Isle o' Dreams Part 31

Shanghai Tom went to the galley and prepared a meal for the three who had returned. After shutting the door of Jarrow's room the cabin lamp was lighted, as if in defiance of the two ash.o.r.e and to prove that all was well aboard the schooner.

Shope was given coffee and a cigar and put on watch, while all hands joined in a meal in the cabin. Bevins went over the whole story of how Mr. Peth had held up the captain ash.o.r.e, but that it was all to mislead those in the schooner, and how after taking to the brush the captain had told them his plans for "making a nice pot of money" out of the expedition, they having found no gold.

Doc had been in with Jarrow and Peth from the first. He had been told to play the spy, but he had kept secret his theft of the pistol from Trask's bag, a circ.u.mstance which puzzled Jarrow. The captain taxed Peth with having made a blunder so early in the game, and it was not until Doc had declared himself as the dinghy approached the schooner with Jarrow and his men that the secret of who had the pistol came out.

Doc had been told to return with the long boat after Jarrow was held up by Peth, and announce the captain's capture. When the captain came out again it was with the intention of getting aboard the schooner and putting Trask, Locke, and Marjorie ash.o.r.e.

Jarrow had planned that the party which went ash.o.r.e in the night would get back in the morning before they were discovered, but when Trask learned of the secret departure, Jarrow had signalled them to remain ash.o.r.e, by means of the lantern in the forerigging.

If the crew had got back aboard the schooner without having aroused any suspicions, it was Jarrow's intention to get his three pa.s.sengers on the island, and then demand checks, leaving them there while he took the schooner back to Manila and got the money.

Bevins, Shope, and Pennock had no idea of what had been planned until Jarrow told the whole plot ash.o.r.e. Then it came out that Peth's refusal to sleep aft was arranged by Jarrow and Peth to make it appear that they were at odds. The demand for money was to be made ostensibly by Peth, Jarrow always pretending that he was in the power of the crew.

Doc's report of how Trask had "cooked" gold out of the sand had set them all to burning sand, but when they found no gold after cooling the sand, Peth and Doc had quarrelled, the mate calling the steward names and charging him with being as crazy as Dinshaw. Peth doubted Doc's story of Trask finding gold at all. Doc had been chased by Peth, and in escaping from the mate's fury, the steward, being barefoot, had burned his feet so badly that he couldn't walk, having run into some of the red-hot sand.

So Doc was to have been left behind in the night attack on the schooner, and it was due to his disability that the trio was able to steal the dinghy. Bevins said that Doc had once killed a man, and Jarrow knew about it, with the result that the captain held the Negro under his control.

During the night they heard Peth halloing to the schooner, calling for Jarrow, but they gave no answer. Peth continued to call, like a dog baying the great moon which wheeled overhead, until along toward dawn, when the fire on the beach flared up for a while and then died.

Before daylight there was a nervous stir of air, and the sun rose on a cloud from the north. The breeze freshened, and Bevins, now in command, got the anchor, and under jib and reefed foresail they headed out for the sea.

Jarrow's room having been cleared early in the night, and the captain wrapped in old canvas, the body was dropped overboard as they pa.s.sed clear of the reefs, Trask saying from memory as much as he could remember of the service for burials at sea.

Through the gla.s.s Trask saw a white figure watching them from the edge of the jungle as they drove southward for Manila before a steady wind from the northeast.

Marjorie, who had slept after midnight, leaned against the taffrail with Trask, watching Shope and Pennock tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the sails. Bevins had the wheel but Locke was asleep below, having remained up all night.

"Poor old Captain Dinshaw," said Marjorie. "He'll never have his big house with good soup for supper."

"Perhaps it's just as well," replied Trask. "He was too old and pitifully crazy ever to enjoy anything. It's likely he would have suffered more if he'd never come to his island. And he might have killed somebody not so deserving of the fate he meted out to Jarrow."

"I suppose you'll come back and really look for gold when we're gone," she said.

He looked at her.

"No more of that island for me," he said. "The government will most likely send a boat to get Mr. Peth and Doc but I wouldn't come back here if the island were all gold."

"Why not?" she asked, somewhat surprised.

"Because it meant great peril for you. I would not care to have those terrible dangers recalled. I want to think of you as safe and happy. But there's one thing about it all which gives me satisfaction."

"What's that?"

"You'll never forget me!"

"Why, Mr. Trask, of course I won't! What a silly thing to say!"

"You might if it hadn't been for what we've been through in this schooner." He looked out over the sea.

"I hardly think so," she said, smiling at him. "Of course, you didn't understand what a joke Dad was going to play on Jarrow about the checks."

"What joke!" demanded Trask, turning to her.

"Dad's balance at the International in Manila is only about four thousand dollars."

"Then it might have been anything but a joke if Jarrow had come on for the money and didn't get it," said Trask. "But I suppose the bank would have allowed an overdraft."

"There couldn't be any overdraft. That four thousand is all the cash we've got in the world. Dad's supposed to be rich, but he isn't. We have only a little fruit ranch in Southern California.

We've been saving up for ten years for this trip around the world, since mother died. Jarrow would have found himself in trouble if he had attempted to cash those checks."

"I thought your father was a millionaire?"

"There is a man named Locke who has millions in California, but he is not a relative of ours."

"Glad to hear it!" cried Trask. "By George, I'm glad to hear it!"

"Glad that we're not rich! Why, Mr. Trask!"

"I'm--I'm going back to the States," he announced. "On the same boat you do, if you don't mind."

"You've changed your plans?"

"Yes. I'm going to quit mine-scouting out in these G.o.d-forsaken ends of the earth, and get back to where there's civilization. I think I'll buy a fruit ranch in Southern California. I've got enough capital. And what mining I do, I'll do it in California."

She scanned his face, amazed at what he was saying, and startled at his seriousness.

"Come below, and I'll tell you about it," he said, and she went down before him.

"Marjorie," he said, seeing that Shanghai Tom was out of sight in the galley, and her father's door was closed, "I've been in love with you since that first night in the _Manchuria_. But I thought--well, I thought you had millions!"

"Wilkins told everybody we were rich." She put her hand on his arm so gently that he could scarcely feel its weight. "I--love you. I was sure of it when Doc aimed that revolver at you."

He swept her into his arms.

"Thank G.o.d you missed the Hong Kong boat," he said.

"I really wanted to see you again," she confessed.

"But you were going home."

"It was I who made Dad miss the _Taming_. Anyway, I didn't tell him we'd have to get the morning train from Dagupan."

"For that I'm going to kiss you again," said Trask. And he did.

Immediately on the arrival of the _Nuestra Senora del Rosario_ at Manila the coastguard cutter _Candelaria_ sailed for Dinshaw's island. Peth and Doc Bird, seeing the steamer approaching, attempted to leave the island on an uncompleted raft, which broke up with them, and both were drowned, Doc clinging to the mate when they were thrown into the water.

The next Hong Kong boat left Manila with Mr. Locke and Mr. and Mrs.

Robert Trask among the pa.s.sengers.