he told me something which sent my heart into my mouth.
"There's knocking down below and strange voices, sir. No danger, saysMister Gray, but a fact you should know of. Belike they'll pass on,sir, and please God they'll leave the engine for their own sakes."
"Does Mister Gray say that?" asked I. "Does he fear for the engine?"
"If it stops, we're all dead men for want of breath, the doctor says."
"Then it sha'n't stop," said I, "for here's a man that will open thetrap if two or twenty stand below."
He had quickened my pulse with his tale, for the truth of it I couldnot deny; and it seemed to me that danger began to close in upon us,turn where we might, and that the outcome must be the worst, the veryworst a man could picture. If I had any satisfaction, any consolationof that wearing hour, it was the sight I beheld out there upon thehither sea, where Czerny's boat drifted upon its prey--yet so driftedthat a child might have said, "She's done with; she's sinking."
"Flushed, by all that's wonderful," cries Peter Bligh, with atremendous oath; "aye, down to oblivion, and an honest man's curse gowith you. The rogue's done, my lads; she's done for, certain."
We stood close together and watched the scene with burning eyes. DollyVenn chattered away about a shot that must have struck the boat lastnight and burst her seams. I cared nothing for the reasons, but tookthe facts as the sea showed them to me. Be the cause what it might,those who would have dealt out death to the refugees were going down toeternity now, their arms in their hands, their mad desire still to beread in every gesture. When the truth came swift upon them, when theseas began to break right in across their beam, then, I say, theyleaped up mad with fear, and then only forgot their prey. For thinkwhat that must have meant to them, the very boat sinking beneath them;their comrades far away; the waves lapping their feet; the sureknowledge that they must die, every man of them within hail of thosevery woods wherein so many had perished for their pleasure. Aye, itcame upon them swiftly enough, and the good boat, making a brave effortto battle with the swell, went down headlong anon, and the cries oftwelve drowning men echoed even in the distant island's hills. Thatwhich had been a placid sea with two ships' boats was still a placidsea though but one boat swam there. I beheld horrible faces lookingupward through the blinding spindrift; I saw arms thrust out above thefoam-flecked waters; I witnessed all that fearful struggle for life andair and the sun's bright light; and then, aye, then the scene changedawfully, and silence came upon all, and the sun was still shining, andthe untroubled deep lapped gently at our feet.
* * *
The twelve had perished; but the nine were saved. Stand awe-struck aswe might, seeing the hand of God in this deliverance, the truth of itremained to put new heart into us and to hide that scene from our eyes.There, pursued no longer, was the island boat. Glad voices hailed us,wan figures stood up to clasp our hands; we lifted a woman to therocks; we ran hither, thither, for help and comfort for them. But ninein all, they were our human salvage, our prize, our treasure of honestlives. And we had snatched them from the brigand crew, and henceforththey would stand with us, shoulder to shoulder, until the day were wonor lost and Ken's Island gave up its mysteries, or gathered us for thatlast great sleep-time from which there is no waking.
CHAPTER XXII
THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTY HOURS
It was near about midday on a Saturday that we saved the poor folksfrom the island, and not long after midnight on the Monday that ourtroubles came to a head. I like to call these the "sixty hours"; and aswhat I have to write of them is written, as it were, from watch towatch, so swiftly did things happen, I will try to make a diary of itthat you may follow me more closely.
_Saturday, May 27th. At midday._
There are nine people rescued from the ship, and one of these a girl,Isabel, the daughter of Captain Nepeen, of the American navy. Herfather is with her, a tall, stately man, very quiet and orderly, andquite ready to take a man's duty in the house. Of the others, the mostpart are American seamen, for this was an ocean-going steamer, SilverBell, trading from American ports to Yokohama. All are very astonishedat the things they have seen and heard both in this house and uponKen's Island; but they are too ill to take much part in them, and theyoung lady lies still in a dead trance. Doctor Gray says that he willsave her; but another man, knowing less, might think that she was dead.
_The same day. At four o'clock._
They waked me from sleep at this hour to tell me that the men in thecaverns below were beating upon the iron doors of the corridor, andappeared likely to force their way up to our part of the house. CaptainNepeen brought the news himself, and had a long talk with me. I foundhim a cultured man, and one who got a grip of things sooner than I hadexpected.
"Mr. Begg," he said, "it is plain that we have fallen into the hands ofa very great scoundrel. I cannot imagine what kind of intellect hasmade use of this extraordinary place, but I can very plainly divine thepurpose. It is for you and me to answer to civilization and justice. Wemust begin at once, Captain Begg, without any loss of time," says he.
I answered him a little sharply, perhaps, being not over-pleased thathe should make so light of my own part in the matter.
"Sir," said I, "what a seaman can do I have done already, or you wouldnot be here to speak of it. Let that go by. The news that you bringwon't wait for civilities. It must be plain to you that if we are tostand a siege in this house, we must hold every gate of it. There aremen in the galleries below; Heaven knows how many of them. I would namethat first and let the rest come after."
He was put about at this, and made haste to express a gratitude I hadnot looked for. His naval training prompted him to habits of authority.I could see that he was itching to be up and acting, and I knew that heneedn't wait long for that.
"Indeed," says he, warmly, "we owe our lives to you, as many a goodseaman will owe it in the days to come. I should have spoken of thatfirst. The wonders of this place drive other thoughts from a man'shead. We were half dead when we saw your signal, captain. What hasbecome of my fellow-passengers and the rest of the crew, God aloneknows. They put us ashore on the island after the ship was taken lastnight, and nine of us, as you see, are here to tell the story. I haveheard the tradition of Ken's Island from the Japanese, but I neverbelieved a word of it before yesterday. Now I know that it is true. Myfellow-passengers are there, dead or dying, and at sundown I amcertainly going ashore to do what I can for them."
"You are a brave man, Captain Nepeen," said I, "a very brave man. Whereyou go I follow. We cannot leave poor seamen to perish, cost us what itmay. Yet I would not hide it from you that it is a big business, andthat the man who goes to Ken's Island to-night may never return. We arenow fourteen in this house, and our first duty is to leave it safe forthose who trust us. With your help, Captain Nepeen, we'll answer thescum down below," said I.
He assented very heartily and began to speak of the arms that we hadand of the manner of employing them. His fellows, I learned, werebivouacked in the great hall, and these he waked first while I wasgetting the sleep out of my eyes and asking myself, "What next?" Theroom in which I lay was Czerny's own room; and now in the daylight thesea played cool and green upon the arched windows and showed to me suchsights on the rocks without as I had never dreamed of in the darkerhours. What genius had pitched upon such a house under the waves? Iasked. What spirit of evil breathed upon this dreadful place? Whatcraving for solitude sent this master-mind here to the bed of thePacific Ocean, where it could spy upon these uncanny secrets, watchingthe still green water, face to face with devilish shapes butting uponthe glass, the friend of the horrid creatures which slimed upon thewindows and crawled to their rocky haunts, or fought claw to claw inthe sight of their enemy, man? Desperate as the plight was, I muststand a minute before the crystal panes and watch that changingspectacle of the sea's own wonders. The very water was so near thatI thought I had but to stretch out a hand to touch it. The weird,wild things that crept over the rocks, surely they would enter thisroom presently! And Czer
ny could live here, cheek by jowl withthese fearsome mysteries! Again I say that man knows little of hisfellow-man, of his better nature or his worse.
_The same day. At five o'clock._
We open the lower doors and go down into the galleries. Seven men arewith me and each carries a musket. The quest is not so much for thoseshut down in the pit as for the life which they may send up to us.Doctor Gray has put it in a word, and it is true. The great engine,which draws the air from the sea's brink and drives it out inlife-giving currents through the corridors of Czerny's house, thatengine alone stands between us and eternity this day. If those belowhave kept that engine going until this time, it is for their ownsafety's sake. Rob them of food and drink,
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