Chapter 8 - The Hunt for Fugitives
The astonishment produced by those mysterious words, uttered by the man whom they believed by now at the bottom of the waters, troubled them.
«I will dispute you Liling! Tavit throws you the sya challenge!»
Why did One-eye know the name of the unhappy girlfriend of the pearl fisherman?
Only then the fugitives realized that his relentless surveillance of Kaj must have had a different reason from what they had thought up to that day. And who was Tavit?
The pearl fisherman was about to open his lips, when Blake forestalled him, saying:
«We'll talk about this later. We have the skin to save. Let's beware of cannons.»
In fact, the fugitives could not be considered safe. Four lifeboats, mounted by the penitentiary's best shooters and the strongest flight feathers, had come off the cliff and were chasing the steamboat.
But it wasn't the lifeboats that worried Blake. The machine was now working and those oars could not compete with the propeller, that increased the number of turns every moment.
It was the cannons that constituted the real danger, since the steamboat was now out of reach of the rifle bullets, but it was still under the guns of the ship, which carried the supplies destined for the penitentiary, immediately warned of the escape of the three convicts, she was in turn hunted.
It was an old steamship, with bad machinery, but certainly well supplied with fuel, where about fifty state sailors and the four guns on the deck could easily gain a speed of eleven knots an hour, but for how long?
The fuel accumulated by Jody could last about forty hours, if used economically, while the steamship had it for a few weeks, without having to refuel.
«Throw coal, Jody» Blake ordered, «the steamer turning the reef».
«And the steameship?»
«Don't worry about it.»
The guards, seeing them take cover behind a rocky point, had opened a violent fire with their carbines, even they were now out of range.
The steamship appeared showing its lights that stood out in the darkness. Almost immediately a flame flashed, followed by a roaring detonation. They saw a jet of foam leap up ahead of the lifeboat.
«They taste» Blake said. «The third shot they'll catch us, if we're still within range. Jody, load the valve or the lifeboat will be smashed!».
A second shot rang on the deck of the steamship and the ball sank forty meters from the stern of the lifeboat.
Blake turned, the guards' lifeboats had stopped and were returning to the penitentiary dock, realizing that they were wasting forces to no avail.
Instead, the ship was forcing its machines to reach them before they could get out of range of its blows. From its smokestack came clouds of smoke, which flared up into the sky.
«If I am not wrong we're safe» Blake murmured «Half a minute more and his guns will be useless. Get ready to jump into the water. If our lifeboat is broken, we'll take refuge on the coast, if we're all still alive».
A third flash flashed on the ship. Blake instinctively bent, saving his life, because an instant later a ball passed skimming the lifeboat, falling into the sea a short distance away.
«We are safe! Full steam ahead, Jody! They don't take us anymore.» he scream.
The lifeboat was completely covered by the blows of the steamship. In fact, a fourth bullet fell far from the stern.
«Good night, my gentlemen!» Blake cried ironically to the steamshipers «It will be for another time, if you are able to reach us».
«They won't give up on the hunt» said Jody, who was looking at the supply of fuel with anguish.
«There are hiding places along the coasts and there we can make wood.» Kaj suggested «Resinous plants abound on these islands.»
«How long can we last with this speed?» Blake asked.
«Two days, I hope. You could slow down to save fuel.»
«I prefer that this speed doesn't go down.» Blake answered «In thirty hours we can reach the last island of the group without stopping.»
«Forget one thing, Mr. Blake.» Jody interrupted.
«Which?»
«That we don't even have a cookie to put under our teeth.»
«Somehow we will provide.»
«And that we don't even have a drop of water, Mr. Blake. That rascal threw away the coconuts too»
«We'll make a tip on the coast as late as possible. I want to lose sight of that ship, first of all.»
«At noon we will have at least thirty knots of advantage.»
«Let's wait for noon then.» He watched the headlights still twinkle, albeit small.
«Now we can talk about our business» Blake announced sitting down and looking at Kaj, who seemed to be immersed in deep thoughts.
«Boy, what impression did One-eye make on you with those words?»
«I think I am mad, Mr. Blake,» replied the pearl fisherman. Tavit! Who can it be? Yet this name I must have already heard.»
«From who?»
«From Liling.»
«From your girlfriend's mouth?»
«Yes, I'm sure she said that name. When? I can't tell you.»
«Let's explain. Have you ever seen One-eye before?»
«I don't think so, sir» Kaj replied.
«Think about it.»
«I've been thinking a lot, sir, and I don't remember had meet him outside the penitentiary.»
«And how can he know Liling?» The fact is that that man is your rival and he must have loved the girl of your heart.»
«Well, I remember that, one evening the girl's father told me about a pearl fisherman, who had asked for Liling's hand, but I never knew who he was, then no one told me about it.»
«I suspect now» said Blake «That One-eye was no stranger to the kidnapping committed by the monastery and that it was he who pointed it out, to take revenge for the refusal.»
«I agree with you too.»
«But if she was lost to you, she was lost to him in that case» Jody considered, who had only listened to his companions until then.
«But he could have redeemed her with the red pearl, that cursed pearl that I have been looking for so much for two months after her kidnapping.»
«The red pearl!» Blake exclaimed «This is the second time I've heard from you, without yet having been able to know what it is.»
«It was the famous pearl that adorned the forehead of the gigantic statue of the god in the monastery like a third eye» said Kaj.
«And what does it have to do with Liling?»
«Only he who can find it can redeem one of the girls who have become spouses of the god. If I could find out, Liling would be mine again.»
«And where is it?»
«At the bottom of the sea of Manaar, he who stole it threw it; or rather, he did not throw it, because it is still in the wound that the wretch had made in his right thigh.»
«I know that story too» Jody said.
«But I don't understand anything, explain Kaj better.»
«This story goes back two years. On the occasion of a pilgrimage, a pearl fisherman, a cunning and courageous man, had decided to remove the pearl that adorned the forehead of the god and that everyone admired for its greatness and splendor.»
The feat was not easy, yet the man managed to remove it from the ornament.
«If it had been possible to commit the theft, it was not easy to get the jewel out of the temple. The alarm was raised and all the doors of the monastery were closed, so that no pilgrim could leave without being searched first.»
«And how did he do it then?»
«The thief, with the help of an accomplice, an old Indian, also a pearl fisher, had a deep incision made in his right thigh and hid the pearl inside the horrible wound, pretending to have been wounded with an ax.»
«Was it big?» Blake asked, interested in that story.
«As much as a nut, they told me» Kaj replied.
«And didn't he sell the pearl?»
«He didn't have time. The old Indian who had hurt him, frightened by the curses against the perpetrators of the theft, denounced the pearl fisherman. He was immediately chased and captured, as he was about to flee in a lifeboat.»
«Seeing himself lost, rather than returning the pearl he sank, after having fired a pistol shot in the head, although many claim that it was the pearl demon who made him do so.»
«And her body was never found?»
«No, because the water reaches there is very deep and no pearl fisher can go down that much.»
«With a good diving suit they could have fished out the man and even the famous pearl» said Blake.
«What is a diving suit?» Kaj asked but Blake didn't answer.
«Did you also look for that pearl?»
«Yes, as soon as I regained my health, I tried, but I couldn't reach the bottom. It was then that, disheartened, I tried to kidnap the girl.»
«If you could know the exact place where that man let himself sink ... who knows!»
«But I know, Mr. Blake,» Kaj replied «It was pointed out to me exactly by one of the men who chased the thief across the sea».
«What if some shark had devoured the thief and the pearl together? And then in two years the body will have dissolved and who knows where the third eye of the Sinhalese god will be» said Blake. «However let's not despair» he added then, seeing that Kaj paled «The pearl may have mixed with the sand.» He was silent for a moment, then resumed.
«I'd like to know why One-eye was in the penitentiary. There is a dark point that I would like to clarify.» The pearl fisherman said.
«I know» Jody replied. «Foster told me one night when he was half drunk».
«So tell.»
Jody was about to open his lips, when they felt a very violent impact that made the lifeboat rise suddenly, while at the same time a splash of black matter like ink, which gave off a sharp smell of musk, sending the three convicts to their heels. and flooding them from head to toe».