The Devil's Admiral

e since I had seen him he dropped his sanctimonious pose and looked anything but the decrepit old missionary whi

is knees had that limp sea-bend of the sailor and his out-turned toes seemed to grasp the uncertain rise and fall of the carpet beneath his feet; he w

say the things which were in my mind. He seemed to understand that I was tr

olm," he said: "So your insistence to be a passenger was

cards well, you and your little red-headed sc

said Captain Riggs. "We

, sir, or I'll h

tes privately, captain, I'l

e; but I could see that I had cut him deeply, for he whitened and stepped toward me with closed fist. "Don't

one of my pistols in his hand, and keeping an ey

that I am in the Russian service. He tried to hold me in Manila, and when I would not listen

g that red chap's word for what he says about you, but if you go on like this I will have to put you in confinement. Otherwise, you will simply be restricted to your cabin until we reach Hong-Kong

f that my life will be in danger unless this man is made a prisoner. I protest against his being allowed

r. Trenholm here to his room, and remove all his luggage and see that he ha

I will willingly obey any order you may give, even to becoming a prisoner in my room; but I think that it will

ker, advancing on me again in a menacing man

d Petrak that Captain Rigg

y the arm and led me down the passage. As I went out Meeker grinned

tateroom and commanded me to light the gimbal-lamp, passing me

him that Petrak killed Trego, and all day in Ma

rest of it out, and mind that thar's no gun-play about it. I'm well heeled,

s, or any of the packets of papers or my money belt. When he had taken my grip he demanded my clo

lose here, 'cause we've got a watch outside, and the first time we ketch ye up to any d

heavy oak door and turn

my own stupidity. But I realized that the battle had but just begun, and my first task must be to attempt some

have saved me from my position-either I should have told Meeker at once that he was mistaken in thinking me a spy and warned him to keep clear of me, or I should have told the police that I was being annoyed by a suspicious c

to his espionage-a hundred ways of protecting myself from the fellow came into my mind as I sat th

made. I was bitter at myself for allowing Petrak to bring my bag on board,

suspected from the first, and in order to prevent me from going to Hong-Kong for some pur

om accomplishing the object of my supposed mission in Hong-Kong, he had got me involved in a crime from which I knew I would have a great deal

have something of which I might be accused; it seemed to me th

hich would aid me in assorting the tangled bits that only needed to be arranged properly to bet the so

gh I could not connect it with Meeker's plot against me, and I had to lay t

rning as I arrived at the mole from Saigon. When I had made a note of the delivery of the letter to the Russian consul at the

ed into some sort of a plot of which I had no knowledge, for Meeker

ittle importance in itself, but worth a great deal when connected with the fact that Trego l

truck down before he had told Captain Riggs why he had papers as superca

h, and that was Meeker did his best to keep me out of the Kut Sang, as he said, and I reached the conclusion that it was not me so much as the steamer which concern

y anger was giving way to alarm. I began to realize that perhaps being a prisoner was the safest for me while on the steamer, for if Meeker had brough

plea that I might attack him was made more for the purpose of having me put out of reach of the captain than for his own protectio

explaining things to Riggs before morning. I decided that I would ask for paper an

d as a shield for me as I lay in the upper berth. I had no desire to have a pistol thrust throug

e bucked into a sea, and the wash at her freeboard and the spray breaking on the deck outside made a great racket. Her old engines jolted and jarred

d up possible situations for the next day conferences with Captain Riggs, fights with Meeker, a

rked at the multiplication table, and resorted to other devices to get into a do

when she took a long roll to starboard it rattled a second and then rasped along the board. Locating the sound in the dark, I groped along the planks to fin

pare key to the stateroom. Cautiously I tried it in the large, old-fashioned

ing idle in a cell, made up my mind to venture out and call upon Captain Riggs if I could find him, or do a little

had said something about a guard at the door, but although I strained my eyes, in the darkness I could see no one. Each end of the passage w

pped out, closing the door silently and not locking

or more doors between his and where the passage gave on the open after-deck, Captain Rigg's room was on the sam

hen saw a sliver of light from the jamb of a door. There was a conversation going on in the captain's room, but I could not distinguish the voices. I went on to the forward

hich dropped from the wall. He was sorting out papers

n, Mr. Harris," I he

ed to be in an irritable mood. "I know what I'm talking

black cat,

his is all about I'm tellin' ye! We got somethin' on our hands, I tell ye! We've got to d

nothing to me, nor the charter party, either. They'd use a liner and about forty men for anything like that. I'm crazy enough now, what with this mur

ess I know. I held a bull's-eye light on it and it showed plain as Cape Cod Light. One of them chists got sprung, and I thought maybe I'd made a mistake w

down in the hold and dig around in cargo and get the crew suspicious. They are stirre

in the Martha Pillsbury with a man what didn't have any head and never turned a hair. Ye know that old barkentine whaler that Cap'n Peabody sold. Dang it all, c

it in the storeroom. It ain't in the hold. When I come across the key to the room I made up my mind I'd have a look at it. Tinned m

bet a clipper-ship to a doughnut-hole that writin' chap Trenhum knows about it, and he ain't no writin' chap, nei

ptain Riggs, evidently in doubt as to what he should do.

. What more ye want? They got things switched somehow, and that's

nough, and like as not he would have told me if he had been left alive long enough. It don't strike me reasonable that he'd keep anything like that from me-no

Like as not they didn't know-charter was for cargo, and they didn't bother their head about that p

s to-night comes from it. I don't like the passengers and I don't like these new whites in the crew. They know one another, I'm tellin' ye. T

did we git them three jewels-the writin' chap brought the little red killer, and the parson brought th

are not fool enough to believe stories about the Devil's Admir

me before he died, after the loss of the Southern Cross, I'm not so sure this devil's-admiral talk is all folderol. Chips couldn't tell much befor

There ain't nobody ever saw this here Devil's Admiral, sure enough, that lived to tell it, but ships don't al

an jack out of her, and sailed from Manila, as we did, for Hong-Kong, and never heard of. Steamer she w

t off yer mind, or ye'll be fretting yerself and losing sleep with such yarns running wild in yer top-piece. I don't

about it, at that. Be sure the slide is shut in that lantern, and call the boy to

went aft for Rajah, and when he returned in a minute Captain Riggs was standing at the head of the fore-deck ladder waiting for them. Harris wh