Part 39 (1/2)
remarked the pilot as he seated himself on a water-beaker. ”And to think,” he went on musingly, ”that I pull fifty thousand out of it. What for?”
”For playing the game,” answered Calamity gravely, and, taking a handful of cheroots from his pocket, he offered them to the other.
Abott took one, opened the door of the lantern, and they both lit up.
”Now,” said the pilot, exhaling huge clouds of pungent smoke, ”we'd better fix matters up. This isn't the sort of stuff you can tuck under your arm, walk into a bank with, and ask for it to be placed to the credit of your account. No, sir, questions might be asked, seeing that bar gold and promiscuous jewellery ain't common currency even in this country. And, I take it, if the Admiralty knew about it, they'd want to confiscate a tidy lump as treasure trove, or whatever it's called.”
Calamity nodded.
”Well, I know a man in Sumatra who'll negotiate this little lot, though he'll charge 5 per cent. for doing it. How does that strike you?”
”Excellent. Will you see to it, Abott?”
”I will, and you shall hear directly the job's through. I reckon you'll have done the right thing by everybody; the Government's got a new island, a German war-boat, thirty or forty prisoners, and about a thousand pounds' worth of merchandise stacked away on board the _Hawk_.”
”Likewise a traitor in the person of the late respected Solomon, and a s.h.i.+p called the _Ann_,” added Calamity.
”The _Ann_?” queried the other. ”I heard of a packet named the _Ann_ having been collared by a British cruiser and taken into Penang; would that be the hooker?”
”Without a doubt, but I haven't time to tell you the story now, Abott.
If ever you happen to meet Solomon--which isn't likely--ask him about it.”
The pilot rose, kicked aside the beaker on which he had been sitting, and picked up the lantern. Calamity also got up, and, going outside, waited while the other extinguished the light and locked the door. They returned to Paku and stopped outside the house where Calamity lodged, the pilot having refused to go in as he wanted to get back to Singapore as quickly as possible.
”I shall see you again before I leave,” said Calamity as they shook hands.
On reaching his own room, he took from his pocket the letter which Vayne had given him earlier in the day. It was addressed to ”Captain Calamity”
in a large, bold handwriting. Tearing open the envelope Calamity took out a sheet of notepaper and read:
”This is to say 'Good-bye' and to explain why, when you asked me to marry you, I refused. During your illness I chanced to learn who you really were, and then I realised why it was that you once said to me 'Our paths lie wide apart.' As the wife of Captain Calamity I might have made you happy, but as the wife of Viscount Redhurst I believe I should fail utterly and bring unhappiness to us both. I am going to California as you suggested, where, should you ever have a desire to see me again, I shall be found.”
The note was signed ”Dora Fletcher,” and Calamity, before folding it up, read the last sentence twice--the second time with a faint smile playing about his lips. Then he took out his leather wallet which contained the confession of Fritz Siemann and placed the note in it.
CHAPTER XXVIII
HOME
It was spring, and although spring that year had not done its worst, the two men who alighted from the train at Redhurst Station turned up the collars of their greatcoats and s.h.i.+vered. One of them, a powerful, squarely built man with a gla.s.s eye, gazed round the little country station as if in search of someone, and at last fixed his serviceable eye upon a richly dressed woman in a motor just outside the wicket-gate.
He thereupon turned to his companion, a red-headed man who was arguing in broad Scotch with a porter over the alleged damage done to a very old and dilapidated cabin trunk.
”Tell them the luggage must be sent on at once, Jones,” he said.
Leaving McPhulach, _alias_ Jones, to see that his instructions were carried out, Calamity pa.s.sed through the wicket-gate. As he approached her, the woman leaned out of the tonneau expectantly; but at that moment the sun emerged from an obscuring cloud and shone right into her eyes.
By the time she had opened her sunshade and could see again Calamity had reached the car. The words of honeyed welcome died on her lips and she shrank back against the cus.h.i.+ons as she saw him standing there with a grim smile on his face.
”Well, Betty?” he said.