“Take this to the Tivoli Hotel,” he instructed. “Find Count Rosen and give it into no other hands.”
From the porch of the store he gazed upon the harbor, but the darkness shrouded the vessel for which his anxious eyes were searching. His mind was sorely troubled. “Bully” Scott was not a character to pin one’s faith to. That hardened pirate went where either his fancy led him or where the greatest amount of coin awaited him. The guns had already been paid for with Klinger’s money; only the freight charges were due. The Solomon Islanders were Scott’s own venture. The one balanced the other. If he should betray the Kapuan firm by permitting the war-ships to confiscate them as contraband, then the presence of the blacks would be known and must convict the pirate in any court of the South Seas. Nationality could not protect slave trading, although it might the importation of arms. The “Talofa” was sailing illegally under Herzovinian protection. Count Rosen, while in Fiji, had arranged for that with Scott. A word from Klinger would cause Scott to be arrested straightway and taken before the chief justice. The penalty for slave trading was at least ten years in a penal colony.
“He may have discharged both the slaves and the guns,” he exclaimed. Then he apparently realized that this was impossible, for he added aloud, “Couldn’t have done that, or I should have heard of it by now.” As he still gazed seaward he saw the lights of a war-ship disappear one at a time, and knew that the schooner was then passing between the man-of-war and himself.
He called loudly to arouse some of the native help who lived in houses back of the store.
A native finally appeared.
“Get the boat boys,” Klinger ordered hurriedly. “I shall require them at once.”
The schooner anchored only a few hundred yards from him before the sleepy natives had launched his boat. Klinger paced the sand impatiently. He was consumed with anxiety for the safety of his guns. Thirty thousand dollars was to be the profit upon them. And besides, the decision of the chief justice might be given at any moment. Kataafa must have these guns before the decision was rendered, for that was required to carry out the “coup de main” which must throw the Kapuan Islands into the lap of his country.
Angry and bitter at the man who had played fast and loose with his plans, Klinger climbed the “Talofa’s” side and met the culprit face to face.
Klinger’s first question was more forceful than elegant. Captain “Bully” Scott only smiled in his urbane style and answered the question in Kapuan.
“Hold your tongue. There’s an American naval officer standing aft by the compass.”