Part 33 (2/2)
He could not dream how she knew of the mutiny, but if it was carried through, he was d.a.m.ned in her eyes forever. What she guessed McTee must know. What McTee knew must be familiar to White Henshaw, yet Henshaw could not know, for if he did, the ring-leaders would be instantly clapped into irons. Once or twice he looked down from his work to Kate and McTee. They still leaned at the rail, talking seriously.
And McTee was saying: ”I have learned what I want to know. Every detail of the plot is in my hands. Now I am going to the cabin of White Henshaw and tell him everything. It's the simplest way. And you've started a suspicion in the mind of Harrigan. He'll spread the word to the rest of the mutineers, and they'll be on their watch against us.”
She made a little gesture of appeal. ”I couldn't help speaking to him, Angus. Suspecting him of such a thing is like--is like suspecting myself!”
”Let it go. It's done. Now I'm going up to see White Henshaw. The old man will be crazy when he hears it.”
He found the captain giving some orders to Salvain, and waited until they were alone. Then he said: ”There are about ten of us against the rest of the crew of the s.h.i.+p. Can we hold them in case of a mutiny?”
He had planned this laconic statement carefully, expecting to see Henshaw turn pale and stammer in terror. Instead, the captain regarded McTee with quietly contemplative eyes.
”So,” he murmured, ”you've heard of the mutiny?”
The tables were completely turned on the Scotchman. He gasped: ”You have known all the time?”
”Certainly,” said Henshaw; ”I even know every word that Hovey said to you.”
McTee turned crimson.
”I have eyes that see everything on the s.h.i.+p,” went on Henshaw, as if he wished to cover the embarra.s.sment of the Scotchman, ”and I have ears which hear everything. I have lines of information tangled through the forecastle. I can almost guess what they are about to think, let alone what they will speak or do. The blockheads are always planning a mutiny, though I confess none of them have ever taken the proportions of this one. However, this will go the way of the rest.”
”The way of the rest?” queried McTee almost stupidly.
”Yes. They plan to hold their action till we're close to the land.
About that time I'll call up one or two of the ring-leaders and tell them just what they have planned to do. That'll make them think I have unknown means of meeting the mutiny. It will die.”
McTee sat down, loosened his s.h.i.+rt at the throat, and gaped upon Henshaw as a child might gape upon a magician.
”I don't blame you for taking a day to think over the temptation,”
smiled the old buccaneer. ”The gold I showed you would have tempted any man. But I'm glad you came to me. I expected you last night. It took you a little longer to settle the details in your mind, eh?”
”Henshaw, I feel like a yellow dog!”
”Come! Come! You're a man after my own heart. You took the temptation in your hand--you looked it over--and then you turned away from it.
Well, and suppose the mutiny should actually come to the breaking point; they would be right in thinking I have means of fighting them. I have no firearms on the s.h.i.+p; they know that. They don't know that I have these.”
He went into the next room and returned carrying a heavy box. This he placed on the desk and took a small, heavy ball of metal from it.
”A bomb?” queried McTee.
”It is. The moment a group gathers, one of these tossed among them will end the mutiny the moment it begins.”
McTee handed back the bomb in silence. There was something about this cold-blooded way of speaking of death which was not cruelty--it was something greater--it was an absolute disregard of life.
”Of course,” said Henshaw, as he came back from depositing the box in the next room, ”there are only half a dozen of those bombs, but that will be enough. The explosion of a couple of them would just about wreck the deck. However, the mutiny will never reach the point of action. I'll see to that. What always ties the hands of the crew is that it lacks real leaders. Hovey, for instance, will turn to water when I say three words about the mutiny to him.”
”But Harrigan,” said McTee quietly, ”will not.”
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