Doctor Syn on the High Seas - Thorndike Russell (читать лучшие читаемые книги TXT) 📗
it is paid.”
They discussed the plan in detail, and that evening, McCallum was
rowed aboard the St. Nicholas.
As the boat swung beneath the loft hull, he saw that the name of it
was being changed. Painters were busily at work on slug rigging. As he
read the new name, he chuckled to himself. “This Clegg is a devilish
rascal. He thinks things out well. And s o do I. It takes a Scot to beat
an Englishman. He’ll find I am the greater devil yet.”
And Syn had thought things out well, for the name of the ship was now
the Imogene.
Chapter 17
Clegg’s Imogene
Having paid over the ransom for the town in Clegg ’s cabin on the
Imogene, McCallum came straight to the point with the most villanious
frankness. He told Clegg, quite engagingly, that he had no love for
Black Nick, and would give a lot to see him badly frightened before
being killed. He then asked casually: “How do you propose killing him?”
Syn answered: “I shall force him to utter my name, Clegg. It is the
sound a man will make when he is strangled. And I think, I shall kill
him with my bare hands. Then no dobut, I shall dig out his heart with
that harpoon upon the cabin wall behind you.”
“You must hate the man vastly to be so bloodthirsty,” laughed the
planter.
“I hate him enough,” replied Syn.
The next day, according to their arrangement, Syn was rowed ashore to
the plantation beach. The planter was there to meet him, and the boat’s
crew were left guarding the boat, for, as the planter pointed out,
should too many men appear, Black Nick would become suspicious.
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Now, Clegg’s crew had told him that they feared a trap would be set
for their captain, and asked permission to stand by to rescue him.
Knowing that McCallum could be no friend to him, though he hated Black
Nick the worse, Syn was alert for any treachery, but seeing, in the air
an opportunity to impress his men with his utter disregard for danger,
and somehow trusting in his own destiny, which always whispered to him
that he would eventually kill Nicholas, he did nto care, but walked
gaily with M cCallum through the woods to the house. This was a large
wooden bungalow, built high upon a slope, the back of which afforded a
dry store for cattle fodder. It was a hot day, and by the time they
entered the front veranda, they were ready for food and drin k. But Syn
resolved that there would be no food or drink for him in that house.
Black Nick’s capture was what he had come for, and that would be more
than meat and wine. He was chancing no drugging from McCallum’s
hospitality. They entered a spacious living-room, with table laid for
three. “That is Black Nick’s usual seat,” said the host. “If you sit
there opposite with your back to the door, he will not see you in that
high-backed chair. The lazy devil is always late, so we will sit down
now, and I will send a servant to tell him dinner is served. Then you
may do what you like. You may prefer to kill a man before or after
dinner. I suggest after, for personally I am hungry. So long as you do
kill him, if’s of no odds to me.”
“I shall be obliged if you se nd for him,” said Syn, taking his seat
while McCallum ordered one of the servants to fetch Black Nick.
Syn heard the door open behind him, and a heavy stop care round the
table. Although he was alert to treachery, Syn never doubted but that
this was Black Nick, and he was something astonished to see confronting
him a Spanish Officer fully armed. “I arrest you, sir, in the name of
the Governor of Havana for piracy on the high seas. Come in, there.”
A tramp of feet behind him made Syn glance quickly be hind him to see
a file of guards.
McCallum laughed. “It is quite true, Captain Clegg, that Black Nick
is afraid of you. So much, that he ran away to sea s a pirate, rather
than fight you to recover his ship which you stole so cleverly. But I am
a man of different kidney. You do not steal my ships and treasure and go
scott free. Now, yo9u shall hang on the Havana docks.”
“So the Governor of Santiago lied to me when he said that Black Nick
was with you in Havana,” said Syn calmly.
“Of course he did,” laughed the planter. “May not a Governor lie to a
thief?”
“So much the worse for the Governor of Santiago,” replied Syn.
“Come, sir, said the officer. “My men wait to escort you to the
Town.”
“You had best hand over your sword,” said the planter. “And let us
get clear before his men know of this and attempt a rescue.”
Syn rose and drew his sword, but had no intention of handing it, to
the officer. The twelve guards behind him were cavalry men with drawn
sabres. As he was quickly weighing up his chances, ne noticed blue smoke
curling along between the floor-boards. He also heard an ominous
crackling of burning wood, and felt a strange heat under his soles. “I
can assure you that my men will rescue me,” he said. “Oh, yes. Alive or
dead. If dead, G od help your town. They will spare nothing.”
“That is for us to prevent,” replied the officer haughtily.
As he spoke, he staggered back for a flame leapt up through the bloor
and caught the table -cloth, while screams of “Fire” echoed through the
house. But that was not so terrifying as the half-naked red figure,
which dashed into the
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room and with a double swing of a tomahawk, severed the necks of the two
soldiers nearest to Syn, and then leapt upon the table, in the midst of
the flames crying out “Shuhshuhgah”.
“Shuhshuhgah,” echoed Syn with a mighty laugh, as he drove his sword
through the neck of another soldier. “I scalp you. You good enough. You
officer,” cried the Redskin, swinging a blow at the captain of the
Guard.
The planter dashed for the safety of the veranda, and jumping the
rails to the grass below, ran for the woods, while Syn drove the
frightened soldiers before him with his sword. And then, with a shout,
the faithful Mipps, having disregarded orders, rushed through the smoke
at the head of his boat’s crew.
The soldiers broke and ran with the pirates after them, and as Syn
rushed for the veranda, he saw Shuhshuhgah in the blinding smoke calmly
scalping the dead officer. Before he could finish this operation, Syn
had dragged him clear of the burning house.
“I fired the house,” said the Redskin. “Heard that officer talk last
night about the trap for you. Came up to join you. Saw fodder under
foot. Fired it. Easy.”
“Back to the boats, and we’ll talk when on ship,” said Syn.
That night the pirates sacked Havana, seized the Governor and hanged
him on the docks where he planned to hang Clegg. They then set sail for
Santiago, “for I’ll have no Governor of a mere town lying to me, ” cried
Clegg. So, was Santiago sacked and another Governor hanged.
A suitable island was found for their treasures to be hidden in, and
for the careening of the Imogene, and from his secret base they sailed
and sailed again, taking their toll of ship after ship. Even pirate
ships were not secure from them. Indeed, the crew noted that their
Captain attacked these with the greater spirit, for on one of them he
always hoped to meet with Nicholas.
Chapter 18
Mutiny
During the twelve years or so that the Imogene kept the seas and
ruled them, there were few Government interested in shipping who had not
posted large rewards for her captain. But Clegg and his loyal rascals
