A Man to His Mate Read online

  CHAPTER X

  THE SHOW-DOWN

  "Rainey can see the skipper," said Carlsen carelessly.

  "All right," said Lund. "Will you do that, Rainey? Now?" And Rainey hada fleeting fancy that the giant winked one of his blind eyes at him,though the black lenses were deceiving.

  He went below immediately and rapped on the door, a little surprised tosee the girl appear in the opening. He had expected to find the skipperalone, and he was pretty sure that Carlsen had also expected this. Thedrawn expression of her face, the strained faint smile with which shegreeted him, the hopeless look in her eyes, startled him.

  "I wanted to see your father," he said in a low voice.

  She told him to enter.

  Captain Simms was lying in his bunk, apparently fully dressed, with theexception of his shoes. His cheeks had sunken, dark hollows showed underhis closed eyes, the bones of his skull projected, and his flesh was thecolor of clay. Rainey believed that he was in the presence of deathitself. He looked at the girl.

  "He is in a stupor," she said. "He has been that way since last night,following a collapse. I can barely find his pulse, but his breath showson this."

  She produced a small mirror, little larger than a dollar, and held itbefore her father's lips. When she took it away Rainey saw a trace ofmoisture.

  "Carlsen can not rouse him?" he asked.

  "Can not--or will not," she answered in a voice that held a hard qualityfor all its despondency. Rainey glanced at the door. It was shut.

  "What do you mean by that?" he asked, speaking low.

  She looked at him as if measuring his dependency.

  "I don't know," she answered dully. "I wish I did. Father's illnessstarted with sciatica, through exposure to the cold and damp. It wasbetter during the time the _Karluk_ was in San Francisco though he hadsome severe attacks. He said that Doctor Carlsen gave him relief. I knowthat he did, for there were days at first when father had to stay in bedfrom the pain. It was in his left leg, and then it showed in frightfulheadaches, and he complained of pain about the heart. But he was bent onthe voyage, and Doctor Carlsen guaranteed he could pull him through.But--lately--the doctor has seemed uncertain. He talks of pervertednerve functions, and he has obtained a tremendous influence over father.

  "You heard what he said when--the night he tried to shoot you? You see,I am trusting you in all this, Mr. Rainey. I _must_ trust some one. If Idon't I can't stand it. I think I shall go mad sometimes. The doctor haschanged. It is as if he was a dual personality--like Jekyll andHyde--and now he is always Hyde. It is the gold that has turned hisbrain, his whole behavior from what he was in California before fatherreturned and he learned of the island. He said last night that he couldsave father or--or--that he would let father die. I told him it wassheer murder! He laughed. He said he would save him--for a price."

  She stopped, and Rainey supplied the gap, sure that he was right.

  "If you would marry him?"

  The girl nodded. "Father will do anything he tells him. I sometimesthink he tortures father and only relieves him when father promises whathe wants. Otherwise I could not understand. Last night father asked meto do this thing. Not because of any threat--he did not seem consciousof anything underhanded. He told me he looked upon the doctor as a son,that it would make him happy for me to marry him--now. That he wouldperform the ceremony. That he did not think he would live long and hewanted to see me with a protector.

  "It was horrible. I dare not hint anything against the doctor. It bringson a nervous attack. Last night my refusal caused convulsions, andthen--the collapse! What can I do? If I made the sacrifice how can Itell that Doctor Carlsen could--_would_ save him? What shall I do?"

  She was in an agony of self-questioning, of doubt.

  "To see him lie there--like that. I can not bear it."

  "Miss Simms," said Rainey, "your father is not in his right mind or hewould see Carlsen as you do, as I do. Carlsen's brain is turned with thelure of the gold. If he marries you, I believe it is only for yourshare, for what you will get from your father. It can not be right to doa wrong thing. No good could come from it. But--something may happenthis morning--I can not tell you what. I do not know, except that Lundis to face Carlsen. It may change matters."

  "Lund," she said scornfully. "What can he do? And he accused my fatherof deserting him. I--"

  A knock came at the door, and it started to open. Carlsen entered.

  "Ah," he said. "I trust I have not disturbed you. I had no idea I shouldinterrupt a tete-a-tete. Are you satisfied as to the captain'scondition, Mr. Rainey?"

  Rainey looked the scoffing devil full in his eyes, and hot scorn mountedto his own so swiftly that Carlsen's hand fell away from the door jambtoward his hip. Then he laughed softly.

  "We may be able to bring him round, all right again, who knows?" hesaid.

  Rainey went on deck, raging but impotent. He told Lund briefly of thetalk between him and Peggy Simms, and described the general symptoms ofthe skipper's strange malady. It was nine o'clock, an hour to themeeting. He went down to his own room and sat on the bunk, smoking,trying to piece up the puzzle. If Carlsen was a potential murderer, ifhe intended to let Simms die, why should he want to marry the girl? Hethought he solved that issue.

  As his wife Carlsen would retain her share. If he gave her up, it wouldgo into the common purse. But, if he expected to trick the men out of itall, that would be unnecessary. Did he really love the girl? Or was hislust for gold mingled with a passion for possession of her? He mightknow that the girl would kill herself before she would submit todishonor. Perhaps he knew she had the means!

  One thing became paramount. To save Peggy Simms. Lund might fight forthe gold; Rainey would battle for the girl's sanctity. And, armed withthat resolve, Rainey went out into the main cabin.

  Carlsen took the head of the table. Lund faced him at the other end. Allsix of the hunters, as privileged characters, were present, but onlythree of the seamen, awkward and diffident at being aft. The nine, withRainey, ranged themselves on either side of the table, five and five,with Rainey on Lund's right.

  Tamada had brought liquor and glasses and cigars, and gone forward. Thedoor between the main cabin and the corridor leading to the galley waslocked after him by Deming. The girl was not present. Yet her share wasan important factor.

  Lund sat with folded arms, his great body relaxed. Now that the tablewas set, the cards all dealt, and the first play about to be made, thegiant shed his tenseness. Even his grim face softened a trifle. Heseemed to regard the affair with a certain amount of humor, coupled withthe zest of a gambler who loves the game whether the stakes are fordeath or dollars.

  Carlsen had a paper under his hand, but deferred its reading until hehad addressed the meeting.

  "A ship," he said, "is a little community, a world in itself. To itssafety every member is a necessity, the lookout as much as the man atthe wheel, the common seaman, the navigator. And, when a ship is engagedin a certain calling, those who are hired as experts in that line areequally essential with the rest."

  "All the way from captain to--cook?" drawled Lund.

  "Each depends upon his comrade's fulfilment of duty," went on Carlsen."So an absolute equality is evolved. Each man's responsibility beingequal, his reward should be also equal. It seems to me that this statusof affairs is arrived at more naturally aboard the _Karluk_ than itmight be elsewhere. We are a small company, and not easily divided. Thewill of the majority may easily become that of all, may easily beapplied.

  "Payment for all services comes on this voyage from an uncertain amountof gold that Nature, Mother of us all, and therefore intending that allher children shall share her heritage, has washed up on a beach fromsome deep-sea vein and thus deposited upon an uncharted, unclaimedisland. It is discovered by an Indian, the discovery is handed on toanother."

  "Meanin' me." Lund seemed to be enjoying himself. Despite the fact thatCarlsen was presiding and most evidently assumed the attributes ofleader, despite the fact tha
t ten of the twelve at the table werearrayed against him, with the rest of the seamen behind them, Lund wasdecidedly enjoying himself.

  To Rainey, the matter of the gold was but a mask for the license thatwould inevitably be manifested in such a crude democracy if it wasestablished, a license that threatened the girl, now, he imagined,watching her father, the captain of the vessel, tottering on the vergeof death. His pulses raced, he longed for the climax.

  "This gold," went on Carlsen, "is not a commodity made in a factory,obtained through the toil of others, through the expenditure ofcapital. If it were, it would not alter the principle of the thing. Itis of nature's own providing for those of her sons who shall find it andgather it. Sons that, as brothers, must willingly share and sharealike."

  Lund yawned, showing his strong teeth and the red cavern of his mouth.The hunters gazed at him curiously. The seamen, lacking initiative,lacking imagination, a crude collection of water-front drifters, more orless wrecked specimens of humanity who went to sea because they had noother capacity--were apathetic, listening to Carlsen with a sort of awe,a hypnosis before his argument that street rabble exhibit before thejargon of a soap-box orator.

  Carlsen promised them something, therefore they followed him. But thehunters, more independent, more intelligent, seemed expecting anoutburst from Lund and, because it was not forthcoming, they were alittle uneasy.

  "Share and share alike," said Lund. "I've got yore drift, Carlsen. Let'sget down to brass tacks. The idea is to divvy the gold into equalparts, ain't it? How does she split? There's twenty-five souls aboard.Does that mean you split the heap into a hundred parts an' each one gitsfour?"

  "No." It was Deming who answered. "It don't. The Jap don't come in, forone."

  "A cook ain't a brother?"

  "Not when he's got a yellow skin," answered Deming. "We'll take up acollection for Sandy. Rainey ain't in on the deal. We split it justtwenty-two ways. What have you got to say about it?"

  His tone was truculent, and Carlsen did not appear disposed to checkhim. He appeared not quite certain of the temper of the hunters. Deming,like Rainey, evidently chafed under the preliminaries.

  "You figger we're all equal aboard," said Lund slowly, "leavin' out Mr.Rainey, Tamada an' Sandy. You an' me, an' Carlsen an' Harris there"--henodded toward one of the seaman delegates who listened with his slackmouth agape, scratching himself under the armpit--"are all equal?"

  Deming cast a glance at Harris and, for just a moment, hesitated.

  Harris squirming under the look of Deming, which was aped by the suddenscrutiny of all the hunters, found speech: "How in hell did you know Iwas here?" he demanded of Lund. "I ain't opened my mouth yit!"

  "That ain't the truth, Harris," replied Lund composedly. "It's allusopen. But if you want to know, I smelled ye."

  There was a guffaw at the sally. Carlsen's voice stopped it.

  "I'll answer the question, Lund. Yes, we're all equal. The world is nota democracy. Harris, so far, hasn't had a chance to get the equal sharethat belongs to him by rights. That's what I meant by saying that the_Karluk_ was a little world of its own. We're all equal on board."

  "Except Rainey, Tamada an' Sandy. Seems to me yore argumint's got holesin it, Carlsen."

  "We are waiting to know whether you agree with us?" replied Carlsen. Hisvoice had altered quality. It held the direct challenge. Lund acceptedit.

  "I don't," he answered dryly. "There ain't enny one of you my equal, an'you've showed it. There ain't enny one of you, from Carlsen to Harris,who'd have the nerve to put it up to me alone. You had to band togetherin a pack, like a flock of sheep, with Carlsen for sheepherder. _I'mtalking_," he went on in a tone that suddenly leaped to thunder. "Noneof you have got the brains of Carlsen, becoz he had to put this schemeinter yore noddles. Deming, you think yo're a better man than Harris,you know damn' well you play better poker than the rest, an' you agreedto this becoz you figger you'll win most of the gold afore the v'yage isover. The rest of you suckers listened becoz some one tells you you aregoin' to get more than what's rightly comin' to you.

  "This gold is mine by right of discovery. I lose my ship through badluck, an' I make a deal whereby the skipper gets the same as I do, an'the ship, which is the same as his daughter, gets almost as much. Youmen were offered a share on top of yore wages if you wanted to take thechance--two shares to the hunters. It was damned liberal, an' yougrabbed at it. I got left on the ice, blind on a breakin' floe, an' yousailed off an' grabbed a handful or so of gold, enough to set you crazy.

  "What in blazes would you know what to do with it, enny of you? Spill itall along the Barb'ry Coast, or gamble it off to Deming. Is there one ofyou 'ud have got off thet floe an', blind as I was, turned up ag'in? Notone of ye. An' when I _did_ show you got sore becoz you'd figgered there'ud be more with me away.

  "A fine lot of skunks. You can take yore damned bit of paper an' lightyore pipes with it, for all of me. To hell with it!

  "_Shut up_!" His voice topped the murmurs at the table. Rainey sawCarlsen sitting back with his tongue-tip showing in a grin, tapping thetable with the folded paper in one hand, the other in his lap, leaningback a little. He was like a man waiting for the last bet to be madebefore he exposed the winning hand.

  "As for bein' equal, I've told you Carlsen's got the brains of you all.The skipper's dyin', Carlsen expects to marry his gal. An' he figgersthet way on pullin' down three shares to yore one. You say Rainey ain'tin on the deal. He's as much so as Carlsen. Carlsen butts in as a doctoran' a fine job he's made of it. Skipper nigh dead. A hell of a doctor!Smoke up, all of you."

  Carlsen sat quiet, sometimes licking his lips gently, listening to Lundas he might have listened to the rantings of a melodramatic actor. ButRainey sensed that he was making a mistake. He was letting Lund go toofar. The men were listening to Lund, and he knew that the giant wastalking for a specific purpose. Just to what end he could not guess.The big booming voice held them, while it lashed them.

  "Equal to me? Bah! I'm a _man_. Yo're a lot of fools. Talk about mebein' blind. It was ice-blink got me. Then ophthalmy matterin' up myeyes. It's gold-blink's got you. Yo're cave-fish, a lot of blindsuckers."

  He leaned over the table pointing a massive square finger, thatched withred wool, direct at Carlsen, as if he had been leveling a weapon.

  "Carlsen's a fake! He's got you hipped. He thinks he's boss, becoz he'sthe only navigator of yore crowd. I ain't overlooked that card, Carlsen.That ain't the only string he's got on ye. Nor the three shares heexpects to pull down. He made you pore suckers fire off all your shells;he found out you ain't got a gun left among you that's enny more usethan a club. He's got a gun an' he showed you how he could use it. He'ssittin' back larfin' at the bunch of you!"

  The men stirred. Rainey saw Carlsen's grin disappear. He dropped thepaper. His face paled, the veins showed suddenly like purple veins indirty marble.

  "I've got that gun yet, Lund," he snarled.

  Lund laughed, the ring of it so confident that the men glanced from himto Carlsen nervously.

  "Yo're a fake, Carlsen," he said. "And I've got yore number! To hellwith you an' yore popgun. You ain't even a doctor. I saw real doctorsashore about my eyes. Niphablepsia, they call snow-blindness. I'll betyou never heard of it. Yo're only a woman-conning dope-shooter! Elseyou'd have known that niphablepsia ain't _permanent_! I've bin' gettin'my sight back ever sence I left Seattle. An' now, damn you for a moldyhearted, slimy souled fakir, stand up an' say yo're my equal!"

  He stood up himself, towering above the rest as they rose from theirchairs, tearing the black glasses from his eyes and flinging them atCarlsen, who was forced to throw up a hand to ward them off. Rainey gotone glimpse of the giant's eyes. They were gray-blue, the color ofagate-ware, hard as steel, implacable.

  Carlsen swept aside the spectacles and they shattered on the floor as heleaped up and the automatic shone in his hand. Lund had folded his armsabove his great chest. He laughed again, and his arms opened.

  In an instant Rai
ney caught the object of Lund's speech-making. He haddone it to enrage Carlsen beyond endurance, to make him draw his gun.Giant as he was, he moved with the grace of a panther, with a swiftnesstoo fast for the eye to register. Something flashed in his right hand, agun, that he had drawn from a holster slung over his left breast.

  The shots blended. Lund stood there erect, uninjured. A red blotchshowed between Carlsen's eyes. He slumped down into his chair, his armsclubbing the table, his gun falling from his nerveless hand, hisforehead striking the wood like the sound of an auctioneer's gavel. Lundhad beaten him to the draw.

  Lund, no longer a blind Samson, with contempt in his agate eyes,surveyed the scattering group of men who stared at the dead man dully,as if gripped by the exhibition of a miracle.

  "It's all right, Miss Simms," he said. "Jest killed a skunk. Rainey, gitthat gun an' attend to the young lady, will you?"

  The girl stood in the doorway of her father's cabin, her face frozen tohorror, her eyes fixed on Lund with repulsion. As Rainey got theautomatic, slipped it into his pocket, and went toward her, she shrankfrom him. But her voice was for Lund.

  "You murderer!" she cried.

  Lund grinned at her, but there was no laughter in his eyes.

  "We'll thrash that out later, miss," he said. "Now, you men, jumpfor'ard, all of you. Deming, unlock that door. _Jump!_ Equals, are you?I'll show you who's master on this ship. Wait!"

  His voice snapped like the crack of a whip and they all halted, saveDeming, who sullenly fitted the key to the lock of the corridorentrance.

  "Take this with you," said Lund, pointing to Carlsen's sagging body."When you git tired of his company, throw him overboard. Jump to it!"

  The nearest men took up the body of the doctor and they all filedforward, silently obedient to the man who ordered them.

  "They ain't all whipped yit," said Lund. "Not them hunters. They'restill sufferin' from gold-blink, but I'll clean their eyesight for 'em.Look after the lady an' her father, Rainey."

  Tamada entered as if nothing had happened. He carried a tray of dishesand cutlery that he laid down on the table.

  "Never mind settin' a place for Carlsen, Tamada," said Lund. "He's losthis appetite--permanent." The Oriental's face did not change.

  "Yes, sir," he answered.

  The girl shuddered. Rainey saw that Lund was exhilarated by hisvictory, that the primitive fighting brute was prominent. Carlsen hadtried to shoot first, goaded to it; his death was deserved; but itseemed to Rainey that Lund's exhibition of savagery was unnecessary. Buthe also saw that Lund would not heed any protest that he might make, hewas still swept on by his course of action, not yet complete.

  "I'll borrow Carlsen's sextant," said Lund. "Nigh noon, an' erbout timeI got our reckonin'." He went into the doctor's cabin and came out withthe instrument, tucking it under his arm as he went on deck.

  Tamada went stolidly on with his preparations. He paused at the littlepuddle of blood where Carlsen's head had struck the table, turned, anddisappeared toward his galley, promptly emerging with a wet cloth.

  The girl put her hands over her eyes as Tamada methodically mopped upthe telltale stains.

  "The brute!" she said. Then took away her hands and extended them towardRainey.

  "What will he do with my father?" she said. "He thinks that dad desertedhim. And the doctor, who might have saved him, is dead. My God, whatshall I do? What shall I do?"

  Rainey found himself murmuring some attempts at consolation, a defenseof Lund.

  "You too?" she said with a contempt that, unmerited as it was, stungRainey to the quick. "You are on his side. Oh!"

  She wheeled into her father's room and shut the door. Rainey heard theclick of the bolt on the other side. Tamada was going on with histable-laying. Rainey saw that he had left Carlsen's place vacant. Helistened for a moment, but heard nothing within the skipper's cabin. Theswift rush of events was still a jumble. Slowly he went up thecompanionway to the deck.