VAGABOND VOYAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 June 1938, Page 10

VAGABOND VOYAGE

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT COPYRIGHT

BY

ALROY WEST

(Author of “Stratosphere Express”)

CHAPTER XlX—Continued. Sinclair laughed recklessly. “Don’t be so certain about that!” he cried. “We’ll see who has the last word. You’ll not get rid of me that easily.” Wicks stepped nearer to him, brushing aside his outstretched arm. “I’ve listened to enough!” he snapped “Get off the bridge!” “Don’t lose your temper, captain. That will not be of the slightest use. And I shall stay on the bridge as long as I please. You’d better get back to your wheel.” It was a deliberate challenge, and Wicks did not hesitate about taking it up. With a cry of anger he leapt forward. Sinclair struck out at him, but Wicks parried the blow. He drove his fist fair and square’ against Sinclair’s jaw. The bigger man reeled back, recovered his balance and jolted home a punch which made the captain grunt with pain. Despite the fact that Sinclair was bigger and more powerful, the advantage lay with Wicks, who was astonishingly quick with his feet and had the knack of anticipating the lurches of that ship. One of these made Sinclair lose his balance, and this gave Wicks his opportunity. He leapt in at lightning speed and crashed home two vicious punches. Sinclair tried to cover himself, but was a fraction too slow. The second punch landed on his jaw. For a second he swayed. Then he crumpled up and sprawled out at the captain’s feet. Peter had been careful to keep as well out of the range of the fight as possible. It was essential that the trawler should keep to her course. A deviation might lose them several valuable seconds.

Despite the struggle on the bridge and the necessity of watching the ship’s course, he had noticed that there was another fight on. It was between Foster and Doyle. Evidently the former had realized that there was serious trouble between Sinclair and the captain, and had tried to go to the rescue of his friend. Doyle, however, intercepted him and had all the advantages of a surprise attack. The struggle was very little longer than the one upon the bridge, because Foster was no match for the red-haired Irishman. A veritable tornado of punches sent him reeling across the deck, where he flopped down and lay still. Doyle came to the bridge at the double. “Shall I take charge of Sinclair?” he asked, with a cheerful smile. "I’d be glad if you would,” Wicks told him. “I think the best place for him is forward. Just drop him down the hatch and batten it down on him.” Doyle chuckled.

“It’s the greatest delight that it would give me,” he said. “And there’s another one on deck who can keep him company. I do hope there are not fish in the hold?” Wicks shook his head. “I had the nets put down there — that’s all,” he said.

Doyle stooped over Sinclair and managed to pick him up. Then, staggering under the weight of his heavy burden he left the bridge. Wicks took the wheel from Peter, who stood aside and saw Doyle, assisted by Crockett, put Sinclair and Foster down in the hold.

“We’ll see whose bridge this is,” Wicks snapped. “You’d better have another look at the destroyer. I think she’s being left behind pretty well.” “She is,” Peter reported. “But, from the smoke, I should imagine that she’s making a great effort to overhaul us.”

“I doubt if she can manage it,” Wicks said thoughtfully. “If we can hold our own until evening I think we can manage to fool her” Despite all the endeavours of Gallop to keep the trawler at the highest possible speed, the destroyer was still on the port quarter as the afternoon drew to a close. It seemed to Peter that she had, if anything, gained a trifle: but it was not much, and he began to feel that Wicks would be as good as his word.

The captain was in the best of humours. z

“Once it’s dark we’ll slip away righ' enough,” he declared with a chuckle. “How do you propose to do that?” Peter asked him.

“That’s very easy. We shall light the lamps as usual, and proceed on our present course for a time. Then every single light on board will be put out. and we shall alter our course. Since the bad weather set in the sky has been overcast, so there is little fear of there being a moon. As soon as it is sufficiently safe to do it we shall lie to. The destroyer will expect us to go on ahead, or else a swerve either to north or south. The one thing she will not expect is that we shall about ship and return the way we came. “Once we are satisfied that she has drawn away to a pretty good distance we can get our engines started once more, and set a course between Barbadoes and the Windward Islands. “Rather risky running without lights.” Peter commented. “Risks are an essential part of my business,” the captain told him. “You have to run risks in order to get anywhere. You needn’t fear about the ship. I've nevei' lost a craft of any description in my life —and I'm not going to start.” CHAPTER XX. Wicks’s scheme worked perfectly. The night was as black as pitch. The lights from the destroyer twinkled in the distance like stars low in the water. Gordon. Crockett and Doyle attended to the business of putting out the lights on the trawler. Crockett dealt with the navigation lights, first putting out the tri-coloured masthead light, and immediately afterwards doing the same to the white light below them. Gordon put the light out in the engine room, while Doyle attended to the galley and the cabin shared by Peter and Gallop. The lamp in the captain’s cabin had

not been . lit.

Wicks was at the wheel, and Doyle joined him.

“I bet that’s troubling her,” he said with satisfaction. “There isn’t a glim showing anywhere on the trawler.”

Wicks chuckled. “I knew I could beat her,” he announced. “I doubt if the captain of that destroyer can steer without a light on his bridge.” “You must be able to feel your way in the dark,” said Doyle admiringly. “There may be something in that.” There was a slight pause. “I’m wondering why that destroyer is . chasing us,” Wicks remarked. “There’s no doubt that she is, but I can’t quite understand it. It didn’t look to me that she blundered upon us by accident, either.’ Unless, she was out looking for suspicious craft. Have you heard any whispers of a coming revolution? Any reason for suspecting gun-running?” “There’s nothing that I know of. Of course there nearly always are rumours of an impending revolution. It’s either coming from the Army or the Navy, or the people who are not in either. I hadn’t heard that gun-run-ning was going on. It should doubt it, personally. Sinclair would have been in on it like a shot. He has a nose for that sort of thing. He can smell a new racket a mile away. He never said anything to us about giving up the pearl fishing. He wasn’t doing too well out of it and he’d have switched over to something else like a shot. So that makes me think that gun-running is not taking place along this coast.” Wicks frowned.

“If the destroyer didn’t blunder into us she must have been searching for us. That puzzles me.”

“Maybe she got to know of your position because of that tramp steamer we passed. She could have sent out a wireless message. Doyle thought for a minute. “You were expecting some trouble over the gold, weren’t you?” he asked. “Or are they letting people clear off with that sort of thing in these days?” Wicks laughed. “I hoped they’d think that we’d gone to the bottom,” he announced.

“They might be thinking a thing like that, surely. But there is always the chance that you would slip across the Atlantic. They must have been bearing a thing like that in mind. It isn’t the first time it’s been crossed in a small craft, you must remember. It would probably be worth while taking a little trouble to make sure that the trawler didn’t sink. But that wouldn’t be bringing a destroyer after you.” “I’ve realized that,” Wicks told him.

“She’s pretty old—or else got damaged in the storm. She couldn’t be going much'slower if she launched all her boats and tried to tow herself along!”

Wicks, satisfied with the position of his ship, signalled to the engine-room to stop. The trawler glided forward for a short distance, and then started to drift with the waves.

“This should do,” Wicks muttered, leaving the bridge for a moment. Peter was standing by and took the wheel from him.

Wicks went on deck and watched the destroyer’s lights. She was practically level with them on the starboard beam, and was obviously going at the highest possible speed. Doyle spat over the rail. He had followed the captain from the bridge. “She seems to be going better now,” he observed. “Unless the lights are deceptive.”

“She is making better speed,” Wicks confirmed. “I’m sure of that. Probably she was having a bit of trouble with her engines during the day.” They watched her stern light until it was only the smallest twinkle in the distance.

Wicks gave a grunt of approval and returned to the bridge.

“All right,” he said to Peter, “you can go below now. I will carry on.” Peter obeyed. Wicks was standing more than his fair share at the wheel, but he seemed to be able to do with a very small amount of sleep. Apart from that, however, he was naturally anxious to be in control as much as possible because of getting out of danger.

Gallop was also off duty. He struck a match in order to light his pipe as Peter entered the cabin.

I m getting tired of this,” he grumbed.

It doesn't seem to me that you will have much chance of getting the gold for yourself,” Peter said to him. “Doyle is a most promising recruit. I don’t know if you feel like trusting Sinclair. You might release him and take conrol of the ship that way.” Gallop gave a snort of disgust. That wouldn’t do.” he said quickly. I couldn't trust Sinclair. He'd try to cut my throat at the first opportunity.” So would Doyle.” Peter reminded him.

Yes. I shouldn't be surprised at that. But I m not taking any interest m the gold at the moment. I'm perfectly contented to wait and see what happens. Wicks is landing into some more trouble, so far as I can estimate. He owes some of it to you. Don't you feel that it would have been wiser to have left those pearl fishers to their fate? It seems to me that they are going to complicate things." “They are," Peter admitted. “But Wicks is going to put Sinclair and Foster ashore. I shouldn't be surprised if he does the same to Doyle. He's sure not to trust the man.” Gallop yawned.

“With so much plotting going on there's small wonder that a simple, honest engineer like myself can't see the wood for trees. I begin to feel sorry that Wicks picked up that gold. If you want my opinion, we shall all be darned lucky if we don't get chuck-