The Voodoo Gold Trail Part 19

_Wayne Scott._

"Ah!" said Captain Marat. "Thad look ver' deeferent. They want we shall follow thee _Orion_--and they are to be on board of thee _Orion_. And so that what Duran mean w'en he say--'We must not leave them behind.'"

"And," offered Robert, "he wants us to look out for them. That means that when we get near enough, they'll escape overboard if they get a chance; and they want us to pick them up if they succeed."

"Say," broke in Norris, holding the paper and addressing Robert. "What you kids can't think up isn't in the dictionary, or Shakespeare. That Duran is a sharp one, but let Wayne and Robert, here, alone--we'll beat that skunk yet."

CHAPTER XIV

JULIAN CONTINUES THE NARRATIVE--NORRIS' BIG GUN

There was much discussion now, and the storm having pa.s.sed, we got up on deck again. It was decided to make it appear to Duran that we meant to remain, waiting for the return of the boys. We got a boat ready, put into it blankets and provisions, and the like, as if for a sojourn on sh.o.r.e. We made certain Duran would be watching our preparations. An hour before night we pushed off, Robert and Rufe, only, remaining aboard with the sailors.

At the wharf we hired a mule and cart, and transferred the cargo; and directly, we were moving to the back of the town, stopping only when we had reached a little wooded eminence. We did not unload, but unhitched the mule and put him to graze.

We had not been long at the place, when Norris went off, saying he had an errand, and would meet us at the boat-landing.

We could see both schooners from the little hill, until darkness came.

Then we kept watch for Robert's signal.

"What do you think Norris can be up to?" I said.

"Ah!" returned Marat, "Thad Englishman, he got some buzz in hees bonnet.

He ver' good man. He--"

"There thee light!" said Carlos.

I looked, and out of the black harbor, dotted with anchor lights, there appeared a wee flas.h.i.+ng, repeated at frequent intervals. We answered with a few flashes from our lantern. Then Robert's signal ceased.

The mule was put to the cart again, and we returned to our boat.

There was Norris, waiting. He sat on the bow of the small boat, twirling his thumbs. While we were transferring our property from the cart to the boat again, I noted a pair of white men seated in a flatboat of some bulk, lying nose on the beach, nearby. When we started for the _Pearl_, Norris made a gesture to the two men who immediately followed with their boat in our wake.

"What have you got there?" I asked of Norris.

"Oh, that's just a couple of dagos doing a job for me," Norris answered.

"The _Orion's_ gone," said Robert, as we drew near the _Pearl_.

We threw our outfit aboard. And then Norris unlashed the block from the main gaff and swung it down to the "Dagos," who had come alongside with their boat. They hitched the tackle to a tarpaulin-wrapped article. From its shape, it might be a piece of cordwood. When that had been pulled aboard, the block went down into the boat again, and soon up came a gun carriage. It was that type so much seen in the old fortifications, the supports of wood, with small wheels at the base. Next came about fifty rounds of, perhaps, two-pound b.a.l.l.s, and powder in kegs, not forgetting ram-rod and swabber.

The "Dagos" moved quietly away, money in their fists.

"Never heard of a s.h.i.+p on such a chase as ours without some kind of a cannon," explained Norris.

He had seen some old cannon lying useless in an old fortification on sh.o.r.e. He fastened his liking on a bra.s.s gun, of not too great size, and 'by hook or by crook,' had made a deal for it--"With the fixin's," as he said. One little wheel of the carriage was broken, but he contrived a temporary prop in its place. He did not rest till he had the bra.s.s barrel mounted and lashed up near the bows, and hid under its tarpaulin.

"What are you going to do with that 'barker'?" said Robert.

"First of all," said Norris, "I'm going to polish her up--to decorate the s.h.i.+p. And then, if ever that skunk voodoo gives me an excuse, I'm going to find out what my old training in gunnery has done for me."

The land breeze had been blowing for a long time. Though Captain Marat had his clearing papers all in proper form long ago, we waited till the _Orion_ had got near a good three hours start, before we got up our anchor and set the _Pearl's_ bow out to sea.

It was past midnight, the moon--in its first quarter--was just setting.

In half an hour we went about, and made toward the north. Daylight found us rounding the northwest corner of the island.

"How long do you think it will take us to get sight of that skunk's s.h.i.+p?" asked Norris.

"Ah!" mused Captain Marat, "Maybe one day, maybe two."

"And if the _Orion_ is going back home," said Norris, "after she picks up Wayne and Ray, which way will she turn--north and then back, or down around the east end of the island?"

"I theenk," said Marat, "thad she go aroun' thees island. She make faster sail thad way, and Duran weel think we have not so much chance to head him off thad way--if we should happen to come after heem."

That first day, while the _Pearl_ plowed steadily eastward, the coast always in view, Norris busied himself with repairs on his gun-carriage.

The second day broke with no sight of the _Orion_. And this day Norris gave to polis.h.i.+ng his bra.s.s cannon; a job that took grit and elbow-grease, for that barrel carried the acc.u.mulations of many years of exposure to all weathers.

That afternoon he got out powder and a ball, and charged the gun, and ten minutes before we were to turn on the starboard tack, he set adrift a little raft on which he had rigged a square bit of canvas. And then when we got round on that tack, he called Rufe, who came running with a red hot poker. Norris sighted the gun on that raft, the while shouting orders to the man at the helm. A touch of the red poker, and "Boom!" We

saw the splash, perhaps forty feet to the right of the raft, which now floated some three hundred yards distant.

"If that had been the _Orion_," said Norris, "I'd have got her in the bows. That's a good enough shot, I'll say."

It was near nine of the following morning that we sighted the sails of a vessel. There was excitement on the _Pearl_. In two hours we could see a little of the hull. She was a schooner.

"I think thad the _Orion_," said Captain Marat then. The impulsive Norris had declared it that vessel from the first. Finally came an experience I dread to recollect. We had pa.s.sed the eastern end of the island, and were abreast of some lesser islands. The schooner ahead was on the starboard tack. We held also on the same tack. The other schooner went about on the port tack. We followed suit. In half an hour black clouds suddenly rose out of the southwest. They were preceded by gray clouds that curled like billows.

Captain Marat at once shortened sail--reefed to the uttermost. The schooner ahead went about and made for a small island to the east. The _Pearl_ did the same.

The wind struck us. Rapidly it increased in fury. Captain Marat got a loop of rope round the mainmast, whence he called his orders to Norris and two sailors at the wheel. I never had realized that a vessel could skim the sea with such terrific speed. Spray hissed over the deck. The masts bent; the schooner groaned under the strain. The tempest howled in the rigging. Belated birds flew past, sh.o.r.eward.

Rapidly that island loomed ahead in the semi-night. Marat used his gla.s.ses.

"Hard on!" he yelled at last.

We bore down directly on the land, now close aboard. Robert and I braced ourselves for a shock, for we expected the _Pearl_ to strike on the shoals.

Another minute and we saw land on both sides of us.

"Luff! Luff!" shouted Captain Marat.

The _Pearl_ went about; the sails flapped angrily; the anchor went overboard, and we lay in the lee of a wooded hill. Bits of trees flew over us--some debris lodged in our rigging, as the fury continued overhead.

In ten minutes all our sails were snug.