evidently laid his cartridge belt aside, for he
for the beach and safety, he knew. His was unarmed. The sails began to shiver and situation was desperate, armed only with a
Bradley caught the wheel as it started to run.
knife and alone, save for a shivering half-
He checked the ship, then reached down to
caste, against a large crew of hard-case white
haul the shaking half-caste to him.
men. At any other time Typhoon would
“Can you steer?” he whispered
probably have taken the reasonable course and
fiercely. The man nodded dumbly.
got out, depending upon another meeting to
Bradley thrust the spokes into his
give him his revenge. But he was magistrate
hands.
of Funafuti Beach, responsible for the peace
“Keep her as she goes!” he ordered.
of the pearling season. He was Typhoon “And stop rattling your teeth!”
Bradley and he had to keep the record clean.
He slid into the shadow of the main
cabin skylight and crouched again. Astern of
HE braced himself and waited. Gentleman
the Wanderer he could see the red glow in the
Harry and Tench came to view, the tips of
night sky that told him ships were still burning
their cheroots glowing cherry red in the dark.
back off the beach there. There was no sign of
They were laughing at something as they pursuit but visibility was poor by starlight and paused together near the binnacle to look at
there might be a dozen boats on the trail by
the compass.
now.
“We’ll have to alter the course in
twenty minutes,” said the Gentleman. Tench
THE mate and Limpy Smith had turned and
agreed.
were coming aft again. They reached the end
“It’s not two miles to the channel. of the skylight and then the mate, glancing at There’s an ugly shoal to the sou’west. We’d
the wheel, halted with an astonished oath. The
Action Stories
14
half-caste steward’s sweat-dewed face was into the shadows by the wheel and then plain in the binnacle glow, convulsed with
ducked behind the scuttle. Tench opened up.
terror.
Men came running from for’ard and the night
“What in hell . . .” began the mate and
grew vivid with orange splashes. The half-
then something hit him and he went over and
caste slipped a bowline over the wheel and
rolled into the scuppers. Limpy Smith, dropped to the deck, quaking with awful fear.
wizened, vicious and rat-like gave a sudden
Typhoon shot three times, wounding two men,
snarl and went into action with surprising and then held his fire. The noise died away as suddenness. That is he dived instinctively for
Gentleman Harry shouted:
Typhoon’s legs. Bradley was a little off
“Get overside, Bradley. We’ll let you
balance after swinging at the mate and he
swim clear!”
went down with a jar. Limpy Smith clawed for
But Typhoon laughed. He knew what
his gun and then he thought he had wandered
was in the Gentleman’s mind. The Wanderer
into the middle of a cyclone. Steel fingers
was abeam of Becke’s point and it was time to
choked back his breath. His right wrist change the course.
snapped and then he was flung the length of
He crawled cautiously to the
the poop to bring up against the for’ard taffrail unconscious mate and relieved him of his
with sufficient force to topple him over it.
cartridge belt and then reloaded his gun. The
Most men would have been killed but Limpy
Gentleman was swearing thickly. Tench was
Smith had all the uncanny vitality of a cat. He
cursing in his beard. The stars were beginning
landed on his feet, reeled, choked for air and
to pale and the dawn would soon be upon
then let out a yell.
them. The Wanderer had to get through the Typhoon stooped over the pockmarked
channel right away. If she were delayed she
mate, secured his gun, hefted it with a little
would be trapped for another tide and pursuit
would catch her. Bradley set his jaw as he
was not known as one of the best shots in the
heard the Gentleman’s voice grow calmer.
Islands for nothing. There was a pounding of
Orders rapped out. Men moved swiftly.
shoes on the main cabin companion. Limpy
“I’ll give you just thirty seconds to
Smith was screaming and shouting for the
clear out, Bradley,” said the Gentleman from
crew to gather. Gentleman Harry and Tench
behind the cover of the scuttle. Bradley’s only
burst on the poop, bewildered at the noise and
answer was to take a snap shot at the loom of
confusion. Tench leaned over the for’ard a head. He missed and the next instant the taffrail.
firing was general.
“What th’ hell’s wrong, you fool?” he
roared. “What happened?”
NEVER before nor after was Typhoon
“Aft there!” screeched Limpy Smith,
Bradley in exactly the bad jam he was in then.
holding his broken wrist and hopping with
The helmsman he had stunned was reviving
pain and viciousness. “Aft there. Typhoon and sitting up. The pock-marked mate was Bradley!”
beginning to move. The night was fast
“He got loose?” choked the Gentleman
disappearing and he had only his one gun to
incredulously and he whipped round to face
stand off a heavily armed crew of some two
aft, his gun leaping to his hand.
dozen men. They were already climbing up
“Stay where you are!” snapped into the rigging to get shots at him. A veritable Typhoon crisply. “I . . .”
hail of lead swept the poop waist high so he
The Gentleman sent a stream of lead
could not rise. He only grinned. He was
Trial by Typhoon
15
fighting and he was glad. The old wolf was at
The half-caste, who had barely moved
bay.
till this time, gained a sudden surge of
Crouched and nearly flat he picked off
courage, lunged upright and catching the
two men as they climbed into the ratlines. His
helmsman about the waist carried him
every shot told. A man who incautiously sprawling to one side. They both dropped, exposed a shoulder around the scuttle went
riddled in the leaden hail that was whickering
backward with a hole in his arm. Tench was
past Bradley. Bradley himself was nicked in a
wounded in the left thigh.
half dozen places and his left arm holed, but
Had the attackers used their heads they
the wound was so shallow he never noticed it
would have waited and counted Typhoon’s
until afterward. He fired his last shot and saw
shots, and then rushed him while he was the convulsed face of Gentleman Harry before reloading. But they were too angry and him.
excited. They did not dare to wait.
“Got you!�
�� snarled the Gentleman and
The
Wanderer was yawing badly but
lifted his gun. He fired, but the bullet whined
under the urge of the wind still going forward.
into space.
Becke’s point was well past the beam. Ahead
Bradley gathered himself and leaped,
there was the roaring of breakers, muffled and
not at the Gentleman, nor at Tench, nor at any
dim as yet. To port were ugly shoals and the
of the others who pressed toward him, getting
channel twisted between them.
in each other’s way. He jumped to the top of
Bradley turned his head and saw that
the locker, from there to the skylight of the
the half-caste was entirely useless, gray from
main cabin, hooked back and open because of
fear and crouched whimpering to the deck.
the tropical weather. He dropped clear
Typhoon picked another man out of the through, landed on the main cabin table with a rigging and then wriggled to the wheel. The
jar that took his breath, jumped from there to
stars were all but gone. The sky was a vast
the deck and backed against a bulkhead, clear
dome of opal white, steadily growing clearer.
of the skylight opening, while he reloaded his
Bradley glanced at the sails, glanced to gun with quick, cool fingers.
windward and chuckled. He threw clear the
bowline from the wheel, let it spin, checked it,
THERE was a perfect fury of noise on the
let it spin again, all while he was lying almost
poop above. It seemed to the excited attackers
flat beneath the leaden hail, protected only by
as if the ship had opened up and swallowed
the low poop houses. Tench’s harsh voice
the lone man who had been facing them.
roared out an oath.
Gentleman Harry was screaming. Tench was
“He’s setting us aground!”
bellowing orders. The pock-marked mate was
“Come on!” Gentleman Harry arose,
swearing in a thick, slow voice and
mad with rage and reckless as he was enraged.
demanding someone give him a gun.
He led the charge along the poop and
And in the midst of all this the
Typhoon rose to meet it. His six-gun spouted
Wanderer struck. Under the full press of her flame and death. Four men choked the port
canvas she rammed into the soft sandy shoal
passageway with their bodies. Limpy Smith
Bradley had aimed her at, jarred once or twice
was shot by one of his own men in the and then slowly heeled to port and was still, excitement. The helmsman Bradley had the main-topmast going by the board with a stunned, revived now, got to his feet and crash of rigging and spars.
blindly tried to take the lone wolf in the rear,
On the poop Gentleman Harry had
to bring him down.
taken hold of himself with a tremendous
Action Stories
16
effort.
guns, shot another who drew on him and
“Lower the boats,” he said harshly,
drove the rest to the boat falls in some
“We’ll have to chance it. Water and semblance of order. They made no more provisions.”
resistance. Covered with blood, his eyes like
“Jump to it!” Tench roared, because
ice and his tight-lipped mouth roaring at them,
now the full day had come they could see, far
they were quelled.
down the lagoon, the white topsails of a dozen
He drove them into the boat when it
racing ships.
was overside, jumped into the stern sheets,
“I’d like to get that swine first!” the
shipped the tiller and jammed it over with one
Gentleman grated, staring at the skylight.
knee while he glared at the frightened men.
“No time,” Tench pointed out. “He
Few of them had weapons now. They had
might shut himself in a cabin and we’d be
discarded their Winchesters and what
hours digging him out.”
revolvers they had were empty from the fierce
“Dynamite ...” snarled the Gentleman.
fighting on the poop. As in a mad daze they
Tench swore at them.
found themselves pulling at the oars. The mast
“You’re mad. Let him go now! Those
was stepped and the sail hoisted. Heeling
packets will be on us in an hour. We’ve got to
stiffly, the boat with a madman at her tiller,
get through the channel before the tide turns.
roared along after Gentleman Harry.
We can’t wait.”
The men were milling in a panic. Their
losses had been fearful. Tench, the Gentleman
CHAPTER V
and the pock-marked mate plunged into the
LOST LOOT
midst of them and hammered and kicked some
sense into them. They slopped one boat in the
water and the three leaders piled in, together
TENCH looked around and swore. “He’s
with four men. The rest fought and quarreled
gaining on us. He’s a devil. He ought to be
among themselves to get the other boat dead and he’s chasing us instead, in our own lowered and panic swept them again. It was
boat with our own men pulling for him.”
every man for himself.
“Get the mast stepped and the sail up!”
In the main cabin Typhoon sensed rasped the pock-marked mate who was what was going on and hesitated. He was sick
steering. Two of the men had to stop rowing
and weak but there was still something to be
to aid with the mast and guys and at first
done. He knew the Gentleman had pushed off.
Bradley gained fast. But then the lighter
He found another gun in Tench’s cabin
loaded craft began to draw away again.
and charged up the companion steps. The
Typhoon balanced himself and fired.
poop was deserted save for the dead. The
The range was long and the lunging of the
survivors of the crew were laboring midships,
boat made aim difficult but Typhoon could
striking each other and cursing. The shoot. His first bullet whickered by the Gentleman’s boat was half a cable’s length
Gentleman’s head. His second splashed the
away, pulling for the channel, and Bradley
water alongside. His third nicked the shaft of
swore. Then he acted.
an oar but his fourth, fired as the boat steadied He landed on the main deck at one
for a moment, blew in the back of the mate’s
jump and swept against those left on board
head.
like the typhoon for which he was named. He
The mate moaned through dead lips.
knocked down two men with the barrels of his
He fell forward, letting go the tiller,
Trial by Typhoon
17
and the boat yawed wide, came up into the
of the men he had cowed attempted to follow
wind. Tench cursed hysterically and jumped
him. They remained in the boat looking
for the stern sheets. The oars brought the boat
stupidly at each other, as in a dream, and
to the wind again but they had lost too mu
ch
watching the racing pearling fleet coming
distance.
down the lagoon. They felt as if they had
“We can’t make the channel now!”
tangled with a buzz-saw and they had had
snarled the Gentleman. “Head for the beach.
enough.
There’s fifty miles of brush and palms to hide
A bullet runs faster than a man and
in and anything can happen.”
Typhoon fired as he ran. He dropped one of
Both boats turned for the beach, two
the seamen with a bullet in the left leg. Tench
miles distance, but with the changed slant of
stumbled and fell over a fragment of coral
the wind the more lightly loaded craft was
rock and the others left him. The bearded
hard to manage under sail while Typhoon’s
captain turned snarling to face Typhoon, his
packet lay down to it and surged steadily
eyes wide with terror and desperation. Bradley
forward. He gained, inch by inch, and he
killed him as he passed, ignoring the bite of
withheld his fire when he saw this.
Tench’s shot in his thigh.
Far down the lagoon the white sails of
The race was nearly done then. The
the pearling fleet were growing. Gentleman
last seaman, winded, abandoned himself to
Harry began to shoot wildly but the jumpy
fate, threw his gun away and cowered on his
movements of the craft beneath him made aim
knees. Typhoon struck down at him with a
impossible.
gun barrel and went on. He spun the
Typhoon laughed to himself. The Gentleman half around with a bullet through game was about played through. He had the left shoulder blade, and the Gentleman checked the Wanderer in her flight, beached almost fell. He turned, his face convulsed with
her on a shoal. Now he had turned the retreat