In relating what is immediately to follow I shall do so with as plain and unvarnished a narrative as my pen can command. You will read of what Constance and I endured, but do not ask me to do more than hint at the anger of my soul. It is impossible to describe, at least it would require the pen of a Dante or a Milton, nor would I describe it if I could. It is bad enough to live that hour again even faintly and in imagination. To call it up into full memory—soul memory—is a task for which I have not the least inclination. You shall, therefore, have the facts with very little comment upon them.
I think it's about all you'll need.
Helzephron was away for a considerable time. During his absence Vargus peeped in once and looked at me. I won't describe his face.
When the hawk-faced man returned, he dragged my chair to the far end of the room, and pushed the writing-table in front of it to form a barrier.There was a deliberation in all he did that was inexpressibly alarming. His lips were drawn in a tight smile, so that I could see the teeth....
He set a chair over against the wall opposite, and then he went again through the curtained door. A moment afterwards he entered, followed by Connie.
The room grew whirlingly dark and cleared. I could not speak, for my throat seemed to be closing up, but I saw my girl very distinctly.
She was, as I had never seen her, deadly pale, with large, dark rings under her eyes and all the joy of life ironed out of her sweet face. Yet she was not thinner and there were no lines. The colour had gone from her cheeks and the lustre from her hair, but I somehow thought that her physical health had not suffered alarmingly.
When she spoke I knew that this was true, and I knew why. Her indomitable spirit remained. The sunny courage of the past had condensed within her soul and turned to unconquerable purpose. Her voice was so full of scorn that it cut even me like the lash of a whip. It was a marvel that the tall man could have borne it for a moment.
But his eyes had a red light in them, like the eyes of a hound—mad.
"What new devilry is this?" the girl said, as her eyes fell upon me, trussed up there behind thetable. "Do you suppose that I want any further evidence to tell me from where you come and whom you serve?"
"Look at this gentleman; look at him well."
"Another of your unhappy prisoners! So you add torture to your crimes. And you dare to make me witness it!"
She turned in a fury of disgust and loathing, and made a step towards the door. But before she moved further—God bless her!—she said: "You have fallen into the hands of a very horrid scoundrel, sir, but ..."
At that I managed to cry out: "Connie, dearest, don't you know me?"
I ought not to have been so sudden. I cursed myself for it. It was just as if I had struck her down, for she reeled, and fell into the chair in a swoon.
I myself was near to it. There was a rush as of cataracts, a sensation of drowning. When I recovered, the maid, Wilson, was ministering to her mistress; there was a sound of pouring liquid, though I could see nothing, for Helzephron stood directly in front of me, watching what went on.
"Look here, Helzephron," I said hoarsely. "Thiscan'tgo on. For God's sake stop it! Get her away before she recovers and do what you like to me." I thought desperately for something that would move him.
He turned round slowly. "Too late now," he said slowly. "You've got to go through with it, both of you."
The malice had faded out of his eyes. He spoke dreamily: "There is no other way...."
He moved away and leant against the wall at the side, looking down moodily at Constance, who was coming to herself. Her eyes opened, and Helzephron made an impatient gesture with his arm. The maid, Wilson, vanished like a ghost. I could see that she, poor thing, went in terrible fear.
I spoke out directly I thought Connie could understand. I was desperately determined to have my say. It might be the last chance. To my surprise, though I soon understood the reason, Helzephron did not interrupt.
"Yes, it is I, Constance. I'm disguised; that is why you didn't know me. Darling, it's going to be all right. Be brave a little longer!"
I saw comprehension dawn in her eyes, and then they blazed out into love. "John! You've come at last. It's been weary waiting. But you are tied up." Her voice changed. "You're in the power of this man, too!"
"For this moment I may be; but that is nothing. He is tracked down and his hour has come. He knows it. I made a mistake and he captured me, but outside the forces are converging,and for him the whole world is now no wider than this little room."
Helzephron made no sign. From his great height he stared down at us like a stone figure. I doubt if he either saw or heard.
"Tell me quickly—he has not ill-used you, he has not laid hands on you, hurt you...."
A bitter laugh burst from her. "He has stolen me away from life and kept me here a prisoner. But there has been food to eat, and the cage is gilded with the proceeds of his thefts. He knows well enough that if he dared to touch me I should kill myself. No power on earth and none of his cunning precautions could prevent it, and that also he knows. Thank God his time has come."
"Tell me everything, quickly. A lot depends on it." How could I explain that he was going to kill me, that he could and would do so long before there was any chance of help arriving?
"He has dared," she said, and I never knew that a woman's voice could be so hard, "dared to offer me what he calls love. The word is hideous in such a mouth. He has raved, threatened and implored me to—to marry him—to fly away with him and be his wife."
She shuddered terribly and sank back in the chair, as if exhausted. I racked my brains for words. What could I say or do? That she would kill herself rather than yield an inch I was certain.But he could still prolong her torture. The chances were that he would get away in his marvellous ship for a time. On the other hand, it might well be that the searching airships were in such force by now that even the Pirate Ship could not escape. There would be a battle in the air. She would be shot to pieces by our cruisers' heavy guns. And Connie would be on board....
What could I say?
Helzephron stood up from the wall. With slow movements he lit a cigarette, but his hand was trembling as if in a palsy. He spoke to Constance.
"You have already told me that you love Sir John Custance," he said. "I heard that from your own lips two days ago. But 'love' means many things. And you may well have said it to keep me at arm's length. Sir John Custance is here now, and in my power. What of him and you?"
Connie looked at him for a moment without a word. There was not a trace of fear in her eyes. "I will tell you," she said at length. "That man is my man, and I am his woman from now until the end of time and for all eternity. You cannot understand, I know. But if words have meaning, mine are plain enough."
Helzephron suddenly threw away his cigarette and gave what seemed to be a sigh of relief. The sound, the gesture, were startling. I could not understand....
"Well," he said, "that is another, and the last, illusion gone. My life has been a succession of lost illusions, I think. I loved you, and I love you still, with all the force and power of a nature which, whatever else it may be, is stronger than that of most men in this feeble world. I would have given you a love so rich, abundant and wonderful that you would have forgotten your passion for this man. Mine would have consumed it utterly. And you would have responded. You think not, but I know better. It would have been flame and flame,LOVE.Now I see that it is indeed too late."
His tones were not raised; there was nothing particularly eloquent in the actual words he spoke. But to me they tolled like a great bell—a bell that tolls while the iron gates of hell are opening slowly....
"Yes, too late!" Connie said quickly. "And you see it now! It could never have been. And now you will let us go! Oh, be quick! Untie John, please do; it must be hurting him so!"
For the first and last time that night two tears rolled down my cheeks.
I suppose that for a brief space there had been some lingering nobility in Helzephron's mind, some flicker of life in that dark soul. The man had not always been under the dominion of evil.
But now I saw, without possibility of mistake,the final eclipse of good. It was a visible thing, the last awful act in the terrible drama of his life, and it took place before one's eyes like crystals dissolving in a glass.
He looked steadfastly at Constance.
"Sir John can go," he said, "for all the debt of ill-will I owe him, he can go from here unharmed. My dear girl, it rests entirely with you!"
She did not understand.
"Oh, then let him go now, at once."
"That man," he answered, "lives, or dies a peculiarly unpleasant death; goes free, or is nothing but a heap of clothes in half an hour, as you shall decide, Constance."
By the slow dilation of her eyes, I think she knew what he would say.
"It is like this," he went on. "If I cannot have Love, the real thing, at least Fate has put it in my power to demand—and have!—the second best, the semblance of it. The moment that you give me your solemn promise to marry me, Sir John walks out on to the moor."
I gave Constance one swift, warning look. Would the man believe that another was as base as he himself? Everything depended on that.
"You cannot do it, Constance," I said, with a careful tremor in my voice, trying to suggest a slight dawn of hope, and again I sent her a signal of caution.
Helzephron gave an almost imperceptible start, and a faint smile began to play about his cruel lips.
The fish was rising.
"It would be a martyrdom," I went on. "What is my life worth—even to the State"—I thought that was a clever touch—"in exchange for such a sacrifice?"
Praise God for her quick wits! She saw that I was acting, and fell into her part with supreme naturalness. A wail of pain came from her, and she covered her face with her hands. "I cannot let you die," she cried. "Do I not love you? Is not your life of supreme value?"
I spoke in a tone of hardly veiled eagerness: "But your own happiness, what of that?"
Connie made a passionate gesture of renunciation. She turned to our torturer. "Sir," she said, "have you no mercy, no compassion?"
"I have nothing but one overmastering need."
"Then leave us. Let me be alone with Sir John for a few minutes." She beckoned to him and he came, leaning his head low.
"Go," she whispered. "I cannot persuade him while you are here. Leave us alone and I will do my best."
The fool was wax in her hands. That one confidential whisper seemed to have transformed him.
"Yes, I'll go," he said, but I heard every word. "I don't think our friend will take much persuading! You may be glad to marry aman, after all!"
He was half-way to the door when suspicion took hold of him. "How do I know that you won't be up to some trick?" he snarled; "try to loose him or something? Not that there would be any chance of escape if you did."
"I give you my word of honour," Connie answered, "or you can tie me up, too. That would be the best way. Fasten me in this chair so that I can't move."
Helzephron shook his head impatiently. Then the door banged and we were alone.
I began to speak at once. There was no time to waste.
"Dearest love of my heart, it is good-bye. We have managed to snatch these few moments for farewell."
Her face shone with love and courage as she smiled at me. "Is there no way, darling?"
"None. This is the end. We have fooled that devil for a minute. When he returns and finds out the end will come quickly. Now, listen...."
In a few sentences I told her exactly how matters stood, and of my certainty that Helzephron's course was almost run. Nor did I disguise from her thatin any attack upon the Pirate Ship her own fate was sure.
"What does it matter? I should kill myself, anyhow, rather than submit to one touch from him. I have the means ready. Oh, my love, I am prouder of you at this moment than I ever was!"
How I rejoiced in her! Never for a single instant had she believed that I would let her do this thing. It was not even spoken of between us. It was worth while dying for love and trust like this!
"And you see, dear love," she went on, "it will not be long. We shall be together again in a few hours, never to part any more...."
Very solemnly and quietly we said farewell. Neither of us was unhappy. A great exaltation and peace consoled us, but the moment is too sacred for description here.
I gave one last look at her serene and radiant face, striving to image it upon my brain, so that it should be the last thing I saw, and then I called for Helzephron with a strong voice.
From the first instant that he stepped into the room and saw our faces, he knew the truth.
He was very quiet, but his eyes shone again with the dull red light that you may sometimes see in a dog's eyes. One could almost have pitied him, for he was as one who desired even one dropof living water to cool his tongue and was tormented in a flame.
I was praying hard for one boon—that Constance should not see me die. It seemed that my prayer was answered, for he led her roughly to the curtained door and pushed her through.
He whistled, and Vargus came in through the other door. The movements of both men were detached and business-like. I had the odd fancy that this was exactly how the paid executioner goes about his work in the prisons.
Once more the cloth was tied over my head, the chair was lifted, and I was carried away. The swinging motion lasted a long time. I must have been taken a considerable distance from the room of my agony when the chair was finally set down. I heard the plangent beating of waves and felt cool airs. I was in the central cavern once more, and near to the mouth of it. So that was it! They were going to throw me to the whirlpools and the rocks below!...
I felt strong and slender fingers about my neck—Vargus the pianist!—and shuddered at the contact. The cloth was removed. It was as I thought: all round was the cathedral-like cave, but now dozens of lights were turned on, including a great blue arc-lamp suspended from the roof, and all the shadows and mystery were gone.
Not far away, resting upon rubber-coveredwheels, which were dropped below the floats by an adaptation of the Raynor-Wallis patent, was the great Pirate Ship, towering up under the domed roof, spreading her great planes from side to side, lovely in her lines, an awful instrument of power. Even at that supreme moment I longed to examine her, to go aboard and make acquaintance with the wonders she held.
The ruling passion of a man's life dies hard!
They turned my chair so that I faced the mouth of the cave, which was some thirty yards away. The moon had set. The short summer night was over, and the first grey hint of the dawn, that I should never see, was near.
Helzephron sat down on a stool a few yards away from me. His back was to the cavern mouth. He spoke a word to Vargus, who padded away behind me.
"Why are we waiting?" I said.
"Because you had the misfortune to hear my friend Vargus pouring his soul out at the piano, Sir John."
"I am still rather in the dark."
"I have no objection to satisfying a curiosity which is legitimate under the circumstances. I was going to put a pistol to your ear and throw you into the cove. But Mr. Vargus has fantastic tastes, and you have put his back up. He askedme a favour, and as I owe him a good deal, I could not refuse it. But I see he is returning. You shall have a concrete explanation."
From, somewhere behind me I heard the padding of footsteps, accompanied by a curious scuffling noise and the sound of heavy breathing. Then Helzephron gave a short bark of laughter, and Vargus came round the chair.
Then I knew.
On leather leashes Vargus held two monstrous dogs. Each one was as big as a newly-born calf. They were like Newfoundlands, and yet unlike, for there was a great bull-dog jowl to each....
"My Tibetan mastiffs," said Helzephron. "Death by dogs for a dog!"
Vargus brought the brutes within two yards of me. Their teeth were bared, their hackles rose, there was the dull red light in their eyes, too, but not a sound came from either.
Both men watched me intently, but they got none of the satisfaction that they hoped. It was simply that the bitterness of death was over. That was all. Fear was something that I was no longer capable of feeling. To be worried to death by mastiffs was just like any other death, then. I understood how it was that martyrs for religion, or any cause in which they believed, died so quietly.
Helzephron cursed deeply. "Get it over," he said. "Take the dogs to the far end of thecave. When I blow this whistle let them go. You'll hear them running up behind you, Sir John," he said, with an insane chuckle.
Vargus disappeared.
I stared out at the cave mouth. Each moment it grew lighter. I thought that I should have liked to have seen one more summer dawn. But Helzephron was lifting his whistle; and then the mouth of the cave seemed to recede and shrink to the size of a mere window.
A mere window. With idle curiosity I saw how a fat spider was slowly descending his swinging thread, and I was a child again, seated at the nursery window....
The whistle blew a shrill, echoing blast.
At once my mind awoke to full consciousness, and I braced myself to die without a cry. The cave mouth became itself again, and the spider ...
Hanging by one arm and a leg, half-way down a stout rope, was a short, thick-set figure....
As the rapid thud of the racing dogs grew loud the figure's right arm raised itself.
Bang! Crash! Bang! Crash!a wild howl of pain, thunderous echoes rolling down the cavern, and Helzephron on his feet in time to see something bounding towards him like an india-rubber ball.
I knew who that was. I had one glimpse of a terrible grinning face as Danjuro leapt at thehawk-faced man; heard a strangled scream and a long, crunching crack, and saw two whirling figures crash to the floor.
I can't express the suddenness of it all. Before my brain could register the impression, another person was sprinting by me, yelling like a fiend. Then Danjuro rose from the floor—alone—and my ropes were being divided, my stiff limbs rubbed, and a calm, exultant voice remarked: "Exit Honourable Helzephron."
I began to laugh weakly.
"You were just in time, Danjuro. Have you killed him?"
He was about to reply when there was a diversion.
Charles Thumbwood appeared. He had Mr. Vargus by the collar, and was kicking him along to the accompaniment of flowers of language that I shall not attempt to reproduce.
"Caught 'im at the telephone," gasped Charles. "Gr-r-r, you little swine"—a furious kick—"Gr-r-r, you slime-lapping leper you! 'E was telephoning to 'is friends, Sir John. Thank Gawd we come in time, Sir John! Gr-r-r, there's one as you won't forget in an 'urry!" and lifting Mr. Vargus several inches from the floor with a final kick, Little Thumbwood flung him away, began to feel me all over with trembling hands, and burst into a flood of tears.
But I had caught his words. The telephone! We should have all the band upon us in two minutes, desperate and fighting for their lives.
"Quick!" I shouted, "follow me. We must get Miss Shepherd safe. There isn't a moment to lose."
I don't know how I did it, and the first few yards were like running on red-hot ploughshares; but I got going, and raced down the great cave, past the Pirate Ship, to the door at the end.
I noticed a door on the left as I ran. It was the one by which I had first entered, the one that marked the passage leading to the lift.
"Block that somehow!" I called to Thumbwood. "It may keep them back for a minute or two. Shoot anyone who breaks through."
He understood and stopped at once. I saw him dragging up some cases to make cover and lying down behind them, as I turned just outside the door which led to the ante-room to Helzephron's private sanctum.
... We found Constance upon her knees in a richly furnished room. Her maid, Wilson, was weeping and trembling in a corner. As we burst in she shrieked with terror.
But Constance fainted dead away.
I took that unfortunate woman, Wilson, and shook her into sanity. There was nothing else to be done, and I remember that it seemed quitenatural and obvious at the time. I knew that we hadn't a moment to lose, and I was in a state of abnormal excitement.
When she had regained some sort of control, which was in less than a minute, I ordered her to attend to Constance, and, when she came to herself, to tell her that we were all saved and Helzephron as powerless. Then I hurried out into the cave.
Danjuro and Thumbwood were working like demons. Piles of boxes and other impedimenta had been erected in two strategic positions commanding the door. Behind each pile were two or three automatic rifles and many clips of ammunition. Just as I came up Danjuro went to the door and opened it wide.
I grasped his idea at once. As you may remember from my former description, the passage was a mere cleft in the rock. Certainly not more than one man could walk abreast, and he could be shot down the moment he turned the corner. A child who could shoot straight would have been able to hold the passage, and behind the barrier on the floor of the cave would have been safe enough.
"I trust honourable lady quite safe?" said Danjuro in his quiet, silky voice.
"Yes; the maid's attending to her. Thank God that unutterable scoundrel has not harmed her."
Then I remembered something. Danjuro's facewas perfectly placid and ordinary. The grinning devil-mask had vanished as if it had never been. To look at him no one would have guessed that he was anything but a peaceable little Eastern student, such as you may see by the dozen any day round about the Law Courts in town. He rolled a cigarette in his conjuring way as I spoke, and yet, a few moments ago those slender hands had just broken the neck of the Master Criminal of Europe!
"Look here, old chap," I said. "I haven't had a moment to thank you. You and Charles arrived in the very nick of time. A few seconds more and I should have been done for; and as for Miss Shepherd ..."
I couldn't go on. I just held out my hand.
He didn't take it—cold-blooded little beggar! He just bowed politely and murmured something that sounded like "Glad to be of any help!" Then he brightened up. "I think, Sir John," he said, "that we can reckon ourselves as quite safe from any intrusion now!" and he waved his hand towards the open door.
"Let 'em all come!" remarked Thumbwood.
Then, quite suddenly, the floor of the cave seemed to heave up and down. The great arc lights which made it as bright as day began to wheel round like fireworks, and I fainted for the second time.
When I recovered it was to find myself in the late Helzephron's own room. Something cold was on my forehead and something chilly and scented trickled down my face. I opened my eyes, and Constance was kneeling by my side.
"My love, my dear love!" she whispered. "I never thought that I should see you alive again. Oh, thank God, thank God!"
Then her arms were round me, and for a long time we spoke no word. I think I know what the man who was called back from death in Palestine long ago must have felt....
She gave me food and wine, and at last, though I felt physically weak and shaken, my mind worked again, and I stood up. We were alone in the room, and no sound came from outside, so I concluded that all was safe for the present.
"A little Japanese carried you in here," Connie said, "as easily as if you were a child. I had just come to myself, and I thought, oh, John, I thought that you had been killed, and that he was one of those awful people. But he shouted out at once that what Wilson said was true and we were saved. I believed him, in spite of the shock his appearance gave me at first, and when he had put you down gently in this chair he hurried away. John, who is he, and how are we saved?"
"We owe everything to him," I answeredgravely. "He killed Helzephron with his own hands"—I did not tell her about the dogs just then—"and in a few hours we shall be back in the world. We can never, as long as we live, pay our debt to Danjuro."
In as short a time as I could, I explained everything to her, from the first moment when I had heard of her capture until now. I walked about the room as I did so, and new life flowed into my cramped limbs. When I had smoked a cigarette, I felt almost normal again.
"Now, dear," I said, when my story was over, "we aren't exactly out of the wood yet, though there's nothing whatever to be alarmed at. Go into your own room and collect your things together; whatever you want to take away with you. Stay here with Wilson till I come again. I may be some time. There are a good many things to straighten out."
One more embrace and I left her, sobbing with great happiness, and, passing through the ante-room, hurried out into the great cave.
My first glance was towards the door of the rock passage leading to the lift. It was still open. Sitting on the barrier twelve yards or so away was Thumbwood. A rifle lay across his knees and he was placidly smoking his pipe.
"All right?" I shouted.
"All O.K., Sir John," he answered, standing up.
"Not a sign of anyone. As a matter of fact, Mr. Danjuro and me have ascertained that this 'ere dog-fancier 'adn't time to get through to his friends upstairs. I got 'old of 'im just as he was topping the fence."
I followed his glance, and I saw Mr. Vargus, trussed like a fowl, on the floor a yard or two away.
I had quite forgotten that ingenious and artistic person, and I started. He was a sorry sight enough, dirty, blood-stained and horrible, as his pale, wicked face stared up at me. He said nothing, and I shuddered as I looked at him—shuddered as I had never done at Helzephron.
"Where's Mr. Danjuro?" I asked.
"Up at the mouth of the cave, Sir John. I was to send you to him directly you came."
I nodded, turned, and began to walk up the great cave. The Pirate Airship lay there, gleaming and wonderful. There was a light steel ladder at her side as I passed, leading up into the fuselage, and it was only by a strong effort of will that I could keep myself from mounting it and exploring the mechanical marvels that I knew she contained. However, I resisted the temptation and hurried on. The lights depending from the roof grew dimmer each moment as I drew near the curving entrance. "It must be full day outside," I thought, as the fresh sea-air came to meet me, andthen, as I turned round the bend, I saw the squat, black figure of the Japanese silhouetted against the rosy fires of sunrise.
Danjuro was standing motionless. He was looking down at some humped objects upon the ground. The rope, like a wisp of spider's web, swung gently to and fro. There was not a sound save the soft murmur of the sea far down below.
"I'm all right now," I said, and he turned to me without a start, though he could not have heard me coming.
His face was calm, but wrinkled up in every direction. He looked like a man of immense age, and his narrow eyes were full of brooding, sombre light. Almost at his feet lay the body of Helzephron. It had been decently disposed with the hands upon the breast, and the morning light played over the hawk-like, bronzed face and open eyes in which there was now no cruelty.
The dead man was august as he lay there. There was a certain nobility about the features. He did not look like a scoundrel, and all resentment and hate passed away from me for ever as I looked at him.
The two huge dogs, one with a bullet through its brain, the other shot in the chest and through the heart as it was in the act of leaping, were hideous objects....
When I looked up again the wrinkles had gonefrom Danjuro's face, the sombre expression from his eyes. It was a magical change, but I was long past wonder at anything in connection with him.
"We will have those dogs skinned," he remarked in his ordinary voice. "They will make a fine rug for your house, Sir John."
"No doubt; but we've got to get out of this first. Remember that there are a dozen desperate scoundrels not far away. And I don't see either Miss Shepherd or myself returning to the world up that rope! By the way, I haven't heard how you managed to get here in time."
He told me the story shortly enough. There was not an unnecessary detail and no comment whatever. Thumbwood supplied the lacking picturesqueness some days later. But even as Danjuro told it, I realized the marvellous sagacity and contempt of danger that had saved us.
It seemed that when he had arrived at Zerran, the idea of a cave, either natural or enlarged by pretended mining operations, was already in his mind. As soon as I had left the inn on my expedition, Danjuro and Thumbwood had taken one of Trewhella's boats and set out eastwards along the coast. The Japanese had already taken his bearings, and knew that Tregeraint House would be a little to the left of the jagged peak of Carne Zerran. They cruised along into the moonlight until they picked up their mark, and not twohundred yards further on struck the entrance to the S-shaped cove. Then Danjuro had no longer any doubts. No boat could live in that cauldron of the waves, but it seemed a man could, for our rescuers proved it!
He stripped and went in—I learnt afterwards that he was as much at home in the water as a seal, and, of course, like so many of his countrymen, he was simply a mass of steel muscles. In twenty minutes the secret was a secret no longer.
Danjuro's next move was to row back to Zerran Cove at top speed, and hasten up the cliff path to the inn. Here he disinterred the coastguard from the pigsty and roused him to immediate action.
Ropes and crowbars were procured, the fenced-off "dangerous" area on the cliff-top invaded, and Danjuro, with Charles, descended in the nick of time. But there was more than this. The coastguard had his orders. Directly the two men disappeared over the brink he was instructed to make all haste to the watch-house, some two miles away in the direction of St. Ives. From there the Chief Boatswain was to telephone all along the coast to the various stations, and also to the police at St. Ives, Camborne and Penzance.
"In three or four hours, perhaps sooner," Danjuro concluded, "an armed force should be concentrating on the moors upon the house above.The pirates will be desperate, and will put up a fight—at least, I think so, but the end is certain."
"And meantime, all we can do is to wait here until something happens?"
"That is as you please, Sir John," he answered, looking at me curiously.
For a minute I did not see what he meant, but then a great idea dawned upon me.
"The Pirate Ship!" I burst out.
"I have always heard that Sir John Custance is a skilled pilot," he said with a bow.
I saw it all clearly. There was a gorgeous, dramatic end to it all well within my grasp! It would be something to make the whole world gasp! The Pirate Ship was, I knew, already loaded with the proceeds of the pirates' robberies. It was not only full of loot, but prepared in every way for a long cruise. Helzephron and his ruffians had planned an almost immediate escape from the cave to some new refuge of which I had heard them speak. Doubtless, if things had gone right with them, they would have been off by now, with my mangled body tossed in the whirlpools below and Constance still a prisoner. Helzephron would have mounted to a great height, and trusted to his immense superiority in speed over all the airships in existence for escape. I have little doubt that, had things fallen out as heplanned, he would have been able to carry out his scheme. But God disposes....
There was nothing, so I thought at the moment, to preventmefrom piloting the airship out of its lair. Once in the sky I could make a bee-line for Plymouth, and get there in a little more than half an hour—if it was indeed true that the mysterious ship could do her two hundred and forty M.P.H. To swoop down to Plymouth sea-drome with Constance, the Pirate Ship and the recovered treasure! That would, indeed, be a triumph such as is given to few men to experience. I have a fairly vivid imagination, and I saw it all in one radiant picture.
"Let's go and have a look at the ship at once," I said, and almost ran back into the cavern, where she towered up and threw black velvet shadows in the fierce blue light that streamed down from the suspended arcs. Danjuro followed.
As I swung myself over the side and descended a short ladder, I found myself in a roomy main cabin. A switch to my hand illuminated it, and even then I saw that the ship had been designed by a master hand. Below the port-holes, filled with toughened glass and provided with shutters of a design that was new to me, ran a continuous seat of woven camels' hair cord, easily convertible into sleeping bunks for half a dozen people. There was an electric stove of polishedaluminium for cooking, and an electric radiator for warming the cabin, clustering round a central supporting column. I saw also that there was a very complete telephone installation connecting this main cabin with the pilot's room forward.
Under the seats was a collection of wooden cases and a box of japanned steel, which I judged, and rightly, contained the treasure taken from theAlbatrosand theAtlantis. A sliding door aft led into a store-room, which seemed to contain everything necessary for a cruise of several days. I noticed boxes of expensive cigars, bottles of whisky and liqueurs, tinned oysters, larks, asparagus, such as wealthy yachtsmen provide themselves with. The dogs did themselves well!
Leading out of this was a final cabin fitted with tools of every sort, a rack of automatic rifles and pistols, and several thousand rounds of small-arms ammunition. Here also, with a padded door, was a little compartment for the wireless operator, and I pictured one of the black-hearted scoundrels sitting there and picking up the messages from airships of the trade routes with a grin upon his face.
Danjuro came with me and looked about him quickly, but with no change of expression. "So far, so good," I said to him; "but all this is unimportant, really, though it is very complete. What really matters is the pilot's cabin, theengines, controlling gear, petrol supply, and so on. Let's go forward. Do you understand anything about airships?"
"A very little, Sir John," he replied, and—so petty are we all at times—I felt a perceptible thrill of pleasure at hearing there was at least something of which this paragon was ignorant.
"Never had occasion to study them?" I asked, as we passed again through the main cabin.
"I have watched the pilot in Honourable Van Adams' yacht theMay Flower, but that is all...."
I hardly heard him, for I was in the pilot's room at last.
I saw at a glance that here were a number of things absolutely new to me, and so to all the aviators of the world. I am not going to be technical. This narrative is written for the general reader, and my expert conclusions have been published elsewhere. I can but indicate some of the wonders of mechanical skill with which I was confronted.
For instance, the designer of the ship was the first man to solve the problem of easy control. Up to the present all pilots had controlled their ships—the movements of planes and rudders, etc.—with a certain amount of manual labour. It is true that recent inventions had minimized this; ball-bearings, the rack and pinion, had made the main control levers and wheels much easier tomove than they were in the old days of the Great War—when flying first began to come into its own. But there was still a great deal of physical strain, which greatly lessened efficiency upon a long cruise. Moreover, the instant decision necessary to be taken by an aviator—when a fraction of a second may spell safety or ruin—had been always hampered by the comparative mechanical slowness of control.
In the Pirate Ship this disability did not exist. Just as the largest ocean-going liner—sea-ship, not airship, I mean—can be steered by a wheel not more than two feet in diameter by the invention of the steam steering gear, so the Pirate Ship was controlled by a series of little wheels and levers, covered with leather, that looked like toys.
Electricity had been brought into play, and a touch of the pilot's hand was magnified into power that in an instant would deflect a mighty lifting plane or vast rudder.
The fuel capacity of the ship was immense. She carried as much petrol, in the huge and ingeniously contrived tanks below the fuselage, as one of the great air-liners, though she was not a fifth of the size. I saw at once that she could keep the air for days.
Examining the cockpit, in which two quick-firing guns were placed, I found them both of the very latest pattern, and mounted with a swivel devicethat was far in advance of anything attempted hitherto. Only the great battle-planes of the world's air navies could mount guns of such power, and she could circle round them with ease while in full flight.
But it was when I mounted to the little deck above, and began to examine the two huge six-cylinder engines, that my admiration and interest grew beyond all bounds. The chief triumph of all, the silencing mechanism that reduced the ordinary roar of air engines to no more than the hum of a dynamo, did not at once become clear. It would have been necessary to take the machines to pieces to have discovered everything; but an examination of the exhausts put me on the track, and I marvelled at the creation of a master-mind.
I was looking at the twin propellers, which had a curve that was new to me, and even material that I could not immediately define, when Danjuro hailed me from the pilot's room.
I tumbled down to find the little man bending over the various controls ranged in front of the pilot's seat.
"It seems to me, Sir John," he said, "pray correct me if I am wrong, that there is something wanting here. I know little about airships, but something of electricity, and can quite understand this system. But it seems to me that a key-part of the mechanism has been removed."
He pulled over a lever a few inches long. Its movement should have been registered upon a dial above, but the needle never moved.
"Do that again!" I cried, and, mounting a step, put my head into the little dome of glass in the cabin roof which commanded the whole length of the ship. One of the tilting planes by the rudder should have moved when the lever was pulled over.
It remained motionless.
"One of the honourable gentlemen upstairs has got a small but very essential piece of linking apparatus in his pocket," said Danjuro.
It was only too true. A moment's reflection satisfied me of that, and I stared blankly at my companion.
My gorgeous, if somewhat vainglorious, plan was knocked on the head.
I descended from the airship in silence. Danjuro followed me. Thumbwood was still on guard. The bundle that was Mr. Vargus lay upon the ground, and a face like a white wedge of venom stared up at us. There was no sign of the enemy, but I felt that we should not be left in peace much longer, and my disappointment at the discovery on board the pirate was keen.
"There is still a chance," Danjuro whispered in my ear. "And with your permission, Sir John, I am going to try it."
I nodded, and he stepped up to Vargus and pulled him up into a sitting posture, propping him against the barrier.
"There is a part of the control mechanism of the airship missing," Danjuro said, with silky politeness.
Vargus grinned suddenly, a momentary rictus that came and went, utterly horrible.
"And we want that piece of the machine," the Japanese went on.
Vargus spoke, in his peculiar oily voice. "Then you may go on wanting, you putty-faced little spawn of a monkey."
I cannot hope to describe the depth of poisonous hate the man put into the words. His accent was cultured and refined; the great dome of the blood-stained forehead spoke loudly of intellect, yet the voice somehow reeked of the pit. I know that it struck me cold, and I saw the rifle in Thumbwood's hands was shaking. Although this was the man who had devised an abominable death for me, I can honestly say that I felt no personal resentment. I can't account for it, but it was so.
I should have welcomed that, rather than the inward loathing, like a shudder of the soul, at something inhuman and unclean.
What Danjuro felt I don't know, but he didn't turn a hair.
"I think you will assist us," he said.
For answer the thing below spat in his face.
I expected to see Danjuro leap upon him and strangle him where he sat. I shouldn't have raised a finger to stop it. But it was not so. The little man stepped aside and carefully wiped his face with a silk handkerchief that seemed to come from nowhere. Then he went behind Mr. Vargusand began to feel his head all over, with quick, delicate movements of his fingers.
"How can you touch him?" I cried, hardly knowing what I said, for the thing was ugly and uncanny beyond belief. Danjuro was like some sinister phrenologist in a nightmare, feeling the bumps of a devil.
"I know now what I wanted to know about him," Danjuro purred after a moment. "I never doubted the intelligence, Sir John. It is very marked. And there is great energy and courage of a sort. But our friend who spits has one little failing. He is afraid of physical pain."
"You're not going to ...?"
Danjuro looked me full in the eyes, and in his I saw a stony resolution that I was in no state to combat.
"I will go and see Miss Shepherd," I said, and turning on my heel, walked quickly to the inner end of the cavern. As I went I heard Danjuro ask Thumbwood for a box of matches....
I am quite aware that there are lots of softhearted people who will say I ought never to have allowed Danjuro to do what he did. Well, they must have their own opinion, that's all. I believe it was nothing like so bad as the cat-o'-nine-tails which is constantly administered in our prisons, and under the circumstances I think it was justifiable. Call me what names you like as youread this—you have not seen Mr. Vargus and his dogs, nor spent a small eternity in the pirates' cave.
... Constance was wonderfully recovered. I spent a minute or two with her, and then returned to the scene of action.
Mr. Vargus was speaking in a quick, panting voice, and these were the words I heard:
"Gascoigne, Mr. Gascoigne; he has it. He was our second pilot. It was always in his charge."
Danjuro gave his little weary smile. Then he put his hand gently upon my arm and drew me away to the other side of the cave.
"We will now summon honourable Gascoigne," he said. "He is the young gentleman we saw with late honourable Helzephron at the 'Mille Colonnes.' The little necessary piece of the mechanism in his possession is, I have just learnt, generally referred to as 'the link.'"
"But how ...?" I was beginning, when he pointed to a telephone instrument upon a screen of tongue-and-groove boarding. "This communicates with the house," he whispered. "Mr. Vargus nearly got through recently, you will remember, just before the good Thumbwood caught him."
He raised the instrument to his mouth and ear.
In a second or two a bell rang and Danjuro began to speak. I nearly jumped out of myboots. The words were simple enough, but the voice with its oily refinement was the voice of Mr. Vargus!
"Is that you, Gascoigne? Yes, Vargus speaking. The Chief says you are to come down at once and bring the control link with you. What? No, the others are to wait till they're sent for. What? Oh, yes, quite dead. I wish you could have seen it!"
It was a triumph of mimicry that I shall never forget, the more so as it was the only occasion on which I heard this marvellous man attempt anything of the sort. Heaven knows what other talents he must have possessed!
"The young gentleman was asking about you, Sir John. He seemed quite curious about your end!"
I smiled grimly. "What are you going to do?" I asked.
In answer he hurried back to the open door and crouched down in the shadow by its side. I motioned to Thumbwood to lie down behind the barrier which was exactly facing the passage, and drawing my automatic pistol, which I had regained from Helzephron's room, I retired to the opposite side of the door and outside the line of direct vision.
There was silence for a minute or so, and then, far away in the rock, I heard a hollow rumbleand the clank of a gate. The lift had descended and Gascoigne was on his way. A few seconds afterwards I heard a merry whistle, fresh and sweet, as if the performer had not a care in the world. He was whistling the lilting tune of a popular song which all the street boys were singing at that time:
"Merry Maudie met her fate at Margate!"
"Merry Maudie met her fate at Margate!"
Callous young dog! In a moment he would not be so cheerful....
I had left it to that concentrated muscle, Danjuro, though I stood ready to help if necessary. But I knew that he was a supreme exponent of jiu-jitsu—testethe hideous death Helzephron died—and I had little fear. Indeed, I found myself looking on with a detached and interested curiosity as one might at a prize-fight. I wondered if Danjuro would kill him or not. And if you had supped so full of horrors as I had in that awful cave, you'd have felt like that, too!
... For a second I saw Gascoigne in the full light from the roof and framed by the archway, like a picture. It was the same young fellow, with the dissipated face, that I had seen at the restaurant, though he had not been among the singing pirates at the inn. He was extremely handsome still, with the face of a lost angel. As a boy at school he must have been beautiful.
Then the squat shadow that crouched by the lintel of the door, like a monstrous toad, expanded swiftly. Danjuro caught Gascoigne by the right hand with the speed of lightning, and pulled the arm out straight with a jerk. Then, as the young man was falling forward, the left arm of the Japanese shot outunderhis captive's rigid right and the hand seized the lapel of Gascoigne's coat. He was powerless. If he made the slightest movement Danjuro would have broken his arm like a pipe-stem. He could not swing round and hit with his left, and I saw his mouth open with foolish amazement like the mouth of a fish, as his legs were kicked from under him, and he fell back with his assailant on the top of him.
I tied his ankles together with neatness and dispatch, while I listened to a sickening flood of blasphemous profanity that flowed from the clear-cut lips of thisci-devantgentleman in a ceaseless stream. More and more I realized what a crew of utter devils Helzephron had got round him.
At last he was bound, and Danjuro took from him a leather box, which he wore suspended round his shoulders by a strap. He handed it to me, and, opening it, I found it was the control link that we sought.
"You can fit that in all right, Sir John?"
"Oh, yes, I don't think it presents any difficulty."
"Very well, then, in a few minutes we will start; that is, if you think you can take the ship out of this place?"
I had already considered that and decided that I could. It was a ticklish job enough, and would require the most delicate care, especially with an untried ship. But in the past I had landed on the deck of a moving battleship, and there were few stunts that were not familiar to me. I felt I could do it.
"I don't think I shall let you down," I said, and hurried to the ship.
Five minutes showed me that I had got the hang of the apparatus and that electrical connection was restored, and I spent a further ten in thoroughly examining and getting accustomed to the controls. Moreover, I made one new and startling discovery.
There was no need, in this marvellous ship, for mechanics to swing the propeller at the start. Again electricity from the ship's dynamo was employed, and the starting device was a miracle of ingenuity, worked from the pilot's cabin.
Mr. Vargus, though I offered to loosen his bonds at the feet, absolutely refused to walk, and Danjuro carried him up the ladder and threw him upon the floor of the cabin like a sack of corn. Gascoigne, now very white and silent, was more amenable. It seems that Vargus had acquaintedhim with everything that had passed as they lay together on the ground.
"I'll go all right, sir," he said to me, as I helped him to his feet.
As I had the muzzle of my pistol in the small of his back, he couldn't well do anything else, but he lost nothing by being civil.
"I can't believe that the Chief's dead and everything's finished," he said, with a curious sort of sob. I realized that all sense of right and wrong had left this youth early. He was the true stuff of which criminals are made, incapable of putting himself in the place of his victims, and while bitterly conscious of defeat and punishment to come, incapable of remorse.
Without a trace of pose this man behaved just as if he were an officer captured by the enemy in war-time, and I dare swear he felt just like that. There is only one thing to do with these abnormals that get themselves born now and then—destroy them.
Morally I felt sure that Gascoigne was not a hundredth part so responsible as Vargus. But one was born a criminal, and, from that point of view, insane. The other had had the capabilities of sainthood, but had opened his soul to the Dweller on the Threshold and was doubly lost.
We went slowly towards the ship. "Good old bird!" he said, as any public schoolboy mighthave said it. "I expect this'll be the last cruise I ever take in her."
"Or in any ship at all," I answered. "I suppose you've no illusions as to what's in store for you?"
"No, I suppose it's a hanging job," he replied, and I assented, though, as you will learn, both his anticipations were to prove wrong.
Danjuro and I shifted Vargus out of the main cabin into the small one where the tools and spare parts were stored. We didn't want Constance to see him, and he was so well secured that he couldn't possibly do any harm.
Gascoigne we left for the present on one of the seats, and I hurried to fetch the two women, passing Thumbwood, still at his post.
"Everything is arranged," I called out, as I ran through Helzephron's room. "We are going to fly to Plymouth at once in the Pirate Ship."
The maid Wilson shrieked.
"Oh, Sir John, that awful ship! I couldn't go in 'er again, not for my life. Let's go in a taxi, Miss, please 'ave a taxi; I couldn't face the ship."
"You'll lose your life quickly enough if you stay," I said to the yelping fool, though, Heaven knows, the poor soul had gone through enough to turn her mind entirely. Her mouth grew like a round O, and I was preparing for another shriek when I suddenly thought of something.
"Miss Connie will be quite safe with me," Isaid quickly, "and I shall put you in charge of Charles Thumbwood. You remember him? He'll look after you all right, Wilson."
It acted like a charm. I had remembered Charles's attention to the pretty maid in the train.
"Ow!" said Wilson. "Is Mr. Thumbwood here, then, Sir John?"
"Very much so. You will be his especial charge, and the journey won't take more than three-quarters of an hour."
The girl picked up the dressing-bag, which she had dropped upon the floor. "Then that will be all right," she said with a flush, and I wondered if she thought Charles was going to pilot the ship himself. How true it is that Faith can move mountains! No doubt Constance felt just the same about me as Mary Wilson did about Charles.
... We had come out into the cave, and had walked a few yards towards the looming bulk of the ship, when the telephone bell on the cave-side ahead of us rang furiously. It kept on like an alarm-clock, and telling the girls to remain still for a moment, I ran up and unhooked the receiver.
A voice was bawling at the other end, so loud that the words rang and buzzed one into the other, and I could only distinguish one or two. I heard enough to know what had happened, though.
"Chief ... coastguard police ... rifles ... allround the house on the moor were coming down ... two of us stay ... hold till last moment...."
So that was it! Billy Pengelly, the coastguard, had made good. The wires had been at work while we had been about our mole-like warfare underground. The avengers were among the gorse and heather, and the remainder of the pirates were doomed....
"Come on," I shouted to Connie, realizing that there was literally not a moment to lose, and, alarmed by the excitement in my voice, they started to run.
When they had come up to me, and I started to run with them towards the ship, there was a sudden thunderous report. Looking to the right, I saw that Thumbwood had taken cover, and was lying on his stomach behind the barrier. The open door was but a dim oblong of yellow light at that distance, and I could not see a yard down the passage in the rocks.
Thumbwood fired again, and the echoing roar had not died away when something went by my ear with a viciouszipp, and I heard the splash of a bullet upon the granite.
The pirates were coming down in force, and, finding themselves between Scylla and Charybdis, had turned at bay.
I knew Thumbwood would keep them where they were for a minute or two, and I raced to theship with Connie at my side. Wilson had fainted, and we had to drag her between us.
Half-way up the light, steep accommodation ladder Danjuro was waiting, perfectly calm and unconcerned. We handed up the unconscious maid, and he disappeared with her in a second. Then Connie was helped up the ladder, while the whole cavern began to thunder with a fusillade of rapid firing.
"The police and coastguards are surrounding the house," I shouted, "and the rest of the crew have come down, and are trying to fight their way into the cave."
"It is what I thought, Sir John. Those gentlemen must be considerably surprised at their reception! We can shoot them all down before they get out of the passage. Perhaps, now that rescue is at hand, we had better wait and do so?"
His eyes were glistening; I saw the light of slaughter in them. For an instant I hesitated. What he said was sane enough. The risk was comparatively small; it would only be postponing the triumphal flight.
Then I took a decision—it rested with me, and I was alone responsible. "We mustn't shoot them all down," I shouted through the din, for bullets were streaming into the cave behind as though they were pumped from a hose. "Some of them must be brought to justice. We had better beoff and leave the coastguards and police to deal with them."
Thus I spoke. I said what I honestly thought was best at the moment, though perhaps my mind was a little influenced by the natural and terrible anxiety to get my girl away from further horrors.
At any rate, I decided, and all my life long I shall never cease to regret it.
"Very good," said Danjuro. "Up into the pilot's cabin, quick, Sir John. You are indispensable there. Prepare for an instant start. I will run and fetch Thumbwood. We shall have to fire thirty or forty rounds quickly into the passage to keep them back. Of course, they are firing automatic pistols round the bend now, and not exposing themselves any more. After we have fired we shall run for the ship. You will hear me shout and then start like lightning!"
He slipped past me, and, crouching almost to the ground, ran back towards Thumbwood like some great cat.
I flung myself aboard. Constance was attending to Wilson in the main cabin. Gascoigne was lying bound where he had been thrown, but his eyes were blazing with excitement.
I put a stop to that at once. "The remainder of your friends are being shot down," I said curtly. "Lucky for you to be here."
All the animation died out of his face. And, as I didn't want to leave him alone with Connie—it seemed a desecration that he should be in the same place with her even for a moment—I whipped out my knife, cut the bonds at his feet, and pushed him into the pilot's cabin, making him lie upon the floor at my side as I got into the swivel chair. I could shoot him dead in an instant if he moved.
Then I sat rigid, with my hand upon the switch which started the engines.
In reality, I know now that the time of waiting was very short, but it seemed an eternity to me. For the first time my nerves felt upon the point of giving way. My hand trembled. I began to think of the narrow S-shaped passage between high walls of rock to the sea, and realized the appalling nature of the task before me. A mere touch of the planes upon those iron barriers, and all the long struggle would prove unavailing, the triumph turn to a defeat in which my girl and I, the superman Danjuro, and faithful Thumbwood would lose our hard-won lives.
One touch and the ship would crumple up like paper and fall like a stone into the cruel cauldron of jagged rock and furious waves far below.
There came a voice from the floor. Had the prisoner divined something of my thoughts?
"... Look here, Sir John, you're up against a nasty job. It's the very devil getting out of hereif you don't know the way and haven't practised it."
Something in the young fellow's voice told me that this was not mockery. He was, moreover, the second pilot of the Pirate Ship, trained by Helzephron himself.
"I did not ask you to speak," I answered.
"No, but really it's no end of a stunt. The controls are ten times as sensitive as in an ordinary machine. If you were the best pilot living, you'd find it hard to manage in a ship that's quite new to you, and has all sorts of habits and tricks that no other has."
He spoke truly enough, and I knew it, but it was none the less unpleasant to hear.
"I suppose you're afraid for your damned skin," I sneered.
"Oh, come, draw it mild," he replied. "I only spoke to try and help you. I know when I'm beaten, and I don't bear any malice."
"If I do take you safely out, it will only mean the gallows."
"Oh, no, it won't!" he said. "I shall turn King's evidence. There are lots of things I know that no one else except Vargus knows now. I shall get let off with fifteen years. Bet you a fiver, if you like. It's to my interest to help you out."
I can generally tell when a man is sincere, andI realized that this young scoundrel was, despite—and perhaps because of—the baseness of his motive.
"Help me?"
"Yes, out of the passage. Once you get in clear air you'll fly her easily enough—and you'll be astonished, by Jove! But you'd better let me pilot you. It's the lift and the sharp right bank that are so difficult...."
"Get up," I said.
He scrambled to his feet.
"Stand there!" He leaned against the wall at my side, his hands tied behind him and his arms tightly bound.
He was about to speak, when suddenly we both started. Something had happened. For a moment I did not realize what it was. Then I knew. The continuous thunder of rifle fire had stopped. Everything was dead silent. I'd hardly become conscious of the fact when there was a loud shout.
"Let her go, Sir John! Let her go!"
Danjuro stumbled into the cabin, panting like a whippet.
I pulled over the switch and then the lever of the starting mechanism.