CHAPTER XXVIII

THE LAST OF THE PHANTOM

The letter promised to pay Kimpton twenty dollars a day for his services; and perhaps this was the strongest reason why he wished to see his employer. Captain Brisbane went up to the pilot-house again to finish his nap, leaving Louis and the cook on the forward deck.

Bickling had certainly been faithful to his present employer, if his other recruit had not; and Louis wondered that he had mustered up pluck enough to resist the wishes of his late companion after he had resorted to violence. The cook’s heart was in the right place; but he had not force of character enough to be a whole man.

The forenoon passed away, and Louis continued to be very nervous and uneasy. In spite of the injunction of Captain Ringgold, he was disposed to take the boat and make a visit to the Maud. But there were still four men left on board of her, and they were at liberty. If he put himself within reach of Scoble, he would be made a prisoner, and his power to do anything for his guardian-mother would have passed away.

Louis had been several times to a point on the steamer where he could see the man on watch at the door of the wounded prisoner. He had stretched himself on the deck, in the narrow gangway that was between the rail and the house on deck. Undoubtedly Kimpton was the most disappointed and disheartened man on board of the Phantom, for he had utterly failed in his mission near the young millionaire. Louis knew nothing more of him than the letter had revealed; but he looked upon him as a desperately bad character, in short, just such a man as Scoble himself. He had pluck enough for any person; but pluck may be manifested in a bad cause as well as a good one.

Louis not only watched the man at the door of the desperado, but he kept an eye up the bay in the direction where the Maud lay at her moorings. Whether Scoble heard the noise made by the cook when he was attacked or not, he must be aware of the presence of the Phantom at the inlet. He must realize that his project of getting off unseen to Bermuda had failed. He could not know, but he might well suspect, that this steamer was there to intercept him.

Scoble was not likely to remain where he was for many days without attempting to do something to effect his escape from the bay. Judging from what Captain Brisbane said, it would be high tide at noon and at midnight, or nearly at these times; and it was hardly probable that the Maud could get to sea at any other hours of the day.

While Louis was uneasily walking about the deck, fretting at his own inactivity while his mother was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, he was startled by the violent yelling on the part of the watch at the door of Kimpton. This man had appeared to be asleep most of the time; but as he lay across the doorway so that the prisoner could not escape, Louis did not care to disturb the captain with a report of his neglect of duty.

“Fire! Fire! Fire!” shouted the man at the top of his lungs.

“Where is the fire?” demanded Louis, startled at the cry.

“Down below,” replied the deck hand. “The deck is so hot you can’t bear your hand on it!”

Louis found it very warm under his feet, and he remained in that part of the vessel only long enough to satisfy himself that the door of the wounded man’s stateroom was still locked. While the man on watch ran forward to alarm the ship’s company, Louis followed the narrow gangway to the stern, and then to the other side of the craft. He had hardly reached the after part when he made a discovery which appeared to explain the meaning of the fire in the hold of the Phantom.

The steamer was headed to the west, just as she had come in; and though Louis was not aware of the fact, the anchor had been dropped, and the fresh breeze kept the vessel headed in the direction of the point. The boat, after the prisoner had been put on board, had been made fast at the stern.

The boat was not where it had been secured, but Louis discovered it half-way to the shore on the north side, with Kimpton in it, sculling with all his might for the shore. He was using his left hand only; but he was so well skilled in the use of the oar in this manner that he was making rapid progress through the water.

[Illustration: “WITH THE GLASS IN HIS HAND, HE CLIMBED THE HIGHEST PINE-TREE HE COULD FIND.” Page 225.]

By this time the watch had roused the ship’s company, and the voice of Captain Brisbane was heard as he gave his orders for extinguishing the fire. The deck was so hot under Louis’s feet that it made him step very lively, and he jumped upon the rail to escape the heat. Just then he observed that the door of the captain’s stateroom, occupying the after part of the deck-house, was wide open. Rushing into this room, he saw a door leading into the room where Kimpton had been confined. The lock was secured to the outside of the door, and the prisoner had removed it by taking out the screws with his knife or some other implement in his possession.

The fire was just breaking through the deck in the wounded man’s room, and Louis could remain there but a moment; but he had seen enough to satisfy himself in what manner the prisoner had made his escape. From the captain’s room the incendiary had probably passed through the engine-room, where the engineer was sound asleep on the sofa, and descended to the fire room, making his way aft to some place where he found combustibles suited to his purpose.

As soon as he had finished his survey, Louis hastened forward to assist, if he could, in putting out the fire. The steam pump had been put in condition to be operated, and already was pouring water into the hold, but in a place, Louis thought, where it would accomplish but little in subduing the flames. He informed the captain that the fire was coming up through the deck farther aft. At this moment the fireman who had been sent below to start up the fires which had been banked in the morning, came up, and declared that the heat and smoke had driven him on deck. The hose was then carried farther aft; but the flames had taken full possession of both staterooms.

It began to look like a hopeless case, for the water poured in upon the fire seemed to have no appreciable effect. Those who were not at work with the steam pump worked with buckets, and Louis labored as earnestly as any of the hands. The flames were confined to the after part of the steamer, and it was now too hot for any one to remain there.

“Stand by your engine, Mr. Waters!” shouted the captain, as he rushed to the bow of the steamer, where he cast off the cable, and let it run overboard.

“All right, Captain Brisbane,” replied the engineer, who was on duty at the machine, attending to the steam pump. “I am not sure that the screw will work, for something may have been burned away along the shaft.”

“Start her forward!” shouted the captain, as he ran up the ladder to the pilot-house.

As soon as he had the wheel in his hands he rang one bell on the gong. The engineer started the machine, and ascertained at once that the screw was still in condition to work. The Phantom, with the flames pouring out abaft the engine-room, went ahead, and the captain headed her for the shore on the north side of the inlet, for that was the nearest land. It was not more than a quarter of a mile distant. The speed bell followed the stroke on the gong a moment later, and the vessel went ahead as rapidly as her low pressure of steam would permit.

The steam pump was still at work, and the fires had been replenished by the firemen before they had been driven from their post. Louis judged that Captain Brisbane had given up the battle with the fire, and had no hope of saving her. When the young millionaire found he could be of no further service on the main deck, he joined the captain in the pilot-house.

“This is a bad job for me,” said Captain Brisbane, when Louis had taken his place opposite him at the wheel, where he could look through the window at the shore. “The Phantom is insured, but my loss will be large for me.”

“I am exceedingly sorry for it, captain,” replied Louis, whose first impulse was to make it good to him; but he was not confident that Uncle Moses would indorse his liberality, and he said nothing about it.

“I don’t see how the fire got such a start upon us,” added the captain. “We had a large supply of light wood for kindling the fires abaft the bunkers; but it was a good distance from the furnaces, and the fires were banked.”

“Didn’t you see that man in a boat about a quarter of an hour ago?” asked Louis, surprised that the captain had not yet ascertained the origin of the fire.

Kimpton had reached the shore and disappeared. Louis had not been able to observe his movements while he was at work on the main deck, and did not know what had become of him. He had had time enough to reach the shore, which was covered with stunted pines and firs, which were sufficient to conceal him from observation.

“I haven’t noticed any boat; I was too busy with the fire to look to the right or the left after I was roused from my sleep,” replied Captain Brisbane to his passenger’s question. “What boat do you mean?”

“The first thing I saw after I got to the stern of the steamer was a boat with a man in it, sculling with all his might with his left hand; and that man was the prisoner whose wound you dressed this forenoon,” added Louis, telling the whole story at once.

“Then the fire was set by that man,” said the captain, grinding his teeth and shaking his head. “I should like to get hold of him again, and I would not wait for judge or jury!”

Louis explained in what manner Kimpton had escaped from his room, and how he supposed he had started the fire. Then he took the spy-glass from the brackets, and directed it to the shore. He could see the boat, but the man was not in sight.

“What time is it now, Captain Brisbane?” he asked.

“Just noon,” replied the captain, glancing at the clock on the after bulkhead.

“At what time will the tide be up?”

“About half-past twelve.”

The Phantom was approaching the shore at full speed, and the captain gave no further attention to his passenger. In a few minutes more the forefoot ploughed into the sand, and the steamer stopped short in a position where those on board could jump upon the dry land. The violent hissing of the steam indicated that the engineer was still at his post, hot as it was there. He had stopped the machine, and provided against a possible explosion of the boiler.

For the next hour all hands were kept busy in saving their own effects and such of the steamer’s as were movable. Louis had landed, taking his valise, overcoat, the compass, and spy-glass from the pilot-house with him. With the glass in his hand, he climbed the highest pine-tree he could find, hoping that he might be able to discover the Maud at her moorings; but he failed to make her out.

Then he directed his glass to the other side of the bay. An inward trend of the shore-line enabled him to see across the water the extremity of a projecting point of land on the peninsula where he had landed. On this point was a man seated on the sand, apparently very busy about something. This person must be Kimpton, for there was not a house or a hut within some miles of the spot, and the nearest life-saving station was south of the inlet. He had made good use of his legs after he landed, and Louis wondered what he was doing.

He was not obliged to wait long for a solution of the problem, for Kimpton hoisted a white cloth on a pole, and began to wave it violently. A few moments later Louis discovered a schooner under full sail, standing towards the inlet. The vessel was the Maud.