The Beautiful White Devil Part 14

"I think, since you have honoured me with your confidence," I said, turning to Alie, "I have a right to ask a favour at your hands."

She looked at me with a little surprise.

"And what is that favour, Dr. De Normanville?" she asked.

"That in whatever you are going to do you will let me help you. No; I am not making this offer without thought, I a.s.sure you. It is my greatest wish to be of any service I can to you."

I saw Walworth look at me in rather a peculiar fas.h.i.+on, but whatever he may have thought he kept to himself. Alie paused before replying, then she stretched out her little hand to me.

"I accept your offer in the spirit in which it is made," she said. "I _will_ ask you to help me to get this traitor out of the way. Now we must consider the _modus operandi_."

Many and various were the schemes proposed, discussed, and eventually thrown aside. Indeed, it was not until nearly midday that we had decided on one to our liking. Once this was settled, however, we returned to the camp. Orders for starting were immediately given, and, by the time lunch was over, the packs were made up, the loads distributed, the ponies saddled, and we were ready to start upon our return journey to the settlement.

It was a long and tedious ride, and it was far into the night before we arrived at our destination. But late though it was, no one thought of bed. Too much important business had to be transacted before daylight.

On arrival, we repaired instantly to the bungalow on the hill, where a hasty supper was eaten, and an adjournment made from the dining-room to the large chart-room at the rear of the house. In this apartment were stored the latest Admiralty charts of all the seas and harbours in the world, and it was here, as I gathered later, that the Beautiful White Devil concocted the most cunning and audacious of her plans.

Arriving in it, she bade us seat ourselves while she gave us the details of the plan she had prepared.

"I have come to the conclusion," she said, "that your scheme is an excellent one, Dr. De Normanville, and I have arranged it all as follows: We will proceed in the yacht to-morrow morning (I have already sent the necessary instructions down to the harbour) to Java.

In Batavia we shall meet a young English doctor named De Normanville, who will accompany me to Singapore. I shall remain with a companion in that place for a short time while I do the sights, stopping at the Mandalay Hotel, where the man resides whom we want to catch. You will gradually make his acquaintance, and, having done so, introduce him to me. All the rest will be plain sailing. Do you think my scheme will do?"

"Admirably, I should say."

"It will be necessary, however, Dr. De Normanville, that you should remember one thing: you must not, for your own sake, be seen about too much with me. You are just to be a casual acquaintance whom I have picked up while travelling between Singapore and Batavia. Do you understand? After your great kindness, I cannot allow you to be implicated in any trouble that may arise from what I may be compelled to do."

"Pray do not fear for my safety," I answered. "I am content to chance that. In for a penny, in for a pound. Believe me, I am throwing my lot in with you with my eyes open. I hope you understand that very thoroughly?"

"I am perfectly sensible, you may be sure, of the debt we are under to you," she answered. "Now we must get to business, for there is much to be done before daylight."

Accordingly we set to work perfecting all the ins and outs of our plan, and when it was completed, and my bags were packed and despatched to the harbour, the stars were paling in the eastern heavens preparatory to dawn.

Walworth had preceded us to the yacht some time before, and nothing remained now but for me to follow with Alie and the bulldog.

A boat was waiting for us at the same jetty on which I had landed on my arrival nearly three months before, and in it we were rowed out to the _Lone Star_, whose outline we could just discern. It was an uncanny hour to embark, and my feelings were quite in keeping with the situation. I was saying good-bye to a place for which I had developed a sincere affection, and I was going out into the world again to do a deed which might end in cutting me off from my profession, my former a.s.sociates, and even my one remaining relation. These thoughts sat heavily upon me as I mounted the ladder, but when, on reaching the deck, Alie turned and took my hand and gave me a welcome back to the yacht, they were dispelled for good and all.

Side by side we went aft. Steam was up, the anchor was off the ground, and five minutes later, in the fast increasing light, we were moving slowly across the harbour towards what looked to me like impenetrable cliffs. When we got closer to them, however, I saw that one projected further than the other, and that between the two was a long opening, the cliffs on either side being nearly a hundred and fifty feet high.

This opening was just wide enough to let a vessel pa.s.s through with the exercise of extreme caution.

At the further end of this precipitous ca.n.a.l the width was barely sufficient to let our vessel out, though at that particular point the cliffs on either side were scarcely more than eighty feet high. Here, lying flat against the walls of stone, were two enormous, and very curious, gates, the use of which I could not at all determine.

We pa.s.sed through and out into the sea. By the time we reached open water daylight had increased to such an extent that, when we were a mile out, objects ash.o.r.e could be quite plainly distinguished.

"Look astern," said Alie, who stood by my side upon the bridge, "and tell me if you can discover the entrance to the harbour."

I did so, but though I looked, and looked, and even brought a gla.s.s to bear upon the cliffs, I could see no break in the line through which a vessel of any size might pa.s.s.

"No!" I said at last, "I must confess I cannot see it."

"Now you will understand," she said, smiling at my bewilderment, "the meaning of those great doors. On the seaward side they are painted to resemble the cliffs. Could anyone wish for a better disguise?"

I agreed that no one could. And, indeed, it was most wonderful. A man-of-war might have patrolled that seemingly barren coast for weeks on end and still have been unaware of the harbour that lay concealed behind.

"Now you will want to rest, I know," she said. "I think you will find your old cabin prepared for you."

"And you?"

"I am going below too. Look, the coast is fast disappearing from our sight. There it goes beneath the horizon. Now will you wish our enterprise good luck?"

"Good luck," I said, with a little squeeze of her hand.

"Thank you, and may G.o.d bless you," she answered softly, and immediately vanished down the companion-ladder.

CHAPTER VIII.

A QUEER SURPRISE.

Within a week of our leaving the island behind us, as narrated in the previous chapter, we had brought the Madura coast well abeam, and were dodging along it waiting for darkness to fall in order to get into Probolingo Harbour. Here it was arranged I should leave the yacht and travel by the Nederlands-India line of steamers to Batavia. A vessel of this line, so we had discovered, called at Probolingo about the end of each month, and for this reason our arrival was timed for the afternoon of the day of her departure.

Shortly before three o'clock we brought up at the anchorage, about a mile from the sh.o.r.e. It was a lovely afternoon, and I could see that the steamer, which was to carry me on, was already preparing for her departure. The boat was alongside, my traps were safely stowed in her, and nothing remained but to bid Alie good-bye. As soon as this was accomplished I went down the gangway, took my seat in the stern, and we pushed off. Ten minutes later I was on board the steamer _Van Tromp_, had paid my pa.s.sage-money, secured my berth, and was waiting to see what the next item of the programme would be.

From the deck of the Dutch vessel, as she swept by us under full sail, her course set for Batavia, the _Lone Star_ looked as pretty a craft as any man could wish to see. I noticed, however, that during the three months she had been in her own harbour her colour, and indeed her whole appearance, had been entirely changed. When first I had made her acquaintance she was white as the driven snow; now she was a peculiar shade of red. Her bows seemed bluffer than when I had seen her last, indeed from the present shape and construction of her masts and gear it would have been extremely difficult to tell her for the same vessel.

At six o'clock, and in the eye of a glorious sunset, we got up our pressure and steamed out to sea. Of that voyage there is little to tell. The _Van Tromp_ was a clumsy old tub of an almost obsolete pattern, and by the time we reached Tanjong Priok, as the seaport of Batavia is called, I had had about enough of her.

Once there, I repacked my bag and stepped on to the wharf, resolved to take the first train to the city. Arriving there I drove direct to the hotel whose name Alie had given me and booked my room.

Batavia is a pretty place, and at the time of our visit was looking its best. So far I had seen nothing of Alie, and I did not like to make inquiries concerning her lest by so doing I might excite suspicion. To while away the time till dinner I lit a cigar, and seating myself in the long verandah that surrounded the house, read my book, keeping a watchful eye on the folk about me all the time.

Shortly before five o'clock, I noticed that the Dutch ladies in my neighbourhood ordered afternoon tea, and partook of it in the verandah. Not to be outdone, I followed their example. But just as I was about to pour myself out a cup an interruption occurred which presently a.s.sumed annoying proportions.

The table, on which my Malay boy had placed the tray, stood in the full glare of the afternoon sun, and this being hotter than I liked, I bade him move it nearer to the wall, and to facilitate matters, myself took up the tray on which my cup stood, br.i.m.m.i.n.g full. Just as he was putting the table down, however, two strange ladies turned the corner of the verandah and came towards us. The taller, and younger of the two, was a fine dark woman, with a wealth of beautiful brown hair rolled tightly behind her head. She was dressed in a well-fitting travelling dress, wore, what I believe is called, a sailor hat, and walked with a carriage that would have even attracted attention in the most crowded street in the world. Her companion was an older woman, and, if one might judge by appearances, nearer sixty than fifty, with a fine, aristocratic face, and a considerable quant.i.ty of grey hair heaped in little corkscrew curls all over her head.

When they came level with where I stood, I stepped back to let them pa.s.s, but in doing so came into collision with the younger lady. How it happened I cannot say, but the result was in every way disastrous; the tray slipped, and would have fallen had I not caught it in time, but the cup of tea was too quick for me, and fell to the ground, splas.h.i.+ng the young lady's pretty grey dress beyond hope of remedy in its descent. The cup and saucer were broken into a hundred pieces. For a moment the fair sufferer stood silent, hardly, I suppose, knowing what to say; but when I commenced my apologies and wanted to run to my room for a cloth with which to wipe her dress, she found her voice, and said with a strong American accent--

"You must do nothing of the kind. It was all my fault. I declare I'm downright sorry."

It would have been one of the prettiest voices I had ever heard but for the Yankee tw.a.n.g that spoiled it. I hastened to a.s.sure her that I could not let her take the blame upon herself, and once more begged to be allowed to sponge the tea off her dress. This, however, she would not permit me to do.

"It won't hurt," she a.s.sured me for the twentieth time, "and if it did, it's an old dress, so don't bother yourself. But now, look here, you've been deprived of your tea, and that's not fair at all. Say, won't you come right along to our verandah and take a cup with us?

You're English, I know, and it's real nice to have somebody who speaks our own tongue to talk to. Promise 'Yes' right away and we'll be off."

There was something so frank about her that, though I didn't at all want to go, I could not resist her. So putting the remnants of the cup and saucer back upon the tray I accepted the invitation and accompanied them round the hotel garden to their own verandah on the other side. As I went I kept my eyes open for any sign of Alie, but though I thought I saw her once I presently found I was mistaken. I could not help wondering what she would think if she met me in this girl's company. However, as I had let myself in for it I had n.o.body to thank but myself.

When we reached the ladies' quarters we found tea prepared. Before we sat down, however, the younger lady said, without a shadow of embarra.s.sment--