CHAPTER II Captain's Orders
"DAN RASSEL!" I whispered in a kind of awe, as we left the pasangrahan. "Hoodoo Rassel!"
Capt. Cook pressed a handkerchief to his injured lips, already swelling. Despite the many drinks he'd gulped down, he was completely sober now. He walked stiffly, eyes turbulent. In silence we crossed a moonlit market place and looked out over the iridescent Kali Mas. It was while we strode along the quays in the direction of the Eastern Gull that Cook suddenly grasped my arm so
Thrilling Adventures
4 fiercely that I winced.
"Warden, what do you know about Dan Rassel?"
"Why," I replied, startled by the harshness of his voice, "only what everybody else knows. He's the man who lost those two ships, isn't he?"
"I asked you what you knew about him," Captain Cook repeated tensely. "What've you heard? Come, man, all of it!"
There was something about Captain Cook I couldn't recognize. In wonder I answered:
"Only the usual waterfront gossip. The way I got it, they gave him his first command—the Capricorn—when he was twenty-nine. He wrecked it on the coast of Celebes—about two years ago. Cracked up on the rocks and lost five men."
"Go on!" grimly. "What else?"
"A court of inquiry absolved him completely. He even got another command— the Unity. Three months later he struck bad weather just north of Borneo and sent the Unity to her grave on a hidden reef. He didn't lose any lives that time, but the ship went to the bottom. Since then nobody's been willing to give him any command. He can't even get an officer's berth. They call him 'Hoodoo' Rassel—or 'Jinx' Rassel. Everybody's convinced he's jinxed. No skipper in his senses will sign him on."
"So you don't think he'll ever get another command of his own?"
"Never."
"Even if they know those wrecks weren't his fault?"
"Now, Captain," I protested, "you know the way shipowners are. You ask them to sign on a captain who's lost two vessels, and they'll drop in a faint."
Cook glowered, said nothing further. We reached the Eastern Gull, went aboard, and he at once retired to his quarters.
I remained alone on deck, filling a pipe and speculatively regarding the moonlit buildings of Surabaja. I knew now how the fight in the pasangrahan had started. Cook had told me. He had inadvertently swung his arm to emphasize some point in his discourse to the barkeep, and his hand had struck Dan Rassel's chest. He must have had several drinks in him by that time, because instead of apologizing he asked the red-haired young man not to crowd him; to move over.
Rassel had retorted by telling him not to swing his hands at random. And words had suddenly led to blows.
Captain Cook had been in too many fights during the past seventeen years for me to be startled by finding him in another melee. What did puzzle me was his inordinate interest in Dan Rassel.
I was still leaning over the rail when a hand touched my shoulder. It was Captain Cook.
"Warden," he said quietly, "I'm going to ask you to do something for me— something out of your line. I'm hoping I can count on you."
"Do what?" I asked suspiciously.
"Go up the quays and see if you can locate Dan Rassel. He said I'd find him along the waterfront. I have an idea he's around, keeping his word."
"You want to finish that fight?"
"Well"—narrow eyed, he peered away across the glimmering water—"not exactly."
"What then?"
CAPTAIN COOK stiffened. "Never mind the questions, Warden! You've been with me seventeen years; this is the first time I'm asking you to do something off the ship." His eyes were feverish. "I want to get Dan Rassel aboard the Eastern Gull. When he's here, I want him locked up below!"
"What the devil—" I began.
"Of course, you're privileged to refuse." His voice hardened. "But I'm asking
Hoodoo of the Sea
5 you as man to man to stand by me in this. Will you, Warden?"
I didn't know what to say. Virtually, he was ordering me to shanghai Dan Rassel. It wasn't like Captain Cook. It wasn't like myself, either, to contemplate such a thing. Perhaps he saw my indecision, for he snapped:
"I promise you no trouble will come of this. I'll handle the whole matter once he's aboard and locked below."
"What's the idea, Captain?" I faltered.
"An idea of my own—one I can't talk about." His voice was hard again. "I want to take Captain Dan Rassel to sea with me."
"But he's a hoodoo!" I blurted. "The biggest jinx in the Java Seas. If you took him aboard, Captain— Hell, if any of the men forward knew it, they'd—they'd—"
"Jump ship?" he demanded scornfully.
"Absolutely!"
Captain Cook laughed mirthlessly. "None of the boys will desert, Warden. Besides"—he paused significantly—"there's no reason for any of them to know he's Dan Rassel. Not till we're out at sea, anyhow."
Though I pride myself on not being as superstitious as most sailors, I confess I had no hankering to travel with a man like Rassel on board. Most of the crew, I felt certain, would flatly refuse to sail with somebody who had lost two ships in the past two years.
"If you tell Rassel I want to see him," Captain Cook went on quietly, "chances are he'll come without any trouble. He'll probably think I want to fight it out, and that red head of his won't allow him to hold back when there's a fight in sight."
Squinting at Captain Cook, I tried to understand him and couldn't. I wanted to refuse. Yet I had sailed with him through many storms—both on sea and ashore—and I'd grown to respect him. True, he was always rough and ready for a fight. But underneath his tempestuous spirits stood a strong, honest man.
Even now, while he asked me to shanghai a stranger, I couldn't feel he was doing anything criminal. He must have a reason—one which some day I might comprehend.
"If those are your orders," I said, "all right. They'll be carried out." I turned to go.
It wasn't hard to locate Dan Rassel. Despite the lateness of the hour, he sat on an overturned keg at a deserted spot on the quays. With those embittered eyes of his fastened on the moonlit Kali Mas, he scarcely turned his head as I approached.
"Captain Rassel?"
My blunt words made him look around. When he recognized me, he smiled twistedly.
"Captain Cook's friend, isn't it?"
"Captain Cook's mate."
"Well? What is it?"
"Captain Cook wants to see you."
"You can tell him to come here."
I thought quickly, then went on: "That's impossible tonight. He had a little too much to drink. He's under the weather—in his cabin. But he's been raving about you ever since he got there. He ordered me to go out and find you."
"Waiting for me on board his own ship, eh?"
I hesitated. "Of course, if you'd rather not come," I said, "that's all right with me. Captain Cook said you'd probably be afraid."
The last words brought Dan Rassel to his feet, glaring.
"Afraid? Of that old porpoise?" he snapped. "Come on!"
He took the wind out of my sails by the alacrity of his response. Before I realized what was happening I was trailing him as he strode rapidly toward the Eastern Gull. There was angry vigor in his strides, and his expression was pitiless.
"If he wants to fight it out, I'll give him all he's looking for!" Rassel laughed
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6 harshly. "I need something to limber up my muscles—to remind me that I'm a man!"
PRESENTLY he led me up the gangplank to the deck of the Eastern Gull. As if he'd been on the ship many times, he turned straight toward Captain Cook's quarters. And as he passed through shadows—
It happened so quickly that I myself was caught unprepared. I had a brief glimpse of Captain Cook leaping out from nowhere. He caught Rassel around the arms, pinioned him, dragged him five steps before the man could find his footing. A hatch was open. A wild fling on Captain Cook's part sent Rassel into the blackness. I heard him clatter down the companionway, heard him thud on the deck below.
Then oaths were exploding out of the dark pit, and Captain Cook, smiling queerly, was battening down the hatch. The captain had sent the watch below. We were alone on deck. He raised his rugged face to look at me, and I discovered that he was smiling.
"That'll hold him," he said quietly. "We'll sail with him at dawn."
"But why?" I repeated desperately. "What's the idea, Captain?" "You'll see."