Chapter 7 - An impeded escape
While Jody prepared to escape, the former Golden Hind officer and the pearl fisherman were preparing with desperate courage for the escape, which could cost them their lives, because they knew that the sentries around the penitentiary were ordered to shoot anyone left the dormitories and the infirmary at night.
Fortunately, no sick person had entered their ward in those days, so they could act without dangerous witnesses
After the doctor's evening visit, they pretended to fall asleep right away, causing Foster to lower the lamp so as not to lose Jody's promised bottle.
The two convicts waited for the ring that announced the fire-cover and the visit from Jody, who was to bring him, as he had told Foster the night before, a couple of glasses of gin.
Blake had already taken the small circular saw from its hiding place, while Kaj, whose wounds were still sore, had removed the sheets from the neighboring beds, had tied them to lower himself onto the roof of the warehouse.
A well-known light step, with a happy exclamation from Foster, who was watching in the next corridor, warned them that it was time to act. Jody had come in carrying the bottle promised to the Irishman.
«I was expecting you, son» said the guardian. «I have never felt such a terrible thirst as this evening».
«I am always of my word. It's a bottle the same as yesterday and comes out of the governor's cellar. "
«Son, I wouldn't want your hands instead of the governor's to pull them out of the darkness. Mind you, Jody, I'm a gentleman and I do't hold hands with thieves».
«Oh! Mr. Foster!» exclaimed the driver, pretending to be hurt and indignant «Would you believe me capable of robbing the governor? You can drink it with a calm heart: I killed, it is true, and they condemned me; but I've never stolen».
«I was a fool to suspect you», the Irishman said «Give me the bottle and let's make up».
«A glass first for the sick, if you will allow me».
«Yes, go, good son» Jody filled the two cups and went to the infirmary. Blake and Kaj got up immediately.
«All is well.» she said quickly «There are only two sentries on the drive and I promised to bring him a bottle of gin. Go behind the hedge and wait for me in the lifeboat».
«And Foster?» Blake asked.
«He's drinking and he'll be so drunk not to see and hear anything. Act now and get out of bed when you see me come out.»
«Put out the lamp. If we fail tonight, we will never run away again, because I fear that One-eye has guessed our plans»..
After a while, Blake and Kaj took the saw and the knotted sheets.
«Can you hold up?» Blake asked the young man.
«Don't fear for me, my muscles always solid.»
They stood listening and, hearing Jody chat with Foster, went to the window furthest from the front door. Blake sawed off the bars silently, as they were greased with oil from the lamp.
«It's done.» Blake announced, breathing in the cool night breeze «Give me the sheets».
He tied one end to a bar, then looked down, letting them hang.
«The sheet touches the roof of the warehouse. The measure is right. Get a bar that can be used in case of danger and get off first».
«Yes, Mr. Blake.» Kaj climbed over the sill, clung to the sheets and let himself slip, clutching one of the bars between his teeth. When Blake saw him touch the roof, he too descended.
«Slowly, sir, the roof is made of branches and will creak. There may be some guardian sleeping under us.»
«There could be some Chances, I hadn't thought of that and they'd shoot us if someone raises the alarm.» «Do you want to scare me Mr. Blake? I'm already afraid of the one-eyed and if I see him in front of me I won't kill him».
They lay down, crawling gently, lest the roof shake under their weight. They looked around, afraid to see the flash of the rifles and finally found themselves on the corner of the roof. There remained a three-meter jump to land above the salad beds.
Before getting out, Blake looked intently in all directions when he heard a voice shouts:
«Who lives?»
The two fugitives, believing themselves uncovered, flattened themselves on the roof, but another man replied:
«It's me: Jody.»
When he disappeared under the trees, where the watchman was waiting for him, the fugitives dropped into the clods without making a sound.
«Legs, now!» Blake whispered «And open your eyes, there may be some guards at the dock».
«Or One-eye» Kaj said, clenching his fists.
The two fugitives proceeded cautiously, with their ears pricked. On their left they heard the voices of the two sentries and that of Jody; in front of them instead the breaking of the waves, when they saw a motionless human shadow not far away.
«The way is closed to us.» Blake murmured «What is that man doing there? Jody didn't tell us there was a sentry at the dock as well. How can we reach the boat without being seen?»
«Could it be Guercio?» asked the pearl fisherman.
«The same suspicion has come to me too. Let's see who it is.»
He gently pushed aside the branches and looked intently.
«He is a guardian. One-eye will be in his shack to sleep. They certainly wouldn't give him a firearm in his hand»
«If we pass elsewhere that man would see us anyway, because the lifeboat is tied up next to hi.» Blake watched.
«What to do, Mr. Blake? Jody will be here soon and his presence maybe could alarm that guardian.»
«Give me your bar Kaj» Blake said suddenly, with a resolute accent «I want to surprise the guardian and bring him down with one blow. So much the worse for him if he dies. If we hesitate, we will never leave this hell again».
«Leave it to me, I'm more vigorous than you.»
Kaj threw himself to the ground and silently advanced. The guardian had his back to him and seemed to be asleep on his rifle.
He was about to lash out when the overseer, alarmed perhaps by some slight noise, turned. Seeing those two shadows, he raised his rifle, but Kaj did not give him time and the iron bar fell on his skull. He fell to the ground as if he were electrocuted.
Kaj picked up the rifle, Blake picked up the cartridge, then they both dashed for the steamboat.
«Set the oven on fire, Kaj» handed him some matches «then throw in enough coal to fill it. It is necessary that the machine has a lot of pressure or we...».
He stopped abruptly. In the distance came the long bellow of a steamship siren.
«Damn hell! Who arrives?» At that moment he saw a shadow rush out of a bush and leap towards the beach, while a nearby voice shouted:
«To arms! They killed Bakson!»
«Jody!» Blake and Kaj exclaimed together, recognizing that shadow.
The engineer, leaping into the lifeboat shouted: «The sentries are about to arrive, they have discovered Bakson's body. Quick! Grab the oars and let's run to the cliff before they see us!».
At that moment an imperious voice shouted in a threatening tone:
«Stop or I'll shoot!»
«To the oars, you! I'll answer!» Blake picked up the rifle.
«Fire the car, Kaj» Jody commanded.
«It's already blazing» replied the pearl fisherman, while a jet of very dense smoke, which smelled of oil, escaped from the chimney «let's use oars too!».
The same voice echoed in the night:
«To arms! The convicts escape!»
Then a shot and a ball whistled over the heads of the fugitives. Kaj and Jody rushed to the oars as the car began to roar. Blake, rifle in hand, waited for the overseers to show themselves, to open fire in turn.
Offshore the steamship's siren continued to bellow for a long time, to announce to the prison guards its arrival, with its lights, green and red on the prow and white on the mast.
«By the time it comes, we will have left the cliff and will have the pressure to escape!» Jody rowed with energy.
A second shot interrupted him. «Brigands!»
«To you!» Blake shouted, aiming the rifle «We too are armed and we have the right to defend ourselves».
An overseer rushed down to the beach screaming at the top of his voice:
«To arms! To arms!»
Several voices could be heard shouting:
«Where are now? Towards the woods? No, they run away in the lifeboat. Alt! or we'll drop you down!»
«If you catch us!» shouted Blake, who had reloaded his rifle.
«Come on Kaj» Jody yelled, «they can drop us down with a couple of cannons».
The lifeboat, meanwhile, was already near the southern tip of the cliff, where the fugitives were to ship their supplies, but they still lacked the necessary pressure.
«Throw yourself behind the rocks!»
Blake yelled at Jody, seeing a few guards rush towards the dock, while others ran towards the prison boats.
«They'll hunt us down soon and be left behind right away» Jody announced.
«Too late, dear ones» Blake yelled, setting down his rifle to grab the oars as Jody darted behind the engine.
«Do we have pressure?» Kaj asked.
«Yes, they won't catch us anymore, now.» Jody urged them «Quick, let's ship the food, I'm behind that tip ... in a crevasse ... Satanassus! What is this noise? Do you hear?».
«What?»
«Thuds.»
They raised their oars as the boat's propeller began to bite into the water.
Behind the cliff they were about to turn, thuds were heard, as if pieces of rock or other things were plunging into the water.
The former officer picked up the rifle, while Jody took the gun he had stolen from the small penitentiary armory.
«Launch the lifeboat for hiding» said Blake.
«But do you hear?» Jody asked.
«Yes, you are at the helm, Kaj.»
The lifeboat circled the tip of the islet. A cry of fury escaped the engineer. At that moment One-eye come out of the crevice which served as a hiding place for the provisions and had thrown a box into the sea, which would have sunk.
«Ah! Miserable!» Jody yelled, firing at him. The man let out a cry, then leapt to the upper rocks.
Blake yelled «Die, dog!»
He saw that with that quick move he had escaped the gunshot, but he could not save himself from that of the rifle. The fugitives saw him fall screaming behind the crest and disappear on the other side of the islet.
There was a thud in the sea. Jody immediately jumped to the ground and scrambled up to the crevice, where the tiny cave was.
«Ah! Rogue!» he shouted, with a desperate gesture «He threw everything into the sea! He ruined us!»
«Come down, don't stop» Blake called him «The guardians are coming! I hear the strokes of the oars.»
«We don't even have a cookie anymore. He threw everything into the water.»
«It doesn't matter, come or we'll be caught.»
Jody went back down to the shore and leapt into the lifeboat, while gunfire boomed from across the cliff.
«Full steam ahead, Jody!» Blake yelled.
The lifeboat pulled away from the shore and sped southward, while a few watchmen appeared on the top of the islet. At the same moment a formidable voice, that of One-eye, resounded very loudly in the darkness.
«We'll meet again, and I'll get your woman, Kaj!».