Chapter THIRTY-FIVE

It was late in the afternoon when Johnston, in a towering rage, brought the airplane down upon the waters of the harbor. He was convinced now that they had been betrayed in some way which he could not understand. During the lengthy flight which had been made at a very high altitude and which covered an enormous stretch of the Pacific, he had observed the cruiser New Orleans headed apparently toward the island. He had watched it carefully and noted that the course and speed of the ship were far too fast and straight for patrol duty. Moreover, he was confirmed in his suspicion that her present course would take her straight to Patrocinio.

It was until late in the day that he had first seen the ship. The flight had first been in an easterly direction. In the course of it several steamers had been observed but no particular attention was paid to them. The New Orleans, however, was traversing such an unusual course that she was distinctly conspicuous.

As soon as the airplane had been made fast, Johnston ordered the crew ashore.

“You guys had better stick around here. You’ve got to do some mighty snappy work pretty soon, I’m telling you,” he exclaimed.

He strode over to the huts and rushed into Levanter’s room. Seeing that the latter was awake and ignoring his condition, he asked roughly:

“Where’s that woman?”

Levanter was very weak with pain and very feverish. He turned wearily on his pillow and replied:

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her today.”

“You’ve got us in a hell of a mess!” exclaimed Johnston. “I told you it was a damn fool trick to bring her here, but you would have your way. Now look at us.”

“What’s the matter?” inquired Levanter.

“Matter, hell! I can tell you what’s the matter when you tell me who shot you.”

“I don’t know that either.”

“That’s what you’ve told me. There’s something to be real worried about. Looks as though we’ll have to make a quick getaway from here. There’s one of them damn government boats coming right here, and take it from me there’s someone on this blasted island besides us, and I’m going to find out who it is right now, and what’s more, your little lady friend is going along with me to find ’em. If I’m right and they get gay with their guns, they can take a chance of hitting her too.”

Without waiting for any further reply from his chief, Johnston went over to Mary’s room, grasped the knob and pushed the door open, crying out as he did so:

“Hey! young lady, come out here, I want to talk to you.”

Getting no response, he walked in. A quick but thorough search convinced him that she was not inside. He then went out and, getting the crew together, ordered them to make a search for her and bring her to him as quickly as they could find her.

They scattered about to different parts around the shore of the harbor where Mary had been in the habit of going. While they were thus engaged Johnston went into the workshop, grabbed hold of the chief Kanaka and put him through a heavy fire of questions about the movements of Mary while he had been away on his flight.

The questioning was fruitless, and Johnston finally gave it up in disgust. He went out and waited for his men to return. It was getting close to sundown, and that fact added to his anger, as he realized that he could do nothing after dark.

After a while all of the men returned, each bringing the same report they had found no trace of the girl. Johnston strode up and down for a few moments, swearing viciously while the men stood meekly by. Finally he turned to them and said:

“Fix up everything on the ship. We’ve got to get out of here in a hell of a hurry, and I want to have everything right. Get me?”

They did his bidding without question. As he watched he tried to work out some plan of escaping the unwelcome situation. The disappearance of Mary did not perplex him at all. Although he had not expected it, the fact that she wasn’t around confirmed the guess he had made during the flight that some one else was on the island. Why he had come to that conclusion, he did not know; but once it entered his mind, he accepted it as the most logical means of explaining Levanter’s wound.

How many strangers there were on the island, and how they got there, he did not even bother to speculate upon. He just naturally accepted the belief that Harrison in some way or other had betrayed them.

As soon as the men had completed the work of putting fuel and provisions aboard the airplane, he ordered them to place the most valuable and most easily removable loot gathered from the three airships shot down by the pirate in the airplane. This done, he said:

“Beat it, and get something to eat quick. When you’re through bring your guns out with you. We may need ’em. You’ve got a bunch of work to do tonight.”