writhing down I struck himwith all my force and he fell insensible.
"Seven and one makes eight," said I, and a man might forgive himselffor boasting at such a time; for, mark you, but two were left to dealwith, and while one was making for little Dolly Venn, Peter Bligh hadthe throat of the other in such a grip that his friends might well havesaid, "God help him!"
"Hold him, Peter, hold him!" cried I, my blood fired and my tongue setloose; but there was no need to be anxious for Mister Bligh, I doassure you.
"He'll need new teeth to-morrow, and plenty of 'em!" says he, shakingthe man as a dog shakes a rat. "Aye, go on, captain, the fun'sbeginning here."
I waited to hear no more, but ran at the man who closed with littleDolly Venn. "Dolly's is the need," said I; though in that I wasmistaken, as you shall see presently. And I do declare it was a pictureto watch that bit of a lad dancing round a hulking Dutchman, andhitting the wind out of him as though he had been a cushion. Grunt? Thelubber grunted like a pig, and every time he stopped for want of breathin come Master Dolly again with a lightning one which shook him like athunder-bolt. No "set-to" that I have seen in all my life ever pleasedme half as much; and what with crying and laughing by turns, andsinging out "Bravo, Dolly!" and dancing round the pair of them, thesweat ran off me like rain, and I, and not little Dolly Venn, mighthave been doing for the Dutchman in the shadows of that corridor.
In the end, believe me, this foreign bully turned tail and ran like awhipped cur. It was all I could do to keep the lad from his heels.
"Next time, Dolly," cried I, holding him back roughly, "next time, lad;we have better work to do, much better work to do. Here's Peter needinga box for his goods--and a pretty big one, too. Is it over, Peter? Willhe be talking any more?" I asked Mister Bligh.
He answered me by pointing to a figure on the floor beside him, starkand motionless and very still. Peter had played his part, indeed; Iknew that the gate of Czerny's house was open.
"All together, lads," said I, leading them on now with a light heart;"all together and out of the shadows, if you please. We've another gateto close, and then--as God's above me, I do believe we have bestedEdmond Czerny this night!"
It was something to say, a thought to thrill a man, and yet I would notdwell upon it, remembering all that lay between us and Miss Ruth'sfreedom--all that must be done in the doubtful hours before us.
"The iron ladder by which the men come in," I asked of the Italian,suddenly, "where is that, Regnarte?"
Now, this man had been very frightened during the brawl at thestairs-head; but, seeing the stuff we were made of, and being willingall along to join with us (for I learned afterwards that he nursed aprivate spite against Czerny), he replied to me very readily:
"The ladder is the second door, captain; yet why, since no man can goup? I tell you that two hold it, and they have guns. You cannot go,captain! What good the key when men have guns?"
"We'll see about that," said I. And cocking my pistol I strode to thedoor he indicated.
It was an iron door, opening inward to a small apartment cut out of thesolid rock. For a while I could see nothing when I entered the littlecavern--it laid bare; but, becoming used to the dim light presently, Itook a few steps forward, and looking up I saw a rocky chimney and anorifice far up and the stars glimmering in the grey-blue sky above me.This, then, was the second gate to Czerny's house, I said; the seagateby which his men passed in. Here, as yonder where Miss Ruth's apartmentlay, the reef lifted itself above the highest tides; here was the gatewe must shut if the night were to be won. And who would dare it witharmed men on the threshold, and a ladder for foothold, and theknowledge on our part that one word of the truth would dig a grave forrecompense? And yet it had to be dared; a man must go up that night fora woman's sake.
Well, I took off my boots at the ladder's foot, and thrusting my pistolinto my waist-belt I spoke a warning word to Peter Bligh.
"This," said I, taking from Regnarte the key I needed, "this opens theiron doors you will meet down yonder. If misfortune happens to me, gostraight through and take my place. Hold the rooms as long as you canand let your judgment do the rest. Belike Mister Jacob will come backwith the ship. I wish to God I could think so!" I added.
He nodded his head, and but half understanding what I was about hewatched me anxiously when I put my naked foot with wary step on theladder and began to go up. I saw him for a moment, a comrade's figurein the dim light of the cavern, and then thinking only of my purpose,and of what it would mean to one who waited for me, I clenched my teethand began my journey. Below me were the little cave and the glimmer ofa distant lamp, shipmates crying "God speed!" the hidden house, themystery; above me that dark funnel of the rock and the sky, whichseemed to beckon me upward to freedom and the sea.
If danger lay there I could not espy it nor detect its presence. Not asound came from the open trap, no figures were to be seen, no spokenvoice to be heard. The moaning waves upon the iron reef, the echo ofgunshots in the silence of the night, alone spoke of life and being andthe open sea without. And I went up like a cat, rung by rung, my handhot upon the iron, the thought in my head that madness sent me and thatI might never see another day.
No man appeared at the orifice, I say; the gate might have beenunguarded for any sentinel I could espy. Nevertheless, I knew that theItalian spoke the truth, and that his reckoning was good. Edmond Czernywas no fool to leave a sea-gate open to all the world. Somewhere on thefoothold of the rocks men were lurking, I made sure. That they heardnothing of their friends' outcry in the corridor below, that they didnot answer it, was a thing I had not, at the first, understood; but itbecame plain when the chimney I climbed shut out every sound but thatof the breaking seas, and gave intervals of silence so great that a manmight have heard a ticking watch. No, truly, it was no wonder that theyhad not gone down nor heard that loud alarm, for they hungered for thewreck; for pillage and plunder, and all the gruesome sights Ken'sIsland that night could show them; and this hunger kept them at thewater's edge, hounds kennelled when others were free, unwilling idlerson a harvest day. God knows, they paid a price for that when the goodtime came.
Now, at the ladder's head, everything was as I had seen it in themind's picture; and even before I made the top fresh spray would showerupon my face, while the sea sounded as though its waves were breakingalmost at my very ears. Unchallenged and, for all I could make out,unwatched, I grew bolder step by step, until at last I touched thetopmost rung; and, looking over, I saw the white crests of the breakersand the pinnacles of the reef and the distant island under its loom ofgold-blue fog. Halted there, with one hand swung free and my goodpistol ready, I peered intently into the night--a sentinel watchingsentinels, a spy upon those that should have spied. And standing so Isaw the men, and they saw me; and quickened to the act by the suddendanger, I swung over the first half of the trap which shut the chimneyin, and made ready to close the second with all the deftness I couldcommand.
There were two men at the sea's edge, and they did not hear me, Ibelieve, until the first door of that trap was down. Perchance, eventhen, they thought that a comrade played a jest upon them, and thatthis was all in the night's work, for one of them coming up leisurelypeered into the hole and put a question to me in the German tongue.This man, my heart beating like a piston, and my nerves all strung up,I struck down with the butt-end of my pistol, and, as God is mywitness, I swung over the trap and shot the bolts and locked the greatpadlock before the other could move hand or foot. For the foreignerfell, without a cry, headlong into the sea which played at his veryfeet.
"Shut--shut, by thunder!" cried I to those below, and gladder words aseaman never spoke to comrades waiting for him. "One gate more and thenight is ours, lads!"
They heard me in astonishment. Remember how new this place of mysterywas to them; how little I had told them of that which I do. If theyfollowed me like the brave men that they were, set it down to theaffection they bore me, and the belief that I led them on no child'serrand. So much must have occurred to
them as we gained the upper houseand shut the iron doors behind us. The way lay to the sea again, theroad most dear to the heart of every sailor. Let the main gate ofCzerny's house be closed and all was won, indeed.
Aye, and you shall stand with me as, mounting a broad stairway beyondMiss Ruth's own door, I found myself out upon a great plateau of rock,and beheld the silent ocean spread out like a silver carpet before mygrateful eyes, and knew that the house was ours--that house the like towhich no man has built or will build during the ages.
CHAPTER XIX
WHICH SHOWS THAT A MAN WHO THINKS OF BIG THINGS SOMETIMES FORGETS THELITTLE ONES
I was the first to be out on the rock, but Peter Bligh was close uponmy heels, and, wonderful to tell, the