"John!" I exclaimed. "How on earth did you ever get here?"
He stared at me in astonishment3. It was obvious that, for the moment, he did not recognise me. Well might he wonder who this begrimed tramp might be who greeted him so familiarly. But then he cried out and clapped me on the back.
"Desmond, by all that's holy! Man, you've given us an anxious time! What have you been up to to get yourself in that condition?"
"It's a long story now ended," I answered soberly, "and it'll keep! At present I can't get over your turning up here!...."
"From inquiries5 I made about El Cojo and his gang after you left I got seriously alarmed about you," said this most faithful friend. "But when I heard that the Government coastal6 defence motor-boat, the fastest craft in these waters, was missing, I decided7 it was time I came to look for you. One of my fruit-ships, the Cristobal, happened to be in harbour, so I came along in her. She's lying outside now. Before we do any more talking I suggest you come aboard with me and have a clean-up. And you look as though you could do with a drink as well!...."
I explained the difficulty I was in regarding the disposal of Grundt.
"El Cojo, eh?" commented Bard8 and whistled. "That's some capture you've got there, Desmond. We'll take him back with us to Rodriguez. He's hand in glove with the President, I believe, and I should like to give his Excellency a lesson."
So we settled it. Bard arranged to send a boat ashore9 to fetch Clubfoot to the Cristobal. He promised to see to it that my enemy was safely bestowed10.
So I turned my back on Cock Island and left it brooding sadly beneath the stars with the terraced rock and the image and the little bowl-shaped clearing where Von Hagel slept. I went on board the Cristobal and for a good half-hour, with a long "peg11" within easy reach of my hand, lay and soaked the stiffness out of my bones in a boiling hot bath. John had volunteered, in the meantime, to send a boat over to the Naomi to fetch my luggage; for I had told him how things stood between me and Garth, and he assumed that I would remain on the Cristobal. I had hesitated an instant before replying; for I desperately12 wanted to see Marjorie again. But, I reflected, a millionaire's daughter was not for me—and it was better we should part thus. So I scribbled13 a note for the coloured steward14 to take to her: just a line to say good-bye and to thank her for her action that had saved my life.
They brought me some food in my cabin and while, attired15 in a voluminous dressing-gown of my friend's, I ate, John Bard told me what he had learnt regarding the connection of El Cojo's gang with Cock Island.
"During the war," he said, "the island was the dep?t for certain important gun-running operations carried out by Black Pablo and his friends for the Mexican insurgents16. The idea of the scheme, which was directed by the German espionage17 heads in the United States, was to keep things humming on the American border and to detain United States troops there.
"In those days Black Pablo had a ship of his own. He used to call periodically and collect arms and ammunition18 deposited on the island by some German commerce-raiders or other—there is talk of a mysterious vessel19 under the Swedish flag that used to stand off here—and take this contraband20 to Rodriguez. Here in port, under cover of night, it was transferred to a Mexican steamer which ultimately ran it ashore somewhere on the Mexican coast. On the outward trip to Cock Island, Black Pablo used to carry large stocks of gasoline for German craft operating in these waters...."
"There's a group of sheds on the other side of the island which Clubfoot's men called 'The Petrol Store,'" I put in.
"Precisely," said Bard. "There was a regular traffic here. The island is, after all, conveniently enough situated21 for the work they had in hand; not too far from the Central American coast yet well off the trade routes. It was naturally, as you might say, selected as the rendezvous22 in connection with what was intended to be Germany's biggest coup23 against the Americans in the war.... the destruction of the Panama Canal!"
"By George!" I commented.
"If it hadn't been for the Armistice24," Bard continued, "I believe they would have pulled it off. They spent months on the preparations; everything was worked out to the last detail. The most vulnerable points were to be dynamited25; the Gatun Lock and the Culebra Cut, I know, were mentioned. The big bang was planned for November, '18...."
"I see! And the Armistice spoilt it?"
"Exactly. The H.E. had been passed by Black Pablo and Co. to the parties appointed to carry out the explosion, and it was agreed that, as soon as the coup had come off, Black Pablo should make for the island rendezvous to receive his pay from a trusted German emissary who would await him there. The sum was one hundred thousand pounds in American gold dollars and German gold marks. But the Armistice, as you say, knocked the whole thing on the head. The entire German fabric26 collapsed27, its plots and intrigues28 with it, including the canal coup. The Allies took a very firm hand with the Rodriguez Government and forced them to expel Black Pablo and confiscate29 his ship. Pablo went to San Salvador and did his best to charter a vessel there. But there was a heavy slump30 in German stock and everybody had the wind up. So nothing was done...."
"And Grundt—El Cojo?"
"I did not succeed in finding out a great deal about his movements; for the people from whom I inquired either did not or would not know anything about him. But apparently31 he turned up from Havana some months ago. The rest of the story—how they got on to Dutchey and his tale of the message taken by the Englishman from the grave—you know...."
There was a tap at the cabin-door. The dark-skinned steward of the Cristobal was there with my kit32 from the Naomi. "El Cojo," he told us, had just come on board. Bard threw a questioning glance at me.
"I leave him to you, John," I said. "I don't want to see him again...."
My friend grinned understandingly and left the cabin. In silence the steward laid out some clean clothes for me. He said nothing about my note to Marjorie. Had she had it? Surely she would have answered....
"You left my letter for the Se?orita?" I asked at last.
"Si, si, Se?or Commandante," the man replied. "The Se?orita was on the deck with the rich Inglez, her father, and I gave the Se?or Commandante's note into her own hands!"
"And she read it?"
"Si, Se?or!"
"And there was.... no reply?"
"No, Se?or!"
Well, that settled it. I had my congé. Cock Island and those wonder days with Marjorie must go into the store-house of past memories.... Yet there was a tug33 at my heart as for a moment I thought of her as I had held her in my arms in the burial-chamber and she had raised her face to mine. "Money doesn't count down here!" she had whispered; but now we were back in the work-a-day world where money could prove an insuperable barrier between true lovers....
In moody34 silence I dressed and went above. A crescent moon hung low down on the horizon and the deck was eerie35 with fantastic shadows. No one was about. On our starboard bow the rugged36 mass of Cock Island was a black blur37 against the stars.
It is one of the failings of the Celtic temperament38 that its moments of the highest elation39 are apt to be followed by phases of the deepest depression. Reaction had come upon me after our days of high adventure and floored me utterly40. All the spice, so it seemed to me in that dark hour beneath the moon on the Cristobal's deserted41 deck, had gone out of the romance of my profession and left me with an ill taste in my mouth. As I paced up and down I revisualised the scenes through which I had passed in my quest; Adams gasping42 for breath in his hovel, Garth and I scrambling43 through the steaming jungle, that storm-tossed figure by the grave, Marjorie pillowing her gold-brown head on my chest in the darkness of the cave.
From every one of the pictures which passed across my mind her face seemed to look out, the narrow pencilled eyebrows44 above the clear grey eyes, the great tenderness of her mouth.... Within a few hours, I pondered sadly, I had found my love and lost her just as I had found and lost the treasure....
A voice was hailing us out of the gloom that hung over the opalescent45 sea.
"Cristobal ahoy!"
The sound of oars46 came to me and presently a ship's boat emerged from the night, a white figure in the stern. A few minutes later Marjorie Garth, wrapped in a white blanket coat, stepped out of the boat that rocked in the swell47 at the foot of the Cristobal's companion and mounted to the deck.
"You would have left me like this?" she said, and stood close by my side.
"It was not a friendly thing to do.... partner," she added in a breathless sort of way.
"Your father...." I began.
"Oh!" she cried in a low voice, "I was ashamed of him. After what you risked to save me. But you must make allowances. I am all he has, you know. He'll be all right in a day or two. We're going back to Panama and home by way of America. And I've come to fetch you back to the Naomi!...."
I shook my head.
"No!" I said.
"If I ask you to come. And I'll make Daddy apologise, if you like...."
She laid her hand on my arm.
"No!" I said again.
Hurt, she withdrew her hand.
"Your stupid pride...." she began.
"Don't let us quarrel," I pleaded. "Let me keep a wonderful dream unspoiled, Marjorie. But dreams can't last for ever, my dear. One has to wake up some time, you know!"
Questioningly her eyes sought mine.
"Even if Sir Alexander had not told me I was not wanted on the Naomi," I continued, "I think I should yet have parted from you here. My dear, my dear, don't you see it's hopeless? I care far too much for you to be able to know you merely as a friend. I must make an end of it. The barrier between us is insurmountable...."
"Barrier?" she repeated. "What barrier?"
"Money! You're too rich, Marjorie, for me to ask you the question which, almost from the moment I first saw you in the smoke-room of the Naomi, I have wanted to put to you. I make enough out of this odd trade of mine to keep a wife. But as long as I'm in the Secret Service I'd ask no woman to marry me. It wouldn't be playing the game by her—or by the service, either!...."
She listened to me in silence. Then she said quite simply:
"Desmond, if you'll ask me, I'll be your wife. I've never met a man I'd marry before; but I'd marry you. Why should you let money stand between us? I shall have enough for both...."
I loved her for her words. But I shook my head again.
"It won't do, my dear," said I. "And you know it won't do. If I'd found that cursed treasure, things might have been different. But now I've only to tell you I shall never forget that you paid me the greatest compliment a woman can pay a man.... and to say good-bye...."
With a sob4, she turned from me and, ignoring my arm, ran down the ladder and stepped into the boat.
Before morning Clubfoot had escaped. Loud shouts from Cock Island where, by Garth's permission, some of the crew of the Naomi had spent the night ashore, discovered the news to us. The Naomi's launch, which they had drawn49 up on the beach, was missing, and at the companion of the Cristobal a severed50 length of rope showed that the painter of one of the ship's boats which had been tied up there had been cut.
Bard held an inquiry51. But his crew came from Rodriguez, "and," he told me, "they have a holy fear of El Cojo. He simply blustered52 his way out of the lamp-room where I had him imprisoned53! I'm not sure," he added with a grin, "that old Clubfoot has not himself presented us with the simplest solution of a very difficult problem!"
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1
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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coastal
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| adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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bard
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| n.吟游诗人 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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insurgents
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| n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 ) | |
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espionage
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| n.间谍行为，谍报活动 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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contraband
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| n.违禁品，走私品 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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coup
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| n.政变；突然而成功的行动 | |
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armistice
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| n.休战，停战协定 | |
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dynamited
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| v.（尤指用于采矿的）甘油炸药( dynamite的过去式和过去分词 )；会引起轰动的人[事物] | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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confiscate
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| v.没收(私人财产)，把…充公 | |
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slump
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| n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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43
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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44
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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45
opalescent
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| adj.乳色的，乳白的 | |
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46
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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47
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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48
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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49
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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50
severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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51
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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52
blustered
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| v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹 | |
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53
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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