RAMSAY IS RELEASED FROM CUSTODY.
To say that I was only astonished by Veneda's information, and the explanation he gave to my mystery, would be to define it too tamely altogether. To tell the truth, at the time I was so completely overwhelmed by it as to be unable to grasp, in the least degree, what significance it had for me.
Strange though it may appear, while the most galling part of the whole business could not but be Juanita's treachery to myself, this was almost atoned for, in my mind, by the remembrance of her singular behaviour on the evening preceding my arrest. Come what may, with this knowledge before me, I shall always cherish the belief that not only was the affection she pretended to entertain for me perfectly genuine, but also that she was alone driven to such extreme measures by the extraordinary influence the Albino possessed over her.
Poor Juanita! To be unable to feel bitterly towards you may be to show myself a soft-hearted fool, but whenever I think of that night on the King's Plain, and remember your sorrowful cry, "Oh, Jack, Jack, if you only knew; if we could but be our true selves for one little moment!" all reproaches die out of my heart, and in their place springs up a great pity and a great compassion for you.
Another thing that gave me plenty to think about was the strange fact of my meeting Veneda, of all people, and in such a place! Though as yet I knew next to nothing of his history, I could not but see that his connection with the affair we were both so interested in was genuine enough. As for himself, as soon as he had told me his name he left me, and went without another word to his bed, not to speak again till morning.
When I woke it was just daylight, the door was open, and the prisoners were passing in and out. So far as I could see, in the part of the building in which I was confined, no recognized employment was found for them; though in the other wards, I believe, they were taken out under escort, to do the street scavenging, wood-cutting, public gardening, etc.
A little before seven o'clock a coarse meal was served to us, and while I was partaking of it, Veneda came up. I made room for him to sit down on the bench beside me, for I was burning to question him further on the subject that lay nearest to both our hearts.
"Look here," I said, "for goodness' sake let's get this thing properly squared up. I've been puzzling my brain over it till I'm nearly crazy. I must understand two or three things more."
"Go ahead," he replied; "you can't be more anxious to get to the bed rock than I am. What do you want to know?"
"Well, in the first place, how on earth you managed to die and come to life again so cleverly? Juanita told me she saw you lying stiff and stark in your bunk."
"So she did, as far as she knew; but I was only playing 'possum. It was the one way out of my difficulty, you see. I knew I had to get rid of her, and there was no other fashion in which it could be managed."
"Then the captain was in the secret after all, and his dislike to you was all assumed?"
"Every bit! But he was a money-grubbing old dog, was Boulger, and it cost me a cool hundred to bring him up to the scratch. Once that was done, all was plain sailing. After leaving Tahiti, cholera, Yellow Jack, fish-poisoning, or some other disease came aboard, and the crew and mate went down before it like ninepins. There was my chance! I pretended to go under to it too. The skipper acted his part like a little man, and wouldn't let Juanita into the cabin for fear of detection. Then, in the night, I died. Next day, according to her wish, my dummy was taken ashore, and buried on Vanua Lava, while I was safely stowed away in the skipper's cabin, until we reached Thursday Island. There she remained to hunt up a way of getting back to look for that locket."
"While you?"
"Next morning I caught a craft sailing this way, intending to pick up a mail-boat from Batavia, home. But luck was against me; I ran athwart the hawse of a Dutch officer; put a bullet into him, and got locked up. That's how I came here. Want to know any more?"
"One thing. Now you're alive, what is going to become of your wife?"
"My wife? And who may she be? Never heard of the lady."
"But Juanita?"
Veneda whistled a long note of astonishment.
"You don't mean to tell me she's been parading me as her husband?"
"You're not? You're not Juanita's husband?"
"You'd better believe I'm not."
"Then, my God! how I've been fooled!"
Veneda seemed not to notice my remark, but sat staring at the blue sky above us. Suddenly he sprang to his feet.
"Look here, Ramsay," he cried, "come what may, I must get out of this, and you must help me."
"How can I help you? If it comes to that, I'm in quite as bad a fix as you are."
"No, I think not," he continued gravely. "I shouldn't be at all surprised if you find yourself at liberty to-night."
"What do you mean?" I asked, jumping at the hope he held out. "What do you think can bring such a thing about?"
"Never mind, you wait and see. But if you do get off, will you pledge yourself to assist me?"
"If I do get off," I said, "I could inform the consul of your being here, and he would get you out himself."
"No, no, that would never do; I've been thinking it over. If the consul gets wind of it, he'll make inquiries; then the matter will get bruited about, and will be certain to come to the ears of the Albino's agents."
"Agents?"
"Why, of course. You don't imagine that little devil hasn't arranged for somebody to watch your movements here, and at the same time to hunt about for me! Bless your heart, now that he knows I'm alive, I'd bet a thousand pounds to a half-penny he finds out I'm in here."
"Good heavens," I cried, "it's a perfect network of plots and counterplots, and I seem fated not to understand it. Now you're alive, and still the possessor of your money, what do they want that locket for? They can never hope to find out where you buried the gold."
"Buried the what?"
"The gold you obtained by your last legacy when you were in San Francisco."
"Sonny, they've been playing you again. What do you mean? I never had any legacy."
Thereupon I set to work and told him the story Juanita had told me. He laughed uproariously, then smacking me on the shoulder said—
"You just help me to get out of here, and you'll see what I'm worth. I promise you'll not find me ungrateful."
"Well, if I do get off," I answered, "I give you my word that I'll do my best for you."
We shook hands gravely upon it, and I continued—
"In what way do you propose to effect your escape? If we're going to make any plans, we'd better set to work upon them at once."
"Walk over here with me and I'll tell you all I think."
With that we began to pace the courtyard, and Veneda to propound his theory.
"Now," he said, "my idea is this. You see that further wall?"
I nodded. It was, as I have said before, a stone affair, perhaps thirty feet in height, surmounted by a bristling cheval de frise.
"Well, on the other side of it, as far as I can gather from the natives locked up in here, is a road, with a big paddy field on the other side of that again. At night, a sentry or patrol of some kind passes round the entire building once every ten minutes, and naturally our attempt must be made between his visits."
"But how do you propose to get over it?" I asked, looking at the wall's apparently unscalable height.
"Very easily," my intrepid companion replied, "if you will only carry out my instructions to the letter."
"Let me hear what they are, and I'll do the best I can for you."
"Well, in the first place you will procure from one of the stores in the town, sixty feet of strong rope. With this carefully disguised you will wait till midnight; then you must engage a small kharti (native cab) with a good strong Malay boy driver, and proceed to the other side of this wall. When you get there, and only then, you will say to the boy—by the way, do you speak Malay?"
"No; unfortunately I don't."
"That's a pity, but it can't be helped."
He stopped and thought for a moment, then borrowing a pencil and a piece of paper, wrote something on it.
"There are two sentences," he said, and he repeated them once or twice to enable me to pick up the proper accent. "This one means, 'To the gaol'—that, 'You shall have ten guilders if you help me.' Say them over to me."
I repeated them till I was tired, and only then did he seem satisfied.
"I think he'll sumjao you now," he said.
"And when I get here," I continued, "what am I to do?"
"Then you will uncoil the rope and throw one end over the wall, to the left, there. I will make it fast round my waist, and you and the boy must manage between you to pull me up to the top. It'll be a struggle, but you must do it somehow."
"And if the sentry should appear while we're at it, what then?"
"Well, in that case," he said with a laugh, "I'll leave it to your own instinct to know what to do with him; but I should suggest timing it so that you'll just miss him."
"And how are you going to manage to get into this courtyard after you've been locked up for the night?"
"Leave that to me, I'll work it. Perhaps I shan't go in at all."
"And when you're out, what are your plans?"
"Tanjong Priok, as slippery as the Malay can take us. Then we must get into the docks, borrow a boat, and set sail for the islands, to hide there till we can get on to Singapore or Ceylon. Batavia will be no sort of place for either of us after that. You'll stand by me, Ramsay?"
"I've given you my word," I said; "I can't say more than that, can I?"
"Not if you're the man I take you to be. Anyhow I'll trust you."
Just at that moment a stir was observable in the yard; the great gate at the end swung open, and a party of police entered. They came to where I stood, and signified that I should accompany them.
"Good luck," cried Veneda as I rose to go; "don't forget me."
I waved my hand to him and off we set. Once more our route lay in the direction of the consul's office, and arriving there, I was ushered into his presence forthwith. It seemed to me that on this occasion he regarded me in rather a somewhat different light.
"I suppose you're aware," he began, when the case was opened, "of the serious nature of the charge against you?"
I told him I was.
"Have you anything more to say on the subject?"
"Nothing, but that I am the victim of a villainous conspiracy," I answered. "I certainly did struggle with the man, and I don't deny that I hit him, but it was in purest self-defence. He was a noted bad character, and only came aboard at Thursday Island as a stowaway. On the occasion in question I had reprimanded him several times without any effect, and I was in the act of doing so again when he rushed at me. Had I not closed with him, he would have dashed my brains out with a belaying-pin. It was my fault that he died, but though I struck him, I had not the very faintest intention of killing him. I don't know who laid the charge against me, but that it was preferred simply to get me out of the way, I am as certain as that I stand before you now."
Thereupon, being permitted, I set to work and told him my story, just as I had told it to Veneda the preceding night. He listened with the utmost attention, and having asked me one or two questions, said—
"I am inclined to believe you. There is certainly something very underhand somewhere."
Stopping his examination, he wrote something on a sheet of paper, and ringing a bell, ordered that it should be despatched immediately. It was a telegram, I discovered later, to Thursday Island. Having done this, he recommenced his examination, and finally remarked—"I have sent for some information about you; until I receive it, you will be detained here."
Turning to the police, he said something in Dutch, whereupon I was marched into another room, and locked up. During the period of waiting my thoughts were none of the pleasantest. From a consideration of my own position, they wandered to the strange story Veneda had told me, and thence, by natural transition, to Juanita and her professed love for myself. From Juanita they passed back, across what seemed a vast interval of years, to my first love Maud; and as I allowed my mind to dwell upon her sweet face, her ladylike manners, her gentle disposition, and her general refinement, a great home-sickness came upon me, and I resolved then and there, that if ever the opportunity offered, I would forsake my wandering life, and go back to England, like the prodigal son, never to leave it again so long as I should live.
While these thoughts were thronging my brain, I was again summoned into the consul's presence. This time he greeted me with a smile.
"Mr. Ramsay," he said, "I have been making inquiries in Thursday Island about you, and partly on their account, and partly in consideration of the fact that the Mother of Pearl and all the witnesses against you have seen fit to decamp, goodness only knows where, I have decided to release you from custody, on the ground that there is not sufficient reliable evidence to warrant your detention. You may thank your stars that you have got off so easily, and I hope this will be a lesson to you to keep out of such company in the future."
I thanked him warmly for his action in the matter, and at the same time asked him if my bag had been taken away from the Hôtel des Indes. It had, and he gave instructions to his clerk that it should be handed over to me. I was particularly anxious about this, for I had nearly forty pounds of the three hundred the Albino had given me in it, and I knew I should want all the money I could get to ensure success in the perilous enterprise which lay before me.
After answering the consul's inquiries as to what I intended to do with myself now that my ship had sailed without me, by saying that I had not yet made up my mind, I left his office, and departed in the direction of the town.
As we drove through it on the ill-starred day of our arrival, I had noticed some Stores, which I now thought would be likely to contain the article I required. I was right, and obtaining what I sought in the way of rope, I returned to my hotel, took a room, and composed myself to rest until it should be time to set off on the business of the night.
As darkness fell it began to rain, and continued to pour down until well after ten o'clock. Fortunately not a sign of the moon was to be seen; a thick pall of clouds obscured the entire sky. Having nothing to do, I sat and smoked in my verandah all the evening, and it was not until after eleven that I commenced any preparations for my departure. Then, stowing my money and what few little things I valued among my effects about my person, and carrying the big parcel of rope, wrapped up in as unsuspicious a manner as possible, under my arm, I closed my bedroom door, and passed out across the garden into the streaming street.