The Collected Westerns of William MacLeod Raine: 21 Novels in One Volume

by Unknown

  As I ran the deck began to tilt dizzily. Before my eyes there spread a haze. All grew black even while my feet still automatically moved.

  "Badly hurt, old man?"

  The voice came to me from a great distance. With returning consciousness I found that the strong arm of its owner was supporting my head and shoulders. My eyes looked into those of our captain.

  "It's all right, Jack," he explained. "We got to you just as you fell and Tom drove that villain back. How badly cut are you?"

  "A glancing cut, I think. But I'm a bit dizzy? We beat them, didn't we?"

  "Yes. The rats have scuttled back to their holes."

  He helped me into the reception room and I sank down on the lounge.

  "Just a bit light-headed," I explained to Yeager, who came in at that moment.

  "Glad it's no worse. We gave them a drubbing, anyhow."

  "Get Bothwell?" asked Sam.

  "Nope. My gun was empty. I had him at the foot of the ladder, not ten feet from the muzzle, and click--nothing doing. The beggar turned and laughed in my face."

  "Keep a lookout, Alderson," the captain ordered, while he unbuttoned my coat. "Tom, you'd better take a look around and size up the damage."

  "Mott is dead. I found his body in the cabin," I told our chief.

  "I was afraid of it. With Mott gone and Dugan wounded we were short two men at the beginning of the scrimmage. Eight to fourteen--devilish long odds. Easy with that sleeve there. Here you, Billie Blue, get me a sponge and a basin of water. And tell Miss Wallace to bring her sticking plaster."

  Morgan, very white, was sitting on the opposite lounge trying to stop with a handkerchief the blood from a scalp wound. From where I lay I could see the body of Williams just outside the saloon. A stray bullet from one of the retreating mutineers had killed him at the very close of the battle.

  Altogether that left us five sound men, counting Blue as a man, and three wounded ones. The pirates had suffered more. One I had disposed of at the first rush, just before they reached the cabin, and the flunky had wounded one of the firemen.

  Yeager had picked off Johnson in the run for the bridge, and Sam had wounded Caine. In addition to these at least two more had been blooded in the scrimmage at close quarters outside the wheelhouse.

  "Eight of them left against five of us, not counting the wounded on either side," Yeager summed up.

  "What has become of Philips?" I asked, remembering that I had not seen him since the row began.

  "Thought I saw him run down stairs when the beggars poured in on us here, sir," Alderson answered.

  Later the poor fellow was found in his berth, trembling like an aspen leaf. He had locked his door and buried his face in the pillows.

  A shock of red hair above a very white face appeared at the head of the companionway. "Is--is it all over?" gasped a small voice.

  "Yes, Jimmie, right now it is. And you'll notice that we're still sticking to the saddle, son, and not pulling leather either," observed the plainsman cheerfully.

  "I--I didn't know it would be like this," murmured the boy. "I thought----" His voice tailed out and he dropped limply into a seat, his fascinated eyes fixed on my bleeding arm.

  Yeager clasped a hand on the boy's shoulder.

  "Brace up, kid. The first round is ours, strong. We've had to hustle, but I reckon we've given them a hectic time of it. They'll not bother us for quite some hours. Captain Bothwell is busy explaining to a real sore outfit just why his plans miscarried."

  "Is Mr. Sedgwick--killed?" asked the boy, swallowing hard.

  I laughed faintly.

  "He's worth a dozen dead men yet, Jimmie."

  And to prove it I fell back among the pillows, unconscious.

  CHAPTER XV

  THE MORNING AFTER

  My opening eyes fell upon Evelyn. She was putting the last touches to the bandage on my arm, which was already dressed and bound. Evidently I had been unconscious some time.

  "It's all right. We won," were my first words to her.

  "I know," she answered with a faint glow of color. "Thanks to the brave men who risked their lives for us!"

  "Poor Williams was killed, and Morgan was hurt. Has his wound been looked to?"

  "On the job now," sang out Yeager. "When I get through with him he'll be as good as new. Eh, Morgan?"

  "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," returned that impassive individual.

  "Where's Sam?" I asked.

  "Back at the wheel."

  "Alone?"

  "Alderson is with him. Don't worry about them. You couldn't dynamite that bunch of pirates on deck just now. There'll be nothing doing until they get Dutch courage from the bottle. We jolted them a heap harder than they did us," Tom rejoined lightly.

  It was all very well for him to keep up his cheerful talk to raise the spirits of our friends, but I did not forget the fact that since the beginning of hostilities we had lost as many men as they had in killed, and only one less in wounded. To be sure, with the exception of Dugan, their disabled were in worse condition than ours. Morgan had only a scratch, and a day or two of rest would set me right.

  "Time is fighting for us too, you bet," continued Tom briskly. "We're a unit, and I'll bet they're pulling already every which way. We've got them traveling south, Miss Wallace."

  Perhaps his cheerful, matter-of-fact talk was the best possible tonic for the depression which had settled upon us. I could not help think what a blessing it was that we had picked up at Los Angeles this competent frontiersman whose strong, brown hands could make or dress a wound with equal skill.

  It was plain to me that during the next few hours I would not be of much use. Out of ten thousand, Tom Yeager was the one I would have picked to take charge of the defense in my absence.

  When a few minutes later the beat of the screw began again the sound of it was like wine to me. It meant that, for the present, the mutineers had had enough. They would join in a tacit truce while the yacht was being worked south.

  "Help Mr. Sedgwick down to his cabin, Morgan, and then both of you turn in for a few hours' sleep. We'll look out for trouble. Won't we, Jimmie? You and I and Billie Blue, eh?"

  "Yes, Mr. Yeager."

  "You'll call us if another attack threatens?" I asked.

  "Sure."

  The steady throb--throb--throb of the propeller was again shaking the yacht as she took up her journey. This might be a ruse to throw us off our guard, but I did not think so. The enemy was badly demoralized, and the chances were that Bothwell would welcome a chance to whip his forces into shape again.

  "Is the door from the galley to the main deck locked and nailed up, Billie?" I asked of the flunky.

  "Yes, sir."

  "Nail planks across the window too. Philips will help you get dinner if you can find him. I'll expect you to see that our party is well fed."

  "Yes, sir," the young fellow promised.

  "You must go to your room at a moment's notice, Miss Wallace. Have Philips nail up your porthole. You need not be a bit afraid. We hold a very safe position at present. Get all the sleep you can to-night."

  "That's good advice, Mr. Sedgwick. Take it yourself," she returned with a little flicker of a wan smile.

  For an instant her hand, warm and firm, rested in mine. If I had not been sure of my love before, there was no uncertainty now. While her brave eyes met mine I seemed to drown fathoms deep in the blue of them. Trouble was what I read in them, but part of that trouble was for me. I gloried in that certainty.

  She might not love me--it was presumptuous to suppose she did--but at least I held a place in her regard. That was the thought I carried with me down-stairs, and it stayed pleasantly with me till I fell asleep in spite of the pain in my arm.

  About nine o'clock I was awakened by a knock on the door. Philips had brought me dinner on a tray.

  His eye would not meet mine. He was ashamed because he had shown the white feather in the scrimmage.

  "I--I've got a wife and three little children, sir," h
e blurted out before he left.

  I nodded pleasantly at him.

  "You're going to see them again. But you must help us beat those ruffians. You see we can do it. We've done it once."

  "Yes, sir. I--hope to do better next time."

  "I'm sure you will, Philips."

  We shook hands on it.

  I must have fallen asleep again almost immediately. When I opened my eyes it was day. I pushed the electric bell. Philips presently appeared.

  "All well?" I asked him.

  "Yes, sir. No more trouble. The yacht is still on her course. Doing about nine knots I should judge."

  "Heard from Dugan this morning?"

  "He isn't doing just what you could call first rate, sir. I think he is delirious. Miss Wallace and Miss Berry are taking care of him by turns."

  "And Morgan?"

  "Quite all right, sir. Your arm must be stiff. Shall I shave you this morning? I used to be a barber, sir."

  "Thanks. If you have time."

  Breakfast was served in the English fashion, for it was necessary to keep some one on guard all the time. The Arizonian was making play with a platter of bacon and fried eggs when I joined him.

  "How d'ye do? Ready for the round-up again?" he asked cheerfully, with his mouth full.

  "My arm's stiff, and when I move there's a pain jumps in it. Otherwise I'm fit as a fiddle. Anything new in the way of trouble?"

  "Not a thing. We've arranged a code of signals with our friends at the wheel. You'll find the code pasted up in the saloon. Say, what do you think? That girl slipped out with breakfast for Cap. Blythe and Alderson while I wasn't looking."

  "Crossed the deck with it?"

  "That's whatever, and sauntered back as cool as you please. Two or three of them were on the forecastle deck, but they didn't lift a hand to hurt her."

  I drew a long breath.

  "We mustn't let her do it again."

  "Not while I'm in the game. She's an ace-high trump just the same. Wonder if she would have any use for a maverick rancher from the alkali country? I got a pretty good outfit in the Flying D."

  "Better ask her."

  "I'm going to," he answered coolly. "Drift that butter down this way, will you?"

  "Where is she now?" I asked.

  "Not up yet. She took a two-hour turn watching while we slept. Then she sat by Dugan for a while. You'd ought to have seen her at the piano singing 'My Maryland' and 'Dixie' to us just as if she had starred in a mutiny every week of her life. She was doing it for what they call the moral effect, and it sure did keep up the nerve of the boys. I could see Jimmie and Billie get real gay again. Used to live in Tennessee, you know."

  "Jimmie or Billie?" I asked innocently.

  "You know who I mean all right, you old son of a gun. Try this bacon. It's the genuine guaranteed article. That Billie boy is some cook. Seems her mother was a Southerner before Wallace married her."

  "What was she afterward?"

  "My, you're a humorist! Say, do you reckon that little bald spot on the crown of my haid would be objectionable to her? I've never monkeyed with these here hair tonics, but I'd be willing to take a whirl at them."

  "Here she comes now. You can ask her."

  "Did you sleep well?" the young woman asked, after we had exchanged morning greetings.

  "Clear round the clock and then some more. You must have had a fine night's rest yourself from what I hear. On watch till one, and nursing Dugan from one. Wasn't that about it?"

  "Not quite. I had three hours' sleep. Is your arm paining you much?"

  "Don't waste any sympathy on him, Miss Evelyn," the cowman interrupted. "His arm's just as good as a new wooden one, and his repartee is as sharp as the cutlas that broke the skin on it."

  She smiled as she began on her grapefruit. "Are you boys quarreling?"

  "He hasn't had time to quarrel. He has been making a dreary waste of what was once a platter of eggs and bacon."

  "Now I like that," Tom protested.

  "So I judge. Never mind, Miss Wallace. Billie can cook you some more."

  "Who is on guard?" Evelyn asked.

  "The kid. He's a scout for fair too; imagines he's Apache Jim, the terror of the Navajos, or some other paper-backed hero. I hope his gun won't go off and shoot him up."

  We made a lively breakfast of it till Yeager had to leave. You may think it strange that we could laugh and jest on that death ship, but one gets accustomed to the strain and on the reflex from anxiety arrives at a temporary gaiety.

  After the cattleman had taken his breezy departure a constraint fell upon us. Evelyn's eyes were shy, and mine not a great deal bolder. Yesterday we could have chatted away with the most delightful freedom; to-day we were confined to the veriest commonplaces.

  And all because our eyes had met for one long instant the evening before and hinted at something in the unspoken language of young people the world over.

  The arrival of Jimmie Welch with a very robust appetite helped things a good deal, and we were presently ourselves again. After breakfast Miss Wallace went to relieve her aunt at the bedside of the wounded carpenter while I mounted to the bridge to take Blythe's place, Tom doing the same for Alderson.

  It struck me as a piece of grim satire that I should be ringing orders down to the men in the engine room with whom a few hours before we had been battling for life, and probably soon would be again.

  It was beyond doubt that we would have to measure strength with them a second time. Bothwell would never let us run into port at Panama if he could help it. The men were probably not anxious for another brush after the drubbing they had received, but the situation forced their hands. They must either take the ship or let us give them up to the authorities as mutineers.

  My opinion is that if Bothwell had not been recognized by Jimmie he would have waited until we were actually on the treasure ground, and perhaps even until we had lifted it.

  From the sounds that came forward to us from the forecastle it was plain that the enemy were drinking pretty steadily. More than once I saw an empty bottle flung through a porthole into the sea. Occasionally some one appeared on the deck aft, and from the drunken shouts bawled up and down the hatchway the condition of the crew could be guessed.

  Blythe and I agreed that this probably meant an attack after darkness had fallen. Fortified by the courage which comes from whisky, they would try and slip up on us in the night and win by a surprise.

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE NIGHT ATTACK

  The captain and I were in the wheelhouse when the attack came. It must have been an hour past midnight of a gentle starry night, without the faintest breath of wind in the air. Ever since dark the vibration of the propeller had ceased.

  No doubt the charge was intended for a surprise, but we had half a minute of warning. Dimly I could make out figures moving tiptoe at the head of the stairway. Three times I flashed a lantern in signal to our friends. Almost simultaneously came the rush along the deck.

  This time they took cover as they advanced, scattering like a covey of young quail. One dropped behind a boat here, another there. Some crouched close to the deckhouse. Bullets sang about our ears from invisible foes.

  It looked as if their intention was to pick us off without exposing themselves. The thing could be done too. For a rifle ball would tear through the flimsy woodwork of our shelter as if it had been paper.

  "We've got to get out of here," I told my friend.

  "Confound it, yes. But where shall we go?"

  "What's that? Listen, Sam."

  From below and to the left of us there came a sound as of some one moving. We could hear stealthy voices in animated whisper.

  "I see their game," Blythe murmured in my ear. "Those fellows on deck are to keep us busy pot-shotting us while the rest climb up from below and close with us when we're not looking."

  A bullet zipped through a window and left a little round hole. It must have passed between our heads.

  "Hot work," said the Englishm
an coolly, putting down his rifle and taking up a revolver and a cutlas. "We'd better sally out and have a look at the gentlemen who are climbing up the stanchions. You take that side and I'll take this."

  We were not a moment too soon. As I peered over the bridge rail an outstretched hand was reaching for a hold. Instantly it was withdrawn. The moonlight poured like a spotlight on the uplifted face of the sailor Neidlinger. Never have I seen a look more expressive of stupid, baffled surprise. His mouth was open, his eyes popping. But when I made a motion to aim my revolver he slid down the stanchion with a rush, knocking over the fellow supporting him from below.