The Red Rat's Daughter, Guy Boothby [most read book in the world TXT] 📗

Come, dear, tell me everything. You are grieved, I suppose, at finding your father so changed? Is not that so?"

"Partly," she answered in a whisper; and then, for some reason of her own, she added quietly, "but Madame recognised him at once, though she had not seen him for so many years. My poor father, how much he has suffered!"

Browne condoled with her, and ultimately succeeded in inducing her to retire to her cabin, assuring her that MacAndrew and himself would in turns watch by her father's side until morning.

"How good you are!" she said, and kissed him softly. Then, with another glance at the huddled-up figure in the easy-chair, but without kissing him, as Browne had quite expected she would do, she turned and left the cabin.

It was just two o'clock, and a bitterly cold morning. Though Browne had declared that MacAndrew would share his vigil with him, he was not telling the truth, knowing that the other must be worn out after his travels of the last few days. For this reason he persuaded Jimmy to take him below, and to get him to bed at once. Then he himself returned to the deck-house, and set to work to make Katherine's father as comfortable as possible for the night.

Just after daylight Browne was awakened by a knocking at the door. He crossed and opened it. It proved to be the captain. He was plainly under the influence of intense excitement.

"I don't know how to tell you, sir," he said. "I assure you I would not have had it happened for worlds. I have never been so upset in my life by anything."

"But what has happened?" inquired Browne, with a sudden sinking at his heart. "Something has gone wrong in the engine-room," replied the captain, "and until it has been repaired it will be impossible for us to get under way."

At that instant the second officer appeared, and touched the captain on the shoulder, saying something in an undertone.

"What is it?" asked Browne. "What else is wrong?"

"He reports that a man-o'-war can be just descried upon the horizon, and he thinks she is a Russian!"


CHAPTER XXVII


The horror which greeted the announcement that a man-o'-war had made its appearance upon the horizon may be better imagined than described.

"By heaven, we have been trapped!" cried MacAndrew, as he ran out of the smoking-room in Browne's wake, and gazed out to sea.

They formed a small group in front of the door: Browne, MacAndrew, Maas, Jimmy Foote, the captain, and the chief-engineer. Day was scarcely born, yet the small black spot upon the horizon could be plainly descried by every one of the party, and was momentarily growing larger. Without doubt it was a man-o'-war. What was more to the point, she was coming up at a good rate of speed. The position was an eminently serious one, and what those on board the yacht had to decide was what should be done.

"If she's a Russian, we're in no end of a hole," said MacAndrew; "and, when you come to think of it, she's scarcely likely to belong to any other nationality."

"Let us come into the smoking-room and talk it over," replied Browne; and as he spoke he led the way into the room he mentioned. Once inside, they seated themselves, and fell to discussing the situation.

"We'll presume, for the sake of argument, that she is Russian," began Browne. "Now what is to be done? Mr. M'Cartney," he added, turning to the chief-engineer, "what was the cause of the breakdown in your department?"

"A bit of foul play, if I know anything about such things," replied the other. "Early this morning, or last night, somebody removed the main crosshead-pin of the high-pressure engine."

"With what result?" inquired Browne.

"That we're as helpless as a log, sir," answered the chief-engineer. "Until it has been replaced it would be useless for us to attempt to get any steam out of her."

"But surely you have some duplicate pins," said Browne a little testily. "Why not put one in, and then let us get ahead again without further loss of time?"

"For the simple reason, sir, that all the duplicates have been taken too," the old man returned. "Whoever worked the plot must have the run of the ship at his fingers'-ends. I only wish I could lay my hands upon him, that's all. I'd make him smart, or my name's not M'Cartney."

"Surely such an important point can easily be ascertained," remarked Maas. "Will you leave it to me to make inquiries?"

"Oh, don't you trouble," responded Browne. "I shall sift the matter myself later on." As he said this he noticed that Jimmy Foote had not entered the smoking-room with them. In an idle sort of a way he wondered at his absence.

"How long will it take you to repair the damage, do you think?" Browne inquired of the chief-engineer.

"Well, sir, it all depends upon circumstances," said that officer. "If we find the duplicate pins we can do it in less than an hour; if we cannot, it may take us twelve hours, and it may take us twenty-four."

"And how long do you think it will be before that boat comes up?" asked Browne, turning to the captain.

"Oh, a good hour at least, sir," the captain replied. "She has seen us; and I'm afraid it would be of no use our even thinking of trying to get away from her."

"But how do you know that she wants us?" Maas inquired. "Being aware of our own guilt, we naturally presume she knows it too. As Shakespeare says, 'Conscience doth make cowards of us all.'"

"I don't think there can be very much doubt, but that she's after us," said Browne lugubriously. "Her appearance at such a time is rather too much of a coincidence. Well, Mr. M'Cartney, you'd better get to work as soon as possible. In the meantime, Captain Mason, keep your eye on yonder vessel, and let me know how she progresses. We," he continued, turning to MacAndrew and Maas, "must endeavour to find some place in which to hide Monsieur Petrovitch, should the commanding officer take it into his head to send a boat to search the ship."

The captain and the engineer rose and left the room; and, when the door had closed behind them, the others sat down to the consideration of the problem, which Browne had placed before them. It was knotty in more points than one. If, as Browne had the best of reasons for supposing, the warship was in search of them, they would hunt the yacht from stem to stern, from truck to keelson, before they would be satisfied that the man they wanted was not on board. To allow him to be found would be the most disastrous thing that could possibly happen to all of them. But the question that had to be settled was, where he could be hidden with any reasonable chance of safety. They had barely an hour in which to make up their minds on this point, and to stow the fugitive away before the man-o'-war's boat would arrive. In vain they ransacked their brains. Every hiding-place they hit upon seemed to have some disadvantage.

"The only place I can think of," said Maas, who was lolling in a corner smoking a cigarette, "would be in one of these lockers. He might manage to crouch in it, and they would scarcely think of looking for him there."

"It would be one of the first they would try," retorted MacAndrew scornfully. "No, Mr. Browne; the only spot I can think of is in the tunnel of the tail shaft. We might squeeze him in there, and I could go with him to take care that he makes no noise."

"The very idea," Browne replied. "There's plenty of room, and no one would ever suspect his presence there. If you will take charge of him, and get him down there at once, I will go off and see Miss Petrovitch, and tell her what has happened, and what we intend to do."

"And is there nothing I can do to help?" Maas inquired, raising himself to a sitting posture.

"Oh yes," continued Browne. "You can keep your eye on the warship, and warn us when she gets too close to be pleasant. By the way, I must confess I should like to know where Jimmy Foote is. It's not like him to be out of the way, when there's trouble in the wind."

Without waiting for a reply, he ran down the companion-ladder and made his way along the saloon in the direction of Katherine's cabin. On reaching it he rapped upon the panel of the door, and bade Katherine dress as quickly as possible, and come to him in the saloon. The girl must have gathered from his voice that something very serious had occurred, for it was not long before she made her appearance with a scared look upon her face.

"What has happened?" she asked. "I can see something is the matter. Please tell me everything."

"Something very unpleasant," Browne replied. "In the first place, some evilly-disposed person has tampered with the engines so that we cannot go ahead for the present; but, worse than that, a man-o'-war--presumably a Russian--has come up over the horizon, and is steaming towards us."

"A Russian man-o'-war?" she exclaimed, with a look of terror in her eyes. "Do you mean that she has come after us?"

"I cannot speak positively, of course," said Browne, "but since she is here, it looks very much like it."

"Oh, Jack, Jack," she cried excitedly, "what did I tell you at the beginning? This is all my fault. I told you I should bring trouble and disgrace upon you. Now my words have come true."

"You have done nothing of the kind," Browne answered. "There is treachery aboard, otherwise this would never have happened."

Afterwards, when he came to think it all over, it struck Browne as a remarkable fact that on this occasion her first thought was not for her father, as was her usual custom, but for himself. What did this mean? Had she been disappointed in her parent, as he had half-expected she would be? Her quick womanly intuition must have told her what was passing in his mind, for her face suddenly flushed scarlet, and, clenching her hands together, she said slowly and deliberately, as if the question were being wrung from her, and she were repeating something she had no desire to say:--

"But if it is a Russian man-o'-war, what will become of my poor father?"

"We are going to hide him," returned Browne. "MacAndrew has taken him below to a certain place where he will be quite safe. He will remain there, while the ship is in sight, and rejoin us when she has disappeared again. Believe me, dear, they shall not get him, whatever happens."

There was a little pause, and then Katherine said, as if she were following up the conversation:--

"It would be too cruel if he were to be captured, just as he has got away."