The Cruise of the Thetis Part 4

The saloon party breakfasted at nine o'clock the next morning, and, embarking in the steam pinnace about ten, went ash.o.r.e, ostensibly to enquire at the post office for letters, and to view the quaint little town, but really to visit an agent of the Cuban Junta who was established there; upon whom, however, Don Hermoso did not call until nearly two o'clock in the afternoon, at which hour the streets were practically deserted. The first visit of the party was to the post office, where, as he had expected, Don Hermoso found awaiting him a long letter, written in cipher, from the Junta at New York, cordially thanking him for his generous a.s.sistance, and informing him that arrangements had been made for a trusty party to await the arrival of the yacht in the Laguna de Cortes, at the south-west end of Cuba, where everything was to be landed, and where also a pilot would be found waiting to take the yacht into the lagoon. The letter ended up by giving a pa.s.sword which would be evidence of the _bona fides_ both of the pilot and of the party who had been told off to receive the contraband.

It soon became apparent to Jack that he and his party were attracting a very considerable amount of attention from certain individuals, who appeared to be following them about the town persistently, and apparently with very little pretence at concealment. It was therefore arranged that when the moment arrived for the visit to be paid to the agent of the Junta, Don Hermoso should pay it alone, Carlos and Jack meanwhile doing their best to decoy the persistent spies in some other direction. But their efforts were of no avail, for it soon became clear that a separate spy had been told off to watch each member of the party; when they separated, therefore, Jack found that while one man remained to watch him, a second followed Don Hermoso, and a third, with equal tenacity, followed Carlos. And finally, when, later on in the afternoon, Jack set off to walk down to the wharf in order to go back aboard the yacht, he suddenly found himself accosted by a swarthy, unkempt individual, picturesquely attired in rags, yet whose manner was somehow out of keeping with his appearance.

"_Pardon, Senor_" exclaimed the fellow in Spanish, with an air of mystery, as he took off his sombrero with a flourish, "but have I the supreme honour of addressing the n.o.ble Englishman who owns the beautiful yacht that came in yesterday?"

"If you refer to the English yacht _Thetis_," said Jack, "yes, I am the owner of her."

"_Mil gracias, Senor_, for your condescension," answered the man.

"Senor," he continued, "I have a very great favour to beg of you. It has been said that the Senor is about to visit Cuba. Is this so?"

The mention of Cuba instantly put Jack on his guard: he at once suspected that he was face to face with another Spanish spy, and felt curious to know what the fellow was driving at. Yet he was careful to conceal the fact that his suspicions had been aroused; he therefore answered, with an air of carelessness:

"Indeed! That is curious, for I am not aware that I have thus far mentioned my intentions to anyone ash.o.r.e here. And, as to visiting Cuba--well, I am not at all certain that I shall do so; for, from what I have gathered to-day, I am led to understand that the country is in a very disturbed condition, and that it is scarcely safe for strangers to go there at present. But you have not yet mentioned the favour that you wish to ask me. Has it anything to do with my supposed intention to visit Cuba?"

"a.s.suredly it has, Senor; most intimately," answered the other.

"Senor," and the speaker a.s.sumed a yet more furtive and mysterious manner, "I am a Cuban--and a patriot; I am dest.i.tute, as my appearance doubtless testifies, and I am most anxious to return to my country and take up arms against the oppressor. The English, enjoying liberty themselves, are reputed to be in sympathy with us Cubans in our endeavours to throw off the hated yoke of a foreign oppressor; and I have ventured to hope that the Senor would be magnanimous enough to give me a pa.s.sage across to Havana in his beautiful yacht."

"I think," said Jack, with an air of hauteur, "that you have altogether mistaken the character of my vessel. She is not a pa.s.senger s.h.i.+p, but a private yacht in which I am taking a cruise for the benefit of my health; and it is not my custom to give pa.s.sages to total strangers, especially when by so doing I should run the risk of embroiling myself with the Spanish authorities, with whom I have no quarrel. No, Senor, you must pardon my seeming churlishness in refusing so apparently trivial a favour, but I decline to a.s.sociate myself in any way with the quarrel between your country and Spain. I have the honour to bid you good-day."

"Ah, pardon, Senor; just one moment!" persisted the man. "The n.o.ble Senor disclaims any intention to a.s.sociate himself with the quarrel between Cuba and Spain; yet two well-known Cuban patriots are guests on board his yacht!"

"It would almost appear that my yacht and I are attracting a quite unusual amount of attention here," laughed Jack. "The gentlemen of whom you speak are personal friends of mine--the younger of them, indeed, went to the same school as myself, in England--which should be sufficient to account for my intimacy with them. But it does not follow that, because they happen to be friends of mine, I am to give a free pa.s.sage to Cuba to anyone who chooses to ask me. Were I to do so I should probably have to carry across half the inhabitants of Key West!

No, Senor, I must beg to be excused."

And, bowing profoundly to his ragged interlocutor--for with the language Jack always found himself falling into the stately mannerisms of the Spaniard--the young man pa.s.sed on, wondering whether he had indeed been guilty of an ungracious act to a genuine Cuban patriot, or whether the man whom he had just left was a Spanish spy.

He put the question to Don Hermoso that night over the dinner-table, while relating to his companions the incident of the afternoon; but the Don laughed heartily at Jack's qualms of conscience.

"Never trouble yourself for a moment on that score, my dear Jack," said he. "The man was without doubt a Spanish spy. Had he been a genuine Cuban patriot, as he represented himself to be, he would have known that it would only have been necessary to present himself to the local agent of the Junta, with the proofs of his ident.i.ty, when he could easily have obtained a pa.s.sage across to Cuba. But the incident is only one more proof, if such were needed, that our party and the yacht have somehow incurred the very gravest suspicion of the Spaniards, and that we are being most jealously watched. I fear that Carlos and I are chiefly responsible for this; indeed, the agent here did not scruple to say that we--Carlos and I--committed a very great tactical blunder in coming out here in the yacht. He a.s.serts that we ought to have come out in the ordinary way by mail steamer, and that in such a case little or no suspicion would have attached to the yacht; but that certain news transmitted from Europe, coupled with the fact of our presence on board, has convinced the authorities that the yacht is in these waters for the purpose of running a cargo of contraband into the island. Of course we have our spies, as the Spaniards have theirs, and one of our most trusty investigators reported to-day, while I was with the agent, that it is undoubtedly the intention of the Spanish authorities that their torpedo boat shall accompany the _Thetis_, so long as she remains in Cuban waters."

"Phew! that sounds awkward," remarked Milsom. "Does anybody know what her speed is?"

n.o.body did, it appeared; whereupon Milsom undertook to ascertain whether the custom-house officer possessed the knowledge, and, if so, to extract it from him. Accordingly, when, a little later, the saloon party adjourned to the deck for the enjoyment of their post-prandial cigars, the skipper sauntered away forward and up on the top of the deck-house, where Perkins and the officer were sitting yarning together, and joined them. He sat chatting with them for nearly an hour, and then, upon the pretext that he had forgotten to speak to Mr Singleton about the arrangements for coaling the s.h.i.+p, rose and joined the trio who were sitting aft near the stern grating.

"Well," said Jack, "have you been able to learn anything, Phil?"

"Yes," answered Milsom; "and what I have learned is not very comforting.

That torpedo boat, it appears, is practically a new craft, and she has a sea speed of twenty-five knots, which is one knot better than our best; so how we are going to dodge her is more than I at present know.

The three gunboats we need not trouble about, for the two-masted craft are only capable of sixteen knots, while the three-masted boat--the _Destructor_--can do about seventeen, at a pinch, though she is said to have been at one time capable of twenty-two and a half. Neither need we trouble about the cruisers, for the faster of them--the _Lepanto_--is only capable of twenty and a half knots when she is clean, and I am told that at present she is dreadfully foul."

"Still, it appears to me that the torpedo boat is, apart from the rest, more than we shall be able to manage," remarked Don Hermoso. "If she persists in d.o.g.g.i.ng our heels we shall not have a ghost of a chance of landing our cargo anywhere."

"No," said Jack. "But she will not dog our heels, Don Hermoso; don't you trouble. This is where my submarine comes in, and is going to score, if I am not mistaken. Macintyre and I will be able to doctor that torpedo boat so that she will not trouble us. We will just go down in the submarine and remove the nut that secures her propeller to its shaft, and when she begins to move, her propeller will drop off; and before it can be replaced we will have our cargo ash.o.r.e, and be in a position to laugh at her."

"But how will you manage that, Jack, in the presence of all these s.h.i.+ps?" demanded Milsom. "You could not possibly do what you suggest without being seen. Besides, there is the custom-house officer to be reckoned with; and I really do not believe that the man is to be trusted with your secret."

"We shall have to do the job at night-time--the night before we leave here for Cuba," said Jack. "And, as to the custom-house officer, we must trust that he will sleep too soundly to hear anything."

"Leave him to me," said Don Hermoso. "I am a bit of a chemist, in my way, and I will concoct a liquid a few drops of which in his grog the last thing at night will cause him to sleep soundly all night, and awake none the worse in the morning."

"That will get us over one difficulty," said Jack, "and I have just thought of a plan that will get us over another--that of getting the submarine into the water un.o.bserved. It strikes me that we can do all that is necessary without using the submarine at all. That torpedo boat is, as you may observe, lying quite close to the sh.o.r.e, so close, indeed, that there cannot be much more than two feet of water under her keel. Consequently Macintyre and I have only to don our special diving dresses--which, as I think I have explained to you, need no air-pipe or anything of that sort--go down over the side of the yacht, and make our way to our prey under water. With a little management we could even do the trick in broad daylight, and n.o.body be any the wiser!"

"Excellent!" exclaimed Milsom enthusiastically. "We will have the lighters alongside to coal us to-morrow; and before they come along we will hang tarpaulins all round the s.h.i.+p to keep the paint clean. Then, while everybody is busy coaling, you and Macintyre can watch your opportunity and slip over the side through the ash port. Gad! won't those fellows be wrathy when their propeller parts company! They will no doubt suspect us, but they cannot possibly prove anything."

On the following morning, immediately after breakfast, Milsom went ash.o.r.e and made arrangements for the immediate coaling of the yacht; and while he was absent, Jack and Macintyre, the chief engineer, got out the diving dresses and thoroughly overhauled them, charged the air cylinders with densely-compressed air, and collected such tools as they expected to require for their job. By the time that this had been done, Milsom was back aboard the yacht, having made all his arrangements, including one which was of considerable a.s.sistance to Jack and Macintyre. This consisted of an arrangement to take the yacht directly alongside the coal hulk, instead of coaling from lighters, and the advantage to the conspirators arose from the fact that the particular hulk from which the _Thetis_ was to coal lay within a short hundred yards of the spot where the Spanish torpedo boat rode at anchor. Then a number of tarpaulins were got up on deck and hung over the s.h.i.+p's sides, fore and aft, covering the hull from the bulwark rail right down to the surface of the water, to protect the white paint from defilement by flying coal dust; and, this having been done, the yacht was taken alongside the coal hulk, and the process of coaling the vessel at once began under the joint supervision of Milsom and the second engineer, the skipper being especially particular in the arranging of the fenders between the hulls of the two craft. So fastidiously careful was he, indeed, in this matter, that he finally caused two booms to be rigged out, one forward and one aft, to bear the yacht off from the side of the hulk, with the result that there was a clear s.p.a.ce of fully two feet between the sides of the two craft. And, to facilitate as much as possible the process of coaling, Milsom caused a broad gangway, nearly six feet wide, to be rigged between the two vessels, so that the porters might pa.s.s to and fro freely without obstructing each other. And, singularly enough, this gangway happened to be rigged exactly over the ash port, which was thus quite effectually concealed from the view of even the most prying eyes.

And there undoubtedly were several pairs of eyes very curiously and intently watching everything that was happening aboard the English yacht, not the least intent among them being those of the custom-house officer, who planted himself upon the bridge of the _Thetis_, fully determined that nothing great or small should be pa.s.sed from the yacht to the coal hulk without his full knowledge and consent. Thus, thanks to the exceeding care with which Milsom had made his dispositions, Jack--who, with the two Montijos, was supposed to be down below--and Macintyre, fully equipped in their diving dresses, and with their tools slung to their belts, had not the slightest difficulty in leaving the yacht un.o.bserved, and descending to the bottom of the harbour by way of a diving ladder.

The water being shallow and tolerably clear, and the sun high enough in the heavens to throw a strong light down into it, the two adventurers were able to see well enough to be able to pa.s.s from the yacht to the torpedo boat without any other guide than that of their unaided eyesight; and within ten minutes the pair found themselves beneath the bottom of their quarry, the keel of which was, as Jack had antic.i.p.ated, within about three feet of the ground. The boat, they found, was driven by a single propeller protected by a skeleton frame forming the boat's keel and sternpost, and to climb into this frame occupied Macintyre less than a minute, helped as he was by Jack. Macintyre's first act was to subject the propeller nut to a very careful examination, after which he fixed a big spanner in position and threw his whole weight upon it, a.s.sisted by Jack, who was pulling at a rope attached to the extreme end of the spanner handle. The nut, however, was rusted on so effectually as to be immovable, so Macintyre climbed down and, by means of a slate and a piece of chalk, consulted Jack as to what was best to be done to overcome the difficulty. Looking up, and studying the structure of the boat's stern intently, Jack saw that by steadying themselves by the rudder chains they could both climb up and stand upon the arm of the spanner, when, by bracing their shoulders against the boat's overhanging stern, they could bring the whole of their united strength to bear, and thus possibly start the nut. By means of a diagram and a few words chalked upon the slate Macintyre was soon made to comprehend what Jack meant, and then they both climbed up and, with considerable difficulty, arranged themselves in the required position. Then, bracing their shoulders against the vessel's hull, the two men thrust with all their might, with the result that the nut suddenly started, and the spanner fell off, dropping to the bottom of the harbour and leaving the two operators hanging by the rudder chains. The drop from thence to the sand, however, was not above six feet--a mere trifle in water--so they let go, recovered the spanner, and got to work again. Once started, the nut gave them very little further difficulty, and ten minutes later it was off and safely buried out of sight in the sand. The propeller, however, still remained on the shaft, and might quite possibly continue to remain there for a time, even should the boat get under way; but the moment that she stopped her engines after once getting under way, or if she should happen to attempt to go astern, the propeller would at once slip off and be lost. Three-quarters of an hour from the moment of leaving the yacht, Jack and Macintyre were safely on board her again, with their task accomplished, much to the satisfaction of the party.

It was well on toward lunch-time ere the yacht's bunkers were full and she was able to haul off from the coal hulk, and the greater part of the afternoon was occupied by the crew in was.h.i.+ng down the decks and paint work, cleaning up generally, polis.h.i.+ng bra.s.swork, and restoring the little vessel to her normal state of immaculate neatness; during which Jack and the two Montijos took a final run ash.o.r.e, for it had been decided that, failing the occurrence of anything to cause an alteration of their plans, they would leave for Cuba on the following day.

No attempt was made to preserve secrecy as to the yacht's movements; nor, on the other hand, were the preparations for her departure ostentatiously displayed. Soon after eight o'clock in the morning a thin film of smoke was seen to issue from the vessel's funnel, gradually increasing in density, and it became quite apparent to all who chose to interest themselves in the matter that the _Thetis_ was getting up steam in readiness to take her departure. And that she intended to leave almost immediately was further indicated by the arrival alongside her of a boat containing fresh water, and other boats containing fresh meat, vegetables, fruit, and supplies generally. But there were no signs of hurry on board the vessel: everything was done openly and leisurely, as is the way of people who are taking their pleasure; and it was not until nearly five o'clock in the afternoon that the boats were hoisted to the davits, and a thin jet of steam spouting from the bows of the vessel proclaimed that her crew were getting her anchor. And when at length Perkins, the chief mate, standing in the bows of the vessel, vociferously announced that the anchor was aweigh, there was no sign of haste or anxiety in the slow, leisurely movement of the yacht as she swept round in a wide circle from the spot where she had lain at anchor, and headed seaward by way of the West Channel, dipping her ensign to the men-o'-war in the roadstead as she went, while her crew catted and fished the anchor on its appearance above the surface. Then, and not until then, did the _Thetis_ quicken, until she was running at a speed of about fourteen knots.

The yacht had been under way about half an hour when Jack, who with the two Montijos and Milsom was on the top of the deck-house, diligently watching the roadstead which they had just left, exclaimed: "Here she comes!" and the Spanish torpedo boat was seen coming along astern, with a dense cloud of black smoke pouring from her funnels, and the water playing like a fountain about her sharp stem as she swept after the _Thetis_ at full speed. Milsom looked at her long and earnestly through his binoculars; then he turned to Jack and, with a frown wrinkling his brow, said:

"By the look of that boat, and the pace at which she is coming through the water, it appears to me, young man, that something has gone very seriously wrong with the little job that you undertook to do yesterday.

Are you quite sure that you removed the nut?"

"Absolutely certain," answered Jack cheerfully.

"Then how do you account for the fact that she has not yet dropped her propeller?" demanded Milsom.

"Easily enough," answered Jack. "She got under way, like ourselves, by steaming ahead and sweeping round in a wide circle. So long as her engines continue to turn ahead, her propeller will probably retain its position on the shaft, kept there by the pressure of the water on its blades; but the moment that she eases down, it will probably drop off, or, if not then, it certainly will at the instant when her engines are stopped. Don't be alarmed, Phil; you have only to cause her to stop her engines, and you will see what will happen."

"Then," said Milsom, as he laid his hand upon the bridge telegraph and signalled "Full speed ahead", "we will entice her a bit farther out to sea before we do anything more. If she runs out of sight of the anchorage before breaking down we shall get a nice little start, and shall probably not be interfered with for the rest of the trip. Ah, there is the edge of the bank ahead of us!" as a line of demarcation between the pale, greenish-blue water over the reef and the deep-blue water beyond it became visible. "Let her go off to due south," to the quartermaster at the wheel; "we'll try to persuade them that we are bound for Havana!"

"A stern chase is a long chase", especially when one craft has five or six miles start of the other, and the pursuing craft has only a single knot's--or perhaps not quite so much as that--advantage in speed; it was consequently not until the brief dusk was deepening into darkness, and the great mellow stars were leaping into view in the rapidly deepening azure of the sky, that, the _Thetis_ being by that time about midway between Key West and Havana, Milsom rang down to the engine-room for half speed, and allowed the torpedo boat to range up abreast of the yacht. This she did at a distance of about a quarter of a mile, without making any attempt to speak to or interfere with the English vessel, merely slowing down to regulate her pace to that of the yacht. Then Milsom spoke down through the voice tube, ordering the engines to be first stopped, and then to go slowly, but at a gradually increasing speed, astern, by which means he quite expected to induce the commander of the torpedo boat to stop. The result was everything that could have been desired, for as soon as the Spaniard realised that he was running ahead of the yacht in the most unaccountable way, he stopped his engines and waited patiently for the other vessel to overtake him, his propeller doubtless slipping off the tail-shaft and going to the bottom at the instant of the stopping of the engines. But while the torpedo boat, deprived of the drag of her propeller, continued to forge strongly ahead under the impetus of her own momentum, the _Thetis_ was even more rapidly widening the distance between herself and the torpedo boat by going full speed astern, until, when the two craft were separated by some three miles of heaving water, the perplexed and astounded Spanish lieutenant, still ignorant of what had happened, made up his mind to go back to see what the English s.h.i.+p was about, and, ordering his helm to be put hard over, rang down to his engine-room for "full speed ahead".

Then the furious racing of his engines, as steam was admitted into the cylinders, revealed the ghastly truth that he had lost his propeller and was absolutely helpless, with the nearest land fully forty miles away.

He rushed from the bridge down into the tiny engine-room, to consult with and explosively reprimand the engineers for permitting such a mishap to occur; and at length, when his vexation had worked itself off, returned to the deck and gave orders for signals of distress to be made, by means of rockets, to the English yacht. But by that time the _Thetis_ had vanished in the darkness; nor did she re-appear, although the unfortunate lieutenant expended his entire stock of rockets in a vain attempt to attract her attention.

CHAPTER FIVE.

HIS SPANISH MAJESTY'S GUNBOAT TIBURON.

Meanwhile the saloon party on board the _Thetis_, having comfortably bestowed themselves in capacious basket chairs under the awning on the top of the deck-house when the yacht got under way, watched with mingled interest and amus.e.m.e.nt the strenuous pursuit of their own vessel by the Spanish torpedo boat; and when at length Milsom gave the order for the yacht's engines to be first stopped and then sent astern, they with one accord rose to their feet and brought their gla.s.ses to bear upon the torpedo boat, intent upon seeing what would next happen. For although darkness had by this time fallen, the night was beautifully fine and clear, and the mellow l.u.s.tre of the innumerable stars shed a soft light upon the scene that enabled the watchers, with the aid of their powerful night gla.s.ses, to perceive with very tolerable distinctness whatever might happen within so short a distance as a quarter of a mile, or even twice as far. Presently Jack spoke.

"She has stopped, I think," he said; "at all events I can no longer distinguish the phosph.o.r.escent wake made by her propeller; and if that is the case we shall have no more trouble from her. Of course it would have been easy enough for us to have made this pursuit impossible, by removing her propeller when we were working at it yesterday; but the thought occurred to me that, had we done so, the removal might have been discovered, and in that case it is quite possible that suspicion, even though of a very vague and doubtful character, might have fastened upon us, with the result that at some future time, when it may be vitally important for us to repeat the trick, such precautions might be taken as would render its repet.i.tion impossible. As it is, the craft has been under steam for a couple of hours, during which, to all appearance, nothing was wrong with her. I do not think, therefore, that anyone is in the least likely to connect us with the mishap."

"No," agreed Milsom, "the thing was most excellently done, Jack, it could not possibly have been better managed; and the mishap will wear the aspect of an ordinary accident of the sea. You have a longer head upon you than I can boast, my lad; I should never have thought as far ahead as you did. But I think we are far enough away from that boat now to allow of our resuming our voyage." And he signalled to the engine- room, first to "Stop", and then to go "Full speed ahead."

"Port your helm, Quartermaster," he said to the helmsman, "until she heads due north, and then give her a very small touch of starboard helm--just enough to enable us to make a wide circle round that torpedo boat out yonder--until her head works round to south-west by west, when you can steady her at that. That course," he explained to his companions, "ought to run us within sight of the light on Jutias about three bells in the middle watch."

"And when do you suppose we shall reach our destination, Captain?" asked Don Hermoso.

"The Laguna de Cortes? Oh! about breakfast-time to-morrow morning, if we keep the boat running at full speed, and do not meet with any interruption on the way," answered Milsom.

"Hillo!" exclaimed Jack; "see that rocket, Phil? It looks as though it might have been sent up by the torpedo boat. She will be somewhere out in that direction, won't she?"