when the goalong passed the narrows and was making her way rapidly through the upper harbor, it was approaching the evening of the second day after her encounter with the pirate cruiser, shadow.
maxwell kane was standing near the wheel-house as they passed inside the bay, and, after glancing at his watch, he turned and walked aft, where his wife and her mother were seated, silent, under the awning. both were sad and care-worn, for the terrible uncertainty as to the fate of the beloved sister and daughter had almost prostrated them. and yet, they had borne up wonderfully well under the circumstances.
“i am always good at picking winners,” kane had said to them on one occasion, “and i will take bess against the field any time. that pirate will get left at the pole, you see if he doesn’t, and he’ll never come within a thousand yards of our filly. you see!”
just now, when he walked aft, he had another idea on his mind.
“mother,” he said, to the elder woman, “we will be at the foot of west twenty-third street in something more than an hour; that is to say, in exactly forty-eight hours since we parted with the shadow.”
“yes, maxwell,” she replied. “well?”
“i was about to suggest this: an hour more or less[156] now won’t cut much ice in this affair we’ve got on hand, will it?”
“i don’t know exactly what you mean, maxwell; but go on.”
“i want you and cora to remain on board when we land; see?”
“you don’t wish us to go ashore? really, maxwell, i feel as if i must——”
“i don’t want you to go ashore—either of you—until after we have seen and talked with nick carter. just the very first moment when i can leave the yacht i will do so, and i will get him over the telephone and ask him to come to us; and we won’t any of us say a blessed word about anything that has happened on this cruise, until after we have seen and talked with him. is that agreeable?”
“why, yes, i suppose so.”
“i have given orders to manning to that effect. and now, with that understanding, i’ll have myself put ashore the first moment possible. in the meantime, if anybody should happen to come out to the yacht, you will not receive them?”
“certainly not.”
“it is not at all likely that anybody will do so, you know; but i wish to have it understood.”
“very well, maxwell.”
true to kane’s prophecy, the goalong arrived at the time he said she would, and in a very short time after that he was in communication with the detective. their conversation was short, but very much to the point.
[157]
“is that you, nick?” kane asked; and when he had received an affirmative reply he continued:
“don’t ask me for particulars over the phone, but come down here as quickly as you can, will you? it is a matter of life and death, old man.”
“i’ll be there at once,” was the reply; and kane heard the click of the receiver as the detective replaced it at the other end.
and he had not long to wait after that.
he did not return at once to the yacht, but lingered where he was until he saw the detective leap from a car and approach him; then he led the way directly to his launch, and the two were speedily set aboard the yacht. in as few words as possible, he then related the story of their adventure which had ended so disastrously—in the abduction of bessie harlan.
the very first question which nick then asked was one which kane had foreseen. it was:
“who, besides yourselves, is aware of this affair?”
“not a soul in the world, save the people aboard this yacht—and aboard the pirate, of course.”
“then,” said nick slowly and emphatically, “not a soul save yourselves must ever know about it.”
“just my own idea,” said kane.
“it is for her sake,” continued nick carter. “ladies, when you go ashore, you must say not a thing about this sad occurrence. give out—if you must make any explanation at all—that miss harlan has remained at bermuda, or that you have dropped her somewhere on the[158] route homeward. for her own sake her present predicament must never be known.”
“we realize that fully,” said mrs. kane.
“can you keep your crew from talking about the pirate?” asked nick, of max.
“you bet i can.”
“then see that you do so.”
“but mr. carter,” asked the mother, “can you not give us some hope of her rescue?”
“hope? certainly i can. hope? there is no occasion for anything else save hope.”
“but think—think of her awful predicament.”
“i have thought of it. i am thinking of it now. madam, you have often heard the expression that you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear; but has it ever occurred to you that it is quite as difficult an undertaking to make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse?”
“i do not understand you. mr. carter.”
“then i will explain. we are agreed, are we not, that the captain of the shadow is no other and no less a person than count cadillac?”
“yes.”
“very well. if count cadillac had been reared a pirate—if he had passed all his life before he appeared here in society among us, in the slums of the world, a scoundrel, a thief, an impostor, and a felon, his advent here would have been a parallel with making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. now, we all know that while he was among us, he at least appeared the gentleman, and, therefore,[159] we are satisfied that his antecedents were and are good.”
“that is certainly true, nick,” said kane. “i begin to see the point you are getting at.”
“very well. now, on the other hand, if he has always been a gentleman until he took up this calling of a pirate, he has undertaken the proposition of turning the saying the other way ’round; eh?”
“changing himself into a sow’s ear, when he has, heretofore, been a sort of a silk purse; is that the idea?”
“exactly.”
“how does it apply, mr. carter?”
“why, his natural proclivities are those of a gentleman. his calling as a pirate is an avocation rather than a vocation. he can play the brute, but he cannot wholly become one.”
“he is certainly acting the part of one now,” said mrs. kane.
“granted; but it is only outwardly. inherently, he is still a man of genteel tendencies. he has held you up in the middle of the ocean and robbed you of the greatest treasure you possess, but he has not done it for ransom—he has done it because he is in love with bessie, and because he realized the utter hopelessness of his love, since we sent his brother to prison, and proved to our own satisfaction that he was as deep in the mud as his brother was in the mire.
“don’t you understand that the moment bessie became a prisoner aboard his craft he realized her entire helplessness?[160] don’t you see that he never realized the enormity of the outrage he was committing, until he saw her seated there in his cabin, absolutely at his mercy? can’t i make you understand that, bad as he is, all the good there is in him rose to the surface at that moment, and every chivalric strain there is in him, descended from his ancestors, appealed to him then and there to protect her?”
“the point is,” said kane, “that he started in to make a sow’s ear out of himself, and has had an opportunity to find out that it can’t be done; eh?”
“precisely. there are some things which cannot be accomplished by a man, no matter how intent he may be upon it; and the greatest of them all is, that he cannot change his nature. the genteel blood which flows in the veins of count cadillac would no more permit him to offer offense to bessie harlan, unprotected as she is, than it would you or me, kane.”
“by jove, carter! i believe you!”
“certainly; so, you see, we must start in with the assurance that she is as safe from actual harm where she is as if she were here with us now.”
the mother sighed.
“i wish i could feel it so,” she said.
“it is as true, madam, as that you are seated there. her position is, of course, a false one. she is in a terrible situation. but it is neither fatal nor vital. have i convinced you, mrs. harlan?”
“you have more than half-done so, sir.”
“then let us proceed. we must now arrive at the[161] quickest and best way of rescuing her; and we must agree that when she is at last rescued—as she will be in short order—the secret of her adventure must remain with us—with only those who are concerned in it—forever.”
“by thunder! carter, you are getting at the meat of the thing in short order. i knew that you would do it. i couldn’t think of a method to cheer these women, try as i might, and here you have accomplished it in a moment.”
“we must now get about the rescue,” said nick, again.
“but how? how shall we get about it? you can’t trace that infernal craft of his across the waters of the ocean!”
“why not?”
“eh? why not? can you?”
“certainly you can; or, at least, certainly we can.”
“for heaven’s sake, how?”
“do you recall, kane, the night when we swam aboard the shadow?” asked nick, referring to the time of the first capture of the pirate cruiser, when the brother of the count had been taken prisoner and sent to his just deserts.
“i should say i do.”
“do you remember the conversation i overheard between the count’s brother—captain sparkle—and his wife?”
“yes. of course.”
“don’t you recall the fact that at that time we learned the whole secret of their piratical proclivities? don’t you remember how the woman hated it all, and hated her[162] husband, also, because he had ever gone into the venture?”
“yes.”
“and his explanation to her of his reasons, doubtless given to her for the hundredth or thousandth time?”
“yes; certainly.”
“let me recall it to you, nevertheless. over in his own country they are descendants of one of the oldest families of the oldest province of france—anjou. there he possesses large estates, a château, and all that the heart of a frenchman desires, save the one necessity, money. he became a pirate in order to possess himself of that necessary money. he had decided that there were hundreds of rich men in this country from whom he could purloin certain large sums which would mean a fortune to him, but which would not affect them, even after they had been robbed. his idea was that they were so rich that they would never miss at all what he took from them.”
“yes; i remember all that.”
“his only idea in becoming a pirate was to restore his fallen fortunes; to redeem his estates; to rebuild his château; to become a grandee, as his ancestors had been for many generations before him; to settle down there at last, in quiet and in happiness, rich, admired, respected, and esteemed. and he would have accomplished it, too, if he had not run up against you, kane.”
“say, rather, against you, nick.”
“oh! well, it is the same thing. we were fortunate in cutting short his piratical career, and he is now paying[163] the penalty for his misdeeds. now, kane, i am satisfied that this brother, the real count, is a better man than the one we captured. there is more of the gentility of his family in him. i have never thought that he was entirely a willing party to the pirate business. he was an accessory, of course, because he remained quiescent, and did not betray his brother, but i doubt very much if he ever willingly committed a piratical act, or stole, until he first stole the shadow from her moorings here in the city, and then held you up in mid-ocean.”
“well?”
“now, we are endeavoring to trace his course across the ocean, are we not?”
“yes.”
“then we have to consider why he has done the things he has.”
“sure.”
“first, then, it goes without saying that he was in love with bessie, does it not?”
“i think so.”
“you saw it. i saw it. your wife saw it. we all saw it. isn’t it so?”
“yes,” they all assented.
“very good. now, if you will hark back to the capture of his brother, you will see how all of the real count’s castles in the air were shattered by that event.”
“i see.”
“the brother was a married man; he could only retrieve his fortunes in some such manner as he adopted; but with the count, it was different. he was single. he[164] had fallen in love with bessie. if he could succeed in winning her for his wife, his fortunes would be retrieved on the spot, and after a manner entirely honorable; for bessie is rich, in her own right, is she not?”
“yes.”
“i think he really loved her. i think that she was attracted to him. i even think that it might have ended by her marrying him. it is certain that he thought so. then, in an instant, the cup he was holding to his lips was shattered. his hopes were dashed to the ground. he determined to disappear. he did so. then he began to think out some way of overcoming the difficulty that had arisen; of bridging the chasm that had suddenly been dug at his feet. and, kane, he saw but one way—only one. there was the yacht where he could possess himself of it. bessie was in bermuda. he could steal the shadow. he could hold up the goalong and take bessie away, bodily. thus, at least, he would find the opportunity to plead with her—to present his side of the case exactly as it is; and, perhaps, in spite of all, to win her, for he believed she loved him. at the worst, he could not be lower in her opinion than he already was. this afforded him a chance to win, and he took it.”
