THE DOCTOR'S RUSE.
One morning in September, 190-, there came to the office of DoctorFrederic Curtin, a young English physician in Hongkong, a nativejunkman from the Chinese city of Swatow, about two hundred milesnortheast of the English city. The junkman brought a letter to thedoctor from an old acquaintance, the Rev. James Burren, a missionaryin the vicinity of Swatow; and the letter begged Curtin to come andattend the missionary's young son, who was suffering from a puzzlingand lingering illness.
As none of his patients in Hongkong demanded his immediate attention,Curtin was free to respond to the call. The _Silver Moon_, the tradingjunk that had brought the letter of appeal, was to leave on the returnvoyage the next day at noon; and as this junk offered the only meansof reaching Swatow for several days, Curtin engaged passage on theslow-sailing, clumsy vessel.
There had been much activity that summer among the native pirates thatinfest the coast waters of the China Sea; and although the doctor didnot expect to encounter any of these gentry, he took the precautionof placing in his valise two heavy navy revolvers and a quantity ofcartridges.
The _Silver Moon_ sailed on the morrow at midday, as scheduled, and,driven by a wide spread of canvas, slipped through the deep-blue,lapping water of this Eastern sea at a much better speed than thedoctor expected. That evening a nearly full moon floated in theclear sky, and gave a glory to the ocean that Curtin had never seensurpassed. He sat on deck until late, and when he did go down to hiscramped berth in the cabin below, he dropped into a sleep so profoundthat his first intimation of danger was when he was awakened by fierce,wild cries and the scurrying and trampling of many feet on the deckoverhead.
He sprang to get his revolvers. But while he fumbled with the catchesof the case, there was a rush of footsteps down the passageway outside;and the next moment the frail door burst in with a crash before theattack of half a dozen nearly naked Chinamen, who had revolvers andshort curved swords. The _Silver Moon_ had fallen a prey to pirates,and Curtin calmly submitted himself to the invaders.
He was allowed to dress. In the meantime the pirates rummaged throughhis baggage, including the rather portly black leather case in which hecarried his medicines and surgical instruments. When he was hustledon deck a few moments later he found lying alongside the _Silver Moon_a huge junk, and swarming over the captured vessel a motley horde ofevil-looking barbarians.
The crew of the _Silver Moon_, awed and cringing, was huddled forwardunder guard.
But Curtin was not placed with the other captives. At a word fromthe thin, wiry man who appeared to be the leader, two of the piratesmarched the doctor straight aboard the strange junk, where theyproceeded to bind his arms and legs with ropes, and left him near theforemast, to sprawl or sit on the hard deck, as he chose.
Then as soon as everything of value on the _Silver Moon_ had beentransferred to the robber junk, the crew returned to their own vessel,and cast off, leaving their countrymen to go their way in peace. Thepirate junk now headed to the northeast, following the coast.
Curtin, sprawling on the bare deck in his bonds, could only conjecturewhat was to be his fate. He knew that the native pirates often madea practice of holding prisoners for ransom, and he fancied that hiscaptors intended to do so in his case, otherwise they would not havesingled him out from all those on the captured junk. It did notreassure him to reflect that his bank account in Hongkong was anextremely modest one, and that he had few friends in the city who couldplace any large sum at his disposal.
About the middle of the forenoon his attention was attracted to oneof the pirate crew--a big man who was restlessly pacing up and downthe sun-scorched deck not far away, apparently in intense agony. Onobserving the fellow closely, the doctor saw that there was an angry,unhealed wound in the muscles of his bare left forearm, and noted thatthe arm itself was swollen to nearly twice its normal size.
At once Curtin's professional instinct was stirred. On the impulse ofthe moment he stood up awkwardly on his pinioned legs, and said inChinese:
"That is a bad wound you have in your arm. I am an English doctor ofHongkong. Perhaps if you will let me see your arm I can relieve thepain."
The big Chinaman stopped his uneasy striding to stand and lookdoubtfully at the speaker. The pirate leader happened to be near, heardwhat Curtin said, and, the wounded sailor continuing to hesitate,signed him to allow the doctor to examine his arm.
The sufferer obeyed stolidly, and one glance at the inflamed wound,which evidently had been made by a sword thrust, was enough to tellCurtin that he had to deal with a case of threatened blood poisoning.But he thought that if the arm was immediately lanced the Chinamanwould have a good chance for speedy recovery.
This he told the pirate captain, who had come over to stand besidehis fellow cutthroat. He said that if the black case that had beenseized among his other baggage that morning was brought and his armswere released, he would at once treat the wound, although he would notguarantee to cure the man.
To the doctor's surprise, the captain answered that he had lived inHongkong, and knew of the skill of the English doctors, and that hewould be much gratified if Curtin could save the sailor, as the fellowwas one of his best men.
The medicine case was quickly produced, and the doctor's handswere untied. First ascertaining that the contents of the case wereundisturbed, he prepared the wounded arm by pouring a little alcoholupon it. Then he took out his instruments and quickly performed theoperation.
The look of relief that came into the sufferer's face was apparent,but neither the captain nor the other members of the pirate crew,who had gathered round to watch, made any comment. Curtin carefullydressed and bandaged the wound, and as soon as he had finished, hishands were rebound. His patient moved away without a word of thanks orappreciation, yet the doctor did not neglect to say that as often aswas necessary he would attend the arm again. He was anxious to makea friend of this Chinaman; for a friend, he felt, would not be a badthing to have among that barbarous crew.
Shortly after sunset that evening the junk reached the mouth of anarrow river, and a quarter of a mile from the entrance to this streamthe sails were lowered and anchor was dropped. Curtin gathered from thetalk of some of the crew who stood near him that the junk was to betaken up this river to an outlaw retreat, but that they would not enterthe narrow channel until the high tide of the next morning.
Not long after the evening meal was over the pirates began to turn infor the night. Most of them merely threw themselves down on the harddeck. By nine o'clock all were asleep, with the exception of a singlewatchman, whom Curtin could see strolling back and forth across theafterdeck.
Hours passed, and as the doctor lay outstretched on the bare deck, hetried to work his hands out of the hempen cord that bound them togetherbehind his back. He thought that if he could free himself from hisbonds, the watchman might nap, and thus give him opportunity to slipover the side of the vessel into the sea and swim ashore. But he wasunable to release his hands.
Not long after this, the watchman came forward and silently passedclose to Curtin, and he was rather surprised to see that the lone guardwas no other than the man whose arm he had lanced that morning. Hewondered idly if the fellow had been chosen for the post of watchmanfor the reason that suffering had rendered him sleepless.
Then suddenly, as he looked up at the big yellow man, a new ideafor escape germinated, grew to a hazy outline, and in a moment tookdefinite shape in Curtin's mind.
In his medicine case was a vial containing a quantity of a certainvery powerful an?sthetic. He had told the pirate that he would dressthe wound again when necessary. If on this excuse he could get hishands freed and the case in his possession, why would it not be easyto administer a few drops of the drug by a hypodermic injection, andalmost immediately send the watchman into a coma that would last forhours--render him unconscious before he could rebind his captive'shands or think to make outcry?
Curtin fully realized the danger attendant upon so audacious a scheme.But he felt that
as long as he was in the hands of these ruthless andmerciless men his life was not safe from one hour to the next.
Immediately he hailed the watchman and asked him about his arm. Thetall pirate paused and replied that it still pained him considerably.Curtin suggested that he should bring the medicine case and have hisarm treated there in the bright moonlight.
The watchman was slow in answering. Curtin began to think thatthe natural craftiness of his race had counseled him against theproposition, when with a gesture of consent he went to the companionwayand disappeared. In a few moments he came back, carrying the familiarcase in his hand. Then the doctor's heart gave a joyous leap.
As soon as his hands were loosened, he quickly opened the case and tookout the vial he needed and the hypodermic syringe. He poured into thesyringe a few drops of the colorless fluid from the vial. Next, withhands that trembled with eagerness, he unwound the bandage from thewounded arm.
Curtin picked up the syringe nonchalantly, but it gave him a shock tonote at this instant that the huge pirate had his right hand resting onthe carved hilt of the short, naked sword slipped through his belt.
However, the doctor did not hesitate. He resolutely grasped theproffered arm, and carefully inserted the needle point of theinstrument into the flesh so far above the wound that the powerful drugcould have but little harmful effect upon the irritated region. Then,with even pressure upon the plunger, he completely emptied the vial.
He withdrew the syringe, and keeping a strong grip upon his victim'sarm, began to replace the bandage.
He worked slowly, methodically, occupying as much time as possible ineach step of the operation. The Chinaman soon began to show signs of astrange, unnatural drowsiness. His head nodded on his broad shoulders,his eyes were half closed, and he opened them with difficulty. All atonce the doctor's vigilant eye saw a startled, apprehensive look flitacross the countenance of the pirate. The next instant the man gave ahalf-inarticulate cry and snatched out his sword.
Curtin threw up his hand to arrest the fall of the blade, but suddenly,in the twinkling of an eye, the Chinaman wavered, the uplifted armdropped nerveless, the sword fell clattering to the deck from thegrasp of the relaxed fingers. As the watchman toppled over under theinfluence of the drug, the doctor caught him in his arms and loweredhim to the deck.
Then Curtin snatched up the sword, and, with one slash of the keenblade, severed the ropes that bound his ankles loosely together. Helistened just a moment. All was still on the junk. He stooped down andfinished adjusting the bandage to the senseless outlaw's wounded arm.
But he did not linger long on the pirate craft. Throwing a rope overthe side of the junk, he slid down into the water and swam away.
No mishap occurred to him in the water, and soon he was following thesands of the beach to the northeast.
At daybreak he came upon a British gunboat lying a little way off theshore, and in response to his signals, a boat put out and took himaboard. That evening he was landed in Swatow. He found the missionary'sson very ill with a stubborn fever; but Curtin took up the battle justin time, and at the end of a week had the satisfaction of witnessingthe boy's recovery.
Motor Matt's Reverse; or, Caught in a Losing Cause Page 19
