Читать книгу Kidnapped in the Jungle - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 8

Table of Contents

They were due to land at Colon at dawn. It was a little after midnight and Hal stood at the port rail thinking that the voyage had been all too short, cruelly so for Coly’s sake. If it could only have lasted another day!

“So young Walters’ crisis isn’t until tomorrow, eh?” came the purser’s voice suddenly.

Hal looked around startled. “Didn’t see you, purser,” he explained. Then: “Yes, it’s tough luck for Coly, huh? It couldn’t have happened before tomorrow. Oh well, even at that I guess he wouldn’t have been in any condition to identify his own mother. If that isn’t the worst break I ever heard of!”

“I know, I know,” said the purser consolingly, “things do happen that way sometimes. But never mind, Keen, we don’t know why. The worst breaks sometimes give the best results after all. The Old Man^[1] is as interested in the young fellow as anybody on board and he’s already radioed for the port authorities to look close at our discharged male passengers. If there’s a man with a record among them, or a man who can’t give a satisfactory account of himself, they won’t hesitate to hold ’em. We’ve questioned every passenger that came aboard early that morning we sailed and it hasn’t got us anywhere—there were too many of ’em. But you leave it to the boys at Colon—they’ll ferret out the guy, if he’s here.”

A passenger strolled around on the stern deck, circled it, then hurried back along the opposite deck. Hal lowered his voice, “Did you see that man, purser?” he asked.

“No. Wasn’t paying much attention to him. Why?”

“Nothing,” Hal said thoughtfully, “only it’s a funny thing how he suddenly popped out when you were talking. Maybe I imagined it but he had that sort of guilty air of an eavesdropper. He acted as if he wanted to be sure who we were and going round the deck gave him a fine chance to do it. I couldn’t see who he was either, but there was something familiar about his walk. Do you know, I surprised somebody behind one of the vents on the forward deck the night Coly came up from below. It was right after I chased him off to bed and I went looking for the steward.”

“You mean someone had been listening to you and young Walters talking?” the purser asked.

“Uh huh, listening to every word we said, I guess. When I started round the deck he scooted out from behind the vent and gosh knows what stateroom he disappeared in—he went that fast.”

The purser hurried up around the stern deck looking up and down and all around.

Then he came back. “Not a sign of anyone, Keen,” he announced. “Wish I had looked to see who that fellow was. Too bad you didn’t think to give me a wink—the whole thing looks a little suspicious to me.”

“It does, sort of,” Hal agreed. “Maybe it’s just some nosey bird, though. Anyway, I’ve got to concentrate on Coly, see if I can think of some way to help him. He’s kind of got faith in me, purser. I said something about carrying on for him that night he came down sick and he’s been talking about that in his delirium ever since. Things like that get me, that’s a fact. I couldn’t go back on him now—not for anything. He’ll be pretty weak and sick when he gets home and if he has to face that thing—well, he’ll need help. I believe him about those fellows and even if it’s seven months too late, I’ve got an idea that maybe Unk can look up some things. He’s great at that.”

The purser looked up at Hal’s handsome, clean cut features, admiringly. “Don’t know but what you seem to have some of your uncle’s knack for that too,” he said smilingly. “You’ve got little traits of observation that most people your age wouldn’t know if they were told about them. Guess it’s in the blood.”

Hal grinned. “Hope so, purser,” he said modestly, “but if I’m going to beat Unk ever, I’ve got a long way to go yet. Guess I better get some sleep too, huh? I want to be up and on the job when we come in sight of Colon.”

“Then you’ve only got a few hours, Keen.” The purser put out his hand. “I’ll say goodbye now because I might be pretty busy in the morning. Hope I’m down here when you and your uncle decide to come back.”

“Hope so too,” Hal said, shaking the man’s hand heartily.

He left the purser and went back to his stateroom feeling that his short acquaintance with him would be a pleasant and lasting memory. Certainly Coly’s return trip to the States was in kind and thoughtful hands from the captain on down. There was nothing further he could do but sleep and wait for dawn.

Hal felt not a little helpless and chagrined at this forced inactivity. Sleep seemed but an admission of weakness at such a time for he felt that had he even the slightest clue the remaining hour or two of the voyage could be spent in fruitful pursuit.

Thus it took him quite a time to compose himself to rest and sleep. When he had finally settled into slumber it was only to toss and moan with wild, meaningless dreams. An hour and a half passed in this manner when suddenly he was awakened to the startling realization that the boat was not moving.

He sat up and looked around and saw that it was not yet dawn. A faint rosy light gleamed through the mist on the far horizon, but the sky was still black and starless and a deep solemn hush pervaded everything. So great was the silence that Hal instinctively stifled a rather audible yawn and stepped out across the floor on tiptoe.

He dressed quickly, sniffing with youthful enthusiasm that sweet dampness of the tropics that one recognizes instantly upon reaching the Isthmus. Immediately his mind was full of the jungle excursions and fascinating trips that his uncle had promised him, and he forgot for the time Coly’s present and future troubles.

Absorbed in these thoughts he stepped quietly out on deck. No sooner had he shut the door noiselessly behind him than he became aware of the purser crouched in a ludicrous posture behind a mammoth pile of rope that lay just under the rail. A little further along the deck he saw the figure of a man leaning over the rail and engaged in what seemed to him a sort of absurd pantomime with some invisible creature below.

At that moment, the purser became aware of Hal and made a gesture for silence and secrecy by putting his finger to his lips.

“What’s the idea—what’s the matter?” Hal asked when he had crept silently across the deck to the purser’s side.

“Crouch down here so’s he can’t see you. He thinks he’s all alone on this side of the deck,” whispered the purser. “I just happened on it myself a second ago and he was so busy signaling to that Spigotty below. Something funny about it, Keen—look!”

Hal peered through the rail and to his surprise saw a swarthy Panamanian in a small dory making frantic gestures to the man on deck. It was impossible to make out his features, for a heavy mist lay over the water and one could not see more than a few feet away from where the man’s boat was gently rocking on the tide.

“When I first came along, the Spiggotty was fishing a suitcase out of the water,” the purser whispered. “This bird threw it in, I’m thinking. Now what do you suppose....”

“Where are we, anyway?” Hal interposed.

“Right in the harbor. We’re waiting for the fog to lift—that’ll be in a little while.”

Hal peered around the pile of rope and looked from the man at the rail to the native in the dory. They had ceased signaling to each other.

“Do you suppose he’s smuggling something?” Hal asked excitedly.

“Shush! I’m wondering myself. You see I only came along ... wait ... we’ll see what he does next and I’ll go and report him!”

The man’s next move was a truly novel one, so much so that it took Hal and the purser completely by surprise. In point of fact, they were so staggered for the moment that they seemed unable to move or cry out and crouched where they were stark still, while the fellow leaped to the rail as agilely as a monkey and poised in mid-air.

The next second he had clipped the waters of the harbor as silently and swiftly as an arrow.

[1] Captain.