Part 15 (1/2)

”Of course,” said Ray. ”And I'm a mind reader, too.”

”You, a mind reader!” said Norris. ”And do you mean to say you can tell what I'm thinking?”

”Sure,” said Ray. ”You're thinking--a--you're thinking that I don't know what you're thinking.”

And he had to dodge Norris's moccasin.

We were now keeping pretty much in that other schooner's wake. It gave us much satisfaction to find that the _Pearl_ had superiority in speed, at least in a moderate breeze.

The _Orion_ apparently had on all her sail; we were obliged to shorten sail a bit, to avoid overhauling the other. The waning moon came out of the horizon an hour before daybreak.

It was then we began to draw off a little, for we now had but one purpose--to keep an unwavering eye on the _Orion_. That vessel, it became plain, had come to have its single aim--to shake the _Pearl_ from her trail. And now day after day, and night after night, the contest was on. The _Orion_ at first put on every effort to outsail us; that was vain. Then she sought to hang us on dangerous shoals; but Captain Marat's charts told him where they lay. The _Orion_ tried at night, by sudden changes in her course, to lose us in the dark. But sundown always found us clinging to her ap.r.o.n strings, and a sharp eye on every s.h.i.+ft of her.

A week pa.s.sed thus, and then the island of--well, suffice it to say it was an important island of the West Indies--This island hove in sight.

The _Orion_ made straight in, the _Pearl_ at her heels. The frowning guns of a fort guarded the harbor and city, which lay on the west coast.

At ten of the morning the two schooners came to anchor. The _Pearl_ chose a berth less than a hundred fathoms from the other. And it was little thought that these s.h.i.+ps would go out of that harbor with rather a different distribution of pa.s.sengers than that with which they went in.

CHAPTER XI

AT HIDE AND SEEK WITH THE ENEMY

The white buildings of that city, with the green mountain background, and the white beach, overhung with its graceful palms, presented a pleasing picture. I remember I thought what a place this would be to spend a peaceful holiday; to fish, to hunt, to feast on the luscious fruits, and explore those forests of mountain and valley, and the wonders of the caves. If only we had never come up with that fiend, Duran.

When Captain Marat had seen to it that all was snug, and the awning stretched, he turned his eyes toward the _Orion_, who likewise had stowed her cloth under gaskets.

”I did not think that Duran would come in to thees place,” he said.

”He tried to shake us off his tail by running fast,” said Ray; ”and he tried to sc.r.a.pe us off on reefs; and now I guess he's come in here to try to crawl through some hole that'll be too small for us.”

”Well, that skunk is here to try some devilment, that's sure,” observed Norris.

We kept a sharp eye on the _Orion_. Within the hour we saw a small boat from the city boarding her. In twenty minutes that boat came to the _Pearl_. The port doctor came over the rail. He was a Spaniard, but with a good command of English. He asked the usual questions of Captain Marat.

”Well,” he said, when he had his answers, ”I am afraid we'll have to hold you in quarantine. I learn there is yellow fever in the port from which you came.”

”I believe there is some mistake,” said Marat, ”we heard of no yellow fever there.”

”Pardon me,” I interposed, ”but did you get your information from the _Orion_?”

”Yes,” admitted the doctor, ”from Monsieur Duran.”

”And is the _Orion_ to be quarantined?” I asked.

”No,” he said, ”the _Orion_ has not been in that port for months. The outbreak of yellow fever is less than three weeks old. Duran was hailed by a s.h.i.+p that gave him the news.”

”We know,” I told him, ”that that man Duran was in the port on the day preceding that on which we sailed.”