that it was a boast; aye, perhaps it was that, yet what aboast! For think of it. Here at the very moment when it appeared thatour lives were at Czerny's mercy, at this very moment when we must lookto his cruel hand for succour or sleep in the death-pit of the island,there comes this message from the sea and the devils go out. There isnot a sound in the house, and I know that my comrades are waiting formy word. I have three brave men behind me; the peril fires my blood sothat, man or devil against me, I care nothing for either. Was it aboast for a man to stake all on a throw at such an hour? Not so, truly,but just what any English seaman would have done, saying, "All ornothing, the day or the night," as chance should decide for him.
Now, my hand was upon the key when I told little Ruth that it was men'swork, and without waiting to hear her wise displeasure I opened thedoor and stepped out into the silent hall. One man alone kept watchthere, and he was in the shadows, so that I could not see his face ortell if he were armed. I knew that this man was the first between meand my liberty, and without a moment's hesitation I crossed the hall;and aware of all the risks I took, understanding that a word of minemight bring the guard down from the sea, I clapped a pistol to thesentry's head and let him know my pleasure.
"Open that gate, Benno Regnarte!" said I.
He was a short man, burly, with curly hair, and not an unpleasant face.So quick had I come upon him, so strange, perhaps, he thought it that Inamed him at hazard, that he fell back against the iron and stood theregaping like one who had seen a bogey in the dark. Never, I believe, inall this world was a seaman so frightened. He could not speak or uttera sound, or even raise his hand. He just stood there like a shiveringfool.
"Benno Regnarte, open that gate!" I repeated, seeing that I had thename all right; "I'll give you half a minute."
The threat brought him to his senses. Without a word, a sign, a sound,he opened the iron doors and waited for me to go through.
"Now," said I, "give me those keys and march on. And by the heavenabove me, if you open your lips far enough for a fly to go in, I'llshoot you dead where you stand!"
He gave me the keys with a hand that trembled so that he nearly droppedthem. In spite of my injunction he mumbled something, and I was notunwilling to hear it.
"I am the friend of Mme. Czerny," said he, cringingly; "trust me,signor, for God's sake trust me!"
"When you earn the trust," said I, grimly; "now march, and remember!"
I let him go through, and then locked the iron doors behind me. MissRuth, at least, must be protected from the rogues below. The lamps inthe corridor were still burning, and, by here and there, I thought thatI saw figures in the shadows. But no man hailed me, and when I came tothe great dormitory which, at first passing, was full of seamen, Ifound the door of it open and no more than six or seven men still aboutits tables. If they heard me come up they suspected nothing. I shallalways say that the brightest idea of that night was the one which cameto me while I stood by the open door and counted the devils that Czernyhad left to guard his house. For what should I do, upon the oddestimpulse, but put my hand round the door very quietly and, closing itwithout noise, turn the key first in the lock and then in my pocket.
"Six," said I to the man before me; "and you make seven. How many morein this place now, Benno Regnarte?"
He held up his hands and began to count.
"In the engine-room one, two, three," he said; "upon the ladder herebytwo; at the great door two more. Seven men altogether, signor. Yourparty will be more than that?"
I laughed at his notion, and, seeing that the man still shivered withfear and was not to be counted, I went straight ahead to the greaterwork I had to do. Already the alarm was raised in the room behind me,and men were beating with their fists upon the iron door. It was ten toone that their cries must be heard and one of the sentinels called fromthe sea; but, miracle if you will, or greed of plunder if that is thebetter term, none came; none answered that heavy knocking. And I--why,I was at the cavern's head by that time, and, opening the trap, I hadspoken to my shipmates.
"Up you come, every one of you--up for your lives!" cried I. "Do you,Seth Barker, lift the doctor, and let Peter Bligh follow after. There'sno time to lose, lads--no time at all."
I took them by surprise, be sure of it. That opening trap, the lightflashing down upon them, the message when they had begun to despair ofany message, the call to action--aye, how they leaped up to answer mewith ready words!
"To God be the glory!" cries Peter Bligh, and I can hear him now. "ToGod be the glory! 'It was the captain's voice,' says I, before ever youspake a word."
"And oh, aren't we sick of it--just sick of it!" chimes in Dolly Vennas he climbs the ladder like a cat and stands willingly at my side.
I pressed his hand, and showed him the revolver I carried.
"Whip it out, lad, whip it out," said I; "we've work to do to-night forourselves and another. Oh, I count on you all, Dolly, as I nevercounted before!"
He would have said something to this, I make sure, but the others camethrough the trap while I spoke, and four more astonished men neverstood in a cavern to ask, "What next?"
"The ladder to the reef side," said I, putting their surprise by andturning to the Italian in whose hands our lives might lie; "can menhold the top of it, or is it best taken by the sea?"
He answered me with a dramatic gesture and a face which spoke hiswarning.
"At the rockside it is straight; they shoot you from the top, captain.No man go up there from this place. They fire guns, make noise."
"And the report will call the others," said I. "So be it; but we'llclose that door, anyway."
It was Greek to the others, and they gaped at the words. From the roomwhich I had locked loud shouts were to be heard and heavy blows uponthe iron panels. That such cries would call men from the sea presently,I knew well. We had but a few minutes in which to act, and they wereprecious beyond all words. The gate must be shut though a hundred layconcealed in the rooms of mystery about us. On our part we staked allon chance; we threw the glove blindly to fortune. And, remember, Ialone knew anything of that house in which we stood; that house, abovewhich the sea ever rolled her crested breakers and lifted her eeriechantry. My shipmates were but astonished strangers, not willing to goback, yet half afraid of that which lay before them. The bright lightsin the caverns, the dark doors opening into darkness, and upon thesethe great corridor, so vast, so gloomy, so mysterious, were to them newpictures in a wonderland the like to which they had never seen beforeand will never see again.
"What place is this, and where is the best parlour?" asks Peter Bligh,his clumsy head blundering to a question even at such a time. "'Tislaid out for a small and early, and crowns to be broken," says he."Have you took it furnished, or are there neighbours, sir? 'Tis a queerhouse entirely."
I cut him short and turned to the doctor.
"What news of the foot, sir?" I asked him; "how are you feeling now?"
He replied light-heartedly enough, wishful, I could see, to make lightof it.
"Like a man who has bought a wooden leg and prefers the old one," saidhe; asking at the same time, "What's the course, captain, and why do wefollow it?"
"The course," said I, "is to Mme. Czerny's boudoir, and a good couch tolie upon. Do you two get on as fast as you can and leave us to theparley. It's coming, sure enough, and lame men won't help the argument.We'll need your help by-and-bye, doctor, when the heads are broken."
I made the guess at hazard, little knowing how near the truth it was toprove. We were almost at the head of the first stairway by this time,and the uproar in the corridor might have awakened the seven sleepers.Impossible, I said, that such a warning should not bring in men fromthe sea, sentinels who would ask by whose hand the key had been turned;but the danger lay behind us in the shadows where we had not looked forit. Aye, the three in the engine-house, how came I to forget them? Theywere atop of us before the doctor was out of hearing, and a greathulking German, his face smeared with soot and a bar of iron in hishands, caught
me by the shoulder and swung me round almost before I haddone speaking.
"Who, in thunder, are you?" asks he. It was a question which had to beanswered.
Now, I had picked up a wrinkle or two about "rough-and-tumbles" in theyears I traded to Yokohama, and though my heart was in my mouth and itwas plain to me that this was the crisis of the night, when a singleunlucky stroke or misspoken word might undo all that chance had donefor us, I nevertheless kept my wits about me, and letting the man turnme round as he willed I presently caught his arm between both of mineand almost broke the bone of it. Upon which he lifted up a cry youmight have heard at the sword-fish reef, and