Part 19 (1/2)
”Could it not be managed by means of the port-holes?” my companion enquired. ”Your cabin and that occupied by Castellan adjoin, I believe?”
”That is so,” I replied, ”but I could not reach a quarter of the distance that separates his port-hole from mine, and I have nothing in my cabin to a.s.sist me. But we must think it over and see what can be done. Now we had better begin to pace the deck again, or they may grow suspicious.”
With that we set out, and for upwards of an hour religiously patrolled the p.o.o.p. At the end of that time we were ordered below, and when my cabin door was locked upon me, I sat myself down on my locker and put my brains to work. The first point to be decided, as I have said above, was how we were to communicate with the others; the second and all important, was to find a means of escape from the doom that had been prepared for us. At last, my head in a whirl, I turned into bed and endeavoured to divert my mind from the burden it carried. The attempt was useless, however, as may be easily understood. Think of what I would, my thoughts invariably came back to the same subject. I recalled that night in Paris, when the eyes of the woman we had known as the Countess de Venetza had exercised such a strange effect upon me. I remembered the nameless horror they had inspired in me, and the sleepless nights I had had in consequence. I also recalled our first meeting and our crossing to London together. Who would have dreamt then that that meeting would have ended in this terrible fas.h.i.+on?
Hour by hour the night wore on until the faint, weird light of dawn crept into the sky. We might now say that _to-morrow_ we should know our fate. Then, tired of tumbling and tossing in my bunk, I left it, and stood at the open port-hole, watching the great, grey waves go by. There was a fair sea running, and, in consequence, the steamer was rolling heavily.
”If only I could find some means of communicating with Castellan,” I said to myself for the hundredth time. ”He and Woller might put their wits to work, and possibly hit upon a scheme that would save us.” Then, in a flash, as is generally the way, an idea occurred to me. If I were permitted a chance of carrying it out, it was quite within the bounds of possibility that it might succeed.
Taking my letter-case from my pocket, I selected a clean half-sheet of note-paper, and wrote upon it a letter to the Colonial Secretary. In it I told him what the Commander-in-Chief had discovered, and what our suspicions were. I begged him to tell Woller, and between them to try and think out a scheme for our deliverance. When I had finished, I made the note into a c.o.c.ked hat and slipped it into my pocket. I might here remark, that the doors of the various cabins opened directly into the saloon, and that at the foot of each door there was the s.p.a.ce of nearly an inch. My object, therefore, was to get the note under the door without our gaolers observing what I was doing. At first glance this would appear a difficult matter to accomplish, but I had every confidence in my plan, and was determined to make the attempt. As good fortune had it, Castellan's cabin was almost directly behind my seat in the saloon, and this was a point in my favour. Having settled upon an idea for delivering this note, I was in a fever to put it into execution. It seemed as if the breakfast hour would never arrive, but at last the door was unlocked, and I was informed that the meal was upon the table. Now or never must my scheme be carried out.
As I have said, the s.h.i.+p was rolling heavily, and for this reason I clutched at the rail running along the side of the saloon, while with my left I made a feint of reaching the back of the seat at the table. Then, abandoning the rail, I staggered forward, just as the s.h.i.+p was finis.h.i.+ng her downward roll. The natural consequence was that I lost my footing as she came up again, and found myself lying in a heap upon the floor of the saloon, just before Castellan's cabin. While in this position, it was quite easy to push the note underneath the door without attracting attention. This accomplished, I staggered to my feet and to my position at the table, flattering myself that the whole thing had been so natural that the suspicions of our captors could not possibly have been aroused. Our meal at an end, I followed the Commander-in-Chief to the deck above.
”Well,” I said, when we reached the taffrail, ”have you anything to tell me?”
”Nothing,” he answered lugubriously. ”I lay awake all night puzzling my brains, but without success. If only we could communicate with Castellan, I feel sure he would be able to work out some scheme.”
”It is already done,” I replied. ”I managed to get a note to him this morning.”
”You did,” he said, with a look of incredulity upon his face. ”Then how on earth did you manage it?”
”By giving myself a b.u.mp which I shall remember for some hours to come,”
I replied. ”You observed the fall I had in the saloon, when trying to reach the breakfast-table?”
”Yes, I noticed it,” he answered; ”but what had that to do with it?”
”Everything in the world,” I said. ”Perhaps it did not strike you that my fall took place outside Castellan's cabin door. That was when I got the note to him. If you did not see it, it is more than probable that the others did not. In that case, we need have no fears in that direction.”
”There is the making of a strategist in you,” he said, with the first smile upon his face I had seen there since he told me his dreadful news.
”Many thanks. Now the next thing to consider is, how is Castellan to reply.”
”He'll find a way,” my companion replied. ”Never fear, Castellan is a resourceful man, and all I hope is that he'll find a way of getting us out of this hole. If we could only manage to get out of our cabins, there might be some chance for us, but so far as I can see, there is not the slightest possibility of being able to do that. What is more to the point, did you observe that they are making a.s.surance doubly sure by putting a padlock on each cabin door?”
”No, I did not notice it,” I replied. ”How do you know it?”
”Because the carpenter was at work on my door before breakfast,” he answered.
If this were so, our case was indeed hopeless, for while we might be able to force the lock, it would be impossible to break through both lock and staple. When we returned to the saloon, I found that what my companion had said was only too true. The man had placed the necessary fittings on each of my friends' cabin doors, and was just commencing on mine. He stood aside to let me pa.s.s, and as he did so, I noticed that behind the flap of his tool basket, and less than a couple of inches from the door, lay a small gimlet, which doubtless he had been using for the work he had been engaged upon. As I saw it, a longing to possess it, such as I never had for anything in my life, came over me. If only I could get it into the cabin un.o.bserved, it would be worth more to me than a hundred times its weight in gold. Was it possible, however, to secure it? I had only a second in which to hit upon a scheme, but that was sufficient. Putting my hand to my waistcoat, I gave a tug at the cord which carried my eye-gla.s.s. It snapped and the gla.s.s rolled away across the floor towards the spot where the man was standing. He stooped to pick it up, but before he had time to stand upright again, I had given the gimlet a push with my foot, and it was inside the cabin. When the man returned the gla.s.s to me, I gave him a coin for his trouble, thanked him, and then walked into my cabin and shut the door. Once that was closed behind me, I picked up my treasure and thrust it under the mattress of my bunk. The question the next few minutes would have to decide was whether the loss would be discovered, and if so, whether the man would accuse me of taking it. So invaluable would it be to me, that I felt as though I would have fought the world for its possession. I could plainly hear him driving in the last screws, and afterwards placing the tools he had been using in his basket with the others. A moment later the padlock was placed on the door and locked, and then my hearing told me that he was leaving the saloon. When all was safe, I took the gimlet from its hiding-place once more, and regarded it with an interest that, I can a.s.sure you, no article of that description had ever inspired in me before. Now, if only it were not discovered that I had it in my possession, I felt that I should be able to make my escape from the cabin when the proper time arrived.
When we went on deck after luncheon, I informed the Commander-in-Chief of my good fortune, and of the use I intended putting it to. His delight was as sincere as my own, and we were about to discuss the possibilities it opened up for us, when I felt compelled to take off the yachting cap Reiffenburg had lent me on the morning after my arrival on board.
Hitherto it had been tolerably comfortable, now it did not fit at all. A nasty lump was pressing upon my forehead, and in order to discover what occasioned it, I lifted the strip of leather inside, to find a piece of paper there that had certainly not been in the cap when I had last worn it. One second's consideration was sufficient to convince me that this was Castellan's method of conveying a message to me. He must have worn my cap when on deck, and have placed the strip of paper in a place where he knew I should be well-nigh certain to find it.
Leaning on the taffrail, with our backs turned to the sentry, I opened it and eagerly scanned the contents. It ran as follows:--
”DEAR MANDERVILLE,--Your letter astounded me. The plot you speak of only serves to show what a set of fiends we have fallen in with.
Since receiving it, I have been puzzling my brains for a solution of the difficulty, but so far have discovered no plan that could have the remotest prospect of success. As you will by this time have noticed, our enemies have taken double precautions to ensure our remaining prisoners. Unless we can manage to force our way out at the last moment, I fear that our fate is sealed. Should any idea occur to either of us, I will communicate with you again by the same means that I have employed on this occasion. G.o.d bless you both, and may He help us in our trouble.--Your friend, B. C.”
When we had read it I tore it into small pieces and threw the fragments overboard. Half an hour later, when we went below, I wrote him a brief note in which I told him to be of good cheer, for I thought I had hit upon a scheme which might very possibly prove successful. This, when next we were on deck together, I placed in the hat, and on the following morning had the satisfaction of finding it gone.