The Cruise of the Thetis: A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection Page 3

  CHAPTER THREE.

  THE S.Y. THETIS, R.T.Y.C.

  The next day was spent by Jack, at Mr Nisbett's invitation, invisiting, in the company of that gentleman, the establishments ofcertain manufacturers of firearms, where he very carefully inspected andtested the several weapons submitted to him for approval; finallyselecting a six-shot magazine rifle, which was not only a most excellentweapon in all other respects, but one especially commending itself tohim on account of the simplicity of its mechanism, which he believedwould prove to be a very strong point in its favour when put into thehands of such comparatively unintelligent persons as he stronglysuspected the rank and file of the Cuban insurgents would prove to be.He also decided upon an exceedingly useful pattern of sword-bayonet togo with the rifle, and also a six-shot revolver of an especiallyefficient character; and there and then gave the order--through MrNisbett--for as large a number of these weapons, together withammunition for the same, as he believed the yacht could convenientlystow away. This done, he returned to his hotel, reaching it just ingood time for dinner; and devoted the evening to the concoction of aletter to Senor Montijo, at Lucerne, reporting all that he had thus fardone, also referring to Don Hermoso the important question of theyacht's armament, and somewhat laboriously transcribing the said letterinto cipher.

  Jack's business in London was now done; on the following morning,therefore, he took train back to Newcastle. He called upon Mr Murdock,his partner, in the evening, explaining the arrangement which he hadmade to pay a visit to Cuba, including the rather singular proposal ofSenor Montijo to which he had consented, as to the apparent ownership ofthe new yacht; and listened patiently but unconvinced to all Murdock'sarguments against what the canny Northumbrian unhesitatingly denouncedas an utterly hare-brained scheme. The next two days he devoted to thetask of putting all his affairs in order, lest anything serious shouldhappen to him during the progress of his adventure; and on the third dayNisbett presented himself, with his consulting naval architect, towitness the final trials of the yacht before accepting her, on behalf ofSenor Montijo, from the builders. These trials were of a most searchingand exhaustive character, lasting over a full week, at the end of whichcame the coal-consumption test, consisting of a non-stop run northwardat full speed, through the Pentland Firth, round Cape Wrath; thensouthward outside the Hebrides and past the west coast of Ireland,thence from Mizen Head across to Land's End; up the English Channel andthe North Sea, to her starting-point. The run down past the west coastof Ireland, and part of the way up the Channel, was accomplished in theface of a stiff south-westerly gale and through a very heavy sea, inwhich the little craft behaved magnificently, the entire trial, fromfirst to last, being of the most thoroughly satisfactory character, andevoking the unmeasured admiration of the naval architect under whosestrict supervision it was performed. Jack was on board throughout thetrial, as the representative of the builders, and his experience of thebehaviour of the boat was such as to fill him with enthusiasm anddelight at the prospect of the coming trip. The contract was certifiedas having been faithfully and satisfactorily completed, the finalinstalment of the contract price was paid, and Nisbett, on behalf ofSenor Montijo, took over the vessel from the builders, at oncetransferring the ownership of her to Jack. Meanwhile a letter hadarrived from Senor Montijo, authorising the arming of the ship inaccordance with Milsom's suggestion, and the _Thetis_, as she had beennamed, was once more laid alongside the wharf to receive certain extrafittings which were required to admit of the prompt mounting of herartillery when occasion should seem to so require.

  In the meantime Jack had written to Milsom, extending the time allowedthe latter in which to pick up a suitable crew, and at the same timesuggesting that Perkins and the rest of the crew of the _Lalage_ shouldbe afforded an opportunity to join the _Thetis_, should they care to doso, subject, of course, to Milsom's approval of them; and by the timethat the extra fittings were in place, and the little ship drydocked andrepainted outside, the Navy man had come north with his retinue, and thehands were duly shipped, Jack having, with the assistance of thesuperintendent of his fitting-shops, meanwhile selected a first-rateengine-room staff and stokehold crew.

  The completing of all these arrangements carried the time on to the lastweek of July; and on the 28th day of that month the _Thetis_ steameddown the Tyne on her way to Cowes, Jack having decided to give as muchvraisemblance as possible to his apparent ownership of the vessel, andto the pretence that he was yachting for health's sake, by putting inthe month of August in the Solent, during which the order for arms,ammunition, etcetera, would be in process of execution. Although Jackwas not a racing man--the _Lalage_ being of altogether too ancient atype to pose as a racer--he was by no means unknown in the yachtingworld, and he found a host of acquaintances ready and willing to welcomehis appearance in Cowes Roads, especially coming as he did in such afine, handsome little ship as the _Thetis_; and for the first fortnightof the racing the new steamer, with her burgee and blue ensign, was aquite conspicuous object as, with large parties of friends, both maleand female, on board, she followed the racers up and down the sparklingwaters of the Solent. Jack was precisely of that light-hearted, joyoustemperament which can find unalloyed pleasure amid such surroundings,and he threw himself heart and soul into the daily gaieties with anabandon that was sufficient, one would have thought, to have utterlydestroyed all possible suspicion as to the existence of ulteriormotives. Yet, happening to be ashore one afternoon with a party offriends, he was startled, as they walked down the High Street at Cowes,to see coming toward him a man whom he believed he had met somewherebefore. The individual did not appear to be taking very particularnotice of anything just at the moment, seeming indeed to be sunk deep inthought; but when he was about ten yards from Jack's party he suddenlylooked up and found the young man's eyes fixed enquiringly upon him.For an instant he stopped dead, and an expression of mingled annoyanceand fear flashed into his eyes; then he turned quickly and sprang, as ifaffrighted, into the door of a shop opposite which he had paused. Butin that instant Jack remembered him; he was "Mr Mackintosh, ofInveraray!"

  "Now what, in the name of fortune, is that chap doing down here?"wondered Singleton. "Is it accident and coincidence only, or has hediscovered something, and come down here to watch my doings and those ofthe yacht? That is a very difficult question to answer, for one meetsall sorts of people at Cowes during August; yet that fellow does notlook as though he knew enough about yachts to have been attracted hereby the racing. And he was evidently desirous of avoiding recognition byme, or why did he bolt into that shop as he did? I am prepared to swearthat he did not want to buy anything; he had not the remotest intentionof entering the place until he saw me. Of course that may have beenbecause of the scare I gave him that night at the Cecil--or, on theother hand, it may have been because he did not wish me to know that hewas anywhere near me. Anyhow, it does not matter, for my doings downhere have been absolutely innocent, and such as to disarm even thesuspicion of a suspicious Spanish spy; and in any case he cannot verywell follow me wherever I go. Perhaps before the month is out hissuspicions--if he has any--will be laid at rest, since I am just nowdoing absolutely nothing to foster or strengthen them, and he will cometo the conclusion that there is no need to watch me. But I am very gladthat the idea occurred to me of never running the boat at a higher speedthan fourteen knots while we have been down here; there is nothing to begained by giving away her real speed, and--who knows?--a little harmlessdeception in that matter may one day stand us in good stead."

  Thenceforward, whenever Jack had occasion to go ashore, he always kept aparticularly smart lookout for "Mr Mackintosh"; but he saw him no moreduring the remainder of his stay in the Solent. Yet a few days later anincident occurred which, although unmarked by any pronouncedsignificance, rather tended to impress upon Jack the conviction thatsomebody was evincing a certain amount of interest in the speedqualifications of the _Thetis_, although it was quite possible that hemight have been mistaken. This i
ncident took the form of a somewhatsudden proposal to get up a race for steam-yachts round the island, fora cup of the value of fifty guineas. Such a proposal was a littleremarkable, from the fact that steam-yacht racing is a form of sportthat is very rarely indulged in by Englishmen, at least in Englishwaters; yet everything must necessarily have a beginning, and there wasno especial reason why steam-yacht racing should not be one of thosethings, particularly as the idea appeared to be received with someenthusiasm by certain owners of such craft. When the matter was firstmentioned to Singleton, and it was suggested that he should enter the_Thetis_ for the race, he evinced a disposition to regard the proposalwith coldness, as he had already arrived at the conclusion that it mightbe unwise to reveal the boat's actual capabilities; but his attitude wasso strongly denounced as unsportsmanlike, and he found himself subjectedto such urgent solicitations--not to say pressure--that he quickly grewsuspicious, and mentioned the matter to Milsom. Milsom, in turn, afterconsidering the matter for a little, suggested that the chief engineerof the boat should be consulted, with the result that it was ultimatelydecided to enter the _Thetis_ for the race, Macintyre undertaking thatwhile the yacht should present to onlookers every appearance of beingpushed to the utmost--plenty of steam blowing off, and so on--her speedshould not be permitted to exceed fifteen knots, and only be allowed toreach that at brief intervals during the race. With this understandingJack agreed to enter, and the race duly came off in splendid weather,and was pronounced to be a brilliant success, the _Thetis_ coming inthird, but losing the race by only eight seconds on her time allowance.Nobody was perhaps better pleased at the result than Jack, for the newboat made a brave show and apparently struggled gamely throughout therace to win the prize, the "white feather" showing from first to last onthe top of her waste pipe, and a thin but continuous film of light-brownsmoke issuing from her funnel from start to finish. If anyone happenedto have taken the trouble to get up the race with the express object ofascertaining the best speed of the _Thetis_, they knew it now; it wasfourteen knots, rising to nearly fifteen for a few minutes occasionallywhen the conditions were especially favourable!

  With the approach of the end of the month the yachts began to thin outmore and more perceptibly every day, the racers going westward and thecruisers following them; the steam-yachts hanging on to accompany theChannel Match to Weymouth. The _Thetis_ was one of these; and Jackallowed it to be pretty generally understood that after the Weymouthregatta was over he intended to run north for a month or so, visitingthe Baltic, and perhaps proceeding as far east as Cronstadt. Butyachtsmen are among the most capricious of men--some of them never knowfrom one moment to another what they really intend to do; thus it is,after all, not very surprising that when the _Thetis_ arrived off themouth of the Tyne Jack Singleton should suddenly give orders for hernose to be turned shoreward, and that, an hour or two later, she shouldglide gently up alongside and make fast to the private wharf ofSingleton, Murdock, and Company. What is surprising is that, when shewas seen approaching, some fifty of Singleton, Murdock, and Company'smost trusty hands received sudden notice that they were required for anall-night job; and that at dawn the next morning the _Thetis_ drew afull foot more water than she had done when she ran alongside the wharfsome twelve hours earlier, although in the interim she had not taken anounce of coal into her bunkers.

  It so happened that Mr Murdock was absent on important business whenthe _Thetis_ arrived alongside the wharf, and he did not return toNewcastle until nearly midnight, when he, of course, made the best ofhis way to his own house. But he was at the works betimes next morning,and, knowing that the yacht was expected, he took the wharf on his wayto the office, with the object of ascertaining whether she had arrived.The sight of her lying alongside in all her bravery of white enamelpaint, gilt mouldings, and polished brasswork caused him to heave agreat sigh of relief; and he joyously hurried forward to greet Jack,whom he saw standing on the wharf engaged in earnest conversation withthe yard foreman.

  "Good-morning, Singleton!--Morning, Price!" he exclaimed as heapproached the two. "Well, Jack," he continued, "so you arrived up totime, eh? And by the look of the boat I should say that you've got thestuff on board; is that so? Ah! that's all right; I am precious glad tohear it, I can tell you, for to have those cases accumulating here dayafter day has been a source of great anxiety to me."

  "Sorry!" remarked Jack cheerfully. "But why should they worry you, oldchap? Everything is securely packed in air-tight, zinc-lined cases, sothat there was really no very serious cause for anxiety or fear, even ofan explosion. Such a thing could not possibly happen except by thedownright deliberate act of some evil--disposed individual; and I don'tthink--"

  "Precisely," interrupted Murdock; "that was just what was worrying me--at least, it was one of the things that was worrying me. Not on accountof our own people, mind you; I believe them to be loyal and trustworthyto a man. But I cannot help thinking that some hint of your expeditionmust have leaked out, for we have never had so many strangers about theplace since I have been in the business as we have had during the lastfortnight, while those cases have been arriving. We have simply beenoverwhelmed with business enquiries of every description--enquiries asto our facilities for the execution of repairs; enquiries as to thequickest time in which we could build and deliver new ships; enquiriesrespecting new engines and machinery of every conceivable kind, not oneof which will probably come to anything. And the thing that troubled memost was that every one of these people wanted to be shown over theplace from end to end, in order that they might judge for themselves, asthey explained, whether our works were sufficiently extensive and up-to-date to enable us to execute the particular kind of work that theywanted done: and every mother's son of them gravitated, sooner or later,to the spot where those precious cases of yours were stacked, and seemedprofoundly interested in them; while one chap, who was undoubtedly aforeigner, had the impudence to insinuate that the marks and addresseson the cases, indicating that they were sugar machinery for Mauritius,were bogus! I sent him to the rightabout pretty quickly, I can tellyou. Why, what the dickens are you laughing at, man? It is no laughingmatter, I give you my word!"

  For Jack had burst into a fit of hearty laughter at Murdock's righteousindignation.

  "No, no; of course not, old chap," answered Jack, manfully struggling tosuppress his mirth; "awfully annoying it must have been, I'm sure.Well, is that all?"

  "No," answered Murdock indignantly, "it is not; nor is it the worst.Only the day before yesterday we had a man poking about here who said hewas from the Admiralty. He wanted nothing in particular for the moment,he said, but was simply making a tour of the principal shipyards of thecountry, with the view of ascertaining what were the facilities of eachfor the execution of Admiralty work. He, too, was vastly interested inthose precious cases of yours, so much so, indeed, that I should nothave been at all surprised if he had asked to have the whole lot of themopened! Oh, yes! of course I know he could not have gone to such alength as that without assigning some good and sufficient reason; but Itell you, Jack, that we are playing a dangerous game, and I will not bea party to a repetition of it. A pretty mess we should be in if theBritish Government were to discover that we are aiding and abettinginsurgents in arms against the authority of a friendly Power! Why, itwould mean nothing short of ruin--absolute ruin--to us!"

  "Yes, you are quite right, old chap, it would," agreed Jack soberly;"and if Senor Montijo wants to ship any more stuff after this, it mustnot be through this yard. But it is all aboard and out of sight now,and we leave for--um--Mauritius, shall we say?--this afternoon; so thereis no need for you to worry any further about it."

  "Well, to be perfectly candid with you, Jack," said Murdock, "I shallnot be at all sorry to see the _Thetis_ safely away from this and on herway down the river, for I shall not be quite comfortable and easy in mymind until I do. And you will have to be very careful what you areabout, my boy; `there is no smoke without fire', and all this fuss andprying about
of which I have been telling you means something, you maydepend. It would not very greatly surprise me if you discover that youare being followed and watched."

  "We must take our chance of that," laughed Jack. "Not that I am verygreatly afraid. The fact is, Murdock, that you are constitutionally anervous man, and you have worried yourself into a perfect state of scareover this business. But never mind, your anxiety will soon be over now,for here comes our coal, if I am not mistaken; and I promise you that wewill be off the moment that we have taken our last sack on board. But Iwill run into the office and say good-bye before I go."

  The church clocks were just striking two when, Jack having dulyfulfilled his promise to say good-bye to his partner, and to exchange afinal word or two with him, the _Thetis_ cast off from the wharf, backedout into the stream, and, swinging round, swept away down the river atthe modest rate of fourteen knots, that being her most economical speed,and the pace at which, in order to make her coal last out, it had beendecided that she should cross the Atlantic. She sat very deep in thewater, and her decks, fore and aft, were packed with coal, in sacks soclosely stowed that there was only a narrow gangway left between themfrom the foot of the ladder abaft the deck-house to the companion, and asimilar gangway from the fore end of the bridge deck to the forecastle.If it was necessary for the men to pass to any other part of the ship,such as to the ensign staff, for instance, they had to climb over thesacks. She was particularly well equipped with boats, too: there were asteam pinnace and a whaler in chocks on the starboard side of the deck-house, balanced by the lifeboat and cutter on the other; and she carriedno less than four fine, wholesome boats at her davits aft, all nicelycovered over with canvas, to protect them from the sun--and also, in onecase, to screen from too curious eyes Jack's submarine, which was snuglystowed away in the largest quarter boat, that craft having had herthwarts removed to make room for the submarine. Twenty-six hours later,namely, at four o'clock on the following afternoon, the _Thetis_anchored off Boulogne; the steam pinnace was lowered, and Jack,accompanied by four seamen, proceeded into the harbour, landing at thesteps near the railway station. From thence it was a very short walk tothe hotel to which he was bound; and in a few minutes he was at hisdestination, enquiring for Monsieur Robinson. "Yes," he was informed,"Monsieur Robeenson was in, and was expecting a Monsieur Singleton.Possibly Monsieur might be the gentleman in question?" Jack confessedthat he was; and, being piloted upstairs, was presently shown into aroom where he found Don Hermoso Montijo and his son Carlos obviouslywaiting for him. As he entered they both sprang to their feet andadvanced toward him with outstretched hands.

  "Ah, Senor Singleton," exclaimed Don Hermoso, "punctual to the minute,or, rather"--glancing at his watch--"a few minutes before your time! Weduly received your wire in Paris this morning, and came on forthwith. Iam delighted to learn that everything has gone so smoothly. Do Iunderstand that you are now ready to sail for Cuba?"

  "Certainly, Don Hermoso," answered Jack; "we can be under way in half anhour from this, if you like; or whenever you please. It is for you tosay when you would like to start."

  "Then in that case we may as well be off at once," said Don Hermoso."For the first fortnight or three weeks of our tour through Switzerlandwe were undoubtedly the objects of a great deal of interested attention,but latterly we have not been so acutely conscious of being followed andwatched; everything that we did was so perfectly open and frank that Ithink the persons who had us under surveillance must have becomeconvinced that their suspicions of us were groundless, and consequentlythey relaxed their attentions. And I believe that we managed to getaway from Paris this morning without being followed. If that is thecase we have of course managed to throw the watchers off the scent, forthe moment at least, and it will no doubt be wise to get away from herebefore it is picked up again. I hope that you, Senor, have not beensubjected to any annoyance of that kind?"

  "No," said Jack laughingly, "I have not, beyond meeting at Cowes withthat man who called himself Mackintosh--of which I informed you in oneof my letters--I have had little or no cause to believe that I havebecome an object of suspicion to the Spanish Government. It is truethat a race for steam-yachts was got up, a little while before I leftthe Solent, under circumstances which suggested to me that an attemptwas being made to ascertain the best speed of the _Thetis_; but theattempt might have existed only in my imagination, and if it wasotherwise, the plan was defeated, so no harm was done. But my partnerhas been a good deal worried recently by the incursions of a number ofinquisitive strangers, who have obtruded themselves upon him and invadedour works with what he considers very inadequate excuses. His fixedimpression is that a whisper was somehow allowed to get abroad thatarms, ammunition, and stores were to be shipped from our yard for theuse of the Cuban insurgents, and that the inquisitive strangers wereneither more nor less than emissaries of the Spanish Government, sentdown to investigate into the truth of the matter. They one and allappear to have betrayed a quite remarkable amount of interest in thecases, and one individual at least seems to have pretty broadly hintedhis doubts as to the genuineness of the markings on them. Also, our ownGovernment appears to have received a hint of what we were doing, and tohave sent a man down to investigate; I am afraid, therefore, thatdespite all our precautions, we have not wholly succeeded in avoidingsuspicion. And if such should be the case it will be a pity, for itwill certainly mean trouble for us all later on."

  "The stronger the reason why we should start without further delay,"said Don Hermoso. "Carlos, oblige me by ringing the bell."

  The bell was rung, the bill asked for and paid, the various servantsgenerously tipped, and the little party set out. The Montijos' luggagehad been left in the hall of the hotel: there was nothing therefore butfor the four seamen to seize it, shoulder it, and carry it down to thepinnace; and this occupied but a few minutes. A quarter of an hourlater the party had gained the deck of the yacht, and the pinnace wasonce more reposing in her chocks on the bridge deck.

  "Get your anchor up, Mr Milsom, if you please," said Jack, allowing hiseyes to stray shoreward as Milsom repeated the order to the mate. As helooked, he became aware of something in the nature of a commotion ordisturbance at the end of the pier; and, entering the chart-house, hebrought forth a pair of splendid binoculars with which to investigate.Upon applying the glasses to his eyes he saw that there was a littlecrowd of perhaps fifty people gathered on the pier end, all eagerlylistening to a man who was talking and gesticulating with greatvehemence as he pointed excitedly toward the yacht. The man appeared tobe particularly addressing two gendarmes who were among the crowd, buteverybody was clustering close round him and listening, apparently in astate of the greatest excitement, to what he had to say, whileoccasionally one or another in the crowd would face seaward and shakehis fist savagely at the yacht.

  "Come here a moment, Carlos," called Jack. "I want you to look throughthese glasses at the mob gathered yonder on the pier end, and especiallyat the excited individual in their midst, and tell me whether youremember having ever seen him before."

  Young Montijo took the glasses from Jack, looked intently through themfor a full minute, and then turned to Singleton, saying:

  "Why, yes, of course I do. He is the chap that the Pater and I wereconstantly meeting, wherever we went, while we were in Switzerland. Wemet him so repeatedly that at length we could not avoid the convictionthat he was dogging our footsteps. On board the steamers, in thetrains, even when out driving, it was continually the same; we did notseem able to get away from him. He never took the slightest notice ofus, but that only made us suspect him all the more, because in the caseof other people, after we had encountered them a few times, many of thembowed to us, some even entered into conversation with us; but althoughthat fellow stopped at the same hotels as we used, and generallycontrived to sit at the same table with us, he never allowed himself toshow, by so much as a momentary glance, that he had ever seen us before.Oh, yes"--as he again applied the glasses to his eye
s--"that is thesame man; I could swear to him among a thousand. And what is he afternow? Upon my word it looks very much as though he intended to follow uson board here! See, there are two men bringing a boat along toward thesteps at the end of the pier, and--yes--by Jove, that is what he meansto do! And he is bringing the gendarmes with him! Now what mischiefcan he possibly be up to? The Pater and I have done nothing--"

  "Let me have a look," interrupted Jack, almost snatching the binocularsout of his friend's hand, and putting them up to his eyes.

  "Ay," he said, "you are right, Carlos, undoubtedly. There he goes downthe steps, with the policemen at his heels. Yes; now they get into theboat and seat themselves. Yes, he is pointing out the yacht to theboatmen, and now they are shoving off and heading this way!--MrMilsom," he broke off suddenly, "what is the best news with regard tothat anchor of ours?"

  "Forecastle there!" shouted Milsom; "how are you coming on with youranchor?"

  "The cable's almost up and down, sir," answered Perkins, the chief mate,who was standing by the knight-heads and hanging on by the forestay ashe leaned over to watch the cable. "We shall break out in about acouple of minutes."

  "And it will take that boat ten minutes, at least, to get alongside,even if they keep up their present pace," remarked Jack. "We will get amove on the ship, Phil, as soon as the anchor is out of the ground; Idon't very much like the look of those gendarmes in that boat."

  "No; nor do I," answered Milsom. "Quartermaster, tend the wheel!"

  "But surely they cannot do anything!" exclaimed Carlos. "What couldthey do?"

  "Well," said Jack, "I have heard, before now, of people being arrestedupon false charges, either for the purpose of obtaining possession andgetting a sight of their private papers; or with the object of detainingthem until it became too late for them to accomplish a certainundertaking; or until some other and more serious charge could betrumped up against them, and the necessary witnesses found and coachedto procure their conviction. It would be rather a bad thing for Cuba,for instance, if, at this particular juncture in its affairs, yourfather were clapped in prison and kept there for a couple of years."

  "Well, yes, I suppose it would," agreed Carlos.

  "Anchor's aweigh, sir!" reported Perkins, at this moment, as the steamwindlass, after slowing down until it nearly stopped, suddenly startedto clank at racing speed.

  "Very good," answered Milsom. "Up with it as fast as you please."Then, with a casual glance at the approaching boat, which was by thistime within about a quarter of a mile of the yacht, he laid his handupon the engine-room telegraph and signalled: "Quarter speed ahead!"