Part 2

"I guess that was laying bare the situation with a rough and brutal hand," he said, and chuckled softly. "Had to be done, though. And now I've got to step mighty carefully. Most likely those assistant engineers are in on the game; they're Eurasians, too, so I can't take chances. If anyone suspects that I know about things, the blow-off will come before two bells--which would spoil everything for me. But lordy! What a pippin that little Maggs girl is! She's a regular guy."

From his language, it might be inferred that Jim Barnes was an American.

Puffing at his pipe, he sought the engine-room. The chief blinked up at him from a huge plate of curry. A glance showed Barnes that neither of the assistants were about, and he ventured an open word.

"Chief, wake up! Mutiny is scheduled for two bells, and if you don't want your throat cut you'd better be advised----"

"Get oot o' ma engine-room!" ordered the chief with dignity. "Ye drunken scut, can ye not bear your liquor like a man? I'll hae no drunken officers cooming doon here to be bawlin' o' mutinies in ma ear! Tak' shame to yoursel', sir!"

Barnes compressed his lips and turned away. It was useless.

The _Sulu Queen_, originally a well-decked tramp, had been fitted up rather shabbily to carry passengers in the island trade, the after portion of the deck-house having been added to for this purpose. Carrying all the oily waste he could conceal about his person, Jim Barnes made his way aft to one of the unoccupied cabins. The two white passengers were not in sight. In the stern, beneath a tattered awning, Abdullah sat smoking a water-pipe, his wife and family around him.

"They're safe enough," observed Barnes, as he ducked into the cabin he sought. "Even if the old packet can't get up enough steam to check the flames, and goes down, they'll be taken care of. So, on with the dance!"

The fact that he was committing various sorts of barratry and felony, did not worry Jim Barnes in the least.

The storm season being past, the lookout or awning-deck above the pilot-house was fitted up with awning and canvas aprons and some chairs, but remained almost unused. The additional climb of a dozen feet from the chart-and pilot-house was far too much trouble for the captain and others; besides which, the place was no more than a box a dozen feet square, and was hot. A single ladder ascended to it from the bridge deck, which it overlooked completely.

Shortly before two bells, Jim Barnes welcomed Ellen Maggs and Nora Sayers, as they came up to the bridge. He was alone there, with Li Fu and two of the lascars in the chart-house. Down in the bows, Lim Tock, the supercargo, was standing in talk with the steward, and both watches were idling about the deck.

"How do we get upstairs?" asked Ellen Maggs.

"Right this way, ladies!" answered Barnes cheerfully. "Chairs up there and a couple of old magazines, as well as a breaker of water and some other things. Whatever happens, don't worry--and wait for me. Here you are!"

As they vanished up the ladder, he re-entered the chart-house and addressed the two lascar seamen.

"Run, quick! One of you to the serang, the other to Lim Tock. Say that I smell smoke, and have search made for fire. Look at the bunkers, but don't take off the hatches until the last thing. If there's a fire in the forward hold, call me."

A startled glance passed between the two men, and they jumped for the ladder. Jim Barnes turned to the quartermaster, smiling slightly.

"Where is Hi John?"

"Him look velly sharp, I think."

"We can depend on him?"

Li Fu nodded.

"All right, then," said Barnes. "You go tell him to come up here. Then take charge of those lascars and keep 'em out of the after cabins for a while, until the fire shows itself. You savvy? Don't be in any hurry to put it out, either. We'll hold this thing off until night if we can."

Across the saffron features flitted a look of admiration, for Li Fu comprehended the plan instantly. Then the quartermaster was gone. Barnes looked at the chronometer. It lacked five minutes of one.

"Two bells won't be struck," he thought, as he swung the wheel.

He grinned at sight of the commotion below. Lim Tock was yelling orders at those of the black gang whom he could see. Gajah, the serang, was whistling at his lascars shrilly. Then he remembered the chief engineer, and rang the bell. One of the assistants answered in the tube.

"Ship's on fire," said Jim Barnes, chuckling to himself. "Stop your engines and keep up a full head o' steam for the hose."

Hi John appeared, gave Barnes a brief nod and a grin, and took the wheel. There had never been any fire drill aboard the _Sulu Queen_ in the memory of man, but Barnes blew the whistle nevertheless and added to the confusion. Vanderhoof's bellow arose from below, followed by an outburst of yells and shouts from aft.

"They've found it," said Barnes.

He went to the bridge rail and glanced aft. A trail of smoke and steam was veering out in the wake of the steamer. Barnes listened for a little to the sounds of tumultuous confusion, then rejoined the quartermaster.

"How did you and Li Fu know so much about this mutiny?" he demanded.

"Talkee-talkee," rejoined Hi John curtly. "My savvy lascar talk plenty."

"Oh! Understand Malay, do you? Good work. What reason have they to mutiny?"

Hi John had picked up a good deal of information. He knew that the rich boxes of the merchant Abdullah were to be looted, and that there was a large amount of opium down below, to be transferred to a Chinese junk and landed somewhere along the Bornean coast. Undoubtedly, the _Sulu Queen_ was to be stripped of everything valuable, then quietly sunk in deep water. Lim Tock was in it, the serang Gajah was in it, and the Chinese junk was in it; so were some of the officers and all the men aboard.

Reluctantly Jim Barnes became convinced that to strive against the inevitable would be useless. Except for these two Chinese, he could depend upon no one. Had he been alone on the ship, his actions would have been simple and perhaps effectual.

"I'd like to go down there and shoot the supercargo, the serang, and a few of the men, and get the old hooker into port," he said to Hi John. "But the safety of those two white women is worth more than this damned old carcass of a boat. I can't risk it."

Hi John looked bewildered at this reasoning, which he could not understand. At this instant Li Fu came up the port ladder, panting, and grinned as he saluted Barnes.

"Mutiny makee, no matter! I think they wait, same time tonight, mebbeso."

"Two bells evening watch?" demanded Barnes.

"Aye, sir. Cap'n say go ahead on course, he makee fire go out."

Barnes rang for full speed ahead, then questioned Li Fu. Both the skipper and Vanderhoof were in charge, it seemed, and were fighting the fire. Vanderhoof was somewhat sobered by the danger; the captain was almost incapacitated and was acting like an old woman, according to Li. The quartermaster was highly disgusted. It was the effort of the serang, whose lascars were working hard, that was putting the fire under control.

Presently the skipper himself appeared, He was breathing hard and was all in a tremble. He wiped his pallid brow and cursed heartily.

"Fire under?" asked Barnes.

"Yes, yes, or soon will be. No matter at all. Very disturbing," panted the captain. "I must obtain some rest, must verify our position. Keep her as she is, sir."

He looked around, nervously fingered the chart, then departed. Barnes looked after him in contempt, then went to the ladder leading above.

"Gone for a few pipes, the swine!" he muttered, then looked up and raised his voice. "Come on down, girls. Mutiny's postponed until tonight. False alarm and nobody killed yet."

III

"What part are you from?" asked Jim Barnes.

"Illinois," said Ellen Maggs. "From Elgin, where they make watches. Were you ever there?"

"No closer than the outside of a watch," responded Barnes. "But now I'm going there some day."

"Why?"

"To see where you came from."

Ellen Maggs laughed a little and actually forgot to blush.

"Do it again," said Barnes.

"Do what?"

"Laugh that way. It's the prettiest thing I ever saw."

Ellen blushed at that, then turned as Nora Sayers joined them.

"Nora! Mr. Barnes comes from Baltimore, too! He was born there!"

"Good for him!" Nora Sayers laughed in her hearty, energetic fashion. "Perhaps you know my father there, Mr. Barnes--the physician, Doctor Sayers?"

"Don't know anybody there," admitted Jim Barnes. "I've been at sea ever since the war finished up, and before. But I'm going to settle down some day, across the bay from San Francisco. Ever been there, Miss Maggs?"

"Only when I came out to China."

"Well," said Jim Barnes, in his whimsical [Transcriber's note: line of text missing from source book] all picked out! A fine little bungalow on one of the hills at Sausalito, where you can see the ships all up and down the bay, and the campanile at Berkeley clear across--

"Have you got the girl picked out, too?" asked Nora Sayers amusedly.

"Well," said Jim Barnes, in his whimsical way, "I didn't have up to a couple of weeks ago, but lately I've sort of got my mind made up. By the way, girls, you'd better get all ready. We're going to leave the ship in an hour or two."

"Leave her?" they repeated as one, in dismayed accents. "How?"

"You'll see. I'll take the bridge when watches are changed at eight bells--eight o'clock. You come up to the bridge a little before then, and stick around. Excuse me, now; I'll have to pack a few things myself."

Barnes hurried away, leaving the two women at the rail.

Dinner was over, a meal from which all three were glad to escape, coming out on deck to find the sun gone and the afterglow staining the horizon like old church windows. A tragic affair, that dinner! The captain was ill and did not appear; Vanderhoof was on deck, more drunk than usual; the second engineer quarreled with the wireless cub, who lost his head in a fit of idiotic rage and had to be taken away and locked up, screaming curses. The chief engineer was also locked in his own cabin, enjoying a spell of "the horrors."

Wishing vainly that he understood something about the wireless outfit, Barnes sought his cabin and packed up the few belongings that he wished to take from the ship. While he was at this task, Li Fu knocked at the door and entered hurriedly.

"Hello! What news? Is it set for two bells?"

Li Fu assented. He was bursting with laughter over some joke of the cruel Chinese variety, and Barnes presently learned what it was. He was ordering Li to warn Abdullah of what was intended, with the intent to get the Arab's family away safely, when the quartermaster exploded in a laugh and reported a conversation that he had overheard among some of the lascars.

It appeared that Abdullah was as much in the plot as anyone, and was to receive as his booty the two white women. The assistant engineers had an eye on the same prey; while Lim Tock and Gajah, the serang, were equally concerned. To the Chinese, this was a huge jest all around, for it meant that the wolves would turn and rend each other.

"Hell!" said Jim Barnes. "I hate to leave the kids here. But go ahead, now; and tell Hi John to attend to the engines as soon as he goes off watch, then to get up to the bridge and stand by. Have you got the boat ready?"

"Aye, sir," assented Li Fu. "Plenty wate'; eve'ything leady."

"On your way, then!"

Barnes made his way to the bridge, where Hi John and two lascars were in charge, and passed behind the chart-house unremarked. Vanderhoof was not in evidence. Aboard the _Sulu Queen_ the clear night was already insufferably warm, for she was steaming with the wind.

Passing to the centre starboard boat, Barnes found the cover loosely in place. He put in his few effects, then gave his attention to the lines. Like most old ships of a past generation, the steamer was equipped with Clifford's lowering gear, the most beautiful boat-gear ever devised, in theory, permitting a boat to be lowered by slacking a single line. This was the boat carried for use in emergencies. It was not stowed in chocks but was swung out and left clear, secured by gripes to a toggle which could be slipped in ah instant.

"If we have luck she'll do," thought Barnes, examining the lowering line. "The pendants are new line and not swelled; we ought to get down without spilling. Hm! If anybody'd ever told me that I'd owe life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to this cursed ancient Clifford gear, I'd have called him a liar! But wait. We're not off yet by a long shot."

True enough.

An automatic in either side pocket of his jacket, Jim Barnes took over the bridge from Hi John as eight bells struck. Then, dismay seized upon him. His own lack of foresight had brought on the crisis before he wanted or expected it! Ellen Maggs and Nora Sayers were on the bridge. They had brought some personal effects, each in a small grip; and from the look cast at them by the departing lascar wheelmen, Barnes knew that suspicion was up.

Two fresh lascars came to the wheel, with Li Fu. Disregarding these, Barnes made a slight gesture to Hi John, who slipped out of sight instantly on his errand below. Unless the engines were disabled, Barnes knew that his preparations were of no avail. He greeted the two women with his usual air of cheerful assurance, however.

"All ready? Fine! The two quartermasters are with us. Come along, now, and climb into the boat--no time to lose, I assure you! In ten minutes this ship is going to be about the unhealthiest spot you ever heard of."

He led them around the chart-house toward the boat.

"But the captain!" protested Nora Sayers. "Surely, if you know there will be some trouble, the other officers----"

"Nix," said Barnes. "Good Lord, girl! Haven't you seen already what sort o' swine the others are? Hear that so-called wireless officer scream? He's still off his head--and couldn't send a message if he were sane. And the old man's soggy with opium. Here you are! Step on this water breaker, and over into her; she's solid."

Indeed, his words were given emphasis by the screaming of the wireless man, which had broken out anew down below. Miss Sayers stepped to the breaker, and Barnes helped her up into the boat. Then he turned, picked up Ellen Maggs bodily and lifted her over the edge, laughing as he did so.

"Got your pistol? Good. Sit tight, and don't scream when things bust loose. See you later."

He left them hurriedly and returned to the wheel, fighting down his appalling helplessness to prevent what was going to happen. About the ship's officers he cared less than nothing; he was thinking now of the Arab woman and her brown children below. Abdullah might or might not protect them from the yellow fiends.

The tall figure of the serang rose at the starboard ladder. One glance from Li Fu told Barnes that this was the end. The two lascars were here to finish the quartermaster, and Gajah had come to attend to the second mate. The time was at hand.

Barnes went to the door of the chart-house. A shot would do the business, but he wanted no shooting up here if possible.

"Serang!" he exclaimed crisply. "Step aft. Something I want to show you."

That suited the Malay, who loosened his kris in its sheath and followed. At the corner of the chart-house, Barnes pointed across the deck, obscure in the starlight, to the boat.

"What's that?"

Sincerely astonished, Gajah peered at the boat, with the two women sitting in her. And as he stared, Barnes let drive with the heavy barrel of his automatic, a full, fair blow across the skull. A grunt broke from the serang, who pitched sideways and flung out his arms. Barnes caught him and lowered the bleeding form to the deck, then darted back to the chart-house.

Just in time, too! For all his watchful care, Li Fu had been taken unawares, one of the lascars gripping him in both arms, the other with kris upraised for the blow. Barnes was in upon them unseen, and struck down the man with the kris. The other lascar leaped away, gained the far door of the chart-house--and ran into the arms of Hi John. Something happened there. Steel flashed and a man gasped; the lascar slipped to the deck quietly.

"You two men watch the ladders!" snapped Barnes. "When you hear me call, come to the boat."

Revolvers out, each quartermaster took one of the ladders. Barnes turned and ran aft along the deck at top speed, disregarding the low call that the two women sent after him as he passed the boat. He was listening desperately for sounds from below. They came to him, came all in a jumble that his brain sorted out mechanically. First came a jarring wrench that shook the whole ship. Then the engines stopped. Whatever Hi John had done, the work was effective. And at the same instant the night was split by a sudden cry.

"Allah! Allah----"

Then the screaming of the wireless man was cut very short. An oath of desperation on his lips, Jim Barnes gained the small after ladder that led to the stern of the main deck. From below him burst a storm of cries; the shriek of a woman, the staccato yells of men, and a thin, shrill wail that maddened him. He dropped to the deck below, and found himself in the midst of an inferno, clearly illumined by the deck-lights.

Abdullah lay across his water-pipe, stabbed in the back. Nearby was his eldest child, also stabbed, and two lascars were fighting to take another child from the arms of its dying mother. Barnes saw only this much, and then began to fire. He forgot everything but the horror in front of him, and only laughed when several of the lascars began to converge on him.

A shot rang out from one of the forward cabins. Barnes, seizing the child, thrust him up the ladder and then swung about to meet three lascars plunging at him. He shot the first and second, ducked the kris-swing of the third, then tripped the man and shot him as he fell. Then he plunged for the nearest cabin, whence came screams.

Just what happened next is something of which Jim Barnes never speaks. The orders of Lim Tock, to make a clean sweep of Abdullah's family, were being followed to the letter. Barnes was in the cabin for fully a minute--which, just then, was a very long space of time.

By the time he emerged, much had happened. There was a crashing and smashing from the length of the cabins as the doors were battered in. From the bridge, a spatter of revolver shots; and, from below, more shots followed by the wild scream of the old chief as he reached the deck--a scream of half rage, half agony. He died at the rail, trailing blood across the deck, in his fist a blood-spattered spanner. After him, the Chinese stokers poured up to the deck and scattered for loot.

Jim Barnes came out of the cabin, thrusting a dead lascar ahead of him. About his neck clung one of Abdullah's daughters, and under his left arm was another. From the passage leaped a stoker, whom Barnes shot. Then, at the ladder, he urged the two little girls upward to join their brother above.

A shot rang out at him, and the bullet slithered on the steel beside him. Barnes paused to empty his automatics, then went up the ladder on the jump. At the top, he caught hold of the frightened children and rushed them along, shouting as he did so to the two quartermasters.

They, after shooting at the forms down below on the foredeck and in the well, joined him at the boat. Barnes chucked in the three children and cast off the toggle.

"In with you, men, and lower away! I'll slide down the pendant. Where's your pistol, Ellen? Hand it over--thanks. Sit still, all of you! Lower, Li, lower! That's it----"

Li Fu slacked the lowering line about the cleat, and the boat fell away rapidly. Barely in time, too; Barnes perceived a rush of figures coming from the after ladder, and opened fire. They scattered.

There was a moment's breathing spell, while from fore and aft, alow and aloft, rose sing-song calls in Cantonese and the harsher gutturals of the lascars. A rush was being planned from both sides.

Barnes caught a soft call from below, and breathed a prayer of thanks. A number of figures showed at the corner of the chart-house. He emptied his pistol at these, then turned, caught one of the pendants hitched to the davit-head, and let himself go sliding down.

A burst of yells rang out from the bridge deck, but he was in the boat below ere any could reach the rail. The two quartermasters had already put out the oars, and Barnes cast off the line and let the pendants unreeve as the roller whirled. The boat started away from the ship's side.

"Here," came a voice, and Barnes felt one of his own pistols shoved into his hand. "My clip fitted your automatic and----"

"Good girl, Ellen!" he cried out, and laughed as he fired at the rail above. A shot made answer, and a kris sang through the air to splash alongside--but the boat was clear. She drew away from the ship before the mutineers were sure just what had happened.

IV

"There's one good thing we can say for the _Sulu Queen_," observed Jim Barnes. "That is, she sailed under English board rules."

"What has that to do with our present situation?" demanded Nora Sayers.

"It means that we've got a sprit rig stowed aboard. In oars, men! Hi John, we'll be sailing before the wind, so lash your oar to the for'ard thwart to make a boom for the fores'l. Li Fu, break out the canvas. Get the mast stepped, then trim ship."

Over the waves behind, the tumult had died, and the distant lights of the _Sulu Queen_ showed only when the boat lifted on a crest. No pursuit had been made, nor had the searchlight been put into effect. Seemingly, Lim Tock was making no effort to find the boat. Probably the supercargo was for the present unable to get his men in hand and was also very likely to be busy getting the engines into working order.

When the centreboard was let down and the boat was being trimmed, Jim Barnes surveyed her with acute satisfaction. She was a nearly new whaleboat, fitted with a rudder in navy style, and well found in all respects. With a grunt of delight, Barnes opened the oiled silk wrapping of the matches, found the compass to be a good one, and set it by his side in the stern. In another ten minutes the sprit was up, the foresail rigged to the makeshift boom, and the whaleboat was running before the wind toward Borneo.

The eldest of the three children was barely six; none of them were cognizant of what had happened. After whimpering a little, they were soon asleep amidships, wrapped in the spare sail.

"If you girls will come aft, you can curl up in the bottom of the boat at my feet," said Barnes. "You'll be out of the wind and she'll be better trimmed. I've kept the boat well wet down since we sailed, and she's dry as a bone."

The two women obeyed. Nora Sayers looked up at Barnes.

"The other children? And their mother?"

Barnes tried to speak, but his throat was suddenly dry.

"I--damn it, girl, don't make me think of it! I did what I could. Go to sleep."

Ellen Maggs caught her breath sharply. Then, after a moment, Barnes felt her hand touch his, and he gripped her fingers. Both women were crying, he thought; but after a little they fell quiet, lulled by the regular rise and fall of the boat, by the long forward sweep, the rush and hiss of water as she drove along on a crest, and the tilted drop into the trough only to gather impetus anew and hurl forward.