. And behind you’ve
or headstrong girl or fresh mate can stop
left a nation—your country—fooled,
me!?”
swindled, because you’ve gotten away with
“Protected me!” she cried, half-
a contraband cargo. You fly the stars and
shrinking from him because of his words
stripes from the stern—you’re a disgrace to
and manner. “In return I’ve given you such
the flag and the country for which it
love as a daughter should give a father.
stands!”
And how have you protected me? This
“Norene!” he begged.
man, Jack Connor, spoke lightly of Wild
“This is my last trip with you,” she
Norene in a barroom—spoke so because of
said. “I cannot prevent you breaking the
what he thought I must be, having been
law this time, but I’ll never be with you
with you. Because you are a breaker of
when you do it again. I’ll go ashore—I’ll
laws, he assumed I must be a dishonest
work! I’ll wait for my uncle to turn honest
woman. Can you blame him? By Heaven, I
before he can claim my friendship again!”
cannot!”
Sobbing, her head bent, she turned
“Norene!” There was agony in the
and walked quickly
away, to go below to
captain’s voice.
her cabin, to throw herself in the berth and
“I cannot, I say. Not knowing me as
burst into a storm of tears.
he does now, what else could he think?
They stared after her for a
You were a lawbreaker, I was your moment—Guerrero, Captain Bill, Connor.
constant companion, nearer to you than any
Guerrero’s face broke into a grin
other human being; I sailed with you on all
that was half a sneer. Anger flamed in the
your voyages! What could men think captain’s, anger more at himself than at except that I was a lawbreaker, too, that I
Norene; anger because she had vindicated,
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in a way, the thing for which he was that night cargo was to be landed.
blaming Jack Connor.
Grinning, they nodded that they
And Jack Connor, meeting the understood.
captain’s eyes, knew that he could expect
But the remainder of the captain’s
no mercy now!
message puzzled them. He would not be on
deck, possibly, during the unloading, and
they were to take orders only from Senor
CHAPTER VII.
Guerrero in case their captain was absent.
Prisoners—and Freed!
If Connor attempted to take
command, they were to ignore him. If he
made himself obnoxious, they were to tie
WONDERING how it all would terminate,