Mr. Fortescue - William Westall (i read a book .txt) 📗

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"Of course it will, and if you'll kindly bring it here, it'll be a great help. I reckon if I keep her head about--"

"Nor' by west."

"Ay, ay, sir, that's it, I have no doubt. If I keep her head nor' by west, I dare say we shall fetch Callao as soon as you was a-saying just now. But Bill and me should have the compass before us when we're steering; and to-morrow we'll try to rig up a bit of a binnacle. You, perhaps, would not mind fetching it now, sir?--Bring that patent lantern of yours, Bill."

I fetched the compass and Yawl the lantern, made of a glass bottle and a piece of copper sheeting (like the rest of our equipments, the spoil of the sea).

Kidd was quite delighted with the compass, the card of which was properly marked and framed in a block of wood, and said it could easily be suspended on gimbals and fixed on a binnacle.

After a while, Angela, who felt tired, went below, and I with her, but only to fetch my _cobija_ and a pillow, for, as I told Kidd, I intended to remain on deck all night, the cabin being too close and stuffy for two persons. This was true, yet not the whole truth. I had another reason; I saw that nothing would be easier than for Kidd or Yawl to slip on the cabin-hatch while I was below, and so have us at their mercy, for Ramon, though a stalwart youth enough, could not contend with the two sailors single-handed.

"Just as you like, sir; it's all the same to me," answered Kidd, rather shortly, and then relapsed into thoughtful silence.

I felt sure that he was scheming something which boded us no good, though, as yet, I had no idea what it could be. His motive for desiring to take the sloop to Islay or Arica, rather than to Callao, was pretty obvious, but why he should change his mind on the subject simply because of the compass, passed my comprehension. We could make Callao merely by running up the coast, with which, despite his disclaimer, I had not the least doubt he was quite familiar; and even if he were not, there was nothing in a compass to enlighten him.

But whatever his scheme might be I did not think he would attempt to use force--unless he could take us at a disadvantage. Man for man, Ramon and I were quite equal to Kidd and Yawl. We were, moreover, better armed, as so far as I knew, they had no weapons, save their sailors' knives. In a personal struggle, they might come off second best; were, in any case, likely to get badly hurt, and unless I was much mistaken, they wanted to get hold of my diamonds with a minimum of risk to themselves. Wherefore, so long as we kept a sharp lookout, we had little to fear from open violence. As for the scheme which was seething in Kidd's brain, I must needs wait for further developments before taking measures to counteract it.

When I had come to this conclusion I told Ramon, in Quipai, to lie down, and that when I wanted to sleep I would waken him.

I watched until midnight, at which hour Yawl relieved Kidd at the helm, and Kidd turned in. Shortly afterward I roused Ramon, and bade him keep watch while I slept.


CHAPTER XXXII.

FOUND OUT.

When I awoke it was broad daylight, Yawl at the helm, the sloop bowling along at a great rate before a fresh breeze. But, to my utter surprise, there was no land in sight.

"How is this, Yawl?" I asked; "we are out of doors. How have you been steering?"

"The course you laid down sir, nor' by west."

"That is impossible. I am not much of a seaman, yet I know that if you had been steering nor' by west, we should have the coast under our lee, and we cannot even see the peaks of the Cordillera."

"Of course you cannot; they are covered with a mist," put in Kidd.

"I see no mist; moreover, the Cordillera is visible a hundred miles away, and by good rights we should not be more than thirty or forty miles from the coast."

"It's the fault of your compass, then. The darned thing is all wrong. Better chuck it overboard and have done with it."

"If you do, I'll chuck you overboard. The compass is quite correct. You have been steering due west for some purpose of your own, against my orders."

"Oh, that's your game, is it? You are the skipper, and us a brace of lubbers as doesn't know north from west, I suppose. Let him sail the cursed craft hissel, Bill."

Yawl let go the tiller, on which the sloop broached to and nearly went on her beam ends. This was more than I could bear, and calling on Ramon to follow me, I sprang forward, seized Kidd by the throat, and, drawing my dagger, told him that unless he promised to obey my orders and do his duty, I would make an end of him then and there. Meanwhile, Ramon was keeping Yawl off with his _machete_, flourishing it around his head in a way that made the old salt's hair nearly stand on end. Seeing that resistance was useless, Kidd caved in.

"I ask your pardon, Mr. Fortescue," he said, hoarsely, for my hand was still on his throat. "I ask your pardon, but I lost my temper, and when I lose my temper it's the very devil; I don't know what I'm doing; but I promise faithfully to obey your orders and do my duty."

On this I loosed him, and bade Ramon put up his _machete_ and let Yawl go back to his steering. In one sense this was an untoward incident. It made Kidd my personal enemy. Quite apart from the question of the diamonds, he would bear me a grudge and do me an ill turn if he could. He was that sort of a man. Henceforward it would be war to the knife between us, and I should have to be more on my guard than ever. On the other hand, it was a distinct advantage to have beaten him in a contest for the mastery; if he had beaten me, I should have had to accept whatever conditions he might have thought fit to impose, for I was quite unable to sail the sloop myself.

A light was thrown on his motive for changing the sloop's course by something Ramon had told me when the trouble was over. Shortly before I awoke he heard Kidd say to Yawl that he would very much like to know where I had hidden the diamonds, and that if they could only keep her head due west, we should make San Ambrosio about the same time that I was expecting to make Callao.

I had never heard of San Ambrosio before; but the fact of Kidd wanting to go thither was reason enough for my not wanting to go, so I bade Yawl steer due north, that is to say, parallel with the coast, and as the continent of South America trends considerably to the westward, about twenty degrees south of the equator, I reckoned that this course should bring us within sight of land on the following day, or the day after, according to the speed we made.

I not only told Yawl and Kidd to steer north, but saw that they did it, as to which, the compass being now always before us, there was no difficulty. Thinking it was well to learn to steer, I took a hand now and again at the tiller, under the direction of Kidd, whose manners my recent lesson had greatly improved. He was very affable, and obeyed my orders with alacrity and seeming good-will.

The next day I began to look out for land, without, however, much expectation of seeing any, but when a second day, being the third of our voyage, ended with the same result or, rather, want of result, I became uneasy, and expressed myself in this sense to Kidd.

"You have miscalculated the distance," he said, "and there's nothing so easy, when you've no chart and can take no observations. And how can you tell the sloop's rate of sailing? The wind is fair and constant--it always is in the trades--but how do you know as there is not a strong current dead against us? I don't think there's the least use looking for land before to-morrow."

This rather reassured me. It was quite true that the sloop might not be going so fast as I reckoned, and the coast be farther off than I thought--although I did not much believe in the current.

But the morrow came and went, and still no sign of land, and again, on the fifth day, the sun rose on an unbroken expanse of water. In clear weather--and no weather could be clearer--the Andes, as I had heard, were visible to mariners a hundred and fifty miles out at sea. Yet not a peak could be seen. Then I knew beyond a doubt that something was wrong. What could it be? Sailing as swiftly as we had been for five days, it was inconceivable that we should not have made land if we had been steering north, and for that I had the evidence of my senses. Where, then, was the mystery?

As I asked myself this question, Ramon touched me on the shoulder, and whispered in Quipai:

"Just now Yawl said to Kidd that it was quite time we sighted San Ambrosio, and that if we missed it, after all, it would be cursed awkward. And Kidd answered that 'if we fell in with Hux it would be all right.'"

This was more puzzling still. He had said before that, if we continued on the westward tack, we should make San Ambrosio at the time I was expecting to sight Callao, and now, although we were sailing due north, the villains counted on making San Ambrosio all the same.

Where was San Ambrosio? Not on the coast, for they were clearly looking for it then, had probably been looking for it some time, and the mainland must be at least two hundred miles away. If not on the coast San Ambrosio was an island, yet how it could lie both to the west and to the north was not quite obvious. And who was Hux, and why should falling in with him make matters all right for my interesting shipmates? Of one thing I felt sure--all right for these meant all wrong for me, and it behooved me to prevent the meeting--but how?

While these thoughts were passing through my mind, I was pacing to and fro on the sloop's deck, where was also Angela, sitting on a _cobija_, and leaning against the taffrail, Kidd being at the helm, and Ramon and Yawl smoking in the bows, for though they did not quite trust each other, they occasionally exchanged a not unfriendly word. Now and then I glanced mechanically at the compass. As I have already mentioned, it was not an ordinary ship compass in a brass frame, but a makeshift affair, in a wooden frame, to which Kidd had attached makeshift gimbals and hung on a makeshift binnacle, the latter being fixed between the tiller and the cabin-hatch. The deck was very narrow, and to lengthen my tether I generally passed between the tiller and the binnacle, sometimes exchanging a word with Angela. Once, as I did so, the sun's rays