Page:The Popular Magazine v72 n1 (1924-04-20).djvu/54

 open down the Adriatic. Tell him to get going at full speed, signor. It's our only chance!”

Jimmy stared. Tommie, still clinging to the box, did likewise.

“Oh, he's right, Jim,” she said. And even then he was aware of an exultant throb as she used his familiar name. It proved her dependence and that now, at last, she was hoping that he might rescue her from this predicament.

“All right, Tommie,” he said, “leave it to me. We'll give 'em a run if this launch of yours has lively heels—and I think she has. Here, you”—to the engineer—“give her all she's got and head down the Giudecco. All the rest of you sit down. We don't want to look conspicuous or make ourselves a target. They may begin to shoot pretty soon, if we prove too fast for 'em.”

He stood erect in the cockpit, alone, and rapidly thinking. Then he bent downward to the engineer and, with a hand on his shoulder ordered, “Get every foot out of her that you can, even if you rip the engine apart. Bear down to starboard. See that black shape—right down through there—steamer with dim riding lights? Well, get alongside her first of all and stand by to stop quickly. If she's the one I think she is, and we can gain time enough so they can't see what we do, the signorina, old Tomaso, and I will board her. After that you and Pietro keep on and race those fellows to a standstill. I'll tell Pietro what to do after that. Shake her up!”

The man nodded and “shook her up,” as probably she had never before been shaken. Down the dark opening they raced. Their course was no longer obstructed now that they passed through the main procession of craft. Back behind them they could see the distant searchlights of but two boats and then, off to the left, there shone another. Like hounds that had caught a scent the guard boats were answering the alarm and closing in. For a moment Jimmy watched them with sea-trained eyes, and then chuckled as he decided that they were not gaining, but were possibly losing.

“Go to it!” he cried aloud in his excitement. “Catch us if you can! You're welcome. This is some boat to catch!”

He felt that the girl had arisen from her seat and was standing close behind him. He felt, also, that he had taken the command from her hands and was robbing her of conquest. He turned and faced her in the dim light of illuminations and of stars and said, “Tommie, you've got to let me run this show now, and ask no questions. I'm trying to get out of it as best I can—for your sake. Does it go? Whatever I do?”

“Of course it does,” she bravely asserted. “Whatever you do I'll know is for the best. I got up to tell you that. And—Jim, if you want me to I'll throw the only incriminating evidence—I think that's what it would be called—the casket—overboard.”

“Not by a darned sight!” he exclaimed, turning toward her with a grin, “We got ourselves into this mess trying to get it. We've got it—and we won't let go till we have to. We're not beaten yet. I've got a plan. Sit down now, and don't bother me for a minute or two.”

She subsided into the chair and he stood alert and watchful as the launch raced ahead.

“Pietro,” he called quietly, “come over here. I want to tell you what to do.”

The boy climbed quickly to his side and, with the wind of their rapid flight whipping his shock of hair listened as Jim said, “You know that is my ship. She's all ready to sail, or should be. What I plan to do is to take Miss Cardell and Tomaso aboard as quickly as possible from the dark side where, at this turn of the tide, the side ladder should be. Then you and your cousin are to go ahead. Hit it up hard. Give the police boats a long hard chase. Don't let them suspect until it's too late that they've been fooled. My ship will get under way at once. I'll answer for that. The police can do nothing with you if they catch you but hold you up and I'll make it worth your while to keep your mouth shut and be held up. You'll hear from me within a few days. I'll be responsible for the safety of the signorina if you'll do this. You can trust me with her, can't you?” he continued whimsically.

“I can now, signor, although there was a day when I didn't,” Pietro said. “And—you'll bring her back, won't you? Some time? It's not the money I care for, although maybe I'll need it if they catch us.”

Jimmy laid a hand on his shoulder and said “Yes, some day I'll bring her back. And, Pietro, we're friends. I'll be behind you all the way, if the worst comes and you are caught. Is that good enough? All