the interior of the turret was as dark as a pocket, but the detective quickly discovered the door which communicated with the interior of the vessel proper, and he opened it. contrary to his expectations, he found himself then inside a brilliantly lighted section of the vessel, which he recognized at a glance to be the general assembling-room—the apartment used by the pirates for their general uses.
it was, in fact, in the form of a miniature social hall of a great steamship, and even the detective was amazed to see the sumptuousness with which it was furnished and decorated. it might have done service as a compartment in the palace of a prince, so perfect were its appointments. but the thing which interested the detective most just then was the fact that there was not a human being to be seen, not a sign of one, beyond the general significance of the place itself.
“come!” he whispered. “it will never do for us to remain here. they will be bringing their spoils aboard presently, and we must be well concealed before that time.”
“are you going to remain here?” asked kane also in a whisper.
“sure! what do you suppose i took all that trouble to get here for?”
[82]
“why, to have it out with the pirate—to have a scrap with him at once, capture his ship and cargo, and all that.”
“we will do that later. just now we have other axes to grind.”
he glided rapidly aft toward a door he saw in the bulkhead, opened it cautiously, and peered through. but instantly he started back, and, seizing chick and kane with either hand, forced them underneath the long table behind them.
and they were not a moment too soon. the door which he had partially opened was thrown wide ajar this time, and a woman appeared on the threshold. she paused there for a moment, and the detective, from his position under the table, could see her plainly.
his mental comment at that moment was that it would not do to say that she was beautiful, merely because her face was too strong for that adjective; but she was certainly handsome. she was tall and well formed, and her hair and eyes were as black as night, while her skin was as white as that which you often see on people with red hair.
for a moment she stood there in the doorway, while her great, round, black eyes took in every detail of the cabin she was surveying.
“i surely thought i heard somebody here,” nick heard her murmur. “doubtless it was one of the men.”
again she looked around her searchingly. then she turned, and seemed to study the room she had quitted, as if she were undecided what to do; but, after a moment[83] of hesitation, she came into the room where nick and his companions were concealed under the table, closed the door after her, and walked rapidly through toward the turret door by which the detective had effected an entrance.
nick changed his position so that he could watch her, and he saw that she hesitated again at the turret door; but it was at once evident that her curiosity was too much for her judgment, for, after an instant, she pushed the door open in front of her, and disappeared through it, closing it behind her.
“now is our opportunity,” said nick. “quick! follow me!”
he darted from under the table, glided rapidly toward the door through which the woman had first made her appearance, and in an instant, followed by chick and kane, passed through into the after-cabin of the vessel.
and if the other one was sumptuous in its appointments, this one put it entirely in the shade. it was veritably a palace—the palace of a queen, too; but evidently of a queen who was provided with a prince consort, for there were many evidences about of masculine uses.
there were cigarettes and cigars upon the table in the center of the room. there was a piano built into the bulkhead at one end of it. there was an electric drop light burning on the table, and there were comfortable chairs, books, papers, periodicals, and articles of various kinds and uses scattered about everywhere.
at one side of the center-table there was a chess-stand,[84] with the ivory men in such a position as to indicate that a game had been interrupted in order that the aurora might be looted; and there were pictures and hangings and other decorations in the compartment, which showed that it was the abode of refinement, as well as of a pirate.
all these things the detective noticed in his first searching glance around him.
“that woman was afraid to go outside, for some reason,” he said to the others. “she did not wish the captain of this craft to see her, and so it follows that she won’t be gone more than a minute or two; but there must be another cabin aft of this one—at least, there is sure to be a couple of staterooms.”
he started forward as he spoke, and, pushing aside a hanging drapery, found himself in a narrow gangway, or passage, with an open door of a stateroom on either side of him. but a glance told him that these were the rooms occupied by the two people he most wished to avoid until he had heard enough of what they might have to say to each other to determine him how to act.
beyond these, however, there were other doors—two of them—and, as before, one on either side. these were closed, and he decided at once that they were not in constant use. he opened one of them at the same time that he pointed toward the other.
“go in there,” he directed, and so it happened that chick and kane went together into one of the rooms, while nick found himself alone in the remaining one.
and then, just as he pulled the door shut behind him—that[85] is, he closed it all but the merest crack—the noise of the opening and closing of the door of the outer cabin apprised him of the fact that the woman had returned.
he supposed that she would return to the table and seat herself there, while she awaited the return of the pirate chief from his expedition aboard the aurora; but in that he was mistaken. he was peering through the crack left him by not quite closing his own door, and he could see past an aperture at the side of the portière at the end of the passage that the woman was coming straight toward it.
he watched her without moving.
he hoped that she would not come to his door, or visit that of the room in which his companions had taken refuge, but he was thoroughly prepared to receive her if she should do either the one thing or the other.
the detective had seen enough already to make him wish to see and hear much more. the mere capture of the pirate vessel and those who were aboard of her was now not sufficient to satisfy him, for he realized that he would then have only a part of the explanation of the unheard-of circumstance of a pirate roaming the waters of long island sound.
on the other hand, he figured that if he could remain where he was a sufficient length of time without discovery there might be an opportunity for a complete investigation—or, at least, that he would hear enough of conversation between the pirate chief and the woman to inform him.
[86]
“but,” he thought to himself, “there must somewhere be a port for this vessel. she must have some place somewhere, to lay by and rest, and to permit her crew to rest. i hardly suppose that she goes to the bottom of the sound and rests there, and it is certain that she could not visit a frequented port without attracting attention which would be fatal. therefore, she must go somewhere. she must have a port; and, in all likelihood, she will go directly to that port when she leaves the vicinity of this harbor.
“now, if she does go to such a place, it is more than likely that the pirate and his wife—or whatever she is to him—will go ashore, and that is, the opportunity i want. just give me half an hour of undisturbed opportunity aboard this vessel, and i will read every secret its owner ever had. ah!”
all these thoughts passed through his brain while he was watching the woman’s approach, and the concluding exclamation he uttered—or thought, for he made no sound—was caused by her hastening directly to the door behind which he was concealed.
just outside of it she came to an abrupt halt, and the detective drew back and flattened himself as closely as possible against the bulkhead, in order that if she did decide to enter the stateroom where he was concealed, he might remain undiscovered for as long a time as possible.
but whatever the thoughts were which troubled her, and gave rise to the hesitation under which she seemed to be struggling, they were of short duration; for, although[87] she stretched out her hand until it touched the door, she withdrew it again, and then, after sighing deeply, turned and retraced her steps to the cabin.
the detective opened his door again, and stepped out far enough into the passageway to discover that the woman had resumed the reading of a book, which had been left lying open on the table, and he decided that in all probability she would not leave her chair again for some time to come; at least, not until the work of the pirates in looting the aurora was finished and the chief returned to the cabin and to her. satisfied on that point, and perceiving that the woman’s back was toward him, he went inside the cabin in which he had taken refuge, and without hesitation turned on the electric light.
he believed this to be as good a time as any in which to search the cabin in which he found himself, and he had already perceived that, although it was one which did not appear to be permanently occupied, it nevertheless, bore evidences of individual uses.
he knew, also, that he ran no apparent danger in turning on the light for a few moments, since the woman’s back was toward him, and he was positive that the door beyond her, which communicated with the waist of the vessel, could not be opened without his hearing it.
the stateroom was in every way as commodious as possible in the narrow space allowed, and everything within it had been arranged by a master hand, with a view to comfort and convenience.
the berth itself was a bed; in the bulkhead at one end had been built a rosewood dresser, and at the other end[88] a writing-desk. there was a folding morris chair, also fashioned so that it could be made to disappear in the bulkhead, under the electric light; there was a narrow and shallow wardrobe close beside the dresser, and a steamer trunk showed its front under the edge of the narrow bed.
nick took in all these things at a glance, and with one step he approached the dresser.
the opening of the top drawer revealed an assorted collection of a gentleman’s collars, cuffs, ties, handkerchiefs, et cetera. the second drawer was filled with shirts; the third and last, with an assortment of underclothing.
he took all this into account in one rapid survey, but it was a handkerchief on top of its fellows which chiefly attracted his attention, and which nearly caused him to utter an exclamation of surprise as well as satisfaction. the handkerchief had been folded so that the marked corner was uppermost, and the detective saw at a glance that it bore a crest, and that underneath it were the initials “j. de c.”
that was a discovery worth while, he thought, but he closed the drawers quickly and crossed the stateroom to the writing-desk. in an instant he had opened that, and in another he was holding a sheet of writing-paper in his hand upon which was embossed the same crest, and the words “château de cadillac, anjou, france.”
“so,” he mused, as he returned it to its place and closed the desk, “i have here a full and complete explanation of the mystery. my theory about the family characteristics[89] and traits was the correct one, after all, for there is no doubt now in my mind that the chief of these pirates, the master of the shadow, captain sparkle by name, is closely related to jean, the count of cadillac—probably a brother.”
he was in the act of reclosing the desk, when he heard the sound of an opening door proceeding from the cabin, and he hastily extinguished the electric light and resorted again to the aperture he had left in closing the door, so that he might see all that took place in the apartment beyond.
and then, as he gazed past the portières, he saw the erect figure of the pirate chief as he entered the cabin, arrayed in his hamletesque costume of red; and he saw him raise his right hand, and with one gesture remove the hat and wig of blond hair from his head; and the detective could scarcely refrain from uttering an exclamation, for the pirate chieftain stood revealed, a perfect counterpart of count cadillac!
