Chapter 4 - Escape Strategies
The prisoners of the penitentiary always tried to procure false diseases, to deceive the doctors and be exempted from the hard work. Their strategies are passed on to each other, so doctors were not always able to discover them.
One of the convicts' favorite diseases, because they were forced to stay in the infirmary, was malaria, as Blake well knew. Smoking those cigarettes made his face yellow and the vomiting and fever made him look like a real attack of malaria.
Blake, the former officer of the Golden Hint, had been smoking cigarettes for half an hour, when the chief overseer returned, accompanied by a man dressed in white cloth, also wearing a cloth helmet on his head.
He was nice-looking, with light eyes, blond beard and hair, very tanned skin, probably due to his long stay on that island.
«There is that prisoner who complains of being sick, doctor» said the leader «I already warn you that I don't believe, because I think he is pretending to rest for a few days in the infirmary»
Blake had risen to his feet, feigning supreme effort and showing the large stains that smeared the ground, produced by the vomit, that had assailed him after the last cigarette, saing to the doctor:
«Here is the proof if I'm sick or not. I have already told you that I was afraid I would get malaria. Look at my face, doctor.
«You are yellow as a melon» replied the doctor «You don't need to visit. Pass him to the infirmary».
«He's going to keep the pearl fisherman company» the chief said laughing as the doctor left, not bothering to take a closer look.
«Did you beat that wretch?» Blake asked through gritted teeth.
«Wow! We made he sing better than a trained parrot! You, who have been a sailor, already know how well the whip with the iron hooks strokes the shoulders and how that dear Johna also knows how to use it. The man has a solid wrist and no one can resist his blows.»
«And One-eye?»
«The innocent are not punished.»
«You mean the spies.» Blake corrected wryly.
«That is your opinion.»
«Everyone knows that coward is the prison spy.»
The head overseer shrugged in annoyance, then said, «Come on, if it's true you're sick. Great good man that doctor! If I were in his place, I would have sent you to the forest to cut trees instead.»
Blake thought it best not to answer. The boss detached the chain, then pushed him roughly towards the exit, telling him:
«You will not expect me to carry you in your arms. Come on!»
Blake had a flash of revolt in the face of such brutality. She stared at him, crossing his arms at the same time, then said in a hissing voice:
«Do you take me for an Indian, Foster? You are a brute who does not know how to respect misfortune.»
«Don't take so much confidence, Blake» replied the boss «You are not allowed to call me you»
«I'm an Englishman like you.»
«To me you are nothing but a number. Enough, walk or I'll let you taste the whip as soon as you're healed.»
The other came out of the cell, followed by the leader who was holding the chain. They walked down the corridor, where hellish heat reigned and an armed guard stood on the landing.
«Has anyone else entered the infirmary?» the leader asked the sentry.
«Yes, another one» replied the guardian.
«Who?»
«Jody, the engineer. He came in a little while ago, with puffy cheeks that looked like two pumpkins.»
He opened the door and pushed Blake inside.
«Go to bed» the chief said, pushing him «The doctor will come by after lunch and after the whist game with the governor».
Blake undressed and got under the sheet, pretending to be exhausted, as the boss closed the door. As soon as he left, a voice was heard saying with a mocking accent:
«Here we are finally in company. Le's try to get well soon now and everything will be fine. «Is the cylinder finished?»
A head had risen from a bed, showing two monstrous swollen cheeks and two intelligent black eyes.
«I am not so beautiful looking» says Jody smiling.
«No, really, my good Jody» replied the other.
«Ah, Mr. Blake. How those dogs have treated me! They smashed my ribs» Another head had risen from a nearby bed, from Kaj.
The wretched young man was transfigured. Of course his back must have been all a sore, a single bloody groove. Fifty blows are enough to give death, therefore a doctor assisted those punishments, to interrupt if the life of the punished seemed in danger.
However, this did not grace the poor man from the blows that had been assigned to him: he expected the wounds to heal in order to give him the rest.
«How are you, my poor Kaj?»
«Certainly not well» replied the pearl fisherman, forcing himself to smile «They didn't even give me a single blow.»
«How long will you have to be better?»
«For at least not less eight days, Mr. Blake.»
«Did they bandage your wounds well?»
«Yes, and they also disinfected them. But how are you here?»
«I have malaria.»
Kaj got up.
«Real?»
After he saw Jody: «Who will run the steamboat engine now?»
«No one for now» Jody replied «My illness will heal when you are up».
«How did you Jody, made your cheeks swell like that?» Blake asked «You're as monstrous sea creature».
«A trifle, I scratched myself with a pin inside my mouth, so my cheeks became as big as balloons».
«Everything is ready, isn't it?»
«You would't find me here, Mr. Blake, if it were otherwise. I warned you that I would get sick as soon as I finished the cylinder and now I'm here with you».
«So?» the pearl fisherman asked quietly, who had listened carefully.
«I'm ready.» Jody said.
«Were you able to steal food?» Blake asked.
«I've been hiding a couple of crackers a day for three weeks and accumulating coconuts.»
«Where you have that?»
«In a hollow in the cliff.»
«And weapons?»
«I was able to steal a couple of pistols and two hundred rounds from the armory without the guards noticing. Besides, no one would have suspected me.»
«Is there coal in the lifeboat?»
«We'll have it for a couple of days, Mr. Blake. Not really, we won't be able to go very far, but I have prepared a mast and hidden two blankets that will serve as a sail».
«I'll prepare the lifeboat and we'll sail it anyway» said the former officer.
«And where will we go?» Kaj asked with some concern.
«For me, as long as you go, far from here, I don't care where the place is» Jody said.
«Do not fear, Kaj» said Blake, who had noticed the anguish that tortured the fishermans heart «We will go to Ceylon, if we are not first captured by pirates on the high seas, or other creatures».
«There are islands on our route and in case of danger we will take refuge towards the coast. I know the Nigobars, Mr. Blake, but you have to worry about how we can get out of there».
«There are about two hundred steps from these windows to arrive to the beach» Jody observed.
«And four sentries, my dear Kaj» added Blake.
«The night you set sail they'll be drunk, sir. You know that I am a friend of all the guardians and as an engineer in the governor's lifeboat, I enjoy special favors and a certain freedom, besides a pay and that allows me to buy a few bottles of gin».
«We know you are a lucky man.»
«Yes, compared to the others, you'll have to cut through a couple of bars from the railings and lower yourself to the roof of the warehouse below us.»
«And who will saw them?»
«You, Mr. Blake. I have built you a saw that will cut iron as if it were wood and without making noise; a wonderful toy, I assure you.»
«If you have succeeded in making the cylinder, I have no doubt that you have been able to invent something else.»
«Well! I will be on the shore waiting for you and I will tell you to take refuge.»
«And you?» Blake and Kaj asked in one voice.
«I can't leave the penitentiary right away. How can I turn on the car without the guardians noticing? I have to wait until the sun is up.»
«This is true.»
«Even if they see me turning on the car during the day, no one will worry, since it does not have the cylinder which, as you know, they always remove for fear of me running away. As soon as I have the pressure, I put mine on, I run to call you and off to the high seas. They'll hunt us down, I know, but we'll be far away.»
«Without you we will never be able to escape this hell.» said Blake.
«Not even I without you, sir, would I end up who knows where having never been a sailor.»
«Keep an eye on One-eye. He has understood something of what Kaj and I said this morning, he suspects our escape, that dog of a spy, and he will watch us closely.»
«I'll beware of him, Mr. Blake. I believe you still don't doubt. If he wants to bother me later, I'll tear his belly apart with a knife blow.»
«Shut up» Blake motioned «Here comes the doctor. Let's get under the sheets and pretend we're sicker than we really are.»