CHAPTER X
WE TAKE DESPERATE CHANCES
THE GREAT LINER lay silent in the moonlight, with no lights visible about her, but thin columns of smoke rose lazily from her funnels. A gangplank was down.
It was decided that our number should divide into three equal parts. One was to go to the bow and board the craft there by climbing up the line fastening the ship to the pier; this line was in the shadow except at its far end, where the men would emerge upon the deck. The second group was to get aboard at the stern by the same means. And the third detachment was to advance by the gangplank.
The plan worked without a hitch, and soon we were assembled upon the vessel's main deck. No guard was in sight. Hurriedly, we explored the upper decks and all the chambers off them: They were empty.
Then, descending simultaneously by companionways forward, aft and amidship, we began to search the body of the vessel. Still no one could be found.
And this deserted condition of the ship continued until only the stokehold remained to be entered. Here, however, we were certain of finding people.
Leaving three men on deck to guard against surprise, the rest of us crept into the boiler room.
Only two Chinamen were in the place, leisurely engaged in stoking the furnaces. We had them covered with our revolvers before they had any warning of our approach.
In spite of the odds against them, one of the Mongolians leaped forward and had almost struck one of our men with his shovel before a shot killed him in his tracks. The other Chinaman submitted, and he at once was securely bound and dumped into a corner:
Dr. Gresham tried to question the prisoner in Chinese, but all the information he could get regarding the keeping up of steam on the Nippon was: "Maybe leave here soon!"
While the astronomer had been thus engaged, Ensign Hallock and some of his men were examining the coal bunkers, and they now reported that the vessel was stocked with fuel for a long voyage.
At this juncture, one of the deck watch came to announce that the moon was sinking near the mountaintops, and that if we hoped to get far down the channel before the light failed we would have to start. promptly.
Detailing eighteen men to do the firing—with orders to get more steam as rapidly as possible—Ensign Hallock and the rest of rushed to the engine room, where the three apprentice engineers already were at work. Finding everything all right there, the officer proceeded to the steering room, while some of us pulled in the gangplank.
The astronomer and myself next started to find the radio plant, to get into communication with the Mare Island navy yard. But here we encountered a set-back: The wireless plant had been removed! Kwo-Sung-tao, we could only surmise, had moved the set to a spot more convenient to the village. So, for the present, communication with the outside world was impossible.
During this brief period of putting the ship in sailing order, none of the sorcerers made an appearance; probably all the men they could spare were exploring the captured destroyer.
Soon steam was up; whereupon Ensing Hallock sent Dr. Gresham to the bow and myself to the stern to keep a close lookout, and himself ascended to the bridge and gave the order to start the engines and cast off. Before many moments the leviathan was moving away from the wharf.
The officer had found from the charts that there was a place only half a mile or so upstream where the fiord opened into a bay, or amphitheater. There, from all indications, room might be had to turn the ship around and head her down the channel. For this opening he now set his course.
Although we maintained a very slow speed, it was not long before we nosed our way into the bay. Here the walls of the fiord retreated far enough to form a considerable body of water; nevertheless, it was plain we would have close work turning the Nippon in such a space. It would be necessary to steam well over against the north bank, where there no longer was any moonlight and the shore line was swallowed up in inky blackness.
Redoubling the vigilance of our look-out, we began the maneuver. Slowly, Ensign Hallock swung the huge ship around. Twice it was necessary to stop and reverse the engines, accomplishing part of the turn by backing. In doing so, we had a narrow escape from running into a rocky promontory in the dark.
But at last the liner's head was fairly about and the way seemed clear for our dash down the channel past the Albatross. As the officer signaled for more speed, all of us unconsciously steeled ourselves for the climax of our adventure.
But at that instant a deep-toned cell, sounding like the tocsin upon the Temple of the Moon God, began tolling in the distance. This was followed almost immediately by a series of sharp blasts from the whistle of the destroyer.
Now that we had completed the dangerous turn, my duties in the stern were finished, so I ran forward, joining Dr. Gresham, and together we climbed to the bridge.
"The Chinks must have discovered that their ship is gone!" was the greeting the young officer gave us.
He was hardly able to restrain his excitement; the prospect of a brush with the sorcerers seemed to give him great joy.
The steam chant and the tolling of the bell continued, as if intended for a general alarm.
"Must be getting their gang together!" the ensign remarked. "They'll be laying for us now, but we'll give them a run for their money!"
The liner now was beginning to get under considerable headway.
"We're in dangerous quarters until we get out of this stretch of darkness!" the officer announced. "Here—you fellows each take a pair of glasses! You, doctor, keep watch from the starboard end of the bridge! You"—indicating myself—"go to the port side! Watch like hawks!"
We started, but—the command had come too late!
With a dull, long-drawn ripping sound from her interior, the great liner suddenly staggered and listed heavily to port! We were thrown off our feet.
"Struck a rock!" Ensign Hallock shouted, as he leaped up. And instantly he began signaling frantically to stop the engines. Almost in the same breath he yelled: "Go below—both of you—quick! See what damage has been done!"
As we rushed down from the bridge we could tell from the feel of things that the vessel's progress had come to a stop: the Nippon was stuck fast!
At the head of the stairs leading to the boiler room we met the seamen, who had been doing stoker duty, rushing up.
"You can't go down there!" they shouted. "The whole bottom's torn out!"
Nevertheless, we leaped past them and continued below. But near the bottom of the stairs we wore brought up short. A few lights still were burning, and in their feeble rays we could see huge foaming torrents pouring into the place. Already the floor was awash to a depth of two or three feet, and before we could take our eyes from the sight the flood
