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When ye come to look this thing over in yer mind, a little at a time, it gits plain to me. Ye see, the parson brought Long Jim and Buckrow; and Tryhum, or whatever his name is, brung Petrak to do his part of the dirty work. "Now, look what I'm sayin', cap'n. We got short-handed quick thar in Manila, didn't we? I been turnin' that over in my mind, too. Somebody cut the boatswain, didn't they?
Don't be a fool now, Reddy, like the others. Ye'll get your share, bank on that. Yer a good sort, Petrak; and I need ye to help me get it away, and we'll share and share alike, as I told ye. Do you think I'd play dirt with ye after all we've been through together, Reddy?" "Course not. Don't mind my lip, Thirkle, old chap. No harm done, is there?"
"Who go in first?" "It will be easier if Mr. Trenholm goes in first," said Thirkle. "He'll have to go backward, but he'll find it easier to navigate." "Oh, no, he won't!" said Buckrow. "I see your game, Thirkle. Ye want to come out behind Mr. Petrak and borrow a gun. We'll let you go in first, and the writin' chap can come out atween ye and Petrak. Don't come none of them games on me, Thirkle.
I now began to fear that he would tell Thirkle what I had said to him. When we went out for another sack, Petrak looked over at Thirkle and hesitated as if he wanted to say something, but Thirkle was writing in a little book, with a pistol between his feet. "Well, what is it now?" he demanded truculently, having seen something suspicious in Petrak's manner. "What's the lay now?
"That was a nasty smash ye give 'im, Bucky." "Give it him, if ye mind, Reddy, but be polite to him. He was an officer in the navy afore he turned pirate, Reddy." "A navy officer? Thirkle a navy officer?" asked Petrak. "I was a navy man myself when I was a boy." He stepped to Thirkle and held the bottle to the prisoner's lips.
What have ye got yer hand so close to that gun for? Take a shot at me if you want go on, take a shot at old Thirkle, if ye're that game." "Only a habit o' mine, keepin' my gun well for'ard, Thirkle," whimpered Petrak, shivering. "I have to keep a close eye on the writin' chap, Thirkle. No offence, I hope." "Look lively now, lad," said Thirkle, turning amiable again, but only to reassure Petrak.
He dropped the knife, and as he reached for the buckle of the belt I turned my head in an involuntary movement to make sure that Long Jim had not recovered, an action bred by the suspicious manner of Petrak. The pirate was lying as he had fallen, with his arms over his head and his pistol a yard away; but the little red-headed man turned and ran in the flash of my eye.
No doubt ye'll land in Manila with a boat-load of gold and say yer out of the Kut Sang, and she went down, and all were lost but you two and the cargo of gold. And they'll let ye keep it and send ye on yer way, with no questions asked." "Ye mind what he says, Bucky?" Petrak was getting nervous. "Mind what he says, if ye like," said Buckrow.
"Petrak was the one what killed the mate," said Buckrow. "It was Petrak done for the Dutchman, sir. I ain't no murderer, sir, Mr. Harris, but a sailorman what does his duty as he sees it, sir." "Come on deck then and we'll see about that," said Harris, who seemed to think that Buckrow's play of fear of him was genuine. "Come down and get me. Ye don't dare come down, ye big bucko.
And, if my eyes serve me right, two of those belonged to Long Jim." Petrak winked at me at this, and I took the cue. "I found Long Jim dead in the trail and took his two pistols, and the others were my own which I had when I went into the forecastle, and I had hoped to use them on some of you fellows, but you got the better of me." "And how did you and Captain Riggs get along together?"
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