CHAPTER XX WHEREIN CAPTAIN DAVIS SPEAKS HIS MIND

I suppose I must have crouched there for a full half-hour. When one is watching eagerly, however, time always appears longer.

The steamer whose siren had awakened the echoes of the port had swung from her moorings, and slowly glided past us to the open sea, making a southward course; while work on the collier appeared to be finished, and the whole port had settled down to the peace of night.

Suddenly I heard the voices within raised, as if in altercation. I rose at once, and placed my ear to the glass of the curtained port-hole.

"I tell you it's a lie—a confounded lie!" I heard a man's voice exclaim. "You can have no basis for any such allegation."

"I only state plainly what I think," responded the other. "All the facts tend to show that such was the case."

The other man laughed a dry, cynical laugh.

"And what do your guests think of this sudden change of plans?" he asked.

"Think!" responded Keppel, for one voice I now recognised as his. "They are happy enough. The Adriatic is always more attractive for yachting than the Mediterranean."

"Well," responded his companion, "act just as you think fit. I shall not advise."

"It is not for you to advise," answered the owner of the Vispera sharply. "You are my servant, and therefore must do my bidding."

"You asked my advice, sir, ten minutes ago, otherwise I should not have presumed to speak as I have just spoken."

"You are a great deal too presumptuous on board the Vispera, Davis," Keppel snapped. "Please recollect that when I am here I am master."

His words proved that the man with whom he was speaking was the captain.

"I regret if you've taken any word or action of mine as presumptuous, sir," responded the skipper gruffly. "I'm a seafaring man, sir, and ain't much used to polite society."

"When I give my orders I expect them to be obeyed without question, Captain Davis."

"I'm ready to obey what orders you give, sir. I'll take the Vispera to any point of the compass you like. You pay me £28 10s. a month, and I'm yours to command."

"Very well, Davis. Then listen," I heard Keppel say, although he lowered his voice somewhat. "My instructions to you are entirely confidential, you understand. To-morrow I shall send on board a small case. It will be rather heavy, for it contains a piece of marble statuary from Pisa. You'll receive it by the last train, at about midnight, and when you've got it aboard you'll sail at once for Ragusa."

"Without the guests?"

"No. You will take them with you," was Keppel's response. "Mr. Gerald is going to Florence in the morning, so he will be absent. So shall I."

"You will join us later, I suppose, sir?"

"Yes. Perhaps at Venice. But you'll receive telegraphic orders from me at Ragusa."

"Then I'm not to sail before I receive the case?" observed the captain.

"No. It will arrive by the last train, and will be addressed to you. Send someone to the station for it, and put it in a safe place in the hold. It is a valuable statuette that has been bought for me. So mind it doesn't get damaged."

"Well, sir," responded the captain, "I can't answer for those Italian railways; but you can be sure I'll take good care of it here."

"Very well. Recollect what I have told you is entirely confidential. The party is due at Pisa to-morrow, but will return to dine on board. I have a lot of business to attend to on shore, so possibly I may not return with them. If I don't sail with you, don't be surprised."

"I quite understand, sir," replied the captain. "I shall keep my own counsel, and sail as soon as I get the box. Had I better call at Naples if you don't sail with us?"

"No. If I cannot come, put into Palermo. I'll wire you there."

"All right, sir," was the response.

Davis, a trustworthy old Mediterranean skipper, who knew the rugged Italian coast as well as he did the Thames Embankment, and who had spent half a lifetime on colliers and tramps between Gibraltar and the Greek Islands, was a short, stout, round-faced man who wore a very thick pea-jacket even in the warmest weather, and who was always speaking of his "missus an' the kids," kept snug by him at Barking.

I had often had chats with him, for he had initiated me into the mysteries of taking sights, and had given me many a lesson in nautical affairs. He was full of droll stories, and had more than once delighted us by relating his humorous experiences while cycling ashore in company with the engineer, whom he always referred to as his "chief." He was fond of potent drinks, and sometimes was heard using strong language to the men, in the usual manner of Mediterranean skippers; but he was, nevertheless, a safe man, and had commanded several passenger boats of a well-known line.

I discovered that the particular port-hole at which I was listening was not screwed down tightly, and therefore I could distinguish the voices.

"Recollect," his master went on, "you are not to wait for me. To-morrow evening at dinner you must give the guests to understand that you have received immediate orders to sail, otherwise they may go off to the theatre or somewhere, and you'll experience a difficulty in re-collecting them. Then send for the box, and get away as soon as possible."

"I shan't wait a minute for you, sir, depend upon it. Let me get that box, and the Vispera will soon be steaming past Gorgona."

"And I don't want the guests to think this has been arranged between you and me, recollect. They may consider it rather a slight for neither myself nor my son to be on board. But you must explain next day how business pressed upon me at the last moment, and prevented me from sailing. Tell them I'll join the yacht at Palermo. In fact," he added, "tell them any lies you like. I know you're a glorious liar!"

The skipper laughed.

"A captain's first duty, sir, is to know how to lie to consuls and Customs officers. The Board o' Trade ought to examine him in this art before granting him his certificate. A skipper who can't lie—and especially here in the Mediterranean—ain't worth the smell of an oil-rag. He's more bother to his owners than he's worth."

"Well, just exercise your untruthful proclivities upon my guests on this occasion, Davis, and I shall not forget to find something handsome for you at the end of this cruise. Up to the present I have had no cause whatever to complain."

"Glad to hear that, sir. Very glad, indeed," responded the old navigator. "To handle a boat like the Vispera is different to handling a coal barge from Cardiff, for instance. Aboard of the latter you can get work out of your men by swearin' at them, and even out o' the boilers by just calling them a few names what ain't polite. But on board of this here yacht I'm always afraid of openin' my mouth, and that's the truth. With ladies about you have to be so awful careful. I know," he added, "that I could have made much better time if I might only have given my tongue a bit o' liberty."

"Give it liberty in your own cabin, Davis," laughed the millionaire. "The ladies are not used to nautical epithets."

"No, sir. Not this cruise," was the other's response. "I'm storing of 'em up to be used on the trip home, when we're without passengers. The atmosphere'll turn blue round and over this yacht then, I can promise you."

His master laughed again, and said:

"Very well. As long as you perfectly understand my instructions, that is sufficient. Put into Palermo, and if you receive no telegram there, go on at once to Ragusa. Remember to make it plain to the guests that I'm very busy, and that I shall rejoin you in Sicily."

"Never fear, sir."

"And recollect the box," was Keppel's injunction.

"I'll send two men who speak Italian up to the railway station to meet the last train. Will it be too heavy to be brought down to the port on a cab?"

"Oh, no! It is quite small—merely a statuette," the millionaire explained. "See that it is stored in a dry place. Somewhere near the engine-room would be best."

"I'll see to that, sir. Any other orders?"

"No. Only be very careful that when you put into Palermo those confounded Customs officers don't break open the case. They may injure its contents. Best put it into a cabin and let them seal up the door, as they do the wines."

"All right, sir. They're uncommon handy with their lead seals down at Palermo. I'll have it placed along with the wines, then it'll be as safe as in the bank."

"Mr. Barnes is still at the Villa Fabron, so if you want to make any communication, and don't know my whereabouts, wire to him," Keppel said. "Just at present my movements are somewhat uncertain."

"I'll remember that, sir," replied the captain. I heard a movement as though he had risen to go back to his berth. "But I'd like to mention one thing, if I may, sir. Do you know, I was quite surprised to find you in here to-night. This place has been locked up during the whole cruise, and the reason of it has been a mystery to both the crew and the passengers. The men are very superstitious, and more than once declared that something uncanny was hidden here."

"What nonsense!" cried the owner of the yacht. "You see what is in here. Only some of that Moorish furniture which I bought at Tangier on the voyage out."

"But the men have declared to me that they've seen lights within, and heard strange noises," said the bluff skipper dubiously.

"They'll say the Vispera is haunted next," the other laughed. "Well," he added, "you can see for yourself that there's nothing supernatural here. You sailors see omens in everything, Davis."

"I'm no believer in ghosts, or anything of that kind myself," was the response; "but one night, when we were off Pantalleria, I was on the bridge, and saw with my own eyes lights shining through these curtains. I'll swear it!"

"Perhaps I had gone there myself for some purpose," Keppel explained rather lamely.

"No, I don't think that, sir, for you were asleep in your own cabin."

"Well, I alone have the key, so no one else could have entered."

"That's just my argument," the captain declared. "There's something uncanny about this deck-house, but what it is I can't quite make out. The look-out man one night swore that he heard a scream coming from it, and I had the devil's own job to persuade him to the contrary."

"That look-out man had had his grog, I suppose, and mistook the whistling of the wind in the rigging," responded the old millionaire, with an air of nonchalance. "All such superstitious fears are rubbish."

"To the landsman, yes, but not to the sailor, sir," was the skipper's response. "When we see a light in the port-hole of an empty cabin, we know one thing is quite certain," he said gravely.

"And what's that?"

"That the ship will go down before very long."

"That's cheerful," remarked the owner of the Vispera. "And when do you and your crew expect that interesting event to occur, pray?"

"Well, sir, of course we can't tell. Only I, myself, would like to get back to Barking once again before the Vispera goes away from under me."

"Are you a fool, Davis?"

"I hope not, sir."

"Well, it seems to me that such superstitions don't suit a hard, practical man like yourself. You've held a master's certificate for the past twenty years or more, and surely by this time you aren't upset or unnerved by the gossip of the forecastle?"

"Not usually, Mr. Keppel. But in this case I confess I am a bit dubious. I saw the mysterious light myself."

"I might have gone there for some purpose or other, and forgot to switch off the light."

"Yes, but it disappeared during the time I watched it," was the response. "To make sure that you were not there I sent a man down to your cabin, and he found you asleep there. So you couldn't have been in here."

"Electric lights have queer vagaries," the owner of the vessel remarked. "Perhaps the continual vibration of the engines injured the lamp, and extinguished it just at that moment. That's not at all an uncommon circumstance, as you know well."

"No, sir!" I heard Davis say in a tone of conviction; "there was either somebody in here, or else something uncanny. Of that I'm quite certain."

"Stowaways don't usually luxuriate in electric lights," laughed Keppel. "No, Davis, without doubt there is some quite simple explanation of what you believe to be a phenomenon. Think no more about it. Leave omens and all such things to these superstitious Italians."

The captain gave vent to a low grunt of dissatisfaction, which marked a habit of his. He was a hale and merry fellow, but from what he had said, it was evident he entertained a strong suspicion that he had carried a mysterious passenger. That all traces of the crime had been removed was plain, otherwise old Mr. Keppel would not have invited his captain to talk with him there. Of course he had done this in order to convince Davis that nothing was amiss. Indeed, the millionaire's coolness surprised me, for it was remarkable. Yet it showed plainly one fact, namely, that by some means or other the body of the unfortunate passenger had been got rid of, just as old Branca had declared.

Our host now intended to send on board a box said to contain a statuette, and at the same time, accompanied by his son, to desert his guests and leave the vessel to its fate.

To me there was but one theory: that box he had spoken of would contain the explosive which was destined to send the Vispera to the bottom.

But what was the motive if, as seemed so probable, all evidence of the crime had been completely effaced?