Bloem set the tray down on the floor, fumbled for a key, and turned it in the lock. He pushed the door half open, and the Saint could see one corner of the cabin, for the lights were on inside. Then Bloem bent down to pick up the tray, and as he did so Simon dived from the eighth stair.
The Saint landed on one hunched shoulder, and that shoulder impinged accurately over Bloem's kidneys. The man gave a grunt of agony. All the weight of Simon's leaping, falling body was hurtling on behind that muscular shoulder, and Bloem was caught off his equilibrium. The impact sent the Boer toppling over, and his head was bumped forcefully against the floor as Simon crashed on top of him.
Bloem was absolutely out, but the sound of the scuffle might possibly have been heard. The Saint was on his feet again with the speed of a fighting panther. He— grabbed Bloem by the collar and yanked him into the cabin; then he snatched in the tray. In a moment he had the door shut and had turned with his back to it to see what his impulse had let him in for.
It was not till then that he saw someone sitting quietly on the bunk.
'Oh, how d'you do, Auntie?' said the Saint, who was always polite, and Agatha Girton's lips curved ironically.
'You're really rather a wonderful man, Mr. Templar,' she remarked.
Chapter XVII
PIRACY
Coming from the opposite side of the tor to that of the Saint's take-off, Patricia and her two lieutenants had no need to make a detour. They approached the Tiger's ship on the sheltered side. The hull of it cast a deep and spacious shadow over the moonlit waters, and all the attention of the crew would be concentrated toward the island and away from the swimmers, so that the only precautions the raiders had to observe were those of slipping through the quiet sea without noise.
When the sides of the ship loomed above them, Patricia forged ahead and led the way up under the bows. There they rested for a moment, clinging with cramped fingers to the edges of the plates, while their leader reconnoitred.
She swam back a little way to get a clear view of the anchor chain, and saw the same disadvantages in that line of attack as the Saint himself had envisaged. Then, being the freshest of the trio after the swim, she moved along the side to prospect for an alternative route. Thus she discovered the rope ladder which the Saint had used, and returned to inform the others of their good fortune. They followed her back — Orace was plugging doggedly on, but Algy was in great distress, and had held them back considerably in the last quarter mile — and the girl caught the lower rungs and pulled herself out of the water.
'Half a lap more, and then we can rest,' she encouraged in a whisper, leaning down and pressing Algy's hand. 'Try to raise just an ounce more — we've got to move fast till we find some place to hide.”
She scaled the ladder with a nimbleness that no old salt could have bettered, and the straining of the ropes in her hands told her that the others were trailing her as actively as they could. Looking before she leaped, she saw that the only men visible were intent upon steering an instalment of their precious cargo down into the hold aft, and in a trice she had flashed over the rail and was standing in the shadow of the deckhouse. In a moment Algy's head topped the rail, and she beckoned him to hurry. Somehow he clambered over and got across the deck to join her, though he was dazed and swaying with cold and fatigue. Orace came hard on his heels.
'How are we all?' asked Pat.
Orace was trying to rub some of the wet off his arms and legs.
'Orl right, miss — me ole woon's painin' a bit, but nuffin' ta speak uv.”
'Algy?'
'F-f-frightfully sorry to b-be such a n-n-nuisance, old th-thing!' Algy's teeth were chattering like castanets. 'But I'll b-b-be all right in a b-bally jiffy. I wish we could f-f-fmd the Tiger's whisky!'
The girl turned to Orace.
'Will you take charge for a minute?' she said. 'I don't know enough about ships. Take us some place where we'll be fairly safe from being spotted.
''Um,' said Orace, and scratched his chin thoughtfully. ''Tain't sa thunderin' easy, onner tub this size. .. .I'll goan seef they've gotta fo'c'sle-'atch, f’ya don' min' settin' among the 'awsers.'
She nodded.
'Carry on — and be quick.'
She waited, supporting Algy with one arm. She kept a sharp lookout, and her disengaged hand held Bloem's automatic, for they could not fail to be seen if anyone passed along that side of the deck. In which case the adventure was likely to terminate without further parley... , But luck was with them, and no one came, though they could hear the low voices of the men working aft, the thrum and groan of ropes and blocks and derricks, and the hum and clatter of the small winch. In a very brief space of time she saw Orace slinking back in the shadows.
'What luck?' she demanded softly.
'Didden think they'd 'ave wun,' he replied — 'but they yav! This wy — '
He led them swiftly to the bows, keeping; well down in the lee of the rail. In a short distance they were able to crouch under the bulwarks at the fo'c'sle head.
Orace turned back the tarpaulin and raised the hatch. He shone his torch down to show them the tiny compartment almost filled with coils of hawser.
' 'Tain't much,' said Orace apologetically, 'but it's syfe fra bit.'
They got Algy down, arid Patricia followed. Orace squeezed in last, and pulled the tarpaulin over again as he lowered the hatch, so that at a casual glance it would not appear to have been tampered with.
'Cosy enough 'ere,' said Orace, switching on his lamp for a moment. 'Ain't much air, though, an' if ennyone spots the 'atchis undid an' battens it dahn we shall sufficate in an owrer two,' he added cheerfully. 'We mighter done wuss, on the 'ole. But wot's nex' on the mean-you, Miss Patricia?'
'How's Algy?'
Orace focussed the light. Where Mr.Lomas-Coper was not ashen pale he was blue, but apparently his wound had closed up in the salt water, for the bandage round his head was clean. He grinned feebly.
'I'm rather weak, but I'll be lots better when I've warmed up. I'm afraid I'm not much use as a pirate. Pat — it's this blinkin' whang on the nut that's done me in.”
The girl curled up against the bulkhead to give him as much room as possible to stretch out and rest.
'Orace and I will have to go out scouting in relays till you're better,' she said. 'We've got to find out where all the Tiger Cubs are before we move — I don't suppose there'll be many aboard, but we've got to locate them all and arrange to deal with them in batches so that the rest won't know what's happening. Then there are those men you saw on the quay. Bloem and Bittle will be here, and the Tiger — they're the most important and the most dangerous, and we can't afford to make any mistake about them.'
'I'm fer tykin' the single ones as we meet 'em,' said Orace. 'I'll go fust — startin' naow. An' when I git me 'ands on ennyer them blankety-blanks they'll wish they'd never bin horned. I gotta nac-count ter settle wiv this bunch o' fatherless scum.'
'I've also got an account to settle,' remarked Patricia quietly. 'So I think I'll go first.'
Orace was not a man to waste time on argument; he was also something of a strategist.
'We'll go tergether,' he compromised. 'I won't innerfere, but I'll be a pairer vize in the backa yer 'ed. Mr. Lomas-Coper won't 'urt 'ere alonely, will yer, sir?'
'Don't mind me, old sprout,' urged Algy. 'I'll tool along an' chip in as soon as I can — an' I hope you'll have left the bounder who pipped me for me to clean up.''
There was really no reason for anyone staying with him, and Patricia agreed to Orace's suggestion.
They crawled out and replaced the hatch and tarpaulin cover as they had found it. Then, as they hesitated under cover of the bulwarks, Orace said:
'Mr. Templar 'ud be right — they'll be thunderin' short'anded. Seemster me, there won't be no more thanna nengineer below, an' p'r'aps a cook in the galley. These motor ships is that luck-shurious yer don' 'avta be offended by more'n a nanful o' vulgar seamen. Assoomin' that, jer fmkyer c'u'd 1'y aht the pertaterstoor wile I dots the
