They found the men rough and boisterous. Some of them were smashing up all available timber and building fires under the brow of the cliff. Others had crowded the little cabin to an unbearable degree.
Pant and Johnny crept into a dark corner beneath the cliff and facing a blazing fire.
“Pretty rough,” was Johnny’s only comment.
Soon he became conscious of the presence of a little man who appeared to stand aloof from the others. He was a clean, decent appearing fellow.
“Pretty close one,” Johnny said, by way of starting conversation.
The little man turned and gave him a sharp look.
“I’ll say it was close.” The man lowered his voice. “Wouldn’t ’ave ’appened but they was quarrelin’ over ’ow they’d divide the plunder, them officers was.”
“Yes, didn’t you know?” the sailor whispered. “That wreck don’t belong to them. It belonged to a company in China. The captain of ’er fergot to set a line to ’er and attach it to the shore, as is the law of the sea, so she’s fair salvage to those ’as gets to ’er first—just plunder, I’d call it.”
“Sure, so’s no other ship wouldn’t come fer ’er. They was sharp ones, them officers!”
“Worse, did you say? They’re a ’ard lot. Know what they done to me? Shanghaied me, they did. ’Ere I is in the ’arbor with no money and no place to sleep, and they says to me, ‘Sleep in the ship. We can’t sail fer four days,’ an’ that night, up they ’eaves anchor and out to sea they blows, an’ me a-sleepin’ sound. That’s ’ow they ships me. An’ no agreement to pay ’er nothin’. Say,” he whispered, “if they’s a show-down, or anything, between you and them, you count me in on your side. But don’t you fight them if you can ’elp it, fer, as I say, they’s a ’ard lot.”
Johnny thanked him, then lay for a time listening to the low murmur of voices. At last he fell into a half-sleep from which he awakened to find that day was breaking.
He scrambled down from the rocks to the beach. There he met a short, broad-shouldered man with beady rat-like eyes.
“I’m Captain Hicks,” said the stranger. “That your seaplane?”
“Fine plane. Luck, I call it. Our purser is a licensed pilot. Soon’s weather clears, I’ll have him take me over to another island in that plane.”
Johnny gasped. He was about to protest. Then the hopelessness of the situation came to him.