Part 40 (1/2)
”How did you come to be where you were when we fell in with you?” he asked.
”That is very much the same thing as I meant to ask you.”
”Well,” said Jimmy dryly, ”I can account for it; but I'll hear what happened to you first.”
His companion told him, and Jimmy, who watched him closely, made up his mind as to the course he should adopt. ”Has it struck you that your engines couldn't well have given out at a more inconvenient time?” he asked.
”It naturally has;” and the skipper's disgust and bitterness against his engineer were stronger than his prudence. ”Still, what could you expect with a whisky-tank of the kind I've got in charge below? The thing has happened before.”
”When there was a reef or a shoal close to lee?”
The sudden change in his companion's expression had its significance, and Jimmy smiled suggestively. ”Now you were a little astonished to see me turn up just when I was wanted, and you have probably noticed that I have been on your trail lately? Well, supposing we put the two together, what do you make of it?”
It had been little more than a chance shot, for Jimmy had clearly recognized that there was a certain probability of Merril's skipper having acted in collusion with him; but it reached its mark. His companion's face flushed darkly, and he laid a clenched hand on the table.
”Now,” he said sharply, ”you have got to talk quite straight.”
”I think I have done so. Do you suppose I should have lost a day or two every now and then and gone to sea before I was quite ready to keep close on your track, without a reason?”
Jimmy's last uncertainty vanished as he watched his companion, and he saw that the course he had taken was fully warranted. Merril, it was evident, had considered it safer not to tamper with his skipper, perhaps because he shrank from giving two men a hold on him when the thing could be done by one who was in all probability to some extent already in his hands. In any case, the skipper's face was hard with vindictiveness, and a very unpleasant look crept into his eyes. He was young and opinionated, and he saw the pitfall that had been dug for him.
”I guess you're right,” he said hoa.r.s.ely. ”It's not the first time my engineer has tried it. He and the other--hog would have broken me.”
”It's scarcely likely they could have blamed--you--at the inquiry. In fact, I fancy Merril would have liked you held clear. It would have made the thing look straighter.”
The skipper's laugh was very grim. ”It wouldn't have counted if they hadn't. One thing would have been certain--I was in command, and that would have been quite enough to stop my getting another steamer. It's always somebody else's fault when you get a boat ash.o.r.e.”
Jimmy knew that his companion had reached the point to which he had been leading him. ”Well,” he said quietly, ”the question is, what do you purpose to do now?”
”I mean to get even with the man who meant to break me, back you up in all you say when you send in your salvage claim, and in the meanwhile wring the whole thing out of that--whisky-tank below.”
He stopped a moment. ”First of all, I want to say I'm sorry I went by that day without answering your whistle. Merril had worked me up against you, and since I get a bonus on results, every dollar's worth of freight you picked up was so much out of my pocket. Still, you're not going to remember that against me now. We both earn our bread at sea, and you have to stand by me.”
Jimmy nodded. ”I'm willing,” he said. ”Hadn't you better send for your engineer?”
The skipper rose and opening the door called to a man outside. ”I want Mr. Robertson here,” he said. ”If he isn't willing or fit to come, you can drag him.”
The engineer arrived on his own feet, and stood still, leaning somewhat heavily on the table with one hand, when the skipper closed the door behind him. A curious furtive look of apprehension crept into his eyes when he heard the snap, and Jimmy glanced at him with a sense of disgust. There was a dirty bandage around his head, and his face showed baggy and pallid under it, while his loosely-hung figure draped in greasy serge seemed disproportionately large and clumsy in the little trim room. There was also something in his att.i.tude that vaguely suggested the viciousness of a rat in a trap, and it was evident that he had been drinking hard of late.
”Well,” he asked harshly, ”what do you want?”
The _Adelaide_'s skipper turned to Jimmy. ”This is Captain Wheelock of the _Shasta_. He and I have been comparing notes, and the game you have been playing is quite clear to me. If you're wise you'll own up to it before we go any further. In the first place, what were you to get for casting this s.h.i.+p away?”
The man showed more courage than Jimmy had expected from his appearance, though it was clearly the courage of desperation. He braced himself stiffly, and his laugh was contemptuous. ”I guess you're going to be sorry for this. You've said it before a third party.”
”I'll say it before a magistrate in Vancouver,” broke in the skipper; but Jimmy stopped him with a sign.
”I don't think what you asked him is very material,” he said reflectively. ”In any case, he wouldn't get very much. Mr. Merril is not the man to hand over money when it isn't necessary.”
He watched the man closely, and it became evident to him that Jordan had been warranted in the construction he had put on certain sc.r.a.ps of information picked up on the wharf and in the saloons of Vancouver.