Part 48 (1/2)
A door slammed and a key turned.
Still the rush did not come. I waited, nerves strung to the highest pitch. One could have counted sixty in the dead silence.
I knew that some devilish plan had come to the man and that he was working out the details of it in his mind.
”Say the word, Cap,” Fleming called to him impatiently.
”Not just yet, my worthy George. We'll give the meddler an hour to say his prayers. But I'm all for action. Since it isn't to be a funeral just yet, what do you say to a marriage?”
”I don't take you.”
”H-m! Hold this pa.s.sage for a few minutes, George. You'll see what you'll see.”
A key turned in a lock. When I heard his voice again the man had stepped inside the cabin used by Evelyn. It lay just back of the storeroom and the portholes of the two rooms were not six feet apart. Every word that was said came clearly to me.
”So you thought you'd trick me, my dear--thought you'd play a smooth trick on your trusting cousin. Fie, Evie!”
”What are you going to do to Mr. Sedgwick?” she demanded.
”There's been some smooth work somewhere. I grant you that. How the devil did he get aboard here? He didn't come alone. If he did, what has become of the boat? Speak up, _m'amie_.”
”Do you think I'd tell you even if I knew?” she asked scornfully.
He laughed softly, with diabolical enjoyment.
”I think you would--and will. I have ways to force open closed mouths, beloved.”
”You would--torture me?”
”If it were necessary,” he admitted coolly.
She answered in a blaze of defiance.
”Get out your iron cubes for my fingers, you black-hearted villain!”
”Not for your soft fingers, _ma cherie_. I kiss them one by one as a lover should. Shall we say for your friend's fingers? If you won't talk, perhaps he will.”
”Are you all tiger, Boris? Isn't there somewhere in your heart a spark of manhood?” she sobbed, her spirit melted at my danger.
”Rhetorical questions, Evie. Shall we come to business? How did your soon-to-be-deceased lover come on board? Who brought him? What were his plans?”
”If I tell you, will you spare him?” she begged.
”I'll promise this,” he a.s.sured her maliciously. ”If you don't tell I'll not spare him.”
She told all she knew except my plan of rescue. As soon as she mentioned the boat in which I had come the fellow hurried up on deck to intercept it.
I could hear a boat sc.r.a.ping against the side of the schooner as it was being lowered. Fleming and two others got in and paddled back and forth among the bushes. They found nothing.
My friends had managed to slip away unseen and were headed for the _Argos_. You may believe that I wished them a safe and speedy voyage.