CHAPTER LII
THE SKARES
I whispered to Marjory and Don Bernardino:
"If they once get away we are lost! We must stop them at all hazards!"The Spaniard nodded and Marjory squeezed my hands; there was no needof speech. Then I fixed the order of battle. I was to fire first, thenthe Spaniard, then Marjory, each saving his fire till we knew whetheranother shot was required. This precaution was necessary, as we had noreserve ammunition. We took it for granted that the chambers of therevolvers were full; my one shot had been satisfactory in this respect.When the sails were set and we began rushing through the water I sawthat even at the risk of betraying ourselves to our enemies we must givewarning again, and so fired. There was an answering cheer from the_Keystone_ through the fog; and then a sudden rush forward of those onour own deck. When they were close to us, the seamen hung back; but themen of the gang kept on firing as they came. Fortunately we were in aline behind cover, for I could hear the 'ping' and the tearing wood asthe bullets struck the mast. I fired a shot just to show that we werearmed; and heard a sharp cry. Then they fell back. In a moment or twothey also had formed their plan of battle. These were men used to suchencounters; and as they knew that at such times a quick rush may meaneverything, they did not let the grass grow under their feet. I couldsee one of the seamen remonstrating with them, and hear the quick,angry tones of his voice, though I could not distinguish the words.
He pointed out into the fog, where now there was distinctly a luminouspatch of light: the searchlight was moving towards us. The _Keystone_was coming down on us.
The blackmailer shook off the seaman and, then gave some directions tohis comrades; they spread out right and left of us, and tried to findsome kind of cover. I lifted Marjory and put her standing on the barrelfastened behind the mast, for I thought that as the flash of my pistolhad come from the deck they would not expect any one to be raised sohigh. Don Bernardino and I curled down on the deck, and our opponentsbegan to fire. In the thickening fog, and with the motion of the shipwhich threw us all about like ninepins, their aim was vague; fortunatelyno one was hit. When I thought I had a chance I fired, but there wasno response; the Don got a shot and Marjory another, but there was nosound, save that of the bullets striking on wood or iron. Then Marjory,whose traditional instinct was coming into play, fired twice in rapidsuccession; there was a quick exclamation and then a flood of horribleprofanity, the man was only winged. Again and again they fired, and Iheard a groan behind me from the Don.
"What's that?" I whispered, not daring to stop or even to look back:
"My arm! Take my pistol, I cannot shoot with my left hand." I put myhand back, and he placed the revolver in it. I saw a dark form rushacross the deck and fired--and missed. I tried another shot; but theweapon only answered with a click; the chambers were exhausted. So Iused the other revolver. And so for a few minutes a furious fight wenton. Marjory seldom fired, she was holding herself in reserve; butbefore I knew what was happening my second revolver was empty. Ourantagonists were no chickens at their work; there was little to teachany of them in such a method of contest as this. Some one had evidentlybeen counting the shots, for he suddenly called out:
"Not yet boys! They've at least three shots still!" With a suddensimultaneous rush they ran back into shelter.
During this time we had been tearing through the water at our fullspeed. But behind us on the port quarter was the sound of a great shipsteaming on. The roar of the furnaces could be heard in the trumpetingof the funnels. The boatswain's whistles were piping, and there werevoices of command cutting hoarsely through the fog. The searchlight toowas at work; we could see its rays high up on the mist, though they didnot at the moment penetrate sufficiently to expose us to the lookout ofthe _Keystone_. Closer on our starboard quarter was another sound whichcame on the trailing wind, the rush of a small vessel running fast.We could hear down the wind the sharp 'slap slap' of the waves on thebows, and the roaring of the wind among the cordage. This must bethe _Sporran_ following us close with grim disregard of danger. Thecommander of the whaler, recognising the possibility of discovery, puthis helm hard to starboard. I could myself not see through the darkness;but the seaman did and took his chance of grounding in Cruden Bay. Whenwe had run in a little way the helm was jammed hard down again, andwe ran on the other tack; for the moment we were lost to both the warship and the yacht. Marjory looked at me appealingly and I nodded; thesituation was not one to be risked. She fired another shot from herpistol. There was an immediate reply from far out on our port side inthe shape of more directions spoken with the trumpet and answeringpiping from the boatswains. Several shots were fired towards us by thegang; they were manifestly on chance, for they went wildly wide of us.Then we could hear an angry remonstrance from the whaler captain, and athreat that if there were any more firing, he would down with his sailsand take chance of being captured. One of the gang answered him:
"That packet can't capture you within the three-mile limit; it's acruiser of Uncle Sam's and they won't risk having to lie up in harbourhere till the war is over." To which the other surlily replied:
"I wouldn't put money on it. Anyhow someone will! You keep quiet if youcan. There's enough against us already if we should be caught!" Thereply of the blackmailer was at least practical. I could not see what hedid, but I took it that he put his pistol to the captain's head as hesaid with a frightful oath:
"You'll go on as you arranged with me; or I'll blow your brains outwhere you stand. There's quite enough against any of us, you included;so your one chance anyhow is to get out of this hole. See?" The captainaccepted the position and gave his orders with a quiet delivery, to theeffect that we ran first shorewards and then to starboard again till wewere running back on our tracks like a hare.
Suddenly, however, this course was brought to an end by our almostrunning into a small vessel which as we passed I could see by its trimappearance was a yacht. We were so close for a few seconds, whilst weran across her stern, that I shouted out:
"All right, MacRae. All safe as yet. She's trying to run out to sea. Tryto tell the _Keystone_." The answer was a cheer from all aboard.
As our ship swept into the fog, several of our enemies ran at us. Ihanded Don Bernardino his own dagger and took the bowie knife myself.Then we stood ready in case our foes should get to close quarters.They got nearly up to us, firing as they came; but we were just thensheltering behind the mast and no injury was done. They hesitated tocome on, not seeing us; and we waited. As we stood with beating heartsthe ship began to come to starboard again. We must have been shelteredin some way, for we did not seem to feel either wind or tide so much asbefore. Suddenly one of the seamen said:
"Whist! I hear breakers!" The rest paused and listened, and the captaincalled out:
"Hard to starboard; we are running on shore!" The ship answered at once,and we began to run across the wind, feeling the tide at the same time.But as we went, a searchlight flashed on the fog before us. We could notstop or change quick enough to quite avoid the ship from which it came,but the helm was put hard to starboard again and we ran close along sidea great war ship. I could see her tower with protruding cannon as we ranby. A voice came through a speaking trumpet, and I could just catch thefirst words as the vessel swept by us:
"Rocks ahead!" The instinct of the seaman spoke, even at such a time, tokeep another vessel from harm. The answer from our vessel was a volleyof curses. Then the searchlight swept our deck, and we could see all ourenemies. They were round us in a great ring and closing in upon us. Theysaw us, too, and with a shout began to run in. I took Marjory by thewaist and ran with her to the bow of the ship; I flung her up on thebulwark and jumped up beside her. Don Bernardino joined us in a moment,and we saw the searchlight as it passed us and pierced into the fogahead. Already the bulk of the battleship was almost lost in the mist;there was only a faint indication of her presence in a monstrous massbehind the searchlight, and the end of a spar rising above the fog. Infront of us there was a great roaring of
water and that sharp rushingsound which comes from the back sweep of a broken wave. Our skipper sawthe danger, and in a voice like a trumpet gave his orders.
But it was too late to do anything. As the searchlight again swept ourdeck, I saw the ring of men break up and scatter; almost at the samemoment the rays passing beyond us, fell on a low rock rising from thesea up whose sides great waves were dashing. We were rushing to it,borne by wind and tide in a terrible haste.
At that instant we struck a rock below the water. With the shock wethree were thrown forward into the sea. I heard a despairing shoutbehind us; and then the water closed over my head.
When I rose it was in a wild agony of fear for Marjory. She had beensitting to my left on the bulwark and must therefore have fallen toseaward of me. I raised myself as well as I could and looked around;and, by God's grace, saw two hands rising above the water a few yardsfrom me. With all my might I struggled towards them, and was able todrag my wife up to the surface. When I had her with me, though my terrorand anxiety increased, I could think. At such moments the mind acts withlightning speed, and in a second or two I came to the conclusion thatthe rock we had struck must be amongst the Skares. If so, the onlychance was to edge in with the tide and try to avoid striking any of theunderlying rocks which I knew well were so deadly. Had not I seenLauchlane Macleod come to his death through them.
It was a desperate struggle before us. The tide was racing amongst therocks, and even were there no waves it would have been a difficult taskto have won through it into shore. For myself I was a strong enoughswimmer to have found my way in, even if I had had to round the outerrock and keep up to the harbour of Whinnyfold. But with Marjory to carefor, too--Marjory who had only lately learned to swim.... The prospectwas indeed a terrible one. We must not lose a chance, and so I made mywife loose her skirts which fell away in the drag of the water; shecould then swim more freely and to the best of her power.
The wind beat fiercely, and the tops of the breaking waves nearly chokedus as they flew. There was just light enough down on the water level tosee rocks a few yards ahead; the line of the shore rose like one dimopaque mass. In the darkness and the stress of the tide race there waslittle I could do, save keep Marjory's head and my own above the waterand let the current bear us on. I must avoid the rocks as well as Icould, and let all my efforts tend to bring us shorewards. There was nottime for fears or doubting, or hoping; the moments must pass and thestruggle be made, never-ending though it seemed to be.
After a few minutes I began to tire; the strain of the last few days andmy late effort in reaching the whaler had begun to tell on me. I had nowand again a passing thought of Don Bernardino and the friends who hadbeen helping us; but they were all far off. The Spaniard I shouldprobably never seen again; the others might never see us.... I wasrelapsing into the lethargy of despair.
With a violent effort I woke to the task before me, and kept sternly onmy way. Marjory was striving her utmost; but her strength was failing.Her weight was becoming deader.... That nerved me to further effort,and I swam on so frantically that I drew closer to the mainland. Herethere was shelter of a kind; the waves broken by the outer rockswere less forceful. The crested tops which the wind had driven on uswere weakening also. There was hope in this and it kept me up. On Ifought--on--on--on. Oh! would the struggle never end! I shut my teeth,and forged on fiercely. I could feel that we were going with the rush ofthe waves through a gully between sunken rocks.
Joy! there was shore beneath my feet, rough pebbles which rolled andworked against each other. The wave pulled us back. But my heart wasrenewed again. I made one more frantic effort, and swam closer to theland. Then as I saw the wave began to recoil I put down my feet, andwith the last of my strength lifting Marjory in my arms I foughtfiercely with the retreating wave. Staggering over the screamingpebbles, exhausted to the point of death, I bore her high up on thebeach and laid her down. Then I sank lifeless beside her cold body.
The last thing I remember was the faint light of the coming dawn,falling on her marble-white face as she lay on the shore.