The Air Pirate
And, as we flashed down the dark moor road to where the lights of the
solitary inn showed yellow, I sent a wordless prayer to the Throne of
Justice and Mercy. And, as if an answer was truly and instantly
vouchsafed, there came into my mind these words from the ninety-first
Psalm: "I will deliver thee from the snare of the hunter."
And after that I put mere abstract thought away from me.
As we rolled up silently to the inn, we heard a great noise of singing
from the long room. A tall woman came out of a side door, and I
explained that we had decided to come earlier than we had planned. She
was a comely, good-humoured dame, who made no trouble about our arrival.
Both bedrooms and sitting-rooms were prepared, and when Thumbwood had
taken the car round to the barn, he went upstairs to unpack the baggage.
Mr. Trewhella appeared from the bar. I introduced Danjuro, and we
arranged to have some supper at half-past ten.
Meanwhile the singing continued in great volume, mingled with the
twanging chords of a banjo.
"Your guests are merry to-night," said Danjuro.
"It's the gentlemen from the mine, sir," said the landlord. "It's one of
their nights off, so to speak. Would you like to join 'em for half an
hour?"
"I think not on our first night. But they sing very well. As a foreigner
I am interested in all English customs; may I take a peep?..."
He had gone to the communicating door as he spoke, and pulling aside a
red curtain which covered the upper half of glass, he looked through. I
did the same.
The long room was full of people and tobacco smoke. With a single
exception, that of Mr. Vargus, they were all quite young men, ranging,
I should say, from three-and-twenty to thirty. Most of them were dressed
in old tweed suits, but the material and cut told their own tale, and
spoke of the "right" kind of tailor. At first glance they might have
been a collection of naval officers or senior undergraduates, but only
at first glance. My eyes roved from face to face, and on each I saw the
loss of innocence and honour. Some were cunning; others had a brutality
in ill accord with their youth, and there was a hard bravado in the eyes
of all. It was sickening. One felt that one had suddenly looked upon
something that should remain hidden. In that haze of smoke lurked all
that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and evil in the
universe.
I almost wanted to spit upon the floor, in an uncontrollable gesture of
repudiation. As I turned, I saw the landlord looking at me.
"A promising lot of young devils," said I.
"You do see it too, zur?" he replied, and then Danjuro touched my arm,
and I turned to look again. A man, without a hat, had just entered the
room from the outside. He sat in a chair which he had obviously occupied
before, for he was in naval uniform, and his cap was lying there. He was
a big, foolish-looking fellow, far gone in drink, but despite that his
face was the only wholesome one there.
"Who is that?" I whispered to Trewhella, as Mr. Vargus poured a
generous allowance of rum into the new-comer's glass.
"That's Billy Pengelly, our coastguard. The gentlemen do make a lot of
him, and he's none the better for't, for Billy's one as likes his drop.
Still, he goes and sleeps it off, and he belong to be strong as a bull.
And in these lone parts there's not often anyone to see if he's on the
watch or not."
A tall boy with a banjo took up his instrument and twanged the chords.
"Now, gentlemen!" he shouted in a clear fresh tenor, "a chorus!" And
without further preliminary he dashed into nothing less than the
"Pirate's Chanty" from "Treasure Island":
"_Fifteen men on the dead man's chest!
Yo, ho! and a bottle of rum!_"
The inn rocked with the volume of sound. I stood there fascinated, with
a sort of horror. The thing--knowing what I knew--was so daring and grim
that, more than anything else, it showed me with whom we had to deal.
The application was lost upon Danjuro, but I told him what it meant in
French, and he nodded with contracted eyes.
"_Drink, and the devil had done for the rest,
Yo, ho! and a bottle of rum!_"
One would have thought that the room could not contain the noise, and
that the very windows must be shattered, and in the very middle of it I
heard something else--the urgent, throbbing sound of an engine.
Danjuro heard it as soon as I did. "Motor-bicycle," he whispered.
The sound grew insistent. Whoever was coming rode hell for leather and
with the exhaust open. Then there was a succession of reports, a
grinding noise, and the door of the bar was flung suddenly open.
A tall man in goggles and overalls covered with dust walked in. As he
did so, the pirate chant stopped with dramatic suddenness, and the
singers jumped to their feet. Then he removed his glasses and his cap.
It was Major Helzephron.
They clustered round him thickly, and to each one he said a quiet word.
In every case, when this happened, the man spoken to nodded and vanished
into the night. I could hear them running outside the inn. Lastly,
Helzephron took Vargus by the arm, and they also passed out. I could see
the man more plainly than ever before. There was a great bruise round
about the left eye, and the face was pale. But it blazed with will and
purpose, and the cruel mouth was set in a malicious and abominable
smile.
"_The wolves are hunting to-night!_" Danjuro said to me two minutes
later in my bedroom, and once again his face was like a demon of Old
Japan. "Helzephron will not appear at the police court to-morrow. He has
arranged it somehow, and, after all, it is a trivial affair. He has
ridden down from London during the day."
"You mean that there is going to be a raid to-night?"
"I feel sure of it. Why else should Helzephron rush from London? And you
observed the manner of his confederates. Don't you see this--with all
his cunning precautions the pirate is far too clever not to know that
his career must be a short one. He cannot hope to remain concealed for
any great length of time. His object is to obtain an immense fortune
_quickly_. Already I calculate he has stolen jewels and money to the
value of two hundred thousand pounds. A few more such coups and he can
disband his crew and disappear for ever. Speed is the essence of his
plan."
"But we must do something, we must stop it...."
"Our opportunity for action is improved, Sir John. In the first place,
you must take steps to concentrate a fleet of patrol ships in this
neighbourhood."
"The car is here. I can write official telegrams in code to Plymouth
and London. Within an hour the hinterland and the sea from here to
Scilly can be covered with a swarm of ships. St. Ives is only six miles
away."
"Write the dispatches at once. I will call Thumbwood, who must take them
in, together with an official note from you to the postmaster."
I unlocked my portfolio and wrote the wires. There should be such an
invasion of the air to-night as Far West Cornwall had never known!
Thumbwood appeared, I gave him full instructions, and heard the
Rolls-Royce start below.
"And now, our part!" I said to Danjuro.
"If we are right in our conjecture, the pirates will shortly leave
Tregeraint on their expedition. How they will join the airship or where
we don't know. But we may safely assume that the house will be left in
charge of one or at most two men. The others will all be wanted to man
the ship; it is a simple calculation. Here is your chance. You must get
inside Tregeraint, obtain conclusive evidence, and if the poor lady is
there alive, bring her away in safety. Perhaps to-night the Pirate Ship
will make its last cruise! Our presence here, our identity, is quite
unsuspected. A concentration of hostile airships in this neighbourhood
is the last thing Helzephron will expect to-night."
"And you, my friend?"
"I would that I could come with you, for you go in danger of your life,
but, as I see it, my work should be different. Someone, in view of its
escape, _must_ solve the mystery of the Pirate Ship itself. I have a
theory already; I must put it to proof. There are boats in the cove
below--I see that the moon is rising, I know what I must do. But, even
so, I will come with you, Sir John, if you say so."
I shook my head. "No, I will go alone. It is my job."
Then Danjuro did a strange thing. He took my hand, bowed over it and
kissed it! "You also are of the Samurai!" he said.
In a minute more he carried in a heavy bag from his own bedroom, and
produced from it a miscellany of objects.
"Here is a twelve-shot automatic, with a dozen cartridge clips," he
said. "You know all about the working of it? I thought so. This pair of
wire-cutters you will need for the barbed fence. These two keys with
adjustable wards--you turn the milled screw at the end to adjust
them--will open any ordinary lock. Here also is an extremely powerful
steel lever, with a wedge end. In the hands of a strong man like
yourself it will wrench open most windows or doors."
God knows there was no lightness in my heart, but in the usual English
way at serious moments, I laughed.
"The Complete Burglar!" I said.
Danjuro looked at me with a glance as cold as ice.
"I am in most deadly earnest, Sir John. You know what my experience has
been. Well, I say deliberately that I have never been in such peril as
you are going into."
"I meant nothing. And what is this?" I had taken up a little leather
tube with a lens at one end.
"A powerful electric torch. But it is more than that. You can instantly
reverse it in your hand, and if you press this stud, the plated bottom
flies open, and by means of a spring an ounce of cayenne pepper is
projected for several yards. It will stop anyone and operates
instantaneously. A little thing I invented and have found most useful.
These handcuffs are of papier mâché and weigh practically nothing. They
are from Japan and tough as the hardest steel. You may require them. And
I never go on an expedition without this tiny bottle of chloroform and
pad. You can stow everything about you with ease, and the combined
weight is as nothing."
I did so, and it was as he said. Then a thought struck me.
"Armed and prepared like this, I feel certain that I shall get in. But
there are two Tibetan mastiffs let loose in the grounds at night. I can
shoot them, but the noise of the report ..."
"That is provided for, Sir John. You see this gun?"
"It looks like a short-barrelled rook-rifle, except for the great
thickness at the breech."
"It holds ten conical bullets. They are hollow-nosed and expand on
impact. The point is that the gun is perfectly noiseless. Powder is not
used at all. The propelling power is liquefied carbonic-acid gas, and
all that is heard at the moment of firing is a sharp snap. With this you
can stalk the dogs and kill them easily enough. Do not forget your
hunting flask and brandy and water. And for concentrated food, should
you be detained in hiding, though I and Thumbwood will be coming to look
after you if you don't appear by morning, these solid chocolate cakes
are invaluable."
All this was done quickly, and with the most business-like precision.
Although my sense of humour told me that I was like the White Knight in
"Alice in Wonderland," I did realize that I should be a terribly nasty
customer to tackle, and I was grateful.
While we had been talking there came sounds from below of the closing of
the inn, and shortly after we were called to supper.
"Don't you stay up any longer, Mr. Trewhella," I said. "You must want
your rest. As for us, we are late birds. Both I and my friend sometimes
take a five minutes' stroll last thing before we turn in. That won't
inconvenience you?"
"Bless your life, no, zur. You do as you're a mind here. 'Tesn't like a