The Air Pirate

by Guy Thorne

  Chapter 11

  Danjuro made no comment, and did not interrupt me until I had completely finished, nor did his inscrutable face give any indication of what he thought.

  "My own investigations," he said, "can be told in a few words. The small steamship which brings supplies to the cove behind the inn is the private property of Helzephron, and she is a great deal faster and much better engined than most people are aware. She lies at the little port of Hayle, which is on the main line from Plymouth to Penzance, in St. Ives Bay. At certain times large quantities of petrol arrive in separate consignments from different parts of the country. The Sea Gull is loaded to her capacity, and then makes the short voyage to Zerran Cove."

  "That's the last link!" I said. "No one could doubt now!"

  "There is another, still more interesting fact," Danjuro said. "Hayle was once a place of much greater importance than it is at present. There were large foundries and engineering works there in the past. These have been abandoned for many years, owing to the silting up of the harbour. Only vessels of small draught can enter today, but the foundry buildings remain. From time to time a portion of them has been let for this or that small enterprise. Three years ago Helzephron rented a part of the works and installed machinery. He had about twenty labourers, but the real work, whatever it was, took place in a large experimental shed to which no one was admitted but he and his friends. They were already at Zerran, and used to drive over to Hayle in motors every day. It was locally known that some new machinery for Wheal Tregeraint was being made. Many shippings took place from Hayle to Zerran Cove."

  "But the ship, the Pirate Ship itself?"

  "Who can tell? We go step by step in the dark. Many theories have crossed my mind, Sir John. I have dismissed them all. I want to approach this, the most sinister problem of all, with a blank mind. We can do nothing till we are on the spot. Our preliminary work is over, but the real labour begins."

  "A sinister problem enough," I answered bitterly. "But not the most trouble to me. I tell you, Danjuro, that as I lay among the heather and looked down on that lonely house, as I thought of the devilish crew that live there, for a moment the agony was more than I could endure. She may be there, at this moment, defenceless and in the power...."

  I could not go on. I covered my face with my hands, and was nearer breaking down than ever before. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. "It has never left my mind, either. Do not give way, for the moment of action has come. We go to the inn at Zerran tonight -- within the hour."

  "Tonight!"

  "Yes. We cannot afford to waste a moment. Helzephron is kept in London. One great danger is removed from our path. We may never have a better opportunity than now. In dealing with enemies such as ours, we must strike quickly and strongly when they think themselves most secure. Before dawn we must have penetrated the inmost secrets of Tregeraint."

  I had grown accustomed to regard Danjuro as the leader of our enterprise. His decision was like cool water to a man dying of thirst in a desert. I stood up, absolutely myself. "There's no reason, of course, not to install ourselves at Zerran tonight instead of tomorrow morning. Trewhella won't mind," I said.

  "I will order the car in an hour. Meanwhile, I have one or two things to do. Perhaps you will settle the hotel bill, Sir John, and tell the people that we are leaving?"

  It was a stiflingly hot night as the car climbed up to the moors, and in the glare of our headlights the gorse and heather by the roadside streamed past swiftly, leaving a more sable dark before and behind them. Danjuro, by my side, was lost in thought. The massive head hung on his chest. About halfway on our journey he said a curious thing. "This would be an ideal night for another raid in the air lanes of the Atlantic."

  I did not answer, for I also was thinking deeply. So it was for tonight! I felt no fear, only a deep resolution not to fail in rescue and the execution of Justice.

  As we flashed down the dark moor road to where the lights of the solitary inn showed yellow, I sent a wordless prayer to the Throne of Justice and Mercy. And as if an answer was truly and instantly vouchsafed, there came into my mind these words from the ninety-first Psalm: "I will deliver thee from the snare of the hunter."

  As we rolled up silently to the inn, we heard a great noise of singing from the long room. A tall woman came out of a side door, and I explained that we had decided to come earlier than we had planned. She was a comely, good-humoured dame, who made no trouble about our arrival. Both bedrooms and sitting rooms were already prepared, and when Thumbwood had taken the car round to the barn he went upstairs to unpack the baggage. Mr. Trewhella appeared from the bar. I introduced Danjuro, and we arranged to have some supper at half-past ten.

  Meanwhile the singing continued in great volume, mingled with the twanging chords of a banjo.

  "Your guests are merry tonight," said Danjuro.

  "It's the gentlemen from the mine, sir," said the landlord. "It's one of their nights off, so to speak. Would you like to join 'em for half an hour?"

  "I think not on our first night. But they sing very well. As a foreigner I am interested in all English customs. May I take a peep?"

  Danjuro had gone to the communicating door as he spoke, and pulling aside a red curtain which covered the upper half of glass, he looked through. I did the same.

  The long room was full of people and tobacco smoke. With a single exception, that of Mr. Vargus, the man we had me earlier, they were all quite young men, ranging, I should say, from twenty-three to thirty. Most of them were dressed in old tweed suits, but the material and cut told their own tale, and spoke of the "right" kind of tailor.

  At first glance they might have been a collection of naval officers or senior undergraduates, but only at first glance. My eyes roved from face to face, and on each I saw the loss of innocence and honour. Some were cunning; others had a brutality in ill accord with their youth, and there was a hard bravado in the eyes of all. It was sickening. I felt that I had suddenly looked on something that should remain hidden. In that haze of smoke lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and evil in the universe.

  As I turned, I saw the landlord looking at me. "A promising lot of young devils," I said.

  "You do see it too, zur?" he replied, and then Danjuro touched my arm, and I turned to look again. A man without a hat had just entered the room from the outside. He sat in a chair which he had obviously occupied before, for he was in naval uniform, and his cap was lying there. He was a big, foolish-looking fellow, far gone in drink; but despite that, his face was the only wholesome one there.

  "Who is that?" I whispered to Trewhella, as Mr. Vargus poured a generous allowance of rum into the newcomer's glass.

  "That's Billy Pengelly, our coastguard. The gentlemen do make a lot of him, and he's none the better for't, for Billy's one as likes his drop. Still, he goes and sleeps it off, and he do be strong as a bull. And in these lone parts there's not often anyone to see if he's on the watch or not."

  A tall boy with a banjo took up his instrument and twanged the chords.

  "Now, gentlemen!" he shouted in a clear fresh tenor, "a chorus!" And without further preliminary he dashed into nothing less than the "Pirate's Shanty" from "Treasure Island":

  "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest!

  Yo, ho! and a bottle of rum!"

  The inn rocked with the volume of sound. I stood there fascinated, with a sort of horror. The thing -- knowing what I knew -- was so daring and grim that, more than anything else, it showed me with whom we had to deal.

  The application was lost on Danjuro, but I told him what it meant in French, and he nodded with contracted eyes.

  "Drink, and the devil had done for the rest,

  Yo, ho! and a bottle of rum!"

  One would have thought the room could not contain the noise, and that the very windows must be shattered. In the very middle of it I heard something else -- the urgent, throbbing sound of an engine.

  Danjuro heard it as soon as I did. "Motor bicyc
le," he whispered.

  The sound grew insistent. Whoever was coming rode hell for leather and with the exhaust open. Then there was a succession of reports, a grinding noise, and the door of the bar was flung suddenly open.

  A tall man in goggles and overalls covered with dust walked in. As he did so, the pirate chant stopped with dramatic suddenness, and the singers jumped to their feet. Then the man removed his glasses and his cap.

  It was Major Helzephron.

  They clustered round him thickly, and to each one he said a quiet word. In every case, when this happened, the man spoken to nodded and vanished into the night. I could hear them running outside the inn. Lastly, Helzephron took Vargus by the arm, and they also moved out. I could see the man more plainly than ever before. There was a great bruise round about the left eye, and the face was pale. But it blazed with will and purpose, and the cruel mouth was set in a malicious and abominable smile.

  "The wolves are hunting tonight!" Danjuro said to me two minutes later in my bedroom, and once again his face was like a demon of Old Japan. "Helzephron will not appear at the police court tomorrow. He has arranged it somehow, and, after all, it is a trivial affair. He has ridden down from London during the day."

  "You mean there is going to be a raid tonight?"

  "I feel sure of it. Why else would Helzephron rush from London? And you observed the manner of his confederates. Do you not see that with all his cunning precautions the pirate is far too clever not to know that his career must be a short one. He cannot hope to remain concealed for any great length of time. His object is to obtain an immense fortune quickly. Already I calculate he has stolen jewels and money to the value of two hundred thousand pounds. A few more such coups and he can disband his crew and disappear for ever. Speed is the essence of his plan."

  "But we must do something. We must stop it before...."

  "Our opportunity for action is improved, Sir John. In the first place, you must take steps to concentrate a fleet of patrol airships in this neighbourhood."

  "The car is here. I can write official telegrams in code to Plymouth and London. Within an hour the hinterland and the sea from here to Scilly can be covered with a swarm of airships. St. Ives is only six miles away."

  "Write the dispatches at once. I will call Thumbwood, who must take them in, together with an official note from you to the postmaster."

  I unlocked my portfolio and wrote the wires. There would be such an invasion of the air tonight as far west Cornwall had never known!

  Thumbwood appeared, I gave him full instructions, and heard the Rolls Royce start below.

  "And now, our part!" I said to Danjuro.

  "If we are right in our conjecture, the pirates will shortly leave Tregeraint on their expedition. How they will join the pirate airship or where we don't know. But we may safely assume that the house will be left in charge of one or at most two men. The others will all be wanted to man the ship; it is a simple calculation. Here is your chance. You must get inside Tregeraint, obtain conclusive evidence, and if the poor lady is there alive, bring her away in safety. Perhaps tonight the Pirate Ship will make its last cruise! Our presence here, our identity, is quite unsuspected. A concentration of hostile airships in this neighbourhood is the last thing Helzephron will expect tonight."

  "And you, my friend?"

  "I would that I could come with you, for you go in danger of your life, but as I see it my work has to be different. Someone, in view of its escape, must solve the mystery of the Pirate Ship itself. I have a theory already; I must put it to proof. There are small boats in the cove below -- I see that the moon is rising, I know what I must do. But, even so, I will come with you, Sir John, if you say so."

  I shook my head. "No, I will go alone. It is my job."

  Then Danjuro did a strange thing. He took my hand, bowed over it and kissed it. "You also are of the Samurai!" he said.

  In a minute more he carried in a heavy bag from his own bedroom, and produced from it a miscellany of objects.

  "Here is a twelve-shot automatic, with a dozen cartridge clips," he said. "You know all about the working of it? I thought so. This pair of wire cutters you will need for the barbed fence. These two keys with adjustable wards -- you turn the milled screw at the end to adjust them -- will open any ordinary lock. Here also is an extremely powerful steel lever with a wedge end. In the hands of a strong man like yourself it will wrench open most windows or doors."

  God knows there was no lightness in my heart, but in the usual English way at serious moments, I laughed. "The Complete Burglar!" I said.

  Danjuro looked at me with a glance as cold as ice. "I am in most deadly earnest, Sir John. You know what my experience has been. Well, I say deliberately that I have never been in such peril as you are going into."

  "I meant nothing. And what is this?" I had taken up a little leather tube with a lens at one end.

  "A powerful electric torch. But it is more than that. You can instantly reverse it in your hand, and if you press this stud, the plated bottom flies open, and by means of a spring an ounce of cayenne pepper is projected for several yards. It will stop anyone, and operates instantaneously. A little thing I invented and have found most useful. These handcuffs are of papier mâché and weigh practically nothing. They are from Japan and tough as the hardest steel. You may require them. And I never go on an expedition without this tiny bottle of chloroform and pad. You can stow everything about you with ease, and the combined weight is as nothing."

  I did so, and it was as he said. Then a thought struck me. "Armed and prepared like this, I feel certain that I can get in. But there are two Tibetan mastiffs let loose in the grounds at night. I can shoot them, but the noise of the report...."

  "That is provided for, Sir John. You see this gun?"

  "It looks like a short-barrelled rook-rifle, except for the great thickness at the breech."

  "It holds ten conical bullets. They are hollow-nosed and expand on impact. The gun is perfectly noiseless. Powder is not used at all. The propelling power is liquefied carbonic-acid gas, and all that is heard at the moment of firing is a sharp snap. With this you can stalk the dogs and kill them easily enough. Do not forget your hunting flask and brandy and water. And for concentrated food, should you be detained in hiding -- though I and Thumbwood will be coming to look after you if you do not appear by morning -- these solid chocolate cakes are invaluable."

  While we were talking there came sounds from below of the closing of the inn, and shortly afterwards we were called to supper.

  "Don't you stay up any longer, Mr. Trewhella," I said. "You must want your rest. As for us, we're late birds. Both I and my friend sometimes take a five minutes' stroll last thing before we turn in. That won't inconvenience you?"

  "Bless your life, no, zur. You do as you're a mind here. 'Tesn't like a town. The key of the front door hangs on a nail by the side. And if you should be going out later, Billy Pengelly, the coastguard, is in the empty pigsty a sleeping off what he's had, and there's a bucket of cold water on the wall. In half an hour's time or so I know as he'd be grateful for having it poured over 'en!"

  We promised to perform what was evidently one of the amenities of this primitive place, and Mr. Trewhella withdrew.

  "That coastguard may be useful to me," Danjuro said. "And now, Sir John, I don't want to hurry you, but my advice is that you start. I don't suppose the group has left Tregeraint yet. But there are a hundred hiding places on the moor all round the domain, and you may be able to see which way they go before you make your own attempt. I will be on the trail in a very few minutes after you."

  "And Charles Thumbwood? Remember, he will be back shortly."

  "I will need your valet. I know he would wish to be with you, Sir John, but I believe your chances are better alone. I will not leave until he returns, provided he is not unduly detained."

  He went to the window and pulled aside the curtain. "A waning moon," he said. "It will be at full power about midnight, when there may be such a
battle in the air as the world will hear with wonder!"

  I saw to my equipment. It fitted about me very comfortably. "Well, goodnight," I said, and without further words I went quietly out of the house.

  When I got a hundred yards away I turned and looked at it, faintly silvered in the moon. The air was sweet with the perfume of shy moorland flowers that give up all their treasure to the night. The Atlantic, far below, made a sound like fairy dreams, and on the distant slopes of Carne Zerran an owl sounded his melancholy oboe note.

  A lovely night, gentlemen!