Wild Norene/Chapter 8

HERE had been a peculiar scene enacted in the captain's cabin. Entering it with Señor Guerrero, Captain Bill Adams had closed the door behind them, locked it, and draped a towel over a crack in it, through which the light filtered.

"Well?" the captain asked then, smiling.

They sat down at the table opposite each other.

"You think there's no danger?" Guerrero asked.

"None for you, señor; the cargo will be put ashore and you will go with it. Everything seems to be in proper order. As for the cargo itself—you shipped it from Portland to the lumber-camp in boxes labeled machinery, and we picked it up as we dropped down the Columbia to Astoria. "As far as I know, I am carrying for you certain machinery. If you desire to have it landed at this spot on the coast, well and good—you know your own business."

The captain grinned and puffed at his cigar. Señor Guerrero, grinning also, arose and turned his back, lifted up his vest, parted his shirt, and so reached the opening of a money-belt he wore next his skin. From this he took folded bills.

He turned to the captain again and counted out a certain sum. The captain counted the bills in his turn.

"Correct," he said. "One moment, please."

Behind a panel in the wall of the cabin the captain had a strong safe. He opened this now, put the money in it, and twirled the combination knob again. Guerrero was half-way to the door when he turned.

"A moment, señor," said the captain. "I wish you to do me a favor."

"Certainly."

Captain Adams took a coil of rope from a corner and advanced to the middle of the cabin.

"The men already are moving your cargo, and have been told to obey your orders in the matter. I'll not go on deck again at present. Señor Guerrero, you will kindly take this rope, bind me securely, and place me in my bunk; then tie me in so that I cannot move."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I have a reason for this unusual request, believe me. You'll get your cargo ashore before the gunboat comes—if it comes afterward and finds me I do not care. I have a little game of my own to play."

"It is a great risk, captain."

"Which I alone am taking. You'll do as I ask?"

Guerrero complied. He bound the captain securely, except that one hand was left free, and in it Captain Bill held a revolver, so that when he was placed in the bunk he could cover any one who entered the cabin. The captain was chuckling at the look of amazement on Guerrero's face as the señor finished the task.

"Now go on deck, señor," he directed, "and see that all your cargo is landed properly. After the last load send the men back to the schooner, and we'll consider that we've said farewell. If you need me again you know how to find me."

"Si, señor! Adios!"

"Adios!"

Guerrero unlocked the door and went out, to close it after him as the captain had directed, and hurry back to the deck.

Norene, with Sally Wood in the adjoining cabin, knew that the vessel had stopped and that the cargo was being unloaded. She knew Captain Bill had entered his cabin with Guerrero, and when she saw Guerrero go back to the deck and leave the captain alone she determined on an interview with her uncle. She opened the door of his cabin and entered, to stand aghast at what she saw.

"Uncle Bill!" she exclaimed, starting forward. "Who has done this?"

"Stay where you are!" he commanded.

"I was going to unbind you."

"I don't want it!"

"What can you mean?" she asked. She stepped toward him, wonderment in her face.

Captain Adams laughed at her appearance.

"Go back to your cabin," he ordered. "Remain there, too! This is not your affair."

"You—you are unloading the cargo—the contraband?" she asked.

"We are—if you want to know."

"But you—the captain—tied here at such a time! And the gunboat—"

"This is a little scheme," said Captain Adams, "to get square with the man who called you an unmentionable woman and said he could tame you."

He thought his words would touch her, and they did, but not in the way he imagined.

For Norene had been thinking the past hour.

"I have told you," she said, "that I blame you for that more than I blame him."

"Girl!"

"I do! And now you are breaking the law again at this minute, and in addition placing me in a position where I may be insulted by the officer of a Mexican gunboat." "So you're taking the part of the man who insulted you against your own uncle, are you?" the captain demanded.

"I am taking nobody's part—but I am not blaming a man who should not be blamed."

Anger flared in the captain's face.

"Let me tell you this!" he exclaimed. "If you want to overlook what this man said, you may. I'll not. He insulted me, too. He called me blackbirder, smuggler—"

"And haven't you been?"

The girl's retort increased the captain's anger. Had he been free at the moment he might have struck her.

For an instant he half choked with rage, then he looked up at her and snarled.

"If I've got to tame you, girl, I'll do it after this business is over," he said. "But I'll fix Mr. Jack Connor first. Want to know why I had Guerrero tie me up like this, eh? Because about the time the cargo is landed and safe over the first hill the gunboat will put in an appearance. The schooner 'll be seized. And I'll have a story to tell."

"What do you mean?" she asked with quick suspicion.

"I'll be found bound and helpless. I'll explain how Jack Connor shipped machinery with me to be landed here—mining machinery. I'll say that just before we sailed I lost my other mate and signed on this Jack Connor, who told me he'd go on as far as Mazatlan in that capacity, then return to his mines; that he engaged to do this because he was in a hurry to get the machinery through and I couldn't find another good mate in a hurry."

"Well?"

"And I'll say that just before we got to this cove he admitted to me that the cargo wasn't mining machinery, but arms and ammunition for the revolutionists; that I rebuked him and said I'd go on to Mazatlan, hand him over to the authorities and give them the contraband cargo.

"He bound me here, left me helpless, took the bridge, brought the ship to anchor, and ordered the men to discharge cargo. They did it because I wasn't on deck, and he was the mate, and of course they'd obey his orders. Understand, girl?

"I'll be released and we'll sail on with the Amingo—and the man who slandered you and insulted me will be shot by a firing squad. The cargo will be landed, and I'll have kept my word with Guerrero. I win—and Connor loses. I said I'd do it, and I'll keep my word."

"Oh!" she gasped. "You'd do that? You'd send him to his death—and for nothing? You'd blame him for the crime you are committing?"

"I said I'd do it, and I keep my word. No man can call me a blackbirder and get away with it! If you want to overlook his insult to you, the more shame to you; but I'll not overlook his insult to me!"

"You'd not dare!"

The captain laughed unpleasantly.

"I promised I'd let him off, of course, if he tamed you before we got the cargo landed. If he'd made you love him, agree to marry him. But it's too late for that now. It'll not do any good to say you love him just to save him. If you're willing to admit before all the crew that this man has tamed you—if you'll admit he insulted you and you loved him for it—"

The captain laughed raucously again.

Sudden fire flashed in the eyes of Wild Norene. A swift movement forward and she had wrenched the revolver from his grasp—and Captain Bill Adams, outwitted for the first time in his life, found himself bound and helpless in his bunk, scarcely able to move, his subterfuge turned against him.

"What are you going to do?" he cried, a feeling of dread in him.

"I'm going to play fair!" she answered. "I'm going to save the man you'd send to death. And I'm going to stop this unlawful act. I'll see that the men stop unloading that cargo; that the Amingo runs out to sea again—"

"Girl!"

"If I must fight you, uncle, I'll fight well! I'm Wild Norene, you know. You've often boasted no man could outwit me, that in an emergency aboard ship I was worth any six of the crew and any two officers. Well, I'll try to live up to your boasting!"

"You dare—"

"It is my wits against yours," she reminded him. "You are helpless, but it is your own doing. I didn't bind you and tie you in your bunk. Your little trick has proved a boomerang.

"Swear—nobody will pay attention. Call—the men will not answer, for they're busy. I'm fighting you with your own sort of weapons, but I'm fighting for the right and you're fighting for the wrong!"

His curses ringing in her ears, she sped from the cabin and hurried to her own. A moment, and she had explained to Sally Wood, and Sally followed her to the deck.

The men were loading the first boat—Guerrero was commanding them. Connor and Morgan were lashed to the mast and helpless.

Sally remained in the shadow, and Norene sped across the deck, and with her knife slashed the ropes that bound the mate and his friend. There was not time to explain, and Norene spoke but few words.

"We must stop them, and get the ship away from the coast! There is danger—"

Already she was speeding across the deck, with Connor and Morgan at her heels. Sally Wood remained where she had been standing, watching the scene in the dim light of the one lantern that burned.

Norene stepped within the circle of light just as the last case for the first boatload was being lowered. A pretty picture she made, her eyes flashing, her hair blowing in the wind, a look of grim determination on her face, the revolver gripped in her hand.

"Stop!" she commanded, and as one man the members of the crew turned to look at her. "Bring that case on deck again—all of them! Hurry! Get up the anchor and put straight out to sea!"

Connor stood beside her.

"Lively, men!" he cried.

He had not forgotten how they had handled him a short time before. His fists were clenched and the look in his eyes promised ill for the one who hesitated.

"Up with that case!"

"We're not takin' orders from you!" one of the men growled.

Connor sprang forward, and that man struck the deck felled by a single blow. Guerrero, who had stood to one side astonished, seemed to come to life.

"Throttle him!" he shrieked. "Lash him to that mast again!"

The men sprang to obey. The captain had told them to obey Guerrero and disregard the mate. But Norene stepped before Connor, and the weapon in her hand covered them.

"Do as I commanded!" she ordered.

"My dear young lady!" It was Guerrero speaking. "There must be some mistake. This work must not be delayed—for there is danger. It must be done as swiftly as possible."

"There is no mistake!" she said. "You men—do as I ordered!"

One of them stepped forward and touched his forehead.

"Cap'n's orders, miss, under favor, that we unload cargo and take orders from Señor Guerrero."

"The captain's orders have been changed!" she said.

"If th' cap'n—"

"The captain is ill, cannot come on deck."

Guerrero cursed and stepped toward her.

"Enough of this nonsense!" he cried. "To your work, men! You know the skipper's orders."

"They've been changed!" Norene said again.

"I'll see!"

Guerrero turned to start to the cabin. The revolver in the hands of Wild Norene covered him.

"You'll stay here!" she said.

Guerrero, his face purple with rage, turned toward her threateningly. But he did not speak to her—he faced the men.

"Do as I ordered!" he commanded. "Hurry with that cargo! Do you want that gunboat down on you—want to go to a Mexican prison, want to be stood against a wall and shot?" The men began to murmur. They could not understand the situation.

Connor sensed the clash in authority, and he didn't trust the men. He stepped into the circle of light again.

"Back with that case!" he ordered.

"We ain't takin' orders from you—cap'n told us not to obey you!"

Again Norene stepped before him and with her weapon threatened the crew.

"You men know me!" she said. "If you'll not obey the mate because of the cap'n's orders, you'll obey me!"

The weapon spit fire; a bullet crashed into the deck at the feet of the foremost man.

Guerrero had been watching for his chance; now he sprang upon her in an attempt to wrest the revolver from her hand.

But Guerrero did not know Wild Norene. A quick step she gave to one side, and the butt of the heavy weapon struck the señor behind the ear and felled him.

"Bring back those cases now!" she commanded again, and the men turned to obey.

And out of the blackness that hung over the sea came a tiny finger of light that flashed toward the shore, broadened, and finally bathed the deck of the Amingo in its glory, making it as light as if the sunshine had played there.

Like statues they stood, those on the Amingo's deck—statues whose faces expressed fear and horror and anger and hopelessness—while the search-light revealed to all their guilt.

A crash out there in the night, a flash of vivid flame, and a shell shrieked over the Amingo's bow and rushed on toward the shore!

The gunboat had arrived!