A Man to His Mate Read online

  CHAPTER XIII

  THE RIFLE CARTRIDGES

  The girl did not appear for the evening meal. She had refused Tamada'ssuggestions through the door. Lund drank heavily, but without anyeffect, save to sink him in comparative silence, as he and Rainey sattogether, after the Japanese had cleared the table. In contrast to theexcitement of the fight, their moods had changed, sobered by the thoughtof the girl sitting up with her dead in the captain's room.

  Rainey was bruised and stiffened, and Lund moved with less of his usualease. The flesh of his face had been so pounded that it was turning dullpurple in great patches, giving him a diabolical appearance against hisnaming beard.

  "We've got to git hold of those cartridges," he said, after along-pause. "Carlsen had 'em planted somewhere, an' it's likely in hisroom. Best thing to do is to chuck 'em overboard. Cheaper to dump thecartridges an' shells than the rifles an' shotguns.

  "You see," he went on, "Deming ain't quit. That's one thing with a manwho's streaked with yeller, when he gits licked in the open an' knowshe's licked proper, he tries to git even underhanded. He knows jest aswell as I do that Carlsen was lyin' that time about there bein' no moreshells. O' course the skipper may have stowed 'em away, but I doubt it.An' jest so long as he thinks there's a chance of gittin' at 'em, he'llfigger on turning' the tables some day. An' he'll be workin' the rest of'em up to the job."

  "They can't do much without a navigator," suggested Rainey.

  "Mebbe they figger a man'll do a lot o' things he don't want to with arifle barrel stuck in his neck or the small of his back," said Lundgrimly. "It's a good persuader. Might even have some influence on me.Then ag'in it might not."

  "Where is the magazine?" asked Rainey.

  "In the little room aft o' the galley. We'll look there first. Come on."

  "How about keys? Carlsen's must have been in his pockets. I didn't seethem when I was hunting the morphine. We can't go in there." Rainey madea motion toward the skipper's room. Lund chuckled.

  "I had my keys to the safe an' the magazine when I was aboard lasttrip," he said. "They was with me when we went on the ice. An' I hung onto 'em. Allus thought I might have a chance to use 'em ag'in."

  The strong room of the _Karluk_ was a narrow compartment, heavilypartitioned off from the galley and the corridor. There was a lampthere, and Rainey lit it while Lund closed the door behind them. Themagazine was an iron chest fastened to the floor and the side of thevessel with two padlocks, opened by different keys. It was quite empty.

  "Thorough man, Carlsen," said Lund. "Prepared for a show-down, ifnecessary. Might have put 'em in the safe. Wonder if he changed thecombination? I bet Simms didn't, year in an' out."

  He worked at the disk and grunted as the tumblers clicked home.

  "It ain't changed," he said. "No use lookin' here." But he swung backthe door and rummaged through books and papers, disturbing a chronometerand a small cash-box that held the schooner's limited amount of readycash. There was no sign of any cartridges.

  "We'll tackle Carlsen's room next," he announced. "I don't suppose youlooked between the bunk mattresses, did you?"

  "I never thought of it," said Rainey. "I didn't imagine there would bemore than one."

  "I've got a hunch you'll find two on Carlsen's bunk. An' the shellsbetween 'em. He kep' his door locked when he was out of the main cabinan' slep' on 'em nights. That's what I'd be apt to do."

  As they came into the main cabin Rainey caught Lund by the arm.

  "I'm almost sure I saw Carlsen's door closing," he whispered. "It mighthave been the shadow."

  "But it might not. Shouldn't wonder. One of 'em's sneaked in. Saw thecabin empty, an' figgered we'd turned in. While we was in thestrong-room."

  He took the automatic from his pocket and went straight to the door ofCarlsen's room. It was locked or bolted from within.

  "The fool!" said Lund. "I've got a good mind to let him stay there tillhe swallers some o' the drugs to fill his belly." He rapped on the panelwith the butt of the gun.

  "Come on out before I start trouble."

  There was no answer. Lund looked uncertainly at Rainey.

  "I hate to start a rumpus ag'in," he said, jerking his head toward theskipper's room. "'Count of her. Reckon he can stay there till afterwe've buried Simms. He's safe enough."

  Rainey was a little surprised at this show of thoughtfulness, but he didnot remark on it. He was beginning to think pretty constantly of latethat he had underestimated Lund.

  The giant's hand dropped automatically to the handle as if to assurehimself of the door being fast. Suddenly it opened wide, a black gap,with only the gray eye of the porthole facing them. Lund had brought upthe muzzle of his pistol to the height of a man's chest, but there wasnothing to oppose it.

  "Hidin', the damn fool! What kind of a game is this? Come out o' there."

  Something scuttled on the floor of the room--then darted swiftly outbetween the legs of Lund and Rainey, on all fours, like a great dog.Curlike, it sprawled on the floor with a white face and pop-eyes, withhands outstretched in pleading, knees drawn up in some ludicrous attemptat protection, calling shrilly, in the voice of Sandy:

  "Don't shoot, sir! Please don't shoot!"

  Lund reached down and jerked the roustabout to his feet, halfstrangling him with his grip on the collar of the lad's shirt, and flunghim into a chair.

  "What were you doin' in there?"

  Sandy gulped convulsively, feeling at his scraggy throat, where anAdam's apple was working up and down. Speech was scared out of him, andhe could only roll his eyes at them.

  "You damned young traitor!" said Lund. "I'll have you keelhauled forthis! Out with it, now. Who sent ye? Deming?"

  "You've got him frightened half to death," intervened Rainey. "Theyprobably scared him into doing this. Didn't they, Sandy?"

  The lad blinked, and tears of self-pity rolled down his grimy cheeks.The relief of them seemed to unstopper his voice. That, and the kinderquality of Rainey's questioning.

  "Deming! He said he'd cut my bloody heart out if I didn't do it. Him an'Beale. Lookit."

  He plucked aside the front of his almost buttonless shirt and wornundervest and showed them on his left breast the scoring where a sharpblade had marked an irregular circle on his skin.

  "Beale did that," he whined. "Deming said they'd finish the job if Icome back without 'em."

  "Without the shells?"

  "Yes, sir. Yes, Mr. Rainey. Oh, Gord, they'll kill me sure! Oh, myGord!" His staring eyes and loose mouth, working in fear, made him looklike a fresh-landed cod.

  "You ain't much use alive," said Lund.

  "Mebbe I ain't," returned the lad, with the desperation of a corneredrat. "But I got a right to live. And I've lived worse'n a dorg on thisbloody schooner. I'm fair striped an' bruised wi' boots an' knuckles an'ends o' rope. I'd 'ave chucked myself over long ago if--"

  "If what?"

  The lad turned sullen.

  "Never mind," he said, and glared almost defiantly at Lund.

  "Is that door shut?" the giant asked Rainey. "Some of 'em might behangin' 'round." Rainey went to the corridor and closed and locked theentrance.

  "Now then, you young devil," said Lund. "What they did to you for'ardain't a marker on what I'll do to you if you don't speak up an' answerwhen I talk. _If what?_"

  Sandy turned to Rainey.

  "They said they was goin' to give me some of the gold," he said. "Theysaid all along I was to have the hat go 'round for me. I told you I wasdragged up, but there's--there's an old woman who was good to me. She'sup ag'in' it for fair. I told her I'd bring her back some dough an' if Ican hang on an' git it, I'll hang on. But they'll do me up, now, forkeeps."

  Rainey heard Lund's chuckle ripen to a quiet laugh.

  "I'm damned if they ain't some guts to the herrin' after all," he said."Hangin' on to take some dough back to an old woman who ain't even hismother. Who'd have thought it? Look here, my lad. I was dragged up thesame way, I was. An' I hung on. But you'll nev
er git a cent out of thatbunch. I don't know as they'll have enny to give you."

  His face hardened. "But you come through, an' I'll see you git somethin'for the old woman. An' yoreself, too. What's more, you can stay aft an'wait on cabin. If they lay a finger on you, I'll lay a fist on them, an'worse."

  "You ain't kiddin' me?"

  "I don't kid, my lad. I don't waste time that way."

  Sandy stood up, his face lighting. He began to empty his pockets, layingshells and shotgun cartridges upon the table.

  "I couldn't begin to git harf of 'em," he said. "The rest's under themattresses. They said they on'y needed a few. I thought you was bothturned in. When you come out of the corridor I was scared nutty."

  Between the mattresses, as Lund had guessed, they found the rest of theshells, laid out in orderly rows save where the lad's scramblingfingers had disturbed them. Lund stripped off a pillow-case and dumpedthem in, together with those on the table.

  "You can bunk here," he told the grateful Sandy. "Now I'll have a fewwords with Deming, Beale and Company. Want to come along, Rainey?"

  Lund strode down the corridor, bag in one hand, his gun in the other.Rainey threw open the door of the hunters' quarters and discovered themlike a lot of conspirators. Deming was in his bunk; also another man,whose ribs Lund had cracked when he had kicked him along the deck out ofhis way. The bruised faces of the rest showed their effects from thefight. As Lund entered, covering them with the gun, while he swung downthe heavy slip on the table with a clatter, their looks changed fromeager expectation to consternation.