Boothby Guy
In Strange Company: A Story of Chili and the Southern Seas

I made a negative sign, and he continued —

"Why, you chuckle-head, can't you see he was there because he was watching some one? I leave it to you to figure out who that some one was."

"Juanita, I suppose."

"You suppose! Of course it was. Well, she tells you she wants money to reach a certain island for a certain purpose. You carry the news on to him. That's his dart exactly. That's just what he wanted to know. He wants that locket too. But he can only get it through her. So, under a cloak of friendship he lends you the amount to get the boat, and then clears for his natural life to the island to be ready for you."

"Yes, your theory's very pretty, but here's the corker. How did he find out the island's name? He didn't get it from me, because I didn't know it till we sailed. Somehow, that don't seem to tally."

"Why, you galoot, don't you think, long before that, he had found out where the schooner that brought the woman and her husband from Tahiti touched before reaching Thursday – where, in fact, they buried the man he wanted to catch. You bet he did."

"I never thought of that."

"Perhaps not; but I did. He sets off, as I say, reaches the island, watches to see where the grave is, and what success she meets with when she opens it; and then, when he finds out how he's been tricked, saddles himself upon you in order to watch the woman further. She faints directly she sees him, proving as clear as daylight that not only has she met him before, but that she has good cause to be frightened of him. By Jove! I can imagine the shock to their systems when they discovered that the man whom they both believed to be dead was in reality alive – that he'd hoodwinked them after all."

He threw back his head and laughed.

"And what then?" I asked.

"Why, don't you see, the treasure they're after is slipping through their fingers. The man has six months start of them. Directly they arrive in Batavia, the Albino sends a cablegram to England. He receives a reply. What was it?"

"'Still unclaimed. Come at once. Don't delay,'" I answered, reciting the words on the form I had picked up in the verandah of the Hôtel des Indes.

"And what significance has that for you?"

"I can't say, unless it affects the treasure."

"You've drawn your bead on the bull's-eye this time, sure enough. That's exactly what it does affect. It affects it like grim death. Don't you see – the other man hasn't got home yet. So they've still a chance for the money. Now they know they've just got to get up and clear for all they're worth to London. What then?"

"It's no use; I'm done for, clean stumped! After that, I can't make head or tail of it."

"Why, they argue in this way. They can't take the woman's lover with them, can they? He'd not only be in the way, but he'd probably want to go shares in the boodle. The woman is too suspicious to let the Albino go alone, so, as the man has served his purpose, he must be got rid of. But how? 'Ah!' says the Albino, 'I've got it! The murder of the Kanaka; that'll fit him like a glove!' Therefore this charge was trumped up to detain you here. D'you know. I should be more than a little surprised if they are not already gone."

"In that case, what will become of me?"

"That remains to be seen. I fancy to-morrow will set it right. But I suppose you understand now how you've been bilked?"

"Worse luck! But there's one thing puzzles me more than all the rest, and that is, how the deuce you come to know all this so accurately."

"My boy, if I gave you a hundred guesses you'd never hit it."

"Well then, I give it up, first time."

"And yet, I reckon, it's as clear as daylight. Who should you call the most important person in the whole affair?"

"Why, the chap who caused it all – the man who led them such a dance – the man who died."

"You mean the man who, by rights, ought to have been where the sheet of lead was, in that coffin?"

"I do."

"Well, that's how I came to know about it."

I jumped to my feet, and all the other occupants of the room, hearing my exclamation of surprise, turned round to look at me.

"What the devil do you mean?"

"Why, can't you guess? Because, sonny, I'm that man. I'm the man who led them such a dance. I'm the man who ought to have been dead and buried in that coffin. In fact, I'm Marcos Veneda!"

PART III

CHAPTER I
RAMSAY IS RELEASED FROM CUSTODY

To say that I was only astonished by Veneda's information, and the explanation he gave to my mystery, would be to define it too tamely altogether. To tell the truth, at the time I was so completely overwhelmed by it as to be unable to grasp, in the least degree, what significance it had for me.

Strange though it may appear, while the most galling part of the whole business could not but be Juanita's treachery to myself, this was almost atoned for, in my mind, by the remembrance of her singular behaviour on the evening preceding my arrest. Come what may, with this knowledge before me, I shall always cherish the belief that not only was the affection she pretended to entertain for me perfectly genuine, but also that she was alone driven to such extreme measures by the extraordinary influence the Albino possessed over her.

Poor Juanita! To be unable to feel bitterly towards you may be to show myself a soft-hearted fool, but whenever I think of that night on the King's Plain, and remember your sorrowful cry, "Oh, Jack, Jack, if you only knew; if we could but be our true selves for one little moment!" all reproaches die out of my heart, and in their place springs up a great pity and a great compassion for you.

Another thing that gave me plenty to think about was the strange fact of my meeting Veneda, of all people, and in such a place! Though as yet I knew next to nothing of his history, I could not but see that his connection with the affair we were both so interested in was genuine enough. As for himself, as soon as he had told me his name he left me, and went without another word to his bed, not to speak again till morning.

When I woke it was just daylight, the door was open, and the prisoners were passing in and out. So far as I could see, in the part of the building in which I was confined, no recognized employment was found for them; though in the other wards, I believe, they were taken out under escort, to do the street scavenging, wood-cutting, public gardening, etc.

A little before seven o'clock a coarse meal was served to us, and while I was partaking of it, Veneda came up. I made room for him to sit down on the bench beside me, for I was burning to question him further on the subject that lay nearest to both our hearts.

"Look here," I said, "for goodness' sake let's get this thing properly squared up. I've been puzzling my brain over it till I'm nearly crazy. I must understand two or three things more."

"Go ahead," he replied; "you can't be more anxious to get to the bed rock than I am. What do you want to know?"

"Well, in the first place, how on earth you managed to die and come to life again so cleverly? Juanita told me she saw you lying stiff and stark in your bunk."

"So she did, as far as she knew; but I was only playing 'possum. It was the one way out of my difficulty, you see. I knew I had to get rid of her, and there was no other fashion in which it could be managed."

"Then the captain was in the secret after all, and his dislike to you was all assumed?"

"Every bit! But he was a money-grubbing old dog, was Boulger, and it cost me a cool hundred to bring him up to the scratch. Once that was done, all was plain sailing. After leaving Tahiti, cholera, Yellow Jack, fish-poisoning, or some other disease came aboard, and the crew and mate went down before it like ninepins. There was my chance! I pretended to go under to it too. The skipper acted his part like a little man, and wouldn't let Juanita into the cabin for fear of detection. Then, in the night, I died. Next day, according to her wish, my dummy was taken ashore, and buried on Vanua Lava, while I was safely stowed away in the skipper's cabin, until we reached Thursday Island. There she remained to hunt up a way of getting back to look for that locket."

"While you?"

"Next morning I caught a craft sailing this way, intending to pick up a mail-boat from Batavia, home. But luck was against me; I ran athwart the hawse of a Dutch officer; put a bullet into him, and got locked up. That's how I came here. Want to know any more?"

"One thing. Now you're alive, what is going to become of your wife?"

"My wife? And who may she be? Never heard of the lady."

"But Juanita?"

Veneda whistled a long note of astonishment.

"You don't mean to tell me she's been parading me as her husband?"

"You're not? You're not Juanita's husband?"

"You'd better believe I'm not."

"Then, my God! how I've been fooled!"

Veneda seemed not to notice my remark, but sat staring at the blue sky above us. Suddenly he sprang to his feet.

"Look here, Ramsay," he cried, "come what may, I must get out of this, and you must help me."

"How can I help you? If it comes to that, I'm in quite as bad a fix as you are."

"No, I think not," he continued gravely. "I shouldn't be at all surprised if you find yourself at liberty to-night."

"What do you mean?" I asked, jumping at the hope he held out. "What do you think can bring such a thing about?"

"Never mind, you wait and see. But if you do get off, will you pledge yourself to assist me?"

"If I do get off," I said, "I could inform the consul of your being here, and he would get you out himself."

"No, no, that would never do; I've been thinking it over. If the consul gets wind of it, he'll make inquiries; then the matter will get bruited about, and will be certain to come to the ears of the Albino's agents."

"Agents?"

"Why, of course. You don't imagine that little devil hasn't arranged for somebody to watch your movements here, and at the same time to hunt about for me! Bless your heart, now that he knows I'm alive, I'd bet a thousand pounds to a half-penny he finds out I'm in here."

"Good heavens," I cried, "it's a perfect network of plots and counterplots, and I seem fated not to understand it. Now you're alive, and still the possessor of your money, what do they want that locket for? They can never hope to find out where you buried the gold."

"Buried the what?"

"The gold you obtained by your last legacy when you were in San Francisco."

"Sonny, they've been playing you again. What do you mean? I never had any legacy."

Thereupon I set to work and told him the story Juanita had told me. He laughed uproariously, then smacking me on the shoulder said —

"You just help me to get out of here, and you'll see what I'm worth. I promise you'll not find me ungrateful."

"Well, if I do get off," I answered, "I give you my word that I'll do my best for you."

We shook hands gravely upon it, and I continued —

"In what way do you propose to effect your escape? If we're going to make any plans, we'd better set to work upon them at once."

"Walk over here with me and I'll tell you all I think."

With that we began to pace the courtyard, and Veneda to propound his theory.

"Now," he said, "my idea is this. You see that further wall?"

I nodded. It was, as I have said before, a stone affair, perhaps thirty feet in height, surmounted by a bristling cheval de frise.

"Well, on the other side of it, as far as I can gather from the natives locked up in here, is a road, with a big paddy field on the other side of that again. At night, a sentry or patrol of some kind passes round the entire building once every ten minutes, and naturally our attempt must be made between his visits."

"But how do you propose to get over it?" I asked, looking at the wall's apparently unscalable height.

"Very easily," my intrepid companion replied, "if you will only carry out my instructions to the letter."

"Let me hear what they are, and I'll do the best I can for you."

"Well, in the first place you will procure from one of the stores in the town, sixty feet of strong rope. With this carefully disguised you will wait till midnight; then you must engage a small kharti (native cab) with a good strong Malay boy driver, and proceed to the other side of this wall. When you get there, and only then, you will say to the boy – by the way, do you speak Malay?"

"No; unfortunately I don't."

"That's a pity, but it can't be helped."

He stopped and thought for a moment, then borrowing a pencil and a piece of paper, wrote something on it.

"There are two sentences," he said, and he repeated them once or twice to enable me to pick up the proper accent. "This one means, 'To the gaol' – that, 'You shall have ten guilders if you help me.' Say them over to me."

I repeated them till I was tired, and only then did he seem satisfied.

"I think he'll sumjao you now," he said.

"And when I get here," I continued, "what am I to do?"

"Then you will uncoil the rope and throw one end over the wall, to the left, there. I will make it fast round my waist, and you and the boy must manage between you to pull me up to the top. It'll be a struggle, but you must do it somehow."

"And if the sentry should appear while we're at it, what then?"

"Well, in that case," he said with a laugh, "I'll leave it to your own instinct to know what to do with him; but I should suggest timing it so that you'll just miss him."

"And how are you going to manage to get into this courtyard after you've been locked up for the night?"

"Leave that to me, I'll work it. Perhaps I shan't go in at all."

"And when you're out, what are your plans?"

"Tanjong Priok, as slippery as the Malay can take us. Then we must get into the docks, borrow a boat, and set sail for the islands, to hide there till we can get on to Singapore or Ceylon. Batavia will be no sort of place for either of us after that. You'll stand by me, Ramsay?"

"I've given you my word," I said; "I can't say more than that, can I?"

"Not if you're the man I take you to be. Anyhow I'll trust you."

Just at that moment a stir was observable in the yard; the great gate at the end swung open, and a party of police entered. They came to where I stood, and signified that I should accompany them.

"Good luck," cried Veneda as I rose to go; "don't forget me."

I waved my hand to him and off we set. Once more our route lay in the direction of the consul's office, and arriving there, I was ushered into his presence forthwith. It seemed to me that on this occasion he regarded me in rather a somewhat different light.

"I suppose you're aware," he began, when the case was opened, "of the serious nature of the charge against you?"

I told him I was.

"Have you anything more to say on the subject?"

"Nothing, but that I am the victim of a villainous conspiracy," I answered. "I certainly did struggle with the man, and I don't deny that I hit him, but it was in purest self-defence. He was a noted bad character, and only came aboard at Thursday Island as a stowaway. On the occasion in question I had reprimanded him several times without any effect, and I was in the act of doing so again when he rushed at me. Had I not closed with him, he would have dashed my brains out with a belaying-pin. It was my fault that he died, but though I struck him, I had not the very faintest intention of killing him. I don't know who laid the charge against me, but that it was preferred simply to get me out of the way, I am as certain as that I stand before you now."

Thereupon, being permitted, I set to work and told him my story, just as I had told it to Veneda the preceding night. He listened with the utmost attention, and having asked me one or two questions, said —

"I am inclined to believe you. There is certainly something very underhand somewhere."

Stopping his examination, he wrote something on a sheet of paper, and ringing a bell, ordered that it should be despatched immediately. It was a telegram, I discovered later, to Thursday Island. Having done this, he recommenced his examination, and finally remarked – "I have sent for some information about you; until I receive it, you will be detained here."

Turning to the police, he said something in Dutch, whereupon I was marched into another room, and locked up. During the period of waiting my thoughts were none of the pleasantest. From a consideration of my own position, they wandered to the strange story Veneda had told me, and thence, by natural transition, to Juanita and her professed love for myself. From Juanita they passed back, across what seemed a vast interval of years, to my first love Maud; and as I allowed my mind to dwell upon her sweet face, her ladylike manners, her gentle disposition, and her general refinement, a great home-sickness came upon me, and I resolved then and there, that if ever the opportunity offered, I would forsake my wandering life, and go back to England, like the prodigal son, never to leave it again so long as I should live.

While these thoughts were thronging my brain, I was again summoned into the consul's presence. This time he greeted me with a smile.

"Mr. Ramsay," he said, "I have been making inquiries in Thursday Island about you, and partly on their account, and partly in consideration of the fact that the Mother of Pearl and all the witnesses against you have seen fit to decamp, goodness only knows where, I have decided to release you from custody, on the ground that there is not sufficient reliable evidence to warrant your detention. You may thank your stars that you have got off so easily, and I hope this will be a lesson to you to keep out of such company in the future."

I thanked him warmly for his action in the matter, and at the same time asked him if my bag had been taken away from the Hôtel des Indes. It had, and he gave instructions to his clerk that it should be handed over to me. I was particularly anxious about this, for I had nearly forty pounds of the three hundred the Albino had given me in it, and I knew I should want all the money I could get to ensure success in the perilous enterprise which lay before me.

After answering the consul's inquiries as to what I intended to do with myself now that my ship had sailed without me, by saying that I had not yet made up my mind, I left his office, and departed in the direction of the town.

As we drove through it on the ill-starred day of our arrival, I had noticed some Stores, which I now thought would be likely to contain the article I required. I was right, and obtaining what I sought in the way of rope, I returned to my hotel, took a room, and composed myself to rest until it should be time to set off on the business of the night.

As darkness fell it began to rain, and continued to pour down until well after ten o'clock. Fortunately not a sign of the moon was to be seen; a thick pall of clouds obscured the entire sky. Having nothing to do, I sat and smoked in my verandah all the evening, and it was not until after eleven that I commenced any preparations for my departure. Then, stowing my money and what few little things I valued among my effects about my person, and carrying the big parcel of rope, wrapped up in as unsuspicious a manner as possible, under my arm, I closed my bedroom door, and passed out across the garden into the streaming street.

CHAPTER II
GAOL-BREAKING EXTRAORDINARY

When I left the hotel I hurried with all the speed I could command in the direction I knew the gaol to lie. As I went, I kept my eyes open for a kharti of the required description. It was late, I knew, for a cabby to be abroad, but I had little doubt that I should soon find some driver who would be glad to earn a few additional guilders, in spite of the dangerous nature of the business for which I wanted him. Apart from any consideration of the time to be saved by driving, it was very necessary that I should obtain a conveyance soon, or my wanderings with a large and heavy parcel (for sixty feet of stout rope is no light burden) would be more than likely to attract the attention and suspicion of some of the curious night watchmen, one of whom I passed about every hundred yards. Fortunately, however, it was a wet night, and these gentry preferred the shelter of their boxes to following mysterious pedestrians, otherwise I might have been called upon to stop and give an account of myself, and my reason for being so late abroad.

As no sign of any conveyance was to be seen, I began to despair of obtaining one, and was in the act of turning down a by-lane, through which it would be impossible for a vehicle to pass, in order to reach the prison, when I heard the sounds of a pony's feet behind me, and the cries of the driver urging it forward.

As soon as he was close enough, I sang out to the cabby to stop. Thereupon he hauled up, and waited for me to approach him. As this looked like my last chance, I wasn't going to give him an opportunity of saying whether he wanted another fare that night or not, but jumped up on the back seat before he could expostulate, and pressing five guilders into his hand, bade him drive to the gaol.

He must have thought me mad or drunk, for he approached a smile as near as a Malay can get to it without breaking his neck, and urged the pony forward at increased speed. Ten minutes later we had drawn up opposite the gaol wall, under cover of some over-hanging trees, and I was anxiously waiting for the passing of the sentry, and the approach of twelve o'clock.

By this time my charioteer had some idea of what was going forward, for he gave unmistakable signs that he wished to be off. This, however, I had no intention of allowing him to do, so placing another five guilders in his hand, I repeated the sentence Veneda had taught me so carefully, to the effect that "he should have ten more if he helped me." This seemed to decide him, for he jabbered something in reply, and I saw by the way he settled himself down in his seat, that not only had he resigned himself to his fate, but that I could safely count upon his co-operation.

Hardly had I finished my talk with him than I espied something dark moving against the further end of the long bare wall. My heart gave a jump as I recognized the Malay sentry. He was armed with rifle and bayonet, and was muffled up like the watchmen I had met on my journey through the town. So narrow was the road that, to my horror, I saw he would be compelled to pass within fifteen feet of where our conveyance stood; so close indeed, that it seemed impossible he could fail to be aware of our presence. But he was no doubt tired and sleepy, and as on this side of the prison no eye could observe his actions, he was in the habit of indulging himself with a nap as he passed round it.

Directly he had turned the corner I hastened across the road, and prepared to hurl the rope I had previously uncoiled over the wall.

Beckoning my cabman to me, I bade him lay hold of one end, and next moment the other was whistling through the air. As I threw it, I wondered if Veneda had managed his part of the contract, and also what would befall me if he did not make his appearance before the sentry should pass that way again. But I was not to be kept very long in suspense, for a minute had hardly elapsed before I felt a sharp twitch upon the line; a signal, I did not doubt, that all was right on the other side. A second jerk bade me pull.

I promise you it was no easy task to haul a heavy man like Veneda over a thirty feet wall, more especially as the rope had to draw over the cheval de frise above the stone coping. It seemed as if we should never get him to the top, and that the sentry must appear before we could accomplish it. I don't think I ever spent a longer five minutes in my life. But every second the pile of rope was increasing at our feet; Veneda could not surely be more than a few feet from the top. Suddenly there was a crack, a big jump on the rope, and a dull and ominous thud on the other side. What had happened?

I soon realized it all. The cheval de frise had given way under the strain upon it, and the rope had dropped on to the coping of the wall itself. The thud must have been Veneda's body striking against it.

Once more we pulled till we could get no further draw on the rope. It had jammed against the broken iron-work.

Funnelling my mouth with my hands, I called to Veneda, but received no answer. What could be the matter? Could the bump against the wall have stunned him? As I wondered, to my consternation I heard footsteps approaching round the corner. It was the sentry again. Now we were in a pretty fix! To let go the rope would be to allow Veneda to drop thirty feet down on to the ground on the other side; yet, on the other hand, I knew it would be fatal to permit the sentry to discover us in this invidious position. I ransacked my brains for a way out of the difficulty. The sweat streamed over my face; it was like some horrible nightmare from which, strive how I would, I could not awake. And every moment the steps were coming closer.

So far as I could see there was only one thing to be done; feeble reed though he was to lean upon, I must trust to the fidelity of the Malay driver. Signing to him to hang on to the rope, as if his very life depended on it, I left him, and crept towards the corner. It was my idea to jump upon the sentry as he came round it, hoping to being able to silence him before he could give the alarm.

What I went through during the thirty seconds or so in which I lay crouched behind the buttress of that wall no man will ever understand. The steps came nearer and nearer – I pulled myself together in preparation for the spring. It seemed as if the beating of my heart must be plainly audible yards away.

Then suddenly a dark figure appeared before me, and I leapt upon it.

So swift was my onslaught that the man had not time to guard himself before my left arm was round his waist and my right hand tightening on his throat. My left leg I crooked round his right, with the intention of throwing him. He was a plucky fellow, and did his best against me. But his surprise was no match for my despair. As we swayed backwards and forwards his rifle fell from his grasp, striking the wall with an awful clatter. When I heard that I gave myself up for lost.

Exerting all my strength, I lifted him clear off the ground (a feat I could never have accomplished in cold blood), and dashed him from me against the buttress edge. His head struck it with a ghastly thud; he slipped, fell, and lay upon the ground a huddled up mass of groaning humanity. Ascertaining that he was powerless, I turned and ran in the direction of the rope, to which I was relieved beyond all measure to find the Malay still clinging.

What to do now was a puzzle. I reflected there were only two ways out of it – I must either be content to abandon the enterprise altogether, and to leave Veneda to his fate, or, as he could not come down to me, go up to him. But whatever I intended to do must be accomplished quickly, for it might be the sentry's duty to report himself as he went by the guardhouse every round, and in that case his nonappearance would be the signal for search, and we should be irretrievably lost.

With this thought in my mind I clutched the rope and began to swarm up it, trusting to Providence that whatever was keeping it at the top would hold it until I could get there.

Even now, when I think about the climb to the top of that prison wall, I feel a shudder pass over me. It was interminable. I seemed to be doomed to climb thousands of feet of rope, and never to get any farther. But at last it was accomplished, and I was hauling myself along the broken cheval de frise, to where a black mass lay blocked between it and the stones. Needless to say, that mass was Veneda, and unconscious. He had tied the rope round his waist before starting, and its sudden drop from the iron-work on to the coping must have inflicted on him a terrible wrench; in swinging round, his head had struck the wall with sufficient force to stun him.

One glimpse was enough to show me that it was impossible for him to help himself, so drawing the rope up, I made it fast round the stanchions of the iron, and pulling his body over to the other side, lowered it as gently as I could, under the circumstances, to the ground. It was a dangerous undertaking, for, as I have said, he was a heavy man, and I had only the narrow top of the wall on which to take a purchase with my feet.

How it was that no one saw us from the prison side I am at a loss to understand. I can only attribute it to the fortunate darkness of the night; for had the moon been visible we must certainly have been discovered.

As soon as Veneda reached the ground I slipped down the rope to his side, and with the assistance of the Malay bore him to the cab. Then, without waiting to ascertain the condition of the unfortunate sentry, who still lay where I had thrown him, off we set as fast as the pony could take us in the direction of the port.

At the best of times, and under the most pleasant circumstances, it is a miserable drive; but with a sick man to support, for Veneda had not yet returned to consciousness, a treacherous Malay to watch, and my own balance in the tiny cart to keep, it was one long-continued horror.

The awkwardness of my position was increased ten-fold by Veneda's insensibility, for, not being able to speak Malay myself, I had no one now to fall back upon. I could only repeat "Tanjong Priok, Tanjong Priok," over and over again, prefacing my remarks with a guilder, and accompanying each repetition with hints of more. But such was my despair, that had my driver attempted to play me false, I believe I should have terminated his existence without thinking twice about the matter.

The endurance of the little rat of a pony was nothing short of marvellous; along heavy roads, through slushy pools, up and down hill, he dashed with a vigour of which, had I not seen it for myself, I should hardly have believed him capable. Now and again the moon struggled out between the clouds to reveal a waste of horrible country. Dense mangrove swamps, reeking paddy fields, slimy canals, funereal barges, and native dwellings slid past us, like the ever-changing patterns of a kaleidoscope.