CHAPTER XXXVII
THE "ARATO"
The subject of the labors of an African Hercules, mythical as theselabors might be, was so interesting to the four men who had been drinkingand smoking in the tavern, that they determined to pursue it as far astheir ignorance of the African's language, and his ignorance of Englishand Spanish, would permit. In the first place, they made him sit downwith them, and offered him something to drink. It was not whiskey, butInkspot liked it very much, and felt all sorts of good effects from it.In fact, it gave him a power of expressing himself by gestures and singlewords in a manner wonderful. After a time, the men gave him something toeat, for they imagined he might be hungry, and this also helped him verymuch, and his heart went out to these new friends. Then he had a littlemore to drink, but only a little, for the horse-dealer and the thin-nosedman, who superintended the entertainment, were very sagacious, and didnot want him to drink too much.
In the course of an hour, these four men, listening and watching keenlyand earnestly, had become convinced that this black man had been on aship which carried bags of gold similar to the rude prism possessed bythe horse-dealer, that he had left that vessel for the purpose ofobtaining refreshments on shore and had not been able to get back to it,thereby indicating that the vessel had not stopped long at the placewhere he had left it, and which place must have been, of course,Valparaiso. Moreover, they found out to their full satisfaction wherethat vessel was going to; for Maka had talked a great deal about Paris,which he pronounced in English fashion, where Cheditafa and Mok were, andthe negroes had looked forward to this unknown spot as a heavenly port,and Inkspot could pronounce the word "Paris" almost as plainly as if itwere a drink to which he was accustomed.
But where the vessel was loaded with the gold, they could not find out.No grimace that Inkspot could make, nor word that he could say, gave theman idea worth dwelling upon. He said some words which made them believethat the vessel had cleared from Acapulco, but it was foolish to supposethat any vessel had been loaded there with bags of gold carried on men'sshoulders. The ship most probably came from California, and had touchedat the Mexican port. And she was now bound for Paris. That was naturalenough. Paris was a very good place to which to take gold. Moreover, shehad probably touched at some South American port, Callao perhaps, andthis was the way the little pieces of gold had been brought into thecountry, the Californians probably having changed them for stores.
The words "Cap' 'Or," often repeated by the negro, and always in aquestioning tone, puzzled them very much. They gave up its solution, andwent to work to try to make out the name of the vessel upon which thebags had been loaded. But here Inkspot could not help them. They couldnot make him understand what it was they wanted him to say. At last, thehorse-dealer proposed to the others, who, he said, knew more about suchthings than he did, that they should repeat the name of everysailing-vessel on that coast of which they had ever heard--for Inkspothad made them understand that his ship had sails, and no steam. This theydid, and presently one of the sailors mentioned the name _Miranda_, whichbelonged to a brig he knew of which plied on the coast. At this, Inkspotsprang to his feet and clapped his hands.
_"Miran'a! Miran'a.'"_ he cried. And then followed the words, "Cap' 'Or!Cap' 'Or!" in eagerly excited tones.
Suddenly the thin-nosed man, whom the others called Cardatas,leaned forward.
"Cap'n Horn?" said he.
Inkspot clapped his hands again, and exclaimed:
"Ay, ay! Cap' 'Or! Cap' 'Or!"
He shouted the words so loudly that the barkeeper, at the other end ofthe room, called out gruffly that they'd better keep quiet, or they wouldhave somebody coming in.
"There you have it!" exclaimed Cardatas, in Spanish. "It's Cap'n Hornthat the fool's been trying to say. Cap'n Horn of the brig _Miranda_. Weare getting on finely."
"I have heard of a Cap'n Horn," said one of the sailors. "He's a Yankeeskipper from California. He has sailed from this port, I know."
"And he touched here three days ago, according to the negro," saidCardatas, addressing the horse-dealer. "What do you say to that, Nunez?From what we know, I don't think it will be hard to find out more."
Nunez agreed with him, and thought it might pay to find out more. Soonafter this, being informed that it was time to shut up the place, thefour men went out, taking Inkspot with them. They would not neglect thispoor fellow. They would give him a place to sleep, and in the morning heshould have something to eat. It would be very unwise to let him go fromthem at present.
The next morning Inkspot strolled about the wharves of Valparaiso, incompany with the two sailors, who never lost sight of him, and he hadrather a pleasant time, for they gave him as much to eat and drink as wasgood for him, and made him understand as well as they could that it wouldnot be long before they would help him to return to the brig _Miranda_commanded by Captain Horn.
In the meantime, the horse-dealer, Nunez, went to a newspaper office, andthere procured a file of a Mexican paper, for the negro had convincedthem that his vessel had sailed from Acapulco. Turning over the backnumbers week after week, and week after week, Nunez searched in themaritime news for the information that the _Miranda_ had cleared from aMexican port. He had gone back so far that he had begun to consider ituseless to make further search, when suddenly he caught the name_Miranda_. There it was. The brig _Miranda_ had cleared from AcapulcoSeptember 16, bound for Rio Janeiro in ballast. Nunez counted the monthson his fingers.
"Five months ago!" he said to himself. "That's not this trip, surely.But I will talk to Cardatas about that." And taking from his pocket alittle note-book in which he recorded his benefactions in the line ofhorse trades, he carefully copied the paragraph concerning the _Miranda_.
When Nunez met Cardatas in the afternoon, the latter also had news. Hehad discovered that the arrival of the _Miranda_ had not been registered,but he had been up and down the piers, asking questions, and he had founda mate of a British steamer, then discharging her cargo, who told himthat the _Miranda_, commanded by Captain Horn, had anchored in the harborthree days back, during the night, and that early the next morningCaptain Horn had sent him a letter which he wished posted, and that verysoon afterwards the brig had put out to sea. Cardatas wished to know muchmore, but the mate, who had had but little conversation with Shirley,could only tell him that the brig was then bound from Acapulco to RioJaneiro in ballast, which he thought rather odd, but all he could add wasthat he knew Captain Horn, and he was a good man, and that if he weresailing in ballast, he supposed he knew what he was about.
Nunez then showed Cardatas the note he had made, and remarked that, ofcourse, it could not refer to the present voyage of the brig, for itcould not take her five months to come from Acapulco to this port.
"No," said the other, musing, "it oughtn't to, but, on the other hand,it is not likely she is on her second voyage to Rio, and both times inballast. That's all stuff about ballast. No man would be such a fool asto sail pretty nigh all around this continent in ballast. He could findsome cargo in Mexico that he could sell when he got to port. Besides, ifthat black fellow don't lie,--and he don't know enough to lie,--she'sbound for Paris. It's more likely she means to touch at Rio and takeover some cargo. But why, in the devil's name, should she sail fromAcapulco in ballast? It looks to me as if bags of gold might make verygood ballast."
"That's just what I was thinking," said Nunez.
"And what's more," said the other, "I'll bet she brought it down fromCalifornia with her when she arrived at Acapulco. I don't believe sheoriginally cleared from there."
"It looks that way," said Nunez, "but how do you account for such along voyage?"
"I've been talking to Sanchez about that _Miranda_," said Cardatas. "Hehas heard that she is an old tub, and a poor sailer, and in that casefive months is not such a very slow voyage. I have known of slowervoyages than that."
"And now what are you going to do about it?" asked Nunez.
"The first thing I want to do is to pump that black f
ellow alittle more."
"A good idea," said Nunez, "and we'll go and do it."
Poor Inkspot was pumped for nearly an hour, but not much was got out ofhim. The only feature of his information that was worth anything was theidea that he managed to convey that ballast, consisting of stones andbags of sand, had been taken out of the brig and thrown away, and bags ofgold put in their places. Where this transfer had taken place, the negrocould not make his questioners understand, and he was at last remanded tothe care of Sanchez and the other sailor.
"The black fellow can't tell us much," said Cardatas to Nunez, as theywalked away together, "but he has stuck to his story well, and therecan't be any use of his lying about it. And there is another thing. Whatmade the brig touch here just long enough to leave a letter, and thatafter a voyage of five months? That looks as if they were afraid some oftheir people would go on shore and talk."
"In that case," said Nunez, "I should say there is something shady aboutthe business. Perhaps this captain has slipped away from his partners upthere in California, or somebody who has been up to a trick has hired himto take the gold out of the country. If he does carry treasure, it isn'ta fair and square thing. If it had been fair, the gold would have beensent in the regular way, by a steamer. It's no crime to send gold fromCalifornia to France, or any other place."
"I agree with you," said Cardatas, as he lighted his twenty-seventhcigarette.
Nunez did not smoke, but he mused as he walked along.
"If she has gold on board," said he, presently, "it must be a good deal."
"Yes," said the other. "They wouldn't take so much trouble for a smalllot. Of course, there can't be enough of it to take the place of all theballast, but it must weigh considerable."
Here the two men were joined by an acquaintance, and their specialconversation ceased. That night they met again.
"What are you going to do about this?" asked Nunez. "We can't keep onsupporting that negro."
"What is to be done?" asked the other, his sharp eyes fixed upon hiscompanion's face.
"Would it pay to go over to Rio and meet that brig when she arrivesthere? If we could get on board and have a talk with her captain, hemight be willing to act handsomely when he found out we know somethingabout him and his ship. And if he won't do that, we might giveinformation, and have his vessel held until the authorities in Californiacan be communicated with. Then I should say we ought to make something."
"I don't think much of that plan," said Cardatas. "I don't believe she'sgoing to touch at Rio. If she's afraid to go into port here, whyshouldn't she be afraid to go into port there? No. It would be stupid forus to go to Rio and sit down and wait for her."
"Then," answered the other, a little angrily, "what can be done?"
"We can go after her," said Cardatas.
The other sneered. "That would be more stupid than the other," said he."She left here four days ago, and we could never catch up with her, evenif we could find such a pin-point of a vessel on the great Pacific."
Cardatas laughed. "You don't know much about navigation," said he, "butthat's not to be expected. With a good sailing-vessel I could go afterher, and overhaul her somewhere in the Straits of Magellan. With such acargo, I am sure she would make for the Straits. That Captain Horn issaid to be a good sailor, and the fact that he is in command of such atub as the _Miranda_ is a proof that there is something underhand abouthis business."
"And if we should overhaul her?" said the other.
"Well," was the reply, "we might take along a dozen good fellows, and asthe _Miranda_ has only three men on board,--I don't count negroes worthanything,--I don't see why we couldn't induce the captain to talkreasonably to us. As for a vessel, there's the _Arato_."
"Your vessel?" said the other.
"Yes, I own a small share in her, and she's here in port now, waitingfor a cargo."
"I forget what sort of a craft she is," said Nunez.
"She's a schooner," said the other, "and she can sail two miles to the_Miranda's_ one in any kind of weather. If I had money enough, I couldget the _Arato_, put a good crew on board, and be at sea and on the wakeof that brig in twenty-four hours."
"And how much money would be needed?" asked the other.
"That remains to be calculated," replied Cardatas. Then the two went towork to calculate, and spent an hour or two at it.
When they parted, Nunez had not made up his mind that the plan ofCardatas was a good one, but he told him to go ahead and see what couldbe done about getting the _Arato_ and a reliable crew, and that he wouldtalk further to him about the matter.
That night Nunez took a train for Santiago, and on his arrival there, thenext morning, he went straight to the shop of the jeweller of whom hadbeen obtained the piece of gold in his possession. Here he made somecautious inquiries, and found the jeweller very ready to talk about thepiece of gold that Nunez showed him. The jeweller said that he had hadfour pieces of the gold in his possession, and that he had bought them inLima to use in his business. They had originally come from California,and were very fine gold. He had been a little curious about it on accountof the shape of the pieces, and had been told that they had been broughtinto the country by an American sea-captain, who had seemed to have agood many of them. The jeweller thought it very likely that these piecesof gold passed for currency in California, for he had heard that at onetime the people there had had to make their own currency, and that theyoften paid for merchandise in so many penny-weights and ounces of goldinstead of using coin. The jeweller was himself very glad to do businessin this way, for he liked the feel of a lump of gold.
After explaining that his reason for making these inquiries was his fearthat the piece of gold he had accepted in trade because he also liked thefeel of lumps of gold, might not be worth what he had given for it, Nunezthanked the jeweller, left him, and returned to Valparaiso. He wentstraight to his friend Cardatas, and said that he would furnish thecapital to fit out the _Arato_ for the projected trip.
It was not in twenty-four hours, but in forty-eight, that the schooner_Arato_ cleared from Valparaiso for Callao in ballast. She had a good setof sails, and a crew of ten men besides the captain. She also had onboard a passenger, Nunez by name, and a tall negro, who doubtless couldturn his hand to some sort of work on board, and whom it would have beenvery indiscreet to leave behind.
Once outside the harbor, the _Arato_ changed her mind about going toCallao, and sailed southward.