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And all at once, as I thus stood, the City of Pekin flashed into my mind, racing her thirteen knots for Honolulu, with the hated Trent perhaps with the mysterious Goddedaal on board; and with the thought, the blood leaped and careered through all my body.
"All right," said the clerk, and turned to the telephone. "I'm sorry," he said presently, "Mr. Goddedaal has left the ship, and no one knows where he is." "Do you pay the men's passage home?" I inquired, a sudden thought striking me. "If they want it," said the clerk; "sometimes they don't.
Holdorsen, Hemstead, Trent, and Goddedaal were first disposed of, the last still breathing as he went over the side; Wallen followed; and then Wicks, steadied by the gin, went aloft with the boathook and succeeded in dislodging Hardy.
But even at the consulate nothing was known of Mr. Goddedaal. The doctor of the Tempest had certified him very sick; he had sent his papers in, but never appeared in person before the authorities. "Have you a telephone laid on to the Tempest?" asked Pinkerton. "Laid on yesterday," said the clerk. "Do you mind asking, or letting me ask? We are very anxious to get hold of Mr. Goddedaal."
For the voyage in the man-of-war they were now safe; yet a few more days of peril, activity and presence of mind in San Francisco, and the whole horrid tale was blotted out; and Wicks again became Kirkup, and Goddedaal became Carthew men beyond all shot of possible suspicion, men who had never heard of the Flying Scud, who had never been in sight of Midway Reef.
It will go by telegraph, Mr. Dodd; it'll be telegraphed by the column, and headlined, and frothed up, and denied by authority, and it'll hit bogus Captain Trent in a Mexican bar-room, and knock over bogus Goddedaal in a slum somewhere up the Baltic, and bowl down Hardy and Brown in sailors' music-halls round Greenock. O, there's no doubt you can have a regular domestic Judgment Day.
"Ay, ay, sir!" from Goddedaal. "What the devil's wrong?" asked Wicks. "Nothing, I daresay," returned Trent. "But you'll allow it's a queer thing when a boat turns up in mid-ocean with half a ton of specie, and everybody armed," he added, pointing to Wicks's pocket. "Your boat will lay comfortably astern, while you come below and make yourself satisfactory." "O, if that's all!" said Wicks.
But even at the consulate nothing was known of Mr. Goddedaal. The doctor of the Tempest had certified him very sick; he had sent his papers in, but never appeared in person before the authorities. "Have you a telephone laid on to the Tempest?" asked Pinkerton. "Laid on yesterday," said the clerk. "Do you mind asking, or letting me ask? We are very anxious to get hold of Mr. Goddedaal."
He laughed a brief, joyless laugh. "I have no idea of losing by my kindness." "We have no idea you should, captain," said Wicks. "We are ready to pay anything in reason," added Carthew. At the words, Goddedaal, who sat next to him, touched him with his elbow, and the two mates exchanged a significant look. The character of Captain Trent was given and taken in that silent second.
Here are the names on the register; perhaps you would care to look at them while I go and see about the baggage?" Amalu. "Pinkerton," said I suddenly, "have you that Occidental in your pocket?" "Never left me," said Pinkerton, producing the paper. I turned to the account of the wreck. "Here," said I, "here's the name. 'Elias Goddedaal, mate. Why do we never come across Elias Goddedaal?"
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