CHAPTER XXVI
The Fate of Ah Ling
"I've made a thorough mess of things this time," thought Alwyn, angrywith himself that his idea of a "one man show" had run Miss Vivianinto danger. "If I'd had Peter and Minalto to bear a hand, we'd havesettled the Chink on the spot."
Jumping into the stern-sheets of the dinghy, Burgoyne urged hiscompanions to "pull like blue smoke", then, shouting at the top ofhis voice, he warned Hilda of her peril.
Hitherto the girl's attention had been centred on the dinghy lyingalongside the schooner. She had heard the fusillade, and, unable toremain any longer in suspense, she had left the cave and made her wayto the shore, fortunately giving the site of the camp and its ghastlyoccupants a wide berth.
The fact that Peter and Jasper were in the boat reassured her to agreat extent, but she could not think of a satisfactory explanationof Burgoyne's disappearance.
The Third Officer's stentorian warning called her attention to theyellow, expressionless features of the Chinaman as he swam for thebeach. For a moment Hilda hesitated, half inclined to swim off tomeet the rapidly approaching boat, but the danger of beingintercepted by the Celestial urged her to make for the cave.
She had a little less than a hundred yards start when Ah Ling gainedthe shore. Brandishing a knife in one hand and an automatic pistol inthe other, he ran in pursuit.
Thrice did Alwyn fire at the Chinaman before he disappeared behindthe palm trees, but the jerky motion of the boat spoilt his aim. AhLing paid not the faintest attention to the shots. He seemed toignore the fact that he was being pursued, and devoted all hisenergies to overtake the terrified girl. In short, he had a fixedidea that he would soon be killed, but before he died he would takecare to slay the "white she-devil", in quest of whom his companionshad met with utter disaster.
Well before the dinghy's forefoot grounded on the sandy beach,Burgoyne leapt out of the boat and ran in the direction taken byHilda and the Chinaman, Mostyn being a good second, while the heavilybuilt Minalto followed at his top speed, which was barely half thatof his agile companions.
Alwyn had discarded his rifle on account of the weight of the weapon,trusting to his small but powerful revolver. The others carriedrifles, Jasper in addition having the naked cutlass stuck in hisleather belt.
The dull thud of Ah Ling's wooden shoes upon the hard ground guidedthem until with uncanny suddenness the sounds ceased. The hithertoclearly defined trail of moisture dropping from the Chinaman's soddenclothes also failed. Burgoyne, revolver in hand, found himselfstanding at the junction of two forked paths, utterly uncertain whichdirection to take.
He was afraid to shout to Hilda lest her reply should betray herwhereabouts. Listening intently, he could hear nothing of either thepursued or the pursuer.
"Take that path, Peter!" he said hurriedly, as Mostyn overtook him."I'll take this one. Let the brute have it on sight if you spot him."
THE FATE OF AH LING]
Alwyn, following the left-hand branch of the fork, had barely covereda hundred paces when he almost stumbled over the motionless figure ofHilda Vivian lying face downwards in a patch of trodden grass. Beforehe could get to the girl he heard a heavy body crashing through thebrushwood.
Wild with fury and desperate to wreck vengeance upon the Chinaman,Alwyn dashed in pursuit, forcing his way at breakneck speed throughthe dense undergrowth. With feelings of grim satisfaction he realizedthat he was gaining on the object of his pursuit.
Meanwhile Jasper Minalto, proceeding as fast as he could along thepath, was beginning to grasp the fact that his companions wereforging ahead hand over fist. More than once the cutlass nearlytripped him up, and the weight of the rifle proved a heavyencumbrance. Pausing for breath, he laid his rifle against the trunkof a tree, removed the cutlass from his belt, taking in the slack ofthe latter.
The temporary halt had caused the perspiration to run freely. Beforehe resumed his way he was obliged to wipe the moisture from his faceand eyes with the broad leaf of a large plant.
Then, grasping the cutlass, he was about to start running again, whento his surprise he saw Ah Ling's head and shoulders cautiously appearfrom behind a clump of canes.
The Chinaman's tactics were fairly obvious. He had worked to the rearof his pursuers by a circular route, hoping to be able to take themunawares and shoot them down. His strategy was good up to a certainpoint. He had reckoned that the three white men would keep together,not knowing that the giant Scillonian was eighty yards or more behindthe others.
Well it was that Minalto had made no sound during his brief halt; andso intent was Ah Ling upon stalking his foes that he was quiteunaware that one of them was stalking him.
There were moments when the usually slow-working mind of JasperMinalto moved rapidly, and this was one of them. In a trice the nowkeen cutlass, wielded by a brawny muscular arm, flashed in thesunlight. The swish of the blade through the air was followed by adull, indescribable thud, as Ah Ling's head parted company with hisshoulders.
During the Great War Jasper Minalto had seen some ghastly sights. Hehad served on board a Q-boat when shells from a U-boat were takingheavy toll of the devoted crew; he had seen the same Q-boat, almost awreck, suddenly spring into activity and send the Boche to the bottomwith one well-directed salvo. On another occasion the same ship hadrammed a U-boat with all hands. And on board the _Donibristle_ he hadseen his unresisting comrades mown down by shells from the pirate_Malfilio_. But never before had he knowingly killed a man. He hadassisted in the slaughter of dozens, but that was hardly the samething as personally sending a human being--even though he were aChinese pirate and ruffian--into the unknown The thought of it madehim feel sick. Like most men of great stature, he was a child atheart, although brought up in a rough school.
Having deliberately cleaned the blade of the cutlass by thrusting itinto the ground, Jasper leisurely resumed his way. He decided that,Ah Ling being of no further account, there was no need to exerthimself. At the fork of the path he stopped irresolutely, until arifle-shot fired at no great distance stirred him to action.
Hurrying along the left-hand path, he, too, almost stumbled over theunconscious form of Hilda Vivian. Her white canvas coat was stainedwith blood that flowed copiously from a small wound in the leftshoulder.
Horror stricken, Jasper raised the girl. Then in helpless perplexityhe raised his voice and shouted, calling to Burgoyne for aid.
Totally unaware of the rapid events of the last few minutes, Alwynwas closely following up his prey. Suddenly he noticed a movement inthe brushwood, not five yards ahead of him. Raising his revolver, hesent a bullet straight at the writhing object. An unearthly groanfollowed the report of the weapon, and a heavy body collapsed on thehard ground.
"That's done for you!" ejaculated Burgoyne wrathfully.
Then, tearing aside the undergrowth, he found that the supposedChinaman was a young boar, killed outright by the severing of thespinal cord.
Alwyn decided that his luck was right out. There was Hilda lyingmurdered while her ruffianly assailant Ah Ling had escaped, and wasprobably hiding safe from pursuit in the dense undergrowth thatcovered the greater part of the island.
"I'll have the brute yet," he vowed, "even if we have to burn therest of the scrub."
He was on the point of hailing Mostyn to warn him of what hadoccurred, when he heard his own name shouted in a voice that hehardly recognized as Minalto's.
Retracing his course, Burgoyne found Jasper trying to restore MissVivian to consciousness.
"I've lost the blighter, Jasper," announced Alwyn regretfully. "He'ssomewhere in the scrub."
"He is, sir," agreed Minalto with firm conviction.
"I'd give my right hand," continued the Third Officer, "to see AhLing dead as a door-nail."
"Then put it here, sir," rejoined Jasper, extending his hand.
"What do you mean?" demanded Burgoyne.
"Same's what I was a-sayin', sir," replied the imperturbable man, forhis agitation had vanished at his compani
on's return. "But seems bestas if we wur tu tak the young leddy out o' this. She ain't much hurtas I can see. Looks more like a graze than a bullet hole or a stickwi' a knife."
"Right-o," agreed Alwyn. "What we want is fresh water to dress thewound. Yes, you're right, Jasper; it is a graze."
Burgoyne raised the unconscious girl.
"Best let me, sir," interposed Jasper. "Seein' as' 'ow we might befallin' foul of that there Chink, an' I left me rifle up along."
Realizing the soundness of Minalto's advice but ignorant of themotives that prompted the tendering of it, Burgoyne transferred thegirl's limp form to Jasper's massive arms. Then, with his revolverready for instant use, Alwyn led the way back to the spring hard bythe devastated camp.
Suddenly he stopped dead, hardly able to credit the evidence of hiseyes, for lying in his path was the head of the pirate Ah Ling.
Burgoyne glanced over his shoulder and met the stolid gaze of hiscompanion.
"You did this, then," he said.
"Ay, ay, sir," was the calm admission.
"Then why on earth didn't you tell me?"
"I never was axed; arter all, it wurn't much tu brag about, seeing as'ow I took 'im unawares-like. An' me bein' a quiet, well-disposedman. But, there, sir; I did gi' ye my 'and when you offered yours, soyou'm no call to say I didn't warn 'ee."
Although considerably nettled by the bad breakdown of his method ofconducting operations, Burgoyne was quite ready to admit that thefault was his. After all, success had crowned the united efforts ofthe castaways. Black Strogoff, Ah Ling, and the rest of the pirateswere back numbers, and the schooner was a prize to Burgoyne and hiscompanions. As an off-set Hilda Vivian had been stricken down, buthow as yet remained an unsolved problem. Had the Chinaman been herassailant she would not have got off so lightly.
For her injuries were found to be slight. Beyond the wound in hershoulder and a slight gash on her forehead there were no evidences ofinjury.
Deftly Burgoyne and Minalto dressed the hurts and bathed her templesand wrists in cold water. By the time Peter Mostyn returned, havingscoured the greater part of the island in an unsuccessful search,Hilda was able to sit up.
She was considerably shaken, and her nerves, already subjected to asevere strain, were on edge, but she was able to give a clear accountof her adventures after the three men had sallied forth from the caveto try conclusions with the crew of the schooner.
For a considerable time after their departure Hilda remained in herretreat, until, unable to resist her anxiety, she had cautiously madeher way down to the shore, without seeing anything of the deadpirates lying around the ashes of the camp-fire.
When Burgoyne's shouts warned her of her peril, the girl saw AhLing's evil face as he swam towards the shore. Once she made up hermind she started to return to the cave, but the Chinaman had alreadycut off her retreat in that direction; or at all events she would nothave been able to regain the shelter without betraying itswhereabouts.
So she took to the woods, hoping either to elude the Chinaman or elseto make a circuitous route back to the beach, where by that timeBurgoyne and his companions would have landed.
Then, as luck would have it, a boar dashed out of the undergrowth,and, charging, threw her violently to the ground. She rememberednothing more until she found herself on the shore with Burgoyne andJasper bathing her face and hands with cold water.
"There's nothing now to fear from the pirates," Alwyn reassured her."We've captured the schooner, and as soon as we can we'll leave SwanIsland astern of us. But try and get a few hours' quiet sleep. Bythat time we ought to be ready to go aboard."
Hilda obeyed readily enough. She was too weak to do otherwise,although she would have liked to take an active part in thepreparations for continuing the interrupted voyage.
"Now, lads," said Burgoyne. "We've work to do, and the sooner thebetter. We'll have to make the schooner habitable. I don't know whatshe's like 'tween decks, but I can guess. And another thing: MissVivian mustn't be allowed to see our old camp. We'll square things upa bit, but that isn't everything."
"I suppose the schooner's properly moored," remarked Mostyn.
"I doubt it. Single anchor," replied Alwyn. "We'll tow her into thecreek at high water; there'll be depth enough and more over the bar,and once inside she'll be safer and easier to provision."
While waiting for sufficient depth of water to float the capturedschooner into the creek, Burgoyne and his companions proceeded to thespot where lay the bodies of the eight pirates. As they expected,nothing of use was left in the camp. Even the bow and stern portionshad been smashed up and burnt, but the staves of Minalto's li'l olecask were still in evidence.
Presently Peter touched Alwyn's arm.
"Come here a minute," he said, and led him to where one of the menlay with his skull battered in, and a broken rifle by his side.
"Good heavens!" ejaculated Burgoyne. "It's Miles, or what's left ofhim."
The treacherous Canuk bagman had met with his just deserts. It was hewho had betrayed the identity of Young Bill, hoping to curry favourwith the pirate leaders. Black Strogoff, in Ramon Porfirio's absence,decided to act upon the information, but he was a few hours too late.Miles's reward was not at all what he expected. He was curtly orderedto join the band of pirates told off to man the schooner that was toset sail in pursuit of the English girl and her three companions. Andthe traitor was to a great extent responsible for the disaster thathad overtaken the pursuers, for it was he who had found the li'l olekeg, and had started the quarrel when most of the men were drunk withthe well-matured rum.